November 23, 1906.]
THE CHINESE SKY-GOD,
CHINĄ OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
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relegated to the realm of Fancy. Sir JORN | the nominal ending, still surviving in North RAYS in pointing this out to his hearers China as the sound represented by ork._ In merely co firmed on his high authority the Ballads, and notably in the Lub-Yue, what had been before accepted by the more the Wang is spoken of as acting under the sober of archeologists. What he stared as orders of T'iente; in the second verse of to the "precarious" nature of our evidence the ballad mentioned (Shi, II. iii), we are aa to Celtic religions, and the fact that our told in so many words:-"The King taken knowledge was "inferential only
may well
command of the expedition. As the vice- he borne in mind by many of our professors regent of T'ientae not here the
son of to knowledge of subjects nearer home.
Heaveu —an invention of later days-but the " Spauer" himself, whose realm in- cluded all under the heaven. T'ientse, thus becomes the early Chinese equivalent of the Getic Thunar, better known to us in his Norse title of Thor; but not only of the Norse Thor, but ra well of the Vedic Indra, whose name and attributes we find to have been precisely simil r.
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But we can go further afield. When the Hellenes, as descendants of Herakles over-
ran
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Greece, and dispossessed the old: Pelasgic inhabitants, they yet respected their exalted deity, the northern Thor: of · all fanes in their new country they held in highest reverence that of the " Pelasgic Zeus at Dodona in Epirus. But the name Dodona here betrays its origin; it is in fact but the Hellenic pronunciation of Getio fbor-tona, where the final tona, is the same adjectival termination as in Cor-tona, Pop- luna, &c. Though Tuor hal given place to the more particularly Aryan Zeus, (the Sinscrit Djaus, Lithuanian Devas), the tane, Thor-tona, Place of Thor", still re- mained to show what was the real character of the worship to which it was dedictel, Waut of sufficient knowledge to grasp the ancient phonetic relations of the language. has in this, as in 8 many other is an es; been the cause of the popular idea as tɔ the presumed isolated nature of Ancient China. As a fact, the more we study the remains of the elder oguage handed down across the stream of the ages, the more have we to recognise the identity in language_and thought of the old settlers from the West in Northern China, and the wide-spread, fair-haired race from which we ourselves
this is accounted the highest of virtues. So enlightened a man a CHANG CHIH TUNG wrote of this expression of filial piety: Who does not admire the filial reverence and piety with which he waits upon his august mother? Setting a brilliant example to all, he inquires early and late after her well being and watches over her meals in person. Let us now add a new ode extolling to the skies our Emperor's fidelity to his Imperial Mother." It is difficult for An instance of this was afforded by Europeans to understand that this filial Professor GILES, speaking On Chine e reverence can be carried to the extent religion. He told his hearers that the of such self-repres ion na we are asked to Chinese had а sky-god, T'ien, who believe the late Emperor to have, practised. | received, however, neit er respect n. r Yet in this Edict issued from the death-bed of sacrifice, and that eventually this power the Emperor is revealed the fact that he had became an abstraction. Now we are not not wavered in his belief in Reform si ce his going to cavil at this explanation, which, as virtual suppression by the Empress-Dowager. we all know, contained a large measure of Though her ideas were paramount in sight truth. If we only look at the matter of the public we may read between the exoterically, it by no means, even 80 lines of this valedictory Edict that contains the whole truth; and viewed in the privacy of the Palace the esoterically, hardly contains any at all. It Emperor continued by patient discussion is not, for instance, true that Tien receives to educate his august mother up to the neither respect nor sacrifice; the exception point of adopting the entire programme of here, as in so many other cases, going far to reform, the enunciation of which ten reurs establish the rule. 1'ien, in fact, receives ago led to his virtual deposition as a dau- so high honour and exalted sacrifice that gerous lunatic. To the very last he was nouly the EMPEROR himself is competent to Reformer, for his final command was that offer them; Tien, and T'ien alone, being the national period of mourning should be his superior in the celestial hierarchy. Nor shortened to twenty-seven days, an injunc is this cult of any late or mo lern introduc- tion which has been over-ruled by the tion; historically, indeed, it may claim to be advisers of bis successor and it is ordained the direct descendant of the ancient worship that the Court shall go into mourning for paid to the Celestial Powers by the remote three years!
ancestors of the imperial Chinese in the realms of the traditional Airtan Vaejo, far off in Central Asia. The Parsi Vendidad tells how Yima, first of mortals, stepped (Daily Press, November 19th.)
