_^0 
 
 txhrary of t:he t:heolo0ical ^^m\n<xry 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 PURCHASED BY THE 
 HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND 
 
 
THE DRAGON, IMAGE, AND DEMON. 
 
mmi 
 
 THE 
 
 DRAGON. IMAGE, AND DEMON 
 
 OR 
 
 THE THREE RELIGIONS OF CHINA 
 
 CONFUCIANISM, BUDDHISM, AND TAOISM 
 
 GIVING AX ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE MYTHOLOGY, IDOLATRY, AND DEMONOLATRY 
 OF THE CHINESE 
 
 BY REV. HAMPDEN C. DuBOSE 
 
 Fourteen Years a Missionary at Soocliow 
 
 " O'er the gloomy hills of darkness, 
 Look, my soul, be still, and gaze." 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 A. C. ARMSTRONG & SOiN" 
 
 714 Broadway 
 
 1887 
 
Copyright, 1886, 
 By a. C. ARMSTKONG & SON 
 
TO THE 
 
 KEY. J. LEIGHTON WILSON, D.D., 
 
 EIGHTEEN YEARS A MISSIONARY IN AFRICA, 
 
 AXD FOR 
 
 THIRTY -THREE YEARS SECRETARY OF FOREIGN MISSIONS ] 
 
 WISE IN COUNSEL, GENTLE IN ADMINISTRATION, 
 
 A CHEERY CORRESPONDENT TO THOSE IN LANDS OF NIGHT, 
 
 AND 
 HAPPY TO RECEIVE A JOVIAL LETTER FROM ACROSS THE SEA, 
 
 KINDLING THE FIRE OF MISSIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ALTARS OF TEN THOUSAND HEARTS, 
 
 WHOSE 
 
 " LITTLE UNIVERSE IS FOREIGN MISSIONS ; " 
 
 MY FATHER, MY FRIEND, 
 
 AND A FELLOW-MEMBER OF THE REVEREND PRESBYTERY 
 
 OF HARMONY, 
 
 THIS APPEAL FOR THE HEATHEN 
 
 IS 
 
 DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 y^URINGr a visit to the United States in 1882, a 
 ■^^^ lecture on the '' Three Religions " was delivered in 
 about 150 churches, and there were many requests for 
 its publication. With further study the lecture has 
 grown to its present size. Many of the best thoughts 
 in this volume are obtained from the writings of Edkins, 
 Eitel, Legge, and Beal ; also from general works on 
 China, missionary journals, and other sources. In every 
 known case quotation marks are used, but the " quotation 
 marks " do not always indicate that the passage is taken 
 from an English work, for they are also used for transla- 
 tions. The writer has drawn his water from native wells, 
 the facts being mostly gathered from Chinese sources. 
 The pen is not held by one seated in a professor's study, 
 but by a plain man, who daily walks to and fro among 
 idolaters, and testifies of what he has seen and heard. 
 Some may discover errors in the work, and doubtless they 
 will, for it is a book of errors, and where truth has no 
 touch-stone how can error be detected ? 
 
 The name chosen is the most exact representation that 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 could be found of what each system is. The " Dragon " is 
 the emblem of China and its State Church ; the " Image " 
 is a synonym for the Indian religion — it matters little 
 the size, colour, or name of the image ; and the term 
 " Demon " is Taoism in a nut-shell. 
 
 These dark chapters are written in the hope that some 
 small impetus may, by the facts presented, be given to 
 Christian missions in China. We now need 3,000 or- 
 dained men to go " two and two " to the 1,600 walled 
 cities of the Empire. Oh, that some reader might hear 
 the Macedonian cry ! If the heart is touched, shall not 
 the hand send a contribution to the mission treasury ? 
 How many might give SSI 000 a year to support a married 
 missionary ? How many churches might send out their 
 own man ? The finance of missions needs to be placed 
 on a more definite basis ; money to be raised by regular 
 subscriptions, rather than depending on the collecting 
 box. I write in a plain style so that boys may understand 
 as well as men. When six years old, my father gave me 
 a little red picture book, about Rev. R. Moffat in Africa ; 
 it took full possession of my soul, and in the " log par- 
 sonage" I resolved to go to the heathen. I trust that 
 this book will follow every Christian boy that reads it like 
 a policeman. 
 
 It is generally put down that when any one engages 
 in a labour like this he does it to the neglect of mission 
 work, so to exonerate oneself it is necessary to state 
 that besides colportage, and constant street and tea-shop 
 
Preface. 9 
 
 preaching, there has been an average of fifty sermons 
 a month in the chapels. How can one expect the favour 
 of Grod if he neglects what he is sent to do ? The 
 command is not " Go, write my Grospel." One of my 
 teachers, an editor, gave the advice to the class " to save 
 the joinings of time." 
 
 The suggestion is made to younger missionaries that 
 they orally translate some of the chapters of this book 
 with their teachers, so as to familiarise themselves with 
 the local idolatry. 
 
 As this is not a comprehensive work on the middle 
 kingdom, but simply on " Religion in China," there has 
 been no opportunity to express my admiration for the 
 many noble traits of national character, — the brightness 
 of their intellects, the love of literature, the frugality 
 and industry, the strength of the government, the 
 solidity of their institutions, their peaceful dispositions, 
 and their courtesy to foreigners. What a glorious 
 country will the Land of Sinim — the land of promise — 
 be, when they '' turn to Grod from idols, to serve the living 
 and true Grod, and to wait for His Son from heaven ! " 
 
 H. C. D. 
 
 Southern (U.S.A.) Presbyterian Mission, 
 SOOCHOW, September 30th, 1885. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE THREE RELIGIONS DOVETAILED. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The population and the length of time— No arithmetical division — 
 The three in partnership — Emperor K'anghe— The three are 
 relatives — All three national — One man worships in three 
 temples — Many of the gods are the' same— Is the union bene- 
 ficial ? — The relative influence 27 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE LEARNED. 
 
 Not strictly a religion — No Creator — Pankoo — No Sabbath — The 
 splendid morality — Vice not deified — The heart — Conscience — 
 The Confucianist— Want of religion — Failed to elevate — The 
 citadel .38 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SEE OF PEKING. 
 
 Heaven- The Son of Heaven — The Son of Heaven as the federal 
 head of his people — The minister of religion — The mandarin 
 Priests — Imperial gold — An anchor to the nation . . .50 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE HIGH-PRIEST OF CHINA. E 
 
 PAG 
 
 The park — The Temple of Heaven — The Altar of Heaven — The pro- 
 cession — The sacrifice 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ADORATION OF NATURE. 
 
 Its antiquity — Ming dynasty — Pantheism — Heaven and earth — 
 Earth — The sun— Moon-god— Eclipse — Gods of the Four Seas — 
 The Water-god- -The River-gods — Gods of the Mountains — Gods 
 of Time — Gods of the Four Seasons — Gods of the Five Elements 
 — Wind, thunder, rain, and lightning — Earl wind — Rain-master 
 — Thunder and lightning — The Snow-god — The Frost-goddess — 
 God of Caverns — Tree-god — God of the Willow — Gods and 
 goddesses of Flowers — The Wheat-goddess . . . .65 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 ANCESTRAL IDOLATRY. 
 
 All engage in it — Filial piet}^ — An ancient cultus — Confucius — A son 
 — Fear, the chief motive — Three souls — The ancestral hall — The 
 grave — The home — The slavery 77 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 CONFUCIUS : HIS CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE. 
 
 Dim light — Ancestry — His birth — His youth — The age — Marriage — 
 Public teacher— Devotion of his pupils — A mandarin — A 
 wanderer — Called of Heaven — A man of the past — The musician 
 — Humility — Sinless — Ritualism — The silver rule- — The marvel- 
 lous — Prophetic— Superstitious— Want of truth— The historian 
 — His influence—The books and the altar — Death . . . 89 
 
Contents. 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE CONFUCIAN SACRIFICES. 
 
 Titles — The temple and the grave — Kings adore — His manhood — 
 The god of office — Literary temples — The sacrifice — The school 
 — His rank in the Pantheon 1 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONFUCIAN GODS. 
 
 God of Literature— Star of Literature — God of War — Three primor- 
 dial sovereigns — Five planetary gods — Five emperors — Penates 
 or household gods — Door gods — God of Agriculture — Gods of the 
 Tides — Golden-dragon king — Five dragons — Temple of worthies 
 — God of the Classics — God of Writing— Written character — 
 Mencius— Disciples of Confucius — Eight gods — Divine husband- 
 man — Spirits of the land and grain— Gods of the precincts— 
 God-constables — Prison-god — God of the City Wall — Guardian 
 temples — Granary king — Eighth great king .... 126 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BUDDHA, THE NIGHT OF ASIA. 
 
 Name — Ancestry — Birth — Boyhood — Love at first sight — Indian 
 paradise — Age, sickness, and death — The flight — The great 
 renunciation — The hermit — Mara and his temptations — Attain- 
 ing to Buddhaship — The heart of pity — His manhood — The tola 
 of mustard seed— All flesh — Animal sacrifices— Esthetics — 
 Discussions with the Brahmans — The Itinerant — His opponents 
 — The monastic system — Wheel of the excellent law — Ten pro- 
 hibitions — Deer park — Brevity of life — The body — " Know thy- 
 self " — Birth, age, misery, and death— The ego — The previous ex- 
 istence — Parables — Prudent quail -Forget-favour, the merchant 
 — The Mani-gem— The cunning tortoise — The foolish dragon — 
 Miracles. The white elephant— In mid-air — The blind boy- 
 Healing the sick -The threads of his robe — The stone — The 
 
1 4 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 dragons- The magician —Amusing incidents. The fishermen 
 — Drunken elephants — The goose — The baby — Nanda — 
 Monastery at Jeta's garden— The feast — The parrot and the bull 
 — Faith — Visits Heaven — Images — Relics— Death — Cremation . 143 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE ORIENTAL BANYAN. 
 
 Its importance — Mipsionary spirit — Fate in India — Introduction 
 into China— Europe and Asia— Its slow growth- -The emperors 
 — Confucian opposition — Persecutions — Buddhist travellers — 
 Pagodas and relics-Patriarchs — The schools — The canon— The 
 forge of lies— The Sutra a fetish— Christian ideas— Its toler.int 
 spirit — Beneficial effects — Revival of Buddhism .... 189 
 
 CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 THE THEOLOGY OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 Atheistic— Natural science — The great Chili(icosm — The heart — 
 Morality — Asceticism — Love — Emptiness — Nihilism — Medita- 
 tion — Kindness to animals — Vegetarians — Sin — Redemption- 
 Merit — Field of happiness — Transmigration— The gods strapped 
 to this wheel — Nirvana 207 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 Priests— Temple— Four diamonds— Matrey a Buddha— W6ito— 
 Buddhas of the three ages— Shakyamuni, Wenshu, and Pouhien 
 — The eighteen Lohans— The worship — Oracular response- 
 Absence of devotion — Worshipping assembly — Three vows — 
 Prayers— In Sanscrit— Prayer for rain— Buddhist and Taoist 
 calendar , , 229 
 
Contents. 1 5 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE IDOLATRY OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Three classes — Worship of the seen — Gods appear to men — Idol 
 factory — Large images — Dedication — Idolatry as an industry — 
 Building a temple — The nail cage — Tortures of Buddhism- 
 Stealing candles — " Ye worship ye know not what " — Comi)en- 
 dium of gods — Places of worship — Dei Majores— The abomi- 
 nations 255 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MOUNTAINS, ISLANDS, AND FESTIVALS. 
 
 Sacred mountains— Mount T'ai— Pootoo— Theological seminary — 
 Keligion as a holiday — Pilgrims — Idol processions — Heathenism 
 fascinating — Theatricals . 272 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 WOMEN AND BUDDHISM. 
 
 Pleasant — Nunneries — Goddesses — Ancestral benefits — Buddha's 
 doctrine of women — Lake of Blood— Heathen mother— Dead 
 child 283 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE HEART OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 Buddhism and Roman Catholicism — Kwanyin, the goddess of mercy 
 —Fragrant mountain liturgy — Magnet of the Church — Buddhist 
 saviour — Amita and the Western Heaven — Amitn — Magic name 
 — Paradise of the West — The pure land — Born of a lily — The God 
 of Hades — Doctrine of hell — City of Fungtu — Ten kings of hell 
 — White and black devils — Vision of hell — Looking homeward 
 — The mirror — The Undivided Hell — The earth prison — Miss 
 Hang's soup 290 
 
i6 Contents, 
 
 CHAPTER X^^II. 
 
 THE GODS OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Janteng Buddha — The dragons — Holding pagoda King Lee — The 
 mother of Buddha — Master of the Lily Lake — Fix-light Buddha 
 — P'ouhien P*usa — The sombre maiden . . . . .315 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GODS OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Grod of Wealth— God of Kiehes — Heavenly mandarin — Kitchen-god 
 — God of Theatres — God of Horses and Cows — Sheep-god — God 
 of Snakes — Holding- snakes god — God of Scorpions— Locust 
 goddess — Gods of the Bed — Old 3Lin and Woman of the Bed— 
 Gold-god — Tea-god — Salt-god — Gods of the Ct^mpass — God of 
 the North Place — God of the Soul — Gods of Strength— God of 
 Happiness— Wang Papa — Goddtss of Travel — The Rambling 
 gal — God of Archery — God of the Wave — Field- ancestor god 
 — God of the Favouring Wind — Bridge-gods — Lamp-god — Forty 
 masters — Five or twenty-five gods —God of the Rough Gem — 
 Little-boy god — Yin-dragon god — Yellow-dragon god — Silk- 
 worm god — God of the Year — Goddess of the Male Principle of 
 Nature — Family gods of the Door — The Ting gods— Little Boy 
 at the Well ' ' ^. . . .320 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GODS OF TR-\DES. 
 
 Carpenter's god — Mason's god — Fisherman's god— God of the Net 
 — Bacchus — Bean-curd god — God of Barbers — The Tailors' god 
 — God of Silk — Goddess of Embroidery — Ancestor of Jade — God 
 of Musical In strument*!— Juggler's god — God of the Paper 
 clothing Stores — God of Architecture ..... 833 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE ABSURDITIES OF POLYTHEISM. 
 
 Rain clothes dwarf — Monkey-god— Go<l of Lice — Punch and Judy 
 gryi — Gvl of Fire-crackers — God of Cruelty — God cf Revensre — 
 Go<^ldefts of Manure — Goddess of Fornication -Goddes* of the 
 Comer — God of SI arlows — God of Gamblers— Bad gods — The 
 Emperor Show — Kiang Taikung — The stone lion . . . 337 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TAOIST PHII/jS<^>PHY. 
 
 Laotsze — The lonely picture — Tao Teh king — Tao — Canons of 
 
 wisdom and virtue . . . . . . .345 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 TAOISM AS A RELIGION. 
 
 Gradual evolution — Plagiarism— Alchemy — To become an immortal 
 — The great extreme — Yin and Yai.g — Manicbaeans— Rotation 
 — Gods have sin — Gr>ds miy marry — Promotion — Gods of State 
 — Appointing gods— The three periods — The thirteen boards — 
 Tao'st creation — Variety temples— To escape the metem- 
 psychosis—Religious services for the living — The fairy crane— 
 Saleof indulgences — Forgiveness hair-pin — Worshipping Heaven 
 — BriV^erj' in worship - Dreams — Tree of the rewards of good 
 and evil — The Abacus— The tail-cutting mania . . . VA 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 POPES, PRIE.STS, AXD TEMPLES. 
 
 The first p:)pe — The heavenly teacher An audience to the gods — 
 The priests of Taoism — The abbot— The city temple. Soochow 
 — The snorter and blower — The three pure ones — The lantern 
 pagoda 372 
 
 2 
 
t8 Contents, 
 
 CHAPTER XXY. 
 
 TAOIST GODS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pearly emperor — Tsusze P'usa— The city gods — Assistants to the 
 city gods — The mediator — The Eastern Peak — Empress of 
 Heaven, or goddess of the Sea — God of Fire— Eight ministers 
 — God of Pestilence — Three mandarins — Three mao — Five 
 holy ones — God of Witches— Horse duke — Western Royal 
 Mother — Three corpse gods — Day and night recorders — Road 
 gods — Open Road gods — White-tiger god — Wang Ling Kwan — 
 Military official 382 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 MEDICAL DIVINITIES. 
 
 Evidences of Christianity — Leu Chen Yang, the Chinese ^sculapius 
 — King of medicine — Hien Yuen and Chepah — Dr. Fox— Dr. 
 Hwat'u — Divine oculist — God of Small-pox — Liver-complaint 
 and Stomach-ache genii — God of Measles — God of Luck — God of 
 the Primordial Cause — Goddess of the Womb — Goddess of Mid- 
 wives— Sleeping Buddha — The thirty teachers — Gods of the 
 Body— Thanking the Earth-god — The peasants — Dedicated to 
 the priesthood — Getting a prescription — The charmed water — 
 Borrowing years — The criminal — Kidnapping pretty women . 398 
 
 CHAPTER XXYII. 
 
 THE STAR GODS. 
 
 Goddess of the Norlh Star — Northern and southern bushels — Shoot- 
 ing the heavenly dog — Happiness, office, and age— The Cycle 
 gods — The twenty-eight constellations — Star worship — Good 
 and bad stars . 410 
 
 CHAPTER XXYIII. 
 
 THE IMMORTALS. 
 
 Divine fiction — P'eng Lai islands — Five kinds of immortals — Eight 
 immortals — Han Chunglee — T'ih Kwalee — CLang Kwula^i — 
 
Contents. 19 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Han Siangtsze — Lan Ts'aiho — Ts'ao Kwohk'iu — Ho Sienkoo — 
 Gocls of Marriage— The immortal ma — Two brothers and the 
 dog — The rosebud immortal 420 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 AFTER DEATH, THE SEVEN SEVENS. 
 
 Fear of death — Corpse— Fungs'auy— The four death ceremonies — 
 Lamps — Bathing the soul — Crossing the bridge Scattering 
 the cash— Ornamental hangings at funerals— Tossing the 
 cymbals — Masses for the dead — At the temple — The Noxious 
 god — Remembering the dead — Feast to the soul— A priest next 
 time — The last ceremony — Magic credentials — Funeral pio- 
 cession 429 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 DEMONOLATRY. 
 
 Calling back the soul — Accompanying the guest— Charms — Chung 
 Kw'ei — Fifth moon, Fifth day — Street guards — Spirit of the 
 house —Cleansing the house — Floating water-lamps — Paper 
 clothing store — Preparation for Heaven — Bank of Hades — 
 Travelling in Hades — Headless ghosts— Cannot die in the inn 
 — Suicides — Drowned spirits^Lunacy — Demoniacal possession 
 — Catching demons — China, the land of demons — The Breath 
 of Death — The great feast of spirits— The devil's procession — 
 Conclusion 443 
 
 Index . . 465 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Three Founders - - - - - 30 
 
 Pankoo ------- 40 
 
 ** Relying on Heaven we eat Rice " - - - 50 
 
 Temple of Heaven . . , _ - 58 
 
 Altar of Heaven ... - 59 
 
 Worship of Heaven and Earth at the New Year - 67 
 
 Palace of the Moon - - - - - - 69 
 
 Save the Sun ! - .... - 70 
 
 Thunder-god ----- . - 73 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Thunder -.--.- 74 
 
 Worshipping at the Grave - - - - - 83 
 
 Sacrifice to Ancestors ----- 85 
 
 Confucius - - - - - - - 90 
 
 Dragons and Wise Men ----- 92 
 
 The Sage's Chariot ----- 100 
 
 The Sage and the Banditti - - - - 102 
 
 The Musician - - - - - - - 103 
 
 Weeping for the Unicorn- - - - - 108 
 
 The Books and the Altar - - - - - 113 
 
 Avenue to the Grave of Confucius - - - 116 
 
 Grave of Confucius - =■ - - - -117 
 
 Emperor Offering Sacrifice - - - - 118 
 
 Sacrifice to Confuciu<=; - - - - - - 122 
 
 School-boy Worshipping Confucius - - ~ 124 
 
 Wenchang - - - - - - - 126 
 
2 2 Illustrations. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Kwei Sing ---.-_. 127 
 
 God of War --.... 128 
 
 Three Primordial Sovereigns ----- 129 
 
 Household Gods ------ 130 
 
 Door Gods - - - - - - - 131 
 
 God of Agriculture - . - - - 132 
 
 Tidal-god - - - - - - 133 
 
 Golden-dragon King - * - - - 134 
 
 Mencius --.--.. 136 
 Granary King - - - - - -140 
 
 Eighth Great King - - - - - - 141 
 
 Buddha --..--. 145 
 
 The Infant Buddha - 146 
 
 Onset of Devils ------ 153 
 
 Ascending to Heaven ------ 158 
 
 Buddha's Teachings - - - - - 168 
 
 Throwing the Elephant . - - - - 173 
 
 Kapele ------- 176 
 
 The Lions and the Elephants - - - - 177 
 
 Rescuing the Little Devil .... 178 
 
 Paradise and Tartarus ------ 180 
 
 The Parrot's Grove ----- 182 
 
 The Image-maker ------ 184 
 
 Rising from his Coffin ----- 187 
 
 The Feet ---.--. 188 
 
 Soochow Pagoda - - - - - - 197 
 
 Sand- waiter - - .... 202 
 
 Mount Sumeru ------ 209 
 
 Meditation - - - - - - - 216 
 
 Transmigration ---.-- 224 
 
 Buddh^'st Priests - - - - - - 230 
 
 Cremation Jar - . - . - . 232 
 
 Chinese Temple .---.. 233 
 
 Four Diamonds ------ 234 
 
 The Coming Buddha - - - - - - 236 
 
 The Protector - - - - - - 237 
 
hlustrations. 23 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "Long Live the Emperor!" . . - - 238 
 
 Eighteen Lohans ------ 239 
 
 Articles used in Worship - ... - 240 
 
 Carrying Paper Money ----- 241 
 
 The Incense Censer ------ 241 
 
 Load of Paper Silk ----- 242 
 
 Crinoline Incense - - . , - 243 
 
 Inquiring of the Oracle ----- 244 
 
 Lighting Candles ------ 245 
 
 Priests at Worship ----- 246 
 
 Idol Factory - - - - - - - 257 
 
 Unfinished Images ------ 258 
 
 Collecting for a Temple ----- 262 
 
 Nail Cage - 264 
 
 Hooked into the Arm ------ 265 
 
 Pantheon ----- - - 267 
 
 Gods in the Clouds - - - - - - 268 
 
 The Hermit 276 
 
 Theological Lecture ------ 278 
 
 Idol Proce sion - - - - - 280 
 
 Temple Theatre - - - - - - 281 
 
 The Nun - - - - - - - 284 
 
 Goddess -_..--- 285 
 
 Child's Hat ------ 288 
 
 Kwanyin in White Robes ----- 292 
 
 The Thousand-Handed Kwanyin - - - - 293 
 
 Giving-sons Kwanyin ------ 295 
 
 Fish-basket Kwanyin ----- 297 
 
 Amita. Kwanyin, and Tashuchi - . - - 299 
 
 Western Paradise - - - - - - 301 
 
 Titsang - - - - - - - - 304 
 
 King Yama, Cow's Head and Horse's Face. Assistants - 307 
 
 White and Black Devils - - - - - 308 
 
 Looking Homeward . . - - 308 
 
 The Mirror 309 
 
 The Mill 310 
 
24 
 
 Illustrations. 
 
 The Mortar 
 The Chopping Kuife 
 Pulling out the Tongue 
 Sawn Asunder 
 Lake of Blood - 
 Bridge of Snakes - 
 Caldron of Oil - 
 Hill of Knives 
 ViUage of Wild Dogs - 
 Burning Cylinder - 
 Miss Mang's PaviUon - 
 The Dragon 
 
 King Lee, holding a Pagoda 
 God of Wealth 
 List of Gods 
 God of Riches 
 Heavenly Mandarin 
 
 Kitchen-god 
 
 Theatre-god 
 
 Snake King 
 
 God and goddess of the Bed 
 
 Little Boy at the Well - 
 
 Carpenter's god 
 
 Lice-god - - . 
 
 Dice-god 
 
 General Kiang 
 
 Worshipping the Stone Lion 
 
 Laotsze _ - - 
 
 The Great Monad 
 
 Fairy Crane 
 
 The Abacus 
 
 Chang Taoling 
 
 Taoist Priest - 
 
 Taoi^t Abbot 
 
 City Temple. Soochow 
 
 Snorter and Blower 
 
 PAGE 
 
 310 
 310 
 310 
 310 
 310 
 311 
 312 
 312 
 313 
 313 
 314 
 316 
 317 
 320 
 320 
 321 
 322 
 323 
 324 
 325 
 326 
 331 
 333 
 338 
 341 
 342 
 343 
 346 
 . 357 
 367 
 ■ 370 
 373 
 
 • 375 
 376 
 
 • 377 
 378 
 
Illustrations, 25 
 
 Three Pure Ones ------ 379 
 
 Lantern Pagoda ...--- 380 
 
 Pearly Emperor ------ 383 
 
 List of Gods 384 
 
 Tsusze P'usa ------ 385 
 
 Eastern Peak ------- 386 
 
 Goddess of the Sea ----- 388 
 
 God of Fire 390 
 
 God of Pestilence ------ 391 
 
 Three Mandarins ------ 392 
 
 Five Holy Ones ------ 393 
 
 Western Royal Mother - - - - - 394 
 
 Wang Ling Kwan ------ 397 
 
 Leu Chen Yang .--» = - 399 
 
 Medicine god ..- = -- 400 
 
 Dr. Fox - - = = • - - 400 
 
 Dr. Hwat'u 401 
 
 Eye god ------ - 402 
 
 Small-pox god ------ 402 
 
 Goddess of Midwives ------ 403 
 
 The Criminal 408 
 
 Bushel Mother - - - - - - 411 
 
 Shooting the Heavenly Dog - - - - 412 
 
 Stars of Happiness, Ofiice, and Age - - - - 413 
 
 Age 414 
 
 Cycle Gods - - - - - - - 415 
 
 Paper Gods - - - - - - 416 
 
 List of Propitious Stars - - - - - 418 
 
 List of Evil Stars- ----- 419 
 
 Han Chun glee - - - - - - - 422 
 
 T'ih Kwalee 423 
 
 Chang Kwulao ------- 423 
 
 Han Siangtsze ------ 424 
 
 Lan Ts'aiho - 424 
 
 Tsao Kwohk'iu ------ 425 
 
 Ho Sienkoo - 425 
 
26 Illustrations. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gods of Marriage ------ 426 
 
 Spreading the Lamps ------ 434 
 
 Paper Bridge ------ 436 
 
 Masses for the Dead ------ 437 
 
 Funeral ------- 441 
 
 Calling Back the Soul - - - - - 444 
 
 Accompanying the Guest ----- 445 
 
 A Charm - - - - - - - 445 
 
 Chung Kw'ei .,...- 446 
 
 Lake Lamps ------- 447 
 
 Paper Clothing Score ----- 449 
 
 The Lily Boat (South China) - - - - 450 
 
 Travelhng in Hades (North China) - - - 451 
 
 A Pillar to Tranquillize Drowned Spirits - - - 453 
 
 Exorcising the Demon Fox ... - 456 
 
 Breath of Death - - - - - - 458 
 
 Feasting the Spirits ----- 459 
 
 Mara -------- 460 
 
THE DRAGON" IMAGE, ATO DEMON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE THREE RELIGIONS DOVETAILED. 
 
 ^T^HERE are two considerations which make the study 
 -*- of religion in China of prime importance. One is 
 the vastness of the population, say 350,000,000, one- 
 fourth of the inhabitants of the globe, men with moral 
 accountability, intellectual activity, and immortal destiny, 
 liooking at this mighty host marching towards the grave, 
 surely the Christian should give their eternal happiness 
 or misery more than a passing or a passive thought. The 
 other is the length of time the three religions have had 
 for their operation, — Buddhism, one thousand eight hun- 
 dred, Taoism two thousand five hundred, and Confu- 
 cianism four thousand years : they have influenced sixty, 
 eighty, and one hundred and twenty generations of men 
 once living, but now sleeping in the tomb. The field of 
 action has been in an empire where literature has been 
 progressive, and the arts have flourished ; amidst a high 
 order of civilisation ; and under a government which has 
 seen Babylon fall, Nineveh destroyed, and Greece and 
 Rome crumble to dust. Surely if man by searching 
 
28 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 could find out God, this land of Sinim would have found 
 Him ages long since passed away, and rejoiced in Him as 
 the living Grod. Alas ! the people have been drifting 
 farther and farther from the truth, and in their develop- 
 ment these hoary systems have not had an upward but a 
 downward tendency. 
 
 The thoughtful man asks : What are the religions of 
 China ? What relations do they bear one to the other ? 
 What do these pagan systems teach ? What gods do the 
 people worship ? How do they worship them ? What 
 mediation do they offer for sin ? What are their views 
 about the immortality of the soul? What hopes have 
 they beyond the grave ? In the following pages an 
 attempt will be made to answer these living ques- 
 tions. 
 
 No Arithmetical Division. — The words Confuci- 
 anism, Buddhism, and Taoism are upon the lips of 
 every man, woman, and child in the land, but the 
 Chinese cannot be divided numerically among the three 
 religions. Some writers have put down 180,000,000 
 Buddhists to China by the convenient method of 
 halving the population. The Confucianists are the 
 literary class, but they worship in Buddhist temples 
 and use the Taoist ritual. According to popular reckon- 
 ing, the priests of Buddhism and Taoism are the 
 only real Buddhists and Taoists, as the people do not 
 consider that they themselves belong to these faiths, 
 though they worship regularly in the temples, look upon 
 the priestcraft as their ministry, and contribute systemati- 
 cally to the support of these religions. To belong to 
 the Church is " to eat the Church's rice." No Chinaman 
 
The Three Religions Dovetailed. 29 
 
 save a shaven-head or yellow-cap would say, "I am a 
 Buddhist,"' or, " I am a Taoist." The gentry say, '' I am 
 a Confucianist," or more generally, " We Confucianists ; " 
 but the term is not used by the mercantile or by the 
 working classes. Ask a shopman, mechanic, or farmer to 
 what religion he belongs, and his answer would be a look 
 of astonishment, as he does not consider himself a member 
 of any church, for he has not passed a literary examina- 
 tion, which is the rite of baptism of Confucianism, and he 
 does not eat the rice of the priesthood, which is the only 
 sacrament Buddhism and Taoism know. 
 
 It is a surprising phenomenon. " China is the only 
 country in the world where three systems could stand 
 side-by-side without one expelling or superseding the 
 other." A European cannot understand how any one 
 could belong to three religions at once, yet this is the 
 case with the Chinese. The religions stand more in the 
 relation of friendly denominations at home than of con- 
 tending systems. 
 
 The Three in Partnership. — The three have entered 
 into partnership in religious trade. For centuries Con- 
 fucianism stood alone, with its worship of Heaven, its 
 deification of ancestors, and its personification of nature, 
 fearing equally to offend the spirits of the mountains 
 or the genii of the hills. Next arose Taoism, like a 
 tall giant, and gathering within the folds of his 
 garments the wild beliefs which were floating in the 
 impure atmosphere of heathenism, made them into a 
 compound of polytheism, rationalism, and superstition, 
 and sent his followers into the dark caves upon the 
 mountain sides, seeking for the elixir of immortality. 
 
30 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 Then came the Indian religion, with its images and 
 shrines, its fumes of incense and lighted candles, its 
 monks in livery, and ritual in Sanscrit, and, like a mighty 
 flood, it swept from the mountains to the sea-shore ; the 
 people found it exactly adapted to their carnal minds, 
 and so Buddhism was accepted as an organised Church. 
 Taoism, scorning to be left behind in the race, and seek- 
 ing to be '' all things to all men," reached out its left hand 
 
 The Three Founders. 
 
 to Buddhism, and borrowed its legends and prayer-books, 
 and with its right hand it stole the state gods of Con- 
 fucianism, and hid them among its "household stuff," 
 and its devotees, leaving the speculations of the old 
 philosopher, betook themselves to charms, sorcery, 
 and spiritualism. At first Confucianism persecuted 
 Buddhism with fire and with sword, but as it had no 
 temple rites nor images to offer in its place, after 
 
The Three Religions Dovetailed. 31 
 
 centuries these two became silent partners. Theoreti- 
 cally Confucianism opposes idol worship, but practically 
 adopts it, as is strikingly illustrated in the case of the 
 
 Emperor K'anghe. — In the " Sacred Edict," under 
 the maxim, " Degrade strange religions in order to exalt 
 the orthodox doctrine," he says of the Buddhists, " The 
 sum of what they do is to feign calamity and felicity, 
 misery and happiness, in order to make merchandise of 
 their ghostly and unexamined tales. At first they swindle 
 people out of their money in order to feed themselves. 
 By degrees they proceed to collect assemblies to burn 
 incense." 
 
 In his celebrated letter to the priests at Poo-too, A.D. 
 1684, he says, " I sent an officer to offer a solemn sacri- 
 fice, and I wrote an inscription to be put up over the 
 main gateway at the entrance of the island. I sent also 
 money out of my own private treasury, to rebuild the 
 temples and to beautify and adorn the surroundings. . . . 
 Hereafter, trusting to the energy of Buddha and com- 
 passion of the goddess of mercy, perhaps we may have 
 merciful clouds, seasonable rain, the sweet dew and 
 balmy winds ; thus the country will have peace and 
 prosperity, and the people will have happiness and 
 longevity." 
 
 The Three are Relatives. — The three are nearly 
 related and are on similar bases. A priest pointed me 
 to a tripod and said the three feet were symbolic of the 
 three churches. All definitions are more or less de- 
 fective, and it is difficult to make a description accurate ; 
 yet there are terms by which we can describe approxi- 
 mately the relationship of the three, though none of 
 
32 The Dr-agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 them present the case save in a one-sided liglit, and so 
 are only partial views of truth. 
 
 Confucianism is based on morality, Buddhism on 
 idolatry, and Taoism on superstition. The first is man- 
 worship, the second image-worship, and the third spirit- 
 worship. From another point of view the orthodox 
 faith is characterized by an absence of worship, the 
 Indian faith by the worship of the seen, and the native 
 faith by the fear of the unseen. Confucianism deals 
 more with the dead past, Buddhism with the changing 
 future, while Taoism is occupied with the evils of the 
 present. 
 
 Considered in their relations to philosophy, the three 
 systems are ethical, physical, and metaphysical. Con- 
 fucianism in its prominent characteristics was ethical, 
 occupying itself mainly with social relations and civil 
 duties. Taoism, " as developed by the followers of 
 Laotsze, may be characterized as physical; without any 
 conception of true science, it was filled with the idea of 
 inexhaustible resources hidden in the elements of the 
 material universe." Buddhism, as metaphysical, was 
 engaged in " abstruse speculations and subtle inquiries 
 into the nature and faculties of the human mind .... 
 and the grounds of our delusive faith in the independent 
 existence of an eternal world." 
 
 The three " occupy the three corners of a triangle," 
 the moral, the ideal, and the material. Confucianism 
 '■'- discourses on virtue and vice, and the duty of com- 
 pliance with law and the dictates of conscience." As to 
 Buddhism, its '' gods are personified ideas," its worship 
 is " homage rendered to ideas," and not " reverence paid 
 
The TJirce Religions Dovetailed. ^^y 
 
 to beings believed to be actually existing." In Taoism 
 " the soul is a purer form of matter, which gains immor- 
 tality by a sort of chemical process, which transmutes it 
 into a more ethereal substance, and prepares it for being 
 transformed into the regions of immortality." " Support- 
 ing, instead of destroying each other, they bind the mind 
 of the nation in three-fold fetters." 
 
 All Three National. — The three religions are all sup- 
 ported by national authority. Theoretically, Confucianism 
 is the religion of the State, the Established Church of 
 China. The mandarins are literary men, who owe their 
 promotion to letters, the heritage Confucius has left the 
 nation ; the Confucian temples are under Imperial patron- 
 age ; and the Confucian worship is conducted by Govern- 
 ment officials and maintained at Government expense. 
 Buddhism has also been accepted as a national religion, 
 in that temples have been built by Imperial grants, 
 monasteries endowed from the Government revenues, 
 books have been written by emperors, and the religion 
 acknowledged as one of the great integral parts of the 
 State. Taoism becomes a State religion, in that the dead 
 ministers and generals who are assigned rank in Hades 
 have office given them by the Taoist pope, become gods in 
 Taoist temples, have Taoist priests as their guardians, 
 and are worshipped according to the forms of Taoism. 
 The State gods and numerous patron deities of the cities 
 and market towns are under the wing of Taoism, so 
 practically it is a national religion. 
 
 One Man worships in Three Temples. — One 
 person will conform to the three modes of worship. 
 Were Confucianism true to her principles and to her 
 
34 The D^^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 utterances against idolatry, she would draw a line of 
 demarcation between the religion which bears the name of 
 the sage and the two polytheistic systems. But what is 
 really the practice of the lite7XLti? On the one hand, they 
 seek protection of the Taoist goddess of the Pole Star, 
 while on the other they bend the knee before the Buddhist 
 goddess of Mercy, in earnest supplication for the blessing 
 of a son. In the funeral procession will be found priests 
 of both orders, and in the masses for the dead Buddhist 
 priests are employed on certain fixed days, while Taoist 
 priests are called in to officiate upon others. A few years 
 ago, in this city, praying for rain, on one side of the 
 temple one hundred Buddhists, and on the other one 
 hundred Taoists, were employed to chant, the mandarins 
 worshipping between. The city temples are generally 
 controlled by the Taoist priests, but sometimes the 
 Buddhists are in charge. The celibate priests of Buddha 
 by their vows leave their families, discard their pro- 
 genitors, and have no descendants ; but, strange to say, 
 they observe the six feasts of the year, and join in the 
 ancestral worship of Confucianism. Taoism, like Buddhism, 
 teaches transmigration ; both seek oracular responses, 
 both are vegetarians, and both go to the idols in time of 
 sickness. It seems to make little difference to the people 
 to what temple they go or what god they worship. 
 
 Many of the gods are the Same. — In a Buddhist 
 temple there are seen Taoist images, and in a Taoist 
 temple Buddhist divinities are enshrined. The Bud- 
 dhists call the goddess of Mercy "the great teacher to 
 open the gate," and the Taoists call her ''The self- 
 existent Heaven-honoured." The Pearly Emperor is 
 
The TJirce Religions Dovetailed. 35 
 
 called " Imperial Kuler " by the Taoists, and " King of 
 Indra's Paradise " by the Buddhists. The Confucianists 
 call the god of War " Military Sage," the Buddhists call 
 him the "god of Protection," and the Taoists call him the 
 "Minister of Heaven." The Buddhists and Taoists have 
 each the " Three Precious Ones," — Buddha, the law, and 
 the Church in the first ; and wisdom, the Scriptures, and 
 the priests in the second. They both have the ten Idngs 
 of hell, and sometimes in a Taoist temple there will be a 
 double row of buildings with images representing the 
 punishments in the " earth-prison " of the Buddhists. 
 
 It may be said that many of the lines of distinction 
 drawn in this work are arbitrary ; some to facilitate classi- 
 fication, some to prevent needless repetition, and some 
 because the position assigned seemed most appropriate. 
 Religion in the heart of a Chinese is three-headed, and so 
 looks for help on every side. " All are Confucianists, all 
 Buddhists, and all Taoists." 
 
 Is the Union Beneficial ? — What deductions may 
 we draw from this commingling of the three religions ? 
 {\) There is a total lack of desire to know what is true. 
 The question never crosses the native mind, " What is 
 truth ? " To accept conflicting systems, and to receive 
 passively their teachings is not ennobling to the intellect. 
 (2) It does not produce a healthy state of religious 
 sentiment. The expounders of the religions lack zeal 
 for any, while the people become indifferent to all, and 
 this is the worst state of mind the missionary has to 
 deal with. (3) The treaty of peace established between 
 the three is at the price of true religion ; with the 
 priests it becomes a matter of trade, — do not " rob my 
 
36 The Dragon, Image , and Demon. 
 
 business," and I will not " cut " your gains, — so it 
 becomes a question of a " living " between the bonzes 
 and yellow-caps, and they find that a united effort to 
 dupe the multitude is most successful in reaping a harvest 
 of " filthy lucre." If a practical thought might be re- 
 corded, it is this — the denominational differences of 
 Protestants tend to a healthy state of piety. 
 
 The Relative Influence, — It has been stated above 
 that there can be no arithmetical division of the Chinese 
 among the religions, so it is impossible to give the 
 numbers of adherents to each, as is done when the census 
 is taken among Western nations, and a tabulated state- 
 ment is made of the followers of different faiths, and of 
 the membership of the several Protestant denominations. 
 A proximate estimate of the relative influence of the 
 three is all that can be reckoned. Confucianism is 
 certainly the religion of the scholars and the aristocracy. 
 The appointments of the State are many, and the ritual 
 very minute; and in the worship of ancestors, in which 
 all unite, " ihe heart of the nation reposes more upon 
 the rites offered at the family shrine than upon all the 
 rest." So, as far as this goes, all are Gonfucianists ; 
 also many are ashamed of Buddhism and Taoism, while 
 all glory in Confucianism. Yet> save in the article of 
 ancestral idolatry, the women and the middle and lower 
 classes, the great mass of the people, have little or no 
 connection with the Church of the sages, while it is theirs 
 to chant and pray, to burn incense and candles, to visit 
 the slirines, go on pilgrimages, and worship the million 
 idols. In central China, it is calculated that Buddhism 
 has twice the influence of Taoism, as the priesthood is 
 
The Thi'ee Religions Dovetailed. 2)7 
 
 more earnest ; so if Confacianism and Buddhism were 
 considered equal, they would stand in this section rela- 
 tively two, two, and one. In north China there is much 
 less idol worship, and Taoism ranks ahead of Buddhism, 
 so that it would be impossible to form a judgment except 
 by an unbiassed survey of the whole field. Taking this, 
 probably the three are nearly equal in their hold upon 
 the affections of the people. As to prestige, Confucianism 
 is first in renown, and rises like the tall mountains, 
 whereas the fertile plains of the other two systems are 
 more productive in idolatrous rites. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE LEARNED. 
 
 CONFUCIANISM is a foreign term, which covers the 
 •three departments of the State rehgion, ancestral 
 idolatry, and the worship of Confucius. The Chinese term 
 is jii kiao, or " Church of the learned." 
 
 Not Strictly a Religion. — There is in China no 
 generic term for religion in the usual sense of that word, 
 and it is difficult to discuss Confucianism as a religious 
 system with the followers of that sect. The name em- 
 braces education, letters, ethics, and political philosophy. 
 Its head was not a religious man, practised few religious 
 rites, and taught nothing about religion. In its usual 
 acceptation the term Confucianist means " a gentleman 
 and a scholar ; " he may worship only once a year, yet 
 he belongs to the Church. Unlike its two sisters it has 
 no priesthood, and fundamentally is not a religion at all ; 
 yet with the many rites grafted on the original tree it 
 becomes a religion, and the one most difficult to deal 
 with. Considered as a Church, the classics are its scrip- 
 tures, the schools its churches, the teachers its priests, 
 ethics its theology, and the written character, so sacred, 
 its symbol. 
 
 No Creator. — It is often asked, "Have the Chinese 
 
The Church of the Learned. 39 
 
 any idea of a Creator ? " The question is distinctly 
 answered in the negative. Dr. Legge presents one sacri- 
 ficial prayer of the Emperor to Shangte in a.d. 1538, 
 which speaks intelligently of creation. This prayer 
 sparkles as a single gem among the million Chinese 
 volumes, whereas English secular literature abounds in its 
 allusions to the Creator. "Of old, in the beginning, there 
 was the great chaos without form and dark. ... In the 
 midst thereof there presented itself neither form nor 
 sound. Thou, spiritual Sovereign, camest forth in Thy 
 presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from 
 the purer. Thou madest heaven. Thou madest earth. 
 Thou madest man. All things got their being with 
 their reproducing power.'* The minds of thinking men 
 at this time are too " cumbered with much serving " 
 their own material interests to be troubled about the 
 origin of matter. There are three indefinite theories 
 about the creation : — 
 
 1. That there was no prime agent, but all things came 
 of themselves ; they were spontaneously produced. 
 
 2. The second hypothesis is that all things were pro- 
 duced by the agency of the dual powers Yang and Yin^ 
 the male and female principles of nature. A native 
 author says, " Heaven was formless, an utter chaos ; the 
 whole mass was nothing but confusion. Order was first 
 produced in the pure ether, and out of it the universe 
 came forth ; the universe produced air, and air the milky 
 way. When the pure male principle Yang had been 
 diluted it formed the heavens ; the heavy and thick parts 
 coagulated and formed the earth. , . . From the subtle 
 essence of heaven and earth the dual principles Yang and 
 
40 Ihe Di^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Yin were formed ; from their joint o^Deration came the 
 four seasons, and these, putting forth their energies, gave 
 birth to all the products of the earth. The warm in- 
 fluence of the Yang being condensed produced fire, and 
 the finest parts of the fire formed the sun. The cold 
 exhalations of the Yin being likewise condensed produced 
 water, and the finest parts of the watery substance formed 
 the moon. By the seminal influence of the sun and moon 
 came the stars. Thus heaven was adorned with sun, moon, 
 and stars ; the earth also received rain, rivers, and dust." 
 
 Pankoo. — These ex- 
 planations were "too 
 subtle for the common 
 people," so they ascribe 
 the " dividing of heaven 
 and earth " to the first 
 man, Pankoo, who " had 
 the herculean task to 
 mould the chaos which 
 produced him, and to 
 chisel out the earth that 
 was to contain him." 
 This primal individual — 
 looking like a dwarfish 
 specimen of a man, and 
 clothed like a bear — 
 "they picture holding a chisel and mallet in his hands, 
 splitting and fashioning vast masses of granite. Behind 
 the openings his powerful hand has made are seen the 
 sun, moon, and stars ; monuments of his stupendous 
 
 Pankoo. 
 
The Church of the Learned. 41 
 
 labours. His efforts were continued 18,000 years, and 
 by small degrees he and his work increased ; the heavens 
 rose, the earth spread out and thickened, and Pankoo grew 
 in stature six feet every day, till, his labours done, he 
 died for the benefit of his handiwork. His head became 
 mountains, his breath wind and clouds, and his voice 
 thunder ; his limbs were changed into the foilr poles, 
 his veins into rivers, and his flesh into fields ; his beard 
 was turned into stars, his skin and hair into herbs and 
 trees, and his teeth, bones, and marrow into metals, 
 rocks, and precious stones ; his dropping sweat increased 
 to rain ; and lastly, the insects which stuck to his body 
 luere transformed into jjeople I " 
 
 No Sabbath — There is no day of rest in the liand of 
 Sinim, and the requirements of the fourth commandment 
 are the principal obstacle alleged by many in the way 
 of accepting Christianity. The Chinese have a holiday 
 of about two weeks at New Year, and a respite at the 
 feasts ; rnd in this city clerks are entitled to three half- 
 days a month at the discretion of the employer. They 
 have not suffered physically from the want of a day of 
 rest as other people, because they do not exercise their 
 minds on such high subjects as Western nations, neither 
 do they work with such muscular activity ; but no one 
 can witness " the wearied condition of society " where 
 there is no Sunday, and not long for the day when the 
 seventh part of the time may be observed as a day of rest. 
 
 The Splendid Morality. — The moral code known as 
 Confucian deserves the world-wide commendations 
 bestowed upon it, for as a teacher of ethics the sage of 
 China stands in the foremost rank of practical philo- 
 
42 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 sophers. It proves that the Grentiles *' are a law unto 
 themselves," and " show the work of the law written in 
 their hearts/' The Confucian morality is one great 
 element of stability in Chinese institutions, and one 
 cause of the remarkable duration of this ancient empire. 
 
 " It would indeed be hard to over estimate the influence 
 of Confucius in his ideal jprincely scholar^ and the power 
 for good this conception ever since has exerted over his 
 race. It might be compared to the glorious work of 
 the sculptor on the Acropolis at Athens. — that matchless 
 statue more than seventy feet in height, whose casque 
 and spear of burnished brass glittered above all the 
 temples and high places of the city, and engaged the 
 constant gaze of the mariner on the near ^gean ; guid- 
 ing his onward course, yet still ever beyond his reach. 
 The immeasurable influence in after ages of the character 
 thus portrayed proves how lofty was his own standard, 
 and the national conscience has ever since assented to the 
 justice of the portrait." 
 
 The ideal teacher is thus described : " He is entirely 
 sincere and perfect in love. He is magnanimous, 
 generous, benign, and full of forbearance. He is pure in 
 heart, free from selfishness, and never swerves from the 
 path of duty in his conduct. He is deep and active, like 
 a fountain, sending forth his virtues in due season. He 
 is seen, and men revere him ; he speaks, and men believe 
 him ; he acts, and men are gladdened by him. He 
 possesses all heavenly virtues. He is one with heaven." 
 
