Synibolism '' '' 5 ? 5 5 ? ; Ly '' ''oe eee Ms a ! | BP oe << Sueient Syeda Among the Chinese, PRR AAI RA RAN A RR ee $ ; BY ; : ) Taare ~MNhi7G i 50seph woking, D.D, 1 \f , ) OG) J SS eS ee es LONDON ; TRUBNIER AnD Go. ( SHANGHAI: 2 g Society for the Diffusion of Uhristian and General Unawicvge ¢ $ Among the Chinese. 5 188) g, ‘ > 4 Se POP PRR I I EE NA eR, 3h eee oe = '' ''In compliance with current copyright law, U. C. Library Bindery produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48- 1984 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1993 '' '' Ancient Symbolism QYN tho early stages of the history of mankind symbols were naturally very much used and language itself vas a set of symbols. Words are symbols of thoughts and thoughts are symbols of things. The outside world is real; and man is real. The first men found themselves in contact with matter and when impressions were made on them through the senses they responded by sounds and acts which became the foundation of language. “he sounds the first men uttered or caused by their actions became the first words when intellectual force had imparted to them a sufficiently distinctive meaning to ensure their permanence. Thus, the first symbols used by men were words and gestures. In these cary times gestures would be of frequent use as signs of thoushts and of the will of the mau making the gestures; and gestures and words together, few as words were at that time, constituicd the entire working plant by » hich men could communicate the.ght to one another. Gradually gestures were less used, and words were more used ; and as this change took place, the vocal organs had to perform more work than before, while che hands and feet, the head and face, the eyes and shoulders, had less to da than formerly. ‘Then the whole task of representing the 3807014 ''ey ee ee ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. mind’s changing states was thrown wpon words, and as there; was not sufficient opportunity yet afforded for forming many abstract words, the vocabulary in use was extremely pictorial and realistic. For example, when we say: ‘‘It is tco sals for my taste,” we mention the substantive “salt” and give it an adjective signification. At some unknown period iv the long line of our forefathers the word ‘‘salt” assumed an adjective sense and our language thus became a little more abstract and lost a little of its early realism. Tf we ask what is a word, we must answer that it consists of several elements, all of which separately, and unitediy, are of a representative character, and tell us what those whe formerly used the word, and what those who now use it, were, and are, thinking of. It consists of a sound, or severa! sounds combined, and of one, or several, ideas, attached to that soind. Sound is essential, and meaning is essential and these component parts form the word ; which is thus seey to be, not so much a single symbol, as a bundle of symbols, Human speech consists of symbols of ideas, and ideas aru syinbols of objects taken notice of by the seuses. ‘The reasou why the mind forms ideas, and afterwards forms words by the help of the ergans of speech, is to make materials for easy communication with others, so that the mind may be able to reter to every obiect couversed upon by the sign. When a vocabulary has been constructed by any peeple it will always be found that they connect the words by symbols of a grammatical kind: so that, as a rule, each naticn has its own grammar, ag weil as its own vocaliulary. After grammar originated, there caine the art of writing. The mind, through social instincts, warmth of feeling, and the desire to attain certain ends, first consiructed language, and then proceeded to invent writing, which is merely a con- tinuation of the process of symbolization. Writing we may suppose would begin by counters used tu mark numbers. There is good reason to pelicve that the exigencies of trade led to the invention cf signe of yuraber '' ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. {n the first instance, to be followed by signs of objects less important and less frequently occurring. The counters used were often pebbles or rods. Moses, and the magicians of Egypt used roéi ‘She Chinese patriarchal emperor Fuhi used divining rods, tirst a few and afterwards a considerable number. The use of counters would be the foundation both of ancient writing and of arithmetic. It was customary to sit on the ground and strokes, long and short, made on sand, would mark numbers in the early intercourse cf mankind. This may be illustrated by the signs for number used in Babylonian writing. These appear to shew that short coun- ters which were placed horizontally, or perpendicularly, were used by the Babylonians. Thus 342 would be represented by = |\\|<- In the writing as it appears on bricks the strokes take the form of wedges, and are thicker at one end than at the other,because the stamp which impressed the clay when soft, had this shape given it for elegance. These signs of number are used most extensively in astronomical records. After five there is a change, so that six differs from the others in being composed of two lines meeting at an angle. But the