CONFUCItJS
471
coNFUcaxrs
he died, leaTing a single descendant, his grandson, Tse-Tse, whose offspring, nombering A.D. 1671 about 11,000 TTiftlea, mostly of the seyenty-fionrth generation, form ^ distinct caste in Ohinese society, the only in- stance of a hereditary nobility among them. The veneratioii of the Chinese for Confticius amonnts to worship, to -vhich the second and third months are de- voted. In every district and every department there is a temple erected in his honor (Culbertson, p. 41).
The Rev. Dr. Wentworth, Methodist Episcopal mis- sionary- at Fnh-Ghan, gives an account of t|ie worship as witoessed by himself in a temple in that city, fhnn which we make the following extracts: **The tem- ple is one of the finest buildings in the city. It is one storied, in the form of a hollow square, with a spadous court in the centre, apartmento on each side, and the main temple at the end. It has a fine por- tico, and the roof within is sustained by columns of solid granite of enormous size. There are no idols, but ancestral tablets supply thehr places in the gild- ed shrines. In the centre is that of Conihcius, on the sides are those of twelve of his most celebrated dis- ciples, six on each side. The worship of the philoso- pher is monopolized by the literati ; and the manda- rins, who are literary graduates of the highest distinc- tion, are the only prieste who officiate upon the occa- sion. The sacrifice takes place twice a year, in the second and eighth months. It is performed before daylight in the morning, and the common people are rigidly excluded. We were an hour too early, but better that than five minutes too late. The manda- rins had not yet made their appearance. A burst of music indicated the coming of the magnates. Their first business was to get^e * whang-kee-angs,* 'for- eign babies,' out of the sacred precincts, and a manda- rin of high rank came to request us to go outside. We asked him to let us stand next one of the great doors on the portico outside. To this he consented. The platform was cleared and the ceremonies began. The darkness was dispelled by rows of gaudy lanterns and a forest of blazing torches. The court was filled with mandarms and their servants. Privileged spec- tators f^om the literary classes, with their attendants, crowded all the available space below. In front of the great central door of the temple, on the portico, was a band of musicians, with fiutes and * soft record- ers, ' and another of boys fontastically dressed. With- in were musicians chanting vocaUy, accompanied by the instrumente without, the praises of the sage. The loud voice of a crier within the temple, and the loud response of a herald below, indicated that all was ready. Clouds of incense filled the temple, while two or three mandarins, in foil official dress and caps, pre- ceded by attendants, ascended the steps and entered the lofty doors on either side, prostrating themselves with the head to the pavement before the shrines suc- cessively, and offering the various articles placed in their hands by the attendants for that purpose to Con- fucius and his favorite followers. This was repeated three times in succession, the officers retiring and re^ entering with the same stetely ceremony on each oc- casion. The offerings were animal and vegetable. On a broad table in front of the shrine and altar of Confucius lay shrouded the carcase of a whole ox, de- nuded of his skin, and on either side of hun a pig and a goat. On the altar were vases of flowers and plates of cooked provisions. At one point in the cer- emony an official kneeled before the shrine of Con- fucius at a respectful distance, and in a loud voice chanted a prayer or a hymn of praise. The ordinary chants were very simple, consisting of four notes per- petually repeated, thus :
g P (9 ^ "
The last offering was material for clothing; a sort of
coarse sUk, in large patdies, first offered bodily in the temple, and then taken down into the court and burn- ed, that it might become spirit-silk in the other world. The Buddhisto usually offer ready-made clothing, stamped on paper. The mandarins send Confocius the raw materiaL About the first gray streakings of the dawn of a cloudy morning the ceremonies ended, the torches were suddenly extinguished, and the offi- cers and their retinues slowly retired" (ChrisiUm Ad- ffoeaU and Journal^ 1859).
" It was the great object of Conftadus to regulate the manners of the people. He thought outward de- corum the true emblem of excellence of heart; he therefore digested all the various ceremonies into one general code of rites, which was called Le-ke, or Ly- ^g, ete. In this work every ritual in all the rela- tions of human life is strictly regulated, so that a true Chinese is a perfect automaton, put in motion by the regulations of the Ly-king. Some of the rites are most excellrat: the duties towards parents, the re- spect due to superiors, the decorum in the behavior of common lifo, etc, speak highly in fiivor of Confhcius ; but his substituting ceremony for simplicity and true politeness is unpardonable. The Ly-king contains many excellent maxims and inculcates morality, but it has come to us in a mutilated stete, with many in- terpolations** (Gutzlaff, Sketch of Chinese HUtory).