X INTKODUCTION. 



The absolute resemblance "between the system of Pythagoras and the Chinese musical system 

 is in strong favor of the supposition that he got his notions for it from the Chinese. ( l ) They 

 attach to numhers all the properties attached to them by the Greek philosopher, and they knew 

 them long before he did, which makes it rather probable that it was he who learned them fL-oni 

 the Chinese, ( 2 ) though modern critique has shown that the voyage of Pythagoras to India is 

 a fable of the Alexandrine period. ( 3 ) It is proved that the Chinese had intercourse wïth the 

 Romans; and Antoninus even sent an embassy to China. ( 4 ) This intercourse was kept up, 

 according to klaproth, till the eleventh century. 



According to the masons their society is as old as the world itself; some of them consider 

 Egypt as its cradle. Dr. Schauberg says: //that the mediaeval building corporations did not 

 originate spontaneously with all their institutions, usages, and symbols, but had a historical 

 antecursor in the Greek and Roman building-mysteries which, in their turn, took their root in 

 the Phenician and Egyptian building-mysteries, and have suffered the influence of the Lightcultus 

 of Zoroaster, and probably, nay surely, of JBud//ism." ( 5 ) 



Perhaps masonry divided itself into two branches: one passing to the West, in the way Cr. 

 Schauberg snpposes, and the other directing itself to the East and finding a fertile soil for its 

 development in China. ( 6 ) 



The members of the Hungleague claim, at least, a high antiquity. In the 32d answer of 

 their Catechism it is said : //Since the time that the foundation of the world was laid, we all 

 bear the name of Hung." Likewise the Vanguard answers on the 220th Question : //Yin and Yang 

 united, Heaven and Earth accoupled, first produced the sons of Hang in myriads united." 



It will, probably, be objected that the workings of the Hungleague and of the society of frec- 

 raasons are quite different; that the object of the latter is thoroughly peaceful, whilst the Hung- 

 league has carried civil war and murder whereever it went. We do not deny these facts, but 

 we must bear in mind that the circumstances have forced the brotherhood to become a political body, 

 and that it is impossible for any society to be held responsible for the acts of all its members. 



(!) Memoires concernant les Ckinois, T. VI, 173. 



(2) Ibid. T. H, 193. 



( 3 ) Chr. Lassen, Indische Altertliumsknnde , I, 862. 



( 4 ) Wells WilLiarns, Middle Kingdom. II. pp. 214 & 420. 



( 5 ) Symb. d. Freim. II, p. 299. 



( 6 ) A few weeks after I kad written tke above my friend E. Swinkoe, H. B. M. Consul at Formosa, sent 

 me his „Narrative of tke Nortk Ckina Campaign of 1S60," where I find on page 36G tke foHowing 



lines on secret signs of recognition betwepn tke Peking Chinese: ■ //But a similar sign 



was made by any native who wisked to skow tke sincerity of kis keart. He would point to tke sky 

 and to tke eartk, tken to kis keart, and would finisk tke demonstration by holding up kis thuml) ; 

 thus meaning that he called upon heaven and earth to witness the integrity of his heart. The officers 

 declared that these signs of mutual trust and siucerity were proof positive that freemasonry had long been 

 known and establisked in Ckina." 