principle of this early symbolism was one stroke for unity. This stroke was repeated for two, and again for three. The addition was made on the right hand side as in our own numerals. ‘This inode of writing numbers crept into China, as we know by the incident mentioned in the Z'so-chwen, where it is said that the character hai, the last of the twelve hours, was used in the year 542 before Christ, by an old man of 73 years of age, who had lived accordingly 26,660 days and expressed this in writing by two stroxes above and three sixes below. With this agreca the scal form of the character hai. Chinese, if we consider only the inside of the character, has always been writtco from ‘eft to right, as is the case with Hebrew also. It has also always been written from top to bottom. For thia reason the character hat cA lends itself easily to this arithmetical use '' ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. Generally, the Chinese characters being composed of strokes, would naturally originate in a rude ciphering, and would to a large extent, in the first instance, be of foreign origin. The Chinese inventors wouid proceed on this double foundation to make what new characters they required just as the Greeks began to write with Phcenician letters and added what more they needed as a supplement to the alphabet. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE STARS. In modern edueation the names of the principal stars are early taught to children in the west. The annual motion of the sun among the fixed stars, and the revolution of the - superior and inferior planets round the sun become known to the young and they are asked to notice that the self-evolved light of the hot and burning sun diifers widely, from the borrowed light of the pale moon. It is explained that the cause of the unchanging roundness of the sun is that he shines by his own light, just as the monthly phases of the moon are caused by her being a dark body. ‘The laws of the winds are taught, and the causes of the rain and of drought become subjects of instruction. In China the absence of science led to superstition. Yet it is surprising how much science the early Chinese possessed, and in the first ages how little superstition beclouded their minds. As to the starry heavens, they were regarded as a great dial plate of time and destiny. ‘Lhe heavenly bodies moved backward or forward slowly or quickly, on this dial plate. The Great Bear was the index which like the pointer of aclock* directed every hour the atten- tion of the observer to a division of the horizon. ‘The annual revolution of the sun is accompanied by the annual revolution of all the stars; so that the Great Bear pointers indicate a different part of the horizon on the first of each month at the game time of day ‘This is pointed out by 2o-kwan-tsz, who wrote aburt B.C. 300. The Greek names we know for the * Sce in Legge’s Shoo-king Chalmers article on the Astronomy of the Ancient Chinese. ». 94. : '' ANcIzunT SYMBOLISM. 7 constellations were derived from older nations occupying the adjacent countries in Africa and Asia, and we have them in the Roman version which Latinizes the Greek names. The Chinese called the Great Bear the Northern Tew or peck measure and this name indicates that the early symbolism of star naming was agricultural, for the Teu is the peck measure for grain, and it has the shape of the four stars which form the wagon in King Charles’ Wain, A very large proportion of the names of stars and constellations are derived from agriculture, and the customs and habits of the people in times long anterior to the Cheu dynasty. One of the remarkable symbolizations of the Ancient Chinese is the division into four main groups of the stars ac, What we regard as a scorpion was belonging to the zoc to them the main pert of a dragon whose horn was Arcturus which is called Ta kio, ‘‘Great horn.” The word ‘‘dragon” dung, means risin:t, increasing, and prospering. In the daily the Scorpion is assigned to the rotation of the heavens eastern quartcr and the word ‘‘ Hast,” tung, also means rising, and of course. is applied to mean the Kast because the heaven- ly bodies all rise in that quarter. The dragon extended over nearly ninety degrees. It included Libra and Sagittarius. Here then we find quite a peculiar symbolism as compared with the 12 signs. or the 28 constellations which are arranged to suit the path of the sun from west to east. Opposite to Scorpio is ‘Taurus with Aries, Orion and Gemini. At the same hour wken the Scorpion was seen rising in the east, Taurus and Orica were seen setting in the west, and they appeared as a tiger to the ancient Chinese. The southern constellations were described as a yed bird or phoenix and they embrace chiciy Cancer, Leo and Virgo. Another naive is ‘‘the quail.” A serpent or tortoise was supposed to be seen in the north, xnd it embraced Aquarius, Capricornus, and Pisces. The Red Bird was the constellation cf summer, and the serpent of winter, as the dragon and tiger were of spring and autumn. '' 8 Ancipnt SyMBOLISM Tur Dracon. The dragon is an Indian animal, and in early times it may have been Chinese. At present the flying dragon of India leaps for a long distance in forest