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OPEN  COURT 

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frontispiece.     .MAcmrrii  C()xsfL'riN(;  Tin-:  witches. 


PAGE 


y  The  Form  of  the  fiend.     MAxi.MtLiAx  rldwix. '. ...-..._...  ^,.  .  .321 

x^^Su<j<jestions  of  Occidental  Thought  in  Ancient^Chinese  ^j__ 

Philosophy.    J.  K.  siiRYocK.  t(r^^.f|..r^-^..^\-i:^-'.  .S7^.'341 

^.In  Inquiry  into  the  Fre-History  of  Chinese  Thouyht.      r  i    o         \       /■ 

H.  (;.  CREEL.  ^  .rrU^7'^kJ:vry. .  J4wXl ,  .v-O  :  >:  .V.y:V-.';360'  ^'-  --  -^ 

\y,\'al.iirc  and  Flpistenioloi/y.     m.  \\inTC().MB  jiess }i77  ^' 

-"        '  •■--■A 

y  Inielleetual  Integrity  and  the  Art  of  Thinking, 

VICTOR   s/vARROS.  J.  ^ .0  A  .  ^'}-,  .V^^rX' : V.^.  "h'^^  .  .  f^.' .ISSI 

'^Frote-vangelion.    (  I'ocm  )     charles  sloan  reid 384 


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MACllETll  CUXSULTrXd  THI-:  WITCHES 


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Copyright  by  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company,  1929 
\'olume  XLIII  (Xo.  6)        JUNE,  1929  Xumber  877 


THE  for:m  of  the  FIEXD 

BY  MAXIMILIAN  RUDWIN 

THE  Devil  has  assumed  many  forms  and  worn  many  costumes. 
Hundreds  of  books,  pictures  and  prints  depict  his  Infernal 
3klajesty  in  almost  as  many  different  disguises  as  there  are  stars  in 
the  sky.  Satan  is  a  polymorphous  individual.  He  is  the  equal  of 
Jupiter  in  the  art  of  physical  tergiversation,  having  a  capacity  for 
almost  endless  variations  and  transmutations,  which  he  uses  to  the 
great  perplexity  of  mortals.  As  successor  to  Hermes,  he  has  also 
inherited  the  Greek  god's  ability  to  contract  and  expand  at  pleasure. 
Indeed,  if  we  credit  all  the  accounts  of  the  forms  in  which  the  l^'iend 
has  shown  himself  on  earth,  he  is  a  quick-change  artist  of  first-rate 
ability. 

The  Devil  as  a  fallen  angel  is,  naturally  enough,  "a  spirit  in  form 
and  substance," — but  he  has  been  granted  the  power  of  manifesting 
himself  to  the  eyes  of  man  in  a  material  form  as  far  back  as  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era.  As  the  adversary  of  corporeal  saints, 
he  necessarily  and  unmistakably  became  more  material  than  he  had 
been  as  the  shadowy  opponent  of  the  spiritual  angels.  Although  in 
reality  incorporeal,  he  can,  of  his  own  inherent  power,  call  into  ex- 
istence any  manner  of  body  that  it  pleases  his  fancy  to  inhabit,  or 
that  will  be  most  conducive  to  the  success  of  any  contemplated  evil. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  Devil  can  manifest  himself  to  the  eyes 
of  man  in  any  form  which  exists  "in  the  heavens  above,  in  the  earth 
beneath,  and  in  the  waters  under  the  earth."  He  can,  first  of  all. 
still  manifest  himself  in  his  former  role  as  an  angel.  St.  Paul  warns 
us  that  Satan  can  transform  himself  into  an  angel  of  light  (2  Cor. 
xi.   14),  and  St.  Thomas,  commenting  on  the  words  of  the  great 


322  Till-:  ()PK\  COURT 

Apostle,  teaches  that  the  higher  natural  qualities  of  the  angels  have 
not  wholh'  been  withdrawn  from  the  fallen  spirits.^ 

But  this  is  not  all.  In  order  to  mislead  mankind,  the  Devil  can 
even  appear,  according  to  Thomas  Cranmer,  author  of  A  Confuta- 
tion of  Unzvriitcn  J' critics  (16th  cent.),  in  the  likeness  of  Christ. 
It  is  known  that  the  Devil  manifested  himself  to  the  Deacon  Secun- 
(lullus  first  as  an  angel  and  later  as  Christ  himself." 

As  a  general  thing,  however,  the  Devil  seeks  his  models  among 
men.  He  has  at  his  command,  as  Timon  of  Athens  has  said,  "all 
shapes  that  man  goes  up  and  down  in."  He  can  appear  in  the  form 
of  either  sex.  The  Fiend  figured  in  human  form  when  he  ap- 
proached the  hermits  of  the  Thebaid.  The  earliest  known  represen- 
tation of  the  Devil  in  human  form  is  found  on  an  ivory  dipt\  ch  of 
the  time  of  Charles  the  Raid  (9th  Cent.).  In  Thomas  Middleton's 
JJ'itch  (p.  1778),  Hecate  speaks  of  a  custom  that  witches  have  of 
causing  their  familiar  spirits  to  assume  the  shape  of  an}-  man  for 
whom  they  have  a  passion.^ 

But  incarnation  in  a  human  body  is  not  sufficient  for  Satan.  The 
forms  of  the  whole  of  the  animal  kingdom  seem  also  to  be  at  his 
disposal.  He  can  adopt,  in  fact,  the  form  of  any  animal  he  wishes — 
from  a  worm  to  an  eagle.  Indeed,  one  of  the  most  significant  ele- 
ments of  demonology  is  the  persistance  of  the  animal  character  in 
which  the  Devil  appears.  But  not  content  with  known  animal 
forms,  he  even  seeks  further  to  assume  incredible  and  impossible 
shapes.  Popular  fancy  assembled,  in  fact,  the  repugnant  parts  of  all 
known  living  beings  and  fashioned  the  Devil  out  of  them.  In  order 
to  frighten  the  good  Christians,  the  Fiend  had  to  possess  a  form 
which  was  particularly-  stuted  to  instil  terror  into  their  hearts. 

The  Devil,  whom  our  medieval  ancestors  detected  so  unerringly 
and  feared  so  mortally,  was  a  compound  of  all  the  contortions  and 
distortions  known  to  exist  among  living  things  on  this  earth.  Our 
pious  forefathers  imagined  him  who  "one  day  wore  a  crown  under 
the  eyes  of  God"  in  as  horrid  and  hideous  a  form  as  fancy  could 

1  Consult  the  authorities  quoted  on  this  matter  by  Anatole  France  in  his 
novel  la  Revoltc  dcs  angcs  (1914).  A  contemporary  Polish  novelist,  Kernel 
Makuszynski,  says  in  his  recent  story  "Another  Paradise  Lost  and  Regained" 
( 1926)  :  "It  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  common  of  hellish  tricks  for  a 
devil  to  take  the  shape  of  an  angel." 

~Ci.  Wilhelm  Fischer:  Abcrglaubcn  alter  Zcitcii  (Stuttgart,  1906-7), 
I,  55. 

3  Norman  Douglas  in  his  novel  They  Went  (1921)  offers  an  interesting 
variant  in  the  person  of  Theophilus,  the  Greek  merchant. 


THE   FORM    OF   THE   FIEND 


523 


WITCHES  CELEBRATING  WALPURGIS  XIGHT 
(By  Franz  Simm) 


324  THE  opi:x  co^KT 

render  it.  Like  the  Greek  Ciorgon,  the  Christian  Satan  was  meant 
to  represent,  as  Anatole  France  has  said,  the  sympathetic  alhance 
between  phxsical  ughness  and  moral  evil.  The  grotesque  paintings 
of  the  Devil  in  the  medieval  cathedrals  were  enough  to  scare  even 
the  Devil  himself.'*  Daniel  Defoe  has  well  remarked  that  the  Devil 
does  not  think  that  the  ])eople  would  be  terrified  half  so  much  if  they 
were  to  converse  with  him  face  to  face.  "Really,"  this  biographer 
of  Satan  goes  on  to  say,  "it  were  enough  to  fright  the  Devil  himself 
to  meet  himself  in  the  dark,  dressed  up  in  the  several  figures  which 
imagination  has  formed  for  him  in  the  minds  of  men." 

If  you  wdsh  to  see  the  Devil  in  his  genuine  form,  we  are  told 
in  Gogol's  story  "St.  John's  Eve"  (1830),  stand  near  a  mustard 
seed  on  St.  John's  Eve  at  midnight,  the  only  evening  in  the  year 
when  Satan  reveals  himself  in  his  proper  form  to  the  eyes  of  man. 
Sir  John  Eraser  suggests,  in  his  Golden  Bough  (1911-1914),  that 
this  prince  from  a  warmer  climate  may  be  attracted  by  the  warmth 
of  the  mustard  in  the  chilly  air  of  the  upper  world. 

The  Devil,  in  fact,  is  very  sensitive  in  regard  to  the  unflattering 
portra}al  of  himself  by  the  good  Christians.  On  a  number  of  oc- 
casions, he  has  expressed  his  bitter  resentment  at  the  ugly  form 
given  him  in  Christian  iconography.  A  medieval  French  legend 
relates  the  discomfiture  of  a  monk,  who  was  forced  by  the  indignant 
Devil  to  paint  him  in  a  less  ugly  fashion.  Lucifer  also  appeared 
once  in  a  dream  to  the  Florentine  painter  Spinello  Spinelli  to  ask 
him  in  what  place  he  had  beheld  him  under  so  brutish  a  form  as 
he  had  painted  him.  This  story  is  told  in  Giorgio  Vasari's  Vite  de' 
pill  eccellenti  pittori,  scultori  et  architctti  (1550)  and  retold  by 
Anatole  France  in  his  story  "Lucifer"  (1895)." 

It  makes  us,  indeed,  wonder  why  the  Devil  was  always  repre- 
sented in  so  repugnant  a  form.  Rationally  conceived,  the  Devil 
should  be  by  right  the  most  fascinating  object  in  creation.  One  of 
his  essential  functions,  namely  temptation,  is  destroyed  by  his 
hideousness.     To  be  efifective  in  the  work  of  temptation,  a  demon 

■*  On  the  Devil  in  medieval  art,  consult  Emil  Male's  three  volumes :  I' Art 
rcligicux  du  Xlle  siccle  en  France;  I' Art  religicux  du  XIII c  Steele  en  France; 
I'Art  religienx  de  la  fin  du  moyen  age  en  France,  and  Maurice  Gossart :  la 
Peinture  des  diablcries  a  la  fin  du  moven-dge ;  Jerome  Bosch,  "Ic  faizenr  de 
dyables,"  de  Bois-le-Duc  (1907). 

•'  In  his  story  "les  Blattcs,"  Anatole  France  also  expresses  the  fear  of  an 
Italian  painter  that  he  may  have  incurred  the  Devil's  displeasure  by  the  manner 
in  which  he  presented  him  on  the  cathedral  doors  and  church  windows. 


TIIK   FORM    OF  TUF   FIFXD  OZD 

might  be  expected  to  a])i)roach  liis  intended  victim  in  tlie  most 
fascinating  form  he  could  command.'"' 

The  fact  is  that  the  form  given  the  Devil  in  Christian  incon- 
ographv  has  an  historical  foundation.  It  has  been  derived  from  the 
fabled  gods  of  antit|uit\-.  The  medieval  monster  is  an  amalgamation 
of  all  the  heathen  ilivinities.  from  whom  he  derived,  especiall}-  of 
those  gods  or  demons  which.  alread\-  in  pagan  da\s,  were  inimical 
to  the  benevolently  ruling  deities. 

Indeed,  a  great  number  of  sacred  animal  representations  will  be 
found  in  most  of  the  religions  of  antiquity.  The  gods  of  India, 
Egvpt,  Assvria,  UabNlonia,  Greece  and  Rome  were  worshi})ped 
under  the  form  of  the  animals  which  were  supposed  to  possess  the 
qualities  for  which  the\-  were  reverenced.  At  a  later  period  in  the 
historv  of  religion,  the  di\init\-  was  partl\-  humanized ;  and  a  human 
(leit\-  was  conceived  with  certain  animal  parts  to  represent  the  form 
under  which  he  had  originally  been  worshipped.  Later  on,  all 
vestiges  of  the  ancient  animal  forms  were  discarded,  and  the  deity 
emerged  in  full  human  form.  This  evolution  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  the  Devil  has  appeared  to  our  ancestors  in  full  animal  form,  in 
a  form  half  animal  and  half  human,  and  finally  wholly  human. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  e\er\-  animal  form  that  was  assumed  by  the 
gods  in  antiquity  has  had  its  body  occupied  by  the  Devil. ^  bTu'ther- 
more,  the  Devil's  representation  in  the  form  of  certain  animals  is 
the  result  of  a  literal  interpretation  of  a  figurative  scriptural  ex- 
pression. The  medieval  writers  had  a  tendency  to  convert  symbols 
and  metaphors  into  facts.  If  the  Devil  is  called  in  the  Xew  Testa- 
ment a  roaring  lion,  a  dragon,  a  serpent,  a  wolf,  a  dog,  it  was  in- 
stantly supposed  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  actually  assuming  the 
forms  of  these  animals. 

The  elephant,  which  was  sacred  to  the  eyes  of  the  Buddhist, 
had  its  bod_\-  inhabited  by  the  Devil.    The  bull  was  diabolized  for  the 

*J  The  Devil,  it  should  be  added  in  all  truthfulness,  appears  on  certain 
occasions  also  in  an  agreeabe  form.  Anatole  France  tells  us  that  "the  Devil.  .  . 
clothes  himself  in  divers  forms,  sometimes  pleasing",  when  he  succeeds  in  dis- 
guising his  natural  ugliness,  at  other  times,  hideous,  when  he  lets  his  true 
nature  be  seen"  (la  Rotisscrie  de  la  Reine  Pedauquc,  1893).  William  Shake- 
speare has  also  remarked  that  "the  Devil  hath  power  to  assume  a  pleasing 
shape"  {Hamlet,  II,  ii,  628-9). 

"^  The  animals  which  were  diabolized  by  the  early  Christians  on  account 
of  their  associations  with  mythological  personages  or  ideas  should  not  be  con- 
fused, however,  with  those  animals  which,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  possess 
qualities  inimical  to  man,  were  already  feared  as  demons  in  the  animistic  re- 
ligions. 


326  TIIK  OPKX   COURT 

reason  that  he  was  venerated  by  the  Egyptians.  As  successor  to  the 
Egxptian  Seth.  Satan  also  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  pig.  The  fox, 
whicli  was  sacred  to  certain  ancient  (hvinities,  was  hkewise  con- 
sidered as  the  Devil's  incarnation.  'Vhe  bear  was  for  similar  reasons 
one  of  the  Devil's  medieval  metamorphoses. 

The  re])resentation  of  the  Devil  in  the  shajjc  of  a  goat  goes  back 
to  far  anticiuitv.  Goat-formed  deities  and  spirits  of  the  woods  ex- 
isted in  the  religions  of  India.  Egypt.  Assyria,  and  Greece.''*  The 
Assvrian  god  was  often  associated  with  the  goat,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  possess  the  qualities  for  which  he  was  worshipped.  This 
animal  was  also  connected  with  the  worship  of  Priapus,  the  Greek 
god  of  vegetal  and  animal  fertility.  The  goat  was  similarly  sacred 
to  the  Northern  god  Donar  or  Thor,  whom,  as  Jacob  Grimm  sa\s, 
the  modern  notions  of  the  Dexil  often  ha\'e  in  the  background. 
Thor's  chariot  was  drawn  by  goats.  As  the  familiar  of  the  witch, 
the  Devil  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  goat  as  well  as  in  that  of  a  dog. 
Esmeralda's  goat,  in  A'ictor  Hugo's  novel  Xotrc-Danie  dc  Paris 
(1831).  was  believed  to  be  her  familiar  demon.  French  witches 
were  often  thought  to  slip  into  the  skin  of  a  goat  to  identify  them- 
selves with  their  goatish  god.  Satan  ])resided  at  the  Witches'  Sab- 
bath in  the  form  of  a  black  buck.  The  goat,  in  the  grand  scene  of 
the  Last  Judgment,  is  also  the  s\'mbol  of  the  slaves  of  sin.'' 

The  dog  has  always  been  one  of  the  Devil's  favorite  meta- 
morphoses, especially  as  the  familiar  of  the  witch  or  wizard.  The 
Devil  had  alread\-  been  represented  as  a  dog  in  the  lUble  (  I'hil.  iii. 
2;  Rev.  xxii.  15).  He  is,  therefore,  called  hell-hound  in  the 
medieval  m\steries.  Alephistopheles  appears  to  Faust  in  the  form 
of  an  ugi\-  dog,  "a  lit  emblem,"  as  Gonway  says,  "of  the  scholar's 
relapse  into  the  canine  temper  which  flies  at  the  world  as  at  a  bone 
he  means  to  gnaw."^"  Cornelius  Agrippa,  the  sceptic  philosopher, 
who  was  considered  a  magician  in  the  Middle  Ages,  was  also 
attended  by  a  devil  in  the  shape  of  a  black  dog. 

The  Devil  as  guardian  of  hell  was  also  equated  to  Gerberus  and 
inherited  the  hitter's  triple  head.     ]Many  mythologies,  in  fact,  show 

^  On  the  relation  of  satyrs  to  goats  see  Sir  John  Frazer's  Golden  BoikjIi, 
vol.  VIII,  pp.  Isqq. 

^  The  creation  of  the  goat  has  aso  been  ascribed  to  the  Devil.  Hans 
Sachs  has  written  a  farce  entitled  "The  Devil  Created  Goats"  (September  24, 
1556).  Engl.  Transl.  in  Wm.  Leighton's  Mcrrv  Talcs  of  Hans  Sachs  (London, 
1920),  pp.  129-131. 

10  Moncure  Daniel  Conway:  Dcmonohiq\  and  DcvU-Lorc.  2  vols.,  3rd 
ed.,  New  York,  1889. 


Tin-:    FORM    fiF   TIIF    FIEND 


327 


tricephalic  gods  of  the  undcfwoiid.  The  l)e\i]"s  trinitarian  head 
recalls  Typhon  of  the  l\ii"yptians.  Hecate  of  classical  ni\  tholog\-, 
Hrim-Grimmir  of  the  Kdda  and  Triglaf  of  the  Sla\>.'^  Idie 
Danteau  Dis  has  three  faces:  one  in  front,  and  one  on  each  side. 
The  middle  face  is  red.  that  on  the  right  side  \vhitish-_\ellow,  that 
on  the  left  side  black.'-     The   lrinit\-  idea  of  the   Devil   was   in- 


THE  TRINITY 
From  a  painted  window  of  the 
sixteenth  century  in  the  church 
of    Xotra    Dame    at    Chalons, 
France. 


THE  TRIXITY  OF  EML 
h'rom  a  h^rench  ]\IS.  of  the  fif- 
teenth century,  ])reserved  in  the 
r.ibliotheque  Ro_\ale  at  Paris. 


terpreted  by  the  Church  fathers  as  Satan's  parod\-  of  the  trinitarian 
God-head.  The  Devil  is  described  as  a  three  headed  monster  in  the 
Gospel  of  Xicodemus  (3rd  cent.)  and  in  the  Good  Friday  Sermon 
of  Eusebius  of  Alexandria,  who  addresses  him  as  the  "Three-headed 
Reelzebub." 

The  Devil  inherited  the  form  of  a  crow  or  black  raven  from 

11  Cf.  Paul  Carus  :    Hisforx  of  flic  Devil  and  the  Idea  of  Evil   (Chicago, 
1900).  p.  249. 

12  Ibid. 


328  THE  OPKM  COURT 

Odin,  who,  in  Scandinavian  m\thology,  had  two  ravens  ])erched  on 
his  shoulders.  Mephistopheles,  in  (ioethe's  Faiist,  is  accompanied  by 
two  crows   (i.  2491). 

The  dove,  which  was  a  sacred  animal  in  the  pagan  period,  was, 
in  Christian  days,  graduall}-  invested  with  something  of  the  evil 
character  of  the  Tempter  of  Job  and  came  very  nearly  to  represent 
the  old  fatal  serpent  power.  This  creature  w^as  sacred  to  all 
Semites,  who  revered  it  as  the  reincarnation  of  their  beloved  dead, 
and  who,  for  this  reason,  avoided  eating  or  even  touching  it.  The 
Romans  also  held  the  dove  in  veneration  and  offered  it  as  a  sacrifice 
to  \'enus. 

The  bat.  on  account  of  its  ugly  form,  was  especiallx'  tit  to  offer 
its  body  for  habitation  by  the  Devil.  In  Anatole  France's  story  "le 
Grand  .St.  Nicolas"   (1909),  six  devils  appear  in  the  form  of  bats. 

The  rat  or  mouse  was  also  among  the  Devil's  metamorphoses.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  ]\Iephistopheles  calls  himself  in  (kethe's 
Faust  "the  lord  of  rats  and  mice."  ( i.  1516).  An  imp  of  hell  jumps 
out  of  the  mouth  of  the  witch,  with  whom  Faust  dances  in  the 
\\  alpurgis-Xight.  in  the  form  of  a  little  red  mouse  (ibid.,  i.  2179). 
In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  soul  was  often  represented  as  leaving  the 
body  in  the  form  of  a  mouse.  The  soul  of  a  good  man  comes  out 
of  his  mouth  as  a  white  mouse,  while  at  the  death  of  a  sinner  the 
soul  escapes  as  a  black  mouse,  which  the  Devil  catches  and  carries  to 
hell.  The  Piper  of  Mamelin.  in  the  legend  well  known  to  the  English 
world  through  Robert  Browning's  poem  'T'ied  Piper  of  Hamelin" 
(1843)  and  Miss  Josephine  Peabody's  play  The  Piper  (1909),  who 
carried  off  one  hundred  and  fifty  children  when  the  inhabitants  of 
Hammel  in  Saxony  refused  to  pay  him  for  ridding  them  of  the  rats 
which  had  infected  their  town,  was,  according  to  Johannes  ^^'ierus 
and  Robert  r»urton.  none  other  than  the  Devil  in  person;  and  the 
rats  which  he  charmed  with  his  music  into  following  him  were  hu- 
man souls.  Death,  the  Devil's  first  cousin,  if  not  his  oltcr  ego, 
similarly  has  the  souls,  in  the  Dance  of  Death,  march  off  to  hell  to 
a  merry  tune  on  his  violin. ^'^ 

The  form  of  the  fiy  for  the  b^iend  was  suggested  by  Ahriman, 
the  Persian  evil  s])irit,  who  is  the  ancestor  of  our  Devil  and  who 
entered  the  world  as  a  fly.  The  word  heelzebuh  means  in  Hebrew 
"the  fly-god."  In  Spencer's  The  Fairie  Queen  (1590-96),  Archimago 
summons  s])irits  from  hell  in  the  shape  of  flies. 

'•■*  On  the  Devil  in  the  form  of  a  mouse,  see  M.  Earth's  article  "Damonen 
in  Miiusegestalt"  in  the  Kolnischc  Volkszciluiuj  of  February  7,  1917. 


TIIK   FOK>[    OF  THE  FTEXD  329 

The  cat.  which  was  considered  in  h'gypt  as  a  i^uardian  i^enius, 
a  friend  of  the  family,  and  a  slayer  of  evil  things,  has  been  a  rei)re- 
sentation  of  the  Devil  in  all  Christian  lands.  I'>ast.  an  Egyptian 
goddess,  was  figured  with  the  head  of  a  cat.  Inasmuch  as  this 
animal  was  sacred  to  the  ancient  h^gyptians,  it  naturally  enough  be- 
came a  devil  to  medieval  Christians.  The  cat.  which  drew  the 
wagon  of  Freva,  became  the  Devil's  pet  animal,  after  the  Scandi- 
navian goddess  had  turned  as  h'rau  Holle  into  the  Devil's  grand- 
mother.    The  witch  was  belie\ed  to  transform  herself  into  a  cat. 

