u ':teld Library 
 
 The Religion of Science Library 
 
 Number 30 
 
 Bi-Monthly 
 
 MARCH, 1898 
 
 Entered at the Chicago Post Office as Second Class Mail Matter. 
 
 Price, 25c 
 Yearly, $1.50 
 
 Chinese Philosophy 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. PAUL CARUS 
 
 B \£6 
 .C3, 2 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 (LONDON : Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co.) 
 
 1898 
 
sofW;': 
 
 , d~53~ 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 AN 
 
 EXPOSITION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERISTIC 
 FEATURES OF CHINESE THOUGHT 
 
 DR. PAUL YARUS 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 LONDON : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. 
 
 1898 
 
In reply to a copy of this article forwarded through the American representa- 
 tive to H. M. the Emperor of China, the Tsungli Yamen, which is the Imperial 
 Foreign Office, returned the following informal communication : 
 
 THE TSUNGLI YAMEN TO THE HON. MR. DENBY. 
 
 Informal. Pekin, May 6th, 1896. 
 
 Your Excellency: 
 
 We have had the honor to receive Your Excellency's note, wherein you state 
 that by particular request you send the Yamen a copy of the Monist — an American 
 Magazine. Your Excellency further states that it contains an article on "Chinese 
 Philosophy ” and the author asks that it be delivered to H. M. the Emperor. 
 
 In reply we beg to state, that the article in question has been translated into 
 Chinese by order of the Yamen and has been duly perused by the members thereof. 
 
 The article shows that the writer is a scholar well versed in Chinese literature, 
 and has brought together matters which indicate that he fully understood the sub- 
 ject he has treated. 
 
 The book will be placed on file in the archives of the Yamen. 
 
 Copyright by 
 
 The Open Court Publishing Co. 
 1896 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY . 1 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 HINESE philosophy is as peculiar as the Chinese language and 
 
 Chinese customs, and it is difficult for Western people to un- 
 derstand its nature or to appreciate its paramount influence upon 
 the national character of the Celestial Empire. It is a rare mixture 
 of deep thought and vain speculations, of valuable ideas and useless 
 subtleties. It shows us a noble beginning and a lame progress ; a 
 grand start and a dreary stagnation ; a promising seed-time and a 
 poor harvest. The heroes of thought who laid its foundations, 
 were so much admired that none dared to excel them, and thus be- 
 fore the grandeur of the original genius which looms up in the pre- 
 historic age, the philosophy of all later generations is dwarfed into 
 timid insignificance. 
 
 The Chinese are naturally conservative because their written 
 language is rigid and inflexible, rendering the task of forming new 
 words extremely difficult. And the people who are hampered in 
 forming new words are also hampered in their conception of new 
 ideas and the discovery of new truths. But let us remember that this 
 drawback of the Chinese script is only an incidental consequence of 
 its extraordinary advantages. Consider that whatever changes there 
 may have been in Chinese speech, i. e., in oral language, the Chi- 
 nese scholars of to-day can read without great difficulty the books 
 that were written two and one-half millenniums ago. Moreover, their 
 ideographic script is more impressive and direct than our phonetic 
 
 : The Chinese characters that appear in this article were made by Mr. H. H. 
 Clarke of the Stationers’ Engraving Company, Chicago, 111. 
 
2 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 method of writing in which the letters must be translated into sound 
 before they can be understood by the reader. Dr. Morrison says 
 in the introductory remarks to his dictionary (p. n) : 
 
 "As sight is quicker than hearing, so ideas reaching the mind by the eye are 
 quicker, more striking, and vivid, than those which reach the mind b) 7 the slower 
 progress of sound. The character forms a picture which really is, or, by early as- 
 sociations is considered, beautiful and impressive. The Chinese fine writing darts 
 upon the mind with a vivid flash ; a force and a beauty, of which alphabetic lan- 
 guage is incapable." 
 
 But it is not the rigidity of their language alone that is at the 
 basis of the Chinese conservatism, it is also the simplicity of the 
 fundamental ideas of their world-view and the striking symbolism in 
 which they are expressed and which makes it impossible for the Chi- 
 nese to think in any other modes of thought than their own. The 
 inviolable power of their tradition is further strengthened by an im- 
 perturbable patience and unbounded reverence for the sages of yore. 
 The former renders the people submissive to many unheard-of abuses 
 on the part of the authorities, while the latter keeps them in faithful 
 adhesion to established conditions. 
 
 From time immemorial the highest ideal of Chinese thinkers 
 has been to bow in modesty and submission to the insuperable gran- 
 deur of their ancient traditions. Criticism is very meek, originality 
 of thought is strangled ere it can develop, and any attempted pro- 
 gress beyond the old masters appears to them as insanity. It is as 
 if a Christian would dare to be better or wiser than Christ. In a 
 word, the whole Chinese civilisation is saturated with the belief in 
 the divinity, the perfection, and the unqualified excellence of its 
 principles, doctrines, and institutions. 
 
 In the following pages we shall attempt to delineate in large 
 outlines the philosophy that underlies the Chinese civilisation, and 
 we hope that it will not only enable the reader to comprehend how 
 the Chinese are hampered by their mode of notation in both their 
 thought-symbols and their language, but that he will also learn to 
 appreciate the causes which produce Chinese conservatism. For, 
 indeed, there is in the Chinese world-conception so much that ap- 
 peals to us as self-evident and on a priori consideration as a matter 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 3 
 
 of course, that we can understand how difficult it is for the Chinese 
 to free themselves from the rigid forms of their traditions and adapt 
 themselves to the more plastic modes of Western thought. 
 
 THE YANG AND THE YIN 
 
 The ancient Chinese were distinguished by a mathematical turn 
 of mind. For, while the literature of all other nations begins with 
 religious hymns and mythological lore of some kind, the oldest docu- 
 ments of the Chinese exhibit arithmetical devices, two among which 
 are known as the yjaj" |^| Ho T'u 1 and the Loll shu, “the 
 
 map of the Ho, 2 or [yellow] River” and “the writing of the (river) 
 Loh.” 
 
 All Chinese scholars who have attempted to reconstruct the 
 map of the Ho and the writing of the Loh agree in adopting a dual- 
 istic system, which conceives the world as the product of 
 
 YANG and YIN . 3 Yang means “bright,” and Yin “dark.” 
 Yang is the principle of heaven, Yin is the principle of earth. Yang 
 is the sun, Yin is the moon. Yang is, as we should say, positive; Yin 
 is negative. Yang is, as the Chinese say, masculine and active; 
 Yin is feminine and passive. The former is motion, the latter is 
 rest. Yang is strong, rigid, lordlike; Yin is mild, pliable, submis- 
 sive, wifelike. Yang was originally represented by a small, bright 
 circle (o), Yin by a small, dark circle (•), but in their combina- 
 tions these symbols were replaced by full and broken lines, ” 
 
 and “ — . ” 
 
 The symbols of Yang and Yin are called the two I or “ele- 
 mentary forms,” and the four combinations of the two I in twos are 
 called the four Figures or Siang . 4 They are as follows : 5 
 
 1 The spiritus asper in T'u indicates that the T must be pronounced with a cer- 
 tain vigor or emphasis. French and German sinologists spell "Thu," which tran- 
 scription, however, is misleading in English. 
 
 2 Ho , the River, stands for Hoang Ho, the yellow river. 
 
 shows the symbols "place" and "spreading”; 
 side of a hill.” 
 
 4 See Mayer’s Chinese Reader's Manual , pp. 293 and 309. 
 
 6 Yih King, App. V., Chap. VII. 
 
 is "the shady 
 
4 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 the great Yang the small Yin the small Yang the great Yin 
 
 Groups of three or more elementary forms are called Kwa x ^J v 
 The eight possible trigrams, or permutations of three I, possess 
 their own names and meanings, which (according to Legge) are as 
 follows : 
 
 KWA 
 
 NAMES 
 
 STANDING FOR 
 
 REPRE- 
 SENTED BY 
 THE 
 
 1 ^zzzz 
 
 ch'ien. 
 
 Heaven or sky. 
 
 Strength. 
 
 Horse. 
 
 2 
 
 tui. 
 
 Lake (water collected in 
 
 Pleasure or satisfac- 
 
 Goat. 
 
 
 
 a basin). 
 
 tion. 
 
 
 3 
 
 li. 
 
 Fire (the sun or light- 
 
 Brightness. 
 
 Pheasant. 
 
 
 
 nmg). 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 chan. 
 
 Thunder. 
 
 Energy or mobility. 
 
 Dragon. 
 
 5 1 
 
 siuen. 
 
 Wind. 
 
 Penetration. 
 
 Bird. 
 
 6 
 
 kan. 
 
 Moon, streams of water 
 
 Sinking down, danger. 
 
 Pig. 
 
 
 
 in motion, clouds, rain. 
 
 
 
 7 — — 
 
 kan. 
 
 Mountain. 
 
 Arrest, standstill. 
 
 Dog. 
 
 8 ■■ 
 
 kw'un. 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Compliance or docility. 
 
 Ox. 
 
 All the things in the world, man included, are thought to be 
 compounds of Yang and Yin elements. In this way the Chinese 
 philosophy has become a theory of permutation, and the origin of 
 all things is traced to a change in the combinations of Yang and Yin. 
 
 FUH-HI 
 
 AND YU 
 
 As to the map of the Ho and the writing of the Loh, we must 
 state at once that nothing definite is known concerning their original 
 form and significance. Only this much is safe to say, that tradition 
 unanimously connects the former with ^ Fuh-hi, the first 
 
 emperor of China and the legendary founder of the Chinese civilisa- 
 
 1 The character 
 divine. ” 
 
 shows on the left-hand side “batton,” on the right "to 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 5 
 
 tion (about 3322 B. C., according to another calculation about 2800 
 B. C.), and the latter with ^ Yii the Great (about 2200 B. C.), 
 the founder of the second Chinese dynasty. 
 
 We are told of a great deluge that devastated the county un- 
 der the virtuous Yao, the last emperor but one of the first dynasty; 
 and that Kwen, the Minister of Works, labored in vain to control the 
 waters. Kwen was banished for life to Mount Yii in 2286 B. C., 
 while his duties were intrusted to his son, Yii, who at last, after nine 
 years, in 2278 B. C. , succeeded in draining the floods. Emperor 
 Shun, the son-in-law and successor of Emperor Yao, in disregard of 
 his own sons, raised Yii to the position of joint regent in 2224 B. C., 
 and bequeathed to him the empire. When Shun, in 2208 B. C., 
 died, Yii observed a three years’ period of mourning, whereupon he 
 assumed the government, in 2205 B. C. 
 
 Much may be legendary in the records of the ancient history of 
 the Chinese, but there is no doubt that Yao, Shun, and Yii are his- 
 torical personages. They represent an epoch of civilisation which, 
 probably in more than one respect, has never been reached again by 
 the Chinese. Public works, such as regulating the course of great 
 rivers, were undertaken, and the sciences of mathematics and astron- 
 omy flourished. Eclipses of the sun and moon were calculated ; 
 we know that the brothers Hi and Ho observed and calculated the 
 planetary revolutions; 1 and we possess in the Shu King documents 
 that give evidence of manliness and moral stamina. There is, for 
 instance, the speech 2 delivered by Yii’s worthy son and successor, 
 Ch‘i, at Kan in 2197 B.C., which reminds us of Frederick the Great’s 
 famous address to his generals before th,e battle of Leuthen. No 
 wonder that these days of pristine glory are still remembered in the 
 proverbial expression, “the heaven of Yao and the sun of Shun,” 
 which denotes the highest prosperity imaginable. 
 
 are not to be attributed to the Emperors Fu-Hi and Yii personally, 
 we can safely trust the old tradition, at least so far as to say, that 
 
 If the Map of Ho 
 
 j|jjj and the Writing of Loh 
 
 1 Mayer’s Chinese Reader's Manual, Part I., No. 900. 
 
 2 Sacred Books of the East, III., pp. 76-78. 
 
6 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 these two documents (whatever their nature may have been) belong 
 to the ages represented by Fu-Hi and Yu. 
 
 M, 
 
 THE YIH 77 ] AND THE KWA 
 
 The ancient kwa-philosophy, as we may call the system of com- 
 prehending things as permutations of the two principles Yang and 
 Yin, plays an important role in the thoughts of the Chinese people 
 and forms even to-day the basis of their highest religious conceptions, 
 their scientific notions, and their superstitions. With its help the 
 origin of the world is explained, rules of conduct are laid down and 
 a forecast of the future is made. 
 
 As to the original meaning of the kwa-philosophy, we have 
 positive evidence of its mathematical character, not only in various 
 suggestions of Chinese traditions, but also and mainly in the nature 
 of the kwa themselves. It is to be regretted, however, that in 
 times of war and civil disorder the historical connexion was inter- 
 rupted. Says Chu Hi in his introduction to Cheu-tsz’ ’s T‘ai Kih 
 T‘u :* 
 
 "After the Cheu (dynasty) [which ruled 1122-255 B. C.] perished and Meng- 
 Kho died, the tradition of this doctrine was not continued. 
 
 " When further the T'sin were succeeded by the Han, passing the T sin, Sin, 
 and T'ang, so as to arrive at our Sung [the dynasty under which Chu Hi lived] and 
 the five planets met in the K wei (constellation) so as to usher in an age of science 
 and erudition, the sage [Cheu-tsz’] came.” 
 
 The oldest work of Chinese literature which embodies the phi- 
 
 trt 
 
 losophy of Yang and Yin is the Yih King (or simply the Yih), 
 i. e. , the book of permutations . 1 2 
 
 In the Yih King we find the eight trigrammatic kwa combined 
 into groups of hexagrammatic kwa, resulting in eight times eight 
 or sixty-four permutations, every one of which has its peculiar name 
 and significance. To the sixty-four permutations of the kwa hexa- 
 
 1 See Gabelentz’s German edition of the T’ai Kih T u, p. 14 
 
 a 
 
 2 'Joe (king) signifies a classical book of canonical authority; and 7 /J (yih) 
 means " permutation the character shows the sun above the moon, the latter in 
 its archaic form. The translation " change," which is commonly adopted by sinolo- 
 gists, does not always convey the right idea. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 7 
 
 grams an explanatory text is added consisting of seven lines . 1 The 
 first line, written by Wen Wang , 2 applies to the hexagram as a 
 whole, and the remaining six, written by Cheu Rung , 3 have reference 
 to the six sundry lines of the hexagram, counting the lowest line as 
 the first and the topmost as the sixth. The fulL lines, representing 
 Yang, are called kiu; the broken lines, representing Yin, are 
 called luk^ There can be no doubt about it that in its present 
 form the Yih King is chiefly used for the purpose of divination. 
 
 The most ancient commentaries of the Yih King have been ap- 
 pended to the book in the shape of three double and four simple ad- 
 ditions called the Ten Wings. The first addition of two sections, 
 called T'wan is commonly ascribed to Wen Wang, the second called 
 Siang, to his son, Cheu Rung, while the rest belong to later periods, 
 containing expositions ascribed to Confucius. 
 
 The Yih King is one of the most enigmatic books on earth, the 
 mystery of which is considered by many beyond all hope of solu- 
 tion ; and yet it exercises even to-day a greater influence over the 
 minds of the Chinese than does the Bible in Christian countries. 
 Its divine authority is undisputed and every good Chinese is confi- 
 dent that it contains the sum of all earthly wisdom. There is no 
 Chinese scholar who cherishes the least doubt that there is any truth 
 in science or philosophy that could not be found in, and rationally 
 developed from, the Yih King. 
 
 The oldest mention of the Book of Permutations is made in the 
 official records of the Cheu dynasty, which succeeded the Yin dy- 
 nasty in 1122 B.C. There three versions of the Yih are mentioned. 
 We read : 
 
 4 The first and second kwa are exceptions. They possess an additional eighth 
 line, which refers to all the six I together. 
 
 2 Wen means “scholar,” or “scholarly, ” i. e., “ he who pursues the arts of 
 peace.” Wang means “king.” Wen Wang received the posthumous title Si Peh , 
 i. e., “ Chief of the West.” His proper name is Ch'ang\ but as it is not respectful 
 to use the proper name, he is commonly called “ Wen Wang.” 
 
 3 Kung means “duke.” Cheu Kung (i; e., the Duke of Cheu) was the fourth 
 son of Wen Wang ; his proper name is Tan. 
 
 4 The original meaning of 
 
 % 
 
 kiu is ‘ ‘ nine, ” of lull “six," 
 
8 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 “The Grand Diviner had charge of the rules for the three Yih (systems of 
 permutation), called the Lien-shan, the Kwei ts’ang and the Yih of Cheu ; in each of 
 them the primary figures were eight which were multiplied in each till they amounted 
 to sixty-four .” — Sacred Books of the East, XVI, p. 3. 
 
 The third mentioned version of the Yih is ascribed to Wen 
 Wang, 1231-1135 B. C.), and his son Cheu Kung (1 169-1 1 16). 1 
 
 Wen Wang, a man of unusual piety and stern justice, was the 
 most powerful vassal of the last ruler of the house of Yin, 2 called 
 Cheu Sin, “ the dissolute tyrant.” When Wen Wang had 
 excited the wrath of Cheu Sin and of his equally brutal consort, 
 Ta-Ki, by expressing disapproval of some of their atrocities, he was 
 imprisoned, but after three years released through the intercession of 
 his son Fa, afterward called Wu Wang. 3 The latter sent rich presents 
 to Cheu Sin and with them a beautiful girl, for whose sake the tyrant 
 gladly acceded to the requests of Fa. 4 While in prison at Yew Li, 
 in 1143 B. C., Wen Wang studied the hexagrams of Fuh-Hi, and 
 comforted himself with the propitious prophecies which he believed 
 he discovered in their mysterious lines. 
 
