KEV. ARTHUK EhWIN ON ANCESTRAL WORSHIP. 



77 



Emperor was very angry, and in 1718 forbade any missionary 

 to reside in China, unless he conformed to the rules that Ricci 

 had laid down many years before. The Pope on the other 

 hand refused to allow any European missionary to go to China 

 who declined to obey his decision. The Chinese connected 

 witli the Roman Catholic Missions are not now permitted to 

 worship their ancestors. 



Whatever the conclusion that foreigners interested in the 

 subject may come to, there can be no doubt that the Chinese 

 Christians themselves look upon Ancestral Worship as 

 idolatrous, and as inconsistent with their profession of 

 Christianity, and surely they are the best judges in this 

 matter. 



Although there may be much to be admired from one point 

 of view in Ancestral Worship, it must not be forgotten that 

 many evils may be traced to it. 



Polygamy is not only allowed but encouraged. It is a 

 religious duty for a man who has no son to take another wife, 

 with the hope that a son may be born to ofler the ancestral 

 sacrifices. There can be no greater calamity than for a man to 

 die without an heir. 



That Ancestral Worship is responsible for a great deal of the 

 infanticide common in many parts of China there can be no 

 doubt. Daughters are not wanted, because tliey cannot take 

 part in the ancestral rites. In the great Chu-ki district, about 

 two hundred miles from Shanghai, where infanticide was very 

 common, it was universally believed tliat a baby without teeth 

 had no soul. Such a little one, dying, was wrapped in matting, 

 and left anywhere in the fields, generally being eaten by the 

 dogs. But if the baby had but one tooth, tlie soul was 

 supposed to have come, and a box was provided for burial. 



The annual cost of Ancestral Worship must be noticed. It 

 has been carefully computed that the expenditure by families 

 to secure the repose of their deceased members, comes to no 

 less than £24.000,000 annually, and to this must be added the 

 sum spent by charitable societies, for the support of the 

 destitute spirits, who have no friends to care for them, which 

 probably comes to about £6,000,000. We believe that we are 

 well within the mark when we decide that the total amount 

 spent by the Chinese on the spirits of the dead, comes to the 

 enormous sum of £30,000,000 annually. It must be remem- 

 bered that this immense sum expended on the dead is not 

 prompted by true charity, but by servile fear The living are 

 indeed the slaves of the dead. 



