CHAPTER VI.
BUDHISM—TOMBS OF ANCESTORS—CEREMONIES—ORIGIN OF TUMULI OR TOMBS—SACRIFICES TO CONFUCIUS—PAN-HWNY-PAN—INFANTICIDE—CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS—GOVERNMENT GRATUITIES.
BUDHISM.
Having given a description of the principal temples, &c., I shall now state some particulars relative to the introduction of the Budhism religion into China, and show what are the principles professed by its disciples, at the present day.
In the sixty-fifth year of the Christian era, the emperor Ming-te invited the first priests; they were probably natives of Ceylon.—The invitation was given in consequence of dreams, which informed him that the “Holy One” was in the West.
The ancient Chinese worshippers retained some knowledge of a Supreme Being, yet the worship they paid to the visible heavens, the earth, rivers, bulls, and above all, to dragons and the gods of lands, was open idolatry. Subsequently, Confucius arose; he inculcated the necessity of reverencing those whom the ancients had worshipped. His wish was to promote the social happiness of his countrymen, independently of the influence which religion exerts over a nation; his great aim was the introduction of decorum and order into all the duties of life; and to the strict observance of external ceremonies, he reduced the whole of religion. His system being found very deficient, Taou-tze, the mystic philosopher, stepped forward to supply the wants of the multitude by his abstruse speculations. According to his system, all nature is filled with demons and genii, who constantly influence the fate of man. He increased the number of idol gods to an enormous amount, and attempted to define with scholastic precision, their nature and offices. His demonology wanted perspicuity and contained too many palpable absurdities to be generally received. Some of the emperors, though declaring themselves believers in Taouism, could never introduce a general acquiescence in doctrines which no one understood. China wanted a creed which every man might understand; and the Budhists supplied the desideratum;—accommodating their doctrines to all existing superstitions, they opened the door to every description of convert, who might retain as many of his old prejudices as he chose: they were not rigorous in enforcing the obligations of morality; to expiate sins, offerings to the idols and priests were sufficient. A temple built in honour of any idol and richly endowed, would suffice to blot out every stain of guilt and serve as a portal to the blessed mansions of Budha. When death approached, they promised to each of their votaries, speedy promotion in the scale of metempsychosis until he should be absorbed in Nirupan or Nirvana—nonentity. With these prospects, the poor deluded victim left the world. To facilitate his release from purgatory, the ghostly hypocrites said mass, and supplied the wants of the hungry departed spirit with rich offerings of food, of which the latter enjoyed only the odour, while the priests devoured the substance. As Confucius had raised the veneration for ancestors into idolatrous worship, these priests were ready to perform their pious offices before the tablets of the dead. Thus they became ingratiated with the credulous multitude, who were too happy to avail themselves of their cheap services. But notwithstanding the accommodating spirit of their creed, the Chinese government has at times disapproved of it. As the sanctity of marriage has been acknowledged in China from time immemorial and almost every person at years of maturity has been obliged to enter into that state, the celibacy of the priesthood of Budha was considered as a very dangerous custom.
Budha regarded contemplation and exemption from worldly cares, as the nearest approach to bliss; his followers, therefore, in imitation of their master, passed and inculcated lives of indolence, and practised begging, as the proper means of maintaining themselves. This mode of livelihood was diametrically opposed to the political institutions of China, where even the emperor does not disdain to plough. It was also in opposition to the actual condition and wants of the people; a system of idleness, in the immense population of the empire, would have been followed by actual starvation, and a consequent serious diminution in the number of inhabitants; for it is by the utmost exertion that they are able to subsist. These serious objections to the foreign creed, furnished its enemies with weapons by which to destroy it. It was proscribed as a dangerous heresy, and a cruel persecution followed; but it had taken too deep root to be easily eradicated. Among some of the emperors too, it found abettors and disciples. Yet it never became a religion of the state, nor were its priests ever able to exercise any permanent influence over the populace. The Chinese are too rational a people to believe, implicitly, all the Budhistic fables, nor can they persuade themselves that the numerous images are gods. When we add to this, their national apathy towards every thing connected with religion, they being entirely engrossed with the things of this life, we can easily account for their disesteem of Budhism. Nor can we wonder that they worship at one time, the divinities they despise at another, for ancient custom bids them follow in the track of their ancestors, without inquiry or doubt, even when they cannot but ridicule its absurdities.
The priests of Budha are a very despised class, and spring chiefly from the lowest and most ignorant of the people. Their morals are notoriously bad, and pinching poverty has made them cringing and servile. They wander abroad in search of some trifling gift, and often encounter a very harsh refusal.
Those temples which are well endowed by their founders, are crowded with priests, so that only a few among the higher orders of them can be rich. Stupidity, with a few exceptions, is their reigning characteristic; neither skill nor learning is to be found among them. Budha seems to have intimated that stupidity brings the votary nearer to the blissful state of apathy, and therefore a knowledge of his institutions is considered as the only requisite to form an accomplished priest. The Budhists have no schools or seminaries, for the instruction of their believers, seldom strive for literary honours, and are even excluded from the list of candidates, so long as they remain priests. Few among them are serious in the practice of their own religion; they are in the most complete sense of the words, sullen and misanthropic, and live a very secluded life. But religious abstraction and deep contemplation, with utter oblivion of existence, appear to be out of vogue. The halls of contemplation are the haunts of every vice. Such effects must follow where the mind is unoccupied, and the hands unemployed in any good work. The nuns are less numerous and more industrious than the priests. It is a general observation that nearly all the temples of Budha are in a dilapidated state; the contributions of devotees not meeting the expenses of repairs. These erections are very numerous; there is scarcely a small village that has not one, and few romantic and beautiful spots can be found free from these seats of idolatry.
The similarity of the rites of this superstition with those of papacy, are striking: every one who visits the monasteries can at once discover the resemblance. That they should count their prayers by means of a rosary, and chant masses both for the living and the dead, live in a state of celibacy and shave their hair, &c., might perhaps be accounted for by a mere coincidence of errors into which men are prone to fall; but their divine adoration of Teenhow, “the queen of heaven,” must be a tenet engrafted upon Budhism from foreign traditions. We are unable to fix the exact period at which this deity was adopted. There is a legend of modern date among the people of Farh-keen, which tells us that