The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022972438 ^'^^'iBiiiiiiiilKiiiiiiW 3 1924 022 972 438 # SEAL of C.i-anrl Secret Socielv of China , THE THIEN.TI , HOIH, OR BROTHERHOOD OF HEAVEN & EARTH. Pubjoihed "by SmiLb, Elder & C? Londaa 3S53 THE CROSS MD THE DRAGON OR, THE FORTUNES OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA: WITH NOTICES OF THE CHKISTIAN MISSIOT^S AND MISSIOISrARlES, SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CHINESE SECBET SOCIETIES, BY JOHN KESSON, OF THE BKITISH MUSEUM. LONDON: SMITH, ELDEE, AND CO., 65. CQRNHILL. BOMBAY : SMITH, TATLOB,v A.HP CO. 1854. I The Publishers of this Work reserve to themselves the right of • authorising a Translation of it.] ^ ■ -l London : ''*',■ $PoTTiswooDE9 and Shaw, , ^ , t > ' ^ NfiW-street-Square. PREFACE. The subject treated in the following pages re- solves itself into five distinct heads. Under the first, notice'is taken of the legends of the introduction of Christianity into China by the Apostle Thomas and his disciples. Under the second head, some space is devoted to the history of the Nestorian Christians in China, in the seventh century, with their leader, Olo-puen, the first apostle. The third head comprises the missions of the Dominicans and Franciscans in the fourteenth century ; the chief actor being John of Monte Corvin, the second Chinese Apostle. This mission was speedily extinguished, and no farther attempts were made to introduce a know- ledge of Christianity into China until the sixteenth century, when the Jesuit mission was founded hv the celebrated Matteo Kicci. The labours of A 2 IV PREFACE. the Jesuits form the subject of the fourth head ; and the fifth is devoted to a notice of the Protest- ant missions of the present century. Under these various heads, the writer has en- deavoured to bring together a series of interesting facts, scattered about in different histories ; and his book has this merit, if it has no other, — the construction of a whole from the several parts. In common with the general public, he read of an insurrection in China with some surprise, especially when to this it was added that the movement was a religious one, having Christianity for its basis, and not only Christianity, but Pro- testant Christianity ! His inquiries have led him to the conclusion, that here there must be a mistake, and that the rebellion is but feebly charged with the spiritual element. He has, indeed, great doubts whether there exists in China much that is deserving of the name of Chris- tianity at all. It may appear presumptuous to doubt, in the face of so much general belief, and so many sanguine expectations of the future ; but the doubt cannot be avoided. It must be recol- lected that Protestant missions in China do not yet number an existence of fifty years; and that until within the last ten years. Canton was the PREFACE. V only spot in all the vast empire where the mission- ary could teach, or circulate the religious tract. With the sole exception of Giitzlaff, no Protestant missionary Ijas yet penetrated into the centre of the empire. In saying this much, the writer is far from wishing to depreciate the value of Christian missions in China, or to discourage their sup- porters. It will be found that he has done full justice to the valiant and honourable men, both Catholic and Protestant, who have gone forth as labourers in this vineyard. But too much imme- diate gain must not be expected from their labours. Ripe clusters must not be expected where the buds have scarcely made their appearance. The works of Deity are of slow growth. Our accounts of the origin and progress of the rebellion in China are still very imperfect ; but such as they are, they lead the writer to believe that its motives are entirely political, and that it is fomented by the secret societies which abound throughout the empire, especially in the southern provinces. In this opinion he is confirmed by the latest accounts, which inform us that the city of Shanghai was taken by rebels belonging to the Short Sword Society. This is no doubt a rami- VI PREFACE. fication of the grand triad society, called the Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth. Of this society, and of its constitution and objects, some account will be found at the close of the book. The Chinese are still a mysterious people to Europeans. We barely know them externally, and have yet to gain a knowledge of their inner life. Let us hope that the time is approaching when, either through a successful rebellion, or through the sure and silent strength of commerce, a door will be opened to Europeans, admitting them to observe the kingdom throughout its length and breadth; when we shall get rid of many historical fables and travellers' tales, and when there will be increased facilities for mis- sionary labour. The thorough evangelisation of China will take place, as a matter of course ; but the process must be a slow one, and the attempt often discouraging. It is many centuries since Augustine first preached in England, and yet we cannot flatter ourselves that Paganism has been thoroughly rooted out of the land. Give China time. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Pentecost. — ^Rapid Spread of Christianity in the First Cen- tury. — St. Thomas in India. — Syriaii Christians in the East. — Martyrdom of St. Thomas. — Chinese Intercourse with Western Asia and Europe in the Second Century. — The Emperor Ming-te introduces an Indian Sect, a.d. 74. — Christianity taught about the same Time. — Chinese Indifferentism. — Legend of Jesus Christ in China Pagel CHAPTER n. The Nestorians. — Christians in China in the Sixth Century. — Discovery of the Chinese Monument relating to Chris- tianity ; placed in a Pagoda. — Translation of the Monu- ment - - - - - 11 CHAPTER m. The Genuineness of the Monument considered. — De Guig- nes. — Gaubil. — Pauthier. — Monastery of the Golden "Victory. — Probable Fate of the Nestorians. — Massacre of Jews and Christians. — The Arabian Traveller and the Chinese Emperor - - - - - 35 vm CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Historical Blank.— Prester John. — Ghengis Khan. — Ra^ vages of the Mongols in Kuasia.— Battle of Lignitz, 1241. — New Mode of reckoning the fallen in Fight. — Coublai Khan. — Extent of his Empire. — Dominican and Fran- ciscan Missionaries. — The Coixrt of Prince Batou. — The Emperqf Couyouc. — The Dominicans and Brother An- selm. — Diplomacy. — Tartar Missive to the Pope Page 47 CHAPTER V. Couyouc Khan and his Christian Ministers. — King Louis caught by Tartars. — Another Embassy. — Rubruquis. — A royal Audience. — The Khan a little gone. — The Empress tipsy. — Rubruquis returns to Europe - - 58 CHAPTER VI. Coublai Khan. — John of Mount Coryin. — Arrival in China. — His Letters. — Complains of the Nestorians. — Builds a Church. — Baptizes. — King George in Canonicals.— The nearest Road to China. — Turns Artist. — Church Music. — His Notices of China. — The Characteristics of his Mission. — Made Archbishop of Kambalu. — Assistance arrives from Europe. — Toleration. — Tartar Impostors. — Royal Compliments to Royalty. — The Alans. — Another Gap 70 CHAPTER VIL Europe awake.— Catholic Zeal. — Francis Xavier in India.— — Dies in sight of China. — His Mission. — The Portui^uese settle on the Island of Macao. — Attempts to enter China. Matteo Ricci. — His Missionary Labours. — Mathematics. — Adam Schall, Master of Subtile Doctrines. A Court Favourite.— Persecutions. — Adam Schall wears the Cang. — ^His Attainments, Zeal, and Death - - 89 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. Literary Activity of the early Jesuits in China. — Magaillan's Account of their Works.— His Opinion of the Chinese Language. — Missionary Labours of the Franciscans and Dominicans. — Martyrdom of Ferdinand de Capillas. — Quarrels in the Mission. — The Jesuit. — The Monk. — Grounds of Quarrel ... , Page 104 CHAPTER IX. Khang-he. — The Court of Rites. — Ferdinand Verbiest. — His Services to the Mission. — His Death and Funeral. — Missionaries sent from France. — Gerbillon. — The Em- peror a Free-thinker. — Religious Freedom granted. — Success of the Mission. — Causes thereof. — Various Em- ployments given to the Jesuits.^ — An Imperial Country Seat. — An honest Barber - - - - 117 CHAPTER X. Fresh Quarrels between the Jesuits and Dominicans. — Pro- gress of HostiKties. — Maigrot. — Decision of the Inquisi- tion. — De Tournon dies in Prison. — Consequences of a Bull Papal. — Mezzabarba and the Mandarins, — Death of Khang-he. — Another Papal Bull. — Persecutions in con- sequence - - - - - -128 CHAPTER XI. Rationale of Chinese Persecutions. — Kien-long — Gives Employment to the Missionaries. — Imperial Workshops. — Father Benoifc, Astronomer, Copper-plate Printer, and Maker of Water-clocks — His Fountains. — Brother At- tiret, and his Trials. — The Emperor knows everything 141 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. Decay of the Catholic Mission. — Bread and Baptism. — Dissolution of the Society of Jesus. — The Lazarists. — State of the Mission at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century. — Persecutions. — Destruction of Churches. — Martyrs. — English Cannon. — Present State of the Catholic Mission. — Cemetery of the Jesuits at Pekin. — Their Monument - - Page 155 CHAPTER Xni. Religious Influences in China. — Confucius and his System. — Taouism. — Buddhism - - . - 169 CHAPTER XrV. Estimate of Catholic Missionary Labours. — ^Francis Xayier. — Mode of Conversion. — The Angelic Labour. — Early Protestant Missions in the East. — Formosa. — Tragical Fate of Dutch Missionaries - - - 187 CHAPTER XV. Protestant Missions. — Robert Morrison. — The Chinese MS — Nature of the Chinese Language. — Its Difficulties. — ^Its Poverty. — Morrison arrives in China. — His Studies. — Translator to the British Factory. — His Skill in the Language of China. — The Chinese Dictionary. — Dr. Milne — Assists in the Translation of the Bible — Opens a School. — Slow Progress of Protestant Missions, ap- parently. — The first Baptism. — Temporising, what ? — The Heart-opening Cake. — Character of Milne - 200 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XVI. Gutzlaff. — Birth and Education. — ^Early Desire to become a Missionary. — Studies at Berlin. — Arrives at Rotterdam. — His Powers as a Linguist. — Adopted into a Chinese Family. — Passes into the Interior of China as a Steers- man. — The Physician and Tract Distributor. — Formosa. — Japan. — Interpreter to English Government. — His Character. — Progress of Christianity. — What of Keli- 'gious Tracts? — Characters of the Chinese as given by Missionaries. — Are they Atheists? — What Share has Christianity in the present Insurrection - Page 221 CHAPTER XVII. Early Origin of Secret Societies. — Bed Beards and White Jackets. — The Pe-lin-kioa. — The Adventures of Wang- lung. — Comedy and Tragedy. — Wang-fu-ling and his Amazons. — Water-lilies. — Family of the Queen of Heaven. — Troublesome Children. — The Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth - - - - 242 CHAPTER XVIII. Rules of the Society. — Signs and Passwords. — Their Ode. The "Chop." — ^Form of the Secret Seal. — Translation of the Inscriptions. — Duties of the Members of the Society — Their Hopes . - - - 268 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER I. Pentecost. — Kapid Spread of Christianity in the First Cen- tury. — St. Thomas in India. — Syrian Christians in the East. — Martyrdom of St. Thomas. — Chinese' Intercourse with Western Asia and Europe in the Second Century. — The Emperor Ming-te introduces an Indian Sect, a.d. 74. — Christianity taught about the same Time. — Chinese Indiflferentism. — Legend of Jesus Christ in China. For our knowledge of the progress of Chris- tianity in the East, in very early ages, we are more dependent upon tradition than certain his- tory. Tradition, nevertheless, may be entitled to eur respect, and even accepted as evidence where it does not outrage probability or widely depart from historical antecedents. That Christianity Avas preached beyond the Euphrates before the 2 THE CKOSS AKD THE DRAGON. close of the first century, Is a traditionary state- ment, but one not hard to believe. That the Pentecostal dispensation, when " devout men out of every nation under heaven, — Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Meso- potamia," — heard spoken in their own tongues " the wonderful works of God," should be ex- tended by these men to their own countrymen, need not greatly tax our faith. The rapid ex- tension of Christianity after the Ascension is be- yond all doubt. The entire world was in a state of peace, and favoured the exertions of apostles, disciples, and missionaries to propagate the gospel of peace to the remotest bounds of the Empire. All ancient ecclesiastical writers concur in as- signing an almost miraculous rapidity to the disse- mination of the doctrines of the prophet of Galilee. They compare it to the velocity of light, — to the speed of lightning. Justin, who wrote about the fortieth year of the second century, says, that then there was no nation of Greeks, or Barbarians, or people of whatsoever name, whether living in their chariots, or in the open air, or under tents feeding their flocks, who did not address prayers and render thanksgivings to the Father of the uni- verse through Jesus Christ crucified. Greek and EARLY CHRISTIANITY. ^ 3 Syrian writers * agree in stating that the gospel was preached to the Hyrcanians, the Bactrians and the Margte by Saint Thomas the apostle; and that Agheus, the disciple of Adheus, carried it, beyond the Caspian, to the Gelas and other peoples, even to the farthest East. St. Ephrem Is said to have preached the gospel, by order of St. Thomas, not only in^ Syria, but also in Persia, among the Parthians, and in Media. The great orientalist Assemanni has carefully collected, from the writings of the Chaldean and Syrian Christians, all that bears upon this subject. According to these, Thaddeus, one of the seventy disciples. Instructed by St. Thomas, went into Mesopotamia, accompanied by two other disciples, also of the seventy, of whom one was named Marus. Marus survived the martyrdom of his companions, but was obliged to move eastwards. He preached in Assyria and all the land of Shinar. He taught, according to Bar-Hebrseus, In three hundred and sixty churches, which were built in the East during, his time ; and, having fulfilled his ministry for three-and-thlrty years, he departed to the Lord in a city named Badaraja, and was buried in a church which he had built there. * Assemanni, Bibl. Orient,, torn. iii. pt. 2. c. 1. B 2 4 THE CKOSS AND THE DRAGOST. The apostle Thomas not only sent missionaries eastwards, but, as tradition reports, went east- wards himself, preaching the gospel through all Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Persia, and India, — yea, to the confines of the East. If we can admit that he sent disciples eastwards to found churches, it is not diiBcult to admit, in addition, that he might have visited the churches so founded as their overseer or bishop. The Syrian Christians, who still abound on the coasts of Malabar and Coro- mandel, hold firmly by the tradition that he was the founder of their churches. He went from Meliapore, they say, after he had converted the king and people, and preached the gospel in Kambalu (now Pekin), the city of the great khan, and built a church there. Andrea Govea re- lates, that from thence he returned to Coro- mandel, where, by his zeal in making converts, he excited the enmity of two Brahmins, who buried him under a heap of stones ; but another Brahmin, finding him afterwards still alive, ran him through with a spear. In the Chaldean ritual there is still an office to the apostle of India : " By the blessed St. Thomas the Chinese and Cushites were con- verted to the truth. By the blessed St. Thomas the Indian idolatries were dissipated. By St. CHINESE INTEECOURSfi WITH THE WEST. 5 Thomas 'they received the virtue of baptism and the adoption of children. By him the kingdom of heaven penetrated into China." His martyr- dom is supposed to have taken place a.d. 68, On the 22nd August, a.d. 380, his bones were dug up and brought from India to the temple of Edessa; and this day is still held in commemo- ration by the Syrian Christians of India. These statements, whether legendary or histo- rical, will be received with, different degrees of credence by different minds. They plainly lead to the conclusion that Christianity was partially known as far east as China in the apostolical age. Whether this conclusion is admissible or not, at all events it is not improbable that Christianity may have been known in China at a very early date ; soiled and enfeebled, no doubt, through its far-eastern journey, but still preserving some of Its characteristic features, and presenting its dis- tinctive marks to the religious systems that already obtained there. The probability is strengthened when we consider the relations of the Chinese em- pire, about this time, with the nations and people of the West. The land of flowers and golden floods was not then the jealous, exclusive land of after- centuries. The intercourse of the Chinese with u 3 6 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. their neighbours, according to De Guignes*, was frequent. We find that 126 years before Christ the em- peror Vou-ti sent his general Tchang-kiao into the West ; that this general entered Maouren- nahar or Transoxania ; that he went through Kho- rasan, and travelled in that part of India which afterwards formed the states of the Mogul ; that since that time the Chinese have not ceased to be in communication with the people to their west as far as the Caspian Sea; that they received their ambassadors and sent ambassadors to them in return ; that under the reign of Ming- te, A. D. 74, the general Pan-tchao with the Chinese armies overran the whole of Little Buk- haria ; that he established peace in the countries of Kaschgar and Khoten ; that in A. d. 97 he sent one of his officers to the shores of the Caspian, with the design of penetrating Ta-tsin, or the Koman empire ; that the Chinese emperors had a governor at Akzou or in its neighbourhood ; and that in A. D. 166 the emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus sent ambassadors to China with the view, according to every appearance, of establish- ing a direct commerce with that country by way * Hist. Generale des Huns, torn. i. p. 27. THE EMPEEOK MING-TE. 7 of India, instead of through the medium of the Parthians. China, then, might have been known to the early Christians; and to enter it eitherby the way of India, which was open to them, or through Scythia or Tartary, was not more than their zeal could easily accomplish. Add to this that central Asia at an early period was the stronghold of Gnostics and Manicheans, and it is not difficult to believe that travelled natives of China -might have become acquainted with their doctrines. It is singular that, just about the time when tradition reports the apostle Thomas to have been labouring in China, the emperor Ming-te, of the famous Han dynasty, had, according to the chro- nicles of the country, a vision in which he saw a golden figure of gigantic size, which called to his mind the saying of Confucius — " The Holy One is in the West." Hereupon he sent forth his am- bassadors, who returned from India bringing with them the doctrine of Fo and of a metempsychosis, — an act for which he was greatly blamed by the literati and historians of China. According, how- ever, to the learned Sinologue, Andreas Miiller* who appears to rely upon the veracity of the * Disq. geog. hist, de Chataja, p. 58. B 4 8 THE CEOSS AND THE DEAGON. Chinese historians, it was in A.D. 65 in the tenth month that Xa-cam, an Indian philosopher, entered China and preached, among other doc- trines, three Gods in one. He holds with those who think that Christianity was at this time in- troduced, and that its doctrines were afterwards interpolated and consequently bastardised by the Chinese.* To reconcile the conflicting suppositions of the simultaneous introduction of an Indian and a Christian religion into China, it is necessary to bear in mind that the Chinese distinguish all foreign divinities by the name of Fo, however contrary their doctrines, and apply it to the divinities of India as well as to the God of Christians, Jesus Christ, and others. And this observation, made by De Guignes, leads us to believe, that the difficulties that would have been opposed to the introduction of Christianity would rather have been of a political than of a religious or theological character ; for no people are more * The sect was called Xe-kiao; also Fo-kiao. "Xe," says Muller, "denotes cross; Fo, Jove; and Kiao, doctrine. Hence Xa-ca (Sakja) or Se-kiao means doctrine of the cross. The bonzes or priests of Fo (Buddha) were also called Xe-liiao ; and Fo is called Fo-hhan, which corre- sponds with the name of the Indian Xa-cam^' CHINESE LEGENDS OP CHEIST. 9 tolerant of conflicting creeds than the Chinese — a tolerance, however, which arises from their long having held the error that all religions are good, although opposed to each other ; that each may be useful to the people who follow it ; and that the diiFerent religions would never have been published by fheir founders if they had not believed that they were calculated to lead man- kind to virtue. To the legends or histories already given may be added the statement of Du Halde, that the famous emperor Kouan-yun-tchang, who lived about the beginning of the second century, knew of Jesus Christ, as monuments written by his own hand and then graven upon stones testify. It is said that in these monuments Kouan-yun-tchang speaks of the birth of our Saviour in a grotto open to every quarter of the heavens, of his resur- rection, his ascension, and of vestiges of his sacred feet. Whether these monuments are known to any one besides Du Halde it is hard to tell ; and his authority in some matters is rather question- able. At this point a dead blank of five centuries ensues, wherein we have neither tradition nor history to guide us to a knowledge of the for- 10 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. tunes of the Christianity which it is conjectured was introduced into China late in the first or early in the second century. It must have been too feeble to make head against idolatry, too dim to shed great light in the midst of heathen dark- ness. It is asserted, that various ancient Chris- tian monuments have been found in China, and among others an iron cross, in the province of Klang-see, on which there is a date which corre- sponds to the year A. D. 239. A cross need not necessarily be a relic of Christianity, especially if it be true, as we read, that the Chinese had a cross upon their coinage before the Crucifixion, and adored the cross before the expiatory cross was erected upon Calvary. THE NESTORIANS. 11 CHAPTER II. The Nestorians. — Christians in China in the Sixth Century. — Discovery of the Chinese Monument relating to Chris- tianity; placed in a Pagoda. — Translation of the Monu- ment. The second epoch in the history of Christianity in China, is assuredly better defined than the first. We can speak with more confidence, if we cannot with absolute certainty. We approach the period when the Nestorian, or rather the Chaldean or Syrian Christians, as they called themselves, spread so rapidly, planting Chris- tianity in the heart of Asia, carrying it to the remotest East, and giving rise to the belief that they entered the provinces of China early in the seventh century. Assemanni, who has written a dissertation on the Nestorians in his Bibliotheca Orientalis, again assists us to some extent. He makes a remarkable quotation from Ebed-Jesu, Chaldean metropolitan of Nisibis in the thirteenth century, to the effect that Saliba Zacha, who was 12 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. Jacelich, i. e. Catholicus or patriarch, of the Chaldean Christians from 714 to 728, sent certain metropolitans towards China, as far as Samar- cund, to visit the Christians residing there, " be- cause," he adds, "according to ancient accounts, a metropolitan was appointed to China, by Silas in the seventh century, and even by Achseus in the sixth." It is certain that, in an ancient list of Syrian metropolitans*, the metropolitan of China is expressly mentioned, and that before the metropolitan of India ; which has given rise to the belief that if the list has been arranged according to seniority, then China had a metropolitan before India, and that China did not receive its Chris- tianity through India, but through some other channel.* These statements are supported by the cele- brated Christian Monument which was found in China in the year 1625. By this, it appears, that Christian missionaries arrived in China about the year 635 of our era ; that their leader was 015- puen ; that he was well received by the reigning emperor, Tai-tsong, by whose command an edict was published commending the Christian doo- * Mosheim, Hist. Tartar. Eccles., App. i. THE CHRISTIAN MONUMENT. 13 trines to his subjects; that within a few years after several Christian churches were built ; that subsequently the Christians experienced much opposition and persecution, especially in a. d, 698, under the empress Woeheu ; that they were again favoured by several emperors in succession, and were strengthened by fresh missionaries from the "West in a. d. 744. The Monument was erected in a. d. 781, at which time it would appear that the Chaldean Christians in China were in a state of prosperity, having their own metropolitan, and living under a regular eccle- siastical constitution. The value of this Monument we shall have presently to consider. In addition to this testi- mony, it appears from a Nestorian relation dis- covered by Assemanni that the Chaldean pa- triarch Timotheus, who filled this dignity from 778 to 810, accredited two ecclesiastics of the monastery of Beth-abe, in Mesopotamia, by name Kardach and Jabdallaha, with fifteen other mis- sionaries, to Chataja (i. e. China) ; and that one of these, called David, was metropolitan there, while the others were bishops and priests. A Mahommedan writer, Abulpharagius, farther re- lates, that, in the year 978, six ecclesiastics were 14 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. sent to China by a Chaldean patriarch to assist in the church services openly performed there.* Such are the historical grounds for believing that Christianity was taught in China in the seventh century. The evidence, it -will be ob- served, is entirely supplied by Orientals, writing more than five centuries after the events recorded are said to have taken place; and we are ignorant of the nature of the. materials upon which their history rests. Such evidence as the Syrian writers afford us, must not, however, be ignored ; and we shall now proceed to inquire how far it is supported by the Monument already referred to. The announcement of the discovery of an ancient Christian Monument in China created considerable sensation in Europe. Its high an- tiquity raised the surprise and provoked the curiosity of some ; the same antiquity, and the medium through which the intelligence was trans- mitted to the West, created suspicions in others. The Monument, which is still preserved in China, was discovered in 1625 by some labourers who were engaged in digging out the foundations of an old building in the city of Si-gan-foo, capital of the north-western province Shen-se, which was Goli lUS, p. THE CHRISTIAN MONUMENT. 15 then also the capital of the empire. It is of marble, about ten palms in length, five palms in breadth ; and it is said — but we cannot credit this part of the story — that thirty men could hardly move it. Its upper part terminates in a pyramid, upon the face of which is sculptured a cross, Avhose arms terminate in fleurs-de-lys, like those upon the pretended tomb of St. ' Thomas at Miliapore. The cross is surrounded with clouds, and above it are three lines of Chinese characters containing the title of the inscriptions which are found on the upper surface of the marble. These inscriptions are also in the Chinese character, and on both sides there are farther inscriptions in the ancient Syrian or Estrangelo character. When the Monument was discovered, the governor of the city had it transported from its place, and after having it cleaned and examined he caused it to be raised upon a pedestal and placed under a roof, that it might be seen of the public and protected from the weather. Shortly after, the emperor, hearing of the discovery, had it placed in a pagoda, or temple of bonzes, about a quarter of a mile from Si-gan-foo, where it is still preserved with great care. The first who intei'preted this inscription was the 16 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. Mandarin Leon, a recent convert to Chrlstianityi and who published a book upon the subject. The Portuguese Jesuit, Father AlvarSs Sernedo, also bestowed much pains to interpret the Monument, but the missionaries were not satisfied with the labours of either the one or the other. Another interpretation was undertaken, which will be found in Father Klrcher's China Illustrata. A careful transcription of the Monument was first brought to Rome by the Jesuit Couplet, and an account of its discovery and meaning was pub- lished there, in 1631, in the Italian language. The contents of both the Syrian and Chinese in- scriptions are highly curious. The Syrian, on both sides, mentions the erection of the Monument, in the time of Mar Anan- Jesu, Catholic patriarch of the Nestorian or Chaldean Christians, and of Adam, papas or metropolitan of Zinosthan, by Mar Jazed-Buzid, suffragan-bishop of Chumbdan, son of Milef the priest from Balech in Togursthan, in the Greek era 1092, that is, in 781 of the Christian era. After this follows a list of not less than seventy names, being the bishops, priests, and monks who had preached Christianity in the church founded in China down to that date. The subjoined version of the Chinese inscription THE CHINESE MONUMENT. 17 we have translated from the French translation made by the most learned Sinologue M. h6on- tiewski. It differs from the version of the learned missionary Visdelou, bishop of Claudiopolis, which will be found in the Journal des S9avans for 1760. The discrepant translations arise from the greater or less knowledge of the Chinese language pos- sessed by the translator, or from imperfect tran- scripts of the original having been employed. Notwithstanding the great poverty of that lan- guage, and its want of precision, we cannot un- derstand otherwise how European versions should so greatly differ : — THE CHINESE MONUMENT. 7. Tchmng.middle. i. -Bim, doctrine. 1. In, great. 8. Kouii, kingdom. 5. Lieou, vast. 2- TBin, Tsin. 9. n^,mormmeitt. e. -Bing, promulgatum. 3. mng, moit clem: Monument of the vast promulgation of the splendid doctrines of Great Tsin (Judea) in the Middle Kingdom. 18 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. " The Ideal, the Eternal, the Perfect and the Happy gave origin to the uncreated; — he the incomprehensible, infinitely wise, eternal, imma- terial, infinite and supreme, superior to all that is created, is the source of all existence and pre- serves all things. This supreme increate Being, superior to all the saints, very honoured by his divine nature, one of the persons of the mira- culous Trinity increate and true — this is the Aloho {King of the Jews)*, who extended the four quarters of the earth like a cross, vanquished chaos and made two kinds of airf, transformed darkness and the void, and created the heavens and the earth. Having given motion to the sun and moon, he separated the day from the night ; he created every living creature and men first; prescribing to the latter to live with his like in peace and love, he gave him the empire of the earth. " In the beginning the inclinations of this first * Eloha is the Syriac name of God. t The two airs spoken of are supposed to refer to the waters above and under the earth mentioned in Gen. i. 7. The Jesuit Yan-man, in his explanation of the Monument in 1741, gave a different reading of the Chinese words, and made them signify active and passive agents, as heat and cold, for example. TRANSLATION OF THE MONUMENT. 19 man were innocent, and his heart was free from passions. But soon Sa-dan (Satan), by means of cunning and flattery, succeeded in extinguishing the sentiment of submission and obedience to the Creator, inspired him with pride, rendered him discontented with his lot, and led him to follow the voice of his passions. Hence, everywhere on earth, error and evil, and the 365 doctrines*, which are so like to one another, and all so contrary to the truth. " One of these doctrines consisted in deifying the creature ; another sometimes confounded nothing and existence, and at other times separated them. There were some which gave victims to inanimate beings, and promised for this beatitude ; others glorified the victim and only developed pride, f * This determinate number, corresponding to the number of days in the year, must be taken figuratively, according to the genius of the Chinese language. Thus 10,000 ex- presses the number of things created. f The Indians at the present time believe that the age in which the human species lives, is an age of corruption and decay, and that nothing has been done for thousands of years which merits passing down to posterity. Eeinaud, in his Memoire sur TInde (p. 329.), gives the following curious passage from Massoudi :—" According to the science which they hold from Brahma, the sun should rest 3000 years in every sign of the zodiac, which would extend his revolution c 2 20 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. Some confused the mind, hardened the heart, and offered nothing useful ; others required human victims, and ordained them to be burned and ex- terminated. In fine, in the course of time men entirely forgot truth and virtue and thought not of correcting themselves. Therefore it was that one of the persons of our very venerated Trinity, the saint of saints, Met-si- ho (the Messiah), hiding his majesty, appeared in the world under human form, and the celestial spirits announced the joyful tidings of his incarnation in the bosom of the holy to 36,000 years. When he shall have passed into the signs situated to the south of the equator, the inhaljited part of the earth will be displaced ; that which is habited shall be covered with water, and that which is now under the wat-er shall become habitable. The north shall become south, and the south, north." The passage finishes thus : — " In the primitive ages, life was very long, and human strength had a greater space in which to exercise itself. In the latter ages, life has become shorter, because the circles are narrowed, and troublesome accidents are multiplied. In short, the forces of the body and its chances of health were greater in the first age, and developed themselves the more because purity was raised above corruption. Now, life is prolonged in proportion to the purity of temperament. Nevertheless, corruption has penetrated everywhere, and entire nature is liable to a fatal decadence." TRANSLATION OIT THE MONUMENT. 21 virgin in {Dat-sin).* A brilliant star signalised the miracle, and the Po-tse f, guided by its light, came to adore the divine incarnate. It was then that was accomplished the prophecy of the four- and-twenty prophets J, and that families and kingdoms received their organisation. " This person of the Holy Trinity, pure, vivi- fying, and ineffable, rectified the ancient ideas, taught virtue, and disseminated a new doctrine. He prescribed eight commandments §, uprooted evil, led all to good, opened the way of the three virtues ||, triumphed over death, and gave life. " Brilliant sun who, rising upon the cross, en- lightened the limbo of darkness, and thereby destroyed the delusions of the demon ; ark of heaven, who transported from this place of exile * Or Ta-tsin — Judea. f The Persiane, or Magi. X Allusion is made to the four greater, and twelve upper prophets, to whom are to be added, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Job, Samuel, David, and John the Baptist, — in all twenty-four. § These eight commandments, according to Yan-man, comprise spiritual poverty, humility, repentance, love of truth, charity, purity of heart, peace, and the sacrifice of one's-self for the sake of truth. Without Yan-man's au- thority, one would naturally think of the beatitudes, — in which commandments are implied, in Matt. c. v. II Faith, Hope, and Charity, c 3 22 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. those that there sojourned provisionally, he reached the shore upon which stand the luminous abodes destined for them. " Having accomplished this act of omnipotence, the divine messenger ascended to heaven in open day, in the midst of his disciples, who have left us the seven-and- twenty sacred hooks* which contain all wisdom, the flower of the human mind ; he established the mystery of baptism in order to purify the body and soul. " By the sign of the cross we unite the four quarters of the earth lighted by the sun, and put peace between those who are divided. By the sound of bells we convoke to prayer f; in turning ourselves towards the east we indicate the way to life and glory ; in letting our beards grow we do homage to piety ; in shaving the head we show the sacrifice we make of our evil desires; in giving liberty to captives we prove that we serve * Namely, the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, fourteen epistles of St. Paul, three of St. John, one of St- James, two of St. Peter, one of St. Judc, and the Keve- lations. t Visdelou reads, " Striking upon a piece of wood " (the method still employed by the bonzes to call worshippers)) "the voice of goodness and charity is made to be heard." TRANSLATION OF THE MONUMENT. 23 as a bond between the powerful and the weak ; in despising riches we indicate that the end of our terrestrial journey is not far distant ; by observing fasting we acquire intellectual strength; by ab- stinence and constant moderation we preserve health ; by a prayer repeated seven times a day we guard ourselves from falling; in sacrificing the seventh day we purify our hearts. " The law which imposes these rules is just, true, profound, and miraculous : in spite of its simplicity and lustre, we cannot give it a precise name, and therefore limit ourselves to calling it orthodox* " But rules without holy practice possess no vir- tue, and even the sanctity of actions without rules does not attain the highest degree of per- fection. Thus it is only when laws and morals shall be intimately knit together that the earth will show veritable civilisation. " The emperor Tai-tsou-venf spread civilisation in his states, and there implanted true morals : * The original wbrds are Tsin-tsa, by which Yan-man understands the holy doctrine. f His reign, which extended from a. d. 627 to 650, is known under the names of Tsen-sian and Tai-tsong. o 4 24 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. the virtuous Olo-ben* subject of the .states of Ta- tsin, animated by the desire to know the laws and customs of different people, turned his face towards heaven, travelled with the book of truth, penetrated into several dangerous countries, and " Or Olopuen, according to Visdelou. "He observed the blue clouds, and brought the Scriptures ; he gave heed to the laws of the wind to traverse difEciilt and perilous places." To understand the difficulties that Olopuen had to en- counter on his journey to China, which must have been through Tartary, the numerous sandy deserts that lay in his course must be borne in mind. These, under ordinary circumstances, it must be difficult to traverse ; but when to natural are added supernatural obstacles, the traveller requires more than an ordinary share of courage. Upon the limits of China itself, there is the great sandy desert of Cobi, more dangerous than all the rest because superstition peoples it with hobgoblins and allied spirits. Here and there voices are heard, according to the Chinese, sometimes like people crying, sometimes like people laughing or calling aloud. Should any one, tempted by curiosity to know whence the voices proceed, venture even a little way from his fellow-travellers, he instantly disappears, and perishes without remedy. Those who traverse these deserts direct their course by the sun during the day, and by the moon and stars during the night. The greatest danger arises from the winds, which collect the arid sands and raise them in the form of clouds. This is what the author of the Monument alludes to, when he says that Olopuen " gave heed to the laws of the winds." TKANSLATION OP THE MONUMENT. 25 at last in the ninth year of the reign of Tsen-ou- kan (a.d. 635) reached the city of Tschen-ouan.* Tai-tsou, who had confided to his prime minister Fan-oum-sim the care of all external affairs and the dominions of the west, ordered him to receive the traveller in his capital. He ordered, at the same time, the tribunal of sciences to translate the sacred book brought by Olopuen, and to bring to his knowledge the doctrine that it con- tained. Having approved the contents of the book he ordered youth to be instructed in it. In consequence of this order he gave a law to the following eiFect, in the seventh month of the twelfth year of the reign of Tsen-ou-kan (a. d. 638) : — " ' This book, which has no determinate title, and whose holy doctrines know not any limits, ought to be admitted as a dogma of faith, seeing its beneficial influence on mankind. The vir- tuous Olopuen, subject of the states of Ta-tsin, brought into our capital this sacred book and holy pictures. We have analysed his doctrine, and are persuaded that it is beneficent, free from falsehood and miraculous ; that its author is truly the all-powerful Being, arbiter of the life of every * Formerly capital of the kingdom of Kan, which existed from 618 to 907. It is now called Si-gan-fou. 26 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. creature. It is exempt besides from all verbiage and deviation from its object. Since it con- tains all things useful to every one it ought to be admitted throughout the whole extent of our dominions. " ' We therefore ordain that in our said capital, in the street I-nin-fan, a Ta-tsin temple be imme- diately erected, and that one-and-twenty Tson* of this religion be there established.' " Anciently when in the states of Tscheou men lost their virtues, Tsin-tsiaf went toward the west, and now that well-being and order have appeared in the great empire of the Tang, the orthodox religion has been brought back into the east as upon the wings of the wind. " Then Tai-tsou ordered the authorities of the place to have painted the veritable image of Dia- di.J This image, whose features had a divine seal, served as the symbol of the perfection of doctrine, * Bonzes, priests or sacrificers. f He was also called To or Dani; the preacher arrived in China from the West. X God or the Lord. But Visdelou's version states that the emperor ordered a copy of his own portrait to be painted, in order that it might be suspended in the new temple, which would indicate to his subjects that the temple was under his protection. TRANSLATION OP THE MONUMENT. 27 and in working miracles it reaffirmed the faiih of the believers. " The geographical study of the states of the West and the history of the states Kan* and Van teach us that the states of Ta-tsin are bounded on the south by the sea Tchan-ou,t on the north by the mountains Djoun-baoJ, to the west lie fertile countries shaded with rich forests, and on the eastern side it touches Tchan-fen§ and Jo-tchou || ; it is there that are found the amianthus, balm, fine pearls, and guambi.lf Theft is there unknown, and there men spend their lives peaceably; besides the laws of Tsin there are none others. All the sovereigns there live vir- tuously ; it is a very large country, and civilisa- tion is carried there to a high degree. * The Kan empire had its origin in b. c. 206, and under the name of the Western Empire, or Tsi-kan, lasted until A.n. 6. Then under the name of the Eastern Empire, Donn-kan, it lasted 221 years. After this, it was called the Ulterior Empire, and existed till a. d. 264. f Tchan-ou, or red coral. J Djoun-bao means precious stones or jewels. § The steady wind that still regulates the departure and arrival of Indian vessels. I Tchou, the Dead Sea. ^ The phosphorescent stone. The amianthus is the as- bestus. 