The  belief  in  the  diabolical  character  of  the  cat  has  persisted  to 
this  dav  and  has  even  been  shared  by  a  great  number  of  modern 
poets.  Goethe,  the  German  poet  and  sage,  openly  said  that  he 
believed  black  cats  were  of  the  Evil  One.  The  l^-ench  diabolists 
Baudelaire  and  Huysmans  adored  this  animal.  X'erlaine.  in  his 
poem  'Temme  et  chatte"  (  1(%6),  represents  the  cat  as  the  imi)er- 
sonation  of  the  Devil,  and  woman  as  very  much  akin  to  the  two. 
"The  cat."  Theophile  Gautier  has  said  in  his  essay  on  Uaudelaire 
(1868),  "has  the  appearance  of  knowing  the  latest  sabbatical  chron- 
icle, and  he  will  willingly  rub  himself  against  the  lame  leg  of 
^lephistopheles."^* 

The  dragon  is  a  frecjuent  diabolical  figure  in  medie\  al  literature. 
The  basis  of  the  conception  of  the  Devil  as  a  dragon  is  in  the  I'.ook 
of  Revelations  (  xii.  3,  7,  9).  The  Devil  appear  as  a  dragon  in 
Michelet's  story  "^^ladeleine  Havent."  In  Bunyan's  Pih/riiii's  Pro- 
gress (1678),  the  devil  Apollyon  is  a  winged  dragon  covered  with 
scales,  and  belching  fire  and  smoke.  The  Devil  appears  in  the  form 
of  a  dragon  in  the  pictorial  representations  of  the  combat  between 
St.  Michael  and  the  leader  of  the  rebel  angels  by  Raphael  in  the 
Louvre,  b}-  Luca  Giordano  in  the  1  belvedere  of  X'ienna,  b\'  Schong- 
auer  in  the  Cathedral  of  I'lm,  by  Jacobello  del  P'iore  in  Berlin  and 
by  Mabuse  in  Munich.  In  the  Faust-book,  Faust  flies  in  a  dragon- 
drawn  chariot  through  the  air.  In  Calderon's  play  el  Maf/ico 
prodig'ioso   (  c.   1635),  Satan  appears  in  the  end  as  a  dragon.^' 

The  basis  of  the  conception  of  the  Devil  as  a  worm  is  in  the 

^-1  On  the  cat,  cf.  Anne  Marks:  The  Cat  in  History.  Lcc/cnd  and  Art. 
London,  1909;  Champfleury  (pseud,  of  J.  H.  Fleury)  :  TIic  Cat  Past  and 
Present,  translated  from  the  French  by  Mrs.  Hoey,  London.  1885:  A.  M. 
Michelet  (Mme  Jules  Michelet)  :  les  Chats,  Paris.  1909.  Mr.  Carl  Van  Dorcn 
has  recently  published  in  New  York  two  anthologies  of  cat  stories. 

i"|  On  the  dragon,  consult  the  following  two  recent  books  :  G.  Eh'ot  Smith's 
The  Evolution  of  the  Dragon  (1919)  and  Ernest  Ingersoll's  Dragons  and 
Dragon  Lore  (1928). 


330  THE  OPEX  COURT 

passage  "their  worm  shall  not  die"  (Is.  Ixvi.  24;  cf.  Mark  ix.  44, 
46,  48).  ^vhich  has  been  applied  to  the  chief  of  the  evil  sjnrits. 

The  representation  of  the  Devil  in  the  form  of  a  wolf  is  the 
result  of  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  biblical  phrase  "grievous 
wolves  enter  in  among  \ou"  (Acts  xx.  29  ). 

Notwithstanding  the  biblical  comparison  of  the  Devil  to  the  most 
courageous  and  ferocious  of  all  wild  beasts  (1  Peter  v.  8),  repre- 
sentations of  the  De\il  in  the  form  of  a  lion  were  not  popular  out  of 
respect  for  "the  lion  out  of  the  tribe  of  judah"  (Rev.  \\  5).  The 
substitution  of  the  dragon  or  the  serpent  for  the  lion  as  a  general 
representation  of  the  Devil  was,  furthermore,  made  necessary  in 
certain  countries  by  national  respect  as  well  as  by  Christian  tra- 
dition. In  the  play  Fyraiuiis  and  Thishc  written  by  Rederijker 
Goosen  ten  P>erch  of  Amsterdam,  a  lioness,  appearing  in  a  silent 
role,  is  however,  interpreted  as  the  Devil. 

The  Devil's  simian  aspect  is  of  patristic  origin.  Tt  comes  from 
the  fact  that  the  Church  fathers  called  Lucifer  an  a])e  on  account 
of  his  efforts  to  mimic  the  Lord.  When  they  noticed  the  similarities 
between  the  observances  of  Christians  and  pagans,  they  explained 
them  as  diabolical  counterfeits.  The}"  believed  that  the  Devil,  whose 
business  it  always  is  to  jjervert  the  truth,  imitated  the  sacraments  of 
the  church  in  the  m\steries  of  the  idols.  The  patristic  appellation 
for  the  Devil  as  s'nnia  Dei  was  taken  literall\-  by  later  writers,  and 
the  Devil  was  represented  by  them  under  the  form  of  a  monkey. 

Of  all  representations  of  Evil,  that  of  the  serpent  is  common  to 
all  countries,  all  peoples,  all  times  and  all  religions.  The  serpent  as 
an  autumnal  constellation  figured  among  all  races  as  an  enemy  of 
the  sun-god  or  light-god.  ^Moreover,  the  serpent,  of  old  the  "seer," 
was.  in  its  Semitic  adaptation,  the  tempter  to  forbidden  knowledge. 
Satan  played  this  part  to  our  ancestors  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  He 
appears  in  the  traditional  shape  of  the  serpent  in  Dante's  Piirgatorio 
(viii.  98f.)  Alilton  similarly  mentions  the  infernal  serpent  (Par. 
Lost  i.  34).  A  legend  of  the  Devil  in  the  form  of  a  serpent  will 
also  be  found  in  the  Dialogues  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great  (593-94). 
Paphnutius.  in  Anatole  P" ranee's  novel  Thais  (1890),  sees  Lucifer 
as  "the  serpent  with  golden  wings  which  twisted  round  the  tree  of 
knowledge  its  azure  coils  formed  of  light  and  love."  In  (irethe's 
Faust,  Mephistopheles  calls  the  serpent  his  aunt  ( i.  2049). 

The  Devil  ma\'  owe  his  office  as  guardian  of  treasures  to  his 


THE  for:^i  of  the  fiend 


331 


idcntitication  with  the  ser])ent  or  dragon.  In  Hindu  mythology, 
homage  is  paid  the  serpent  as  guardian  of  treasures.  The  idea  that 
demons  are  guardians  of  treasures  is  especially  prevalent  in  the 
Orient.     Furthermore,  the  Devil,  who  dwells  in  the  bowels  of  the 


THE  GOOD  LORD  AXD  THE  DEVIL 
(In  Goethe's  Faust,  b\'  Franz  Simm.) 


earth,  was  soon  regarded  as  the  guardian  of  all  subterrenean  treas- 
ures and  as  the  possessor  of  unlimited  wealth.  It  is  believed  in 
many  European  countries  that  treasures  can  be  found  on  St.  John's 
Eve  by  means  of  the  fern  seed.  Treasures  also  bloom  or  burn  in 
the  earth  and  reveal  their  presence  b}'  a  bluish  ilame  on  Midsummer 
Eve. 

The  idea  of  the  Devil,  in  the  representation  of  the  temjitation  of 
Eve,  as  a  serpent  with  the  head  of  a  woman  is  not  earlier  than  the 
^Middle  Ages.     According  to  the  X'enerable  liede,  Lucifer  chose  to 


332  Tin-:  open  court 

tempt  Eve  through  a  ser]:>ent  which  had  a  female  head  because  "hke 
is  attracted  to  hke."  \'incent  de  Ueauvais  accepts  Bede's  view  on 
the  female  head  of  the  serpent  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  Pierre 
Comestor,  in  his  Historia  scholastica  ( c.  1176),  concludes  from  this 
fact  that,  while  the  ser])ent  was  yet  erect,  it  had  a  A'irgin's  head.  In 
the  temptation  scene  of  the  medieval  mystery  plays.  Satan  usually 
appears  as  a  serpent  with  a  woman's  head.  Raphael,  in  his  repre- 
sentation of  the  combat  between  St.  Afichael  and  the  Devil,  likewise 
represents  the  latter  as  a  serpent  with  a  woman's  head.  Ruskin 
shows  an  unfamiliarity  with  mediexal  literature  and  art  when  he 
states  that  the  serpent  in  Paradise  was  for  man\'  centuries  repre- 
sented with  the  head  of  a  man.  In  ( irandchamp's  ])ainting-  of  the 
Temptation,  however,  the  serpent  has  the  head  of  a  handsome  young 
man. 

When  the  Devil  was  later  figured  in  human  form,  he  w^as  given 
the  head  of  an  elephant,  a  camel,  a  pig,  or  a  bird  covered  with  thick 
locks  resembling  serpents,  the  ears  of  an  ass,  the  mouth  and  teeth 
of  a  lion,  the  beard  of  a  goat,  the  horns  of  a  goat,  a  bull,  or  a  stag,'"'' 
the  wings  of  a  bat,  the  long  tail  of  a  dragon,  the  claws  of  a  tiger, 
and  the  foot  of  a  bull,  a  horse,  a  goat,  or  a  cock.  The  Ethiopic 
de^•i^s  right  foot  is  a  claw,  and  his  left  foot  a  hoof. 

The  Devil  inherited  his  bull-horns  and  bull-foot  from  Dionysus, 
his  horse-foot  from  Loki  and  his  goat-foot  from  Pan.  He  borrowed 
his  snakv  coiffure  from  the  Erinyes  and  his  batwings  from  the 
Eemures,  and  shares  his  elephant-head  with  Cianesa,  the  Hindu  god 
of  wisdom,  and  his  dragon-tail  with  the  Chimera. 


Tlie  Devil  a])pears  in  man}-  colors,  principally,  however,  in  black. 
The  black  color  presumably  is  intended  to  suggest  his  place  of 
abode.  Racial  hatred  had,  however,  much  to  do  with  the  dark 
description  of  the  Devil.  There  is  no  warrant  in  biblical  tradition 
for  a  black  devil.  Satan,  however,  appeared  as  an  Ethiopian  or 
Moor  as  far  back  as  the  days  of  the  Church  fathers.  Descriptions 
of  the  Devil   as  black   in   c<;lor   will   be   found   in  the   Acts  of   the 

'•"'The  Devil's  horns  are  first  mentioned  in  the  Vita  S.  Aiifonii  by  St. 
Athanasius  (4th  cent.).  Mr.  R.  Lowe  Thompson,  in  his  recent  History  of  the 
Devil  (1929),  traces  the  Devil's  horns  to  the  dawn  of  history.  He  sees  in  the 
medieval  demon  the  successor  to  Cernunnos,  the  ancient  Gallic  god  of  the  dead. 
Adam  Hamilton  published  anonymously  a  very  clever  essay  entitled  Where  Are 
my  Horns,  in  which  Lucifer  himself  addresses  the  readers. 


Tin;   FORM    OF  THE   FIEXD 


333 


]\lartvrs,  the  Acts  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  in  the  writings  of 
Augustine  and  (irej^ory  the  (ireat.  A  black  face  was  a  i)ernianent 
feature  of  the  medieval  representations  of  the  Devil.  "Of  all  human 
forms,"  Reginald  Scot  tells  us  in  his  Discovcric  of  W'ilchcroft 
(1584).  "that  of  a  Xegro  or  a  Moor  is  considered  a  favorite  one 
with  the  demons."  Satan  figures  as  king  of  the  Africans  in  John 
Bunyan's  Hol\  JJ'ar  (  \()S2 ).  In  modern  literature,  the  Devil  appears 
as  a  Black  liogey,  among  others,  in  Washington  Irving"s  "The 
Devil  and  Tom  Walker"  (1824),  in  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's 
"Thrawn  Janet"  (  1881  )  and  in  Anatole  1^'rance's  le  Lkrc  dc  luon 
ami  (1884).  Jt  is  a  common  belief  still  to-day  in  Scotland  that  the 
Devil  is  a  black  man.  The  term  "J'rinter's  Devil"  is  usually  ac- 
counted for  by  the  fact  that  Aldus  ^^lanutius,  the  great  A'enetian 
printer,  emploxed  in  his  printing  shop  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
centur\-  a  black  sla\e.  who  was  popularly  thought  to  be  an  imp  from 
hell.  We  now  recall  the  popular  saying  that  the  Devil  is  not  so 
black  as  he  is  painted.     Even  the  devout  George  Herbert  wrote: — 

"We  paint  the  Devil  black,  yet  he 
Hath  some  good  in  him  all  agree." 

It  should,  however,  be  added  in  all  truthfulness  that  whereas 
the  Devil  shows  himself  as  a  Xegro  among  white  men,  he  appears 
as  a  white  man  among  the  negroes.  Many  tribes  of  \\'estern 
Africa,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  represent  the  Devil  as  white. 

The  Devil  also  appears  to  us  in  flaming  red  colors,  whether  he 
wears  tights  or  not.  Satan  is  portra}ed  in  popular  imagination  as  a 
sort  of  eternal  salamander.  He  was  described  alread\-  in  the  New 
Testament  as  a  fier\-  fiend.  Red  was  considered  among  all  Oriental 
nations  as  a  diabolical  color.  Agni,  one  of  the  chief  gods  mentioned 
in  the  Indo-Aryan  sacred  books,  is  described  as  red  in  color. 
Brahma  of  the  Hindus  was  also  represented  as  of  a  red  color.  Ilapi, 
god  of  the  Xile,  is  also  figured  red  in  color. 

The  Devil  also  appears  in  mellow  and  blue  colors.  Yellow  was 
considered,  from  antiquity,  the  color  of  infamy. ^'^  The  blue  devil 
is  a  sulphurously  constitutioned  individual.  When  the  Englishman 
suiters  from  melanchol}-,  he  believes  himself  to  be  possessed  by  the 
"blues,"  /.  e.  the  blue  de\'ils.^*^ 

1''' In  Lenau's  drama  Faust  (1835),  the  Devil  is  a  gypsy  for  reasons  other 
perhaps  than  the  color  of  his  skin. 

18  Luther  remarked  that  the  Devil  was  a  mournful  character  and  could  in 
no  way  endure  light,  cheerful  music. 


334  THE  OPEN  COURT 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  l)e\il  ai)pears  in  an\-  color  tliat  has 
an  unpleasant  look  (^r  suggestion.  "As  white  as  the  Devil,""  sav  the 
Orientals,  for  whom  white  is  the  color  of  death  and  mourning.  "As 
g:reen  as  the  Devil,""  say.s  the  Spaniard  inasmuch  as  green  was  a 
sacred  color  to  the  Moors.  "As  \ellow  as  the  Devil,""  sa\-  the 
Italians,  who  do  not  like  this  color.  The  French  swear-word 
sacrc  bleu,  however,  has  no  diabolical  connotation.  It  is  a  eu- 
])homism  for  sacrc  Dicit.  The  h^rench  ex])ression  Ic  diahlc  ■'rcrf  also 
has  no  reference  to  the  DeviTs  color,  (ierard  de  Nerval  has  written 
a  clever  story  "le  Diable  vert"  (1849)  in  explanation  of  this  ex- 
pression.^^ 

The  Devil  usually  has  saucer  eves  all  black  without  an\^  white 
(  Merimee,  Lcttrcs  a  iinc  Uiconmic,  xxv  ).  In  Charles  Xodier's  stor_\' 
"le  Combe  de  riiomme  mort"'  (1832),  he  has  little  red  eyes,  more 
sparkling  than  red-hot  coals.  In  Russian  iconographx'.  the  all-seeing 
spirit  of  evil  is  represented  as  covered  with  eyes.  Edgar  Allan  Poe, 
in  his  story  "I^on-Don""  (  1835)  and  Charles  Baudelaire  in  his  ))rose 
poem  "les  Tentations,  on  Eros,  I*lutus  et  la  (iloire"  (  1863),  on  the 
other  hand,  represent  the  Devil  as  an  eyeless  monster. 

The  Devil  is  usuallx'  iigured  in  a  lean  form.  Mis  hands  are 
long  and  lean.  His  face  is  generally  as  pale  and  yellow  as  the  wax 
of  an  old  candle  and  furrowed  by  wrinkled  lines.  The  cadaverous 
aspect  of  the  Devil  is  of  old  antiquity.  With  but  one  exception  ( the 
Egyptian  T\phon),  demons  are  always  represented  as  lean.  "A 
devil,"'  said  Ca^sarius  of  lieisterbach  of  the  thirteenth  centur},"  is 
usually  so  thin  as  to  cast  no  shadow  {Dialoc/iis  juiracitloruni,  iii). 
This  characteristic  of  the  Devil  is  a  heritage  of  the  ancient  hunger- 
demon,  who  could  not  be  felt,  because  his  back  was  hollow,  and, 
though  himself  a  shadow,  cast  no  shadow.  The  Devil  was  reputed, 
however,  to  cast  his  own  shadow  in  Toledo,  the  immortal  home  of 
magic.  In  the  course  of  the  centuries,  though,  the  h^iend  has  gained 
flesh. 

Hairiness  is  a  pretty  generally  ascrilied  characteristic  of  the 
Devil.  He  has  probabl_\-  inherited  his  hairy  skin  from  the  fauns 
and  satyrs.     Esau  was  also  believed  to  have  been  a  hairy  demon. 

The  Devil  was  often  represented  with  a  long  beard,  but  long 
bearded  devils  are  more  common  in  the  representations  of  the 
Eastern  church.  Diabolus  was  formed  in  the  image  and  likeness  of 
the  Greek  ecclesiastic,  whose  crook  he  often  carries  in  his  hand  on 

^■>  For  the  correct  explanation  of  this  expression  consult  Littre's  dictionary. 


TllK   FORM   OF  THE   FIEXD 


335 


cathedral   doors   nv   church   ])aintings.      Satan    is   known    to    atiect 
ecclesiastical  appearance,  as  will  be  seen  fin"ther  in  our  discussion. 


THE  THREE-HEADED 
SERAPIS 


AZIEL,  THE  GUARDIAN 
OF  HIDDEN  TREASURES. 


^Moreover,  as  the  counterpart  of  the  monarch  of  heaven,  the  mon- 
arch of  hell  must  needs  also  have  a  long  beard.  Pluto  has  a  long 
beard  descending  over  his  chest  in  Tasso's  poem  Gcntsolciinne 
liberata  (iv.  53). 

The  Devil's  beard  as  well  as  his  hair  is  usually  of  a  flaming  red 
color.  Satan  and  Judas  were  both  represented  on  the  medieval  stage 
with  red  beards.  The  Devil  has  flaming  red  hair  in  Xodier's  story 
already  mentioned.  In  Eg_\pt,  red  hair  and  red  animals  of  all  kinds 
were  considered  infernal.  T}phon,  the  evil  spirit  in  Eg}ptian  myth- 
ology, has  red  hair.  Thor  or  Donar,  in  Scandinavian  mvthology, 
also    has    a    red    beard,    although   this,    of    covn-se,    represents    the 


336  THE  OPEN  COURT 

lightning.-*'  Red  hair  is  down  to  the  present  da\-  a  mark  of  a 
suspicious  character. 

The  Devil  is  often  represented  with  a  hump.  This  deformity 
was  caused,  according  to  the  account  given  by  Victor  Hugo  in  his 
book  Ic  Rhin  (1842),  by  the  fact  that,  in  escaping  out  of  the  sack 
in  which  the  Devil  carried  them  on  his  back  to  hell,  the  human 
souls  left  behind  "their  foul  sins  and  heinous  crimes,  a  hideous 
heap,  which,  by  the  force  of  attraction  natural  to  the  fiend,  in- 
crusted  itself  between  his  shoulders  like  a  monstrous  wen,  and 
remained  for  ever  fixed.""  A  book  entitled  Ic  Diable  bossu  appeared 
at  Xancy,  in  1708,  as  a  pendant  to  LeSage's  novel  le  Diable  boitcux 
published  the  preceding  year. 

The  Devil  often  wears  a  suit  of  green  cloth,  as  may  be  seen  in 
Walter  Scott's  well-known  ballad.-^  Shakespeare  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  Devil  wears  black  garments  (Hamlet  III,  ii,  1223).  In 
Poe's  story  "Bon-Bon"  already  mentioned,  the  Devil  wears  a  suit 
of  black  cloth.  The  color  of  his  garments  has,  however,  also  been 
red,  bistre  and  golden.  In  Gathe's  Faust,  Mephistopheles  appears 
in  a  scarlet  waist-coat  and  tights  (i.  1536  and  2485).  In  Xodier's 
story  already  mentioned,  the  Devil  is  dressed  in  a  doublet  and 
breeches  of  scarlet  red  and  wears  on  top  of  his  head  a  woolen  cap 
of  the  came  color. 


In  our  own  davs,  the  Devil  has  turned  human,  all  too  human  for 
most  of  us.  He  no  longer  appears  in  the  gala  attire  of  tail,  horns 
and  cloven  foot,  with  which  he  used  to  grace  the  revels  on  the 
Blocksberg.  "You  fancied  I  was  different,  did  you  not,  Johannes?" 
Satan  asks  the  little  Dutch  boy  in  b^rederik  van  Eeden's  novel 
De  kleine  Johannes  (1887).  "That  I  had  horns  and  a  tail?  That 
idea  is  out  of  date.  Xo  one  believes  it  now."  The  Devil  now  moves 
among  men  in  their  own  likeness,  but  "the  kernel  of  the  brute  is  in 
him  still.""  His  diabolical  traits  appear  no  longer  in  his  body,  but 
in  his  face  ;  \ ou  can  see  them  there,  although  he  does  not  mean  aou 
should. 

But  although  the  Devil   can  now  discard  his  animal  parts,  he 

2"^  On  red  hair  as  a  diabolical  characteristic,  see  E.  L.  Buchholz :  Dcutschcr 
Claubc  iind  Branch  im  Sl>icgcl  dcr  hcidnischcn  Vorzcit  (Berlin,  1867),  II, 
218-25. 

21  The  story  of  this  ballad  is  given  towards  the  end  of  this  article. 


Till".    FORM    OF   Till-:    I'lFXO 


337 


cannot  rid  himself  of  his  Hnip.  which  is  the  result  of  his  clo\en 
hoof  or  broken  leg'.  He  still  limps  slightly,  like  Uyron,  no  more 
and  no  less.--  I  hit  notwithstanding-  his  defect  in  walking,  he  steps 
firml\-  on  this  earth.  The  traditional  explanation  for  the  Devil's 
broken  leg  is  his  fall  from  hea\en.  This  idea  was  suggested  by  the 
scriptural  sa\ing:  'T  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from  heaven" 
(Luke  X.  18).  One  of  the  most  striking  indications  of  the  fall  of 
the  demons  from  hea\en  is  the  wide-spread  belief  that  they  are  lame. 
This  idea  has  probably  been  derived  from  the  crooked  lightnings. 
Thoth,  Hephaistos  (^X'ulcan)  Loki,  W'ieland,  each  had  a  broken 
or  crooked  leg.  Asmodeus,  in  LeSage's  novel  Ic  Diahlc  hoitcux 
(1707),  appears  as  a  limping  gentleman,  who  uses  two  stick^  as 
crutches.-'"  He  ascribes,  in  this  book,  his  broken  leg  to  a  fight  with 
a  brother-devil  and  his  subsequent  fall.  According  to  rabbinical 
tradition,  this  demon  broke  his  leg  when  he  hurried  to  meet  King 
Solomon.  A  ictor  Hugo,  in  le  Rhiii,  offers  another  explanation  for 
the  lameness  of  Asmodeus.  According  to  this  writer,  a  stone 
crushed  the  demon's  leg.  In  Maupassant's  story,  "la  Legende  du 
!\Iont  St.  Michel"  (1882),  Satan  had  his  leg  broken  when,  in  his 
flight  from  St.  Michael,  he  iumj)ed  off  the  roof  of  the  castle,  into 
which  he  had  been  lured  by  the  archangel. 

