. What the world believes, the false and the true, embracing the people of all races and nations, their peculiar teachings, rites, ceremonies, from the earliest pagan times to the present, to which is added an account of what the world believes today, by countries. by Moses ; andthat it may be traced back, by means of regular traditions,even to the renewal of the human race, by the grandsons ofNoah. It is affirmed, on the contrary, that the primitive re-ligion of China no longer exists, or exists only in a mostdegenerated state ; that there is at present no national, norscarcely any State reli
. What the world believes, the false and the true, embracing the people of all races and nations, their peculiar teachings, rites, ceremonies, from the earliest pagan times to the present, to which is added an account of what the world believes today, by countries. by Moses ; andthat it may be traced back, by means of regular traditions,even to the renewal of the human race, by the grandsons ofNoah. It is affirmed, on the contrary, that the primitive re-ligion of China no longer exists, or exists only in a mostdegenerated state ; that there is at present no national, norscarcely any State religion in the Empire ; and that the arti-cles of-faith are as various as the modes of worship. In theface of these conflicting opinions, it is here proposed to givethe reader a brief narrative, first, of the principal religioussystems which have been introduced into China at differentperiods, as far as can be ascertained from their own histori-cal records ; and next, of their more recent religious observ-ances, and the results following the attempts to introduceChristianity among them. All accounts of the religious opinions and ceremonies ofthe Chinese, previous to the time of Confucius, are mixedwith fable, and full of uncertainty. Indeed, as their best (94). CHINESE DEACON. THE PRIMITIVE CREED. 95 existing historical documents must be regarded as his pro-ductions, and are at least ascribed chiefly to his pen by theChinese themselves, none of the allusions to religious prac-tices, which are to be found in the earliest period of theirhistory, can be considered as resting upon any authoritymore ancient than his. But, as the Chinese affirm the gn laterportion of their canonical book, Shooking, to have been com-posed long before the age of Confucius, and to have onlybeen restored by his labors, we may proceed upon this idea,and consider the tenets expressed in this work as the ancientreligion of China. Their primitive creed seems to have contained the generaldoctrines of theism, wit
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectreligions, bookyear18
