RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS IN CHINA. 291 



with flowers and incense, this is really intended to pro- 

 pitiate the evil spirit in favour of their departed 

 ancestors. 



The three religious systems In China are Confucian- 

 ism, Buddhism, and Taouism. The first of these is 

 the creed of the educated classes. Confucius was the 

 author or compiler of the earliest work on China, 

 called " Yu-kung," originally consisting of one hundred 

 parts, of which fifty-eight have, after passing through 

 many vicissitudes, been restored, embracing the 

 period from B.C. 2,357 to B.C. 720, historically as well 

 as geographically. This extraordinary man was born 

 in B.C. 550. He taught a philosophy, the basis of 

 all social and political life, an utter absence of a 

 personal God, In short Atheism, and in his time no 

 Images were allowed. His followers, the Siodoslns, 

 may therefore be termed Freethinkers, who disdain 

 every kind of pious practice, holding that true religion 

 consists in the perfect harmony of acts with the 

 precepts of sound reason. At a later period they put 

 up tablets bearing their founder's name. In front of 

 which they burned incense and offered sacrifices of oxen 

 and sheep ; their temples then had mostly a funereal 

 appearance ; gradually, however, many other abuses 

 crept in, amongst which the addition of hundreds of 



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