The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-01-17
WHAT xSCuIED THE CHINESE RIOTS.

WHAT 1HCITED THE CHINESE RIOTS.
Parts or . Passphies Circulated Th~owsh
the Ewsptre Translated. Nut Much Toe
Indecent 10 Render Into English.
The readers Of THE Sun already know Tint
within fow months. many thousands OF copies
Of anonymous pam pilots have beon scattered
broadcast In towns along tho river Yangtsc
vilifying the Christian faith and calling for
tho destruction OF its teachers and disciples
Large supplies Of tho pamphlets were dis
tributed to students who had gathered from
far and near to attend the official examinations
at certain towns Tho students scattered the
iniammatory literature through tho country
and thus helped to arouse public feeling and
| foment the riots that occurred at widely re-
moved points and for q thousand miles up the
great river.
| The most effective OF these pamphlets has
been translated into English by Mr.. L. c. Hop
kins. II fills four closely printed rages. The
| copy which has come to THE Sun from Eng
land contains much which could not be print
cd In any newspaper; and yet the translation
is not quite faithful to the original. for an oc-
| casonal foot note informs us that certain
sentences OF the Chinese text are too coarse
to be rendered into English.
| This fiery essay gives what purports to be
1
Of tho Christian religion. 1t is an appeal to
the passions OF tho ignorant, and its style and
| historical value may be estimated from few
| OF the Quotable portions Of the text. Tho fol-
| lowers OF Confucius are informed That the
Head Devil" whom the Christians worship is
called Jesus. tho Hoir to the Throne" Tho
writer goes on:
| Tho truth IL that Jesus when alive. was a most
vicious most wicked. and most corrupt man. who. hav.
| ing committed many and most grievous crimes was
put to death by crucihxion. = There was atom
| Of injustice in the crucinxion.
The writer asks II tho Christians are not
more stupid than hogs. The Being they wor.
| ship has been dead for 1000 years. His spirit
| has been confined In the darkest perdtion:
| and yet His followers say He has assembled to
| heaven.
The only missionaries the writer has soon
apparently are the Catholics. who are far more
numerous in China than the disciples OF any
other Christian confession. Their affairs.
images. church ornaments. and modo Of wor-
ship are grotesluely and in part indecently
depicted. When any one enters q church. says
the writer. q devil book 1.-THE translated Scrip
lures and tractsl is given to him.
These devil books are large numbers but not one
exists that ought not to be destroyed have. dis
gusng my feelings received several OF them and for
every sentence that read uttered curse and when
| had finished reading there and then burnt them.
You. my readers have not them will describe
them to you They that the Chinese. who venerate
heaven. earth the sun. the MOON and tho stars.
wrong all wrong These are material things created
BY jesus. Why should We want to venerate them, 1t
enough to worship Jesus and then there will be such
| happiness without beginning or end
They also say that the Chinese who the an.
cestral tablets are wrong. all wrong. Ancestors be.
| ing dead are the same worn.out utensils Why
| should we want to venerate them 1t is enough to
worship Jesus and then there will DO happiness
without beginning or end!
OF all our saints md sages the only whom tho
devil books do not dare to abuse at present are Yao
| shun Yn. Tang. Wen Wang. WI Wang. Chou KunK
Confucius. and Aencius. but whether they will not
abuse them in the future Ia doubtful. Apart from
these. Wen Chang tho God OF Literature: Kuan II.
the God Of War: Laotsu Sakyamuni Kuan YIN the God
OF the Hearth. the God OF Wealth, together with
all the greater and lesser true gods abused without
exception in the devil books which and all declare
that in heaven above and earth beneath in the past
ana in the present. only Is great that is cor.
rupt devil Jesus whom they worship At times thoy
that the latter transformed from tho essence
Tor spirp OF the Supreme Ruer at other times that
Is His Son. Tho devil men and children call tho STU
preme Ruler their Heavenly Father. and the corrupt
devil Jesus their Heavenly Elder Brother. And don't
know how much more stuG and nonsense they have.
| 1t Is. however. whom the pamphleteer under
| takes to depict tho wickedness OF the priests
and the utter degradation OF thoir followers
| that he gives freest rein to his vocabulary and
imagination. He says he is Is years old. and
hc has never heard his countrymen accused OF
such enormities as those which are habitual
among the devil sects." 1t should be hoped.
for the credit Of humanity as we'll as China,
that he tells the truth. But the hated foreign
ers have many vile customs. impossible for
mo to describe or to put into writing. But II
they are neither spoken OF nor written. people
have no means Of learning about them. I
must therefore force myself to toll and write
something OF them for you to see whether the
| devil sects are not deserving OF endless detes-
tatiOp."
The information he imparts is important
| II true" and after showing that Occidental
society. including its religious leaders. is rot
ton to tho coro. the chronicler exposes deep
laid plot to ruin China Tho devil kings OF
all the foreign countries are plotting for tho
territory OF China and manufacture opium
expressly to drain China OF her money and
injure her vitality. China has already fallen
into tho trap. and the result is that the land is
poverty stricken and the people griovously
injured" The better to accomplish their de-
signs the foreign rulers have struck out an
other rascally schome. falsely saying that in
order to 'exhort mon to virtue Ia quotation
from the treatiesl. they wish to como to China
to build devil churches and practise the devil
rell4lon. emma mas fallen into the foul snare.
and. having failed to raise any barrier the
devil rulers despatch crowd OF devil priests
to work upon the peoples feelings" And how
the peoples feelings are wrought upon is de-
scribed with n dogrce Of vivid particularly
which cannot hero be reproduced.
Having revealed. In nil its hateful deiormity.
the character OF these invaders o! China. the
writer thus advises the people:
At the present time In every province tho devil
priests despatch crowd OF Chinese devil SONS AMI
devil grandsons belonging to their sect wiz. old aud
young native ChrIstnnsl who secretly distribute devil
books everywhere. Many OF these books have been
picked up. Remember. as soon rs you hear them
spoken about by any one. go quickly and make
search everywhere and seize them. Whenever you
devil son . devil grandson prasing the
devil doctrines. attack him: whenever you see devil
book. burn II. On no account be careless once
allow them TO and ucite people to enter the devil
sect. and II man en- ers II n whole family Is led
nstray; II family Is led astray. will
their immediate neighhors be. their fellow
clais,pen their relatives and friends aud numberess
places Will be ruined. 1t Ia Just as II Is with opium II
person smokes. the whole household Is certain to
do en-. hous hold smOk the "