Su Kwangki, guardian and tutor of the sons of the Imperial house, and Chancellor of the
National Institute, respectfully presents this memorial:
Knowing full well that the arts and sciences of the foreigners are in a high degree
correct, your majesty's humble servant earnestly begs of his sacred Intelligence, the
illustrious honor of issuing a manifesto in their behalf, so as to render his own felicity
eternal, and give great tranquility to ten thousand generations. Your majesty's servant
has seen, in the Governmental Gazette, the report of the Board of Rites, impeaching
Pantoya and others, your majesty's European courtiers. In that Report it is said,
"Their doctrines are penetrating deep, and spreading wide, so that even men of
eminence are believing in them;" and, "although their discourses about astronomy
are absurd, yet even scholars are falling into their cloudy visions." By thus
specifying "men of eminence" and "scholars," ministers of the Board
seem to fear that trunk and branches are being alike involved. Still they have failed to
give the names of individuals. Now your servant is one of the ministers of the Imperial
Court, who has been accustomed to discourse with your majesty's courtiers on religious
subjects; and he is one who believes in the many books they have published. With them also
he has been accustomed to investigate the laws of mathematics; his earlier and later
reports thereon have all been laid before the Imperial presence; and thus also your
servant is among those who have "discoursed about astronomy." If, therefore,
your majesty's courtiers are to be found guilty, how can your servant hope to be so
fortunate as to escape uncondemned by the ministers of the Board?
As your servant for years past has been thus accustomed to engage in discussions and
investigations with these courtiers, he has become well acquainted with them, and knows
that they are not only in deportment and in heart wholly free from aught which can excite
suspicion, but that they are indeed worthies and sages; that their doctrines are most
correct; their regimen most strict; their learning most extensive; their knowledge most
refined; their hearts most true; their views most steady; and that among the people of
their own nations, there is not one in a thousand so accomplished, or one in ten thousand
so talented as these men. Now the reason of their coming thousands of miles eastward, is
because hearing that the teachers, the sages and worthies of China, served Heaven by the
cultivation of personal virtue, just as the teachers in their respective nations by the
cultivation of personal virtue, served the Lord of Heaven, and knowing that there was this
correspondence in principles, they desired, notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers
by land and by sea, to give their seal to the truth, in order that men might become good,
and so realize high Heaven's love to man.
According to their sayings, the service of the High Ruler is a prime duty; the
protection of the body and the salvation of the soul are grand essentials; fidelity,
filial piety, compassion, and love are to be universally exercised; the reformation of
errors and the practice of virtue are initiatory steps; repentance and purification are
the requisites for personal improvement; the true fecilicity of life celestial is the
glorious reward of doing good; and the eternal misery of earth's prison is the bitter
recompense of doing evil. All their commands and injunctions are in the highest degree
compatible with the principles of Heaven and the feelings of men. Their laws can cause men
to do good most truly, and to depart from evil most completely, for that which they say of
the favor of the Lord of heaven's producing, nourishing and saving, and of his principles
of rewarding the good and punishing the evil, is perfectly plain and most strictly true;
sufficient to move the hearts of men and to excite in them the love and confidence, the
fear and dread, which naturally spring from internal rectitude.
Your majesty's servant has always been accustomed to consider the rewards and
punishments ordained by the ancient rulers and kings, and the distinctions hetween right
and wrong laid down by our sages and worthies, as most luminous and most perfectly adapted
to guide men to what is good, and deter them from evil. All these, however, can reach only
his external conduct, and cannot touch his inward feelings. An example in point are the
words of Sz'-ma Tsien, "Yen-hwui's untimely death, and Tau-chih's long life,"
which have led men to suspect that there is no future recompense of good and evil. Hence
deceit and guile have increased in proportion as the restraints laid thereon have been
multiplied. Where one law has been enacted, a hundred evil practices have sprung up,
disappointing the heart's desire for stable government, and exciting deep regret on
account of the inadequacy of means to secure that end. With a view of supplying this
deficiency, recourse was had to the sayings of the Buddhists, which declare that there
will be a recompense of good and evil after the body dies; and that for their conduct and
feelings both Yenhwui and Tau-chih might seem to have had a recompense, which, it was
supposed, would cause other men without delay to depart from evil and do good. Why then is
it that during the eighteen hundred years since the Buddhistic religion came to the East,
the ways of the world and the hearts of men have not been reformed, except it be because,
though seeming to be true, that religion is false? The doctrine of Lau and Chwang, as they
are set forth by the Contemplatists, are dark, farfetched, and unreliable. All the schemes
and legerdemain practiced by the doctors of the black art, are strangely deceptive and
unreasonable. Moreover, they wish to elevate Buddha above the high Ruler, and thus do they
act in opposition to the doctrines of the rulers and kings, the sages and worthies of
antiquity. When all this is done, on whom then shall men depend? Whom shall they follow?
