Chapter 13 chapter 13

Again, as the absolute Divine duty of loyalty taught by Confucius secures the immortality of the race in the nation, so the cult of ancestor-worship taught in Confucianism secures the immortality of the race in the family. Indeed, the cult of ancestorworship in China is not founded much on the belief in a future life as in the belief of the immortality of the race. A Chinese, when he dies, is not consoled by the belief that he will live a life hereafter, but by the belief that his children , grandchildren, great-grand-children, all those dearest to him, will remember him, think of him, love him, to the end of time, and in that way, in his imagination, dying, to a Chinese, is like going on a long, long journey, if not with the hope, at least with a great "perhaps" of meeting again. Thus this cult of ancestor-worship, together with the Divine duty of loyalty, in Confucianism gives to the Chinese people the same sense of permanence in their existence while they live and the same consolatio n when they die which the belief in a future life in religion gives to the mass of mankind in other countries. It is for his reason that the Chinese people attach the same importance to this cult of ancestor-worship as they do to the principle of the Divine duty of loyalty to the Emperor. Mencius said: "Of the three great sins against filial piety the greatest is to have no posterity." Thus the whole system of teaching of Confucius which I have called the State religion in China consists really only of two things, loyalty to the Emperor and filial piety to parents_in Chinese, Chung Hsiao. Intact, the three Articles of Faith, called in Chinese the san kang, three cardinal duties in Con-fucianism or the State religion of China, are, in their order of importance_first, absolute duty of loyalty to the Emperor; second, filial piety and ancestor-worship; third, inviolability of marriage and absolute submission of the wife to the husband. The last two of the three Articles were already in wha t I have called the Family religion, or religion of the old dispensation in China before Confucius time; but the first Article_absolute duty of loyalty to the Emperoi_was first taught by Confucius and laid down by him in the State religion or religion of the new dispensation which he gave to the Chinese nation. This first Article of Faith_absolute duty of loyalty to the Emperoi_ in Confucianism takes the place and is the equivalent of the First Article of Faith in all religions_the belief in God. It is because Confucianism has this equivalent for the belief In God of religion that Confucianism, as I have shown you, can take the place of religion, and the Chinese people, even the mass of the population in China, do not feel the need of religion.

But now you will ask me how without a belief in God which religion teaches, how can one make men, make the mass of humanity, follow and obey the moral rule which Confucius teaches, the absolute duty of loyalty to the Emperor, as you can by the authority of God which the belief in God gives, make men follow and obey moral rules given by religion? Before I answer your question, will you allow me first to point out to you a great mistake which people make in believing that it is the sanction given by the authority of God which makes men obey the rules of moral conduct. I told you that the sanction for the sacrament and inviolability of marriage in Europe is given by the

Church, and the authority for the sanction, the Church says, is from God. But I said that was only an outward formal sanction. The real true inner sanction for the inviolability of marriage as we see it in all countries where there is no Church religion, is the sense of honor, the law of the gentleman in the man and woman. Thus the real authority for the obligation to obey rules of moral conduct is the moral sense, the law of the gentleman, in man. The belief in God is, therefore, not necessary to make men obey the rules of moral conduct. It is this fact which has made sceptics like Voltaire and Tom Paine in the last century, and rationalists like Sir Hiram Maxim today, say, that the belief in God is a fraud or impression invented by the founders of religion and kept up by priests. But that is a gross and preposterous libel. All great men, all men with great intellect, have all always believed in God. Confucius also believed in God, although he seldom spoke of it. Even Napoleon with his great, practical intellect believed in God .As the Psalmist says: "Only the fool_the man with a vulgar and shallow intellect_has said in his heart, There is no God." But the belief in God of man of great intellect is different from the belief in God of the mass of mankind . The belief in God of men of great intellect is that of Spinoza: a belief in the Divine Order of the Universe. Confucius said: "At fifty I knew the Ordinance of God" * _i.e., the Divine Order of the Universe . Men of great intellect have given different names to this Div. ine Order of the Universe. The German Fichte calls it the Divine idea of ​​the Universe. In philosophical language in China it is called Tao_the Way. But whatever name men of great intellect may give to this Divine Order of the Universe, it is the knowledge of this Divine Order of the Universe which makes men of great intellect see the absolute necessity of obeying rules of moral conduct or moral laws which form part of that Divine Order of the Universe.

Thus, although the belief in God is not necessary to make men obey the rules of moral conduct, yet the belief in God is necessary to make men see the absolute necessity of obeying these rules. rules of moral conduct which enables and makes all men of great intellect follow and obey those rules. Confucius says: "A man without a knowledge of the Ordinance of God, ie, the Divine Order of the Universe, will not be able to be a gentleman or moral man."* But then, the mass of humanity, who have not great intellect, cannot follow the reasoning which leads men of great intellect to the knowledge of the Divine Order of the Universe and cannot therefore understand the absolute necessity of obeying moral laws. Indeed, as Matthew Arnold says:

"Moral rules, appreciated as ideas first, and then rigorously followed as laws are and must be for the sage only. The mass of humanity have neither force of intellect enough to apprehend them as ideas nor force of character enough to follow them strictly as laws "It is for this reason that the philosophy and morality taught by Plato, Aristotle and Herbert Spencer have a value only for scholars.