 The classics discourse on the " five relations " of prince 
 and subject, father and son, husband and wife, brother 
 and brother, friend and friend ; they expand the reciprocal 
 
TJie CJiurcJi of the Learned. 43 
 
 duties, and enforce the moral obligations resting on each 
 party. The '' five virtues " are upon the lips of the 
 people, and daily they speak of '' benevolence, righteous- 
 ness, propriety, knowledge, and faith." The precepts of 
 the sages have filtered down through the masses, and 
 have become staple topics of common conversation. 
 
 Confucianism makes ''rectify yourself'' the leading 
 dogma of political economy. " Wishing to order well 
 their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing 
 to regulate their families, they first cultivated their 
 persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first 
 rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, 
 they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts." 
 "Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then 
 rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons 
 were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their 
 families were regulated. Their families being regulated, 
 their states were rightly governed." 
 
 The central sun of the Confucian ethics is filial piety ; 
 this is the keynote of the song the sages sing, the key- 
 stone of the moral arch, the key that unlocks the mystery 
 of the antiquity of the nation and the stability of its 
 institutions. The solid rock on which China is founded 
 is that the son should honour his father, and the inferior 
 should obey his superior. 
 
 Vice not Deified. — One remarkable trait of Chinese 
 idolatry is that there is no deification of sensuality, 
 which, in the name of religion, could shield and counte- 
 nance those licentious rites and orgies that have ener- 
 vated the minds of worshippers, and polluted their hearts 
 in so many pagan countries. " The Chinese have not 
 
44 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 endeavoured to lead the votaries of pleasure — falsely so- 
 called — further down the road tp ruin, by making its path 
 lie through a temple, and trying to sanctify the acts 
 by putting them under the protection of a goddess, nor 
 does the mythology teem with disgusting relations of the 
 amours of their deities." "Vice is in a great degree 
 kept out of sight, as well as out of religion." This is true 
 of the three religions, and is owing chiefly to the com- 
 manding influence of Confucianism. However corrupt 
 in practice the people may be, the precept is printed 
 on their minds and repeated by their lips, and, to a 
 casual observer, the condition of society in regard to 
 virtue is as smooth as the placid bosom of a lake. 
 
 The Heart. — The first little primer put into the hands 
 of a Chinese boy after he learns a few hundred " square 
 characters " is the " Three Character Classic," which begins, 
 " Man's nature is originally good." The philosopher 
 Mencius discourses at considerable length on the good- 
 ness of human nature. He says, " The tendency of man's 
 nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow down- 
 wards. There are none but have this tendency to good, 
 just as all water flows downwards." In justice to the ancient 
 teacher it should be said that he in a degree modifies this 
 his most extreme statement, and holds that man's condition 
 is owing to his education and surroundings. " The trees 
 of the New Mountain were once beautiful. . . . They 
 were hewn down by axes and bills, and could they retain 
 their beauty ? . . . Through the nourishing influence of 
 the rain and dew, they were not without buds and sprouts 
 springing forth, but then came the cattle and goats and 
 browsed upon them. To these things is owing the bare 
 
The CJiiwch of the Learned. 45 
 
 and stript appearance of the mountain ; . . . but is this 
 the nature of the mountain ? And so also of what pro- 
 perly belongs to man ; shall it be said that the mind of 
 any man was without benevolence and righteousness ? 
 The way in which a man loses his proper goodness of mind 
 is like the way in which the trees are denuded by axes 
 and bills. Hewn down day after day, can the mind retain 
 its beauty ? But there is a development of its life day 
 and night, and in the calm air of the morning, just 
 between night and day, the mind feels in a degree those 
 desires and aversions which are proper to humanity, but 
 the feeling is not strong, and it is fettered and destroyed 
 by what takes place during the day." 
 
 The opinions of Mencius were controverted by the 
 philosopher Seun, who took as his text, " The nature of 
 man is evil." All the Chinese, how^ever, accept the inter- 
 pretation of Choofootsze, whose commentary is memorised 
 in the schools, and he teaches in the baldest terms the 
 essential goodness of human nature. 
 
 '' The heart, the heart, the heart," is a motto often 
 engraved in the solid walls of the temple, and the triple 
 enunciation of the text is equal in force to a sermon. Glance 
 above (on the sacred walls), and you will see the sign, 
 " Rectify the heart," a solemn exhortation to morality. 
 
 The doctrine of Confucianism is, first, that the heart is 
 good ; that it is good by nature, and that the thoughts of 
 the heart, flowing in their natural channels, are pure. 
 Second, that a man may rectify his own heart ; that he 
 can exercise a control over it, and when it deviates from 
 the right way he can, by his own power, nourish and 
 restore it to the path of virtue. 
 
46 The Dragon, Lnage, and De^non. 
 
 Conscience. — The Church of the learned pronounces 
 distinctly its teachings about conscience, that inward 
 monitor in the soul of man which approves what is good 
 and warns of the evil. Mencius says, " The heart of pity 
 is the principle of benevolence ; the heart which perceives 
 shame and dislike is the principle of righteousness; a 
 modest and complaisant h^art is the principle of propriety ; 
 the heart which approves and disapproves (i.e., conscience) 
 is the principle of knowledge. Without the heart of pity 
 he is not a man, without a heart to perceive shame and 
 dislike he is not a mau, without a modest and complaisant 
 heart he is not a man, without a heart to approve and 
 disapprove (i.e., without a conscience) he is not a man." 
 The people have many proverbs of similar import; for 
 example, " Do not violate your conscience ; " " Never do 
 what your conscience cannot endure ; " " Cheat your 
 conscience, and a life's happiness is destroyed." 
 
 The Confucianist — We are not simply to look at 
 Confucianism as it is recorded in the sacred books, — its 
 " Five Classics " bearing an exceedingly distant analogy 
 to the Old Testament, and its " Four Books " to the New, 
 — but at the religion as it is illustrated in the lives and 
 characters of its professed followers. " The tree is known 
 by its fruits" is a principle accepted not only by the 
 adherents of Christianity, but a dogma of universal 
 application. Let us measure the orthodox faith of China 
 by this standard. The contempt towards the foreign 
 barbarian, the opposition to Western progress, the 
 looking backward instead of forward, is characteristic 
 number one. The second characteristic is pride; the 
 upturned nose, the scornful eye, the arched brow, the 
 
TJie CJiurcJi of the JLearned. 4 7 
 
 curled lip, the disdainful smile, reveal what the mind 
 thinks of the foreigner. The iliird is parade ; alms to 
 be given in public, sparrows counted one, two, three, 
 four, to seven hundred, when set free from the snare of 
 the fowler at the front door, ancestors worshipped 
 publicly, all " to be seen of men." Number four is a 
 jyicayune vieiv of sin; to misuse written paper, to 
 trample on a grain of rice, to hold up wet clothes on the 
 person to dry in front of the kitchen range (or god), these 
 are the great sins of the Pharisees, who " tithe the mint 
 and the anise." The fifth national characteristic is the 
 oppression of the poor and perversion of justice, as is seen 
 when there is a failure of the harvest, and the tenant, 
 unable to pay the exorbitant rent of twelve dollars an 
 acre, is beaten, and cangued for six months. 
 
 Want of Religion. — There is not a religion on the 
 face of the globe where the followers have less religion 
 than in the Church of the learned. The men of China ! 
 The prevailing malady is irreligion ; happily the disease 
 is not so widespread among the^ peasantry. One cause 
 is that the Confucian books do not teach religion. 
 Another is the opposition in former times of the Con- 
 fucianists to idolatry. A third cause is the prevailing 
 scepticism of the gentry; they do not believe in God, 
 in heaven, in hell, or in future rewards and punishments. 
 The neglect of worship is a fourth reason ; some sacrifice 
 simply at the feasts, others pray only once a year. As 
 a fifth cause the great worldly-mindedness of the Chinese 
 may be assigned ; their hearts are fixed on gain ; they 
 are '' carnal," of this " earth, earthy." 
 
 Failed to Elevate. — That Confucianism has exerted 
 
48 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 a mighty influence for good cannot be denied, yet though 
 it has been a conserving intellectual power in the land, 
 it has failed to elevate the nation morally and spiritually. 
 Confucianism teaches truthfulness, but do not the people 
 " delight in lying " and " love a lie " ? Is not their 
 ceremonious etiquette a cover for mendacity, " the 
 ancestor of all their sins," and the one of all others 
 which makes Western nations hold them in contempt? 
 Experience proves that this is not confined to the 
 illiterate, but that the higher we go in the ranks of 
 society the more skill is displayed in the disregard of 
 truth. Honesty is taught in the scriptures of the 
 " Five Classics and Four Books," and the glib tongues 
 of the people show with what facility they can repeat 
 the precepts of the ancients ; but when the man- 
 darins, the great lights in the Church of the learned, 
 receive a salary of S600 per annum, and clear $30,000, 
 it suggests doubts as to impeccability. This system of 
 dishonesty, like a stream when traced back from the mouth 
 to its source, runs backwards through all gradations of 
 society, diminishing in its volume in proportion as the 
 width of the channel narrows the opportunity for 
 " squeezing." Emblazoned on door and gateway is the 
 maxim, " Of ten thousand wickednesses fornication is the 
 chief;" but in what country is the seventh commandment 
 violated more in the heart, in the eye, or in the speech ? 
 Thus Confucianism, a moral system, pure and noble in its 
 teachings, has failed to elevate and ennoble the race. 
 
 The Citadel. — The foremost opposition to the intro- 
 duction of Christianity comes from those who esteem 
 themselves the followers of Confucius. They assent to 
 
The CJmrcIi of the Learned. 49 
 
 our views about the " emptiness " of Buddhism, the 
 deceptions of Taoism, the character of the priesthood, 
 the mud and stone of the images, but when we gently 
 allude to ancestral idolatry, the worship of heaven and 
 earth, and the sacrifices of the mandarins, they are 
 offended. Also, the Confucianists do the thinking for 
 the people ; they have the minds, the books, the schools, 
 and the offices. Without a long residence in the country 
 it is hard to imagine the influence of a penniless scholar 
 in his neighbourhood, and the mental control he exercises 
 over the minds of the peasantry. More than this, the 
 graduates at the Grovernment examinations form a 
 clique or ''ring," and their voice is the unwritten law 
 of China, their authority above that of His Excellency 
 the Grovernor. The lamented Carstairs Douglas said 
 at the Shanghai Missionary Conference of 1877, "Con- 
 fucianism is the citadel : take it, and the war is ended.'' 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 THE SEE OF PEKING. 
 
 Heaven. — The Chinese often speak of Heaven, and 
 at New Year, in the open courts of the houses, 
 the worship of Heaven is conducted. The proverbs re- 
 lating to Heaven are on every lip : " It is man's to 
 scheme, it is Heaven's to accomplish ; " " Nothing can 
 escape the eye of Heaven ; " " Man has a thousand 
 
 s ch emes, but 
 they are not 
 equal to one 
 scheme of Hea- 
 ven ; "" " There is 
 nothing partial in 
 the ways of Hea- 
 ven ; " " Man 
 does not know, 
 but Heaven 
 knows ; " " You 
 may deceive 
 " Kiches and honour 
 
 "Relying on Heaven, we Eat Rice. 
 
 men, you cannot deceive Heaven 
 are appointed by Heaven." 
 
 The most common proverb is, " We rely upon Heaven 
 for our food ; " and this picture of the character for Heaven, 
 
The See of Peking. 51 
 
 with a man, rice-bowl and chop-sticks in hand, leaning 
 upon great Heaven, hangs in the post-offices, and suggests 
 an humble trust in a higher power for our daily food. 
 The solemn oath is taken by the finger pointing to Heaven. 
 They say, " Above the heavens is Heaven," which tells of 
 the striving of the immortal mind after the infinite. The 
 term may be used very conveniently in preaching, as in 
 the parable of the prodigal son the wanderer says, " I 
 have sinned against Heaven." 
 
 The Son of Heaven. — The chief god of China is 
 Heaven, and the Emperor of China is his earthly 
 representative ; "he is regarded as the vicegerent of 
 Heaven, especially chosen to govern all nations," and 
 is co-ordinate with Heaven, from whom he directly 
 derives his right and power to rule among men. His 
 titles are " Son of Heaven," " Wise son of Heaven," 
 " Heavenly Emperor," " Heavenly Sovereign," — " terms 
 which are given him as the ruler of the world by the gift 
 of Heaven." The Emperor recognises Heaven as his 
 Father, and the people recognise the Emperor as the 
 correlative of Heaven, and no title do the subjects of His 
 Imperial Majesty delight more to use than "The Son of 
 Heaven." 
 
 The Emperor receives his appointment from Heaven. 
 B.C. 2200 it was said to Yu the Great, " August Heaven 
 regarded you with its favouring degree, and suddenly you 
 obtained all within the four seas, and became sovereign of 
 the empire." It is customary for a monarch, when he 
 ascends the throne, or, as the Chinese say, " when he 
 receives from Heaven and revolving nature the govern- 
 ment of the world," to issue an inaugural decree. In 
 
52 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 A.D. 1820, four thousand years after the date above, the 
 Emperor Tao-kwang heralded his coronation day in the 
 following language : " That Heaven's throne should not 
 be long vacant, I purpose on October 3rd devoutly to 
 announce the event to Heaven . . . and then shall sit 
 down on the Imperial throne." 
 
 In the Celestial empire the terminology of the court 
 accords with the appellation, " The Son of Heaven." 
 The kingdom is " all under Heaven," the dynasty is " the 
 Heavenly dynasty," the throne is the " Heaven-con- 
 ferred seat," the revenues are the "Heaven-appointed 
 emoluments," famine and pestilence are the "judgments 
 of Heaven," and the emperors are to walk in " Heaven's 
 way." " What's in a name ? " Why, there is ancestry, 
 and glory, and stability in this magic title " Son of 
 Heaven." 
 
 The Son of Heaven as the Federal Head of His 
 People. — " The idea of expiation is found in the earlier 
 and later -history of China." It is a solemn event when 
 the Emperor, the vicegerent of Heaven, the high-priest of 
 the nation, in his vicarious character descends from his 
 throne, robes himself in sackcloth, makes public confes- 
 sion, becomes the substitute for his people, and appears as 
 the sin-bearer. The doctrines of substitution and federal 
 headship, as expounded by decree and example in \he 
 Established Church of the Middle Kingdom, are set forth 
 in the two following proclamations, written thirty-six 
 centuries apart : — 
 
 B.C. 1766, the Emperor Tang says: "When guilt is 
 found anywhere in you who occupy the myriad regions, 
 let it rest on me, the One Vizv When guilt is found in 
 
TJie See of Peking. 53 
 
 me, the One Man, it shall not attach to you who occupy 
 the myriad regions." During seven years of famine it 
 was suggested that a human victim should be offered in 
 sacrifice to Heaven. The Emperor said, " If a man must 
 be the victim, I will be he." " He fasted, cut off his hair 
 and nails, and in a plain cart drawn by white horses, 
 clad in rushes, in the guise of a sacrificial victim, he pro- 
 ceeded to a forest of mulberry trees, and there prayed, 
 asking to what error or crime of his life the calamity was 
 owing." 
 
 In the time of a severe drought, the Emperor Tao- 
 kwang, July 24th, 1832, offered the following prayer : 
 ^' Oh ! alas ! Imperial Heaven ! . . . this year the drought 
 is most unusual. Summer is past, and no rain has fallen. 
 ... I, the minister of Heaven, am placed over mankind, 
 and am responsible for keeping the world in order, and for 
 tranquillizing the people. Although it is now impossible 
 for me to eat or sleep with composure, although I am 
 scorched with grief and tremble with anxiety, still, after 
 all, no genial and copious showers have been obtained. 
 . . . The sole cause is the daily deeper atrocity of my 
 sins : but little sincerity and little devotion. . . . Hence 
 I have been unable to move Heaven's heart, and bring 
 down abundant blessings. ... I examine myself and 
 consider my errors, looking up and hoping that I may 
 obtain pardon. . . . Prostrate I beg Imperial Heaven to 
 pardon my ignorance and stupidity, and to grant me self- 
 renovation, for myriads of people are involved by me, the 
 One Man. My sins are so numerous it is difficult to 
 escape from them." 
 
 The Minister of Religion. — In the Grand Council of 
 
54 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Peking there is a Minister of Eeligion, or rather a 
 Minister of Rehgious Rites and Ceremonies, who has 
 charge of the ritual of the State. One of the six Boards 
 is the Board of Rites. Among the duties of this board is 
 the superintendence of "the rites to be observed in 
 worshipping deities and spirits of departed monarchs, 
 sages, and worthies," and " in saving the sun and moon 
 when ecUpsed." 
 
 The Mandarin Priests. — Very few foreigners have 
 any conception of the amount of rehgious worship 
 required of the mandarins, and how they are the 
 Levites of the Confucian dispensation. Take as an 
 example the Governor of Soochow. He acts as chief 
 priest twice a year at the sacrifices to Confucius, at the 
 small altars of Heaven and Earth, at the temple of the 
 Worthies, at the temples of the Crown Princes, and in 
 time of drought at the temple of the Five Dragons. 
 Twice a month he goes to see his apotheosis, the 
 Governor of Hades, and also worships at the new and 
 full moon at each of the temples of the god of Litera- 
 ture, War, Wind, the Sun, Fire, Agriculture, the Empress 
 of Heaven, and the Chinese ^sculapius. Sometimes he 
 sends a deputy. There is not one of the officials, whether 
 high or low, who does not have his appropriate list of 
 divinities to be adored, so that the State religion requires 
 a good proportion of his time, and there are a number of 
 tem})les committed to his s[;ecial charge. 
 
 Imperial Gold. — Some estimate of how great are the 
 sums spent by the Chinese Government in idolatry may 
 be made by a view of the magnificent temples at the 
 capital, for " there is nothing which more arrests the 
 
TJie See of Peking. 55 
 
 attention of a visitor to Peking than the number, size, 
 and costliness of the temples which have been built by 
 the Grovernment, and which are supported by its 
 revenues ; " by a view of the Confucian temples through- 
 out the empire, the city temples, the grants to Buddhist 
 temples, and by the official rebuilding of temples ; also 
 by the money spent in animal sacrifices, in incense and 
 candles, and in paper sycee, etc. There is a very lavish 
 expenditure of silver in idolatry, and " it would be hard 
 to say to which religion the Grovernment patronage is 
 most given, it is so freely given to them all." To carry 
 out its architectural designs and maintain its religious 
 services, there is required a constant drain on the national 
 exchequer. 
 
 An Anchor to the Nation. — We naturally desire to 
 inquire, '' What are the reasons for the remarkable dura- 
 tion of the Chinese people?" The first that suggests 
 itself is filial piety, the inculcation of obedience to 
 parents, teachers, and rulers, "that thy days may be 
 long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
 Another is the triple constitution of the government ; a 
 monarchy of the rulers, an aristocracy of the scholars, 
 and a democracy of the people. A third and potent 
 reason is their religion ; their faith in the power or 
 powers above, controlling the destiny of the empire and 
 the fortunes of the people. As a reverse picture, behold 
 unhappy France ! 
 
 The Imperial religion has recognised Heaven as regu- 
 lating the affairs of the Grovernment, and so by the will 
 of Heaven a dynasty may change, and by the will of 
 Heaven a new emperor ascend the throne, and by the 
 
56 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 will of Heaven the capital be removed, yet in this sense 
 of reference to a higher power there is permanency. 
 While recognising the control of Heaven, China has at 
 the same time avoided the evils of Church and State, 
 and also the evils of a hierarchy with its government 
 by a priesthood. 
 
 Eeligion in China is recognised in the State, in the 
 temple, and in the family. The first is a pompous 
 ritual, yet these ceremonials are a conserving power ; the 
 second is a ivooden (to use a native term for stolid, 
 blockish) homage, yet the worshipper is affected by the 
 external sounds and symbols ; the third, family worship, 
 is formal, yet addresses itself more directly to the heart. 
 If an appeal for family religion in lands of light might 
 be presented, it may be based upon the fact that the 
 great conflict of Christianity here is not with the State 
 or temple worship, but with the Church in the home. 
 As the Samsonian strength of Chinese paganism lies in 
 its family altar,— though it is only erected a few times 
 a year, — so the power of Protestantism is not in denomi- 
 national wealth or influence, nor in the numbers who 
 assemble at church, but in the faithfulness of the father, 
 the patriarch and priest of the home, in daily assembling 
 the household to read the word, sing the psalm, and bow 
 at the throne of grace. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE HIGH-PRIEST OF CHINA. 
 
 rr^HE city of Peking consists of three cities in one : the 
 -■- Tartar city to the north, about thirteen miles in 
 circumference ; the Chinese city to the south, twenty-two 
 miles around, the south wall of the Tartar city forming 
 the north wall of the Chinese city ; and the Imperial or 
 Forbidden city, which lies within the Tartar city, and 
 in which are the palaces, royal park, lake, and artificial 
 hill. In the southern part of the Chinese city is a park, 
 a mile square, which contains the famous Temple and 
 Altar of Heaven. " Within a second wall, which surrounds 
 the sacred buildings, rises a copse of splendid and thickly 
 growing cypress trees, reminding one of the solemn 
 shades in the vicinity of famous temples in ancient 
 Greece." Besides the Temple and Altar of Heaven, there 
 are the Temple of Imperial Expanse, the Fasting Palace, 
 halls for the royal retinue and musicians, and buildings 
 for the sacrificial vessels and the slaughter of animals. 
 The Temple of Heaven. — The Temple of Heaven, 
 as it is called by foreigners, or more properly " The 
 Temple for Praying for a Propitious Year," is the chief 
 attraction of the park. It is not built on the ground, 
 but upon the top of the north altar, which consists 
 of three marble terraces, twenty- seven feet in height, 
 
58 
 
 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 with marble balustrades, the marble top of the altar 
 forming the floor of the temple, which rises to the 
 height of ninety-nine feet. The building is circular 
 with a spacious dome, made by a triple roof of azure 
 tiles, the highest section only covering the centre of 
 the temple, and is ornamented with . rich carving 
 
 Temple of Heaven. 
 
 and painting. As the round windows are shaded by 
 Venetians of blue glass rods strung together, the light 
 of the sun within becomes an ethereal blue. This edifice, 
 with the rare symmetry of its proportions, resting on 
 the marble eminence, is the most remarkable and im- 
 posing structure in the capital. Its dome, the colour of 
 the aerial vault, and in the shape of the visible heavens-^ 
 
The High Pries I of China. 
 
 59 
 
 which the architecture of the earthly temple is intended 
 to represent, as the Heaven above is here worshipped on 
 the earth beneath, the earthly being a symbol of the 
 heavenly — is, in its silent majesty, the sacred rotunda of 
 the East. 
 
 The Altar of Heaven — The Altar of Heaven is in 
 
 (;llllMII|i||ll!lllIlirilll1llllllllllllllllilliilli'liiil'liWilil411.in^^^ 
 Altar of Heaven. 
 
 the southern part of the park, enclosed by a square wall 
 without and a circular wall within, each with marble 
 gateways, and in its rear is the temple of Imperial 
 Expanse, in which are kept the tablets of Heaven and of 
 deceased emperors. When we speak of an altar let not 
 the reader imagine a Jewish or Grecian altar, for this 
 
6o TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 is a polygonal pyramid of white marble, twenty-seven 
 feet in height, consisting of three terraces, two hundred 
 and ten, one hundred and fifty, and ninety feet in 
 diameter, with richly-carved white marble balustrades, 
 and four flights of twenty-seven steps each, coincident 
 with the four points of the compass. The top is paved 
 with marble stones placed in concentric circles, the inner 
 circle of nine stones enclosing a round central stone, on 
 which the Emperor stands ; around this runs each succeed- 
 ing layer, consisting of a successive multiple of nine, 
 until the square of nine is reached in the outermost row. 
 
 There are five marble stands for the incense urns, 
 the candlesticks, and the vases for flowers. A table is 
 placed at the side for the reader of the prayers ; a master 
 of ceremonies directs the whole, and at his call the 
 Emperor kneels and offers incense. Tents are erected 
 and lofty poles, from which hang lanterns. 
 
 Near the altar is a furnace built of green tiles, nine 
 feet high and seven feet wide; ascended by flights of 
 steps on the outside, so that a whole victim may be 
 taken to the top and let down upon the bars of iron and 
 the wood within. 
 
 The Procession. — As the winter solstice approaches, 
 within the Forbidden City preparations are being made 
 for the great day. The mortal eyes of men cannot 
 behold the Son of Heaven who sits on the dragon 
 throne of ivory; but on the evening preceding the 
 sacrifice he leaves his palace, going part of the way in 
 his chariot drawn by an elephant taken from the 
 Imperial stables, and part of the way in his sedan, 
 borne on the shoulders of thirty-two coolies. He is 
 
The High- Priest of China. 6i 
 
 preceded by the Xational Guard of bannermen, and by 
 a company of two hundred and thirty-four musicians. 
 Then on horseback, the princes of blood in vestments 
 of royalty, the nobles with insignia betokening their 
 rank, the statesmen in court dress, the mandarins in 
 embroidered robes, the high officials, both civic and 
 military, to the number of 2,000, quit the forbidden city, 
 and pass along the silent street, its shops all closed, 
 to the solemn sacrifice ; the Imperial palaces pouring 
 forth their princely legions on this grand occasion. 
 
 After the inspection of the grounds and halls, the 
 Emperor repairs to the Palace of Fasting, where he pre- 
 pares himself by quiet thought and lonely meditation 
 for his high service ; '' for the idea is, if there be not 
 pious thoughts in his mind, the spirits will not come to 
 the sacrifice." The preparations go on. The tablets of 
 Heaven and the deceased emperors, which are pieces 
 of board eight inches wide and two-and-a-half feet 
 high, beautifully carved, are placed on the altar; the 
 tablets of the sun, the five planets, and twenty-eight 
 constellations are put on the second terrace ; the round 
 blue jade-stone, the symbol of Heaven, is carried to 
 the altar on an elegantly-carved and gilded chair ; 
 and, as the Chinese idea of worship is in part that of a 
 feast, twenty-seven dishes with meats, fruits, and flowers 
 are placed before the tablets — the offerings are made to 
 Heaven, the spirits of the emperors being present as 
 guests. 
 
 The Sacrifice. — An officer summons the Emperor, who 
 repairs to the robing-tent and dons his sacerdotal dress, 
 and no priestly vestments that Aaron ever wore exceeded in 
 
62 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 richness of gold and beauty of design those which are 
 embroidered for the occasion in our city of Soochow. As 
 he ascends the aUar the regal choir of two hundred and 
 thirty-four musicians — with voice, and stringed instru- 
 ment, and soft-sounding cymbal — make the stillness of 
 the night air resound with the song of " universal peace," 
 while on the other side an equal number of posture-makers 
 join in the ceremonies. The Emperor makes prostrations 
 before the tablets, presents the viands, and lights the 
 incense, when the songs of "harmonious peace" and 
 ''excellent peace" are sung by the choir. His Majesty 
 then listens to an officer read the prayer to " Imperial 
 Heaven, Supreme Euler," and a single voice amidst the 
 silence is heard, " Grive the cup of blessing and the meat 
 of happiness ; " the Emperor tastes thereof, and bows upon 
 the altar before Heaven in token of his thankful reception, 
 and then listens to the song of '' glorious peace." 
 
 A shrill voice is heard, " Look at the burning," when 
 the bullock, entire and without blemish, " no garlands 
 having been put on the victim when its life was taken 
 and no blood sprinkled," is placed in the furnace, and the 
 smoke ascends. 
 
 Ecce Homo ! The only man of the 400,000,000 who 
 can perform this rite of the established religion. The 
 Pontifex Maximus of this mighty empire, in behalf of 
 his people, offers sacrifice ; the patriarch of the nation, 
 at once their chief magistrate and high-priest. " The 
 Emperor for himself, and his line, standing forth in his 
 own dignity and glory, and that of his ancestors, and 
 representing the millions of his subjects, presides at the 
 highest services as a minister of religion, giving ex- 
 
The High-Priest of China. 6 
 
 pression to the loftiest ideas of worship that have been 
 the inheritance of his nation for several millenniums, and, 
 as the parent and representative of his people, offers up 
 prayers and a whole burnt-offering that the smoke may 
 ascend to Heaven in a cloud of incense." 
 
 " The scene is one of imposing grandeur." The high- 
 priest stands in solemn majesty while the legion of 
 statesmen, nobles, and mandarins are prostrate on the 
 second and third terraces in profound reverence and 
 adoration. The worship is after midnight, and " as the 
 pale light is shed abroad upon this princely assemblage, 
 so richly dressed, from the high suspended lanterns, and 
 the lurid flame from the sacrificial furnace ascends 
 and casts its glare, over the marble terraces, and W\q 
 fragrance of incense and the peals of music fill the air 
 under the open vault of Heaven in the early morning, 
 the scene presents all the elements of imposing solem- 
 nity," and is a splendid and wonderful pageant. " Tliis 
 mountain top still stands above the waves of corruption, 
 and on this primeval altar there still rests a faint ray 
 of the primeval faith." 
 
 The worship of Nature in Nineveh, Babylon, and Egypt 
 presents many striking points of comparison, but the fact 
 is, that the religious systems of these l.ave passed away, 
 while the concentric circles of the great oak of the 
 Established Church of China have widened till the diameter 
 of the oak equals that of the marble altar; the roots 
 going down deeper and deeper into the ground, coiling 
 the clods of earth in its earth-worship, just as the branches 
 of the tree extending upwards point to every part of the 
 physical heavens in its worship of Heaven. 
 
64 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 " The high-priests of China love power and adulation 
 too much to share this worship with their subjects," so 
 the State has appropriated this service, and the people 
 are not permitted to worship " Imperial Heaven, Supreme 
 Ruler," and as a matter of fact thej are in blissful 
 ignorance of the whole affair. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE ADORATION OF NATURE. 
 
 XT is not held that most of the worship described in 
 -^ this chapter is a worship of nature pure and simpk^, 
 for it is impossible for any polytheistic system to retain 
 its purity, yet no doubt originally it was simply an 
 adoration of natural objects, first personified and then 
 worshipped, and afterwards deified beings were enthroned 
 upon them, and substituted in their places. 
 
 Its Antiquity. — The book of history informs us that 
 the Emperor Shun, 4,100 years ago, " sacrificed specially, 
 but with the ordinary forms, to Shangte; sacrificed purely 
 to the six objects of honour; offered their appropriate 
 sacrifices to the hills and rivers, and extended his worship 
 to the host of spirits." A writer remarks : " When he 
 sacrificed to the hills and rivers, he did so to the spirits 
 supposed to preside over the hills and rivers of note in 
 all the kingdom, and thereby exercised his royal pre- 
 rogative, for in subsequent ages each feudal lord sacrificed 
 to the hills and rivers in his State, while the worship 
 of the sovereign embraced all such objects ' under the 
 sky.' " 
 
 Ming Dynasty. — During the sixteenth century, in the 
 solstitial prayer to Shangte, the Emperor says, '' I, the 
 Emperor of the great illustrious dynasty, have respectfully 
 
66 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 prepared this j)aper to inform the spirit of the sun, the 
 spirit of the moon, the spirits of the five planets, of the 
 constellations of the zodiac, and of all the stars in all the 
 sky, the spirits of the clouds, the rain, wind, and thunder, 
 the spirits which have duties assigned to them throughout 
 the whole heavens, the spirits of the five grand moun- 
 tains, the spirits of the five guardian hills, the spirits 
 of the four seas, the spirits of the four great rivers, the 
 intelligences which have duties assigned to them on the 
 earth, all the celestial spirits under heaven, the terres- 
 trial spirits under heaven, the spirit presiding over the 
 present year, the spirit ruling over the tenth month, 
 and those over every day ; and the spirit in charge of 
 the ground about the border altar," — thus summoning 
 the pantheon of nature. 
 
 Pantheism — It is said that " Pantheism finds a god 
 in everything/"' It is " the spirit, soul, or animating 
 principle of the universe," and is " essentially the doctrine 
 of an all-pervading impersonal essence, breath, or spirit, 
 which is called god." " The educated classes in China are 
 ])antheists, and have been for two thousand years. Their 
 writings are full of it, and it has, as it were, saturated the 
 language and literature of the whole country." A Chinese 
 commentator says : " The evolution and transformation of 
 heaven and earth, the maturity and decay of the vital 
 powers of living men, the blooming and withering of 
 plants and trees, with the life and death of all classes 
 of things, is nothing but the action of the divine spirit." 
 No wonder that thinking minds, without a knowledge of 
 the Creator, should deify nature, and worship the soul of 
 nature, instead of looking from nature to nature's God. 
 
The Adoration of Nattu e. 67 
 
 Heaven and Earth.— The ethical literature of this 
 land is vast, books abound " exhorting men to be virtuous.'' 
 The opening sentence of each volume is a solemn charge 
 " to worship heaven and earth." At the Old Year's feast, 
 during the New Year's holidays, and on the wedding day, 
 heaven and earth are worshipped. During the 1st ]Moon, 
 the 9th day is heaven's birthday, and the 10th day is earth's 
 birthday, when incense is burned towards heaven in the 
 
 Worship of Heaven and Earth at New Year. 
 
 open courts of the houses. The two great thoughts 
 engraved on the Chinese mind are the duties of honouring 
 the father and mother who care for us in childhood, and 
 of worshipping heaven and earth, the great father and 
 mother of the universe ; and so ineradicable are these first 
 truths, that when a man listens to a preacher whom he 
 accredits as a teacher of morality, though the assertion 
 is repeatedly made that we must not worship heaven 
 and earth, yet the hearer walks out of the chapel saying, 
 
68 The Dragon, Imao;e, and Demon. 
 
 " Oh yes ! worship heaven and earth ; " " Heaven and 
 earth are of most importance." The only possible way 
 is by some startling illustration, as by a shock from an 
 electric battery, to show the terrible sin of adoring 
 heaven and earth, for around this pivot the whole of 
 their religious thought revolves. 
 
 Earth. — The Emperor at Peking worships " mother 
 earth " upon the altar of earth, which consists of two 
 terraces of sixty and one hundred feet square each ; the 
 tiles of the wall are yellow, as is also the symbol of earth, 
 the square yellow gem ; and at this time also sacrifices 
 are offered to the seas, the mountains, and the rivers. 
 At the altar of heaven, the written prayer and the rolls 
 of silk used as an offering are burned ; at the altar of 
 earth they are buried. 
 
 In South China the earth-worship has been noticed 
 . as performed by the peasantry ; a clod of earth is set up 
 in the field, and incense is lit in front of it, by way of 
 giving thanks for an abundant harvest. 
 
 The Sun. — Tecumseh, the Indian chief, said to General 
 Harrison, " Yonder sun is my father and the earth is my 
 mother," so Confucianism '' presents nature veiled in a 
 more transparent personification." The worship of the 
 sun is a part of the State religion, and the mandarins 
 make their offerings to the sun tablet. " Turn thee yet 
 again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. 
 . . . There were five-and-twenty men, with their faces 
 toward the east; and they worshipped the sun towards 
 the east." Thus Ezekiel's vision is seen in China. 
 
 Moon-god. — The queen of night, her light so soft and 
 silvery, attracts the pagan worshipper, and at the full 
 
T/ie Ado7'ation of Nature. 
 
 69 
 
 harvest moon in the 8th month a nation bows before the 
 heavenly luminary, and each family lights incense made 
 into a vase with gift flowers as an offering. The picture 
 represents the moon-palace; the hare pestling medicine 
 in a mortar, ]Mrs. Changngo, who stole the drug of immor- 
 tality and fled to the moon, and the fragrant tree which 
 one of the genii tries to cut down. The legend affirms 
 
 Palace of the Moon. 
 
 that Mrs. Changngo " became changed into a frog, whose 
 outline is traced by the Chinese on the moon's surface." 
 The following written prayer is seldom used : " Thy 
 nature is effulgent, transparent without spot ; thou, the 
 icy-wheel in the milky way along the heavenly street, 
 a mirror always bright ; 100,000 classes all receive thy 
 blessings." 
 
JO The Drag07t, Image, and Demon, 
 
 Eclipse. — The Chinese do not differ from other heathen 
 nations in the terror they manifest at an ecHpse, when 
 the " wild sun eats the real sun," and in the means they 
 use to appease the heavenly deities. In Africa they say, 
 " The eclipse monster has eaten the sun." The South 
 American Indians " thought the moon was hunted across 
 
 Save the Sun ! 
 
 the sky by huge dogs." The Caribs "would dance and 
 howl all night long to scare the demon away." The 
 Peruvians "raised a frightful din when the moon was 
 eclipsed, shouting, sounding the musical instruments, and 
 beating the dogs to join their howls in the hideous 
 chorus." The noble Komans " flung firebrands in the air, 
 blew trumpets, and clanged brazen pots and pans." 
 
The Adoration of Nature. 71 
 
 In China, during an eclipse, in every direction fire- 
 crackers explode, men knock the covers of brazen foot- 
 stoves, and boys bang tin pans, so that the clangour and 
 din fills the city. The picture represents the mandarin 
 in the act of worship, which is a part of the prescribed 
 rites. As he bows before the dark tablet placed on high 
 on the table, the Buddhist priests clang their cymbals, 
 and the soldiers fire volleys of musketry and fire-crackers. 
 The priests chant, " The sun-palace hidden, the sun's 
 virtue broken to pieces, we pray that the shadows of the 
 darkness may scatter, the brightness of the sun return, 
 and the myriad of things be enlightened," or " Palace of 
 the moon, virtue of water, controlling all of the darkness ; 
 suddenly meeting with calamity and darkness, as if afflic- 
 tion were near, we pray thy grace may descend and thy 
 light may return." 
 
 Gods of the Four Seas.— The Ruler of the East Sea 
 is Wuming ; of the West Sea, Chohliang ; of the South 
 Sea, Kyiishin ; of the North Sea, Yuchiang ; these four 
 manage the affairs of the mighty deep. 
 
 The water-god. — The water-god has a tiger's body, 
 a man's face of green and yellow colour, eight hands, 
 eight feet, and eight tails. 
 
 One of the emperors saw another of the water-gods 
 near Tsingki'angpu, where the Grand Canal crosses the 
 old bed of the Yellow River. In the time of a flood he 
 came floating down like a log of wood ; he was ten feet 
 long, and with a sounding voice ; in colour he was black, 
 with the appearance of a monkey ; in strength equal to 
 nine elephants : all who gazed at him became blind. The 
 Emperor called to his aid one of the ting gods, who caught 
 
72 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 him, and confined him in a cave at the source of the river, 
 with a great stone resting upon him, so that the waters 
 could not again come with a great flood. 
 
 The river-gods. — One of them, named Pingee, ate 
 eight stones, and this hght diet made him so light in 
 weight, that he could walk on the water. His character 
 and associates were so bad that he had to flee beyond the 
 Yellow Sea. Shangte made him the river-god. 
 
 Another is a young lady named Kissiang, who stole the 
 Imperial pearl, and was transformed into a river-god. 
 Another was Kuihping, who was drowned in the Mihlo 
 Eiver, 
 
 Gods of the Mountains. — There are a million gods 
 of the mountains ; for every mountain, hill, peak, knoll, 
 and headland has its presiding divinity; the greatest 
 among these being the north, south, east, west, and 
 central peaks. The first mountain-god was seen in the 
 days of the Emperor Yao, when the prime minister 
 Pihling separated the peaks of the Szechuen province, 
 and met the god of the mountains. 
 
 Gods of Time. — The god of the year is Leeping ; of 
 the month, Hwang Chenyih ; of the day, Chenten; of 
 the hour, Lienhung. 
 
 Gods of the Four Seasons. — The god of spring is 
 the Green Ruler ; of summer, the Fire Ruler ; of autumn, 
 the White Ruler ; and of winter, the Black Ruler. 
 
 Gods of the Five Elements — The name of the 
 water-god is Pingee ; of fire, Chohyung ; of wood, Yuen- 
 ming ; of the earth, Yinsen ; of gold, Keufang. 
 
 Wind, Thunder, Rain, and Lightning. — The man- 
 darins worship tablets in hone ur of these, and light 
 
The Adoration of Nature. 73 
 
 candles and incense on the 1st and 15th of the Moon. 
 They are not considered to worship the common gods 
 who rule over these departments ; these del Tninores are 
 for the vulgar populace. 
 
 Earl Wind. — He gives the gentle zephyr, and sends 
 the angry tempest. 
 
 Rain-master. — " A divinity identified by the ancient 
 cosmogonists with a son of Kungkung, bearing the name 
 of ' sombre dark,' and sacrifices by burnt ofiferings were 
 
 Thunder-god. 
 
 Ottered to him in accordance with the ritual of the Chow 
 dynasty." He holds a bowl of water, and if he lets fall 
 only a drop, there is a rainfall of one foot. The Master 
 of Eain rides a white horse over the western sea, followed 
 by twelve boys, and wherever he goes there is rain. 
 
 Thunder and Lightning. — The gods in this depart- 
 ment are so numerous as to constitute a distinct Board, 
 called " The Board of Thunder." The majesty and wrath 
 of the gods are summed up in these tokens of Heaven's 
 
74 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 displeasure, and the thunder's roar and lightning's flash 
 are witnesses to the people that there are gods above the 
 sky. " Jupiter tonans." 
 
 The principal god of thunder is Went'aisze, a minister 
 of the Emperor Show, who was killed by General Kiang. 
 We sometimes ask the people, Who was it that governed 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Thunder. 
 
 thunder before his day ? This has never seemed to occur 
 to them. His birthday is on the 24th of the 6th Moon, 
 at which time all the country people flock to his temple. 
 They observe a fast in his honour from the 1st to the 
 24th of the 6th Moon. He has three eyes, — one in his 
 forehead, — and rides upon a tiger. 
 
 Another pair of gods are Mr. and Mrs. Thunder, who 
 
The Adoratiuii of Nature. 75 
 
 control the artillery of Heaven, and flash the vivid 
 lightning. 
 
 Madam Lightning is also a dread deity, who holds the 
 lightning in her hand. She has 10,000 golden snakes, 
 who flash electricity throughout the universe. The purple 
 lightning kills, the red lightning lessens heat, and the 
 white lightning diminishes wind and rain. Her chief 
 assistant is called Teihlin, and her charioteer Ah- 
 hyiang. 
 
 The snow-god. — His name is Tunluh. A prince 
 fond of hunting goes to the forest for game. A giant 
 asks the beasts, " Would you prefer to die by the knife or 
 by an arrow ? " An aged deer begs the giant to save him 
 from the prince, and he is directed to pray to Tunluh 
 for snow, so that hunters cannot '' go out for game." 
 
 The frost-goddess. — The spring is thought to rule 
 birth and the autumn death. On the 3rd of the 9th 
 Moon the Green Maiden sends frost. She is worshipped 
 by military mandarins. 
 
 God of Caverns. — Every cave, whether on the moun- 
 tain side or in the depths of the sea, has its presiding 
 divinity. 
 
 Tree-god. — The god of trees is only worshipped 
 when an oak of the forest is to be felled with the wood- 
 man's axe. Notice is duly served throughout the neigh- 
 bourhood, announcing at what time the tree is to be cut 
 down, so that those who live near may remain indoors, 
 as the tree-god is to be robbed of his roost, and may 
 avenge himself upon the neighbours. Every tree has its 
 separate individual deity. Oh, polytheism of the forest ! 
 
 God of the Willow. — Twigs of the weeping willow 
 
76 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 are favourite emblems in the hands of gods and goddesses. 
 A Mr. Lee, walking through a willow-grove, was accosted 
 by the willow-god, who told him to dye his clothing blue, 
 as he would soon be the highest scholar in the empire. 
 The prophecy was fulfilled by his appointment as Senior 
 Wrangler at the Hanlin College, Peking. 
 
 Gods and goddesses of Flowers. — They are wor- 
 shipped by florists on the 12th of the 2nd Moon, with 
 music, refreshments, and floral decorations. There are 
 twelve of these gods and goddesses, one for each month, 
 whose biographies, though full of romance, are scarcely 
 worth special notice. 
 
 The wheat-goddess. — A merchant of North China 
 in 1873 met a fair maiden with twin stalks of wheat 
 growing from one grain, which he told her was an aus- 
 picious omen. She replied that she was going to the 
 city of Tungchow to order the harvest. The merchant, 
 reporting the fact to the prefect, the latter had an image 
 of the wheat-goddess made like this maiden with the 
 twin stalks in her hand, and at the wheat harvest there 
 are annual theatricals in her honour. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANCESTRAL IDOLATRY. 
 
 T"N a preceding chapter the attention of the reader was 
 -■- called to the magnificent marble altar and to the 
 splendour of the Imperial worship. There the national 
 all ar was one and the worshipper a single individual ; here, 
 the ancestral altars are 70,000,000, and the worshippers 
 350,000,000. This is the religion of China in the sense 
 that it is universal ; " the real religion of the Chinese, 
 that in which more than anything else they trust, and to 
 which they look for consolation and reward." The 
 Emperor worships his ancestor, and the peasant his. In 
 the worship of Heaven the Emperor alone is the mediator ; 
 in the worship of Confucius the scholars take a part ; the 
 worship of idols is largely confined to the middle classes, 
 esj^ecially the old women ; but in ancestral worship high 
 and low, rich and poor, alike do honour to parents once 
 human, but now divine. 
 
 Filial Piety. — Ancestral worship is the extension of 
 filial piety beyond the grave, and the amplification of 
 the central tenet of their system of ethics, which the 
 sages teach, the books record, the scholars enjoin, and 
 the people follow. " The chief end of man," as well as 
 " the whole duty of man," is in obeying and serving 
 father and mother. As their interpretation inculcates 
 
78 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 respect for all superiors, inspiration has nothing to add 
 to their doctrine save the promise ; and though the books 
 do not record that promise yet China has its fulfilment, 
 for this great empire of four times the age of Methuselah 
 testifies to the faithfulness of Jehovah. Over the moun- 
 tains of their idolatry and the hills of their superstition 
 has the Most High passed, and remembered their rever- 
 ence to parents. *' The fact is, that filial piety in this 
 system has exceeded the limit set by Grod in His word." 
 
 An Ancient Cultus. — We revere the hoary head, so 
 standing in the presence of this ancient cult, which the 
 people believe in their hearts and practise in their lives, 
 we must respect even if we reject it. In the book of 
 history there are clear intimations that the worship of 
 ancestors was observed during the reign of Shun, B.C. 
 2250. His coronation took place in the temple of the 
 " Accomplished Ancestor," and his successor, Yu, in the 
 same holy place received the reins of government. The 
 minister of religion was designated the " Arranger of the 
 Ancestral Temple." It is said of Shun, when he returned 
 from his tours of inspection, that " he went to the temple 
 of the Cultivated Ancestor, and offered a single bullock." 
 
 In an ode which was written about the time of 
 Samuel, the ancestors respond — 
 
 "What shall the ceaseless blessings be ? 
 That in your palace high, 
 For myriad years you dwell in peace, 
 Rich in posterity." 
 
 Confucius. — The sage, finding this ancient worship in 
 existence, gave it his most emphatic sanction, and with 
 him "the worship of parents was part of the duty of filial 
 
Ancestral Idolatry. 79 
 
 piety." He says : '' The services of love and reverence to 
 them when alive, and those of grief and sorrow for them 
 when dead, — these completely discharge the fundamental 
 duty of living men." One of the five characteristics of 
 the model son is, " in sacrificing to them he displays the 
 utmost solemnity." His millions of followers emulate his 
 example ; " he sacrificed to the dead as if they were present ; 
 he sacrificed to the spirits as if they were present." He 
 said, " I consider my not being at the sacrifice as if I did 
 not sacrifice." When asked, " Do the dead have knowledge 
 of our services, or are they without knowledge ? " the 
 reply was, " If I were to say that the dead have such know- 
 ledge, I am afraid that filial sons and dutiful grandsons 
 would injure their substance in paying the last offices to 
 the departed ; if I were to say that the dead have not such 
 knowledge, I am afraid lest unfilial sons should leave their 
 parents unburied. You need not wish to know whether the 
 dead have knowledge or not. There is no present urgency 
 about the point. Hereafter you will know it for yourself." 
 Thus he considered the services as of very doubtful benefit 
 to departed ancestors, yet enjoined their devout observance. 
 A Son. — "Have you a son?" "How many sons have 
 you ? " are questions often asked. Ancestral worship has 
 been a blessing to China in so far as it has exalted 
 marriage, not so much elevating the relation of husliand 
 and wife, as making it a means to the great end of securing 
 an heir. The Chinese well understand the Jewish law of 
 " raising up seed to his brother," only instead of preserving 
 the inheritance, it is perpetuating the worship. To 
 continue the family line a nephew or the son of a friend is 
 adopted, and sonaetimes concubinage is resorted to. The 
 
8o The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 Classics say, "The most unfilial is he who has no 
 son." 
 