lands among trees, and is aided in its passage through the air by wings attached to its four feet. China probably had in ancient times a dragon allied to the Indian which became from its habit of rising in the air, a symbol for power, increase of wisdom and the influence gained either by knowledge or political authority. In the Book of Changes the dragen is the symbol of the sage and of the king. Especially is this symbol regarded as instructive, because tiie sage and king rise trom insignificance and obscurity to popular eminence. The path by which the early Chinese arrived at this symbol for national and imperial power was partly through their fondness for astronomical observations and partly by divination, They saw the dragon represented in the brilliant constellations of the castern sky where every orb of heaven appears to rise. They saw it also in the symbolic groups of the mil-foil stalks used by ancient diviners to figure out the changes which occur in the aspects of nature. The aitera- tions which take place in the straws are for instance from unity to division, from a low position to a high position, from the obscure to tke bright, from the broken to the whole. The dragon is made symbolical of these changes, and the transformations of a sort of Jack Straw’s castle are held to te a prophetic picture of the events that happen in the life of man. The great influence of the Book of Changes on the Chinese mind arises from the fact that it is thought to have this power of picturing out the fortunes of humanity. For long ages before the time of Confucius it was appealed ta to foretell future events. In more recent times the reason why the dragon has been used as the symbol of imperial power thus becomes clear. It is because each dynastic family in its origin was like the dragon in rising from a low position to a high one '' i et rs ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. 9 THE SYMBOLISM OF THE PA-KWA. The book of which these are the basis, the Book of Changes, is full of symbolism, sudmecessarily so from its origin and purpose When the diviner placed his forty-nine stalks of mil-feil on the ground, and proceeded to divine, he was dealing only with symbolism. “he whole and broken lines of the Pa-kwa represented whatever he chose. He placed them one over the other in six lines, and decided that out of the six’ positions the second and the fifth should indicate «prosperity. Thus in Wen-wang's arrangement, under the first of the 64 Kwa, or arrangentents of the symbols in the Yi- king, the divining sentences are kien lung tsai Vien li hien ta jen: “The dragon is seen in the fields. There will be good fortune in seeing the great man.” This when deduced frora the grouping of the rods in the second position was counted to be a most fortunate indication. But it was surpassed by the fifth position which denoted nobility of virtue, combined with the highest favour of fortune. The divinerS made, in the first instance, eight groups of three strokes each, whole or bisected. About T.C. 2800 }’u-hi divined with these eight diagrams, but he developed them into sixty-four by taking six strokes instead of three. A separate name was assigned to each of these diagrams, and these names constituted a sort of special language of divina- tion. They are, in part, foreign it would seem; and, in part, native. They took their special nisaning from their occurrence in successful divinations. Eaeh ef tne dwa nas a history and most of the names were the same previous to the llth century before Christ. There never was a period from the beginning of Chinese classical tradition in the reign of Pu-hi downwards, when the king and people were withont diviners, or without a guide book of divipation, that is to say, an Yi-hing. The ancient Chinese divined by the tortoise and by the mil-foil, but of these the mil-foil seems to be the older, because the Scythian divincrs mentioned by licrodotus had a '' 10 AXCIENT SYMBOLISM bundle of rods to divine with, and the Babylonian diviner mentioned in the Book of [Ezekiel* had arrows. On tne other hand the divination by the tortoise is peculiar to China. Books were kept to record ull successful instances of divination, and so in the third and second milleniums before Christ, there was a state register of the 64 Kwa, the entries in which were in a certain diviner’s dialect, or set of official phrases. These old Books of Changes existed along with that of Wen-wang down to the time of Confucius; and the historian Tso describes in a large number of instances the mode of procedure in state-divination, sometimes with the use of the Cheu dynasty Yi-king, an at other times with tie use of the ¥2-king of the older dynasties. When there was doubt of the meaning, or credibility, of the oracle, both books were appealed to; and they constituted a book of fate, by consulting which the future might be known at critical periods in the life of states, or of the individual. In 1873, at the tomb of Confucius, I saw the mil-foil stalks used. They are 1S inches long; and about a fifth of an inch thick. The ordinary diagrams reduce the size of the strokes to suit the use of the Chinese pencil in drawing them. Such rods were apparently used far and