And regarding the former part of the passage,
one cannot but have some doubt whether what was taken for the symbol of
the Most High was not the ancestral tablet, which is usually placed in one
of the inner rooms of the house, and before which worship is performed at
fixed times, and according to certain established forms. Something, too,
may have been known of the Emperor's worship of Heaven at the great
circular temple at Peking, called T'ien-t'an, or Altar of Heaven (see p.
459), where incensed offerings are made before a tablet, on which is
inscribed the name Yuh-Hwang Shang-ti, which some interpret as "The
Supreme Ruler of the Imperial Heavens," and regard as the nearest approach
to pure Theism of which there is any indication in Chinese worship (See
Doolittle, pp. 170, 625; and Lockhart in J. R. G. S., xxxvi. 142).
This worship is mentioned by the Mahomedan narrator of Shah Rukh's embassy
(1421): "Every year there are some days on which the Emperor eats no
animal food.... He spends his time in an apartment which contains no idol,
and says that he is worshipping the God of Heaven."[1] (Ind. Antiquary,
II. 81.)
[Illustration: Great Temple of Heaven, Peking.]
The charge of irreligion against the Chinese is an old one, and is made by
Hayton in nearly the same terms as it often is by modern missionaries:
"And though these people have the acutest intelligence in all matters
wherein material things are concerned, yet you shall never find among them
any knowledge or perception of spiritual things." Yet it is a mistake to
suppose that this insensibility has been so universal as it is often
represented.