forth to the glowing south to met the Sun; Recently, from the 15th to the 18th pressed the earth with his golden harrow, September, the Third International Con- and bored it with his goad; sull annually gress for tle History of Religions was hell the FMPEROR OF CHINA at the equin x at Oxford, and many papers of interest, or erforms the like rite, in deference to the the opposite, were read. Of course, from great Ruler of the Heavens, is only the nature of the subject matter the Con- superior, and the only object whom he may gress bad nothing to do with doctrinal condescend to worship in his capacity of theology, being only concerned with, the heaven's representat.ve on earth. But histry and anthropology of the various having gone so far afield, we may profitably religions under discussion. Largely the pursue the subject a little further: Tien is papers read showed in how many points the in fact the modern Chinese representative of various developments of religious belief one of the oldest of religious generalisations. BUILDING COLLAPSES from whatever country, or whatever race The idea is found in practically all the elder
IN HONGKONG, they had been collected, coincided; but this, religions of the world as the deity who it is natural to presume, in each case pro- presides over the Sky, and whose power (Daily Press, November 20th.) ceeded from the fact that mankind is human, stretches from zeaith to horizon all round. The public, we venture to suggest, are and that even in its relations with the in- As lord of the over reaching sky, he has entitled to some explanation of the Govern- visible it cannot escape from the bonds and command of the storms and the thunder ment's action with regard to the verdicts limitations of human instinct. A formidable and his name as stret her or thunderer-given by the coroners' juries w.1o spent many programme, dividing the business before for the two fade almost ins naibly one into days inquiring into the circumstances at- the meeting into nine sections, each with its the other is to be found in nearly all the tending the deaths of several persons killed president, was prepued; and each president principal languages of Europe and Asia, as the result of the collapse of uildings in had to give his presidential address, so that The Greak word tonos, implying bath a the typhoon of last July. In both cases & at first sight a large increase in our exoteric spanning and a sound, is a good example: a
verdict of manslaughter was returned knowledge of the religion or religions, of similar one is found in the Gothic than-ya agaiust the persons who supervised the the world might have been anticipated. If to stretch, extend, and old Saxon Thunar, erection of the buildings. In the one case so the result hardly coincided with the hope, thunder, the Latin ton-itru. But in all the person committed to take his trial on and little progress seems to have been made. these languages we find a form of the word this charge was a Chinaman who had Perhaps it proved to be the case, that in applied likewise to the great Sky God, ori- received uo pay ment for his supervision; in excluding the esoteric element all the dis-ginally the "Extender "but who in all came the other case the charge was laid against cussions lost their main ground of interest, to be likewise the "Thunderer" who wields one of the European architects authorised An instance of this was afforded in the his bolt for the punishment of the evil-doer. by the dovernment to practice in the presidential address on Celtic Religions
Colony. An indictment was filed by the delivered by Sir JOHN RHYS. Fifty years
ATTORNEY-GENERAL in the case of the ago every one supposed he had quite cuff
Chinamao; he tried at the last cient knowledge on the subject; men, pre-
Criminal Sessions, and convicted. He was, sumed to be learned, discussed druids and
however, sentenced to only one day's im priests, and rites and sacrifices, as if they
prisou meat, but the CHIEF JUSTICE clearly knew all about them; and history books
indicated that, had the man been paid for told the then rising generation these imagin-
his supervision, his punishment would have ings, as if they were stern incontrovertible
been more severe. So far as the evidence facts. Later study of the few authorities
given at the Coroner's inquests went, the that we possess have long ago decided that
case against the European architect was on these romantic tales of white-robed proces
all fours with that of the Chinaman, the chief sions, and congregations of kneeling wor-
point of difference being that the European shippers, which have played so prominent
was paid for his work while the other was a part in our supposed history, must all be
not. But the ATTORNEY-GENERAL it appears
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It is instructive to find not only the same idea, but the same word entering into the earliest Chinese with which we are acquainted, the Shi King. In its old ballada, which both chronologically an I in subject matter may be compared with the balladry woven into the epics of HOMER, we find the Sky G.d invariably spoken of as, Tientse, for the appl cation of this term to the reigning sovereigu did not occur till cea- turies later, when Chow ball long ceased to be anything more than a mere name. But the word, now called in modern Chinese l'ientse, was in the old days pronounced Tien-er, or Thuaar, the tse being only
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claim descent, and which has likewise given us its primitive cult and civilisation.
was
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