The  De\il  is  now  clad  in  the  costume  of  the  ])eriod.  He  has  on 
clothes  which  any  gentleman  might  wear.  The  l)e\il  is  \ev\  proud 
of  this  epithet  gi\'en  him  b\-  Sir  John  Suckling  (  "The  ])rince  of 
darkness  is  a  gentleman"  in  The  Goblins)  and  by  William  Shake- 
speare (  "The  Prince  of  demons  is  a  gentleman"  in  Khuj  Lear )  :  and 
from  that  time  on,  it  has  been  his  greatest  ambition  to  be  a  gentle- 
man, in  outer  appearance  at  least ;  and  to  his  credit  it  must  be  said 
that  he  has  so  well  succeeded  in  his  efforts  to  resemble  a  gentleman 
that  it  is  now  very  difficult  to  tell  the  two  apart.  Satan  wears  with 
equal  ease  an  evening  suit,  a  hunting  coat,  a  scholar's  gown,  a  pro- 
fessor's robe  (as  in  the  paintings  of  Giotto's  school),  or  a  parson's 
soutane. 


2- Heine  in  his  poem  "Ich  rief  den  Teufel  und  er  kam"  (1824),  is  of  the 
opinion,  however,  that  the  Devil  has  finally  succeeded  in  correcting  his  defect  in 
walking.  Mephistopheles  retains,  however,  his  limpinsj  leg  in  Goethe's  Faust 
(i.  2498). 

23  The  mother  of  the  Devil  is  named,  in  the  Alsfeld  Passion  Play  of  the 
end  of  the  15th  century,  Hellekrugk  (Hollenkriicke)  for  the  reason  that  sh* 
walks  on  crutches. 


338  THE  OPEN  COURT 

The  Devil  loves  to  slip  into  priestly  robes,  although  it  cannot 
reall\-  be  said  that  he  is  "one  of  those  who  take  to  the  ministry 
mosth."  In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  Satan  is  fre- 
quentl\-  shown  under  the  garb  of  a  monk.  The  Devil  disguised  as 
a  monk  has  assumed  a  national  character  in  Spain.  The  most  char- 
acteristic treatment  of  the  Devil  in  Spain  is  the  play  el  Diablo  predi- 
cator  attributed  to  Belmote  of  Cello,  in  which  Lucifer  is  forced  to 
turn  Franciscan  monk.  The  conception  of  the  Devil  as  a  monk  in 
the  Germanic  countries  after  the  Reformation  was  principally  the 
result  of  the  Protestant  anti-clerical  sentiment.  Luther  declared,  in 
fact,  that  the  true  Satanic  livery  w'as  a  monk's  cowl.  Satan  is  dis- 
guised as  a  monk  in  John  Rale's  biblical  drama  The  Temptation  of 
Jesus  (LS38).  ]^Iephistopheles,  in  the  l^^aust-book,  ap])ears  first  to 
Faust  in  the  guise  of  a  monk.  In  Marlowe's  Dr.  Faustiis  (  c.  1589), 
]\Iephistopheles  takes  the  form  of  a  Franciscan  monk.  In  the 
"Temptation  of  Jesus"  b\-  Lucas  van  Leyden,  the  Devil  is  habited  as 
a  monk  with  a  pcjinted  cowl.  In  Anatole  1^'rance's  stories,  the  l-'iend 
often  borrows  the  appearance  of  a  monk.-^ 

Satan  is  known  to  have  occupied  pulpits  in  many  parts  of  Chris- 
tendom. The  Fiend  is  even  famed  as  a  j)ulpit  orator.  His  speech  to 
St.  (iuthlac.  the  Irish  St.  Anthony,  is  not,  as  has  been  somewhere 
stated,  the  only  extant  instance  of  a  diabolical  sermon.  Among 
others,  the  Devil  is  said  to  have  i)reached  a  sermon  in  the  Church 
of  Xorth  lierwick.  Lord  Morley  recently  related  the  French  story 
of  the  monk,  who  was  a  particular  friend  of  the  Devil  and  who 
had  him  occupy  his  i)ul])it.-' 

The  Devil  has  now  added  to  the  charm  of  his  exterior,  already 
conferred  upon  him  by  Milton,  a  corresi)onding  dignity  of  bearing 

-■^  On  the  Devil  as  a  monk,  read  the  interesting  essay  by  Georg  Ellinger  : 
"Ueber  den  Teufel  als  Monch."  Zcitschrift  fiir  vcrcjlciclicmlc  Litcratitr- 
Gcschichtc.    N.  F.  I  (1887-8)  S.  174-81. 

-•"•The  story  as  quoted  by  John  O'London  (pseud,  of  Wilfred  Whitton)  in 
a  recent  number  of  the  New  York  Times  Book  Rcviczv  runs  as  follows  :  A 
certain  French  monk,  who  was  a  particular  friend  of  the  Devil,  was  one  Sun- 
day morning  too  ill  to  preach,  and  as  Diabolus  chanced  to  appear  that  morning 
in  the  sacristy,  he  asked  that  obliging  personality  to  occupy  his  pulpit  for  the 
special  edification  of  his  congregation.  The  Devil  preached  a  most  masterly 
sermon,  covering  himself  with  shame  and  confusion.  "How  now?"  said  the 
monk  when  the  Devil  came  down,  "you  have  pretty  nearly  ruined  yourself 
with  that  sermon."  "Oh  !  dear  no,"  answered  the  Devil,  "no  harm  done,  no 
harm  done  ;  there  was  no  unction  in  it."  Richard  Taylor's  book  entitled  TItc 
J)c7'irs  Pulpit  is  a  work  on  religious  origins,  which  caused  a  great  stir  in 
England  upon  its  publication  in  1830.  The  Reverend  Mr.  W.  S.  Harris 
published  in  Philadelphia,  in  1903,  a  book  of  Sermons  by  the  Devil  illustrated  by 
Paul  Krafft  and  others. 


TIIK   FDkM    OF  TPIE  FIEXD  339 

and  nobilit}-  of  sentiment.  Marie  Covelli,  in  her  no\el  TIic  Sorrows 
of  Satan  (1S95),  describes  the  De\'il  as  of  extraorchnary  ])hysical 
beaut\'.  fascination  of  manner,  perfect  health,  and  splendid  intellec- 
tualit\'.  In  fact,  he  is  represented  by  her  as  "a  ])erfect  impersona- 
tion of  perfect  manhood."  The  modern  h^-ench  writers  also  have  a 
rather  flattering  opinion  of  the  Devil.  Georges  Ohnet,  in  his  novel 
J'oloiifc  {  1889),  describes  his  villain,  Clement  de  Thauziat,  as  "re- 
splendent in  Satanic  beauty."'  Anatole  France  represents  the  fallen 
angel  as  "black  and  beautiful  as  a  }oung  Egyptian  ("I'llumaine 
tragedie,"  1895  ). 

The  Devil  manifests  himself  to  us  now  as  a  well-bred,  culti\'ated 
man  of  the  world.  In  appearing  among  us,  he  general!}-  borrows  a 
tall  handsome  tigure,  surmounted  b}-  delicate  features,  dresses  well, 
is  fastidious  about  his  rings  and  linen,  travels  ])ost  and  stoj'js  at  the 
best  hotels.  As  he  can  boast  of  abundant  means  and  a  handsome 
wardrobe,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  should  everywhere  be  ])olitel\-  re- 
ceived. In  fact,  as  XOltaire  has  alreacl}-  said,  he  gets  into  very 
agreeable  societ}-.  His  brilliant  powers  of  conversation,  his  adroit 
flatter}-,  courteous  gallantr}',  and  elegant,  though  wa}ward.  flights 
of  imagination,  soon  render  him  the  delight  of  the  compan}'  in  ever}' 
salon.  In  Heine's  ]'>oem  alread}-  mentioned,  the  Devil,  !)}■  grace  of 
the  prelates  of  the  Church,  is  at  present  the  most  admired  personage 
in  every  court  and  fashionable  drawing-room  in  Christiandom. 


\\'hen  the  Devil  wishes  to  tempt  a  man  in  the  flesh,  he  ap- 
proaches him  in  the  form  of  a  beautiful  girl.  The  belief  prevailed 
in  the  Middle  Ages  that  the  Devil  is  often  manifest  on  earth 
clothed  in  all  the  natural  perfections  of  woman,  inciting  men  to  sin 
until  their  souls  are  by  this  means  snatched  from  their  bodies  and 
carried  ofl:"  to  hell.  The  French  theologians  call  the  Devil  incor- 
porated in  a  woman  "the  beautiful  Devil."  It  was  in  this  form  that 
v^t.  Anthony  met  the  Tempter  in  the  Thebaid.  This  ma\-  be  seen 
in  the  paintings  by  Hosch,  Altdorfer  and  Teniers.  lem])tation  in  the 
form  of  a  woman  is  ver}'  common  in  literature  as  in  life.  There  is 
an  instance  of  it  in  Dr}(Ien's  Kiin/  Arthur  [  1691  )  and  in  a  ballad 
by  Walter  Scott,  the  story  of  which  runs  as  follows  :  Two  hunters 
meet  two  beautiful  ladies  in  green.  One  of  the  hunters  goes  ofl:'  with 
one  of  the  green  ladies.     The  other  gentleman   is  more  ]M-udent. 


340  ..  THE  OPKN   COURT 

After  a  time,  he  goes  in  quest  of  his  companion  and  discovers  that 
he  has  been  torn  to  pieces  b\'  the  Devil,  who  had  assumed  so  fasci- 
nating a  form.  Beelzebub  transforms  himself  into  a  beautiful  girl 
in  order  to  bedevil  a  young  man  in  Jacques  Cazotte's  romance  le 
Diable  amourcux  (1772).  Theoj^hile  (lautier.  in  his  poem  Albcrtiis 
(1830).  tells  how  the  Devil  disguised  himself  as  a  woman  to  tempt 
a  painter  of  high  ideals  and  finally  twists  his  neck. 

The  Devil  has  evidentl}'  in  modern  times  changed  sex  as  well 
as  custom  and  costume.    Owen  Meredith  has  said: 

"The  Devil,  my  friend,  is  a  woman  just  now. 
'Tis  a  woman  that  reigns  in  Hell." 

Mctor  Hugo  similarl}-  believed  that  the  De\il  is  now  incarnated  in 
woman,  as  ma\'  be  seen  from  the  following  line : 

"Dieu   s'est    fait   homme :    soit.      Le    Diable    s'est    fait    femme" 
(Ruy  Bias,  1838). 

The  belief  in  woman  as  the  incarnation  of  the  Devil  was  current 
until  recent  times  in  all  Catholic  countries.  Prosper  3ilerimee  S])eaks 
fully  in  the  spirit  of  the  Church  fathers  when  he  says:  "Woman  is 
the  surest  instrument  of  damnation  which  the  Evil  ()ne  can  em- 
plov."  St.  C\prian  said :  "Woman  is  the  instrument  which  the 
Devil  employs  to  possess  our  souls,"  and  St.  Tertullian  addressed  the 
beautiful  sex  with  the  following  words  :  "Woman,  thou  art  the  gate 
to  hell."  "The  eternal  A'enus,"  says  Baudelaire,  "is  one  of  the  :most 
seductive  forms  of  the  Devil."  The  proverb  sa}s  that  the  heart  of 
a  beautiful  woman  is  the  most  beloved  hiding  place  of  at  least  seven 
demons.-^' 

^lodern  artists  frequentl\-  represent  the  Devil  as  a  woman. 
Felicien  Rops.  Alax  Klinger,  and  Franz  Stuck  ma_\'  be  cited  as 
illustrations. 


-''  A  recent  volume  of  tales  in  verse  by  Mrs.  Alice   Mary  Kimball  liears 
the  title  The  Devil  is  a  Woman  (Alfred  A.  Knopf). 


SUGGESTTOXS  OF  OCCIDEXTAL  THOUGHT  IX  AXCIEXT 

CHIXESE  PHILOSOPHY 

by  j.  k.  spiryock. 

Part  L 

SOME  of  mv  friends  who  are  interested  in  the  history  of  thought 
think  that  there  is  Httle  of  value  to  the  student  in  the  philosophy 
of  the  east.  This  is  natural  enough  as  regards  China,  because  the 
difficulty  of  the  classical  language  deters  all  but  a  few  from  its 
studv,  and  also  because  those  who  have  devoted  themselves  to 
things  Chinese  have  had  little  training  except  in  linguistics.  It  re- 
quires a  training  in  philosophy  to  understand  the  philosophic  litera- 
ture of  any  race,  as  well  as  a  knowledge  of  the  language,  and  this 
professional  point  of  view  is  lacking  in  most  of  the  translations  of 
the  Chinese  classics  which  have  appeared  in  western  tongues.  The 
result  has  been  that  we  have  thought  of  the  Chinese  as  a  practical 
people  who  were  interested  only  in  ethics,  and  have  given  little  effort 
to  speculative  thought.  That  the  rich  mine  of  Chinese  philosophy 
has  recently  been  opened  for  us  is  due  parti}'  to  European  scholars 
like  Professor  Forke,  of  Berlin,  and  partly  to  modern-trained 
Chinese,  like  Dr.  Hu  Shih,  whose  history  of  ancient  Chinese  thought, 
which  has  not  been  translated,  has  begun  a  new  era  in  Chinese  writ- 
ing. Onlv  the  surface  of  this  mine  has  been  worked,  and  there  is  a 
depressingly  large  field  which  awaits  careful  investigation  by  prop- 
erly equipped  men.  With  the  exception  of  Dr.  Henke  and  Dr.  H.  H. 
Dubs,  Americans  have  had  very  little  to  do  with  the  results  until 
now,  btit  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  will  develop  scholars  who  may 
cope  with  the  problems  which  wait  solution.  Already  it  is  known 
that  the  Chinese  have  furnished  a  long  line  of  thinkers  who  can 
challenge  comparison  with  the  best  of  any  nation,  and  without  a 
knowledge  of  whom  no  account  of  the  search  for  truth  is  adequate. 


342  THE  OPEN   COURT 

The  best  known  and  the  most  interesting  period  of  Chinese 
|)hilosophv  is  that  of  the  Chou  d_\nast_\-,  which  lasted  roughl\-  from 
1100  to  230  B.  C.  During  the  last  three  centuries  of  this  dynasty 
the  real  power  lay  in  the  hands  of  feudal  princes,  whose  quarrels 
kept  the  country  in  continual  war  and  reduced  the  common  people 
to  starvation  and  brigandage,  while  the  courts,  cities  and  armies 
multiplied  and  flourished.  In  spite  of  the  disorder,  civilization  ad- 
vanced at  the  same  time  that  morals  declined,  and  the  constant  com- 
munication between  the  feudal  capitals  aided  in  the  spread  of  ideas. 

There  was  in  China  a  class  of  men  who  were  peculiarly  fitted  to 
advance  the  development  of  thought.  These  were  the  peripatetic 
scholars  whose  business  was  the  science  of  government,  and  who 
wandered  from  court  to  court  seeking  emplo\ment  from  the  feudal 
lords.  These  men  were  advisors  and  not  fighters,  owing  their  posi- 
tions to  their  knowledge  and  mental  ability.  Xearl\-  all  the  thinkers 
of  the  period  came  from  their  ranks,  and  most  of  them  had  practical 
experience  in  official  positions,  }et  it  is  to  their  credit  that  a  sur- 
prising number  preferred  their  self-respect  to  honor  and  fame, 
resigning  their  posts  when  the  ruler  indulged  in  unethical  conduct 
against  their  advice.  The  Chinese  have  always  recognized  the  close 
connection  between  ethics  and  politics. 

In  their  struggle  to  solve  the  problems  of  their  own  time  they 
attacked  questions  which  have  arisen  wdienever  men  have  reasoned 
about  the  uni\erse  and  human  existence.  The  main  positions  in 
metaphysics,  epistemology,  and  ethics  and  even  logic  were  taken  and 
debated,  while  man  after  man  elaborated  and  intrenched  the  teach- 
ing of  his  school  in  the  light  of  criticism  and  argument.  During 
the  latter  part  of  the  period  the  city  of  Liang  in  the  central  state  of 
Wei,  where  the  dukes  were  patrons  of  literature,  attracted  a  group 
of  brilliant  men  whose  solutions  of  the  problems  of  philosoph}'  often 
anticipated  the  best  results  of  occidental  thought.  \\'hen  their 
writings  are  put  into  the  technical  language  of  western  scholarship, 
it  becomes  apparent  that  the  human  mind  reasons  in  the  same  way 
when  faced  by  certain  difiiculties,  whether  in  China  or  in  Europe, 
and  that  eastern  Asia  can  lay  claim  to  a  line  of  thinkers  who  may 
be  placed  in  comparison  even  with  their  contemporaries  in  ancient 
Greece. 


OCCIDENTAL   TIIOCC.HT    IX    AXCIEXT    ClIIXKSl-:    PU  1  LOSOT  II V       vHv^ 

Tin-:  Adsoh'ti:. 

Chinese  classic  literature  is  not  old,  compared  with  that  of  Eii"\  i)t 
and  Mesopotamia.  The  three  works  generally  accepted  as  the 
earliest  are  the  Book  of  History,  the  Book  of  Chaiu/cs,  and  the 
Book  of  Poetry.  While  there  is  considerable  dispute  concerning 
certain  passages,  the  hrst  of  these  may  possiblx'  contain  material  of 
the  18th  Centur\  li.  C.  but  took  its  ])resent  form  after  the  year 
1000  B.  C,  and  the  >econd  is  attributed  to  the  last  quarter  of  the 
12th  Cenutry,  B.  C. 

The  Book  of  History  is  an  interpretation  of  the  chief  events  in 
the  ancient  history  of  the  Chinese  in  terms  of  a  practical  monothe- 
ism. Although  lesser  spirits,  connected  with  mountains,  forests 
and  bodies  of  water  are  recognizetl  and  sacrifices  to  them  recorded, 
throughout  the  book  nothing  occurs  except  by  the  will  or  command 
of  Heaven.  Another  phrase  is  also  used,  which  sinologues  generally 
agree  is  equated  to  Heaven,  Shang  Ti,  or  the  Emperor  on  High. 
The  first  term  is  impersonal  in  the  sense  of  our  Providence,  while 
the  second  is  usually  translated  by  God,  and  they  are  used  inter- 
changeabK".  The  ruler  owes  his  position  to  the  Decree  of  Heaven, 
the  virtues  and  the  social  order  ha\'e  their  origin  in  Heaven, 
dvnasties  change  and  calamities  occur  b\'  the  will  of  Shang  Ti,  and 
his  decisions  are  shown  by  the  course  of  histor}',  through  divination, 
by  the  words  of  great  men  who  represent  him,  and  by  the  desire  of 
the  nation  as  a  whole.  In  the  book  no  war,  either  civil  or  foreign, 
is  declared  to  be  a  struggle  between  divinities.  ( )n  the  contrary. 
Heaven  rules  over  all  impartiallw  barbarians  as  well  as  Chinese, 
and  the  ruler  of  a  new  dynast}-  sacrifices  to  Shang  Ti  in  the  same 
wa}'  as  the  man  he  superseded.  \\'hile  this  God  cannot  be  called 
an  impersonal  absolute,  there  are  almost  no  traces  of  anthropo- 
morphism. His  attributes  imply  personalit}',  and  he  is  supreme  in 
the  universe.  This  concept  of  God  was  embodied  in  the  later  Con- 
fucian tradition  and  is  still  of  great  influence  in  China. 

The  Book  of  Chanycs,  however,  gives  a  somewhat  different 
picture.  The  work  seems  to  be  an  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of 
the  one  and  the  many,  based  upon  ancient  geometrical  figures,  or 
trigrams,  which  had  long  been  used  for  divination.  The  trigrams 
are  formed  of  broken  and  unbroken  straight  lines.  These  lines,  the 
eight  trigrams,  and  further  combinations  of  sixty-four  hexagrams, 
represent  natural  objects  and  forces,  as  well  as  ethical  qualities,  and 


344  •  THE  OPEN   COURT 

by  using  them  as  a  text,  the  authors  have  constructed  a  description 
of  the  universe  which  gives  a  large  amount  of  moral  instruction  and 
a  good  account  of  the  civilization  of  the  period.  The  book  contains 
the  following  sentence. 

"Therefore  Change  has  the  (".reat  L'ltimate.  which  gives  birth 
to  the  two  Principles.  The  two  Principles  give  birth  to  the  four 
Images  (or  Forms).  The  four  Images  give  birth  to  the  eight 
Trigrams."^ 

The  Great  L'ltimate  is  represented  by  an  unbroken  line,  the 
Principles  by  two  lines,  one  broken  and  the  other  unbroken,  the 
four  Images  or  Forms  are  combinations  of  two  lines  each,  and  it 
can  be  seen  how  the  Trigrams,  which  stand  for  the  sun,  clouds,  lire 
and  so  on,  can  be  combined  into  a  short-hand  account  of  the  uni- 
verse, all  developed  from  a  single  source. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  text  which  justifies  equating  the  (ireat 
Ultimate  to  Heaven,  and  it  appears  to  be  an  impersonal  absolute. 
The  passage  is  brief,  and  does  not  seem  to  have  had  much  influence 
in  the  period  which  immediately  followed,  but  it  was  seized  upon 
bv  the  scholars  of  the  Sung  dynasty  in  the  11th  Century  of  our 
era  and  made  the  keystone  of  their  system  of  thought.  As  2000 
\ears  lav  between  the  Sung  thinkers  and  the  authors  of  the  Book  of 
Changes,  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  their  interpretation  of  the 
text  existed  in  the  minds  of  those  who  wrote  it. 

An  attempt  to  construct  an  absolute  which  was  more  immediatel\- 
el^ective  was  made  by  Lao  Tzu  in  the  6th  Century  B.  C.  Lao  Tzu's 
eiTort  has  been  studied  by  European  scholars  more  as  mysticism 
than  as  philosophy,  but  it  is  a  very  respectable  intellectual  achieve- 
ment. His  problem  is  the  old  one,  which  he  probably  inherited  from 
the  Book  of  Changes,  how  to  account  for  change  by  that  w-hich 
does  not  change,  and  for  the  particular  by  the  universal.  That  the 
first  serious  attack  upon  this  question  should  be  a  little  vague  is  not 
surprising. 

Lao  Tzu's  method  is  the  use  of  antinomies.  He  couples  opposite 
and  mutually  exclusive  statements,  asserting  both  to  apply  to  his 
absolute,  W'hich  he  calls  Tao.  Tao  has  a  name,  and  yet  is  nameless. 
Nameless,  it  originated  Heaven  and  Earth  ;  named,  it  is  the  mother 
of  all  things,  and  yet  named  and  nameless,  it  is  the  same.  It  is 
existence  and  non-existence,  which  give  birth  to  each  other.     Six 

1  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  16.    Chapter  I  "Chi  Tsi  Chuaii." 


OCCIDKXTAL    TllOfCIlT    IN    A  N  CI  KNT    C'lllNKSK    PI  1  1 1.OSOI' 1 1  V       34o 

pairs  of  opposites  are  i^'ixen,  such  as  lens^th  and  shortness,  which  are 
opposed  and  yet  uniiied  because  one  recjuires  the  other,  (iood  and 
evil,  beautv  and  ugHness  are  relative,  and  the  existence  of  one  term 
implies  the  existence  of  the  other.  The  statement  that  all  things 
change  is  itself  an  unchanging  rule.  Tao  is  a  How  and  pervades 
all  things.  It  is  undefined  and  complete,  existing  before  Heaven 
and  Earth,  weak  and  _\et  strong.  It  can  be  found  and  practised, 
yet  no  one  is  able  to  find  or  practice  it.  It  is  not  knowledge,  l)ut 
rather  a  forgetting  of  wisdom,  and  yet  it  ma\'  be  known.  It  does 
nothing,  and  so  there  is  nothing  which  it  does  not  do. 