 When Wen Wang died, Fa inherited his father’s kingdom. 
 Meanwhile the tyranny of his suzerain, Cheu Sin became so intol- 
 erable that even the tyrant’s own brother K i, the prince of Wei, fled 
 to his court and appeared before him with an iron chain round his 
 neck. After this event no choice was left Wu Wang. He had 
 either to betray the confidence of K'i or to resist the unrighteous 
 tyranny of Cheu Sin. In the spring of the year 1121 B.C. he offered 
 a solemn sacrifice to Shang Ti, the Lord on High, 5 and marched 
 against his suzerain. He crossed the Hoang-Ho at the ford of 
 
 J The ancient rulers of China are called emperors or Ti ; but the rulers of the 
 dynasty Hia preferred the more modest title of King or Wang. 
 
 2 The Yin dynasty is also named Shang. 
 
 3 Fa, surnamed Wu Wang (i. e the war king), was the oldest son of Wen 
 Wang. 
 
 4 Cheu Sin (the dissolute tyrant) is a posthumous title. His proper name is 
 “Show.” The word “ Cheu " in the name Cheu Sin is not the same word as the 
 name of the principality of. "Cheu,” after which the Cheu dynasty is called. 
 
 
 (shang) “above," “high in heaven,” or “supreme," 
 peror, sovereign. The etymology of “ ti” is doubtful. 
 
 iff ti) Lord em- 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 9 
 
 Meng-tsin and gained a decisive victory in the plain of Muh. Cheu 
 Sin shut himself up in his palace, at Luh T'ai, ordered his servants 
 to set it on fire and died in its flames in the year 1122 B. C. Thus 
 the Yin dynasty was superseded by the Cheu dynasty. Cheu Kung, 
 Wu Wang’s younger but more famous brother, contributed much 
 toward the consolidation of the Cheu dynasty as chief counsellor, 
 first of Wu Wang and then of Ch'ung, i, e., “the Perfecter,” his 
 imperial nephew and successor to the throne after Wu Wang’s 
 death . 1 
 
 There seems to be no question that the founders of the Cheu 
 dynasty revised and rearranged the traditional Kwa systems ; and 
 the Yih of Cheu, is according to undisputed tradition, the Book of 
 Permutations which is extant to-day. 
 
 Tradition preserves two schemes of the eight trigrams in the 
 shape of a mariner’s compass-card, in which south is always top- 
 most. The older scheme is ascribed to Fuh-Hi, and the later one to 
 Wen Wang. Their arrangements are as follows: 
 
 Fig. 1. The Trigram According to Fuh-Hi. Fig. 2. The Trigram According to Wen Wang 
 
 Fuh-Hi’s table shows the Yang and Yin symbols evenly bal- 
 anced, so that each couple of opposed kwa is made up of three full 
 and three broken lines. 
 
 We are unable to say why Wen Wang changed the more natural 
 order of the Fuh-Hi system. Probably he argued that if the world 
 were arranged in the evenly balanced way of the traditional scheme, 
 
 : See Victor Strauss’s German translation of the Shi- King , pp. 39-44. 
 
IO 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 it would not move, but remain at rest. Thus he naturally might 
 have come to the conclusion that change which is the condition of 
 the actual universe can only be due to a displacement of the regu- 
 larly arranged order which would represent the elements of exis- 
 tence in a state of equilibrium. 
 
 One of the arrangements of the hexagrams that are met with 
 in all the larger editions of the Yih King, consists, as can be seen in 
 the appended diagram, of a square surrounded by a circle. 
 
 Fig. 3. The Kwa of Fuh-Hi Arranged in Square and Circle. 
 
 In the square the sixty-four permutations of the hexagrams are 
 arranged in the order of what may be called their natural succession ; 
 that is to say, on substituting for broken lines zero (o), and for full 
 lines the figure “ 1 ,” we can read the hexagrams as a series of num- 
 bers from o to 63, written in the binary system. The topmost figure 
 in the left corner represents zero, i. e. 000000; and reading from 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 1 1 
 
 the left to the right, we have i, i. e. oooooi; 2, i. e. 000010; 3, i. e. 
 00001 1 ; 4, i. e. 000100 ; etc., until mm, which, in the decimal sys- 
 tem, is 63. 
 
 The circle contains the same symbols so arranged that those 
 which diametrically face one another yield always the sum of 63. 
 Thus heaven, i. e. =E or 63, and earth, i. e. == or zero, are, the 
 former at the top, the latter at the bottom of the circle. Beginning 
 with zero at the bottom, the numbers ascend from 1 to 32, after 
 which they reach, in the topmost place, opposite the zero, the num- 
 ber 63; thence they descend to the right in backward order from 62 
 to 31, which is the neighbor of zero. 
 
 Chinese authors inform us that the square represents the earth, 
 while the circle that surrounds the square symbolises heaven. 
 
 There is another arrangement of the hexagrams, as follows : 
 
 64 63 62 61 60 39 58 57 
 
 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 
 
 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 
 
 4° 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 
 
 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 
 
 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 1 7 
 
 16 15 14 13 12 II 10 9 
 
 7 6 5 ’ 4 3 2 1 
 
 Fig. 4. The Hexagrams According to Wen Wang. 
 
12 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Beginning from the right on the bottom line, the sixty-four 
 kwa 1 are arranged in the order of the Cheu version, ascribed to 
 King Wen. The design exhibits in the even columns the inverse 
 arrangement of the kwa of the odd columns, with this exception, that 
 whenever an inversion would show the same figure, all the Yang 
 lines are replaced by Yin lines, and vice versa. 
 
 Thus the hexagram No. 44, called “Kan” ps is the inverted 
 hexagram No. 43, called “ Kwai ” while “ K'ien,” ^ in No. 1, 
 is changed into “ Kwan ” | § in No. 2. 
 
 J The names and significance of the several hexagrams depend upon the com- 
 bination of the two trigrams of which each one consists. Thus, No. 1 is “ sky ” upon 
 “sky,” viz., the active principle doubled, which means great and successful display 
 of energy. No. 2 is “ earth” upon “ earth the receptive principle doubled, which 
 means, great receptivity, fertility, stability. No. 3 is “ rain ” above “thunder,” 
 means fulness, boding prosperity to those who are constant, but threatening im- 
 pending danger to those who venture to move, etc. No. 49 is “ water ” above “ fire,” 
 which means contrasts that confront one another ; to boil ; to transform (implying 
 that fire changes the nature of water). 
 
 The names of the hexagrams, according to a Japanese authority (in the Ta- 
 ka-shima-ekidan), interpreted in the sense given by Western sinologists, mainly 
 by Harlez (in his Yih King), are as follows : 1. K'ien, sky, success ; 2. kw'un, earth, 
 stability; 3. chun, fulness; 4. meng , infancy, growth; 5. hsii, expectancy, danger; 
 6 . song, litigation, lawsuit ; 7. see, an army or a commander ; 8. p'i, friendship ; 
 9. hsido chuh, being clouds but no rain, little progress ; 10. li, to march ; 11. T'di 
 penetration, no obstruction; 12. p'ei, obstruction, to be besieged; 13. thong zhin 
 union, fellowship ; 14. taiyn, great, power ; 15. k'ien, condescension; 16. yii, satis- 
 faction, grandeur, majesty ; 17. sui, faithfulness, obedience ; 18. ku, care, business, 
 agitation ; 19. tin, dignity, authority ; 20. kwen, manifestation, show, appearance ; 
 21. shi hoh, slander, censure ; 22. pi, embellishment, flash of light; 23. poh, oppres- 
 sion, deprivation ; 24. ffth, reaction, return ; 25. wtl wang, openness, sincerity; 26. lai 
 ch'uli, accumulation ; 27. /, to sustain, to feed ; 28. ta ksvo, rising of the great ; 29. 
 k'an, difficulties; 30. li, brilliancy; 31. hien, harmony; 32. hong, endurance; 33. 
 fun, to retreat, to live in obscurity; 34. ta chuang, great strength ; 35. ts'in, to 
 advance; 36. tnitigi, descent, eclipse, stars; 37. kid zhin, family; 38. k'wei, oppo- 
 sition, contrariety; 39. hien, difficulty; 40. kieh, escape, deliverance ; 41. sun, to 
 abate, to lessen ; 42. yih, aggrandizement, gain; 43. kudi, dispersion, distribution; 
 44. k'eii, to meet ; 45. tsui, to assemble; 46. shang, to ascend ; 47. k'wan, distress ; 
 48. t sing , a well ; 49. koh, water over fire, to renew, to transform ; 50. ting, fire 
 over wood, caldron; 51. chan, thunder, terror; 52. kan, firmness ; 53. chien to in- 
 choate, to move apace ; 54. kuei, to give in marriage ; 55. fang, wealth ; 56. lit, a 
 stranger, a traveller; 57. sun, pliability, meekness; 58. tui, rejoicing; 59. hwdn, 
 to flow over, to squander ; 60. chieh, law, moderation ; 61. chung, the right way, in 
 the middle ; 62. hsido kw 6 , excess in small things ; 63. ki isi, consummation ; 64. wei 
 tsi, non-consummation. 
 
 [The translation of the names of the sixty-four kwa, as given here, only ap- 
 proximately agrees with the system elsewhere employed in this article ] 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 13 
 
 If regarded as binary numbers, the order of King Wen’s square 
 reads in decimal numbers as follows : 
 
 21 
 
 42 
 
 12 
 
 51 
 
 50 
 
 19 
 
 54 
 
 27 
 
 13 
 
 44 
 
 52 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 36 
 
 29 
 
 46 
 
 26 
 
 22 
 
 24 
 
 6 
 
 3i 
 
 62 
 
 35 
 
 49 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 53 
 
 43 
 
 40 
 
 5 
 
 60 
 
 15 
 
 28 
 
 14 
 
 45 
 
 18 
 
 3° 
 
 33 
 
 57 
 
 39 
 
 32 
 
 1 
 
 41 
 
 37 
 
 3 
 
 48 
 
 25 
 
 38 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 61 
 
 47 
 
 7 
 
 56 
 
 55 
 
 59 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 58 
 
 17 
 
 34 
 
 0 
 
 63 
 
 THE MILFOIL AND THE SPIRIT TORTOISE 
 
 The divining stalks 1 and the tortoise-shell have been in use in 
 China for the purpose of divination from time immemorial, for the 
 practice of divination is mentioned in the oldest documents of the 
 Shu King, 2 where Yu recommends “ the trial by divination.” 
 
 The outfit for divining ^ by the stalks of the divining 
 
 plant (. Ptarmica Sibirica ) consists of six little oblong blocks (like toy 
 construction-blocks) being, on two sides, divided by an incision after 
 the pattern of the broken line of Yin and smooth like Yang lines on 
 the two remaining sides ; further, of fifty wooden stalks, a little 
 thicker than knitting-needles. The six blocks represent Yang lines if 
 the smooth side, and Yin lines if the incision, is uppermost. The 
 method of divination as prescribed by the Book of Eki in the Taka- 
 shima Ekidan (Keigyosha, Tokio, 1895), is as follows : 
 
 “First of all, wash your hands and mouth, clean your body, and sit per- 
 fectly aright in a quiet room, and then you may take hold of the 'sticks' very rev- 
 erently. Fifty sticks make a complete set, and it must be remembered that they 
 are the holy implements which reveal the will of the Almighty through their math- 
 ematical changes. Take out any single stick and let it stand in the stickholder, 
 
 SA -F 
 
 
 l Shi tsao the “divining plant” is a species of shi 'j=J “milfoil,” or 
 
 “ yarrow," the same plant which is cultivated at the tomb of Confucius. The sym- 
 bol “ milfoil ” is composed of the three characters “plant ” on the top, “old man” 
 in the middle, and “ mouth ” or “to speak ” at the bottom. 
 
 2 Part II., Book II. , § 2 ; Sacred Books of the East, III., p. 50. 
 
H 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 which is to be placed on the centre of the table. This particular one is referred to 
 the ‘Great Origin.' Hold the lower ends of the remaining forty-nine in your left 
 hand, and slightly dovetail the upper ends. Apply your right-hand fingers to the 
 middle of the sticks, the thumb being nearest to you or from inside, and the other 
 fingers to be applied from outside. Lift the whole thing above your forehead. Now 
 turn your sole attention to the affair to be divined, close your eyes, suspend your 
 breath, make yourself solemn and pure, be sure that you are in interview with the 
 Almighty to receive his order, and further, do not diversify your thoughts to any- 
 thing else. At the moment when your purity of heart is at its apex, divide the 
 sticks into any two groups with your right-hand thumb. The division must not be 
 voluntary. 
 
 "It must be observed here that the moment when the purity of one's heart is 
 at its apex is, in other words, the moment when one communicates with the Al- 
 mighty. The feeling at the moment of the communication is impossible to describe, 
 being like that which one feels when electric currents flow through his limbs. It is 
 absolutely necessary that one shall divide his sticks at the very instant when he feels 
 the feeling specified. This point of communication baffles every trial of descrip- 
 tion, the only way of acquiring the exact idea being through a continued practice 
 and consequent dexterity of the student. 
 
 "Now, the set of the sticks is in two groups, which correspond to the 'Heaven 
 and Earth' or 'Positive and Negative' in the terms of the 'Eki.' Place the right- 
 hand group on fhe table, and take out one from the group. This one is to be held 
 between the ring finger and the little finger of the left hand ; the figures being that 
 of the ‘Three Figures' namely, ‘Heaven, Earth, and Mankind.' Count the left- 
 hand group with your right hand : it is to be counted in cycles, each cycle being 
 four times two by two, or eight sticks per cycle. When any number of cycles has 
 been finished, there will remain a number of sticks less than eight, including the 
 one on the little finger. This remainder gives a complement of the destined dia- 
 gram. 
 
 " If one remains you have ‘ Ken ’ (=). 
 
 " If two remain you have ‘ Da ’ (==). 
 
 " If three remain you have ' Ri ’ (^H). 
 
 1 ' If four remain you have ‘ Shin ’ (=E). 
 
 “ If five remain you have ' Son 1 (^=). 
 
 “If six remain you have ' Kan’ (=-=). 
 
 ' ' If seven remain you have ' Gon ’ (==). 
 
 “ If eight or naught remains you have ' Kon ' (= E). 1 
 
 " These are the eight emblems of 'Heaven,' 'Pond,' 'Fire,' 'Thunder,' 'Wind,' 
 Water,' 'Mountain,' and 'Earth' in their order. The trigram corresponding to 
 the present remainder is called the ‘ Inner Complement,' and is to be placed at the 
 
 1 Here the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese terms is preserved. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 15 
 
 bottom of the diagram. The above-stated process is now to be repeated, and the 
 trigram corresponding to the second remainder is called the ‘ Outer Complement,' 
 and is to be placed at the top of the diagram. Now you are in possession of a com- 
 plete diagram of six elements. 
 
 “ The destined diagram is now before you ; the only thing left is to observe the 
 change in the ‘elements .’ 1 The method of dealing out the sticks is the same as be- 
 fore, except the mode of counting them. Here each cycle consists of six sticks, so 
 that three times two by two are to be counted per cycle. The remainder thus ob- 
 tained expresses the element to be chosen. If your remainder is one, you have 
 obtained the first element of the diagram ; if two, the second element, etc. The order 
 of the elements is numbered from below, that is to say, the bottom element is the 
 first, and the top one the sixth. 
 
 " You have now thus obtained an element of a diagram." 
 
 Having thus obtained a definite element in a definite hexagram, 
 the diviner turns to the book and reads the sentence belonging to it. 
 This sentence is to him the oracle that he receives in reply to his 
 question, and must be interpreted in the light of the expositions 
 given concerning the whole hexagram. The two most important 
 lines in the hexagrams are the second and the fifth lines, because 
 they constitute the centre of the two trigrams of which the whole is 
 composed. The fifth stroke, representing the efficacy of the upper 
 or heavenly power, is always favorable, and wherever it is obtained, 
 it bodes to the divining person luck and unfailing success. 
 
 Divination by the tortoise-shell is in principle the same. In 
 the empty shell of the sacred tortoise, Shan Kwei , 2 which is a small 
 species of Emys, three coins are shaken and thrown out in a dice- 
 like manner. According to their showing heads or tails, an element 
 of one of the sixty-four hexagrams is determined, and from a con- 
 templation of the sentence attached to the element of the hexagram, 
 as applied to the given situation, the outcome of the proposed action 
 is anticipated. 
 
 The Chinese conception of the spirituality of the divining stalks 
 and the tortoise shell is expressed in the third Appendix of the Yih 
 King as follows : 
 
 'Viz., “of the particular line in the hexagram." 
 
 shan, consists of “divine" and “to extend”; while luEt 
 tended to represent the general appearance of a tortoise ” (Williams). 
 
 kwei, is ' ‘ in- 
 
i6 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 "Therefore heaven produced the spirit-like things , 1 and the sages took advan- 
 tage of them. (The operations of) heaven and earth are marked by (so many) 
 changes and transformations; and the sages imitated them (by the means of the 
 Yi). Heaven hangs out its (brilliant) figures from which are seen good fortune and 
 bad, and the sages made their emblematic interpretations accordingly." 
 
 Divination is practised officially in China by imperial diviners. 
 We read in the counsels of Yu that Shun submitted the question of 
 succession to divination, and abided by its decision in somewhat the 
 same way as among the Israelites problems of grave importance 
 were settled by consulting the oracle of Urim and Thummim. 
 
 The seventh division of the Great Plan gives the following in- 
 struction to rulers concerning the practice of divination : 
 
 "Officers having been chosen and appointed for divining by the tortoise-shell 
 and the stalks of the milfoil are to be charged to execute their duties. They will 
 predict rain, clearing up, cloudiness, want of connexion, and disturbances, through 
 the inner and outer diagrams. 
 
 " In all there are seven (examinations of doubt) : five given by the shell, and 
 two by the stalks ; and through them all errors can be discovered. 
 
 " The officers having been appointed, when the divination is inaugurated, three 
 men are to interpret the indications, and the consensus of two of them is to be fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 "When you have doubts about any great matter, consult with your own mind ; 
 consult with your high ministers and officers; consult with the common people ; 
 consult with the tortoise-shell and divining stalks. 
 
 "If you, the shell, the stalks, the ministers and officers, and the common peo- 
 ple, all agree about a course, it is called a great concord, and the result will be the 
 welfare of your person and good fortune to your descendants. 
 
