Across the eastern roster Adams keeps insisting on a patriarchal origin: the religion of China, she says, was certainly patriarchal before it degenerated to paganism, which is the reservoir’s own claim in her mouth.
In Hannah Adams
In Adams’s own words, from the 1817 Dictionary. Each passage is quoted verbatim under its own entry.
CHINESE. The religion of this great and ancient nation was certainly patriarchal, and supposed to be derived from Joktan, the brother of Peleg. (Gen. x. 29, 30.) This has degenerated to Paganism, which among their literati may be refined to a sort of philosophical atheism; but among the vulgar is as gross idolatry as that of other heathen nations. The grand Lama, or Pope of the Chinese and Tartars, who resides at Thibet in Tartary, is their visible deity, and treated with more distinction than the Pope himself, in the zenith of his power and glory, and attended by 20,000 priests or lamas. In addition to this general system of religion, which is founded on their sacred books, said to have descended from the skies, there are three grand sects, of which we shall give a * Mosheim, vol.i.p. 117,118. f brief account; and those three are again subdivided into as many as the Christian world itself, 1. The sect of Tuo-se, or the followers of Laokium, who lived, as they pretend, 500 years before Christ, and taught that God was corporeal. They pay divine honours to this philosopher, and give the same worship, not only to many emperours who have been ranked with the gods, but also to certain spirits, under the name of zamte, who preside over all the elements. Their morality consists in calming the passions, and disengaging themselves from every thing which tends to disquiet the soul, to live free from care, to forget the past, and not be apprehensive for the future. There are also magicians,— some of whom pretend that they derive from their founder the secret of making an elixir, which confers immortality.
2. The most predominant sect is that of Foe, who (according to their chronology) flourished 1000 years before our Saviour, and who became a god at the age of 30 years. This religion was transmitted from India to China 65 years after the birth of Christ. A large number of temples, or pagodas, are reared to this deity, some of which are highly magnificent, and a number of bonzes, or priests, consecrated to his service. He is represented shining in light, with his hands hid under his robes, to History of Religion, vol. ive show that he does all things invisibly. The doctors of this sect teach a double doctrine, the one external, the other internal. According to the former they say, all the good are recompensed, and the wicked punished, in places destined for each. They enjoin all works of mercy and charity; and forbid cheating, impurity, wine, lying, arid murder; and even the taking of life from any creature whatever. For they believe that the souls of their ancestors transmigrate into irrational creatures; either into such as they liked best, or resembled most, in their behaviour; for which reason they never kill any such animals.
They build temples for Foe, and monasteries for his priests, providing for their maintenance, as the most effectual means to partake of their prayers. These priests pretend to know into what bodies the dead are transmigrated; and seldom fail of representing their case to the surviving friends as miserable or uncomfortable, that they may extort money from them to procure the deceased a passage into a better state, or pray them out of purgatory, which forms a part of their system.! The internal doctrine of this sect, which is kept secret from the common people, teaches a philosophical atheism, which admits neither rewards nor punishments after death; and believes not in a providence, or the immortality of the soul; acknowledges no other god than the void, or nothing; and makes the supreme happiness of mankind to consist in a total inaction, an entire.insensibility, and a perfect quietude, j- 3. A sect which acknowledges for its master the philosopher Confucius, (or Kung-fut-si,) who lived about 500 years before our Saviour. This religion, which is professed by the literati, and persons of rank in China and Tonquin, consists in a deep inward veneration for the God, or King of Heaven, and in the practice of every moral virtue. They have neither temples nor priests, nor any settled form of external worship: every one adores the Supreme Being in the way he likes best.§ Confucius, like Socrates, did not dive into abstruse notions, but confined himself to speak with the deepest l’egard of the great Author of all beings, whom he represents as the most pure and perfect essence and fountain of all things; to inspire men with greater fear, veneration, gratitude, and love of him; to assert his divine providence over all his creatures; and to represent him as a being of such infinite knowledge, that even our most secret thoughts are not hidden from him; and of such CHI 5; boundless goodness and justice, that he can let no virtue go unrewarded, or vice unpunished. Mr. Maurice, the author of Indian Antiquities, asserts, that Confucius strictly forbade all images of the Deity, and the deification of dead men; and that in his dying moments he encouraged his disciples, by predicting that in the west the Holy One would appear ! The Chinese hononr their dead ancestors, burn perfumes before their images, bow before their pictures, and invoke them as capable of bestowing all temporal blessings.
