which resulted, however, neither in deification nor polytheism.  But, as the European mediaeval schoolmen have done with the Bible, so, after the death of Confucius the Chinese scholastics by metaphysical reasoning and commentary, created systems of interpretation which greatly altered the apparent form and contents of his own and of the ancient texts.  Thus, the original monotheism of the pre-Confucian documents has been completely obscured by the later webs of sophistry which have been woven about the original scriptures.  The ancient simplicity of doctrine has been lost in the mountains of commentary which were piled upon the primitive texts.  Throughout the centuries, the Confucian system has been conditioned and greatly modified by Taoism, Buddhism and the speculations of the Chinese wise men.

Confucius, however, did not change or seriously modify the ancient religion except that, as is more than probable, he may have laid unnecessary emphasis upon social and political duties, and may not have been sufficiently interested in the honor to be paid to Shang Ti or God.  He practically ignored the God-ward side of man’s duties.  His teachings relate chiefly to duties between man and man, to propriety and etiquette, and to ceremony and usage.  He said that “To give one’s self to the duties due to men and while respecting spiritual beings to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom."[5]

We think that Confucius cut the tap-root of all true progress, and therefore is largely responsible for the arrested development of China.  He avoided the personal term, God (Ti), and instead, made use of the abstract term, Heaven (Tien).  His teaching, which is so often quoted by Japanese gentlemen, was, “Honor the Gods and keep them far from you.”  His image stands in thousands of temples and in every school, in China, but he is only revered and never deified.

China has for ages suffered from agnosticism; for no normal Confucianist can love God, though he may learn to reverence him.  The Emperor periodically worships for his people, at the great marble altar to Heaven in Peking, with vast holocausts, and the prayers which are offered may possibly amount to this:  “Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”  But there, as it seems to a Christian, Chinese imperial worship stops.  The people at large, cut off by this restricted worship from direct access to God, have wandered away into every sort of polytheism and idolatry, while the religion of the educated Chinese is a mediaeval philosophy based upon Confucianism, of which we shall speak hereafter.

The Confucian system as a religion, like a giant with a child’s head, is exaggerated on its moral and ceremonial side as compared with its spiritual development.  Some deny that it is a religion at all, and call it only a code.  However, let us examine the Confucian ethics which formed the basis and norm of all government in the family and nation, and are summed up in the doctrine of the “Five