476 PROCEEDINGS. 
hard in splitting the rocks of the Yangtsze Gorges that his hands 
became callous. The people did not feel the existence of a govern- 
ment before the Chow; everybody did as he pleased. Dr. Edkins 
introdaced a eulogy of Chinese ancestral worship altogether out of 
place. The Shang were religious more than the Chow, but ancestral 
worship was brought into the peculiar Chinese shape and made 
the basis of political government by the Chow, especially the Con- 
fucian school. That reverence of parents and continuance of 
genealogies through millenniums are possible without ancestral 
worship, with all its humbug and social evils, Dr. Edkins may learn 
from a look‘into the Bible; the Jews may serve as patterns even to 
the Chinese. Dr. Edkins’ paper was after all very defective. Of the 
principal sources of comparatively reliable information about the 
Shang, which cannot be received from Confucian sources without 
great caution, Dr. Edkins seemed to have no idea whatever. He 
(Dr. Faber) referred to Taoism in its earliest form. Taoism was a 
survival of the religious, political and social life of the Shang period. 
As he, however, intended to write a paper on this subject, this’ 
notice must suffice for the present. They knew further that the 
line of the Shang rulers was continued even in the Chow period in 
the state of Sung. Thongh in the course of time many ancient 
usages were neglected, and Confucius thonght what he found there 
in his time insufficient to attest antiquity, we may be able to glean 
something of value from the earlier records of the Sung state. It is 
remarkable that Mihism, 7. e. Chinese Socialism, had its origin and 
head-quarters in Sung. Chinese bronze also required a separate 
paper, for which some preparation was going on. 
Dr. Jamimson regretted that a scholar of Dr. Edkins’ reputation 
should have believed so blindly in the authenticity of Chinese 
authorities. He himself had never been able to find in Chinese 
literature any criticism which was not of the most vapid, verbal 
kind. He did not think an appreciation of what we meant by 
criticism of history had entered into the Chinese mind. It was — 
well known that Chinese of the literary class were always prepared 
with an answer, however little they might know of the subject. In 
proof of this he gave a reminiscence of his student days in Peking, | 
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