Confucian Cosmogony : A Translation of Section Forty-Nine of the Complete Works PDF

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The Greeks designated their First God (geog) Fate, Reason, Nature &c., and regarded Him as an Indivisible Unity; and the Confucianism designate their First God (m) Fate, Reason, Nature, &c., and regard Him as an Indivisible Unity.

Plato designates this God the Adorner, and the Yih King designates Him He who adorns (if) the myriad of things. '1 Mind or the second God, the Greeks designated Demon-god (aainwv-oeog), and this same Mind the Confucianists also designate Demon-god W) Amongst the Greeks and Romans the Rational soul was derived from this ethereal Mind and was therefore de signated 050g, deus, or God: and in the Confucian Classics the Rational soul is said to be derived from the same ethereal Mind, and is therefore de signeted filil or God.

In a word, every part of the Kosmos and every thing which the Greeks and Romans respectively designated Demon, that the Confucianists also designate Demon; and every thing which the former designated 0505» or Deus, that the latter designate j-filii.

Any argument, therefore, supposed to prove that the term if means spirit and not God, must also be admitted to prove that the terms drag and Deus mean Spirit and not God.

These three terms must necessari ly bear precisely the same meaning for the reasons stated.

The fact that the Chinese term fim, (like Geog or Deus) is the designation of that which pervades and animates the to new must be regarded as proof that this term means God in the sense of that term as used by all pagan philosophers, and not pure Spirit, of which latter, in fact, they know nothing whatever.