Confucianism and Its Rivals, by Herbert A. Giles, [1915], at sacred-texts.com

p. v

PREFACE

In the following Lectures an attempt is made to exhibit chronologically, the principles and practice adopted by Confucius as a heritage from antiquity and subsequently handed down through twenty-four centuries, with certain modifications, until the present day.

Beginning from the pure monotheism of a personal God, we ultimately reach the substitution of Confucius and of his worship, with the almost total disappearance of a supernatural Power. This development was not effected with the consent of all parties concerned. Taoism, Buddhism, Mazdaism, Judaism, Mahometanism, and Christianity under such varied forms as Manichæism, Nestorianism, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism, each made its bid for the salvation of the Chinese, with results which it is hoped may be gathered from this volume.

My best thanks are due to the Hibbert Trustees for allowing me an opportunity of drawing attention, from a purely secular point of view, to the religious struggles and problems of a people whose national life dates back to prehistoric times and still shows no signs of decay.

HERBERT A. GILES.

CAMBRIDGE, 1st May, 1915.