Christian Missionaries and China's Canonical Writings

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AND CHINA’S CANONICAL WRITINGS BY PROFESSORHARLAN P. BEACH THE canonical writings under discussion in this article are the classical books commonly regarded as the orthodox expositions of the Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist systems of ethics and religion. More specifically, the phrase includes for Taoism its original canon, the ‘ Tao Te Ching,’ or Classic of the Tao and its Manifestations, ascribed to Lao Tzii, and the ‘Nan Hua Chi% Ching,’ or True Classic of Nan-hua,l written by the most famous of Lao Tzii’s followers, Chuang Tzii, ‘ mystic, moralist and social reformer,’ whose aim, according to the historian, Ssii-ma Ch’ien, was to asperse the Confucian school and to glorify the mysteries of his master. We also include the thin volumes of a probable forgery ascribed to Lieh Tzii, but not the essays of Han Fei Tzii of the third pre-Christian century, the esoteric works of the prince of the Han dynasty, Huai-nan Tzti, nor a modern production of the Taoist School as in- fluenced by Buddhism, the ‘ Kan Ying P’ien,’ or Tractate upon Rewards and Punishments. Of course one would not mention a mass of mystical, magical and puerile writings that have degraded Taoism and made it a laugh- ing-stock and a hissing.2 The phrase ‘ Confucian Classics ’ is commonly sup- posed to include only the Five Classics, or Confucianism’s Old Testament, and the Four Books, roughly corresponding to our New Testament. Though they are relatively Dr Wilhelm translates it ‘ Das Wahrebuch vom siidliche Bliitenland.’ a In imitation of Confucian classics, Taoists later produced two sets of ‘ Five Classics’ and two sets of ‘Four Books,’ one set of each being mystical aiid the other magical. 236 Missioftaries and Chinese CZassics 237 well known in the Occident, four other works, practically unknown, are regarded as filling up the complement of the Thirteen Classics. Of these most of us have only seen the ‘ Hsiao Ching,’ or Classic of Filial Piety, forming the last portion of volume 111 of the Sacred Books of the East. It is through the Nine Classics that Chinese literature and religion are best known; and here it is that Confucius and his equally worthy follower, Mencius, appear as the peers in many respects of their western contemporaries, Socrates and Plato. As for the Buddhist canon in its Chinese form, it is more difficult to speak. Chinese definitions of canon make it hard to select from its extremely voluminous literature those writings which are deemed true ‘ Ching ’ by Chinese Buddhists. The various schools into which that faith has been divided have arisen largely because of this very embarrassment of literature, which caused different leaders to segregate certain works and found their schools upon those particular teachings. Yet we may perhaps follow the estimate of the editor of the Sacred Books of the East, who devoted ten volumes of the series to Buddhistic can0ns.l Instead of Max Miiller’s translation of the ‘Dhammapada,’ however, that by Beal from the Chinese, with illustrations from life and story, is far better. One would add to these volumes such works as the ‘Ta Ch’hg Ch’i Hsin Lun ’ (Awakening of the Faith) of the Mahayha school, about as large as St Mark’s Gospel, yet funda- mental for the Pure Land Sect of Buddhists ; the ‘ Fo Pen Hsing Chi Ching ’ -Romantic History of Buddha is the title of Beal’s translation and abstracts-and the ‘ LEng Yen Ching ’ -the full Chinese title contains twenty characters-Sutra of Nalanda, extolled by Chu Hsi (the greatest Confucian commentat or and in early life himself devoted to Buddhism), as being the best worth reading of all Buddhist literature. Other works, equally important, are omitted in this selected list. 1 Vols. x, XI, XIII, XVII, XIX, xx, XXI, xxxv, XXXVI, XLIX. 238 Inteynational Review of Missions With very few exceptions, Chinese Protestant missionaries have not studied these sacred books, beyond a small portion of the Confucian literature. Reasons therefor are obvious. Linguistic obstacles stand in the way, first of all. None of them is written in the Mandarin or other colloquial, which is all that most missionaries take time to acquire. The Wen-li in which they are written is so different from the vernacular and so concise that commentaries are required for a true understanding of them. These in turn are in Wen-li and, like the text, contain many unfamiliar ideographs. Again, their very bulk makes the task seem impossible. While the ‘Tao Ti! Ching ’ is perhaps the briefest major canon in the world, being about half the length of St Mark’s Gospel,’ as a rule they are very large. Thus the Confucian Classics and their accompanying necessary commentary are far more errtensive than our Bible, to say nothing of the 4754 different characters which must be known before the words can even