THE CHINESE LANGUAGE COLLATED WITH THE IRIS H. THE Chinese, it is faid, began to improve let ters from the earliest times of their Monarchy, at leaft from the reigns of Yao and Chum, who lived upwards of 2200 years before Chrift. It is a common opinion, and univerfally received by those who have investigated the origin of a people of fuch unquestionable antiquity, that the fons of Noah were dispersed over the Eastern parts of Afia, and that there were fome of them who penetrated into China, a few ages after the deluge, and there laid the first foundation of the oldeft monarchy we know in the world. It is not to be denied, that these first founders, inftructed from a tradition not very remote from its fource, in the greatnefs and power of the first being, taught their pofterity to honour this fovereign Lord of the Univerfe, and to live agreeably to the principles of that Law of Nature he had engraven on their hearts. Their claffical books, fome of them written even in the time of the two Emperors juft named, leave no room to doub of it. Among these books there are five that they cal the Kink, and for which they have an extrem veneration. Though thefe books contain only the fundamental Laws of the ftate, and do not di rectly meddle with religion, their authors intentio having been to fecure the peace and tranquility o the Empire; yet they are very proper to inform u what was the religion of that ancient people, finc we are told in every page that in order to compa that peace and tranquility, two things were nece fary to be observed, the duties of religion and th rules of a good government. It appears throug the whole, that the first object of their worshi was one Being, the fupreme Lord and Sovereig Principle of all things, whom they honoured unde the name of Chang-ti, that is, Supreme Empero. or Tien, which in their language is of the fame in port, Tien, fay the interpreters of thefe books, the Spirit who prefides over Heaven; it is true, th fame word often fignifies among the Chinese, t material Heavens; and now fince Atheism h been for fome ages introduced among their litera it is reftricted to that fenfe; but in their ancie books they understood by it the Lord of Heaven, t Sovereign of the World. In them there is menti upon all occafions of the providence of Tien, of th chaftifements he inflicts upon the bad Emperor and of the rewards he difpenfes to the good. Th likewife reprefent him as one who is flexible vows and prayers, appeafed by facrifices, and wh diverts thofe calamities that threaten the Empire; with a thousand other things which can agree to none but an intelligent being. The reader is referred to the Extracts which Father Du Halde has taken from these ancient books, in the fecond volume of his Hiftory of China, and what he farther fays in the beginning of the third, & to Banier's Mythology, Tom. I. p. 130. There is not only a great conformity between this Kink of the Chinese and the Brehon Laws of the ancient Irish, but the name of the fupreme Being is alfo the fame. Ti, is the appellation of the great God in all the old Irish writings, and Ti mor, i. e. Ti, God, fpirit, will, defign, intention, and mor great, is the modern name of the fupreme Deity. See Shaw's Lexicon. Tiarna is the name for a prince, a lord, and alfo of God. Teinn, Teann is ftrength, power, and alfo fire. Eampal and eampaid was the altar ftone, and tieampal formed the word Teampal a church, and the Latin Templum. It is certain, that in thefe antient books, proofs are to be found of the knowledge the Chinefe had of the fupreme Being, and of the religious worship they have paid him for a long feries of ages; it is no lefs certain that no footsteps are there to be seen of an idolatrous worship. But this will appear lefs furprising when we confider, ift. That Idolatry fpread itfelf through the world but flowly, and step by step; and that having probably taken its rife in Affyria, as Eufebius alledges, where there was not even the appearance of an Idol till long after Belus, or according to others in Phenicia or in Egypt, it could not have made its way fo foon into K 2 131 |