28 THE CEOSS AND THE DEAGON. " The great emperor Hao-tsoun (a.d. 650 — 684) having ascended the throne, filled with veneration for his father, desired to extend the true faith in his dominions, and ordered a temple to be raised in every town in honour of this worship. He conferred on Olopuen the title of grand pontiff Thus the doctrine was spread in the ten provinces of his dominions.* The empire became flourish- ing, and the people happy; every town had its temple, and every house became rich and happy. " But when under the reign of Chen-li (a.d. 698 — 700) t, all the youth were impaired by de- bauchery, and when, in the empire of Tcheou, situated towards the east, at the end of the reign of Tchen-tian, all the writers were tainted with the spirit of atheism, this worship became the object of ridicule ; and in the western state of Chao they attempted to decry it. " Happily, the grand pontiff Lo-Khan, the vlr- * The empire of Kan was composed of ten provinces. f This was the empress Woeheu, of whom Visdelou says : "it is difficult to decide whether this was a woman or a female monster. On the one hand, she was a monster of impurity, cruelty, impudicity and deceit; on the other, a woman of prodigious spirit, genius, judgment and dexterity." She was driven from the throne by her grandees, and died at the age of eighty- two. TRANSLATION OP THE MONUMENT. 29 tuous Tsi-li, and other distinguished persons, determined to cause the truth to shine. It was then that the emperor Tsuan-tsoun-tche-do (a. t>. 7 14) ordered the five prefects of Nin and other provinces to repair to the places not yet infected with the spirit of infidelity, there to build temples and to re-establish the convents and monasteries which were falling into ruins. The first year of the reign of Ten-bao, his general-in-chief * carried five portraits, by his order, to adorn the temples he found there. He carried with him more than a hundred pieces of stuffs of silk, as offerings to the altars, which was the occasion of grand solemnities. The people waited impatiently for these pictures ; at last their eyes were satisfied. The brightness of the colours and the beauty of the pencil made them appear like life.f * His name was Kao-lii-su. f Visdelou's version reads further of this general : " He was permitted to seize the moustaches of the dragon, though far distant, and the bow and the sword ;" that is, he was permitted to look upon the portraits of five deceased em- perors. There is a Chinese tradition, according to which the emperor Hoang-te ascended to heaven with more than seventy persons, upon the back of a great dragon ; some, being able to get hold of the moustaches of the dragon only, let go, and fell to the ground. 30 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. " In the third year of the same reign (a. d. 745), the preacher Tsi-kao, a profound observer of the stars and a great naturalist, came from Ta-tsin towards the east. He reached the confines of our empire and presented himself before the em- peror, who authorised him, as well as Lo-Khan and seventeen others, to exercise their religion at Tsin-tsin-houn. The emperor himself wrote the book han, in which our doctrine is explained in a truly superior manner : he explained perfectly well the difficult passages. It was then that charity and virtue rose like the mountains of the south and spread like the waters of the ocean. Then justice flourished in all her beauty, and the power of virtue struck deep roots, — epoch truly worthy of fixing the attention of posterity. " Under the reign of Tsou-tsou-ven-min (a. D. 756 — 763) the city of Lin raised temples in honour of our worship ; the same was done in four other cities. By this supreme happiness was established, grace was spread everywhere, and true felicity reigned amongst men. "The emperor Tsou-ven-ou (a. D. 763 — 780) aided in propagating the true doctrine and did it great honour. Every year, on Christmas eve, he presented to the temples a great number of wax- TRANSLATION OF THE MONUMENT. 31 lights, as symbols of his conviction that on this day was wrought the salvation of the human race ; and giving on this occasion great feasts at court, he did great honour to the true believers, who were active in the propagation of the veritable re- ligion. In other respects this emperor regulated his conduct by the commandments of the holy fathers, and under his reign religion shone in all its lustre. " The emperor Tschen-von-ou (a. d. 780 — 785) explained obscure passages : of the eight chapters of the code of laws he , made nine, and consoli- dated them in a new form. All this legislation was modelled upon the Holy Scriptures, and then no one was molested in the exercise of religion. While observing the laws of religion, he did not derogate from the majesty of his rank, and was removed from all hypocrisy. Endowed with great perfection, he was modest and condescending, full of charity and mercy : he held forth his hand to the unfortunate, and conferred right on all classes of his subjects. " How great the glory of the great men who have no other object than to correct the errors of their people and to lead them to happiness ! If the winds and the rains appeared only at the ne- 32 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. cessary moment, if peace reigned among men, if they had a more profound knowledge of nature, if the living could enjoy the happiness and the dead the honours due to them ; if, in short, every good resolution were crowned with success, our holy religion would meet with no Impediment to its propagation. " The grand almoner Tsi-tsi, and the chief of the province Houan-lou, with his colleague Chi-da- dou-dsian, filling an office at court, have made us to wear the crimson garments. When the news spread that the preacher Hi-si enjoyed peace and was disposed to beneficence, every one began to live according to the faith ; and, from the distant town of Van-tchi, a great number of people came to reside in I-chou-tian ( China). " This age was the golden age of religion. It exercised great influence over the manners of the people, and had great power at court. Traces of it are visible on the imperial tapestries. " When the emperor Tsou-tsoun (the same as the emperor Tsou-tsou-ven-min mentioned above) sent the general of his army Djoun-djou-len, named for the first time chief of the army of the North, Fen-yan-tsi, the latter behaved himself in the best manner towards his soldiers, and distin- TRANSLATION OP THE MONUMENT. 33 guished himself in nowise among them. He ob- served justice strictly and kept discipline among his troops, distributed to his soldiers their proper appointments and pecuniary rewards without touching the treasury to his own profit. Having obtained from the emperor the ground of Pou-li, and not being able to reside there on account of his frequent campaigns, he caused a gratuitous hostelry to be constructed. He restored the temples, and built new schools of the finest archi- tecture. The orthodox doctrine received a new strength, and charity encompassed every heart. Every year the preachers of the four temples and the confessors of the faith met in one place to pray with fervour for fifty days * : they convened the poor, fed them, and clothed them. They cured the sick, raised the dead, and, in a word, exercised themselves in the practice of virtue. "These holy souls were known to me person- ally, and, desiring to celebrate their virtues, I have engraved their good deeds upon this stone. " This stone was erected and embellished in the second year of Kien-tsong, of the Tang dynasty, * Supposed to allude to the fast of Lent. D 34 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. Jupiter being in Tso-gho*, the seventh day of the moon called Tai-tsof, &c. &c." * The tenth month of the duodenary cycle, which com- mences with thfe sign of Capricorn, f The first month, i. e. when the sun enters Pisces. GENUINENESS OF MONUMENT CONSIDERED, 35 CHAPTER III. The Genuineness of the Monument considered.— De Guig- nes. — Gaubil. — Pauthler. — Monastery of the Golden Victory. — Probable Fate of the Nestorians. — Massacre of Jews and Christians. — The Arabian Traveller and the Chinese Emperor. Such, in extenso, is the subject of the inscriptions on the famous Chinese Monument, and the ques- tion which naturally arises is, — can it be ge- nuine? and this is a question which has been keenly debated at various times during the last two hundred years, and which, with a few, is the subject of debate to the present hour. If it be genuine, it not only supports the Syrian chroni- cles, but proves beyond a doubt that a form of Christianity was introduced into China in the seventh century, and that the churches there were in a flourishing condition towards the close of the eighth. The first announcement of its discovery in Europe was received with considerable hesitation and suspicion, even by the adherents of the D 2 36 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. church whose claims to a high antiquity it was considered to support. The native Chinese were the first to doubt its genuineness; and subse- quently, and upon similar grounds, — the absence of historical evidence on the part of ancient Chinese historians respecting the introduction of Christianity, — the Jesuit missionaries who were in China when it was discovered hesitated to claim a memorial which, although it does not express the tenets of the Western church, they might still have appealed to as a proof that the Messiah's doctrine hOid been taught in China a thousand years before their time. It was not until after careful examination that its genuineness was ad- mitted by the Jesuits. The zeal, the learning, the perseverance, the indomitable courage, of the followers of Loyola cannot for a moment be dis- puted; but, lying under the suspicion of both E,o- manists and Protestants, their veracity in report- ing the discovery of the Monument was doubted, and they were even accused of having forged it. * The researches of De Guignes and other ori- entalists have since discovered that the Chinese chronicles ai-e not altogether silent on the subject * Celebrated Jesuits, by the Rev. W. Rule. DE GUIGNES. GAUBIL. 37 of the introduction of Christianity. Gaubil, who writes on the Tang dynasty, says that the astro- nomical and astrological books of the Chinese mention a people from the kingdom of Yu-sse, who taught them the use of the cycle of 28 years. The situation of this kingdom is not mentioned : hence this writer is inclined to believe that the •Chinese did not mean, by Yu-sse, to express a country, but people of the Christian religion ; for Yssa is the name the Mahommedans give to Jesus Christ, and Yu-sse is the same name badly pronounced by the Chinese. To all appearance, then, the people who came to instruct the Chinese in astronomy were Olo-puen and his followers, who arrived in China about the beginning of the Tang dynasty. The Chinese historians of this same dynasty farther say that, in the ninth year, called Chin- kouan, i. e. A.T). 635, the emperor Tai-tsong received ambassadors from Sin-lo, Yu-tien, Sou- le, and other countries named, all situated to the west of China. These historians also, De Guignes informs us, mark the arrival in the same year of a person of remarkable virtue, to whose religion the emperor Avas attached. This man who was also from the west, and to whom D 3 38 THE CKOSS AND THE DRAGON. they give the title of Bonze, had power, they say, by his prayers to raise the dead. He experienced some obstacles at court, but this did not prevent the religion of Fo from making considerable progress in the empire. These facts correspond with what the Monument relates respecting the arrival of Olo-puen. The religion of Fo here mentioned cannot designate the Indian religion, for that had been held in China for many centuries ; hence the obstacles which Olo-puen experienced must have been for teaching a reli- gion different from the Indian. The Chinese an- nals further mention the attachment of Kao-tsong to the religion of the Christian bonzes, and con- tain some traces of the persecution they suffered under the empress Chen-li or Heou-vou-chi. Hiuen-tsong, who, according to the Monument, restored peace to the church, was solicited to be favourable to Christianity by the emperor of Con- stantinople, Leo the Isaurian, who sent an em- bassy to this prince, a circumstance confirmed by the Chinese annals, which report* that, in the seventh year, called Kai-yuen, i. e. a.d. 719, the king of Fou-lin or Ta-tsin paid tribute to the * Gaubil, Hist. Manusc. de la Dynastie des Tang. PAUTHIER. 39 emperor and sent him a priest of great virtue named Ta-mou-tou, — a corruption of the name Thomas, perhaps, — who was versed in mathe- matics. A complimentary present would most likely, in Chinese parlance, be termed a tribute. The names of other sovereigns which occur in the inscription, are also mentioned by Chinese writers. The bonzes that came from Ta-tsin are expressly named in the edict of the emperor Vou- tsong, published in 845*, for the reduction of BonzerJes, and in which this prince adroitly insinuates that Tai-tsong I., under whom Olo- puen arrived in China, was favourable to the Christians, inasmuch as he acted too leniently towards them. Pauthier f, a Chinese scholar, brings, however very direct evidence in favour of the genuineness of the Monument, from the Grand Imperial Geography, a Chinese work of authority. Under the head of " Monastery of the Golden Victory " it is written : " This monastery is situated outside the western suburb of Tchang-ngan (now Si-gan-foo) ; it is the monastery of the * De Guignes, i. 60. f Univers pittoresque. Chine, torn. ii. p. 107. ]) 4 40 THE CROSS AlfD THE DBAGON. Great Humanity; it was founded under the Tang. This monastery possesses the (Buddhic) inscriptions of the pagod of the master of the law in the time of the Tang (about 635) engraven upon sandal-wood. It possesses also the inscrip- tion upon stone entitled King-Mao-lieou-hing- tchoung-koue-pie ; that is, 'Inscription upon stone of the religion of King propagated in the middle kingdom.' In the years thien, chun (1457 and 1464) the strangers of Thsin (or Ta-tsin) re- paired it." Ta-tsin signifies the countries of Western Asia belonging to the Homan empire and includes Judea. The same is also the name of China. The stone existed then, and had been repaired by Christians, in China, a hundred years before the Jesuits entered the country. Thus far, the history and chronology of the Chinese Monument are borne out by the native annalists. The Jesuit missionaries, at the time of its discovery, were clearly ignorant of the exist- ence of the Chinese annals, and could not, in con- sequence, avail themselves of their assistance in perpetrating the alleged forgery. Nor is it likely that, if they had intended to commit a religious fraud, on either the Chinese or Europeans, that they would have put forth a creed more allied to FATE OF THE NESTOEIANS. 41 the Greek than the Latin Church ; or that they would have omitted such an opportunity of set- ting forth the supremacy of the pope, the mass, transubstantiation, purgatory, and some of the leading dogmas of their own communion. The creed is so evidently Nestorian, that it were supererogatory to prove it to be so. The state- ment that the Monument was manufactured by Marco Polo, the Venetian, during his seventeen years' residence in China, has been frequently re- futed. The genuineness of the Monument has been denied by La Croze, Beausobre, by Voltaire in his off-hand manner, and more recently by Von Bohlen and Neumann. But, if the authority of names were to be held to decide the question, one would prefer ranging himself on the side of such profound philologists and unprejudiced writers as Kenaudot, De Guignes, Visdelou, Abel-Remusat, Mosheim, Le Beau, Neander, and above all of Professor Kist of Leyden, who has examined the question more minutely than any writer of modern times — men who no longer hesitate to admit the validity of this remarkable Monument, and to use it as historical evidence. How far Nestorian Christianity was affected by the edict of 845, it is not easy to say. Its 42 THE CKOSS AND THE DRAGON. priests may have been temporarily compelled to withdraw from the empire, and many of the native converts may have again relapsed into Buddhism. The name of Christianity was not rooted out, as we shall hereafter discover; but probably about this time began to grow up the singular complications of the religions of the Indian Fo, and the Syrian Fo, which have since given rise to so much speculation in history and vituperation in theology in Europe. The events of the ninth and tenth centuries remain in com- parative darkness. One thing only is certain, that, from this time, all intercourse between the Christians of Thibet and China, with the Chal- dean mother-church and her patriarchs on the banks of the Tigris, appears to have ceased. In the absence of European authorities, as to the fate of Christianity in the East, during this period, we have to resort to such light as Oriental annalists can afford us. Ferista, in his History of Hindostan, says that, in the year of the Hegira 264 (a.d. 878), a rebel named Banschoua (Hoang-chao) laid siege to Khan-foo (Hang- tcheou-foo), capital of the province of Tche-kiang. The town was taken by assault and the inha- bitants put to the sword. It is said that upon THE TRAVELLER AND THE EMPEROR. 43 this occasion 120,000 persons, Jews, Christians, and Magi, who were established in the town and carrying on trade there, were massacred. This is exclusive of the number of natives who were slain; and the writer adds, that the figures were known so accurately because of the government tax which was levied upon them as citizens of a foreign origin. The Mohammedan author gives us, further, an interesting account of an interview which an Arabian traveller, Ibn-Vahab by name, had with the emperor Y-tsoung. The emperor asked him, through an inter- preter, respecting the affaii's of the West, and among others put the question to the Arab — " Would you recognise your master, were you to see him ? " Ibn-Vahab, who teUs his own tale, says: "I perceived that the emperor wished to speak of the prophet of God, to whom God be propitious, and I replied, — ' How can I see him, now that he is with God the most High ? ' " The emperor replied, "That is not what I meant : would you know his likeness ? " " Yes ! " said the Arab ; and immediately the emperor ordered a box to be brought and placed 44 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. on a table before him. Then, taking some leaves out of It, he said to the interpreter : " Show him his master ! " Upon this Ibn-Yahab, continuing his narrative, says: "I recognised upon these leaves the por- traits of the prophets ; at the same time I made vows before them, and my lips moved. The emperor did not know that I recognised the prophets, and asked, through the interpreter, wherefore my lips moved. The Interpreter did so, and I replied, ' By means of the attributes which distinguish them. Thus ; behold Noah In the ark, who was saved with his family. When God, the most High, commanded the waters, the whole earth, with its Inhabitants, was submerged ; but Noah with his household escaped.'" At these words, the emperor began to laugh and said, " You are right when you recognise Noah here. As to the submersion of the whole earth, that we do not admit. The Deluge could not cover the whole earth ; It never reached our country, nor India." Ibn-Vahab was afraid to refute what fell from the imperial lips ; but continued : "Behold Moses with the .children of Israel ! " " True ! " said the emperor ; " but Moses shows THE TEAVELLER AND THE EMPEROR. 45 himself on a very narrow stage, and his people show themselves evilly disposed towards him." "Behold Jesus on an ass, surrounded by his apostles ! " said Ibn in reply. " He had but a short time to appear on the stage," returned the learned emperor ; " his mis- sion lasted scarcely more than thirty months." Ibn-Vahab continued to pass before him the different prophets; but we limit ourselves to repeating a portion only of what he tells us. He states that under each portrait there was a long- inscription, which he supposed to contain the name of the prophet and his country, and the leading facts of his mission. He then continues : — " I saw the likeness of the Prophet, on whom be peace. He was mounted on a camel; and his disciples, who were with him, were also mounted on camels. All had Arabian slippers upon their feet, and all had tooth-picks stuck in their girdles. Beginning to weep, the emperor charged the in- terpreter to ask me, ' Wherefore I shed tears ? ' I replied, ' Behold our Prophet, our lord and our cousin, on whom be benediction ! ' The emperor answered, ' Thou hast said truly. He and his people have raised a most glorious empire : but his eyes have not beheld the edifice he erected ; it 46 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. has been seen by those only who followed him.' I saw a great number of figures of other pro- phets, some of whom made a sign with the right hand, bringing the thumb and fore-finger together, and making a motion as if they would attest some truth."* Here we close this portion of our history. * Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans le 9me Siecle ; par M. Reinaud, torn. i. p. 82. HISTORICAL BLANK. 47 CHAPTER IV. Historical Blank. — Prester John. — Ghengis Khan. — Ra- vages of the Mongols in Russia. — Battle of Lignitz, 1241. — New Mode of reckoning the fallen in Fight. — Coublai Khan. — Extent of his Empire. — Dominican and Fran- ciscan Missionaries. — The Court of Prince Baton. — The Emperor Couyouc. — The Dominicans and Brother An- sekn. — Diplomacy. — Tartar Missive to the Pope. DuEiNGr the eleventh and twelfth centuries strange rumours were circulated in Europe of the exist- ence of Christians in the heart of Asia, and of a Christian prince who had . his abode in some remote pi-ovince there, — the enigmatical Prester John ; but it was not until the close of the thir- teenth century that the broken links between Europe and the far East were again restored, and the fortunes of Christianity orice more essayed upon the soil of China. About the commencement of this century oc- curred one of those remarkable historical events whose consequences, as regards both men and nations, are felt through many centuries. This 48 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. was the establishment of the Mongolian empire under the famous Ghengis Khan and his suc- cessors, — that vast power which extended from the eastern seas to the Danube and Hungary.* China was subjugated. A Mongolian expedition crossed the Volga. Bulgaria was conquered, — a triumph followed by the conquest of Northern Russia, and the submission of all the tribes north of the Caucasus.f In 1240 the Mongols ravaged the Russian principality of Galicia, and in the same year entered Poland and ra- vaged in the province of Lublin. Next year they advanced on Cracow, which they set on fire, and continuing their march entered Silesia. Pass- ing the Oder on rafts they proceeded to Breslau, which they found reduced to cinders, the inha- bitants having fired it and fled on their approach. After keeping the citadel in a state of siege for some days they retired and re-assembled at Lignitz, where, on the 9th April, 1241, was fought the battle wherein they completely routed the forces of Duke Henry of Silesia and killed the duke himself. The number of the Poles that fell on this occasion was so great that the Mongols in order to count them cut an ear from each corpse, * Gaubil, Ilistoire de Gentchiscan. Paris, 1739, 4to. t D'Ohsson, Histoire des Mongols, torn. ii. liv. 2. c. 3. EXTENT OF THE EMl'IRE. 49 and filled nine large sacks with them. After this they invaded and devastated Hungary, and had entire dominion over Russia. Suffice it that Coublai Khan, who reigned from 1260 to 1294, became, through the success of his own arms and those of his predecessors, sovereign of the vastest empire ever recorded, in history. It comprised China, the Corea, Thibet, Tong-king, Cochin China, and a great part of India beyond the Ganges, several islands in the Indian Seas, and the north of Asia from the Eastern Sea to the Dneiper, although during his reign the Ghengisian princes, who possessed the country to the east of the Kang-kai Mountains, would not acknowledge the legitimacy of his rule. Persia was feudatory to his throne, and her sovereigns received their investiture from Pekin ; and as the domination of his great vassals extended to the Mediterranean and the frontiers of the Greek empire, it may be said that nearly the whole of Asia submitted to the laws of the great khan.* No wonder that the victories of the Mongols, or Tartars, attended as they were with every species of enormity and cruelty, carried terror and * D'Olisson, torn. ii. p. 477. E 50 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. dismay into the very heart of Europe. To divert their attention from the Christian powers, it became the policy of Louis IX. of France and Pope Inno- cent IV. to induce them to turn their arms against the Mohammedan princes of Western Asia, their direct foes. To convert these pagan hordes to the Christian faith, and to conquer with the word where the sword was found to be impotent, was a project mooted at the same time. It kindled the zeal and fired the ambition of the two mendicant orders which had been founded about half a century before this time with the special object of carrying the light of the gospel to heathen nations.* It was at the first Council of Lyons, in 1245, that In- nocent IV. decreed to send missionaries to the Tartars, who then accounted China but a simple province of their vast empire. The Dominicans and Franciscans obeyed the invitation made to them with alacrity, and those who obtained per- mission to devote themselves to the perilous enter- prise were objects of envy to their brethren, who beheld them depart kissing their credentials as the certain pledges of martyrdom. Leaving the Dominicans for the present, who t Waddingus, Annales Minorum, vol. i. p. 641. FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES. 51 ventured into the midst of the Mongolian bands encamped at the mouth of the Volga, let us follow the Franciscans. Of all who were present at the installation of the Mongolian emperor Gayouk (or Couyouc), none in that magnificent scene created more attention than two simple European monks; these were Jean de Plan Carpin and Benoit, who after a long and painful journey had arrived thus far on their mission. They left home in 1247, and traversed Bohemia, Silesia, and Poland. At Lencinsk, they learned that it would be necessary to carry presents to the chiefs of the Mongols, if they wished to succeed in their errand. As they subsisted on alms, and had no goods of their own, Duke Conrad, his wife, the Bishop of Lencinsk, and several Polish nobles, gave them peltries to make use of as presents, From Kiew, in six days they reached the out- posts of the Mongols on the banks of the Dneiper ; but as there was no one there who could read the Latin letters with which they had been charged, the officer in command sent them to the court of Baton, situated on the Volga, where they arrived, after having rode at full speed for nine-and-thirty days, changing horses four or five times a-day. By a judicious disposal of their presents, and E 2 S2 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGOK. having stated the object of their journey, they were admitted to an audience with Prince Batou. But first they had to pass through two fires, to destroy any malign influences they might have brought with them. Two lances erected by these fires supported a stretched cord, from which depended several pieces of rags ; and beneath this cord, to be purified, had to pass men, beasts, and goods ; two females, one on each side, sprinkled them with water at the same time, and recited certain words. The missionaries had then to bend the left knee three times before the tent of the prince, and were charged to be careful not to tread on the threshold; Batou was seated on a raised platform, with one of his wives by his side. His family and principal officers occupied a bench in the centre of the pavilion, and behind these, seated on the ground, persons of inferior rank; the men on the right, the women on the left. In addressing the prince, the monks had to fall upon their knees. Having delivered their letters, they asked that they might be interpreted. They were placed on the left of the prince, and on the right were placed the ambassadors from the court of the grand khan. The tent, which was large and of fine linen, had been taken from the king COURT OP PRINCE BATOU. 53 of Hungary. Here they saw a table covered with gold and silver cups, filled with various beverages ; every time that Batou drank, songs and instrumental music were beard. The letters, which after a few days were translated into the Mongol, Russian, and Arabian languages, con- tained an explanation of the leading dogmas of Christianity, commended the monks to the pro- tection of the khan, exhorted him no longer to shpd the blood of Christians, and inquired very innocently, why the Tartars were excited to destroy other nations, and what they intended doing for the future. By Batou, the envoys of the pope were sent in charge of two Tartars to the great khan. "We parted," says Carpin,* " with tears in our eyes, thinking that we were going to die ; for we were so weak that we could scarcely sit on horseback. During the whole of Lent we had nothing to eat but millet boiled in water with salt, and nothing to drink but melted snow." With all the haste they could make it was five months after they had entered the Mongolian ter- ritory before they stood under the yellow tent of * Vincentii Specul. Hist. lib. xxxi. cap.. 23. E 3 54 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. the Son of Heaven, which happened a few days after his elevation to the throne. The princes and nobles, who were admitted to an audience with Couyouc, at the same time, brought rich presents of stuffs of gold and silver. The poor monks, when asked what they had brought from their master the pope replied, that they had brought nothing. They received an answer to the pope's letter however, and after another audience with the empress mother, who gave to each of them a fox skin pelisse with the fur inside, they took their leave of the imperial court, and reached the sovereign pontiff in the following year, 1247. The nature of the answers given to the pope's letters is unknown ; but it has been conjectured, that as the great khan regarded himself the greatest sovereign on the earth and all its princes as his vassals, the Mongolian missive in reply was not unlike the verbal one given to an ambassador, as reported by the Constable of Armenia in -a letter to the king of Cyprus. " Know also," says the constable, "that our lord the pope sent an ambassador to the said khan, asking him whether he was a Christian, and why he sent the people of his nation to tread under foot and destroy the universe? To which the khan replied. That THE DOMINICANS AND BKOTHER ANSELM. 55 God had ordered his ancestors and himself to send forth his people to destroy the wicked nations. But as to the question whether he was a Christian he replied, God only knows, and if the pope wishes to know he has only to come and learn." The Dominican Anselm of Lombardy with three companions reached, in 1247, the camp of Baid- jou, the Tartar general in Persia, with a letter from the pope, exhorting the Tartars not to renew their ravages in Christian countries, and to repent of the crimes they had committed. The Dominicans were, no doubt, better Christians than diplomatists, and wasted a deal of time in wrang- ling with the officers of Baidjou as to the relative merits and dignity of the pope and the khan, each party having it, that theirs was the greatest master. Brother Anselm winding up one of these debates by saying, " Our lord the pope is above all other men, because God has granted to St. Peter and his successors authority over the church universal, to the end of time." Every time the officers went into the tent of Baidjou to carry the words of the monks and to receive his com- mands, they had to change their vestments— a ceremony which, added to the haughtiness and obstinacy of the brethren, was not at all calculated E 4 56 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. to mollify the Tartar temper. Every day for more than nine weeks, they resorted to head- quarters, where they remained for several hours exposed to the heat of the sun, expecting from Baidjou an answer to the pope's letter. , Father Simon, one of Anselm's companions, records: "The missionaries were regarded by these Tar- tars as wretches unworthy of a reply, and even as dogs ; it was thus that Baidjou exercised his resentment against the brethren, who had offended him by their frankness. In his rage he was about to put them to death, and thrice he gave the order." At length they received the general's answer, and had leave to depart. In what favour they stood in his eyes may be gathered from the terms of his letter, which is worth transcribing: — "By the order of the divine Khan, Baidjou noyan addresses to thee these words : Know, O Pope ! that thy envoys have come to us bearing thy letters. Thy envoys have spoken high words ; we know not whether thou hast ordered them to speak in this manner, or whether they speak of themselves. Thy letters among others have these words : You slay, and destroy many men ; but behold the commandment of God and the order TARTAR MISSIVE TO THE POPE. 57 that has been given to us by him who is the master of all the earth : Whosoever shall obey us, remains in possession of his land, his water, and his patrimony, and yields hj,s strength to the master of all the earth; but whosoever resists him shall be destroyed. We transmit this order, by virtue of which, if thou hast a wish to preserve thy land, thy water, and thy patrimony, thou must appear before us in person, Pope, and then thou must present thyself before him who is master of all the earth. And if thou dost not obey the command- ment of God, and of him who rules upon earth, we know not what shall be done to thee — God only knows. Send thy messengers to announce to us whether thou wilt come or not, if thou hast a wish to be our friend or not ; and send promptly thy response to this order, which we send by Aybeg and Sargis. Done in the district of Sitiens, the 20th of July." Brother Anselm and his companions, whose boldness after all probably saved them from the bow-string, remained nearly a year in Persia, and returned to the court of the pope after an absence of three years and seven months. 58 THE CEOSS AND THE DKAGON. CHAPTER V Couyouc KbaTi and his Christian Ministers. — King Louis caught by Tartars- — Another Embassy. — Rubruquis. — A royal Audience.— The Khan a little gone. — The Empress tipsy. — Devilled Blade-bones. — Rubruquis returns to Europe. These missions, though destitute of the splendid results anticipated by the zealous mendicants, were not without their uses. Ground had been broken ; a way had been opened into Tartary, and the judicious diplomacy of the Franciscans, compared with the polemical bearing of the Do- minicans, found them favour at the court of the emperor. Couyouc Khan, who indulged rather too freely in the pleasures of the cup and the harem, abandoned the care of public affairs to his two ministers, Cadac and Tchingcai, both Chris- tians. Cadac had inspired the grim Tartar with respect for the religion he professed. The parti- cular attention which Christians found at his court attracted a great number of monks from Asia Minor, Syria, from Bagdad and Russia. KING LOUIS. 59 They acquired so much the more influence, as the physicians of the khan were of the same re- ligion. Carpin saw before his tent a Christian chapel, wherein service was performed daily ; and says, that Couyouc salaried several Christian priests, which made him think that he intended to become a convert. Two years after his death, which happened in 1248, an ambassador from St. Louis of France arrived at the court of his widow. Two witty Tartar messengers, David and Mark, had brought tlie king a letter from a Tartar general, full of flatteries and plausibilities, and promising him the khan's assistance against the Mohammedans the following spring. The letter might have been indited by some liberal spirit of the nineteenth century, so tolerant was it of Latins, Greeks, Armenians, and Nestorians. It stated farther that the khan and his court had been baptized into the true faith, and henceforth were to be the king's allies. Louis and his court received the messengers with joy, and entertained them without suspicion. It was resolved that an embassy should be sent to the khan ; and David having insinuated that the most precious gift for the Mongol emperor would be a chapel in the form of a tent, one was prepared of stuff of scarlet 60 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. embroidered with gold, and furnished with books, chalices, and all the other necessary ornaments re- quired in performing the sacred mysteries. The embassy consisted of three Dominicans, the chief of whom was Andre de Lonjumel. They reached Tartary through Transoxiana, and were well re- ceived at court ; but the result of the mission did not answer the hopes of Louis, who was busy forti- fying Csesarea, when Lonjumel and his companions returned. The Mongolian court simply looked upon the presents which had been brought in the light of an act of fealty on the part of the king of France ; and the answer returned was the cus- tomary one — to obey, pay tribute, and to come in person to court to render homage to the chief of the Mongol empire. Louis, however, whose ears were always open to every tale having for its burden conversions among the Pagans, and who was ready to adopt any measures to extend the faith, once more despatched a mission to the East. During his sojourn in Palestine, having heard from certain Nestorian Christians just arrived from Tartary, that Sartac, eldest son of that Baton who had rather alarmed Carpin and his companions, bad become Christian, he judged that missionaries KUBRUQUIS. 61 might be despatched to propagate the faith amoiig the Tartars, under the protection of that prince, and gave a Cordelier, named William of Eu- bruquis, letters of recommendation to Sartac, and asking his permission for the monk to remain in Tartary to preach the gospel. Kubruquis departed in 1253, and after tra- velling two months reached the camp of Sartac, two days' journey beyond the Volga. From the time of leaving Soudac in the Crimea, " we never slept In a house," writes the Cordelier, "nor in a tent, but always in the air or under our carriages ; and during the whole of the way we found no village or vestige of buildings, but tombs of the Comans in great numbers." Eubruquis with his companions were intro- duced to the commander in great state, — he in his canonicals, with Bible and Psalter, cross and censer. Sartac was simply civil, and told them that they must have his father's permission to tarry in the country, to whose court he would send them. William quietly observes, that though Sartac was attended by Nestorian priests he was no great Christian. " It seems to me rather," he says, " that he mocks the Christians and despises them." Perhaps the poor Cordelier measured his 62 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. Christianity by liis hospitality. During the four days that he and his companions remained at his court they had nothing to eat or drink but once ; and what they had given them was only a little coumiz, or sour mare's milk. From the son the missionaries had to proceed to the father, who received them, upon the whole, cordially; and who, after hearing their message from King Louis, caused them to be seated and to be presented with milk to drink ; it being re- puted a great favour to drink coumiz with him in his own house. Baton, however, had not power to permit them to remain in the country, and it became necessary to proceed to the court of the Emperor Mangu, to solicit his authority. More than three months were spent upon this journey, during which they had to endure the ex- tremes of hunger and thirst, cold and weariness. They traversed the vast plain which formed the territory of the Kankalis before the Mongol con- quest, then Turkistan, the country of the Oui- gours, and that of the Naimans, and arrived on the 27th December, 1253, at the court of the great khan, then some days' journey south of Karaku- rum. After a week's delay they were introduced to Mangu with much ceremony. The gossiping A ROYAL AUDIENCE. 63 Cordelier gives an interesting account of his re- ception, and of the khan and his court. " The felt which was' before the door of his palace being raised, we entered," he says; "and as Christmas was not yet over we began to chant the hymn A solis ortiis, &c., which when we had ended he sent to have us searched, to see whether we had knives concealed about us, and constrained even our interpreter to leave his girdle and knife in charge of the porter. At the entrance of this place there was a bench, and above it coumiz, and near to this they placed our interpreter standing, and us they made sit down upon the bench oppo- site the ladies. This place was all hung with cloth of gold : in the centre there was a chafing- dish, with a fire made of thorns and roots of wormwood, which grows here in great abund- ance ; and this fire was lit with bullocks' dung. " The great khan was seated upon a small couch clothed with a rich fur robe, glossy as the skin of a seal. He was a man of middle height, with a nose a little flat and compressed, and about forty- five years of age. His wife, who was young and pretty, was seated near him, with one of her daughters, named Cyrina, about to be married, and tolerably ugly. Several little children were 64 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. resting upon a couch close by. The khan asked us what we would have to drink — whether wine, or terasine, which is a beverage made of rice, or cara coumiz, which is pure cow's milk, or ball, which is made of honey ; for in winter they use these four sorts of drinks. To this I replied, that we were not people greatly given to drink ; but that at the same time we should be contented with what his Grandeur pleased to give us of the terasine, made of rice, which was as clear and sweet as white wine, and of which we -tasted a little to obey him. But our interpreter, to our great displeasure, was so drowsy with what he had taken to drink, that he made all sorts of blunders. After this the khan had several kinds of birds of prey brought to him, which he placed on his wrist, considering them much for a long time. Then he commanded us to speak. He had for his interpreter a Nestorian, and we had ours badly incommoded with wine, as I have said. " "We being then upon our knees I said to him that we gave thanks to God, who had led us thus far to see and salute the great Mangu Khan, to whom G od had given such great power upon the earth ; that we supplicated also the same goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we live and die, that it would please him to give his A EOXAL AUDIENCE. 