Justice

even is affected by fear of the dead, for no office would be given to any judge or official if it was thought that the ghosts were offended by him. To ancestor worship also Mi Gordon Cumming attributes “the appalling female infanticide of China, about which there is no concealment, it being fully sanctioned by public opinion.” Christian mi ionaries find it the great obstacle; for the convert is held to bring on himself, and on his family, the curses of all dead relatives, with the attendant dangers of their wrath. Many parents have threatened to commit suicide when a child of theirs showed a leaning to Christianity: and the Chinese hell, surpa ing all others in its horrors, is held before the poor credulous ma es by priests who find their surest allies among the women. The original nature-worship of the Chinese was probably free from this exaggerated form of ancestor worship. But the Emperor and his counsellor priests became the judges of what was likely to happen to any ghost in the next world: for he is not only the earthly representative of Shang-Tai, but also the Tien-tsze or “Son of Heaven.” [Mongol and Manchu legends alike represent the founders of empire as born of virgins, and proceeding from trees (like Adonis), having Tai as father.—Ep.] It is Tai who sends evil as well as good, like the Hebrew Yahveh, rewarding evil and good rulers according to their merits, sending pestilence and defeat, or prosperity and victory. 443