Tao,  the  word  which  Lao  Tzu  uses  for  the  absolute,  probably 
meant  road  or  wa\-  originally,  but  by  the  6th  Century  it  had  already 
acquired  a  philosophic  meaning,  and  there  are  reasons  for  supposing 
that  he  was  not  uniciue  in  his  application  of  the  term.  It  is  not  the 
equivalent  of  Heaven,  for  it  is  distinctly  said  to  have  existed  prior 
to  Heaven,  and  it  is  not  ethical,  but  superior  to  the  distinctions  of 
ethics.  Benevolence  and  justice  did  not  come  into  being  until  men 
had  lost  Tao,  and  this  opposition  to  the  virtues  is  characteristic  of 
the  later  Taoist  writers.  Lao  Tzu  seems  to  have  caught  his  inspira- 
tion from  nature,  which  appears  to  produce  the  growth  of  plants  and 
animals  as  well  as  the  course  of  the  seasons  and  the  celestial 
phenomena  without  effort  or  disturbance. 

Confucius  was  a  younger  contemporar}-  of  Lao  Tzu.  He  ad- 
hered closely  to  the  teaching  of  the  Book  of  History,  and  the  expres- 
sion Heaven  was  constantly  on  his  lips.  As  he  added  nothing  to  the 
Chinese  conception  of  the  absolute,  no  more  need  be  said  about  his 
views  except  that  opinions  differ  as  to  whether  he  was  a  complete 
agnostic,  or  believed  in  a  personal  God.  Some  of  his  followers  in- 
cline to  one  side  and  some  to  the  other,  depending  upon  whether 
they  regard  Heaven  as  personal  or  impersonal.  Their  disinite  with 
the  disciples  of  Lao  Tzu  was  ethical  and  epistemological  rather  than 
metaphysical.  Both  schools  use  the  w^ord  Tao,  but  with  the  Con- 
fucianists  the  term  stands  for  the  moral  order  of  the  universe, 
which  is  quite  diff'erent  from  the  content  given  the  word  b\-  Lao 
Tzu. 

In  the  5th  and  4th  Centuries  B.  C.  Lieh  Tzu  and  Chuang  Tzu 
developed  the  teachings  of  their  master,  Lao  Tzu,  but  without 
changing  his  position  materiall}-.  Both  seem  to  have  been  genuine 
mystics  in  the  sense  that  they  passed  through  an  abnormal  ps\  cho- 


346  THE  OPEN   COURT 

logical  experience  in  which  distinctions  were  gradually  obliterated 
until  at  last  even  that  between  subject  and  object  disappeared,  and 
the>-  were  united  with  the  universe.  Though  there  is  no  trace  of 
such  an  experience  in  Lao  T/.u  himself,  his  doctrine  lends  itself 
easily  to  mysticism.  However,  ancient  Taoist  thought  can  hardly 
be  said  to  be  religious,  since  Tao  cannot  be  called  a  god  in  any  sense, 
and  Taoism  does  not  appear  to  have  resulted  in  any  religious  be- 
haviour nor  cults  before  the  3rd  Century  15.  C. 

An  interesting  attempt  to  rationalize  the  belief  in  Heaven  was 
made  by  Aleh  Ti  in  the  5th  Century  B.  C.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  Chinese  thinker  to  have  used  the  syllogism  and  to  have 
attempted  proofs.  His  argument  for  the  existence  of  God  is  doubt- 
less the  first  appearance  of  the  ontological  proof. 

"How  do  we  know  that  there  is  a  universal  being.  We  know 
because  Heaven  eats  universally.  How  do  we  know  that  Heaven 
eats  universallv  ?  It  is  said.  'Within  the  four  seas,  all  people  who 
eat  grain  never  fail  to  feed  sheep  and  cattle,  and  to  prepare  wine 
and  rice  for  making  sacrifices  to  Shang  Ti  and  the  spirits. "- 

This  mav  be  expressed  a  little  crudely,  but  the  argument  is  clear. 
All  men  prepare  sacrifices  to  Shang  Ti,  therefore  all  men  have  the 
idea  of  Shang  Ti  in  their  minds,  and  this  universal  conception  is  of 
the  nature  of  proof.  Meh  Ti  goes  on  to  point  out  that  unless 
Heaven  and  the  spirits  exist,  the  religious  ideals  of  the  people 
would  be  overthrown,  and  it  would  be  "as  though  the  sacrifices  were 
poured  into  a  dirty  gully." 

]\Ieh  Ti  also  uses  the  argument  from  design. 

"For  it  is  Heaven  that  created  the  sun.  moon,  stars  and  constella- 
tions, making  them  shine  and  duly  follow  their  courses.  By  ar- 
ranging the  four  seasons  it  regulates  the  lives  of  the  people.  By 
means  of  thunder,  snow,  frost,  rain  and  dew,  it  quickens  the  growth 
of  the  five  cereals  and  thread-giving  flax.  It  planned  the  forma- 
tion of  mountains,  rivers  and  valleys,  producing  wealth  in  manifold 
forms.  It  created  rulers,  princes  and  lords  in  order  to  supervise  the 
morals  of  the  people,  I'ewarding  the  good  and  punishing  the 
wicked."'^ 

These  arguments  for  the  existence  of  God  have  had  a  varied  his- 
tory in  the  west  and  in  China  they  were  criticized  by  Wang  Ch'ung 

-'  The  Open  Court.  May,  1928,  "Meh  Ti."  by  Quentin  K.  Y.  Huang,  p.  278. 

•''  Ibid.    April,  1928,  p.  234. 


UCCIDKXTAI.   TIl()Uc;llT    IX    AXC'll^VT    CIl  1  XESI-:    PII  I  LOSOC  11  Y       347 

about  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Meh  Ti  himself  mentions 
those  who  doubted  the  existence  of  spirits,  who  appear  to  have  been 
some  of  the  followers  of  Confucius,  but  the  reference  is  indefinite. 
The  intiuencc  of  Meh  Ti  was  indirect  and  he  was  neglected  e\en 
b\-  the  Chinese  until  recently  when  interest  in  his  work  has  revixed. 
The  nnstical  teaching  of  Taoism  could  be  understood  by  only  a  few. 
and  in  the  Ch'in  and  Han  periods  it  was  perverted  into  a  polytheistic 
religion  which  borrowed  extensive!}-  from  Buddhism  and  the  popular 
shamanistic  cults,  Lao  Tzu  himself  becoming  a  deity,  but  there 
continued  to  be  real  seekers  after  Tao.  and  the  Tao  Teh  Ching  is 
still  a  force  in  Chinese  thought. 

TriK  TiiKORY  OF  Ideas 

The  brief  passage  from  the  Book  of  Chanycs  already  quoted 
states  that  the  two  Principles  give  birth  to  the  Images  of  Forms, 
and  these  in  turn  to  objects.  The  word  translated  as  h^orm  is  said 
in  the  same  chapter  to  mean  copw  Dr.  Hu  Shih  interprets  the  text 
as  showing  that  change  and  progress  are  due  to  ideas,"*  and  the  Book 
of  Changes  seems  to  imply  that  ideas  or  forms  come  before  objects. 

In  Lao  Tzu  there  is  an  important  sentence  bearing  on  this  point. 

"Tao  is  that  which  is  vague  and  eluding.  It  is  vague  and  elud- 
ing, _\et  there  is  the  Form  in  it.  It  is  vague  and  eluding,  \et  has  an 
object  in  it.""  A  later  commentator  remarks  that  Lao  Tzu  was 
careless  here,  since  the  object  obviously  exists  before  the  idea  of  it, 
but  probably  Lao  Tzu  knew  what  he  was  doing,  which  was  in 
accordance  with  the  ISook  of  Changes.  Hut  it  is  not  until  Con- 
fucius that  there  is  a  clear  doctrine  of  Ideas,  which  suggests  Plato. 
\\'here  Lao  Tzu  speaks  vaguely  of  knowing  beaut\-  as  beaut\-  and 
goodness  as  goodness,*'  Confucius  is  quite  definite.  A\'hen  asked 
what  should  be  done  first  in  administering  the  go\ernment,  he  said, 

"What  is  necessary  is  to  rectify  names." 

"Indeed,"  remarked  Tzu  Lu,  "you  are  wide  of  the  mark.  Why 
must  there  be  such  rectification  ?" 

The  [Master  said.  '"How  uncultivated  \t)u  are,  Yu.     The  superior 

man  shows  a  cautious  reserve  in  regard  to  what  he  does  not  know. 

If  names  be  not  correct,  language  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 

4//»  Shih.  History  of  Chinese  Philosophy.  Section  on  the  I  Ching.  The 
book  has  not  been  translated. 

5  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  Vol.  39.    "The  Tao  Teh  Ching."  Chap.  21. 

6  Ibid.    Chap.  2. 


348  '  TiiK  0Pi:x  COURT 

trutli.  If  language  be  not  in  accordance  with  the  truth,  affairs 
cannot  be  successful."^ 

Again,  the  Uuke  of  Ch'i  asked  about  government,  and  Con- 
fucius replied.  "When  the  prince  is  prince,  and  the  minister  is 
minister;  when  the  father  is  father,  and  the  son  is  son."'^ 

In  another  passage  he  exclaims.  "A  cornered  vessel  without 
corners  !    What  a  vessel  !"'-* 

These  quotations  show  that  Confucius  considered  the  rcalit\-  of 
sacrificial  vessels,  princes,  ministers,  fathers  and  sons  to  depend 
upon  the  degree  to  which  they  conformed  to  ideal  patterns  of  these 
things  which  existed  independently  of  their  material  copies.  What 
a  real  ruler  is  does  not  depend  upon  any  man  conforming  to  that 
standard,  but  good  government  lies  in  an  approximation  to  the  ideal, 
or  as  Confucius  puts  it,  in  the  rectification  of  names. 

]^Iencius  carried  this  principle  to  its  logical  conclusion.  When 
asked  whether  it  was  right  for  Wu  Wang  to  have  killed  Tsou,  the 
last  of  the  Yin  rulers,  he  replied, 

"He  who  outrages  benevolence  we  call  a  thief;  he  who  outrages 
righteousness  we  call  a  ruffian.  I  have  heard  of  the  cutting  off  of 
the  thief  and  ruffian  Tsou.  but  1  have  not  heard  of  putting  a 
soverign  to  death. "^"  In  other  words,  although  Tsou  possessed  the 
rank  and  title  by  inheritance,  he  was  not  really  emperor  because  he 
did  not  possess  the  qualities  Heaven  had  decreed  for  the  position. 

In  ancient  China,  long  before  the  period  of  the  Chou  philos- 
ophers, it  had  been  the  custom  for  princes  to  carry  with  them  on 
military  expeditions  the  tablets  of  their  ancestors  and  of  the  Gods 
of  the  Land  and  Grain.  Rewards  were  distributed  before  the 
former,  and  punishments  inflicted  before  the  latter,  so  that  in  time 
they  came  to  symbolize  the  abstract  virtues  of  benevolence  and 
righteousness  or  justice,  which  are  emphasized  in  the  Analects.  The 
peculiarly  Chinese  virtue  which  is  rather  lamely  translated  as  pro- 
priety seems  to  have  developed  from  the  sacrificial  ritual.  Loyalty 
was  a  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  feudal  system.  These  and 
other  virtues  appear  as  abstractions  or  universals  from  the  time  of 
Lao  Tzu  and  Confucius  onward,  and  more  and  more  ethical  dis- 

■^  Analects,  13,  3.     There  are  many  translations  of  the  Four  Books,  so  these 
references  are  to  the  chapter  and  verse  of  the  Chinese  text. 
^Ibid.  12,  11. 
^Ibid.   6,  23. 
^^Mcncius,  1,  2,  8. 


OCCIDKXTAL   TIIOUC.IIT    IN    A  X  CI  KNT    C  11  I  X  F.SI'.    ]' 1 1  II.OSOI' 1 1  V       349 

cussion  centered  about  them.  The\  were  the  backbone  of  the  Con- 
fucian system,  and  were  bitterly  attacked  b\   the  Taoists. 

The  chief  foe  of  virtue  was  the  brihiant  Chuang  Tzu.  who 
flourished  about  oOO  Ik  C.  ]\Iencius  had  ascribed  the  virtues  to 
Heaven,  which  had  impkmtcd  them  in  the  human  heart  as  innate 
ideas  or  intuitions.  A  contemporary  and  friend  of  Chuang  Tzu, 
named  Ilui,  had  (hscussed  abstract  nouns  hke  hardness  and  white- 
ness, and  what  can  be  aflirmed  about  them.  Chuang  Tzu  attacks 
both  on  the  ground  that  universal s  are  only  names,  and  that  discus- 
sion of  them  is  useless.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  propriety  in  the 
abstract,  for  the  old  ways  of  Chou  cannot  be  used  in  modern  Lu." 
All  knowledge  is  relative.  Suppose  an  eel  and  a  man  both  slept  in 
a  damp  place.  The  eel  would  draw  the  conclusion  that  dampness 
is  an  excellent  thing,  while  the  man  would  get  rheumatism  and  claim 
the  reverse. ^- 

Unfortunatel}'  little  of  Hui  Tzu  has  survived,  so  we  have  only 
the  word  of  Chuang  Tzu  for  their  discussion.  Alencius  was  dead. 
But  Hsun  Tzu.  the  last  of  the  great  Confucian  thinkers  of  the  an- 
cient or  Chou  period,  seems  to  have  been  so  impressed  with  the 
attack  of  the  Taoists  that  he  abandoned  the  position  of  ^lencius 
entirel}'  and  instead  of  making  the  virtues  intuitions  of  heaven!}- 
law  common  to  all  men,  he  declares  them  to  be  nothing  but  artificial 
standards  erected  by  society  for  its  own  purposes.  Svibsequent 
Chinese  thought  has  generally  held  with  Mencius  and  against 
Chuang  Tzu  and  Hsun  Tzu  on  the  question  of  the  virtues,  and  Hsun 
Tzu.  although  a  Confucian,  has  not  been  honored  with  a  place  in 
the  Confucian  temples.  I!ut  Chinese  common  sense  has  supported 
Chuang  Tzu  in  his  attack  on  universals  other  than  the  virtues,  and 
today  little  is  known  except  that  the  question  was  discussed.  The 
orthodox  Confucian  position  is  that  the  \'irtues  have  their  origin 
in  Heaven,  which  has  placed  them  in  the  human  heart.  How  Hui 
Tzu  and  others  thought  of  a  stone  as  connected  with  the  idea  of 
hardness  we  do  not  know. 


11  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.    Vol.  39,  p.  353. 
^-Ihid.    p.  191. 


350  THE  OPEN  COUR-r 

Part  II. 
The  X ATI' re 

The  Chinese  character  translated  as  Nature  occurs  in  Vjoth  tlie 
Book  of  History  and  the  Hook  of  Poetry. 

"]\Ien  have  no  regard  for  their  heavenl\-  nature,"  complained 
the  founder  of  the  Chou  dynasty.^'* 

"Heaven  gave  birth  ....  but  the  nature  it  confers  is  not  to  be 
depended  on.  All  are  good  at  first,  but  few  prove  themselves  to  be 
so  at  the  last." 

"Heaven,  in  giving  birth  to  the  multitudes  of  the  people,  to 
everv  facult\'  and  relationship  annexed  its  law.  The  j^eople  possess 
this  normal  nature,  and  they  love  its  normal  virtue. "^^ 

The  Chinese  point  of  view,  whose  antic|uity  is  witnessed  b_\' 
these  texts,  is  that  all  things  were  created  with  a  certain  nature  or 
form  or  purpose  appropriate  to  each,  and  that  this  nature  is  con- 
ferred b\'  Heaven.  In  the  case  of  men,  this  nature  has  generallx' 
been  regarded  as  ethical. 

Lao  Tzu,  however,  taught  that  the  purpose  of  man  was  to 
achieve  or  reach  Tao.  Tao  was  a  respectable  word  already  in 
general  use,  so  that  not  even  the  conservative  Confucius  was 
shocked  by  it,  but  the  way  in  which  Lao  Tzu  employs  the  term  is 
vague,  to  say  the  least.  The  opening  sentence  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Mean,  which  is  attributed  to  the  grandson  of  Confucius,  appears  to 
be  an  attempt  to  explain  Tao  by  uniting  it  with  the  older  concej^tion. 

"What  Heaven  has  conferred  is  called  the  Xature.  Tao  is 
accordance  with  this  Xature."  In  other  words,  man  is  made  as 
he  is  by  Heaven  with  a  view  to  a  certain  end  or  purpose,  and  Tao 
is  achieved  when  a  man  lives  according  to  his  nature  and  conform- 
ing to  that  purpose.  This  statement  leaves  the  term  nature  unde- 
fined beyond  saying  that  it  is  given  by  Heaven,  and  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  4th  Century  P.  C.  the  Chinese  were  shocked — and  they 
have  not  recovered  from  it  yet — by  a  definition  of  the  Xature  in 
terms  of  a  complete  egoistic  hedonism. 

"Sorrow  and  grief,"  said  Yang  Chu,  "are  contrary  to  human 
nature;  ease  and  pleasure  are  in  accord  with  it."^"' 

^'■•Sacred  Banks  of  the  Hasf.     Vol.  3,  p.   120. 

1-*  /hid.  p.  410. 

^■''  It'isdniii  of  the  Eiist  Scries.  A.  Forkc,  "Yang  Chu's  Garden  of  Pleas- 
ure," p.  64. 


OCCIDENTAL   THOUcaiT   IX    AXCIKXT   CHIXKSK   PII  ILOSOl'Il  Y      351 

'■'Allow  the  ear  to  hear  what  it  likes,  the  eye  to  see  what  it  likes, 
the  mouth  to  sa\-  what  it  likes,  the  body  to  enjo\-  what  comforts 
it  likes  to  have,  and  the  mind  to  do  what  it  likes."'" 

Yang  Chii  is  nothing  if  not  consistent.  The  most  extreme  case 
in  such  an  argument  would  be  a  man  who  takes  pleasure  in  crueltw 
Yang  openlv  defends  the  two  worst  men  in  Chinese  historw  rei)re- 
sented  as  monsters  of  lust  and  brutality,  by  saying  that  if  it  were 
their  nature  to  behave  in  that  waw  and  it  gave  them  pleasure,  they 
were  right  to  do  it.  It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  Yang  himself  appears 
to  ha\e  been  a  very  mild  man  who  found  his  own  pleasure  in  culti- 
vating his  garden,  ^'et  such  a  theory  demands  an  answer,  and  the 
right  man  was  found  in  ]\lencius. 

The  attack  of  ^lencius  was  both  negative  and  ])ositive.  llis 
destructive  criticism,  in  which  he  mentions  N'ang  Chu  by  name,  is 
that  Yang  is  hopelessly  selfish,  that  his  doctrine  would  destro\- 
society  and  would  result  in  a  relapse  into  sa\agery.'''  Positi\el\- 
]\lencius  stated  the  famous  doctrine  which  is  the  ke\-  to  an  under- 
standing of  Confucian  ethics,  that  the  nature  of  man  is  good,  fust 
as  water  alwa}'s  seeks  the  lowest  level,  so  men  have  a  cra\'ing  for 
virtue  that  is  an  ineradicable  part  of  humanit}.'''^  Even  the  most 
depraved  man  cannot  see  a  child  about  to  fall  into  a  well  without 
feelings  of  sympathy  and  alarm. '^  Heaven  has  given  to  man  a 
nature  which  is  its  own  image,  but  which  man  himself  C()rru])ts. 
Mencius  has  a  list  of  four  virtues — the  generalK'  accepted  number 
at  present  is  fi\e — which  do  not  correspond  exactly  with  any  English 
words  and  are  misleading  when  translated,  so  that  they  need  not  be 
enumerated.  The  important  point  is  that  Mencius  holds  that  a  man 
is  benevolent  and  just,  or  at  least  recognizes  these  qualities  as  ad- 
mirable, because  he  was  made  that  way  by  Heaven.  It  is  not  the 
nature  of  man  to  desire  sense  pleasures  as  the  chief  good,  but  rather 
virtue. 

Mencius  was  followed  by  the  Taoist  Chuang  Tzu,  who  attacked 
the  reality  of  universals,  and  pointed  out  that  the  virtues  are  only 
relative.    A  robber  ma}-  be  said  to  have  all  the  xirtues. 

"That  he  knows  there  are  valuables  in  an  apartment  shows  his 
wisdom;  that  he  is  the  first  to  enter  it  shows  his  courage;  that  he 

i"/6/W.  p.  43. 

^'^  Mcucius.  3,  2,  9,  9,  f. 

i^Ibid.  6,  1.  2,  2. 

10  Ibid.  2.  1,  6,  3. 


S?  THE  OPEN  COURT 


0.1Z 


is  the  last  to  ciuit  it  shows  his  righteousiu-ss  ;  and  that  he  makes  an 
equal  division  of  the  plunder  shows  his  benevolence.  Without  these 
qualities  no  one  has  ever  become  a  great  robber."-" 

Hsun  Tzu.  who  flourished  during  the  3rd  Centur\-  P..  C,  closes 
the  great  creative  period  of  Chinese  thought.  He  abandoned  the 
position  that  the  Nature  is  good,  taking  the  contrary  view^  that  it 
is  evil.  If  men  are  naturally  good,  wh\-  is  education  necessary? 
^^'hat  we  actuallv  observe,  argues  Hsun  Tzu,  is  that  children  are 
naturallv  selfish,  and  have  to  be  taught  altruism,  fair  play  and  con- 
formance with  the  rules  of  society.  Education  thus  becomes  largel\^ 
corrective.  Men  are  superior  to  beasts  because  they  combine, 
specialize  in  their  activities,  and  work  for  the  common  good.  In 
order  to  do  this  they  are  obliged  to  subordinate  their  selfish  interests 
in  a  wav  which  is  not  natural,  but  must  be  taught.  The  virtues 
therefore  become  standards  set  up  by  society,  or  by  the  ruler  as 
the  head  of  society,  and  virtue  itself  entirely  external  and  utilitarian. 

I'here  are  two  other  views  of  the  Xature  possible.  One  was 
taken  bv  a  contemporary  opponent  of  ^lencius,  named  Kao,  that 
it  is  neither  good  nor  evil.  The  other  was  held  by  a  Han  thinker 
named  Yang  Hsiung  about  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  that 
the  heart  of  man  contains  the  seeds  of  both  good  and  evil,  and  that 
it  lies  with  him  how  the}'  are  developed.  The  overwhelming  weight 
of  Chinese  opinion  has  sided  with  Mencius,  and  his  doctrine  of  the 
essential  goodness  of  man's  nature,  which  is  also  the  nature  of 
Heaven,  is  memorized  b}'  every  Chinese  schoolboy. 

The  Theory  of  Knowledge 

In  the  second  chapter  of  the  Tao  Teh  Ching,  Lao  Tzu  speaks  of 
knowing  beauty  as  beauty  and  goodness  as  goodness.  This  seems 
to  imply  that  both  these  concepts  have  a  separate  existence  which  we 
recognize.  As  to  how  we  acquire  such  knowledge,  Lao  Tzu  and  the 
Taoists  generally  agree  that  it  is. by  intuition.  Without  going  out- 
side his  door  or  looking  through  his  window,  a  man  may  see  Tao 
and  understand  all  things.  Knowledge  is  to  be  gained  neither  by 
observation,  nor  by  rational  processes,  for  it  is  a  forgetting  of 
wisdom.  This  conclusion  is  natural  to  a  mystic,  because  his  ap- 
pnjach  to  reality  is  through  his  peculiar  experience,  and  that  ex- 
perience discards  both  observation  and  the  labor  of  thought.     An- 

-"  Sacred  Books  of  the  Hast.     Vol.   1,  p.  2S3. 


OCCIDI 


:XTAL   TIIOUCHT    IX    AXCIKXT    CHIXKSK    PIIILOSOI'HY       353 


Other  metaphxsical  conclusion  which  is  apt  to  resuU  from  a  mystical 
experience  is  that  the  distinctions  between  things  are  not  real.  The 
Chinese  do  not  go  as  far  in  this  direction  as  the  Hindus,  but  Chuang 
Tzu  dreams  that  he  is  a  butterfly,  and  on  awaking  wonders  whether 
he  is  a  man  dreaming  he  is  a  butterfl\-.  or  a  butterfly  dreaming  he  is 
a  man.  The  Taoists  all  teach  that  there  is  no  absolute  knowledge 
except  the  mystical  knowledge  of  Tao. 