65 Majesty a long and happy life, Avhich was all they desired. I added to this, that we had heard say in our country that Sartac was a Christian, at which all Christians were greatly rejoiced, and especially the king of France, who had sent us to him on that account, with letters of peace and friendship, in order to bear witness what kind of people we were, and that he wished us to be per- mitted to stay in his country, inasmuch as we were obliged by the statutes of our order to teach men how they are to live according to the law of God, and to pray for. him and for his wives and children ; that we had neither gold, nor silver, nor precious stones, but only our services and prayers, which we would make continually to God for him. We begged that he would, at least, permit us to stay until the rigours of winter were past, because we were tired and sore with our long travel, and because it was impossible to set out immediately on a journey without running our lives in danger." ' After some more to the same effect the khan opened his mouth and spake : the narrative here is uncommonly naive. " To all this," says Ru- bruquis, " the khan replied to us, that where- soever the sun extended his rays, there his power F 66 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. and the power of Batou extended; and that with our gold and silver he had nothing to do. Thus far only I understood our interpreter ; as to the rest I understood nothing at all, seeing that he was very drunk : and in my opinion Mangu himself was un pen charge,- — a little gone. After this he made us sit down, and after a little space we retired with the secretaries. As we were on the point of returning to our lodgings came the interpreter, who said to us, that Mangu had pity upon us, and gave us two months to tarry there until the cold was gone ; and he mentioned also, that not far from there, there was a town called Karakurum, where, if we liked to go, we should be provided with everything we stood in need of ; but if we preferred rather to stay where we were, we should likewise have all things need- ful ; but that we should be put to great trouble in following the court about everywhere." Mangu, like his great predecessor Ghengis Khan, was, in religious matters, extremely tole- rant, and with his family assisted equally in the religious ceremonies of the Christians, the Moham- medans, and the Buddhists. But all he knew of Christianity was its exterior rites, such as incense- burning, the adoration of the cross, and blessing THE EMPRESS TIPSY. 67 the cup. His patronage was dispensed with singular impartiality, to all appearance. Besides Games or magicians, he entertained priests of the three religions ; but there was an alloyed motive in this : he hoped thereby to earn their collective blessings and to avoid their curses. Rubruquis accuses the Nestorian priests he found at court, of ignorance, superstition, and of being addicted to wine ; but perhaps there is some prejudice in his statement. Once during Epiphany he entered their chapel, when the emperor and empress were present, and where the service, if it was conducted in orthodox fashion, must have been highly edifying to the brethren. He and his companion were desired by the emperor to sing, and they began chanting the Veni, sancte ISpiritus ; but the emperor did not tarry long, probably having no ear for church music. The empress, however, remained and made presents to all the Christians. Attendants brought wine, tarasine, and the invariable coumiz. Farther, and it is to be hoped the good Cordelier does not indulge in scandal,- — -"The empress took a cup, kneeled, asked a benediction, and whilst she was drinking the priests sang. The latter drank, turn about, and got drunk ; and thus they r 2 68 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGOlSr. passed the day. Towards evening the empress, being as tipsy as the rest, returned home in her chariot, accompanied by the priests, who did not cease to sing, or rather to howl." It does not lie within our immediate object, or we might devote some space to details of the su- perstitious usages and religious ceremonies of the Tartar races at this period, supplied by the journals of the Western missionaries.* * Eubruquis gives us an account, for instance, of a new use to which a devilled blade-bone of mutton was applied. " On Saturday, the eve of Septuagesima, which is the Easter of the Armenians, we went, with the Nestorian priests and an Armenian monk, in procession to the palace of Mangu. As we entered, a servant came out carrying several shoulder blades of a sheep, which had been burnt in the fire and were black as charcoal, at which we were greatly astonished ; and asking of them what it meant, they informed us that nothing is undertaken in this country without first consulting the bones. When the khan wishes to undertake any affair, he has three of these bones which have not been in the fire brought him, and holding them in his hands he thinks of the matter he wishes to consult about, whether it may be done or not. Then he sends the bones to be burned, and there are two small places near the palace where the khan sleeps, where they are carefully burned ; and, being well passed through the fire and blackened, they are brought before him, when he examines them curiously, to see that they are entire, and that the heat of the fire has not cracked or broken them, and in that case the affiiir will prosper ; but if the bones are found to bo broken, then the affair must not be undertaken." RETURN OP RUBKUQUIS. 69 During his residence at court, which extended to five months, Eubruquis saw and learned much, and burned with desire to instruct the Mongols In a purer religion ; but the time had now arrived when he should take his departure for Europe. The khan charged him with letters in answer to those of the king of France. Eubruquis asked, whether after having delivered the letters he might return to care for the Christian souls who were found in that part of Tartary ; but on this subject Mangu gave no answer. He advised him however, to provide well for his long journey, and after making him drink, whether of wine or coumiz is not stated, he dismissed him. " I took my conge of him," he says, with much simplicity, "thinking that, if it had pleased God to grant me grace to perform the miracles that Moses did of old, I should have converted him."* "^ Eelation du Voyage en Tartarie de Frere Guillaume de Rubruquis. Paris, 1634. ]? 3 70 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER VI. Coublai Khan. — Joliu of Mount Coryin, — Arrival in Cliina. — His Letters. — Complains of the Nestorians. — Builds a Church. — Baptizes. — King George in Canonicals.— The nearest Koad to China. — Turns Artist. — Church Music. — His Notices of China. — The Characteristics of his Mission. — Made Archbishop of Kambalu. — Assistance arrives from Europe. — Toleration. — Tartar Impostors. — Koyal Compliments to Royalty. — The Alans. — Another, Gap. It was nearly a quarter of a century after the return of Kubruquis from Tartary, before an- other mission was sent from Europe in that direction. Pope John XXI., having heard, from two Georgians who appeared at his court in 1277 as envoys from Khan Abaca, that the emperor Coublai, who succeeded Mangu, had been baptized and Instructed in the Christian religion, and that he ardently desired missionaries to come and preach the gospel to his subjects, made choice of several ecclesiastics to proceed to Tartary; but his death suspended their de- parture. The following year, Nicholas III., his JOHN OF MOUNT CORVIN. 71 successor, charged five Franciscans to propagate Christianity among the Mongols and Chinese, and gave them letters to Abaca and Coublui. But the most important mission of all was that sent forth under the conduct of John of Mount Corvin, by Nicholas IV., in 1289. This zealous Franciscan had already been labouring for ten years in the heart of Asia, among the Mongols, and was in many respects well qualified for the task. The envoys of Argoun, the Mongol khan of Persia, had assured the pope that Coublai stood well affected towards the Ciiristian religion, and had demanded in his name the sending out of missionaries to China. To this prince, then, the pope sent letters by John of Mount Corvin, in which he testified the joy he felt in knowing of his good disposition towards the Christians, and recommended to his protection the eccle- siastics he sent to his court. Coublai Khan was the most intelligent sove- reign who had sat upon the Mongol throne since the days of the great Genghis. Unlike his predecessors, he did not regard religion with indifference ; but, on the contrary, was a sincere Buddhist, respecting, nevertheless, the religion of the Christians and Mussulmans, his subjects. P 4 72 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. He was the patron of learning, had founded an academy of literati and schools for the education of youth; and, at the same time, carried out many reforms calculated to soften the ferocious character of his nobles and elevate the condition of his Tartar subjects. It is not, therefore, at all improbable that he desired the presence of European ministers of religion to assist in the work of civilisation. John of Mount Corvin went through Persia, and then entered India, where he tarried thirteen months, residing near the church of St. Thomas the apostle, as he informs us. In 1293 he reached China, and entered Kambalu* where Coublai then held his court. Two letters which he wrote from China still exist.f As they are not with- out interest, and as their authenticity has never been called in question, they may well find a place here. The first, as it would appear from a passage in the second, was addressed to the vicar * Khan-balik, that is, the city of the Khan, the modern Pekin. In winter, Coublai lived in a city founded near the ancient capital of Kin, called Ta^tou, the grand resi- dence. Pe-kin means the northern court, but its true name is Chun-tien-fou. t Waddingii Annal. Minor, vol. vi. p. 69. COMPLAINT OF THE NESTOEIANS. 73 of the Minor friars in the province of Gazaria ; that isj in the Crimea. It commences : " I, Father John, of Monte Corvino, of the order of Minor brothers, went from Tauris, the city of the Persians, to India, in the year 1291, where I remained for thirteen months near the church of the apostle St. Thomas, with my companion. Father Nicholas of Pistorio, of the order of Predicants, who there died and was buried. From thence I came into Cathay, the kingdom of the emperor of the Tartars, who is called the Great Khan, to whom I delivered the pope's letters and whom I endea- voured to bring over to the Catholic faith. But he is too immersed in idolatry, although he shows many favours to the Christians. I have now been two years at his court. " In this country the Nestorians, who assume the title Christians, but who have strayed from the Christian doctrine, have so much influence that they will not permit Christians of any other persuasion (alterius ritus) to have a small ora- tory or to teach any other than the Nestorian doctrines. As no apostle nor disciple of the apostles has ever penetrated these regions, the Nestorians for this reason have excited perse- 74 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. cutlons against me, asserting tliat I have not been sent by the pope, but that I am a spy and a traitor, and, farther, that an ambassador was indeed sent to the emperor with a large treasure, but that he was robbed and murdered by me in India. These machinations lasted about five years ; so that I had frequently to appear with shame and fear of death before the tribunals. At last, through God's goodness, from the con- fession of one of them, the emperor discovered my innocence and the guilt of my accusers, who, with their wives and children, were sent into banish- ment. " Meanwhile I was eleven long years quite alone in this pilgrimage, without a companion; until within the last two years, when Arnold, a Ger- man from the province of Cologne, came unto me. I have built a church in the city Cambaliech (Kambalu), the chief residence of the king, which I finished six years ago, with a tower, in which I have placed three bells. I estimate that up to the present time I have baptized about six thousand persons ; and if the above-mentioned accusations had not been brought against me, I should probably have baptized above thirty thou- sand, because I am always busy baptizing. I have bought successively a hundred and fifty boys, KING GEORGE IN CANONICALS. 75 the sons of heathens, from seven to eleven years of age, and who yet know no religion. These I have baptized and instructed in Latin and Greek letters and our service. I have written thirty psalters fo;r them and two breviaries ; so that eleven of these youths already know our offices, and chant, as is done in our convents, whether I am present or not. Several of them write psalters, or anything else that is needful. Our lord the emperor, also, takes a pleasure in hearing them sing. I ring the bells at the proper hours, and perform the service with the children and others who have been instructed. We sing only, however, according to custom, because we have no office {notatum officium) provided with notes. "A certain king in these regions, George, of the sect of the Nestorians, who belongs to the family of the great king who was called Prester John, attached himself to me the first year that I was here, and, after he had been convinced by me of the truth of the Catholic faith, was received into the Ordines Minores and stood by me in royal vestments while I said mass. Some Nestorians have accused him of defection, but he has brought a great portion of his people to the true Catholic faith, and with royal magnificence has built a fine church to the honour of our God, the Holy 76 THE CEOSS AND THE DEAGON. Trinity, and the pope, naming it the Romish Church. This king George fell asleep in the Lord, a Christian, six years ago, leaving a son and successor, who is now nine years of age. His brothers, attached to the errors of the Nestorians, were all converted by him, but since the king's death have determined to return to the old sect. " When I was alone and could not leave the emperor I was unable to reach the church, which is twenty days' journey from this. If, however, some good helpers and fellow-labourers should come over, I have hone in the Lord that the whole may be converted; because I still possess the privilege of the above-mentioned deceased king George. I say once more, that if calumnies had not arisen respecting us both the fruits of my labours would have been greater. If I had had only two or three fellow-labourers, the emperor- khan would willingly have been baptized. I pray, therefore, that such brethren may come over who desire to set an example, and who do not seek to magnify their own glory (non suas Jimbra.1 magnijicare). " Respecting the way, I may mention that the shortest and safest way is through the country of the Goths, and of the emperor of the northern Tartars, so that one can come THE NEAREST ROAD TO CHINA. 77 over with the messengers within five or six months. But there is another long and dan- gerous way, on which we must twice take shipping, — the first time as far as from Achon (5"^ Jean d'Acre?) to Provence, the second time as far as from Achon to England. It may- happen that two years may be consumed in this way. But, on account of wars, the first way has not been used for a long time. Hence it is now over twelve years since I have received any accounts respecting the Roman see, our order, and the state of the West. It is now two years past since a certain Lombardian physician and chi- rurgeon was here, who blackened with all sorts of incredible calumnies the Roman see, our order, and the state of the "West, on which account I the more desire to know the truth. " I pray the brethren who may receive this letter, to do their best to make the contents known to the holy pope, to the cardinals, and to the procurators of our order in the Roman see. I humbly beg of the general of our order a copy of an Antipho7iarium, the Legenda Sanctorum, a Graduate, and Psalter with notes, because I have only a portable Breviary and a small Missal. If I had a copy the youths would transcribe it. I am now busy building a second church, in order 78 TUB CROSS AND THE DEAGOX. to be able to distribute the youths in different places. • " I am now become old and grey,, more through toll and labour than through age, since I am only eight-and-fifty years. I know the Tartar language and letters sufficiently, and have already translated Into it the New Testa- ment and Psalms, which I had then copied over in their fairest characters. I write and read, and openly preach the testimony of the religion of Christ. Farther, with the aforesaid king George I had agreed to translate the entire Latin office, that it might be sung throughout the whole land ; and while he lived I performed mass in his church according to the Latin rite, and read in that language the words of the Canon as well as the preface. The king's son, also, is named John, after me, and I hope in the Lord that he will follow the footsteps of his father. According to what 1 have heard and seen, I believe that no prince or king in the world can be compared with the khan in extent of dominions, In multitude of people, and in greatness of riches. " Given In the city Cambaliach, in the king- dom Cathay, in the year of the Lord MCCCV., the 8th day of January." JOHN TURNS ARTIST. 79 The second letter, written the following year to the vicar-general of the Minor brothers and Predicants in Persia, says, among other things : — "I have made six pictures of Old and JSTew Testament subjects to instruct the novices, inscribed with Latin, Tartar, and Persian cha- racters, that all may read what they are about. Of the youths which I purchased and baptized some are dead. Since I have been in Tartary I have baptized more than five thousand. "Moreover, in 1305 I began to build a new resi- dence, opposite the palace of the khan, about a stone's throw distant, on the wayside. Petrus de Lucalongo, a true Christian and great merchant, who came from Tauris with me, purchased the ground and presented me with it for the love of God. "With God's help, I believe that not a better Catholic church shall be built in the khan's dominions. In the beginning of August I came into possession of the ground ; and before the feast of St. Francis, with the assistance of many benefactors, the enclosure wall, the dwell- ings, the workshops, the doors, and an oratory capable of containing two hundred persons were finished. But the church {ecdesiam) I have not completed, on account of the winter. The timber, however, lies ready before it ; so that it 80 THE CEOSS AND THE DRAGON, can be erected in the summer. I assure you it seems a wonder to all who pass by it, from the city or elsewhere ; and whenever they see the building, and the lofty red cross that surmounts it, and hear us in the oratory singing the holy offices as well as we can (for notes we have none), they wonder still more. The khan hears our voices in his chamber. And these strange things, spread far and near among the people, may, with God's blessing, advance our cause. The distance of the first from the second church which I have built, is two and a half miles within the town, as this is very great. The boys I have placed partly in the first, partly in the second, church to perform the service ; moreover, as chaplain, I celebrate mass weekly in both, as there are yet no priests among the youths. " Regarding the regions of the East, and above all the kingdom of the khan, I assure you that there is not a greater in the world : and I have an apartment in his palace, and am wont to enter and to sit there as the pope's legate, and he honours me above all prelates by what name so- ever they may be called. And although the khan has heard much already respecting the Eoman see, and the state of the Latins, he still very much John's notices op china. 81 desires missionaries to come out here. There are here many idolatrous sects of a different faith, and also many ecclesiastics of different sects and dif- ferent dresses, but they are more austere and more abstemious than the Latin ecclesiastics. I have seen the greater part of India, and have many accounts of the other portions. If some brethren only were to come out, to preach the faith of Christ, the fruits thereof would be large. Furthermore, none but men of strong constitution (solidissimi) should be sent out. Although the country is seducing, abounding in spices, and precious stones, and delicious fruits, still, on account of the heat of the clioiate, people go about with their bodies half naked, covering the loins only. Hence there is no employment for tailors, shoemakers, and the like. Although it is always summer, never winter " Here the letter breaks off. After Olopuen, John of Mount Corvin must be regarded as the second apostle of China. The character of the Christianity he introduced may be seen in these letters. It consisted almost entirely in external rites, — in baptism, the cele- bration of mass, ringing of bells, and the singing of Church offices. We have no account' of the 6 82 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. quality or of the amount of the Christian instruc- tion he imparted. Baptism seems to have been with the good monk all in all. The more he baptized the more he gloried. It was enough that one submitted to this rite to be numbered among the faithful. There can be no doubt of his devotedness, of his untiring zeal, and single- ness of purpose ; but there is no trace of the permanence of his labours, not even in the place where he was settled. Neither among the Tartars nor among the Chinese does there appear to have been any of that strong religious sentiment which is so conspicuously developed among the nations of Western Asia and Europe, — no traces of that wholesome jealousy, so to speak, of religious innovations and rival creeds, which agitates the bosom of the Western religionists. Even the Nestorians, who embraced the faith of Rome through the example of their king, George, re- lapsed immediately he died. We perhaps ask for too much, when we ask for evidence that, of the five or six thousand he baptized, there were many who led Christian lives as well as used Christian ceremonies. The most sensible portion of Father John's JOHN MADE ARCHBISHOP OF KAMBALU. 83 missionary labours, was his attempt to raise up a native priesthood or ministry. This, it is now perceived, is the true secret of successful evan- gelisation among heathen nations. But the basis was too narrow to permit of the erection of a permanent structure. He relied too exclusively upon the external and ceremonial, and his church, like a tree deprived of its inner pith and fed only through a sheathing of bark, flourished for st space and then fell into hopeless ruin. The assistance he desired from Rome was remitted, but did not tend to strengthen the fabric. In 1307 his services to the Koman see were re- warded by Clement V., who created him arch- bishop of Kambalu, and who sent him seven Franciscans as suiFragans. Of these, three only arrived, the following year, in Ta-tou or Cam- balu, with letters to Timour Khan from the pope, inviting him to embrace the faith of Christ. These three, Gerard, Peregrinus, and Andrew of Perusio, who had been made bishops, conse- crated John of Mount Corvin on their arrival. In 1312 the pope sent him, as suflFragans, three other Franciscans, Thomas, Jerome, and Peter of Florence. The three first were successively no- a 2 84 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. minated to a Catholic community in the city of; Zaitoun *, three weeks' journey distant from Kambalu, where a church had been founded by a rich Armenian lady and erected into a cathedral. Bishop Andrew succeeded to it in 1322. From a letter which he addressed in January, 1326, to the guardian of the convent of Perusio, we learn that the missionaries sent out by the pope were clothed and fed at the expense of the Mongol emperor. Andrew says, that he and his com- panions received rations and vestments for eight persons, during the three months they remained at Kambalu, and when he removed to Zaitoun he had the same alafa (royal bounty) continued. The value of this subsidy, according to the esti- mation of Genoese merchants, would amount, annually, to a hundred gold florins. " Certes," adds Bishop Andrew, " in this empire, there are people of all nations under heaven, and of all religions, and every one is permitted to follow his own; for among these (Mongols) is established the opinion, or error rather, that in all one can be saved." f After the death of Archbishop John, Pope * Tsiuan-tcheon. f Wadding, vii. 53. ASSISTAHrCE ARRIVES FROM EUROPE. 85 John XXII. named as his succiessor, in 1333, the Franciscan Nicholas, who set out for China with twenty-six brethren of the same order. Finally, it appears, that, in 1370, Urban V. named Guil- laume de Prat, a Franciscan, to the archbishopric of Kambalu, who parted, with twelve of the same order, furnished with letters of recommendation from the pope to the emperor of China, and to the Tartar sovereigns of the countries through which they would have to pass.* , We are ignorant of the fate of this mission. Two years before it was appointed, the Mongol dynasty had been overthrown, and the Ming dy- nasty f established, under Tchou-youan-tchang. The mission, then, if it reached China, would arrive when the order was in force to exclude all strange religions from the empire. Thus the Christianity which was introduced into China by the mendicant orders under favour of the suc- cessors of Genghis Khan, which received their patronage and protection and shared their pro- sperity, shared also their fate. With the Yuan dynasty fell the Eomish Church * Mosheim, Hist. Tartar Eccles., p. 114. etseq. t Ming, i. e. light. G 3 86 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. in China, and its ruin was accomplished all the sooner, inasmuch as it had never taken deep root in the Chinese mind. The reports sent to the pope of the progress of Christianity in the East, and of the readiness of the Mongolian princes to embrace it, were evidently overcharged. They desired to send agreeable news to the court of Home, and to exhibit their zeal in propagating the faith. Various individuals, too, came to the pope and sovereigns of Europe, feigning to have been sent by Tartar princes in the interests of Christianity. They were sure of a favourable reception and royal bounties; but the bare in- spection of their pretended letters will show their imposition. Two such ambassadors, as . already men- tioned, waited upon Louis IX. in the island of Cyprus, and were sent home with rich presents to the great Mongol. One of them was called David. With reference to this David, the ihan, Mangu, in his letter to Louis, declares him to have been an impostor. The khan adds : " You sent with him your ambassadors to Couyouc Khan, after whose death they arrived at court, and his widow Gaimisch sent you by them a piece of silk, with some letters; but what business had this EOTAL COMPLIMENTS TO ROYALTY. 87 woman, plus vile qu'une chienne *, with affairs of peace and war, and what concerns this empire ? " Another example may be given.f In 1338 a certain Andrew came to the court at Avignon, with fifteen other persons, to all appearance Alans. He said he had been sent by the emperor Chun-te, and presented to the pope a letter from this sovereign dated from Cambaliech, in the year of the rat (1336), with another addressed to his holiness by the Alans in the service of the same emperor. The khan wrote, that he had sent Andrew and his companions to pave the way to frequent embassies between them, to pray the pope to send him his benediction, and to remember him in his prayers ; to recommend the Alans, the servants of the emperor, and the Christian sons of the pope, to his favour; and finally, that these same Alans should bring back horses to the emperor, and rarities from the West. The other letter, of the same date as the pre- ceding, was written in the name of five Alans, and stated that they had been instructed in the Catholic faith by his legate, brother John. It * Etle Caan me dit M-meme, observes Kubtuquis, gue cette malheureuse femme avail par ses sortileges detruit son lignage. t D'Ohsson, ii. 608. Q 4 88 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. prayed the pope for his blessing, and that he would recommend them as his sons and brothers to the emperor their master. The pope, never doubting the authenticity of the letters, sent answers to both. In his letter to the emperor the pope testifies his joy at learning his attachment to the holy Catholic church, and to himself as holding the place of God on earth. He recommends the five Alans and other Chris- tians to his favourable treatment, and asks that he will permit the priests and Christians generally to build churches and oratories, and to preach freely in his empire. In his letter to the chief of the Alans, Fodein Jovens, the pope recommends him to endeavour, with other princes, his countrymen, to obtain leave for the Christians to found churches, and for their spiritual directors to preach the Gospel freely. Four Franciscans, in short, set out with these letters in 1338, fur- nished with recommendatory letters, one to Uzbeg Khan, another to a sovereign styled emperor of emperors of all the Tartar nations, and a third to the magnificent Prince Chun-te, emperor of the Tartars of the Central Empire.* • Mosheim, Hist. Tartar. Eccles., in Append., No. 74—84. CHINA CLOSED. 89 CHAPTER VIL Europe awake.— Catholic Zeal.— Francis Xavier in India. Dies in sight of China. — His Mission. — The Portuguese settle on the Island of Macao. — Attempts to enter China. — Matteo Ricci. — His Missionary Labours. — Mathematics. — Adam Schall, Master of Subtile Doctrines.— A Court Favourite. — Persecutions.— Adam Schall wears the Cang. — His Attainments, Zeal, and Death. Another gap. Two centuries and upwards elapse from the death of Archbishop John of Mount Corvin, the most credible as well as the most zealous of all the mendicant missionaries, before an European again enters the Celestial Empire. To all comers it was hermetically sealed. Neither zeal, nor cunning, nor bribes of gold could open the gates that appeared to be closed for ever against the Western barbarian, and to preserve its dragons from his evil eye. India and Japan had heard the tinkle of Xavier's bell and hied forth to listen to some faint echoes of the doctrine of the Galilean; but here the pagan silence was still unbroken. These two centuries; wherein we lose sight of 90 THE CROSS AND THE DKA60N. the East, had been prodigal of important events in the West The slumber of the nations had been broken, and though it was still grey morning men were stirring, and abroad, and hopefully engaged in important labours. With light came courage, and with courage manifest victories. A new world had been discovered ; and by human contrivance the cumulated wisdom of centuries had been turned into ten thousand channels, to irrigate the arid surface of society, and to cause it to bring forth abundantly. With courage, too, came articulate and manly speech, and thereby came the great Keformation. Protestantism was still too busy, however, in fortifying herself at home to have either time or inclination to look far abroad. But Rome, now that her influence was diminished in Europe, cast her eyes abroad on Asia and the newly discovered continent, as fields where she could stiU erect her standard and obtain universal dominion. In her hour of need, when she reeled before the logic of Wittenberg and Geneva, came to her assistance the zealous soldiers ' of Loyola, who have since dazzled the world with their talents, confounded it with their audacity, and disgusted it with their crafts. FBANCIS XAVIER IN INDIA. 91 Francis Xavier was the friend of Loyola and his earliest disciple. The wit who rallied the enthusiast, became, if possible, the greater enthu- siast of the two. The Portuguese, the boldest navigators of their age, had now made the once tedious journey to India short and familiar ; and thither went Xavier, animated, we believe, by the deepest piety, animated certainly with the hope of gathering millions into the fold of the Church. Let him bear the title he so deservedly earned — the apostle of India, even if we cannot look complacently on the fruits of his apostleship. He had preached on the shores of Hindostan, he had carried some Gospel sounds to far-off Japan, and his active spirit was chafed within him, because he had not yet stood upon the soil of China, He knew the tradition, that an apostle of the Lord had once ministered there; he had read of the labours of John of Corvino and his followers ; and he longed to rival the doubting disciple, and to surpass the mitred mendicant. With the determination to enter the forbidden country, he took shipping for the coast of China, was landed on the island of Sancian, and there, by his countrymen, deserted. Afar off he could behold the blue mountains of Kao-tcheou, and the 92 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. land — to him a land of promise — which he was never destined to enter. Exposed to a baneful climate and half-famished, he was overtaken with burning fever, and died on the glowing sands of the sea-shore. All had forsaken him save a poor outcast Spaniard, who spread his tattered mat over him, moistened his parched lips, and, when the spirit fled, cared for his burial. In his deli- rium he sang hymns, and all his incoherent talk was of China. , But the time was now approaching when this great and mysterious book was to be unclasped and read. A Portuguese vessel by stress of weather, real or pretended, put in to the port of Macao, and her captain had permission of the authorities to land and dry his cargo. Mats stretched upon poles protected the goods and their keepers. Who can stay commerce ? — who can resist barter? The strangers departed, and the strangers returned bringing other strangers in their train ; and where the tents of matting stood, arose more durable structures of wood and stone, and Macao became the great trading place of the Portuguese nation. Its tempting proximity to the continent induced the Dominican Gaspard de la Cruz, in 1556, to make an attempt to land^ MATTEO RICCI. 93 but he was instantly exiled. A quarter of a century later, two Jesuits, Ruggieri and Passo, having better fortune, entered China and paved the way for the great Italian, Matteo Ricci. This eminent man was born in 1552 at Mace- rata, in the marquisate of Ancona, and became the pupil of the celebrated Alexander Valignano, superior of the Jesuit mission to India. Klcci had followed Valignano to Macao, where he de- voted himself to the study of the Chinese lan- guage, then one of no small difficulty. In 1582 the Portuguese had occasion to send an embassy to a Chinese governor, and in its train were three Jesuits, too watchful to let such an opportunity, escape for entering the mysterious kingdom. Of the three, two after a time were recalled, and Ricci was left alone to earn the fame of the founder of a mission,* He was a man of un- common gifts, — penetrative, learned, patient and laborious, and discreet and insinuating in, his manners. Under the Jesuit Clavius he had studied mathematics at Rome, — a science which afterwards stood him good service. His course of proceeding was diflPerent to that * Schroekh, ChristHclie Borchengesichte seit der Refor- mation, iii. 677. 94 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON, of all who had hitherto attempted to convert the Chinese. He not only made himself so thoroughly conversant with their language as to gain the ap- plause of even native literati, but he studied also their character^ their sciences, their history, and their ceremonials. With this view he lived for seven years among the bonzes, adopted their dress, fell in with their manners, and humoured their pre- judices. To the Chinese he became a Chinese that he might win them over to his cause. He quickly perceived that the credit and success of a missionary in China would depend upon his learning and skill in the sciences, as the ignorance of the bonzes made them generally despised. He first attracted the attention of the learned by drawing a map of the world, on which, ac- cording to Chinese usage, China was placed in the centre and the countries of Europe on the margin. He composed also a catechism In the Chinese language, which was received with great applause. In 1589 he was In charge of the mission at Tchao-king, but, in consequence of some misun- derstanding with the authorities, he was obliged to leave this place and to reside In Tchao-tcheou. Here a young Chinese, Tchln-tai'-so, begged EiccI HI8 MISSIONARY LABOUBS. 95 to instruct him in mathematics and chemistry, a request with which the father complied ; and this disciple soon became one of the cleverest of his catechumens. But Ricci was not to confine his endeavours to the coasts of China ; he had long resolved to pe- netrate into the interior of the country, to the court of the emperor itself. To gain the court was to establish the mission upon the firmest foundations, — was to render Christianity tri- umphant. With this object, the garment of the humble bonze, which he had hitherto worn, was abandoned for that of the learned class, which throughout the empire receives the greatest con- sideration. In 1595 he set out for Pekin ; but divers circumstances obliged him to halt at Nang- tchang-fou, capital of the province of Kjang-se. It was here that he composed his treatise on Arti- ficial Memory, and a Dialogue on Friendship in imitation of Cicero, — a work, we are assured, which was regarded by the Chinese as a model of elegance. He reached Pekin at length ; but apprehensions of strangers, especially of the Japanese, being then entertained, he could find no one to introduce him at court, and had to retrace his steps to Canton. After this he resided 96 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. for some time in Nankin, where his fame was considerably increased as a man of learning. The Portuguese intending to make presents to the emperor, Ricci had at length an opportunity of reaching court. The magistrates gave permission for the passage of the presents, and Rlcci accom- panied them in the quality of ambassador In May, 1600. In spite of some obstacles on the way he reached the palace of the emperor, who gave him a good reception, and regarded the presents with much curiosity ; especially a clock and a repeating- watch, then novelties in China. The imperial favour thus gained, RiccI had only to busy himself with the work of conversion ; and his success was surprising. He was now reaping the fruits of twenty years' constant exertion. His converts were of all ranks and from every province of the empire ; and churches were built, in conse- quence, in every direction. Siu, a leading man- darin, and Candida, his gi-and-daughter, became zealous converts, and spread abroad a knowledge of Christianity among their countrymen. Candida, in particular, converted her husband, a man of great consideration. In the province where she lived she built thirty churches ; and, by means of money and her recommendations, she enabled the missionaries to build ninety churches in an- DEATH OF RICCI. 97 other province, and five-and-forty oratories. She founded, besides, four brotherhoods, — to the honour of the Virgin Mary and Angel, to tae contemplation of the Passion of Christ, and under the protection of St. Ignatius.* She had above one hundred and thirty religious works and Bible commentaries translated into Chinese and printed at her own expense, and maintained and educated a great number of children who had been unna- turally abandoned by their parents. In this prosperous condition was the mission in China, founded by Ricci, when, worn-out by his laborious duties, he died in 1610, in the fifty- eighth year of his age. He was buried with much pomp, and followed to the grave by mandarins, scholars, and many of great distinction. The ex- . tensive mastery he acquired of the Chinese lan- guage in so short a time, is, to this day, a matter of surprise, — indeed, would appear incredible, if the proofs were not still extant. One of his principal works is entitled Thian-tchu chi i, or the " True Doctrine of God," in two books, and is said to be written elegantly and in the most classic style. Ricci has had an accusation brought against him, * Schroekh, Christliche Kirchengesichte seit der Refor» mation, iii. 679. H 98 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. which is seldom charged to proselytisers : he was. too tolerant, it is said, of Chinese prejudices, and sacrificed Christian purity to expediency. These charges were chiefly laid by the Dominicans, between whom and the Jesuits a quarrel subse- quently broke out. How far the accusation is well-founded in his case it is not easy to say. If he incorporated the moral teaching of Confucius with the teaching of Christ as far as the two were identical, we can see no great harm. The streams of truth are many, the source is one. The missionary has often defeated his own object, and brought unmerited censure upon his doc- trine, through unnecessary and foolish opposition to national prejudices that involve no breach of morals, and by insisting on the reception of doc- trines in terms that shock the sensibilities of the hearer, without adding force to truth or dignity to the teacher. Ricci was succeeded in his mission by a man of equal address and equal learning, and who was in every way qualified to carry on the work so auspiciously commenced, and to add lustre to the society of Jesus. This was John Adam Schall, a native of Cologne, who arrived in China in 1628. He was first sent to the province of Shen-se, and JOHN ADAM SCHALL. 99 he resided several years at Si-gan-fou. His leisure hours were occupied in mathematical studies, and he was greatly assisted in his aposto- lical labours by non-converted Chinese, on ac- count of the interest his scientific acquirements had inspired in them. His fame as an astronomer reached the court of Pekin, to which he was called to superintend the Imperial Calendar ; an office of great responsibility, which had been filled by Mohammedans for above three hundred years, and which he held undivided under three suc- cessive emperors of the Ming, and two of the Tartar, dynasty. Schall obtained the highest degree of favour, however, under the first Mantchu- Tartar prince, Shun-tchi, who made him chief director of the Board of Celestial Affairs, or, as the missionaries designate the office, President of the Mathe- matical Tribunal, with the special title of Master of Subtile Doctrines. So great a favourite was he with the emperor, that the latter visited him four times a year in his cabinet to converse with him; and on such occasions would seat himself upon the father's couch, admire the church which he had built, and eat of the fruits of the garden adjoining it. Schall profited by such oppor- 100 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. tunities to advance the cause of the mission.! He often conversed with the emperor on the subject of Christianity, but the latter cared more to talk on astronomical and mechanical subjects. He obtained, however, a decree for the free preaching of Christianity ; and such, in conse- quence, was the increase of the number of neo- phytes, that, in the fourteen years from 1650 to 1664, more than a hundred thousand Chinese were baptized, as it is recorded. Successes had attended the mission prior to this time. According to Du Halde, the emperor Yung-le permitted his mother, his first wife, and his son to be baptized by the Jesuits. Fifty ladies of the court made profession of the faith about the same time. The empress Helena (as he calls her) wrote in 1650 to the pope, Alexander VII. (as- sisted evidently by a foreign hand), humbly com- mending her kingdom to his protection, and praying him to send over more Jesuits. In his answer, dated in 1655, he not only praises the dangerous zeal of these ecclesiastics, but expresses the hope that the emperor will exterminate Idolatry throughout his whole dominions. On the death of Shun-tchi the prosperity of the mission received a severe check. In the time PERSECUTIONS. 