| Show l IN TIlE CENTURY The Tue mOAt valuable contribution to the r number of I the hE North Amer AmerIcan Ican Js an article entitled Con COli In time the Nineteenth Century TIlls This is a 0 record of tion wIsely by Dr Herbert HerbertA A Ollee who for thirteen years Ears was n a of the consular service In thE celestial empire and jo 10 Is now the proC of ChInese In the sity It or of Nearly forty yr o ago o Dr Legge wrote ot of Confucius ns as rollo follows Ills In litia been wonderful but It will My Ily opinion Is that the faith ot of the he nation In him will speedily and anil pass away awny Dr Giles says that on the contrary the hold or of tile tho teachings of oC Confucius upon his countrymen seems oems today os as strong OR as ever The fat fact is III the more remarkable observes the New York Sun because e little or nothing has hns been done ilone by the emperors In the tho present century to promote the tho influence or of Conf whereas between 1662 and ond 1796 1196 no effort to that end was lOS spared In 1670 was put forth what Is known as the sacred edict embody In a 11 number of injunctions Injunction tending to tot get t rid of and exalt x nit the tho orthodox doctrine and amI In 1675 was published a vast collection of upon the Confucian canon filling no less than large volumes One of the enactments in the Sacred dict was that It should be publicly rend to the people on time the first and fifteenth or of each month at every im important enter of population nil all over oer overlie the lie For a considerable period during the first halt haIr of this century this practice had ben been nil allowed owed to fall Very cr much Into nt at Canton About the year 1860 however anum a num number ber of Chinese taking alarm at the open activity or of Protestant mis th themselves Into a so I Illet ciet for Cor reading and the Sa fa red ered I among themselves After ACter the lose of oC the TamPing rebellion Conru at once amid ond completely 1 me gained the round ground which It seemed tern tem to 10 have lost loat The production ot of books showed shoved mat mal ked signs of increase clearly prInted of the classics nail kindred work were Issued from the cap up tint Itol ot of nt at n a price which them within roach reach o of the masses ThE Stor of the reform movement and of the virtual deposition of the gm Em perot In Sept September 1 98 Is familiar Dr Giles Gibe has hall no doubt that had remained In power would have been forced to modify its III attitude toward forel or of thought edo cation the suspension however or of active functions It was that the old examination system whIch lund had almost urn un altered for nearly six its roots extended back beyond the IM should be res restored tort In Its integrity The Introduction lIt of new depraved ned erron Ul b by which must minuet be un understood modern scientific teaching WM was strictly lUnd lied under Various pains and Dr Giles GItIS do does not hesitate to express the opinion that nn any attempt to hate will fail Jt it is III ton 1011 planted Into the customs of tue Chinese to be uprooted ont one although he holds that be obliged to evince to Christianity the came n which h It shows to Buddhism anti and Tall Tiu Ism lie he also that a reciprocal con cession should be made and that on b be permitted to sub Rub lust b by side with Christianity as Stoicism was nas by first Christian em emPerors 10 of Rome anti and os as Positivism 11 and agnosticism are arc In ChrIstian Europe toda today The two practical features of Confucianism to wit its patriarchal system and its commemorative worship of oC cannot be subverted and It would therefore be wise wIre to make the beet heRt of them That Was the coni Irmi at by the learned learnell Jesuits of the sevEnteenth century who pronounced Id time the Chinese practice of oC ancestral war warship or ship nothing nON than n a civil rite and andIn andin In no wa vay Incompatible with the pro proCession Cession of the Christian faith Dr Cites believes that lund had this declara declaration tion been allowed to stand the Is that the Catholic religion would now be J the religion of China Chinn The Importance to tIme the cult or of ancestors at the damn be gauged b by on an Imperial edIct Issued on February 15 1900 In which LI hung Chang was Instructed to desecrate and destroy the tombs of the tho of the thu fugItive reformer We 0 should hero horo note remarks the Sun un that the tolerance extended b by to and Taoism Is duo duoto to the fact that on every and altar stands a small email tablet reo me cording PolitIcal allegiance to the em emperor Confucianism asks for tor no more It will not permit any ony effigy or of Confucius to lie be set Fet up In any such place of Christian mission arles aries have not seen their wa way to the same sallie compromise Nevertheless more than one Protestant missionary has hns acknowledged that there Is III In ConCu Confucianism m munich much that Is excellent con concerning the relations of man and many Points In which the or of ChrIs thin revelation are arc almost echoed The view indeed much more wide I ly now than It IL dill a Low few years OliO ago that the sooner missionaries devote them seles to n a close study of oC Confucian doctrines the better Ott On the tie Dr Giles seems to think omit the lie time line ha has come for or In ing up frontal attacks upon Confucian ConfucianIsm Ism leni There is IA he says Ins really very ct lit littie littie tie to attack The cardinal vIrtues which are inmost admired b by Christians a Ft strongly inculcated In the clan Iun canon ann aim according to Dr Giles the general practice or of these there Is cere thinly up to the lie average standard ex cx b I foreign nations When the first Chinese ambassador to En England was ras departing homeward he said that while In material dv was as far Ir ahead of their national morality was nothing less lellA than shocking It fl must Indeed says Dr Gills seem strange to 10 n a that with all the boasted In influences of ChrIstianity It should be to organize a SocIety for the Prevention of Cruelty to tine the ot at children being unknown In China The that infanticide is III titie to Is pronounced glaringly absurd In this case IBI It seems actually to prove ro n a negative hinaman marries marrieR young oun It If his 11 Ife tiles lIell he marries n again aln While on the other hand It i Is not thought proper for ow to 10 remarry Moreover take concu blues take two In three and even four It thAI unlEss there is 18 isan Jill an In the numbers f Cf bO boys R Hind girls In n which Is meted n d l can cannot I not nOI he be Ir Ic 11 |
