The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-11-11
CHINESE RELIGION.
TIE RESULTS OF A SAN FRANCISCO
REPORTERS INVESTIGATIONS.

The Confucian Chinaman's Belief-Ihe
Taoist a Liberal Sort of Materialist'
The Metaphysical NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Maxims of the Celestials.
Stepping into a shop in Chinatown, gem
tlcman, among other things, asked the owner
what his religious belief was, and the result
Of the conversation was that he found the
shoplieeper to be believer in all three OF tne
national religions, accepting the gods OF each
offhand, paying his money to support the
priests of all, and, if it would have made busl-
ness little brisker, All Wang would have
undoubtedly announced himself a Christian
of any denomination required This then is
one of the most striking peculiarties: that,
while there are three distinct religions they
see no inconsistency in accepting ali. The
Confucian Chinaman believes in spiritual
appeal to the moral nature He believes In
conscience, sees a difference between virtue
and vice, pretends to believe in law and order,
and is firm believer in paying a religious
venera ion to his ancestors; and, above all, Is
remarkable for his filial piety.
THE MATERIALISTIC TAOIST
The Taoist is a materialist. To him the
soul is something tangible, a physical some
thing, purer than the human form. 1t is not
essentially immortal, but attains this state
only by a physical training after passing
through a certain pseudo-chemical process.
He believes in various gods, is liberal OF
liberals in this Even the stars are divine on
divinities. The Taoist is also great be-
lever in hermits, physicians, ma9icians and
holy men of all kinds. The Chinese Budd-
hist differs from these. His religion is meta
physical. He delights in argumentive phil
osophy, and gives vent to his Imagination III
building up his beliefs on an ethereal plat
form. His gods are not realities, but the
mere personifcatiOn of ideas. Matter, as
such, is entirely disregarded, and ideas, or
theories founded upon ideas, accepted. Tao
ism is perhaps as popular among the majority
as any, as it is of practical use; thus, a sick
man will consult his god of medicine, which
is to be found in some of the houses, and the
priest will tell the patient exactly whaS
medicine or drugs are required to heal him.
Over and around these gods are seen testi-
monials of patients that have been cured.
The Taoist religion is built up from work
of about 5000 characters, written by the
famous Chinese philosopher I4aotse. 1t is
called the book of the way to virtue, or
Tao-Te King, and extracts from it are found
printed on slips in many of the stores in
Chinatown, on many of which will be found
the sayings of this philosopher, whose prime
idea was to impress upon mankind that nom
existence was far to be preferred above ex-
stence. This is not quite up to- the modern
French philosopher, who proved with ease
that existence was an impossibility. If a
Taoist is asked for any papers relating to this
religion he will, i'll all probability, provide
extracts from work called the "Bool of Re-
wards and PunishmentS" These maNims are
to be found ON many of the Chinese works of
art and probably no Chinese work has'such a
circulation in San Francisco as this. The
work itself is printed by subscription in
China, and is given by the rich subscribers to
those who cannot afford to buy it. Some of
the maxims that may be observed in the
stores here are as follows: "Be humane to
animals;" "Have pity upon orphans and
show compassion to Widows" "Do not
expose the faults of Others" "Bestow ia
vors without expecting recompense;" "Give
willingly" "Wives, respect your husbands"
mote that it is not obey; ga handsome figure
excites the admiration of the world, but it
does not deceive heaven" and many more, all
of which have q decided flavor of Christian
ethics about them.