101 of Ricci persecution had scattered the churches, and driven the missionaries from the capital to Macao: but the regents who governed the em- pire during the minority of Khang-he, began to act with even greater severity than had been exercised in former reigns; and Schall was one of the first victims. He was accused of present- ing an image or Christ on the cross to the late emperor, for his veneration. With three of his companions he was loaded with irons, led from tribunal to tribunal during nine months, and was at last condemned to be strangled, and cut into ten thovsand pieces, for having omitted some of the prescribed rites on the sepulture of a deceased prince. That this sentence was not carried into execution is due, it is said, to the appearance of a great comet simultaneously with the shock of an earthquake and the breaking out of a fire that consumed four hundred apart- ments of the royal palace, occurrences which were regarded as signs of the wrath of Heaven and of the innocence of the prisoner. He was set at liberty, but did not long enjoy it. He was again accused, and, though afflicted at the time with paralysis, was carried before two tribunals, loaded with the cang, an instrument H 3 102 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. of punishment composed of two heavy planks of wood, which are fastened about the neck like a collar, and effectually prevent the person loaded with it from lying down to take repose. Many have been known to wear it for above twenty years, leading a life of great discomfort and misery. Worn-out, at length, with fatigues and sufferings, Schall ended his days in 1666, or, according to others, in 1669. The honours denied to him during his life were awarded to him, as is often the case, after his death. His obsequies were regulated by an imperial order, and five hundred and twenty-four ounces of silver were devoted from the public treasury, to be expended upon the occasion. Besides attending to his duties as a minister of religion, which he performed very assiduously, he found time to cultivate the sciences ; and under his Chinese name of Tao-wei published works, to the number of twenty-four, on geometry, astronomy, and optics. On moral and religious subjects he is said to have written more than a hundred and fifty volumes in Chinese; but this must be an over- statement. That he composed a considerable number of works is, however, certain ; and some of them still exist in the National Library at Paris. ZEAL OP SCHALL. 103 It is related of this man, as an instance of his zeal and desire to administer, what he con- sidered to be the consolations of religion, to the wretched, that once, in order to confess two criminals under sentence of death, he entered their cell disguised as a vendor of charcoal, with a sack upon his back. Under the dingy frock of the dealer the captives recognised the fa- vourite of the emperor and the minister of Christ, and falling upon their knees they received from his lips those consolations which the court could neither give nor take away. H 4 104 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER VIII. Literary Activity of the early Jesuits in China. — Magaillan's Account of their Works.^His Opinion of the Chinese Language. — Missionary Labours of the Franciscans and Dominicans. — Martyrdom of Ferdinand de Capillas.^- Quarrels in the Mission. — The Jesuit. — The Monk. — Grounds of Quarrel. Here we may pause for a moment, to observe, that neither persecution on the one hand, nor the favour of the great on the other, appears to have either daunted or corrupted the Jesuit fathers. Their policy may not, up to this time, nor subsequently, have been that which would recommend itself to modern taste or policy, but it does not appear to have been selfish or ex- clusive. Their admission of co-labourers in the persons of Franciscan and Dominican monks, whom they could easily have kept out of the empire, and who became the source of great annoyance and hinderance to them subsequently, would acquit them from any charge of this nature. Of their literary activity, even when engaged MAGAILLAKS. 105 in constructing clocks and watches, founding cannon, turning chess-men, drawing maps, and astonishing the mandarins and learned classes of China with the arts, sciences, and philo- sophy of Europe, one of their number makes mention. His report may no doubt be slightly coloured, and some may doubt whether, in the midst of their multifarious labours, the Jesuits could have found time to apply very much to literary pursuits, and to exercise themselves creditably in a foreign language ; but Magaillans, a Portuguese Jesuit and missionary, states as much, writing in 1668, or about the time of Schall's death. He is speaking of the nature and merits of the Chinese language, and of the ease with which a foreigner may acquire a knowledge of it. He states that, in the course of two years' time, a European, with sufficient diligence, and by pur- suing a proper method, may be able to write it, and to confess, catechise, and converse in it — a state- ment which modern students will rather dispute. He proceeds, however, to say — and he had better speak for himself: — " There is no question to be made of this apparent truth, when we consider the great 106 THE CEOSS AND THE DEAGOX. number of books which the fathers have made and translated, and daily make and translate, into the Chinese language, which are esteemed and ad- mired by the Chinese themselves. Such are those books which Father Matthew Eicci com- posed upon our sacred law, and upon several other subjects. Of whom the Chinese speak to this ;day as a prodigy of learning and of all sorts of knowledge, so that there is not any person of quality in the empire that does not know and speak of him with applause. The learned quote him in their writings as one of their most famous doctors ; and the handicraft workmen, to put off their wares and sell them at a high rate, assure the buyers that they were the inventions of that illus- trious person Father Matthew Ricci. In short, they esteemed and honoured him to that degree, that several believe, that, as Confucius was the prince, the saint, the master, and doctor of the Chinese, so Father Matthew Eicci was the same among the Europeans : which was the highest praise those idolisers of Confucius could give him. " Father Diego Pantoja has also composed several learned treatises of the seven deadly sins, of the seven virtues which are their contraries, upon the Pater Noster, upon] the Ave Maria, and MAGAILLANS. 107 the Credo. The Fathers Alfonso Vanhone, and Julio Aleni, wrote several tomes upon Christian religion, upon the life of Christ, of the Holy Virgin, and the Saints, and upon several other subjects. Father Manuel Dias, the younger, translated all the Gospels, with the commentaries and explanations of the Fathers, which makes a work no less large than pious and learned. Father Francis Furtado published a treatise of rhetoric and logic, with certain other books De Ccelo and De Mundo, as also of the soul of man. The Fathers John Terencio, John !^oo, and John Adam,']^^have written a great number of other books upon our holy law, and upon all the parts of the mathematics. "Father Lewis Buglio, who was always my chiefest consolation and inseparable companion in all my travels, afflictions, and improvements for thirty years together, translated the first part of St. Thomas, which the more learned Chinese esteem, and to that degree that I heard one of them, who had read the Treatise of God, declare his thoughts in these words, ' Certainly this book is a mirror wherein to let us see our own ignorance.' The same Father Buglio wrote several other pieces upon various other subjects ; 108 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. among the rest, that eloquent and learned apology in answer to a book which Yang Kwangseen, that wicked infidel, published both in this court, and over the whole empire, against the Christian religion and the preacher of it ; and which he en- titled Puh-tih-e, meaning, 'Because I could no longer forbear.' Whereupon the father, that he might conform himself to the style and language of the country, entitled his answer, ' I have answered because I could no longer forbear.' Both titles are very significant in the Chinese language; but the father's was more highly esteemed, because it carries two significations. The first, 'I refute, because I could no longer forbear ; ' the second, ' I have refuted a book en- titled, Because I could no longer forbear.' " And, which was more to be wondered at, the father composed the greatest part of these books in the boats, upon the roads, and in the inns, under the power of rebels and barbarians; in prison with three chains upon his legs, three about his neck, and six upon his hands; and, in a word, in the midst of continual persecutions. I could say more in praise of that person truly pious, and of great reputation, did I not fear that the share which I had in his sufferings, and the strict Magaillans. 109 friendship that was between us, would render me suspected of too much partiality. " Father Ferdinand Verbiest at the same time wrote a learned answer to a book, or rather a satire, full of mistakes and doltish ignorance, which the same Yang Kwangseen wrote against the Eu- ropean mathematics. - Father Anthony Gouvea composed a catechism. Father John Monteiro wrote two books, one on the Law of God, and the other on True Adoration. Father Francis Sam- biesi wrote four treatises, of the Immortality of the Soul ; of Morals ; of Painting ; and Sounds, all very short and highly esteemed. I myself wrote a treatise of the Resurrection of Christ ; and an- other of the Universal Resurrection. Nicholas Trigaut, Lazaro Cataneo, Gaspar Ferreira, and Alvaro Samedo, all fathers of the society, have composed dictionaries very large and very exact ; and Gaspar Ferreira has written above twenty treatises upon several subjects. Father Soeiro made an abridgement of the Christian law ; and Father Nicholas Longobardo, who died but a few years ago in this court, fourscore and sixteen years old, has written several godly treatises, besides a treatise of Earthquakes, highly esteemed by the learned of this empire. 110 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. " In short, there have been a great number of other works written concerning the Christian re- ligion, and of all sciences aud subjects, which amount in all to above five hundred tomes printed, besides manuscripts. There is printed in China a catalogue of all the fathers that ever travelled into the country to preach the gospel; wherein are also the names set of all the books which they have written. From whence I conclude, that so many books could never have been translated and written in a foreign language, and in so short a time (four- score and thirteen years), had not the language been very easy : so that it follows that the Chinese language is more easy to learn than any other ; and that it is withal very elegant, very copious, and very expressive ; since it wants for no terms to explain and unfold the subtleties and mysteries of theology, philosophy, and the rest of the sciences." * This latter judgment respecting the copiousness of the Chinese language we shall have to consider hereafter. Of the merits of the writers and works above enumerated none can speak ; but we must admit that a considerable variety of subjects is treated, and great activity on the part of the * Ilistoire de la Chine, composee en 1668. THE FRANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS. Ill fathers of the society must be inferred even if they wrote indifferently well. The Jesuits were not the only parties occupied in the work of conversion. Besides the Fran- ciscans, who had already baptized nearly four thousand neophytes at Canton, the Dominicans at this epoch counted numerous missionaries and illustrious martyrs. In 1665 they had eleven residences, twenty churches, and about two thousand Christians, in the three provinces of Fo- kien, Tche-kiang, and Kan-tung. These successes were not obtained without much sacrifice and suffering. The jealousy of the man- darins and native priests often broke out against the missionaries even to the effusion of blood. A Predicant was the first to attest by his death the truth of his mission. Ferdinand de Capillas, a Spaniard, entered China in 1642, and, without patronage or other support than he drew from the religion he had come to make known to others, began to propagate the Word. He traversed the country on foot poorly clad, his breviary his only baggage, the cross his only staff. Many were con- verted and baptized through his exertions. But as his spiritual gains abounded, so abounded the malignity of his foes, into whose hands he fell in 112 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. tbe environs of Fo-gan, in 1647. His noble reply- to his judges, on being, asked how he had sub- sisted and lodged during his apostolate, is yet pre- served. " I have had no home but the world," he said, " no bed but the ground, no food but what Providence has sent me day by day, and no other object but to do and suffer for the glory of Jesus Christ and for the eternal happiness of those who believe in his name." He was beaten with rods, and again cast into prison, where those who had per- mission to enter, both pagans and Christians, came to listen to his instructions. He was executed in January, 1648, in the presence of an immense populace, and suffered with Christian fortitude and heroism. The persecution which was directed against the missionaries in Schall's time ended in their all being exiled to Canton with the exception of four, who were retained at court in a scientific capacity merely. One hundred and seventy-five churches were deprived of their pastors through the banish- ment of twenty-one Jesuits, three Dominicans, and one Franciscan. To the Jesuits belonsed a hundred and fifty-one churches, to the Fran- ciscans three, and to the Predicants twenty-one. The existence of the mission had been THE JESUIT. — THE MONK. 113 threatened by dangers within as well as by dangers without. A long and bitter controversy had raged between the Jesuits and Dominicans, which was only lulled when they found them- selves inmates of the same prison, sufferers on the same scaffold, and sharers of a common danger. Their quarrel thus originated. In 1631 several Dominicans and other monks had arrived in China, to assist the Jesuits in propa- gating the gospel, but were greatly dissatisfied with their mode of procedure, believing that they conceded more to the prejudices and supersti- tious views of the natives than the spirit of Christianity permitted.* The consequences of a want of unanimity among the different members of the mission may easily be conceived. The education of the Jesuit fitted him for the court and the world. His secular training had been as attentively cared for as his spiritual ; he could thus readily adapt himself to circumstances, manoeuvre adroitly, bring his experience Into play with facility, and convert the very failings and prejudices of mankind Into Instruments of success. He cultivated science and philosohpy, • Schroeckh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte seit der Re- formation, ili. 679. 114 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. but made both his handmaidens, not his mis- tresses. His ambition was mental dominion — universal sway and empire over the human mind; and science, art, learning, and even re- ligion, were so many rounds in the ladder that was to enable him to attain his object. The monk, on the contrary, was in general a man of more limited knowledge, of more con- tracted views, of more unbending integrity. He was harsh and unpolished, and the dogmatic nature of his training made him inflexible and intolerant, and better qualified him for a martyr than for an apostle. The Jesuit and the monk had both the same end in view ; but the former sought to obtain it by sinuous and graceful advances, the latter by direct and uncompromising hostilities. The Jesuit could retire without appearing to be defeated, which was denied the monk, and he could convert even his mortifications into effec- tive arguments. To the educated class in China the learning and science of the Jesuit were his best recommenda- tion. He excelled the native astronomer in the accuracy of his predictions, confounded the magi- cian by his superior dexterity derived from a more intimate knowledge of natural laws, and could teach the greatest adept in alchemy secrets beyond GKOTJNDS OF QUARREL. 115 any he had ever dreamed of. He knew that Christianity must depend for its progress and support upon the favourable opinion of the learned; and the learned, who were really the great, were those whose good opinion he sought to cultivate. He tolerated, therefore, many Chinese ceremonials which by the monks were regarded as idolatrous. Among the objectionable ceremonies were those paid to the memories of deceased parents and ancestors, which chiefly consisted in visits to their tombs, prostrations before tablets on which their names were inscribed, slaying animals to their honour, and burning gold paper. Similar honours were paid by the mandarins to Con- fucius. Ricci considered for several years whether these should be placed among the class of civil or religious ceremonies. He saw that the Mohammedans, the great foes of idolatry, were not opposed to them; he knew that an- cestors were not regarded as gods or saints ; he was aware that the practice had existed in China prior to the introduction of the idolatrous reli- gion, among whose devotees it was most in favour ; and, probably, he regarded it as innocent as the practice of strewing flowers upon the tombs of I 2 116 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. relations in Europe, and as harmless as anniversary celebrations of the memory of deceased greatness. He concluded, therefore, that the ceremonies objected to were not necessarily repugnant to Christianity, and that they could not be omitted by a Chinese without his forfeiting his rights of citizenship. Of this opinion were the Jesuits in general; but by thp Dominicans and others the reverence paid to ancestors and to Confucius was held to be idolatrous, and the halls wherein the ceremonies were performed, they regarded as pagan temples, an opinion shared by the Protestant missionaries of the present day. Another dispute existed at the same time between the two parties : Whether the word " God " could be represented in the Chinese lan- guage by the word Tien (Heaven) ? The Jesuits argued that Tien might be safely and properly used as the Chinese equivalent for the word " God," and the monks argued in favour of another expression. On these grounds the controversy arose, which lasted for more than a century, and which ultimately proved so fatal both to the belligerents and the cause of the Catholic mission in China. KHANG HE. 117 CHAPTER IX. Khang-he. — The Court of Rites. — Ferdinand Verbiest. — His Services to the Mission.— His Death and Funeral. — Missionaries sent from France. — Gerbillon.— The Em- peror a Free-thinker. — Religious Freedom granted. — Success of the Mission. — Causes thereof. — Various Em- ployments given to the Jesuits. — An imperial Country Seat. — An honest Earber., Khang-hb* came into full power in 1669, and the severities were relaxed, which had been inflicted on the Christians during his minority. The Court of Kites, which had always been their declared enemy, obtained an edict from the young emperor, by which he permitted the return of the mission- aries to their churches and to the profession of their religion, but particularly forbade their preaching it. The same edict forbade his subjects to embrace, or make open profession of, Christie * Or Kam-hi ; but the European orthography of Chinese words and names in general is so unsettled, that it some- times requires the utmost attention to identify the same person under his various aliases. I 3 118 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. anity under the severest penalties.* Notwith- standing these disadvantageous terms, and the insults to which it exposed the Christians in the exercise of their religion, they from this time enjoyed comparative peace. To Schall had succeeded as chief of the mission and President of the Mathematical Tribunal, Ferdinand Verbiest, a Dutchman.f His virtues and scientific attainments recommended him to the emperor and the great oflBcers of his court, and hence he was often enabled to extend aid and protection to the Christian communities. The churches were again opened, and, with occasional but severe interruptions in the jirovinces most remote from the court, the faithful freely exercised all their religious rites. Verbiest became gradu- ally the proper tutor of the emperor, whom he instructed in geometry and philosophy, and in- troduced into a knowledge of the peculiar doc- trines of Christianity. The versatility of talent that enabled the Jesuit upon an emergency to act as a physician, a professor, or an ambassador, enabled Verbiest to act upon one occasion as * Gobien, Histoire de I'Edit de I'Enipereur de la Chine, &c. Paris, 1698. t Schi'oekh, Christliche KircLengeschiclite seit der Refor- mation, vii. 9. FERDINAND VEEBIEST. 119 military engineer, and to render great assistance to the emperor by teaching his subjects an improved mode of founding cannon — an art he had, comparatively speaking, but little knowledge of. These cannon were used in suppressing a dangerous insurrection. It has since been found that the best artillery possessed by the Chinese, were the pieces cast under the superintendence of the Jesuit missionaries. The favour in which Verbiest found himself at court induced him to write to Europe for farther assistance. The French statesmen Colbert and Louvois supported his request, and in 1685 Louis XIV. sent out the five Jesuits, Fontaney, Ger- billon, Bouver, Le Comte, and Visdelou, with the title of Royal Mathematicians ; and by these the interests of the mission were ably represented after the death of Verbiest, which happened, to the great grief of the emperor, and to the great loss of the mission, in 1688. Like Schall, he was honoured by a public funeral, which was conducted with great pomp, being attended by high mandarins expressly named by the emperor, by oflScers of his body-guard, and grandees of his palace. All were mounted on, horseback. Before, went the Christians of the I 4 120 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. capital and neighbourhood, bearing flags and tapers ; after these came the missionaries clothed in white, the mourning colour of the Chinese; and the procession was closed by fifty horsemen of the imperial guard. The streets were lined with spectators, to whom such a spectacle was a novelty, and the departed missionary was borne to his grave, sorrowed for by many as a father, by others as a friend, and respected by all as a scholar. Of the five new missionaries, Gerbillon and Bouvet were specially retained at court, and the former rendered important services to the empire, by negociating a peace between the Tartars and the Muscovites. His familiarity with the Mant- choo Tartar language farther contributed to gain him the favour of the emperor, whose mother tongue this was, and whom he often accompanied in his hunting expeditions. Meanwhile the Christian religion, although daily extending, was barely tolerated in the empire. The terms of the imperial edict of 1671 were strictly acted upon by several of the pro- vincial governors, especially by Tcham, viceroy of the province Che-kiang, a man of great po- pularity and influence, and a sincere hater of THE EMPEROR A FREE-THINKER. 121 Christianity and its adherents. In his attacks, he had the full sympathy and support of the man- darins and bonzes, and if fortunately he had not been checked, every church in his province would have been demolished, every missionary banished, and every printed book on the Christian religion destroyed. The interest that Gerblilon possessed with So-san, a prince of great talent and personal merit, and who was related to the emperor, kept the intentions of the viceroy in check. The emperor, while favourably disposed to^ wards the missionaries, and while he showed them the greatest personal respect, did riot act so promptly in favour of the Christians, as their zeal suggested. Although of almost unlimited power, he did not consider it advisable to act in direct hostility to the Court of Rites *, or to inflame the prejudices of his subjects, by declaring himself the patron of a strange religion. He was a prince of no common abilities, and under the instructions of the Jesuits had made consider- able progress in the sciences of the West. Farther, he was no stranger to the facts and doctrines of Christianity ; but he appears to have * Or, Tribunal of Ceremonies, one of the six sovereign courts of the empire. 122 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. shared the religious apathy attributed to the Tartar races, and could make himself equally contented as an atheist or polytheist. Once, when importuned by the Jesuits to inter- fere in behalf of the persecuted Christians, he asked them* why they so troubled themselves about a world into which they had not yet entered? The present life, he told them, was intended for enjoyment, and the God in whose interests they so much busied themselves, was powerful enough to maintain his own cause. He proposed to them, however, that they should appease the hostile tribunal by means of a petition, the terms of which he himself suggested ; and at length, through the * Gobien, in the work already cited, p. 115., gives the following version of the interview of the Jesuit fathers with the emperor: — "After passing a thousand jokes upon re- ligion, which he accompanied with roars of laughter, he said to them, nearly in the terms which the Book of Wisdom puts in the mouth of the impious, ' Is it well for us to mix ourselves up with the interests of the gods ? Are they not powerful enough to settle their own quarrels, if they have any? They must be amused with the vain efforts and useless pains we take on their account. Depend upon it, both your God and Fo cai-e very little about what is passing here. Contented with their place on high, where they live in peace, and enjoy their divinity, they pay no heed to our affairs, which do not concern them ! ' The fathers were quite scandalised at his Majesty's profane humour." RELIGIOUS FREEDOM GEAKTED. 123 active interference of Prince So-san, they gained their object. The tribunal transmitted a docu- ment to the emperor extolling the services of the Europeans in China, their useful books, upright- ness, and loyalty ; " and," it continues, " as we do not restrain the Lamas of Tartary or the bonzes of China 'from building temples and burning incense, we cannot refuse these having their own churches, and publicly teaching their religion, especially as there has nothing been alleged against it as contrary to law. Were we not to do this, we should contradict ourselves. We hold therefore that they may build temples dedicated to the Lord of Heaven, and maintain them wherever they will ; and that those who honour them may freely resort to them to burn incense and to observe the rites usual to Chris- tianity." An impei'ial edict to the same purport was issued in March, 1692, and the Christians, in consequence, experienced the joy of being ad- mitted to the full, free, and unrestricted exercise of their religion. The missionaries, in returning their thanks, were nevertheless reminded by the emperor, to write to their brethren in the pro- vinces, to use this grace with discretion, in order not to provoke the mandarins unnecessarily. 124 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. Elated with the prospects now before them, the order sent two of .their companions to Europe to obtain farther assistance. The king of France appropriated a yearly sum to maintain twenty missionaries in China and the East Indies; and the Romish church began to hope that, besides China, the greater part of the East would embrace Christianity. Gerbillon and Pereyra had farther the fortune to cure the emperor of a fever by means of the Peruvian bark, at that time un- known in China, which determined him to prove his gratitude in a special manner. He appointed them for their residence the largest house within the walls of his palace, and presented them with ample space for the erection of a church, pro- viding at the same time money and building materials. Within four years after, one of the finest churches in the East was completed, which Louis XIV. honoured with rich presents. At the commencement of the eighteenth century the mission had attained its culminating point, under the emperor Khang-he, when it numbered three hundred churches and above three hundred thousand converts. This success was entirely owing to the able men sent out to supply the mission, especially from the college founded by Louis XIV. in 1664, EMPLOYMENT GIVEN TO JESUITS. 125 for the education of missionaries. Although Khang-he had in a manner finished his scientific education, he still maintained several Europeans at his court, and among others Fathers Jartour and Parennin. The first was an able mathema- tician and algebraist, and was particularly skilled in clock-work; the second was perhaps the most dazzling genius of the French Academy of Sciences, of which he was a member. He had not only in a few years' time acquired a knowledge of Chinese, but was also perfect master of the Man- tchoo Tartar, and wrote learned works in both languages. He had the full confidence of Khang- he and his two successors. Father Broccard was also an imperial guest. He was versed in the arts, and afforded the emperor great pleasure by his instructive conversation. The latter had such a high opinion of the honesty of the fathers, and their good sense, that once, when an inundation in the province of Shan-r tung had created a famine and great misery among the inhabitants, he made two of them his almoners to distribute supplies of rice. Indeed, they repaid the emperor's hospitalities by manifold services. He employed them as engineers, architects, sur- veyors, map-makers, and hydrographers. He found them competent for every employment, and often 126 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. they had to make themselves appear to be com- petent in arts that were quite strange to them. In the course of these labours, Father Gerbillon nad an opportunity of seeing (in 1705) the old im- perial country-seat, which he has described. It was called Tching-te-tchu, and of immense extent — about forty miles in circumference. The royal buildings had nothing in common with European palaces — ^had neither marble works, nor fountains, nor stone walls. The pleasure grounds were watered by four small brooks, whose banks were planted with trees. There were allso various buildings, several lakes, meadows for deer, roes, zebras, and other wild cattle, stalls for herds, kitchen gardens and orchards, grass-plots, arable land, and everything pertaining to a rural retreat. While busied in the emperor's service the fathers carried on at the same time the work of the mission, teaching in the villages, and entering the houses of the poor to instruct them. They were engaged from an early hour in the morning to often far in the night, and report many things in their letters, which would lead us to believe that their labours were not in vain. Many such anecdotes as the following occur : .^ A Christian barber once made proclamation in AN HONEST BARBER. 127 the streets with his noisy Instrument, as the custom of the country is, that he had found a purse with twenty gold pieces In it. As he looked round to see whether any one would claim the purse, and supposing that it belonged to a horseman, who was a few paces in advance of him, he called out, and asked him, " Have you lost anything, sir ? " The horseman searched his pocket, and missing his purse said, " I have lost my purse with twenty gold pieces ! " " Here it is!" replied the honest finder. The other, sur- prised at a virtue so rare in China, especially among the humbler people, asked the barber, " Tell me, friend, who and whence are you ? and what are you called ? " " What has that to do with the matter ? " returned the barber. " I am a Christian ; our holy law bids us not to de- ceive a stranger, and also not to keep what we may find, if we can learn to whom it belongs." At this the horseman was so greatly astonished, and was so impressed with the purity of such morals, that he had himself instructed In the Christian religion and received baptism. One of the fathers told the emperor this anecdote in detail, to make him more sensible of the sanctity of the Christian law. 128 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER X. Fresh Quarrels between the Jesuits and Dominicans. — Pro- gress of Hostilities. — Maigrot. — Decision of the Inquisi- tion. — De Tournon dies iii Prison. — Consequences of a Bull Papal. — Mezzabarba and the Mandarins. — Death of Khang-he. — Another Papal Bull. — Persecutions in con- sequence. Notwithstanding outward signs of prosperity, a canker was gnawing at the heart of the mission. The disputes between the Jesuits and monks had ceased when both were alike the objects of popular detestation and fellow-sufferers in a common cause; but when the pressure of circumstances was withdrawn, both parties were again ready to engage in polemical warfare. The grounds of contention have already been stated. Pope Innocent X., when appealed to, decided the questions in dispute in favour of the Domi- nicans, but to this decision the Jesuits paid no attention. A second appeal made in 1656 to Alexander VII. was decided in favour of the Jesuits, who do not appear to have assumed any MAIGEOT. 129 consequence, or to have been anxious to advance their own cause and to check that of their fellow- labourers. The peace that existed was not, however, destined to be of long continuance. In 1684 several new labourers appeared in the field, members of the Society of Priests of the Mission, or Lazarists, as they were called, who had been sent out to China by Innocent XI. The most distinguished of these was Charles Maigrotj a doctor of the Sorbonne, and vicar- apostolic in the province of Fo-kien. In 1693 he published a document declaring the honours paid by the Chinese to Confucius and to deceased ancestors to be idolatrous, and forbidding the new converts to follow the practice. He disallowed, at the same time, the use of the words Tien and Chang-ti. These words, in the language of the nation, signified heaven only; and, as it has no other expressions to designate God, they were used in place of this name, and in this sense were permitted by the Jesuits to the new converts. Maigrot afiirmed, on the other hand, that the words signified the visible and material heavens, and consequently the terms could not be tolerated. The old quarrel was thus re- opened ; and the points of difference were vehemently discussed, K 130 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. ' both in China and in Europe, especially at th^ papal courtj where a strong party was arrayed against the Jesuits, who were accused of favour- ing idolatry and winking at idolatrous practices. To a European unacquainted with the language and constitution of China, it is difficult to express a decided judgment on the merits of the con- troversy; but it must be confessed that the Jesuits had the greater show of right on their side.* Of this opinion was Leibnitz, the greatest and keenest Protestant scholar in Germany, who took their part. To settle the quarrel on the spot, Clement XL, in 1701, sent out Charles Thomas de Tournon, titular patriarch of Antioch, giving him the title of Apostolical Commissary and Legatus a latere ; that is, with all the powers of an ambassador of the first rank. In 1705 he entered China, little knowing the quality of the antagonists he was to find in the ofispring of Loyola. The Inquisition, meanwhile (1704), had passed sentence on the questions agitated by the mission- aries. According to this, the use of the words Tien and Chang-ti were forbidden to the Chinese * Schroeckh, vii. 15. DECISION OP THE INQUISITION. 131 Christians, and Tien-cku, that is, Lord of Heaven, was ordered to be used instead, to express the word God. All pictures were to be taken out of the churches on which appeared the Chinese cha- racters King-Tien, Honour of Heaven. The offerings made to Confucius and to ancestors, on New Year's day and in autumn, were to be dis- continued; and the ancestral tablets in private houses on which were inscribed the words, " The Seat of the Soul," or, "of the Spirit of this person, or the other," were to be removed. In 1707 De Tournon issued his command from the city of Nanking, that all Christians should obey the sentence of the Inquisition under pain of excommunication. This was a rash and impolitic proceeding, especially in a country like China, where the utmost caution and circumspection were always necessary. The Jesuits appealed to the pope against De Tournon's mandate, and complained also to the emperor. It was not long, as might have been expected, before an imperial edict was issued, prohibiting all Komish ecclesiastics in the empire from doing or teaching anything contrary to its laws under the severest penalties ; and those who obeyed the patriarch were in many places K 2 132 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. maltreated and sent into exile. De Tournon himself was ordered to leave the kingdom ; but, as he was hastening to Macao, to embark, a second order arrived, that he should remain im- prisoned in that city until the return of the two Jesuits whom the emperor bad sent to Kome upon the subject. He lay in prison four long years, experiencing many annoyances. The pope was unable to assist his servant ; but sent him the cardinal's hood to testify his sense of his services. This dignity did not lighten his load of suffering, and he died in 1710, broken-hearted, or, as some say, of poison by the Jesuits. ' In his letters De Tournon blames the Jesuits for many of the mortifications he experienced; and Clement XL, in his bull excommunicating the bishop of Macao, for the ill-treatment De Tournon had received of him, particularly complains that such indignities should have been inflicted, not by pagans, but by Christian servants and oflScers. Another attempt, made in 1714, to bend the stubborn fathers failed. Enraged at this resist- ance to his wibhes, the pope determined to wield sharper weapons against them, and had prepared the famous bull Ex ilia die, threatening all with the pains of the greater excommunication who CONSEQUENCES OF A PAPAL BULL. 133 should refuse to return to the obedience of the church without ' delay, excuse, or evasion. This bull was specially levelled against the Jesuits, and care was taken that it should be circulated amons; all the other missionaries in the East before it came into their hands. It was consequently read in three churches of Pekin, by a monk, without their previous knowledge. But the poor man. Father Castorani, had soon to rue this act of obedience. The Jesuits imme- diately represented to the court that he had pub- licly announced a foreign order, contrary to the regulations that had been by law established ; and, some days after, he was bound hand and foot, thrown into prison with nine strong chains round his neck, and was driven from one city to another for seventeen months, sometimes bound, sometimes unbound, and not seldom tortured with hunger and made the victim of ill-usage. He was at length set at liberty, and was ordered to return the bull to his bishop without daring to propagate it any farther. All Christians were ordered not to attend to it, and the severest punishment was threatened to those who presumed to do so. The Jesuits, when reproached by Benedict XIV. with their disobedience to the papal bull, excused themselves K 3 134 THE CEOSS AND THE DRAGON. by saying that it was only a precept, and not properly a law. The pope now resolved to try milder measures. He saw how futile it was to expect to have his spiritual influence felt in China without first gaining the favour of the emperor. With this view, he named the prelate Charles Ambrosias Mezzabarba, titular patriarch of Alexandria, as his ambassador to China, which he reached in 1720. At Macao he prevailed upon a few Jesuits to swear fealty to the papal constitution ; but the rest, according to his confessor Viani, prejudiced the court against him. Several mandarins asked the legate jestingly what he thought the pope would say if their emperor, were to send to reform the customs of Rome ? how the pope could give laws in their kingdom, and these, too, contrary to those which his predecessors had sanctioned ? He answered that the pope did not seek to change the customs of China, but, as chief of the Christians, to reform their errors only ; and, if his order de- viated from that of his predecessors, it was because he was better acquainted with the nature of the diflPerences that existed. The legate appears to have been badgered most unmercifully. The mandarins plagued him with all manner of questions ; and while he had to MEZZABARBA. 135 answer them kneeling, in Chinese fashion, the Chinese Jesuit, Father Fan, sat before him clad as a mandarin. The latter and other Jesuits spake so contemptuously of the pope that he could scarcely answer for astonishment. Mezzabarba behaved with much discreetness and presence of mind, but could make no impression upon the court or the emperor. He was farther treated with great personal rudeness by the Chinese, and was only too glad to make his escape to preserve a whole skin. He returned to Europe in 1721. As he had announced that he had full power to moderate to some extent the terms of the bull, the Jesuits, when he reached Macao, obtained from him eight concessions (^permissiones), which were contained in a pastoral letter which he addressed to the Catholic clergy of China. These, so far from promoting peace in the mission, were, from their half-and-half character, like so many apples of discord cast into it. The letter permitted the Chinese Christians to place tablets in their houses in honour of theii' ancestors, but they were not to be regarded superstitiously. Confucius might receive civil, but not religious, honours. Incense might be burned before corpses, and lights offered, but only in a figurative sense, not as real sacrifice. K 4 136 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. One might kneel before the picture of Confucius or of a relative, and might place, before the coffin or picture of a deceased friend, confects, fruits, and various viands. These and such like were the papal concessions. It was forbidden, under pain of the greater excommunication, to translate and! publish either the bull which had been so fear- fully curtailed by the legate, or the pastoral letter, in the Chinese or Tartar language, or to make it known to other than the missionaries. Clement XI. had died, and Benedict XII. been raised to the chair of St. Peter, before Mez- zabarba arrived in Europe. The wrath of the pope exceeded all bounds when he heard of the contumely of the Jesuits and the treatment the ambassador had received. , It is said that he had it in his mind to entirely root out and destroy the order that had thus dared, in the person of some of its members, not only to resist the will of the holy see, but to speak of its chief with disrespect. He ordered their general to command the entire and implicit obedience of his companions to all the orders of the holy see, especially to the bull Ex ilia die, and from that day forth forbade him to permit any member of the order to proceed to China or any of the neighbouring kingdoms. DEATH OF KHANG-HE. 137 Meantime the emperor Khang-he, who had been so friendly to the Jesuits, died, after a long and brilliant reign of fifty-three years, in 1722. If they had ever any hopes that he would declare himself a Christian, they were greatly disap- pointed. He affected an esteem for this religion ; but the favours which he accorded its adherents, arose from his appreciation of the services of the Jesuits, among whom he found his teachers and counsellors, his astronomers, architects, metal- founders, surgeons, and physicians. His fourth son, Yong-tching, whom he had named to succeed him, received many memorials from numbers of the literati, in which the mis- sionaries were represented as people who aimed at overthrowing the fundamental laws of the empire and disturbing the public peace. Far less inclined towards the Christians than had been his father, a circumstance which happened in the province of Fo-kien decided his conduct towards them. A Chinese literate, who had relapsed from Christianity, presented, with others of his class, a document to the mandarin of his district, wherein he accused the Europeans of building churches, at the expense of their scholars, wherein men and women assembled together ; of inducing females. 