Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/217

Rh and inseparable from body; and if considered as the basis of the Chinese cosmogony, shews that their whole system is founded in materialism.

Thus, whether the Chinese speak of heaven and earth, the extreme limit, or the universal principle, they still connect the idea of matter, whether high or low, gross or subtle, with what they say; and do not seem to have any definite conceptions of a pure, underived, independent, and self-existent spirit, originating, supporting, arranging, and governing all things.

The term, Shang-te, supreme ruler, as used in the ancient classics, corresponds, in some measure, to the Christian notion of God, exhibiting his supremacy, authority, and majesty; but it is much to be feared, that they connect with the expression, the ideas of state and pomp, and the service of ministers, such as earthly monarchs maintain and require. Some of the Confucians, also, are in the habit of considering the Supreme ruler, as synonymous with heaven and earth; and thus confound the creator with his creatures. If these mistakes could be guarded against, it is likely that the Chinese will get as definite an idea of God, by the use of the term, Shang-te, as by the employment of any other.

The followers of Confucius, now and then, talk about fate, which is a blind and irreversible decree, to which both gods and men are subject; but, by whom the decree is established, they do not inform us. Sometimes, they talk of the decrees of heaven; but if heaven be mere matter, how can it form decrees?

This sect acknowledges a material trinity. called heaven, earth, and man; meaning by the latter, the sages only. Heaven and earth, they say, produced