If there be an absolute desire to have men do good in perfection, then the knowledge of
serving Heaven, communicated by your majesty's courtiers, is truly competent to repair and
augment the royal Institutes, to strengthen and maintain the arts of the literati, and to
restore and correct the laws of Buddha. The proof of this is, that the nations of Europe
which are contiguous to each other, and more than thirty in number, receiving and
practicing this religion, during a thousand and some hundreds of years up to the present
time, whether great or small, have alike been kind to each other; whether high or low,
have alike enjoyed repose; their prescribed boundaries have required no guard; nor has
their sovereignty been hereditary; throughout their whole domain, there have been no
deceivers nor liars; the vices of lewdness and theft from of old have never existed; no
one would venture to take up an article dropped upon the highway; and even gates and doors
of cities and houses it was not necessary to have closed by night. As to revolt and
anarchy, rebels and insurgents, not only were there no such things and no such persons,
but even such terms and such names had no existence. Thus for a long time, have these
nations enjoyed tranquillity, and their governments have been well regulated.
All their inhabitants have been thus intensely watchful only lest they should, by
falling into error, become guilty of sinning against the Lord of Heaven. Accordingly it is
most clear and most manifest that their laws assuredly can cause men to do well. Such is
the religion and such are the manners and customs set forth by your majesty's courtiers;
and having repeatedly, and in the most thorough manner, examined their discourses and
investigated their books, your majesty's servant knows that
they are all perfectly free from error. Your majesty's servant has heard of Yu Yu, the
ancient minister of Sijung, who gave support to the Tsin dynasty in its rise to greatness;
and of Kinjihshin, the heir of Siyih, who became an illustrious statesman of the Han
dynasty. If these men could be of essential service to the state, it was of no moment
whether they came from far or not.
Moreover the temples and pagodas of the Buddhists are to be seen in all parts of the
empire, and the lama priests are continually coming to China. The Mohammedans also, whose
sacred books have never yet been translated, so as to be adduced as testimonies of their
faith, dynasty after dynasty have been freely tolerated with all their errors, and
everywhere they have been allowed to build their own places of worship. Our high Emperor
commanded two of his ministers Li Chung and Wu Pehtsung, members of the Imperial Academy,
with two of the principal leaders of the Mohammedans, to translate their astronomical
books. The result was that they prepared the work called Kien Yuen Sien Shing. The doing
of all this brings out to view the sacred purposes of the first monarch of our dynasty,
their profound desire to renovate the people and perfect their customs. Hence we see why
it was that they sought out and commended unworthy men, not excepting those of countries
far remote.
Now with regard to all the writers of these two sects, the Buddhist and Rationalists,
so imperfect are their doctrines and so incomplete their laws of instruction, that, during
this long period of two hundred and fifty years (since the rise of our dynasty), they have
not been able to realize the designs of our august sovereign in giving them his special
countenance. Were the High Ruler worshiped as reverently as Buddha and Lao Zi, and were
your majesty's courtiers received as indulgently as the priests of those two sects, their
royal instruction would rise and flourish, and the principles of rectitude be carried to
such a degree of perfection, as to transcend all that was witnessed in the times of Lao
and Shun and their immediate successors.
During the seventeen years these courtiers have enjoyed your majesty's support, no
course has been opened by which they could requite the favors so generously bestowed upon
them. Though they have earnestly and heartily desired it, yet they have found no means by
which they could display before your majesty the virtues they cherish, and the constancy
they have maintained. But knowing these, as your majesty's servant has done, should he
keep silence, he would be indeed guilty of an act of criminal concealment. Hence he has
been so rash and so presumptuous as to come forward as their intercessor.
If his sacred Intelligence would deign graciously to receive our apology, grant a
manifesto, and for a short space of time, and on perfect equality with the disciples of
Buddha and doctors of the Tao sect, allow these courtiers to remain [in the empire] to
promulgate their doctrines and urge on their reformation, it is humbly conceived that, ere
many years have elapsed, the hearts of men and the ways of the world, will be seen to have
undergone a steady and gradual change, progressing till at length there shall be one grand
reformation, and perfect virtue become universal. Then every law enacted shall go into
effect, and no command given shall be opposed. No unfaithful minister will then be in the
capital or in the provinces. The manners of all the people without exception will be such
as to render them worthy of being employed in the imperial service. The glorious felicity
enjoyed by your majesty's sacred person will be infinite, and the peace of your blessed
empire perpetuated to a myriad generations!