138 THE CROSS AND THE DBAGON. even in their childhood, to take a vow of per- petual virginity; of suppressing the reverence due to the deceased, especially to parents; and, generally, of desiring to transform the Chinese into Europeans entirely. These complaints found ready acceptance. All the inhabitants of that province were forbidden to embrace Christianity, the Christian churches were seized upon, and the Europeans removed. The missionaries, who were represented as likely to be useful about the court, although mis- chievous in the provinces, the emperor proposed to locate in one city. They were brought in a body to Pekin or Canton, the emperor retaining in his service a few Jesuits only. They were de- prived of more than three hundred churches, and more than three hundred thousand Christians were robbed of their teachers. Numerous relapses was the consequence. To add to their misfortunes, the old quarrel again broke out among them. Everywhere the Jesuits had published the concessions of Mezza^ barba, in spite of his command to the contrary ; and, while some prelates forbade their being acted upon under pain of excommunication, others in- sisted upon their reception by the faithful. Cas- ANOTHER FAFAh BULL. 139 torani, who had suffered so much on account of the bull Ex ilia die, repaired to E,ome to state his complaints, and to urge the court to make a de- termined stand against the Jesuits, At last, in 1742, Benedict XIV., from whose friendship the Jesuits could never expect much, yielded to the ardent desires of Castorani, and published the bull Ex quo singulari, which caused the greatest asto- nishment. It first recited the history of the con- troversy, and then went on to explain the bull of Clement XI. and other acts of his predecessors. It disallowed the concessions of Mezzabarba, as opposed to the constitution of Clement XI. and as leading to superstition. All prelates, missionaries, and ecclesiastics, as well as Jesuits, were ordered to conform to the bull under the severest penalties ; and those who hesitated were to be sent home to Europe to suffer chastisement. He farther pre- scribed an oath to be taken by all the missionaries in China, to make their adhesion all the more binding. Without specially accusing the Jesuits, he nevertheless indicates them under various opprobrious epithets. This stern and threatening bull, all the mis- sionaries in China were compelled to obey. But to obey the pope was to disobey the emperor, 140 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. The former might excommunicate if disobeyed, but the latter could inflict bodily punishments. As it was, they were placed between two fires. The emperor Yong-tching, who, at last, treated the Christians with some forbearance, died in 1735, and was succeeded by Kien-long, who reigned until 1799. As soon as, Benedict's bull reached his kingdom, by which, the customs of China, even in a modified form, were no longer permitted to be observed, a violent persecution broke out against the Christians, in 1746. Five Dominicans were ex- ecuted in the province of Fo-kien, and among them a bishop, who had made himself conspicuous for his zeal in favour of the bull. Three Jesuits, in 1748, shared a similar fate. Corporal punish- ments were inflicted on other Christians, their churches in several provinces were destroyed, and their ministers obliged to take flight. In 1750 an imperial edict even countenanced these violences, and many Christians in consequence lost their goods and their lives. In 1753 peace and rest were restored to them; and for this, it is believed, they had to thank the king of Portugal, who had sent a special mission to China, at the request of the pope. RATIONALE OF CHINESE PERSECUTIONS. 141 CHAPTER XL Rationale of Chinese Persecutions. — Kien-long — Gives Employment to the Missionaries. — Imperial Workshops. — Father Benoit, Astronomer, Copper-plate Printer, and Maker of Water-clocks — His Fountains. — Brother At- tiret, and his Trials. — The Emperor knows everything. In perusing the records of the persecutions directed against the missionaries in China, it is difficult to believe that they were animated by personal hatred of the men, or aversion to the religion which they taught. The missionaries were persecuted and slain because they were Europeans, not because they were Christians. It is true that their Christianity was made the pretext for proceeding against them; but there appears to be so much evidence of the accommo- dating turn of mind of the Chinese, which dis- poses him to take up with any religion, and even of his indifference about religion altogether, that we can scarcely come to the conclusion that he hates Christianity in itself. The real grounds of 142 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. the various persecutions, will be found in the excessive timidity of the national character. This timidity built their great wall, and formed that political cordon which has kept them an isolated people for centuries. The literati and bonzes were quick in detecting the superiority of the Europeans, and feared rather than esteemed them. The prejudices of a nation are not readily broken down. The Jesuits had been labouring above two centuries in China, teaching religion, and introducing a knowledge of European arts, sciences, and civilisation ; but they were as a drop in the bucket ! What were they, with all their devotion, and all their talents, among so many ! What ages must elapse before the zealous hundreds can indoctrinate the hundreds of millions ! The Chinese mind is the same to-day as it was in the days of Confucius, ■ — neither better nor worse. It has made no progress. Popular ig- norance is not denser, nor is learning farther extended, than it was in the reign of Ming-te, who ruled in the capital of China when Christ taught in the synagogues of Judea. Poor Xavier, baffled in his attempts to enter the empire, prayed before it : " O that these everlast- RATIONALE OF CHINESE PERSECUTIONS. 143 ing gates of rook would open ! " His prayer still remains to be answered. The gate of rock is in the Chinese mind, not in the mountains of Kao- tcheou. Commerce is the key that will gently insinuate Itself into the lopk; and when the national conceit, which has been the growth of thirty centuries, has been quietly probed, the influence of the Western barbarians will begin to be felt, and the missionary may then 'hope to have free access to the people, whatever his hopes may be of gaining them over to the faith of the cross. The Mantchoo-Tartar emperors would appear as if they have been less under the contractive influences of the exclusive system, than the sub- jects they ruled. We have already alluded to the patronage extended to the Jesuit fathers by the famous Khang-he. They were his tutors and advisers, and he yielded to their prayers on behalf of those of his subjects who professed the Christian faith more than perhaps sound policy would have dictated. He could not, however, with all his power, screen the missionaries from the prejudices and vindictiveness of his viceroys. He could not understand their anxiety about pro- pagating the Christian faith. He was a grand 144 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. type of his people, who care not about, or cannot enter into, theological refinements. He had a great taste for European arts, and was ever ready to avail hir&self of the attainments of the Jesuits ; he would listen to their explanations of an eclipse, and to their demonstrations of the sphericity of the earth, but the introduction of a conversation on the doctrines of the Council of Trent, was the signal for the entrance of a eunuch to conduct them to their apartments. It was much the same with Kien-Iong, who began to reign in 1735, and sat on the throne until the close of the century. Three sovereigns for one kingdom or empire, in one century, is a rather remarkable instance of royal longevity. Kien-long was compelled to become a perse- cutor. His tastes and qualities compelled him to employ European talents. The old palace, or country-seat, of which we have already spoken, was not to his mind, and another was to be built ; and who so proper to conduct the works from the foundation stone to the last gilded dragon on the highest pinnacle of the roof, as the Jesuits ? And, as imperial wishes are equivalent to imperial decrees, the Catholic missionaries of Europe soon found ample occupation as (literally) hewers of wood and drawers of water. They were painters. IMPERIAL WORKSHOPS. 145 and smiths, and upholsterers. They worked in wood and in stone. They carved marble and turned ivory. They dug pits and built towers. Their labours were above and below — in the heavens above and in the water under the earth. The emperor wished or willed — and they per- formed. They manufactured a watch, or con- structed a huge automaton to grimace and make horal demonstrations of vitality. It may break the monotony of the present narrative, to take a look into the imperial work- shops. At the entrance of the imperial gardens was the Tou-y-Kouan, or house where the Chinese and European painters, mechanics, turners, and other artisans were busied in painting, clock-making, and in preparing ornaments of ivory and precious stones. Around the palace were a number of other workshops, wherein numerous Chinese workmen were incessantly employed on all manner of works to adorn the imperial palace. Here automata of men and beasts were constructed ; here Brother Brossard manufactured glass to adorn the throne, which was to surpass in beauty every throne in the universe. The emperor, though much occupied with affairs of state, let no 146 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. day pass without visiting the workshops : indeedj this was his sole recreation. A French Jesuit, Father Benoit by name, who had arrived in China as a mathematician, — the name under which various French missionaries were imported, — was the cleverest mechanic of the whole. ' The emperor liked him on account of his mild manners and vast information, and often conversed with him on astronomical subjects ; astronomy being a science naturally enticing to the Celestials, who read their fate in the aspect of the stars. He asked Benoit many questions about the size, distance, and numbers of the stars, and about eclipses and the inequality of the days and nights, all which the missionary answered as well as his knowledge of the language would permit him. He farther constructed maps, and a variety of diagrams, which were greatly admired, to make these abstruse matters clear to the imperial mind. But this was not the only matter upon which, the father was engaged. He had to turn copper- plate printer. A hundred and four copper-plates had been engraven in France, from designs made in China, representing the victory of the emperor over the Tschongars in Tartary. His task was FATHER BENOIT. 147 all the more difficult, because each of the plates was two feet in breadth, and there was no press in China equal to printing them off. Add to this, Benoit had never before been employed upon work of this character, and knew nothing about ink or paper or mode of proceeding. The plates, besides, had been very delicately engraved, and had suffered rough usage; indeed, they were almost useless. In vain he excused himself: the com mand of an emperor of China is irrevocable. He had to refer to books, to construct a press from drawings, and to make preliminary essays. At last, after manifold attempts, and expenditure of time and patience, he succeeded. The proof pleased the emperor, Avho ordered a hundred copies of the hundred and four plates, or above ten thousand impressions, to be struck off. Thus far well : but the missionaries had im- ported so much from Europe, and had been so liberal of their gifts, that they grew up to annoy them. Among other things, came into the hands of the emperor some European plate representing a fountain. As a work of art we can suppose it to have been common enough, but in the eyes of the emperor it had a merit. What that merit was he did not clearly understand. Bro- L 2 148 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. ther Costiglione, however, gave such an ex- planation that thereupon came the imperial question: Is there any European at court who can produce the like of this? The artist felt the full force of the question, and limited himself to a prudent reply. He said that he would make inquiry, at every church in Pekin, whether such a genius was to be found. But the emperor was barely gone from his presence, before a eunuch entered, and said that, if any European was in condition to construct a foun- tain, he was to repair to the palace the morning following. The latter words, in court language, were a command ; and the emperor rather courted by language than by looks. The missionaries, in this extremity, applied to the polytechnist Father Benoit. Father Benoit knew as little about the con- struction of fountains as he once knew about copper-plate printing ; but, as the emperor must be pleased, he said he would try to construct a shohifa or fountain, to cast water upwards to the clouds. The emperor was delighted, en- tertained the father courteously, and placed as many assistants as he required under his orders. benoit's fountains. 149 It was not long before he constructed a model, which the emperor came to examine, and was so pleased with that he resolved in consequence to build a European palace, chose a site for it, and commanded Father Costiglione to prepare plans in conjunction with Father Benoit. To construct a model is one thing: to pro- duce it on a large scale is another. Benoit had first to instruct his workpeople in the terms of a new art, and to invent Chinese words for pump, sucker, piston, tube, pipe, and so forth. He had then to inform himself of the strength of his materials, of the proper diameter of the pipes, and of the force that would be required to raise the water to a given height. He had undertaken a difficult task, and resolved to accomplish it. He spoke modestly, however, of what he could do before the emperor, who never doubted hia abilities, and who said to his courtiers : " I know these Europeans better than you do; they certainly never begin any under- taking which they cannot carry out." Upon this the father set to work courageously; and the general good opinion of him increased daily, when it was found how willing he was to ex- 150 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. plain everything, to listen to every suggestion, and to take his models to pieces before the grandees and his workmen, that all might the better understand what he was about. He was constantly in the workshops or on the grounds directing and superintending. Nothing could be done without him. The emperor paid him daily visits, and was as curious about the progress of the water-works as any of his sub- jects. On these occasions courtly ceremony was set on one side. The palace gardens were, farther, open to the father, and he could have audience of his Majesty whenever he thought proper. In six months the fountain was com- pleted, and the assembled court saw it play with childish delight. "I told you," said the emperor, turning to his courtiers, " that the Europeans never undertake what they cannot accomplish ! " Father Benoit sought, as the reward of his labours and ingenuity, permission to preach in the provinces. But his health was quite under- mined with constant tolls and anxieties ; and aU he could now do to aid the mission, was to instruct Chinese youth in the principles of Chris- tianity, and to educate them so that they might benoit's fountains. 151 become priests and missionaries. He had not been long engaged thus, however, before the emperor again demanded his services to construct other fountains for the Inner gardens of the palace. He had again then to s6t to work, though labouring under bad health. That he might not neglect his scholars, he made his cal- culations and drew his plans over-night. The emperor sent him food from his own table, and his body physician to attend him. At length, when the emperor sat on his throne in his palace in the Yven-ming-yven (Garden of gardens), he beheld on each side pyramids of water with their acompaniments, and before him a highly artificial play of water representing a fight in which fishes, birds, and beasts of every form took part against one another in the basin of the fountain. In another palace where there was a fountain, the Chinese had prepared twelve symbolical figures to denote the twelve hours of the day; but here the father invented a water-clock which was ever in motion, and so constructed that each of these figures spouted water for two hours one after the other. Worn-out with labour and auxiety. Father Benoit ended his useful and honourable life. The L 4 162 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. emperor sent his physicians to attend him in his last sickness, and when he died gave a hundred ounces of silver to celebrate his obsequies. " He was a virtuous man," said the emperor, speaking his praise, " and was very zealous in my service ! " Brother Attiret, who was also engaged upon the imperial palaces, observes in a letter : " There is only one man here, and that one man is the emperor ; all these pleasures are for him alone. This magnificent palace can only be seen by himself, his wives and eunuchs. It is very seldom that he admits the princes or grandees into his palace or gardens ; they dare go no farther than the audience chamber. Of the Europeans, the admis- sion is free only to the painters and artisans. These he visits every day ; so that it is not possible for us to get out of his way. We have dinner at the emperor's charges, and in the evening we go to a house in the neighbourhood which we have bought with our money. " I was received by the emperor on my arrival in China as well as a stranger could expect to be received by a prince who looks upon himself as the only monarch in the world. He considers that a foreigner should deem himself superlatively THE EMPEROR KNOWS EVERYTHING. 153 happy, to dare to work for him. For, to be admitted Into the presence of the emperor, and to dare to see and speak to him often, is considered the highest reward, the greatest possible piece of good fortune. This the Chinese would buy at any price if they could buy it. And this is my whole reward, some bits of silk and worthless trinkets excepted, and this but seldom. This was not what brought me to China. To be impri- soned as it were day after day, free to pray on Sundays and holidays only, to be permitted to paint nothing scarcely after one's own taste, and to contend with innumerable difficulties — all these would sooner or later compel me to return to Europe, if I did not hope that my pencil may be serviceable to the cause of religion, and favour- ably dispose the emperor towards the mission ; and if I did not see heaven as the end of my toil and pains. " Everything I paint Is ordered by the emperor. We first draw designs, which he sees himself and makes changes or corrects them according to his pleasure. Whether the alteration Is good or bad we must carry It out. For here the emperor knows everything; flattery at least tells him so 154 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. often enough. Perhaps, too, he believes it: at all events, he acts as if he believed so." Attiret writes very crossly: but no wonder. He was a Dominican and drudge to a Chinese emperor. DECAY OF THE MISSION. 155 CHAPTER XII. Decay of the Catholic Mission. — Bread and Baptism. — Dissolution- of the Society of Jesus. — The Lazarists. — State of the Mission at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century. — Persecutions. — Destruction of Chiirches. — Martyrs. — English Cannon. — Present State of the Catholic Mission. — Cemetery of the Jesuits at Pekin. — Their Monument. The repeated persecutions which the Christians had suffered, within a quarter of a century, had considerably diminished their numbers. In 1754 there were only seventy thousand in the whole empire, whereas formerly there had been several hundred thousands. After the removal of the imperial prohibition of Christianity, the number of its adherents seemed again to increase. Nu- merous sudden conversions are recorded ; but they are of a suspicious character, and would well account for relapses as sudden. As with the mendicant missionaries of the fourteenth century, so with the Jesuits. They looked upon submis- sion to the rite of baptism as sufficient in itself to admit the recipient into the Christian church. 156 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. Famine sometimes effected more conversions in a day than the labours of the entire mission could have effected in years. In consequence of a famine which broke out in the province of Su- tchouan in 1777, thirty thousand Chinese were baptized in one year. There was no need of previous instruction, no need of preaching. Fa- mished wretches and dying children looked up to the missionaries entreating for food, and exclaim- ing, " Give us to eat and we shall become Chris- tians I" Such is the testimony of Potier, bishop of Agathopolis, and vicar-apostolic of the pro- vince, who farther states that he had the super- intendence of three provinces, the smallest of which was larger than the whole of France ; and, showing how far the various persecutions had diminished the efficacy of the mission, although there were numerous scattered Christian commu- nities in these provinces, there were only thirteen missionaries for the whole of them. It is quite clear that, from the date of the issue of the bull Ex quo singulari, the mission began ta decay. Rome aimed at reducing a powerful order to obedience ; but in her headlong wrath she in- flicted a mortal wound on the body, and cut off THE LAZAEISTS. 157 every hope of extending her sway in China. The mission, too, had long laboured under grave pre- judices in Europe, and was bereft of public sym- pathy. The company of Jesus, being dissolved, could no longer render remote brethren assistance; and, the property of the Seminary of Foreign Mis- sions having been seized upon by the French National Convention, there were no longer funds available to support the missionaries, who com- plained of want, and had to appeal to the gene- rosity of their co-religionists in Europe, begging them, with money, to send over crucifixes, rosa- ries, pictures, and such like pious merchandise. At the beginning of the present century the whole mission was divided into three vicariats and three bishoprics. The Franciscans directed the mission of Chan-si ; the Dominicans, that of Fo- kien ; and that of Su-tchouan, which then com- prehended the entire western frontier from Tong- king to Thibet, was supplied by the congregation of Foreign Missions. The legatees of the Jesuits were the French Lazarists, who, like themselves, were found at the court as savants, in Chan- si and Kiang-nan as missionaries, in the prisons as confessors, and in Pekin and Macao as directors 158 THE CEOSS AND THE DRAGON. of the native priesthood. Though still conducted with considerable zeal and ability, the mission has never reached its former glory. It has suffered in the various persecutions that have broken out against the Christians, especially in those vrhich happened in the reign of Kia-king, in 1 811, 1814, and 1818. A trifling circumstance gave occasion for the infliction of great severities in 1804. A map was found upon the Pekin courier, which Father Adeodat had sent to Rome in order to fix the limits of the Italian mission. This map was transformed by the mandarins into a plan of con^ spiracy. They saw in it only the perfidious means of indicating to the European powers the best mode of invading and conquering the empire. There was, in consequence, no bounds to the severities prescribed in edicts. Of four churches still remaining in the capital three were pulled down, the religious books and printing-plates found In them were destroyed, the inscriptions on the monuments were erased, the pain of death was anew Inflicted on the missionaries, and frightful punishments were invented for their disciples. In the second persecution of 1815, Taurin Dufresse, the Catholic bishop In Su-tchouan, was PERSECUTIONS. 159 condemned to be beheaded.* The story of his execution reads more like a page in the ancient annals of Christianity, than an event of modern times. He was led to the place of punishment with more than thirty Christians, who had been taken from prison for the purpose of beholding his fate, and in the expectation that thereby their faith would be shaken. When the executioner and his victim came in sight, the mandarins gave the prisoners their choice, for the last time, either to profane the cross or mount the scaffold. But, falling at the feet of their bishop, they besought his blessing and prepared to die. One only shrank from the trial; but the courage of the others consoled the prelate for his defection. He conjured them to follow his * The imperial edict issued on this occasion reads : " How can these Europeans still dare to deceive our people with their sUly conversation ? Without our consent, they bring over priests and busybodies into our country, who disseminate their doctrines, contrary to the express words of our law. Henceforth, we decree that they be treated in manner following : The introducers of such doctrines, and their associates, shall be put to death. He who propagates the religion of the Europeans without public permission, shall be cast into prison. He who embraces this religion shall, if he refuses to recant, be banished to He-long-kiang. The Tartars in such case shall lose their pay." 160 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. example, and stretching forth his hands, which were loaded with chains, he blessed them, and with a look of joy presented his head to the exe- cutioner. At a single blow it fell ; and, when the disciples saw the purple streams issuing from the mutilated trunk, they were transported with the desire of martyrdom, and on their knees begged the gibbet that had been promised them. They obtained exile only. The English cannon that made the five great breaches in the empire to admit European com- merce and civilisation, admitted also the Catholic missionary. He no longer read on the gates of the five great cities : Thou shalt not enter. Two official dispatches exchanged between M* de Lagrenee, the French ambassador, and Ke-Yng, the Chinese plenipotentiary, announce the new conditions stipulated to the Catholic mission. One is an imperial edict under the form of a Respectful Petition (December, 1844) ; the other is entitled : Affair of general publication (August, 1845). The first is thoroughly Chinese both in letter and in spirit. Ingeniously passing over mention of past persecutions, it permits the native Chinese to embrace Christianity without, let or hinderance. It permits the French and other foreigners to build churches and to perform reli- NEW DECREES. 161 gious worship in the "five commercial ports only," and does not give a faculty to penetrate the interior, arbitrarily, to preach religion. This edict was signed by the emperor with the Ver- million pencil, and constituted, in the opinion of the Chinese missionaries, a real revolution in favour of Christianity. A portion of the second document it is necessary to translate in full, for reasons which will appear hereafter. Referrino' to the first document, copies of which he had distributed to the proper authorities throughout the empire, he then proceeds : — " Reflecting that, although, in general, the essence of the religion of the Lopd of Heaven is to encourage virtue, and forbid vice, I have not, however, stated, in my former despatch, in what consists the virtuous practice of this reli- gion ; and, fearing that in the different provinces administrative difficulties may occur, I have made examination of the religion of the Lord of Heaven, and find that it consists in meetings at certain times to adore the Lord of Heaven, to venerate the cross and images, and to read re- ligious books. Consequently, those only are exempt from culpability who assemble to adore the Lord of Heaven, to venerate the cross and M 162 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGOST. images, to read the books of this religion, and to preach the doctrine which exhorts to virtue." Religious meetings in remote districts are, however, forbidden for fear of tumults. The Catholic mission, on the whole, appears to be satisfied with its position in the empire. That it should be jealous of the proximity of the Pro- testant missions is only natural ; and, no doubt, all suffer, in the eyes of the natives, through religious rivalry. The latest accounts show that the missionary is still the victim of popular fana- ticism, and of a diseased political jealousy, in spite of imperial edicts ; but this is induced, to a great extent, by his own temerity and indiscretion. The tombs of the valiant missionaries still exist in Pekin ; the church is nearly abandoned, though thirty thousand Christians are reckoned. They do not go to the two Greek churches belonging to the Russian mission, but perform their worship in their own houses. The custody of the Catholic cemetery is confided to the Russian archimandrite. It is situated outside the walls, near the north- east gate. The ground and the enclosures were given to Father Ricci by the emperor Van-lie. The walls are surrounded by lime and mulberry trees, and contain three principal enclosures ; they CEMETERY OF THE JESUITS. 163 form a square. The face towards Pekin is pierced with two large gates : one conducts to the habitations of the keeper and gardener. These habitations and the courts belonging to them form nearly a third of the whole enclosure. The other gate conducts, under an arcade of weeping thuyas, across a cultivated enclosure, into the third enclosure, where the tombs are situated. This third enclosure is pierced with a principal gate, and on each side, at some distance, with two wickets. When the prin* cipal gate is opened, one sees before him a paved alley leading to a Calvary surmounted by a magnificent cross of white marble, in a semi- circular recess, surrounded by a gallery of grey marble : four steps of white marble conduct to it. Twenty -two marble tombs are arranged on each side the alley, at equal distances from each other. Eicci, Adam Schall, Verbiest, and other no- table Jesuits are buried here. Among the last of those interred were Father Gau, bishop of Pekin, in 1825 ; Father Kibeira, a Portuguese employed in the Astronomical Academy, supe* rior of the South Convent; and Father Ferreira, the last of those who did honour to their country M 2 164 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. by their devotion, their talents, and their virtues. Since 1829 no new tomb has been opened.* In 1848 the Catholic mission in China counted 315,000 Chinese Christians fj 84 European missionaries, 135 Chinese priests, 14 seminaries and colleges, 326 chapels and churches. Sisters of Charity have recently been sent out to complete the mission. France, more than any other country, has reason to be proud of this mission. To her of right it belongs, and her clergy have made the greatest sacrifices of body and blood in its service. Within a few years seventy of her sons suffered martyrdom. Among others, the venerable Pierre Tuy was executed in 1833 ; and in 1837 suffered Isidore Gagelin. In a letter which he addressed to his parents on the eve of his execution, he writes : " My blood has already streamed, and must stream again under torture before my four limbs and head are cut off. The thought of the pain you will feel in reading these details already makes me shed tears. But, at the same time, the thought consoles me that I shall be in * La Croix de Chine; par C. Marchal de Luneville, 1853, p. 27. t Ibid. p. 35. PEKSECUTIONS. 1 65 heaven interceding for you when you read this letter. Mourn not the day of my death : it will be the happiest of my life, because it will put an end to my sufferings and make the beginning of my happiness. My torments have not been ab- solutely insupportable; they do not scourge my loins until the former wounds are healed up. I shall not be drawn nor torn like M. Marchand ; and, supposing that they quarter me, four men will do it at once, and a fifth will cut off my head. I shall not, therefore, have much to suffer: so be consoled. My sufferings will soon be over, and I shall be waiting for you in heaven ! " Gagelin was not quartered, however ; but was strangled. The Marchand mentioned in the letter suffered a horrible death. He was con- demned to receive a hundred wounds, and expired under the forty-fifth; that is to say, under the forty-fifth rag of flesh torn from his body with pincers. Bories, bishop of Acantha, was executed in 1838. He refused to give his executioner some alms which he had reserved for the poor ; and, in consequence, was subjected to the cruel- lest agonies, by blows from a blunt hatchet. Du Cornay died with such heroic endurance that his executioners drank his blood and ate his heart, M 3 166 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. believing, as they said, that his blood and his heart would inspire them with his courage. In 1851 the venerable Schaeffer submitted to a cruel death, and in the same year Bonnard, a young man, yielded up his soul under the most horrible tortures, and his body was cast into the depth of the seas. Previous observations ought to acquit the writer of any undue partiality for the fathers of the Company of Jesus. He has admitted their zeal and talents, and he has deplored their errors. Their grand mistake, as far as the Chinese mission was concerned, was their mistaken liberality in admitting the Dominicans and Franciscans to share their honours without directly participating in their reverses. These were, no doubt, equally earnest in their mission and equally honest. But they had been trained in a contracted school, and came to give lessons in a school equally contracted. They were honest bigots — men who adhered to a dead letter, and who never breathed the same atmosphere with a living spirit, and consequently were never calculated to have the spiritual power to command " dry bones to live." The Jesuit was a man of the world, in the best sense of the word. He did not strive, nor THE JESUITS' MONUMENT. 167 cry, nor make much ado about his intentions. He made no parade of superior knowledge or morals over the native Chinese, though he possessed both. He did not walk the streets of Pekin or of Nanking barefooted, clad in camlet gown, with tonsure or outward mark of sect and peculiar fellowship ; but he walked abroad like a sensible man, provoking no jealousy if he could help it, shocking no prejudice unless it was criminal, and making his religion, not a cause of oflfence, but, if possible, an ^enticement and a solace. In 1835 a M. Mouly visited, at a place near Pekin, the deserted house that formerly served as a place of sepulture to the Jesuits. He read upon the walls of the ancient refectory, under half-effaced portraits of the Jesuit fathers, a funeral inscription, written by Father Amiot In the name of his brethren, when they heard of the dissolution of their society in Europe. " Al- though not very sensitive naturally," says M. Mouly, " my heart was profoundly touched, and my tears flowed abundantly, at the simple reading of this epitaph : — M 4 168 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. " ' In the Name of Jesus, " ' Amen. '"Long unshaken, but at last conquered, it has fallen beneath the shook of many storms. Stop, traveller! and read, and reflect upon the inconstancy of human affairs. " ' Here lie the French missionaries, once members of the celebrated company which taught and disseminated, in all its purity, the true worship of God, in every quarter of the globe ; which, taking Jesus for its model, as it had taken his name, imitated him as far as it was possible to human weakness ; pursued, in spite of fatigues and contradictions, its deeds of virtue, its mission of charity ; and, doing all for all to win them to God, gave, during more than two centuries which it prospered, confessors and martyrs to the church. " ' We, Joseph-Marie Amiot, and the other French mis- sionaries of this company now in Pekin, under the auspices and the protection of the Tartar- Chinese monarch, still main- tain, under the shadow of the sciences and arts, the religion of Christ. Whilst, in the midst of the imperial palace, sur- rounded with the altars of a thousand vain divinities, our Galilean church still shines (alas! sighing in secret for death), we have raised this monument of fraternal piety under funeral shadows. " ' Pass, traveller ! felicitate the dead ; pity the living ; pray for thyself; admire, and be silent. " ' The year of Christ 1774, the 14th day of October ; the 20th year of Kiang-loung, the 10th day of the 9th moon.'" RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES IN CHINA. 169 CHAPTER XIII. Keligious Influences in China. — Confucius and his System. — Taouism. — Buddhism. We have traced the fortunes of Christianity in China down to the beginning of the present century. Before entering upon the history of the last fifty years, in which we shall have occa- sion to notice the establishment of the Protestant missions and their influence, the rise of the native secret societies and their objects, and the recent insurrectionary movements in the empire with their attendant religious phenomena, it may be well, first, to note the principal reli- gious influences to which the Chinese mind has been subjected within the period of certain history, Kong-fu-tse, or Confucius, lived in the sixth century before Christ, and was the great moral teacher of the Chinese. He was not the teacher of a new religion ; but, inasmuch as he collected the scattered fragments of ethics and the reli- 170 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. gious notions that already prevailed, and of parts made a whole, he may be called the founder of the Chinese religion. We hesitate, however, in calling his system a religious one ; but, whether essentially political or partially moral and reli- gious, it was through his genius and influence that it became acceptable to his countrymen. Whether or not we call It a religious system, decidedly it was not a theological one. On the subject of God, gods, and deity, Con- fucius was extremely reserved. " How should I know God," he would observe, " when as yet I know not man?" He entirely rejected the speculative, and confined his efforts to the practical. He found that such and such had been the past experience of. mankind, and upon this experience he relied for the further guidance of society. Whatever precedent had established, which was not inconsistent with justice and mercy, that was to be the rule for the future, without deviation. His system, then, was essentially conservative, and hence the high favour it has ever held with the rulers and magnates of the empire. It inculcated the most perfect subordination, the most servile obedience, the most scrupulous CONFUCIUS AND HIS SYSTEM. 171 adherence to ancient usage. It is entirely a system of ceremonial on a moral basis, wherein every social, civil, and political duty is set forth with the greatest precision, and wherein all the motions of the empire are calculated to proceed with clockwork-like regularity. But it is open to this disadvantage, that, inasmuch as the parts are not absolutely deprived of volition, a re- bellious cogwheel , or insignificant pinion will sometimes disarrange and impede the entire machinery : and such accidents have happened. If even Confucius had not taught that ancient sages and ancestors were to be venerated, his system would have led to it : since these were the sources of wisdom, they were worthy of all homage. The supremacy of parental authority lies at the foundation of the political' system; and hence the submission of the son to the father ought not to be more complete than that of the servant to the master, of the master to the magistrate, of the magistrate to the emperor, of all to the law. The reciprocal obligations of kindness on the part of the father to his children, of the master to his servants, and of the emperor to his subjects, were necessarily implied. The morals of Confucius 172 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. have always been justly admired, but they are not higher, nor do they differ from those enjoined in the ancient precept : " Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly ; " and his political system sought nothing less than that which is sought by the followers of Benthano, — the greatest happiness of the greatest number. But though the political system established by Confucius, was highly conservative, and has main- tained its sway for more than two thousand years with very little change, it was not calculated to greatly advance the civilisation of China, to de- velop the national mind, to foster self-reliance- Its tendency was rather to cramp and stunt the mind, to discourage any attempts at originality, and to denounce as criminal any deviation from the old tracks. Hence Chinese exclusiveness and timidity. Hence the overweening conceit of the people, so amusing to the more advanced Eu- ropean, and the craft and cunning which they oppose to the power of superior knowledge, — the weapons of an ingenious people in a low state of cultivation. From all that can be discovered by European scholars and philosophers in the Five Sacred Classics, or works of Confucius, naturalism was CONFUCIUS AND HIS SYSTEM. 173 and is (among the literati) the religion of China. The heavens existed, the earth existed, and ever did exist, uncreated and uncreating. The idea of a great, supreme, self-existent Being seems alto- gether foreign to this religion. God and his attributes, and man's dependence upon his pro- vidence, are altogether shut out. There is in the Chinese language no word which expresses the idea of a self-conscious God, a creator of the world. To the Chinese a creation out of nothing is altogether foreign. The first verse of Genesis cannot be translated into Chinese.* In the world there is mutation, change ; but no origin, no creation. We have already seen how controversies arose among the Bomish missionaries respecting the proper equivalent for the notion expressed in the European word, God, — whether it should be Tien or Chang-ti. Either the one or the other may be used, because both are words of conve- nience, and the only media, seemingly, through which a European can convey to the Chinese an idea for which he has yet no proper word. We should say, that if ever pure atheism existed, it * Wuttke, Ueher die Cosmogonie der heidnischer Volher, in the Verhandlingen van het haagsche Genootschap, dl. x. p. 20. 174 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. exists and has existed in the doctrine of Confu- cius, as held by the learned. If ever the know- ledge of a supreme Being, existed in the empire, it became obscured in the course of ages, and was at last obliterated. The world is the product of chance, and destiny rules all things. Men die, and for ever cease to exist. There is no immor- tality. Man returns to nothingness ; and there is no reward for the good, no punishment for the vicious.* The whole system of Confucius, in a word, tended to induce men to make the most of the present life, the present being the sole in- heritance. Contemporary with Confucius was the philo- sopher Lao-tse. He founded the doctrine of Tao (reason), which Is to be read by those who can penetrate its obscurity in the Tao-te-hing.