concerned, in spite of the fact that _T'ien Chu_ was a name given at the
close of the third century B.C. to one of the Eight Spirits.

The two Terms are One.--That the two terms refer in Chinese thought to
one and the same Being, though possibly with differing attributes, even
down to modern times, may be seen from the account of a dream by the
Emperor Yung Lo, A.D. 1403-1425, in which His Majesty relates that an
angel appeared to him, with a message from _Shang Ti_; upon which the
Emperor remarked, "Is not this a command from _T'ien_?" A comparison
might perhaps be instituted with the use of "God" and "Jehovah" in
the Bible. At the same time it must be noted that this view was not
suggested by the Emperor K'ang Hsi, who fixed upon _T'ien_ as the
appropriate term. It is probable that, vigorous Confucianist as he was,
he was anxious to appear on the side rather of an abstract than of
a personal Deity, and that he was repelled by the overwrought
anthropomorphism of the Christian God. His conversion was said to have
been very near at times; we read, however, that, when hard pressed by
the missionaries to accept baptism, "he always excused himself by saying
that he worshipped the same God as the Christians."

God in the "Odes."--The Chou dynasty lasted from B.C. 1122 to B.C.
255. It was China's feudal age, when the empire, then included between
latitude 34-40 and longitude 109-118, was split up into a number of
vassal States, which owned allegiance to a suzerain State. And it is to
the earlier centuries of the Chou dynasty that must be attributed the
composition of a large number of ballads of various kinds, ultimately
collected and edited by Confucius, and now known as the _Odes_. From
these _Odes_ it is abundantly clear that the Chinese people continued
to hold, more clearly and more firmly than ever, a deep-seated belief in
the existence of an anthropomorphic and personal God, whose one care was