liefs are
not the same; that the Chinese of the earliest times worshipped the
Supreme Ruler, _i.e._ the one God, Ti, and afterwards fell away from
that position of pure monotheism and declined to the worship of the
material object, heaven. The early Catholic missionaries argued that
the Chinese Shang-ti was equivalent to the Christian "God," and
signified a being other than the sky, the Supreme Power of the
universe. The Chinese, however, generally denied that they made any
such distinction,[2] and even declared that they could not understand
it. The names Heaven and Supreme Ruler are used by them
indiscriminately: one notices that Confucius does not use the
personal form, but only speaks of heaven; "heaven," he says, when
feeling distressed, "is destroying me." We have here, therefore, an
early form of nature-worship.

[Footnote 2: Dr. Legge, while admitting that the Chinese originally
worshipped the vault of heaven itself, maintains that they got past
the early mode of thought which considers every natural object as
animated, before the dawn of history, and became pure theists,
believers in a supreme spiritual being. Confucius he considers to
have held a lower religious position than his countrymen had already
attained to. He also regards the worship of spirits and of ancestors
as a later perversion and degradation of the original religion of one
god. In these positions he is followed by Professor Giles, _Oxford
Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 105, _sqq._]

The Supreme Power directs all things, and is an ever-present governor
both in the natural and in the moral sphere. These two spheres indeed
are not regarded as distinct. Nature reveals in all its changes the
mind of its ruler, and human conduct is regarded as an outward thing,
as a phenomenon on the same plane with the movements of nature; the
two are supposed to be part of one system and to act directly on each
other. As Heaven both governs the weather and looks after men's
actions, for "every day heaven witnesses our actions and is present
in the places where we are," these two aspects of providence are
closely blended and are in fact the same. Heaven makes its will known
in a natural way. It is one of the most peculiar features of Chinese
religion that it knows no revelation, no miracles, no divine
interferences. It has a belief in destiny, Ming; every one has his
Ming, but it is only known when it is accomplished. "Does Heaven
plainly declare its Ming?" Confucius i