Confucius  was  not  a  mystic  but  a  man  of  affairs  who  cared  little 
for  metaphysics.  He  has  no  clear  position  as  to  how  knowledge  is 
gained  and  what  it  is,  although  his  theor}-  of  ideas  makes  it  evident 
that  both  objects  and  universals  have  an  existence  outside  ourselves, 
and  that  the  realitv  of  the  former  is  due  to  the  latter.  He  emphasizes 
experience  and  study,  and  in  teaching  he  lifted  one  corner  of  a 
subject,  requiring  his  pupils  to  lift  the  other  three;  in  other  words 
he  made  his  students  do  a  gootl  deal  of  thinking  for  themselves.  He 
also  taught  that  real  knowledge  includes  practice. 

His  followers  are  divided  on  the  theory  of  knowledge.  In  the 
Great  Learning,  a  small  treatise  attributed  to  his  disciple  Tseng  Tzu, 
there  occurs  the  expression,  "The  investigation  of  things,"  and 
while  the  development  of  Confucian  epistemology  from  this  phrase 
did  not  take  place  until  the  11th  Century  of  our  era,  the  lines  along 
which  it  followed  may  be  indicated.  The  first  of  the  Sung  phil- 
osophers, Chou  Teng  I,  had  as  pupils  two  brothers  named  Ch'eng. 
From  Ch'eng  Hao  developed  Chu  Hsi  and  his  followers,  who  taught 
that  knowledge  was  gained  from  the  investigation  of  things  in  the 
sense  of  what  we  would  call  a  scientific  or  inductive  observation  of 
the  universe.  The  Sung  thinkers  have  not  been  thoroughly  studied 
by  European  scholars,  and  it  is  not  certain  whether  Chu  Hsi  thought 
of  our  knowledge  of  external  objects  as  immediate,  or  as  a  cor- 
respondence, but  it  does  seem  clear  that  he  regarded  such  knowledge 
as  real  and  not  as  appearance.  On  the  other  hand,  from  Ch'eng 
I  there  was  a  line  of  development  through  Lu  Hsiang  Shan  and 
Wang  Yang  Ming  which  taught  that  knowledge  was  to  be  gained 
by  introspection  and  tested  b}'  experience,  which  has  led  some  to 
call  Wang  Yang  Aling  a  pragmatist.  While  the  interpretation  of 
Chu  Hsi  is  regarded  as  authoritative,  all  these  men  are  considered 
orthodox  Confucians,  and  their  names  are  placed  in  the  Confucian 
temple. 

To  return  to  the  ancient  period.     Meh  Ti,  in  the  centur}'  follow- 


354  THE  OPEN  COURT 

in^  Confucius,  was  a  thorough  empiricist  and  his  three  standards 
for  the  testing  of  any  principle  are  all  based  on  experience. 

•'There  is  the  standard  of  precedent;  there  is  the  standard  of 
observation;  and  there  is  the  standard  of  function."^^  The  meaning 
may  be  phrased  in  this  way.  Is  a  principle  true  or  valid?  First. 
it  may  be  checked  by  the  recorded  experience  of  the  nation;  second, 
it  may  be  tested  by  the  ears  and  eyes  of  the  common  people;  and 
third,  it  may  be  tried  out  and  if  it  works  well,  adopted.  Meh  Ti  says 
nothing  about  intuition,  nor  about  the  rectification  of  names.  Sense 
perception  seems  the  only  way  he  recognizes  that  truth  can  reach 
us,  and  his  argument  for  the  existence  of  ghosts  and  spirits  is  a 
naive  application  of  his  method.  A\'e  have  the  records  of  the 
appearances  of  spirits  in  the  past,  and  we  know  many  people  alive 
today  who  say  that  they  have  seen  them,  therefore  they  must  exist. 

The  Taoists  are  not  so  sure  of  this  argument.  Lieh  Tzu  makes 
a  distinction  between  perception  and  the  thing  perceived.  Sound  is 
not  the  same  as  that  which  causes  sound,  and  which  is  not  itself 
audible.     Sight  is  different  from  the  object  seen,  and  so  on." 

In  two  remarkable  stories,  Lieh  Tzu  shows  the  part  played  by 
the  mind  in  making  truth.  The  first  tells  of  a  man  who  had  lost 
an  axe,  and  was  convinced  by  the  behaviour  of  a  boy  that  he  had 
stolen  it.  Shortly  after  he  found  the  axe,  and  on  again  meeting  the 
boy  observed  none  of  the  suspicious  signs. 

The  second  describes  how  a  certain  man's  mind  was  so  set  on 
obtaining  gold  that  he  walked  into  a  shop  and  helped  himself. 
When  the  judge  asked  why  he  had  committed  the  theft  in  broad 
daylight,  he  answered  that  he  had  seen  and  been  conscious  of 
nothing  except  the  gold.  The  moral  is  that  we  see  what  we  look 
for.-3 

The  story  of  the  deer-^  is  too  intricate  to  retell  but  is  well  worth 
reading.  A  simple  occurence  soon  becomes  so  involved  with  dreams,, 
discrepancies  of  testimony  and  fiction  that  after  the  most  thorough 
investigation  the  authorities  despair  of  coming  at  the  real  facts,  and 
order  a  decision  to  be  made  on  grounds  of  convenience.  In  other 
words,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  truth,  or  if  there  is,  we 
cannot  know  it,  and  are  forced  to  exercise  choice  in  deciding  what 

21  The  Open  Court,  April,  1928,  p.  231. 

--  Wisdom   of  the  East  Series.     L.  Giles,  "Taoist  Teachings,"  p.  21. 

23  Ibid.  p.  120. 

2-1  Ibid.  p.  66  f . 


OCCIDENTAL  TlIOl'miT   J  X    .\XCli:XT   ClUM'.Si:    I'll  ll.OSOl'lIY      O.'iD 

is  to  be  considered  true.     Xaturally  faith  plays  a  great  part  in  T.ieh 
Tzu's  teaching,  and  he  makes  much  use  of  fable  and  the  miraculous. 
Dr.    Ilu  Shih  has  pointed  out  that  a  number  of  minor  i)hil()s- 
ophers  who  seem  to  have  been  influenced  by  Meh  Ti  and  are  some- 
times  called   Xeo--\ricians,   of    whom    Kung-sen    Lung   is    the    best 
known,    made    valuable    contributions    to    the    development    of    the 
theory  of  knowledge.     ]\Ieh  Ti  had  made  knowledge  empirical  and 
Lieh  Tzu  had  emphasized  the  part  pla}ed  by  the  mind  in  making 
truth.     These  later  men   distinguish  three  elements  in   knowledge, 
l-'irst.  there  must  be  the  ability  to  know ;  second,  knowledge  implies 
reception,   that    is    sensation   due  to   stimulii ;    third,   knowledge   is 
meaning.-''     This  amounts  to  a  synthesis  of  ]\Ieh  Ti  and  Lieh  Tzu, 
for  there  must  be  both  sensation  and  an  orderly  grouping  of  sensa- 
tions by  the  mind.     The  Xeo-]\licians  seem  to  have  held  that  this 
grouping  or   correlation   of  sensations   was   accomplished  by   what 
we  would  call  time  and  space  coordinates,  but  the  Chinese  text  is 
extremely  cryptic  and  Dr.  Hu's  interpretation  has  been  questioned. 
The  difficult  form  in  which  these  teachings  were  expressed,  and 
Kung-sen  Lung's  use  of  paradoxes  which  resemble  Zeno's,  rather 
discredited  the  school.     It  is  criticized  b}-  both  Chuang  Tzu  and 
Hsun  Tzu,  though  from  different  points  of  view.     How  is  one  to 
know  whether  the  image  in  the  mind  corresponds  to  the  real  object? 
Chuang  Tzu   follows  Lieh  Tzu,  holding  that  there  is  no   w^a}-  of 
telling,  and  that  all  truth  is  relative.  Hsun  Tzu  revives  the  Confucian 
doctrine  of  the  rectification  of  names,  implying  that  there  is  a  real 
connection  between  terms  and  objects,  though  what  it  is  he  does 
not  define.     He  also  holds  that  the  meaning  of  such  terms  is  fixed 
by   social    agreement.      In   the   main,    he    accepts    the    Xeo-l\Iician 
analysis   of   knowledge   with   common   sense    reservations,    and    so 
closed  the  discussion  of  the  problem  in  the  Chou  period.-" 

The  Decree 

The  character  translated  as  the  Decree,  or  as  Fate,  is  at  least  as 
old  as  the  Book  of  History,  and  presumably  much  older.  Vevx  often 
it  occurs  in  the  phrase,  the  Decree  of  Heaven.  It  mav  be  given 
two  interpretations,  depending  upon  whether  the  interpreter  is  a 
determinist,  or  a  believer  in   free-will.     The  determinist  uses   the 

-''  H.  H.  Dubs,  Hsilntzc.    Prohsthain's  Oriental  Scries,  p.  213  f. 
2«  Ibid.  p.  227  f . 


356  THE  OPEN  COURT 

word  in  the  sense  of  fate,  or  unavoidable  destin}-.  while  the  other 
uses  it  as  the  command  of  Heaven,  which  ma\-  be  (lisobe\ed  even 
though  disobedience   brings   with   it   inevitable    consequences. 

While  the  Book  of  History  unequivocably  declares  against 
fatalism,  it  also  shows  that  by  the  beginning  of  Chinese  history  the 
term  was  already  used  as  fate.  Chieh  and  Tsou,  the  last  rulers  of 
the  two  dynasties  preceding  the  Chou,  are  condemned  because  they 
relied  upon  the  Decree,  or  as  we  would  put  it,  upon  divine  right. 
Against  this  view  the  liook  of  History  points  out  that  the  continua- 
tion of  the  decree  appointing  a  man  to  office  depends  upon  his  good 
behaviour,  and  that  disobedience  to  the  commands  of  Heaven  will 
result  in  the  changing  of  its  appointment. 

"Shang  Ti  has  changed  his  Decree  regarding  Yin,  though  many 
of  its  former  kings  were  in  heaven."-'^ 

"Heaven  had  no  purpose  to  do  away  with  Hsia  or  Yin.  but  the 
last  rulers  reckoning  on  the  Decree,  abandoned  themselves  to  excess, 
so  Heaven  sent  down  ruin."-^ 

Meh  Ti  also  refers  to  these  bad  rulers  as  having  taught  fatalism. 

"I  have  heard  from  the  men  of  Hsia  that  he.  (Chieh),  feigned 
the  orders  of  Heaven  and  taught  fatalism  to  those  below." 

"Tsou  did  not  worship  Shang  Ti  nor  the  spirits  above,  and 
troubled  his  ancestors  by  neglecting  sacrifices,  lie  even  said,  'Aly 
people  have  their  fate ;  there  is  no  use  in  punishing  their  disgrace 
in  which  Heaven  also  indulges.'  "-^ 

It  ma}'  be  that  fate  is  the  original  meaning  of  the  word,  but  it 
is  certainly  true  that  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  Book  of  History 
as  we  have  it,  is  clearly  to  combat  determinism.  Heaven  does 
send  disaster,  but  only  as  a  test  or  a  punihment,  and  men  may 
rise  superior  to  it.  Only  the  consequences  of  their  own  acts  are 
inescapable. 

When  so  much  discussion  of  the  term  had  already  taken  place, 
it  is  surprising  to  find  that  the  two  great  leaders  of  the  line  of  Chou 
philosophers  say  little  or  nothing  about  it.  Lao  Tzu  uses  the  word 
only  once,  merely  saying  that  the  honor  and  reverence  i)aitl  to  Tao 
and  its  complement  Teh  are  not  due  to  the  Decree,  but  are  part  of 
the   natural   order   of    things.'^"      Confucius    seldom    spoke   of    the 

-"  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  3,  p.  184. 
-8  Ibid.  p.  216. 

^»  The  Open  Court,  July.  1928,  p.  434. 
^*^  Tao  Teh  Cliiny,  Chapter  51. 


OCCIDENTAL  TIinUGIIT  IN   ANCIENT   CHINESE   PII  ILOSOl'Il  Y      337 

Decree,'^^  but  placed  himself  sciuarely  against  determinism  h\-  sa\mg 
that  "the  will  of  even  a  common  man  cannot  be  taken  from  him."'^- 

Although  the  founders  of  the  two  chief  schools  of  thought  were 
reticent  on  the  subject,  their  followers  were  not.  and  in  general  it 
mav  be  said  that  the  Confucianists.  who  stressed  ethics  and  the 
virtues,  declared  for  freedom,  while  the  Taoists,  who  decried  the 
virtues  and  sought  inspiration  in  the  course  of  nature,  were  on  the 
side  of  determinism,  both  parties  using  the  same  word. 

]\Iencius  limited  the  working  of  the  Decree  to  "that  which  hajv 
pens  without  man"s  causing  it  to  happen, "•^•^  excepting  man's  will 
from  the  law  of  mechanism,  though  not  excluding  the  consequences 
of  his  actions.  The  book  of  Alencius  contains  very  little  of  a  re- 
ligious nature  and  begins  with  a  statement  that  he  discussed  nothing 
but  benevolence  and  righteousness.  This  accent  upon  the  virtues 
and  the  place  he  gave  them  in  the  Nature  of  man  necessitated  the 
acce])tance  of  freedom  and  a  corresponding  definition  of  the  Decree. 

"He  who  has  the  true  idea  of  the  Decree  will  not  stand  beneath  a 
wall  about  to  fall.'""^'* 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Taoist  Chuang  Tzu  is  a  clear  fatalist. 
Life  and  death  are  ordained.''^''  and  the  onl\-  correct  attitude  is  that 
of  submission  to  fate.'^"  He  damns  Confucius  with  faint  praise  bv 
calling  him  a  good  man  who  was  condemned  by  Heaven  to  an 
undue  interest  in  ephemeral  matters. •'^^  "Acquiesce  in  what  has  been 
arranged"^'^  is  his  teaching.  "The  sages  contemplated  Heaven  but 
did  not  assist  it."'"^'^  Uirth  and  death  are  like  the  procession  of  the 
seasons.'**^  as  usual  he  caps  his  argument  with  a  stor\-,  in  this  case 
about  a  tortoise  which  was  wise  in  divination  but  could  not  ])revent 
its  own  capture  and  death. "*^ 

Hsun  Tzu  does  not  seem  to  have  differed  from  AFencius  on  this 
point,  defining  the  Decree  as  what  one  meets  at  the  moment,'-  but 

31  Analects.  9,  1. 

32  Ibid.  9.  25. 
^^Mcnciiis.  5.  1.  6.  2. 
s-t  Ibid.  7,  1,  2,  2. 

3">  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  39,  p.  241. 
3*5  Ibid.  p.  248. 

37  Ibid.  p.  232. 

38  Ibid.  p.  25^. 

39  Ibid.  p.  305. 

•1"  .'^'acred  Books  of  the  East.  Vol.  40.  p.  4. 

-n  Ibid.  p.  137. 

42  H.  H.  Dubs,  Hsinitze,  p.  71. 


T,SS  THE  OPEX   COURT 

he  was  probablv  less  religious  than  ^Nlencius  and  Confucius.  His 
translator,  Dr.  Dubs,  says  that  he  considered  Heaven  as  impersonal 
law,  borrowing  the  Taoist  conception,"*^  but  rather  inconsistently  he 
allowed  man  a  measure  of  freedom. 

The  great  opponent  of  fatalism  in  ancient  China  was  INIeh  Ti, 
who  devoted  an  essay  to  the  subject,  though  in  its  present  form  it 
is  probably  the  work  of  his  pupils.  He  lays  the  blame  for  the 
disorders  in  the  China  of  his  day  to  the  apathy  caused  by  the  cur- 
rent belief  that  there  is  no  use  in  struggling  against  fate. 

"The  fatalist  says:  'Being  rich  by  fate,  a  man  is  rich;  while 
being  poor  by  fate,  he  is  poor.  Whether  a  nation  increases  or  de- 
creases is  determined  by  fate.  When  order  is  fated,  there  will  be 
peace:  when  disorder  is  fated,  there  will  be  trouble.  .  .  .  What  is 
the  use  of  working  against  fate?'  Thus,  they  preach  to  the  rulers, 
dukes  and  great  men  above,  and  prevent  the  people  below  from 
doing  their  business.  Therefore  the  fatalists  are  charged  with  being 
unbenevolent.  We  cannot  fail  to  understand  what  the  fatalists  say. 
But  how  do  we  discriminate  these  sa}ings?  'Meh  Ti  says,  'We  must 
have  a  standard.'  H  there  be  no  standard  ....  the  distinction  of 
right  and  wrong,  of  benefit  and  harm,  can  never  be  known. "^^ 

Meh  Ti  goes  on  to  point  out  the  disintegrating  influence  of  such 
a  doctrine  upon  society,  enumerating  the  evils  which  ensue  when 
men  consider  themselves  helpless.  "These  are  the  results  of  be- 
lieving in  fate.  They  have  their  birth  in  evil  words.  Therefore 
Aleh  Ti  says,  'Now  the  scholars  and  superior  men  ....  cannot  fail 
to  know  that  the  words  of  the  fatalists  are  wrong.  It  is  the  greatest 
evil  in  the  world."""''-' 

In  this  brief  paper  I  have  endeavored  to  indicate  some  of  the 
problems  which  the  thinkers  of  ancient  China  attacked,  the  solutions 
they  otTered,  and  the  play  of  mind  on  mind  among  the  different 
schools.  The  enormity  of  the  attempt  would  be  equalled  bv  trving  to 
describe  the  development  of  Greek  thought  from  Thales  to  Aristotle 
in  a  similar  space.  Yet  the  effort  is  worth  while  if  it  indicates  the 
width  and  depth  of  the  golden  period  of  Chinese  philosophw  and 
stinuilates  western  scholars  out  of  their  apathy  towards  the  East, 
which  is  not  creditable  either  to  our  learning  or  our  sympathies. 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  which  one  notices  in  the  studv 

43  Ibid.  p.  63. 

44  The  Open  Court,  July,  1928,  p.  430. 
4--;  Ibid.  p.  434. 


OeCIDEXTAL  THOUGHT   IX   AXCn:XT   CHIXESE   PHH.OSOPHY      359 

of  Chinese  thinkers  is  the  number  of  solution?  and  arguments  which 
suggest  or  run  parallel  to  the  results  of  European  thought.  1  have 
refrained  from  making  comparisons  because  I  had  to  be  brief,  but 
thev  will  readil}-  occur  to  everyone.  And  I  have  taken  the  liberty, 
which  I  feel  is  quite  justifiable  historically,  of  treating  the  de\elop- 
ment  of  an  idea  as  a  continuous  process,  each  man  adding  something 
to  what  had  gone  before.  The  fact  that  there  is  known  to  have  been 
frequent  communication  between  the  feudal  states,  that  ideas 
travelled  easil\-.  that  most  of  these  men  are  known  to  have  jived 
in  the  same  cit}-  for  portions  of  their  lives,  and  that  in  nearly  all, 
the  ettects  of  previous  thought  can  readil\-  be  traced,  make  the 
assumption  admissible  even  when  the  influence  is  not  admitted 
directly.  Some  of  these  men  refer  to  their  predecessors,  Chuang 
Tzu.  for  instance,  mentioning  by  name  nearly  every  Chinese  thinker 
before  and  contemporaneous  with  him,  while  others  write  without 
any  direct  reference  as  to  where  the\-  received  their  stimulus  to 
thought. 

The  notes  refer  to  English  translations,  which  are  alwa\s  un- 
satisfactory, and  which  usually  fail  to  indicate  that  the  Chinese  text 
employs  technical  terms  which  cannot  be  loosely  rendered  into  a 
foreign  language.  The  quotations  ha\e  bet-n  checked  with  the 
Chinese  bv  Mr.  Huang  K'uei  Yuan. 


AX  IXOUIRY  IXTO  THE  PRE-HTSTORY  OF 
CHIXESE  THOUGHT 

BY  H.  G.  rRi:t:L,  a.  y\. 

THE  task  which  it  is  proposed  to  earn-  out  in  this  and  succeed- 
ing articles  is  an  investigation  of  the  origins  and  development 
of  Chinese  thought,  from  the  earliest  ])erio(l  ahout  which  we  can 
reasonably  speculate  down  through  the  period  of  the  classical  philo- 
sophical systems.  It  will  immediately  be  objected  that  such  an 
undertaking  is  cjuite  incongruous  with  a  "series  of  articles,"  but  is 
rather  a  labor  for  a  lifetime  of  investigation  deposited  in  a  shelf  of 
volumes.  This  would  be  true,  if  this  study  presumed  to  treat  ex- 
hausti^'el\•  of  each  separate  period  and  each  individual  thinker  as 
such.  It  does  not.  The  modern  emphasis  on  specialization  for 
efficienc\-  in  scientific  research  carries  with  it,  however,  the  neces- 
sitv  of  correlation  in  order  that  ])ersi)ectives  may  be  preser\e(l  and 
enlarged.     It  is  to  this  latter  task  that  this  study  is  directed. 

\\  e  shall  have  occasion,  to  be  sure,  to  go  in  some  detail  intcj 
the  features  of  some  of  the  most  important  developments  in  L'hinese 
philosophv  and  religion,  but  always  the  emphasis  will  be  rather  on 
placing  particular  thinkers  and  ideas  in  their  setting  with  relation  to 
the  main  stream  of  Chinese  thought  than  on  any  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  these  phenomena  themselves.  Indeed,  we  must  go  back 
still  further,  and  ask  if  there  ;.s-  any  such  thing  as  a  "stream"  of 
Chinese  thought,  or  if  it  is  rather,  as  a  few  sinologists  have  seemed 
to  feel,  a  kind  of  trough  into  which  various  individuals  have  from 
time  to  time  poured  ideas  originated  almost  /';/  vacuo,  following 
which  has  ensued  a  period  of  degeneration.  It  ma\-  be  confessed 
here  that  the  general  thesis  of  this  study  (arrived  at,  not  a  priori. 
but  as  the  fruit  of  research  )  is  that  there  does  exist  a  definite  and 
peculiarly  Chinese  wo  rid- view,  the  history  of  whose  development 


THE  PRE-HISTOKY  OF   CIIIXKSK  TIlOUdlT  361 

may  be  traced  at  least  in  outline.  I'urther,  each  of  the  mcjre  im- 
portant thinkers  and  ideas  within  our  j^eriod  has  oriti^inated,  not 
outside  of  nor  in  opposition  to  this  backtiround,  but  rather  as  an 
expression  of  it  and  a  development  within  it. 

At  tlie  outset  ma\"  one  be  pardoned  for  recallinji^  a  platitude  of 
modern  historical  method  which,  like  other  things  taken  for  granted, 
may  easily  be  neglected  in  practice  ?  When  we  study  any  particular 
culture  our  most  fruitful  ajiproach  is  to  look  at  it,  in  so  far  as  we 
possibh-  can.  from  the  inside.  In  approaching  things  Chinese  we 
must  attempt,  first  of  all,  to  appropriate  to  ourselves  the  Chinese 
point  of  view,  so  that  we  regard  any  particular  thing  not  as  a  West- 
erner would,  nor  even  as  a  Hindu,  but  as  a  Chinese.^  This  need 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  Chinese  word  hsiii;/  ^j,  often  translated 
"element."  The  fi\-e  hsiiu/  are  wood,  fire,  metal,  water,  and  earth. 
Immediatel_\'  the  Western  reader  is  likel_\-  to  ecjuatc  these  with  the 
Greek  elements.  Hut  those  were  relatively  inert:  the  lisini/  on  the 
other  hand  are  very  actixe.  Other  meanings  of  the  same  character 
include:  "road,  conduct,  behavior,  actions,  walk,  mo\e.  perform, 
do."  One  is  tempted,  again,  to  make  a  hast\-  ccinclusion  and  to 
equate  these  "elements"  \vith  the  \ery  active  electron-com])osed 
substances  of  modern  ph\sics.  ISut  again  he  would  be  mistaken, 
for  hsiiifi  is  a  Chinese  idea,  ecjuivalent  to  no  Western  idea,  and 
must  be  thoroughlx"  studied  and  understood  in  its  own  setting  before 
it  may  intelligent!}-  be  used  as  a  concept. 

