CHINA. 
456 
t-ure, and penetrates even to the inmoft recefles of the 
heart. Heaven and earth are under his controul : ail 
events, all revolutions, are the confequences of his dif- 
penfations and his will. He is pure, holy, and impartial ; 
wickednefs offends his fight, but Ire beholds with an eye- 
of complacency the virtuous actions of men. Severe, yet 
juft, lie punifhes vice in an exemplary manner, even in 
princes and rulers, and often precipitates the guilty, to 
crown with honour the man who walks after his own 
heart, and whom he hath raifed from obl'curity. Good, 
merciful, and full of pit}', he forgives on the repentance 
of tile wicked; and public calamities, and the irregula¬ 
rity of the feafons, are only falutary warnings, which 
his fatherly goodnefs gives to men, to induce them to 
reform and amend.” Such are the charafler and attri¬ 
butes of the Divinity, which are declared in almoft every 
page of the Cbou-king, arid other canonical books. 
Hence it appears evident that the ancient Chinefe wor- 
ihipped only one Supreme God, whom they coniidered 
as a free and intelligent Being, and as an all-powerful, 
avenging, arid rewarding, fpirit. 
This religious doctrine of the firft emperors of China, 
has been partly fupported and continued under the fol¬ 
lowing reigns to the prefent time. All thole revolutions 
which ftiake thrones, and change the face of empires, 
are by the Chinefe conitantly attributed'to the fupreme 
direction of the Sovereign Lord of Heaven. Tcheou-kong 
thus expreffes himfeif in the xiv. chap, of the Clou-king .- 
“ Ye who have been minifters and officers under the dy- 
nafly of Ing , give ear, and liften. The Chang-ti, incenfed 
again ft your dynafty, deftroyed it; and, by an order full 
of affeftion for our family, he hath given us authority to 
exercife fovereign power in the kingdom of Ing: he was 
defirous that we might finifh the work he had begun. 
What hath palled among the people, hath fhewn us, how 
formidable the Lord of Heaven is. The king of the dy¬ 
nafty of Hya performed no sdlion agreeable to his peo¬ 
ple ; for this reafon, the Lord of Heaven loaded him 
with calamities, to inftrudt him, and make him fenfible 
of the error of his ways : but this prince was intracta¬ 
ble ; he uttered words full of pride, and gave himfeif up 
to every kivid of evil. Heaven, therefore, fhewed no 
farther regard for him : he was deprived of his kingdom, 
and puhifhed. Tchang-tang, founder of your dynafty, 
was conimifiioned to execute the orders of Heaven; he 
deftroyed the dynafty of Hya, and, in its Head, eftablilh- 
ed a wife king, to govern the people of the empire. 
‘Tclcou, the latt prince of your dynafty, negle< 5 led the 
laws of Heaven ; he neither informed himfeif of the care 
which his anceftors took to preferve their family, nor 
did he imitate their zeal and diligence : for this reafon, 
the Sovereign Lord abandoned him, and brought him to 
punifhment. Heaven did not fnpport him, becaufe he 
deviated from the paths of equity and juftice. No king¬ 
dom, great or fmall, can be deftroyed, unlefs fuch be the 
will of Heaven.” 
Vou-vang, in the fecond year of his reign, was attack¬ 
ed with a malady, which threatened his life ; his brother 
had recourfe tothe Chang-ti, to beg, that a prince might 
be fpared, whofe life was fo neceflary for the welfare and 
happinefs of his people. His prayer is thus recorded. 
“ Thou, O Lord ! didft place him on the throne, and 
tftablifh him the father of his people. Wilt thou then 
punifh us by his lofs ? If a vifilim be neceflary rofatisfy 
thy juftice, I offer thee my life; I will yield it up as a 
voluntary facrifice, provided thou wilt preferve my bro¬ 
ther, ipy mafter, and my fovereign.” 
The Chi-king informs us, what fentiments of grati¬ 
tude the emperor Ohao-vang entertained for the bleilings 
bellowed upon him by the Chang-ti.—“Rejoice, my peo¬ 
ple,” laid he one day to the labourers ; “ it is now only 
the end of fpring, and you are about to gather in the 
fruits of autumn ; your fields, but lately fown, are alrea¬ 
dy loaded with an abundant crop, Let thanks, there¬ 
fore, be given to the Chang-ti, who enables us fo foon to 
enjoy his beneficent gifts. For this reafon, I will not 
wait until the end of autumn, to prefent myfelf before 
him, and to thank him for fo fudden a fertility.” 
