Freemasonry In China.

FREEMASONRY IN CHINA .

THE publication of Bro . Giles' and W . A . Pickering ' s works , both on Freemasonry and the Secret Societies , has directed our attention anew to China . That mysterious and wonderful land may yet bear witness to the antiquity and indigenousness of Freemasonry , though at present these essays , strictly speaking , are onl y tentative efforts , rather than completed arguments , in regard to this complex and abstruse question .

So far , we apprehend , the evidence is on the whole but small which can connect the speculative Freemasonry of 1717 with China in any sense of existence or continuity previously to that date ; yet , on the other hand , Mr . Pickering and Bro . Giles point each to a " phase" in the inquiry which is both interesting in itself , and important for us to note . Mr . Pickering thinks that the " Triad " Societythe great "

Shiang-Ti-, Hiu" Association , was once really Masonic , though now perverted to a merely political association . Bro . Giles , while he says , p . 2 , that the " comparatively modern system " of Freemasonry at vogue in the present day , among western nations " does not exist now among the Chinese , and has never existed in China at all , " goes on to quote the use of a seemingly Masonic symbolism from the time of Confucius ,

which is 481 B . C . We may add here , that in the library of 33 , Golden Square , is a small image of Confucius , with a square and an apron , and they also possess in their museum an old and ornamented " square . " Both these are in " Jade , " and are said by " experts " to be very old indeed . The square is not , however , our square , which contains an angle of 90 degrees . Constant references , we are told , occur to the use of the " square

and compasses , " or as the Chinese say , " the compasses and the square . " Thus " Mencius , " a great follower of Confucius , who lived 200 years later , tells us , that " just as the most highly skilled artificers are unable without the aid of the square and compasses to produce perfect rectangles or perfect circles , so must all men apply these tools figuratively to their lives , and the level and the marking line besides , if they would walk in the straight and even paths of wisdom , and keep themselves within the bounds of honour and virtue . "

Then also in his book , vol . i , we find these express words , " A Master Mason , in teaching his apprentices , makes use of the compasses and the square . Ye who are engaged in the pursuits of wisdom must also make use of the compasses and the square . " In the work called "The Great Learning , " between 300 and 500 years B . C ., we find in chapter x , " that a man should abstain from doing unto others what

he would not they should do unto him , " " and this , " adds the writer , "is called the principle of acting on the square . " In a celebrated poem , called "The Li Sao , or Dissipation of Grief , " written by a certain statesman called Chii Ping in the fourth century B . C ., we find these metaphorical allusions : " Of a truth the workmanship of the age is specious !

" Neglected lie the square and compasses , our true guides . " The measuring line is discarded , and the crooked is pursued . "A showy elegance is the standard now aimed at by all . " Poor " Chii Ping ' s " words may be good of other ages besides his own . And in the same poem is found , " inter alia , " these lines : " In the relation of sovereign and subject , seek the harmony of the square and the measuring line . "