Page:Oriental Religions - China.djvu/980

950 ANTHROPOLOGY. CHINESE philosophy, according to one of its best inter- The three preters, rests upon these three principles : " Unity dpies 13 " underlying variety; eternal harmonious order; Chinese man endowed at birth with a nature perfectly philoso-, ,, , phy. good.!

Our readers will have already recognized the truth of this summary, so far as the first two points are concerned. There remain to be indicated the human relations involved in them, and the ethical idea of which the third is the expression. 2

And first of the logical bond of these three principles. Cosmical unity implies universal order and harmony; Their log- anc * the centralization of its law in humanity re- icai con- quires that human nature should remain essentially unmarred. It is the habit of the Chinese mind to treat men in the mass, and as a whole; and this habit goes far to prevent divergencies, whether in individuals or generations, from counting for much against the cosmical requirement now stated, or introducing any thing that is not implied in it from the beginning. In other words, nothing like rent or schism can break this unity which A "fail of centres in man. The idea of essential perversion, hTredhlry extrus i n > or fall, is inadmissible. The spiritual essential taint, while it is not overlooked, becomes inci- i P n e a 7ra 0n dental, subject to cyclic laws of neutralization; it sibie. is reabsorbed, with every fresh birth, into the vir- tue of that inviolable order which rules the flow and re- newal of human life. For the young energies that flame forth from wombs of imperfection it is left behind, and

Meadows, Chinese, <5rV., p. 351.

Of course this admirable writer on the Chinese, to whom we owe many clear statements and estimates, is not at all responsible for the views now presented, on the basis of this compact definition.