But we have no certain information of the population of China. At an
interview with the former Chinese ambassador, Kwo Sung-tao, in Paris, in
1878, I begged him to write out for me the amount, with the authority
for it, and he assured me that it could not be done. I have read
probably almost everything that has been published on the subject, and
endeavored by methods of my own to arrive at a satisfactory
conclusion;--without reaching a result which I can venture to lay before
the public. My impression has been that four hundred millions is hardly
an exaggeration.
But supposing that we had reliable returns of the whole population, how
shall we proceed to apportion that among Confucianists, Taoists, and
Buddhists? Confucianism is the orthodoxy of China. The common name for
it is Ju Chiao, "the Doctrines held by the Learned Class," entrance into
the circle of which is, with a few insignificant exceptions, open to all
the people. The mass of them and the masses under their influence are
preponderatingly Confucian; and in the observance of ancestral worship,
the most remarkable feature of the religion proper of China from the
earliest times, of which Confucius was not the author but the prophet,
an overwhelming majority are regular and assiduous.
Among "the strange principles" which the emperor of the K'ang-hsi
period, in one of his famous Sixteen Precepts, exhorted his people to
"discountenance and put away, in order to exalt the correct doctrine,"
Buddhism and Taoism were both included.
Pages:
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229