Now since it might be difficult to secure full confidence were your majesty's servant
allowed a hearing, or suspicions might be entertained by those who are spectators, and
thus cause much debate, your majesty's servant, therefore, would respectfully suggest
three modes of examination to ascertain the truth regarding said these courtiers, and also
three modes of surveillance, all which herewith he begs to submit for your majesty's
consideration. The three modes of examination are:
1st. Let all the courtiers, whose names have been included in the memorials, be
called to the capital; and let a selection be made of your majesty's ministers both in and
out of the capital; let all these jointly translate the standard works that have been
brought from the West; let subjects be taken up in detail--what is said on serving Heaven
and loving man, what relates to natural and moral philosophy, to the systems of civil
government, to astronomy, to mathematics, to physic and medicine, to agriculture and
irrigation, to political economy, &c.; and let a distinct treatise be prepared on each
of these; and then let his majesty command the ministers of his own palace, in general
assembly, to decide whether they are correct or erroneous. And if indeed they be
subversive of the cardinal virtues and opposed to the classics, involving wicked doctrines
and sinister means, then let the said courtiers be immediately dismissed and expelled; and
your majesty's servant will willingly abide the punishment appointed for those who aid and
abet the deceivers of his majesty.
2d. The words of the courtiers agreeing with those of the literati, but being at
variance with those of the Buddhists and Taoists; therefore all who are of those two
sects, hate and detest them, and spread abroad slanderous reports, greatly to their
injury. Needful it is, then, to decide which is right and which is wrong and to beg your
majesty will please command that these courtiers and the most notable of the Buddhists and
Taoists write in discussion, make the most thorough investigation, and strive and seek to
come to an agreement. Then, as before, let his majesty direct that statesmen from among
the literati, in general council, decide on the merits of the case; and if the courtiers
are not preferred for what they have said, or if they have reasoned fallaciously, or have
been non-plussed; then let them be immediately dismissed and expelled, and let your
majesty's servant be punished with them.
3d. As it would be difficult in the translation of their books to know where to
stop, and as the Buddhists and Taoists may perhaps not have the men competent to take part
in this, let your majesty's courtiers be instructed to draw up a compendium of their
religion, in detail, stating its prohibitions and injunctions, with its requisitions and
rewards. Let this, with some thirty of the volumes that have been already translated, and
ten or more of the original volumes, be together submitted for your majesty's inspection,
and if these be found contradictory, and opposed to the principles of reason, incompetent
to urge men to do good, and to guard them from evil, to change and improve their manners
and customs; then immediately let these courtiers be dismissed and expelled, and let your
majestey's servant be punished with them.
These are the three modes of examination which are here suggested in order to ascertain
the truth concerning said courtiers. The three modes of surveillance are these:
1st. Regarding the item of expenditure---which has specially subjected your
majesty's courtiers to suspicion---both those who suspect they make silver and gold, and
those who suspect they are supported by the barbarian merchants at Canton, are in error.
Having voluntarily left their homes, and not engaging in any lucrative occupation, they
are of course the recipients of what has been contributed. At present, however, their
entire provision for food and clothing comes from contributors in Europe; and in its
transmission, by exposure to winds and waves, to robbers and pirates, much fails to reach
its destination, thus causing them great distress. Yet during these twenty years since
their arrival, they have not received from the people a single thing, a single cash; and
yet they fear that some, not being observant, will suspect they received it for nought, or
had obtained it by deceit or fraud, thus adding iniquity to transgression, especially as
large demands were made on them by their extensive and varied intercourse. By the present
scheme, besides allowing to them a stipend as heretofore, from your majesty's Court of
Banquets, let orders be given that these courtiers may receive a measured amount of
contributions from the Chinese for food and clothing, and let them be allowed to follow
their own convenience, since, in their dis-interestedness, they will never consent to
receive aught beyond what is sufficient for their personal use. A sufficient support being
thus provided, orders may be given that the barbarian merchants at Canton forward no more
presents, and that the money, which is sent on from Europe, on its reaching the
custom-house, may be intercepted and remanded. In this way all communication with Europe
will be cut off, and every suspicion removed.
