INTRODUCTION. XXIX 



3. 



We come now to the most important part of our introduction , viz., the comparison of the 

 symbols of Masomy and of the Hung-league, which will give us many points of striking re- 

 semblance. 



According to Dr. Schauberg ( ] ), the sword is worn by masons as combatants of light against 

 darkness, of good against evil, of the true against the false, and as a sign that they hope 

 to enter the everlasting light and life by the victorious waging of this combat. 



If we observe what we have said in the first part of our introduction on the ancient 

 Light-worship of China ( 2 ), it would not seem improbable that the same meaning is attached to 

 this symbol in the Hung-league. At present the sword is used, especially, for the defence 

 of the lodge against attacks, and for the reception of new members. Gaedicke in his Free- 

 masons-lexicon says in his chapter ,/Weapons or sword" that in olden times every brother 

 in the lodge ought to be armed with a sword for defence in case of an attack of the lodge, 

 and as a symbol of manly force. Likewise Mossdorff in the Enclyclopaedia says : ,/ that former- 

 ly the sword served perhaps for the defence of the sacred place of the lodge." 



The new members are received at the Hung-gate by the brotherhood drawn up into a doublé 

 row, forming an archby crossing the points of their swords. ( 3 ) A similar ceremony seems to 

 have prevailed with the old masons, as would appear from the 15th Question of the presiding 

 master in the English apprentice Catechism: ,/How did you enter and whereat?" „Kt the 

 point of a sword or spear, or some other warlike instrument, which was put upon ray breast." ( 4 j 



Till the present day it is a custom amongst freemasons to receive high officers or high- 

 placed people under an arch of crossed swords. The prince and princess of Wales were 

 received at Oxford by the Freemasons of the Apollo-lodge by eight templars who formeel an 

 arch of swords. ( 5 ). 



We may note, also, that the swords of the members of the Hung-league are straight and 

 two-edged, like the swords of the freemasons, which symbolize the rays of light. ( c ) 



We have translated in the whole bulk of this work the reunion-places of the Hung-league 

 by the masonic term lodge. This is not an arbitrary rendering, but given only after a ripe 

 analysis of the meaning of both words lodge and fang ( 7 ), and of the interpretation which the 

 masons and the members of the Hung-league give to it. ( 8 ) With the masons the word lodge 

 is the symbol of the world. Dr. Schauberg even goes so far as to surmise that the word, 

 as well as the square by which it is expressed, is derived from Budhism. The younger bir- 

 manese Budhists in After-India call the universe Logha, which means in their language /; Gene- 



(!) Symb. d. Freim., I, 53. ( 2 ) See p. xvi. 



( 3 ) See pp. 53 and 81, Q. 164; pag. 87, Q. 204. ( 4 ) Syrab. d. Freim., T, 55. 



(5) Supplement Illustrated London-news; June 27, 18G3. ( c ) Symb. d. Freim., I, 55. 



( 7 ) j?j ( 8 ) Compare also what we have said 011 pp. xxn— xxin. 