 " The offerings to the dead, to be successful and accept- 
 able, must be presented by a relative of the male line. 
 It is, by inheritance, the right, duty, and privilege of the 
 oldest son or his heir to perform this sacred rite. If he 
 is cut off by death, it is the duty of his brothers to 
 appoint one of their sons to succeed him in his estate 
 and filial duties. This individual — though an infant in 
 the arms of the nurse — is master of ceremonies in 
 ancestral worship. As the virtue of the offerings 
 depends upon the regular line of descent, the priceless 
 value of a son may be imagined, and the great preference 
 of sons over daughters." 
 
 Fear, the Chief Motive.— The basis of this cultus is 
 filial piety, but the prompting motive is fear. The 
 Chinese know not of Heaven, where departed spirits 
 hunger no more, neither do they know of the Lamb who 
 leads to the fountain of living waters. The dead are 
 dependent upon the living for food, clothing, and money ; 
 the first is presented upon the table, the second is paper- 
 clothing burnt, and the third is tinfoil sent upwards in 
 smoke. If the spirits have these they are contented and 
 happy, but if they are hungry, naked, and penniless, they 
 come back and punish those who neglect them, just as 
 a parent chastises an undutiful child. Sickness and 
 calamity deceased ancestors may bring, so they must be 
 appeased, because those " who are neglected by their 
 living relatives become beggar spirits in the world of 
 darkness, and are forced, in order to secure even a 
 wretched existence, to herd with the spirits of the 
 
Ancestral Idolatry. 
 
 multitudes who have died in war, at sea, of starvation, or 
 in foreign countries." 
 
 Three Souls. — Truly the Chinaman is a compound 
 being ; he is not satisfied with soul and body, but must 
 needs possess three souls and six spirits. Where this 
 doctrine of trichotomy came from we cannot tell, but it 
 is the universal faith of the people from the statesman 
 to the farmer. This tripartite division of the soul is, at 
 the outset, a formidable obstacle to the preacher, and 
 it takes more than logic and rhetoric to convince our 
 Mongolian brother that his soul is a unit. The " six 
 spirits," or the animal spirits, go down into the earth at 
 death : of the " three souls " one goes into Hades, and 
 with it the priests deal ; the second enters the coffin, and 
 is laid in the grave, but is not satisfied with its dismal 
 abode ; the third tarries round about the old homestead : 
 ancestral worship deals with soul number two and soul 
 number three. 
 
 The Ancestral Hall.— These buildings are not so 
 conspicuous as the idol temples, but they are very 
 numerous, as any family or clan may have its temple, 
 generally marked by the funereal cedar. Here the " spirit 
 tablets " of departed forefathers are kept, " containing 
 the simple legend of the two ancestral names carved on 
 a board," and " to the child the family tablet is a reality, 
 the abode of a personal being who exerts an influence over 
 him that cannot be evaded, and is far more to him as an 
 individual than any of the popular gods. The gods are 
 to be feared and their wrath deprecated, but ancestors 
 represent love, care, and kindly interest." If the clan do 
 not own an ancestral hall, there is " in every household 
 
 6 
 
82 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 a shrine, a tablet, an oratory, or a domestic temple, 
 according to the position of the family." It is a grand 
 and solemn occasion when all the males of a tribe in their 
 dress robes gather at the temple, perhaps a great 
 ^' country seat," of the dead, and the patriarch of the 
 line, as chief priest of the family, offers sacrifice. 
 
 Much property is entailed upon these ancestral halls 
 to keep up the worship, but as this expense is not great, 
 all the family have shares in the joint capital, and the 
 head of the clan sometimes comes in for a good living. 
 At baptism converts to the Christian faith renounce their 
 claim to a share in this family estate, because of its 
 idolatrous connections. 
 
 In these halls the genealogical tables are kept, and 
 many of the Chinese can trace their ancestry to ten, 
 twenty, thirty, and sometimes ev^en to sixty generations. 
 These registers are kept with great care, and may be 
 considered reliable. 
 
 The Grave. — Heathenism often follows in the wake 
 of the natural feelings. Are not the graves of earth, 
 where rest the mortal remains of loved ones, dear to us ? 
 In the soft days of spring, do we not carry in our hands 
 the wreath of flowers to decorate the sacred spots? 
 Does not the traveller from distant lands make pilgrimages 
 to the revered tombs of his parents ? And where do we 
 retire for meditation and record our solemn vows ? 
 
 Ah ! yes, but we did not worship our dead father and 
 mother, we worshipped God ; we did not make our vows 
 before the monument of marble, we recorded them before 
 God ; we did not pray to our forefathers, we prayed to 
 God. 
 
Ancestral Idolatry. 
 
 83 
 
 In April the people everywhere gather at the family 
 graves to sweep them and put the grounds in repair. If 
 in the country, the family, male and female, old and young, 
 dressed in their richest robes, go in a boat with a load 
 of paper money, their provision baskets, and also lanterns, 
 which are necessary, that the spirits may see. Before 
 the grave, which is a mound, " the master of ceremonies 
 arranges the various offerings " of meats, vegetables, and 
 
 Worshipping at the Giavi 
 
 fruits ; burns the incense and paper sycee, and lights 
 " the candles, for the spirits, being in the dark, need 
 light ; " " the straw baskets, filled with tin-foil money, a 
 paper trunk, packed with paper clothing, and a paper 
 sedan chair for the deceased to ride in,'' are committed 
 to the flames ; and " libations of wine are poured on to 
 render the fluid invisible, and consequently available for 
 the spirits." " As the blaze of the burning mass ascends, 
 the master of ceremonies kneehi on a red cloth spread 
 
84 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 before his offerings and bows his head nine times, 
 precisely as the people do in the temples before their 
 deities. His example is followed by all the members of 
 the family present, not excepting even the younger, who 
 are receiving their first lessons in ancestral worship." 
 Thus on the hillside and in the grove, in the beautiful 
 sunlight, they " worship the departed around a festive 
 sacrifice, and go through a variety of ceremonies and 
 prayers." 
 
 The following extracts are from a prayer of the 
 Emperor Taokwang, April 1832: "I presume to come 
 before the grave of my ancestor. . . . Cherishing 
 sentiments of veneration I look up and sweep your tomb. 
 Prostrate, I pray that you will come and be present, and 
 that you will grant to your posterity that they may be 
 prosperous and illustrious. . . . Always grant your safe 
 protection. My trust is in your divine spirit. Eeverently 
 I present the five-fold sacrifice." 
 
 The Home. — There are six feasts in the year when 
 the Chinese conduct family worship, but the principal 
 one is the last night of the old year, when the son returns 
 from a distant city or even from a foreign land, to be 
 present at the sacrifice, which to him possesses the 
 solemnity the passover had to the pious Israelite. The 
 table is spread. There are three kinds of meat — fish, 
 fowl, and pork ; there are bowls of rice and vegetables, a 
 decanter of wine, and bouquets of flowers ; the viands 
 are offered hot, so that the dead may feast on the '^ flavour " 
 or steam of the food, which is on the morrow eaten by the 
 living. At the door, on a small table or bench, are placed 
 a few dishes, so that the spirits of the stranger or the 
 
Ancestral Idolatry, 
 
 85 
 
 beggar may feast, and not intrude into the presence of 
 the ancestral guests. There is every form of solemn 
 worship, — the prostrations of the living, the sacrifice 
 reverently presented, and the prayers ottered, — for " one 
 of the strongest motives for this worship arises out of the 
 belief that success in worldly affairs depends on the support 
 given to parental spirits in Hades." Few petitions are 
 
 Sacrifice to Ancestors. 
 
 offered to the gods in the '' forms of men," but many to 
 deified father and mother. 
 
 An emperor in the Ming dynasty used the following 
 prayer : " I think of you, my sovereign ancestors, whose 
 glorious souls are in heaven. As from an overflowing 
 fountain run the happy streams, such is the connection 
 between you and your descendants. I, a distant descend- 
 ant, having received the appointment from Heaven, 
 
86 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 look back and offer this bright sacrifice to you, the 
 honoured ones from age to age, for hundreds of thousands 
 and myriads of years. . . . Now ye front us, spirits, 
 and now ye pass by us, ascending and descending, un- 
 restricted by conditions of space. Your souls are in 
 heaven; your tablets are in that department. For 
 myriads of years will your descendants think of you with 
 filial thoughts unwearied." 
 
 Here is the "Mount Zion " of the devout Chinese; at 
 the feast each one enters the " Holy of Holies," the idol 
 temples being " the outer court of the Gentiles " for the 
 uninitiated multitude. As far as the feelings of a Mon- 
 golian are capable of being moved he approaches the 
 sacrifice with " a pure heart, fervently," and thus ancestors 
 become tutelary spirits ; they are the household gods, the 
 guardian angels who watch over the home. " There is 
 nothing revolting or cruel connected with it, but every- 
 thing is orderly, kind, and simple." " Parents and children 
 meet and bow before the tablet, and in their simple cheer 
 contract no associations with temples or idols, monasteries 
 or priests, processions or flags. It is the family, and a 
 stranger intermeddleth not with it ; he has his own tablet 
 to look at, and can get no good b}^ worshipping before 
 that bearing the names of another family." "As the 
 children grow up, the worship of the ancestors whom they 
 never saw is exchanged for that of nearer ones, who bore 
 and nurtured, clothed, taught, and cheered them in help- 
 less childhood and hopeful youth, and the whole is thus 
 rendered more personal, vivid, and endearing." These 
 great occasions, especially at the closing hours of the 
 departing year, "are grand family reunions, where the 
 
Ancestral Idolatry. 87 
 
 dead and the living meet, eating and drinking together, 
 where the living worship the dead, and the dead bless the 
 living." 
 
 The Slavery. — Ancestral worship is one of the para- 
 doxes of heathenism, for it contradicts the accepted 
 beliefs in future rewards and punishments and in trans- 
 migration. They worship for three generations, or for five 
 at the furthest, as they consider the state of the soul to 
 be at that time the equivalent of annihilation. 
 
 " The Classics do not chronicle the changes, innovations, 
 and additions which have been made in this worship during 
 two thousand years," but the " teachings of the sages 
 have been the means of perpetuating, if not inaugurating, 
 a system that has, during successive dynasties, fastened 
 upon the millions of China a most degrading slavery, — 
 the slavery of the living to the dead." 
 
 Magistrates, " before passing sentence, usually ask if the 
 father or mother are living, or if there are other brothers, 
 for he shrinks from the responsibility of placing a man, 
 whose duty it is to sacrifice to the dead, in a position 
 where he would be forced to neglect these sacred offices." 
 
 The Emperor Tungchi, in 1874, died at nineteen with- 
 out an heir. There were many distinguished statesmen 
 among the princes of blood, but to satisfy the raanes of his 
 Imperial ancestors, the successor must be of a generation 
 below, and so a child of five years was chosen, and the 
 interests of 350,000,000 were committed for many years 
 to a regency, rather than interfere with ancestral rites. 
 
 " As a system ancestral worship is tenfold more potent 
 for keeping the people in darkness than all the idols in 
 the land." " By its deadening influences the nation has 
 
88 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 been kept, for ages, looking backward and downward 
 instead of forward and upward." The people oppose 
 progress "because it would disturb the status between 
 men and spirits, and thus prove fatal to the repose of the 
 dead and the safety of the living." 
 
 " Should a. man become a Christian and repudiate 
 ancestral worship, all his ancestors would by that act be 
 consigned to a state of perpetual beggary. Imagine, too, 
 the moral courage required for an only or the eldest son 
 to become a Christian, and call down upon himself the 
 anathemas not only of his own family and friends, but of 
 the spirits of all his ancestors." 
 
 When we preach against this form of paganism it seems 
 as heathenish to the Chinese, as if at home we taught a 
 child to disobey his father and despise his mother. " It 
 forms one of the subtlest phases of idolatry — essentially 
 evil with the guise of goodness — ever established among 
 men." 
 
CHAI^TER YII 
 
 CONFUCIUS : HIS CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE. 
 
 IT is not easy in our own minds to form a just estimate 
 of the character of a man with whom we are inti- 
 mately acquainted, and it is still more difficult to speak 
 of him to others in such a way that they may judge 
 correctly of his virtues and defects. What shall be said 
 of the task of formulating the life and history of the 
 Chinese sage, who lived when the Jews returned from 
 Babylon, when Greece was invaded by Xerxes, and Egypt 
 conquered by the Persians ? Light passing through the 
 vista of twenty-five centuries is at best dim ; is it right 
 to subject the master to the tests of this "enlightened 
 nineteenth " ? Or shall it be said of us, that " we weigh 
 Confucius in the balance of the sanctuary" ? We discuss 
 the sages of Grreece, — men whose thought lies embodied 
 in the development of truth in after centuries, — now 
 we present the living philosopher, " who, like a skilful 
 engineer, excavated a channel of thought for future 
 ages," and who projected his teachings upon such a plane, 
 that, without addition or change, they have held despotic 
 sway over an empire of intellect for eighty generations, 
 perhaps the greatest mental wonder in the world. 
 
 Ancestry. — Pride of blood is universal. If any family 
 
90 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 can with cause boast of lofty ancestry, it is the descend- 
 ants of Confucius, who, during the reign of the Emperor 
 K'anghe, 2,200 years after the time of the sage, numbered 
 11,000 males, as shown by their genealogical tables so 
 carefully preserved in ancestral halls. They claim to 
 trace their line to the sovereigns of the Shang dynasty, 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 centuries before Confucius. '' His father, known to us by 
 the name of Leangho, an officer remarkable for his 
 strength, bravery, and skill," won distinction at the siege 
 of Pihyang. A number of his comrades had entered the 
 city by a gate purposely left open, when the enemy 
 attempted to shut them in by letting down the drop- 
 
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 91 
 
 gate, but Leangho stood below, and held up the massive 
 structure till his friends could escape. 
 
 His Birth. — Leangho, near threescore and ten, with- 
 out a son, sought a second wife of the Yen family. 
 The father, pleased that the county governor should seek 
 an alliance with his house, summoned his daughters, and 
 telling them of the application for a hand and a heart, 
 asked which of them was willing to be " the old man's 
 darling." Miss Chingtsae, the youngest, said, " Father, 
 why ask us? It is for you to decide."' " You will go, my 
 daughter." She was the mother of Confucius B.C. 551. 
 
 This mother prayed for a son at Mount Xee, and 
 when he was born his head was shaped like this mountain. 
 Two dragons appeared above the roof of the cottage 
 as the guardians of the infant sage, and live veneral^le 
 men came from afar to pay their respects. Within 
 the chamber the young mother heard music, and a voice 
 saying, "Heaven is moved at the birth of thy holy son, 
 and sends down harmonious sounds." On his body were 
 forty-nine marks, and the words, " He will originate 
 principles and settle the affairs of men." Tradition asserts 
 that the child was bathed in a stream which bubbled up 
 from the floor, and thus a fanciful claim was given to the 
 appellation, " Son of the essence of water." A unicorn 
 came to his mother and presented her with the tablet 
 he brought in his mouth, on which was inscribed, " The 
 son of the essence of water shall succeed to the withering 
 Chow, and be a throneless king'' She tied some red silk 
 to his horn ; he tarried a night and departed. The 
 purport of the language taken to be prophetic was, 
 " A child of perfect purity shall be born on the decline 
 
92 The Dragon, linage^ and Demon, 
 
 of the Chow dynasty, and reign without the insignia of 
 royalty." '' The dignified title of throneless king is the 
 earliest declaration of the royalty of intellect, an idea 
 which has appeared in subsequent ages in languages of 
 which Confucius never dreamed." 
 
 Dragons and Wise Men. 
 
 His Youth.— The aged soldier left the son of his old 
 age, an orphan of three years, to the care of his mother, 
 who, though not so celebrated as the mother of Mencius, 
 yet carefully watched over his education and moral train- 
 ing. As a boy, it is recorded, '' he used to play at the 
 arrangement of sacrificial vessels and at postures of 
 
Conf Items : His Character and Influenee. 93 
 
 ceremony." At the age of seven he goes to a free 
 school, and " he differed from other children in that his 
 knowledge was not acquired but intuitive.'' In the 
 Analects Confucius tells us that " at fifteen he bent his 
 mind to learning." His biographer mentions an occasion 
 when, visiting an ancestral temple, and making minute 
 inquiries about the sacrifices, it is said in derision, " Why 
 does the district magistrate's son want to know these 
 things ? " Confucius, hearing the sneer, replied, " This 
 is ceremony^ 
 
 The mother struggled with poverty, but in after years 
 the sage looked back on a youth of penury as directly 
 promoting intellectual vigour. " When I was young my 
 condition was low, and therefore I acquired my ability in 
 many things." With no books — only a few odes, frag- 
 mentary documents of history, and scattered manuscripts 
 — he made antiquity his study, and there sought for ideal 
 perfection. 
 
 The Age — The sixth century before Christ was ren- 
 dered illustrious by great sages, who exercised a mighty 
 influence on the minds and religions of men. In Greece 
 rose Pythagoras, Shakyamuni lived in India, Zoroaster 
 in Persia, and in China Confucius. To appreciate the 
 superiority of the sage, we must look at the darkness of 
 the age. " The state of China in the time of Confucius 
 was analogous to one of the European kingdoms during 
 the feudal system. There were thirteen principalities 
 of greater note and a large number of smaller dependencies. 
 The chiefs quarrelled and warred among themselves, and 
 a similar condition of things prevailed in each State, the 
 hereditary families encroaching on the authority of their 
 
94 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 rulers, and these families being frequently hard pressed by 
 their inferior officers." The wilderness of ancient China 
 was an unpromising field for a philosopher, but he 
 accompli.shed for his people what conquered Greece 
 did for her conquering Roman foe. 
 
 Marriage. — He was married at the age of nineteen. 
 It is thought he was divorced from his wife, but the 
 interpretation of the passage on which the fact is based 
 is uncertain. At the birth of his son the prince sent him 
 a congratulatory present of fish, whereupon, in compli- 
 ment to his friend, he called his boy " Uncle Fish." The 
 records of the philosopher's life show no play of parental 
 affection, and he seems to have maintained a distant 
 reserve in the treatment of his son. " Have you heard 
 any lessons of your father different from what we have 
 learned ? " asked a disciple of " Uncle Fish." He replied, 
 " He was standing alone, and as I passed by he asked, 
 ' Have you read the odes ? ' and on my saying ' Not yet,' 
 he remarked, ' If you do not learn the odes, you will not 
 be fit to converse with.' Another day he asked, ' Have 
 you read the book of propriety ? ' ' Not yet.' ' If you do 
 not learn the book of propriety your character cannot be 
 established.' I have heard only these two things from 
 my father." The disciple was delighted, and said, "I 
 have got three things. I have heard about the odes, the 
 rules of propriety, and that a superior man maintains a 
 distant reserve towards his son." 
 
 Public Teacher.—In his twenty-second year Confucius 
 became a public teacher, and soon after his house was a 
 resort, " not for schoolboys, but for young and inquiring 
 spirits, who wished to increase their knowledge of the 
 
Confticms : His Character and Influence. 95 
 
 history and the doctrines of the past." However small 
 the fee the pupil might bring, provided there was a thirst 
 for knowledge, he was welcome in his academy. " P>om 
 the man bringing his bundle of dried flesh for my wages, 
 I have never refused instruction to any one." His object 
 was not simply to impart knowledge ; it was to teach men 
 to think for themselves. The sage thus aptly describes 
 the art of teaching : " I do not open the truth to one who 
 is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out one who 
 is not anxious to explain himself. When I have pre- 
 sented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot 
 from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my 
 lesson." 
 
 When Confucius was thirty-five years old, the prime 
 minister of the State of Loo, upon his death-bed, directed 
 that his son " should enter the Confucian school," as its 
 teacher was one thoroughly conversant with the teachings 
 of antiquity. The patronage of this family gave quite 
 a turn to the sage's fortunes. " The same year he was 
 able to visit the capital, and make fuller inquiries into 
 the ceremonies and rules of the founder of the Chow 
 dynasty." At times his disciples numbered three 
 thousand, probably many of them poor men, who had left 
 their proper avocations, and came to the master from all 
 parts of the country to ask special counsel ; and as for a half 
 century he had fame as a political reformer and moral 
 philosopher, public opinion began to be regulated by his 
 opinions. " The influence he exercised as the recognised 
 authority upon all questions relating to the early history 
 of the empire, and as the eloquent expounder of those 
 great moral principles which his historical studies bad 
 
96 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 convinced him should form the basis of legislation," was 
 felt throughout the thirteen states. 
 
 Devotion of His Pupils. — The sage, possessed of a 
 personal magnetism, " moved amid a company of admiring 
 followers." His family and his friends, who watched every 
 movement, recorded everything said or done, and drank 
 from the fount of his practical wisdom. His generosity 
 was unbounded. A prince gives him a present of 6,400 
 piculs of grain ; he gives it to his poor disciples, and says, 
 " The prince gave it to me because he loved me ; it is 
 much better to love many than to love one." In his 
 peripatetic school, with his students he is unrestrained, 
 and conducts himself with simple and genial frankness, 
 and their " devotion is a proof of his extraordinary force 
 of character and of the moral excellence of his life." " The 
 pupils walk with him, and ask questions on all conceivable 
 subjects ; on literature, music, costume, court etiquette, 
 war, taxation, statesmanship." 
 
 One day, seeing a bucket in a temple with the handles 
 attached halfway down the sides, so suspended that when 
 empty it swung crooked, when partly filled it hung 
 straight, and when full it turned over, Confucius 
 moralised on humility, to the effect that a man with no 
 knowledge will be deflected from the right line, a 
 conceited man will turn a somersault, while a moderate 
 estimate of one's powers is best. He told his students 
 that it " was impossible to have too much knowledge, but 
 we must beware of having too much riches, pride, and 
 power." " Aimless living was one of the things he 
 hated." On one occasion, walking beside a stream, he 
 said, " I was making a comparison in my own mind 
 
Confucitcs : His Character and Infiiience. 97 
 
 between the running of water and of doctrine. The 
 water runs unceasingly by day and by night. Since the 
 days of Yao and Shun the pure doctrine has uninter- 
 ruptedly descended to us. Let us in our turn transmit it 
 to those who come after us, that they, from our example, 
 may give it to their descendants to the end of time." 
 
 The prominent causes of the influence of Confucius 
 were, first, " his books became the standard of religious, 
 moral, and political wisdom ; " second, he organised the 
 literati into a host of well-disciplined minds ; third, the 
 power he exercised over his personal disciples ; and lastly, 
 their enthusiastic admiration. " They began the paean 
 which has since resounded through all the intervening 
 ages," speaking the praises of him who was as far above 
 his fellows as Mount T'ai — the highest peak in China, and 
 around which the sage passed and repassed many times^ 
 is above the hills of Shantung. " There can be no doubt 
 that he exerted a greater influence on the destinies of the 
 emj)ire than he could have done had he been seated on 
 the Imperial throne." 
 
 The recorded testimonies of his disciples would fill 
 pages. " The talents and virtues of other men are as 
 mounds and hillocks which may be stepped over ; Confucius 
 is the sun and moon, which cannot possibly be stepped 
 over." ^' Our master cannot be attained to, just in the same 
 way the heavens cannot be gone up to by the steps of a 
 stair." " From the birth of mankind till now there has 
 never been one so complete as Confucius." The author 
 of the " Doctrine of the Mean " says, " Wherever the sky 
 overarches and the earth sustains, and sun and moon 
 shine, and frosts and dews fall, all that have blood and 
 
98 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 breath unfeignedly honour and love him. Hence he is 
 called the companion of Heaven." Heaven, earth, and 
 Confucius are the trinity of the scholars. 
 
 A Mandarin. — At the age of twenty he had so 
 gained the respect of his townsmen for his '' grave 
 demeanour and knowledge of ancient learning," that he 
 received an appointment in the revenue office, and 
 succeeded in fixing the standard for weights and measures 
 (which has, unfortunately, been lost), and in the year 
 following he was made supervisor of the fields, herds, and 
 parks, and his district became famous for its fine stock. 
 At the death of his mother, " in conformity with an 
 ancient usage which had then fallen into disuse, he 
 immediately resigned all his employments to mourn for 
 three years, during which time he devoted himself to 
 study (retiring to his home as Paul did to Arabia), and 
 examined everything past and present with the closest 
 scrutiny.' When near fifty years of age he was 
 appointed governor of the city of Chungtu, and after- 
 wards was Minister of Crime in the kingdom of Loo. 
 His principle of government was centralisation ; and he 
 succeeded m " dismantling the fortified cities held by the 
 great clans, which served the same purpose as the castles 
 owned by the barons of Europe in the feudal ages." 
 Among the beneficial effects of his administration were 
 these — that old and young ate apart, men and women 
 walked apart, a parcel might in safety be dropped along 
 the road, honest prices were asked for goods, and coffins 
 were four inches thick. His eulogists say, " A trans- 
 forming government went abroad. Dishonesty and 
 dissoluteness were ashamed, and hid their heads. Loyalty 
 
Confucius : His Character and Infiiience. 99 
 
 and good faith became the characteristics of the men, and 
 chastity and docility those of the women. Confucius 
 became the idol of the people, and flew in songs through 
 their mouths." 
 
 The wise administration of Confucius, during the time 
 he figured as a politician, was raising the kingdom of 
 Loo to a pre-eminence over the rival states. The duke 
 or governor of Che, seeing Loo becoming the resort of 
 the learned, thought it was becoming a dangerous neigh- 
 bour, and he resolved to alienate the sovereign from 
 his minister, and " drive the obnoxious cynic from his 
 counsels." His artifice succeeded. Eighty beautiful 
 women, skilled in music and the dance, with one hundred 
 and twenty " blooded " steeds, were sent as a present to 
 the throne. The king abandoned himself to the pursuit 
 of pleasure, and the presence of the sage became irksome 
 to the ruler. The court was no place for the patriot. 
 The great sacrifice to Heaven, by which Confucius hoped 
 the prince might be brought to his right mind, was 
 neglected, so he " regretfully took his departure, going 
 away slowly and by easy stages. He would have wel- 
 comed a messenger of recall. The sovereign, however, 
 continued in his abandonment," and the sage left his 
 office, his home, and his country. 
 
 A Wanderer. — '' For thirteen years he travelled from 
 one feudal state to another, seeking rest and finding 
 none, always hoping to meet with a ruler who would 
 adopt his counsel, and always disappointed." Confucius 
 saw " the application of his theory of government was 
 a great success, and amidst these troublous times of 
 semi-barbarous, warring kingdoms, the heart of the 
 
lOO The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 statesman was filled with sadness." He said, " But what 
 matters the ingratitude of men ? They cannot hinder me 
 from doing all the good that has been appointed me. 
 If my precepts are disregarded, I have the consolation of 
 knowing in my own breast that I have faithfully per- 
 formed my duty." " His fame had gone before him, and 
 most of the princes whom he visited received him with 
 distinction, and would gladly have given him office and 
 
 The Sage's Chariot. 
 
 retained him at their courts ; but no one was prepared to 
 accept his principles and act them out." 
 
 A duke, pleased with having his domains honoured by 
 the presence of so great a man, but who did not wish 
 to follow his rigid system of honest government, proposed 
 to 'give the sage the revenues of the town of Linkew. 
 Confucius declined the offer, and said to his followers : 
 " A superior man will only receive reward for services 
 
Confucius : His Character and Influence, i o i 
 
 which he has done. I have given advice to the duke, 
 and he has not yet obeyed it, and now he would endow 
 me with this place. Very far is he from understanding 
 me." His motto was office and principle, or poverty and 
 honour. He said, " Viiih coarse rice to eat, with water to 
 drink, and my bended arm for a pillow, I have still joy 
 in these things. Riches and honours acquired by un- 
 righteousness are to me as a floating cloud.'' Just as 
 no one mourns over the results of the prison life of 
 Bunyan, we can be glad that Confucius' years were not 
 taken up with the busy details of an official career, but 
 that he had time to study and to reflect, to teach and to 
 write. • 
 
 Called of Heaven.— During all the hardships which 
 fell to the lot of the sage, who truly, in an earthly sense, 
 was a " pilgrim and a stranger," "with no abiding city," 
 his soul seemed profoundly impressed with the thought 
 that he was appointed to this high task by Heaven. He 
 said, " But there is Heaven ; it knows me." Again, '' I 
 am a man who belongs equally to the north and the 
 south, the east and the west." He had a presentiment 
 of the future of his school. "He would travel, and his 
 way might be directed to some wise ruler, whom his 
 counsels would conduct to a beneficent sway that would 
 break forth on every side till it transformed the empire." 
 
 Often in passing from place to place his life was in 
 great danger, and once, when an attack was made upon 
 his company, he sat quietly teaching his chosen pupils 
 in a forest while armed banditti stood guard around the 
 undaunted sage, who said, " After the death of King Wan, 
 was not the cause of truth lodged in me ? If Heaven 
 
I02 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 had wished to let this cause of truth perish, then I, a 
 future mortal, should not have such a relation to it." 
 At one time a malicious chieftain sent a band to assassi- 
 nate the philosopher. He observed to his disciples : 
 " Heaven has produced the virtue that is in me ; what 
 can Hwantuy do to me ? " "He claimed no Divine 
 
 The Sage and the Banditti. 
 
 commission or Messianic destiny," but simply that he 
 was a teacher sent to help mankind. 
 
 A Man of the Past— The sage constantly referred 
 to the golden age of the past ; antiquity was his theme 
 in school, antiquity his example in court, antiquity the 
 lamp to guide the nation, antiquity the goal to which 
 China was to be carried in the backward flight of time, 
 antiquity "the perfect type of society and manhood." 
 
Confucms : His Character and Influence. 103 
 
 His watchword was not Advance ! but Return ! for " he 
 came not to fulfil but to restore." " The book of Con- 
 fucius is a Bible with a paradise lost, but no apocalyptic 
 vision of a paradise to be regained." He stated, " I am 
 not one who was born in the possession of knowledge ; I 
 am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking 
 it there." Confucius pretended to no originality in his 
 teachings. " I am an editor, and not an author." He 
 
 The Musician. 
 
 did not introduce a new system of ethics or political 
 philosophy, but, satisfied with the state of perfection to 
 which, in his imagination, the aborigines attained, he 
 sought only to transmit the lessons of morals and govern- 
 ment which they had inculcated, not to be the maher 
 of a new code or the founder of a new school. He says, 
 " A transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving 
 the ancients, I venture to compare myself with our old 
 Pang." 
 
I04 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 The Musician. — The pictorial life of Confucius, 
 which is engraved in stone upon the walls of the temple 
 in his native town, continually represents the sage as 
 playing upon his harp, and this love of soft sounds gave 
 a mellowness to a character naturally so rigid and in- 
 flexible. '' His enthusiasm for peculiar forms of ancient 
 music, which he describes as both beautiful and good, was 
 so great, that it made him forget the taste of food for 
 days." In learning music he took King Wan as his 
 model, a man he describes as " black, tall, and with a sea- 
 eye." 
 
 Humility. — Confucius was conscious of his personal 
 defects, and spoke humbly of himself. " The sage and 
 the man of perfect virtue, how dare I rank myself with 
 them ? " " In letters I am perhaps equal to other men, 
 but the character of the superior man, carrying out in 
 his conduct what he professes, is what I have not yet 
 attained to." "The leaving virtue without proper culti- 
 vation, the not thoroughly discussing what is learned, 
 not being able to move towards righteousness, of which a 
 knowledge is gained, and not being able to change what 
 is not good, — these are the things which occasion me 
 solicitude." 
 
 Sinless. — The sayings of the Grentile sage forcibly 
 remind one of the words of the Apostle to the Grentiles : 
 " Not as though I had already attained or were already 
 perfect." The Chinese now say of the repeated attesta- 
 tions of his shortcomings, " Oh, these are only polite 
 euphemisms ! " They consider that Confucius was imma- 
 culate. He was without sin; he never sinned ; he could 
 not sin. They lay claim for him to infallibility. The 
 
Confiuius : His Character and Infltience. 105 
 
 Confucianist makes the sinless perfection of the sage as 
 absolute as the Christian does for his Lord. This makes 
 it necessary for us to speak on the subject clearly and 
 firmly, yet gently, for it is not in good taste for the 
 Western teacher " to drive his carriage roughly over the 
 master's grave." 
 
 Ritualism. — The combination of the great and small 
 in the character of Confucius makes the delineation of his 
 character difficult, as it is a combination of the telescope of 
 the philosopher and the microscope of the ritualist. Ethics 
 and etiquette are twin sisters in Confucianism. The sage 
 who was the founder of ritualism was a " Chinese of the 
 Chinese, and stamped his image upon the nation ; " apes, 
 who make mock at celestial mummery, should come to 
 the Middle Kingdom, and take lessons from mandarins 
 and posture-makers in " genuflections, bows, and facial 
 movements." "In every country but China fashion is the 
 synonym for change, but Confucius fettered this Proteus 
 and arrested this revolving wheel." " A whole book in 
 the Analects is occupied with his deportment, eating, and 
 dress." His was true politeness ; " he bowed down to the 
 cross-bar of his cart on passing a mourner." " When the 
 prince called Confucius to employ him in the reception of 
 a visitor, his countenance appeared to change and his legs 
 to bend beneath him,"^so we have " the comical figure of 
 a great sage trembling in the legs when officially receiv- 
 ing a public guest." Going to the palace, " He bowed to 
 the other officers among whom he stood, moving his left 
 arm or his right, but keeping the skirts of his robe before 
 and behind evenly adjusted. He hastened forward with 
 his arms like the wings of a bird. He ascended the 
 
io6 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 platform holding up his robe with both hands, and his 
 body bent, holding in his breath also, as if he dare not 
 breathe. When he came out from the audience, and had 
 descended one step, he began to relax his countenance, 
 and had a satisfied look." " If his mat was not straight 
 he did not sit on it." He was nice in his diet, " not dis- 
 liking to have his rice dressed fine, nor to have his meat 
 cut small. There must 'always be ginger on the table, 
 and when eating he did not converse." 
 
 To Confucius man-millinery was all important. " His 
 dress, which has not a speck of red about it, consists of 
 silk and furs. If he wears lamb's fur, his garment is 
 black ; if fawn's fur, white ; if fox's fur, yellow. His 
 right sleeve is shorter than his left." In bed he was not 
 unmindful of posture. " He did not lie like a corpse, and 
 he did not speak. He required his sleeping dress to be 
 half as long again as his body." 
 
 This is the original portrait ; the number of copies has 
 been prodigious. As you pass along the street and see 
 through the open door a feast in the great hall of a 
 mansion, and the guests with long bonnets, top boots, and 
 robes of blue, green, or black silk and satin, all stepping 
 about and parading around, interchanging bows and com- 
 pliments, with nothing to talk about, you can think of no 
 other emblem of the model literary Chinaman than the 
 strutting pigeon. 
 
 On the other hand, looking at this empire of Confucian 
 formalists, where from " throneless king " and sceptred 
 monarch, through all ranks and classes, it is nothing 
 " save ceremony, general ceremony," we cannot but feel 
 there is an element of stability in forms, etiquette, and 
 
Confucitis : His Character and Infitience. 107 
 
 ritual in giving uniqueness and symmetry to the mass, 
 though it deadens the sensibilities of the heart, fetters 
 intellectual activity, and merges individuality into the 
 rank and file of uniformity, so that " religion in China is 
 rather a body of ceremonies than a system of doctrine." 
 
 The Silver Rule. — The Confucian philosophy is emi- 
 nently practical, dealing with man in his relation to his 
 fellow-man, and teaching him ''to do justly and love 
 mercy," but with no searching into the workings of the 
 immortal mind, as in the Grrecian schools, no lofty reason- 
 ing ; not metaphysical in any sense. Five hundred years 
 before the days of our Saviour the sage enunciated the 
 silver rule, — the golden rule in a negative form. It is 
 recorded twice, '' What I do not wish men to do to me, 
 I also wish not to do to men ; " " What you do not want 
 done to yourself, do not do to others." Our Lord com- 
 mands men to do what they judge is right and good ; 
 Confucius forbids doing what we esteem wrong and 
 hurtful; yet the silver and the gold are both precious 
 metals. If Locke could speak of the one as " the most 
 unshaken rule of morality and foundation of all social 
 virtue," the other might be considered the keystone in 
 the arch of Chinese ethics, and to have enunciated such a 
 rule proves the sage to have been both good and great. 
 
 For Confucius' views about ancestors, see Chapter VI. 
 
 The Marvellous. — The facts in the next two pages 
 are taken from the stone-engraved pictorial life of the 
 sage, which adorns the walls of the temple near his grave. 
 They are given just as they are there stated. 
 
 A vertebra as large as the wheel of a wheelbarrow 
 having been found, a messenger from the duke asks Con- 
 
io8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 fucius, "Who of the ancients had such a big hone?" 
 He answered, "When the Emperor Yu assembled the 
 host of gods at Mount Weikee, Pangfung came last, and 
 Yu cut off his head. His bones were as big as the wheel 
 of a barrow." 
 
 A large red bird brings to the king an inscription on 
 
 Weeping for the Ui)icorn, 
 
 bamboo, and places it at the palace door. He inquires of 
 the sage the interpretation, who says, " that a king of the 
 Hea dynasty had a ' precious efficacious prescription,' and 
 that he left it on a mountain in a casket, and now the 
 bird brings it to him as a gift from Heaven." 
 Confucius, with one of his disciples, went to the summit 
 
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 109 
 
 of Mount T'ai, and the latter asked, " If that white thing 
 outside of the Chang Gate at Soochow (600 miles) was a 
 bolt of white cloth ? " Confucius said, " No, it is a white 
 horse." " The eye of the sage is god-like," says his 
 biographer. 
 
 Prophetic. — Confucius on one occasion told his disciples 
 to take their umbrellas and rain-shoes. There was after- 
 wards a big rain, though the sky was clear when they 
 set out, They asked how he came to be a weather-cock. 
 He answered, '' Last night I saw the moon and Taurus in 
 conjunction." 
 
 A one-footed bird, flying into the court of the palace of 
 Shang, stretched out its wings and hopped. The king 
 sends to inquire of the master the meaning of its appear- 
 ance, who replies that it had been lamed by a little child, 
 who said, " Wherever you fly to there will be a flood." 
 The philosopher says, " It portends a flood, let the people 
 build their dykes and open the sluices." The other 
 States were flooded, but the State of Shang escaped the 
 devastations. 
 
 Superstitious. — A man digging a well finds a little 
 animal like a rat. When it was brought to Confucius 
 he examined it very carefully, and said, " There are 
 many kinds of goblins ; this is the earth-goblin, and is 
 called a sheep-sprite." 
 
 We noted the great event of the appearance of the 
 unicorn at the birth of the sage. In the latter days of 
 his life, Confucius, hearing that some countrymen had 
 killed a unicorn, left off the compilation of the " Spring 
 and Autumn," and hastened to the spot. When he 
 beheld the dead animal he wept, and cried ''0 unicorn! 
 
no The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 unicorn ! King among the beasts, since you are dead, 
 my doctrine can make no progress." 
 
 Want of Truth It seems unfair to take one or 
 
 two incidents in a long life, and make general deduc- 
 tions as to character ; on the other hand, it is not 
 required that we should be silent, for one of the things 
 which Confucius proposed to teach was truthfulness. Let 
 us see how his practice corresponded with his theory. 
 An instance is given in his history of a brave officer 
 bringing up gallantly the rear, who modestly said his 
 horse would not go faster. Confucius praised the man 
 for attributing it to another than the right cause. 
 
 Again, a man called whom the sage did not wish to 
 see, and he feigned sickness (as now is done in fashion- 
 able circles) ; but as he wished him to know he intended 
 disrespect, when the visitor departed he took his harpsi- 
 chord, sat in the door, and played. This is a celebrated 
 event in Chinese books and pictures. As it is an axiom 
 that Confucius was sinless, the only way of escape for 
 the commentator is that deception is not a lie, so the 
 above instance is the dead fly in their moral ointment. 
 
 Confucius once journeyed southward near the Yangtse 
 River. He was stopped on his journey by a prince, and 
 promised to go no further. He went on notwithstanding, 
 and when questioned by a disciple said, " It was a forced 
 oath; the gods do not hear such." Well doth the 
 prophet Esaias say, " my people, they which lead thee 
 cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths." 
 
 The Historian.— The " Spring and Autumn " is a 
 brief history of the State of Loo, written by the pen of 
 the sage, and of it he says: "It is the Spring and 
 
Confucius : His Character and Infiitence. 1 1 1 
 
 Autumn which will make men know me, and it is the 
 Spring and Autumn which will make men condemn me." 
 The work is a table of events, from five to eight per 
 annum, chronicled in about as many words. " We find 
 a congeries of the briefest possible intimations of matters 
 in which the court and State of Loo were concerned, 
 without the slightest tincture of literary ability in the 
 composition. Whether the fact be a display of virtue 
 or a deed of atrocity, there is nothing in the language 
 to convey the shadow of an idea of the author's feelings 
 about it. A base murder and a shining act of heroism 
 are chronicled just as the eclipses of the sun." In 
 Grreece it was an age of distinguished writers, and from 
 ancient times the position of the historiographer in 
 China has been an exalted one. There are several 
 passages in the " Spring and Autumn " to show that 
 Confucius not only conceals the truth, but also mis- 
 represents. His great translator thus speaks: "(1) He 
 had no reverence for truth in history, I might say no 
 reverence for truth without any modification. (2) He 
 shrank from looking truth squarely in the face. (3) He 
 had more sympathy with power than with weakness, and 
 would overlook wickedness and oppression in authority." 
 His Influence. — The influence of the master in China 
 for good has been marvellous. The simple fact that the 
 Confucian Classics constitute the entire curriculum of the 
 schools proves his power in the domain of mind, and the 
 people, without considering the fact that there were books 
 in his day, universally ascribe to him the invention of 
 letters. His defects were like the spots on the sun's disc, 
 that do not " obscure the splendour of those rays " which 
 
1 1 2 The Di^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 sent many a beam of light across " the unpoetic life of 
 China." " We must admire his purity of life and nobility 
 of spirit." " He possessed a stoical reliance on the dignity 
 of human nature ; he appealed to humanity ; his response 
 is the veneration of millions ; a tribute not to miraculous 
 power, but to pure force of character." The light of 
 nature, as it shines in the life of Sinim's philosopher, 
 proves that " when the Gentiles, having not the law, 
 do by nature the things contained in the law ; these, 
 having not the law, are a law unto themselves." The 
 moral law of China was written on the Mount of 
 Conscience. 
 
 The entrance of foreign civilisation, the introduction 
 of Western science, the displacement of the " Five Classics 
 and Four Books " in the schools, and most of all the 
 foolishness of preaching, will cause the sun of Confucius, 
 which reached its zenith ages ago, to turn on its west- 
 ward decline. " Where is the wise ? Where is the 
 scribe ? " 
 
 The Books and the Altar.— It is said that the 
 concluding act of his life was the solemn dedication of 
 his Uterary labours to Heaven. " He assembled all his 
 disciples, and led them out of the town to one of the 
 hills, where sacrifices had usually been offered up for 
 many years. Here he erected an altar, upon which he 
 placed the books ; and then, turning his face to the 
 north, adored Heaven, and returned thanks upon his 
 knees in a humble manner, for having had life and 
 strength granted him to accomplish this laborious under- 
 taking ; he implored Heaven to grant that the benefit 
 to his countrymen might not be small. He had pre- 
 
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 1 1 3 
 
 pared himself for this ceremony by privacy, fasting, and 
 prayer." The stone engraving represents the sage in 
 the attitude of suppHcation, while a beam of light 
 descends from the sky. 
 
 Death. — Confucius " died lamenting that the edifice 
 he had laboured so long to erect was crumbling to ruin." 
 His biographer tells us that early one morning he got up, 
 
 The Books and the Altar. 
 
 and, with his hands behind his back, dragging his staff, 
 he moved about the door, saying — 
 
 " The great mountain must crumble ; 
 The strong beam must break ; 
 And the wise man wither away like a plant.** 
 
 He called his disciples, and, referring to ancestral wor- 
 ship, said : " According to ancient statues the corpse was 
 dressed, treating the dead as if he were still the host. 
 Under the Yin dynasty the ceremony was performed 
 
 8 
 
1 1 4 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 between the two pillars of the main hall, as if the dead 
 were both host and guest. I am a man of Yin, and last 
 night I dreamt that I was sitting with offerings before 
 me between the two pillars. No intelligent monarch 
 arises ; there is not one in the empire that will make 
 me his master. My time has come to die." In seven 
 days he expired. 
 
 " Such is the account of the last hours of the great 
 philosopher of China. His end was melancholy. The 
 rulers had not received his teachings. No wife or child 
 was near. Nor were the expectations of another life 
 present with him as he passed through the dark valley. 
 He uttered no prayer, and he betrayed no apprehensions. 
 Deep treasured in his own heart may have been the 
 thought that he had endeavoured to serve his generation, 
 but he gave no sign." As Job hath said, " The mountain 
 falling Cometh to naught, and the rock is removed out 
 of his place." 
 
CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 THE CONFUCIAN SACRIFICES. 
 
 r I ^HOUGrH while he lived no sovereign received him as 
 -L a counsellor, accepted him as a legislator, or placed 
 him in permanent office, yet no sooner did he rest in his 
 tomb than the name Confucius was sounded through the 
 six kingdoms. Many titles were conferred by emperors 
 in after ages ; " Confucius, the ancient teacher, accom- 
 plished and illustrious, all-complete, the perfect sage.'' 
 Afterwards it was abbreviated, " Confucius, the ancient 
 teacher, the perfect sage." Just after his death one of 
 the kings caused a temple to be erected, and ordered that 
 sacrifices should be offered at the four seasons of the 
 year. 
 
 The Temple and the Grave. — The most famous 
 temple in the empire is that of Confucius in his native 
 city of Kewfoo, in the province of Shantung, about one 
 hundred miles south of Chenanfoo. Within this sacred 
 enclosure is the stump of the old tree the sage planted 
 with his own hand, the well from which he drank, and 
 a pavilion on the spot where his school-house stood, 
 where were educated the philosophers of China. In 
 front is a grove of trees with the library building and 
 a number of monumental slabs. By the side is the 
 
ii6 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 palace of the duke of the Confucian clan, and within are 
 buildings, one of which contains a statue of Confucius' 
 father and a tablet to his mother, a pavilion with the 
 dragon throne on which the Emperor sits, and a little 
 room containing the pictorial life of the sage, engraved 
 on stone. The main building has a large gilded image of 
 
 Avenue to Grave of Confucius. 
 
 Confucius, and near him the images of his twelve most 
 celebrated disciples (Mencius is here as one of the 
 twelve), and a little more remote are the images of his 
 two-and-seventy disciples. 
 
 The grave is a mile from the city, and the broad paved 
 avenue has rows of magnificent trees on each side. The 
 
The Confucian Sacrifices. 
 
 117 
 
 cemetery is a dense oak forest of a mile square, surrounded 
 by a city-like wall, and contains the mortal remains of 
 the long line of the descendants of the sage, the mounds 
 to the dukes being larger than the others. There is a 
 pavilion or tent of reflection for the pilgrims who visit 
 the holy tomb. A small enclosure contains the grave of 
 
 Grave of Confucius. ' 
 
 Confucius, which is a mound twelve feet high and thirty 
 in diameter. There is a row of stone men and stone 
 lions in front and a monument, which styles him '' king; " 
 and what earthly potentate is his equal ? Near the grave 
 is a pavilion marking the spot where Tsze Kung mourned 
 six long years, for after his decease many of his dis- 
 ciples remained to weep. 
 
1 1 8 The Dragon, I mage ^ and Demon. 
 
 Kings adore. — The founder of the Han dynasty, B.C. 
 194, visited his tomb and offered an ox in sacrifice, and 
 the clothes and hat, as seen in the picture, being still 
 preserved, were placed before the altar. His grave is the 
 Mecca of China, and emperors have made frequent 
 
 Emperor offering Sacrifice. 
 
 pilgrimages to the spot. K'anghe, the most illustrious of 
 this dynasty, two hundred years ago, " set the example 
 of kneeling thrice, and bowing his forehead in the dust 
 before the image of the sage."' In Peking the Emperor 
 twice a year repairs to the capital temple, and wor- 
 
The Confucian Sacrifices. 
 
 ships Confucius just as he does Heaven.* "The worship 
 is performed with peculiar solemnity. At the Imperial 
 College the Emperor himself is required to attend in 
 state," and conducts the services. " After the many pre- 
 liminary arrangements have been made, and the Emperor 
 has knelt twice, and six times bowed his head to the earth, 
 the presence of Confucius' spirit is invoked." It is not 
 honour given to a sage, it is homage to a god. Listen to 
 the paean : " We praise thee, Confucius, surpassing in 
 thy perfections, profound in thy knowledge, able to com- 
 prehend both heaven and earth. Thou priest of universal 
 nature, whose advent was heralded by a unicorn, we 
 celebrate upon the golden lyre thy light that floods the 
 world ; ... we come to offer thee perpetual oblations, oh ! 
 thou unequalled by any being. ... oh ! thou most holy 
 one, who, being in accord with the mind of the gods, 
 arouses the people to dut3\ . . . From thee pioceeds pro- 
 found instruction to guide our feet along the path. Thou 
 civiliser of the populace, thou teacher of the student, 
 with all ceremony we worship thee. Most great one, thy 
 virtue was greater than a thousand saints, thy teachings 
 better than a hundred kings. Like the sun and moon 
 they enlighten men. We would venerate thee, founder 
 of learning. Deign to be present, and accept the frag- 
 rance of our offerings, which with grateful strains we 
 present in token of our sincere admiration." 
 