\ The doctrine of Confucius was practical ; that of Lao- tse, his rival, was speculative. If that of the one was atheistic, that of the other wiis pantheistic. * See a work which at one time gave rise to much con- troversy, by Father Longobardi, superior of the Jesuit mission in China ; Traite sur quelques Points de la Religion des CMnois. Paris, 1701. By his followers this treatise was publicly burned. f Book of Eeason and Virtue. TAOUISM, 175 If the former gave no God, the latter gave gods many and lords many, and demons and genii without number. He gives gods, indeed, but no proper idea of godhead, — no proper idea of a supreme, creative, governing, and eternal power. Lao-tse*, according to his disciples, who call themselves Doctors of Reason, was borne in the womb of his mother for nine times nine years, and entered the world grey-haired. Little is known with certainty of his life, but many marvellous things are told of him. He is said to have tra- velled into the West, from whence, among other doctrines, he brought that of the metempsychosis. Abel-Kemusatf complains that his fame as a phi- losopher has been injured by his disciples ; and alleges that, so far from being the patriarch of a sect of jugglers, magicians, and astrologers, seek- ing the elixir of life and the means of reaching heaven through the air, he was a true philosopher, a judicious moralist, an eloquent theologian, and subtile metaphysician. The French orientalist ascribes to his style the majesty of Plato, and, at the same time, his obscurity; which latter attribute we can readily * Lao-tse means the old child. f Melanges Asiatiques, torn. i. p. 93. 176 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. credit, from such specimens as the following : — " Before the chaos that preceded the birth of heaven and earth, a sole being existed, immense and silent, immutable and always acting. This was the Mother of the universe. I know not her name, but I designate her by the word ' Reason ' Man has his model in the earth, the earth in heaven, heaven in Reason, and Reason in herself." This sounds monotheistic, but the conclusion it leads to is certainly pantheistic. In his view of morals, perfection consists, in being void of passions, the better to contemplate the harmony of the universe. " There is no greater sin," he says, " than irregular desires, nor greater misfortune than the torments they justly inflict." He did not seek to propagate his doctrine. " One takes care to hide the secret he discovers. The most solid virtue of the sage consists in know- ing how to pass for a simpleton." He adds, that the man of the world should follow the times, and accommodate himself to circumstances ; a precept that would carry the mind beyond the narrow circle of knowledge to which the doctrine of Confucius would limit it. His metaphysics assi- milate to those of the Pythagoreans and Stoics. But, whatever else the philosophy and religion of TAOUISM. 177 Lao-tse may have been, its grand defect was its obscurity, and the latitude it afforded its' votaries in consequence for introducing the most monstrous absurdities. Taouism had many adherents, and some of the emperors declared themselves in its favour ; but they could never induce a general belief in its doctrines. Confucius himself either could not or would not understand the philosopher. " I have seen Lao-tse," he said to his disciples ; — " have I not seen something like a dragon ? " * * Perhaps Confucius could not bear his rebuke, in which there was no doubt much truth! Confucius, the younger sage, visited the elder, who was then living in a retired place some distance from the court. He was reclining on an elevated platform, and, hearing that his visitor had come to hear from his own mouth an exposition of his tenets, and to ask him about propriety, he roused himself to receive him. "I have heard speak of you," said Lao-tse, "and I know your reputation. I am told that you speak only of the ancients, and discourse only upon what they taught. Now, of what use is it to revive the memory of men of whom no trace remains on the earth ? The sage ought to in- terest himself with the times in which he lives, and regard present circumstances : if they are favourable, he will improve them ; but if, on the contrary, they are unfavour- able, he will retire and wait tranquilly, without grieving at what others do. It seems, judging by your conduct, that you have ostentation in your plans of instruction, and that you are proud. Correct these faults, and purify your heart from all love of pleasure ; you will, in this way, be much N 178 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGOK. Two creeds had thus been founded in China : but that of Confucius, though tending admirably to formalise and consolidate society, supplied nothing to the imagination ; and that of Lao-tse, though it supplied the imagination to overflowing, was too mystical and too profound to be popular. A religion was wanted which should be both in- telligent and popular ; and this was supplied by Buddhism, or the religion of Fo. According to the Chinese chronicles. Buddhism was introduced into the empire in the year cor-' responding to 65 of the Christian era. The founder of this religion was Chakia-mouni, who was born B.C. 1029, and died B.C. 950, and was consequently seventy-nine years of age. Before dying he left his Secret of the Mysteries to his disciple Mahakaya, a Brahmin born in the king- more useful than seeking to know what the ancients said." Lao-tse farther said, before parting with him, "I have heard that the rich dismiss their friends with a present, and the benevolent send people away with a word of advice. Whoever is talented, and prying into everything, will run himself into danger, because he loves to satirise and slander men ; and he who wishes to thoroughly understand recondite tilings, will jeopardise his safety, because he loves to publish the failings of men." Confucius replied, "I respectfully receive your instructions," and thus left him. BUDDHISM. 179 dom of Makata, situated in Central India. He died B. C. 905, and was the first who received the title of tsun-che, in Japanese sonzia, which sig- nifies illustrious, honourable, and which is granted to the saints of the religion of Buddha. It is not easy to define the exact nature of the Buddhist religion introduced into China from India. Great diflSculties oppose themselves to the researches of the best scholars of Europe, from the nature of the language in which it is written. The works on Buddhism in the Pali or Bali lan- guage are almost innumerable ; but to trace its nature is almost impossible. With no religious creed has such extravagant and incomprehensible language been employed in the delineation of its dogmas, — language which can convey to the reader's mind nothing but confusion.* This is the testimony of Giitzlaff; and it is confirmed by other writers, who, after much study of Bud- dhistic books, confess that the greater part contain nothing but absolute absurdities and reveries, un- intelligible to the most learned of its votaries. Bournouf, who has written on Buddhism in * Chinese Eepository, vol. ii. p. 214. N 2 180 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. India*, informs us that the books of the Chinese Buddhists have not been examined in detail like those of the Thibetans, and the titles of those that are known cannot be easily rendered from their original without the twofold knowledge of Chinese and Sanscrit. The history of Buddhism is far from com- plete ; and hence much that has been written on the subject must be received with caution. By many it has been praised as a most en- lightened form of idolatry, and superior in its re- ligious spirit to either Confucianism or Taouism. Others have decried Buddhism as the very doc- trine of devils. Buddhism in China, according to Giitzldff, is a system of the grossest lies, which can find champions only in the biassed minds of some scholars of Europe. It is atheism, he de- clares, as he found it in Siam, placing the highest degree of happiness in annihilation, the greatest enjoyment in indolence, and the greatest hope in endless transmigration. Whatever may be its real essence in modern times, it is decried by the learned, laughed at by the profligate, and yet followed by all. * Introduction 5l I'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien. Paris, 1844-45. Avertissement. BUDDHISM. 181 Transmigration appears to be a leading dogma among the Buddhists as among the Brahmins. Every man has his good and evil genius, who watch over him incessantly and note down all his actions. At death his soul is cited before the tribunal of the sovereign of hell, and sentence is pronounced determining what kind of body he shall inhabit. According to their works, men are admitted into a superior or inferior class of beings 'to what they were before, — into an order of celestial beings, or into one condemned to the most frightful torments of hell. Between the extremes of the higher and lower order of beings, the inferior genii, men, animals, and monsters are placed, the four grand classes ascending towards the infinite. Men ought to invoke both good and evil genii, — the good to obtain blessings, the evil to deprecate misfortunes. The evil genii are re- presented under every sort of monstrous form. The malign influence may be conjured according to certain formulae which certain holy men, raised to the rank of gods, have composed in the ancient language of India. Buddhism has a vast mythology ; but its gods, though represented under monstrous, are never represented under indecent, forms, as in the reli- N 3 182 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. gions of India. Admission into its Pantheon does not appear to be very difficult, and a statue of Napoleon Buonaparte has been seen in a Bud- dhist temple with incense burning before it. The doctrine describes eight hells and their torments ; and it is here that the fertile imagination of the sect is most conspicuous. The religion of Buddha recommends the prac- tice of virtue, and forbids the taking away the life of a living thing, the appropriating the goods of another, adultery, lying, and calumny. Its secret doctrine teaches meu, that to attain the highest degree of perfection and sanctity they must de- spoil themselves of every desire, become insensible to both pain and pleasure, remain in a state of absolute impassibility, and exist solely for tjie contemplation of divine things : then the soul, having no longer need of transmigration for puri- fication, is raised to the rank of the gods.* The secret of the success of Buddhism was in its eclectic, tolerant, and accommodating character. Its moral code recommended itself to the fol- lowers of Confucius ; its mythology, to the fol- lowers of Lao-tse. Its austerities and stoical virtues had attractions for some ; its pictures of * D'Ohsson, torn. ii. p. 371. BUDDHISM. 183 the pleasures of a life of inaction and contempla- tion, had charms for others. Its doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments, in the nature of a metempsychosis, and the idea it sug- gests of ultimate perfection, are far superior to the doctrine which teaches annihilation, or to the system which is silent on the subject of a future life. The emperor Ming-te was much blamed for having introduced a religion so different from the ancient religion of China, and its votaries were often the subjects of persecution; but nevertheless it became the popular religion, if it was denied the honour of being the state reli- gion. On the whole, it was and is extremely tole- rant. The Fo bonzes have often been accused of persecuting the Christian priests ; but the grounds of provocation are not always given. Giitzlaff has preached in a Buddhist temple, and Morrison has slept in one. It appears as if Buddhism had borrowed something from every system, and even from Christian systems. The similarity in many outward forms which it presents to the Romish church, has led many to believe that these were engrafted upon Buddhism by the Romish mission- aries. We are rather disposed to believe that N i 184 THE CEOSS AND THE DRAGON. the tonsure, celibacy *, burning of incense, the use of holy water, mass, bells, books, candles, convents, prayers to the Virgin, and much of the same kind, were appropriated by the Fo bonzes from the Christian bonzes, just as a rival trades- man will sometimes borrow the insignia of his neighbour to attract his customers. Olopuen and his companions, who entered China in the seventh century, were tonsured, and prayed with their faces towards the east. They must have also practised many rites peculiar to the Syrian churches. We cannot understand how he should have received any opposition, if the ex- ternal rites he practised differed but little from those with which many of the Chinese must have been conversant in the system of Buddha. There is another supposition, founded upon the observed tendencies of Christianity in Asia, in past times, to amalgamate with the dominant re- ligion of the country. In Western Asia its ob- served tendency was to melt into Mohammedism, in Central Asia into Gnosticism, and in Eastern * We have not been able to ascertain with sufficient accuracy, whether early Buddhism proscribed the marriage state to either priest or people. The practice is, however, of very ancient date. BUDDHISM. 185 Asia into Buddhism. It is, therefore, doing no violence to probability to suppose that the native Nestorians of the seventh century became con- founded with the Buddhists, as became also, in time, the native converts made by John of Mount Corvin. Certainly, we should say, that, whatever other faults the Jesuit and other missionaries of the sixteenth century may have had, they did not incorporate their own errors with those of the Buddhists ; for they found them already existing there. One, Father Bury, a Portuguese mis- sionary, when he beheld the bonzes tonsured, using rosaries, praying in an unknown tongue, and kneeling before images, exclaims in astonishment : " There is not a piece of dress, not a sacerdotal function, not a ceremony of the church of Rome, which the devil has not Invented a copy of in this country ! " We can readily believe the father, without sharing his astonishment, or bringing the devil in to account for the phenomenon. Whatever the religion of Buddha, its votaries in modern times are painted in no flattering colours. They make free to break the entire Decalogue. The priests are described by some who have lived for years among them, as a very despised class, chiefly sprung from the lowest of 186 THE CEOSS AND THE DRAGON. the people. Their morals are bad, their conduct mean, their bearing cringing. They are unskilled, and, with few exceptions, very stupid. They have no schools or seminaries; and their chentang, or halls of contemplation, have been found the haunts of every vice.* The nuns among them, it is gratifying to find, are less numerous and more industrious than the monks, who are a sad lazy set of beings. The temples generally, which once were richly endowed, are in a state of dila- pidation, overcrowded with priests, and serve as taverns or gambling-houses, shops or brothels. The toleration which in some eyes lends Bud- dhism a pleasing aspect, begets religious indiffer- ence, and indifference finally begets infidelity. Many of its followers deride its absurdities, and turn its legends into ridicule equally with those of St. Ursula and many another saint whose name has been travestied in Chinese syllables by zealous popish missionaries. They despise the faith, and yet with singular inconsistency persist in ranking themselves under its banners. * Chinese Repository, vol. ii. p. 17. CATHOLIC MISSIONAEY LABOUES. 187 CHAPTER XIV, Estimate of Catholic Missionary Labours. — Francis Xavier. — Mode of Conversion. — The Angelic Labour. — Early Protestant Missions in the East. — Formosa. — Tragical Fate of Dutch Missionaries. It is with the compacted mass of error, absurdity, superstition, and moral pollution, included in one or the other, or in all the pagan systems of China, that Christianity had, and still has, to contend. It is not merely with erroneous philo- sophies, with confused metaphysics, and perverted ethics, that the European has to wrestle, but with a people who would appear to have a gene- rically different mental constitution, who cannot be assailed by the usual weapons of logic, who cannot be retained by any bonds of conviction. It is now three centuries since intelligent mis- sionary enterprises were first undertaken in China (and it is but just to regard the Jesuit missions as intelligent, if viewed only as civilising agencies), yet what really has been effected in the work of evangelisation! What amount of 188 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. real Christianity has been Induced by the two centuries of labour of the Romish missionary, and the half-century of the Protestant missionary? It would be presumptuous to say that good has not been done ; we can only show our reasons for believing that little good has been, or can be done, as things are. We have commended the zeal, the intelligence, the courage, and devotion of the Komish mis- sionaries. Even those who have differed from them on theological grounds have not refused them their meed of admiration. Milne, a Pro- testant dissenter, speaks of them in a spirit of truth and charity : — " Their learning, personal virtue, and ardent zeal deserve to be imitated by all future mis- sionaries," he says. "Their steadfastness and triumph in the midst of the persecutions, even to blood and death, in all imaginable forms of terror, show that the adulterated Christianity which they taught is to be ascribed to the effect of education, not to design; and also affords good reason to believe that they have long since joined the noble army of martyrs." All who have read of their labours of love and mercy in China with unbiassed feelings, must CATHOLIC MISSIONARY LABOURS. 189 concur in the justice of this verdict. But what have been, where are, the fruits of their labours ? We read, indeed, of their 300,000 converts in the days of the mission's greatest glory ; but they have been as seed sown by the wayside, or as sown among thorns. So far from product, hardly a quotient remains by which we can infer the numbers which time and misfortune have divided. We have already stated that the Christianity of the Jesuits, like that of their forerunners and cotemporaries, was mainly ritual. All the sacra- ments of the church of Home were freely and fully dispensed. The child just entering into the world, and the hoary head passing out of it, had the services of the zealous missionary. The wretch in the dungeon, the felon on the scaffold, or the victim of the plague, had his attention as readily, and his prayers as heartily, as would have had the emperor in his palace, or the mandarin in his hall. The risks he would run, and the dangers he would hazard, were greater than those which the Protestant missionary feels himself called upon to encounter. He had literally forsaken all, — home, kindred, and friends, — to perform what he believed to be his master's work. The church was his 190 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. bride, and for her he did knight's service ; wearing her colours wrought on his robes, bearing her image hidden in his bosom, having her smiles to lead him, her love to guide him, her honours to reward him, and her arms to embrace him, though all the world should scorn and reject him. But we suspect that his labours were in vain in China. The Jesuits might have baptized millions, confessed hundreds of thousands, and performed mass before tens of thousands, and yet not have made a single genuine Christian. With a people possessed of such a peculiar civilisation as the Chinese, the rites of the Roman church would naturally produce less effect than they produce among barbarians. They were meaningless cere- monials to a people who are accustomed to a ceremonial which in eveiy act carries a meaning. Nor was the catechetical system they pursued calculated to indoctrinate such minds as those of the Chinese. It is not unfair to presume that the mode of instruction they adopted was not dissimilar to that which Xavier practised in India. He went about the streets of Goa or Cormorin rinsins a hand-bell, at the sound of which the children, the idle, and the curious would gather around FRANCIS XAVIEK. 191 him, to listen or to mock, as they felt disposed. His instructions were confined to recitations of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salu- tation, and the Decalogue. These he had com- mitted to memory, after having had them translated into the language of the natives. On Sundays he convened the people in church, and made them repeat the Creed after him. He made them recite the Creed more frequently than the "other prayers," he informs us in one of his letters ; and, at the same time, taught them that all who believe what it contains are called Christians. He made them repeat the Ten Com- mandments, to show that whoever keeps them all is a true Christian, and shall attain to ever- lasting life. After these "chief prayers," he usually repeated the Pater Noster and Ave Maria, they following. The Creed was again repeated, and a short prayer made after each article. The Decalogue, also, was again repeated, most generally in the manner following: — "The first commandment, which is about loving (?) God, we chant together, and together then we pray — 'O Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, grant that we may love Thee above all things;' and immediately, to 192 THE CROSS AND THE DRAOON. obtain this, we add the Lord's Prayer. Next, we all sing together this verse : ' Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, obtain from thy Son, that we may keep His first commandment care- fully ! ' Then we add the Angelic Salutation. " The same order is observed with the remaining nine commandments. Then I command all, includ- ing those who are to be baptized, to recite a form of general confession. Last of all, I duly baptize those who have been thus prepared, and we finish by singing the Salve Regina, imploring the help and succour of the Holy Virgin. How great multitudes," he continues, in the letter from which we have been quoting*, "are gathered into the fold of Christ, may be conjectured when I say that my arm is often so wearied with baptizing that I am no longer able to use it; for I have often baptized an entire village in one day." Without imputing any other than the most praiseworthy motives to Xavier in preparing this Ordo, we must say that it contains but a very in- finitesimal amount of Christian doctrine. On many grounds it is easy to undei'stand how mul- titudes may readily engage in a ceremonial, and * Letter to Society of Jesuits in Rome, dated from' Cochin, January 12th, 1544. MODE OF CONVERSION. 193 voluntarily or passively submit to such a rite as that of baptism without any positive communica- tion of religious knowledge, without any attendant or subsequent feeling of conversion, and without having created within them any peculiar or per- manent interest in Christianity and its objects. We have assumed, and upon good grounds, as we believe, that the mode, of conversion pursued in China by the Jesuit and other Romish mis- sionaries did not greatly differ from that pursued by Xavier in India. To the religious rites per- formed in churches was added the catechetical form of instruction. But if the catechism did not embrace a wider range of topics than those em- braced in a few religious formularies, the know- ledge of Christianity communicated would be of a very meagre character. It is true that the Jesuits wrote and distributed many religious books ; but we cannot tell what amount of silent conviction these may have wrought, or what access of strength to infidelity they may have given, as we are not well aware of their character and contents. Those that have been brought under our notice contain Scripture extracts and pious meditations, mixed up with legends of the Virgin or of some o 194 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. saint. One, written by ii general in the Chinese army, commences with the legend of a St. Mih-la- nea, a Roman lady, and ends with an account of St. Se-urh-iouh-sze-tih-le, a Roman gentlemen. St. E-ne-tseo (Ignatius) is not, of course, forgotten in such a collection. We believe with Dr. Milne that the error- of the Romish missionary was in his education, not in his design ; and we cannot for a moment believe that prayers to the Virgin, the invoca- tion of saints, the observance of feasts and fasts, and the propagation of the doctrine of purgatory, are means at a,ll calculated to drive out the worship of ancestors, sap the doctrine of transmi- gration, or extirpate idolatrous usages, which they too much resemble. The Romanist still rejoices in the numbers he baptizes, believing that thereby he saves souls. For nearly two centuries there has existed in China a special service called the Oeuvre Angilique. The object of the angelical labour is the baptism of moribund children. In 1719, catechists were specially charged to scour the streets of the towns in which they resided, from morning till night, to baptize dying children. The number of those who thus received baptism at Pekin was between two and three thousand PKOTESTANT MISSIONS IN THE EAST. 195 annually in 1722. The Oeuvre Angilique was reorganised on a new plan in 1838, and is in full operation, especially in Su-tohouan.* The missionary speaks with pride of the number of " clandestine baptisms " that have taken place during the year in his district. By some litur- gical process which it is not easy to explain, the nurse may administer the rite to the dying babe without the knowledge of the parents. We doubt not that great satisfaction is conveyed to some minds by the knowledge of such facts ; and other minds will be puzzled to discover the source of this anxiety for pagan infants passing out of life, and may be allowed to doubt whether Christianity can ever be recommended to the Chinese by such means. The first attempt to disseminate a knowledge of Christianity in the East, on the part of Pro- testants, was made on the Island of Formosa, which, though only one day's sail from the port of Amoy, was unknown to the' Chinese until A. d, 1430, when an officer of the court was driven upon it by a storm. The Dutch came into pos- session of it early in the seventeenth century. In 1626, George Candidius, a Protestant divine, ' Annales Propag. Foi, torn. xx. p. 17, note. O 2 196 THE CKOSS AND THE DRAGON. was appointed minister to the settlement, and he took great pains to introduce Christianity among the natives. At the governor's request, he gave his opinion on the prospects, of propagating the gospel in Formosa. He considered both the dis- positions and circumstances of the people favour- able for their conversion to Christianity. " With good capacities, they were ignorant of letters ; their superstitions rested only on tradition, or customs to which they were strongly attached. God blessed his labours in Formosa, so that during a residence of sixteen months, part of which was occupied in studying the language, he instructed one hundred and twenty natives in the Christian religion." The number of Christians, it is said, daily augmented : the intermarriage of Dutch and natives was practised, churches and schools were multiplied ; so that, in all, many thousands of the islanders were converted to Christianity and baptized. " But the Dutch governors in India were cau- tious of encouraging the conversion of the For- mosans, lest it should give oflFence to the Japanese, with whom they had commerce, and by whom ' Christianity was then heavily persecuted." What- ever progress Christianity may have made in FORMOSA, 197 Formosa, under Dutch auspices, it was not of long continuance, as their power for good or evil there was brought to a clo.se in 1662, after thirty years' duration; but not before a tragedy had been enacted. When the island was attacked by Koxinga, the Chinese adventurer, there fell into his hands, among others, Mr. Van Hambroek, a Protestant minister. He was sent by Koxinga to the go- vernor, to propose terms for surrendering the fort; but, in case of refusal, vengeance would be taken on the Dutch prisoners.* Van Ham- broek came to the castle, being forced to leave his wife and children behind him, as hostages ; which sufficiently proved that, if he failed in his negociation, he had nothing but death to expect from the chieftain. Yet was he so far from persuading the garrison to surrender, that he encouraged them to a brave defence, by hopes of relief, assuring them that Koxinga had lost many of his best ships and soldiers, and began to be weary of the siege. When he had ended, the council of war left it to his choice to stay with them or return to the * Nieuhoff. o 3 198 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. camp, where he could expect nothing but present death: every one entreated him to stay. He had two daughters within the castle, who hung upon his neck, overwhelmed with grief and tears to see their father ready to go where they knew he must be sacrificed by the cruel enemy. But he represented to them, that, having left his wife and two other children in the camp as hostages, nothing but death could attend them if he re- turned not ; so, unlocking himself from his daugh- ters' embraces, and exhorting everybody to a resolute defence, he returned to the camp, telling them at parting, that he hoped he might prove serviceable to his poor fellow-prisoners. Koxinga received his answer sternly; then, causing it to be rumoured that the prisoners excited the Dutch to rebel against him, ordered all the male prisoners to be slain. This was accordingly done, some being beheaded, others killed in a barbarous manner, to the number of five hundred; their bodies were stripped quite naked, and burled fifty and sixty in a hole. Nor were the women and children spared, many of them being likewise slain, though some of the best were preserved fpr the use of the commanders, and the rest sold to the common soldiers. Happy FATE OF DUTCH MISSIONARIES. 199 was she that fell to the lot of an unmarried man, being thereby freed from vexations by the Chinese women, who are very jealous. Van Hambroek and other ministers, with many schoolmasters, were beheaded. Du Halde, the Jesuit, who visited the island seventy years after this event, writes:— "The people adore no idols, and abominate every approach to them ; yet they perform no act of worship, nor recite any prayers. There are llbany who understand the Dutch language, can read their boolis, and who, in writing, use their letters ; and many fragments of pious Dutch books are found amongst them." Giitzlaff discovered some traces of the Christianity introduced by the Dutch in the mountainous parts of Formosa. o 4 200 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTEE XV. Protestant Missions. — Robert Morrison. — The Chinese MS. — Nature of the Chinese Language. — Its DifficuUies. — Its Poverty. — Morrison arrives in China. — His Studies. — Translator to the British Factory. — His Skill in the Language of China. — The Chinese Dictionary. — Dr. Milne — Assists in the Translation of the Bible — Opens a School. — Slow Progress of Protestant Missions, ap- parently. — The first Baptism Temporising, what? — The Heart-opening Cake. — Character of Milne. The attempt on the part of the Dutch to intro- duce Protestant views of Christianity into the East, so auspicious in its commencementj and so tragical in its issue, was the only one made until the commencement of the present century, when the London Missionary Society determined upon founding a mission in China, Robert Morrison was the first who appeared on the soil of China, to represent English patience under trial, English hope under discouragement, and English triumph through diligence, integrity, intelligence, and proper humanity. His name deserves to be held in perpetual remembrance. ROBEKT MORRISON. 201 as much for the courage that marked the be- ginning of his career, as for the genuine philan- thropy that distinguished its course and close; as much' for the genius that enabled him to thread the mazes of a most complicated language, as for the guides he left for others to follow him into the gardens of a literature fantastic to Occi- dental minds, but bearing, nevertheless, buds, and flowers, and fruit, and the unequivocal tokens of a foreign, but not ungenerous soil. About the beginning of the present century, a young man might have been seen in the reading- room of the British Museum poring over a manu- script, strange to every eye but his own, and written in characters like those that the tea- drinker is wont to see inscribed on tea-chests, and the artist on the flanks and faces of cakes of Indian ink. "Who transcribed the book he knew not, but the authors of the book he did know. It was a harmony of the four gospels written in Chinese, the work, probably, of some " infant " of St. Francis, Dominic, or Loyola. To any'of the Cuihonas of the day, — to any of the prosaic, whose faith is in figures, — such an incident would tell nothing. Were God to plant His footsteps on polished granite, and were one ex pede to measure 202 ThIE CKOSS AND THE DRAGON. His greatness or make faint attempt thereto, how the world, for one day at least, would smile at his folly ! Morrison was one of those impracticable men, condemned by small economists, who had faith in labour, knowing that, if not to-day, yet at some future day it would produce its flowers and fruits and advantages. And so the young student in Chinese, in the quiet old rooms of Montagu House, plodded on, having smiling nymphs and goddesses to look down upon him from the ceilings, and a London Missionary Society to despatch him to the far ends of the earth at time appointed. Fifty years ago, or thereby, there was only one Englishman who knew a word of Chinese. Fifty years ago there was not a single Chinaman who understood English. The two races were effec- tively kept apart. In 1792, when Lord Macart- ney's embassy to China was appointed, not a man was to be found in England capable of accom- panying it in the quality of interpreter, and Sir George Staunton had to travel to Naples to engage the services of two young men, natives of China, then studying in the Missionary College there. The language of China, and the immense diflS- THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 203 culty of acquiring it, has been the grand obstacle to both commercial and missionary enterprise in that country on the part of Europeans. It has no relation, not the slightest analogy, to any other language. It is obnoxious to every gram- matical form and logical sequence of thought. The nouns have neither number, gender, nor case. The verbs have neither persons nor tenses, nor singular nor plural. The same word is sometimes a noun, a pronoun, an adverb, and a conjunction. The radical syllables are only four hundred in number, and the characters representing them can soon be learned; but these are combined, com- pounded, and multiplied to such an enormous extent that a lifetime may be spent in endea- vouring to acquire a knowledge of them. A European must have resided in China some four or five years, at the least, and must have been very diligent, before he can converse with the natives in the spoken language, which also differs in every province ; so that the Chinese of Fo-kien would not be intelligible at Pekin, nor that of Shanghai at Canton. Every word, too, runs through a kind of gamut, changing its significa- tion with every tone, and demanding great care on the part of the speaker in his pronunciation. 204 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGOK. lest, in intending to compliment a person, he may apply to him an epithet anything but compli- mentary. A missionary once was told that the word shoo signified a book. He concluded, in his simplicity, that whenever he fell in with this expression it would signify the same thing : but it was not long before he discovered that it also signified a tree ; and here his knowledge did not terminate. Shoo, according to its intonation, became, not only a book and a tree, but also great heat, daybreak, rain, love, a tale, a lost wager, and much besides. The language, at a former period, would appear to have been in a much worse condition. Under the reign of the three families Hia, Chang, and Tcheou, the characters had increased so much, and were also so disfigured, that Confucius complains « of it in his " Book of Sentences," there being no less than seventy ways of saying the same thing. The emperor Siuen-vang, of the Tchou dynasty, named a commission to purify the language. From the gigantic labours of the members re- sulted the grand Chou-ven dictionary, which is always consulted by the Chinese. In Morrison's ^ dictionary there are 12,674 characters all distinct from each other, and all THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 205 having different meanings, and yet 411 syllabic combinations in Roman characters represent them all. There are probably above two thousand distinct sounds in the language ; but the Chinese do not or cannot avail themselves of this number, there being about a thousand only actually in use. There are two hundred and twelve characters in Morrison's dictionary all called che ; one hundred and thirteen called ching ; one hundred and thirty-eight called foo ; one hundred and sixty- five called cMh; and no less than 1165 called, or pronounced, e. In the written language one che or ching may be known from another che or ching, and one e may be known from the remaining 1164; but in the spoken language, if one person is talking with another, it requires great dexterity and the frequent assistance of synonymes before he can make it clear which of the numerous es, chings, or fous he is really using. Everything depends upon the position of a word and its intonation, a matter of great diffi- culty to a European. At the same time, there does not appear to be any fixed rule for the transposition of words. One has to study every word and every phrase, as the slightest mistake in the position of a word would make the sen- 206 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. tence unintelligible to nine in every ten China- men. Books render the learner no assistance in this difficulty, for the reason given. A person may learn to read and understand any book, but may not be able to recognise it when it is read to him by another. A scholar may produce a work of great purity and elegance, and yet get into a perplexity when he has to converse about the most trifling subject. If we consider that the same word may not only have many mean- ings, but also contrary meanings, according to the intonation given to it, it is not to be wondered at if even native Chinese sometimes misunderstand one another, and take refuge in writing to make themselves mutually intelligible. There is this advantage, in the written language of China, that,, though the native of one province may not with his tongue be able to make himself understood by the native of another province, he can always make himself understood with his pencil; and there are few Chinese, even of the very lowest grades, who cannot both read and write. Not only in China, but also in Tong- king, Thibet, Cochin-China, and Japan, the same characters signify the same things ; and the natives of these countries, unintelligible to each THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 207 other viva voce, can communicate by means of writing. But the Chinese, though fertile in written signs, is by no means a fertile language, and will always present great difficulty to the missionary, as it cannot fully express the spiri- tuality of the Christian religion. The present bishop of Victoria describes it as unwieldy, difficult, and ill-adapted to express religious ideas. It is not the language of pre- cision ; it leaves the reader to supply a variety of intermediate ideas, and imposes long labour on the mind, because the propositions and the ideas are isolated. One, in reading, has often to pause to catch the meaning of the ideographic expres- sion. Du Halde says of the Chinese style that it is mysterious, concise, allegorical, and sometimes obscure to those who have not a perfect know- ledge of the characters. One must be well versed in these, not to be mistaken in reading a writing. The Chinese say much in a few words. They compare their compositions to a picture. A great authority, William Von Humboldt, says: " It does not express the thought, but contents itself with suggesting it." Father Pareninn, another great authority on the Chinese language, says of it : "I thought, at first, that the Chinese was the 208 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. richest language in the whole world; but the greater my progress in it was, the more I became convinced that in all the world there is none so poor in expression. The Chinese have more than 60,000 written characters; yet they cannot ex- press nearly so much as we can with our European languages. Every word has its parti- cular letter, or hieroglyphic sign. Fancy only into what confusion our tongues would fall if every word, every noun, every verb, &c., were to be denoted by special characters! Still greater would be the confusion if we were to attempt to represent by hieroglyphic signs the di"fferent terms peculiar to the arts and sciences. What time and labour it would cost to study all these different signs ! Yet such is just the case with the Chinese language." Of these numerous characters, some are simple, and some compound. Generally speaking, they are compounded hieroglyphics, and derive their sense and meaning by points or small strokes to the right or left. This is particularly the case in writing on learned or imaginative subjects ; for the number of radical syllables is only 411, each of which has five different inflections, correspond- ing to our long and short vowel system, thus MORRISON'S STUDIES. 209 bringing the'number of elementary characters to about 2055. Yet this language, so rich ap- pai"ently, is so poor in reality that it has not a single sign to express the fundamentals of Occi- dental philosophy or of Christian doctrine; and the missionaries have been obliged to invent an alphabet of their own to communicate a know- ledge of religious verities to the natives. To conquer all the difficulties of this language, to be able to speak in it, and to write it with elegance and precision, Robert Morrison left England in 1807. To reach China he had to proceed to the United States : for in those days no one could proceed to China in an English vessel without special permission from the East India Company ; and as missionary labours in the East were regarded by the magnates of Leadenhall Sti-eet with no very favourable eye, this permission would have been denied him. He reached Canton in September, 1808, and soon after set to work upon his great labour — the translation of the Bible. Like the Jesuit fathers' in one respect, he assumed in Canton, at first, the Chinese costume and adopted several Chinese customs. He cultivated a tail of respectables length, allowed his finger nails to grow to the 210 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGOK. canonical standard, and became dexterous in the use of chopsticks at his meals. His frock was of the most approved cut, and his shoe soles of orthodox thickness. But he found out in time that dining with the natives did not greatly increase his knowledge of the language, and that a long tail and long nails, with the Chinese frock and clumsy shoes, lent no talismanic aid in de- cyphering a strange character. All were con- sequently laid aside. He was extremely econo- mical, and pursued his studies in a miserable hovel, shielding his solitary lamp at night from the wind with a volume of Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible set upon its edge. His health suffered from intense application, and he was obliged to proceed to Macao, where, however, he was obliged to remain in a manner hidden, on account, it is said, of the Koman Ca- tholic priesthood. His progress in the language gained by "plodding on," to use his own expression, was at last so marked that, on his marriage day, and as he was on the point of removing to Pinang, for economical reasons, he received the appointment of translator to the British factory at Canton. The duties at the commencement MORRISONS APPOINTMENT. 