The mountain here is Khwăn-lun; the four sources are the waters of azure, white, red, and black, which fall into the Sea of Stars, from which flows forth the Hwang-ho, which is said to be first white, but afterwards becomes yellow as it proceeds on its course and receives tributary streams into its channel.* Modern geography, of course, does not accord accurately with all that is stated on this subject, but there is a sufficient similarity in feature, to account for the transfer of the character of the far distant mountain and river to ancient China.

As the present race of men sprang from a triplication, viz. the three sons of Noah, so must ancient China-or "the world" in the estimation of the Chinese-spring from three of the posterity of the great father. This triplication, according to the Shoo king, consists of Yaou, Shun and Yu. And, as these are members of the one diluvian family, the deluge which destroys a former world is prolonged from the reign of Fuh-he or "Noah," to that of his three descendants, from whom the inhabitants of "the world," i. e. China, are said to be descended. The following is the description of the deluge said to have taken place during the reigns of these three emperors: "In the time of Yaou, when the world had not yet been perfectly reduced to order, the vast waters, flowing out of their channels, deluged the whole earth ( T), when grass and trees grew most luxuriantly,—and birds and beasts were multitudinous,-when the five kinds of grain did not rise,—when birds and beasts harassed men,-when the paths marked by the feet of beasts and prints of birds, crossed one another throughout the Middle kingdom," A long time has elapsed since this world (T) of men received its being, and there has been an alternate succession of order and confusion ever since the beginning.‡ "In the time of Yaou, the waters, flowing out of their channels, inundated the Middle kingdom; which was inhabited by serpents and dragons, and the people had no place where they could settle themselves. In the low grounds they made nests for themselves (in the trees), and in the high grounds they made caves. The Shoo king says, 'The waters in their wild course

sec. xxvii, p. 27.

+ Collie's Mencius, p. 79. Legge's Works of Mencius, p. 126. Bee Confucian Cosmogony, pp. 55, 57, par. 5 and 6,

Sing le ta tseûen,

alarmed me.' Those waters in their wild course' were the waters of the great inundation."*

In the Shoo king we have the following description of this flood in the "Canon of Yaou;" "The Emperor () said,. . . . . . 'See! The floods assail the heavens!' The Emperor said, 'Oh ye Four Mountains, destructive in their overflow are the waters of the deluge! In their vast extent they embrace the mountains and overtop the hills, threatening the heavens with their floods, so that the inferior people groan and murmur."†

This deluge we are told took place "when the world had not yet been perfectly reduced to order;" that is to say, it occurs before the commencement of a kalpa, and destroys a previous world; the new one being "reduced to order" as the waters subside. This is therefore the chaotic deluge which in all heathen systems is that recorded by Moses. The very terms in which this deluge is described, prove that it is more than a mere local inundation. The waters leave their accustomed channels; the people are driven to take refuge in trees, and finally in the lofty mountains around the imperial domain, the waters continue to rise, and "they embrace the mountains, and overtop the hills, threatening the heavens with their floods." From the "Bamboo Books" we further learn, that a remarkable star (the "star of Noah") appeared during the reign of Yaou, in whose garden situated in this locality, were miraculous plants corresponding to the wonderful tree of paradise. On Shun's accession to the throne also, a brilliant star appeared. In fact, during the whole period from the first Nöe of these annals, or Hwang-te, down to Yu, the last, we have the appearance recorded of wonderful meteors, and stars; the miraculous birth of each Nöe from the personified virgin earth or ark, Shang-te or "Noah" being his father; miraculous plants, rainbows, extraordinary rains, mists and storms, and emblems both of paradise and the deluge. That such a prolonged deluge as this, so great in extent, and so terrible in its effects, could not possibly take place from natural causes in ancient China, in a mountainous district such as that above described, and at the source of the river of China, which must have been a mere stream, -if indeed it existed at all,--so many centuries ago, must be apparent to all. In fact, a glance at the map of ancient China, is sufficient to convince any one that the five enormous yo, or the circular chain of enormous mountains with the central gigantic Khwan-lun, each being placed under a particular planet, never could have existed in China at all; and that the hills which at present bear the names of these so called "pillars of heaven," do not in the least answer to the full des

*Collie's Mencius, p. 92. Legge's Works of Mencius, p. 155.

+ Medhurst, p. 10; Legge, p. 24.

cription given of this Ila-vratta or circle of the world, the locality from which the remote ancestors of all other nations as well as those of the Chinese, originally came forth.

As therefore the supposed characteristics of the paradisiacal mountain chain of Ararat, the cradle of the first ancestors of the present race of mankind, and also their burial-place, have been transferred to ancient China, which was esteemed "the world," so have the chief features of the ancient empire of Babylon, of the ancient sacred river, and of the Mosaic deluge; which latter catastrophe has never been forgotten by any heathen nation in the world, with whose cosmogony we are acquainted. Further, as the Chinese are the descendants of Ham in the line of Cush, we find Yaou in the Shoo king addressing his nobles by the very title in which the members of the great house of Cush delighted, viz. Muh, or “Shepherd kings (Huc-sos).' The ancient Chinese therefore, I suppose, were a mixed race who entered China under the leadership of Cushite nobles.

Thus the various characteristics assigned to the mountain, to the river, to the imperial domain of ancient China, and to the deluge of the Shoo king, all prove that these are but local transcripts of the holy paradisiacal mount Ararat, the holy river Euphrates, the ancient kingdom of Nimrod or "the land of Cush," and the deluge recorded by Moses. In a word, the Chinese have transferred the known ancient history of the world (F) to China; and, their early ancestors, on the dispersion of the one family of mankind, carried down their line until they settled in China, sacred records containing the early history of that one family in its apostate state, together with the tenets of that great apostacy completed under Nimrod; from whieh ancient documents the Confucian classics were compiled, where, accordingly, we find clear evidence that the Chinese, like all the other heathen, have drunk of that idolatrous cup,which, according to both Scripture and tradition,† Babylon has held out to all the nations of the earth.