 His Manhood. — In the tenth book of the Confucian 
 
 * A remnant of high antiquity is found in the Peking temple ; 
 ten stone drums or irregularly-shaped pillars, from one and a half 
 to three feet high, and two feet across, commemorating a great 
 hunt B.C. 827. 
 
120 The Dragon, Image, a7id Denwn. 
 
 Analects his disciples describe him so naturally, that it is 
 impossible to ascribe the supernatural to him. The 
 Chinese look upon him as the model man, the perfect sage. 
 As is remarked, " No character in history is less mytho- 
 logical than Confucius. He is no demi-god, whose 
 biography consists chiefly of fable, but a real person. 
 The facts of his life, the personal aspect of the man, the 
 places where he lived, the petty kings under whom he 
 served, are all known." Not only do they fail in ascribing 
 the supernatural to him, but the people make a distinc- 
 tion between holy and divine. He is simply holy, with 
 no attribute of divinity. Here, then, is a marvel in 
 Chinese religion, that a man, merely a man, and nothing 
 more, is worshipped as a god. 
 
 The god of Office. — The worship of the Chinese in 
 all its departments is not so much with the view of 
 adoring the deity as of obtaining personal benefit. Litera- 
 ture is the basis of official promotion, and they rise to 
 office by a system of competitive examinations, which are 
 attended with as great excitement as a national election ; 
 for example, when 23,000 enter the examination hall at 
 Nanking, and 140 receive the degree of A.M., they 
 worship Confucius with the hope of getting office, which 
 in native works on ethics occupies the . same relative 
 position as paradise in our Bible. Office to the Chinese is 
 as heaven to us. The man who bows down before the 
 tablet of tlie sage has one thought for Confucius and two 
 for liimself. When the degrees of A.B., A.M., or LL.D. 
 are conferred the recipients go in state to the Confucian 
 temple, bow the knee, and prostrate the body in token of 
 the distinction they receive. 
 
The Confucian Sacrifices. 12 
 
 Literary Temples— In the empire there are 1,560 
 Confucian temples, one for each province, department, 
 and county. The provincial temple in Soochow is in a 
 small park one-third of a mile in length ; in front is a 
 grove of small cedars, and the grounds are ornamented 
 by numbers of stone monuments firmly fixed in the 
 backs of tortoises ; then there are large halls with astro- 
 nomical diagrams, and a map of the city on stone a 
 thousand years old, and also side-rooms for the tablets 
 of the 500 sages. The main hall is fifty by seventy 
 feet, the massive roof supported by wooden posts. The 
 temples of the Shantung province have large images of 
 the sage, with the shrine and paraphernalia of the Budd- 
 hists, but here there is the simple tablet which reads, 
 " Most Holy First Teacher, Confucius' spirit tablet.*' 
 The visitor, hearing the buzz of wings and chirp of voices 
 overhead, notes the thousands of swallows which here 
 homeward fly, and takes care to stand just without the 
 sacred portals ; so superstitious are the scholars, that 
 they will not suffer one of these living birds to be driven 
 away, lest it be ominous of evil, and they speak of them 
 as " the ten thousand happinesses come to court." The 
 premises, the finest in the city, are overgrown with 
 thistles and weeds, and are never put in order save at the 
 vernal and autumnal sacrifices. 
 
 The Sacrifice.— On the day preceding the sacrifice, in 
 an adjoining temple, several thousand satin-robed scholars 
 go in and bow before the sage's tablet ; the music on the 
 long guitars and instruments of steel is of the softest 
 kind, and in front is the company of dancers, flag-bearers, 
 and posture-makers with their bodies bending to the right 
 
122 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 and left. As I stood for a couple of hours watching them 
 one bj one making prostrations before the resting-place 
 of the philosopher's soul, many near me said, " Foreign 
 teacher, you worship Jesus ; this is the way we worship 
 Confucius." 
 
 The great sacrifice is in the fifth watch of the night. 
 
 Sacrifice to Confucius. 
 
 One ox, twenty-two sheep, and twenty-two pigs are slain, 
 and placed, skinned and whole, on the altar, and are 
 afterwards taken to the yamens and eaten by the 
 mandarins ; a great tent is spread above the stone dais 
 in front of the temple, when the Governor-Greneral, with 
 a thousand attendant mandarins and scholars, arrives in 
 
The Confucian Sacrifices. 123 
 
 state, and, as the chief priest of the literati, who are 
 divided according to rank, to chant, to respond, to bear flags, 
 to make postures, and to sing the doxology, he conducts 
 the worship according to the forms of the Book of Kites ; 
 and at the call of the master of ceremonies, with pomp 
 and parade they present a feast and pour out libations, 
 the grounds being brilliantly lighted, and the lamps 
 making radiant the richly-dressed congregation of 
 provincial magnates. A grand chorus then joins in 
 singing the soul-stirring doxology — 
 
 " Confucius, Confucius ! How great is Confucius ! 
 Before Confucius there never was a Confucius ; 
 Since Confucius there never has been a Confucius ; 
 Confucius, Confucius ! How great is Confucius ! " 
 
 In the Middle Kingdom every year 66,000 animals 
 are offered in sacrifice to the ancient sage. Listen to the 
 Emperor invoking the spirit of Confucius ! " Great art 
 thou, perfect sage ! Thy virtue is full ; thy doctrine 
 is complete. Among mortal men there has not been 
 thine equal. All kings honour thee. Thy statutes and 
 laws have come gloriously down. Thou art the pattern 
 in this Imperial school. Keverently have the sacrificial 
 vessels been set out. Full of awe we sound our diums 
 and bells.'' The spirit is supposed to be present, and the 
 p]mperor offers the prayer : " I, the Emperor, ofi'er a 
 sacrifice to the philosopher Confucius, the ancient teacher, 
 the perfect sage, and say, Teacher, in virtue equal to 
 Heaven and earth, whose doctrines embrace the past time 
 and the present .... in reverent observance of the old 
 statutes, with victims, silks, spirits, and fruits, I carefully 
 
124 ^/^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 ofifer sacrifice to thee. May'st thou enjoy the sacrifice." 
 Could the homage of a nation be more complete ? 
 
 The School.— When a boy enters school he prostrates 
 himself before the tablet of Confucius. On the 1st and 
 1.3th of every month little boys are seen going along the 
 streets with a roll of books in one hand, and candles and 
 incense in the other. '' Little boy, where are you going 
 
 bchool-boy worshipping Confucius. 
 
 to ? " "I am going to school." '' What are you going 
 to do with the candles and incense?" "Worship Con- 
 fucius, the Holy Man." And so in every schoolroom by 
 every one, who, as they say, " reads books," the sage is 
 adored precisely as they do the temple images. This is 
 
The Coufuciaii Sacrifices. 125 
 
 a fearful aspect of Confucianism, that from earliest 
 childhood boys are taught that success in letters depends 
 on serving, worshipping, and glorifying Confucius. 
 
 His Rank in the Pantheon. — It has been said, " If 
 the Chinese pay divine honours to any being in heaven, 
 or on earth, or under the earth, it is to Confucius. To 
 him they offer prayers and sacrifices, and him they wor- 
 ship and adore." 
 
 The chief god of the Indian religion is Buddha ; of 
 Chinese Taoism, the Pearly Emperor ; of the Church of 
 the learned, Confucius. Comparing the influence of the 
 three, though the people consider the first two as having 
 more power in the unseen world, yet the head of the 
 literary Church, in the respect of the nation, and in the 
 honours bestowed by the scholars, is beyond all question 
 the chief god of China. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONFUCIAN GODS. 
 
 The god of Literature. — Wenchang, the god of lite- 
 rature, is one of the leading deities of China. A con- 
 stellation, known as part of the Ursa Major, is called by 
 
 Wenchang. 
 
 this name, and by some the god of literature is con- 
 sidered as the ruler of this group of six stars ; by other 
 authorities he is considered as another god altogether. 
 The wheel of transmigration turned seventeen times the 
 
Confucian Gods. 
 
 127 
 
 fate of Wenchang. His most distinguished metempsy- 
 chosis was as a snake which revenged the wrongs done 
 to his ancestors. He then met with Buddha, who forgave 
 his sins, allowed him to throw ofif the serpent's coil, and 
 return as a man. He is one of a triad with Confucius and 
 the god of war. It is said that Wenchang prevents the 
 vicious, even though learned, from obtaining academic 
 degrees. 
 
 Behind \Venchang 
 there stands an old man 
 clothed in red, who nods 
 his head if the essay is 
 worthy of passing. It is 
 said the god's opinion 
 does not pass as law un- 
 less he has the assent of 
 the old man in red. 
 
 Wenchang's special 
 attendants are two boys, 
 named Heaven-Deaf and 
 Earth- Dumb. In the 
 book of literary decrees 
 the names of successful 
 candidates are written, and these two boys. Deaf and 
 Dumb, cannot divulge the secret. 
 
 The Star of Literature. — Kwei-sing, the star of 
 literature, holds in his right hand a pen, and in his left 
 a peck measure. He takes a more active part in the com- 
 petitive examinations than does Wenchang; so literary 
 men, before going to the examination hall, invariably 
 offer sacrifice to the star of literature. 
 
 Kwei-sing. 
 
128 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 The god of War. — Kwante, the god of war, is the 
 head of the miUtary, as Confucius is of the gentry. He 
 was a general who figured in the time of the Three King- 
 doms, just after the commencement of our Christian era, 
 and his bloody sword won for him the unenviable position 
 
 of god of the battle-field. 
 He is one of the most 
 popular gods in the 
 
 \™,, Chinese pantheon, and 
 
 1 during this generation 
 
 " his fame has been in- 
 
 creasing. In 1856 he 
 appeared in the heavens, 
 as Castor and Pollux did 
 to the Eomans, and suc- 
 cessfully turned the tide 
 of battle in favour of the 
 Imperialists, for which 
 the Emperor raised him 
 to the rank of Confucius. 
 There are 1,600 State 
 temples at which the 
 mandarins worship twice 
 a month, besides the 
 
 thousands of smaller 
 God of War. 
 
 temples, where sacrifices 
 
 of sheep and oxen are offered to him. In every camp, in 
 every tent, in every officer's room, there hangs the large 
 portrait of the Chinese Mars. His worship is not confined 
 to the officials and the army, for many trades and pro- 
 fessions have selected him as a patron saint, and few 
 
Confucian Gods. 
 
 129 
 
 pictures are so familiar, as one looks into the homes of 
 the people, as that of the god of war. The executioner's 
 knife is kept within the sacred precincts of his temple, 
 and when the mandarin who superintends the decapita- 
 tion returns from the execution ground, he stops here to 
 worship, for fear some ghost of the criminal may follow 
 
 Three Primordial Sovereisrns. 
 
 him. He knows the spirit would not dare to go into 
 Kwante's presence, so he takes this means of getting rid 
 of his invisible attendant. 
 
 Three Primordial Sovereigns — After the time of 
 Pankoo there were three kings, whose united reigns 
 aggregated 18,000 years. The people constantly speak 
 of the King of Heaven, the King of Earth, and the King 
 
 9 
 
130 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 of Men; Heaven, Earth, and Man forming, in their 
 esteem, a kind of trinity. 
 
 The Five Planetary - gods. — The Grreen Ruler, 
 corresponding with Jupiter ; the Red Ruler, correspond- 
 ing with Mars ; the Yellow Ruler, corresponding with 
 Saturn; the White Ruler, corresponding with Venus; 
 and the Black Ruler, corresponding with Mercury. 
 
 The Five Emperors. — In the legendary period the 
 Chinese speak of their five emperors, all of whom, save 
 
 Household. Gods. 
 
 Yao and Shun, Confucius rejected as being unauthentic. 
 (1) Fuhhe. (2) Shinnung, the divine Husbandman, who 
 taught agriculture to the nation. (3) Hienyuen, who 
 taught medicine, and who also first taught the art of 
 dress. f4) Yao. (5) Shun. These are all worshipped. 
 
 Penates, or Household gods. — In every house, 
 except the hovels of the poor, just within the gateway 
 or first entrance-room, and opposite the front door, high 
 up are three pigeon-holes, where reside the family gods. 
 In the middle one, on the tablet, are the words, *' Heaven, 
 
Confucian Gods. 
 
 Earth, Euler, Parent, and Teacher;" on the left, 
 inscribed on the tablet, " We burn incense to the holy 
 multitude of family gods ; " on the right are the ancestral 
 tablets, placed in order of rank, the oldest in the rear. 
 Door gods. — In front of the yamens and temples 
 
 Door Gods. 
 
 on the doors are painted two giant pictures of the door 
 gods ; they were ministers of state in the Tang dynasty, 
 by the name of Wei Tsukung and Ching Sohpao. 
 
 God of Agriculture. — ]\Iangtseang lived about the 
 thirteenth century, and is popularly believed to be able 
 to keep away the plague of grasshoppers. He was a 
 
132 The Dragon, hnage, and DeiJion. 
 
 beardless young man, and exceedingly fond of children. 
 The mandarins worship him, his temple is found in 
 every hamlet, theatricals in his honour are quite 
 renowned, and his processions go to every village. His 
 birthday is on the 13th of the 1st Moon, and during 
 the following week a long table is placed before his 
 youthful majesty, spread with various kinds of food, 
 fruits, and artificial flowers; and a retinue of angels 
 bow towards him. 
 
 God of Agriculture. 
 
 He is also worshipped by the coolies ; they say, 
 "Mangtseang went barefoot, and so do we (with only 
 straw sandals j ; so we worship him." He is one of the 
 chief gods of the nation. 
 
 Gods of the Tides.— These two gods were Wuyuin, 
 of the kingdom of Wu, whose capital was Soochow, and 
 Wenchung, of the kingdom of Yuih, whose capital was 
 Hangchow ; they were enemies during life, but now 
 exercise joint sovereignty over the tides; perhaps to 
 
Confucian Gods, 
 
 ^ZZ 
 
 account for the ebb and flow the Chinese regard it as 
 necessary to have two opposing gods. 
 
 The Golden-dragon King. — There are four of these 
 gods and four ministers, but the people along the Yellow 
 River recognise which one it is. They appear as snakes 
 with square heads and with horns; and when the "river 
 king " comes floating on the flood of turbid waters, when 
 
 Tidal-god. 
 
 there is a freshet on the Yellow River, " China's sorrow," 
 he is hailed with delight, as immediately the "waters 
 assuage." The governor of the river receives the divine 
 snake in a lacquer waiter, carries him in his sedan to the 
 temple, and the mandarins all worship the heaven-sent 
 messenger. This " golden-dragon king," who comes as a 
 serpent, is very fond of theatricals, so the best actors 
 are invited, a programme is placed before him, and he 
 nods towards the play he wishes performed. After some 
 
T34 ^^^^ Di^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 days the coiling god takes his departure, and the governor 
 of the Yellow Eiver memorialises the throne to assign 
 him rank and erect a tablet. These memorials appear 
 in the Peking Gazette; one was sent up by an official, 
 now one of the most distinguished of this province, and 
 another it is said, a few years ago, was sent to the 
 Emperor by the " Bismarck of China." Mandarins who 
 do not countenance idolatry, when they are appointed 
 to the control of the Yellow River, are thoroughly 
 satisfied with the divinity of this snake. 
 
 The Five Dragons. — The dragon of the east is called 
 
 Ciul den-dragon King. 
 
 Jao-Kwang ; of the south, Jao-Chwen ; of the west, Jao- 
 Ming ; of the north, Jao-Kyih ; and of the middle, Jao- 
 Ping. The governor worships twice a year and the 
 prefect twice a month. In times of drought these dragons 
 are worshipped, and in front of the temples there is a pond 
 from which they draw rain. In the inner temple there is 
 an image of Mrs. Dragon. 
 
 Temple of Worthies. — In this city there is a temple 
 — it is only a specimen of what is found elsewhere — 
 which contains several hundred tablets of mandarins 
 who have been the benefactors of their race, and of the 
 
Confucian Gods. 135 
 
 widows of mandarins, to whom regular sacrifices are 
 offered by the highest officials. 
 
 God of the Classics — He was named Chen Kongchen, 
 and flourished in the Han dynasty, and was able satis- 
 factorily to expound the most intricate passages in the 
 Classics. He adopted the civil measure of punishing the 
 misdemeanours of his handmaids, by requiring them to 
 memorise the words of Confucius, so his Ahmahs became 
 classical scholars. 
 
 The god of Writing. — Ts^ang Hieh " was reputed as 
 the inventor of the art of writing in the mythical period 
 of antiquity. He is said to have elaborated the art of form- 
 ing written characters by imitating the footprints of birds." 
 
 The Written Character. — The reverence for the 
 written character, though highly commendable as a part 
 of the national devotion to learning, is carried too far, 
 and becomes a very specious kind of idolatry ; for printed 
 paper is sacred, the sin first mentioned is its mie^use, and 
 its preservation the first among meritorious actions. INlen 
 with two mammoth baskets suspended from the ends of 
 a pole across the shoulder go along the streets, tear down 
 placards, empty waste-paper baskets, gather up every 
 scrap of written paper, take it to their employers, who pay 
 sixty cents per hundredweight, carry it to the " Pity Cha- 
 racter " furnace and burn it. The ashes are sent to the port 
 and carried out to sea, to be thrown overboard in a storm, 
 so as to cause the waves to be stilled. These furnaces 
 or altars are often connected with temples, and large sums 
 of money are thus expended. It is considered an offering 
 to letters, to Confucius, and to the god of literature. 
 Mencius. — In considering the character of this great 
 
136 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 philosopher, the question arises, How can a man become a 
 god in China ? I answer. By the erection of a temple and 
 the offering of sacrifices. The only temple Mencius has 
 is near his grave in the province of Shantung, where sheep 
 and pigs, by Imperial order, are placed on the altar, but 
 he is not deified in the estimation of the people. His 
 descendants of the seventieth and seventy-second genera- 
 
 Mencius. 
 
 tions are now living. He was born B.C. 371, and died at 
 the advanced age of eighty-four, a contemporary of Plato, 
 Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and Demosthenes. 
 
 *' The mother of Mencius " is perhaps the most cele- 
 brated woman in Chinese annals. As a widow, she chose 
 her residence near a school, and said, " This is the proper 
 place for my son." Finding that he was neglecting his 
 
Confucian Gods. 137 
 
 lessons she took a knife and cut through the web she was 
 weaving, and when he, astonished, asked the reason, she 
 told him "that her cutting through the web was like his 
 neglecting his lessons." The maternal admonition laid the 
 foundation of his future greatness. In after years, wishing 
 to leave the kingdom of Tse because his doctrines were 
 not practised, he said to his mother, " I wish to leave my 
 position and salary, but I think of your old age, and am 
 anxious." She replied, " You are a man in your full 
 maturity, and I am old. Do you act as your conviction 
 of righteousness tells you you ought to do ? Why should 
 you be anxious about me ? " 
 
 The writings of Mencius form one of the " Four Books," 
 and are memorised by all school boys ; the study of most 
 of the contents is like " chewing dry corn stalks," but 
 passages in his works are the brightest, most inspiring 
 discussions to be found in Chinese literature. Con- 
 fucius was a plain, practical philosopher, who spoke of 
 duty, while Mencius was metaphysical, and reasoned about 
 man's nature. The honour conferred on Mencius is not 
 one ten-thousandth of what the sage receives, and he is 
 spoken of as "A number two saint." 
 
 He was in his day " a great professor of morals and 
 learning, who taught the principles of virtue and society." 
 He says, " The way of truth is like a great road. It is 
 not difficult to know it. The evil is that men will not 
 seek it. Do you go home and search for it, and you will 
 have abundance of teachers." Much of his time was 
 spent in the palaces of kings, but Mencius bore himself 
 " loftily," as if a royal teacher. 
 
 Under a despotic government he was a bold and brave 
 
138 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 man to raise the standard of liberty, and exclaim, " The 
 people are the most important element in a nation, and 
 the sovereign is the lightest." His two principal elements 
 in a successful rule are, " to make the people prosperous, 
 and to educate them." In urging the necessity of 
 educated officials, he says, " Some men labour with their 
 minds and some with their strength. Those who labour 
 with their minds govern others, those who labour with 
 their strength are governed by others." 
 
 Mencius' celebrated teachings about human nature are 
 discussed in Chapter II. 
 
 Perhaps the nearest approach of a pagan philosopher 
 to the simplicity of Christianity is where he says, " The 
 great man is he who does not lose his child's heart," 
 reminding one of " Except ye be converted and become as 
 little children ; '' the difference being, " Christ speaks of 
 the child's heart as a thing to be regained ; Mencius 
 speaks of it as a thing not to be lost." 
 
 The Disciples of Confucius. — -The tablets of the five 
 hundred disciples are in the Confucian temples, and have 
 sticks of incense burning before them. Scattered through- 
 out the empire are temples erected near the homes of 
 those students who sat at the master's feet, and thither 
 the local governors repair, offering sheep, pigs, and oxen 
 in sacrifice. If the men who were styled " Jupiter " and 
 " Mercurius " at Lystra rent their clothes when the people 
 cried out, " The gods are come down to us in the likeness 
 of men," and the priest " brought oxen and garlands unto 
 the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people," 
 surely these temples and animal sacrifices are not simply 
 funereal, but are also idolatrous. 
 
Conftician Gods. \ 39 
 
 The Eight gods. — In ancient times the Emperor 
 sacrificed to the " eight gods." (1) The Lord of Heaven. 
 (2) The Lord of Earth. (3) The Lord of War. (4) The 
 Lord of the Male Principle of Nature. (5) The Lord of 
 the Female Principle of Nature. (6) The Lord of the 
 Sun. (7) The Lord of the Moon. (8) The Lord of the 
 Four Seasons of the Year. 
 
 The Divine Husbandman. — " This title was attri- 
 buted to Shin Nung, the successor of the great Fuhhe, 
 B.C. 2737." '' He first fashioned timber into ploughs, 
 and taught the people the art of husbandry. He dis- 
 covered the curative virtues of plants, and instituted the 
 practice of holding markets for the exchange of com- 
 modities." 
 
 Spirits of the Land and Grain. — " The deified being 
 Kow Lung is the universal tutelary genius of the land," 
 and with him is associated Kih Yien, and these two '' are 
 the chief presiding influences governing the well-being 
 of the empire." These are worshipped with sacrifices by 
 the highest officials on the open altars, "in the first 
 month of spring, in conformity with traditions of the 
 highest antiquity." 
 
 Gods of the Precincts. — Each of the sixteen hundred 
 counties in the empire is divided into a number of dis- 
 tricts corresponding to the wards in a city or the 
 precincts in the country, and each of these neighbour- 
 hoods has its own special protecting god, besides 
 innumerable sub-divisions of territory, so that there are 
 many hundred thousand, if not one or two millions, of 
 these f'u-dee or local gods. Generals, statesmen, crown- 
 princes dying in boyhood, mandarins, doctors, and 
 
140 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 benevolent men are the tutelary deities of the precincts 
 and wards, and are constantly worshipped. 
 
 The god-constables. — Among the class mentioned 
 above, within every yamen, there is a temple to the 
 fu-dee or constable of the district, who acts as chief of 
 police for all the official secretaries and runners. If 
 anything goes wrong in the precinct or ward, a theft or 
 
 Granaiy King. 
 
 a riot, the mandarin bamboos the constable, the protector 
 of the public peace ; so if in Tartarus the spirits get 
 into a row, the god-constable must answer for it, and the 
 city-god of Hades may have him beaten with one hundred 
 or six hundred strokes, as his divinity thinks proper. 
 
 The Prison-god. In the Han dynasty the Emperor 
 directed Siao-Wu to revise the criminal statutes, and at 
 
Confucian Gods, 
 
 141 
 
 death he was made god of the gaol, by the name of Siao 
 Wang. He is worshipped by the Board of Punishments, 
 the criminal judges, the gaolers, and the prisoners. The 
 latter hope that the gaol-god will keep their guilty con- 
 sciences at ease, and may open a way to escape. Before 
 execution criminals are dragged into his presence as they 
 are taken from prison, and made to bow to the gaoler of 
 Tartarus. 
 
 God of the City Wall. 
 — Called " The Eighth 
 Minister." He rules the 
 city wall, and directs the 
 military operations in case 
 of a siege ; he is worshipped 
 by the Board of Public 
 Works. 
 
 The Guardian Tem- 
 ples. — There is always a 
 chief guardian of the heir- 
 apparent called the T'ai 
 Fao ; his temples are 
 numerous throughout the 
 land, and the highest man- 
 darins offer sacrifice. The T'ai Pao is now considered 
 an official title. The Soochow temple is in honour of 
 a crown prince of the Chow dynasty, who, disowned 
 by his father, fled to this city ; his temple was rebuilt a 
 few years since by Goo Wu. 
 
 The Granary King. — His image is a large one, and 
 he has three eyes. He is worshipped by the landed 
 gentry about the time they collect their "rent rice." 
 
 Eighth Great King. 
 
142 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Every granary, or storehouse, has a tablet of this 
 deity. 
 
 The Eighth Great King. — The Manchus have a 
 special mandarin to attend to their lawsuits, and " The 
 Eighth Great King " is his counterpart in the other 
 world. He was the " Eighth Prince," an uncle of the 
 last of the Ming Emperors, and cast in his allegiance 
 with the new Manchu ruler. He advised the Soochow 
 people to submit; they, however, stoned him to death, 
 and sunk his boat. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 BUDDHA, THE NIGHT OF ASIA. 
 
 O HAKYAMUNI GAUTAMA BUDDHA, the founder of 
 ^^ the religion that bears his name, of royal descent, 
 was born probably about 624 B.C., in Kapilavastu, a city 
 to the north of Benares, the headquarters of the Buddhist 
 faith in India. This was not his first appearance upon the 
 earth, for it is said five hundred and fifty times had he come 
 as vegetable, animal, or man, till now he appears a Buddha. 
 Very convenient it is for the historians of this faith to 
 locate their characters several million years ago, as thus 
 critics have not the opportunity of examining the 
 authenticity of the narrative. In this present kalpa 
 there have been seven Buddhas, all fictitious, one of 
 whom, Janteng, the Lamp-light Buddha, was the cele- 
 brated preceptor of our hero in a previous existence. 
 
 If name gives fame he was fortunate. His princely 
 name was Siddartha, " All-prospering ; " Buddha means 
 " The Awakener," and was his official title ; Gautama was 
 the sacerdotal appellation of his clan ; among the Celes- 
 tials he is known as Shakyamuni, " the sage of the 
 Shakya tribe," or, from its significance, Shakya, " the 
 lion," — as the lion is king of the forest, so by his moral 
 pre-eminence Buddha rules among men. 
 
144 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 The Buddhistic legends of this wonderful person are 
 full of romance, and the outlines of the portrait, as seen 
 by the Chinese, here presented, are mostly taken from his 
 *' Pictorial Life " in four volumes, published in Hangchow. 
 The legends from the Indian Ocean deal more in the 
 marvellous than the story as told in this biography. 
 Kind reader, do not ask " Is this authentic ? " 
 
 Ancestry. — Of his remote ancestry we have some 
 information. A teacher of one of the ancient Buddhas 
 took two lumps of clay mixed with blood, and put them 
 in jars, trusting to a vow that they would become men. 
 After ten months there emerged from these jars two 
 human beings, one a man and the other a woman, who 
 became the rulers of India, and the ancestors of a line 
 of rajas, one of whom begat four sons ; the eldest was 
 Suddhodana, the father of Shakyamuni. As Buddha was 
 to appear among men, at the arrival of the due time 
 he sought the most prosperous kingdom and the family 
 under the luckiest star. He considered the merits of 
 several countries, and found that they lacked in one par- 
 ticular or another of being the " model state ; " but, with 
 the assistance of the Devas " going through the court 
 almanac of Indian princes and princesses," at last selected 
 Kapilavastu, seated in the very centre of the earth, and 
 King Suddhodana and his bride as the elect parents. 
 
 His Birth. — In a dream Queen Maya sees the heavenly 
 Buddha riding upon a white elephant with six tusks, and 
 entering her right side her body became transparent as 
 glass. The seer gave an answer to the inquiring king 
 that a sage was to be born who should glorify the Indian 
 faith. Heaven supplied Maya with food. In the palace 
 
Buddha y the Night of Asia. 145 
 
 garden, under a Palasa tree, which bent down its branches 
 around Her Majesty, was the young prince born, a 
 Buddha, — not as a man, for out of the side came he 
 forth, the four regents of the skies presenting him to his 
 happy mother. A light illumined the heavens, a rainbow 
 stretched athwart the sky, a multitude in the air sang, 
 
 Buddha. 
 
 there was a shower of roses, and nine dragons spouted 
 water, for him to bathe in fountains both cold and hot. 
 The babe walked seven steps to the four points of the 
 compass, and with an expressive wave of his tiny hand 
 said, " Above heaven and under heaven, I alone am 
 great." 
 
 10 
 
146 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 When the tidings reached the palace the king 
 thought, What carriage is suitable to bring him in ? A 
 chariot is sent from Heaven, and the gods walk with men, 
 and push it along in the triumphal procession, while 
 maidens from Mount Sumaru went before with singing. 
 The aged Asita comes in, takes the babe in his arms, 
 points out his thirty-two marks and eighty symbols, the 
 tattoo of the Devas, the signs of destiny, foretells his 
 future as a teacher, and weeps because at fourscore he 
 could not see the mighty things about to come to pass. 
 Suddhodana ordered a release of 
 criminals, the liberation of animals, 
 and 3,200 priests to chant prayers. 
 Princes and nobles, merchants and 
 peasants rejoiced, and the brute 
 creation show^ed their joy ; it is re- 
 corded that at that time cows gave 
 ten quarts of milk. 
 
 His Boyhood. — The young 
 The Infant Buddha. mother left him an orphan of seven 
 days. His aunt tenderly cared for 
 him with thirty -two nurses, eight to carry him, eight to 
 bathe, eight to feed, and eight to play with him. He 
 grew in stature day by day, as the moon increases night by 
 night from the crescent to the full orb. One day, carried 
 in the arms to the temple, the idols rise and bow to him, 
 owning his sovereignty, the worshipped taking their place 
 as worshippers. During eight years he played in the 
 palace garden ; it is said that his dear aunt made him 
 a golden saddle to ride a goat. Of his differing from 
 other children it is recorded that he did not cry, nor 
 
Btiddha, the Night of Asia. 147 
 
 frown, nor pout, that he kept his clothes unsoiled, and 
 his nose clean. 
 
 The king chose the most renowned teacher the realm 
 afforded for the prince, who walked into the schoolroom 
 and asked, '' Will you teach me Sanscrit and the sixty- 
 four books of the Immortals ? " The preceptor listened 
 with amazement to his skill in numbers, as he ran 
 through a trigonometrical table. 
 
 " At fifteen years of age he was, in an assembly of 
 nobles and Brahmans, formally invested with the rank 
 of heir-apparent." The lords presented to his royal 
 father basins of water brought on their heads from the 
 four seas, which, mingled with oil, was sprinkled on 
 Siddartha's head, after which he was saluted as Crown- 
 Prince, and received the seal of the seven precious things. 
 He grew up with princely mien, yet gentle and wise, 
 a handsome and thoughtful youth, with a serious face 
 and sad countenance ; an old head on young shoulders. 
 " His father, however, became displeased at the religious 
 and melancholy tone which pervaded the prince's life, 
 and tried to educate him in the arts and accomplishments 
 suited to the future occupant of a great throne." As 
 was wont with the Shakya princes, he was trained in 
 gymnastics, and excelled all in archery, wrestling, and 
 other manly exercises. Soon he had occasion to use his 
 skill. 
 
 Love at First Sight. — The king issued a proclama- 
 tion : '' The Prince Eoyal desires the fair ladies of the 
 Shakya clan to assemble at the court, when he will distri- 
 bute precious ornaments." Accordingly there came to 
 the festival a lovely and charming company, " all excel- 
 
148 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 ling in beauty, decked with costly jewellery, and arrayed 
 in finest robes," as competitors in grace and loveliness. 
 The umpire was no other than Siddartha, who, placed 
 upon a rural throne, gave gifts to each, — gems, and 
 pearls, and costly toys, — as one by one the flowers of 
 Kapilavastu's capital filed before His Highness. Each 
 one, because of the grace of the prince's demeanour, could 
 not look him in the face, but, passing by and bowing, 
 took her gift and departed, the tender-hearted king, with 
 the assembled throng, watching his countenance to see 
 on whom his eyes would fasten ; but the " playful smiles, 
 arch looks, and tender blushes" were all lost on the 
 youthful and solemn face. Just then the prince was seen 
 to start, as the beautiful Yasodhara, a dark-eyed Indian 
 maiden, claimed her prize, and " love looked love to eyes," 
 as upon her he bestowed his signet ring and necklace of 
 pearls. She was asked in marriage, but the father said 
 other suitors claimed her hand, so let the contestants 
 " engage in feats of manliness," " the victor's crown to be 
 Yasodhara," who now in her turn sits upon a dais to watch 
 the exploits of youthful warriors. Siddartha called for 
 the ancestral bow, which only Sinhahanu could use, and 
 as he thumbed the string the people w^ith trepidation 
 asked, " What sound is that? " He then sent the arrow 
 which pierced seven iron drums and seven iron pigs. 
 Mounted on Kantaka, his noble steed, none could equal 
 him in equestrian sports. The result was that the Prince 
 Imperial " selected a lucky day, and led home to his 
 palace the beautiful Yasodhara, adorned with gems and 
 jewels, and attended by five hundred bridesmaids." 
 
 The Indian Paradise.— Suddhodana built for them 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 1 49 
 
 a marble palace in the royal park, surrounded by a 
 high wall with a gate guarded by helmeted warriors, 
 and provided three thousand nautch girls, in three gay 
 bands by day and by night, to play and to dance. 
 
 " Thus passed ten years, 
 "With lovely sights were gentle faces found, 
 Soft speech and willing service, each one glad 
 To gladden, pleased at pleasure, proud to obey ; 
 Till life glided beguiled like a smooth stream 
 Banked by perpetual flowers, Yasodhara 
 Queen of the enchanting court." 
 
 The measures his father adopted were ineffectual in 
 averting the dread fate so early announced by Indian 
 seers. " He, the most learned and the most powerful of 
 men, came to sad grief through women. All Buddhistic 
 traditions agree in stating that it was the experiences 
 with the ladies of his harem which disgusted him with 
 the whole world, and put him in a misanthropic mood." 
 He lived in a false world of music and tinsel, and sighed 
 to learn of men and things as they actually existed. 
 His father assented to his request, and issued a mandate, 
 that the streets of Kapilavastu be swept and sprinkled 
 with scented water, the ground carpeted with flowers, 
 and that the people array themselves in holiday attire 
 to welcome their future king as he rides forth in his 
 chariot. 
 
 Age, Sickness, and Death. — Amidst the greetings 
 of the happy multitudes, his eyes, which had only 
 beheld youth and beauty, were fastened upon an old 
 decrepid man, bent down with years and infirmity, a 
 staff supporting his tottering limbs. " Charioteer, what 
 
150 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 is this ? " " Grreat Prince, this man is old." " And what 
 does old mean?" "The body wastes away, the limbs 
 grow feeble ; mind and memory gone." " And my body, 
 
 must I grow old ? " " Even so, holy prince, rich and 
 
 poor share this common lot." 
 
 Again he essayed beyond the gates of the city, when 
 there appeared before Siddartha a sick and pain-worn 
 man, lean and yellow, upon whom the plague had seized, 
 as anon with his writhings, almost expiring, he rolled 
 in the dust, crying, " Alas ! Alas ! pity, master, pity." 
 " Who is this unhappy being ? " The coachman answered, 
 " It is a sick man." " And what is sickness ? " " This 
 man's body is unsound, and his limbs helpless ; he 
 endm-es pain without remedy." Again the prince in- 
 quired, " Is sickness common to man generally ? " to 
 which Channa replies, " Grods and men alike are unable 
 to avoid this misery." " And must I some day be 
 sick ? " 
 
 The next time he sallies forth he beholds a corpse. 
 " Who is this lying on his bed, with people following 
 him, lamenting as he is carried onwards ? " " Most holy 
 prince, this is a dead body." " And what is death ? " 
 The garrulous Channa, who drives him, answers, and the 
 prince asks, " Must I also die ? " " Neither gods nor 
 men can escape this inevitable fate." 
 
 The Flight — At night he listens to voices in the 
 air, the Devas calling him to abandon sensual pleasure 
 and seek for rest. He arises from his bed, and passing 
 through the hall, the lamps untrimmed, smoky and 
 defiled with oil, the women asleep in every unseemly 
 position, uneasily moving and muttering, some with 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 1 5 1 
 
 eyes half-closed, others dribbling from their mouths, 
 grinding with their teeth, and snoring through their 
 noses, he exclaims, " Where is beauty when the deco- 
 rations are taken away, the jewels removed, and the 
 gaudy dress laid aside ? I will go ; the time has come." 
 
 Returning to his wife's chamber, built of white marble, 
 with soft light falling on the royal couch from perfumed 
 lamps, he gazed a long farewell, and " once for all for- 
 sook his home, his kindred, and his kingdom." 
 
 He calls for his noble steed Kantaka, strokes his mane, 
 mounts the saddle, and bids him fly on the wings of the 
 wind. The Devas cause a deep sleep to fall on all within 
 the palace walls, the clanging hoofs on the stones are 
 not heard, the sentinels awake not, and, the gate which 
 takes five hundred men to open, and whose creak may 
 be heard for many yojanas, flies open, and the prince 
 flees. Eeaching the forest, he sends back horse and 
 groom, saying to the latter, " I to-day have left my 
 kingdom, with only you to follow me ; you follow me 
 both in heart and in body. Tell my father I am not 
 angry or unfilial, but all creatures are deceived, and not 
 on the true road, and I wish to save them. Take this 
 royal mantle and circlet of pearls to my wife, and say, 
 " Love must have separations. I wish to mitigate 
 suffering." 
 
 The Great Renunciation — Siddartha no more, prince 
 no longer. Shaky amuni " made his great renunciation 
 complete by cutting off with his sword the long locks 
 of the warrior " and putting on the yellow robe. By all 
 the severe tortures of Brahminism he seeks " the path," 
 he dwells in the jungles far away from the haunts of 
 
152 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 men, with shaven pate and soiled garments, in squalor 
 and discomfort. From that day, as " the author of a 
 religion, his name has become a household word of reve- 
 rence among millions of people. Yet the glory which 
 has gathered around the name of this historical indivi- 
 dual has utterly dazzled the eyes of his followers, and 
 made them forget the real man in order to grasp at a 
 fictitious deity." 
 
 The Hermit — He dwelt among the immortals who 
 lived on weeds, fruits, and flowers, — some with one meal 
 a day, some one in two days, and some one in three 
 days. He took his seat, tailor-fashion, with eyes fixed 
 on the end of his nose, and counted his breathings to 
 keep from thinking, with daily one head of wheat and 
 one of hemp for his diet during the fcur seasons of 
 six long years ; he did not arise to attend to the neces- 
 sities of the body, with no difference in his position, 
 without moving to one side or the other, without leaning 
 to either side or on anything, with nothing to protect 
 his head from the wind or rain, insensible even to the 
 droppings of the birds ; his eyes did not look aside, and 
 his heart was without fear. 
 
 After six years of penance he was so lean he could 
 scarcely move, and his body was like a dried tree, when 
 two kind milkmaids brought him milk and he wag 
 strengthened. His clothes all rotten, he spied old raiment 
 under a tree. His biographer states that the fame of his 
 mortification " spread abroad like the sound of a great 
 bell hung in the canopy of the skies." 
 
 At this time, there arrives a delegation of nobles sent 
 by his father to invite him back to his palace, and 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 
 
 153 
 
 urge upon him to receive the kingdom, which ofifer he 
 declines. 
 
 Mara and his Temptations. — Then comes the time 
 when the tempter tries his power. Shakyamuni advances 
 to the Bodhi-tree, when a delegation of women from 
 
 Onset of Devils. 
 
 the harem of Hades try their seductive arts, but fail to 
 tempt him to leave the '' lion's throne," a cushion of 
 grass prepared by heavenly hands. 
 
 He then fell into the agony of a mental conflict, which 
 the legends portray by more than a Miltonic picture 
 of a battle between Buddha and Mara. The devil 
 
154 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 assembles the hosts of the infernal regions, and tells them 
 that a Buddha is about to appear. Three onslaughts he 
 makes on the lone man seated beneath the tree ; the 
 legions of hell, myriads upon myriads, to the number of 
 800,000,000, riders upon elephants and camels, cavalry, 
 infantry, chariots, flag-bearers, cannibal-spirits armed 
 with arrows, spears, and clubs, the dragons riding on black 
 clouds ; all with mighty shouts, and flashing lightning 
 and hail storms : thus onwards Mara leads Hades in battle 
 array. The leader cries, " One man, what can you do ? 
 Get out of the way ! " He brandishes a sword, and says, 
 " 111 cut you in two." The recluse waved his hand, and 
 there were earthquakes, at which elephants, camels, horses, 
 chariots, dragons, and spirits fled in dire confusion, and 
 bows and spears covered the ground. Some of the army 
 of darkness escaped to the mountains, some to the caves, 
 while ^Nlara and a portion of his legions prostrated them- 
 selves before Buddha. 
 
 Attaining to Buddhaship. — Seated beneath the Bodhi- 
 tree, the Ficiis religiosa, he remained steeped in a sort 
 of ecstatic meditation during the whole night. " He 
 forced his mind as the night wore through to a strict 
 sequence of thought, and as morning dawned the light 
 he so long sought broke upon him, and he reached the 
 goal of absolute intelligence ; freed from the bondage 
 of sense, perception, and self, he has broken with the 
 material world and lives in eternity." Thus by a purely 
 human process the Prince Imperial of India found the 
 light, and painfully won his way to Buddhahood ; now 
 no longer man, he is Buddha, The Enlightened, The 
 Awakener. 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 155 
 
 The Heart of Pity. — It is recorded in his youth that 
 the royal prince, going out to witness a ploughing match, 
 ''seeing the tired oxen, their necks bleeding from the 
 yoke, the men toiling beneath the mid-day sun, and flocks 
 of birds devouring the insects in the upturned soil, his 
 heart was filled with grief, as a man would feel who saw 
 his own household bound in fetters." And with increas- 
 ing years grew his compassionateness, his " countenance 
 glowing with the burning passion of love " to a world 
 of woe. Who can live on the plains of Asia and not 
 sympathise with suffering humanity ? During twoscore 
 years he entered the hovels of the poor and was familiar 
 with distress and want; the burden of the labourer 
 " toiling for leave to live " rested as a load upon his 
 back ; the wails of the mourner, the groans of the sick, 
 and the cries of the orphan filled his ear ; the sufi*ering 
 world so vast, the " agony of earth" so great, creatures 
 in bondage, " caught in this common net of pain and 
 woe," lay upon his heart ; the spectacle of misery, crime, 
 decay, desolation, and death rose before his eyes. 
 
 *' To reign as a great king, to be courted by the high 
 and feared by the low, to be rich in the spoils of the 
 world, all seemed to him contemptible. The honour to 
 which he aspired was to redeem the countless millions 
 that would be born into the world from their sins and 
 sorrows, and guide them in a way leading to peace." 
 "Through the soft strains of the musicians he heard 
 the groans of sorrow ; his eye looked beyond the fantastic 
 movements of nautch girls under the glitter of the lamp, 
 to the moans of those in darkness ; beyond the perfumes 
 of his garden he perceived the nausea of death ; beyond 
 
156 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 the pride of life and the pomp of kings floated visions 
 of decay and dissolution, of ghastly suffering and never- 
 ending bondage." 
 
 Buddha stated his object in leaving his palace as 
 four-fold. 1. To save suffering creatures. 2. To be as 
 a lamp and medicine to those in blindness and dark- 
 ness. 3. To teach men not to live for self. 4. Seeing 
 all creatures as if bound to the wheels of the three 
 worlds, like a thread coiled round and round, to unloose 
 them. Perhaps at times his pity was carried to an 
 extreme. Mara says to Buddha, " Will you not have 
 a heart of pity and save my life ? " Buddha, merciful 
 as a father, comforted the devil. 
 
 His Manhood — " When God through the absurdities 
 of polytheism was pushed out of view, the substitute 
 was Buddha, the perfect sage, the model ascetic, the 
 patient and loving teacher, the wonder-working magician, 
 the acknowledged superior of gods and men." 
 
 " He is a world-born man, who washes away his sins, like 
 others, by penances, offerings, and the teaching of some 
 enlightened instructor. He is not said to create the 
 universe, nor to act as the judge of mankind. He is 
 simply a teacher of the most exalted kind, who, by 
 superior knowledge, passes out of the metempsychosis, 
 and gradually attains the Nirvana. His attitude towards 
 his disciples is simply that of an instructor, not an 
 authoritative superior. In fact, the character ascribed 
 to Buddha is rather that of a saviour than that of a 
 god. The object of his life and teaching is to rescue 
 living beings from their misery." 
 
 The Tola of Mustard Seed — Kisagotami, three years 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 1 5 7 
 
 since a bride, rejoiced in a first-born son, but just as his 
 pattering feet were making glad both heart and home, he 
 was taken sick, grew worse and worse, and the anxious 
 mother, fearing to lose her precious boy, carried him 
 clasped to her bosom, seeking healing from physicians. 
 Some one said, " Ask the holy man with the yellow 
 robe if there be cure for thy son." She, prostrate, prays, 
 " Lord and Master, what medicine will heal my child ? " 
 Said he, " Go fetch a tola (two ounces) of mustard seed, 
 but take it not from any hand or house where father, 
 mother, child, or slave hath died." The sad face went 
 from door to door, and all had the handful of mustard 
 seed to give, but when she asked, " Hath death e'er 
 entered this abode ? " the reply would come, " Lady, what 
 is this you ask ? The dead are very many and the 
 living few." Father or mother, husband or wife, son or 
 daughter, had thence been borne to the funeral pile. 
 Leaving the cold treasure in the forest, broken-hearted, 
 Kisagotami comes again to Buddha. " Hast thou pro- 
 cured the mustard seed ? " " Grreat Sir, I could not find 
 a single house where none had died." Shakyamuni 
 said, " You thought you alone had lost a son ; the law of 
 death reigns over all creatures. I seek the secret of 
 that curse, — hiiry thou thy child.'' There was no balm 
 in Grilead, there was no physician there. 
 
 All Flesh — The scheme of Buddha was all-embracing. 
 It was not designed merely to emancipate man from 
 sorrow, but all that hath life and breath. Constantly 
 reiterated was his teaching about " all creatures," " all 
 living things," "all sentient beings." Men and beasts, 
 birds and fish, reptiles and insects, are all on an equal 
 
158 TJic Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 basis. His maxim was, "All the animal kingdom are 
 born free and equal." The soul of a dog was like the 
 soul of a man, the soul of a Ilea equal to the soul of a 
 prince. If there was one marked characteristic of his 
 ministry, it was that he accounted himself the Saviour 
 of the lower animals. 
 
 \. -^^.^^ -t 
 
 1^ ^ ^'^Jl 
 
 Ascending to Heaven. 
 
 It is recorded that after his six years' fast he thought 
 it time to take a bath. An angel pointed his finger 
 to the earth, and it became a pool. 
 
 After his purification the water was taken up to 
 Heaven, and all the fish and tadpoles ascended to 
 Paradise. He bathed in order to save them. 
 
Buddha, the AHght of Asia. 1 59 
 
 Animal Sacrifices. — When passing through a distant 
 kingdom, he saw hundreds of sheep driven along. 
 Buddha inquired " Where are these sheep being driven ? " 
 The answer was, " The king's mother is sick, and he will 
 ofifer this flock in sacrifice to Heaven." He follows, 
 obtains the ear of the king, and discourses on taking life. 
 " You take animal life to save your mother's life ; to sacri- 
 fice a hundred years is not equal to mercy ; sacrifice is as 
 fornication ; the murder of a sheep and the murder of a 
 man are equal crimes ; if a man in worshipping the gods 
 sacrifices a sheep and so does well, why should he not kill 
 his child and so do better ? " This is the sum of Buddha's 
 views about animal sacrifices. These sentiments seemed 
 to be highly appreciated by the gushing Edwin Arnold, 
 who in the mouth of a bonze thus styles his hero : " Lord 
 Buddha," " Lord and friend," " Ah ! Blessed Lord," " King 
 and high conqueror," " Oh ! High deliverer," " Hailed and 
 honoured," " All honoured," " Incomparable," " Wisest, 
 best, most pitiful," " Ah ! lover, brother, guide, Lamp of 
 the Law." 
 
