52 MEETING, MONDAY, JANUARY 17. 



Monday, January 17, 1881. 



At the Regular meeting this evening 



Mr. Charles E. Endicott, of Boston, read a very in- 

 teresting paper upon China. He began by speaking of 

 the religions and government of China. The rationalistic 

 philosophy of Confucius, while exerting immense influ- 

 ence over the nation, has failed to satisfy the innate 

 yearnings for supernatural refuge and assistance. Conse- 

 quently Tauism and Buddhism have been resorted to, 

 though the doctrines of these sects have really no great 

 hold on the mass of the nation. The Buddhists are the 

 most popular of religious sects and their temples are 

 scattered over the empire. The peculiar beliefs of both 

 Tauists and Buddhists were given in some detail. 



The Emperor, called the "solitary man," is the source 

 of all authority and patronage. Notwithstanding his 

 autocracy, he deems it best to have a board of advisers, 

 in the form of two councils, termed the Cabinet and the 

 General Council. A full account of the different sub- 

 sidiary councils and the form of government was then 

 given. After which the speaker said that science — natu- 

 ral, physical or mathematical — could hardly be said to 

 exist in China. Astronomy is understood to a very limited 

 extent, and is merely valued astrologically. There is an 

 entire ignorance of the globe, either as regards its shape 

 or dimensions, or the situation of foreign countries. The 

 knowledge of mathematics is extremely limited, and is 

 mostly studied for mercantile purposes. Chemistry and 

 metallurgy are unknown as sciences, and the knowledge 

 of anatomy is most crude. 



In speaking of education, he said : The hope of hold- 

 ing official position is the chief incentive to literary at- 

 tainment among the Chinese, and education consists 