Bad princes certainly intervened amonft a iucceffion of 
good emperors; and a Li-vang forgot the examples of 
his pious anceftors, and gave himfeif up to the caprice 
of his pride. The Chi-king obferves, that “the filen’ce 
of the Chang-ti appeared then to be an enigma', and it 
might have been laid, that his Supreme Providence had 
belied itfelf; eveiy tiling profpered with this wicked 
prince; the people were intimidated; even the cenfors 
of the empire applauded his errors—What, then, is 
there no longer juftice in heaven? Shall the impious 
enjoy, peaceably, the fruit of their crimes ? Attend, and 
you will foon fee, that the Chang-ti keeps his arm fo long 
at reft, in order only to ilrike with redoubled force : for. 
the people, harralfed by opprefiionj role up againft that 
tyrant, killed the flatterers who lurrounded his throne, 
and would have facrificed the prince himfeif to their fu¬ 
ry, had he not ef’caped by a precipitate flight.” 
The emperor Yon-tching, who fucceeded Kaung-hi,, 
in 1722, furnifhed abundant proofs, in his proclama¬ 
tions and decrees, that the fame fentiments refpefling the 
being of a God, were held in facred veneration during his 
reign. And thelate emperorTchien -lung, who fucceeded 
Yong-tchien in 1736, notwithllanding his encourage¬ 
ment of idolatry in the common people, feems, in truth, 
to have the fame fentiments; fo that this doftrine of the 
exiftence and attributes of a fupreme being,- and of the 
worfhip and homage due to him alone, has fubfiited in 
China with little change from the remotell ages. In¬ 
deed, if we confult all the monuments and canonical 
works of this nation, and if we fearch the ancient part of 
its annals, we fliall not difeover the leatl veftige of idola¬ 
try, but what has been of a later date, and introduced 
by the above mentioned fefls. The Chinefe hiftory, ft> 
minute in its details, and fo particular in pointing out 
every innovation in ellablifhed cuftoms, makes no men¬ 
tion of any fuperifitious rite, contradictory to the belief 
and worfhip which we have attributed to the ancient 
Chinefe: had there been any fuch, it would have un¬ 
doubtedly fpoken of them with the fame exaftnefs as 
that with which it relates the eilablilliment of the left of 
theTao liee, and the introdtfflion of the religion of the 
idol Fo. Yet it has been aflerted, that Tchien-lung, co¬ 
wards the end of his long reign, had become fo far loft 
to this facred dodlrine of a fupreme being, that, in the 
celebration of his birth-day, lie impiouily affumed the 
name of the Deity, and even fullered his people to offer 
divine worfhip and adoration unto him; and in his ah- 
fence, to his throne, as the fymbol of himfeif." Let us 
charitably hope that thofe who have given us this ac¬ 
count, not underilanding futficiently the true nature of 
the Chinefe feflivals, may have miltakefl the tenor and 
drift of thefe external ceremonies. 
The firft facrifices which the Chinefe inflituted in ho¬ 
nour of the Chang-ti, were offered up on a Tan, or altar 
of Hones, in the open fields, or on fome mountain., 
Around the tan was raifed a double fence, called Kiao, 
compofed of turf and branches of trees. In the fpace 
left between the fences, were erected two irnalier altars on 
the right and left, upon which, immediately after the fk- 
crifice offered up in honour of the Tien, they facrificed 
alfo to the Cheng, that is to fay, to the fuperior fpirits of 
every rank, and to their virtuous anceftors. The fove¬ 
reign alone, whom they confidered as the high ■prielt of 
the empire, facrificed on the tan. In the early ages, a 
Angle mountain was thought fufficient for facrifices to 
the Chang-ti. But in procefs of time, the empire being 
coniiderably enlarged, Hoang-ti appointed four principal 
mountains, fitu.ited in the extremities of his Hates, and 
correfponding, like the pyramids of Egypt, with the four 
cardinal points, to be ever after places particularly con- 
fecrated, and let apart for the religious vvoiihipof the 
whole nation. In the courfe of every year, the prince 
went 