 "If you, the shell, and the stalks agree, while the ministers and officers and 
 the common people oppose, the result will be fortunate. 
 
 " If the ministers and officers, with the shell and stalks, agree, while you and 
 the common people oppose, the result will be fortunate. 
 
 "If the common people, the shell, and the stalks agree, while you, with the 
 ministers and officers, oppose, the result will be fortunate. 
 
 " If you and the shell agree, while the stalks, with the ministers and officers 
 and the common people, oppose, internal operations will be fortunate, and external 
 undertakings unlucky. 
 
 "When the shell and stalks are both opposed to the views of men. there will 
 be good fortune in being still, and active operations will be unlucky.” 
 
 J The divining stalks and the divine tortoise-shell 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 17 
 
 In justice to the original Chinese conception of divination we 
 must state that it was not intended to discover future events, but to 
 ascertain whether or not certain plans contemplated for execution 
 would be propitious. The tortoise-shell and the stalks are called 
 spiritual, not because they were supposed to be animated by spirits, 
 but because, like books and pens, they can be employed for the fixa- 
 tion and clarification of thought. Sz’ Ma, the most skilful diviner in 
 the time of Ts‘in (fifteenth century), is reported in the Lin Chi of the 
 Ming dynasty to have said to Shao P'ing : 
 
 1 ' What intelligence is possessed by things spiritual ? They are intelligent (only) 
 by their connexion with men. The divining stalks are so much withered grass ; the 
 tortoise-shell is a withered bone. They are but things, and man is more intelligent 
 than things. Why not listen to yourself instead of seeking (to learn) from things ? ” 
 
 Spiritual accordingly does not mean possessing spirit in the 
 sense of being animated ; it means that which is significant or is 
 possessed of meaning. 
 
 THE MAP OF HO 
 
 AND THE WRITING OF LOH 
 
 The first authentic passages in which the map of Ho 
 
 and - 1 1 ' - the writing of Loh are mentioned, date as far back as 
 
 the age of Confucius. We read in the Yih King, Appendix III., 73 : 
 
 “The Ho gave forth the map, and theLo the writing." — S. B. E . , XVI., p. 374. 
 In the Lun Yu (the Confucian Dialogues), V., 7, we read that 
 Confucius said in an hour of dejection : 
 
 “The bird Feng does not longer reappear, from the river no map comes up 
 again : 1 I am disappointed in my expectations.” 
 
 The first author who appears to have given a definite shape to 
 the legends of the map of Ho and the writing of Loh is K'ung 
 Ngan-Kwoh, a descendant of Confucius (second century, B.C.). He 
 
 J This means in other words that divine revelation by a direct supernatural in- 
 terference has ceased. The bird Feng (Fig. 6, p. 18) is like the Phoenix a mythical 
 creature whose appearance is said to announce great events. Feng , the Chinese 
 Phoenix, and lung, the dragon, are favorite subjects of Chinese artists. The female 
 of the Phoenix is called Hwang , hence the generic term Feng-Hwang, which is the 
 emblem of conjugal happiness. Linig, the dragon (Fig. 5, p. 18), is the emblem of 
 power ; hence it is the imperial coat-of arms. 
 
i8 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 speaks of the dragon-horse that emerged from the waters of the 
 Yellow River and presented on its back an arrangement of symbols, 
 whence the divine ruler Fuh-Hi, derived his philosophy. Concern- 
 ing the writing of Loh, K'ung Ngan-Kwoh adds that while Yu was 
 engaged in draining the flood a spirit tortoise appeared to him 
 which “carried on its back a scroll of writing and a system of divi- 
 sions, in both respects exhibiting the numbers up to nine.” 
 
 There is but one celebrated Chinese scholar, Ow-yang Sin, who 
 ventured to express disbelief in the legend while the schoolmen of 
 the Sung dynasty devoted themselves to a reconstruction of the 
 
 Fig. 5. Lung, the Dragon. (As it appears in 
 the imperial standard.) The lung is “ the chief of 
 scaly beings.” It symbolises the watery principle 
 of the atmosphere. Cosmogonists mention four 
 kinds. In addition we read of the yellow dragon 
 (the same that emerged from the river Loh) and 
 the azure dragon. 
 
 Fig. 6. The Bird Feng. (After a 
 Chinese drawing. Reproduced from the 
 Chinese Repository .) 
 
 map of Ho and the writing of Loh. The schemes that have gradually 
 been accepted are the two diagrams reproduced on p. 19 from a Chi- 
 nese edition of the Yih King. They were elaborated by Tsai Yuen- 
 Ting who lived under the Hwei Tsung dynasty (1101-1125 A. D.). 
 
 The Ho T u, or map of the Ho, according to Ts'ai Yuen-Ting, 
 shows the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 in white dots or Yang sym- 
 bols, and the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 in dark dots or Yin 
 symbols. (See Fig. 7.) This is based upon the theory of the Con- 
 fucian commentary of the Yih King, which reads as follows : 
 
 “ The number 1 belongs to heaven ; to earth, 2 ; to heaven, 3 ; to earth, 4 ; 
 to heaven, 5 ; to earth, 6 ; to heaven, 7; to earth, 8 ; to heaven, 9 ; to earth, 10. 
 
 “ The numbers belonging to heaven are five, and those belonging to earth are 
 five. The numbers of these two series correspond to each other (in their fixed posi- 
 tions), and each one has another that may be considered its mate. The heavenly 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 19 
 
 numbers amount to 25, and the earthly to 30. The numbers of heaven and earth 
 together amount to 55. It is by these that the changes and transformations are 
 effected, and the spirit-like agencies kept in movement." 
 
 (According to Ts'ai Yuang-ting; reproduced from a Chinese edition of the Yih King.) 
 
 The arrangement of the twenty-five positive or Yang and thirty 
 negative or Yin elements, is such as to make five the difference in 
 each group of dots. When we substitute for Yang -|-, and for Yin 
 — , the Map of the Ho appears as follows : 
 
 
 + 7 — 2 
 = + 5 
 
 
 -8+3 
 
 — 10+5 
 
 +9—4 
 
 = + 5 
 
 
 —6+1 
 
 
 The writing of Loh, reproduced (Fig. 8) from the same source, 
 consists of a magic square as follows : 
 
 492 
 
 3 5 7 
 8 1 6 
 
 The sum of each line of three numbers in any direction, verti- 
 cally, horizontally, and diagonally, is fifteen. 
 
20 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Although these two arithmetical devices of the map of Ho and 
 the writing of Loh according to Ts'ai Yuen-Ting are spoken of as 
 commonly accepted, we find another and almost more popular 
 scheme of unknown origin and perhaps of greater antiquity, accord- 
 ing to which the map of Ho on the back of the river-horse is said 
 to exhibit the eight kwa, as represented in the adjoining illustration 
 (see Fig. 9), and the writing of Loh on the back of the tortoise is 
 identified with the five elements (see Fig. 10). 
 
 The inscription above the dragon horse reads from the right to 
 the left “Lung ma fu t‘u,” i. e. dragon horse carrying map. 
 
 Fig. 9. The Dragon Horse Carrying the Map. 
 
 Fig. 10. The Tortoise with the Writing .1 
 
 The five elements ^ ^^J* 1 2 according to Chinese notions, are 
 
 water, wood, fire, metal, and earth. 3 
 
 1 Drawn after the photograph of a specimen in the possession of Dr. H. Riedel 
 
 The writing of the five elements which might be similarly traced in various ways, 
 
 is unduly emphasised, for the purpose of showing it at a glance. 
 
 /; 
 
 -17 hing= "element” exhibits two characters, "a step with the left foot,’ 
 and "a step with the right foot," which combined denote "motion.” The elements, 
 accordingly, are " the moving ones,” or " the active agents.” 
 
 1 skui, ^ muh, /< 
 
 vIa kin, and 
 
 £ 
 
 T'u. Shui=“ water” 
 
 u 
 
 muh , /\ /two, 
 
 is in its original form the picture of three ripples ; muh = "wood,” the picture of 
 a tree with its roots ; hwo = " fire ” represents an ascending flame ; T'u=“ earth ” 
 denotes the place on which to stand ; and kin — " metal or gold ” is said to contain 
 the character T'u = " earth," because the metals come from the ground. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 21 
 
 They were, in old Chinese characters , 1 written as follows : 
 
 We need little imagination to trace these characters on the shell 
 of a tortoise, such as sketched in the drawing on page 20 (Fig. 10). 
 
 The five elements play a very important part in the thoughts of 
 the Chinese. In their symbolical significance they represent the 
 properties or actions that appear to be inherent in them. Their 
 conception is of considerable antiquity, for it is mentioned in the 
 Great Plan of the Shu King. 
 
 Tseu Yen, a philosopher who lived in the fourth century before 
 Christ, is reported to have composed treatises on cosmogony and the 
 influences of the five elements. Other sages who wrote on the same 
 subject are Liu Hiang of the first century before Christ, and Pan 
 Ku of the first century after Christ. 
 
 When an idea has once gained a foothold in the Chinese mind, it 
 stays. Such is the case with the notion of the five elements, which 
 forms an ineradicable part of the Chinese world-view, so that even 
 Cheu-tsz’, the most independent thinker of later generations, em- 
 bodied it in his philosophy. 
 
 THE GREAT PLAN 
 
 IN NINE DIVISIONS 
 
 The Count of Chi, the grand master at the court of Shang, in 
 the time of the tyrant Cheu Sin, said once that if ruin overtook the 
 house of Shang, he would never be the servant of another dynasty. 
 Having displeased Cheu Sin, he was put into prison, and when the 
 former died in the flames of his burning palace, his conqueror, Wu 
 Wang, released the grand master from prison, but the latter, 
 faithful to his vow, refused to acknowledge his liberator as the 
 legitimate sovereign of China. Wu Wang, honoring the indepen- 
 dent spirit of the Count, allowed him to leave the country for 
 Corea, and invested him with that territory. Hereupon the Count 
 felt constrained to appear at the court of Cheu, when consulted by 
 
 1 In the so-called seal characters, the forms of s/mi and muh appear less angular 
 and are rounded at the corners. 
 
22 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Wu Wang on the principles of government, and communicated to 
 Great Plan , 1 with its nine divisions. Its trans- 
 lator, Professor Legge, says : 
 
 “The Great Plan means the great model for the government of the nation, — 
 the method by which the people may be rendered happy and tranquil, in harmony 
 with their condition, through the perfect character of the king, and his perfect ad- 
 ministration of government.” 
 
 The Great Plan is preserved among the documents of Cheu, 
 but it is generally supposed to be of much older date. Says Legge : 
 
 “ That the larger portion of it had come down from the times of Hsia is not 
 improbable. The use of the number nine and other numbers, and the naming of 
 the various divisions of the Plan, are in harmony with Yu’s style and practice in 
 his Counsels. We are told in the introductory sentences that Heaven or God gave 
 the Plan with its divisions to Yu." 
 
 The Great Plan is interesting as a sample of Chinese philos- 
 ophy. Its metaphysical basis consists in a mystical play with num- 
 bers, the reasons of which can no longer be fully appreciated ; it 
 contains a great many confused notions of physics, mixed with 
 divination and astrology, and in addition some very practical injunc- 
 tions for the moral conduct of rulers. The nine divisions 2 of the 
 Great Plan are as follows : 
 
 1. The five elements. — They are characterised as follows : 
 
 “ The nature of water is to soak and descend ; of fire, to blaze and ascend ; of 
 wood, to be crooked or straight; of metal, to yield and change; of the earth, to 
 receive seeds and yield harvests. That which soaks and descends becomes salty ; 
 that which blazes and ascends becomes bitter ; that which is now crooked and now 
 straight becomes sour ; that which yields and changes becomes acrid ; and from seed- 
 sowing and harvesting comes sweetness.” 
 
 2. Reverent attention to the five points of conduct. — It pre- 
 scribes (i) for deportment, a reverent attitude, (2) for speech, pro- 
 
 him the "V 
 
 1 1A hung, literally “vast, immense,” but in connexion with /a«=plan, 
 the word is commonly translated “great.” The character consists of “water, 1 
 which is the same radical as in the names Ho and Loh, and of “all," its original sig- 
 nificance being “inundation.” See Williams, Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese 
 Language, p. 236. 
 
 I * 
 
 2 Ppiy (ch'eu = division) consists of “field "and “longlife." 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 23 
 
 priety, (3) for seeing, clearness of vision, (4) for hearing, distinc- 
 tion, (5) for thinking, acumen. By the observation of these five 
 points of conduct will be insured (1) gravity, (2) decorum, (3) cir- 
 cumspection, (4) discernment, (5) wisdom. 
 
 3. Earnest devotion to the eight objects of government. — They 
 are (1) the provision of food for the people, (2) the acquisition of 
 wealth, (3) the performance of sacrifices, (4) the regulation of labor, 
 (5) the organisation of instruction, (6) the suppression of crime, (7) 
 the entertainment of guests, and (8) the maintenance of the army. 
 
 4. The five arrangers of time. — They are (1) the year, (2) the 
 moon, (3) the sun, (4) the planets and the zodiacal divisions, and 
 {3) calendar calculations. 
 
 5. The ideal of royal perfection. — It is characterised in the 
 following lines : 
 
 “Without deflection, without halting, 
 
 Pursue the royal righteousness. 
 
 Without selfish preference, 
 
 Pursue the royal way. 
 
 Without selfish prejudice, 
 
 Pursue the royal path. 
 
 Avoid deflection, avoid partiality; — 
 
 Broad and long is the royal way. 
 
 Avoid partiality, avoid deflection ; — 
 
 Level and easy is the royal way. 
 
 Avoid perversity, avoid one-sidedness ; — 
 
 Correct and straight is the royal way. 
 
 (Ever) seek for this perfect excellence, 
 
 (Ever) turn to this perfect excellence. 
 
 “This ideal of royal perfection is unalterable and implies a command ; — yea, 
 it is a command of the Lord on High. 
 
 “All the multitudes of the people, instructed in this ideal of perfect excellence, 
 will, by carrying it into practice, partake of the glory of the Son of Heaven. They 
 will say: ' The Son of Heaven is the father of the people, and the sovereign of all 
 nations under the sky.' ” 
 
 6. The three virtues of a ruler are righteousness, severity, and 
 clemency. The first must be practised in times of tranquillity, the 
 second serves to put down disorder, and the third applies to high- 
 minded persons. 
 
24 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 7. The examination of doubts prescribes the directions of divi- 
 nation, as explained above. (See p. 16.) 
 
 8. The eight ways of verification are astrological rules for the 
 prevention of misfortunes. Rain, sunshine, heat, cold, and wind 
 must be seasonable, lest evil originate. Gravity in deportment pro- 
 duces rain, propriety sunshine, prudence heat, circumspection cold, 
 and wisdom wind, each in season. The king should examine the 
 year, the ministers the months, the officers the days, in order to insure 
 peace and prosperity. If the seasonableness is interrupted, there will 
 be failure of crops and misgovernment. If great men are kept in ob- 
 scurity, there will be unrest. The chapter concludes : “The stars 
 should be observed by the people at large. Some stars love wind, 
 and others love rain ; the courses of the sun and moon determine 
 winter and summer. The way in which the moon follows the stars 
 produces wind and rain.” 
 
 9. The five sources of happiness are (1) long life, (2) riches, 
 (3) health and equanimity, (4) virtue, and (5) obedience to the will 
 of heaven ; and the six sources of misery are (1) shortness of life, 
 (2) sickness, (3) anxiety, (4) poverty, (5) wickedness, and (6) lack 
 of character. 1 
 
 In spite of its lack of system and its diverse aberrations from 
 the straight path of sound logic, the Great Plan has exercised, on 
 account of its moral ingredients, a beneficial influence upon the de- 
 velopment of China. Yet even here there is a drawback, in so far 
 as the basis of Chinese ethics consists merely in reverence for the 
 past, for parents, and for authority in any form ; it lacks the most 
 essential elements that give character to conduct, which are inde- 
 pendence of thought, the courage of individual responsibility, and 
 bold progressiveness. 
 
 THE T'AI KIH, "f ^ THE ULTIMATE GROUND OF EXISTENCE. 
 
 The insufficiency of the dualism which finds expression in this 
 contrast of the Yang and Yin principles, must have made itself felt 
 
 J It is hard to understand why in one case there are five, and in an other six 
 
 sources. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 25 
 
 very early, for the Chinese philosophy, as it appears in all the clas- 
 sics, exhibits a decided tendency towards monism. The Yang and 
 Yin are thought to have originated in a process of differentiation 
 from the T‘ai Kih, which is “the grand origin,” der Urgrund, the 
 source of existence ; Gabelentz translates it, das Urprhizip, Legge and 
 other English sinologists, “the grand terminus,” or “the grand 
 extreme.” Its symbol is a circle, thus O- 
 
 The word T‘ai, X “great” or “grand,” is akin to Ta, 
 
 “ great ” or “ large it implies that the greatness is not of size, but 
 of dignity. 
 
 Gabelentz defines the word jwjl Kih 1 as follows : 
 
 “ Kih originally signified, as is indicated by its radical (which is No. 75, ' tree,’ 
 or ‘ wood '), the ridge-pole in the gable of a house. Because it is the topmost part of 
 the building, the term is used of all topmost and extreme points. Since we cannot 
 go beyond the top of the gable, but only cross over to descend on the other side of 
 the roof, Kih means ‘goal,’ or ‘turning-point.’ This latter meaning implies the 
 idea of neutrality, which is neither on this nor on that side. As is well known, the 
 Chinese words possess the functions of various parts of speech. Thus Kih, as ad- 
 verb, means 1 very, highly, extremely ’; as a verb, 1 to reach the goal, to exhaust.’ " 
 
 The T‘ai Kih is not mentioned in the body of the 
 
 text of the Yih King, but is commonly believed to be implied in its 
 secret teaching. This opinion appears to have been established as 
 early as the time of Confucius, who is reported to have said : 
 
 “Therefore in the Yih is contained the great origin, which produced the two 
 elementary forms [viz., Yang and Yin], The two elementary forms produced the 
 eight trigrams. The eight trigrams served to determine good and evil, and from 
 their determination was produced the great world ." — Yih King, App. III., §§70-71. 
 
