The Immortality of the Soul—History of the Doctrine

THE Chinese, a very numerous people, do not believe the doctrine of the soul's immortality. They are materialists in the broadest sense. Confucius was their great teacher and lawgiver. For thousands of years his doctrines have been implicitly received by at least one-fourth of the race. (New Am. Cyclo., art. Confucius.) He taught nothing about the future state. (Howe's Travels of Celebrated Travelers, p. 200.) He did not claim to know anything beyond this life. (Ency. Brit., art. Confucius.)

Says Horpe, "Religion as a system of divine worship, as piety toward God, and as holding forth future rewards and punishments, can hardly be said to exist among the Chinese." (Introduction, Chap. i., p. 21.) Dr. Morrison says that the learned sect among the Chinese are "entirely silent respecting the immortality of the soul." (Quoted by Prof. Hudson, in Future Life, chap. viii, p. 266.)

Says John Leland, "It is observed by the celebrated Mons. de Montesquieu that the religion of Confucius denies the immortality of the soul;" (Leland's Rev. vol. ii, part iii, chap. iii, p. 297,) and he indorses the statement. He cites several eminent men who have spent a long time in China, and who declare that the Chinese have no idea of the immortality of the soul. (See Ibid., pp. 297, 300.) He says that "Confucius being asked by one of his disciples what angels or spirits are, answered that they are air. And this is the notion that the Chinese have of the soul. They look upon it to be a material thing, though highly rarified, and that then the soul separated from the body, both of them lose the individual being they had before, and nothing remains but the substance of heaven and earth, which had before concurred to the composition of man." (Ibid., p. 300.)

Says another writer, "Confucianism appeals to practical men. It lands the present world; rather doubts than otherwise the existence of a future one." (Chambers' Encyclopedia, vol iii, art. Confucius.) "'The philosophers,' wrote Morrison to his wife from China, 'are atheists; as for the common people, O ye rationalists, mark here the fruit of your "reason."'" (Oriental Religions, by Sam'l Johnson, p. 554.)

"The Hakkas, an interesting tribe, as described by Eitel, also exhibit this germinant rationalism. They repel metempsychosis and the Buddhist hells, and assert the annihilation of the wicked instead of their endless punishment." (Ibid., p. 562.)

The religion of the Japanese is the same as that of the Chinese. Of them Mr. Seward says, "The Japanese, under the influence of Confucius, have become a nation of doubters." (Seward's Travels, p. 102.)

The New American Cyclopedia says of China, "Its population may be estimated approximately at 500,000,000. . . . Indifference to religious matters is a prominent national trait of character. They have not even a general term corresponding to the term religion. Kiao, the word that comes nearest to it, means only doctrine or creed. The belief in the immortality of the soul has never taken firm root among them." (Art. China.)

Again: "Considering the vast numbers of those by whom the doctrines of Confucius have been and are implicitly taken as the highest authority, and the influence they have exerted on the entire social and political edifice of a nation comprising fully one-fourth of mankind, there is no founder of any religion who boasts of success greater than that of Confucius. He was not, however, the originator of the religious creed." Speaking of the doctrines of Confucius, under the same head, the author says, "The books containing them, partly written by Confucius himself, partly by his disciples, bear almost the same relation to the Chinese as the Bible to the Christian world." (Art. Confucius.)

Here, then, is a whole great nation, comprising one-fourth of the entire human race, who have not the slightest idea of the immortality of the soul, nor did they ever have. Our readers must begin to see how groundless have been the assertions of our orthodox opponents upon this subject.

OTHER ASIATIC NATIONS.

Of these the following may be mentioned as holding no ideas of the immortality of the soul:—

The Santals. A learned author says, "Of a future life of blessedness the Santal has no idea. . . . After death all is a blank." (Spencer's Descriptive Sociology, No. 5, table 36, p. 37.)

The Karens. "have ideas of a future life, vague and contradictory." (Ibid., table 37.)