Especial  caution,  that  we  ma_\'  keep  from  reading  in  our  own 
interpretations,  is  necessary  in  dealing  with  the  Chinese  thought- 
world.  Ancient  China  enjoxed  an  unicjue  phxsical  isolation  from 
the  rest  of  the  world.  "Desert,  mountain,  and  sea  had  conspired 
together  and  presented  an  almost  insurmountable  barrier  to  human 
intercourse."-  This  geographical  se|)aration  has  had  its  ver_\'  definite 
intellectual  counterpart.  If  one  wished  to  make  an  extreme  state- 
ment, he  might  even  contend  that  ancient  India,  the  Mesopotamian 
world,  the  ^Tediterranean  world,  and  Europe  shared  (  within  the 
widest  limits  of  variation)  one  system  of  human  thought,  Avhile 
ancient  China  j^resents  us  with  another.  Here  lies  one  of  the 
greatest  values  of  the  study  of  Chinese  histor}- ;  many  ideas  which 

1  This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that  I  carry  the  insistence  on  cultural 
atomism  to  the  point  to  which  Oswald  Spongier  does,  holding  that  borrowing 
between  cultures  is  absolutely  impossible.  This  is  to  press  a  good  principle 
entirely  too  far. 

-James  B.  Pratt,  "Thr  PiUjriinanc  of  Buddhism."  p.  272. 


362  THE  OPEN  COURT 

have  been  thought  "universal,"  and  have  been  referred  to  the 
"psvchological  unity  of  mankind."  must  abdicate  this  position  when 
the  Chinese  touchstone  is  apphed. 

The  fact  remains  that  many  of  the  earher  studies  of  Chinese 
religion  in  particular  were  made  by  men  who  recognized  but  little  the 
existence  of  a  peculiar  Chinese  mode  of  thought,  if  indeed  they  did 
not  deny  the  very  possibility.  Three  reasons  for  this  may  be  men- 
tioned. The  first  is  the  inaccessibility  of  the  country.  The  second 
is  the  difficulty  of  the  language.*^  Third,  since  these  conditions 
prevented  the  earl\-  entry  of  unbiased  scholars,  in  any  number,  into 
the  Chinese  field,  the  initial  task  of  interiM-etation  of  Chinese  history, 
philosophy,  and  religion  was  left  almost  entirely  to  Christian  mis- 
sionaries, men  who  by  their  very  calling  were  usuall}'  unqualified 
for  the  labor  of  objective  and  critical  scholarship.  As  a  result,  the 
Chinese  Classics  are  still  known  to  the  West  largely  through  the 
translations  of  such  men  as  James  I^egge.  One  can  have  only 
admiration  for  the  conscientious  industry  which  Legge  gave  to  his 
pioneering  tasks,  but  that  does  not  prevent  the  wish  that  they  might 
have  been  performed  by  some  one  less  determined  to  harmonize 
Chinese  histor\-  with  the  book  of  Goicsis.'*  Ancient  Chinese  is  a 
language  which  can  not  be  translated  literally  into  another  tongue. 
The  translator  must  be  to  some  extent  an  interpreter.  Such  a  situa- 
tion is  paradise  for  the  man  with  a  theory. 

The  unfortunate  sequel  has  been  that  Mdien  more  competent 
investigators,  free  from  such  bias,  entered  the  field,  thev  took  over, 
to  some  extent,  this  distortion  of  Chinese  ideas.  Thus,  for  instance, 
M.  Granet  translates  slioi  as  "dieu."  hut  since  this  does  not  fit  in 
other  places  (it  does  not  fit  precisely,  an\where )  he  must  translate 
the  same  word  differentlw  The  same  is  true  of  she  which  he  trans- 
lates sometimes  as  "dieu  du  sol,"  sometimes  otherwise,  although 
the  meaning  in  Chinese  is  the  same.  All  this  is  most  confusing.  It 
is  hoped  that  the  reader  will  bear  with  the  alternative  which  has 
been  adopted  for  this  stud\',  of  first  defining  such  genuinely  untrans- 
latable terms  and  thereafter  using  the  phonetic  transliteration  to 
denote  them. 

3  This  is  partially  due  to  the  fact  that  the  teaching  of  Chinese  has  not  yet 
been  developed  to  anything  like  the  efficiency  which  prevails  in  the  teaching  of 
European  tongues.  It  may  be  hoped  that  in  the  near  future,  as  a  result  of 
labors  now  going  forward,  learning  Chinese  will  be  considered  by  no  means 
an  insurmountable  task. 

**  Cf.  Legge,  Slut  King  (in  Chinese  Classics)  (referred  to  hereafter  as 
Shu)  p.  189. 


THE  PKK-IIISTOKV  OF  cinxKsi:  TiiorciiT  363 

In  order  lo  understand  any  Chinese  idea  or  any  Chinese  thinker, 
■\ve  must  ha\e  some  com])rehension  of  the  C'liinese  tliouiiht-world  as 
a  whole,  and  of  its  history.  Manifestly,  this  reciuires  tliat  we  sliall 
start  with  the  very  earhest  data  which  we  can  tind,  and  work  from 
that  point.  We  are  faced  with  the  dii^cult  task  of  evaluating-  those 
of  the  Chinese  records  which  ])retend  to  tell  us  of  remote  anti([uity. 

Western  scholars  are  \ery  cautious  in  makini^-  any  statement  of 
fact  for  China  j^rior  to.  say.  the  time  of  Confucius.  Chinese 
scholars  in  j2;eneral  are,  of  late,  hesitant  ahout  affirminij  anythins:: 
concerning  their  earl\  history.  Almost  any  hypothesis  may  be 
proved  or  disproved  on  what  may  seem  fairly  good  authoritx. 
Almost  all  documents  are  suspect,  (iranet  throws  overboard  nearly 
the  whole  of  earl\-  Chinese  literature,  in  so  far  as  it  is  supposed  to 
record  historical  e\ents.'' 

A  hopeless  situation?  For  accurate  political  history,  ]>erhaps. 
Certain!}-  a  discouraging  situation,  from  an}-  point  of  view.  Vet, 
it  is  the  (jbstacles  to  be  overcome  which  give  zest  to  any  g-ame,  from 
chess  to  research.  In  an}-  case,  we  are  certainly  faced  with  a  situa- 
tion calling  for  a  peculiar  method  of  approach.  For  myself,  I  am 
unable  to  place  much  faith  in  specific  dates  and  events  prior  to  the 
time  of  Confucius,  and  almost  none  in  those  anterior  to  the  found- 
ing of  the  Chow  d}-nasty  (1122  ?  15.  C. ).  Yet  this  does  not  make 
the  writing-  of  cultural,  intellectual,  and  religious  history  b}-  an\- 
means  impossible.  hOr  instance:  If  we  fmd  in  the  book  called  The 
Tribute  of  Yu  that  a  certain  tribe  sent  earth  of  five  colors  as  a 
tribute,  it  ma}'  make  little  diiierence  whether  Yu  or  the  tribe  ever 
existed;  the  important  jioint  for  us  is  that  if  we  can  establish  an 
approximate  date  for  the  document,  we  shall  know  that  the  five 
colors  as  a  concept' existed  at  that  time  (barring  later  interpolation, 
of  course).  And  at  any  rate  this  provides  us  with  one  more  evidence 
of  the  existence,  at  whatever  date,  of  an  imjiortant  element  of  the 
Chinese  natural  philosophv. 

It  is  the  first  task  of  this  stud}'  to  set  fijrth  the  complex  of 
natural  and  religious  philosoph}-  as  it  existed  in  China  a  little  before 
the  time  of  Confucius.  To  do  that,  we  shall  have  to  go  into  remote 
origins,  and  there  we  shall  be  on  doubtful  ground.  I'.ut  this  will  -jiot 
seriously  endanger  the  final  result,  for,  while  the  historical  chron- 
ology of  a  people  ma}-  be  falsified  and  garbled  past  recognition  in 

^  Cf.  Marcel  Granet,  Danscs  cf  Lcycndcs  dc  la  Chine  Ancicunc  (noted  fierc- 
after  as  Danses)  p.  1. 


364  THE  OPEN  COURT 

a  literature,  it  is  literally  impossible  tliat  a  literature  of  tlie  scope 
and  ■z'ariety  of  the  Chinese  could  be  perz'aded  by  a  single  type  of 
philosophx  if  that  pliilosophy  had  not  been,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
a  dominating  factor  in  the  life  of  tlie  people. 

Xo  argument  is  required  to  show  that  the  question  of  the  original 
home  of  the  Chinese  people  is  of  importance  for  our  problem.  If 
as  Legge  believes  they  are  descendants  of  Xoah  who  moved  east- 
ward after  the  incident  at  P.abel,  if  they  came  from  Egypt,  or  if 
thev  were  immigrants  from  ancient  Bab}lon,  these  facts  will  give  us 
a  kev  to  the  interpretation  of  their  early  ])hilos()])hy.  Ikit  even  the 
question  of  when  they  entered  the  territor_\-  we  know  as  China  is 
one  to  which,  as  Henri  Cordier  wrote  in  1915,  we  may  never  know 
the  answer.  It  is  comforting  to  reflect  that  we  do  have  at  least  one 
specific  date;  according  to  Schlegel,  the  oldest  astronomical  observa- 
tion in  the  world  was  made  and  recorded  in  China,  that  of  the  eclipse 
of  the  sun  on  Mav  7,  2165  15.  C.  This  implies,  of  course,  that  the 
people  making  the  observation  had  reached  a  ver_\-  considerable 
degree  of  advancement. 

A  detailed  summary  of  the  more  im])f)rtant  reasearch  on  the 
question  of  Chinese  origins  will  be  found  in  the  T'oung  Pao  for 
1915.  p]i.  577-603.  Two  general  theories  seem  to  have  taken  the 
field,  one  being  that  the  Chinese  have  been  in  their  present  situation 
from  highest  anti(|uity,  the  other  that  the_\-  migrated  to  China  from 
a  previous  westward  home.  AMth  the  latter  theory  is  usuall}',  but 
not  always,  coml)ined  the  contention  that  the\'  were  herders  during 
and  prior  to  the  migration. 

These  two  theories  are  sometimes  associated,  and  used  to  account 
for  the  undoubtedly  composite  origin  of  the  Chinese.  It  is  held, 
then,  that  a  ])ortion  of  the  people  came  in  as  warlike,  pastoral 
nomads,  conquered  the  peoi)le  the\'  found  in  the  land,  and  settled 
among  them  as  a  ruling  caste.  If  we  could  accei)t  this  explanation 
it  would  certainly  solve  several  of  our  knottiest  problems,  as  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  see.  Hut  a  theory  is  not  correct  merely  because  it 
is  convenient. 

The  arguments  for  a  ])astoral  "stage"  in  Chinese  history  are  not 
convincing.*'  It  used  to  be  believed  that,  just  as  ])eople  passed 
first    from    marital    promiscuitv    through    the    matriarchate,     then 

''  Li  support  of  the  pastoral  theory  sec  Kwcn  Ih  Tai,  An  fnquiry  into  flic 
Origin  and  Early  Development  of  T'ien  and  Sliang-ti  (Ph.D.  Thesis,  Chicago), 
pp.  138-160.  For  the  primitive  agricultural  theory,  see  H.  F.  Rudd,  Cliine.<;e 
Social  Origins,  p.  55. 


TllK   l'kl>llIS'i(iRV   Ol-    (11  I  Xl-.SK  TIIOL'CHT  365 

throuii'h  a  patriarchal  stas^e,  so  they  went  from  huntin.i^'  to  herdinj^" 
and  thence  to  ag'riculture.  Hoth  are  exjjloded  theories,  in  so  far 
as  the\-  were  thought  to  be  universahy  a])i)Hcable.  In  aboriginal 
Xortli  and  Middle  America,  herding  ne\er  reached  any  develo])nient 
worthy  of  mention,  \\hile  the  agricultural  achie\enients  of  the 
Indian  are  probabK   his  chief  contribution  to  ci\ili/.ation. 

In  regard  to  the  whole  tiuestion  of  the  j^lace  of  origin  of  the 
earl\-  Chinese  and  the  mode  of  their  early  life,  we  must  l)e  willing 
to  maintain  suspended  judgment.  While  this  is  written,  researches 
are  g'oing  forward  which  may,  at  any  time.  i)ut  our  knowledge  on 
tirmer  ground  :  when  this  hapjiens  we  may  expect  that  several  other 
mxsteries,  of  the  greatest  im})(U"tance  for  the  history  of  the  whole 
human  race,  will  be  cleared  up  at  the  same  time.  Hut  lack  of 
dogmatic  certaint}'  on  this  point  need  not  pre\ent  us  from  Iniilding 
an  interpretation  of  ancient  Chinese  thought  which,  we  ma\-  be 
reasonably  confident,  will  not  l)e  inxalidated  no  matter  what  may 
be  the  results  of  future  research  in  the  field  of  origins.  Cood 
scientific  theories  should  be  constructed,  when  possible,  on  the  i)lan 
of  Japanese  dwellings — flexible  enough  so  that  the_\'  can  stand  an 
earthquake  or  two  in  the  substructure  without  being'  sfiaken  com- 
pletel_\-  to  ]Meces. 

After  all.  what  precise  difference  would  it  have  made  in  the 
world-\iew  of  the  ])eople,  at  the  earliest  time  at  which  we  know 
them,  if  the}-  had  been  nomadic  cattle-raisers  in  some  remote  an- 
tiquit}?  Even  Dr.  Tai.  an  enthusiastic  proponent  of  the  pastoral 
theorx',  tells  us  that  the  composition  of  the  Book  of  Odes  (which 
must  have  been  well  bef(M-e  the  time  of  Confucius  )  "was  after  the 
Chinese  people  had  occupied  China  and  had  adapted  themselves  to 
the  geographical  environment  for  several  thousand  years.  We  need 
not  be  surprised  to  find  that  the  agricultural  crvUization  had  b\'  this 
time  t/iorou(/hly  permeated  the  thouijJit  and  expression  of  e7'er\dav 
life.'"'     ( Italics  mine  ). 

W  e  know  well  enough  what  happens  to  the  religion  and  the 
philosophy  of  a  pastoral  people  which  settles  down  to  an  agricultural 
mode  of  life.  Some  elements  of  their  old  religion  are  re-interpreted 
to  fit  the  new  situation  ;  those  which  do  not  adapt  themselves  are 
dropped.  Such  a  transitional  situation  runs  through  almost  the 
whole  of  the  Old  Testament.  But  we  have  an  even  more  concrete 
example  just  south  of  China,  in  India.     The  religion  of  the  J'edas 

''  Tai,  op.  cit..  p.  141. 


366  THE  OPKN   COURT 

is  that  of  a  group  of  pastoral  nomads.  They  moved  into  India,  and 
to(jk  over  an  agricultural  and  settled  economy.  Certain  of  the  old 
gods,  as  A'aruna,  which  had  been  very  important  to  them  as  nomads, 
no  longer  contributed  to  their  new  wa\-  of  living,  and  were  -prac- 
ticalh'  forgotten.  Hut  Indra,  who  was  unimportant  when  the\-  were 
herders,  brought  rain ;  his  importance  to  farmers  is  obvious,  and 
he  was,  in  fact,  raised  to  a  place  of  the  first  rank.  On  the  basis 
of  such  facts,  and  with  the  independent  knowledge  of  the  Chinese 
situation  which  we  possess,  we  are  justified  in  laying  this  cjuestion 
of  pastoral  origin  to  one  side  for  the  present,  and  in  proceeding  to 
make  our  interpretation  on  the  basis  of  an  agricultural  economy. 

W'e  have  plenty  of  material,  if  we  are  willing  to  accept  it  all, 
to  make  a  picture  of  Chinese  life  as  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Chow  dxnasty.  If  we  can  accept  the  Great  Plan,  as  it  stands  in  the 
present  text  of  the  Shii  King,^  as  actually  dating  from  1024  15.  C. 
(a  point  which  is  far  from  being  definitely  established)  we  can  e\ en 
say  that  the  whole  foundation  and  a  good  deal  of  the  superstructure 
of  later  Chinese  philosophy  and  religion  existed  at  that  time.  It 
is  highl}-  probable  that  this  is  the  case.  To  penetrate  beyond  this 
date  is  difficult.  We  have  man\-,  too  many,  pieces  of  the  ])uzzle; 
some  we  must  reject  as  obviously  incongruous.  What  shall  we  do 
with  the  remainder?  We  are  in  the  realm  of  hypothesis,  and  must 
use  deduction  for  lack  of  a  better  method. 

Of  the  apparently  genuine  materials  before  us,  which  seem  most 
likely  to  have  appeared  first?  The  five  household  shen^  jji$  and 
the  Sacred  Place  (Granet's  "Lieu  Saint")  appear  to  meet  the  speci- 
fications. The  five  shen  are  the  outer  door,  the  inner  door,  the  well, 
the  hearth,  and  the  atrium.^"  These  are  the  focal  points  of  interest 
about  the  home,  and  most  of   them,  at  least,  very   soon  take  on 

8  Shxi  King  means,  literally,  "Document  Classic."  This  book  is  the  col- 
lection of  records  which  makes  up  the  orthodox  history  of  the  Confucian 
school.  Like  most  other  ancient  Chinese  books,  it  has  had  a  checkered  history. 
Much  of  it,  at  least,  is  of  doubtful  age. 

9  Shen  is  a  word  of  wide  occurrence.  It  is  sometimes  translated  "god" 
which  is  thoroughly  misleading.  "Spirit"  is  better,  but  still  inaccurate  in  many 
contexts.  It  is  sometimes  used  as  an  adjective,  meaning  "unusual"  or  "weird," 
though  not  "supernatural"  in  the  Western  sense. 

In  the  present  application  the  word  means  little  more  than  the  objects 
themselves,  capable  of  acting  to  help  or  harm  the  household. 

1'^  It  is  impossible  strictly  to  translate  the  Chinese  phrase  into  English. 
This  "atrium"  is  the  space  under  the  middle  of  the  roof  of  the  principal  room, 
at  which  point  was  located  an  opening  which  served  both  as  chimney  and  as 
window. 


THE  PRE-HISTORY  OF  CHINESE  THOUf.HT  367 

"super-usuar"  signihcance  among;  any  settled  people.  We  lind 
sacrifices,  the  beginning  of  which  is  unknown,  made  to  them  at 
specified  times. ^^  The  Sacred  Place  (as  representing  Earth)  is 
closely  linked  to  the  five  slini  both  by  Chavannes  and  by  Wang 
Ch'ung'-  (  1.510  I.  This  is  to  class  the  five  .s7;(';/  as  yiji,  since  earth 
is  the  \  er\-  essence  of  \iu.  In  both  cases,  however,  the  classification 
is  based  on  a  considerable  development  of  the  yiit-yang  philosophy, ^'^ 
a  fairlv  sophisticated  set  of  ideas  which,  since  we  seek  origins,  we 
can  hardl\-  assume  as  an  original  datum.  This  association  may 
more  plausibly  be  explained  on  the  assumption  that  both  the  five 
sJicii  and  the  Sacred  Place  were,  at  an  early  period,  part  of  a  naive 
agricultural  cult  closely  bound  to  the  earth.  The  elements  of  this 
cult  would  then  have  been  loosely  grouped  with  the  Earth  side  of 
the  later  Heaven-Earth  dualit}".  In  this  later  system,  it  must  be 
remembered.  Earth  as  yi}i  is  female,  yet  \\'ang  associates  the  hearth 
(  seat  of  fire,  which  is  the  essence  of  yaiig,  the  male  principle  )  with 
it.  Furthermore,  the  sacred  mound,  she  j^  which  is  the  very 
focalization  of  the  agricultural  powers  of  earth,  often  figures  as 
iiiasciiliiie}^  Obviousl}-,  we  have  here  certain  tell-tale  incon- 
gruencies  which  indicate  very  stronglv  that  the  more  recent  swstem 
was  built  on  the  basis  of  an  earlier  cult. 

This  mound,  the  she  just  mentioned,  appears  to  have  been  the 
center  of  the  life  of  the  tiny  agricultural  village,  which  comprised, 
the  records  tell  us,  twenty-five  "families"  (this  family  included  a 
kinship  group  of  considerable  size,  of  course,  as  is  the  case  in  China 
today).  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  cult  centering  about 
the  she  is  very  ancient  indeed,  that  it  is,  in  fact,  the  central  element 
of  the  hypothetical  agricultural  cult  of  which  we  have  alreadv 
spoken, ^■''  which  preceded  the  philosophical  "Heaven-Earth,  \iii- 
yang"  complex.  The  reasons  for  this  are  several.  For  one,  the 
mound  seems  to  have  included  a  tree,  or  perhaps  even  a   sacred 

11  Edouard  Chavannes,  Le  T'ai  Chan,  p.  492. 

12  Wang  Ch'ung,  born  27  A.  D.,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  figures  in  the 
history  of  Chinese  literature.  In  dealing  with  the  popular  reHgion  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  consider  him  in  detail.  References  in  parenthesis  refer  to 
volume  and  page  number  of  his  Lun  Hcng  (in  the  English  translation  by 
Alfred  Forke),  one  of  our  most  valuable  sources  for  the  popular  religion. 

13  This  dual  system  of  classification  will  be  discussed  in  detail  in  the 
succeeding  chapter. 

!■*  Chavannes,  op.  cit.,  pp.  520-21. 

13  Chavannes,  op.  cit.,  p.  437,  p.  524.  Granet,  La  Religion  dcs  Chinois  (cited 
hereafter  as  Religion),  p.  63. 


368  THE  OPEN  COURT 

grove. ^*''  Ikit  wood  is  that  one  of  the  five  Jisiiiy  whicli  corresponds 
to  the  east,  which  is  a  yaii;/  region,  which  contrachcts  the  yin  status 
of  the  mound. 

Furthermore,  the  place  of  the  Earth  in  the  later  religion  is  de- 
cidedlv  subservient  and  secondar\-.  lint  the  she  of  the  ancient 
villages  seem  quite  self-suflicient.  They  are  gone  to  by  the  people 
for  almost  all  of  the  things  which  they  would  have  needed  in  a 
simple  agricultural  situation,  such  as  crops,  protection  from  drouth, 
and  protection  from  fioods.  h\irther,  the  techniques  used  to  gain 
these  ends  are  easier  to  understand  by  themselves  than  to  fit  into  the 
later  philosophical  scheme.  Instances  are  the  practice  of  putting  five 
frogs  on  the  mound  to  draw  rain,  and  of  moistening  the  mound 
from  the  irrigation  ditch  for  the  same  purpose.''^  A\'ater,  like  the 
she,  is  classed  as  yin.  When  we  find  that  recourse  is  had  to  ihe 
mound  in  case  of  high  water,  we  may  feel  that  here  is  a  proof  for 
the  philosophical  theorw  But  when  we  find  that  the  she  was  also 
appealed  to  in  case  of  drouth,  we  begin  to  suspect  that  the  mound 
was  far  more  important  than  the  later  scheme  would  represent  it 
to  have  been. 

Indeed,  Wang  Ch'ung  seems  rightl\-  to  have  described  the  situa- 
tion, in  so  far  as  the  ])eople  are  concerned,  when  he  said,  "It  is 
customary  to  sacrifice  to  the  she,  which  produce  all  things."  (II, 
337).  Ancientl}'.  the  common  people  looked,  for  the  things  they 
wanted,  to  Earth,  not  generically  but  in  the  form  of  the  she.  In 
the  documents,  Heaven  is  respected,  sometimes  feared,  but  Earth  is 
loved  and  venerated  (I,  535;  II,  337,  339,  376-7).  From  the  very 
first  appearance  of  Heaven  in  the  literature,  it  is  remote,  just, 
ethical,  almost  a  philosophical  concept  rather  than  an  element  of 
a  simple  religion.  Heaven  seems  almost  to  be  a  transcendentaliza- 
tion  of  the  governmental  and  regulatory  function.  Earth,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  close,  intimate,  bountiful — the  old  concept  of  the  she, 
in  fact,  will  not  fit  into  the  later  cosmological  scheme  without  that 
alteration  which,  as  we  shall  see,  it  underwent. 