 Legge criticises the author of this paragraph, because there is 
 no way of deriving the full and broken lines, representing Yang and 
 Yin, from the circle, and we grant that there is a gap here. The 
 transition from the Yang-and-Yin dualism to the monism of the 
 T‘ai Kih did not find its appropriate symbol. Nevertheless, we can 
 understand that the idea necessarily originated. Wang Pi , 2 a cele- 
 
 1 See also Williams, S. D. of the Ch. L., p. 393. 
 
 2 Although Wang Pi died at the early age of twenty-four years, his authority in 
 the mystic lore of the Yih King was so great that he is looked upon as the founder of 
 the modern school of divination. — Mayer's Chinese Reader' s Manual , I. /., No. 812. 
 
26 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 brated scholar of the Wei dynasty (born 225 A. D.), (as quoted by 
 Legge, il>.) says: 
 
 “Existence must begin in non-existence, and therefore the Grand Terminus 
 produced the two elementary forms. Thai A'i [viz. Tai Kih, the grand terminus] 
 is the denomination of what has no denomination. As it cannot be named, the text 
 takes the extreme point of anything that exists as an analogous term for the Thai A i.’ 
 
 Professor Legge adds : 
 
 “ Expanding Wang’s comment, Khung Ying-ta says : ‘ Thai A'i [viz. T ai Kih] 
 means the original subtle matter, that formed the one chaotic mass before heaven and 
 earth were divided ; ’ and then he refers to certain passages in Lao-tsze’s Tao-Teh- 
 King, and identifies the Thai A'i with his Tao. This would seem to give to Thai A'i 
 a material meaning. The later philosophers of the Sung school, however, insist on 
 its being immaterial, now calling it li, the principle of order in nature, now tao, the 
 defined course of things, now Ti, the Supreme Power or God, now shan, the spirit- 
 ual working of God. According to A7/ang-tsze [Confucius], all these names are to 
 be referred to that of ’Heaven,’ of which they express so many different concepts.” 
 
 We here reproduce a diagram of the evolution of the Kwa 
 from the Great Extreme, which, so far as we know, has never been 
 reproduced in any Western translation of the Yih King. 
 
 ft # ra + 
 
 Fig. 11. The Design of Kwa-Evolution from the Great Extreme. 
 (From a Chinese edition of the Yih King.) 
 
 The eight characters of the title in Fig. 11 read from the right 
 
 to the left : 
 
 ft 
 
 Fuh Hi’s six 
 
 ty |^[ four ^] > Kwa serially 
 
 (or in their development) represented. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 27 
 
 The marginal notes from below upward read “the great ex- 
 treme,” “the two 7” (or primordial forms), “the four Siang or 
 figures,” “the eight kwa, ” “the sixteen kwa,” “the thirty-two 
 kwa,” “the sixty-four kwa.” 
 
 The inscriptions in the two large black and white rectangles 
 immediately above the circle read from the right to the left “yin” 
 and “yang,” in the second line from below consisting of two black 
 and two white rectangles, “the great yin,” “the small yang,” “the 
 small yin,” “the great yang,” in the third line “ch‘ien, tui, lx, chan, 
 siuen, k‘an, kan, and kw‘un,” which are the names of the eight 
 Kwa, as quoted above. The thirty-two Kwa have no names. The 
 names of the sixty-four hexagrams are written in the Chinese original 
 over the small sixty-four rectangles at the top. They are here omit- 
 ted because they would have appeared blurred in the present repro- 
 duction, which is considerably reduced. 
 
 If we fold the diagram in the middle we find that the yin and 
 yang differentiations of the great origin cancel one another and the 
 whole world sinks back into nought. This symbolises the omneity 
 of the zero, which will illustrate what Chinese thinkers mean when 
 they speak with reverence of the great nothing, of emptiness, of 
 non-action, of non-existence, and of Nirvana. To them it represents 
 the omnipresence of the Deity in the All. It is that which remains 
 unchanged in all changes, the law in apparent irregularity and 
 chaos, the eternal in the transient, the absolute in the relative, the 
 universal in the particular, and rest in motion. 
 
 We are not accustomed to negative terms in just this sense, 
 but they are not entirely absent in Western literature. Thus Goethe 
 says : 
 
 11 Und a lies Drangen, al/es Ringen 
 1st ew’ge Ruh ’ in Gott dem Herrn." 
 
 [Yet all the strife and all resistance 
 In God, the Lord, 's eternal rest.] 
 
 THE MONISM OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, OR CHEU-TSZ’ ’S 
 
 PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 
 The monism implied in the unitary and ultimate principle of 
 the T‘ai Kih was worked out by Cheu Tun-i, commonly called Cheu- 
 
28 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 EXPLANATIONS : 
 
 Cheu-tsz’ says in the T'ai kih t‘u : 
 
 | i. “ Having no cause {Kih — 
 principle, origin, limit), therefore 
 the grand (original) cause.” 
 
 [This statement may be com- 
 pared to Spinoza's theory of the 
 uncaused causa ra/.] 
 
 myriads 
 of things Mjj 
 through J\t 
 
 change rG 
 
 originate 
 
 £ 
 
 It... 
 
 rests 
 
 §2. “The grand cause moves, thus 
 producing Yang. Having reached 
 the limit, however, it rests. Resting 
 it produces Yin. Having rested to 
 the limit again, it moves. Once 
 moving, once resting; one state 
 being conditioned by the other. In 
 separation it is (here) Yin, in sepa- 
 ration it is (there) Yang. Thus the 
 
 two fundamental forms (viz. 
 
 and — — ) are fixed." 
 
 , § 3- “Yang changes, Yin is added. 
 
 Thus are p r 0 ( j uce( j water, fire, wood, 
 metal, and earth. The five kinds 
 of weather are distributed. The 
 four seasons come forth.” 
 
 [Fire and wood belong to the 
 Yang, tvater and metal to the Yin; 
 while earth, standing in the centre, 
 metal is neutral.] 
 
 iff* 
 
 M. 
 
 § 4. “The five elements if united 
 Kw'un's ate Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang 
 if united are the grand cause {Kih). 
 The grand cause is without cause, 
 norm The five elements receive at their 
 origin, each one its own nature.” 
 
 [The circle indicates that the five 
 elements, when combined, can be 
 regarded as magnitudes of plus and 
 minus which in their sum equal the 
 male zero of the T'ai kih.] 
 
 § 5. “ The truth of that which has 
 no cause, the efficacy of the Two 
 (viz. the two forms , and — — and 
 of the Five (viz. the five elements) 
 in a wonderful way, now combine 
 and now separate. The K'ien's 
 (^=) norm is male, the Kw'un’s = = 
 norm is female. Both aspirations 
 quicken one another, and through 
 transformations they produce all 
 things. All things are produced in 
 a process of production. Thus 
 change and transformation are in- 
 
 IThe “myriads of things" is a common phrase in Chi- 
 
 finite.” 
 
 nese, denoting the Universe. 
 
 Fig. 12. Cheu-tsz’ ’s Diagram of the Great Origin. [After Von Gabelenlz.] 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 29 
 
 tsz’, i. e. Cheu the Sage, who lived 1017-1073. We do not hesitate 
 to say that Cheu-tsz’ is the first systematic thinker of China ; he 
 certainly deserves the honorary title, Tao-Kwoh-Kung, “Prince in 
 the Empire of Reason,” conferred upon him after death. Lao-tsz’ 
 may be deeper, Confucius more influential, Mencius more versatile, 
 but none of them is more methodical, none of them is more precise 
 and clear in comprehension than Cheu-tsz’, and there is only one 
 who, in this particular line, is his equal : his great disciple, Chu Hi. 
 
 Cheu-tsz’ dnd his school have systematised and completed the 
 philosophical world-conception of the Chinese. Whatever the an- 
 cient traditions may have been, they are now understood in China 
 as interpreted by Cheu-tsz’ and Chu-Hi. 
 
 Thomas Taylor Meadows says of Cheu-tsz’ in his book, The 
 Chinese and Their Rebellions, p. 358. 
 
 "It is in the spirit of coalescence, and with a full personal faith in a virtual 
 identity of the teachings of the Sacred Books, that all Cheu-tsz’ 's annotations and 
 commentaries were conceived. This circumstance, which rendered it unnecessary 
 for his countrymen, in adopting his views, to discard any part of what they had 
 long so highly esteemed ; together with the fact that his style combined, in a won- 
 derful degree, simplicity with completeness and lucidity with eloquence, procured 
 unmistakable supremacy for his writings soon after his death ; and constituted him 
 the definitive fashioner of the Chinese mind.” 
 
 Cheu-tsz’ has written a great number of works, but only two 
 have come down to our times ; they are the Afctsi T‘ai 
 Kih T l u, or the diagram of the Great Origin, and the T‘ung Shu 1 
 ^||| ^ f j- or “general treatise,” which found an expositor in Chu- 
 Hi (1130-1200 A. D.). Both books are excellently translated into 
 German the former by Gabelentz, 2 the latter in part by W. Grube. 
 
 Cheu-tsz’ condenses the contents of his treatise on the Grand 
 Extreme in a diagram which is here reproduced. (See Fig. 12, p. 28.) 
 
 1 W. T'ung, general, universal, abstract, [ ~ T Shu, writing, treatise, book 
 
 The T'ung Shu is the second chapter of the Sing li ta tseuen. 
 
 When at the request of Emperor Kanghi an abridged edition of the philosoph- 
 ical encyclopaedia was published in 1717, both treatises of Cheu-tsz' were again em- 
 bodied in the collection in their complete form together with Chu-Hi’s annotations. 
 This proves the high esteem in which these two thinkers are held in China, and, 
 indeed, their opinions are recognised as the standard of Chinese orthodoxy. 
 
 2 T'ai Kih T u des Tscheu Tsi, Tafel des Urprincipes mit Tschu-HV s Commen- 
 
30 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 The first sentence of the T‘ung Shu reads : 
 
 1 $ 
 
 
 SQ 
 
 A t. A 
 
 “ Great is the Ch'ien's 
 (It is) Truth’s source indeed ! ” 
 
 "Truthfulness * 1 [is] the holy 2 man's root." 
 
 What a deep and after all clear and true idea is expressed in 
 these simple words ! And yet Cheu-tsz’ ’s treatise will be disappoint- 
 ing to a Western reader, for in the progress of his exposition our 
 philosopher interprets virtue in terms of the Yang and Yin system. 
 He says in § 2 : 
 
 origin. All things thence derive their beginning 
 
 th’s source indeed ! ” 
 
 Ch'ien is the first combination of three Yang elements, (=), 
 and stands in contrast to hji Kw‘un (= =), the pure combination of 
 three Yin elements ; the former symbolises “heaven, virile strength, 
 manhood, creative power”; the latter, “earth, stability, woman- 
 hood, productiveness.” This is one striking instance, among innu- 
 merable others that can be found in Chinese literature, of how deeply 
 even the most powerful minds, with the sole exception of Lao-tsz’, 
 are entangled in the Yang and Yin philosophy that looms up at the 
 mythical beginning of Chinese civilisation and still rules the thought 
 of the Celestial Empire to-day! 
 
 CHU HI’S DOCTRINE OF LI S AND K’l THE IMMATERIAL 
 
 PRINCIPLE AND PRIMARY MATTER. 
 
 The mantle of Cheu-tsz’ fell upon Chu Hi, also called Chu 
 Fu Tsz’, who lived 1130-1200 A. D. In his exposition of the clas- 
 
 tare. Dresden, 1876. The T'ai Kih T’u is the first chapter of the Sing li tn tseuen 
 (literally, "nature principle in full completeness, "or, better, "philosophical encyclo- 
 paedia") published in 1415 by the third sovereign of the Ming dynasty. 
 
 1 
 
 eke, meaning "thing,” or " substance ” changes its preceding word into a noun, just 
 as does the English word ' ' one ’’ in such clauses as ' ‘ the true one, ” ' ' this one, ” or 
 “ that one.” Accordingly the two words mean " the truth essence,” the most appro- 
 priate translation of which seems to be "truthfulness." 
 
 TO 
 
 2 : | - slnng=" holy ” or " saint,” shows the characters "ear" and "to in- 
 form, "denoting (as Williams has it) "one who on hearing knows the whole case, . . . 
 intuitively wise and good, . . . holy, sacred, perfect.” 
 
 D/J)C ch'ing=" truth,” or " truthful,” consists of "word”and "perfect.’’ "'gj 
 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 31 
 
 sics and of Cheu-tsz”s works, Chu Hi 1 leaves no doubt about the 
 monism of his philosophy. His works were published at the re- 
 quest of Emperor Kanghi in a collection called Cheu-tsz’ Tseueti Shu 
 (i. e., the complete writings of Cheu-tsz’), containing among other 
 essays his treatise on The Immaterial Principle (//) and Primary 
 Matter (W‘/),' 2 the first sentence of which reads, according to Mr. 
 Meadows’s translation (/. /. p. 373): 
 
 “ In the whole world there exists no primary matter (K’i), devoid of the 
 
 immaterial principle ; and no immaterial principle (li) apart from primary matter.’ 
 
 Williams in his Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language ex- 
 plains (on p. 348) as follows : 
 
 " Fume or vapor ; . . . steam ; ether ; the aerial fluid ; breath, air ; vital force; 
 
 . . spirit, temper, feelings ; a convenient and mobile term in Chinese philosophy 
 for explaining and denoting whatever is supposed to be the source or primary agent 
 in producing or modifying motion.” 
 
 Williams adds that k‘i is more material than li (order) and tao 
 (reason) ; more external than sin j\\ (heart) and is conditioned by 
 its form (Jiing). It is opposed to chi 'Jif (matter), 3 “as Zoor) or 
 spirit is opposed to the body it animates.” 
 
 1 See Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, s. v., Chu Hi, No. 79, and Chow Tuni, 
 No. 73; Chinese Repository, Vol. XIII , pp. 552 et seq. and 609 etseq. ; also Wil- 
 liams, The Middle Kingdom, I , 683 et seq. Compare also Mr. Meadows’s strictures 
 on Dr. Medhurst's translation, /. /. pp. 372-374. Mr. Meadows’s voluminous book 
 is valuable in many respects. Having served as an interpreter in H. M. Civil Ser- 
 vice, he knows the people and describes the conditions with great impartiality. 
 However his criticism of other sinologists, even though correct, is too severe He 
 forgets the difficulties under which they labored and underrates the power of both 
 religious and national prejudice. When we remember how greatly the nearest 
 Western nations, such as the Germans and French, the English and Americans 
 misunderstand one another, we must confess that the misrepresentations of sinolo- 
 gists are quite excusable. 
 
 The weakest part of Mr. Meadows’s article on Chinese philosophy is what he is 
 pleased to call "the unfailing pass-key to the comprehension of all difficult passages 
 in the Chinese sacred books, as understood by the Chinese themselves,” which con- 
 sists in the proposition that the differences between T'ai kih (ultimate principle), 
 fCi (ether), Tao (Logos), Li (world-order), Sin (heart), Sing (nature), teh (virtue), 
 t'ien (heaven), ming (fate), Ch'ing (sincerity) "are purely of a nominal kind.” 
 
 2 " K’i ” must not be confounded with " Kih " 
 
 3 The character Js, chih shows the radical “ property " above which two taels 
 appear. Thus it may be explained as "possessing the quality of weight.” 
 
32 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Jj!j! li is defined by the same authority (on p. 519) as : 
 
 " The governing principle ; that which is felt to be right and does not depend 
 on force ; reason; directing principle ; principle of organisation. ” 
 
 tt sing, , “nature,” signifies the subjective disposition of things, 
 never the objective phenomena of the universe. The word sing is 
 composed of “heart” and “to bear, to grow,” denoting that which 
 is a manifestation of the inner character of existence. 
 
 & sin, “heart,” means not only the physical heart, which is 
 regarded as the lord of the body and one of the senses, but also the 
 core of things, as the wick of a candle, or the heart-wood of trees, 
 and the ultimate seat of desire, the origin and source of all activit)\ 
 Chu Hi (according to Dr. Medhurst’s translation) continues : 
 
 “ When the primary matter is not collected and combined in form, there is no 
 lodging-place for the immaterial principle. 
 
 “The primary matter relies on the immaterial principle to come into action, 
 and wherever the primary matter is coagulated there the immaterial principle is 
 present. 
 
 “ No priority or subsequence can be predicated of the immaterial principle and 
 primary matter, and yet if you insist on carrying out the reasoning to the question 
 of their origin, then you must say that the immaterial principle has the priority; 
 but the immaterial principle is not a separate and distinct thing ; it is just contained 
 within the primary matter, so that were there no primary matter, then this imma- 
 terial principle would have no place of attachment. 
 
 “When the primary matter is brought into being, then afterw-ards the imma- 
 terial principle has some place whereon to rest. In regard to great things it is seen 
 in heaven and earth, and with respect to small, in ants and emmets." 
 
 While dwelling on the truth that the immaterial principle is in- 
 separable from primary matter, Chu Hi yet recognises the higher 
 dignity and priority in importance of the former, but finding no 
 word to express precedence or superiority (i. e., priority in rank) to 
 anteriority, (i. e. priority in time), he says : 
 
 “. . . And it appears to be impossible to distinguish the priority or subsequence. 
 If you insist on it, the immaterial principle is first, but you cannot say, to-day the 
 immaterial principle is called into existence and to-morrow primary matter ; still 
 there is a priority and a subsequence. 
 
 ‘ 1 Wherever the primary matter is collected, the immaterial principle is present ; 
 but after all, the latter must be considered as the chief ; this is what is called the 
 mysterious junction.” 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 33 
 
 Mr. Meadows translates a passage on the problem of the prior- 
 ity of the li over the K‘i as follows : 
 
 " Being asked whether the immaterial principle or primary matter first existed 
 he (Cheu-tsz’) said : The immaterial principle was never separated from primary 
 matter ; but the immaterial principle is what is previous to form, while primary 
 matter is what is subsequent to form.” 
 
