Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 496

458

Tract upon Nourishing the Spirit.

AUG.

and Bombay in Southern India, which thus give us very clear evidence of the fact. Persia had not yet changed this custom before the Tang dynasty, but after that she was overrun by the Mohammedans, she first adhered to their religion, and to this day observes it; yet some also worship the god of Fire, and it is for this purpose, that there is an old temple at Ormuz to the sun as the god of Fire.

"In China, before the Five dynasties (A.D. 907-959), there was a temple to the (tien akin) God of Heaven, one to the (kú tien) foreign Heaven, and one to the fiery Heaven. In the time of Tang, there were Persian religious books ; and in the 4th year of Tienpáu, it was ordered by government that the Persian monasteries or churches in both capitals should be changed to the (Tá-tsin ax') Judean monastery. There was also a Tablet [commemorating] the diffusion of the illustrious religion of Judea in China, set up in the 2d year of Kienchung (A.D. 781), of which the priest King Tsing of the Judean church wrote. His doctrine arose in Fuhlin,* which was on the eastern borders of Tá-tsin. † That which we call (hú tien) foreign Heaven is (shin tien) the God of Heaven, and seems to belong to Ta-tsin; † and to foreshadow or refer to the religion of Jesus.

"If the religion of the god of Fire began from Persia, then it had nothing to do with that of Judea, but is what is called (ho tien) heaven of Fire. To mix up the god of Fire with the God of Heaven is to say that the Persian faith proceeded from Judea, which is as absurd as to say that my family ancestor belonged to a family of another surname. The tablet about the 'Illustrious religion' is still more absurd, for this is the fire wor- shiper's doctrine; in the tablet it is said, 'A bright star proclaimed the happy event; he suspended the bright sun to break open the abodes of darkness; at midday he ascended in truth;' &c., all which point to the sun's fire. The expressions, Determining in the form of the cross to establish the four quarters of the earth, and once in seven days there is divine service,' show that it is connected with the tien-chú kiảu or Romish religion. Who is referred to in the expression, the mysterious Three-one, the true, eternal Lord Aloah,' we do not know. The whole of the composition, however, partly resembles the vagaries of Budha, but if it is not of the Persians, or the Romanists, or the Budhists, we do not know of what doctrine to call it, for the worship of the god of Fire among the Persians is an old custom, while the Budhist doctrine was promulgated in India, the next country on the east, and that of the God of Heaven came from Judea, adjoining it on the west. Since the days of the Tang dynasty, the doctrine of the Romanists has greatly extended and flourished, and the clever foreign priest King Tsing combined the tenets of the three religions, and formed one which he called the king kiau, or Illustrious religion, by which he made himself exceedingly famous. The Chinese did not know this origin of it, but respected and believed it just as he told them, in this showing how just the observation of Chàng Lá is, • You wish for and hearken to whatever is strange.'

<

"It is further said in the Tablet, In the 12th year of Chingkwan (A.D. 639), Olopun, a man of great virtue from the kingdom of Judea, bringing the Scriptures and images from afar has come and presented them at our capital.' This Olopun being from Judea, he was of the Romish religion without doubt, and these scriptures were the sacred books and gospels which have come to us from Europe, and the images were those of Jesus on the cross, though at that time we do not hear of them as like this. As to what is said of the Illustrious religion, that it was chiefly imitated from the tenets of the Persians, and the external adorninents and rites were gathered from the observances of Budhists, I can not fully explain it; but since the days of Tang, while the doctrines of Budha have extended and flourished, the temples of the god of Fire and foreign God, and the Persian and Judean faiths, have not again been seen. According to western writers, the Judoan faith still exists in Abyssinia in Africa, and is the same as the fire worship of the Persians."

Not to extend these remarks too far, we may observe that these quotations, and others which might be added, show that Shangtí is not regarded as a generic name proper to apply to the gods of foreign countries, but that where the writer is ignorant of the title of a divinity, he uses shin to show that it is worshiped as a god. Where the author of this work obtained the preceding account he does nor tell us, but we think it shows that to use shin will be neither unclassical not contemptible, for his testimony of the use of the words tien-shin, when taken in connection with the power ascribed to tien-shin in Kánghĩ, is authority enough for the use of shin for God and god in the S. S.

* This country (Philistine) is Judea, which was first established by Moses, of whom Jesus was a descendunt.

† Ta-tsin is the country of Rome in Italy; the men of the Han dynasty seeing that the people were tall and powerful, like the Chinese, called it Ta-tsin, but this name is unknown to the people themselves,

¦ Publin was governed by Rome from the Han dynasty, but in the days of Tang, it was seized by the Arabians.