wide, in the east and in the west, in the days of antiquity. Thus in the instance recorded by Ezekiel,* the King of Babylon, the diviners of Babylon, and the army, all sincerely believed in the reality of the indication by rods, and Babylon would have her books of state-divination just as she had books of astrological indications, and of predictions derived from changes in the weather, The rods formed symbolic groups, and in an age when scientific clearness of thought was rare, but when moral distinctions were plain enough, they assumed a predictive authority, which there was no one to question or dispute. Tso the historian places eloquent words in the mouths of the interlocutors in the diviving scenes he records. His owa * Ezek. xxi 21. '' ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. el convictions are moral, and whether he believed or disbelieved in the Shang divination, or in the Chow divination, or both, he does not say; but his literary enthusiasm leads him to picture in an animated manner the warm feelings of the persons whose fate is foretold by the divination, just as Sophocles in Antigone describes in elevated language the feelings of Antigone herself, and other interlocutors in the play. Tur TORTOISE. ‘ something should be said here of the symbolism of tae tortoise. The shell of one of these animals was scorched over a fire to make the marking distinct. But what is tho marking? Itis only during the present century that it has become known in the west that the linzs on the tortoise, that reputedly wise and certainly long-lived creature, which the Chinese for long ages have supposed to carry on its sheli the fate of empires and of individuals, in an occult sy mbolisni, does really bear the marks of development contemporancously with the mammalia and other vertebrats from some common type; so that each bone in the upper shell has its counter- part in the back-bone of the mammajia, and each bone in the lower shell has its counterpart in the breast-bone and ribsofthemammalia. The markings which the ancient Chinese took to be awtul symbols of matters atiecting man’s happiness and misery, prove to be, under the clear torch-light of modern science, simply the joining of the bones, which under the superintending wisdom of Gop, have from separate ribs and vertebrae become united into a strong shield against the attacks of the enemies of ths anima?! The tortoise now carries a monumental slab on its back. This is because of its age and strengih. Some live to be a hundred years old. It is therefore in modern times a symbol of longevity. It is used, in 2onsequence, to carry on its back imperial decrees, which it is supposed when once promulgated must never be abrogated. The Romans engraved the laws of the commonwealth on copper slabs set up in the '' 2 ANCIENT SYMBOLISM forum and Horace used the phrase monwmnentum ere peren- ntus to denote the unchangeableness of anything which was certain to be well-remembered by mankind. Anything engraved on stone and set up on a tortoise is intended by the Chinese to attain a similar immortality. In ancient tines tortoises were kept for use and this led to the discovery of their longevity. THE STORK. This is a long-lived animal which began to grow famous in the days of the early Tauists. From the time of the expeditions in search of the medicine of immortality in the third century before Christ, close observation was directed to aJl living things which had long life, whether plants or animals, because it was thought that they would reveal the secret of longevity. Storks of metal, or carved in wood, or painted on silk, are good as gifts to friends, as indicating the wish that they may attain longevity, and in some mysterious way assist them in attaining it. The son of the emperor Ltxe-wane before the days of Confucius is said to have mounted to heaven on astork. But this is a later embellish- ment of which nothing occurs in the histories of the time. SYMBOLISM OF THE PraNIX oR FENG-HWANG. As a symbol the phenix is usually embroidered on the robes of the empress, and anciently was regarded asa sign of good luck. It was not long before the Confucian age that the legend about the Meng-hwang made its appearance. The: bird, the male Meng and female /Zwang was, it has been said, the argus-pheasant. This is suggested by Dr. Williams and if that bird sings sweetly it would be probable. In the odes of the 12th century before Christ this bird’s voice was heard as he flew about on sunny knolls in the neighbourhood of the Wu-tung tree. ‘The cry of these pheasants, if such they are, and the rustling of their wings are mentioned by the poet. Their beautiful colours are not alluded to. They are said in the Shanhai king to be as large as a stork and to have five colours. The same book says, ‘‘ [t alights only on '' ANCIENT SYMBOLISM. 13 *‘the Wu-tung tree, and eats only the fruit of the bamboo. **Tts voice has five notes. It appears only when reason ‘rules mankind, When it flies all the birds follow it.” This was the state of the legend regarding this bird in the time of Mencius, and with it agrees nearly the idea Confucius had of it.. He says, ‘‘The phcenix does not come. ‘The “Yellow River sends forth no mystie diagram.