CHINESE IMMIGRATION. 731 



pire." * The paternal idea is strengthened by education, from the 

 commencement as children to the attainment of the highest literary 

 degrees conferred upon mandarins. In the " Classic of Three Charac- 

 ters," one of four small tracts that are placed in the hands of Chinese 

 children, they are taught that " filial piety and a due regard to elders 

 we consider as holding the first place, the acquisition of knowledge we 

 rank in a secondary place." f Again, in one of those canonical works 

 which form the basis of Chinese education, religion, and government, 

 the opinions of Confucius are recorded upon the same subject. Being 

 asked " whether in the virtue of the sages there was not something 

 greater than filial piety," he replied : " Of all (creatures with their 

 different) natures produced by heaven and earth, man is the noblest. 

 Of all of the actions of man there is none greater than filial piety. In 

 filial piety there is nothing greater than the reverential awe of one's 

 father. In the reverential awe shown to one's father there is nothing 

 greater than making him the correlate of Heaven. J There is in all of 

 their institutions a recognition of the paternal model ; it is constantly 

 recited, in their religious worship, in their state ceremonies, in their 

 education, and in their literature. Sir John Davis says : " There is 

 nothing more remarkable in their ritual and in their criminal code 

 than the exact parallel which is studiously kept up between the rela- 

 tions in which every person stands to his own parents and to the Em- 

 peror. For similar offenses against both he suffers similar punish- 

 ments ; at the death of both he mourns the same time and goes the 

 same period unshaven ; and both possess nearly the same power over 

 his person." * 



The genius of the Chinese civilization, which is characterized by 

 the greatest persistence in primitive or early forms, is illustrated 

 equally in their religion as in their government. The two are, indeed, 

 to a great degree united. The duties which are paid by all to their 

 parents and sovereign while living, are continued in their worship 

 after death. As this has been taught by the sages, and forms the 

 foundation of the government, it is allowed by the teachers to be con- 

 sistent with all forms of faith. Ancestor-worship has thus become 

 the universal religion, to which all newer forms have adapted them- 

 selves. All forms of faith are at least tolerated, so long as no organi- 

 zation is affected, or no doctrines taught which are considered dan- 

 gerous by their strength, or opposed by their influence to the political 

 power. And the strict interference with any attempt by religious 

 societies to usurp any temporal authority has conduced to that com- 

 mon toleration and individual independence of belief which make it 

 possible to accept the not inconsistent parts of various creeds. We are 



* Williams's " Middle Kingdom," vol. i, p. 516. 

 \ Morrison's " Hone Sinicae," p. 7. 



% Legge, " Sacred Books of China," "Hsiao King," p. 476. 



* Davis's " China," vol. i, p. 24. 