Itis remarked, that «« None of the different systems of reli gion,” above mentioned, * can be said to be the prevailing creed in China; or what is more remarkable, can be found existing pure and distinct from the rest. The greater part of the Chinese have no decided opinion whatever on the subject, and are either complete atheists, or, if they acknowledge a Supreme Being, utterly ignorant in what view he ought to be regarded; while they all * { American edition of the Edinburg’ + Acts xi. 26. Antioch seems to h: Christians, and from hence they sent r Calmet’s Dictionary, vol v. § See an excellent defence of the tn ticle Christianity, in the Edinburgh Enc exposition of the historical argument fo of the author is to prove the external t infidelity withont excuse, even thougl the Christian defence had been less strc able workwas written by the Rev. Th land. It has been published ina duod Mlartford. The compiler of this work i has been proportionate to its merits. y CHR combine with their peculiar sentiments the multifarious superstitions of the more popular sects. Of all these tolerated and established religious persuasions the emperour is the supreme head; without whose permission not one of them can enjoy asingle privilege or point of pre-eminence; and who can diminish or increase, at his pleasure, the number of their respective temples ox priests.”’+
JAPANESE. The religion of these islanders is paganism, but under some peculiar forms which deserve attention—particularly, the Sinto, the ancient idol worship of the Japanese: the Budso, or foreign idol worship, introduced from China: and the religion of their philosophers and moralists.
I. The Sintos have some obscure and imperfect notions of the immortality of the soul, and a future state of bliss and misery; they acknowledge a supreme Being, who, they believe, dwells in the highest heaven: and admit of some inferiour gods, whom they place among the stars; but they worship and invoke those gods alone whom they believe to have the sovereign control over this world, its elements, productions, and animals: these, they suppose, will not only render them happy here, but, by interceding for them at the hour of death, may procure them.a happy condition hereafter. Hence their dairis, or ecclesiastical chiefs, being thought lineally descended from the eldest and most favoured sons of these deities, are supposed to be the true and living images of their gods. y, Hist. vol. is p. 92.
The Sintos believe that the soul, after quitting the body, is removed to the high sub-celestial fields, seated just beneath the dwelling places of their gods; that those, who have led a good life, find immediate admission, while the souls of the wicked are denied entrance, and condemned to wander till they have expiated their crimes. Their religion enjoins abstaining from blood, from eating flesh, or being near a dead body; by which a person is for a time rendered unfit to visit their temples, or to appear in the presence of their gods. It also commands a diligent observance of the solemn festivals, in honour of their gods; pilgrimages to the holy places at Isje; that is, to the temple of Tensio- Dai-Sin, the greatest of all the gods of the Japanese; and the chastisement and mortification of their bodies. But few of them pay much regard to this precept. II. The most essential points of the Budso religion are: That the souls of men and animals are immortal, and both of the same substance, differing only according to the bodies in which they are placed: and that after the souls of mankind have left their bodies, they shall be rewarded or punished according to their behaviour in this life. Their god Armida is the sovereign commander of heaven; and is considered as the patron and protector of human souls; and to obtain his approbation it is requisite to lead a virtuous life, and do nothing contrary to the five commandments, viz. not to kill any thing that has life; not to steal; not to commit fornication; to avoid lies, and all falsehood; not to drink strong liquors. On the other hand, all the vicious, priests or laymen, are, after death, sent to a place of misery, to be tormented for a certain time, according to the nature and number of their crimes, the number of years they lived upon earth, and their opportunities for becoming good and virtuous. Yet they suppose the miseries of these unhappy souls may be greatly alleviated by the virtuous lives of their relations and friends, and still more by the prayers and offerings of the priests to their great god, Armida. When vicious souls have expiated their crimes, they are sent back to animate such vile animals as resembled them in their former state of existence. From the vilest of these transmigrating into other and nobler, they, at last, are suffered again to enter human bodies; and thus have it in their power, by their virtue and piety, to obtain an uninterrupted state of felicity.
III. The philosophers and moralists pay no regard to any of the forms of worship practised in the country. Their supreme good consists in the pleasure and delight which arise from the steady practice of virtue. They do not admit of the transmigration of souls; but believe that there is an universal soul diffused throughout nature, animating all things, and reassuming departed souls as the sea docs the rivers. This universal spirit they confound with the supreme Being.
These philosophers consider self-murder as an heroic and commendable action, when it is the only means of avoiding a shameful death, or of escaping from the hands of a victorious enemy. They conform to the general custom of their country, in commemorating their deceased parents and relations, by placing all sorts of provisions on a table provided for the purpose; hut they celebrate no other festivals, nor pay any respect to the gods of the country.* *JASIDEANS,or Jesd^ans, a wandering, ferocious tribe, who frequent the Gordian mountains and the deserts of Curdistan, in Persia. Their priests and rulers arc clothed in black, and the rest in white garments. Their religion seems composed of some fragments of Christianity, mingled with their ancient pagan superstitions. They pay especial marks of respect, if not worship, to the evil genius, whom they call Carubin or Cherubin, and consider him as one of the chief ministers of the great and good supreme Being, the chief object of their worship, and whose name in the Persian language is Jazid or Jesdan, from which their denomination is probably derived.
SINTOOS, the ancient idolaters of Japan. See Japanese.
Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations, 4th ed. (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817), entries “Chinese” (pp. 55–57), “Japanese” (pp. 122–124), “Sintoos” (p. 270).