XVI INTRODÜCTION. 



He oughfc to know himself and to know others. He has to fulfil the three soeial bonds, ( l ) which 

 are the relation bet ween ruler and ruled, husband and wife, father and son. To these are 

 added the dnties of brothers and Men ds amongst each other, which five duties constitute the 

 five relations. ( 2 ) Humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, are the five constant 

 virtnes ( 3 ) he has conscientiously to consider. He has to res train and modify bis passions : 

 joy, anger, love, sorrow, fear, hatred and concupiscence. ( 4 ) As a subject, citizen, father, 

 husband, son, brother, friend, senior and junior, he has several duties to fulfil. He ought 

 to act properly and righteously in all the circumstances of life as: birth and death, funerals, 

 marriages, in his conduct and actions, in his duties as an officer, in his pursuits of husban- 

 diy, in the perpetration of ceremonies, and intercourse with others. ( 5 ) 



God or Shang-ti was adored in antiquity on the top of a mountain: the chief of the nation, 

 the emperor, alone ascended this mountain, whilst the people remained standing at it's foot. 

 There the emperor prayecl to the Suprème Ruler, to Him who had created everything. For 

 this purpose five mountains were destined, called //The five peaks." ( 6 ) Afterwards the loss 

 of time occasioned by the voyages to these mountains, suggested the idea to erect a building 

 for the purpose of praying to Shang-ti. This building was called, under the first dynasty Hia 

 (B. C. 2209 — 1766), the SM-sMh ( 7 ), //The House of Generations and Ages" or the temple erec- 

 ted by the dynasty of Hia in honour of Him who made the ages and generations. Under the 

 Shang-dynasty (B. C. 1766 — 1122), this temple was called the Shang-chung-uh , ( 8 ) or The tem- 

 ple renewed by the Shang-dynast3 T . Under the Chau-dynasty (B. C. 1122 — 255), it was named 

 the Ming-thang , ( 9 ) Temple erected in honour of Him who is the source of all light, or, sim- 

 ply, „The temple of light." The character Ming,( 10 ) light, is composed oftwoparts — Sun ( n ) and 

 Moon. ( 12 ) Nothing being more resplendant in the eyes of man than the sun and moon, he 

 naturally took these symbols to name the place especially designed for the worship of Him who 

 is the Father of light. 



Afterwards, this temple was divided into two parts: one was called the Sun-temple, ( 13 ) and the 

 other the Moon-lemple, ( u ) or, more literally, the altar of the Sun and the altar of the Moon. 



It is possible that the, in the Hungleague, so oft repeated words Ming-thang , which we have 

 translated by Hall of Ming (the palace of the Ming, or Bright, dynasty), may refer to this oid 

 Lighttemple. Further investigations would be necessary, ho wever, on this important point ; for if 

 Temple of light is the true meaning which ought to be attached to the expression Ming-thang, it would 

 be proved, beyond doubt, that the object of the Hungleague is not simply the restoration of the 



fn 



O H IN ( 2 ) ^ 



( 3 > 3L # ( 4 ) -t 



( 5 ) Memoires concernaut les Chinois, T. II, pp. 175 — 181. 



( 6 ) at & ( 7 ) ift ^ ( 8 ) il I I ( 9 ) Ui Ê 



(io) bij (") a e>) % ( is ) ^ n m *g 