But  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  it  seems  impossible  that  the 
she  originated  simply  as  a  personification  of  the  yiii  comes  from 
the  fact  that  it  is  very  eas\'  to  account  for  its  origin  in  a  manner 
which  does  not  require  that  we  throw  the  sophisticated  philosophy 
of  a  later  day  back  into  a  setting  where  it  looks  like  a  top-hat  on  a 

'*' Chavannes,  op.  cif..  p.  466-70,  p.  485.    Granet,  RcJ'ujion,  p.  68. 
1'^  Chavannes,  op.  cit.  p.  495. 


THE  PRE-HISTORY  OF  CHIXESE  THOUGHT  369 

coolie. ^^  On  the  other  haiuh  the  yiii-yaiu/  phil(is()i)hy  itself  a])])eai"s. 
without  forciii"^.  as  a  natural  dexelopnient  out  of  the  early  village 
life  and  agricultural  cult  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  later  political 
developments  on  the  other. 

The  village  life  is  \-er\-  imjiortant,  for  it  appears  to  be  the  arche- 
t\pe  from  which  the  entire  Chinese  conception  of  the  world  and  e\'en 
the  cosmos  grew.  The  village  was,  as  has  been  said,  small.  It  was 
based  on  agriculture.  It  was  apparently  a  communitx'  of  a  peaceful 
reg"ularit\-  and  a  social  solidarit\'  be}ond  anything  which  we  of  the 
present  day  can  imagine.^^  Rudd  has  summarized  the  climatic  situa- 
tion admirably. 

The  Chinese  civilization  appeared  in  a  region  of  extensi\  e 
plains  and  low  hills,  located  in  the  temperate  zone  between  the 
parallels  of  30°  and  40°  north  latitude.  The  earth  offers  but 
few  such  favorable  situations  for  the  development  of  great 
peoples.  No  other  ancient  civilization  had  such  freedom  for 
extensive  and  intensive  development.  The  cold  winters  and 
hot  summers  offered  stimulus  and  reward  for  personal  effort. 
Industry  was  necessary  in  order  to  secure  food  and  comfort. 
The  soil  was  naturall}"  productive.  The  rainfall  was  not 
abundant,  but  it  came  at  the  seasons  when  it  was  most  needed 
for  agriculture,  and  stimulated  the  effort  to  utilize  it  when 
it  came.-*^ 

To  this  day.  the  sense  of  solidarit\'  among  the  members  of  a 
Chinese  "large  family"  has  few  parallels  in  the  West.  In  these 
ancient  agricultural  villages  there  was  "une  sorte  de  gregarisme. 
une  vie  en  groupes.  en  communautes  on  individus  et  families  doivent 
se  perdre  et  ne  comptent  pas."-^  Again,  "Cue  village  enferme  une 
vaste  famille  tres  unie  et  tres  homogene.--  This  solidaritv  took 
on  not  alone  a  social  but  even  a  territorial  aspect.     Indeed,  Granet 

1^  That  I  be  not  thought  wilfully  to  ignore  the  fact,  let  me  acknowledge 
that  the  practice  of  putting  a  red  cord  about  the  she  in  case  of  drought  does 
appear  to  be  an  example  of  the  yi)i-yang  philosophy.  But  it  can  not  be  proved 
that  this  was  early.  To  be  sure,  Chavannes  (op.  cit.  p.  485)  says  that  the 
string  was  at  first  put  about  the  tree  rather  than  the  mound,  which  seems  to 
refer  the  practice  to  antiquity.  But  Chavannes'  source  for  this  dates  from 
500  A.  D. 

1^  I  do  not  mention  the  nine-field  scheme  (cf.  Maspero,  La  Chine  Antique. 
p.  108-10)  for  three  reasons.  (1)  Considerable  doubt  of  its  authenticity  has 
been  raised  of  late,  especially  in  China.  (2)  It  can  not  have  been  in  existence 
at  any  time  prior  to  the  existence  of  fairly  well-recognized  government.  (3) 
It  is  of  no  very  great  importance  for  this  study. 

20  Rudd,  op.  cit..  p.  63. 

-1  Maspero,  op.  cit..  p.  108. 

22  Granet,  Religion,  p.  4. 


370  THE  OPEN  COURT 

holds  that  the  relations  of  the  family  group  with  the  soil  were  orig- 
inally so  close  that  the  corpse  was  deposited  on  the  family  ground, 
near  the  dwelling,  during  decomposition,  and  each  new  member  of 
the  family  was  considered  a  literal  reincarnation  of  the  substance  of 
the  ancestors.-''^  He  finds,  also,  an  association  of  the  fertility  of  the 
grain,  which  was  stored  near  the  ccMijugal  couch,  with  that  of  the 
women. -^ 

But  the  most  striking  fact  about  the  life  of  the  village-dweller 
was  the  division  of  his  )ear  into  two  seasons,  according  to  which 
almost  ever)-  phase  of  his  existence  was  drastically  altered. -■""  In 
summer,  the  whole  family  went  to  the  fields,  and  lived  in  little  huts 
at  the  scene  of  the  agricultural  labors.  The  w'ork  in  the  fields  was 
done  by  the  men,  the  women  and  children  preparing  their  meals  and 
bringing  them  to  the  field.  This  condition  continued  all  through  the 
summer.  After  the  harvest  was  gathered,  the  mode  of  life  was 
changed  altogether,  the  whole  group  going  back  to  the  home  to  spend 
the  cold  winter.  1  fere  it  was  the  women,  apparently,  who  did  the 
large  share  of  the  work,  making  clothing,  etc.-'' 

The  turn  of  the  season,  in  spring  and  fall,  would  cjuite  evidently 
be  a  time  of  great  importance.  It  was  the  time,  in  each  case,  when 
the  season  of  the  labors  of  one  sex  had  finished,  and  when  that  of 
another  was  to  begin.  In  the  spring  there  was  all  of  the  anxiety 
over  the  crops  of  the  coming  \ear.  and  the  rejoicing  at  the  return 
of  vegetation;  in  the  autumn  there  was  gladness  because  of  the 
harvest.  Beyond  doubt  we  have  here  the  origin  of  the  two  great 
festivals  of  the  ancient  Chinese,  which  came  approximately  at  the 
ec|uinoxes.  It  is  worth}'  of  note  that,  at  the  spring  festival,  there 
were  ceremonies  celebrated  at  the  Sacred  I'lace  (wdiicli  w^as  perhaps 
the  early  form  of  the  she)-''  in  which,  api)arently,  }Oung  men  and 
young  women  danced  opposite  each  other  (  dramatizing  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  sexes),  singing  ceremonial  songs.  They  finally  paired 
ofi^,  the  climax  being  sexual  intercourse.  This  was  followed  by 
marriage  if  a  child  resulted.-^ 

The  op})osition  of  the  sexes  in  this  ancient  agricultural  life  is 
striking.     It  is  so  sharp,  (Jranet  opines,  that  it  mav  be  said  to  have 

23  Ibid.,  p.  27-28. 

--» Ibid.  p.  26. 

-•'•  Maspero,  op.  cit.,  p.  114. 

-•'Ibid.,  p.   116.     Granet,  KcUgion,  p.  3-4. 

-7  Granet,  Danscs,  p.  447-50. 

-■'^  Granet,  Rrlii/ioii,  pp.  8-16.     Maspcro,  op.  cit.  pp.  118-19. 


THE  PRK-TIISTORY  OF  CHINESE  THOUGHT  371 

dominated  the  whole  of  tlie  social  lite.     We  tind  what  is  ])erhaps 
an  echo  of  it  in  the  sejxaration  of  the  sexes  amon.^;;  the  aristocracy."-'^ 

Granet  was  the  hrst,  to  m\  knowledge,  to  jKjint  out  the  very 
great  prohahility  that  the  yiii  and  the  youg  conceptions  were  ong- 
inallv  merely  the  cla<sihcation  of  ohjects  in  general  under  these  two 
categories  (  male  and  female )  which  were  most  readv  to  the  hand 
of  the  ancient  farmer.'^'^  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  :.iot 
contended  that  the  developed  yiii-yaiu/  cosmology  existed  among  the 
earlv  agricultural  Chinese — rather  the  contrary — but  only  that  this 
division  on  sex  lines  is  probably  the  source  of  the  later  philosophical 
concepts.  Granet  believes  that  yiii  at  hrst  referred  to  the  ])Osition 
taken  bv  the  female  dancers  in  the  spring  festival,  while  yaiit/  re- 
ferred to  the  proper  place  of  the  male  dancers. 

Other  aspects  of  the  village  life  which  had  an  overwhelming  im- 
portance for  the  later  Chinese  religion  and  i)hi!osoph\-  were  the 
social  solidaritv.  already  mentioned,  and  the  intense  provincialism 
which  characterized  it.  This  is  not  alone  peculiar  to  agricultural 
communities  located  in  China.  Wherever  such  a  grou]:)  exists,  it 
tends  ver\-  quickh'  to  achiexe  a  code  of  ethics  which  is  not  subject 
to  criticism,  even  the  minutest  violations  of  which  are  considered  to 
be.  great  offences.  The  origin  of  redective.  as  opposed  to  hereditary, 
moralitA",  lies  in  wide  contacts,  bringing  criticism  and  comparison. 
The  Chinese  ^•illage  lacked  this.  China  as  a  whole  has  lacked  and 
deliberatel}'  excluded  it,  from  ver}-  ancient  times  down  almost  to 
the  present.  The  result,  reflected  in  the  literature  Ije^ond  all  pos- 
sibility of  doubt,  xvas  the  i)lacing  of  the  highest  i^remium  on  con- 
formity to  custom  down  to  the  smallest  detail. 

The  process  went  a  step  further.  It  is  nothing  unicjue  for  a 
people  to  believe  that  its  religious  rites  cause  the  processes  of  the 
uni\-erse  to  follow  their  accustomed  round.  Xor  is  it  unusual  for 
people  to  believe  that  conformitx'  or  non-conformity  with  a  par- 
ticular ethical  code  has  spectacular  cosmic  consecjuences.  Most  of 
us  have  heard  some  good  person  say,  after  a  tremendous  earthquake 
or  fire,  "What  a  wicked  city  that  must  have  been!"  Ihe  tendenc}' 
to  think  in  such  terms  increases  as  we  approach  conditions  of  vil- 
lage provincialism  like  that  in  ancient  China.  The  Chinese  de- 
veloped this   idea,   in   combination   with   certain   other   cf)nceptions, 

29  Granet,  Danses,  p.  569. 

30  Granet,  Religion,  pp.  20-21.     The  etymology  of  the  characters  yin      [^ 
and  yaufi   C&    is  interestingly  discussed  by  Granet. 


0/Z  THE  OPEN  COURT 

into  a  religion,  and  a  social  and  ])olitical  and  e\en  a  natural  ()hil- 
osophv.  As  a  result  of  this,  almost  ever\-  calamit}'  which  could 
happen  was  referred  to  the  failure  of  some  person  or  persons  to 
live  np  to  the  established  code. 

The  positive  conceptions  of  the  ideal  state  in  this  regard  were 
Ji  )^  "propriety"  and  h'u  ^n  "harmon\-,  union,  concord,  agree- 
ment." The  former  refers  to  the  bod\'  of  mores  according  to  which 
it  was  necessary  to  live  in  order  to  win  social  approval  and  pros- 
perity, and  to  avoid  disturbing  the  order  of  the  cosmos  (conceived 
as  including  men  on  \er}'  intimate  terms).  The  second  term  is 
ver}-  often  used  to  denote  that  harmonious  state  of  nature  which  was 
the  normal  and  beneficial  thing.  In  the  beginning,  these  ideas  were 
^■er\•  simple.  Alen  must  follow  the  customs  of  the  group  in  order  to 
maintain  both  social  and  cosmic  harmony.  Tf  the\-  do  not,  they  will 
bring  upon  the  group  ( in  a  ver}'  naturalistically  conceived  way  ) 
such  disasters  as  follow  upon  the  disturbance  of  the  harmonious 
rotation  of  the  seasons,  /.  c.  drought,  doods,  crop  failures,  plagues 
of  insects,  etc. 

This  earlv  Chinese  thought-world  was  (if  we  do  not  push  the 
word  too  far)  dynamicall}'  conceived.  The  lisiiu/,  "elements, "'^^  if 
they  existed  in  the  Chinese  world  at  that  time,  were  not  so  much 
types  of  substance,  apparently,  as  Incalicatioiis  of  iiiodcs  of  action. 
The  Chinese  never  seem  to  deal  with  the  ejMstemological  problem  ; 
the}-  are  naive  realists,  with  a  decidedl}-  pragmatic  tinge.  In  the 
same  way  the\'  conceive  "good"  not  as  a  t\pe  of  substance  but  as  a 
state  of  harmony.  That  which  AA'esterners  have  called  "super- 
natural" appears  to  differ  from  the  "natural"  nf)t  in  substance  but 
onl}-  in  its  way  of  action.  Evil  is  not  a  substance  nor  a  class  of 
things,  but  a  kind  of  behavior  which  is  the  opposite  of  harmonious, 
that  is,  kuo  j^,  "excess,"  "going  beyond." 

It  ma\-  seem  that  the  above  paragraph  attributes  to  the  ancient 
Chinese  a  number  of  sophisticated  philosophical  ideas  which  would 
be,  in  a  setting  so  naive,  surprising.  lUit  careful  consideration  will 
show  that  it  rather  denies  to  them  certain  ideas  which  the  West- 
erner tends  unconsciousl}'  to  assume  that  the  Chinese  must  have  had, 
merely  because  they  are  implicit  in  his  own  occidental  background. 

We  have  traced  the  origin  of  the  most  important  early  ideas  in 
the  Chinese  philosophical  and  religious  world — on  the  gne  hand  37';; 
and  yang,  on  the  other  the  solidarity  f)f  the  social  with  the  cosmic 

•^1  The  date  of  their  orisrin  will  he  considered  later. 


Tin-:  PRK-iiisToRY  OF  ciiixKsi-:  Tiiorc.iri'  373 

order.  But  almost  nothiiiij"  has  \el  been  said  of  T'icii.  wliich  is, 
according  to  some  scholars,  perhaps  the  most  important  ingredient 
of  earl\'  Chinese  religion.  The  neglect  was  not  inadvertence.  T'icii 
has  been  mentioned  so  little  because  it  is  believed  that  its  importance, 
at  this  period,  was  very  slight  and  secondary. 

The  importance  of  T'icn  in  early  Chinese  religion  has  ])robabl\- 
been  greatlv  overemphasized,  for  two  reasons.  Tn  the  tirst  jjlace. 
h\'  the  time  the  Chinese  were  writing  down  their  history  in  any  sort 
of  systematic  manner,  and  were  re-editing  all  of  the  old  texts,  the 
political  s\stem  which  depended  on  the  T'icii  concept  (as  com- 
pletelv  as  the  Hol\-  Roman  Empire  depended  on  JalnvcJi )  was  in 
full  swing,  and  it  was  the  officials  of  this  s\stem  A\ho  wrote  and 
edited  the  histories.  Add  to  this  the  Chinese  re\"erence  for  and 
imitation  of  antique  custom,  and  it  becomes  ])lain  that  the  otftcers 
would  beyond  all  c|uestion  ha\e  written  a  tiourishing  T'lcu-cult  into 
the  ancient  period,  whatever  the  facts  might  have  been. 

In  the  second  place.  Western  scholars,  led  in  the  first  place  by 
Christian  missionaries,  have  often  been  eager  to  demonstrate  the 
early  importance  of  T'ieii,  usually  in  order  to  prove  that  monotheism 
was  the  original  religion  of  China.  Christianit}'  then  appears,  of 
course,  as  the  preservation  of  this  original  and  pure  cult  through 
the  ages.  In  any  case  they  equate  T'ien  and  Shang  T?-  to  Jahweh, 
and  try  to  find  them  to  have  been  as  important  as  possible. 

Xo  one,  A\'estern  scholar  or  Chinese,  pretends  to  find  anv  sort 
of  popular  cult  of  T'iefi  5^  ^'^  within  the  historical  period.  But 
there  was,  undeniably,  an  early  and  flourishing  cult  of  the  slic,  the 
five  household  shcn,  etc.  Here  was  an  embarrassing  position  for  the 
historians.  T'ien  was  considered  the  loftiest  power  in  the  universe 
and  was  associated  with  the  Emperor  himself,  and  therefore  should, 
of  course,  have  been  the  object  of  the  most  wide-spread  and  the 
most  ancient  veneration.  Yet  wdiere  was  the  proof  of  this?  As  is 
usual  in  such  cases,  a  neat  explanation  w^as  found. 

This  explanation,  upon  which  some  have  based  the  antiquity 
of  the  cult  of  T'ien,  is  founded  upon  a  passage  of  the  Shu  King, 
dated  about  one  thousand  years  after  the  event,  referring  to  an 
incident  in  the  reign  of  Yao,  the  first  Emperor  mentioned  in  the 

^~  Shang  Ti.  "Upper  Ruler,"  is  probably  another  form  of  T'icn.  This  point 
will  be  discussed  later. 

.3.3  This  character  seems  to  have  developed  from  a  picture  of  a  man  with  a 
line  (representing  the  sky)  above  his  head.  It  is  generally  accepted  to  have 
originally  meant  merely  the  sky. 


374  THE  OPEN  COURT 

Shu  KuKj.     The  passage,  taken  from  the  document  Leu-Jiing  of  the 
Sliii,^^  reads : 

Then  he  commissioned  Ch'ung  and  Le  to  make  an  end  of  the 
communications  between  earth  and  heaven,  and  the  descents 
(of  spirits,  Legge  interpolates)  ceased.  From  the  princes 
down  to  the  inferior  officers,  all  helped  with  clear  intelligence 
the  spread  of  the  regular  principles  of  duty.  .  . 

\\'ieger,  who  of  coiu'se  shares  the  general  Roman  Catholic  thesis 
of  universal  primitive  monotheism,  tells  us  that  the  situation  lying 
behind  this  text  was  as  follows :  The  primitive  Chinese  religion, 
the  pure  cult  of  T'icu,  had  become  contaminated  through  the  contact 
of  the  people  with  certain  non-Chinese  tribes,  the  Li  and  the  Miao. 
Shun  was  charged  by  the  Emperor  to  punish  them,  with  the  result 
that,  the  Shu  tells  us,  he  exterminated  them.''^''  Further  action  was 
necessarv,  however.  The  people,  not  leaving  the  offering  of  sacri- 
fices to  the  official  channels,  had  begun  to  have  personal  relations 
with  the  superior  powers,  which  threw  the  entire  religious  system 
into  confusion.  For  this  reason  it  was  necessary  "to  make  an  end 
of  the  communications  between  earth  and  heaven."  This  caused 
the  old  order  to  be  re-established,  Wieger  tells  us,  and  it  continued 
until  about  770  P..  C. 

But.  upon  such  close  examination,  this  incident  does  not  at  all 
show  that  a  popular  cult  of  T'ien  existed  at  an  early  date.  Wieger 
says  that  Shun  revived  the  laws  of  the  ancient  cult;  had  it,  there- 
fore, been  previously  the  custom  for  the  people  not  to  sacrifice  to 
T'ien,  but  to  leave  this  to  the  Emperor?  If  so,  that  M'ould  agree 
perfectly  with  my  own  hypothesis,  that  T'icii  was  never  properlv  a 
deity  of  the  people.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  difficult  to  see  how 
the  prohibition  of  popular  sacrifices  to  T'ien  could  have  done  awav 
with  the  abuses  which  were  supposed  to  have  occurred.  It  would 
seem  that  the  Emperor  and  his  agents  would  rather  have  tried  to 
stimulate  the  T'ien-cu\t,  and  to  make  it  take  the  place  of  the  sup- 
posedly heretical  ])ractices.  b\u-thermore.  Legge  reports  an  ex- 
tended dialogue  concerning  this  passage,  dating  from  the  time  of 
Confucius,  in  which  there  is  not  the  slightest  hint  that  it  has  anv 
reference  to  popular  worship  of  T'ien  at  all.'^" 

34  Shu  p.  593. 

■^•>  L.  Wieger,  S.  J.,  Histoirc  cfcs  Croydiicrs  Rcli(iicuscs  ct  dcs  Opinions 
Philosophiques  en  Chine  depuis  I'Originc,  jusqu'a  Nos  Jours  (cited  hereafter 
as  Histoire  des  Croyances) ,  pp.  14-15. 

^C'Shu:  pp.  593-94,  notes. 


THE  PRE-HISTORY  OF  CHIXESK  THOUCHT  375 

Another  difficulty  is  \\orth\-  of  note.  How  is  it  that  this  i)Oi)ular 
T'/V;/-cuh,  supposedly  so  stronii"  up  to  this  time,  was  extii"])ate(l  in 
the  full  spotlight  of  history  (as  its  proponents  would  have  us  be- 
lie\"e)  \'et  has  left  no  echo  of  its  existence  in  the  rest  of  Chinese 
literature,  not  even  in  the  Shi  Kiiu/,  the  Book  of  Poetry,  which  is 
our  best  source  for  popular  sentiment  ?  The  point  is  not  one  on 
which  to  be  stubbornly  dogmatic,  but  until  further  evidence  is  ))ro- 
duced  I  shall  remain  persuaded  that  T'icii  was  alwa\"s  a  govern- 
mental figure,  never  a  popular  one.  It  is  the  aristocracy,  not  the 
people,  who  sacrifice  to  it.  The  fact  is  that  all  of  this  literature 
which  concerns  the  early  rulers  of  China  is  ver\-  dcnibtful.  Some 
of  its  incidents  can  onl\'  be  mythical,  much  is  probablx'  allegor\-.  As 
collateral  evidence  it  is  often  very  good;  as  independent  proof  it  is 
in  most  cases  worthless.  In  this  case  the  independent  evidence 
nearly  all  points  awa}'  from  a  popular  cult  of  T'icn. 

But  suppose  we  concede  that  a  T'ien-cx\\t  might  have  existed, 
deeply  rooted  in  the  popular  imagination,  from  the  earliest  times. 
Could  the  Emperor  have  ended  it  with  such  ease,  or  e\'en  at  all  ? 
He  could  not.  Chinese  emperors  who  tr\-  to  introduce  great  inno- 
vations in  religion  have  always  lost  their  heads  and  their  thrones 
to  some  ambitious  vassal  who  has  been  watching  for  just  such  an 
opportunity  to  raise  a  pious  rebellion. 

But  if  T'icn  was  not  always  the  great  deit_\-  of  the  Chinese,  we 
must  account  for  its  origin  is  some  manner. '^^  One  ma\'  not  ignore 
the  very  frequent  association  of  nomadic  peoples  with  skv-gods. 
From  this  fact  comes,  perhaps,  the  strongest  argument  for  a 
pastoral  nomadic  period  in  the  history  of  the  Chinese. 

The  earlier  Heaven-cult  did  not  include  the  earth  as  the  coun- 
terpart of  Heaven,  and  can  not  well  be  said  to  be  a  product 
of  the  peasant  community.  The  agricultural  feature  was  ap- 
parently added  to  the  original  ritual  as  the  farming  interest 
had  been  gradually  developed  to  displace  that  of  pastoral 
economv.^^ 

One  may  not  deny  the  possibility  of  a  pastoral  nomadic  period, 
nor  dogmatically  assert  that  this  might  not  be  the  origin  of  T'ien. 
It  might.  But  the  tendency  of  nomadic  deities  to  atroph_\-  in  an 
agricultural    situation   is,    as   has   been   pointed   out.   great,    and   is 

3'^  T'ai  refers  to  "the  undivided  supremacy  which  T'icn  had  commanded 
over  the  people  from  time  immemorial."     Op.  cit..  p.  233. 

^^Ihid.,  p.  141a. 