 Chu Hi perceives that he is dealing with an abstraction of the 
 highest kind, an abstraction of the universal ; and we feel in the 
 many repetitions which fill his treatise how he grapples with the 
 problem, the solution of which he has in his mind without being able 
 to find an adequate symbol to express it. Wherever he turns he 
 sees inseparableness and distinctness. The immaterial principle is 
 omnipresent in all things, and yet it is different from matter, in ex- 
 planation of which Chu Hi says : “ We must not consider the mud- 
 diness of the stream to be the water.” 
 
 The li or immaterial principle, resembles Kant’s a priori or the 
 purely formal , 1 the laws of which remain true not only of this actual 
 world of ours, but also of any possible world, and even if nothing 
 at all existed. Chu Hi attempts to express his idea thus : 
 
 “You cannot distinguish in this matter between existence and non-existence; 
 before heaven and earth came into being it was just the same.” 
 
 The immaterial principle remains true for both existence and 
 non-existence, but it cannot manifest itself without the existence of 
 primary matter. Seen in this light, the last quotation will not ap- 
 pear contradictory to the following : 
 
 ' ‘ Wherever the primary matter exists there is found the immaterial principle 
 and where there is no primary matter there is also no immaterial principle.” 
 
 The immaterial principle is the natural order of the seasons, 
 the principle of virtue in the moral man, the wisdom of the sage. It 
 is, on the one hand, the mentality of sentient beings which makes 
 comprehension possible, and on the other hand, the rationality of 
 the universe, i. e., the cosmic order which renders the world intel- 
 ligible. Chu Hi says : 
 
 'It is what we define in the Primer of Philosophy (p. 79 et seq.) as “ the rigidly 
 formal." 
 
34 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 “ That which perceives is the immaterial principle of the mind ; and that which 
 enables it to perceive is the intelligence of the primary matter.” 
 
 The immaterial principle as it affects the Yang and Yin is sym- 
 bolised by a circle in which light and darkness are evenly divided. 
 Darkness contains the seed of light, and light con- 
 tains the seed of darkness. 
 
 Chu Hi identifies the immaterial principle with 
 Lao-tsz”s Tao and with Cheu-tsz’ ’s T‘ai Kih. 
 
 He says : 
 
 “The great extreme is merely the immaterial principle of 
 heaven, earth, and all things ; speaking of it with reference to 
 heaven and earth, then the great extreme may be said to exist within heaven and 
 earth. Speaking of it with respect to the myriad of things, then amongst the myriad 
 of things 1 each one possesses a great extreme. 
 
 ‘ 1 The great extreme is not an independent separate existence ; it is found in the 
 male and female principles of nature, in the five elements, and in the myriad 
 of things. . . . Should any one ask, what is the great extreme ? I should say, before 
 its development it is the immaterial principle, and after its manifestation it is feel- 
 ing ; thus for instance, when it moves and produces the male principle of nature, 
 then it is feeling or passion. 
 
 “At the very first there was nothing, but merely this immaterial principle. 
 
 “ From the time when the great extreme came into operation the myriad things 
 were produced by transformation ; this one doctrine includes the whole ; it is not 
 because this was first in existence and then that, but altogether there is only one 
 great origin, which from the substance [abstract existence ; in-itself-ness] extends 
 to the use [to its manifestation in reality], and from the subtile reaches to that 
 which is manifest. 
 
 “Cheu-tsz’ called it the extremeless or the illimitable, by which he meant the 
 great noiseless, scentless mystery." 
 
 By “ noiseless ” and “scentless” is meant the incorporeal, i.e., 
 that which is not perceived by the senses, but can only be compre- 
 hended by the mind — as, for instance, the truth of a mathematical 
 theorem cannot be apprehended by any one of the senses, but is a 
 matter of pure understanding. Thus Chu Hi says : 
 
 “ The immaterial principle cannot be perceived [viz., by the senses] ; but, from 
 the operations of the male and female principles of nature [viz. the purely formal 
 
 Symbol of the 
 Source 
 of Existence. 
 
 1 See footnote belonging to Fig. 12 on p. 29. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 35 
 
 science of Yang and Yin permutations] we become acquainted with it ; thus the 
 immaterial principle depends (for its display) on the male and female principles of 
 nature. 
 
 “Should anyone ask, what is the great extreme ? I would say, the great ex- 
 treme is simply the principle of extreme goodness and extreme perfection. Every 
 man has got a great extreme ; every thing has got a great extreme ; that which 
 Cheu-tsz’ called the great extreme is the exemplified virtue of everything that is 
 extremely good and extremely perfect in heaven and earth, men and things.” 
 
 We would say, “it is every one’s ideal,” as Riickert expresses it : 
 
 "Vor jedem steht ein Bild des, das er werden soil , 
 
 Und vor er es nicht ist, i;t nicht sein Friede voll." 
 
 [An image of what it ought to be lives in each creature’s mind 
 So long as that is unattained, its peace it cannot find.] 
 
 We can scarcely appreciate the difficulties which Cheu-tsz’ and 
 Chu Hi had to overcome in the dualistic terminology of their na- 
 tional tradition. The term T‘ai Kill (Great Extreme) dates back 
 to earlier days, but the monistic conception derived from its appli- 
 cation was new; and it was a triumph of philosophical thought 
 which their inventors, considering the circumstances of the situa- 
 tion, had good reasons to prize highly. Chu Hi says : 
 
 “The great extreme is the immaterial principle of the two powers, the four 
 forms, and the eight changes of nature ; we cannot say that it does not exist, and 
 yet there is no form or corporeity that can be ascribed to it. From this point is 
 produced the one male and the one female principle of nature, which are called 
 the two powers ; also the four forms and the eight changes proceed from this, all 
 according to a certain natural order, irrespective of human strength in its arrange- 
 ment. But from the time of Confucius no one has been able to get hold of this 
 idea. Until the time of Shau Kangtsie, when this doctrine was explained, and it 
 appeared very reasonable and pleasing. It may not therefore be treated with light- 
 ness, and should be more particularly inquired into.® 
 
 In a word, the monistic school of Cheu-tsz’ and Chu Hi are 
 in the history of Chinese thought what Kant is in the Western 
 world. They discovered that the Yang and Yin manipulations are 
 what we would call the most abstract algebra of thought or the sci- 
 ence of pure forms, embodying the universal and necessary laws of 
 both the objective realm of existence and the subjective realm of 
 man’s mentality. 
 
3 & 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 FILIAL PIETY 
 
 European and American civilisation has less firm foundations 
 in us as compared with the deep root which the Chinese view of 
 life has struck in the souls of Chinamen. It is reflected in their 
 thought, 1 in institutions, in the habits of their daily life, in their 
 symbolism, in their language, and above all in their ethics which 
 reflects their views of the relation of Yang to Yin, being in its noblest 
 conception the completest submission of a child to the will of his 
 father, a virtue which is called in Chinese Hiao , 2 3 
 
 As an instance of the influence of the Yang and Yin philosophy 
 upon the life of all nations that have ever felt the influence of the 
 Chinese world-view, we state that the name of the greatest Japanese 
 monthly is “The Great Yang”; which is translated by the editors 
 by “The Sun.” The flag of the Coreans shows the diagram of the 
 symbol of the primordial source of existence (as it appears in Fig. 13) 
 in blue and red colors, surrounded by the trigrams Ch'ien, Kan, Li, 
 
 The most important field in which the Yang and Yin philosophy 
 exercises its influence is in the domain of ethics. The dualism that 
 still lingers in Chinese thought finds its expression in the Chinese 
 code of morals which always implies an external relation between 
 two, an authoritative master and an obedient servant, the duty of 
 the former being wisdom in government, and of the latter submis- 
 sion. One of the favorite treatises of Chinese literature, the booklet 
 entitled The Classic of Filial Piety? sets forth the idea that “filial 
 
 1 The Yih with its Yang and Yin is part and parcel of the mind of every edu- 
 cated Chinaman. Even Lao-Tsz’, the greatest adversary of Confucian scholar- 
 ship, says: “The ten thousand things are sustained by the Yin and encompassed by 
 the Yang; and the K'i (the immaterial breath) renders them harmonious.” (Ch.42.) 
 
 As a thoroughly reliable description of Chinese life we recommend Prof. Rob- 
 ert K. Douglas's works, Chinese Stories, W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1893, 
 and Society in China, A. D. Innes & Co., London, 1894. 
 
 2 The character Hiao, -j— , filial piety, shows a child supporting an old man. 
 
 3 Sacred Boohs of the East, Vol. III., pp. 447-448. The book was written either 
 by Tsang-tsz’, the disciple of Confucius, or by one of Tsang-tsz’ 's school. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 37 
 
 devotion is the root of virtue.” Filial devotion is said to be “the 
 maxim of Heaven, the righteousness of Earth, and the duty of man” 
 
 The idea of filial piety is widened into devotion as it applies to 
 the five moral relations that obtain between man and man ; viz., 
 between (i) sovereign and subject, (2) parent and child, (3) elder 
 brother and younger, (4) husband and wife, (5) friend and friend. 1 
 
 When asked by Tsang whether in the virtue of the sages there 
 was not something higher, Confucius replied : 
 
 “ Of all (creatures with their different) natures produced by Heaven and Earth 
 man is the noblest. Of all the actions of man there is none greater than filial piety. 
 In filial piety there is nothing greater than the reverential awe of one’s father. In 
 the reverential awe shown to one’s father there is nothing greater than the making 
 him the correlate of Heaven.” 
 
 The higher monistic ethics, which becomes possible only on 
 an advanced plane in the evolution of mankind, unites both the 
 governor and the governed in one person and expects every one to 
 be his own king, priest, and instructor, replacing the external rela- 
 tion by an internal relation. This principle of a monistic ethics was 
 first proclaimed in the history of European civilisation by the re- 
 formers of the sixteenth century, who taught self-dependence and 
 claimed the liberty of conscience. Liberty of conscience, self-re- 
 liance, the right of free inquiry and free thought abolish personal 
 authority, not for the sake of anarchy, but to replace it by the su- 
 perpersonal authority of justice, right, and truth. 
 
 Filial devotion remains submission, as we read in Chapter XI : 
 
 " When constraint is put upon a ruler, that is the disowning of his superiority; 
 when the authority of the sages is disallowed, that is the disowning of (all) law ; 
 when filial piety is put aside, that is the disowning of the principle of affection. 
 These (three things) pave the way to anarchy.” 
 
 Rebels are punished with brutal severity, yet there are frequent 
 revolutions in China ; and the Shu King goes so far even as to sanc- 
 tion them, provided they be successful. We read : 
 
 J The fivefold relationship which constitutes the substance of Chinese ethics is 
 supplemented by K'ung Ki’s principle that good is the middle way between two ex- 
 tremes — a doctrine, which by Western critics has been censured as “ the ethics of 
 mediocrity.” K'ung Ki was a grandson of Confucius. 
 
3 » 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 “ Heaven establishes sovereigns merely for the sake of the people ; whom the 
 people desire for sovereign, him will Heaven protect ; whom the people dislike as 
 sovereign, him will Heaven reject. 
 
 “[The Sovereign's] real way of serving Heaven is to love the people. 
 
 “ When he fails to love the people Heaven will, for the sake of the people, cast 
 him out.” 
 
 Thus revolutions are regarded as ordeals in which success or 
 failure signify the decision of heaven. 
 
 How the spirit of devotion is carried to the extreme, can be 
 illustrated by many instances of Chinese habits, history, and stories. 
 We quote one tale, which is at once typical and terse, from a pop- 
 ular book called The Twenty-four Filials : x 
 
 “ In the days of the Han dynasty lived Koh Kii, who was very poor. He had 
 one child three years old ; and such was his poverty that his mother usually divided 
 her portion of food with this little one. Koh says to his wife, ' We are so poor that 
 our mother cannot be supported, for the child divides with her the portion of food 
 that belongs to her. Why not bury this child ? Another child may be born to us 
 but a mother once gone will never return.’ His wife did not venture to object to 
 the proposal ; and Koh immediately dug a hole of about three cubits deep, when 
 suddenly he lighted upon a pot of gold, and on the metal read the following inscrip- 
 tion : ‘ Heaven bestows this treasure upon Koh Fu, the dutiful son ; the magistrate 
 may not seize it, nor shall the neighbors take it from him.’ ” 2 
 
 The neglect of what Western nations would consider as the 
 highest duties is frequently enjoined for the sake of parents; and in 
 agreement with this code of morals, the Chinese Emperor of late 
 concluded to yield to all the demands of the victorious Japanese 
 only that the Empress dowager in Pekin should not be obliged to 
 be inconvenienced by a removal of the Imperial Court. 
 
 While on this important point our Western ideas of morality 
 are different from those of the Chinese, we ought to consider that 
 our American youths go to the other extreme. They can still learn 
 from the Chinese, whose devotion to old parents is sometimes truly 
 elevating and touching ; and we have to add that one of the chief 
 obstacles, although not the only one, to the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity into China are such words of Christ’s as these : 
 
 2 Quoted from Williams's Middle Kingdom, Vol. I , p. 539. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 39 
 
 ' If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and 
 children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my dis- 
 ciple." — Luke, xiv, 26. 
 
 ‘ ‘ I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter 
 against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." — Matth., 
 x, 35 - 
 
 The dualism of Chinese ethics finds expression in a rigid code 
 of ceremonial forms. Who ever met an educated Chinese gentle- 
 man and was not struck by his extraordinary and almost painfully 
 polite demeanor? How much stress is laid upon details in propriety, 
 we can gather from the following injunction of courtesy toward visi- 
 tors as quoted by Williams, in his Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 540, 
 from Chu Hi’s “Juvenile Instructor” (Siao Hioli) : 
 
 ‘ ‘ Whoever enters with his guests, yields precedence to them at every door ; 
 when they reach the innermost one, he begs leave to go in and arrange the seats, 
 and then returns to receive the guests ; and after they have repeatedly declined he 
 bows to them and enters. He passes through the right door, they through the left. 
 He ascends the eastern, they the western steps. 
 
 " If a guest be of a lower grade, he must approach the steps of the host, while 
 the latter must repeatedly decline this attention ; then the guest may return to the 
 western steps, he ascending, both host and guest must mutually yield precedence : 
 then the host must ascend first, and the guests follow. From step to step they 
 must bring their feet together, gradually ascending — those on the east moving the 
 right foot first, those on the west the left.” 
 
 n 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE YIH. 
 
 We ask now, what is the original significance of the Yih King, 
 and, without attempting to decide the problem, present some solu- 
 tions which have been proposed by various scholars. 
 
 The oldest European interpretation of the Kwa comes from 
 the pen of no less an authority than the great Leibnitz. On ex- 
 plaining, in the Me??ioires de /’ Academie Royale des sciences (1703, III., 
 p. 85), the nature and advantage of the binary or dyadic system of 
 numeration, which employs only the symbols o and 1, expressing 2 
 by 10, 3 by 11, 4 by 100, 5 by 101, 6 by no, 7 by in, etc., he makes 
 reference to the Kwa of the Yih King, which he calls “cova.” 1 He 
 says : 
 
 1 ‘ ‘ Cova ” is the same as 1 ‘ coua,” “ v ” being equal to “ u. ” 
 
4 ° 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 ‘ ' Ce qu'il y a de surprenant dans ce calcul, c'est que cette arithmetique par o et 
 i se trouve contenir le mystere des lignes d'un ancient roi et philosophe nomme 
 Fohy, qu'on croit avoir vecu il y a plus de quatre mille ans, et que les Chinois re- 
 gardent comme le fondateur de leur empire et de leurs sciences. II y a plusieurs 
 figures lineaires qu’on lui attribue. Elies reviennent toutes a cette arithmetique, 
 mais il suffit de mettre ici la figure de huit Cova comme on l’appelle, qui passe 
 pour fondamentale, et d’y joindre l'explication, qui est manifeste, pourvu qu'on re- 
 marque premierement qu'une ligne entiere — — signifie l’unite ou i, et seconde- 
 ment qu'une ligne brisee — _ signifie le zero ou o. 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 IOO 
 
 4 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 6 7 
 
 “Les Chinois ont perdu la signification des Cova ou lineations de Fohy, peut 
 etre depuis plus d'un millenaire d’annees ; et ils ont fait des commentaires la- 
 dessus, ou ils ont cherche je ne sais quels sens eloignes. De sorte qu’il a fallu que 
 la vraie explication leur vint maintenant des Europeens. Voici comment. Il n’y 
 a guere plus de deux ans que j’envoyai au R. P. Bouvet, Jesuite framjais celebre, 
 qui demeure a Pekin, ma maniere de compter par o et i, et il n’en fallut pas 
 d’avantage pour le faire reconnaitre que c’est la clef de figures de Fohy. Ainsi 
 m’ecrivant le 14. Novembre, il m’a envoye la grande figure de ce prince philosophe 
 qui va a 64, et ne laisse plus lieu de douter de la verite de notre interpretation, de 
 sorte qu’on peut dire que ce Pere a dechiffre l’enigme de Fohy a 1 ’aide de ce que je 
 lui avais communique. Et comme ces figures sont peut-etre le plus ancient monu- 
 ment de science qui soit au monde, cette restitution de leur sens, apres un si grand 
 intervalle de temps, paraitra d’autant de plus curieuse. 
 
 “ Le consentement des figures de Fohy et de ma Table des Nombres se fait 
 mieux voire lorsque dans la table on supplee les zeros initiaux, qui paraissent 
 superflus, mais qui servent a mieux marquer la periode de la colonne, comme je les 
 y ai supplees en effet avec des petits ronds pour les distinguer des zeros, et cet ac- 
 cord me donne une grande opinion de la profondeur des meditations de Fohy. Car 
 ce qui nous parait aise maintenant, ne l’etait pas dans ce temps eloigne. 
 
 “L’arithmetique binaire ou dyadique est en effet fort aise aujourd’hui pour peu 
 qu’on y pense, par ce que notre maniere de compter y aide beaucoup, dont il 
 semble qu’on retranche seulement le trop. Mais cette arithmetique ordinaire par 
 dix ne parait pas fort ancienne, au moins les Grecs et les Romains l’ont ignoree, et 
 ont ete prives de ses avantages. Il semble que l’Europe en doit l’introduction a 
 Gerbert, depuis Pape sous le nom de Sylvestre II, qui l’a eu des Maures d’Espagne. 
 