211 were extremely arduous, but he persevered and fulfilled them all with great fidelity and much advantage to British commerce; and so highly were his services esteemed, that, on the repre- sentations of the British merchants in China, his appointment was confirmed by the East India Company with an augmented salary. After being only two years in the country, his facilities in the language were such that he observes in a letter : " I continued there (in Canton) till March, carrying on a discussion with the Chinese government respecting the alleged murder of a Chinaman, and obtained great eclat by the public examination of the witnesses; everybody was astonished that, in two years, I should be able to write the language and converse in the man- darin and vulgar dialects." Dr. Morrison's missionary labours were not of a dazzling and heroic order. He made no bold ventures among the rabble, and never threw himself into the gaping jaws of the dragon. He acted upon the advice given to the seventy, and was wise and harmless. His mission was explo- ratory, less to preach than to feel his way; treading cautiously as upon broken glass, but paving a high road, at the same time, for less 212 THE CROSS AND THE DBAGON. encumbered followers. Where exhortation could be given with safety to both speaker and hearer, he gave it. He acted as if he had felt that there was no necessity to make the cross a stumbling- block or a snare. He was the servant, too, of a body of men who were jealous of missionary labours, , and who were not inclined to risk the value of a bale of silk for a homily upon the Beatitudes, to be read by the porters of Canton. Once he was almost on the point of being suspended from his, duties as interpreter to the British Factory; but his prudent, manly, and, at the same time. Christian reply to the East India Company procured his undisturbed posses- sion of office. When, in 1834, the East India Company's trade with China terminated, after a continuance of two hundred years. Dr. Morrison was appointed by Koyal Commission secretary and interpreter to the British Embassy at Canton, under Lord Napier, an employment which he filled with his usual energy, skill, and fidelity ; but, alas ! only for a very brief period. He died in the August of the same year. His son succeeded him in his responsible situation, which he held, with credit to himself and advantage to his counti^y, until fever cut him off" in the prime of his life nine THE CHINESE DICTIONAKY. 213 years afterwards. Sir Robert Peel spoke- the panegyric of both father and son in the House of Commons, expressing his belief that, in the whole range of the public service, two men could not be found more remarkable for high character, fidelity, and ability. Besides his share in the translation of the Scriptures, Dr. Morrison laboured for thirteen years upon his Chinese dictionary, which, was published in 1822, iii six large quarto volumes, at an expense of 15,000?., which was defrayed by the East India Company, who placed the entire edition at the author's disposal, for his own benefit. Besides his Chinese dictionary, he compiled a Chinese- grammar. These two labours have not only conferred a boon upon European philolo- gists, but have also paved the way for extended missionary labours. Until now, the English and Chinese were as dumb in each other's presence ;' now, they first became articula,te and mutually intelligible. Nor must we omit, in the catalogue of Dr. Morrison's useful and honourable labours, his establishment of a dispensary for the benefit of poor natives, and his foundation of the Anglo- Chinese College, wherein Chinese children are instructed in the English language and the learn- P 3 214 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. ing of Europe, and the children of English residents are instructed in the Chinese tongue. This is the surest method of introducing Western civilisation into Europe, and propagating sound views of Christian truth ; and it is gratifying to know that the Church of England Mission in China is acting upon a similar principle. In giving this emphasis to the name of Dr. Morrison, it must not be supposed that he was alone and unsupported, and that others had not entered into the same field of labour. His name occurs first, as being the first Englishman who entered China to teach Christianity to its idolaters, and as the man who, by his philological powers, opened the gate for his countrymen to enter into the Chinese mind. But there are other names that deserve honourable mention as pioneers ; such as Milne, and Medhurst, and Giitzlafij and some whose praise it would yet be premature to speak. For nine years, Morrison had a valuable col- league in Dr. Milne, who assisted him in his translation of the Scriptures, and who laboured abundantly in writing religious books for the edification of the Chinese. Milne was a native of Aberdeenshire, and, conceiving a desire to be employed as a missionary, was recommended to the London Missionary Society when quite a DB. MILNE. 215 young man. His rustic appearance when he ap^ peared before the local Board of Examiners, gave small promise of the mettle of the inner man. He was approved of, and sent to Gosport to be instructed further by the celebrated Dr. Bogue. His destination was China, where he arrived in 1813. The jealousy of the Portuguese authorities of Macao would not permit him to reside there, and Malacca became the chief scene of his mission. Englishmen, at this time, were wasting their lives and spending their treasures for Portugal, whose officials refused the hospitality of a roof to the solitary missionary. Under Dr. Morrison, Milne became an able Chinese scholar, and was ulti- mately his useful assistant in translating the Scriptures. Morrison translated the whole of the New Testament. Milne translated the historical books of the Old Testament and the Book of Job — no small share of the whole ; and Morrison translated the remainder. The talents of Dr. Milne were great and various, and his labours were of the same kind. In Malacca his first care was to open a school, which he did, with only five scholars. He after- wards laboured most usefuUy in the Anglo- Chinese College. He visited Batavla, Java, P 4 216 THE CKOSS AND THE DRAGON. Siam, and various islands of the Indian Archi- pelago, distributing New Testaments and religious books, and instructing the natives orally when he had opportunity and could make himself under- stood. He ran many risks, encountered not a few dangers, and suffered no small amount of afflic- tion ; but nevertheless he persevered under dis- couragement, and surmounted many obstacles by prudence and patience. The spiritual gains of the Protestant mission- aries had hitherto been mean, compared with those of the Catholics. Conversion is a slow process, and, when it grows with the growth of the oak, it has the oak's duration. It was seven years before Dr. Morrison baptized his first convert. He, and all who have been trained in the same faith, demand some evidence of newness of life before they impose the seal which admits the convert into the Church of Christ. Dr. Mor- rison thus describes his first administration of the rite of baptism, to a Chinese named Tsae-a-ko, who had previously made a satisfactory profession : "July 16th, 1814. — At a spring of water issuing from the foot of a lofty hill, by the wayside, away from human observation, I baptized, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the person XHE riRST BAPTISM. 217 whose character and profession I have already- given." This Tsae-a-ko maintained the profes- sion of the gospel until his death. Other con- verts were subsequently baptized, but in a very infinitesimal ratio to the converts made by baptism by the Catholic missionaries during the same time. The baptism of Leang-kung-fah, printer to the Mission, by Dr. Milne, deserves special notice, and for the following reasons : — Too much is expected in Protestant England of a missionary in foreign parts. He is rarely accompanied by such gift of tongues as enables him to become eloquent or impressive among heathens. He has to contend with a strange climate, strange customs, and a stranger people. And yet, with his warrant from some mission- house, and his New Testament, he is expected to break down or ride rough-shod over the pre- judices- of a heathen, people at once. He is expected in his reports to show repeated progress, in the salvation of souls. As fame is dependent upon success, and a mission is prized and sup- ported in proportion to the number of native converts made, the missionary has every tempta- tion thrust before him, to, cause him to act disin- genuously, and to magnify his labours where his 218 THE CEOSS AND THE DEAGOK. accounts are beyond the reach of audit. Again, a sensible missionary may readily be taxed, in dealing with the natives of distant countries, with temporising and sacrificing principle to expediency. This was the cry brought against the Jesuit missions by the church of Eome itself. It is the cry of all who live at home at ease against any confession or denomination, and who cannot weigh the difficulties that flesh and blood have to contend with in remote places and among a barbarous people. Fireside valour will never go to the stake. Now, in the case of the printer Leang-kung-fah, his desire was to be baptized exactly at twelve o'clock, " when the shadow inclines neither one way nor the other." And here Dr. Milne speaks like a sensible man. " What his view was in fixing upon this precise time," he remarks, " I cannot tell ; but I suppose it arose from that superstitious regard to ' times ' which prevails so generally among the Chinese. I told him, God had not distinguished one hour from another, and that he, as a disciple of Christ, must regard every day and hour alike, except the Sabbath, which is to be devoted especially to God. Aware that some superstitious attachments may, for a con- TEMPORISING, WHAT? 219 siderable time, hang about the first converts from paganism, and that it is in the church, and under the ordinances thereof, that these attachments are to be entirely destroyed, I did not think it ad- visable to delay administering the initiatory ordinance." Upon another occasion. Dr. Milne took the same sensible view of matters. It has been stated that he opened a school at Malacca. In this act it was necessary to consider Chinese prejudices — it was necessary to ascertain whether the opening was a lucki/ day. The Chinese have a Mathematical Board, whose duty it is to point out in the Imperial Calendar the lucky and unlucky days throughout the year. " In addition to this," observed the native teacher, " it is cus- tomary to give the children a cake (literally, a heart-opening cake), to expand their minds and secure their progress in learning." Milne was naturally surprised at such absurdities, but knew that it would then have been folly to have opposed them. He opened his school, trusting to the efficacy of its lessons to dispel such delu- sions. By bending also a little to the prejudices of the people, he was enabled to introduce Chris- tian books into his school. Let no Catholic say 220 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGOX. that here was Protestant craft and cunning : let no Protestant bring a railing accusation against the Catholic under similar circumstances. Milne was a fine specimen of a man actuated by Christian motives to pursue his duty with zeal, whose native enthusiasm is tempered with pru- dence, and whose lessons in the gospel have been to bear with human weakness and to woo mankind from darkness to light, and from the wrong to the right, with meekness, gentleness, and long- suffering. He died in 1822. A son walks honourably in his footsteps in China, at the present time.* * See Ellis'a History of the London Missionary Society, vol. i. London, 1844, for a full account of the Protestant Mission in China. GUTZLAFF. 221 CHAPTER XVI. GiitzlaflP. — Birtli and Education.— Early Desire to become a Missionary. — Studies at Berlin. — Arrives at Rotterdam. — His Powers as a Linguist. — Adopted into a Chinese J'amily. — Passes into the Interior of China as a Steers- man. — The Physician and Tract Distributor.— Formosa. — Japan. — Interpreter to English Government; — His Character. — Progress of Christianity. — What of Reli- gious Tracts? — Characters of the Chinese as given by Missionaries. — Are they Atheists? — What Share has Christianity in the present Insurrection. Another name cannot be passed over in con- nection with Protestant missions in China ; that of Charles Giitzlaff, who has been called by some " the apostle of China." No doubt he saw much of China, and preached more in that country than any of his contemporaries ; and it may readily be admitted that he was an, apostle, as Morrison, Milne, and others were apostles: but, great as were his labours, the glories of the apostolate were not all his own. Charles Frederick Augustus Giitzlaff was born on the 8th July, 1803, in Pyritz, a small 222 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. town in Prussian Pommerania.* He was the only son of John Jacob Giitzlaff, a tailor; " a man," says the biographer of his son, *'of brave morals and of a God-fearing walk." At the age of four years he was deprived of a mother's cares and a mother's instructions; and being shortly thereafter placed under the affectionate rule of a step-mother, who not only did much to afflict his body, but to destroy that joyousness of soul so natural to a child, he felt his orphan condition the more bitterly. When a boy be was a very diligent scholar, and found in the rector of his academy a most able teacher, under whom his progress was rapid. It was from receiving from a merchant some copies of the "Basle Magazine," containing accounts of missionary labours, and from hearing a discourse upon missionary enterprise, that he first resolved, in 1818, to dedicate himself to the work of an Evangelist among the heathen. Mean- while the efforts of his father and his teachers * These biographic particulars are taken from a small Dutch work, entitled, " Giitzlaff, de Apostel der Chinezen, door G. R. Erdbrink. Rotterdam, 1850." A biography of Giitzlaff will be found in the "Literary Gazette" for October, 1851. GUTZLAFF STUDIES AT BERLIN. 223 were vainly applied to procure for him the office he so greatly coveted. An accidental circum- stance did that for him, two years afterwards, which the zeal of his friends had failed to achieve. The king of Prussia visited Stettin, when Giitzlaff and a companion addressed him In an ode of welcome, which so pleased the monarch that he cared for the subsequent education of both the youths. Gutzla,ff was sent to the Mis- sionary Institute of Berlin, at the head of which Janicke then presided. A German missionary at Madras had written home for assistance, and it was this that determined the king to send Giitzlaff out in that capacity. At the age of eighteen the young scholar came to Berlin, where he pursued his studies with great diligence, and soon won the regard of his professors. After a residence of eighteen months in the Institute, it was proposed to him that he should attend the University in order to qualify himself for a teacher in the academy where he had himself been taught. At this time he was seized with a severe illness, just at the time when the Netherlands Missionary Society made inquiry at Janicke's Institute for some youths to go forth as mis- 224 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. sionaries. The choice fell upon Giitzlaff, among others, and the effect of the unexpected news upon his health was his rapid recovery, much to the astonishment of his physician, who ex- claimed, " God has done this ! " His first destination was Rotterdam, where he arrived, with two other young men destined also as missionaries, in June, 1823. The directors of the Netherlands Missionary Society soon found in him a youth of zeal and ability ; and here he was farther educated to acquit himself as a mis- sionary. His intention to proceed to Malacca or the islands of the Indian Archipelago was almost exchanged, at one time, for the desire to go as a preacher to Greece, which at that time attracted general attention. In the mean while he visited Paris and London. In the latter city he made the acquaintance of Dr. Morrison, then on a visit to England, a circumstance which strongly tended to direct his views towards China. At this time he was in his twenty-first year only. The time at length arrived when he should enter upon his labours. At a general meeting of the Netherlands Missionary Society held at Rot- terdam, in July, 1826, Giitzlafi; with other mis- sionaries, was appointed to go forth to teach GUTZLAFF AN ADOPTED CHINAMAN. 225 heathen people, and received from the president the ensign of his mission — a Bible. Shortly after he embarked for Batavia, which he reached in January, 1827. Here he became acquainted with Dr. Medhurst, and applied himself diligently to the study of the Malay and Chinese languages, which. latter he acquired a knowledge of in an incredibly short space of time. Indeed, his gift in acquiring Oriental languages was most wonderful. He acquired the tone and accent of a native, and his facility in the Chinese language was such that he was considered by some as a native.. A mandarin asserted to M. Callery that GiitzlafF was the son of a mandarin who had sailed to Europe, so perfect was his mastery of the Chinese tongue; but his singularly Oriental or Sinese features no doubt contributed to this illusion. His destination as a missionary was Sumatra ; but, war breaking out on that island, he resided, during 1827 and the early part of 1828, either at Singapore or on Riouw. Here his desire to enter China ripened more and more. "With this view he had himself adopted into the Chinese family of Koe, adopted the Chinese costume, and, in the guise and with the tongue of a Chinam&,n, Q 226 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. prepared to carry the gospel into the empire. But before he carried out this project, he went to Siam, and settled at Bancock, in order to learn more of the various dialects of China. Here he exercised, also, the profession of a physician, which brought him more in contact with the people. With advice and medicine, he dispensed religious tracts and ghostly counsel, and found the Siamese as anxious to read and learn as the Chinese. Many junks from China arrived at Bancock, and these gave him opportunities of conversing with the sailors and of sending books and tracts to China. By all these opportunities he im- proved his knowledge of the native languages ; and, notwithstanding his other duties, found time to translate the New Testament and most of the historical books of the Old into the Siamese tongue. In order to found type for the printing of this translation he went to Singapore in 1829, and from thence to Malacca. Here he married Mary Newell, an Englishwoman as we should judge by the name, a woman of great worth, and by her advice he returned to Siam, with the steadfast intention of proceeding speedily to China, and of reaching Kiang-nam as steersman of a GUTZLAPF AS A STEERSMAN. 227 junk. But an opportunity occurring of trans- lating the Scriptures into the Cambodian and Laooish languages, he tarried in Siam for a time, alternating, with philological studies, the dis- tributing of tracts and the preaching in junks. Here he lost his partner; here he was overpowered with grief, and overcome with sickness, and almost wavered in his intention of entering China. The native captains, fearing the authorities, hesitated, moreover, to take him as a passenger. GiitzlaiF succeeded at length in getting a passage to Tien-chin, a large commercial place near Pekin. In June, 1831, he went on board a Chinese junk as second steersman. He had then been three years in Siam. He had encountered there difficulties of every description, and had repeatedly found himself opposed by hostile spirits ; but nothing could turn him aside from his intentions. He had written in four different languages enough to form the labour of a life. He had approved himself, in short, a sturdy workman and an honest untiring labourer. Clad in the dress of China, speaking its lan- guage fluently, taking the name of Shih-lae, and being well provided with books and medicine, the bold missionary entered his junk to act as a sailor. Q 2 228 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. After touching at various places where he had an opportunity of distributing books, and after ex- periencing many dangers, hardships, and ill-treat- ment, from the sailors especially, on account of his weak state of health, he reached at the end of sixty days the town of Tien-chin, a place within two days' journey of Pekin. Here he was welcomed as the seen-sang (doctor, or teacher) by many who had formerly known him from having received his medicines or books, and who were rejoiced that he had escaped from the land of the barbarians to place himself under the shield of the Son of Heaven and to become a true subject of the Celestial kingdom. He had plenty of practice as a physician among both rich and poor, and it was not long before his medicine chest was emptied. His tracts went as rapidly as his physic had gone, and then he had nothing to give away but pious counsel. It has been stated by the Jesuits that he proselytised as a vendor of haberdashery, with the yard measure in one hand and the Bible in the other. If he had done so, he did no disgrace to his vocation. Paul did not preach the less efficaciously because he was a tentmaker. To the Tien-chin people, Giitzlaff was a person gutzlaff's voyages. 229 of no small curiosity. One speculative individual made an offer to the captain of the junk to purchase him for a good round sum, in order to exhibit him. After a stay of some time here, he departed laden with proofs of the satisfaction of the inhabitants, and under a promise to visit them the following year. He did not venture to proceed to Pekin on this occasion, as he had yet to acquire the dialect of the province. The voyage was now continued to the boundaries of Mantchoo-Tartary, He touched among other places at Kinschou, near the projecting angle of the wall that divides China from Tartary, and from thence made the homeward voyage, which was no less perilous than had been the outward. He left the junk at Shan-wei in the province of Canton, and from there took a boat which con- veyed him to Macao. He next embarked on an English vessel as interpreter, surgeon, and chaplain, and made a voyage, along the coasts of China, to the Island of Formosa, the northern parts of the Corea, and the Loo-choo islands, joining the missionary to the physician, and dis- tributing Bibles and tracts. In a third voyage which he undertook in 1832 he was shipwrecked, and almost frozen to death. Q S 230 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. The vessel was subsequently rescued, and pro- ceeded on her voyage. He touched at Cha-poo, a place where an extensive trade is carried on between Japan and China, and availed himself of the opportunity to send Bibles into the interior. On his return from this voyage he erected a press, and had a font of 60,000 types, at Canton, and commenced the publication of a Chinese periodical which had a great circulation. In 1834 he sailed once more to Formosa. His journeys and voyages were indeed numerous. His constant saying was, "I must work while it is day." In 1837 he attempted a long-conceived design of entering Japan. He thought he had now a favourable opportunity, In taking over seven stranded Japanese to the emperor of the island, in the hopes of thus finding an open road into the interior. He was disappointed. As the ship on which he was on board neared Jeddo, the capital, she was welcomed with bullets and obliged to proceed to Satzuma. The reception here was rather better; but in a few days a hostile spirit began to manifest itself, and six batteries opened fire upon the vessel, which was again obliged to leave flie coast. He returned gutzlaff's character. 231 safely to Macao, and was again immersed in missionary labours. In 1842 Giitzlaif was employed by the English authorities as an interpreter, during the negociation of the peace of ISTankin, and now he saw new opportunities opened up for him of preaching the gospel. His civil employments under the English government did not deprive him of the spirit of the missionary. No worldly temptation could have weaned his heart from China, which, after the death of a second wife, he called his " bride." " Had they made him viceroy of Canton, or even emperor of China," wrote one who knew him well, "he would still have been a missionary." As a civilian he was incorruptible. When, in 1849, he was about to make a voyage to England, the merchants of Hong-kong, where he had resided since the peace, presented him with an address, wherein, among other testimonies to his high character, they state: "His official character has been spotless as water; and not a cash has he received as a bribe," a compliment all the more valuable, seeing that the Chinese, in general, hold bribery as a very venial offence. After his return from England, GiitzlafF continued to reside in the Q 4 232 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. newly founded city of Victoria, where he closed a useful and honourable life, on the 9 th of August, 1851, in his forty-eighth year. The greatest tribute to his memory is to know that his fame is in all the churches. In addition to those employed by the London Missionary Society, there are American and Dutch Protestant missionaries employed in dif- ferent parts of China. None of the five ports open to British trade is without missionaries speaking the English language. In 1844 the Church Missionary Society first sent out mission- aries, and has at present three stations. All reports to the parent societies, whether in Eng- land or abroad, represent their agents as being actively engaged. Besides European mission- aries, there were, in 1849, 212 native preachers of the Protestant persuasion. Since the Chinese printing presses were erected, the number of Bibles, books, and tracts that have been printed and distributed has been enormous. Prior to the year 1836, according to Mr. Medhurst, 751,763 books and tracts had been printed, including upwards of 2000 complete Chinese Bibles, nearly 10,000 Testaments, and 31,000 portions of the Scriptures. Since that time, though the London PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 233 Missionary Societies' printing operations in Canton have been discontinued, and the returns from the other stations are incomplete, 239,610 books and tracts have been printed, making a total (in 1844) of 991,373 publications in Chinese and Malay, but chiefly in the former language. This is exclusive of the productions of the presses under the direction of the missionaries sent out by the American churches.* In spite of all these flattering statistics, it is diflicult to believe that much has yet been done in the evangelisation of China. Indeed, it would be unreasonable to expect much, seeing that fifty years have not yet elapsed since the first Pro- testant missionary set foot on China, and, until the opening of the five ports, missions were confined to Canton, Macao, or Malacca. Even now the Protestant missionary stands only upon the outskirts of the empire. He dare not pene- trate the interior ; and, if he could, he must be as a dumb man, from his ignorance of the dialects of the various provinces. He may indeed distribute Testaments and tracts, and these may be read, and, in some directions, are read with great » Ellis's History, vol. i. p. 577. 234 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGOKT. avidity ; but possibly they make no more impres- sion upon the Chinese mirid, than a Hindoo treatise on the doctrine of Bramah or Siva would make upon a Christian mind. They must often be regarded as mere literary curiosities. It would be the height of presumption to say that no good has been done by these means. The Deity works in silence, and finds his way into the heart by inlets hid from human eye. The reports of the missionaries are often conflicting, and often written in a tone of despondency which adds to the difficulty of judging whether the gospel really makes progress in China. Of the Catholic missions an opinion has already been expressed. Respecting the distribution of books, we find, in the last report of the Religious Tract Society, Dr. Hobson, its agent at Canton, writing thus : *'I am truly grieved to say that I cannot send you pleasing and encouraging accounts of any apparent good resulting from the distribution of your tracts. This, as well as every other kind of missionary labour among the Chinese, seems, at present, like casting bread upon the waters, to be gathered up some future day ; at least, as regards much visible and appreciable change upon the minds and hearts of this idolatrous people. It is WHAT OF RELIGIOUS TRACTS? 235 painful to hear such tidings : how much more so to the missionary to be obliged to write them from year to year?" The same gentleman in another place states : " Kepeated evidence has been afforded to us that the religious books and tracts distributed in the public streets and shops of this city are treated with great disrespect. They are no doubt despised on the ground of teaching foreign, and therefore useless and un- palatable, doctrines. They are usually condemned at once, or set aside after inspection of the title- page ; and if the distributor be a native, he is often insulted with opprobrious language." It is not difficult to believe this, seeing the con- tumely the religious tract often receives at home. We suspect, too, that the style of the literature is in general too far below the standard of elegance, to be acceptable to the Chinese reader in general, whose taste is rather fastidious. We doubt not but that the bishop of Victoria is right on this subject, where in his last report he states : " There are few books composed by foreigners in Chinese, which contain much beyond what is elementary and superficial. Lengthened obser- vation and experience lead me to believe that few missionaries will be found able to convey, until 236 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. after many years' study of the language, in- struction, in the higher departments of theology and science, to those who must become the future evangelists of their country." His lordship, in a previous portion of the same document, makes a statement which is abundantly supported from other quarters : " Native converts from heathenism are very weak, require constant supervision, and need our earnest prayers. It is not easy to expect immediately all the fruits of the spirit in full bloom in the Chinese character, even when rescued from the evil influences of paganism, and brought under the power of Divine grace. Our greatest hope is in our youths, for raising an effective native ministry. Adult Chinese cannot ordinarily be brought beyond a certain point in theological attainments. Their language is unwieldy, difficult, and ill-adapted for expressing and conveying spiritual ideas. It is difficult to hope that any nation with such a language as the Chinese, can become even intel- lectually great. We hope much from the teaching of English to the better and more promising class of Chinese youths." In the course of the foregoing pages the writer has more than once expressed a doubt whether MISSIONAEIES ON THE CHINESE. 237 the Chinese mind is greatly open to religious impressions — whether, indeed, the religious senti- ment is more than barely developed in his being. This doubt is strengthened by the statements of both Catholic and Protestant missionaries. Both speak of his great timidity, and of the slight hold that Christianity has upon him. That mission- aries labour among such a people and are not more discouraged than they seem to be, is truly surprising. They indeed hope against hope. " The Chinese," observes Dr. Milne, " spend the whole day in hard labour ; and their evenings are very commonly devoted to gambling where that ruinous practice is permitted. When a few persons came to hear, it was no easy matter to fix their attention. Some would be talking ; others laughing at the newness of the things spo'ken ; others smoking their pipes ; others coming in and going out, as they act in the temples of their own gods, before which nothing like reverence is ever seen. They did these things, it was be- lieved, more from habit or ignorance, than from intentional disrespect to the word of God ; but the difficulty to the speaker was nearly the same. The few, indeed, who attended regularly became, after a short time, remarkably decorous and 238 THR CROSS AND THE DRAGON. attentive. But this can never be expected at first."* Milne's complaint of the levity of the China- man, is the complaint made against him down to the present hour. Mr. M'Clatchie, the first church missionary sent to China, in his last report thus writes of these people : " As to respect for their own religion, they have none. Even in their temples they will laugh at and ridicule their idols, and the next moment bow down before them. Nothing appears to make any impression upon their minds : they appear to be thorough atheists, ... If I speak with them, — in their temples, their houses, or their streets, — they assent to everything I say. It seems impossible to rouse them into any opposition to the truth. I have now been more than six years among them, and I have only met with two individuals who have entered into discussions with the missionary in defence of idolatry." Very much more to the same effect might be quoted from the reports of other missionaries. When the intelligence reached England that an extensive Insurrection had broken out in China, * Retrospect of the iMission in China, p. 165. CAUSES OF THE PRESENT INSURRECTION. 239 the astonishment was great ; when to this it was added that, with the overthrow of a dynasty, the insurrectionists contemplated the extension of Christianity, the astonishment was naturally greater ; and when to this was added the further intelligence that the rebels were Protestant, astonishment attained its climax. From all the evidence to the contrary that has yet reached Europe, we may be allowed to doubt whether there is a spiritual element at work in the insur- rection at all. Any traces of Christianity found amongst its leaders must be fortuitous. That Christian doctrines may be known to many in their ranks, is far from impossible. The hundreds of thousands of tracts and Bibles distributed in China must have communicated something new to many, must have given some knowledge of the letter of Christianity, without necessarily commu- nicating a particle of its power. In the hope of securing the neutrality of the British, — the formidable red-devils, — it may have been the policy of the insurgent leaders to profess a knowledge of Christianity ; but the complexion of the whole movement is too plainly political to admit of the supposition that it is animated by the faintest spark of religion. That the insurgents 240 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON, are of iconoclastic tendenciea dOes not even argue their hatred of idolatry, or their antipathy to Romanism, The destruction of idols is far from a new feature in Chinese rebellions. The pagoda which contains the tablet or portrait of a ruler of the existing dynasty, would naturally draw down upon it their vengeance. That Protestantism should be the animating principle of the revolt would require no less than a miracle for its pro- duction, and another miracle to attest the fact and to carry conviction. Protestantism, as already observed, stands hitherto upon the outer brim only of an immense empire. Its voice — if we except the case of Giitzlaff — has never yet been heard in the streets of the towns and villages of the interior ; and it was the policy of the missionaries from England, in the time of Milne at least, not to seek to make proselytes from one communion of the Christian church to another, nor needlessly to introduce a knowledge into the country of the religious differences that have vexed and divided Europe for centuries. Without the remotest wish to dogmatise re- specting an event about which our information is still far from complete, the writer may venture to suggest the secret societies of China as the real CAUSES OF THE PRESENT IKSUREECTION. 241 causes of the present movements. From one or other of these have sprung the chief and leaders of the insurrection ; from these they have derived their policy ; and by these their aims have been and are directed. The present phenomenon is only a repetition of phenomena that have startled and annoyed the governments of the empire of China, at various periods, during the last two centuries. Time only can reveal the issue of the present contention. E 212 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER XVII. Early Origin of Secret Societies. — Red Beards and White Jackets. — The Pe-lin-kioa. — The Adventures of Wang- lung. — Comedy and Tragedy. — Wang-fu-ling and his Amazons. — Water-lilies. — Family of the Queen of Heaven. — Troublesome Children. — The Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth. Secret societies in China, as in other countries, have had their origin sometimes in political circum- stances, and sometimes In the desire to maintain a craft, propagate a doctrine, or to advance some object of philanthropy. In China, however, they have long abounded, and can be traced back as far as the third century of the Christian era. They are entirely suited to the Chinese genius, which appears to delight in mysteries and enigmas, and to confound language and ideas for the sake of being able to unravel them again. They are suited to a people In whose character there Is nothing direct, but who seek the simplest ends by a ruse, or some needless piece of strategy. In many respects they have resembled those of RED BEARDS AND WHITE JACKETS. 243 Europe, having had their initiatory rites, oaths, signs, and pass-words. Those of a political cha- racter have always most abounded, especially under the present dynasty, which has ever been thoroughly detested by the Chinese. Frequent insurrections, traceable to secret as- sociations, took place during the reign of the cele- brated Khang-he, but were put down with a strong hand. Kien-long, in spite of all his watch- fulness, had often to send hia troops into the southern provinces, where the machinations of some political sect had fomented rebellions. In 1774 the province of Yu-nan, and the island of Hai-nan, rose in arms, and the neighbouring districts were ready to follow their example. The same year the north-eastern province of Chang-tong was the scene of a formidable insur- rection, which gave much occupation to the hang- man and headsman before it was suppressed. Some of the societies that have attracted the attention of the authorities, have been known as the Eed Beards, the White Jackets, the Short Swords, the White Water-lily, the Society of Glory and Splendour, the Sea and Land Society, and such like names, the coinage of Chinese fancy. The most formidable of these political sects, E 2 244 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. during the last century, was the Pe-lin-kiao. It engaged in revolutionary movements like those: that agitate the empire at present ; and, strange to say, the mandarins often confounded the Chris- tians with its members, mistook Christian ga- therings for meetings of the obnoxious society, and punished those found present as they would have punished the proper delinquents. The members of the Pe-lin-kiao had some other fea- tures resembling those found among the existing patriots or insurgents, — it may be premature to say which designation best suits them. The object of the Pe-lin-kiao was the over- throw of the Mantchoo-Tartar dynasty and the restoration of the Ming. The members relied upon a prophecy to the effect that one of their members would be emperor of China. Hence, in their private meetings, they gave their chief the title of Emperor and Son of Heaven, and invested him with every imperial honour and dignity. The originators of the rebellion in Chang-tong, of which mention has been made, were Wang-lung, one of the Pe-lin-kiao, and a bonze named Fan-ui. Their measures were guarded with such profound secresy that the conspirators were twelve thousand strong before the suspicions THE PE-LIN-KIOA. 245 of the magistrates were awakened. The Tsche- bien (judge or first magistrate) of the town of Shoo-chang'hien was the first who had intimation of what was going on, and took measures to ■capture Wang-lung before he could assemble his forces. One of the soldiers appointed to this duty happened also to be a Pe-lin-kiao, and gave timely warning to Wang-lung, his chief, of his danger. The latter instantly took his resolve, assembled in haste four thousand men, and marched down upon Shoo-chang-hien. The soldier who had warned him was sentinel on duty at the gate, and found means to admit him. Without noise, Wang-lung went down to the official residence, seized and slew the judge, and was immediately master of the place — a city of the third order only ; but its gain was something. To crush the mischief in its bud, one of the commanders of the district hastened forward; but he was a young man, who had never faced a foe : he gave himself no time to collect sufficient troops, and was consequently defeated* by Wang-lung without much trouble. Fear took hold of all the imperial court, Kien-long, the emperor, excepted. Not to increase the terror qf his subjects, he sent only two thousand men B 3 246 THE CROSS AND THE DKAGON. against the usurper, but communicated to the mandarin Choo-tag-in, who held command in the southern provinces, to advance upon Chang-tong. As soon as the rumour was circulated that the great Choo-tag-in was coming to the rescue, popular anxiety was set at rest. Wang-lung, meanwhile, proud of his first achievement, had himself proclaimed emperor, and forthwith began to nominate his princes, his grandees, and generals ; and his wives all became empresses and queens. He assumed all the insignia of the former dynasty, and, adding the feminine to the masculine gender of imperial dignity, became Father and Mother of his people. His next sensible proceeding was to empty the granjiries and public coffers of Shoo-chang, and then he proceeded towards Lien-ling, compelling, in his march, all males capable of bearing arms to enter his ranks. He reached Ling-tsing-choo, a city of the second rank. The citadel, which was without defence, opened its gates to him ; buf the Mantchoos, retiring within the new town, determined te defend themselves bravely. Wang- lung was determined to take the place by assaidt: he advanced against the fire of the defenders, but lost three hundred men, was himself wounded, and compelled to withdraw. COMEDY AND TRAGEDY. 247 History is silent as to what part of the pseudo- imperial person was wounded; but it is certain the imperial head was affected. Like a certain pretender of yore in our own country, he was fond of a little parade and ceremony. He did not advance upon Pekin, the London of China, as he should have done, but daUied with the follies of Ling-tsing-choo, its Carlisle. Here he gave great banquets ; here two troops of come- dians performed incessantly before his Majesty. If he left the comedy, it was to exhibit himself in the streets, clothed in his robes of state, — an Oriental grand monarch, — forgetting the proba- bility that Choo-tag-in would soon be in his neighbourhood; which, indeed, was soon the case, as, getting reinforcements from Pekin, he enclosed Wang-lung in a circle of troops from forty to fifty miles in circumference. The usual order of things is often inverted in China. In the camp of Wang-lung there was first the farce, then the comedy, and lastly came the tragedy. Hearing that the formidable man- darin was bearing down upon his quarters, he became savagely wild and killed all who came in his way, — old men, women, and children. His butcheries were of a character not easily to be E 4 248 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. described. But he was not so mad that he did not bethink himself of means of defence. Cast- ing a bridge of boats over the river, he passed it with all his troops to repulse the mandarin ; but scarcely had they come in sight of Choo-tag-in, before they took to their heels and scampered off in all directions. The emperor had given orders to take Wang- lung alive, in order, if possible, to learn the extent of his conspiracy ; but he, seeing the soldiers approaching, fled and took refuge in a cow-house. Choo-tag-in was hard upon his rear, and ordered eight brave warriors to seize him; and he would infallibly have been taken and bound, had not the priest Fan-ui come to his deliverance. His liberty was not of long dura- tion. Fan-ui was taken prisoner, and Wang-lung had barely time to enter the adjacent house before it was surrounded with the imperial troops. They would have dragged him out ; but, seizing a brand, the rebel chief set fire to the place, choosing rather to die than to fall into the hands of his enemies. He was known by the shape of his sabre, and by a silver bracelet which the bonze had given him with the assurance that while he wore it he would be invisible. In a TRAGEDY. 