 ^Esthetics — At the birth of Buddha there was music 
 in the air, and at every important event during his life 
 the choirs of the Devas sang, harps were tuned by invisi- 
 ble hands, and sweet voices were heard in the aerial vaults. 
 His historians record that scores of times showers of frag- 
 rant flowers from the gardens of Paradise fell along his 
 pathway, so that he then trod on a bed of roses. Light 
 would also often shine round about Shakyamuni. When 
 a youth he sat beneath a tree and glory sat upon his 
 brow. Suddhodam, his father, seeing it, said, ''It was 
 like fire upon the mountains, and the moon among the 
 
i6o The Dragon, linage, and Demon, 
 
 stars." At another time, " His body, bereft of all its jewels, 
 emitted a soft and dazzling light like the beams of the sun 
 piercing through a dark cloud, and spreading all around 
 the brightness of its glory." As he walked, "Glories 
 issued from his body and lighted the road." A halo of 
 golden hue was the only crown which adorned his brow. 
 At any moment the lightning would flash from his fingers ; 
 again his face would be like the sun, and the assembly of 
 his disciples would be lit up as if by a score of electric 
 lights. 
 
 Discussions with the Brahmans. — When Buddha 
 left the palace he went to the great teachers of India. It 
 was told the philosopher Alara, that " the son of Sudd- 
 hodana — the lord of the Shakyas, desiring to escape from 
 sorrow and attain supreme wisdom, bright and glorious as 
 a pillar of gold, his body full of grace and beauty, no 
 other than the great lion among men — is coming." 
 
 Alara thus addressed him, " Other kings have forsaken 
 empires, but only when satiated with pleasure, but thou, 
 so young, and in the vigour of youth, to give up the 
 certain enjoyment of royalty and to prefer the hardships 
 of life in a desert, the companion of beasts and the 
 unfettered birds, wonderful indeed is this ! " 
 
 Shakyamuni replied, " I find that all men are fettered 
 with the chains of birth and death, old age and disease, 
 unable to free themselves, and therefore I am seeking a 
 way of escape. I search for that which is imperishable 
 and permanent." 
 
 Alara, " on the general testimony of the Shastars, 
 instructs Buddha that ^^. first condition of religious 
 discipline is that the life be strictly that of an ascetic, 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 
 
 and, the mind passing through the various grades of 
 abstraction, the man may at last attain full joy and arrive 
 at a complete deliverance." 
 
 Buddha points out that the deliverance is not final, 
 as there is a possibility of returning again from this 
 condition, because there is still the idea of personality, and 
 there still remains the Ego^ — " I have obtained Nirvana." 
 
 Alara says, " This condition of escape that admits of no 
 return to life and its troubles is that of the Great Brahma, 
 whose existence is one of perfect quietude, without 
 beginning, without end, without bounds or limits, no first 
 or last, his operations are inexhaustible, his form without 
 parts or marks, immutable, incorruptible." 
 
 " But if this be so," replies Buddha, " what becomes of 
 him when at the end of the kalpa this heaven and earth 
 are burnt up and entirely destroyed, — what then becomes 
 
 OF YOUR CREATOR ? " 
 
 Alara asks, " What is the system of deliverance after 
 which you look ? " 
 
 Shakyamuni replies, " I seek a system in which there 
 shall be no discussions about the senses or their objects, 
 no talk of death or birth, disease or old age, no questions 
 about existence or non-existence, about eternity or non- 
 eternity, in which words shall be useless, and the idea of 
 the boundless and illimitable realized." 
 
 The Itinerant — After he left the Bodhi-tree he 
 travelled on the '^ circuit," but his circuit embraced 
 India with its many principalities, and Ceylon, going 
 from city to city and village to village teaching. It 
 is remarkable how much work he did in the hamlets. 
 He often sought the forest, and from afar crowds came 
 
 IX 
 
1 62 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 to listen. His band of immediate followers numbered 
 1,250, but hundreds of thousands flocked around him 
 as he passed from place to place. He began ^' a course 
 of public open-air preaching, a perfectly novel thing in 
 his time." He was a John the Baptist, with his alms 
 bowl, shaven pate, and yellow robe, the sensation of 
 that land and age. " His royal appearance and princely 
 bearing, his well-tested self-abnegation, his boundless 
 charity, his skill in persuasion, his originality in 
 teaching, all contributed to his success." Marching at 
 the head of a priestly brigade, uniform in their 
 flowing robes of yellow, and armed only with the 
 beggar's bowl, he commanded the attention of the 
 ruling rajahs, several of whom accepted his instructions. 
 
 " Leaving Mount Pandara, surrounded by a vast crowd, 
 Buddha advanced steadily onwards, his body perfectly 
 erect, his eyes fixed before him and his garments all 
 strictly arranged, and as he passed through the streets 
 those who were engaged in buying and selling, or others 
 who were drinking in the wine shops, all left their 
 engagements and were wrapped in awe as they beheld 
 Buddha and followed. So also countless women in the 
 city gazed at Buddha from the corners of the doorposts, 
 from the windows, from the balconies, and from the tops 
 of the houses, and as they watched him go from door to 
 door their hearts were filled with unutterable joy, as they 
 spoke to one another, ' Who is this that has come hither, 
 his person so beautiful and so joy-giving as he moves ? ' 
 ' What is his name ? ' ' What caste or family does he 
 belong to ? ' ' Is he Brahman or Shaman ? ' " 
 
 Buddha said of himself, " I am no god or spirit, but a 
 
Buddha, tJie Night of Asia, 163 
 
 plain man seeking for rest, and so am practising the rules 
 of an ascetic life." He described himself as " the father 
 and mother of his helpless children ; their guide and 
 leader along the precipitous path of life ; shedding the 
 light of his truth like the sun and moon in the vault of 
 Heaven ; providing a ferry-boat for passengers over this 
 vain sea of shadows ; as a propitious rain-cloud, restoring 
 all things to life, providing salvation and refuge by direct- 
 ing men into the final path that leads to Nirvana." 
 
 His Opponents. — He, like the Judean teacher, came 
 to find a state of formalism among the religionists of India. 
 He was not so much the founder of a new sect as the 
 Martin Luther among the Brahmans, for he " re-modelled 
 every Brahmanical dogma, and placed every Brahmanical 
 doctrine in a new light." The Brahmans opposed him 
 throughout his career, and several times he was summoned 
 to discussions before an Oriental Diet of Worms. The 
 " six teachers," like the scribes and Pharisees, tried on 
 every public occasion " to entangle him in his talk." One 
 secret of his popularity was his pronounced opposition to 
 the powerful caste-spirit in India, and its tyranny in civil 
 life ; his asserting the rights of the democracy, and declar- 
 ing that his religion was a religion of mercy to all. 
 
 The Monastic System. — His first disciples were from 
 the fire-worshippers, perhaps the original Parsees, who 
 were converted more by the use of magic than by the 
 power of his logic ; whole sects changed their religion and 
 became his followers. He thus " gradually founds a new 
 religion ; crowds of fanatic followers gather around him ; 
 men of all ranks and all classes, taking the vow of per- 
 petual chastity and voluntary poverty, follow him clad 
 
164 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 in rags, begging and preaching." His ecclesiastical organi- 
 zation is built upon the idea that the Church is a kingdom 
 of priests, and that only the priests belong to the Church. 
 " As Shakyamuni was the first in time of the founders of 
 monastic communities, so he surpassed them all in the 
 originality of his conceptions, in the success of his system, 
 and in the force of his influence." His "practical genius " 
 was seen in gaining a livelihood for the community by 
 the gifts of kings, the liberality of new members, and 
 the charity of all kindly disposed, and " in a few years 
 India was covered, through the labours of the Buddhist 
 preachers, with flourishing communities of monks," who 
 sat at the feet of their teacher during the rains and the 
 heat, but " in the cool season of the year the Bikshus or 
 religious mendicants were everywhere seen on the roads 
 and in the cities teaching the true path." 
 
 As soon as the number reached fifty-six, he scattered 
 them for work, and in his later years enjoined, " Let no 
 two go the same road." He also conferred the power on 
 his priests of receiving men into the priesthood, and 
 gave this formula of faith, — 
 
 I take my refuge in Buddha. 
 
 I take my refuge in the Law. 
 
 I take my refuge in the Church. 
 
 Afterwards, when among his followers were many 
 women, he established "an order of sisters of charity," 
 thus giving to women the chance of salvation. 
 
 The Wheel of the Excellent Law.— His first public 
 appearance was at the great religious centre of northern 
 India. *' I now desire to turn the wheel of the excellent 
 law j for this purpose I am going to Benares to give light 
 
Btiddka, tJie Night of Asia, 165 
 
 to those enshrouded in darkness." He commanded his 
 disciples, '' Explain the beginning, the middle, and the 
 end of the law to all men." " Turning the wheel of the 
 excellent law," is the figure of grinding by which the 
 " chaff and refuse are forced from the good flour." " The 
 wheel of doctrine revolved thrice ; first, didactic state- 
 ment, then exhortation, and lastly appeal to personal 
 experience." Buddha said, " I ought to open the gate 
 of the sweet law^, who shall first hear it?" 
 
 The Ten Prohibitions. — Once in an assembly of all 
 the gods he delivered the ten great and the forty-eight 
 small commandments. 1. Do not take life. 2. Do not 
 steal. 3. Do not commit adultery. 4. Do not lie. 5. 
 Do not drink. 6. Do not slander priests and nuns. 7. 
 Do not praise self. 8. Do not be stingy. 9. Do not get 
 angry. 10. Do not abuse the "three precious ones" 
 (Buddha, the Law, and the Church). 
 
 The Deer Park. — The " deer park " at Benares was 
 the chief seat of his school, and here from time to time, 
 during fifty years, he gave the new law to India. The 
 preponderance of his teaching was ethical, and generally 
 spoken in a simple, minted style. As an author, his chief 
 works were, " The Sutra of the Forty-two Sections," " The 
 Diamond Sutra," " The Sutra of Establishment," " The 
 Lotus of the Grood Law," and " The Doctrine of Nirvana," 
 which were discourses written out by his disciples. One 
 of his " Sermons on Wisdom " was delivered to the 
 " Benevolent King," Prasenajit. " At first Buddha ap- 
 peared like the sun in the east illuminating the tops of 
 the western hills." "The Lotus of the Good Law" 
 marks the time when " his sun reached the zenith and 
 
1 66 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 cast no shadow." This was delivered at the close of his 
 public life, and " is regarded as the mellowest and richest 
 of his productions." Buddha said, ''I am not to be 
 destroyed, but shall be constantly 'on the mount of 
 instruction ; ' " i.e., he would live in his teachings. 
 
 The Brevity of Life. — Shakyamuni said, " Life was 
 like a tree from whose roots the earth is washed by a 
 stream ; it was like sketching on water, and like the moon 
 in water; like the flight of an arrow, like a deception, 
 and as a dream ; like a bubble, a shadow ; like heat, like 
 dew, passing as quickly as a flash of lightning. Some- 
 times as he spake the hearts of the audience were melted, 
 and they went after him in love. 
 
 The Body. — His great text was the vanity of all below ; 
 the body is the seat of evil, the fountain of misery. From 
 the human passions come sorrow ; subdue these, free your- 
 self from all that is human, and then will the root of 
 misery be extirpated. He says, in his Chinese Biography, 
 " Beloved, that which causes life causes also decay and 
 death. The very nature of the body, however pure, 
 involves the necessity of decay and therefore of change. 
 To have a body is the worst of evils ; the body is the 
 fountain of misery ; labour, fear, and sorrow are from the 
 body." 
 
 He says, " To follow my law there must be faith ; the 
 doctrine is pure and white ; do not forget the fruits ; it 
 is better to lose one's life than to do unrighteousness ; do 
 not take life ; do not commit the ten evils, but you must 
 perform the ten good actions ; the good and evil rewards 
 are now in our actions, mouths, and hearts." 
 
 Know Thyself. — A party of thirty princes and twenty- 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 167 
 
 nine princesses were on a picnic excursion, when they met 
 a person, and though they were not well acquainted with 
 her, yet they invited her to join them in their pleasure 
 trip. By-and-by, when they were all asleep, she stole 
 all their jewellery and made off. They tried pursuit, and 
 meeting with Buddha asked him " if he had seen a 
 woman ? " He replied, " Princes, is it best to seek that 
 woman or to seek yourselves ? " They said, " Of course, 
 it is best to seek ourselves." To which Shakyamuni 
 responded, " Then wait a little, and I will preach to you 
 the law." They became Buddhists. 
 
 Birth, Age, Misery, and Death. — His ministry was 
 devoted to these four topics. The burning question. 
 How can the essence of birth and death be destroyed ? 
 His " four truths " were duka, misery ; samudaya, the 
 passions as the cause of misery; niroda, the extinction 
 of the passions ; and marga, the path of reformation. 
 The first stage is meditation ; feeling and seeing will be 
 cast away, and you will have a happy heart. The second 
 stage ; you cast away a happy heart, have true thoughts, 
 and so obtain the root of pleasure. The third stage; 
 you cast away misery and pleasure and have pure 
 thoughts. The fourth stage ; no thought. He asked 
 candidates for church membership, " Do you know that 
 seeing, receiving, thinking, doing, knowing, are all of 
 short duration ? " 
 
 The Ego. — Some of Skakyamuni's teachings do not 
 seem to a careful reader to be very distinct. Buddha 
 said, " The not thinking, not not thinking place, has it ' I 
 or has it not ? If without the Ego, you cannot say of 
 it, Not thinking, not not thinking. If there is the Ego, 
 
1 68 The Drag07i, Image, and Demon. 
 
 is it the knowing ' I ' or the not knowing ' I ' ? If there 
 is no knowledge it is to be like grass and wood ; if there 
 is knowledge, there is something tangible; if it is tangible, 
 it must be defiling, and so the man is not free. Know- 
 ledge is the root of the five yin (seeing, receiving, 
 thinking, doing, and knowing) ; by knowledge, thought 
 is begotten ; thought begets the sight of the beautiful. 
 Looking at the body you must not consider the body as 
 existing ; thus you can leave the Ego and also leave the 
 place where the Ego dwells. Misery springs from matter ; 
 getting rid of matter, a man is set free from misery. 
 Not to think of ' I,' of men, of creatures, of age, — to 
 leave all thought, this is to be Bud- 
 dha." It is necessary to have a heart 
 fixed on nothing, a heart which 
 dwells nowhere. 
 
 He embraced his teachings in a 
 circle — The path is to emptiness, 
 from emptiness to the shoreless 
 Buddha's Teaching. region of knowledge, from the shore- 
 less region of knowledge to the 
 useless, from the useless to the not thinkable, from the 
 not thinkable to the not not thinkable, from the not not 
 thinkable to the region of the destroyed, the ceased, the 
 motionless ; from the region of the destroyed, the ceased, 
 the motionless, to the not not thinkable, from the not 
 not thinkable to the not thinkable, from the not thinkable 
 to the useless, from the useless to the shoreless region of 
 knowledge, from the shoreless region of knowledge to emp- 
 tiness, and thus around and around in perpetual motion. 
 " Can Buddha's words be explained ? " asks one. A 
 
Bjtddha, the Alight of Asia. 1 69 
 
 disciple replies, " There is no fixed law ; Buddha's law 
 you cannot explain, you cannot take hold of; it is not 
 law, not not law." 
 
 The Previous Existence. — Much of Buddha's talk 
 was about what happened in a previous life. Had he 
 been a teacher of the present generation, some one would 
 have asked if his consciousness testified of this previous 
 existence or was he " drawing on his imagination " ? He 
 often spoke of cause and effect, the cause in a life previous 
 to the present, and the effect in this. A happy life 
 resulted from good deeds done before the party lived in 
 mortal flesh ; poverty and suffering because of sin or 
 stinginess in the life gone by. The doctrine of causation 
 runs throughout Buddhistic literature. 
 
 An aged man of two hundred years came to Buddha 
 and told him of all his troubles. " I am unfortunate, poor, 
 cold, and hungry. I want to die, but cannot." The sage 
 of India says, " Sins have a root ; in a previous existence 
 you were rich and learned, but you lightly esteemed men, 
 and were unwilling to be charitable. If you wish to 
 know your state in a previous age, look at your estate at 
 present ; if you wish to know your estate when you return 
 to this world, look at your present deeds. Men are poor 
 because when before on earth they would covet and 
 steal. Why now rich? Because of charitable acts in a 
 previous life." The charity which he insisted on most of 
 all was giving to the priests. 
 
 One day as Shakyamuni entered a room, a dog which 
 was hiding under a bed came out barking furiously at 
 him. Shakyamuni said to the dog, " You are protecting 
 money," which remark made the iinimal very angry ; he 
 
I 70 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 lay down and would not eat. The master returning 
 asked the reason why his favourite dog was thus pining 
 away. The servants said, " Shakyamuni has been here." 
 He then went to see the sage to inquire what he had 
 done to his dog. The latter quietly remarked, " That 
 dog is your father." The gentleman rejected the im- 
 putation. Shakyamuni says, " If you do not believe me, 
 go and ask the dog where money was hid in a previous 
 life." He did so, and the dog grabbled up the silver 
 hoarded in the earth beneath the bed. 
 
 Parables. — The Indian teacher constantly made use 
 of parables. There is a " Book of the Hundred Parables." 
 Over thirty are recorded in his Biography, from which 
 the following are selected. 
 
 The Prudent Quail. — Ages ago, there was a certain 
 fowler, who having found a secluded spot where the birds 
 often lighted, proceeded to the place, and making a 
 covering of twigs and branches he shielded himself as 
 he lay in wait. The birds lighting on the top, the 
 fowler slyly put his hand through the branches and 
 captured them. One bird observed that this arbour 
 moved from place to place, while all the other trees 
 stood still, so it kept at a distance from the snare. 
 
 At that time I was the wise bird. 
 
 *' Forget-Favour," the Merchant.— A man named 
 Deputati sent five hundred archers to shoot Buddha. 
 The arrows became flowers. Buddha spoke this parable. 
 A merchant by the name of " Forget-Favour "' went in 
 search of pearls. The boat overturned, and a turtle 
 brought the crew to shore on his back. "P^orget-Favour" 
 was hungry, and killed the turtle for soup. 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 1 7 1 
 
 I was that turtle, and Deputati " Forget-Favour." 
 The Mani-Gem. — The Bikshus, his priests, asked, 
 " By what power of resolution and fixed determination 
 the World- Honoured has obtained perfection ? " Buddha 
 replied, "I remember in years gone by that I was a 
 merchant prince who went to sea in order to gather 
 precious gems, and whilst so engaged I obtained one 
 ]Mani-gem of inestimable value, but I let it fall into the 
 sea and lost it. Then taking a ladle I began with fixed 
 determination to bale out the water of the ocean to 
 recover my gem. The sea-god said, 'How can this foolish 
 man empty the wide and boundless ocean ? ' I replied, 
 ' My resolution shall never flag ; I will bale out the 
 ocean and get my precious gem ; you watch me, and 
 do not grieve and fret at the long delay.' The sea-god, 
 hearing these words, was filled with anxiety for the safety 
 of his realm, and gave me back my gem." 
 
 The Cunning Tortoise. — In ancient kalpas, on the 
 banks of the river Paryata, lived a man with a flower- 
 garden, who made wreaths and bouquets for sale. A 
 tortoise at night would come from the water to eat what 
 he found here and there, and mashed down the beds of 
 lovely flowers. In a wicker cage he was entrapped. How 
 sliall I escape? thought he. What device can I adopt ? 
 He addressed his captor with this gatha : 
 
 *'I am just from the river and covered with mire, 
 Take me to the bank and wash me, I desire, 
 Lest the mud on my body, all mingled with sand, 
 Should pollute the nice basket you hold in your hand." 
 
 The gardener said, " This is good advice, I never 
 thought of that." Immediately he dipped the tortoise in 
 
172 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 the river, and placing him on a stone flung water on him, 
 when suddenly the tortoise made a dive and escaped, and 
 would not listen to the entreaties of the gardener to 
 return. 
 
 I was that tortoise. 
 
 The Foolish Dragon. — In years gone by, a dragon 
 living in the great sea saw that his wife's health was not 
 good. He, seeing her colour fade away, said, " My dear, 
 what shall I get you to eat ? " Mrs. Dragon was silent. 
 " Just tell me and I will get it," pleaded the affectionate 
 husband. " You cannot do it, why trouble you ? " quoth 
 she. " Trust me, and you shall have your heart's desire,'* 
 said the dragon. " Well, I want a monkey's heart to 
 eat." " Why, Mrs. Dragon, the monkeys live in the 
 mountain forests, how can I get one of their hearts ? '*' 
 " Well, I am going to die, I know I shall." 
 
 Forthwith the dragon went on shore, and spying a 
 monkey on the top of a tree, said, " Hail, shining one, 
 are you not afraid you will fall ? " '' No, I have no such 
 fear." " Why eat of one tree ? You cross the sea, and 
 you will find forests of fruits and flowers." " How can I 
 cross ? " " Get on my back." The dragon with his tiny 
 load went seaward, and then suddenly dived down. 
 " Where are you going ? " says the monkey, with the salt 
 water in his eyes and mouth. " Oh ! my dear sir ! my 
 wife is very sad and ill, and has taken a fancy to your 
 heart." " What shall I do? " thought the monkey. He 
 then sj)oke, " Illustrious friend, why did not you tell me ? 
 I left my heart on the top of the tree ; take me back, and 
 I will get it for Mrs. Dragon." Neptune returned to the 
 shore. As the monkey was tardy in coming down from 
 
Buddha, tJie Nig Jit of Asia. 
 
 1/3 
 
 the tree, the dragon said, " Hurry up, little friend, I am 
 waiting." Then the monkey thought within himself, 
 " What a fool this dragon is ! " 
 
 Then Buddha said to his followers, " At this time I was 
 the monkey." 
 
 Throwing the Elephant. 
 
 Miracles. The White Elephant. — The recorded 
 miracles of the Indian hermit are many. When a boy 
 his father bought a white elephant for him to ride. He 
 grasped it by the trunk, struck it on the neck, killed 
 it, and threw it over the city wall. 
 
 In Mid-Air.^At another time, as a pious princess 
 
174 ^/^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 worships towards the " lion's throne," Buddha and all his 
 priests, in the full view of the king and his court, came 
 riding in mid-air on dragons, peacocks, tigers, leopards, 
 cows, and horses. 
 
 The Blind Boy. — There was a stingy father who had 
 a stingy son. The stingy father after his death returns 
 to earth, as the blind son of a blind mother, whose 
 husband sends them out to beg. They go to the house of 
 the stingy son w4io is still living. The porter throws him 
 out of the gate, cracks his skull, and breaks his arm. At 
 that time Buddha passes ; he gives sight to the boy, and 
 heals his skull and arm. All who heard of this became 
 charitable. 
 
 Healing the Sick. — On another day Buddha comes 
 to a house where there is a sick man. He flashes light 
 in the house ; the sick man sees the light and is healed. 
 Buddha discourses on the cause of disease. 
 
 The Threads of His Robe. — The dragons came to 
 Buddha and said they feared they would be devoured by 
 the kingfishers. Buddha gave them his robe and said, 
 " Let each take a thread, and the kingfishers cannot 
 trouble you." The dragons said, " There are not threads 
 enough," but as he gave it out thread by thread, the robe 
 remained intact, so he supplied hundreds of thousands. 
 
 The Stone.— In his latter days 300,000 mighty men, 
 hearing that Shakyamuni was about to die, thought they 
 would go and move a stone out of the road, which would 
 be in the way of his coffin. Buddha changed himself into 
 a priest, passed by, and asked, ''What are you doing, 
 children ? " " What do you call us children for ? " said 
 they. " If 300,000 of you cannot move a stone, wh^ not 
 
Buddha, the Alight of Asia. i 75 
 
 call you children ? " " Oh, you are a giant, are you ? " 
 They then asked, " Can you move the stone ? " He 
 took two toe-nails, shook the stone, then threw it over ; 
 blew his breath and turned it into dust ; then he resumed 
 the form of Buddha and preached to this vast assembly. 
 
 The Dragons — Buddha had frequent dealings with 
 the myriad Neptunes which inhabited the great deep. 
 Towards the close of his life he appointed the good dragons 
 as guardians of his law. At times he had famous en- 
 counters. Near the beginning of his ministry, when 
 travelling in a distant land, his host, who was no other 
 than Kashiapa, the first Patriarch, told him he would have 
 to put him in a room haunted by a bad dragon. The 
 guest assured him it made no difference, entered the 
 apartment, and sat cross-legged. The dragon came out to 
 see the intruder and smoke issued ; from Buddha's body 
 also smoke issued. The dragon got in a rage and emitted 
 fire ; Buddha also emitted lire, and the two flanies 
 commingling, the house caught fire. The neighbours 
 came with fire-engines to extinguish it, but their efforts 
 were unavailing. Buddha used magic, subdued the 
 dragon, and shut him up in his rice-bowl. His disciples 
 wondered that he was not burnt, but he said, " I am pure, 
 fire cannot harm me." 
 
 In another state there were female dragons who 
 associated with poisonous dragons that sent pestilence 
 and disease. The magicians failing to expel them with 
 their charms, the king sent for Buddha. The dragons 
 spit fire, but from Shakya's head went out gold flame 
 which changed into thousands of Buddhas " in the air," 
 — little images on every side. The dragons fled into 
 
I 76 The Dragon, Image, aiid Demon. 
 
 Buddha's shadow, but his shadow was sparkling as the 
 dew. They came and worshipped him. 
 
 The Magician. — On one occasion before the assembled 
 multitude, the " World-Honoured," as he was officially 
 addressed, ascended in the air and displayed his 
 legerdemain. "First he caused a great fire to ascend 
 from his head and a stream of water from his foot ; he 
 then mixed the fire and water above and below him ; 
 
 then he sent forth fire from his back and water before 
 him ; then a flame of fire from his right eye and water 
 from his left ; from his right and left ears and right and 
 left nostrils the same and the reverse ; and in the same 
 manner fire and water from his shoulders, hands, legs, 
 feet, thumbs, and great toes : all marvellous to behold. 
 Then flowed from one hair water, and from another 
 flashed fire. He then sent forth his six glories, and 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 
 
 ^77 
 
 walked to and fro in the air. The six glories made him 
 appear like pure gold just poured from the crucible, and 
 the glories extended as did the fire and water." 
 
 Amusing Incidents. The Fishermen.— Buddha 
 passed by a river, and found five hundred fishermen 
 
 SCri'ii 
 
 
 The Lions and the Elephants. 
 
 trying to pull out a fish. They called a thousand 
 herdsmen to their aid. The fish had a hundred heads, — 
 horse, donkey, deer, tiger, wolf, hog, dog, monkey, and 
 fox. Buddha asked the fish, " Are you Kapele ? " The 
 fish replied, "I am." Buddha said, '^ Formerly there 
 was a Brahman who had a very intelligent daughter, and 
 
 12 
 
178 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 he called the priests to be her teachers, but every time 
 her instructors knew more than she did she called them 
 stupid as animals, therefore you see her with such a 
 head." All the convoys asked to be priests. 
 
 The Drunken Elephants.— One of the reigning 
 
 Rescuing the Little Devil. 
 
 rajahs thought he would play a trick on Shakyamuni, so 
 invited him and five hundred priests to come to the 
 capital. He made five hundred elephants drunk, who 
 madly rushed about and tore down houses. The priests 
 fly over the city. Buddha and Ananda walk ; the army 
 of elephants make an onslaught. Buddha's five fingers 
 
Buddha, the N'ight of Asia, i 79 
 
 change into five lions, which rush on the elepbants, 
 who kneel and weep. The king repents. 
 
 The Goose. — The " World-Honoured " on a journey 
 came to a ferry on the Ganges when the river was swollen 
 up to its banks. The ferryman asked him for his toll. 
 Baddha replied, " I have cast away all earthly riches, and 
 look on them as tiles, stone, earth, and mud." " You 
 can't cross this ferry," said the ferryman. Buddha saw 
 a flock of geese flying across without toll. He said to 
 himself, " I will use magic and pass over," whereupon 
 he flew over as a goose. 
 
 The Baby — Mrs. Devil had five hundred sons, who 
 were cannibals, and especially fond of children as an 
 article of diet. The suffering parents came to Buddha, 
 who caught her youngest son, whom she loved most of 
 all, and put him in a rice-bowl. Mara's wife after search- 
 ing in vain for seven days came and told Buddha. The 
 latter said, " You have five hundred sons, why go mourn- 
 ing and sorrowing after this one ? Others have only 
 three or five." After awhile Buddha told her if she 
 would promise to stop the practice of eating other 
 people's little children she might have her boy. The 
 fond mother promised. He then showed her the baby- 
 devil in a cage, and she called her four hundred and 
 ninety-nine sons to take him out. Their united efforts 
 were unavailing, and at last she appealed to Buddha to 
 turn the little fellow loose. Mrs. Devil leading little 
 baby-devil by the hand is sometimes seen in the temples 
 standing near Buddha. 
 
 Nanda. — The younger brother of Buddha was named 
 Nanda. Buddha went to his house, shaved his head, and 
 
i8o TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 made him a priest. Nanda, however, kept thinking about 
 his sweetheart and drawing her picture on the tiles, and 
 one day when his elder brother w^as out he ran away. 
 Buddha followed ; Nanda dodged behind a tree ; Buddha 
 caused the tree to be lifted up and caught him. He 
 
 -^\u^ 
 
 
 
 Paradise and Tartarus. 
 
 took him up to heaven and showed him the sights. 
 In one palace there were ladies only. Nanda asked, 
 " Why only ladies and no men ? " An angel told him 
 this palace was reserved specially for him. Nanda ex- 
 claimed, " Let me stay now ; I do want to stay so much." 
 '"Oh no!" said the ladies, ''we are heavenly; you "are 
 
Bnddha, the Night of Asia. 1 8 1 
 
 of the earth ; finish your mortal existence, and then you 
 may be born in heaven." 
 
 Shakyamuni then led little Bud to hell, where he saw 
 caldrons of boiling oil and men cooking in them ; one 
 very hot was empty. Nanda asked, " Who is this for ? " 
 jNIara's attendants replied, " For Nanda, because he will 
 not be a priest." Nanda said to Buddha, " Oh ! do not 
 talk to me about heaven ; just let me escape this," and 
 ever after the yoke of the priesthood was an easy one to 
 him. 
 
 The Monastery of Jeta's Garden. — Several in- 
 cidents in the life of the World-Honoured sage show 
 that his boasted asceticism was at times in a measure 
 limited. 
 
 Shakya was invited to Shravasti. He said to the rich 
 noble who asked him, " You have no good house for me." 
 " I will build you one,'" said he. Shakya sends a priest 
 with him, and they select Jeta's garden as the choicest 
 locality. The price asked by the owner was, " Pave it 
 with gold." The nobleman paves it, all save a small 
 plot. A monastery is built, and King Prasenajit receives 
 Buddha. This place is famous in Buddhist annals as one 
 of the seats of the new school of religion. Another 
 incident of the same kind will be given. 
 
 The Feast. — A father every twelfth moon and eighth 
 day gave Buddha and his disciples a feast. On his 
 death bed he enjoined upon his son to keep up the custom. 
 Towards the time Buddha sent a priest to inquire about 
 the prospects. The son was poor, but he sent word, 
 " Come on," and borrowed one hundred gold cash from 
 his wife's relatives and gave the dinner. Buddha blessed 
 
I82 
 
 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 him. The next morning he found the coin restored in 
 his money chest. 
 
 For Buddha's teachings about women, see Chapter XVI. 
 
 The Parrot and the Bull. — The parrot-king asks 
 Buddha to spend a night in his grove, and on receiving 
 
 The Parrots' Grove. 
 
 his assent went back and told all the parrots to prepare 
 to meet him. The talking-birds flew around all night, 
 and there were no lions, tigers, or wolves to trouble 
 Buddha. The next night the parrot who gave the in- 
 vitation died and went to heaven. He returned again to 
 worship Buddha and to receive instruction. 
 
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 
 
 At another time, Shakya went near a pond where 
 there were five hundred water-buffaloes and five hundred 
 cow-boys. The latter called to the passer-by not to go 
 that way, as there was a mad bull. The animal rushed 
 at Shakya with a furious roaring. Shakya's fingers 
 became five lions. A circle of fire was around the water- 
 buffalo, and there was no escape. He came and licked 
 Buddha's feet and worshipped; he died that night and 
 went to heaven. 
 
 Faith — Buddha preached to five hundred families of 
 fishermen, but they would not believe. He kept his seat, 
 but duplicated himself into another man who walked across 
 the river towards them. The fishermen asked him how 
 he did it. He said, "The people on the other bank told 
 me Buddha was here, and that the water was only ankle 
 deep. I believed what they said and found it true." 
 Buddha praised the man, and said this stream was only 
 a few miles wide, but that faith would carry one across 
 the gulf of life and death. 
 
 Visits Heaven. — Once, while speaking on a mountain 
 in Ceylon, he was said to have been baptized with fire 
 from heaven. 
 
 Not only did he travel throughout India and Ceylon, but 
 he also went to heaven and preached to the star divinities 
 and all the assembly of the gods. He said if the evil 
 stars send disease or pestilence upon mortals let the 
 people chant as follows (Sanscrit) : and eighty thousand 
 curses will become eighty thousand blessings. He 
 remained in heaven three months, and his light darkened 
 the stars. 
 
 Images. — When Buddha was paying this lengthy visit 
 
1 84 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 to heaven, and enjoying the society of his mother, the king 
 of Oujein missed him so greatly that he made an image 
 of Buddha. An angel announced the fact in the celestial 
 regions, and on three pairs of stairs a heavenly host 
 accompanied him on his descensioii. The king brought 
 
 The Image- Maker. 
 
 on his head the image, and when it was presented to 
 Buddha it shook hands at him whom it represented. 
 Buddha formally addressed the image : "After my decease 
 you will do great things. I give my disciples into your 
 hands." Then standing on the lower step of the heavenly 
 stairway he turned to the king of Oujein and said, "There 
 
Buddha, tJie Night of Asia. 185 
 
 is no one like you bringing gain and happiness on all 
 creatures." The Eegent of the skies then spoke to the 
 king and said, " When Buddha was in heaven he was 
 praising the image-maker." Buddha again spoke, " Any 
 one who makes an image, even a finger's length, of gold, 
 silver, brass, iron, stone, earth, wood, glue, varnish, em- 
 broidery, silk, or incense ; or who will cut, mould, sew, or 
 paint Buddha's image, will have all blessings and escape 
 all sins." This is the second and great commandment of 
 Buddhism. 
 
 Relics. — Two merchants visited Shakya. " Oh ! 
 Buddha, we are about to separate from you, what shall we 
 venerate as an object of worship ? " He stroked his head, 
 and some of the short hairs adhered to his fingers, which 
 he gave to the merchants, saying, " Take these hairs 
 with you." When the brother-merchants received the 
 hairs they were very joyful, and proceeded on their 
 journey. 
 
 Ananda asks, " At your death what shall we do with 
 the relics ? " Shaky amuni replies, " My body shall be 
 divided like mustard-seed, and one part must be given 
 to heaven, one to the dragons, and one to the spirits." 
 He gives minute directions about his coffin and the 
 cremation with sandal-wood, which the angels would 
 bring. The relics were to be gathered, put in seven 
 precious bottles, and seven pagodas built. These relics 
 would make heaven and earth " a happy field." 
 
 After his death eight Indian kings quarrelled over the 
 relics, but the Devas decided that they, the dragons and 
 the kings, must have equal shares. 
 
 Death. — The time drew nigh for the aged Patriarch, 
 
1 86 The Dragon, hnage, and Demon. 
 
 toiling under the weight of fourscore years, to die. His 
 last days were full of preaching and itinerating. The last 
 night he spoke to a number of kings who came to pay 
 their farewell respects. Then he asked that a celebrated 
 heretic be admitted, discoursed at length to him, and saw 
 him inducted into the priest's office. Eight million 
 priests were assembled at Benares, and when he told them 
 of his decease, shortly to be accomplished, tears flowed 
 like rain. Devas, dragons, and devils came and asked 
 him not to die. He exhorted the priests to keep his 
 commandments, not to be entangled with business, and 
 to have nothing to do with divination. 
 
 His bed was placed in a group of eight Sala trees, and 
 lying on his right side with his head resting on his hand, as 
 represented in the Japanese temples, he spoke his farewell 
 words : " My beloved sons, if any priest becomes unsteady 
 and backslides from Buddha, the Law, and the Church, 
 remember me, have me before your eyes, and do not be 
 discouraged." He added, '' My beloved priests, if you 
 continue to retain your reverence for me, tell it to your 
 acquaintance and friends." Ananda said, " Oh ! Buddha, 
 in all this vast assembly there is not one priest who has 
 any doubt, therefore they all love and have regard for 
 you." The last words he ever spoke were, " My beloved 
 priests, the state of being (existence) leads to destruction ; 
 do you remember this, do not forget this, I charge you." 
 
 Ananda asked a priest, " Has Buddha gone to Nirvana ? " 
 and was answered, " He has not yet gone, he has only 
 entered on that state where all pain ceases ; " thus from 
 one state of contemplation to another, corresponding to 
 the tiers of the heavens, he entered Nirvana. 
 
Bttdd/ia, tJic Night of Asia. 
 
 187 
 
 Cremation. — When he died the trees grew white, the 
 earth quaked, the sea rolled mud, the rivers became dry, 
 the wind blew eand, and heaven and earth wept. 
 
 His mother falls from heaven, and when she recovers 
 from the effects of the shock, the coffin lid opens, and 
 
 Buddha sits up like the lion king emerging from his den, 
 and from the pores of his skin pour forth rajs of light 
 which are transformed into thousands of Buddhas. He 
 comforts Maya. 
 
 The generous citizens of Benares make a gold coffin for 
 Buddha, but four, eight, and sixteen coolies could not 
 
1 88 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 move it. The Devas cause it to rise, it flies over the 
 city, then travels around seven times, and finally settles 
 on the funeral pile. 
 
 Kashiapa, who received the Popedom of the Buddhist 
 Church, arrives after the decease of his master, who in 
 
 The Feet. 
 
 token of recognition sticks his feet through the coffin. 
 Kashiapa rubbed them and wept. The attempts to fire 
 the sandal wood were unsuccessful till fire went out of 
 Buddha's body ; the process of cremation was gradually 
 completed, and the shades of night gathered thick o'er 
 Asia's millions. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE ORIENTAL BANYAN. 
 
 Its Importance. — The children of Shem occupy the 
 largest of the continents, and nearly one-half the 
 population of Asia is influenced by the teachings and rites 
 of Buddhism. A system that has existed for two and a 
 half millenniums, and has succeeded in drawing into the 
 meshes of its Church organisation a large proportion of 
 the human family, and sways at this time the hearts of 
 so many millions, is worthy of attentive consideration. 
 '' The history of eastern Asia is the history of Buddhism." 
 Starting in India, it las spread over Central Asia, Ceylon, 
 Burmah, Siam, Annam, Japan, and China. How like the 
 Banyan, their religious tree, which spreads out its branches 
 over hillside and valley, and drops down a twig which 
 itself takes root, and becomes a mighty trunk, stretching 
 out its arms over the plain ; thus one unique tree 
 becomes a forest of foliage, shutting out the face of the 
 sun, so that those who dwell underneath feel none of the 
 warmth and see none of the light which comes down from 
 heaven ! Arnold says, " Forests of flowers are daily laid 
 upon his stainless shrines, and countless millions of lips 
 daily repeat the formula, ' I take my refuge in Buddha.' " 
 He gave, however, unbridled license to his fancies when 
 
iQO The D I 'agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 he penned the lines, " In point of age, therefore, most 
 other creeds are youthful compared with this venerable 
 religion, which has in it the eternity of a universal hope, 
 the immortality of a boundless love, an indestructible 
 element of faith in final good, and the proudest asser- 
 tion EVER MADE OF HUMAN FREEDOM." 
 
 The Missionary Spirit. — For two centuries Buddhism 
 made little progress, but after the invasion of India by 
 Alexander the Great the new faith was patronized. King 
 Ashoka, the Constantine of the Buddhist Church, B.C. 250, 
 established the first " Board of Foreign Missions " (Dharma 
 Mahamatra), which sent forth enthusiastic preachers, who, 
 '' aided by Ashoka's political and diplomatic influence," 
 went clad in rags and with the alms-bowl in hand to all 
 the surrounding countries. The King set an example by 
 sending his own son as a missionary to Ceylon, and forth- 
 with the whole island embraced the faith. " Thenceforth 
 every caravan of traders that left India for Central Asia 
 was accompanied by Buddhist missionaries." There was 
 no mountain too high, no plain too broad, no desert too 
 barren, for these indefatigable zealots ; they went every- 
 where, teaching the doctrines of Buddha. At this early 
 day eighteen Buddhist monks reached China, but failed 
 to plant their religion. 
 
 Its Fate in India. — Strange to say, the land of its 
 birth was not the home of its manhood, for it was trans- 
 planted to other countries, and is now almost unknown 
 in India. In the second century B.C. the Buddhist Church 
 there was almost destroyed by persecution, " but this 
 very persecution gave a renewed impetus to Foreign 
 Missions, and soon the priests gained a lasting foothold 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 191 
 
 among the Tartar tribes," just as the persecution after 
 the death of Stephen caused the scattered Christians to 
 go everywhere preaching the word. 
 
 Introduction into China — The sacred books of this 
 religion all agree in stating that the Emperor Mingte 
 (a.d. 61), in the visions of the night beheld "an image 
 of gigantic proportions, resplendent as gold," and that he 
 despatched an embassy to go westward in search of this 
 new religion. Whether this is true, or whether it was 
 because in the campaigns of Central Asia the armies 
 brought an image of Buddha, or whether reports had 
 come that a mighty personage had appeared in Judea, 
 we know not, but, it is said, the embassy returned 
 accompanied by an Indian priest, and bringing " The 
 Sutra of forty-two sections." Buddhism, invited by the 
 Emperor, made an easy entrance into this country. 
 
 Europe and Asia. — The Buddhist monks travelled 
 to China in the apostolic era. While they went eastward, 
 Paul and his companions journeyed westward. Western 
 Europe became Christian and P^astern Asia Buddhistic. 
 The soil was just as productive along the Pacific as on 
 the Atlantic, and success attended the efforts to introduce 
 the two religions. On the one hand, the first system 
 has had to contend with the rise and fall of empires and 
 ages dark in human learning ; the latter has been sup- 
 ported by a stable government, and has flourished amidst 
 a people devoted to letters. Judging a tree by its fruits, 
 what are the comparative results to the two continents in 
 the four departments of religion, education, philanthropy, 
 and progress ? Let the reader answer. 
 
 Its slow Growth — The Chinese of the Han dynasty 
 
192 TJie Dragon^ Image, and Demon. 
 
 did not receive the new faith with open arms, but gra- 
 dually it wormed itself into favour. The first step was 
 translation ; after that the monks were engaged in 
 preaching, in collecting funds, in conducting religious 
 services, and in building monasteries. The pioneer work 
 was a slow and tedious process, for this conservative 
 people looked on the swarthy Indians with suspicion, and 
 could not see the practical advantages of the music of 
 the gong and drum, of the fumes of incense, and lighting 
 candles in the day. " It took three hundred years before 
 Buddhism obtained official recognition, and centuries 
 more before the mass of the people was influenced by 
 it." There are some points to be noted : 
 
 1. Buddhism is a foreign religion, yet success at- 
 tended its introduction ; and has not Christianity a 
 hundredfold the advantage ? 
 
 2. It was by preaching the doctrines of the " lion of 
 the law " that Buddhism was made known, and has not 
 the proclamation of the Grospel of the "Lamb that was 
 slain " a mightier power ? ' - 
 
 3. It took over three hundred years for this vine from 
 India to take root, and many more hundred years before 
 it covered the land, — is not this an incentive to " long 
 patience " ? 
 
 4. " At the beginning of the sixth century upwards 
 of 3,000 foreign priests were living in China," and why 
 does not the Church, the Church Universal, give us 
 3,000 ordained men to go two and two to each city in 
 this land ? 
 
 The Emperors.— A.D. 61. Mingte sent the embassy 
 which brought the priest, the image, and the book. 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 193 
 
 A.D. 405, the p]mperor " gave a high office to Kumaiajiva, 
 an Indian Buddhist, and he was commanded to transhite 
 the sacred books, and at the present day his name may 
 be seen on the first page of the principal classics." " More 
 than 800 priests were called to assist, and the king him- 
 self, an ardent disciple, was present at the Conference, 
 holding the old copies in his hand as the work of cor- 
 rection proceeded." In a.d. 527, " the Emperor was so 
 zealous a promoter of Buddhism that he became a monk 
 and entered a monastery at Nanking." A.D. 558, an 
 emperor of the Leang dynasty, named Wute, commonly 
 called Leang Wute, became a monk and died of starva- 
 tion. In the year 760, Taetsung ordered a high stage 
 to be erected for reciting " The Sutra of the Benevolent 
 King," maintained many monks, and joined in the worship 
 of hungry spirits. I-tsung, who ascended the throne 860, 
 was devoted to the study of the Buddhist books. During 
 all these centuries the emperors frequently appointed 
 tens of thousands to the priesthood. A.D. 1300, the 
 Emperor used 3,900 ounces of gold in having the sacred 
 books transcribed in characters of gold, and in 1321 
 Yingtsung had over 300 tons of copper melted to make 
 images and shrines. The Emperor Shunche, 1644, 
 became a monk on the Soochow hills. The distinguished 
 Ka'nghe, 200 years ago, gave the yellow porcelain tiles 
 now so conspicuous on the roofs of the great temples at 
 Pootoo, and wrote the celebrated letter to the priests. 
 '* The last century, the Emperor Keenlung gave the 
 palace of his grandfather at Hangchow to the Buddhists 
 to be a monastery." " A thousand volumes of Buddhist 
 literature were published by the government with public 
 
 13 
 
194 ^^^^ Dragon^ Image, and Demon. 
 
 funds, and numberless prefaces to Buddhist works have 
 been written by Emperors." These are a few specimens 
 of the favour given to the Indian religion by the rulers 
 of China. 
 
 Confucian Opposition — During eighteen centuries 
 Confucianism has maintained a determined opposition to 
 the new faith, bringing its absence of religion to bear 
 against the ritual of Buddhism, and placing its practical 
 philosophy in contrast with the fine-spun theories of the 
 Indian sage. Discussions were held between the B.'s and 
 C.'s in the presence of emperors, the latter " putting forth 
 their best literary efforts to nullify the influence " of the 
 former, and every new century has seen new works issued 
 condemning Buddhism. The majority of the Confu- 
 cianists consider " its history, followers, and dogmas as 
 all equally hateful." They objected to the religion on 
 the ground of political economy, — that " the priests eat 
 the bread of idleness and so impoverish the State," 
 " while outside men are ploughing and women are 
 spinning." The leading objection was that the celibacy 
 of the monks, setting aside the relations of father and 
 mother, husband and wife, destroyed the family, which 
 was the miniature of the State. Their sceptical pens 
 were directed against the doctrines of the non-reality of 
 material objects, transmigration, and future rewards and 
 punishments. They said, " The people were led to neg- 
 lect the old ways taught by the venerable sages of anti- 
 quity, which had shed their brightness over the world, 
 and to go astray in the new paths of outlandish error." 
 ,, The very nature of monasticism awoke fears in the 
 bosom of statesmen, after about 300 years, when the 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 195 
 
 number of monks and nuns was very great, and the 
 abstraction of so many from the pursuits of agriculture 
 and other industries was considered an evil." 
 
 Persecutions, —The first general persecution was a.d. 
 426, when " an edict was issued, in accordance with which 
 the books and images of Buddhism were destroyed and 
 many priests put to death. To worship foreign divinities 
 or construct images of earth or brass was made a capital 
 crime." The second was in 458, when " a conspiracy was 
 detected in which a chief party was a Buddhist priest." 
 The third, a.d. 714, when 12,000 " priests and nuns were 
 obliged by a despotic government to return to the com- 
 mon world." The fourth, in 845, was the most severe. 
 ''By the edict of the Emperor Wutsung, 4,600 monas- 
 teries were destroyed, with 40,000 smaller temples. The 
 property of the sect was confiscated, and used in the 
 erection of Grovernment buildings. The copper of images 
 and bells was made into cash^ and the gold and silver 
 images sent into the public treasury. More than 260,000 
 priests and nuns were compelled to return to common 
 employments." Buddhism received another check during 
 the fifth general persecution, when Shit sung closed 
 30,000 establishments. 
 