 “ Or comme l’on croit a la Chine que Fohy est encore auteur des caracteres Chi- 
 nois ordinaires, quoique fort alteres par la suite des temps : son essay d’arithmd- 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 41 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 1 = 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 = I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 1 0 
 
 = 2 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 ! I 
 
 = 3 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 = 4 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 = 5 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 = 6 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 1 I 
 
 I 
 
 = 7 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 0 
 
 0 
 
 = 8 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 i 0 
 
 I 
 
 = 9 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 = 10 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 = 11 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 = 12 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =13 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =14 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =15 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 = 16 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =17 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =18 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =19 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 = 20 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 = 21 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 = 22 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =23 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 =24 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =25 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =26 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =27 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 =28 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =29 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =30 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =31 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 =32 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =33 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =34 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 ' I 
 
 I 
 
 =35 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 =36 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 i 
 
 I 
 
 =37 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 =38 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 = 39 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 l 
 
 0 
 
 =40 
 
 I 
 
 0 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =41 
 
 I 
 
 0 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =42 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =43 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 1 
 
 0 
 
 =44 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 = 45 
 
 1 
 
 0 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =46 
 
 I 
 
 O 1 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =47 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 =48 
 
 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 0 i 
 
 T 
 
 =49 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 =50 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 1 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 =51 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 1 1 
 
 0 1 
 
 0 
 
 =52 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 1 
 
 I 
 
 = 53 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 = 54 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 I 1 
 
 I i 
 
 I 
 
 = 55 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 1 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 =56 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 
 
 0 1 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =57 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 =58 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 = 59 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 0 1 
 
 0 
 
 =60 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 i ! 
 
 0 
 
 I 
 
 =61 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 I ; 
 
 0 
 
 =62 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 =63 
 
 Binary System of Leibnitz. Evolution of the Kwa, or the Kwa Evolved 
 
 from T“ai Kih. 
 
 It will be of interest to compare Leibnitz’s binary numbers with Cheu-tsz’ ’s design ; the 
 similarity among which will appear as soon as o is identified with the black and 1 with the 
 white l l spaces. 
 
42 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 tique fait juger qu'il pourrait s’y trouver quelque chose de considerable par rapport 
 aux nombres et aux idees, si 1 ’on pouvait deterrer le fondement de lecriture Chi- 
 noise, d’autant plusqu’on croit a la Chine, qu'il a eu egard aux nombres en 
 l’etablissant. Le R. P. Bouvet est fort porte a pousser cette pointe, et tres capable 
 d'y reussir en bien de manieres. Cependant je ne sais s’il y a jamais eu dans lecri- 
 ture Chinoise un avantage rapprochant de celui qui doit etre dans une caracteris- 
 tique que je projette. C'est que tout raisonnement qu’on peut tirer des notions, 
 pourrait etre tire de leurs caracteres par une maniere de calcul, qui serait une des 
 plus importans moyens d'aides de l'esprit humain.” 
 
 Prof. Moritz Cantor , 1 disposes of Leibnitz’s interpretation of 
 the Kwa because “Mr. Duhalde had proved them to be projective 
 drawings of the knotted cords.” He adds that they must, accord- 
 ing to Bouvet, be regarded, on account of their names, not as num- 
 bers, but as physical symbols, and explains Leibnitz’s theory as 
 exclusively due to his philosophical interpretation of the binary sys- 
 tem, which was to him an evidence in favor of his conception of a 
 creation from nothing or zero with the sole assistance of One or the 
 unit. But Cantor seems to overlook that in this very respect the 
 ancient Yang and Yin philosophy of the Chinese closely resembles 
 Leibnitz’s idea, whether we regard the Kwa as numbers, or as a 
 binary system of such symbols as are still more general and indefi- 
 nite. The fact of both their presence and their philosophical sig- 
 nificance remains the same and cannot be doubted. 
 
 The first translation of the Yih is in Latin. It was made 
 by the Jesuit P. Regis with the assistance of some of his colleagues, 
 and edited in two volumes by Julius Mohl . 2 
 
 Prof. James Legge’s translation is based upon the idea that the 
 book in its main parts and originally was intended to be a kind of 
 political testament of King Wen and the Duke of Cheu, enlarging on 
 moral and social questions, but enigmatically written after the man- 
 ner and fashion of diviners. He therefore tries to bring his mind 
 en rapport with the mind of its authors and paraphrases the mean- 
 ing of the disconnected words and sentences in the sense that he 
 
 'In his Malhematische Beitrdge zum Kulturleben iter Volker, Halle, 1863, p. 49. 
 
 2 Y King, Antiquitissimus Sinarum liber, quern ex latina interpretatione P. Regis 
 aliorumque ex Soc. Jesu P. T , edidit Julius Mohl. Stuttgartise et Tiibingae. 1834. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 43 
 
 finds indicated in the text. He encloses his additions in parentheses, 
 saying : 
 
 "I hope, however, that I have been able in this way to make the translation 
 intelligible to readers. If, after all, they shall conclude that in what is said on the 
 hexagrams there is often 'much ado about nothing,’ it is not the translator who 
 should be deemed accountable for that, but his original.” 
 
 A peculiar conception of the Yih King has been propounded by 
 P. L. F. Philastre, who lays much stress on the tradition that Fuh- 
 Hi received his first idea of the Kwa by contemplating the starry 
 heavens and believes that he discovered in the Kwa combinations a 
 method of symbolising the astronomical lore of the ancient Chinese. 
 His lucubration embodies translations of the most important Chi- 
 nese commentaries . 1 
 
 Canon McClatchie published a translation of the Yih King in 
 which he ventures to open its mysteries “ by applying the key of 
 comparative mythology.” I have not seen it and quote only what 
 Professor Legge has to say about it ( Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 
 XVI, p. xvii) : 
 
 “Such a key was not necessary and the author by the application of it, has 
 found sundry things to which I have occasionally referred in my notes. They are 
 not pleasant to look at or dwell upon, and happily it has never entered into the 
 minds of Chinese scholars to conceive them.” 
 
 A. Terrien de Lacouperie 2 believes that the Yih King is a mere 
 vocabulary containing those word-symbols which the Bak families 
 brought with them as a sacred inheritance of the Elamo-Babylonian 
 civilisation. 
 
 P. Angelo Zottoli says of the Yih King in his Cursus Literatnrae 
 Sinicae : 
 
 “A. Terrien de Lacouperie believes that the old Chinese civilisation is an off- 
 shoot of the Elamo-Babylonian civilisation in the very stage of development that 
 had been reached a little after the middle of the third millennium B. C., and claims 
 that the hexagrams are the script which the Bak tribes, the oldest civilisers of 
 China, carried with them to the new homes, and the Yih King is originally a diction- 
 ary of the ancient word-symbols with their lexicographical explanations, the mean- 
 
 1 Annates du Musee Guimet , Vols. VIII. and XXIII. 
 
 2 The Oldest Book of the Chinese , the Yi King and Its Authors. London : D. 
 Nutt, 270 Strand, 1892. 
 
44 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 ing of which was later on misunderstood without losing the awe that naturally was 
 attached to the book as embodying the wisdom of the sages of yore.” 
 
 “ The book consists of the figures of Fuh Hi, of the divinations of King Wen, 
 of the symbols of the Duke of Cheu, and the commentaries of Confucius. From 
 the permutations which the two elements in the composition of the hexagrams un- 
 dergo it is called Yih (the permutator), or Yih King, the Book of Permutations. What, 
 then, is this famous Yih King ? It is, briefly, this. From the continuous or bisected 
 quality of the lines, their position either at the bottom or in the middle or topmost, 
 their mutual relation as being opposed and separated, or coming together, the body 
 or form of the trigrams themselves ; further, from the symbol or image of the tri- 
 grams, from the quality or virtue of the trigrams, sometimes from the difference of 
 one hexagram as compared to another, a certain picture is developed and a certain 
 idea is deduced containing something like an oracle that can be consulted by drawing 
 lots, in order to obtain some warning fit for guidance in life or to solve some doubt. 
 Such is the book according to the explanations of Confucius as handed down in the 
 schools. Therefore, you must expect neither anything sublime or mysterious, nor 
 anything unseemly or vile. I see in it rather a subtle play for eliciting moral and po- 
 litical instructions, such as can be found in the Chinese classics, obtrusive, plain, and 
 natural. Since this book, as a reader of the original text will understand, has been 
 employed for fortune telling, one expects to gain by it the highest happiness of life, 
 mysterious communication with spirits and occult knowledge of future events. 
 Therefore, the book appears as a magic revelation, as a perfect light, as throughout 
 spiritual and conformable to the life of man. Hence the praises attributed to it by 
 Confucius, although quite exaggerated, will be seen specially added in the Appendix 
 of the book, if it is true at all as the common opinion goes, that he himself is the 
 author of the Appendix.’’ 1 
 
 Ch. de Harlez, the originator of the idea that the nature of the 
 Yih King is lexicological, does not accept Lacouperie’s theory of an 
 Elamo-Babylonian origin of the Yih King. He says in the preface 
 to his French translation of the Yih 2 : 
 
 1 ' Notre systeme . . . nous fait voir dans le Yih un reccueil mi-lexicologique, 
 mi-philosophique de termes et de sentences, plein de raison et de sagesse.”— P. n. 
 
 There remains one more hypothesis on the nature of the Yih 
 King which is by Dr. Heinrich Riedel, of Brooklyn, N. Y. He has 
 given me much assistance in my own Chinese studies and I am in- 
 clined to believe that he has something to say on the subject that is 
 
 1 Translated from the Latin. The original is quoted by Legge in his Preface to 
 the Yih King, p. xviii. 
 
 2 Published in 1889 by F. Hayer, Bruxelles, rue de Louvain, 108. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 45 
 
 worth hearing. Since his observations have never been published, 
 I deem it advisable, for the sake of sinology, to present some chips 
 from his workshop. 
 
 Dr. Riedel regards the Yih as a calendar of the lunar year, being 
 what the title of Cheu-tsz’ ’s book on the Yih indicated, a T‘ung Shu, 
 “ a universal book,” or “ almanac,” embodying everything in the do- 
 main of science, religion, ethics, and even sport that appeared of in- 
 terest. T‘ung Shu means “calendar,” and 6 X 64 = 384 (the number 
 of strokes in the hexagrams) is the number of days of the intercalary 
 year. As to the hexagrams, Dr. Riedel insists that “ the specific 
 order of the sixty-four hexagrams which is carefully preserved and 
 sacredly guarded by devices that remind us of the Massoretic pre- 
 cautions taken in regard to the Hebrew texts of the Bible and which 
 has } T et received little if any attention, is the soul and substance of 
 the Yih King,” and trusts to be able to prove that the circular de- 
 vice of hexagrams including the square represents “the problem of 
 squaring the circle.” Here are, in a condensed form, some points 
 of his theory : 
 
 There is in Chinese authors a frequent substitution of symbols 
 by homonyms; as Gabelentz says: “The ancient authors either 
 through mistake or in emergency, or by sheer whim, used to replace 
 the character of a word by another one which probably in their age 
 had the same or a very similar sound.” ( Gr . Ch. Gr. p. 100.) And 
 this must be expected to have taken place in the Yih King rather 
 more freefy than in other books. Now take the first sentence of the 
 Yih King and replace it by homonyms as follows : 
 
 fi *1 £ 
 
 Both lines read nearly alike : “K r ien yuen hang li ching ; ” but 
 the former means “ K'ien, origin (and) progress determined by ad- 
 vantageousness,” while the latter means “See the circle’s path rec- 
 tified by reason. ” 
 
 The aphorism belonging to the first (viz. the lowest) Kiu line 
 of the first Kwa, which reads “Ts‘ien lung wuh yung,” Dr. Riedel 
 
4 6 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 translates : “A hidden dragon through negation is action,” which is 
 meant to set forth the mathematical and logical powers of naught (o). 
 
 Legge is unable to bring sense into a passage in which robbery 
 is declared to teach ethics ( Sacred Books of the East , III., p. 203, 
 § 48). The paragraph, however, becomes clear when we adopt Dr. 
 Riedel’s proposition to regard robbery as a game like chess and 
 translate it by “latrunculi” or robbery-game. Burden-bearers, i.e. 
 peasants or laborers, should be translated by “pawns.” Other 
 allusions that occur in the passage, such as “false moves,” “leaving 
 exposed,” “ attacking,” “ captured,” remind us of our own chess- 
 board terms. In addition, we meet in the Yih passim with generals, 
 the tsz’, i. e., sages or advisers, horses, carriages, and elephants. 1 
 
 Legge translates the aphorism of the second Luh line of the 
 second Kwa thus : 
 
 “(The second line divided) [shows the attribute of] being straight, square, 
 and great. (Its operation) without repeated efforts will be in every respect advan- 
 tageous.” 
 
 Dr. Riedel proposes a more literal translation : 
 
 “Rectify, [or] square greatly (viz. ever so much), not continuously employing 
 naught, no gain." 
 
 The Yang and Yin lines are designated by kiu and luh 
 two characters which ordinarily mean nine and six. Dr. Riedel 
 claims with great plausibility, that they are employed to designate 
 diameter and radius. Kiu means not only “nine,” but also “to 
 go to the end of; to go through; or, to bring together.” It is a 
 homonym with , its inversion, 2 which means “ to take hold of ; to 
 join ; to connect.” Further, luh means “six,” and in analogy with 
 ‘ ’ rh , which means “two” and “to divide into two,” luh means 
 also “to divide into sixes ” and then sextant, the sixth part of a circle 
 or the radius which is equal to the chord of a sextant. This makes it 
 probable that kiu in the Yih King means diameter-line ; and luh 
 radius line, which again are identified with the full line of Yang and 
 the broken line of Yin. 
 
 1 On the chess of the Chinese see Williams’s Middle Kingdom , I., p. 827. 
 
 2 chni, mentioned by Williams in his Syllabic Dictionary, p. 413. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 47 
 
 A passage quoted from K‘ung Ngan Tsz’ Quoh reads : 
 
 "The spirit tortoise carried a writing and methodically arranged divisions. 
 In both respects it had the digits up to nine." 
 
 Comparing this with a passage in the Book of Three Characters 1 
 which declares that the five elements “have their origin in num- 
 bers,” Dr. Riedel deduces from observations made on the carapace 
 of a half-grown Chrysemys picta, 2 which on account of its abnormal 
 number of inner and outer plates a Chinaman would class as a shan 
 kwei, or spirit tortoise, the following writing of the nine digits as a 
 hypothetical reconstruction of the Loh Shu in its substance : 
 
 123 456789 
 
 The sum of the Kiu lines is 16, of the Lull lines 29. 
 
 The plates on the back of the tortoise yield the same numbers 
 in the same proportion. There are sixteen large inner plates, while 
 there are twenty-three small outer plates, and in addition we have 
 three pairs of small ones that appear to be superimposed upon the 
 three vertebral plates in the centre. The symbols of the five ele- 
 ments, as written on p. 21, yield sixteen long and twenty-nine short 
 lines. 
 
 Now, by means of the same distribution of whole and broken 
 lines amongst the nine digits, Dr. Riedel claims to have constructed 
 “an anagram of the number n in one hundred and twenty- three 
 decimal places, exhibiting the sixty-four Yih kwa in their specific 
 order, placed in rows of eight each, from below upwards.” The use 
 of an anagram for the purpose of laying down a scientific truth at 
 the time inaccessible, is by no means a device unheard of in the his- 
 tory of science; for in comparatively recent times such men as 
 Roger Bacon, Galileo, and Huygens have done the same thing. 
 
 The spiritual tortoise accordingly is a lusus naturae which ap- 
 
 Open Court, No. 412 
 2 See Fig. 10 on p 
 
 An English translation of this booklet is published in The 
 The passage quoted above is characters 199-204. 
 
 20. 
 
4 8 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 pealed to the mathematical mind of the Chinese and caused them to 
 see in it a spiritual being. 
 
 If Dr. Riedel’s theory is not the restoration of the ancient Chi- 
 nese conception, we may rest assured that it was some quite analo- 
 gous scheme. 
 
 Dr. Riedel, in further attempts at proving the presence of the 
 number tc in the order of the Kwa of the Yih King, quotes from 
 Hi isz ’ (App. iii, j, § 70) the sentence : “ The Yih contains the great 
 extreme,” and says, “Now as the great extreme which is symbolised 
 by a circle is not mentioned at all, and as we have in the Yih King 
 proper only the mutations of Yang and Yin, the Lull and Kiu, the two 
 primary forms (Liang I), I conclude that they, if anything, must con- 
 tain the number by which to calculate the circle” (i. e., the symbol 
 of the great extreme). In addition to this argument, Dr. Riedel 
 quotes the passage Yih Nik Shu Ye, i. e., “the mutations (are) a 
 refractory number,” “refractory number” being defined in Shwoh 
 Kwa (App. V. 2) by “making acquainted with the future,” which 
 is the opposite to a number that has reference to the past, and is 
 consummated or “compliant.” “Accordingly,” says Dr. Riedel, 
 “a refractory number can, in the adduced passage, mean only what 
 we call an irrational number.” 
 
 In the beginning of the same Appendix we read : “ The holy 
 men of yore who composed the Yih, concealed their help in spiritual 
 light and thus gave life to the milfoil stalks. They triangulated 1 
 the heaven, made twofold the earth, and relied upon calculation.” 
 All commentators and interpreters agree that in this sentence heaven 
 means the circle, and earth the square. Dr. Riedel suggests that 
 “making twofold the earth (viz., the square) indicates the primitive 
 method of approximating n by circumscribed and inscribed squares. ” 
 
 The aphorism of the fourth hexagram declares : 
 
 "Novice, proceed. We do not seek the youthful and inexperienced. The 
 youthful and inexperienced shall seek us. In its first (elements) divination is pro- 
 pounded. Further details (literally, the second and third) would be tedious. Te- 
 dious rules are not propounded." 
 