376  THE  OPEN  COURT 

irresistible  unless  the  old  deities  are  able  to  take  on  new  functions 
which  tit  into  the  new  habitat  and  mode  of  life  of  their  people.  In 
China,  T'icn  did,  in  the  course  of  time,  assume  functions  of  a  gov- 
ernmental character,  but  one  can  hardly  believe  that  this  group  of 
nomads  (according  to  the  hypothesis  we  are  pursuing)  can  have 
moved  into  China  and  immediately  set  up  a  thoroughly  organized 
government.  Therefore,  even  if  the  origin  of  T'ien  were  nomadic, 
it  seems  probable  that  the  concept  would  in  any  case  have  undergone 
an  intermediate  period  of  extreme  feebleness.^^ 

But  if  we  eliminate  the  pastoral  stage,  we  may  still  find  an  ex- 
planation for  T'ien.  The  sky  is  important  for  the  agricultor,  as  well 
as  for  the  herdsman.  It  is  from  the  sky  that  the  rain  comes,  it  is 
in  the  sk\'  that  the  sun,  all-important,  is  located.  The  sky  becomes 
a  symbol  of  the  orderly  rotation  of  the  seasons,  which  is  associated 
with  that  remarkably  strong  sense  of  Harmony  and  Order,  social 
and  cosmic,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Chinese  developed. 

The  sky  sees  everything.  Among  many  peoples  it  has  become 
linked  with  justice  and  with  government.  It  is  often  the  seat  of 
the  Great  Ruler,  who  is  of  course  closely  associated  with  the  human 
king  or  emperor.  So  it  was  in  China.  This  development,  which  can 
only  be  mentioned  here,  will  be  treated  at  length  when  we  come  to 
deal  with  Confucianism  and  its  background. 

The  sky  is  active,  sending  driving  rain  and  hot  sunlight.  The 
earth  is  passive,  motionless,  putting  forth  the  fruit  of  the  seed  it 
receives.  Quite  simply,  the  male  yang  came  to  have  its  seat  in 
heaven,   while   the   female  yin  was  naturally   linked   with   earth. ''*^ 


The  foregoing  picture  is  not  presented  as  anything  like  a  com- 
plete account  of  early  Chinese  religion  or  philosophy,  nor  even  as 
a  thorough  canvass  of  all  of  the  reliable  material  which  is  available 
on  the  subject.  Many  elements  have  been  omitted,  some  because 
they  are  peripheral,  others  because  they  are  included  implicitly  in 
what  has  been  described.  The  chief  purpose  of  this  sketch  has  been 
to  provide  a  background  for,  and  an  introduction  to,  the  ensuing 
study  of  later  Chinese  thought. 

2^  The  only  alternative  would  be  the  persistence  among  the  settled  people 
of  a  governing  caste,  or  the  penetration  among  them  of  a  group  of  nomads 
who  set  up  an  aristocracy.  See  Granet's  refutation  of  these  possibilities,. 
Danscs,  p.  9-24. 

^^  The  sun  is  sometimes  called  "the  great  yang." 


XATl'RE  AND  EPISTEMOLOGV 

r,Y   M.  WlfTTCOMP,   iri-.ss 

*'-j-F  tlie  un(lei\£;racluate,""  says  a  modern  college  president^  "can 
J_  onl\-  get  it  through  his  head  that  Christian  morals  and  natural 
morals  are  two  cjuite  different  things  .  .  .  that  the\'  dift'er  in  aim 
and  in  purpose  a  vast  contusion  may  be  resolved."  liut  the  \ast 
confusion  observed  in  the  lives  of  the  present  generation  so  far 
from  being  resolved  by  a  consideration  of  nature  as  alien  to  the 
Christian  life  is  partially  the  result  of  that  attitude,  b^or  the  distinc- 
tion Mr.  Bell  would  make  between  natural  morals  and  Christian 
morals  is  the  result  of  an  ambiguous  hybrid  of  epistemolog}'  and 
ethics,  the  identification  of  nature  with  half-knowledge,  which,  in  the 
background  of  theological  and  philosophical  speculation  for  some 
centuries,  threatens  to  darken  the  landscape. 

Xo  one  will  deny  that  a  real  relation  exists  between  ethics  and 
epistemology.  The  two  are  at  one  concerning  the  nature  of  good 
and  of  evil.  Each  concedes  the  synonym  of  the  abstract  terms, 
truth  and  good,  error  and  evil.  But  though  they  meet  on  this  one 
ground,  ethics  is  as  far  removed  from  epistemology  as  the  concrete 
is  from  the  abstract.  Ethics  deals  with  the  relating  of  experience; 
epistemology,  with  the  reverberation  of  reality.  There  is  no  separa- 
tion between  life  and  knowledge,  but  there  is  a  difference  of  degree 
between  the  theory  of  life  which  is  truth,  or  knowledge,  and  the 
theory  of  the  theory,  which  is  epistemology.  r>ecause  of  this  differ- 
ence, the  meeting-ground  of  ethics  and  epistemologv  is  also  the 
dividing  line  between  them.  It  has  been  this  indeterminate  relation 
which  has  brought  about  that  opposition  between  nature  and  spirit 
v^^hich  sets  the  one  as  the  principle  of  reason  over  against  the  other 
as  the  tinreasoned  principle,  or  blind  force.     And  for  such  concep- 

1  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1928.  The  Chureh  and  the  Undergraduate, 
p.  505,  by  Bernard  Iddings  Bell,  President  of  St.  Stephens  College. 


378  THE  OPEX  COURT 

tion.  ethics  has  borrowed  the  knowledge-levels  discovered  by  episte- 
molog\-  which  belong  to  the  theory  of  knowledge  as  such,  and  which 
ai)i)lied  to  the  self  merely  make  for  a  confused  notion  of  what  the 
earth-life  is  all  about. 

TT 

In  individual  experience  the  body  is  at  once  a  place  and  a  posses- 
sion though  in  its  intimac>-  of  relation  to  the  thinking  self  it  exceeds 
that  of  any  other  place  or  possession  to  an  almost  unimaginable 
extent.  However,  since  the  dawn  of  speculation  the  body  has  been 
identified  more  or  less  with  the  devilish  principle.  This  identifica- 
tion has  been  strengthened  by  the  ancient  human  desire  to  rej)udiate 
disease  and  death  but  it  has  its  roots  in  nature's  alignment  with  half- 
truth  by  the  epistemologists. 

Experience  has  always  shown  that  first  judgments  are  subject 
to  change.  The  necessity'  for  hard  and  patient  thinking  was  mani- 
fest from  the  earliest  adventurings  in  philosophy.  The  pre-Socratics 
alread\-  had  put  reflection  be\'ond  naive  experience  in  value  for 
attaining  truth.  Illusory  appearance  was  attributed  to  the  deceit  of 
the  senses  before  the  sophist  Protagoras  identified  thought  with 
sense-perception  as  one  process.  lielieving,  like  earlier  thinkers,  that 
perception  is  conditioned  b}-  organic  changes  in  both  percipient  and 
perceived  object  at  the  moment  of  contact,  Protagoras'  very  defini- 
tion of  perception,  or  thought,  made  it  unstable.  So  the  great  ad- 
vance Protagoras  made  was  lost  even  in  the  making;  and  percej^tion 
to  this  day  has  hardly  recovered  from  the  equivocal  position  given 
it  when  Plato  and  Aristotle  completed  the  giant  task  of  proving 
against  the  sophists  a  universal  validity  for  knowledge  which 
Socrates,  with  his  inductive  doctrine,  began. 

In  human  experience  knowledge  progresses  from  a  low  state, 
which  has  been  held  identical  with  sense-perception  since  it  is  co- 
incident with  primary  presentations,  to  a  high  state  held  as  pure 
thought.  For  this  reason  the  phenomenal  world  was  considered  by 
early  thinkers  as  separated  from  a  higher  world  of  thought,  by  a 
difiference  of  degree,  if  not  of  kind.-  Plato  taught  then  that  the 
incorporeal   w^orld  forms  the  object   of   science;  but  the  mistaken 

-  Democritus  expressed  the  difiference  between  perception  and  thought  in 
quantitative  terms :  Obscure  insight  or  perception,  and  genuine  insight  or 
thought,  result  respectively  from  the  atomic  motions  of  coarse  and  fine  images 
of  things. 


NATURE  AND  EPISTI'.M  ( )[.(  X.V  379 

notion  drawn  from  his  teachins^'  was  tiial  the  ])henonK'na  of  the 
natural  world  of  the  senses  are  manifestations  of  immaterial  reali- 
ties, the  Ideas,  which  exist  side  by  side  with  them  just  as  ])artial 
insight  ( Protagorean  ])erception  )  exists  side  by  side  with  true  in- 
sight. Xe\ertheless  the  most  careful  studies  of  I'lato  re\eal  jiis 
conception  of  the  Idea  as  purely  epistemological :  The  first  great 
epistemologist  meant  by  the  Idea  what  modern  epistemologists  mean 
by  value:  he  meant  by  phenomenon  what  they  mean  by  fact.  In 
other  words,  I'lato  taught  that  knowledge  about  things  and  events 
is  progressixely  intelligible;  and  he  used  the  terms  "intellectual''  and 
"sensuous"  as  convenient  names  for  knowledge-divisions,  and  was 
at  times  confused  in  his  own  statments  by  the  nomenclature. 

Aristotle,  more  scientist  than  philosopher,  mapped  out  a  system 
of  development  from  the  lowest  expression  of  reality  in  truth  which 
he  called  matter,  to  the  highest,  or  jnn'e  form.  The  relation  of 
matter  as  mere  possibility  to  form  as  com])lete  actuality  removed 
for  Aristotle  the  difficulties  of  separation  which  he  thought  he  found 
in  Plato's  doctrine.  Ikit  while  there  is  present  an  e])istemological 
monism  in  form  and  matter  taken  as  two  sides  of  one  and  the  same 
reality,  still  the  Aristotelian  system  stresses  a  marked  dualism  of 
the  resistant  passivity  of  matter,  and,  opposing  it.  the  purposi\e 
activity  of  form.  And  as  Plato  also  had  done  Aristotle  applied 
these  limits  to  bodily  and  ps}chical  activities,  an  application  antici- 
pating St.  Paul  and  St.  Augustine.  An  anthropological  dualism 
thus  grew  out  of  the  inevitable  application  of  epistemolog}'  to 
human-conduct — inevitable  because  of  the  very  nature  of  truth 
which  makes  difficult  the  limiting  of  the  theory  of  knowledge  to  its 
particular  field. 

Ill 

Philo  Judaeus  who  lived  during  the  first  century  A.  D.  fell  into 
the  pitfall  laid  by  epistemology.  In  his  reinterpretation  of  Judaism 
in  the  light  of  Greek  philosoph}'  there  is  found  dominant  the  note 
of  contrast  between  spirit  and  flesh.  Spirit,  man's  true  nature, 
Philo  believed,  must  engage  in  continuous  strife  with  man's  false 
nature,  flesh,  wdiich  actually  imprisons  and  retards  the  spirit  in  its 
development.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Philo  remaining  in  the 
fold  of  Judaism  insisted  on  the  spirit-flesh  antagonism  which  his 
contemporary,   Saul   of   Tarsus,   emphasized   after   his   conversion. 


380  THE  OPEN   COURT 

With  Philo  the  reason  was  admittedly  the  result  of  havins^  ingrafted 
Greek  thought  into  the  Hebrew  faith;  and  Paul,  of  philosophical 
training,  was  the  first  among  the  Christians  to  take  the  cross  as  a 
symbol  of  spirit's  literal  triumph  over  the  flesh. 

Two  centuries  later  than  Philo  and  St.  Paul,  Plotinus  made  a 
forthright  identification  of  the  corporeal  world  w'ith  partial-truth. 
The  famous  metaphor  of  the  founder  of  Neo-Platonism.  drawn 
from  its  prototype  in  the  Republic,  though  mystically  and  jjoetically 
suggesti\e,  is  a  penetrative  analysis  of  the  learning  process.  J^'rom 
truth's  exhaustless  source  light  emanates  first  as  spirit,  then  as 
soul  and  finall}'  at  its  farthest  reach  forms  a  twilight  with  matter. 
Matter  is  dark  space,  sheer  ignorance,  or  sheer  evil.  Plotinus  shows 
in  this  extraordinary  figure  that  truth  is  unchanging  and  unchange- 
able as  Parmenides  had  claimed  for  it  before  Plato.  He  gives  the 
nature  of  truth  in  its  least  manifestation.  In  the  process  of  knowl- 
edge the  more  light  and  fuller  needed  is  obtained  not  by  the  absorp- 
tion of  anything  external  to  the  thinker  but  by  the  mind's  return 
to  itself.  There  is  the  further  illumination  of  truth's  nature:  The 
effect  of  higher  determinism  if  abstracted  from  this  cause  appears 
as  blincl  behavior.  Unreasoned  pozucr  is  the  express  rebellion  ac/aiusf 
truth.  What  is  usually  overlooked  in  Plotinus"  remarkable  snapshot 
of  the  thinker  at  the  moment  of  com])lete  knowledge  is  that  the 
picture  has  no  content,  but  is  of  mere  knowledge-theory. 

IV 

Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  meaning  of  nature,  it  is  not  found 
in  setting  it  over  against  spirit  as  its  lower  stage.  And  to  identify 
nature  and  si)irit  with  knowledge-states,  diametrically  oi)posed  be- 
cause taken  from  their  continuum  in  knowledge-process,  ends  by 
making  epistemology  absurd  and  experience  futile. 


IXTEr.LECTUAT.  INTEGRITY  AND  THE  ART 
OE  THINKING 

RV    VICTOR    S.    VARKOS 

CROCI*!,  the  distinguished  Itahan  i)hil()sopher,  maintains  in  one 
of  his  books  that  there  is  no  such  thing'  as  an  intellectual  error. 
The  average  man  has  talked  for  ages  of  mistakes  of  the  head  and 
mistakes  of  the  heart,  hut  Croce  asserts  that  all  mistakes  are  essen- 
tiall}'  moral. 

This,  at  hrst  siglit,  a])i)ears  to  he  a  wild  ])arado.\.  Is  it  not 
notorious  that  the  most  careful,  conscientious  and  truthful  men 
make  mistakes?  Are  not  men  misled  b\-  apperances,  b\-  ex'idence 
which  seems  to  them  sufficient  hut  turns  out  e\'entuall\'  to  have  been 
insullicient  ?  Are  not  hypotheses  and  theories  revised  and  re-revised 
in  the  light  of  new  facts,  and  is  it  not  legitimate  to  form  tentative 
theories  ?  Now,  then  can  Croce  take  the  position  he  does  as  to  the 
origin  and  nature  of  error? 

The  answer  is  that  Croce  believes,  with  Prof.  Graham  Wallas 
and  others,  that  there  is  an  art  of  thinking,  and  that  it  is  one's  dutv 
to  undergo  training  and  discipline  in  that  art,  and  to  master  it,  f/iiis 
ai'oidiiu;  errors. 

Eor  exami)le,  a  man  of  science  observes  ])henomena  and  tries 
to  explain  them.  This  means  that  he  has  formed  a  theory.  Ihit  if 
he  is  trul}'  scientific,  he  will  realize  and  insist  that  his  theor\-  is 
provisional,  tentative,  subject  to  modification  or  even  reiection 
after  further  observation  and  ex[)eriment.  In  that  case  there  is  no 
error.  Likewise,  when  a  person  is  aware  of  his  limitations,  his 
ignorance,  he  will  c|ualify  his  statements  and  remain  open-minded. 
He  will  saw  "I  am  inclined  to  believe,"  not  "T  believe."  He  will  not 
claim  convictions  when  he  has  only  notions  or  of)inions  based  on 
slender  data. 

Croce,  if  I  understand  him.  contends  that  the  a\-oi(lance  of  errcjrs 
and  mistakes  is  a  matter  of  literarv  stvle,  and  that  the  true  scientist 


382  THE  OPEN  COURT 

can  have  no  difficulty  in  expressing  himself  with  i)recision  and  cau- 
tion. Rashness,  dogmatism,  looseness  of  statement,  vanitw  pretence 
and  the  like  are,  of  course,  moral,  not  mental,  c|ualities.  Hence 
Croce's  conclusion — so  odd  when  not  analyzed  and  correctly  in- 
terpreted— that  error  is  moral,  not  intellectual. 

This  question  is  raised  again  by  Abbe  Ernest  Dimnet,  the  French 
critic  and  teacher,  in  his  little  book  on  The  Art  of  Thinkiut/.  His 
conclusions  are  not  dififerent  from  those  of  Graham  \\'allas,  but  he 
is  less  direct,  less  exact,  less  didactic.  Me  is  interested,  he  sa}s,  in 
producing  thought,  not  in  guiding  it.  Wallas  was  interested  in 
improving  the  quality  of  much  current  thought.  Both  agree  that 
the  obstacles  to  real  thinking  are  man\-,  and  the  wonder  is  that  we 
manage  to  think  as  well  as  we  do.  llut  who  would  dis])Ute  the 
proposition  that,  if  it  be  possible  to  i)roduce  l)etter  thought  and  more 
thought  of  the  right  kind,  it  is  our  duty  to  em])]oy  whatever  means 
are  available  for  the  promotion  of  that  end  ? 

For,  as  ~Sl.  Dimnet  says,  the  question  is  at  bottom  a  moral  one — 
namel\',  the  making  of  the  fullest  and  worthiest  use  of  all  our 
faculties.  The  ciuestion  is  individual,  primarily,  but  it  is  also  social. 
Waste  of  pow-er  and  facult\'  is  reprehensible,  and  the  victims  of 
such  waste  are  often  the  victims  of  social  maladjustment,  bad  edu- 
cational methods,  group  blunders  and  false  standards.  If  schools 
and  colleges  do  not  teach  the  art  of  thinking,  they  neglect  their 
primary  and  most  important  purpose,  h'acts  are  onl_\'  the  raw- 
material  of  thought,  and  obviousl\'  to  interpret  them  aright,  to 
arrive  at  h\potheses  and  theories,  or  at  laws,  thinking  is  necessary. 

How,  then,  can  we  teach  thinking?  Wallas  divided  the  process 
of  thought  into  four  distinct  stages,  and  stressed  the  importance  of 
adequate  preparation,  of  time  for  incubation  and  the  proper  utiliza- 
tion of  illumination.  M.  Dimnet  passes  oxer  this  suggestive  division 
and  deals  more  generally  with  the  problem. 

He  tirst  points  out  the  obstacles  to  thought — Wallas  would  say 
to  correct  and  sound  thinking.  What  are  they  ?  Dimnet  gives 
(|uite  a  list  of  obstacles — passion,  to  begin  with,  naturally,  which  is 
another  name  for  bias  or  prejudice,  and  then  imitation,  gregarious- 
ness,  indolence,  wrong  ideas  of  education,  lack  of  leisure  or  of  time 
for  reflection  and  the  cultivation  of  the  pleasures  of  the  intellect. 

Can  these  obstacles  be  avoided?  Xot  entirely,  i)erhaps,  but  most 
of  those  who  are  endowed  with  the  capacity  for  thought — with 
brains,  in  short — and  with  a  certain  amount  of  intellectual  integrit\- 


IXTF.LLl-XTUAL   I  NTKC^-HTY   AXl)  THE  ART  OF  TI I  1  X  K  I  XC  383 

and  seriousness  can  avoid  most  of  the  (obstacles  imder  ordinary 
circumstances  h\'  observing  certain  conditions  and  ebminating  olher 
conditions. 

What  must  we  do  to  enable  our  minds  to  think  correcll)  .■'  I 
confess  I  am  not  entirel}'  satisfied  with  the  way  in  which  M .  Dimnet 
answers  the  question.  He  omits  vital  elements  and  is  rather  \ague 
in  his  answer,  though  all  that  he  says  is  true  and  helpful. 

Those  who  would  teach  men  to  think  and  to  a\"oid  error  should 
lay  particular  stress  on  the  dut\'  of  fitting  one's-self  to  form  an 
opinion  on  a  gi\en  subject.  \\  hat  value  is  there  in  an  opinion  based 
on  no  facts,  no  knowledge?  And  how  can  there  be  much  \alue  in 
an  opinion  based  on  very  little  and  ill-assimilated  knowledge?  The 
trouble  with  most  men.  especiall}'  in  the  realm  of  the  inexact 
sciences,  is  that  thev  form  and  express  ()[)inions  without  half  the 
knowledge  that  would  give  them  the  r'uiht  to  opinions,  and  that  thex' 
refuse  to  modify  their  notions  even  if  the  e\idence  against  them  is 
overwhelming.  Further,  the  tr(nible  with  most  men  is  that  the\' 
are  too  vain  and  proud  to  be  intellectually  honest.  He  who  would 
reason  scientificall}'  must  be  humble,  ready  to  change  his  mind,  or 
to  suspend  judgment,  or  to  consider  with  s_\-mpath\'  the  arguments 
of  opponents. 

But  to  return  to  ]\I.  Dimnet.  A\  hat  are  his  conditions  of 
thought?  He  names  and  discusses  several.  He  emphasizes  the 
trustworthiness  of  intuitions,  of  flashes,  of  inspirations,  agreeing  in 
this  with  Bergson.  He  advises  leisurely  contemplation.  He  insists 
on  the  reading  of  the  best  books  and  on  li\-ing  with  the  great  and 
their  noble  and  elevated  ideas.  He  urges  culti\ation  of  one's  own 
vein,  after  determining  what  that  vein  is.  He  deprecates  the 
tendency  to  rush  into  print.  He  believes,  as  does  \\  alias  in  incuba- 
tion and  illumination  after  due  preparation,  and  also  in  verification. 

Since  the  little  book  is  distinctly  literar}-,  rhetorical  and  con- 
versational, it  has  the  defects  of  its  good  qualities — it  is  occasionally 
superficial  and  paradoxical.  But  these  faults  may  be  passed  over. 
It. is  bound  to  stimulate  thought  and  direct  attention  to  the  sources 
of  error,  the  vices  of  intolerant  and  dogmatic  writers,  the  bad  habits 
of  the  generality  of  men  who  regard  themselves  as  civilized  and 
superior,  and  the  road  to  truth  and  high-minded  thinking. 

The  Wallas  and  Dimnet  books  should  be  studied  in  every  high 
school,  college,  university  and  institute  of  the  world.  They  are  more 
valuable  than  text-books  on  logic,  or,  rather,  they  are  excellent  text- 
books on  logic  among  other  things. 


384  THE  OPEN   COURT 


PROTE\'AXGELION 
By  Charles  Sloan  Reid 

Discredited,  what  feature  of  the  tale 
Again  o'ertold  had  thus  offended  them, 

The  self-posed  censors,  of  divine  travail 
That  raised  an  Avatar  in  liethlehem? 

The  miracle  in  measure  looms  as  great 
As  in  the  favored  gospel's  poesy — 

And  witness  waxes  large,  as  numbers  prate 
In  unison  of  things  of  mystery. 

A  story  told,  of  repetition's  voice. 

Unlike  in  naught  essential  to  the  theme. 

Sage  authorship  in  handwork  should  rejoice 
Accredited  in  revelation's  scheme. 


J^  ,._     J. 

•r'"~'"*~""'~""~~""^'"~""~~"""~"~~"'~~"-^"~~        """  ~"'^^~  " 

I 
i 

THE  PHILOSOPHICAL  REVIEW 

Edited  by 

WILLIAM  A.  HAMMOND  AND  FRANK  THILLY 

Of  the  Sage  School  of  Philosophy,  Cornell  University 
September,  1928 


Clarke's  Ethical  Philosophy  (II) Ernest  Albce 

Objective  Uncertainty  and  Human  Faith David  F.  Swenson 

Peirce's  Place  in  American  Philosophy J.  H.  Muirhead 

The  Philosophy  of  Plotinus John  Watson 

Review^  of  Books 

Ralph  Barton  Perry,  General  Theory  of  Value :  by 
Albert  L.  Hammond — Joseph  Alexander  Leighton,  The 
Individual  and  the  Social  Order:  by  William  Ernest 
Hocking — Herbert  Wildon  Carr,  Changing  Backgrounds 
in  Religion  and  Ethics  :  by  Edgar  Sheffield  Brightman — 
Carl  F.  Taeusch,  Professional  and  Business  Ethics :  by 
by  Philip  G.  Fox. 


Notes 


John  Dewey.     E.  B.   McGilvary.     Union  Academique 
Internationale.    D.  Luther  Evans. 


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