 The Buddhist Travellers. — " The earnestness and 
 vigour of the Chinese Buddhists at that early period is 
 shown sufficiently by the repeated journeys which they 
 made along the tedious and dangerous route by Central 
 Asia to India. Neither religion nor the love of seeing 
 foreign lands are now enough, unless the Emperor com- 
 mands it, to induce any of the educated class among them 
 to leave their homes." 
 
196 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 A.D. 400, Fahien travelled for fifteen years through 
 Tartary, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Ceylon, and 
 collected the sacred books ; on his return he wrote a book 
 of travels. ^' The extension of the religion that was then 
 propagated with such zeal and fervour very much pro- 
 moted the mutual intercourse of Asiatic countries. The 
 road between Eastern Persia and China was frequently 
 traversed, and a succession of Chinese Buddhists thus 
 found their way to the parent-land of the legends and 
 superstitions in which they believed." 
 
 In 629, the celebrated Hieuntsang set out on his six- 
 teen years' journey, five of which were spent in studying 
 Sanscrit at Magadha. " His unconquerable will, his 
 dauntless pluck, his genius, and, above all, his fervent zeal 
 and purity of life," place him in a high rank among men 
 of religious enthusiasm. His life and travels, with many 
 '' moving incidents " and " hair-breadth escapes," is said 
 to be quite entertaining. A popular romance, with 
 accounts of gods and goddesses, fairies and demons, is 
 based on the account of his journeys. Hieuntsang 
 brought with him "115 grains of relics from Buddha's 
 chair, a gold statue of Buddha three feet three inches 
 high," and, it is said, 657 books, which he assisted in 
 translating. This was a favourable period for Budd- 
 hism. 
 
 Pagodas and Relics. — The primary object of the 
 pagoda is a depository for the relics of Buddha's burnt 
 body. Shaky amuni prophesied that King Ashoka would 
 erect 80,000 pagodas for the relics which are objects of 
 reverential worship to these religionists. 
 
 In A.D. 819, the Emperor sent a delegation of man- 
 
The Oidciital Banyan. 
 
 '97 
 
 darins to escort a bone of Buddha to the capital. This 
 called forth from the distinguished statesman, Han Wen- 
 kung, the celebrated " Memorial on the Bone of Buddha," 
 
 Soochow Pagoda. 
 
 which is a standard document among the Confucianists, 
 and for which he was banished. He was, however, after- 
 wards recalled. " The indignant manner in which Han 
 
198 The Dragon, Image, and De^non, 
 
 Wenkung speaks of the supposed finger-bone of Buddha 
 is worthy of being imitated by all foes to relic worship." 
 A thousand years ago this Protestant says, " Buddha has 
 been dead a long time, and here was the Son of Heaven 
 bringing this stinking bone of a dead barbarian into the 
 interior of his palace. There was not even the preliminary 
 ceremony of exorcising the noxious demons by whisking 
 them out with branches of the peach and lie trees." 
 Another Confucianist asks, " What can a bone, or a tooth, 
 or a nail do for living men ? If you are hungry these 
 things cannot feed you, if cold, they cannot clothe you, 
 and if sick, they cannot cure you." 
 
 Confucianists have now turned the pagoda from its 
 original design into regulators of Fungshuy, or the 
 influences of the wind and water, by which they obtain 
 peace and prosperity, longevity and posterity, favourable 
 seasons and flourishing trade. The Soochow Pagoda, 
 erected over a thousand years ago, is now the largest in 
 the empire ; it is 220 feet in height and 60 feet wide at 
 the base, tapering up to 4o feet in the ninth story. It is 
 in the form of an octagon, and the walls are eight or ten 
 feet thick. There is a double wall, or a pagoda within a 
 pagoda, the steps running between, and as the visitor 
 ascends a flight of stairs, he has to walk around before 
 reaching the next steps, making the ascent easy. There 
 are seventy-two doors, opening on the verandahs, so it is a 
 tower full of light, and from every point there are beauti- 
 ful views of the mountains, the lakes, and the green fields ; 
 and on beholding the mighty metropolis at the feet, 
 the densely peopled plain, and the four cities within 
 sight, the thoughts go out to the many millions within 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 199 
 
 the range of vision. As there are a hundred large and 
 twenty small images in the pagoda, in every niche and 
 facing every door, and eighty-one idols on the roof, it is 
 a high tower of idolatry. 
 
 The Patriarchs. — In some of the temples two men 
 are seen standing on the right and left of Buddiia, one 
 with a short white beard and the other with a smooth 
 face ; these are Kashiapa and Ananda, the two first 
 Patriarchs. Kashiapa was the head of a ^ect of fire- 
 worshippers, numbering five hundred, and was converted 
 by seeing Buddha put the dragon into the rice-bowl, 
 recorded in the preceding chapter ; his followers also took 
 Shakya as their spiritual guide. It is said he was the 
 means of converting 20,000 to the Buddhist faith. To 
 him was entrusted "the pure secret of the eye of doc- 
 trine ; " its symbol U-j, seen on the breast of Buddha, 
 means 10,000 ; that is, he is in the "possession of 10,000 
 perfections." This symbol was the " monogram of Vishnu " 
 and the battle-axe of Thor, the Scandinavian god of 
 thunder. 
 
 The other image represents Ananda, the second Patri- 
 arch, whose name signifies "joy," a cousin of the sage, his 
 constant attendant and " beloved disciple." He never 
 left Buddha's side, who always spoke of him and to him 
 in the tenderest manner. He, with a thousand secretaries, 
 wrote down the dharma or law, which he loved to hear, 
 and to which he had listened so attentively that it was 
 indelibly impressed upon his memory. 
 
 Bodhidharma was the twenty-eighth and last of the 
 real Patriarchs. He came from India at an advanced age, 
 was received by the Emperor at Nanking, and afterwards 
 
200 The Drao-on, Imae;e, and Demon. 
 
 sat with his face to the wall for nine years, and was 
 popularly called, " The wall-gazing Brahman." By the 
 name of Tamo he is constantly spoken of by Buddhist 
 priests. He discouraged the study of the sacred books, 
 and developed the mystic phase of this religion, " being 
 wrapped in thought while surrounded by vacancy and 
 stillness." His picture is seen as he crossed the Yangtse, 
 walking on the water and blowing a tall pagoda out of his 
 mouth. Ill commemoration of this event he is wor- 
 shipped by the boatmen on the twenty-eighth day of 
 February. 
 
 The Schools. — Buddhism, like other religions, is 
 divided into religious sects ; their lines of separation are 
 clearly marked in Japan, but are scarcely perceptible in 
 China. The two principal schools are the Hinayana and 
 Mahayana, or Schools of Small and Great Conveyance. 
 Buddha is said to have thus described them : " A notable 
 man's house took fire. He brought goat-carts, drawn by 
 goats and deer, to rescue his sons. He afterwards gave 
 them a lofty, broad waggon, drawn by white bullocks. 
 The first are the methods of the Hinayana ; the last that 
 of the Mahayana " or Grreat Conveyance. 
 
 The Hinayana school represents the earlier practical 
 asceticism of Buddhism, when the system was more 
 religious and less philosophical. The Mahayana school 
 was developed by the philosopher Najardjuna, " one of 
 the four suns which illumine the world," wiio favoured 
 transcendental speculation, and the substitution of mys- 
 ticism and fanciful contemplation for the rigid rites of 
 the early Church. He says, " The soul has neither 
 existence nor non-existence, it is neither eternal nor 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 201 
 
 non-eternal, neither annihilated by death nor non- 
 annihilated." 
 
 The Canon. — Shakyamuni left his teachings in oral 
 form, and, handed down from mouth to mouth, there were 
 many additions, changes, and variations. The sacred 
 books were published as the authoritative teachings of 
 Buddhism, and councils were held to settle points of dis- 
 pute, but it was not till the fifth century that the whole 
 canon was compiled and published in Ceylon, — this, 1,000 
 years after the time its founder died. As to the reception 
 of Buddhist literature into China; in the first century 
 the monks brought a few books, and during the fourth an 
 embassy was sent to India to collect works ; the travellers 
 brought many volumes, but a complete collection of the 
 Buddhist scriptures was not made till a.d. 1400. What 
 is known as the northern canon, the canon of China and 
 Japan, dates a.d. 1600. The canon of our Scriptures 
 compares favourably. "The Old Testament canon was 
 completed in the time of Ezra ; the Xew Testament 
 canon in the second century." " Besides, we still possess 
 ancient MSS. of the New Testament, some of which were 
 written one hundred years before the first edition of the 
 Buddhist scriptures was undertaken, of which not a single 
 ancient MS. has withstood the ravages of time, and 
 which has never yet been examined critically by either 
 friend or foe." 
 
 The Forge of Lies — As the Buddhists suppose that 
 Ananda held in memory the discourses of Buddha, all. the 
 sacred books begin " Thus have I heard " (equivalent in 
 the Bible to " Thus saith the Lord "), as thus he heard 
 Buddha speak. The wholesale interpolations are seen by 
 
202 The Di^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 the references in Buddha's sermons to Amita, who was un- 
 known for centuries ; to Kwanyin, a divinity of later date ; 
 to King Ashoka, to the king of Hades, and to the island of 
 PootoOj where Buddhism was planted 1,500 years after his 
 time. During the succeeding centuries clever priests 
 would write a book and palm it off as if from the pen of 
 the sage, and Buddhist writers, no matter at how late a 
 day, must have the Master's imprimatur. Suppose that 
 the followers of Luther, in all the ramifications of Grerman 
 
 Sand- Waiter. 
 
 theological speculation, were to issue their works as if 
 they were simply the stenographic reporters who delivered 
 verbatim the discourses of the great reformer, and that 
 the books represented Luther as their author! This 
 claiming for Buddha the authorship of the sacred books 
 stamps Buddhism as a system of falsehoods. 
 
 The religious, and many of the moral books of the 
 Chinese, are received from the gods by a sand-waiter or 
 kmd of planchette. In a room, where there are images. 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 203 
 
 pictures, and incense, on a table, is placed a waiter with 
 sand in it. From the beam hangs a rope with a hori- 
 zontal rod, to which is attached a vertical stick, and 
 to this a bird is frequently fastened, in whose mouth is 
 suspended a pen with an iron point. The literary men, 
 who seek an oracular response, hold the ends of the 
 horizontal rod, and when the god or Immortal comes, 
 there is first a verse, then perhaps an answer or a pre- 
 scription, or sometimes a book, written character after 
 character by the imperceptible movements of the hand. 
 A third party copies on paper, and thus religious books 
 are manufactured. 
 
 The Sutra a Fetish. — A fetish is described as a 
 material object, regarded as possessing supernatural 
 powers and influences, which may be controlled by the 
 person possessing the object. Fetishism is practised 
 not only in Africa and Oceania, but also in Asia, one 
 form of it being seen in the Indian religion by the super- 
 stitious regard which a Buddhist bestows upon his Sutra 
 or prayer-book. It wards off sickness, cures disease, 
 insures prosperity, and to chant the words is a panacea 
 for every evil. The book may be a family heirloom, and 
 is looked upon as an object of veneration. 
 
 Christian Ideas. — It may occur to the reader, that 
 in the name of Buddha's mother, in some of the circum- 
 stances attending his birth, in the temptations of Mara, 
 in the offerings of the Eastern merchants, and in some 
 of the incidents of his life, there is a similarity to the 
 Gospel narratives. It is said, however, that the " most 
 ancient Buddhistic books contain scarcely any details of 
 Buddha's life, and none whatever of these events." Also 
 
204 The Dragon, Image, and D^ 
 
 emon. 
 
 none of these legends can be proved to have existed 
 before the fifth or sixth centuries of our era, 1,100 
 years after the death of Shakyamuni. Again, before 
 this time the Nestorians had reached Central Asia, and 
 " true to its eclectic instincts Buddhism adopted many 
 Christian ideas, traditions, and ceremonies," and this 
 fully accounts for any similarity between the Indian and 
 Judean narratives. The resemblance is especially seen 
 in the Buddhism of Thibet. 
 
 Its Tolerant Spirit — The followers of the Arabian 
 prophet made their conquests by the sword, and the 
 Moslem faith kindles the fiercest passions of men. 
 Buddhism is the antipodes of Mahommedanism. It has 
 no system of truth for the defence of which its votaries 
 must lay down their lives, and though their idolatry is 
 denounced as false and abominable, the Buddhist meets 
 us with a smile. As the Chinese often say in the 
 chapels, " We say your religion is good, and ours is 
 good too, but you say that the religion of Jesus is the 
 only true religion ; we do not think you are as polite as 
 we are ; " and on the score of politeness we have to 
 acknowledge that they deserve the medal. " Imprinted 
 upon Buddhism by the master hand of Shakyamuni is 
 the spirit of thorough liberality and absolute tolerance, 
 which has marked its early rise and progress, and which 
 enabled it to adopt the most valuable ideas of all 
 religions it came in contact with, to enter into a com- 
 promise with almost every form of popular superstition, 
 and to found and maintain a church without persecuting 
 a single heretic." 
 
 Beneficial Effects.— Though Buddhism is the most 
 
The Oriental Banyan. 205 
 
 gigantic system of idolatry on the earth, yet in the 
 absence of the true it has been beneficial to eastern 
 Asia. It is much better to have a false religion than 
 to have no religion at all. Men in Christian lands who 
 " care for none of these things " are in a worse con- 
 dition than the devout pagan. Through Buddhism, 
 " countries and peoples shut out by mountains and deserts 
 were brought under the influence of morality," and 
 barbarous tribes '' were brought into a state of semi- 
 civilisation, which is the more apparent if we consider 
 in what a savage state all those tribes remained which 
 rejected Buddhism." 
 
 The benefits are most apparent in China. Its great 
 sage " clung to the physical, the seen, and the temporal 
 with a tenacious grasp." He took not into account that 
 a reliance upon the unseen was the only possible condi- 
 tion of the soul, and built no temple into which the 
 people could cany their affections and religious instincts ; 
 and so through the gap which Confucius left Buddhism 
 entered. "The Chinese in this system found objects to 
 adore of mysterious grandeur; and processions, the ringing 
 of bells, the fumes of sweet-smelling incense, prayers, 
 chants, and music, were aids to their devotion." What 
 if for these 2,000 years China had been left with the 
 cold philosophy of the sage ! Its condition would have 
 been tenfold worse, Confucianism has held up morality 
 before the people ; Buddhism has kept the flame of 
 religion burning on the altar of their hearts. The trans- 
 lators of Christian books are indebted to Buddhism for 
 much of their religious phraseology. 
 
 Revival of Buddhism. — For the ten years previous 
 
2o6 The Dragon, Image^ and Deinon. 
 
 to 1864 the T'aiping insurrectionists swept through 
 several of the provinces, laying waste its fields and 
 razing the cities. They were iconoclasts, destroying 
 every monastery, breaking to pieces every idol, and 
 putting the priests to the sword, so that twenty years 
 ago an opportunity was given to the Church to enter 
 a land almost, it might be said, without a religion, a 
 temple, a priesthood, or an altar. 
 
 The monks commenced the work of rebuilding, and it 
 went on slowly for many years, but during the last two 
 years in Soochow, as well as many other places, there has 
 been a revival of idolatry. It is seen in the rapid rebuild- 
 ing and repairing of nunneries, monasteries, and temples, 
 and the general air of prosperity attending these sacred 
 places. Many small buildings were unknown to foreigners 
 as temple property till they saw new halls being erected. 
 The priests, both Buddhist and Taoist, now command 
 much money, and the work they do is far more conspic- 
 uous and substantial than what is done on private dwell- 
 ings. For centuries the priests feared to invest money on 
 Pootoo, the sacred isle of the Pacific, but since foreign 
 commerce has driv^en piracy from the seas the revival of 
 Buddhism and its enterprise in the erection of beautiful 
 temples is there specially manifest, and before many 
 years, throughout the devastated sections of the empire, 
 temples and pagodas will lift their towering heads. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE THEOLOGY OF BUDDHISM, 
 
 rr^HE leading tenets of the system will be presented 
 -^ very briefly. 
 
 Buddhism is Atheistic — This seems to be a 
 strange charge to make against a religion where there 
 are " gods many, and lords many ; " yet in the midst 
 of its outward polytheism theoretical Buddhism is god- 
 less, a system of atheism. " Before Buddhism arose, the 
 thinking minds of India saw 
 
 The universe as one stupendous whole, 
 Whose body nature is, and God the soul." 
 
 From the great Brahma, the uncreated pantheistic deity, 
 who pervades all existence as the life pervades the body, 
 the whole Universe emanates, and into this Brahma it 
 will at last be reabsorbed. Buddha asked Alara, " What 
 becomes of the Great Brahma, when at the end of this 
 kalpa, this heaven and earth . . . are entirely destroyed, — 
 where then is your Creator ? " " The idea of a Creator is 
 nowhere mentioned by Buddha; in the course of his 
 religious disputations with the Brahmanshe combats their 
 notions of a god, coolly establishing the most crude 
 atheism." Buddha prefeiTed the law of revolution, — a 
 Universe rising into existence and moving onward in its 
 
2o8 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 course till it completes the circle, then undergoing a 
 process of dissolution, and after that reconstructed for a 
 new career, and thus again and again in eternal succession 
 as one kalpa ends and another begins.* 
 
 "A wise man can never be born in the abode of 
 Brahma " say the Buddhist cosmogonists, " for that deity 
 asserts that he can create heaven, earth, and all things. 
 He being so ignorant as this, no wise man would go to 
 live in his heaven." 
 
 Buddhism knows of no first cause, and gives no answer 
 to the question how the Universe came into existence ; yet 
 over two thousand years ago it set up a theory not unlike 
 the system known as Darwinian, save that the latter is 
 adapted to modern civilisation. Many of the modern 
 atheistic philosophers " have drunk more or less of the 
 sweet poison, and taken as kindly as an Asiatic to the 
 Buddhistic opium pipe." Shakyamuni, whom the 
 Buddhists acknowledge to be a man, is exalted to the 
 supreme place in its religious worship. It is the worship 
 of an idea more than of a being, as the theoretical 
 Buddha or Buddhaship is not so much a god as a stcde 
 after death, a state to which all may attain. In this 
 religion " there is the inconsistency of worshipping an 
 extinct being such as Buddha is said to have become at 
 his death.'' To be resolved into Buddha or the Buddha- 
 hood is the hope of the worshipper, so in reality it is the 
 adoration of a vague thought. 
 
 * A kalpa is " a period of time varying from a few hundred to 
 many thousand years," " not to be reckoned by months and days," 
 " a period during which a physical Universe is formed and 
 destroyed." 
 
The Theology of DuddJiism. 
 
 209 
 
 Natural Science — The Buddhist scriptures " have 
 not maintained a wise reticence about natural science." 
 Mount Sumeru, upon which is the palace of Indra, or as 
 it is called in Chinese, " the thirty-three heavens," in 
 height equal to 168,000 yojanas,* in shape like an 
 inverted cone, that is, the base above and standing on 
 its apex, is situated in the centre of the world, and 
 
 Mount Sumeru. 
 
 beneath (as its depth in the sm is equal to its altitude) 
 are the innumerable chambers of hell. 
 
 To show the ready adaptability of Buddhism to its 
 surroundings, a monk in Soochow who has studied 
 
 * The Yojana, the Buddhist sacred measure, is about four 
 miles. 
 
 14 
 
2IO The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 geogi'apliy sees that the old woodcuts in the sacred books 
 of this central mountain will not answer the present 
 advanced ideas about our globe, so he has issued a pictorial 
 pamphlet, resting Mount Sumeru upon the north pole, — 
 rather a cold region for heaven. His picture is given. 
 
 At the top of the Himalayas is a great lake, w^hich is 
 the common source of all the rivers of the earth. The 
 earth is in the shape of half a calabash, sloping upwards 
 on all sides to the summit of the Himalayas. India, not 
 China, is " the middle kingdom," and so " the navel of the 
 earth." What causes the tides ? " The water flowing 
 through the palace of the dragon assumes a blue colour, 
 and as it enters or issues forth from the palace, causes the 
 fall and rise of the sea." Why does not the ocean over- 
 flow ? " There are four precious jewels at the bottom of 
 the sea which absorb the waters from the countless rivers." 
 What gives the sea its brackish taste ? One of the 
 reasons assigned is that " in the middle of the sea is a 
 great fish 9,000 miles in length, and its pollutions cause 
 the salt taste." What is the cause of earthquakes ? 
 " The earth is placed on water, the water on wind, the 
 wind on space ; when the wind is agitated, then the water 
 is moved, and this shakes the earth." 
 
 The Great Chiliocosm — In the sacred books there 
 are cuts with many little circles ; these circles are worlds, 
 and each may by a process of evolution become a system 
 of worlds, — worlds upon worlds filling immensity. There 
 are little chiliocosms, and a thousand thousand of these 
 make a great chiliocosm. 
 
 There are kalpas (indefinite periods of time) of esta- 
 blishment, kalpas of perfection, kalpas of destruction, and 
 
The Theology of Btiddhisni. 211 
 
 kalpas of vacancy, twenty of each ; during the first forty 
 kalpas the universe is gradually brought to perfection, 
 and during the last forty the process of dissolution brings 
 it to its primeval condition. "The great chiliocosm is 
 not perfected by one influence or by one operation, but 
 by countless influences and countless operations." " The 
 physical causes engaged in its periodical formation and 
 destruction are water, wind, and fire." '^ Supposing the 
 world to be under the eternal law of change, Buddhists 
 give no account of its first origin, not feeling the need 
 of the doctrine of creation." 
 
 Its scriptures say, " When the heavens and the earth 
 again began to be, there was no defined substance, neither 
 was there sun nor moon ; but the earth bubbled up as a 
 sweet fountain, the taste of which was like virgin honey." 
 The Devas touched it with their fingers, tasted it, and ate, 
 till they lost their angelic beauty, and became coarse like 
 men. " A great black wind arose, which blew upon the 
 face of the waters and produced the sun and moon. On 
 beholding them come forth, men were filled with joy. 
 From this time began morning and evening, darkness 
 and light, and the revolving seasons." "There was no 
 distinction of male or female, but all were born alike in 
 the world, and from this arose the expression, ' all living 
 things.' " " When men began to desire many things, 
 then the sexes were developed, and from this came the 
 name of man and wife." 
 
 The Heart — The Pantheistic tendencies of Buddhistic 
 philosophy are illustrated by its deification of the heart. 
 A Sutra says, " The heart, as a skilful workman, makes all 
 the different conditions of existence throughout the ten 
 
2 1 2 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 regions of space ; everything in the universe results from 
 the operation of this universal essence." 
 
 "The heart is Buddha," is an expression in constant 
 use by the Chinese, which is the same as to say that 
 a man has a divinity within his own bosom, and needs 
 no other lord. The heart is " the inborn Buddha, which 
 belongs to everything that has conscious existence. It 
 is pure and holy, but is overshadowed and shut out from 
 view by the passions. Let every one search for it with 
 introverted eye, and he will need no god or idol to adore, 
 nor any law to control him. Let him uncover the veiled 
 Buddha in his own heart. He will then become his own 
 teacher and his own regenerator." In this language we 
 see another sacrifice, a very acceptable one, to human 
 pride. 
 
 An author says, " Heaven and earth with this heart 
 pervade the myriad of things ; man obtains it, and then 
 it is the heart of man ; things obtain it, and then it is the 
 heart of things. Grrass, trees, birds, and beasts obain it, 
 and then it is the heart of grass, trees, birds, and beasts. 
 This is just the one heart of heaven and earth." 
 
 Morality. — On entering Buddhist temples there are 
 found most excellent moral precepts on signboards or 
 fixed in the walls. " Only Heaven is Supreme." " There 
 is but one road to happiness." " Only the good are happy 
 for ever." " Buddha lives in one's heart." " Coming and 
 going, have one heart." "When one prays the heart 
 responds." " The pure heart will excel in intelligence." 
 " Do not deceive." Alas ! they are merely engraved on 
 wood and brick, and not graven on the fleshy tablets of 
 the heart. The precepts of Shakyamuni " proceeded from 
 
The Theology of Buddhism. 2 1 3 
 
 the lips of a man who through a long life was animated 
 by a pure and lofty asceticism." Buddha spoke of the 
 ten evils : murder, theft, and lust belonging to the body ; 
 equivocation, slander, lying, and flattery to the, speech; 
 and envy, anger, and delusion to the thoughts. The 
 three poisons within the heart are covetousness, anger, and 
 delusion. The five obscurities are envy, passion, sloth, 
 vacillation, and unbelief. Buddha says, " Lust and con- 
 cupiscence are the sole causes of all the folly and confusion 
 in the world ; they are like a person who takes a lighted 
 torch and runs with it against the wind." 
 
 " The heart is the Dusy contriver of the lusts ; compose 
 the heart, and these evil thoughts will all be still." 
 " Once get rid of the pollution of the wicked heart," and 
 the life will be correct. '' The man who is able to 
 govern his heart and keep it pure, and who perseveres 
 against all obstacles, advances onward ; this man, when 
 lust is banished and vice is destroyed, will obtain salva- 
 tion." 
 
 In "The Sutra of Forty-two Sections," Buddha says, 
 " Man having many faults, if he does not repent, but 
 allows his heart to be at rest, will find sins rushing upon 
 him like water to the sea. If a man becomes sensible of 
 his faults, abandons them, and <icts virtuously, his sin will 
 day by day diminish and be destroyed, till he obtains full 
 enlightenment." " Who is the great man ? " asks the 
 Indian sage. " He who is strongest in the exercise of 
 patience, he who patiently endures misery and maintains 
 a blameless life." 
 
 Among difficult things he mentions, '^ Being poor to be 
 charitable, being rich or great to be religious, to bear 
 
2 14 '^^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 insult without anger, to move in the world without 
 setting the heart on it, and to be the same in heart and 
 life." Some of Shakya's words might be written in gold, 
 — "A man who foolishly does me wrong, I will return 
 to him the protection of my ungrudging love ; the more 
 evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me ; 
 the fragrance of these good actions always redounding to 
 me, the harm of the slanderer's words returning to him." 
 
 Some of the charitable institutions in China may 
 probably be ascribed to Buddhism. There are many 
 Buddhist tracts inculcating morality, but it is impossible 
 to tell how much of the light is borrowed. The influence 
 of Buddhist morality is at a minimum, for two reasons ; 
 first, the towering ascendency of Confucianism, and 
 second, because the monks, the exponents of the system, 
 do not by their celibate lives recommend the doctrines 
 they profess. 
 
 Asceticism. — The life of Shakyamuni has been a 
 practical illustration. The world renounced, the city 
 abandoned, riches given up, fathers cast away, mothers 
 forsaken, brothers and sisters left behind, wife forgotten, 
 children disowned, family deserted, relatives unknown, 
 homeless, friendless, penniless, — this is to be a Buddhist. 
 Neither by command nor precept does it regulate the 
 relations between prince and subject, father and son, or 
 husband and wife. The Church is a body of hermits, a 
 congregation of priests, an army of mendicants. The 
 doctrine of penance is one of its prime tenets. 
 
 " Deny thyself," says Buddha. He inculcated the 
 principle of self-denial and the life of self-sacrifice. " The 
 starting-point in his code was the idea of absolute 
 
The Theology of Buddhism. 2 1 5 
 
 self-renunciation," and in this lay "the path of deliver- 
 ance from misery." Let us see how this sage speaks of 
 
 Love. — Love is the root of birth and death. If love is 
 not broken one is not born in Paradise. Its cords must be 
 broken in two. The canal of love and the sea of sorrow 
 are the same. Love of friends, family, and riches must be 
 broken off before one may become Buddha. If you do not 
 know that love is the root of life and death, you may be 
 chanting while the root grows larger ; before your eyes at 
 home may be parents, wife, children, and riches, and the 
 whole body in a fiery furnace. If you look round and see 
 your children, can you pull up love by the roots ? If you 
 cannot pull up love by the roots, how can you loose the 
 coils of life and death ? 
 
 Emptiness. — The Confucianist objects to Buddhism 
 that it is a system of " emptiness," because it denies 
 the consciousness of man and the reality of the external 
 world. When Buddha turned the wheel of the law in 
 the deer garden and " preached respecting the secret 
 and mysterious signs of being," he founded his argument 
 on the assertion that all things are void, all phenomena 
 unreal. He says, " If a man knows that self has no 
 individual nature, then all phenomena will appear to him 
 unreal." The two things the Buddhist desires are, first, 
 " A heart fixed on nothing," and second, " A mind which 
 dwells nowhere." 
 
 This phase of Buddhism is illustrated by extracts from 
 the " Heart Sutra,*' which is chanted by nearly every man, 
 woman, and child in Central China. " Appearance and 
 emptiness are the same ; emptiness and appearance are the 
 same. Appearance is emptiness and emptiness is appear- 
 
2l6 
 
 The Dragon, Image, 
 
 and Demon. 
 
 ance. Keception, thought, action, and knowledge are 
 empty. The empty substance of all law is not born, is 
 not destroyed, is not clean, is not soiled ; it cannot be 
 added to and cannot be destroyed ; for this reason — in the 
 middle of emptiness there is no appearance, no reception, 
 thought, action, or knowledge. It is without the eye, 
 ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. It is without 
 
 Meditation. 
 
 appearance, voice, fragrance, taste, feeling, law ; without 
 limit to sight, without limit to mind, without, 
 without clearness, and without, without clear ending." 
 In the sacred books, there are some examples of 
 Nihilism — A wayfarer in the country of Afghanistan 
 knocks at the door of a Brahman family. A young man 
 within answers, "There is no one in this house." The 
 
The Theology of Btiddhism. 2 1 7 
 
 traveller, who was a Patriarch, understood this, and said, 
 '' Who is no one?" The door opened, and the old man 
 foretells the destiny of the youth; he was his successor, 
 the eighteenth Patriarch. 
 
 This man, Saugkayasheta, " heard the bells of a temple 
 ringing on account of the wind blowing. His teacher 
 asked him, ' Is it the bells that make the sound, or the 
 wind ? ' The Patriarch replied, ' It is neither the bells 
 nor the wind, it is my mind.' " 
 
 The Emperor Leang Wute at Nanking meeting with 
 Bodhidharma asks, '' Which is the most important of the 
 holy doctrines ? " He replies, " Where all is emptiness 
 nothing can be called ?ioly." The Emperor says, " Who is 
 this that thus replies to me ? " The speaker answers, 
 " I do not know." 
 
 Meditation. — This may be called the " anxious bench " 
 of Buddhism ; thus six years sat Buddha in the jungle. 
 Priests are often seen sitting tailor-fashion on a small 
 platform, for hours at a time, thoughtless, motionless. 
 The bonze " must first arm himself with a firm resolve 
 to save all creatures, vowing that he will obtain supreme 
 wisdom." The mat must be placed in a retired spot to 
 be free from interruption, the body composed to a state 
 of perfect quiet, the clothes spread out, the legs properly 
 arranged, the toes of the right foot on the left thigh, and 
 vice versa, the palm of the left hand placed in the hollow 
 of the right, the eyebrows hanging down, the eyes slightly 
 opened, and fixed on the end of the nose, the body and 
 heart both fixed, the mind bound down to repose in the 
 middle of the body, the breathings counted to prevent 
 thought, and then the heart is at rest. At this time the 
 
2i8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 soul got^s out and wanders at leisure, sometimes even on 
 a journey of a thousand miles, returning at pleasure, 
 so that the priest in these invisible flights sees and 
 knows all- that goes on in the county or province. 
 
 Kindness to Animals. — Buddhism shows the sym- 
 pathy for animals that was intended for men. The 
 principle on which it is based is that to eat meat, the 
 root of pity in the heart is broken off. Another reason 
 is that according to the doctrine of transmigration one 
 may be feeding on an ancestor. A third, that all 
 creatures are the sons of Buddha, so a priest is seen using 
 a brush to drive off mosquitoes to avoid killing one ; the 
 lice on the body it is not right to destroy, and even 
 hungry spirits Buddha pities as a father. There are 
 societies to receive animals redeemed from the slaughter- 
 house, canals set apart in which to turn loose fish, where 
 the hook cannot be dropped or the net dragged ; hawkers 
 along the streets cry, "Buy this big turtle for $2, and 
 do a meritorious act ; " an old mule is treated as tenderly 
 as a grandmother. A man listening to me preaching on 
 Abraham offering up Isaac exclaimed, "And why was it 
 necessary to kill that goat ? " 
 
 Vegetarians — A corollary to the tenet of the sacred- 
 ness of animal life and the wickedness of animal sacrifices 
 is the sin of eating flesh. The Christian religion is called 
 the Ye-su (Jesus) Church, and so those unaccustomed to 
 the f^ound often ask " if we eat su," — that is, live on a 
 vegetable diet. The monks are vegetarians (though not 
 a few quietly indulge in fish and pork), and object seriously 
 to a dog bringing a bone, by which the temple precincts 
 would be defiled* To be a vegetarian is the method the 
 
The TJieology of Buddhism. 219 
 
 laity have of making a profession of the Buddhist faith, 
 and millions among the women and tens of thousands of 
 the old men, some for thirty or forty years, have not 
 tasted meat. It is exceedingly troublesome, for on a visit 
 to friends they cannot eat rice out of a pot in which flesh 
 has been cooked. Others are vegetarians certain days 
 and parts of certain months ; as, in honour of Kwanyin, 
 the first nineteen days of the 1st, 6th, and 9th Moons 
 are observed ; for the " Three Mandarins " the first half 
 of the 1st, 7th, and 10th Moons are days of fasting; and 
 for twenty-four days of July almost the whole population 
 abstain from meats, in honour of the god of thunder. 
 The candles used in worship are made of the grease of 
 the tallow-tree, not of beef-tallow, so that Buddhism is 
 an " anti-fat society." The idea pervading the devotees 
 of this faith is that by " eating no meat " the heart is 
 purified, hence the appropriateness of the passage, " Not 
 that which entereth into a man defileth the man." 
 
 Sin. — This is a word which Buddhism has kept alive 
 in China, but perhaps there is no nation which has less 
 sense of sin than the Chinese. They confess sin in general, 
 but deny every particular sin ; they acknowledge sin in 
 the abstract, but refu'se to admit it in the concrete ; they 
 say, " Oh ! yes, every one must have sins," but the 
 individual addressed has no personal sin ; there is such 
 a thing as sin in China, but it does not lie at my door. 
 Sometimes, in answer to the question, " Why are you a 
 vegetarian ? " the reply will be, " Because my sins are 
 heavy;" or to "Why do you go' on pilgrimages?" it is 
 replied, ^' To escape from sin ; " to " Why do you burn 
 incense?" it is said, " We all have sins on our bodies," but 
 
2 20 The Dragon, Image, and Denton. 
 
 oftener men reply, " I have no sin." " But have you never 
 sinned in your Hfe ? " '' Oh ! no, I have never trampled 
 on a grain of rice or misused printed paper." " Think, 
 in heedless youth, did you never lie or curse ? " " If I 
 did, I have forgotten it ; I am not conscious of any sin : 
 if I have, I do not know it now, I may know it hereafter." 
 It seems to be universal that all men consider themselves 
 sinless ; the " seared conscience " is the habitual accom- 
 paniment of age. The old ladies wear red pants as a sign 
 that they have attained perfection. 
 
 The Buddhist idea of sin is more that which brings 
 calamity than what is essentially evil in itself. "How 
 about those who are killed by the thunder ? " is the 
 continual question. He must be unfilial, or he was a 
 murderer, as was judged of the apostle by the barbarous 
 people of Melita, when a viper fastened on his hand. If 
 lightning strikes a tree there is a venomous snake hidden 
 at its root. The missionary has constantly to preach on 
 the Tower of Siloam, and of the blind man about whom 
 the disciples asked, " Master, who did sin, this man or his 
 parents, that he should be born blind ? " The blind sit 
 by the wayside with the heart-rending cry, " Hell is 
 before my eyes," i.e., the sorrow is like that in the prison 
 of the lost. Sickness is spoken of as " transgressed 
 disease," and criminals (see Chapter XXVI.) appear in 
 the processions confessing their sins. 
 
 Redemption. — "Redemption" is a blessed word that 
 Buddhism has preserved till Christianity came to China, — 
 the same word the people use in redeeming their effects 
 from the pawn-shop. The idea of redemption in Buddhism 
 is not so much obtaining pardon for sins committed as 
 
The Theology of BMcidhisni. 221 
 
 of being set free from the power of the evil passions. 
 The methods of obtaining redemption are pilgrimages to 
 distant shrines, regularly burning incense, performing 
 meritorious acts, a vegetable diet, saving animal life, and 
 chanting books of prayer, thus renovating one's own heart ; 
 it is thought a definite amount of gifts and worship will 
 gain the removal of a corresponding amount of sin and 
 its attendant suffering. 
 
 The idea of grace is in a slight degree kept before the 
 people ; that grace which is " pity in the heart of Buddha, 
 prompting him to teach true doctrine to those who have 
 gone astray, and opening a path for self-reformation and 
 pardon of sins." As in Taoist works the Buddhist element 
 is freely intermingled, " the god of the Taoists is repre- 
 sented as promulgating a gracious decree to remit the 
 punishment of hell for those who repent." 
 
 Merit. — The doctrine of salvation by meritorious 
 actions is the bulwark of Buddhism. Do and live is their 
 maxim. The Buddhist is placed " under the unrelenting 
 yoke of the moral law of his own religion, a burden too 
 heavy to be borne." 
 
 According to the doctrine of kai^ma, " Every act of 
 worship, every Buddhist ceremony, every book of devotion 
 read, every gift to a monastery or a begging priest, every 
 mass for the dead, every invocation of a Buddha or 
 Bodhisattwa, every wish for the good of others, infallibly 
 causes great good, through the necessary operation of the 
 law of cause and effect in the moral sphere." 
 
 The doctrine of " causation " or " fate," by which " a 
 man's destiny is determined by the stock of merits or 
 demerits accumulated in previous forms of existence, con- 
 
222 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 statutes Buddhism a system of fatalism," as good actions 
 bring happiness, and bad ones misery. ''To do good 
 deeds " is hourly heard as the synonym of duty and 
 religion. The services for the dead are highly meritorious 
 to the living. " Tso kung-teh," " do merit," consists of 
 liturgical services for the departed, to obtain for them 
 better positions in the other world, by which children and 
 friends may, through the priests, the mediators of the 
 dark covenant of Buddhism, add merit unto their ancestors. 
 It is a double-acting machine, by which the departed 
 obtain merit by what is done, and the living obtain merit 
 by doing it. 
 
 The Chinese have a work called " The Eules of Merit 
 and Transgression," with an enumeration of almost every 
 conceivable action, stating the commercial value of good 
 deeds in the market of Hades, and the relative scale of 
 punishments for the evil. A good Chinaman often sits 
 down at night and makes out the account for the day, 
 being always sure he has credit in the bank, so that 
 " morality is converted into a vast scheme of profit and 
 loss." To illustrate : — 
 
 Account of Merit. 
 
 Cr. 
 
 To pay the debts of a father 10 
 
 To worship at a father's burial 50 
 
 When rich to marry a deformed girl to whom be- 
 trothed when poor 100 
 
 To lend an umbrella 1 
 
 To build bridges, repair roads, open canals, and dig 
 
 wells, for every dollar expended . ... 10 
 
 To furnish a coffin for the poor 30 
 
 To bury a man who has no son 50 
 
 To entreat a mother not to commit infanticide. . 30 
 
The Theology of Bicddhism. 
 
 223 
 
 To save a child from infanticide. 
 
 To save one hundred insects .... 
 
 To bury a bird 
 
 To turn loose animals, for every 10 cents expended 
 
 To pick up one grain of rice .... 
 
 To return what you pick up on the street, for every 
 
 value of 10 cents 
 
 To give 10 cents to beggars .... 
 
 For one year not to eat beef or dog meat . 
 
 To publish a part of the Classics 
 
 To forgive a debt ...... 
 
 To destroy the stereotype plates of immoral books 
 Purity through life 
 
 Cr. 
 
 50 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 300 
 
 1000 
 
 Account of Transgressions. 
 
 To love a wife more than father and mother 
 To listen to a wife against one's own brothers 
 To allow a step-mother to illtreat a first 
 
 children ; each day 
 To be double-tongued 
 
 To be insincere 
 
 To have one bad thought . 
 
 To see immoral theatricals. 
 
 To dig up a worm in winter 
 
 To laugh at an ugly person. 
 
 To soil the page of a book . 
 
 To take meat and wine to a tej.i[)lG . 
 
 To get drunk ..... 
 
 To be guilty of usury. . . . 
 
 To counterfeit silver .... 
 
 To misuse written or printed paper . 
 
 To cook beef or dog meat . 
 
 To dig up a coffin .... 
 
 For a mandarin not to prohibit infanticide 
 
 To assist in infanticide 
 
 To drown an infant .... 
 
 To publish an obscene book 
 
 wife 
 
 Dr. 
 
 100 
 10 
 
 1 
 30 
 10 
 10 
 10 
 1 
 3 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 100 
 100 
 50 
 100 
 100 
 10 
 50 
 100 
 measureless. 
 
2 24 -^^^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 The Field of Happiness. — This phrase often occurs 
 in the sacred books, with the design of inducing men to 
 be charitable. The field is the heart, alms the grain ; 
 sow the seeds of charity in this life, and you will reap 
 a happy harvest in the next. To the poor, riches will 
 
 Transmigration. 
 
 be given ; to the lowly, office ; upon those who desire 
 health, long life, or sons ; such are the blessings that 
 will be bestowed. 
 
 Transmigration. — The doctrine of metempsychosis is 
 the great central principle of Buddhism. Just as the 
 
The Theology of Buddhisui. 225 
 
 cross is the emblem of Christianity, so the wheel is the 
 symbol of Buddhism ; the wheel of the law turns in this 
 world and the wheel of transmigration in Hades. In 
 this wheel there are six ranks, — insects, fish, birds, 
 animals, poor men, and mandarins. It is not necessary 
 to go in order through the six paths, but one may go 
 from the highest to the lowest, and from the lowest to 
 the highest. All sentient creatures are bound to this 
 revolving wheel. 
 
 There is a state of action and reaction between this 
 world and Hades, a system of rewards bestowed, and 
 vengeance taken. A wicked man returns as a beast, but 
 if the beast is killed, his sins are atoned for and the 
 account settled, and he may the next time be a man. 
 There is a state of enmity between the two worlds. If a 
 man goes through life and he does not kill an ant or a 
 fly, then there is no enmity in the other world. The 
 common saying is, " If I am a hog and you a man, and 
 you kill me, in the next life you will be a hog and I a 
 man, and I will kill you." 
 
 An early transmigration is thought to be desirable. 
 From ancient times it was the practice of the poor, some 
 years after decease, to burn the coffin and gather up the 
 bones, for want of burial space. Afterwards, as the priests 
 practised cremation, it was said, '' One day quicker burned 
 one day sooner returned," so the custom became general 
 in some parts of the land, though the mandarins issue 
 proclamations forbidding it. 
 
 Metempsychosis is the faith of every man, woman, and 
 child in China ; all believe that they individually have in 
 a previous existence been here upon this earth. They 
 
 15 
 
2 26 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 have a proverb, that "the good has the good reward, and 
 the evil the evil reward," but they see many honest men 
 are poor, and that the wicked " flourish as the green bay- 
 tree," so they seek for a theory to cover these different 
 conditions, and find it in the formula, that happiness and 
 misery in this life are the result of good or bad deeds in 
 a previous existence. Preach against this as the minister 
 may, their minds still revolve around the hub of trans- 
 migration. It is not simply inlaid in their constitutions, it 
 is so thoroughly interwoven that it is a part of the mental 
 structure of all Buddhists. " Cruelty, covetousness, false- 
 hood, lust, drunkenness, and other vices will heap up 
 a stock of demerit, producing rebirth in some wretched 
 condition of life upon earth, while the opposite virtues 
 will insure a desirable condition." All say they know of 
 many instances. A sheep near Soochow was once born 
 with a man's name branded on its side, and did it not 
 have the soul of that man ? Some years since a man 
 at Hangchow dreamed that outside one of the gates a 
 cow had a calf, which was his father returning. Eising 
 early and going to a village, he found a young calf; 
 purchasing the cow and calf he led it home, and honoured 
 it as his venerated father. A few nights afterwards he 
 dreamed that it was not the soul of his father, but that 
 of an enemy, and its retention would bring untold 
 calamities. On the morrow, the calf was killed. 
 
 The greatest hope of a woman is that next time she 
 may be a man ; of a poor man that he may be born rich ; 
 of the wealthy that in a coming age they may be 
 mandarins. This is an old doctrine of the Brahmans, 
 which Buddha remodelled, and made it the pivot of his 
 
The Theology of Buddhism. 227 
 
 system, and this was the sword the Indian prophet 
 wielded with such frightful terror. What a fearful 
 doctrine ! Lashed to the wheel of fate, as a man caught 
 in the machinery of a great mill, going round and round, 
 first in the light and then down in the night ; now in 
 life, then descending to the shades of death, around and 
 around through ceaseless aeons as the revolving wheel 
 turns over and over. There in the temple is the mill 
 with the man going in above and the dog coming out 
 beneath, and here is the picture of the horse entering 
 the man's body as he possesses merit, and so returns 
 a human being. This is a fort at which Christianity 
 must level its heaviest batteries. 
 
 The gods strapped to this Wheel.— Buddha, in his 
 great sermon on Mount Sumeru, addressing the pantheon 
 of the skies, said, " ye gods and goddesses ! think not 
 that your estate is permanent and established in heaven ; 
 you also must descend and be bound to the wheel of 
 transmigration, and return as men to earth." 
 
 Nirvana. — As Heaven offered no safe abode for men 
 or gods, Buddha sought some estate which would be per- 
 manent and enduring ; that estate is Nirvana, the doctrine 
 of Buddha's old age when his experience was ripe. It is 
 to get outside of the wheel of life and death, so entering 
 Nirvana one escapes from transmigration. It is the 
 repose of the soul, a passionless condition- of body and 
 spirit, an absolute rest obtained by the absorption of the 
 soul into itself. The question comes. What does Ikidd- 
 hism teach of this state ? One of Buddha''s followers 
 asserted, " Nirvana is ; " but if it is a state of being, it 
 is a motionless being, where the heart does not beat. 
 
2 28 The Dj-agoii, Image, and Demon. 
 
 the mind does not think, the soul does not act, the life 
 does not live. There is no thought, personality, or 
 identity, — a place where the " I " is lost. It is described 
 as " where the silence lies," a state of "complete silence," 
 a condition of '' nothingness," a state of " non-existence." 
 " Nirvana is a state of which nothing can be said, to 
 which no attributes can be given : it is altogether an 
 abstract, devoid of all positive and negative qualities." 
 If the Chinese equivalents can be relied on, Nirvana 
 means " entire destruction," which is nothing less than 
 annihilation, and it possesses all the qualities we ascribe 
 to annihilation, as it is " the complete extinction of all 
 personal and individual being." In the translations of 
 the Indian Sutras into Chinese, over and over is Nirvana 
 described as "absolute annihilation ; " so this great religion 
 of Asia ends " in nothingness as the issue and crown of 
 being." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 BUDDHIvSM as a religion consists not so much 
 in the Hfe of its founder and in its doctrinal 
 tenets as it does in its temple worship, this worship 
 supplying the craving of the heart for a medium 
 by which to express its reverence for the higher 
 powers. The ministers who minister at its altars are 
 The Priests — These are known by their shaven heads 
 and yellow robes, which are loose and flowing to allow 
 for spiritual influences ; their stockings are large enough 
 for two feet to be put into one. In central and southern 
 China they are like the black crows in number. All 
 religions have ceremonies for setting apart men to the 
 sacred office. Fifty days the candidate for the priesthood 
 is required to spend in special preparation, with severe 
 fasts, watches by night, rigorous penance, and subjected 
 to many hardships. His special seals are the marks above 
 his forehead, for he is branded in twelve spots on his 
 shaven pate by lighted incense, which, burning on his 
 head, leaves an indelible impress. In olden times it was 
 a life of self-denial, but now many " enter the priest's 
 office to eat the priest's bread." Sometimes a priest 
 adopts a boy from a poor family and trains him up as his 
 
- ^° TheJJmgou, Image, and Demon. 
 
 successor in the temple service, \y^^^^^Si^^^^^^. 
 worthless vagabonds enter the ranks because they have no 
 employment. Occasionally the heart is touched by seein. 
 httle boys without their own consent forced into this 
 
 Buddhist Priests. 
 
 miserable service. Once we snw n u 
 
 had mirIP n ,. Hangchow man, who 
 
 iidu maae a vow on a s ck hpH f^ i. . 
 
 1-^1 , ^^ ^^ become a Driesf tpnr 
 
 : h!: :?r: ""' ^^-^ ^-™ ^-^^^^ --^"'"^ 
 
 put tn.m m a Pootoo monastery for life. 
 