 J The ancient character for the verb " to triangulate" contains three triangles 
 Compare the English word "trigonometry." 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 49 
 
 As to the original meaning of “divination ” in the minds of the 
 Chinese, Dr. Riedel adduces from an English-Chinese dictionary the 
 explanatory character swan, which denotes “the Chinese abacus,” 
 “to cipher,” “a calculation,” which goes far to prove that the fun- 
 damental meaning of “divination” is closely connected with math- 
 ematical, arithmetical, and logical determination. 
 
 In addition to all this it is, at least, a strange coincidence that 
 the name of the dynasty Chen, m after which the present book of 
 Yih is called, means “periphery, curve, enclosure.” The verb cheu 
 is translated by Williams, “to make a circuit; to environ.” 
 
 It cannot be my purpose to enter further into Dr. Riedel’s argu- 
 ments, not only because an elaborate proof must, in the very nature 
 of things, be very complicated, but also because I am not sufficiently 
 acquainted with all the details of his further evidence. Dr. Riedel’s 
 proposition is, to say the least, not less probable than any one of 
 the other theories of the Yih King that have been advanced. I have 
 devoted more space to it because it is as yet unknown, and, being 
 very striking and ingenious, it is worthy of a careful consideration. 
 Many of his observations which I have inquired into as carefully as 
 I could, with my still limited knowledge of the Chinese language, 
 appear to me correct : but I have not as yet been persuaded to adopt 
 his main theories, that the Yih is a calendar and that a portion of it 
 is devoted to the problem of squaring the circle. 
 
 TIEN 
 
 ft 
 
 AND SHANG TI 
 
 PERSONAL GOD. 
 
 if 
 
 THE BELIEF IN A 
 
 At first sight there does not seem to be much room in the Yang 
 and Yin philosophy for a personal God. Nevertheless, the Chinese 
 believe in i f the Lord on High, who is the sole ruler of the 
 universe and the sole God above all the mythological deities. 
 
 * The divine power to which men look up as to their authority of 
 conduct is commonly designated with the impersonal term 
 Then , 1 i. e. , Heaven, which may be translated by Godhood or Deity. 
 
 ft 
 
 T'iert consists of 
 
 
 great ” and 
 
 “ one.” 
 
50 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 If conceived as a personal being T'ien is called Shang Ti, i. e. the 
 High Sovereign, or the Lord on High. 
 
 The worship of Shang Ti must be very old, for we read that 
 after a severe drought Ching Tang, the founder of the Shang dy- 
 nasty, which began 1766 B. C., publicly paid religious -worship to 
 Shang Ti, confessing his offences, which were six. He had scarcely 
 finished his confession when the rain fell in torrents. We must add 
 that on this occasion the worship of Shang Ti is not related as an 
 innovation, but as a means of deliverance that naturally suggested 
 itself to a good ruler. 1 
 
 In the very oldest documents of the Shu King the term 
 “ Heaven ” is used as is our deity, implying even the conception of 
 a personal being. Thus we read in the Counsels of Kao-Yao : 
 
 ' ‘ The work [i. e., the bringing to an end] is Heaven's ; but men must act for it. 2 
 
 “ From Heaven are the relationships with their several duties. From Heaven 
 are the [social] distinctions with their several ceremonies. 
 
 “ Heaven punishes the guilty. 
 
 “ Heaven hears and sees as our people hear and see. Heaven brightly approves 
 and displays its terrors as our people brightly approve and overawe. Such connex- 
 ion is between the upper and lower (worlds )." — Sacred Books of the East, III., pp. 
 55 - 56 . 
 
 Quotations like these can be multiplied by the thousands. We 
 have purposely limited them to the most ancient documents in the 
 Shu King in order to prove that the idea of a supreme personal 
 deity is not of modern date. At present the worship of Shang Ti 
 is regarded as so holy that the emperor, as the High Priest of the 
 nation, is alone permitted to perform the ceremony. 
 
 Peking, the capital of China consists of three cities : the Tartar 
 city to the North, the Forbidden city with the imperial palaces and 
 parks lying within the Tartar city, and the Chinese city to the South. 
 In the southern part of the Chinese city is a park of about a square 
 mile containing the Temple of Heaven and the Altar 3 of Heaven, 
 
 1 See Williams’s The Middle Kingdom, II. , p. 154. 
 
 2 Or better : “ Consummation is Heaven's, but men must work for it." 
 
 3 We retain this traditional translation “altar,” although it is misleading since 
 it suggests the erroneous idea that it must be an altar such as we see in Catholic 
 churches or as it was used by the ancient Greeks. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 51 
 
 which are to the Chinese the most sacred spots on earth. The 
 Temple of Heaven (or more correctly, “ the Altar of praying for 
 grain”) is a triple marble terrace, twenty-seven feet in height, sur- 
 rounded with marble balustrades and crowned with a temple which 
 rises to the height of ninety-nine feet. The three terraces and the 
 temple are circular. The symmetry of the proportions renders it 
 most beautiful ; its dome imitates in shape and color the vault of 
 heaven, and as the round windows are shaded by blinds of blue 
 glass-rods strung together, the entering sun casts an azure light 
 upon the rich carvings and paintings in the inside. The same park 
 in which the Temple of Heaven stands, contains the Altar of 
 Heaven, which is enclosed by an outer square wall and an inner cir- 
 cular wall ; and it is here that the emperors of China at the time of 
 our Christmas have been in the habit, from time immemorial, of wor- 
 shipping Shang Ti, “the Lord on High,” or as the Emperor 
 
 Kanghi expressed himself : “ the true God.” The Altar of Heaven 
 (a picture of which forms the frontispiece to the first volume of Wil- 
 liams’s Middle Kingdom ) is described by Williams as follows 1 : 
 
 “ It is a beautiful triple circular terrace of white marble, whose base is 210, mid- 
 dle stage 150, and top go feet in width, each terrace encompassed by a richly carved 
 balustrade. A curious symbolism of the number three and its multiples may be 
 noticed in the measurements of this pile. The uppermost terrace, whose height 
 above the ground is about eighteen feet, is paved with marble slabs, forming nine 
 concentric circles — the inner of nine stones inclosing a central piece, and around 
 this each receding layer consisting of a successive multiple of nine until the square 
 of nine (a favorite number of Chinese philosophy) is reached in the outermost row. 
 It is upon the single round stone in the centre of the upper plateau that the Em- 
 peror kneels when worshipping Heaven and his ancestors at the winter solstice.” 
 
 This round stone, we must remember, is the symbol of the 
 T‘ai Kih, 0> the ultimate ground of being. Williams continues : 
 
 ' ‘ Four flights of nine steps each lead from this elevation to the next lower stage, 
 where are placed tablets to the spirits of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the Year 
 God. On the ground at the end of the four stairways stand vessels of bronze in 
 which are placed the bundles of cloth and sundry animals constituting a part of the 
 sacrificial offerings. But of vastly greater importance than these in the matter of 
 
 1 See Williams's Middle Kingdom, I., 76-77, and The Dragon, Image, and De- 
 nton, by Du Bose, New York, 1887 (pp. 57-64). 
 
52 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 burnt-offering is the great furnace, nine feet high, faced with green porcelain, and 
 ascended on three of its sides by porcelain staircases. In this receptacle, erected 
 some hundred feet to the southeast of the altar, is consumed a burnt-offering of a 
 bullock — entire and without blemish — at the yearly ceremony. The slaughter- 
 house of the sacrificial bullock stands east of the North Altar, at the end of an elab- 
 orate winding passage, or cloister of seventy-two compartments, each ten feet in 
 length.” 
 
 Such is the religious and popular conception of Shang Ti, which 
 is as deeply rooted in the Chinese mind, and perhaps more deeply 
 than is the God-idea in the West. But just as Western philoso- 
 phers translate the God-idea of religion into a philosophical prin- 
 ciple, (I mention Hegel’s Absolute, Schopenhauer’s Will, Fichte’s 
 Moral World-Order, Spinoza’s definition of Substance, etc.,) so 
 the educated Chinese speak of Lao-tsz’ ’s Tao or World-Logos, of 
 Cheu Tsz’ ’s T‘ai Kill or the ultimate ground of existence, and of Chu 
 Hi’s Li or immaterial principle. Chu Hi touches upon the problem 
 of the personality of God in his expositions on the immaterial prin- 
 ciple and primary matter. He says after quoting three passages from 
 the classics in which the terms Shang Ti and Then (the Lord on 
 High and Heaven) imply the idea of a personal God : 
 
 “All these and such like expressions, do they imply that above the azure sky 
 there is a Lord and Ruler who acts thus, or is it still true that heaven has no mind, 
 and men only carry out their reasonings in this style ? I reply, these three things 
 are but [expressions of] one idea ; it is that the immaterial principle of [the cosmic] 
 order is such. ’’ 
 
 This seems to imply that his conception of the k‘i implies per- 
 sonality ; but he adds : 
 
 “ The primary matter, in its evolutions hitherto, after one season of fulness has 
 experienced one of decay, and after a period of decline, it again flourishes ; just as 
 if things were going on in a circle. There never was a decay without a revival.” — 
 Chinese Repository , Vol. XIII., p. 555. 
 
 There is an extensive literature on the question ; for some Chris- 
 tian missionaries have objected to the translation of Shang Ti by 
 God and God by Shang Ti, proposing other words in its place . 1 
 
 1 See The Chinese Repository , Vol. XVII., pp. 17-53, 57-89 (“Essay on the 
 Term for Deity,” by William J. Boone, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church); 
 ib. pp. 105-133, 161-187, 209-242, 265-310, 321-354 (“ Chinese Term for Deity," 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 53 
 
 The controversy began with the Roman Catholic missions. 
 The Jesuit Ricci, an unusual missionary genius, who rendered the 
 Chinese government so many valuable services that he commanded 
 the Emperor’s highest respect and unbounded confidence, had drawn 
 up rules for his Christian converts in which he permitted certain 
 Chinese rites, such as honoring the memory of Confucius and of an- 
 cestors, justifying these acts by an explanation of their purely sec- 
 ular significance. Ricci at the same time translated, as a matter of 
 course, the word “God” with Shang Ti, and his methods were 
 silently approved in Rome. 
 
 Morales, a Spanish Dominican, however, jealous of the great 
 success of his Jesuit brethren, denounced Ricci for pandering to 
 idolatry. The propaganda condemned Ricci’s methods as sinful, 
 and Pope Innocence confirmed the sentence in 1645. The Jesuits 
 remonstrated and succeeded. Pope Alexander VI. issued another 
 decree, in which, without directly revoking his predecessor’s deci- 
 sion, he sided with Ricci’s policy, * 1 in agreement with which, in 1665, 
 the Jesuits drew up forty-two articles. The Dominicans did not let 
 things rest here; Navarette, one of their order, renewed the old de- 
 nunciations, and Bishop Maigrot, an apostolic vicar living in China, 
 issued a mandate in which he declared that “T‘ien” signified noth- 
 ing more than “ the material heaven,” and that the Chinese customs 
 and rites were idolatrous. The Jesuits applied to the Emperor of 
 China for an authentic explanation of the significance of the words 
 for God and of the Chinese rites, whereupon Kanghi the Emperor 
 declared (in 1700) that Then meant the true God, and the ceremonies 
 of China were political. 
 
 But the efforts of the Jesuits to influence the Pope failed ; Pope 
 Clement XI. confirmed the mandate of Bishop Maigrot in a bull 
 (published in 1703) in which the words Then and Shang Ti were 
 
 by Dr. W. H. Medhurst); ib. pp. 357-360 ("A Few Plain Questions by a Brother 
 Missionary”); and ib. pp. 489 et seq., 545 et seq., and 601 et seq. ("Dr. Medhurst's 
 Reply to Bishop Boone”). 
 
 1 Ricci’s "Divine Law " is published in an unabridged form in Kircher's China 
 Illustrala, 1667. 
 
54 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 rejected as pagan, while the expression T‘ien Chu, i. e. Lord oi 
 Heaven, was approved of. 
 
 From these days the rapid decline of the Roman Catholic mis- 
 sions in China begins. Ricci’s doctrines were not countenanced in 
 Rome, and Maigrot’s followers were persecuted by the Chinese gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Among Protestant missionaries the Rev. Dr. Boone proposes 
 to translate God by Shin = Spirit , 1 and takes the field against all 
 those who use the terms Shang Ti or Then; but he is opposed by 
 the majority of his colleagues, Dr. Medhurst, Sir George Staunton, 
 Dr. Bowring, Mr. Dotty, and Professor Legge. 
 
 Prof. James Legge has written a learned discussion on the sub- 
 ject' 2 ; adducing innumerable passages in corroboration of his views. 
 In his introduction to the Shu King he quotes Tai T‘ung’s diction- 
 ary in defining the meaning of the word “ Ti. ” Tai T’ung says : 
 
 “ Ti is the honorable designation of lordship and rule, therefore Heaven is 
 called Shang Ti ; the Elementary Powers are called the five Ti ; and the Son of 
 Heaven — that is, the Sovereign — is called Ti. ” 
 
 Professor Legge adds : 
 
 “ Here then is the name Heaven, by which the idea of Supreme Power in the 
 absolute is vaguely expressed ; and when the Chinese would speak of it by a per- 
 sonal name, they use the terms Ti and Shang Ti ; — -saying, I believe, what our early 
 fathers did, when they began to use the word God. 
 
 “ Ti is the name which has been employed in China for this concept for fully 
 five thousand years. Our word God fits naturally into every passage where the 
 character occurs in the old Chinese Classics. It never became with the people a 
 proper name like the Zeus of the Greeks. I can no more translate Ti or Shang Ti 
 by any other word but God than I can translate zan by anything else but man. ’ 
 
 The general belief that the Chinese are obstinately opposed to 
 Christianity and Christian ethics is a great error. The Chinese have 
 a contempt only for the dogmatism that is commonly preached to 
 them as Christianity. In spite of all the missionary efforts of Chris- 
 tians, the Chinese know of Christianity as little as, or even less than, 
 Western nations know of Confucius, Lao-tsz’, and Buddha. How 
 
 2 The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits, Hong Kong, 1852. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 55 
 
 deeply the simple story of Jesus and his preachings of love and 
 charity can impress the Chinese mind, if it is told in a truly Chinese 
 way, without identifying Christianity with beef-eating or the opium 
 trade, can be learned from the fact that the Tai Ping revolution, 
 which shook the throne of the Celestial Empire, was conducted by 
 native Christians who could no longer stand the persecutions of the 
 Confucian authorities. Hung Sew Tseuen, a simple schoolmaster, 
 who in his youth had seen visions entrusting him with a religious 
 mission, read the Gospel, and, being impressed with its moral truths, 
 baptised himself and began to preach Christ’s ethics of good-will 
 toward all. He was discharged and persecuted because he refused 
 to pay the customary worship to Confucius ; but he continued to 
 preach until he saw himself at the head of an army that might have 
 overpowered the government of the Chinese Empire. While this 
 rebellion raged in China, the English did not even know that the 
 rebels were Christians. So little did they know of the affairs of the 
 interior of China ! 
 
 Hung Sew Tseuen is described in The Chinese and General Mis- 
 sionary Gleaner as “of ordinary appearance, about five feet four 
 or five inches high, well built, round faced, regular featured, rather 
 handsome, about middle age, and gentlemanly in his manners.” 
 
 Thomas Taylor Meadows, Chinese interpreter in H. M. Civil 
 Service, has published a detailed account of the Tai Ping revolu- 
 tion 1 in his book, The Chinese and Their Rebellions, London, 1856. 
 He says on page 193 : 
 
 “ My knowledge of the Chinese mind, joined to the dejected admissions that 
 Protestant missionaries of many years’ standing occasionally made of the fruitless- 
 ness of their labors, had convinced me that Christianity, as hardened into our sec- 
 tarian creeds, could not possibly find converts among the Chinese, except here and 
 there perhaps an isolated individual. Consequently when it was once or twice ru- 
 mored that the large body of men who were setting Imperial armies at defiance 
 'were Christians,’ I refused to give the rumor credence. It did not occur to me 
 that the Chinese convert, through some tracts of a Chinese convert, might either 
 fail to see, or (if he saw them), might spontaneously eliminate the dogmas and con- 
 gealed forms of merely sectarian Christianity, and then by preaching simply the 
 great religious truth of One God, and the pure morality of Christ's Sermon on the 
 
 1 See also Rev. Th. Hamberg’s article in the N. Am. Review, Vol. LXXIX., p. 158. 
 
56 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Mount, obtain numbers of followers among people disgusted with the idolatry and 
 the immorality that they and those around them were engulfed in. As we have 
 seen above, this was actually the case with Hung Sew Tseuen.” 
 
 LAO-TSZ’ ^3 
 
 * 
 
 AND CONFUCIUS 
 
 The Yang and Yin conception of the ancient Chinese has exer- 
 cised a dominating influence upon all Chinese thinkers 1 , with the 
 sole exception of Lao-tsz’, who lived at the end of the sixth century 
 
 before Christ. Lao-tsz”s lit Tao- Teh-Kin* (“ the Clas- 
 
 ^ lAii Toi 
 
 sic on Reason andVirtue,” that wonderful booklet on Tao, i. e., 
 the Path or Method, the Word or Reason, the Logos, that was in the 
 beginning and on Teh virtue , 2 propounding an ethics that repu- 
 diates all self-assertion, closely resembling the injunctions of both 
 Buddha and Christ), stands alone in the whole literature of China. 
 It is not less monistic than the doctrines of the T’ai Kih, but less 
 rigid, less a priori, less self-sufficient. It would have served the Chi- 
 nese better than the Confucian philosophy. 
 
 Williams defines > ^ tao, as follows : 
 
 ' A road, path, or way ; . . . a principle, a doctrine, that which the mind ap- 
 proves; used in the classics in the sense of the right path in which one ought to go 
 either in ruling or observing rules; rectitude or right reason ; in early times, up to 
 500 A. D., the Buddhists called themselves tao-yan, i. e., men (seeking for) reason 
 [enlightenment], or intelligent men, denoting thereby their aspiration after ‘ pu-ti 
 (Sanskrit bodhi), intelligence ; the Reason or Logos of the rationalists ” [the so-called 
 Taoists]. 3 . . . [As a verb tao means] “ to lead, to direct, to go in a designated path ; 
 to speak, to converse.” 
 