The Todas. "believe transmigration, but whether of soul or body, few have formed very distinct ideas." They hold "the idea that the soul is a living solid, a real duplicate Toda, requiring food; but the whole scheme of their observations is so illogical that it is impossible to deduce therefrom any clear definition of a creed." (Marshall, a phrenologist, among the Todas, p. 125.)

The Kukis. "have no actual idea of the soul, but believe that the departed assume their old forms again, and inhabit a world of shades." (Journal As. Soc. Bengal, xxiv, 632.)

The Mishmis. "These people do not appear to have any very distinct conception of a future state." (Rowlett, Journal As. Soc. Bengal xiv, 487.)

"The Siamese hold annihilation to be the greatest reward of virtue." (McClintock and Strong's Cyclo., art. Annihilation.")

POLYNESIAN RACES.

Mr. Ellis, who spent several years among the Polynesians, and particularly inquired into their doctrine of the soul, says of them:

"We afterward endeavored to learn from them something respecting their opinion of a state of existence after death; but all they said upon the subject was so contradictory and mixed with fiction that it could not be discovered whether they had any definite idea of the nature or even the existence of such a state. Some said that all the souls of the departed went to the Po, place of night, and were annihilated, or eaten by the gods there." (Polynesian Researches, vol. iv, chap. xiv, p. 2, 667.)

"The Fijian gods eat the souls of those who are destroyed by men. The gods roast the souls. Some souls are killed by men." "Especially bachelors are liable to be seized and killed by smashing against a stone by one of the gods. The spirit is liable to be thus smashed, annihilated." (Descriptive Sociology, No. 3, p. 38.) "The belief in a future state is universal in Fiji; but their superstitious notions often border upon transmigration, and sometimes teach an eventual annihilation." (Ibid., p. 37.) Poor believers in the immortality of the soul are these!

The Tahitians have "vague ideas of death,. . . Some spirits are eaten by the gods, others deified; no belief in future punishments." (Ibid., table 10.)

Of the Dyaks of the Sandwich Islands, a late author says their "notions of the immortality of the soul are very vague." (Ibid., table 14.)

"The Land Dyaks have not any decided notions of the immortality of the soul." (Low's Sarawak, p. 263.)

Of the Tasmanians our author says, "The more western portion of the aborigines had no idea of a future existence. They were like the Kangaroo." (Bonwic's daily Life of Tasmania, p. 182.)

The Fuegians. A traveler among them says, "I never witnessed or heard of an act of a decidedly religious nature, neither could I satisfy myself of their having any idea of the immortality of the soul." (Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. ii, p. 179.)

The Andamans. "The Andaman Islanders 'manifest no notion of a Supreme Being or of a future existence.'" (Transactions of the Ethnological Society, new series, vol. ii, p. 35.)

"The Veddas have no idea of a future state of rewards and punishments." (Ibid. vol. ii, p. 300.)

The Tahitians. "Their ideas of a future state were vague and indefinite. On leaving the body, they imagine it (the spirit) was seized by other spirits, conducted to the Po, or state of night, where it was eaten by the gods." (Ellis' Poly. Res., vol. i, p. 516.)

The Tongan. "The Tonga Islanders think that the lower classes of men have no souls." (Martin's Tonga Islands, vol. i, p. 55, note.)

"Though contrary to the common opinion, some of the lower orders in Tonga think they have immortal souls as well as the chiefs." (Ibid., vol. ii, p.,128.)

The Summatrans. These people are about like the others. Mr. Marsden says, "They have also a vague and confused idea of the immortality of the human soul, and of a future state of happiness or misery." (Hist. of Sumatra, p. 385.) That is to say, they have some idea of a future, and that is about all.

Malagasy. The same is true of this people. A traveler among them says, "In almost the same breath the Malagasy will express his belief that when he dies he ceases altogether to exist, . . . and yet confesses the fact that he is in the habit of praying to his ancestors." (Ellis' His. Madagascar, vol. i, p. 393.)

This is about the way with the most of these barbarous nations. They are often claimed as full believers in the immortality of the soul, while the real fact is they have only the most confused ideas even of a future life of any kind.