The dates of remarkable events in the early history of mankind, given in the second table of the Samaritan chronology, which accurately accord with the order of these events in the text of the Mosaic history, if compared with the chronology of the Chinese, will show how very nearly correct the latter dates are:‡B.C. 2,938. Fuh-he's reign,

1. Deluge of Noah,...

2. Three sons die about,...

B.C. 2,852.

3. Emigration of mankind

4. Rise of Cuthic empire

2,325.

5. Years after Deluge,

* Medhurst's Shoo king, p. 19.

+ See. I. supra.

See The Chinese Repository, vol. x.

The close approach of Chinese chronology to that of the Samaritan in the above table is apparent. The date of the emperor Shun's reign makes him contemporary with Nimrod, and his history will show that his character corresponds in some important points to that of the apostate king of Babylon. There appears strong ground for entertaining the opinion, that the five emperors are the five royal descendants of the house of Noah, and consequently that Shun who stands in the fifth place, is in this connection, the apostate king whom Moses calls Nimrod.

Shun, we learn from the Shoo king, came down from the mount, and settled on the great plain, to which all the people descended, and where they commenced building as the waters subsided.* As he was a member of the imperial house, he is represented as sharing the government with Yaou. Nimrod brought to a climax the apostacy from the worship of the God of Noah, and set up the worship of his deified ancestors instead. Noah, the head of the house, was deified under the title of Baal-shamayim, "The Lord of the heavens," and was identified with the material heaven of which he was the "mind" or animating soul, whence all other minds or souls were derived. To this Baal or "" Heaven," "he commenced the erection of a tower or pagoda dedicated to his worship, and the account of the supposed destruction of which is thus given by Josephus in the words of the Chaldean sibyl: "When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven; but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon."+ The overthrow of the tower is here. attributed to a wonderful storm sent by heaven. The Mosaic history does not mention any overthrow of the tower of Babel, but merely states that mankind "left off to build the city." Universal tradition however, describes it as having been destroyed by a wonderful storm accompanied by lightnings and earthquakes; and such a miraculous storm, we learn from the "Bamboo Books," put an end to a solemn service in which the emperor Shun was engaged.

The first solemn act of worship described in Chinese history is the sacrifice offered by Shun on attaining the throne. Shun, we are told, "then offered a sacrifice with the ordinary forms, to Shang-te; presented a pure offering to the six Honoured ones; offered their appropriate sacrifices to the hills and rivers; and extended his worship to the host of gods."||

*Legge's Shoo king, p. 32,

+ Antiquities of the Jews, bk. I. ch. iv.

See Old Testment Legends, vol. i, sec. xxiii.

Medhurst's Shoo king, pp. 17, 18; Legge's do, p. 34.

In this passage we have a list of the objects of worship sacrificed to by the ancient Chinese; the whole turba deorum from the highest to the lowest; and all constituting the shin or "gods" of China. The sacrifice

offered to "Heaven" the chief of these shin or "gods," under his title of "Supreme Emperor" of all the other shin or "gods," was, we are told, the usual one offered to "Expansive Heaven."* Dr. Legge gives his opinion, that this "Heaven" or Shang-te is the very Jehovah worshipped by Christians, overlooking the fact that expansiveness can only be predicated of matter, and that therefore the sacrifice here offered was presented to the azure sky regarded as a living being or animal, endowed with life because possessing the power of motion, and whose chief manifestation is the first man.

This act of worship was performed by Shun on his accession to the throne, and Dr. Legge gives the date of the offering of the sacrifice as B. c. 2283, which is about the date assigned to the rise of the Cuthic empire under Nimrod, viz. B. c. 2325. Nimrod set up the worship of Heaven under the title Baal or "The Lord;" and Shun sacrificed to the same "Heaven," under the title "Supreme Emperor."

In reading this record of Shun's sacrifice, it is plain that he is not, as it were, groping in the dark as to who or what Shang-te really is. He sacrifices to a distinct and definite being which he calls Shang-te. He is not pondering as to whether there is a Shang-te or not; for, he offers sacrifice to a living being of some sort or other, which he designates by that title. The importance of this plain fact will be presently seen, as it assists us in determining the meaning of a passage which is incorrectly rendered both in the Theology of the Chinese and also in Dr. Legge's Notions of the Chinese &c. The passage is as follows: "The Great Shun seeing the seven overlookers equally adjusted, knew that this must be the result of the heavenly decree.† Accordingly, having undertaken to act as the Son of Heaven, and to take the reins of government, he sacrificed to heaven and earth at the circular mound, and announced the cause of his acceptance of the empire. Then raising his head he reflected thus: 'That azure sky is heaven, the original air which is bright and vast; how then is it not‡ the ruling power which governs all decrees ?' He then thought of an exalted title and called it 'Luminous Heaven the Supreme Emperor,' and 'The Celestial Lord, the Great Emperor;' titles corresponding to that of 'Supreme Heaven.' Hence we see that Shun's virtue was the same as Heaven's, and that he did not forget his ancient origin.. .....He selected Fuh-he, (assisted by) Kaou-yang, to be the entire celestial (emperor)......Shin

That is "Fate."

* Medhurst's Shoo king, p. 17, note. ‡ The equivalent tok'e wod, is not ⇓⇓k'è muh yew, “how is there not” &c. but 7 k'è puh shé, "how is it (i. e. the living sky) not” &c.