Confucius and Lenses in Ancient China

The use of lenses has also been traced to the Chinese moralist Confucius, 748 B. C.

Anonymous, "Antiquity of the Lens," Scientific American, vol. 69, no. 7 (August 12, 1893), p. 104.

The Lens and Telescope in Ancient China

With regard to the antiquity of the lens the author [Edouard Fourdrignier in an article in Photo Club de Paris] says: "If we are to believe C. P. Gaubil, quoted by M. De Paravey in his 'Chronologie Chinois,' the Emperor Chan, who reigned 2283 B. C., used enlarging lenses in the form of a telescope in order to be able to get a better view of the planets."

Anonymous, "Antiquity of the Lens," Scientific American, vol. 69, no. 7 (August 12, 1893), p. 104.

Possible Meaning of the Character for Di/Ti of Shang Di

Many explanations, of great variety, have been given for the origin of the word Ti. We shall not try to go into all of them here. But there is one of these theories which, whether it be correct or not, is at least the most plausible one that offers. It was first propounded by Mr. James M. Menzies, a Canadian scholar who is one of the very few foreigners who have made real contributions to the study of the oracle bones.

According to this theory Ti was originally the name of a sacrifice. This statement is based on the fact that in Shang dynasty Chinese the word Ti is almost (sometimes quite) identical with another word, pronounced liao. This word liao is a pictograph of a bundle of wood, burning, ready to have an animal placed on it as a burnt offering; it means ‘to present a burnt offering.’ Since these words are so nearly alike in form, we have on the oracle bones such sentences as ‘liao (present as a burnt offering) five bulls to Ti,’ with liao and Ti written identically. It is thought, then, that Ti was at first merely the name of a way of sacrificing to the ancestors or other deities, but that gradually men confused the sacrifice itself with the deity sacrificed to, and came to think of it as a separate deity.

Creel, Herrlee Glessner. The Birth of China: A Survey of the Formative Period of Chinese Civilization. London: Jonathan Cape, Ltd., 1936, p. 182.

The Classic of Filial Piety on Music

[...] for changing their [people's] manners and altering their customs there is nothing better than Music [...]

 Classic of Filial Piety (孝經, Xiao Jing), ch. 12.
(Legge, James, tr., The Sacred books of China: The texts of Confucianism, Oxford: The Clarendon press, 1879, part 1(, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 3), pp. 481-482.)

Shun Sacrifices to Shang Ti

Thereafter, he [Shun] sacrificed specially, but with the ordinary forms, to God [Shang Di]; [...]

The Shoo King, The Books of Yu, The Canon of Shun, 3.

(Legge, James, The Chinese Classics, 7 vols, London: Trubner & Co., 1865, vol. 3, pt. 1, pp. 33-34.)

Confucius (551–479 BC) Predicts a Coming Saint (2)

According to a Tradition, universally received among the Chinese, he was often heard to repeat these Words: Si fang yeou ching gin, the meaning of which is, That in the West the most Holy was to be found. They were ignorant concerning the Person he spoke of; but it is very certain that fixty-five Years after the Birth of Christ, Ming ti the fifteenth Emperor of the Family of Han, equally struck with the Words of the Philosopher, and the Image of a Man who appeared to him in his sleep, as coming from the West, sent two Grandees of the Empire called, Tsai tsing and Tsin king, into those Parts, with Orders not to return till they had found this Holy Person, whom Heaven had given him some Knowledge of, and till they had learn'd the Doctrine which he taught.

But the Messengers, terrified with the Dangers and Fatigues of the Journey, stop'd in some part of the Indies, but what Place is uncertain, where they found the Idol of a Man called Fo, who had infected the Indies with his monstrous Doctrine about five hundred Years before the Birth of Confucius [that should read Christ not Confucius; Confucius and Buddha are contemporaries]: They were instructed in the Superstitions of this Country, and when they returned to China they propagated the Idolatry.

Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste, The General History of China, 3rd ed., 4 vols., trans. Richard Brookes, London: printed for J. Watts, 1741, vol. 3, pp. 300-301.

Misery is Due to a Woman According to the Chinese

It is with a different spirit we find woman spoken of in the traditions of the Chinese; but perhaps it may be considered equally unflattering:—

Tien (the Creator) placed man upon a high mountain, which Tai-Wang (the first man) rendered fruitless by his own fault. He filled the earth with thorns and briers, and said: “I am not guilty, for I could not do otherwise. Why did he plunge us into so much misery? All was subjected to man at the first; but a woman threw us into slavery. The wise husband built up a bulwark of walls; but the woman, by an ambitious desire of knowledge, demolished them. Our misery did not come from heaven, but from a woman. She lost the human race. Ah, unhappy Pao See! [first woman] thou kindlest the fire that consumes us, and which is every day augmenting. Our misery has lasted many ages. The world is lost. Vice overflows all things like a mortal poison.” 

Emerson, Ellen Russell, Indian Myths or Legends, Traditions, and Symbols of the Aborigines of America, Boston: James R. Osgood and company, 1884, p. 129.

Sabbath and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

At this time, Hung prohibited the use of opium, and even tobacco, and all intoxicating drinks, and the Sabbath was religiously observed.

Lindley, Augustus F., Ti-ping Tien-kwoh, London: Day & Son, 1866, v. 1, p. 48.

The seventh day is most religiously and strictly observed. The Ti-ping sabbath is kept upon our Saturday [...]

Lindley, Augustus F., Ti-ping Tien-kwoh, London: Day & Son, 1866, v. 1, p. 319.

Sabbath and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

But the question naturally arises: How came they [the Taipings] to adopt the seventh day of the week instead of the first, as their Sabbath, since all their instruction from Christians was by those who taught that the first day is the Sabbath? This was a mystery to all who learned of that fact. But when they took Nan-King [Nanjing], and Europeans had opportunity to visit them, they were told that it was first, because the Bible taught it, and second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship. 

Lewis, Abram Herbert, A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church, Alfred Centre, N. Y.: The American Sabbath Tract Society, 1886, p. 247.

Confucius (551–479 BC) Predicts a Coming Saint

Confucius, in the 6th century B.C., said that "a Saint should be born in the West, who would restore to China the lost knowledge of the sacred Tripod, i.e. the San-i."

Gordon, E. A., The Lotus Gospel, Tokyo: Waseda University Library, 1911, p. 33.

Confucius and the Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth

He who understands the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth [...] would find the government of a kingdom as easy as to look into his palm!

Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean, xix, 6.

(Legge, James, The Chinese Classics, 7 vols, London: Trubner & Co., 1861, vol. 1, p. 268.)

El Shaddai and ShangDi

... one of the Hebrew names for God was El Shaddai, phonetically similar to ShangTi, especially in the Cantonese dialect which pronounces the name ShangDai. Cantonese, incidentally, is thought to be closest to the original spoken Chinese.

Nelson, Ethel R & Broadberry, Richard E, Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn't Solve, St. Louis, Missouris: Concordia Publishing House, 1994, p.