2d. As your majesty's courtiers, in whatever place they may reside, are
competent in the most faithful manner to instruct both the scholars and the people,
whether they be poor and mean, or rich and honorable henceforth, therefore, in whatever
place they choose to reside, let them be allowed the exercise of their appropriate
functions; and let the magistrate treat them with becoming courtesy, allowing them to
influence and guide whomsoever they please. Should the magistrate, in any case, be unable
to repose confidence in them, then let them command the scholars and people---selecting
such as have character and property---to unite in companies of ten or twenty families, and
give bonds of security to the magistrate for them. Should it indeed happen that any of the
teachers, losing their virtue, conduct themselves in an irregular manner, harboring vain
purposes, uttering wicked words, and displaying a want of principle, then let them,
according to what has been proposed, be expelled and banished; and let those who gave
bonds for them, share in their guilt. Such as are without any bonds for their security
must not be allowed to remain in the country. Should any of the people, hearing rumors of
their behaving in an irregular manner, bring accusations against them, then let the
magistrates be required to investigate the facts, and search out the true circumstances of
the case. Thus the practice of deceit will be impossible; and those who are true, and
those who are hypocritical, will be brought out to view in their own characters.
3d. If the native securities unite to conceal and hide offenders so as to make
it difficult to repose confidence, then again, let the magistrates be instructed at any
time they please to make careful investigation. After having former offenders at once
exposed, then let all such native scholars and people, as have maintained a pure and
elevated course of conduct, be allowed to choose their own teachers; and let these
teachers, each being furnished from the magistracy with a stamped and duly authenticated
register in duplicate, be required, by means of these to make, at the magistrate's office,
a continued report. At the year's end, let each magistrate carefully examine all those who
have followed these teachers, and afterwards transfer into a separate register, the names
of all such as either have not been accused, or if accused have not been found guilty.
Once in three years let there be a general examination; and let the magistrates and
teachers freely commend all those who, having followed this religion, are not only free
from all error and crime, but have made many and commendable advances in well doing; let
them also ascertain the number, and determine the degree of criminality of such as are
guilty of wicked conduct; and let those who gave bonds for the same, in like manner
receive due punishment. If there be those who have purposely offended, and who after
having been warned and admonished by their associates and teachers, will not reform, then
let these be reported to the magistrates that their names may be removed from the
register. Should any be informed against by their own associates before their names are
removed from the registers; or should the offenses of any one, committed before entering
this religion be subsequently discovered; in all such cases, let the criminality be
restricted to the offenders themselves, and let their associates be in no way implicated.
By this means, officers of government will have reliable registers for reference, and all
the people can clearly see that due examination has been made; and though the number of
disciples be small, each in his own sphere will be useful. Moreover, if the Buddhists and
Taoists should ever succeed in raising religious discussions, there will be no further
necessity for any scheme that can produce excitement; since it will only be needful,
carefully distinguishing between the people and the teachers, to have all cases examined,
and rewards and punishments meted out by the methods now proposed: in no very long lapse
of time it will be abundantly evident who is right and who wrong, which is useful and
which injurious.
Your majesty's servant, with profoundest reverence, begs to lay the foregoing clauses
before his sacred Intelligence, to scan and to select, and to cause to be carried into
effect such as shall be deemed desirable. Being younger than the ministers of the Board of
Rites, he would not presume to place himself in collision with them nor oppose their
words. This only he does: after the most thorough and careful investigation he clearly
sees, and testifies, that for perfecting the administration of the empire, and securing
peace and good government, nothing can surpass this that is taught by your majesty's
courtiers. If now the recommendation of the Board be granted, these men must at once
return to their own countries. Knowing so much and having said so little in their behalf,
your majesty's servant is filled with the deepest regret, and therefore, after having
fasted and performed the requisite ablutions, he does not shrink from the responsibility
of laying their case before the Throne.
As to the things which ministers of the Board say they have heard, they are only such
as your servant himself heard in former days, and which then filled him with suspicion.
But after years of careful examination and inquiry---when he had a sincere mind to see the
truth in them, and was able to understand them most thoroughly---then his confidence
became strong and undoubting. Were there indeed the smallest reason for entertaining
suspicion regarding these men, then there might be some shadow of doubt in your servant's
mind; and although free from the smallest fault, yet if these men were not truly sages and
worthies, then too, they might not be of great advantage; and it would be to your servant
of little moment, whether they were sent away or were retained.
As it regards the improvement of the imperial Calendar, that is also a matter of little
importance. Being as he is, however, one of those ministers who are appointed to attend on
his majesty, how can your servant dare rashly to plead in their behalf, insult and deceive
his princely Father, and expose himself to condign punishment! If ministers of the Board
would but examine and inquire thoroughly, as your servant has done, then he apprehends
that they would not be behind him in advocating their cause.
Your servant in rashly presuming to approach the Heavenly Majesty, is overwhelmed with
infinite fear and dread, while he earnestly awaits the imperial mandate in reply to this
memorial.