The Worship of Bttddhism. 231 
 
 The bonzes are noted for their idleness. The people 
 speak of them as the " drones in the hive, and not useful 
 as the silk-worm," and despise their lazy habits ; for they 
 loiter around except when engaged in temple services or 
 in reading prayers for the dead. In the second place, 
 they are remarkable for their stupidity ; the monotone 
 chant not being conducive to mental activity. They 
 have no intellectual tastes. I have asked them at Pootoo, 
 " Why do you not read when you have nothing to do ? " 
 Ages gone by they have '' abandoned the study of the 
 Sanscrit, and know nothing of the history of their own 
 religion ; " their shaven pates with low sloping foreheads 
 do not indicate genius ; and it would be hard to find men 
 where the light of reason is so obscured as in many of 
 the monks ; yet there are marked exceptions, for we 
 occasionally see those who are noted for zeal, devotion, 
 and learning. Next to stupidity is their cupidity. With 
 the priest it is a question of business, and he never turns 
 aside to philanthropic acts. One illustration will suffice. 
 I said to one of the thousand monks at Pootoo, " I 
 suppose when a priest dies he has a large company to 
 perform masses for his soul ? " He replied, " Oh ! if 
 he leaves S30 or S40 they will, but if he dies without 
 money he has no funeral." As Buddhism enjoins celibacy 
 the morals of the younger and middle-aged are con- 
 sidered by the masses as questionable. 
 
 A common sight is the priest seated beside a table, 
 beating on his wooden fish-head, counting his beads, and 
 chanting the instructions of Buddha with frequent invo- 
 cations. 
 
 The monk has his manual of daily prayer, and the 
 
232 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 rules of the order fill several volumes ; he is subject to 
 strict discipline from his superiors, though it is not 
 often enforced. When travelling he may stop at a 
 monastery, and is entitled to receive his food. From his 
 prayer-book the following is taken. When he rises in 
 the morning and bows before Buddha he must say, 
 
 " King of the Law, the most exalted Lord, 
 Unequalled through the three -fold world, 
 Teacher and guide of men and gods, 
 Our loving father and of all that breathes, 
 I bow myself in lowest reverence and pray 
 That thou wouldest soon destroy the power of destiny. 
 
 To set forth all thy praise 
 
 Unbounded time would not suffice." 
 
 Cremation Jar. 
 
 " The monk does not need faith or conviction or zeal. 
 There is no god to worship but Buddha, and he is an 
 uncrowned god in the sense in which Confucius was an 
 uncrowned king." At death he is placed in a sitting 
 
234 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 posture in the burial jar, the upper half is fitted on, 
 iViggots are piled around, fire is applied, and soon a handful 
 of ashes is all that remains. 
 
 The Temple. — It is hard for us to divest our minds 
 of the idea that a Chinese temple is a building of mag- 
 nificent architecture, but when the visitor beholds the 
 heavy, cumbrous, barn-like roof, supported by huge pillars, 
 
 Four Diamonds. 
 
 the floor paved with brick, all above dark and made 
 darker by the smoke of incense, and sees the mould and 
 the dirt, he immediately contrasts it in his mind with 
 the sacred edifices of G-reece and Kome. Sometimes a 
 temple is seen whose proportions please the eye. In the 
 cities the temples are large, and they are the property 
 of the Church, but each little village and hamlet has its 
 
The Worship of Buddhism. 235 
 
 house of worship ; these last belong to the people, and 
 are controlled by the elders of the village. In front is 
 usually the pond. If a piece of bread is tossed into this, 
 a troop of gold fish rise to the surface. 
 
 A Buddhist temple usually consists of three buildings, 
 with paved open courts between ; the smallest in front, 
 the second of more importance, while the third is the 
 largest and most important of all. 
 
 The Four Diamonds — On entering the first build- 
 ing, which constitutes the doorway, four gigantic images, 
 two on each side, the guardians of the portal, are beheld. 
 They are called the " Four Diamonds,'' and were four 
 brothers, named Lee-pure, Lee-red, Lee-sea, and Lee-age. 
 The first, Lee-pure, has a sword which, if brandished, would 
 cause a black wind to spring up, and in the wind ten thou- 
 sand spears, which would pierce the bodies of men and 
 turn them to dust, the dust so great that men could not 
 open their eyes. After the wind there would be a fire, like 
 ten thousand golden serpents flying around. The third, 
 Lee-red, has an umbrella in his hand, w^iich can shade 
 the universe. Turn it, and there would be earthquakes; 
 open it, and heaven would be chaos, earth darkness, and 
 tl.e sun and moon without light. Lee-sea has a guitar, 
 and when he touches the strings fire and wind issue forth. 
 Lee-age has a bag, and in the bag a little animal like a 
 white rat; turn it loose, and it would be like a white 
 elephant with two wings flying against the enemy. 
 The four brothers were killed in battle, and 
 appointed the guardians of the doorway in Tartarus. 
 There is a sacred book called " The Diamond Classic ; " 
 to believe in this work a man must have had the 
 
236 The Dragon, Image, and Demojt. 
 
 " good root " planted in him ten hundred times ten 
 thousand years ago. In the second temple is seen 
 Matreya Buddha. — He is also called "Me-me 
 Buddha " and " The Coming Buddha," and is the Messiah 
 of the Buddhist Church. He sits tailor-fashion, with the 
 centre of his body very prominent, and in his hand is a 
 
 The Coming Buddha. 
 
 bag; when he was on the earth the people called him 
 " cloth-bag priest," or "carpet bagger; " his broad, laugh- 
 ing face welcomes the worshipper. At this time Shak- 
 yamuni rules the Church ; his successor will be Matreya, 
 and at that time " the earth with its five evils mingled " 
 will be purified. 
 
 Just in the rear of Matreya Buddha, back to back, is 
 
The W^orship of Bitdd/iism. 237 
 
 Weito. — He was a former disciple of Buddha, and is 
 now the protector of his law. As one of the most hand- 
 some of the gods he may be styled, " Apollo ; " he stands 
 facing inwards, with a golden helmet on his head and a 
 rod in his hand, called the " conquering Satan staff." 
 
 \jy 
 
 The Protector. 
 
 The third hall is the principal building in the enclosure, 
 and is really the temple itself. There are several groups 
 of three, we see, in the different temples. Sometimes it 
 is Shakyamuni, the god of gods and lord of lords in the 
 Buddhist Church, in the seat of honour, with Kashiapa 
 and Ananda standing on the right and left. 
 
238 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Buddhas of the Three Ages.— Again it is the 
 Biiddhas of the " three ages," the ^' Past, Present, and 
 Future," the three images alike. The central figure 
 is Shakyamuni ; the image on the left representing the 
 many Buddhas of the past; the one on the right the 
 Buddhas to come, who will rule the Church, ascending 
 
 Long live the Emparor 
 
 the throne in regular succession as so many emperors. 
 In front of Shakya is the tablet, "Long live the Em- 
 peror ! " literally, " The Emperor ten thousand years 
 ten thousand times ten thousand years." 
 
 Shakyamuni, Wen-shu, and Pow-hien. — In another 
 temple you will see Buddha in the centre, and Wen-shu 
 
The Worship of Buadhism. 
 
 239 
 
 and Pow-hien on either side ; the first mounted on a 
 green lion, the second on a white elephant, though 
 sometimes it is only the nose and foot of these animals 
 that can be seen ; the first is the god of wisdom, the 
 
 Eighteen Lohans. 
 
 second the god of action ; the first is worshipped princi- 
 pally in Shanse, the second in the Sze-cheun province. 
 They are " ancient Buddhas, appearing among men as the 
 helpers of Shakyamuni, who styles the one 'eldest son' 
 and the other ' little boy.' " 
 
240 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 If it is a temple for the worship of the gods of Paradise, 
 the central deity is Amita ; on the right is the goddess 
 of mercy, and on the left Tashuchi, the triad styled " the 
 three sages of the west." There are also groups of three 
 in the other temples — the " Three Pure Ones ; " the 
 " Three Precious Ones ; " the " Three Holy Sages ; " the 
 '' Three Mandarins," and the " Three Mao." 
 
 The Eighteen Lohans. — They were originally six- 
 teen, but two have by some means been added. They 
 were distinguished members of the Indian Church, and 
 
 Articles used iu Worship. 
 
 passing through several degrees they attained to the 
 state of perfect saints. The term has a wider significa- 
 tion, and sometimes includes the five hundred sages 
 whose life-size statues are seen in a temple at Hangchow. 
 The Worship. — The candles used in worship are 
 made of the grease of the tallow-tree. Incense is made 
 by taking the sawdust of sandal wood, making it into 
 a paste, and pressing it through a small hole in an 
 iron machine. It comes out like a wire, w^iich is cut 
 into sections a foot long and sun-dried, then made into 
 
16 
 
242 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 bundles the size of the thumb. Sometimes the incense 
 is in sticks. 
 
 The paper-money is made of tin-foil beaten very thin. 
 One often sees loads carried along the street and sold at 
 the rate of ten cents for ten thousand, rather a depre- 
 ciated currency. It generally represents silver, but 
 sometimes it means the gold coin of the other world. 
 
 Load of Paper Silk. 
 
 There are also paper shoes of sycee, their ancient currency, 
 still used in the north. These, when of solid silver, 
 contain fifty ounces. Paper chopped in little squares is 
 also sold for money. The rolls of coloured paper in the 
 waiter represent silk. The trade in tin-foil or pewter 
 beaten thin is a most extensive one, and gives employ- 
 ment to ten thousands of women. After one of the 
 great feasts men go along the streets and gather up the 
 
The IV or si lip of Btidd/iism. 243 
 
 pewter ashes, purchased at a nominal price ; these are 
 reshipped to be manufactured over again, and a second 
 time used in worship. 
 
 In the temple court stands a great censer, which upon 
 worship days smokes with the fragrant incense cast in 
 by those who come to adore the god. In front of some 
 temples 13 a stone leaver for washing hands. 
 
 Crinoline Incense. 
 
 Often hanging in front of the shrine is incense, in the 
 shape of a crinoline, and this burns for many days. 
 
 Oracular Response. — The worshipper kneels before 
 the idol and shakes a bamboo cup in which are many 
 little sticks, till one jumps out ; he takes it to the 
 priest, who notes the number, turns to a musty roll, 
 and gives him a prescription for medicine or an answer 
 
244 ^^^^ Drag07i, Image, and Demon. 
 
 of the oracle telling whether or no his business will 
 prosper. 
 
 Absence of Devotion. — The worship of the heathen 
 lacks all the elements of true devotion, and when in 
 preaching the missionary uses the word " worship," he 
 immediately explains that it does not consist in shaking 
 the clasped hands or in bodily prostrations. The first 
 element of worship is love, but how can we love wood, 
 
 Inquiring of the Oracle. 
 
 mud, and stone ? A second element is comtnunion, but 
 what communion can light have with darkness ? Worship 
 is an act of the soul, but " soulless gods make soulless 
 worshippers." When a living man prays to a dead image 
 his heart must become like unto the dead image. "They 
 that make them are like unto them : so is every one 
 that trusteth in them." The worship is debasing, for 
 though they speak of the god as in heaven, yet they 
 maintain that worship without an image is an impos- 
 
The Worship of Buddhism. 
 
 245 
 
 sibility ; so how can the heart go beyond the tangible 
 and visible ? An aged observer says, " The ceremonies 
 performed by the people are as puerile as their offerings 
 are paltry, while they are grievously wanting in the 
 necessary elements of religious w^orship. We observe 
 
 Li.q-htino: Candles. 
 
 nothing like deep moral earnestness and solemnity in 
 their prostrations at the idol shrine, and the whole is 
 little more than an affair of mere custom or form, which 
 they are satisfied with observing." 
 
 The Worshipping Assembly. — One striking feature 
 of heathen worship is the short time spent in the service ; 
 
246 The Dragon, Image y and Demon. 
 
 often in five minutes the man has bowed and prayed, 
 cast his lot and taken the answer, left the temple, and 
 returned to his business. This is when on the new and 
 full moon they go, one by one, to the temples. Morning 
 and evening, sometimes five times during the day and 
 
 
 Priests at Worship. 
 
 night, the priests of the temple go through with their 
 daily order of service. Again, a family spends a day in 
 worship, or the representatives of a village come in a 
 band, or a goodly company of women meet for special 
 services ; how is the worship conducted ? 
 
 In a Christian assembly the minister is one, here the 
 
The WorsJiip of Buddhism. 247 
 
 priests are many. Without is a busy scene ; hawkers of 
 fruits and cakes, sedans arriving with bundles of paper- 
 money tied behind, numbers of idlers loafing around, all 
 jovial as if it were a festive occasion. The great censer 
 without is smoking with the burning incense, thrown in 
 as if it were little sticks of wood ; the candles are lighted 
 and stuck upon the nails on the framework in front of the 
 deity; the brick floor of the temple is covered every few 
 feet with mats to kneel upon ; the priests, attired in their 
 flowing robes, with the yellow sash thrown across one 
 shoulder, take their places in front of small tables ; devout 
 women are ranged about the hall ; the grum idols sit 
 facing outwards, and the worshippers stand facing inwards. 
 The wooden pestle strikes the great bell — Attention, 
 gods ! and the inverted bell is constantly tapped ; the 
 chant commences, and the women at each pause join in 
 the invocation; the priests prostrate themselves and knock 
 their heads nine times, while the congregation with 
 bended knee bow before the altar ; the priests march 
 round and round, tapping small bells, in solemn proces- 
 sion, with eyes almost closed and fixed on the end of the 
 nose, in number ten or twenty or fifty, and once I saw 
 one hundred and twenty, winding in and out according to 
 their inextricable methods of twistification ; candles light 
 up the sombre spectacle, the fumes of incense rise, the 
 gongs are sounded, fire-crackers explode, paper-money is 
 burnt, the wooden fish-head is struck with a dull heavy 
 sound, the brass cymbals clang ! clang clang ! the voices 
 commingle, the monotone rises higher and higher, and 
 gradually almost dies away; at times the chanting is with 
 the rapidity of a trotting-match, and again solemn and 
 
248 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 reverential ; and thus it continues all day, save when the 
 friars enjoy a feast ordered by the lay-sisters from a 
 neighbouring restaurant. 
 
 The Three Vows. — Yows form a prominent part of 
 heathen worship ; the devotee goes before the idols and 
 makes a vow, and if afterwards it is unfulfilled it is 
 considered the height of wickedness, and must receive 
 the vengeance of the gods. The formula, " I take my 
 refuge in Buddha, I take my refuge in the Law, I take 
 my refuge in the Church," has already been men- 
 tioned. 
 
 It is in the sacred books sometimes enlarged : " I take 
 my refuge in Buddha, and now pray that all creatures may 
 fully understand the great doctrine and beget the best of 
 hearts. I take my refuge in the Law, and now pray that 
 all creatures may in heart understand the scriptures, and 
 their wisdom become as broad as the sea. I take my 
 refuge in the Church, and now pray that all creatures 
 may, with all the assembly of the faithful, meet with no 
 difficulties." 
 
 Prayers. — There are five blessings for which the 
 Chinese pray, — sons, riches, long life, recovery from 
 sickness, and office. The hundreds of volumes of prayers 
 and chants, with the exception of a few little sutras, 
 are used only by the priests. " The prayers are not 
 prayers in our sense " of the word, for " there is nothing 
 but praise and invocation, and that mostly in a brief 
 form." I have read volumes of prayer-books to try and 
 cull out the prayers, but out of a score of such only a 
 few sentences have been obtained ; they consist of the 
 pretended words of Buddha, praising the individual god. 
 
The WorsJiip of Biiddliisin. 249 
 
 and telling of his famous acts. " The prayers are 
 chanted by the priests, either sitting, kneeling, stand- 
 ing, or marching around," but they " kneel to adore 
 images, not to pray." Keciting the teachings of Buddha, 
 they hope, by a sort of magical effect, secret causation, 
 or reflex influence of the image on their minds, to obtain 
 the benefits they seek. 
 
 The following prayer is selected : " For what they pray 
 let them have a full answer ; lighten the path of the good 
 as the sun; guide the wanderer as with a torchlight; 
 scatter sorrow and heat like the cool of the moon ; ferry 
 the four classes floating along the stream of life as if a 
 bridge were built ; be as a lifeboat to convey passengers to 
 the other shore ; subdue infidels as the king of the lions ; 
 subdue devils as a dragon or an elephant ; protect the 
 frightened as a relative or a friend ; defend against 
 enemies as a moat or a city ; save in danger as a father or 
 mother ; hide the weak like a thick grove." This is not 
 for use by the people. 
 
 In Sanscrit — In bringing the Indian books to China, 
 in most cases they did not translate, but merely trans- 
 literated the litanies syllable by syllable, using the 
 written character to imitate the sound. A native teacher 
 can read the printed page, but does not understand 
 one iota of the meaning, as nearly all of their manuals 
 of devotion are in Sanscrit ; so it is an " unknown 
 tongue," verily as " sounding brass " and " tinkling 
 cymbal." The priests understood the power of prayer, 
 but as mediators of the dismal covenant they were wise 
 enough to retain the power in their hands, and not to 
 make the blessings accessible to all, so " they established 
 
250 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 an elaborate ritual, interlarded with Sanscrit phrases," 
 that they might impose upon the people. Perhaps not 
 one in a thousand of the priests understands his own 
 literature. 
 
 One of the sacred books gives five reasons for using 
 Sanscrit — 1, The words are secrets known only to the 
 Buddhas. 2. Each word has such a breadth of meaning 
 that it cannot be translated. 3. The names of the gods 
 are in Sanscrit, and the repetition in prayer calls on them 
 to protect men. 4. The words are the secret seals of the 
 Buddhas. 5. The mysteries are beyond the power of 
 thought; chant these secret words and there will be 
 hidden benefits. 
 
 Prayer for Rain — Much of the religious worship of 
 the Chinese is summed up in their prayers for rain. In 
 time of drought, when the " heaven is brass and the earth 
 iron," a religious solemnity seems to pervade the land. 
 The mandarins, acting under the double motive of a desire 
 for prosperity and a fear of insurrection, proclaim a fast 
 from animal food, forbid the sale of pork and onions, go to 
 the temples with lighted sticks of incense, call upon the 
 priests to chant prayers, daily go before the gods, and if 
 an answer is not given, the idol is placed in the court 
 under the beams of the noon-day sun, and sometimes the 
 lash is applied to his back. In Soochow, if the usual 
 prayers fail, the south gate is shut, as heat comes from 
 this quarter, and from the hills near the Great Lake a 
 brass image of the goddess of mercy is brought to the 
 city; it is said that she always answers the prayers for 
 refreshing showers. During the official services, the 
 Yamen runners in the temple courts, with twigs of willow, 
 
The VVoi'sJiit) of Buddhism. 251 
 
 sprinkle water from a jar as an emblem of the falling 
 drops. 
 
 The Emperor himself, if the drought be general 
 throughout his dominions, goes to the temples to pray 
 for rain, as during the famine of 1876 he went seventeen 
 times. " In these seventeen days of prayer he did not go 
 from place to place. Having prayed at any temple or 
 altar once, he continued to pray at the same temi)le or 
 altar until the rain fell. Other temples or altars were 
 added to those at which first he prayed, but the first were 
 not deserted." He ordered an iron tablet to be brought 
 from the dragon-god's well in a distant city to Peking, 
 to be worshipped there. " Two iron tablets had been 
 observed floating upon the water in that well years ago, 
 and were taken out in times of drought, that prayer 
 might be offered to them. The prayer was followed by 
 the rain in a surprising manner." This well is now 
 canonized, and so is one of the deities of China. 
 
 During the winter, if no snow falls, the Emperor prays 
 for snow. I have seen the mandarins in Soochow on 
 January 7th, the sky clear and the air balmy, go to the 
 temples and pray for snow. 
 
 The manual of prayer for rain contains the names of 
 thousands of dragons, whose names are called, and they 
 each in turn are asked to send fruitful showers. Before 
 the dragon-king the priests say, " In the kingdom which 
 prays for rain, let a great rain descend and fall."' 
 "Quickly destroy all trouble and sorrow, quickly send 
 rain and moisten this great earth, quickly protect all the 
 living, quickly destroy the miseries of all creatures ; turn 
 the evil stars to propitious seasons ; arise, great pity, and 
 
252 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 send rain ; destroy the heavy sins of all creatures, so that 
 they may dance for joy." 
 
 How solemn are the words of Holy Writ, " Are there 
 any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause 
 rain ? Or can the heavens give showers ? Art not Thou 
 he, Lord, our Grod ? Therefore will we wait upon Thee, 
 for Thou hast made all these things." 
 
 The Buddhist and Taoist Calendar — This list only 
 includes the common gods of the nation. It is very 
 desirable for every missionary to make an almanac for the 
 local deities of his own city, so that the preaching may 
 be specific and appropriate, not general and desultory. 
 This list corresponds to the Koman calendar of " Saints' 
 Days." 
 
 First Moon. 
 1.— Birthday of " The Coming Buddha." 
 
 5. 
 
 M 
 
 God of Riches. 
 
 7. 
 
 It 
 
 „ Silver. 
 
 8. 
 
 11 
 
 „ Grain. 
 
 9. 
 
 n 
 
 Heaven or The Pearly Emperor. 
 
 10. 
 
 J5 
 
 Earth, or The Earth-god, worshipped 8th to 
 15th. 
 
 13. 
 
 n 
 
 God of Agriculture. Worshipped 13th to 20th. 
 
 15. 
 
 » 
 
 The Three Mandarins. 
 
 Second Moon, 
 
 1. — Sun enters his temple. 
 
 2. — God of the Precinct (t'udee). 
 
 3. — God of Literature. 
 
 6.— The Eastern Peak. 
 
 8. — Lucky day for chanting. 
 15. — Laotsze. 
 19. — Kwanyin. 
 28. — Worship of Bodhidharma. 
 
The Worship of Buddhisui. 253 
 
 Third Moon. 
 16.— God of the Hills. 
 19.— Birthday of the Sun. 
 23. — The Empress of Heaven, or Goddess of the Sea. 
 
 Fourth Moon. 
 
 1. — Jail-god. 
 
 4. — Wenshu P'usa. 
 
 8. — Amita. 
 14. — Dr. Leu Chenyang, the ^sculapius of China. 
 15. — Shakyamuni Buddha. 
 28.— God of Medicine. 
 
 Fifth Moon. 
 1. — Star of old Age. 
 
 5. — God of Pestilence. Ancestral worship. 
 11.— Governor in Hades (corresponding to the Governor of 
 
 Soochow). 
 13.— God of War. 
 18. — Chang, The Heavenly Teacher. 
 
 Sixth Moon. 
 10.— Leu Hai. 
 
 19. — Kwanyin (three birthdays a year). 
 23.— God of Fire. 
 
 24. — God of Thunder. Vegetarians from 1st to 24th. 
 25.— The Star Ruler. 
 26.— God of Theatres. 
 27.— Goddess of the Pole Star. 
 29.— The Devil. 
 
 Seventh Moon. 
 13.— Tashuchi. 
 15. — Ancestors. 
 
 18. — Western Empress Mother. 
 30. — God of Hades (Titsang). The Devil's Procession. 
 
 Eighth Moon. 
 3. — Kitchen-god. 
 4. — Northern Bushel, 
 15. — Moon-god. 
 
2 54 T^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 18. — Bacchus. 
 
 22. — Light-Lamp Buddha (Janteng). 
 
 24.— Thanking the Kitchen-god. 
 
 Ninth Moon. 
 
 1 — 9. — Vegetarians in honour of the Southern Bushel. 
 
 13.-Godof War. 
 
 16.— God of the Loom. 
 
 17. — Golden Dragon of the Yellow Eiver. 
 
 19.— Kwanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. 
 
 Tenth Moon. 
 
 1. — Ancestral worship. 
 3.— The Three Mao. 
 5. — Bodhidharma. 
 
 Eleventh Moon. 
 4. — Confucius. 
 17. — Amita. 
 19.— Sun-god. 
 
 Twelfth Moon. 
 
 20. — Carpenter's god. 
 23, 24. — Kitchen-god's ascension. 
 25. — Buddha's descension. 
 
 30.— Receiving kitchen-god. Worship of Heaven, Earth, and 
 Ancestors. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE IDOLATRY OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 /CHINESE idolaters may be divided into three general 
 ^^ classes, the devout, the sceptical, and the careless. 
 Of the men, the first division includes only a few in the 
 cities, but a large proportion of the peasantry in central 
 and southern China, who believe that the gods are able 
 to help, efficacious in sickness and distress, and who 
 w^orship with some regularity. The second class are 
 Confucianists, or those influenced by the Confucian tirades 
 against idolatry, who think that Buddhism is " empti- 
 ness," the gods mud and stone, the priests drones and 
 hypocrites, the future life uncertain, and who go to the 
 temples once, or a few times, a year ; yet even they, in 
 times of sickness and death, and at the feasts, betake 
 themselves to idols. The third class, the careless, is by 
 far the largest. The Chinese mind is practical, worldly- 
 minded in the extreme, and fixed upon the things of this 
 life. They a.re this -sidei^s. The great body of the people 
 look upon religion with indifference ; in their liearts they 
 believe in the gods, but in their lives they almost neglect 
 them ; " five minutes for prayers," is their motto, and 
 that every two or three months. There is so much 
 
256 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 worship in China because the population is so dense, and 
 not a few are frequently engaged in devotion, but the 
 average is small. It is in religion that we see the 
 " realism of the Chinese." 
 
 Worship of the Seen. — The formula which embraces 
 heathenism is the luorship of the seen ; there is a sensible, 
 tangible object placed before the eyes, and the thoughts 
 need not go beyond this. As a man said to me, " We 
 cannot go up to heaven, so we bring heaven down to us in 
 the form of an image, and worship it here on the earth." 
 It is said of Christians, " They do not worship anything 
 at all; they talk with their mouths in prayer, but they 
 worship nothing." Our devotions are spoken of as " wor- 
 shipping in the void." The Chinese, like the Jews, 
 " seek after a sign," and there is probably no doctrine so 
 absurd in their eyes as that Grod is a Spirit ; and to those 
 who from their infancy have been taught that the gods 
 are in the form of men, there is no part of the Decalogue 
 so difficult to observe as the second commandment. 
 
 The gods appear to Men — There are few questions 
 so often asked us as, '' Does your God ever appear ? " 
 " Does He ever show Himself to men ? " It is an article 
 of the nation's faith that the gods are often seen by men ; 
 on the hills during the pilgrim-season, the deity (or a 
 priest?) is seen walking to and fro with a great lantern ; 
 on the G-reat Lake, at night, mariners in small crafts 
 seeking the mouth of the creek say that often a beacon is 
 seen ahead (not, of course, from the village or a fisher- 
 man's boat), the god or goddess guiding the boatmen, 
 who afterwards devoutly pay their vows. The gods in the 
 day of battle appear for the protection of the army ; also 
 
The Idolatry of Buddhism. 
 
 257 
 
 when a pestilence is sweeping through the camp, or a 
 storm is raging at sea. 
 
 From the mirage on the rice-fields sometimes a town 
 is thro-wn into excitement, and tens of thousands at mid- 
 night crowd upon the city walls to behold the silent 
 
 Idol Factory. 
 
 battle fought by the soldiers of Hades, whose battalions 
 are marshalled on the nightly plain. 
 
 The Idol Factory. — The manufacture of images is 
 an important branch of trade, and is generally considered 
 a profitable industry. It is not an art, as where in Italian 
 marble by master-hands the body of man is chiselled 
 in proportions so majestic, so gigantic, that men scarcely 
 
 17 
 
258 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 know which most to admire, the sculptor or the statue. 
 The Chinese figures are misproportioned, grotesque, 
 and hideous ; their faces are grum, frightful, and repul- 
 sive ; if sitting they are awkward and clumsy, when 
 standing the images are both fantastic and cadaverous. 
 Why these hideous idols ? Christianity teaches of a God 
 of love ; paganism, of deities who will punish the wrong- 
 
 Unfinished Images. 
 
 doer. The gentler attributes of the Godhead — love, pity, 
 compassion, gentleness, longsulfering — are little taught 
 by heathenism. 
 
 Walk into one of the shops, with several hundred 
 images of all sizes, from three inches to ten feet high. 
 If of wood the head is on the counter, the arm on the 
 bench, the body on the floor, and the foot on the shelf ; 
 the foot is pinned to the leg, the leg to the body, the 
 
The Idolatry of Buddhism. 259 
 
 arm to the shoulder, the head to the neck, and lo ! it 
 is a god ! 
 
 Opposite the shop, basking in the sun, there is a line 
 of rough mud daubs, rude and shaggy, drying ; for bones 
 they have a framework of wood, mud for flesh, paint for 
 skin, and the heart is made of silver or pewter. Note the 
 hole in the back. A frog, snake, lizard, or centipede is 
 caught and put inside for the soul, and then it is a living 
 deity, and they fall down and worship, and say, " Deliver 
 me, for thou art my God." In the temples you see the 
 large images at every stage of erection ; in Wuseih I saw 
 three huge images, made of a framework with laths nailed 
 on, which had waited months for the plasterer. 
 
 " Men rely on the gods, and the gods rely on men," 
 is a proverb that reveals the weakness of idolatry. Men 
 rely on the gods for protection, and the gods rely on men 
 for repairs. The shrine is to be guarded, the sacred body 
 shielded, the clothing refitted, the ear mended, the nose 
 replaced, the face gilded, the hand restored, the foot 
 reset, the crown rejewelled, the eyes reballed, and some- 
 times head, arms, and legs have to be replaced. 
 
 I once saw a stone image from which the iconoclasts 
 had clipped nose and ear. Hundreds of worshippers were 
 at the shrine, and as their bodies were prostrate, and 
 incense smoking, workmen were busy restoring the 
 organs of smell and hearing with putty, and in order to 
 give symmetry to the face the whole was burnished w^ith 
 gold. 
 
 The images are made of breakable materials ; some- 
 times stone, and very rarely bronze ; often of wood, but 
 mostly of mud, which being sun-dried easily crumbles, 
 
26o The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 symbolized by the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image, part 
 of iron and part of clay, which " the stone that was cut 
 out without hands " brake in pieces. 
 
 Large Images. — Large images do not abound in 
 China; some impress the beholder by their size, but a 
 closer examination reveals the fact that the throne or 
 pedestal is ten feet high. Buddha was said to be sixteen 
 feet high, and many images represent him as this height. 
 In Japan there is the celebrated image of Buddha, 
 Daibutz, which is fifty-two feet in height and very broad ; 
 it is of bronze. In one of the cities of the metropolitan 
 province there is said to be a bronze image seventy feet 
 high. " In the largest Lama monastery in Peking there 
 is a colossal image of Buddha of wood, also seventy feet 
 in height." There is one at Hangchow cut out of the 
 solid rock, forty feet in height. Another image in the 
 Chehkiang province is " more than a thousand years old, 
 and was cut out of the solid rock by the labour of a 
 father, son, and grandson, requiring the chiselling of 
 three generations. It is an image of the Coming Buddha, 
 the working out of an idea of the artisan devotees that 
 the Coming Buddha would be mighty to save, seventy 
 feet high, and being so majestic in size the sight is 
 very impressive." 
 
 The Dedication. — When the idol is taken to the 
 temple, the gong beats in thunder tones, the clarionet 
 sends forth shrill notes, the cymbals clang, and the bells 
 toll, and it is dedicated amidst ceremonies not quite as 
 gorgeous as when the image, ninety feet high, was 
 erected on the plain of Dura. The pupil of the eye 
 is touched by an artist, called " open the light," and 
 
The Idolatry of BttddJiism. 261 
 
 then it becomes a real divinity ; before this rite is 
 performed it is only a toy, which may be handled and 
 played with ; now a god, the people light candles and 
 incense, bow before the shrine, and witness the theatricals. 
 
 Idolatry as an Industry. — The manufacture of images 
 is an extensive business, but as an idol once bought is 
 kept for years, it is not as large as the trade in articles 
 of worship. The tinfoil for paper money is beaten 
 thin, pasted on bits of paper, and sold in packages. 
 Candle factories employ a great number of men, as 
 well as the making of incense. It is often said, '' If 
 we embrace Christianity, what will the large part 
 of the population engaged in idolatrous trade do ? " 
 Eice is the staple diet, but the number of shops con- 
 nected with the temples is much greater than those 
 which sell the staff of life. The candle and incense 
 shops, the Southern-goods stores, the " variety shops," 
 the clothing stores for the dead, the paper-money stalls, 
 the picture galleries of the gods, with the thousands 
 of artists employed, the incense stands in front of the 
 temples, houses, and doors, — all go to show the hold 
 idolatry has. These symbols of paganism predominate 
 to the south of the Yangtse. 
 
 Building a Temple — Along the streets a priest is 
 seen clad in a robe like a patchwork quilt, a picture 
 of Weito the Buddhist protector on his back, a small 
 stool in his hand, with which he stops every few rods 
 and kneels, beating on a fish-head and uttering a shrill 
 cry ; thus he goes for three years, when, being well 
 known along the streets and his devotion well attested, 
 he takes a book and collects subscriptions. The monk 
 
262 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 who founds a monastery and collects funds for its erection 
 has his image or tablet placed within, and is afterwards 
 worshipped. A short time since, speaking to a priest of 
 his temple improvements, he said, " This temple I built 
 on my knees," meaning that he had made the money by 
 
 Collecting for a Temple. 
 
 reciting masses for the dead. To erect a temple to the 
 god of the precinct, a tax is often levied on every store, 
 as 2 cash per cwt. on rice. 
 
 A priest erects a thatched hut, sits by his wooden fish- 
 head, and beats all day and late at night ; the old ladies 
 
The Idolatry of Buddhism, 263 
 
 passing by, get acquainted, and listen to the golden 
 opportunity for obtaining merit now offered, and some 
 one gives him fifty cents. This is conspicuously mounted 
 on a slip of red paper, and soon the whole side of the 
 house tells of the gifts— Mrs. Lee %\ ; Mrs. Ming «200 ; 
 Mr. Loh, 25 cents; Hon. Mr. Pan $10; Lady Chang 
 S5, etc., etc. The hut is replaced by a couple of rooms, 
 and gradually, as funds accumulate, never running into 
 debt, section by section and row by row is added. In 
 most of the large temples there is a legend that the 
 timber to erect the buildings was miraculously drawn up 
 out of a well in the court. 
 
 The quickest method is by circulating a story of the 
 virtue of the god, as in Soochow a few years since, where 
 the priests pulled up a stone image out of the water, and 
 spread a report that a lady of age and wealth, who was 
 without an heir, had received the desire of her heart. 
 Immediately streams of pilgrims poured towards the 
 shrine, a score at a time bowed before the god, genii-water 
 (which they saw dipped up out of the canal and placed 
 before the god) was sold at threepence a bottle, knives were 
 electrified by rubbing on the stone, ophthalmia and various 
 diseases were brought to the Grreat Healer, and when 
 asked, '' Did you get cured ? " the patient would answer, 
 " I am perchance a w^ee bit, a very little little, almost 
 imperceptibly better ; " the booth at first put up was re- 
 placed by a substantial building, the carpenters and masons 
 were busy amidst the thronging multitude of devotees, 
 and when the whole was completed, a mandarin, who was 
 of higher rank than the god, coming to worship, the deity 
 became frightened, and his efficacy suddenly departed. 
 
264 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 A story is told of a priest who circulated a report that 
 a "living Buddha" was about to arise near his little 
 temple. By night he dug a hole, filled it with beans, 
 placed an image above, covered the earth over, and 
 
 " poured on water." When the beans began to swell, the 
 ground began to crack, and the people began to gather, 
 when lo ! the new Buddha arose ; he was received as a 
 messenger from Hades, and his temple was quickly erected. 
 
The Idolatry of Buddhism. 265 
 
 The Nail Cage — A cage is made with nails, sharp 
 and pointed, all around and sticking within, and the 
 outside is covered with locks of different metals. The 
 priest takes his stand inside, speechless and immovable ; 
 other priests with gongs go throughout the city and 
 country collecting crowds to witness the prisoner of 
 penance, and the godly are exhorted to buv off a lock, 
 
 Hooked into the Arm 
 
 set the bonze free, and obtain merit. After three days 
 the excitement becomes intense, and some gold (brass ?) 
 locks go at i&bK} or ftiiUO apiece. 
 
 The Tortures of Buddhism. — Men make vows that 
 they will appear in a procession with a censer weighing 
 five or ten pounds, fastened into the arm by several 
 little brass hooks, so that the flesh is drawn down an 
 
266 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 inch or two. The stick in the hand is only to aid in 
 holding the arm straight. The pain is excruciating, but 
 a band of the tortured men march all day along the 
 streets with a company of followers to beat gongs. 
 
 Stealing Candles. — Behind the candle-rack and in 
 front of the images stands the temple assistant, called 
 the " incense-fire," who receives the candles from the 
 devotee and asks, " Where do you want these placed ? " 
 " Oh ! light two in the middle and two on each side," is 
 the reply, as the worshipper bows to pray or consult the 
 oracle. The " incense-fire " sticks two on the rack, and, 
 on account of the press of customers, puts the others 
 aside. As soon as the purchaser turns his back the 
 candles are taken from the rack and blown out, and so 
 there is carried on a system of robbery, wholesale and 
 retail, according to the size of the congregation, in the 
 very audience chamber of the god, the whole assembly 
 being witnesses. They say, " We gave the candles with 
 a pious heart, and the god accepts the pious heart, though 
 he does not get the candles." 
 
 " Ye worship ye know not what." — Often when 
 a throng is at the temple the question is asked, " What 
 god is this ? " The man who has just made nine prostra- 
 tions answers, " I do not know." " What is the name 
 of the god ? " is asked of the devotees, and they answer, 
 " We do not know." When the city gods rotate in 
 office upon a new mandarin taking the seals of 
 government, how is an acquaintance possible ? If you 
 ask for the history of the idol, what he was celebrated 
 for, or why they worship, the most indefinite answers 
 are given. 
 
The Idolatry of Bttdd/iis7n. 267 
 
 Compendium of gods — In China there are gods 
 celestial and gods terrestrial, del rtiajores and del 
 
 Pantheon. 
 
 minores ; gods of heaven, and gods of hell ; gods of the 
 earth, sun, moon, and stars ; of thunder, lightning, wind, 
 and rain ; of water, fire, wood, earth, and metal ; and of tlie 
 
268 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 seas, rivers, mountains, hills, seasons, snow, frost, tides, 
 trees, and flowers. There are Indian gods and Chinese gods; 
 and gods, demigods, Buddhas, Bodhisattwas, immortals, 
 fairies, ancestors, emperors, sages, heroes, warriors, states- 
 men, dragons, devils, demons, and spirits are worshipped. 
 
 Gods in the Clouds. 
 
 There are 500 disciples of Buddha, 500 disciples of Con- 
 fucius, 72 masters, 60 cycle deities, and 36 prime ministers 
 to be sacrificed to. There are good gods and bad gods ; 
 city gods and country gods; the gods of the door, the 
 kitchen, the city wall, the theatre, and the prison. The 
 carpenters have their gods and the fishermen theirs ; so 
 
The Idolatry of Buddhism. 269 
 
 has the silk merchant and the saloon keeper. Horses, 
 cows, sheep, snakes, and lice have each their presiding 
 deities, and so have fire-crackers and fertilisers. Pesti- 
 lence, medicine, small-pox, and measles have a host of 
 gods. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, teeth, heart, liver, 
 throat, hands, feet, and skin have each a special god. A 
 bridge, a bed, a compass, happiness, tea, and salt have 
 their presiding deities. At Yangchow there is a temple 
 with 10,000 gods. 
 
 Some gods are of stone, others are of wood, clay, and 
 bronze. There are images, pictures, and tablets. There 
 are white gods, black gods, yellow gods, and red gods. 
 The smallest are an inch in height and the tallest fifty feet. 
 A god can be purchased for half-a-cent, and another will 
 cost a thousand dollars. Some are the laughing Buddhas ; 
 a few have mild and beneficent countenances, while the 
 great horde have hideous, cadaverous faces, to inspire 
 awe in the worshipper and frighten the impious. The 
 " Pantheon picture " is worshipped on New Year's day. 
 Behind Buddha, facing inwards in the large temples, there 
 is in basso relievo a representation of the gods in the 
 clouds, and Neptune rising from the waves of the briny 
 deep. 
 
 Places of Worship. — The land is filled with idols. 
 They are to be found in the temple, the monastery, and 
 the nunnery ; in the cities, towns, villages, and hamlets ; 
 on the streets, at the crossings, and over the gates. The 
 Yamens, stores, workshops, and homes all have them ; 
 the door, the main entrance, the hall, the chapel, the 
 chamber, and the roof have their gods ; they are seen 
 by the canals and the bridges and on the boats ; the 
 
270 The Dragon, Iviage, and Demon. 
 
 shrines in the alleys and the miniature temples on the 
 table are full of them; the picture galleries give an 
 exhibit of celestial beings, and they are "portrayed on 
 the walls " of public halls, and at times the face of a 
 hill is carved with images ; they crown the mountain 
 and make holy the cavern, they are worshipped in the 
 valley and under the " green tree," 
 
 In the country, meeting an old man, I inquired, " Have 
 you any gods around here?" ''Oh, yes," said he. "What 
 gods?" I asked. "The Three Pure Ones." "Any 
 others?" "The god of the fields." "Any others?" 
 " The goddess of Mercy." " My old friend, I am afraid 
 your gods are not a few." " Foreign teacher," was his 
 literal reply, " verily, verily, our gods are ten thousand 
 times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." 
 
 Dei Majores. — Among the hosts of gods the reader 
 would like to have pointed out those most worshipped. 
 Buddha, The Pearly Emperor, Confucius, The Buddhas 
 of "The Three Ages," and The Three Pure Ones, are 
 high deities. Kwanyin, the goddess of Mercy ; Kwante, 
 the god of War ; Amita, the god of the Western Heaven ; 
 Titsang, the god of Hades ; King Yama (Yen Lowang), 
 the ruler of Hell, are "held in reputation. The gods 
 of Literature, Agriculture, Riches, and Thunder are 
 worshipped often. Of equal rank are the goddess of the 
 Pole Star ; the Eastern Peak ; Leu Chenyang, the 
 ^sculapius ; the Three Mandarins ; the triad stars of 
 Happiness, Office, and Age ; and last among these twenty 
 high rulers, and by no means the least, is the Devil. 
 
 The Abominations. — Heathenism is spoken of as 
 " the images of abomination," "the. idols of abomination," 
 
The Idolatry of Bziddhisni. 271 
 
 and the "abominable idolatries." Pagans are described 
 in the Second Commandment as " them that hate Me," 
 and the sin is so heinous that it is visited even upon 
 the third and fourth generation of idolaters. Because 
 Jeroboam " made other gods," and thus caused " Israel to 
 sin," the extinction of his family became a byword in 
 Judea when they wished to speak of utter destruction. 
 Five times in the New Testament it is said that idolaters 
 are " without," and " shall not inherit the kingdom of 
 God." The exposition of the sin and folly of idolatry, 
 occupying as it does such a prominent position in the 
 sacred Scriptures, would furnish material for a series of 
 discourses in a home pulpit. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MOUNTAINS, ISLANDS, AND FESTIVALS. 
 
 THE sacred mountains in China are truly innumerable, 
 for there is not a towering peak or lofty summit 
 which does not wear Buddha's crown, and the eye of the 
 traveller " is charmed by the picturesqueness of pagodas 
 perched on mountain crags, and monasteries nestling in 
 sequestered dells." Often there is a circlet of temples in 
 the ravines or half-way up the sides of the hills. Save 
 under the Christian dispensation " men universally have 
 connected the worship of the gods with hills and 
 mountains, for they regard their gods as in the air and 
 their abodes as in the heavens ; hence, lofty hills towering 
 to heaven seem to be especially near the gods, and hill- 
 tops the most likely places to reach them with prayer." 
 China has her million mountains, at times the hills rising 
 abruptly from the rice-field plains. Some of the provinces 
 are covered with mountains, and one is described as a " sea 
 of mountains ; " so religion from the high places attracts 
 the dwellers on the plains. Is there a country with more 
 picturesque scenery than this, where mountain and plain, 
 lake and river, give freshness and variety to the view? 
 Landscape gardening has been given almost entirely into 
 the hands of the priests, who have terraced the hills and 
 
Mountains, Islands, and Festivals. 273 
 
 planted the groves to invite the worshipper to ascend. 
 Only two places of note will be mentioned, the one 
 belonging to the Taoists and the other to the Budd- 
 hists. 
 
 Mount T'ai. — This mountain is considered by the 
 Chinese as the highest peak in the kingdom, but the 
 barometer gives the headship to others. Its height from 
 the plain is near 4,000 feet, but above the level of the 
 sea it is much greater. It is in the Shantung province 
 in North China, and near the home, school, and grave of 
 Confucius. Mount T'ai is an ancient sacred mountain, for 
 one hundred and twenty successive generations of men 
 have, year by year, ascended this " holy hill." " Shun 
 came here in the first year of his reign, B.C. 22ii^^ 
 presented offerings to Heaven, and sacrificed to the hills 
 and rivers. It is certain that for over 4,000 years 
 Chinese emperors have been accustomed to come here to 
 sacrifice to Heaven, and to worship the mountain, and 
 during all these centuries it has been an object of 
 veneration and worship to millions of people. Perhaps 
 no other mountain on the face of the earth has had an 
 equally remarkable history." There is a large temple in 
 the city which is situated at its base, dedicated to its 
 presiding deity, and thither many pilgrims resort, but 
 to ascend the mountain itself is the object of many 
 a long journey in wheelbarrows over roads frightfully 
 rough. Chinese books say, "Mount T'ai is the chief 
 of the five sacred mountains. Its merit is equal to 
 Heaven, and so it is appointed and called the equal of 
 Heaven, the Benevolent and Holy Ruler. It is Lord of 
 this world, and determines births and deaths, misfortune 
 
 18 
 
2 74 ^^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 and happiness, honour and dishonour, things high and 
 great, low and crooked." 
 
 The mountain is described as "not an isolated peak, 
 but as having three summits ; the central one being the 
 largest and highest.'*' To the north, there is " nothing but 
 hills upon hills, and only the backs of successive ranges of 
 mountains can be seen in the distance." The road for the 
 first mile is graded, so that the rise is gradual, but thence 
 when the eye is uplifted it seems like a stairway to the 
 skies, for there are near 6,000 steps of hewn stone, each 
 fifteen feet in length, leading upward, while '' on both 
 sides of the road, far and near, every peak and projecting 
 rock, every cave and ravine, every stream and spring, has 
 its name," and temples without number " line the ascent 
 and crown the summit." During the cold month of 
 February, the pilgrims are from 5,000 to 10,000 daily, and 
 the upward march is continued with an average of 1,000 
 during the next two months ; old men leaning on their 
 staffs, with aged matrons, supported by their grandsons 
 and followed by little children, all conditions and ranks 
 climb this precipitous highway to burn incense on this 
 mountain where their " fathers worshipped." Heathenism 
 makes the mountain sacred, Christianity the home. 
 Mountain worship is limited to time. " Believe Me," saith 
 Jesus, " the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this 
 mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." 
 
 Pootoo — The most lovely spot in Far Cathay is the 
 sacred isle of Pootoo, two hundred miles from Shanghai, 
 and sixty from Ningpo, from which latter city, in another 
 direction overland, is reached the far-famed Snowy Valley. 
 The route to Pootoo is among hundreds of islands, great 
 
Mountains, Islands, and Festivals. 275 
 
 and small, all mountainous, which compose the Chusan 
 archipelago, and as the steamer winds its tortuous way 
 among them, every variety of wild scenery is presented ; 
 now the precipitous rocks and projecting headlands, the 
 barren knolls and rugged crags ; then the mountains 
 covered with trees, and hills beautifully terraced to the top 
 with waving fields of grain ; or villages nestling in little 
 bays, or encircled in foliage, lying on the water's edge ; 
 indeed in its approaching views and receding vistas it is 
 a twin-sister of the inland Sea of Japan. Pootoo is the 
 capital of Indo-Chinese Buddhism, and its renown is as far- 
 famed as the Chinese language is spoken or Chinese litera- 
 ture known. It is a lofty mountain-island, five miles long, 
 jutting out in five promontories, having broad roads paved 
 with flag-stones running over the hills amidst groves and 
 hedges, and under the overspreading branches of forest 
 trees ; with beautiful beaches, where roll the clear waters of 
 the mighty ocean, much to the pleasure of the visitor, who 
 may for a week or two months dwell in the hospitable 
 monasteries, enjoy the life-giving surf, breathe the health- 
 restoring air, and be fanned by breezes from across the 
 trackless Pacific. Some of the ascents are precipitous, as to 
 the lighthouse, and some of the paths wind round the cliffs, 
 with the mountain overhanging and the sea in full view. 
 There is a deep cave in a rock shaped like a V, which is 
 called purgatory, probably because the tide rushes into it 
 with such a thundering sound, dashing the spray upon the 
 rocks a hundred feet above. The spectator on the bridge, 
 gazing down into the dark, seething depths, could almost 
 imagine it to be the gateway of the bottomless pit. The 
 sides of the island are lined with caves and caverns, and 
 
276 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 sacred inscriptions are engraved upon the boulders. There 
 is the well of the genii, the Indian Pagoda, the furnace for 
 cremation, and lakes made gay by the white and crimson 
 lotus. The temples number one hundred ; from the small 
 building with its solitary occupant to the spacious 
 monastery having its retinue of bonzes, or up to The 
 Temple which is in itself a little village, spread out over 
 
 The Hermit. 
 
 a whole valley. Some of the sacred edifices are built on 
 barren precipices overlooking the sea, others stand out 
 upon the promontories, while the shore, the half-way ascent, 
 and the lofty summit, all have their temples. The roofs 
 of the two large templ'es of yellow porcelain, an imperial 
 gift, are in striking contrast with the green of the 
 surrounding bamboo forests, and glitter amidst the waving 
 
Adountains, Islands, and Festivals. 277 
 
 branches of the stately camphor, venerable groves of 
 which surround these old temples, and their overspreading 
 arches impress the beholder with the grandeur ;md 
 majesty of nature. The whole isle seems truly 
 enchanted, and is made as lovely as Chinese mind can 
 conceive or Chinese skill can execute. 
 
