and died.

Revelation in a dream.--The Emperor Wu Ting, B.C. 1324-1264, began his
reign by not speaking for three years, leaving all State affairs to be
decided by his Prime Minister, while he himself gained experience.
Later on, the features of a sage were revealed to him in a dream; and
on waking, he caused a portrait of the apparition to be prepared and
circulated throughout the empire. The sage was found, and for a long
time aided the Emperor in the right administration of government. On the
occasion of a sacrifice, a pheasant perched upon the handle of the great
sacrificial tripod, and crowed, at which the Emperor was much alarmed.
"Be not afraid," cried a Minister; "but begin by reforming your
government. God looks down upon mortals, and in accordance with their
deserts grants them many years or few. God does not shorten men's
lives; they do that themselves. Some are wanting in virtue, and will not
acknowledge their transgressions; only when God chastens them do they
cry, What are we to do?"

Anthropomorphism and Fetishism.--One of the last Emperors of the Shang
dynasty, Wu I, who reigned B.C. 1198-1194, even went so far as "to make
an image in human form, which he called God. With this image he used
to play at dice, causing some one to throw for the image; and if 'God'
lost, he would overwhelm the image with insult. He also made a bag of
leather, which he filled with blood and hung up. Then he would shoot at
it, saying that he was shooting God. By and by, when he was out hunting,
he was struck down by a violent thunderclap, and killed."

God indignant.--Finally, when the Shang dynasty sank into the lowest
depths of moral abasement, King Wu, who charged himself with its
overthrow, and who subsequently became the first sovereign of the Chou
dynasty, offered sacrifices to Almighty God, and also to Mother Earth.
"The King of Shang," he said in his address to the high officers who
collected around him, "does not reverence God above, and inflicts
calamities on the people below. Almighty God is moved with indignation."
On the day of the final battle he declared that he was acting in the
matter of punishment merely as the instrument of God; and after his
great victory and the establishment of his own line, it was to God that
he rendered thanks.

No Devil, No Hell.--In this primitive monotheism, of which only scanty,
but no doubt genuine, records remain, no place was found for any being
such as the Buddhist Mara or t