The Hickman courier., 1877-06-01
WONG CHIN FOO.
ence. Revie,,s .I,e Relative ReIIg-
iOus Sys,em of China and
Ct.r;sfeudOu.


Mr.. Ten Wing TIE Way Shin Shua
Shing lie Way Shing Show Tan Ize
Way Keo Ton Ye Che Poh Kow Shu
Yu Lee Yeh Wong Chin Foo (barring
few middle names left out Tor breyity's
sake), addressed small but very able
audience last evening in Steinway hall |
on The Damnation of the Heathen."
Among the audience were many who |
had the habit If heterodoX thought |
stamped on their brows, but none who |
were personally known to the World re-
porter, excepting the Hierophant, few |
other members of the lheosophlcai So |
ciety and Rev. Alvah Wiswall.
At about a quarter past eight o'clock |
the vivacious little heather advanced |
with quick. nervous gait to the front |
OF the platform and said that on account |
of his copious name, which few Ameri- !
clns were familiar with, he usually in
tioduced himself. He then pronounced
tie numerous syllables glibly, and the
audience, despite its intellectually,
snickered. He then, as preface, apollo
gized for his imperfect English in 4
fashion more modest than necessary, and
said that he was not responsible for being
called 4 missionary, as he was not one
ard did not think missionaries were
needed in America any more than in
China or elsewhere. lie was, however,
anxious to explain a few things in rela
ton TO his country The missionaries,
who he did not think intended to lie, had
miSrepresented the Chinese, partly on
account of their prejudice and partly on
account of their imperfect knowledge,
And it was for their interest to say what
they did, for if they told the truth the
mission boards would not spend money
to keep them there. In enumerating
the wrong impressions the Americans
have of the Chinese, he said they thought
nothing was raised in China but rice, and
that the Chinese lived exclusively on
rice and rats and puppies. g Why" said
he, 90 never knew rats and dogs were
good 10 eat till learned it from Amer
leans"
Attacking his subject without further
preamble, he said: " You have been
told that we have no belief in God, and
a critic in one OF the newspapers attacks
me on this ground, saying that there j.
no word meaning God in Chinese. If
the word were translated into Chinese
it would mean spirit, and we believe in
the Over-ruling spirit. The holiest word
we have is heaven, and I defy you to
find one among the four hundred and
fifty million Chinese who will use that
word lightly, excepting "A they have
learned il from the missionaries. They
will swear inEnglish, some OF them. We
don't need missionaries or the Bible TO
show rs God. Our own nature, and all
the wonderful works of nature, show Us
that there Isl Gcd. The very drop of
water that falls from somewhere on top.
Do YOU think there are no philosophers
in China? Do you think that the Chi
nese who have come in such numbers to
America. or even the lecturer before
YOU is a fair representative Of the Chinese
literary men? If so, you are greatly
mistaken. Aside from our wonderful
history, look a. the inventions of the
Chinese. They made the first printing,
the first mariners compass, the first por-
celain, the first gunpOwder, the first can
non and the first system of laws. And
if, with all the intelligent statesmen who
assist in governing forty million of peo-
pie here there is much trouble in gov
erning Alright, how do the Chinese man
age TO govern their four hundred and
fifty miIlion2 All your intelligence,
your higher religion, your greater laws,
and your more excellent principles are
poYerless to prevent crime, yet | affirm
that you have twice rs many murderers
as the Chinese with ten tires as many
people. And how do we accomplish
this? I will tell you. 1t Is by the ex-
cellency of the laws. These laws have
come down through many generations of
philosophical minds. And we don't
choose our ruler by favor and by vote.
Ont Of fifty thousand men who have
studied twelvs or fifteen years the
emperor chooses three or four who can
stand the best examination. And these
men must not only have learned the
laws. but have mastered the principles.
Can we not say, then. that half the pop
ulace must be intelligent
They say we bow down to stock and
stone. Yes, many of our people do,
exactly as the Christians do. | saw
very intelligent Roman Catholic gentle
man praying for half an hour in front of
a crucifiX, and when he got up | asked
him if that was his god. He said no, it
was an emblem. We use emblems also.
but we do not consider them gods
Does any Christian suppose that the
bread and wine you use Is really the
body and blood Of Christ It is only
humbugging way of representing them.
- want to make two points: First,
that a form of religion Is given by the
Creator to every nation which is suited
to il second, that missionaries going
from one nation to another only confuses
matters in general. The American and
Chinese Teople are exactly opposite in
almost everything. With you, gentle
men remove their hats in society. With
us, if a gentleman should do this he
would be thought savage. You shake
each Others hands till you give one an
other the rheumatism. We shake our
own hands when we greet our friends,
and the tighter we squeeze the more we
honor our friends, but we only hurt our
s-lves. You take your soup first, we
take ours last. You'll have your wine iced,
we have it steaming hot, but we don
get so hot after drinking it. / Oh ask
about the health of one another's wives.
If one should be guilty Of asking a Chi
nese gentleman about his wife he would
well. he would reply politely, but he
would say: She is altogether too signi-
fcant person to engage your attention
for a mement. 1t IS of no consequence
about her health. What would happen
if an American gentleman should say
this : imagine be would have more
trouble than Brigham Young. And you
show your affection in public. | re-
member how amazed / was when | first
saw gentleman kiss and embrace his
wife in depot. L thought the Ameri-
cans must have SO much affection that
they could not control themselves. But
| found out afterward that these people
who embraced each ether in public quar-
relied with themselves in private. In
China we keep our affection for private
lite, and we are more careful about mar
rying, for we have no system of divorces.
Perhaps the reason is that we have
no lawyers to show us how to get rid of
our husbands and wives. All our pleas
ures are different. / remember | went
TO hear very famous pianO-player soon
after / came TO America, and | sat for
half an hour waiting for her to begin.
And when She went out | asked why she
did not play, for | thought she had beeA
tuning the instrument, and | was aston
ished that 80 beautiful an instrument
should make such terrible noises. And
| have seen Chinese musicians move a
Chinese audience to tears and tolaughter
without affecting in the slightest degree
two or three European gentlemen who
were present. But because | did not
enjoy it, was there no harmony in the
piano playing? And because the Euro
peans were not affected, does it follow
that the music of the Chinese was not