be pronounced. That portion of the Buddhist canon translated by the early Hindu scholars and by one Chinese translator is as large as seven hundred New Testaments ; while the ‘ Ta Pan-@ Po-lo-mi-to Ching,’ Hsuan Tsang’s translation of the ‘ Mah8 Prajnd Paramit8 Siitra,’ is about eighty times the size of our New Testament, according to Dr Edkins and Mi Beal. Both of these sinologues believe the entire Chinese Buddhist canon to be seven hundred times larger than our Bible. The religious values of this mass of literature embedded in hieroglyps are so limited, in common missionary estima- tion, that even the most sympathetic friend of Chinese religions shrinks from a task so hopeless and so little rewarding. Perhaps, however, some would undertake it did not other duties, more directly fruitful, already over- burden them. A supposedly conscientious use of time 1 Yet the most comprehensive collection of Taoist scriptures is the ‘Tao Tsang Ch’iian Shu’ (complete Thesaurus of Taoism), a greatly abridged edition of which contains eighty octavo volumes. Missionaries and Chinese CZassics 239 thus debars them from a world of religious thought which is familiar and propadeutic for the Chinese, leaving the missionaries in occidental isolation. There are other considerations, very different in char- acter, which make the missionary pause in the face of this problem. The Chinese are now living in the twentieth century ; and since it dawned, the Confucian Classics have been doomed, first by the abolition of examinations in 1905, and even more effectively by the revolution of 1911 and its aftermath, the republic. The much coveted office-bringing degrees are no longer won by a successful examination upon the Classics ; and the life of the republic is almost oblivious of the teachings of the Throneless King, even though the people have not lost interest in the Secondary Sage, Mencius. Again, the national leaders of most advanced views realize the handicaps of their ideographic language. They see their enterprising neigh- bours struggling to shake off the incubus of Chinese characters, which, despite the fact that Japan has a poly- syllabic language and two forms of the Kana syllabary and so does not really require ideographic writing, they still employ in their best books. The educated Chinese revolt against the new phonetic script for any serious purpose, though approving its use for the masses and for lower stages of education. And they compromise their problem by advocating the increasing use of Mandarin of the Pekingese form, the official spoken language of the old Imperial Court. Professor Su Hu of Peking University and a group of the younger foreign trained literary men are pressing this propaganda with some effect, thus second- ing the Government’s proposition that the medium of instruction must be simplified. But this passing of Con- fucianism and the waning in consequence of the Whli form of the language means that the classical language is yearly diminishing in importance, with fewer Chinese understanding quotations from the sacred books and also with a weakened incentive to read the canonical writings. 240 Internationad Review of Missions To offset partially these discouragements, there is present in limited circles a renewal of interest, in the Three Religions and their scriptures. Confucianism came strongly to the front when the new republic was for- mulating its permanent constitution. In the provisional one freedom of religious belief was proclaimed. But when the parliamentary committee reached that part of the revision of the document, a vigorous attempt was made to constitute the republic a Confucian state. A Con- fucian Church had been established, and the opposition to religious freedom came from its heads, prominent among whom was Dr Ch’h Huan-chang, whose two- volume book, Economic Principles of Confucius and His School, contains the substantive elements of revived and modernized Confucianism. To meet this movement, for the first time the other two recognized religions-and the later exotics, Mohammedanism and Christianity-united their forces in a common attempt to secure religious equality and liberty. Months of agitation and struggle caused the reaffirmation of religious freedom of the provisional constitution, though the new one has not yet been ratified. The effect of this agitation upon Buddhism and Taoism has been to stimulate them into a more vigorous life, particularly the former. As Dr Wilhelm has already stated in this Review,l a Buddhist and a Taoist Church have been organized with detailed constitutions recognized by the state. The Taoist Pai Yiin Kuan monastery in Peking leads the movement in the north, and the Ching An monastery of the Buddhists in Shanghai has the same pre-eminence in the south, corresponding to the predomin- ance of each faith in its respective section.

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