y of the family and of the
state led to the emphasizing of the worship of ancestors--a cult which,
going back to a very early time, has been interwoven in China with the
individual and communal life in a thoroughgoing way, with a constant
infusion of moral ideas; and in the next place, the order of society and
of the external world is represented by Heaven.[1296]

+748+. Originally, doubtless, Heaven was the physical sky (as among the
Hindus and Persians and many other peoples), but at an early period came
to be practically the supreme god. A sort of monotheistic cult has thus
been established as the official religion. The emperor is the Son of
Heaven and the High Priest of the nation, and in the great annual
sacrifices performed by him the host of minor powers is practically
ignored and worship is addressed to the controlling powers of the world.
This official worship does not set aside the cult of the various
spirits, whose existence is recognized by the minor officials as well as
by the people. The cult of local spirits has grown to extraordinary
dimensions. They fill the land, controlling the conditions of life and
demanding constant regard; and the experts, who are supposed to know the
laws governing the action of the spirits (for example, as to proper
burial-places), wield enormous power, and make enormous charges of
money. These spirits are treated as of subordinate importance in the
official religion. The process by which China has reached this religious
attitude must have extended over millenniums, and, as is stated above,
the intellectual movement in the direction of simplicity and clearness
has been attended by an advance in ethical purity.

+749+. The tendency of Chinese thought is illustrated by the two systems
of philosophy which in the sixth century B.C. formulated the conception
of a universal dominant order:[1297] Confucius represents the extreme
logical development of natural order in human life as a product of
cosmic order--he is content absolutely to deal with the practical
affairs of life and discourages attempts to inquire into the nature of
gods or into the condition of men after death. Lao-tsze, on the other
hand, similarly taking the Way (_tao_), or Universal Order, as the
informing and controlling power of the world, appears to have laid the
stress on the relation between it and the human soul--a conception that
has affinities with the Stoic Logos. But it is Confucianism that has
remained the