The Portland daily press., 1877-07-14
Recent Publications.

For light summer reading and seaside mus
ing Loring, Short & Harmon send us ponder
Gus octave of nearly thousand pages, issued
by j. r. Osgood & Co., of Boston, on "Oriental
Religions and their Relation to UniveraI Re-
ligion," by Samuel johnson. The author first
invites US to consider the Chinese mind, in
sixty pages, throws in thirty pages about their
methods of labor, then sundry chapters on
their science, external relations, ethnic type,
resources, education, government, language,
literature (good solid chapters these last FOUR,
history, poetry, 115 pages on their sages. Con-
fuc:us and Mencius, and finishes with about
$50 pages about their beliefs. 1T seems that
the history of China for four thousand years
is continued record of internal wars, and that
the transition from feudalism to Imperialism
in the third century, B. c., cost the lives of
one-third of the people. The triumph of the
Han dynasty three hundred years later was
won by the slaughter of million. Self-de-
struction has been as common with them as
among the Japanese. Humane societies are as
frequent there as here, and education is as well
provided for. They are fond of festivals, pro-
cessions and merrymakings, and their games
SookSOhCoCs
credit is everywhere sustained by mutual in
surance companies, by which aid is given in
business difficulties. Their lands are made to
yield two crops annually after the system imi-
tated by our market gardeners, while their veg
etable gardens yield four OF five crops yearly
They invented gunpowder before the tenth
century, printing before the sixth, llthograph-
ing still earlier, paying.cards in the twelfth,
steel needles very early, the arch before it was
known to Europe. banking before the Jews,
and paper money as early as the ninth century
In the twelfth, the Empire was bankrupted by
it,; after 1455 they discarded it, and recent at
tempts to introduce it have failed; yet our
Rev. Mr.. Mhnson and his greenback party will
probably be 1455 years more before they learn
as much.
In science they are utilitarian. They used
ap@sthetics in the third century, and inocula-
tion has been practced several hundred years;
of astronomy they know little, although they
seem always to have made it study, mostly
for astrological purposes. They are admirable
historians, and their plan of keeping official
annals Of each reign secretly prepared aad
sealed up. to be opened and made known at
VIZ aSAs ouSSOooiOhS hoo pRCoCLNou muCu ga
cellent material. Their chronology is the
most valuable which exists, as it runs back
with approximate certainty to 1000 B. c., the
supposed time of Abraham, while positive He
brew history only goes back to the eighth CEN
tury, B. G., or the reign of Hezekiah. There
is little doubt of the trustworthiness of their
chronicles back to 5000 B. G., or the age of
Enoch, five hundred years before the Flood.
The present population of China is 45O, ,0O0, 900,
and more dense than any other known COM
munity. Their learned world consists of two
millions of scholars, standard works are con-
stantly issuing from the press and circulating
libraries have existed from time immemorial
They have more than two thousand colleges
and nowhere are literary men so honored.
School hours are from 6 p. m. to 8 a. m, with
an hour or two of recess. one vacation at New
Years and few holidays. Their civil service is
excellent. The most successful scholars in the
town school compete for the first degree GLOW
ering Talents) in three annual examinations at
the district capitals. Success in this gives
them the privilege to compete for the second
(Promoted Men) at triennial examinations.
This trial lasts nine days; thousands compete
In each province and great public interest is
felt in them One.tenth only can succeed, and
from these another triennial contest selects
those worthy of the Masters degree. From
the Masters are selected, also by competitive
examination, members of the Imperial Acad-
emy, who labor under the direct supervision of
the Emperor, and form literary house of
Peers numbering about seventy. More or less
bribery creeps into this system, and the rich
dullard often buys the labor of the poor scholar.
The great reverence for old teachings also
causes an immense amount of citation of moral
and religious precepts which must give tone
of goodness rather than brilliancy to their lit
erature. Corruption regarding examinations
is severely punished. The President of the
Board of Examiners at Picking was recently
put to death for issuing fraudulent degrees.
The disappointed candidates become school,
masters and petty officers, and this system
tends to make unit of the empire. Hered-
tary rank has practically disappeared, land the
highest posts are open to the lowest ranks.
Their early (mythicaD history is entitled to the
credit of being more probable than ours, as it
pictures the race gradually emerging from
barbarism, learning agriculture and adopt
ing family life and forms of society. 1t
agrees with Darwinian views, and the glimpses
of antique life afforded by our relics of the cave
dwellers of Europe. The true mission of the
historian was also recognized in China many
centuries before other races had begun to dis
crminate between romance and fact. The
greatest of Chinese ssges, Confucius (Kung fu-
tse) was born 551 B. c. His family was noble
but poor. The subjects on which he taught
were ''letters, morality, devotion of soul and
truthfulness." At one time he was high in
Office, at another prescribed. but always faith
full as teacher of the highest morality. His
writings were the work of his last five years of
life, and were largely maxims gathered from
the study of the writings of old philosophers.
His references to Heaven showed strong rever
ence, but indefinite bell eff, and Chinese faith is
evidently pious rationalism. Mencius, two Gen.
centuries later was philosopher who influnced
the popular mind almost as much as Confu-
cius While Confucius urged central monar-
chy, Mencius favored representative gov
ernment. Our authors summing up is that
the Chinese primitive worship is like the
Shnto creed of Japan; it is development of
flIal pety, recognition of the heaven to
which their ancestors have gone. One of the
most curious of their beliefs is in Fung-Shui
(wind and water) which is an elaborate sorcery
for the selection of lucky times, good locations
and promising plans. Good and bad influences
are supposed to come from different points of
the compass and the positions of the stars are
supposed to indicate them, This has certain
element of science connected with it, like our
owH belief in sleeping with the head to the
North. The superstition is matched by our
popular belief in Friday being an unlucky day,
looking at the moon over the right shoulder
and similar fancies. They believe that certain
hours of the day and night are more fatal than
others, while with US many believe that the
soul departs with the ebbng of tie tide. Di
vination is popular in China, but we cannot
even smile at that when we remember that our
whole city was stirred little time ago by the
prediction of a fortune teller that Portland
would be burned again on the Fourth of July,
and the superstition was emphasized by three