Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 409

.1850.

Defense of an Essay, &c.

371

properly God. If the Chinese were entirely silent about the making of heaven and earth, and clearly asserted Shángti's self-existence from eternity, it might with some more show of propriety be inferred that he who rules over all things, must have made all things-heaven and earth included in these ‘all things'—but it would have been a mere in- ference carrying no conviction along with it; but as the case is, there is no room left for such an inference: Shángti is not mentioned among the eternally-existing principles that are spoken of, and the making of the heavens and the earth is assigned to the Yin Yáng chí 'the primordial substance of which Yin and Yang are predicated.

If it be asked, why does not the cosmogony of Confucius in the Yih King, that of Chú-fútsz', and of all the Confucianists ascribe the making of heaven and earth to Shángti, I answer, the reason is, I fancy, that they so identify heaven and earth with Shangtí, in their minds, that it would be to them like making a being the cause of itself; and as they never regarded heaven as eternally existent, and looked upon Shángti and Heaven as the same being, they never conceived of Shángti as self-existent. Whether this be the reason or not, it seems certain that none of them ascribe the making of the heavens and the earth to Shángti. I can not believe in the existence of a tradi- tional knowledge of God among a people, who had forgotten this fundamental fact, that God was their Creator—at least their Maker, and that of the world they live in. If Shángti is neither self-existent, nor eternal, nor the maker of the heavens and the earth, what then, it will be asked, is asserted of him, on which his claim to be considered as truly and properly God is founded?

The first sentence quoted by Dr. Legge is, "The majestic God (Shángti) conferred the just medium of perfect virtue on the lower people." In this whole investigation nothing is more puzzling than the predicating words which indicate intellectual and moral qualities of things which we regard as devoid of both from our habits of thought and modes of expression, we can sarcely avoid regarding the names of the things which have such qualities predicated of them metaphorically, while the Chinese on the contrary feel no difficulty at all, and use them in their strict and appropriate sense. Take, for instance, the words just quoted, "the just medium of perfect virtue :" this, in Chinese, is called the wú chang five cardinal virtues, which are given as follows: jin, t, l, chi, sin, viz., benevolence, rectitude, propriety, wisdom, and fidelity. From these five cardinal virtues, both men and things, jin wuh, ▲

ta TÊ I l