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Article CHINESE FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chinese Freemasonry.
CHINESE FREEMASONRY .
BT BBO . KENNETH K . H . MACKENZIE , IX . I know how birds can fly , how fishes can swim , and how beasts can run . And the runner may be snared , the swimmer may be hooked , and the flyer may be shot by the arrow . But there is the dragon . I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds and rises to heaven . To-day I have seen Lau-tsze , ancl can only compare him to
the dragon . —KUNG-JU-TSZE ( CONFUCIUS ) . A N ancient Masonic tradition connects the foundation of the Order of -t-L Prussian Knights with Peleg , the architect of the Tower of Babel , and hence with the confusion of tongues . An equally ancient tradition ascribes to Noah , otherwise named Foil or Euh , the foundation of the oldest existing empire in the world—that of China . With the history as transmitted of
Peleg most average Masonic students are familiar . Dumb and confounded he journeyed far to the West , and by leading the life of a contrite and humble personage , ultimately reconciled himself to T . G . A . O . T . U ., recovered his speech , died , and was buried or burnt . His resting-place was discovered fifteen cubits from the surface of the earth , and on a . white marble stone , in 533 , it is said that an inscription existed , saying : " Here repose the ashes of the Grand Architect of the Tower of Babel . The Lord had pity on him because he
became humble . " It is quite unnecessary to pursue the history of the Order of Prussian Kni ghts further at the present time . . Indirectly their descendants have founded a great empire , again proving tho truth of the saying that " whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted . " The descendants of Noah , however , appear , according to Chinese tradition , to have spread themselves to the uttermost East , and there to have founded a vast and enduring empire with a singular religious creedand an innate
, reverence for chronological facts and for the manes of their ancestors . As it has been frequently argued that Masonry subsisted from the earliest times of the world historically known to us , it becomes an interesting inquiry as to what figments of Masonry may be found among that undoubtedly ancient people . We are not to exjject traditions analogous to those connected with the foundation of King Solomon ' s Temple ; it is more likely that we shall find
fragments of Masonic teaching and morality of a wider and purer type , guiding us , although faintly , towards the great source of . universal light itself . Nor was it unlikely that some such fragments should remain among a people which has jealously guarded its literature and history from the most ancient times—a people which , more than any other , has , by hi g h honours and with H
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chinese Freemasonry.
CHINESE FREEMASONRY .
BT BBO . KENNETH K . H . MACKENZIE , IX . I know how birds can fly , how fishes can swim , and how beasts can run . And the runner may be snared , the swimmer may be hooked , and the flyer may be shot by the arrow . But there is the dragon . I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds and rises to heaven . To-day I have seen Lau-tsze , ancl can only compare him to
the dragon . —KUNG-JU-TSZE ( CONFUCIUS ) . A N ancient Masonic tradition connects the foundation of the Order of -t-L Prussian Knights with Peleg , the architect of the Tower of Babel , and hence with the confusion of tongues . An equally ancient tradition ascribes to Noah , otherwise named Foil or Euh , the foundation of the oldest existing empire in the world—that of China . With the history as transmitted of
Peleg most average Masonic students are familiar . Dumb and confounded he journeyed far to the West , and by leading the life of a contrite and humble personage , ultimately reconciled himself to T . G . A . O . T . U ., recovered his speech , died , and was buried or burnt . His resting-place was discovered fifteen cubits from the surface of the earth , and on a . white marble stone , in 533 , it is said that an inscription existed , saying : " Here repose the ashes of the Grand Architect of the Tower of Babel . The Lord had pity on him because he
became humble . " It is quite unnecessary to pursue the history of the Order of Prussian Kni ghts further at the present time . . Indirectly their descendants have founded a great empire , again proving tho truth of the saying that " whosoever humbleth himself shall be exalted . " The descendants of Noah , however , appear , according to Chinese tradition , to have spread themselves to the uttermost East , and there to have founded a vast and enduring empire with a singular religious creedand an innate
, reverence for chronological facts and for the manes of their ancestors . As it has been frequently argued that Masonry subsisted from the earliest times of the world historically known to us , it becomes an interesting inquiry as to what figments of Masonry may be found among that undoubtedly ancient people . We are not to exjject traditions analogous to those connected with the foundation of King Solomon ' s Temple ; it is more likely that we shall find
fragments of Masonic teaching and morality of a wider and purer type , guiding us , although faintly , towards the great source of . universal light itself . Nor was it unlikely that some such fragments should remain among a people which has jealously guarded its literature and history from the most ancient times—a people which , more than any other , has , by hi g h honours and with H