249 few days afterwards the rebellion was entirely repressed ; but not before one hundred thousand lives were lost, as it was computed. Seven-and- forty of the most distinguished rebels were led before the emperor, who interrogated them before ordering their execution. Among others was the bonze Fan-iii, who said : " You have to speak of your good fortune, emperor I I have sent a thousand of your men to hell, who will rise in time to accompany you to the chase ! Great indeed is your luck ! " Fan-ui, with the others, was hewn to pieces. The Mia-ot-see, an independent, haughty, high- land population, were exceedingly troublesome to Kien-long, and fell at length before his generals, as Chinese history hath it; but not more troublesome than the secret societies. In 1777 the Pe-lin-kiao again appeared, and again brought the authorities down upon the Christians. The character of their rebellion was given in the Pekin official Gazette by the viceroy of the province. The report ran : — " I, Cal-lin Tsong-tu of Shen-se, with reverence, lay the present memorial before your Majesty. The subject relates to a sect in Ho-tchoo. I was told that they held meetings and used certain 250 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. prayers. The mandarin of the place sent his bailiffs to check their disorder, but they were evilly entreated. I thought the matter of suffi- cient importance to go myself to the place, giving instructions to certain military mandarins to repair to the same point at the same time with soldiers. The rebellious sectaries were well armed. « On the 13th of the 11th month [12th Decem- ber], when we came to the heights of Ho-tchoo, the rebels were ranged in order of battle. On each side of their chief Wang-fu-ling stood a fanatical woman, with dishevelled hair, holding a naked sword in one hand and a standard In the other. They cried aloud to the evil genii and uttered fearful curses. We fired several times upon these rebels ; they came forward like madmen. At length we closed with them. The battle lasted about five hours, from three in the afternoon until about eight in the evening. Fifteen hundred were slain, and the rest taken prisoners. When I visited the field of battle I found the chief stretched on the ground and dead ; he wore a long dark garment, and had a mirror at his breast. The two women who stood by him were likewise killed in the battle ; one had a white, the THE FANATICAL WOMEN. 251 other a black, standard. I had the heads of these malefactors cut off and placed in cages for public inspection. I brought with me 552 prisoners. One oflScer, by name Yang-hoa-loo, distinguished himself gallantly, and received a wound in the forehead." This same viceroy of Shen-se had fallen upon a body of Christians the year before when they had met to celebrate Christmas eve with hymns and prayers. He suspected their relationship to the secret society, and sent them to Si-gan-foo, where several died in prison. To Kien-long succeeded, in 1800, the emperor Kia-king, to whom the Water-lilies were great plagues at different periods. They were perhaps a branch of the sect just mentioned, and extended into five great provinces, where in eight years' time their numbers are said to have risen to a million. In 1830 a sect was discovered in Pekin called the Wonderful Association. Its chief was , strangled, and his followers were banished. Another dangerous society was also discovered called the Tsing-lien-kiao, supposed to have been the Pe-lin-kiao under a new name. This society, too, cursed the emperor, and awaited the advent of a new god Fo under the name of Me-lee, who 232 THE CROSS AND THE DEA60N. is to make all crooked things straight. The members of this sect are said to have refrained from animal food, wine, garlic, and onions. They took fearful oaths to conceal their secrets from even their nearest relations. They met only at night, and in their meetings are said to have uttered fearful curses. But the one of all the secret societies the most dreaded, because the most dangerous, is the Thien- ti-hoi'h, sometimes known as the San-ho-hoih, and rejoicing in other aliases besides. Its chief seat is in the southern provinces of Caiiton and Fo-kien; and from these, as centres, it radiates throughout the empire, extends into the tributary provinces, — to Malacca, to Java, and to the Indian Archipelago. It has made its presence felt in diiferent direc- tions by organising conspiracies against existing governments, even in the Dutch settlements ; by open defiance to the authorities; by acts of piracy and plunder ; and by interfering with the course of justice, — tampering with witnesses and screening malefactors. Its objects are essentially political, being neither more nor less than, like its predecessors', the overthrow of the existing Mant- choo- Tartar dynasty and the restoration of the preceding Ming dynasty. FAMILY OP THE QUEEN OP HEAVEN. 253 It was under the reign of the emperor Kia- klng (1799—1820) that a secret brotherhood sprang up in China under the name of X. /P / ^ , Th'ien, Hauw, Hoi'h; that is, "The Family of the Queen of Heaven." It was a son called Triad Society, composed of the disaffected of all classes, and soon drew upon itself the atten- tion and the suspicions of the authorities. The members in their secret meetings abused the government, cursed the emperor — the Son of Heaven — and his paternal laws, and in their mys- teries laid the foundations of a coming kingdom in which the golden age of China was to be realised. In the eighth year of the emperor's reign an edict, with the usual inscription : " Shake and tremble when this you read and hear," was pro- mulgated through the provincial governors ; and shortly after the authorities reported to the court of Pekin, and, " with covered faces," gave the assurance that the dangerous Hoi'h had, root and branch, been " extirpated from the magnificent soil of the Celestial empire." But whether it was that the Celestial magis- trates were remiss in their duty or that evil seed grows apace, according to the proverb, i^ was not 254 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. long after before the emperor learned that the family of the " Heavenly Queen " still existed in great numbers in the neighbouring tributary states of Cochin China, Siam, and Corea, and that all the members formed a secret society which had its head-quarters in the southern provinces of the empire. Another imperial edict was issued, and a sterner one. It began: "Open your eyes and ears, shake and tremble, when this you read " — " Every corrupt limb of the Hoi'h shall be punished with brand-mark and cudgel-mark on the cheek. Done with the vermillion pencil, Kia-king." Whether the magistrates shook and trembled when they read the writing of the vermillion pencil is, of course, unknown ; but their reports, quickly returned to Pekin, " with thousandfold prayers, beneath the footsoles of the emperor," stated that " not even a single soul of the Hoi'h but had been rooted out of the celestial soil of the empire." Not a word was said about branding and cudgelling as preliminary and admonitory in- flictions. The zealous magistrates had gone to the root of the evil, and thoroughly destroyed the obnoxious family. The members of the Hoi'h, like the heroes of BROTHERHOOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 255 Valhalla, if slain in the morning came to life again in the evening. No sooner had the magis- _ trates retired before whose faces they had fallen as dead men, than straightway they rose again, under a new name. The Family of the Queen y^M,-^ of Heaven now became y^ f ^ > Th'ien, Ti, Hoi'h ; that is, « The Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth," a name signifying in Chinese the three powers of nature : Heaven, Earth, Family. The new name was happily chosen, as it had attractions for the rich as for the poor, and also for the literati; and the society grew with inconceivable rapidity. Heaven, earth, and family are the bases of Chinese philosophy and meta- physics, and to the humbler classes the mysterious name signified the equal right of all to participate in whatever the common father Heaven sends down, and the common mother Earth brings forth for all her children. Tao-kwang succeeded his father Kia-king, and frequently issued his edicts, beginning with the ominous words " Shake and tremble ! " against the " Heaven and Earth brotherhood" — the redoubt- able Triad Society. The Pekin Gazette of March, 1824, contains an imperial edict stating the dis- 256 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. covery of a secret society,; — a branch, no doubt, of the grand Hoi'h, — and the trial and condem- nation of its leaders. By reports presented to the Cabinet it appears that one Ma-tsin-chung, who is styled "a traitor," headed an unlawful association in the province of Chan-tong, and that he, with his associates, organised themselves into self-constituted ranks and grades of autho- rity, after the model of real officers of govern- ment. " They circulated," says the edict, " secret signals among themselves, and consulted together for the purposes of treason and rebellion. Their crime' has been enormous, and their wickedness of the deepest dye." Great numbers on this occasion were executed. And on other occasions the brotherhood played most disloyal pranks in different provinces, and gave much employment to the axe and the halter. The members of the "Heaven and Earth brotherhood" (they sometimes call themselves the Hong-kia, or " Flood family ") have many advan- tages. The Hoi'h has some features in common with European freemasonry. It relieves dis- tressed brethren ; and the magical gripe and pass- word instantly commend a hungry brother to the hospitality of his wealthier comrade. This en- ables the Hoi'h to spread itself abroad, and to THE GRIFFINS. 257 strike its roots into the most distant provinces of the empire, and, at the same time, renders it the more dangerous to all regular governments ; for, as already indicated, the brotherhood makes itself known and felt beyond the bounds proper of China, Chinese colonists from the hills of China ( Tang) are called Sin-kih, — literally, griffins; in civic parlance, Johnnie Raws. As soon as they arrive at any settlement, the brotherhood sends persons to invite them to join the confederacy. If they decline, they are forth- with persecuted ; but the advantages held out by the society are sufficient to entice and corrupt the strongest loyalty. Illustrative of the Hoi'h is a paragraph which appeared in the "Malacca Observer" of 1826, giving an account of an affray between certain Chinese and the inhabitants : — "There exists in China, and in all colonies where Chinese settle, a society, or brotherhood, the nature and object of which we shall explain below. A party of this society, about forty in number, principally composed of men from the plantations, were assembled at a Chinaman's house, in order to celebrate the anniversary of the birthday of one of their leaders, and after eating s 258 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. and drinking became very noisy and quarrelsome. The constable of police understanding this went in to quiet them, but met with a very uncere- monious reception, as one of the Chinese struck him with a stick over the eye. The constable, however, seized one of them, and brought him to the fiscal's house. The resident, on being told of the disturbance, came himself to the spot, attended by a small guard of peons. Entering the house, he seized a man pointed out by the constable, and delivered him over to the custody of the peons. On the following Saturday the four Chinamen were examined before the court : one of them was released ; the man who struck the constable was sentenced to two years' hard labour in irons, another to six months', and the other to three. " The Chinese may thank their stars for being dealt with so leniently ; for, had the circumstance taken place in China, and they known to be of the brotherhood, the whole body would have been seized and decapitated. The law in China against them is very severe. It is said that, last year (1825), a society to the amount of four hundred were apprehended and decapitated It is reported that the brotherhood are able to muster four thousand strong from the diiferent plantations SECRET SOCIETY PEESECI3TI0NS. 259 and tin mines. They carry on their plots and meetings with such secresy that for years the local government has never been able to discover any clue whereby to apprehend them or their leaders, of whom, it is said, there are now five. It is well known that several murders have been committed by them ; among which was one that occurred about two years ago, on the body of a Chinese barbei*. The murderer, it Is said, was seized, but, through the assistance of his brethren, effected his escape to the tin mines, without the Malacca district. Two of the leaders are also said to have hung up and beaten to death two unfortunate Chinese, who were suspected of treason towards the brotherhood. " An instance occurred a few months ago within our own knowledge, which fully convinces us of the nature of this society. A Chinese became ob- noxious to the chief leaders, on account of his taking part with the above-mentioned barber who was raurdered. Being at the tin mines at Loocoot, the leader fixed a price on his head, and, as mostly all the miners belong to this society, he became their marked object. Being apprised of their mur- derous designs, he contrived to make his escape, but not before notice was given to his enemies, who s 2 260 THE CROSS AKD THE DEAGON. had previously dug a pit in the pathway to prevent the accomplishment of his design. Being hard pressed by two or three of them armed with swords, he unfortunately fell into the pit, but, recovering himself by means of his arms, he was springing up again, when a man from behind made a deadly blow at his head, which, however, he avoided by dexterously inclining to one side. The blow fell on his arm, and made a deep gash between the wrist and the elbow. He neverthe- less got up, and after several more wounds, principally in his legs, finally escaped to Malacca. But even here he was not safe ; for the diabolical vengeance of the bandit followed bard upon him, and he was obliged to conceal himself most secretly for several months. He was ultimately enabled to escape the snares and malice of the brotherhood by being taken on board a vessel belonging to the East India Company." The chief leader for the time being of this branch society was one Kwang San. It was reported that, to make himself ferocious, he once drank gall taken out of a murdered man's body mixed with wine. He resided chiefly at the tin mines of Loocoot, where the brethren then swarmed. CHINESE ISHMAELITES. 261 Disturbances have occured within the empire and without the empire, which have had their origin in the Heaven and Earth brotherhood. In Malacca they are and have been regarded as Ishmaelites. Their hand is against every man, and there every man's hand has been against them. In 1828 the Malays attacked them and plundered their common treasure, in consequence of which they were unable to keep up the large house where they had been accustomed to hold their meetings. In September, 1834, they re- venged themselves upon the Malays by rising upon the inhabitants of Loocoot one rainy night, firing the houses and plundering and murdering every man, woman, and child they could lay hands upon. Many atrocities were committed, and much plunder was made, on this occasion. There can be no doubt that the numbers of those who belong to the Thien-Ti brotherhood are large, that they abound especially in the southern provinces, and that the society branches throughout the whole empire. They have often been confounded with the opium smugglers, and to some extent may have been identical. Imperial edicts, at all events, have denounced them in con- nection. The Hoi'h threatened the political S 3 262 THE CEOSS AND THE DRAGON. stability of the empire; the opium smugglers were sapping it morally and physically. We cannot suppose that European communist or socialist has ever placed foot on the illustrious soil of the Celestial empire, to preach his peculiar dogma and facile method of easing the groaning earth of Its load of woes ; yet one would almost be tempted to believe as much when he reads of the principles of the Hoi'h. The members appear before us as if they had graduated in the clubs of Paris or London, and regard their mission as complacently as if they had received it from the skies, and had the angelic legions to support them in carrying it forth. They are called upon, they say, to destroy the fearful contrast between misery and excessive wealth. The inheritors of earthly power and riches came into the world in same fashion, and will leave It in same fashion, as their deluded and oppressed brothers. The Highest never Intended that millions of Heaven's sons should be con- demned to slavery for the sake of single thousands. The Father of Heavenand the Mother of Earth have never given right to the thousands to devour that which belongs equally to the millions. The rich and the great have never had EGALITE, FEATEKNITE. 263 monopoly from the Highest of the sweat and labour of their million oppressed brethren. The sun with his beaming countenance, the earth with her rich treasures, the world with its joys, are all common good, which must be taken out of the hands of the thousands for the necessary en- joyment of millions of naked brothers. The sun, which in the empire of Ten Thousand Years has hitherto shone upon some favoured thousands, will soon arise and shed his glorious rays upon millions of brothers that they have not yet been able to reach. The doctrine of equality in temporals is here laid down pretty clearly. To effect this equality, to bring to pass the golden age when the thousands shall be swallowed up by the indignant millions as a common meal, it is the present duty and the highest honour of the Hoi'h " to free the world from oppression and misery ; " and this, must be done by unity, courage, and enterprise. The noble seed must not now be sown among weeds ; it is rather the duty of the brethren to destroy and root out the noxious plants that threaten its existence. The attempt may be great ; but there is never victory without storm and fight. Until the greater 264 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. number of the inhabitants in all the cities be- longing to a province have taken the oath of loyalty, every one must, to appearance, be obe- dient to the Kodng (the mandarins) and con- ciliate the police with presents. An untimely revolt vcould spoil the plan. When the greater number of the inhabitants of the cities of the other provinces are at one with us, then the old kingdom will sink in ruins and upon them a new one will be built. Millions of happy brethren will glorify the new kingdom when they think of the share they have had in establishing it, and that they are redeemed from the fetters of the kingdom of Ten Thousand Years and the complaints of the Ko'ang. The objects and intentions of the Hoi'h are clear enough. The means they intend to use to gain their ends commend themselves by their craft and prudence. But, to secure secresy and simultaneous action, there must be organisation. It is not easy to learn where the head-quarters of the brotherhood is situated, but the directing power appears to centre in three persons. The chief or president has the title of Koh, i. e. the Elder ; the two others take that of Hiong, Thi, i. e. Younger Brothers. These three give in- ORGANISATION. 265 structions and laws on all matters relating to the guild. They permit the three most able mem- bers in every city to assume the title Koh-hiong- thi, as a title of honour, but they are responsible to the supreme Ko-ship for all they do or admit to be done. In the Malacca branches the three chiefs are called Tai-hoh, eldest brother; Ji-koh, second brother; and San-koh, third brother. Each society has also its treasurer, who takes charge of the common fund, which is raised by an entrance fee of two dollars from every member, and which is appropriated to defraying the ex- penses connected with their places of meeting and entertainments. That an organised society may carry out its plans without the knowledge of the authorities to whom its plans are hostile, secresy is neces- sary ; and the Chinese communists have resorted to that most universal of all methods for securing this end, — -the imposition of an oath of fidelity and silence. Every proposed member of the Hoi'h, before he can be received, must take an oath of this nature, for the breach of which im- mediate death, on discovery, is the penalty. The ceremony of imposing the oath may, for aught we know, have been borrowed from some 266 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. Celestial lodge of Free-masons or Odd-fellows, so appalling does it appear. The new member has to take the oath kneeling before an image, under two sharp swords. While the oath is being administered, the Hiong, Thi (younger brothers) have also to kneel, one on the right, the other on the left, of the noviciate, and hold over his head the swords with which they are provided, in such fashion that they form a triangle. Under this triangle he has to repeat the oath after the Elder — the Koh, who pronounces it in a loud and distinct voice. Of the six-and-thirty articles of which the oath consists the most important is the following : " I swear that I shall know neither father nor mother, nor brother nor sister, nor wife nor child; but the brotherhood alone : where the brotherhood leads or pursues, there I shall follow or pursue ; its foe shall be my foe." The noviciate, who has been previously fur- nished by the Tai-koh with a knife and a chalice filled with arrack, now makes an incision into his finger, and allows three drops to fall into the cup of liquor. The three officials do the same thing, and, having mingled the blood and spirit together, drink each a portion thereof, all standing, when WHITE COCK OATH. 267 the ceremony is concluded. Or, in order to ratify his oath, the newly sworn member hews off the head of a white cock, which signifies : " As sure as a white (pure) soul dwells in this white cock, so sure shall it dwell in me; and as sure as I have ventured to hew off the head of the white cock with the white soul, so surely shall I lose my head if I prove untrue ; and, as sure as this cock has lost his head, shall all those lose their heads who are untrue to the Hoi'h or who are its active foes." 268 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. CHAPTER XVIII. Thien - te hoih. Rules of the Society. — Signs and Passwords. — Their Ode; —The " Chop."— Form of the Secret Seal.— Translation of the Inscriptions. — Duties of the Members of the Society — Their Hopes. To the rules of the society, so far as they exhort to brotherly love and practical benevolence, no objections can be offered. According to Mr. Tomlin, who has translated them*, they are thirty- six in number ; according to others, thirty-three. Each article is attended with an imprecation, as, " May you die by the bite of a serpent ! " " May you perish in the great sea ! " " May you vomit blood and perish ! " Of these oaths and rules we proceed to quote a few, to illustrate their nature : — " If a brother come to your house and you have * See Journal of Royal Asiatic Soc. vol. vi. p. 137, &c. RULES OF THE SOCIETY. 269 conjee*, give him conjee to eat ; if you haye rice, let him eat rice. Treat him [according to your circumstances]: if you do not, may you perish by a great ulcer ! " " If an aged mother hand down a girdle, you must not, through covetousness, sell it to another person : if you do, may you perish by a rocket [or great gun ! ] " " If a brother do not take care of his mother, give him thirty-six strokes of the bamboo ! " "If a brother be poor, you must help him ; other- wise, may you die on the road ! " " A brother must nourish another brother ; if you have food, you must share it with him : if you do not, may a tiger devour you ! " "If a brother be dead and you are earnestly invited to come, if you do not come [to the funeral], may you die at the bottom of the sea ! " " A member who does not attend a brother's marriage when he has leisure, shall receive twelve strokes ! " " If a brother love wine and is not obedient to the head-man, cut off the rim of his ear ! " " If a brother sell opium, and the Kung-sse (head-man) be informed of it, cut off both ears ! " * Thick rice-water; the poor man's fare. 270 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. " If a member act meanly and do not respect a brother's word, let him have a hundred and eight strokes ! " " Brethren should be harmonious and not fight with one another ; if they do, give them ninety- six strokes ! " " He who commits adultery with a brother's wife, let him be run through with a sword ! " " If you have a junk of your own and a brother be going to another country, you must give him a passage ! " " If a brother wish to borrow money to send to China, and you do not lend him some, may you die an orphan's death ! " "If a brother die and have no money to erect a tombstone, each brother must contribute some- thing : he who refuses, let him die solitary ! " " He who mentions the thirty-six oaths of the brotherhood, must have two hundred and sixteen strokes of the red wood ! " The book of rules, which are also thirty-six in number, is kept by the Tai-koh of the society, and contains exhortations to similar virtues and hospitalities. Members are here admonished to be careful not to divulge the customs of the society; to be industrious; to take care not to SIGNS OF THE SOCIETY. 271 steal ; to lend to the poor ; to support the sick ; to take care of a brother's house in his absence ; to restore property stolen from a brother; to treat a brother from a distance hospitably with wine and beef; to assist to bury a poor brother who has gone amongst the spirits ; to give alms ; not to despise a poor brother, nor to make his distress known ; and not to take a bribe to ap- prehend a brother. These rules are unexcep- tionable ; but others are not so. Thus : " If a brother commits murder or any great crime, you must not deliver him for apprehension, but afford him the means of escape from the country. In case of the intended apprehension of a brother, or any evU likely to befal him, give him timely warning, and discover not his place of retreat." The members recognise each other by secret signs, of which they have several. They gene- rally carry about with them the seal of the society stamped upon a piece of red cloth. The mutual production of the seal would lead to recognition. On entering a house, a member of the Hoi'h would take hold of his queue with his right hand and twist it from left to right. He lifts his umbrella, or his cup of tea or arrack, in- variably with three fingers. The gripe is made 272 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. with three fingers, and three is woven into his proverbs and figurative sayings. Three is his mystic number, — his lucky trinity. A brother is also known when he wishes to be recognised, by taking his right arm from its sleeve and thrusting it through the opening in front of his haju or vest, or by stating that he prays on the ninth, the fifteenth, and the twenty-fifth of every month. Every member carries in the wide sleeves of his jacket (ma-kwa) a tubular staff bound round with a piece of red-silk ribbon, another symbol which he makes himself known by. Should one member wish to borrow money of another, on entering a house he will take up a cup of tea or arrack, and without drinking place it at the corner of the table. If the owner of the house be willing to lend the sum, he must take up the cup and drink of its contents ; if not, he places the cup in the middle of the table without tasting of it. On their seal is an ode which everyone must know by heart, in order to identify brethren in the dark. If one, for example, on passing another should say " Ing," which means hero, the other, if he is a member, will answer " Hiong," which means troop. Should a stranger on entering a house lay down his umbrella with THE " CHOP." 273 three fingers, the owner, if he is a brother, replies to this signal by asking him if he has come from Thien-fung (the East). If the answer be in the affirmative, they become sworn friends. It has also been said that, when two strangers meet on the road, the one, if a member, will accost the other with, " From whence come you ? " The other, if a brother, will answer, " From Koh-kay " (literally, brother's family), and will inquire in his turn, "How heavy is your load?" The other will then give the countersign, " Two catties and thirteen taels," i. e. the weight of the sword once presented by an emperor of China to an ancient Peach Grarden Association, the parent of the present one, which had saved his life ; or, accord- ing to others, the weight of the vase of ashes which originally stood in front of their idol. Every member is provided with a copy of the " chop," or seal of the society, which is printed in coloured characters on silk or calico. It is worn by many as a species of charm, and great care is taken to conceal the meaning of its characters from the uninitiated. The original seal is kept in the possession of the Tai-koh, or elder brother. Dr. Milne has given an account of one of these seals, and Mr. Tomlin has given T 274 THE CROSS AND THE DRAGON. a partial translation of another. But the trans- lations differ so very widely that we are led to suspect the existence of more seals than one, or that the one described by Mr. Tomlin is non- canonical. It differs not only in the characters, but in shape, from the one described by Dr. Milne, which corresponds with one described re- cently by the Rev. Herr Roettger*, sometime a German missionary on the island of Riou, or Bin- tang, where he had many opportunities of making the acquaintance of native Chinese, and of de- riving information. We have followed Koettger's account of the nature and subject of the seal. It is of a pentagonal form, partly representing the five cardinal virtues of the Chinese; as, "benevolence, justice, wisdom, faithfulness, and richness : " and partly signifying their astro- nomical science, whose basis is the five planets. The following is a list of the characters on the seal, in Roman letters, according to the German orthography. The numbers correspond with the numbers given in the diagram in the Frontispiece : 1. Tauw, earth-planet. 3. Swuy, water-planet. 2. Mah, wood-planet. 4. Kim, metal-planet. * Thien, Thi, Hoi'h. 1852, 8vo. THE SECKET SEAL. 275 5. Tioeh, fire-planet. 34. Hanw, sign. 6. Hong, stream. 35. Touw, captain. 7. HauTv, undaunted leader. 36. Kanw, Az^A. 8. Han, dynasty of that 37. Khoi, mountain-stream. name. 38. Hun, divides. 9. Ing, brave hero. 39. Pah, canals. 10. Keh, pillar. 40. Buan, 10,000. 11. Ing, as No. 9. 41. Koh, of years. 12. Hio'ng, army. 42. Uh, prepares, is. 13. Hueh, tells. 43. Th'wan, to-day. 14. Hah, might. 44. Lih, brown. 15. Thw'an, round. 45. Tsuh, ?-erf. 16. Hng, company. 46. Kit, mix wo*. 17. Sih, united. 47. Tsing, jcAt'te. 18. Hiong, eldest. 48. Tsien, tread. 19. Thi, Jratter. 49. Lip, bpponent. 20. Hun, (?ea/« om<. 50. Hiah, underfoot. 21. Khay, announces. 51. Buan, contracted form 22. Pit, eacA. of No. 40. 23. Suih, ncA. 52. Thien, heaven. 24. Tzih, command. 53. No. 51. reversed. 25. Kat, belt-button. 54. Tih, earth. 26. Thi, ftro^Aer. 55. Tong, truth. 27. Tuy, a /imr. 56. N'gih, yus/ice. 28. Hiong, eZrfesi. 57. Huh, demand. 29. Thi, Jrotter. 58. Uah, /. 30. Tang, unites. 59. Tsut, of. 31. Tin, battle-order. 60. Tong, followers. 32. Kak, eacA. 61. Djung, the great. 33. Uh, prepares. 62. Sing, sublimity. *^.* The seven characters under the Seal will be found explained I below. T 2 276 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. Following the numbers in the diagram, we have: 1. Tauw, the earth-planet, i. e. Saturn, who has the greatest influence upon Tsing, the Middle Kingdom ; 2. Mah, the wood-planet, i. e. Jupiter, who pours out his blessings on the eastern portion of the Celestial Kingdom; 3. Swui/, the water-planet, i. e. Mercury, who exerts a mild influence on the northern parts of the Ce- lestial Kingdom; 4. Kim, the metal-planet, i. e. Venus, whose blessings flow upon the western parts of the Celestial Kingdom; 5. Hoeh, the fire-planet, i. e. Mars, whose influence is exerted on the southern parts of the Celestial Kingdom. Immediately under the five planets stand five other characters : 6. Hong, stream ; 7. Hauw, un- daunted leader; 8. Han, the name of an ancient dynasty; 9. Ing, courageous hero; 10. Keh, im- movable point, pillar. On reference to the diagram, it will be observed in what strange order the characters on the seal are arranged. It is a Chinese puzzle to the common Chinaman ; a mystery he cannot unveil, a riddle he cannot guess. No one knows where the sense begins, or where it ends. It was long before Eoettger could prevail upon his native teacher, who was one of the initiated, to explain the hidden meaning of the seal. He withstood TRANSLATION OP THE INSCRIPTIONS. 277 every attempt to bribe him; and it was only when Koettger was about to depart for Europe, and he felt himself safe in his confidence, that he ventured upon an explanation. The five planetary characters must be read in connection with those standing under them, and then the meaning stands thus : — 1. Tauw. 1 The great stream Hong, which rises ■ J in the lofty central point, overflows its lofty banks, drowns and carries away all who stand in its course. 2. Mah. 1 The leader, with the army of his 8 Han f J warlike companions, stands firm and insensible against all, and is tried in battle, as was once the chivalrous dynasty of Han. 3. SwuY. 1 Irresistible as an all-submerging 7. tlAUW. J mountain-stream, which roots up and carries away strong trees, be (our) might and strength; and undaunted be our courage ! 4. Kim, 1 The leader looks upon the shining J Venus, as she looks brightly down from the firmament ; her beams shine for his imitation, and he becomes firm as a rock. T 3 278 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON, 5. HoEH. \ Do not all the stars turn dim before 9. Ing. J ^jjg ggj.y glance of Mars ? Dares anyone to approach his fire ? Be he a type to the brave hero! The characters 11 — 24 form an ode which every member of the Ho'ih must know by heart. They are : Inff, hio'ngi, hueh, hah, thuo'an, hng, sih. HUong, tin, hun, khay, pit, suih, tzih. The corresponding English words, in the same order, are : Hero, army, tells, might, (in) round, company, united. The eldest, brother, deals out, and an- nounces to, everyone, fertile, command (speech). The characters 25, hat; 26, thi; 27, tuy, sig- nify respectively: a band or belt-button, a younger brother, a pair of equal things ; and the sense is : " As husband and wife are bound together by marriage, so is the younger brother buttoned to the Hoi'h by the band of his oath." A second ode occurs in the octagonal space, from 28 — 43. The characters are : Hiong, thi, tang, tin ; kak, uh, hanw, touw. Kanw, khoi, hun, pdUi ; buan, koh, uh, th'wan. The corresponding English words are : TRANSLATION OF THE INSCRIPTIONS. 279 The eldest, brother, unites, to battle-order; everyone, prepares himself, (at the) signal, (of the) chief. (The) swollen, mountain-stream, spreads itself, (into) canals ; ten thousand, of years, is, (he) this day. The characters 44 — 50 are written, some with red, some with dark ink. They are used by the agents of the brotherhood in their official capacity. They read : Lih, tsuh, kit, tsing. Tsien, lip, hiah. Or : (With) brown, and red, mingle not, the fair white. Tread, the opponent, under foot. The three continuous characters under the square, and the one under the point of the smaller octagon, 51 — 54, have reference to the supposed unbounded might and power of the Hoi'h when, its numbers, once completed, will be in every part of the empire : Buan, thien, buan, tih, that is, " Ten thousands of ten thousands are the armies of the Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth." The six characters in the large square, 55 — 60, express the stern command of the Hoi'h : Tonff, n'gih, huh, uah, tsut, tong. " Fidelity, and uprightness, demand, I, of, my followers." The two characters in the small oblong denote 280 THE CROSS AND THE DEAGON. the mysterious title and dignity of the temporary president, Koh: 61, djung, the great; 62, Sing, sublimity. The seven characters under the seal, beginning on the left, are : Hiong, tsih, buan, hi, uh, tsong, kok ; that is, eldest, God's command, the ten thousand, bro- ther, is, great, kingdom, — words- which turned into readable English mean : " It is the will of the Eldest brother, that the Ten thousand by God's command become the great kingdom." Such is the explanation given of the meaning of the characters on the seal of the Brotherhood of Heaven and Earth. And what are the duties of a member in his individual capacity ? The same in character that have been dictated to the members of all secret so- cieties that ever have had existence, whether in the temples of Thebes, the courts of the Vehmgericht, or in the Masonic lodge — an offensive and de- fensive warfare against the uninitiated. The member of the Hoi'h must conceal the names of all connected with it, and must yield implicit obedience. He must endeavour to advance the interests of the society, and to spread a knowledge of its principles, with all his heart, and soul, and HOPES OF THE MEMBERS. 281 mind. He must direct his attention to coolies, lazy workmen, thoughtless vagabonds, beggarly- police agents, gambling soldiers, and bankrupt tradesmen. Agents supply trusty brethren with money; but talkative, hare-brained, and suspi- cious members are got rid of by poison. There can be no doubt that the " Heaven and Earth Brotherhood" is largely concerned in the existing insurrection. They believe that a pro- phetical period of ten thousand years expired in 1851, when the foundation of a new order of things was laid. The expression in the seal, " Ten thousand years is he to-day," refers to the hopes of Hoi'h in the appearance of a Son of Heaven to restore the ancient Ming dynasty, and bring peace on earth. Another prophecy states that the Tartar dynasty must fall when women 'are to be publicly seen in the streets. This prophecy, it is said, has begun to receive its accomplishment since the British wars in China ; since which time, women have been seen sitting in the ante-rooms of their houses, and even walking in the public thoroughfares. This certainly was not the custom in China in former times. In Parke's version of Mendoza's " Accbunt of China " we read, that "all people that 282 THE CEOSS AND THE DEAUON. have daughters are commanded, by expresse order, that they shall bring them up in their owne houses very close, and not be scene, but alwayes to do something to avoide idlenesse, for that it is the mother of all vices, whereby it may take no roote in them It is newes and a strange thing to meete a woman in the streetes of any citie or towne, neither at the windowes, which is a sign that they line honest." THE END. London : SpoTTiswooDEs and Shaw, New-Street-Square. December iSss. 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It has an indestructible value. It tells us the truth on much where it greatly imports us to be informed. The eloquence of the book is extraordinary." — Examiner. " The reputation which Mr. Ruskin has earned by his former works will probably receive a great accession of lustre from ' The Stones of Venice.' This work may be justly described as his most valuable performance, and fitted to become the most popular of all his productions." — British Sluarterly Review. " Mr. Ruskin has seized on the great principle that all art is the expression of man's delight in God's work. This is his clue through the universe ; holding fast by that, he can never get far wrong. His pursuit of truth is as admirable for its clear- sightedness as it is for its konesty." — Eclectic Review. IV. MODERN PAINTERS. Imperial 8vo. Vol. I. Fifth Edition, i8s. cloth. Vol. II. Third Edition, los. 6d. cloth, " Mr. Ruskin's work will send the painter more than ever to the study of nature ; will train men who have always been delighted spectators of nature, to be also atten- tive observers. Our critics will learn to admire, and mere admirers will learn how to criticise : thus a public will be educated." — Blackwood's Magazine. " A generous and impassioned review of the works of living painters, A hearty and earnest work, full of deep thought, and developing great and striking truths in art." — British Sluarterly Review. " A very extraordinary and delightfiil book, full of truth and goodness, of power and beauty." — North British Review. " One of the most remarkable works on art which has appeared in our time," — Edinburgh Review. *^* The Third Volume is in preparation. V. THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE. With Fourteen Etchings by the Author. Imperial 8vo, i/. is. cloth. " By the ' Seven Lamps of Architecture,' we understand Mr, Ruskin to mean the seven fundamental and cardinal laws, the observance of and obedience to which are indispensable to the architect who would deserve the name. The politician, the moralist, the divine, will find in it ample store of instructive matter, as well as the artist.^' — Examiner. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY SSSorfes of iMr. ©fiacfefras. I. LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH HUMOURISTS OF THE i8th CENTURY. By W. M. THACKERAY, Esq., Author of " Esmond," " Vanity Fair," " Pendennis," &c. Second Edition, revised by the Author. In One Volume, crown 8vo., price los. bd. cloth. ** To those who attended the lectures, the book will be a pleasant reminiscence, to others an exciting novelty. The style — clear, idiomatic, forcible, familiar, but never slovenly ; the searching strokes of sarcasm or irony ; the occasional flashes of generous scorn ; the touches of pathos, pity, and tenderness ; the morality tempered but never weakened by experience and sympathy; the felicitous phrases, the striking anecdotes,, the passages of wise, practical reflection ; all these lose much less than we could have expected from the absence of the voice, manner, and look of the lecturer." — Spectator, " All who did not hear these lectures will wish to know what kind of talk they were, and how these English humorists and men of genius in past times were de- scribed or criticised by a humorist and man of genius in our own. * * * What fine things the lectures contain ! What eloquent and subtle sayings, what wise and earnest writing ! How delightful are their turns of humour ; with what a touching effect, in the graver passages, the genuine feeling of the man comes out ; and how vividly the thoughts are painted, as it were, in graphic and chatacterisde words." — Exammer. " This is to us by far the most acceptable of Mr, Thackeray's writings. His graphic style, his philosophical spirit, his analytical powers, his large-heartedness, his shrewdness and his gentleness, have all room to exhibit themselves." — Economist. " These Lectures are rich in all the best qualities of the author's genius, and adapted to awaken and nourish a literary taste thoroughly English." — British Sluar^ terly Revietv. " Full of sound, healthy, manly, vigorous writing j sagacious in observation, inde- pendent and thoughtful, earnest in sentiment, in style pointed, clear and straight- forward." — Westminster Review. " A valuable addition to our permanent literature : eloquent when the author is serious ; brilliant when he is gay : they are charming reading." — Daily Ne-vs. "Truly beautiful, suggestive essays, on topics fertile in suggestion." — Lea