 1 On the literature of China, see Schott’s " Entwurf einer Beschreibung der 
 chinesischen Litteratur, gelesen in der Akademie der Wissenschaften,” 1850, and 
 published in the Philosophisch-IIistorische Klasse in 1853, pp. 293-418. 
 
 2 lilS; is a combination of the three radicals "to go,” “ straight,” and "heart." 
 
 3 The Taoists who regard themselves as followers of Lao-tsz’ have distorted 
 their master’s doctrines beyond recognition. The Tao religion is best characterised 
 in "The Book of Rewards and Punishments,” translated in full only into French 
 by Stanislaus Julien under the title Le livre des recompenses et des peines. Paris, 
 1835. See also Confucianism and Taoism, by Prof. Robert K. Douglas. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 57 
 
 The character tao, is composed of “to go” and “head,” 
 denoting “marching at the head.” 
 
 We are told that Confucius visited Lao-Tsz’, who, being by 
 half a century his senior, must then have been about eighty years 
 old. While Confucius propounded the maxims of justice, the old 
 philosopher urged the principle of good-will toward every one, say- 
 ing d 
 
 “ Recompense injury with kindness.” 
 
 Confucius, unable to fathom Lao-tsz’ ’s meaning, replied : 
 
 “With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with 
 justice (punishment), and recompense kindness with kindness. ” 
 
 Lao-tsz’ propounds the gist of his ethics in §49 of the Tao- 
 Teh-King, where he says : 
 
 ' ‘ The good I would meet with goodness. The not-good I would also meet with 
 goodness ; for the teh 2 (virtue) is good (throughout). The faithful I would meet with 
 faith. The not-faithful I would also meet with faith ; (for) the teh (virtue) is good 
 (throughout).” 
 
 Lao-tsz’ objected to the very basis of Confucian morality. 
 Confucius expected to make people good by teaching them pro- 
 priety; if they were but respectful to parents and superiors, if they 
 brought sacrifices to the shrines of their ancestors, and observed the 
 appropriate rules and ceremonies, mankind would become moral. 
 Lao-tsz’ exhibited an undisguised contempt for externalities and 
 ancestor-worship. He demanded purity of heart, emptiness of de- 
 sire, and a surrender of all self-display, in imitation of the great Tao 
 (Reason), which -serves all without seeking its own. 1 2 3 
 
 Sz’ Ma Tsfien, 4 who lived about 163-85 B. C., reports on the 
 authority of Chwang-tsz’ (about 330 B. C.) that Confucius in his 
 interview with Lao-tsz’, showed himself overawed by reverence for 
 the wisdom of the ancient traditions. Lao-tsz’ said : 
 
 1 John Chalmer’s The Speculations of the Old Philosopher, Lau-tsz’ , p. xviii. 
 
 2 
 
 3 See also Douglas’s Confucianism and Taoisjn, pp. 176 et seq. 
 
 4 The original Chinese text with a German translation is published by Gabe- 
 lentz in his Anfangsgriinde der Chinesischen Granunatik, p. met seq. 
 
58 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 "Lord, of whom you speak, the men and their bones, I suppose, have alto- 
 gether rotted away. Their words only are still extant. Moreover, if a sage find 
 his time, he rises ; if he does not find his time, he wanders about like a P'ung plant 
 [which is described by the commentators to be a plant, growing on the sand and 
 easily carried about by the wind], I have heard, a wise merchant hides [his treas- 
 ures] deeply, as if [his house or safe] were empty. A sage of perfect virtue gives 
 himself the appearance as though [he were] simple-minded Jjl yil. 1 
 
 " Give up your proud spirit, your many wishes, your external appearance with 
 your exaggerated plans. These all are of no advantage to the sage’s person. This 
 is what I have to communicate to you, sir ; that is all.” 
 
 Sz’-Ma-Ts‘ien continues: 
 
 "Confucius went ; and he said to his disciples : 1 Of the birds I know that they 
 can fly, of the fishes I know that they can swim, of the beasts I know that they can 
 run. For the running, one makes nooses ; for the swimming, one makes nets ; for 
 the flying, one makes arrows. As to the dragon, I do not know how he rides upon 
 wind and clouds up to heaven. To-day I saw Lao-tsz’. Is he perhaps like the 
 dragon ? ’ " 
 
 Confucius was more congenial to his countrymen than Lao-tsz’, 
 for he was more typically Chinese. Although his life had been an 
 unbroken chain of disappointments, Confucius succeeded after his 
 death in becoming the moral teacher of the Chinese people. His 
 agnostic attitude in metaphysics and religion which neither affirms 
 nor denies the existence of a beyond, of God, or gods, and of ghosts, 
 but avoids investigating the matter, his unbounded reverence for 
 the past, his respect for scholarship and book-learning, his ethics of 
 traditionalism, which implies an extreme conservatism, his exag- 
 geration of propriety, his ceremonialism, and above all his ideal of 
 submission to authority have more and more become national traits 
 of the Chinese nation. 
 
 What a pity that the weakness of China is an exaggerated vir- 
 tue ; it is reverence run mad — a virtue in which America is as much 
 deficient as China is in excess. 
 
 It was characteristic of a typical Chinaman like Confucius that 
 
 
 1 Gabelentz translates by " durnm.” 
 
 bols denoting "monkey” and "heart or mind." 
 ary of the Chinese Language, p. 1120. 
 
 The character contains the sym- 
 See Williams's Syllabic Diction- 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 59 
 
 he should have admired the Yih King solely on account of its age, 
 because it came down to him from the sages of yore. He said : 
 
 "Should a few more years be granted to me, I shall have applied fifty to study- 
 ing the Yih and thereby could be free from erring greatly .” — Liin Yii, VII., 16. 1 
 
 We know much more about Confucius than about any other 
 Chinese philosopher, emperor, or saint, but it appears that he was 
 more of a moral teacher than a philosopher or mathematician, and 
 it is probable that the Yih King was to him a book with seven seals, 
 the unintelligibility of which fascinated him. 
 
 Having impressed upon the nation his personality, Confucius 
 lived on in the souls of his countrymen ; and, following their mas- 
 ter’s injunction, the Chinese continued to study the Yih King 
 without finding the solution of its problems. Instead of avoiding 
 grave mistakes, they committed the gravest one : they relied upon 
 traditional authority and ceased to be self-dependent. Instead of 
 deciphering the eternal revelation of truth that surrounds us in the 
 living book of nature and of our individual experiences, they pon- 
 dered over the secret meanings of the holy Yih King ; and even to- 
 day there are many among them who believe that the Yih King con- 
 tains all the wisdom, physical, moral, and metaphysical, that can be 
 conceived by any of the sages of the world . 2 
 
 The mistake of the Chinese is natural and perhaps excusable, 
 for it is founded upon a profound, although misunderstood and mis- 
 applied, reverence for the great sages who laid the cornerstone of 
 their civilisation. We, as outsiders, can easily appreciate the merits 
 and reject the errors of the fundamental principles of Chinese 
 thought ; but not all of us are conscious of the fact that in many re- 
 spects we too suffer from an exaggerated reverence for traditionalism. 
 
 1 Such is the translation according to Dr. Riedel, which, after a comparison 
 with the original, I find, so far as I can judge, as literal as possible. Professor Legge 
 translates : "If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to," etc. 
 
 2 The claim that the Yih contains all science should be interpreted in the same 
 sense as we might declare that logic contains all possible rules of thought, and the 
 multiplication-table is the essence of all possible numerical relations. 
 
6o 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Whatever may be the solution of the mystery of the Yih King, it 
 is almost certain that the Chinese themselves do not understand it. 
 Thus in spite of the simplicity of their philosophy of permutations, as 
 we may briefly call the theory of constructing a world-conception 
 from Yang and Yin elements, all their thinking, planning, and yearn- 
 ing is dimmed by mysticism ; and the vain hope of divination fills 
 their minds with superstitious beliefs which makes them, on the one 
 hand, slavishly submissive to the various evils of life, and, on the 
 other hand, self-satisfied in the belief that their sages alone are in 
 possession of the philosophers’ stone. All this renders the Chinese 
 unfit to grasp the significance of reality, and abandons them almost 
 hopelessly to the mercy of their own barbarous institutions, such as 
 their antiquated penal laws and prison practices, extortionate taxa- 
 tion, and the arbitrary government system, to which they patiently 
 submit. 
 
 Patience is a virtue which is much admired in China and highly 
 praised in prose and verse, as the basis of self-control, domestic 
 peace, and good government. We read in the famous Pih Jin Ko, 
 the “Ode on Universal Patience”: 1 
 
 “ This song of patience universal, 
 
 Of universal patience sings. 
 
 Can one be patient, summer is not hot ; 
 
 Can one be patient, winter is not cold. 
 
 Can one be patient, poverty is yet happy; 
 
 Can one be patient, long life may yet be protracted. 
 
 With impatience, little evils change to great ; 
 
 With impatience, a good nature at length becomes wolfish. 
 
 Kow Tseen tasted gall, and patiently waited for revenge ; 
 
 Tan of Yen, from want of moderation, in the end was lost and perished. 
 
 Sze Tih, when spit upon in the face, patiently let it dry; 
 
 Tih Chaou, for want of patience, was a very dunce. 
 
 1 See Chinese Repository , Vol. IX., p. 48, where the original Chinese is published 
 together with an English translation. 
 
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 6l 
 
 The benevolent endure what other men can hardly bear ; 
 
 The wise submit to what others never would endure. 
 
 To repress anger and restrain the passions is the square of patience ; 
 
 To wear the petticoat , 1 and be humble, is the rule of patience. 
 
 Patience is the watchword for laying the foundation of perfection ; 
 
 Patience is the watchword for forming the root of virtue. 
 
 Patience is the watchword to succeed among barbarians and savages ; 
 
 Patience is the watchword to rule the violent and obstinate. 
 
 Can one bear toil and labor, one will have a superabundance : 
 
 Can one refrain from wild excess, one will be free from violent disease. 
 
 Can one forbear tattle, one will avoid slander ; 
 
 Can one forbear strife and contention, one dissipates hatred and resentment 
 
 Can one submit to abuse and raillery, one shows his caliber ; 
 
 Can one bend to thorough study, one accumulates learning. 
 
 Once patient, all blessings come in company; 
 
 Once patient, every woe is burnt to ashes.” 
 
 The Chinese government, and with it the Chinese nation, seem 
 to be at present in a pitiable plight ; and, indeed, their empire is 
 like a Colossus of brass on clay feet. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is at the foundation of the Chinese civili- 
 sation and of the Chinese national character a nucleus of moral 
 worth and intellectual capabilities which may come to the front 
 again. To conquer China in war may be easy enough, but to com- 
 pete with her children in the industrial persuits of peace may prove 
 impossible. The conqueror often succumbs to the less noisy but 
 more powerful virtues of the conquered. Thus Greece overcame 
 Rome and the Saxons Anglicised the Normans. When the walls 
 break down which separate China from the rest of the world so as 
 to give the Chinese a chance of learning from us all they can, it is 
 very doubtful what the result of a free competition with the Chinese 
 will be. Their imperturbable patience, their endurance, their stead- 
 fast character, their pious reverence, their respect for learning, 
 
 1 This phrase means "to be submissive to authority, as a wife ought to be to 
 her husband,” being the reverse of a well-known expression in English slang. 
 
62 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 should not be underrated. If these virtues are but turned in the 
 right direction and tempered by that breadth of mind which is in- 
 dispensable for progress, the Chinese will soon recover; and nothing 
 is more apt to produce a national rebirth than hard times, trials, 
 and humiliations. 
 
 China is offered in her recent misfortunes the chance of a spir- 
 itual rebirth. Should she avail herself of this opportunity, she 
 would, with her four hundred millions of inhabitants and her untold 
 virgin resources, at once take a prominent rank among the nations 
 of the earth ; and her civilisation might become strong enough to 
 influence and modify our own. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Altar of heaven, 50. 
 
 Binary system of Leibnitz and the Kwa 
 in diagrams compared, 41. 
 
 Calendar (t'ung shu), the yih supposed 
 to be a, 45. (Cf. “t'ung shu.”) 
 
 Cantor, Prof. Moritz, 42. 
 
 Cheu Dynasty, 7, 49. 
 
 Cheu Sin, the dissolute tyrant, 8. 
 
 Cheu Tsz’s philosophy, 27, 28, 29, 30; 
 his diagram of the great extreme, 28. 
 
 Chih, gross matter, 31. 
 
 Ch'ing, truthfulness, 30. 
 
 Christian missionaries on the term 
 Shang-Ti, 52-54. 
 
 Christianity, the Chinese not opposed 
 to, 54. 
 
 Chu-Hi, 6 ; his philosophy, 30-35. 
 
 Confucius, 37, 56-58. 
 
 Conservative, the Chinese, on account 
 of their script, 1. 
 
 Corea, the flag of, 36. 
 
 Divination, 7; by stalks, 13 ; by the 
 spirit tortoise, 13-16. 
 
 Douglas, Prof, R. K., 36, 56. 
 
 Elements, the five, 20, 21, 22 ; appear 
 in Cheu Tsz’s diagram, 28. 
 
 Extreme, Kwa, evolution from great, 
 26 : the great, 35. 
 
 Filial piety, 36, 37. 
 
 Filials, twenty-four, 38. 
 
 Fuh-Hi, 4, 26. 
 
 Goethe, on rest, 27. 
 
 Great plan (Hung-fan), 16, 21, 22, 24. 
 
 Harlez, Ch. de, 44. 
 
 Hexagrams, arranged in square and cir- 
 cle, 10; according to Wen-Wang, 11 ; 
 significance of, 12. 
 
 Hiao, filial piety, 36. 
 
 Ho, Map of, 3, 5, 17; original table re- 
 produced, 19 ; dragon-horse carrying 
 the, 20. 
 
 Hung-Sew-Tseuen, the originator of the 
 Tai-Ping rebellion, 55. 
 
 Ideal, of royal perfection, according to 
 the great plan, 23 ; of Chinese moral- 
 ity, submission to traditions, 2. 
 
 K’i, vitality and primary substance, 
 30 - 33 - 
 
 Kih, the extreme, 31; t'ai kih (the great 
 extreme), 24-26, 29, 34, 41, 51. 
 
 Kwa, 4, 6 ; evolution from great ex- 
 treme, 26, 39-42. 
 
 Lacouperie, A. Terrien de, 43. 
 
 Lao-Tze, 56-57. 
 
 Legge, Prof. James, 26, 42, 46, 54. 
 
 Leibnitz, 39-42. 
 
 Li, the immaterial principle, 30-34. 
 
 Map of Ho, 3, 5, 17; original table re- 
 produced, 19 ; dragon-horse carrying 
 the, 20. 
 
 McClatchie, Canon, 43. 
 
 Meadows, Thomas Taylor, on the Tai- 
 Ping Revolution, 55-56. 
 
6 + 
 
 CHINESE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Milfoil, 13. 
 
 Moral worth of the Chinese, 61. 
 
 Morrison, Dr., on the beauty of Chinese 
 script, 2. 
 
 Nirvdna, 27. 
 
 Patience, a Chinese ode on, 60. 
 
 Philastre, P. L F. , 43. 
 
 Regis, P., the Jesuit, 42. 
 
 Reverence of the Chinese for the great 
 sages, 59. 
 
 Riedel, Dr. Heinrich, 44-47. 
 
 Riickert, 35. 
 
 Shan kwei, the spirit-tortoise, 13, 15 ; 
 illustration, 20. 
 
 Shang-Ti, the Lord on High, 8, 49-55 ; 
 Christian missionaries on, 52-54. 
 
 Shi, milfoil, 13. 
 
 Shi tsao, divining stalks, 13. 
 
 Shu-King, quotation from, 50. 
 
 Siang, the four, 3-4. 
 
 Symbol, of the source of existence, dia- 
 gram, 34 ; of the T’ai Kih, 51. 
 
 Sz’-Ma-Ts’ien, 57-58. 
 
 Tao, Lao-Tze’s, 34 ; the, 56-57. 
 
 Teh, 57. 
 
 Tortoise, 13, 15 ; illustration of, 20. 
 
 T'ung shu (general treatise) Cheu-tsz’s 
 book, 29-30 ; the yih as a t'ung shu, 
 45. (Cf. ‘'Calendar.") 
 
 Trigrams, tables of Fuh-Hi and Wen- 
 Wang, 9. 
 
 Tseu-Yen, on the five elements, 21. 
 
 Ultimate ground of existence (T’ai Kih, 
 great extreme), 24, 25, 26, 28, 29. 
 
 Wen-Wang, 7. 
 
 Williams, 39. 
 
 Writing of the river Loh, 3, 17; original 
 table reproduced, 19. 
 
 Yang and Yin, 3 ; on Cheu-Tsz’s dia- 
 gram, 28, 36. 
 
 Yih, 6, 39, 42, 43, 44. 
 
 Yih-King, 7, 17. 
 
 Yu, 4-5. 
 
 Zero, 27 
 
 Zottoli, P. Angelo, 43. 
 
 Since the first publication of this article, which appeared in The Monist, Vol. 
 VI., No. 2, in January 1896, the author has in many instances adopted other tran- 
 scriptions of Chinese words which remain unaltered in this new edition. For the 
 assistance of the uninitiated reader we mention especially that the words here 
 spelled Cheu (viz., the dynasty and Cheu Tsze), K'i (vitality or breath of life), Ki 
 (the extreme, or ultimate ground of existence), and Sze-Ma Ts'ien have been tran- 
 scribed Cho, Ch'i, Chi, and Sze-Ma-Ch'ien in the author's forthcoming translation 
 of Lao-Tze’s Tao-Teh-King. Further, the author would now prefer the spelling 
 Cho-Tze to Cheu- Tsze. The words Fuh-Hi and Yih are transcribed by Samuel 
 Wells Williams Fu-I and /, by Sir Thomas Wade Fu-I and Yi. 
 
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