 In the one hundred temples are one thousand priests, 
 who own property on the adjacent islands and receive 
 fees from the worshippers, who come on junks and steamers. 
 The last time I was there, a Shanghai compradore paid 
 £160 for the masses to be recited, seven days, for the soul 
 of his father, who died in Canton. Sometimes a liberal 
 patron furnishes a feast to the priests, and it is an in- 
 teresting spectacle to witness three hundred priests seated 
 in the refectory. The island is governed by two abbots, 
 chosen by ballot, who hold office for three years. No 
 woman can dwell there. 
 
 In the spring and autumn pilgrims are numerous, and 
 here the junkmen stop to pay their devotions to Kwan- 
 yin, whose throne is Pootoo. For centuries pirates were 
 the terror of the men with the yellow robe, but since 
 foreign commerce has driven these from the high sea 
 great activity has been displayed in sacred architecture. 
 
 Theological Seminary. — The priests are an idle, 
 listless class, and care nothing for the library of five 
 thousand volumes. At the lecture the bonzes sat, tailor- 
 fashion, with their books on the table in front, while 
 an* attendant passed behind and replenished the tea- 
 cups. The professor, mounted on a high dais, with a 
 stick of burning incense to mark the length of the 
 lecture (about two hours), expounded the text, and often 
 
278 The D^^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 seemed to think an anecdote was in place, much to 
 the amusement of the sixty priests, though some- 
 times, it was thought, at the expense of his foreign 
 visitor. 
 
 Religion as a Holiday — In every land, at certain 
 
 Theological Lecture. 
 
 seasons, religion wears a holiday attire ; much more is it 
 necessary in this country, where heavily burdened men 
 and toiling women have so few opportunities for enjoy- 
 ment. The religious recreations are of three classes, 
 pilgrimages, processions, and theatricals. 
 
 Pilgrims.— In Central China, during the soft days of 
 
Mountains, Islmids, and Festivals. 279 
 
 spring, to the llangchow temples alone peilia[)s a million 
 pilgrims resort. Some devotee makes up a party mostly 
 of women, though the men go in great numbers, and 
 charters a boat, in which they pack like sardines, minus 
 the oil. They chant their prayers as the boatmen row, 
 go to the mountains, visit the West Lake, so celebrated 
 in poetry, ascend with the mighty army whose badge is 
 a yellow incense bag, talk with the priests, buy a wicker 
 basket and a bamboo chair, and return after a ten days' 
 trip. 
 
 Idol Processions — To every hamlet in the country 
 the god of agriculture, as well as the local deities, must 
 be carried. The most exciting days in Soochow are ai 
 the three great feasts — fifth moon, fifth day ; eighth moon, 
 fifteenth day ; and tenth moon, first day — when the man- 
 darins go out with their official trains to offer sacrifice 
 to the wild spirits. About thirty idols are taken out, 
 each with a long retinue, so that the line extends over 
 a mile ; the whole city is out in holiday attire, and the 
 narrow street to the Tiger Hill is almost impassable from 
 the dense mass of human beings. In the picture, the 
 gong opens the way, the official signboards of the go 
 follow; then lictors dragging bamboos, flag-bearers, the 
 great fan, and cavalry move onward ; then come two men 
 with necks twisted, and faces all awry, who walk many 
 miles looking sideways at one another in the face — it is 
 a laughable spectacle. Then come the red umbrellas and 
 streamer-bearers; and besides these there are criminals 
 in red robes, men with hooks fastened in their arms, to 
 which are suspended bronze censers, riders bearing the 
 credentials and seals of office, coolies carrying trunks, 
 
Mountains, Islands, and Festivals. 281 
 
 followers with red girdles, men dragging chains, Httle 
 children carried on a man's head (Cupids), and, most con- 
 spicuous, six or eight fat butchers, who, with open breasts, 
 act as the executioners (of Hades), and go panting by ; 
 then comes the god in open chair and embroidered robes. 
 Heathenism Fascinating When the procession 
 
 Temple Theatre. 
 
 returns at night with lanterns lit, gongs beating, the 
 runners whooping, the idol looking majestic, and the 
 people bowing, one appreciates the magnetism of a crowd, 
 and understands how a pageant may impress, and paste- 
 board and tinsel captivate. 
 
 Theatricals. — Paganism is an amalgam of the Church 
 
282 The Dragon, Intake, and Demon. 
 
 and the world ; the theatre is one of its forms of worship, 
 and then the stage actors are the priests. The temples 
 have a stage opposite the sacred shrine, and the picture 
 represents the biennial festival. If men love to go to the 
 theatre, why not the gods ? In the farm villages twice a 
 year, at the religious theatricals, thousands assemble in 
 the open grounds, hucksters and pedlars surround the 
 assembly, the idol is brought out in state, and the scene 
 is a "Vanity Fair." The play days are fixed, so the 
 people go from hamlet to hamlet to attend the shows. 
 In home lands, those who find more delight in the 
 theatre than in the church, are they Christians or are 
 they Buddhists? 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 WOMEN AND BUDDHISM. 
 
 'T^HE women of Christian lands, outside the home 
 ^ circle, have three leading sources of pleasure, 
 namely, education, society, and religion. In China, as 
 ignorance takes the place of the first and seclusion of 
 the second, the only spring of happiness which is available 
 to the benighted daughters of Sinim is religion. It is 
 pleasant for them to go to the temples and burn incense, 
 though frequently prohibited by the mandarins, whose 
 proclamations for a few months only can stem the tide 
 of paganism. It is pleasant for a party of neighbours on 
 the idol's birthday to assemble at the nunnery, and have 
 a feast, a social chat, and an all-day chant. It is pleasant 
 for the caged birds of rich plumage twice a year in a boat 
 to visit the temples on the hills, breathe the fresh 
 country air, and gather flowers. In every land religion 
 takes a deeper hold on the hearts of women, in their 
 quiet spheres, than of men, who in the busy marts are 
 subjected to the temptations of the great world without. 
 This is specially true of the women of China, as three- 
 fourths of the worshipping is performed by the gentler 
 sex, and probably seven-eighths of the three hundred or 
 four hundred million dollars spent annually in idolatry 
 
284 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 are contributed by toiling females, who scarcely have 
 money to purchase coarse food. In their minds there 
 are no sceptical doubts as to the truth of their religion, 
 and in their hearts they love the gentle goddesses, and 
 fear the gods who hold the fire-brand, wield the sword, 
 or hurl the thunderbolt. 
 
 Nunneries — There are from fifty to one hundred 
 nunneries in Soochow, with 
 an average perhaps of a half- 
 dozen nuns to each, quite a 
 number of them youthful, 
 but others aged matrons, who 
 have great influence in the 
 aristocratic families of the 
 city as the spiritual guides of 
 the ladies, and who have 
 power to checkmate a pro- 
 clamation of the Grovernor 
 by influencing his wife to 
 plead in behalf of their order. 
 As their raiment is similar 
 to that of the priests, and 
 their heads are shaven, it is 
 hard to tell a nun from a priest. Every day, before the 
 first rays gild the horizon, we are saluted by the dull 
 sound of the mallet on the wooden fish-head, the nuns 
 being paid for an interest in their prayers, and it is 
 supposed they worship before the shrine, whereas on a 
 frosty morn the fish-head is placed beside the couch. 
 Some of these establishments own property which yields 
 an income ; some are family nunneries, where a lady of 
 
 The Nun. 
 
Women and Buddhism. 
 
 285 
 
 wealth takes the veil, and to one of those in 8ooc-ho\v 
 the Emperor Kienlung gave the " Heart Sutra," written 
 with his own hand ; in some the " vestal fire " (j[ni\i onih 
 ten) is kept burning ; in others, the inmates eke out a 
 poor subsistence by " beating the autumn wind," i.e., 
 carrying as a present dishes of vegetables at the regular 
 
 Goddess. 
 
 feasts to the rich, expecting a gift in return ; while still 
 in others the old women have a " Buddha's way," i.e., 
 they meet once a month, and each contributes so much 
 paper money, which is burnt at the death of the first 
 member of the circle. 
 
 The Goddesses. — Many of the gods have their wives 
 
286 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 in the inner apartments of the temple ; there is the bed, 
 the bureau, the trunks, and four maids, one to comb the 
 hair, one to wash the face, one to hand tea, and one to 
 present the food. In North China women who recover 
 from sickness bring a little woman wdth plaster-of-Paris 
 face and real hair, place her beside the goddess, and let 
 her remain three years before burning ; this is to certify 
 that she will be a servant to the goddess in Hades. 
 Near our city temple two women, Mrs. Chow and Mrs. 
 Cash, receive the offerings thrown into the coffer, because 
 they arrange the hair, wash the feet, and dress the wooden 
 goddess. These ladies of the other world are often 
 worshipped by the sick. 
 
 Ancestral Benefits — " An indirect result of ancestral 
 worship has been to define and elevate the position of 
 wife and mother. All the laws which could be framed for 
 the protection of women would lack their force if she w^ere 
 not honoured in the household. As there can be only 
 one ' illustrious consort ' named on the tablet, there is of 
 course only one wife acknowledged in the family. . . . 
 This acknowledged parity of the mother with the father 
 in the most sacred position in which she can be placed 
 has done much to maintain the purity and right influence 
 of woman amid all the degradations, pollutions, and moral 
 weakness of heathenism." 
 
 Buddha's Doctrine of Women — Thus spake the 
 founder of the Indian religion : " A woman's body has 
 many evil things in it; at birth her parents are not 
 happy ; rearing her is ' without taste ; ' her heart fears 
 men ; she must rise early and late, and be very busy ; 
 she can never eat before others ; her father and mother 
 
Women and Bnddhisni, 287 
 
 begrudge the money to be spent on her wedding ; slie 
 must leave father and mother ; she fears her husband 
 and has times of travail ; if her husband curses her 
 she is not permitted to get angry; in youth, father and 
 mother rule ; in middle life, her husband; in old age she 
 is at the beck and call of her grandchildren." 
 
 The Lake of Blood — The sacred book most frequently 
 used by the Buddhist priests is the Lake of Blood Sutra. 
 On their knees they chant it for a price paid by the 
 women, as the men have no part in this lake, over which 
 the blackness of darkness broods, where the thirsty have 
 only blood to drink and whose stench ascends to the 
 skies. Every female is born a debtor; a debtor to what ? 
 A debtor to the Lake of Blood, and this debt, if not 
 cancelled in this life, must be paid in the world to come. 
 And for what crime do Buddhists consign woman to this 
 fearful destiny ? The crime is maternity. Also, those 
 whose light is put out so suddenly in childbirth go imme- 
 diately to this lake. The soul is filled with horror at 
 this shocking doctrine ; the heart sickens at this ghastly 
 spectacle. When we behold punishment following crime, 
 though we shudder, yet our innate sense of justice 
 approves, but the blackest spot on the dark face of 
 Buddhism is that its most terrible retribution is awarded 
 to the innocent, and that to one half of the human 
 family. 
 
 The monks by this fill their coffers, for all mothers 
 must pay this debt, and then the lily-boat will ferry them 
 across the lake. The priests tap the temple bell, and 
 within the bell is suspended a paper woman (with a notice 
 of the name, age, day, and hour of death stuck on), and 
 
2 88 TJie Dj^agon, Image, and De^non. 
 
 when the bell is struck it causes the woman to move, thus 
 elbowing herself out of the pool ; twice a day for forty- 
 nine days they chant, while an assistant beats the bell. 
 At least thirty dollars are paid as a fee. Sometimes to save 
 a woman the Soochowites take a bowl of sweetened water, 
 and cover it with red paper while the monks chant ; then 
 the abbot takes his wand, tears the paper, and declares that 
 the woman is saved from the placenta tank — the children 
 and friends drinking the sugared water — by metonomy, 
 the Lake of Blood. 
 
 Child's Hat. 
 
 The Heathen Mother is very faithful in teaching 
 her children to worship idols, so that the first step in 
 evangelisation is to convert the mother. On the first and 
 fifteenth of every month a mother is seen leading her 
 little toddler before the idol shrine, who is impressed by 
 the majestic appearance of the deity, and draws back in 
 terror, but after he knocks his little head on the mat he 
 is convinced, by the gift of candy or pea-nuts, that it pays 
 to burn incense. The first hat given to a baby is covered 
 with six, twelve, or eighteen little idols ; the first play is 
 
Wo7iien and B7iddJiis7n. 289 
 
 a mock sacrifice ; the first amusement is to carry the 
 idols in a chair on their little shoulders, and the first lesson 
 in school is to bow before an image or tablet ; so that the 
 child, like a fish, swims in the Grand Canal of paganism. 
 On his birthday they worship the goddess of midwives, 
 and also offer sacrifice when he is a month old. When 
 the child is one hundred days old, if a boy, they worship 
 the male star-ruler; if a girl, the female star-ruler. When 
 a year old they worship the star-ruler. 
 
 The Dead Child — There is no Paradise for little 
 ones when called away from earth. The god to whom a 
 parent has an unfulfilled vow claims one as a prize ; 
 another is caught by the evil spirits and borne away, 
 while generally they say it is a debtor that demands his 
 price ; one to whom he was an enemy in a previous life 
 now seeks revenge, and murders his foe, the innocent 
 little child. Often no coffin is prepared ; no funeral 
 service is ever held, and the bones are sometimes buried 
 by a running stream to secure an early transmigration. 
 The death of a boy or girl is simply the blotting out of 
 a star. Does not the broken-hearted pagan mother feel 
 that there is something in a religion with the words, 
 " Suffer little children to come unto Me " ? 
 
 19 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE HEART OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 Buddhism and Roman Catholicism. — The traveller 
 who notes the similarity between these two great 
 systems of faith and worship must on comparison con- 
 clude that Romanism is Buddhism prepared for a 
 foreign market, — Buddhism adapted to a Western civi- 
 lisation. The question troubled the earlier Catholic 
 missionaries, and " Premare ascribed these ceremonies to 
 the devil, who had thus imitated holy mother Church, in 
 order to scandalise and oppose its rites.'' " To those who 
 admit that most of the Romish ceremonies are borrowed 
 from paganism, there is less ditficulty in accounting for 
 the resemblance." 
 
 1 . In both these systems it is a tuorship of jpictures 
 and images, the worship of the seen. As has been said 
 to me, " Hang up a picture of your Jesus, and there will 
 be a thousand of us to w^orship it in a day." In the 
 cathedrals they bow before each of the pictures hanging 
 around the hall, and suspended to the girdle (in bronze 
 or wood) is the Son of Mary. 
 
 2. Both pray in an unknoivn tongue; the Romanists 
 in Latin, and the Buddhists in Sanscrit. 
 
 3. Both systems use candles and incense ; the Catholics 
 
TJie Hea7^t of BuddJiism. 291 
 
 say they do not use " tallow candles " but " angel-candles," 
 i.e.^ sperm candles. 
 
 4. The two religions are alike in having masses for the 
 dead ; purgatories from which souls may be released by 
 the prayers of the priests. 
 
 .?. Rosaries. Both the Buddhist and the Eomanist 
 count their beads. 
 
 6. The vain repetitions. The substitute for Ave Maria 
 is o-me-to-fnh. 
 
 7. The celibacy of the clergy, 
 
 8. Nuns and nunneries. 
 
 9. The adoration of relics. The Indian religion has 
 paid no more distinguished honour to Buddha's bones 
 than Rome has given to Peters. 
 
 10. Both religions are based on systems of merit; on 
 penance and works of supererogation. 
 
 11. Priests from India and France both adopt the 
 heathen rites of the Chinese. The proofs in regard to 
 the former are scattered through this work. As to the 
 latter, on a Catholic altar in Shanghai the dragon and 
 cross are united. It is according to the Chinese ideas to 
 worship the Mother of Jesus, but why not the Father ? 
 To meet this, the Pope has made Joseph the patron 
 saint of China, so on the scrolls he is designated, " The 
 third man," i.e.^ Jesus, Mary, Joseph. 
 
 12. Pretended m^iracles. The priests of Rome claim 
 miraculous cures, and pretend here to be exorcists. 
 
 13. As Rome spends her tens of thousands on proces- 
 sions, so does Buddhism. 
 
 14. The worship of saints. " Chinese demigods are 
 exchanged for foreign saints, with this difference, that 
 
292 The Dragon, Ijjtage, and Demon. 
 
 now they worship they know not what, while before 
 they knew something of the name and character of the 
 ancient hero, from popular accounts and historical legends." 
 To see how similar the saints' days of the Catholics are 
 to the idol birthdays, see the " Buddhist Calendar," 
 
 in Chapter XIIT. 
 
 15. Floiver-ivorship is 
 the ornate feature of 
 each religion; the altars 
 are alike decorated with 
 beauteous wreaths and 
 bouquets of sweetest per- 
 fume, the woods and the 
 gardens supplying what 
 is lacking in the hearts 
 of the worshipper. 
 
 16. Mary the holy 
 31 other finds her perfect 
 counterpart in Kwanyin, 
 the goddess of mercy. 
 
 .^^, ^ -^,, / X (v-v^^^x Let the reader judge for 
 ^^V^^JiSl^^m. himself whether Roman- 
 
 ism is not simply white- 
 washed Buddhism. 
 
 Kwanyin, The god- 
 dess of Mercy We 
 
 come now to the aesthetic in Chinese Buddhism. As INIary 
 is the guiding spirit of Rome, so Kwanyin is the guardian 
 angel of the Indian faith. A fact to be noted is that 
 all false religions have female deities, and exalt their 
 goddesses ; it is because woman's gentle heart is so easily 
 
 Kwatiyin in White Eobes. 
 
TJie Heart of Biiddhisin. 
 
 293 
 
 touched, a mother's tender love being everywhere known, 
 and that a woman is more approachable than a man. 
 
 The Thousand-Handed Kwanyin. 
 
 Kwanyin was originally a man, but by a convenient 
 metamorphosis he was changed into a lady. 
 
 '' It would seem to be a fiict important in modern 
 Buddhist history, that the most popular of the divinities 
 
294 T^^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 of this religion should be presented first with male and 
 afterwards with female attributes, and that the change of 
 sex in the images should have been accomplished within 
 the last few centuries." 
 
 Fragrant Mountain Liturgy — A few extracts are 
 given from this work. Kwanyin was the third daughter 
 of a king, beautiful and talented, and, when young, loved 
 to meditate as a priest. Her father, mother, and sisters 
 beseech her not to pass the " green spring," but to marry, 
 and the king offers the man of her choice the throne ; 
 but no, she must take the veil. She enters the " White 
 Sparrow Nunnery," and the nuns put her to the most 
 menial offices ; the dragon opens a well for the young maid- 
 servant, and the wild beasts bring her wood. The king 
 sends his troops to burn the nunnery, — Kwanyin prays, rain 
 falls, and extinguishes the conflagration. She is brought 
 to the palace in chains, and the alternative of marriage or 
 death is placed before her. In the room above where the 
 court of the inquisition was held, there were music, danc- 
 ing, and feasting, sounds and sights to allure a young girl ; 
 the queen also urged her to leave the convent and accede 
 to the royal father's wish. Kwanyin declared she would 
 rather die than marry, so the fairy princess was strangled, 
 and a tiger took her body into the forest. She descended 
 into hell, and hell became a Paradise with gardens of 
 lilies. King Yama was terrified when he saw the prison of 
 the lost becoming an enchanting garden, and begged her 
 to leave, in order that the good and evil might have 
 their distinctive rewards. One of the genii gave her ^' the 
 peach of immortality." On her return to the terrestrial 
 regions she heard that her father was sick, and sent him 
 
The Heart of BttddJiism. 
 
 295 
 
 word that if he would despatch a messenger to "The 
 Fragrant Mountain " an eye and a hand would be given 
 
 GiviDg-Sons Kwanyin. 
 
 him for medicine; this eye and hand were Kwanyin's 
 own, and produced instant recovery. 
 
 The Magnet of the Church.— In old Buddhism 
 Shakyamuni was the chief god, and in many temples 
 
296 J he Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 he nominally occupies the seat of honour, but now he 
 is completely eclipsed by the goddess of mercy, as in 
 Pootoo, where Buddha, six feet high, sits in the rear, and 
 a gigantic gilt image of Kwanyin stands in front. The 
 men love her, the children adore her, and the women 
 chant her prayers. Whatever the temple may be, 
 there is nearly always a chapel for Kwanyin within 
 its sacred precincts ; she lives in many homes, and in 
 many, many hearts she sits enshrined. She is the 
 patron goddess of mothers, and when we remember the 
 value of a son, we can appreciate the heartiness of the 
 worship. She protects in sorrow, and so millions of times 
 the prayer is offered, " G-reat mercy, great pity, save 
 from sorrow, save from suffering," or, as it is in the 
 books, " Grreat mercy, great pity, save from misery, save 
 from evil, broad, great, efficacious, responsive Kwanyin 
 Buddha." She saves the tempest-tossed sailor, so has 
 eclipsed the Empress of Heaven, who, as the female 
 Neptune, is the patroness of seamen ; in drought the 
 mandarins worship the Dragon and the Pearly Emperor, 
 but if they fail, the bronze goddess of mercy from the 
 hills brings rain. Other gods are feared, she is loved ; 
 others have black, scornful faces, her countenance is 
 radiant as gold, and gentle as the moon-beam ; she draws 
 near to the people and the people draw near to her. Her 
 throne is upon the Isle of Pootoo, to which she came 
 floating upon a water-lily. She is the model of Chinese 
 beauty, and to say a lady or a little girl is a " Kwanyin " 
 is the highest compliment that can be paid to grace and 
 loveliness. She is fortunate in having three birthdays, 
 the nineteenth of the second, sixth, and ninth moons. 
 
The Heart of Buddhism. 
 
 297 
 
 There are many metamorphoses of Kwanyin ; of these 
 the four pictures given represent '' The Thousand-handed 
 Kwanyin," " The Fish-basket Kwanyin," *' The Giving- 
 sons Kwanyin," and " The White-robed Kwanyin." 
 
 The Buddhist Saviour — She is called Kwanyin 
 because at any cry of misery she " hears the voice and 
 removes the sorrow." Her ap- 
 pellation is ^' Taking-away-fear 
 Buddha." If in the midst of 
 the fire the name of Kwanyin 
 is called, the fire cannot burn ; 
 if tossed by mountain billows, 
 call her name and shallow waters 
 will be reached. If merchants 
 go across the sea seeking gold, 
 silver, pearls, and precious stones, 
 if a storm comes up and threatens 
 to carry the crew to the evil- 
 devil's kingdom, if one on board 
 calls the name of Kwanyin the 
 ship will be saved. If one goes 
 into a conflict and calls on the 
 name of Kwanyin the sword and 
 spear of the enemy fall harmless. 
 If the three-thousand great thou- 
 sand kingdoms are visited by demons, call on her name, 
 and these demons cannot with an evil eye look on a man. 
 If, within, you have evil thoughts, only call on Kwanyin, 
 and your heart will be purified. Anger and wrath may 
 be dispelled by calling on the name of Kwanyin. A 
 lunatic who prays to Kwanyin will become sane. Kwan- 
 
 Fish-Basket Kwanyin. 
 
298 1 he Dragon, hnage, and De'fnon. 
 
 yin gives sons to, mothers, and if the mother asks for a 
 daughter she will be a beauty. Two men — one chanting 
 the names of the 6,200,000 Buddhas, in number like the 
 sands of the Granges, and the other simply calling on 
 Kwanyin — have equal merit. Kwanyin may take the 
 form of a Buddha, a prince, a priest, a nun, a scholar, 
 any form or shape, go to any kingdom, and preach 
 the law throughout the earth. 
 
 Amita and the Western Heaven — The most strik- 
 ing difference between northern and southern Buddhism 
 is the doctrine of the Western Heaven and of Amita 
 (Amitahba). It is an innovation of later centuries, pro- 
 bably a thousand years after Buddha, and it is certain that 
 this tenet does not come from India, as this god is unknown 
 in that country and Ceylon. The most plausible theory 
 is that it was borrowed from the Nestorians, whom the 
 Buddhists likely met in Central Asia. In Japan Buddhism 
 is concentrated in the worship of Amita. In China the 
 fronts of the temples have the inscription in great cha- 
 racters, Na-mo o-TYie-to-fuh (Honour to Amita Buddha). 
 There is little homage given by the populace to Shakyamuni 
 compared with what is rendered to this deity, and whole 
 prayer-books and sutras have been manufactured and 
 falsely ascribed to the head of the church as if he were 
 their author. Amita, Kwanyin, and Mahasthama (called 
 Tashuchi, one of Amita's court) form a loving triad, and 
 their images are seen together in the temples of Paradise. 
 Amita means " boundless light," so called because " his 
 brightness is boundless, and he can illumine all king- 
 doms. His life, boundless and shoreless, extends through 
 many kalpas." Amita is also called the " boundless-age 
 
The Heart of Buddhism. 
 
 299 
 
 Buddha," but his common designation is " the guiding 
 Buddha/' the one who directs his followers to a Paradise 
 in the great West.- 
 
 AMITA. 
 
 " See, streaming forth radiance for thousands of miles, 
 Ever sits the compassionate Buddha and smiles, 
 Giving joy to victims of sorrow and strife. 
 Who are saved by his law from the evils of life. 
 All his features of beauty no words can express, 
 For the sands of the Ganges in number are less ; 
 
 Amita, Kwanyiu, and Tashuchi. 
 
 The flowers of the lotus encircle his seat, 
 
 As if of themselves they spring up round his feet. 
 
 Whoever would enter the home of the blest, 
 
 In his innermost thoughts should incessantly rest 
 
 On that beautiful form like the moon on high, 
 
 When she marches full-orbed through an unclouded sky, 
 
 By that halo of light that encircles his head, 
 
 On all living beings a radiance is shed ; 
 
 The sun at noon -day is less glorious than he. 
 
 His compassion resembles a bottomless sea. 
 
 His golden arms are outstretched to relieve 
 
 The sufferers that weep and the hearts that do grieve ; 
 
300 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 His mercy is such as none else can display, 
 And long years of gratitude cannot repay." 
 
 The Magic Name — In every temple the sound you 
 hear is o-'ine-to-fiih ; when you speak to a priest, he 
 utters, o-me-to-fiih ; the response in prayer is o-me-to- 
 fiih ; as the monk beats on his fish-head the name is 
 called, o-me-to-fuh ; as he counts his beads it is o-rae- 
 to-fuh ; as the prayers are read, the women join in 
 o-me-to-fuh ; as a company of priests assemble at vespers, 
 it is o-viie-to-fvuh ; calling the name, they dot the circles 
 on the papers ; for every 10,000 times there is one degree 
 of merit obtained. While o-me-to-fuh is pronounced, the 
 mind must be fixed on Amita, and the thoughts con- 
 centrated on him like a thread running through beads 
 or like an arrow flying to its mark. The effort is to 
 see how many times o-me-to-fuh can be called in one 
 breath, and you sometimes hear the priests calling the 
 name at railway speed. Not long since I asked a priest, 
 " How often do you say o-me-to-fuh a day ? " and he 
 answered, " Oh, about twenty or thirty thousand times." 
 This is the " vain repetition " of the Buddhist ; almost 
 the only prayer the heathen knows is o-me-to-fuh. 
 
 The Paradise of the West — The doctrine of the 
 Western Heaven is diametrically opposed to the teachings 
 of Buddha about Nirvana, and proves that the heart could 
 not deal with such abstractions, and that men must have 
 happiness set before them in a more real, substantial 
 form. This Paradise of Amita is not situated within 
 the pale of this solar system. The sacred book says 
 (translated):— Ten million miles to the West there is 
 an earth called Paradise, the home of Amita. Why is 
 
The Heart of Buddhism. 30 ! 
 
 it called Paradise ? Answer : Because all the creatures 
 born there have no sorrow. There are seven rows of 
 
 Western Paradise. 
 
 balustrades, seven rows of precious trees around, and 
 seven precious lakes with golden sands. The streets are 
 a compound of gold, silver, pearls, and crystal. There 
 
302 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 are towers and pavilions adorned with gold, silver, pearls, 
 crystal, and agate. In the lakes are lilies the size of 
 wheels, azure, yellow, red, and white. 
 
 Six hours of the day and six hours of the night there 
 is a rain of flowers. The inhabitants gather them in 
 their robes in the morning, take them to other lands to 
 the ten billion other Buddhas, and return, being absent 
 about as long as it takes to eat rice. 
 
 The birds of Paradise, variegated in plumage, are 
 famous ; white cranes, peacocks, and parrots chant the 
 Buddhist prayers. These birds have no original sin. 
 
 In that happy land the three evils are unknown, — not 
 even the names of the three evils are known. Amita, 
 wishing the " law-sound " (our word gospel is " happy- 
 sound ") to be constantly chanted, expelled these evils. 
 
 If a gentle zephyr blows amid the trees, there are 
 delicate surprising sounds like to 1 00,000 musical instru- 
 ments ; the listener must necessarily have a heart to 
 chant of Buddha, the Law, and the Church. 
 
 THE PUBE LAND. 
 
 *' The pure land of the West, say, what language can tell 
 Its beauty and majesty ? There ever dwell 
 The men of this world, and the Devas of heaven, 
 And to each has the same wreath of glory been given. 
 The secrets of wisdom unveiled they behold, 
 And the soil that they tread on is bright yellow gold ; 
 In that land of true pleasure the flowers never fade, 
 Each terraced ascent is of diamond and jade. 
 The law of great Buddha sung by each bird. 
 From thicket and grove in sweet music is heard ; 
 The unwithering Upata, fairest of flowers. 
 Sheds fragrance around in those thrice-lovely bowers. 
 
The Hea7't of Bidddhism. 303 
 
 There, each from the world that he governs, are found, 
 
 Assembled in conference long and profound, 
 
 The ten supreme Buddhas, who cease not to tell 
 
 The praise of the land where the genii dwell : 
 
 For there is no region so happy and blest 
 
 As the heaven of Amita far in the West. 
 
 On the moment of entering that peaceful scene, 
 
 The common material body of men 
 
 Is exchanged for a body ethereal and bright, 
 
 That is seen from afar to be glowing with light. 
 
 Happy they who to that joyful region have gone, 
 
 In numberless kalpas their time flows on ; 
 
 Around are green woods, and above them clear skies, 
 
 The sun never scorches, cold winds never rise, 
 
 And summer and winter are both unknown 
 
 In the land of the Law and the Diamond Throne. 
 
 All errors corrected, all mysteries made clear, 
 
 Their rest is unbroken by care or by fear ; 
 
 And the truth that before lay in darkness concealed, 
 
 Like a gem without fracture or flaw is revealed."' 
 
 Born of a Lily. — The beautiful lotus is the flower 
 of Paradise. It is never said, " go to heaven," but to 
 be '• born in heaven." Those who believe must record a 
 vow to be born in the " pure land," at which time a lotus 
 springs up in a pond, and if he is diligent in calling the 
 name of Amita (o-oiie-to-fuh) the flower will flourish, and 
 when he dies a man will be born out of the flower. The 
 exhortation is given in the sutra : At the approach of 
 death, do not fear it ; always think this body has many 
 sorrows ; it is made filthy by sin, wound round and 
 round; if this dirty body can be thrown off and you 
 be born in a pure land, is it not a happy event ? It is 
 like throwing off old clothes and putting on a new suit. 
 If any one will call the name of Amita for seven days 
 
304 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 with fixed heart, at death Amita with his holy throng 
 will appear before him ; his heart will not be turned 
 upside down, but he will be born in Paradise. There 
 are nine ranks among the inhabitants of water-lily 
 purity. The candidate for the lily-birth must imagine 
 
 Titsang. 
 
 that he is sitting on a lotus-throne, tailor-fashion, that 
 he sees Buddha in his kingdom and hears him preach; 
 he must also have the bright golden image of Amita 
 just before his eyes. This is the Buddhistic account 
 of the " pure land." 
 
The Heart of Biiddhism. 305 
 
 The god of Hades.— Above the ten kings of hell 
 is Titsang^ the god of Hades. The important position 
 he occupies in the pantheon may be appreciated from 
 the fact that he has a shrine in almost every temj^le, 
 for financially they cannot afford to do without such a 
 valuable deity. His merit was so great that he would 
 have become a Buddha, had he not made a vow to 
 rescue all orphan spirits and devils, so he is still in 
 the regions below engaged in his arduous task. His 
 worship day is the thirtieth of the seventh moon, 
 when his temples are thronged. He sleeps 359 days, 
 and only awakes on his birthday, and if there are only 
 twenty-nine days in that month he quietly turns over 
 for another year's nap. The bitter sarcasm on Carmel's 
 top, " Perad venture he sleepeth and must be awakened," 
 is here too terribly literal. As the god dwells in the 
 regions below, on this fearful night the candles in 
 front of every door are placed on the curb stones ; it is 
 called, " Burning the dog-excrement incense." 
 
 The Doctrine of Hell — The Chinese speak of the 
 eighteen tiers of hells, each subdivided into numberless 
 caverns and pits, located beneath the base of JNIount 
 Sumeru, and called the " earth-prison." They have the 
 proverb, " The evil has the evil reward ; " they have 
 consciences to warn them of coming judgment ; and 
 the innate sense of justice to tell them that the 
 wickedness of the wicked ends not at death. The 
 sacred books speak of the " long night " and of the 
 " black books," i.e., with lists of sins. The doctrine 
 of retribution as now possessed by the Chinese aids in 
 teaching the Scripture doctrine. Revelation gives clear- 
 
 20 
 
3o6 The Dragon, Image, and De^non. 
 
 ness to the subject, but it adds little to the awful nature 
 of future punishment. It only remained for Him who 
 " brought life and immortality to light " to speak of its 
 duration, making it to last as long as the blessedness of 
 the holy. "And these shall go away into everlasting 
 (aionian) punishment ; but the righteous into life eternal 
 (aionian)." 
 
 The City of Fungtu — In the western province of 
 Szechuen there is a city called Fungtu, and in the 
 city temple there is said to be an underground passage 
 which connects with the city of Fungtu in the other 
 world. The temple is said to be closed, but during 
 the Ming dynasty an emperor opened the doors and 
 descended into the cavern. Led by the attendant of 
 the god of war, he passed through the dark passage 
 and came to a city full of light, broad streets, and 
 storied houses ; the different departments were pre- 
 sided over by the ten kings, but the visitor was not 
 allowed to go farther than the fifth hall of justice. It is 
 said by the neighbours that at night they can hear the 
 cries of the criminals as they are put to torture in the 
 regions below. The large sutra which gives an account 
 of this city is evidently an Indo-Chinese production ; an 
 attempt to combine the Chinese doctrine of the ra7?r/and 
 Yin with the Indian tenets of the " earth-prison." 
 
 The Ten Kings of Hell — King Yama, the ruler of 
 the dead, the guardian of the prison of the lost, has 
 ten different personifications, all spoken of in Chinese 
 as Yen Lo Wang ; the ten to rule over the ten depart- 
 ments of Tartarus. The accounts of the "earth-prison" 
 are chiefly made known by the "Jade Eecord," which 
 
The Heart of Buddhism. 307 
 
 is often printed by benevolent persons and gratuitously 
 distributed. The reader asks, '' Why these two assistants 
 with the cow's head and horse's face ? " It is to prevent 
 new arrivals from recognising them, and so to check all 
 attempts at bribery. 
 
 The fifth king with an African face was a mandarin 
 of the Sung dynasty, a.d. 1200, by the name of Pao 
 Lungtu, celebrated for his incorruptible integrity. He 
 was first placed over Ward No. 1, but as he had a '• resur- 
 
 King Yama, Cow's Head and Horse's Face Assistants. 
 
 rection rod " by which he could restore men to life, it 
 was feared that many would return to earth without 
 going before the ten courts, so Shangte moved him to 
 Ward No. 5, because the criminals had to remain seven 
 days in each department, and after five weeks the body 
 would be corrupt, and it would be impossible to bring it 
 to life again. King Yama X. rules over the wheel of 
 transmigration. 
 
 White and Black Devils These are the ^Marshals 
 
 of Hades, who are despatched to arrest the dying, seize 
 
3o8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 their souls, and hurry them into the presence of the 
 judge. 
 
 White and Black Devils. 
 
 The Vision of Hell — A man at the time of death 
 has all the sins of his life to pass as a panorama before 
 
 Looking Homeward. 
 
 his eyes ; this is called by Buddhists " The vision of hell." 
 
TJie Heart of BuddJiism. 
 
 309 
 
 Looking Homeward— When the soul arrives at tlie 
 fifth ward it is permitted to go upon a portico, and take 
 a longing glance at the loved ones at home. The 
 friends at the old homestead during the fifth week after 
 the decease spread a feast before dawn, lighting a 
 lantern in the court, the filial son calling, and a friend 
 beside the coffin responding, for if they do not invite 
 the departed he will not go upon the observatory. 
 
 The Mirror.— The first act in Hades is for the man 
 to be taken to the steel-yard, a hook fastened in his 
 back, and his sins weighed ; if his deeds of merit out- 
 weigh his sins, he is forthwith carried to the tenth 
 department, to return to earth. If it happens the 
 other way, he is taken before a mirror, and there he 
 beholds what he is to be in the next life for the sins 
 of the past — a cow, a dog, an ass, or a reptile. The 
 proverb says, " Before the mirror a good man does not 
 come." Sometimes in the mirror it is a headless cow 
 
The Mill. 
 
 The Mortar. 
 
 The Chopping-knife. 
 
 Palling out the Tongue. 
 
 Sawn Asunder. 
 
 Lake of Blood. 
 
The Heart of Buddhism. 3 1 1 
 
 and a man that you see. On inquiring the meaning, one 
 is told that the beef is indicting the butcher before 
 the judge for cow-slaughter. 
 
 The Undivided Hell.— This is an iron city 18,000 
 miles in circumference, and the walls 1,000 miles high, 
 of solid iron ; fire from above descends, and fire from 
 below ascends ; iron dogs spit fire, iron snakes coil 
 around the neck, and iron eagles pluck out the eyes. 
 There are many evil devils, their teeth like spears, their 
 arms like pitchforks, and their eyes like lightning. 
 
 Bridge of Snakes. 
 
 There is an iron bed 10,000 miles long, and the criminal 
 is stretched its whole length. 
 
 The Earth-Prison. — The punishments recorded in 
 the " Jade Eecord " and other works on future torment 
 give frightful pictures of the tortures of bad men ; in 
 many Buddhist temples these are represented by small 
 figures, and in others by life-size images. Men are 
 ground to powder, the dust becoming ants, fleas, and 
 lice ; pestled in a mortar, and mashed to jelly in iron 
 mortars ; chopped in slices with a knife and hacked to 
 pieces with hatchets; the tongue of deceit and lying 
 
312 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 pulled out ; sawn asunder ; the bones and flesh crushed 
 by falling mountains ; women cast into a lake of blood 
 (see Chapter XVI.) ; crossing the narrow bridge and 
 falling among fiery serpents ; the caldron of oil for 
 
 Caldron of Oil. 
 
 those who waste rice ; drunkards with the cangue 
 and standing on the hands ; quack doctors with hands 
 and feet tied, and a large stone on the back, the fierce 
 
 Hill of Knives. 
 
 judge administering hot drinks ; a man going into the 
 mill head foremost, with the legs sticking out and a dog 
 coming out below in the transmigration; a headless 
 ghost pulling his murderer to judgment ; disembowelled ; 
 
The Heart of BuddJiisni. 
 
 tossed on a hill of knives ; cast on a lake of ice ; chained 
 to a red-hot cylinder; iron dungeon, darkness within and 
 fire without ; lashed with burning iron wires ; when 
 thirsty, drinking molten iron ; eating red-hot iron balls : 
 besides, there is the freezing hell, the burning hell, and 
 the hell of bubbling filth. 
 
 Men and women, foreigners and natives, old and young, 
 dragons and demons, gods and angels, are all liable to go 
 to the " earth-prison '' for their sins. 
 
 '' The Buddhist hells combine all that is horrible to 
 
 Village of "Wild Dogs. 
 
 Burning Cylinder. 
 
 each of the senses. Every form of torment, mental and 
 physical, that can befall the unhappy violators of a good 
 conscience and of the Buddhist law, are found there. 
 The extremes of cold i<.nd heat, cutting, flaying, biting, 
 insulting, and tantalizing have to be endured by such 
 persons according to their deserts. Demons of the most 
 monstrous shapes and most cruel dispositions terrify 
 them in every possible way. All that fire and water, 
 knives and clubs, can by ingenuity be made to do in 
 tormenting, is there done." 
 
314 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Miss Mang's Soup. — Why do not men remember 
 the acts of a previous existence ? Buddhism has its 
 answer. Before the metempsychosis, the party is taken 
 to Miss Mang's soup kitchen, and receives a potion which 
 makes him forget all previous events. Miss Mang was 
 a maiden lady of fourscore years ; in her youth she was 
 an earnest student of Buddhism and an exhorter ; in 
 
 Miss Mang's Pavilion. 
 
 her old age she was appointed a goddess in Tartarus, 
 and compounds this " forgetful " potion of many different 
 medicines. Scholars arriving at Hades who can repeat 
 the Buddhist chants are beyond the power of King 
 Yama, so they are transferred to Miss Mang's depart- 
 ment, return to earth, die just before or immediately 
 after birth, and then they can be brought successively 
 before the ten kings of the dead. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE GODS OF BUDDHISM. 
 
 Janteng Buddha. — Janteng, or the ''Light lamp" 
 Buddha, is a fictitious personage who was the teacher 
 of Shakyamuni in a previous existence, and foretold 
 that in a subsequent kalpa he would become a 
 Buddha. " The time when this happened was too long 
 ago to be expressed by common Chinese numerals." 
 As the instructor of Shakyamuni in a former life, 
 he occupies with him " the highest rank in wisdom 
 and power." The eighth moon, twenty-second day, is his 
 birthday. 
 
 The Dragons — '' The Dragons of the four seas " 
 were four brothers by the name of Yao, who govern the 
 North, South, East, and West seas. " The fabulous 
 dragon of China is a monster with scales like a crocodile 
 and having five-clawed feet. He has no wings, and 
 when he rises in the air, it is by a power he is supposed 
 to possess of transforming himself at pleasure. He can 
 make himself large or little, and rise or fall, just as he 
 chooses. The dragon, which is a flying saurian, seems 
 to be an original Chinese creation." He occupies a 
 prominent place in Chinese mythology ; he sends rain 
 and floods, and is the ruler of the clouds. 
 
3i6 The Dragon y I mage ^ and Demon. 
 
 " Of the scaly reptiles the dragon is the chief," says 
 a native author ; " it wields the power of transformation 
 and the gift of rendering itself visible or invisible at 
 pleasure. In the spring it ascends to the skies, and in 
 the autumn it buries itself in the watery depth." " There 
 is the celestial dragon, which guards the mansions of the 
 
 The Dragon. 
 
 gods and supports them so that they do not fall ; the 
 divine dragon, which causes the winds to blow and pro- 
 duces rain for the benefit of mankind; the earth dragon, 
 which marks out the courses of rivers and streams ; and 
 the dragon of the hidden treasures, which watches over 
 the wealth concealed from mortals." 
 
The Gods of BuddJiisin. 
 
 17 
 
 The Buddhists count their dragons in number e(iual to 
 the fish of the great deep, which defies arithmetical com- 
 putation, and can only be expressed by their sacred 
 numerals. The people have a more certain faith in them 
 than in most of their divinities, because they see them 
 so often ; every cloud with a curious configuration or 
 serpentine tail is the dragon : " We see him," say they ; 
 the scattering of the cloud is his disappearance. He 
 
 King Lee, holding a Pagoda. 
 
 rules the hills, is connected with fiingshuy, dwells around 
 the graves, is associated with the Confucian worship, is 
 the Neptune of the sea, and appears on the dry land. 
 The dragon to China is what the lion and the unicorn are 
 to England, and the eagle to America. The dragon is the 
 emblem on the national flag, it is the crest on Imperial 
 monuments, the design on the Emperor's robes, and the 
 throne of the empire is the dragon-throne. 
 
3r8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Holding-Pagoda King Lee — He was a general of 
 the Shang dynasty. His youngest son, Nacha, went 
 bathing and drowned the dragon's son; the dragon sought 
 revenge on the father, who called his son to account for 
 the murder. Nacha gave his flesh to his father and his 
 bones to his mother, and his soul went to the Great 
 Extreme. The Grreat Extreme took a lily and made him 
 a body ; the mother built a temple in his honour, which 
 his father ordered to be pulled down, whereupon the two 
 got into a fight, and Jante«g Buddha took a gold pagoda 
 and cooped Nacha ; but as he feared his submission was 
 only temporary he gave the pagoda to his father, who ' 
 now, as Prime Minister of Heaven, holds the pagoda 
 in his hand and is thus seen in the temples. 
 
 The Mother of Buddha. — She has thirty-four arms 
 and eighteen heads ; if her chant is repeated 900,000 
 times, the four burdens will be taken away and the ten 
 evils avoided. Her names are Chente P'usa and 
 Soseihte. 
 
 Master of the Lily Lake — During the Sung 
 dynasty there was a priest collecting for a temple, when, 
 meeting with a tiger, the pious animal offered to be a 
 partner in his firm. Messrs. Priest and Tiger went in 
 company for several years, and the former obtained very 
 liberal subscriptions when the shopmen saw the latter 
 standing guard at the door. After the temple was built, 
 the tiger said to the priest, '' You sit here and chant and 
 I will see you have rice," so for a long time he collected 
 food for the friar, and at his death the blood-thirsty 
 denizen of the jungle became lord of the lilies. 
 
 Fix-Light Buddha. — As a priest he dwelt on amoun- 
 
7 he Gods of Bvddhism. 319 
 
 tain-top for five hundred years. After he had been there 
 two hundred and fifty years the light in his hair was 
 waving and not fixed, but by the end of the next century 
 it was as bright as gold and remained with a steady 
 effulgence. Shakya called him " Fix-Light Buddha." 
 
 Pouhien P'usa — He is seen in the group with Shakya 
 and Wenshu. At the age of twenty, seeing that the 
 world was false, he became a hermit and afterwards a 
 Bodhisattwa. He is a fictitious character. 
 
 The Sombre Maiden — Hiian Nii. "The Sombre 
 Maiden was, according to ancient tradition, the daughter 
 of Heaven, and was sent to the aid of Hwangte. Post- 
 Buddhist legends appear to have identified this mythical 
 being with Marichi Deva," the personification of light, 
 offspring of Brahma. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GODS OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 
 God of Wealth. 
 
 it*;Hlf*fi'>^fWi4»jtv? ^i*^ 
 
 List of Gods. 
 
 God of Wealth. — Yuen-tan is the true god of riches, 
 though he now occupies a secondary place, and the 
 god next mentioned has supplanted him. He lived in 
 the eventful days of Kiang T'aikung, and some of his 
 exploits were riding a black tiger and hurling a pearl 
 which would burst like a bomb-shell. He was overcome 
 by witchcraft : a straw man was made to represent him, 
 and its eyes and heart were pierced with darts ; after 
 death he was appointed the god of wealth. 
 
Gods of the People. 
 
 ?'s2\ 
 
 God of Riches. — The picture represents him as sitting 
 in his shrine or Uttle chapel, which is placed on a table 
 in nearly every store and in many homes. There were 
 five brothers, who were '' G lobe-Trotters," and it is gene- 
 rally said that Lotow is in a foreign land. His birthday 
 is the first moon, fifth day, when the merchants spread a 
 feast in his honour, or, as they say, " drink wine to the god 
 of riches." The post-offices and shops are ever opened 
 
 God of Eiches. 
 
 till after this sacrificial banquet is given to him. By his 
 side are two ministers, called " Invite Riches" and " Gain 
 JNIarket," who are considered divinities of no mean rank. 
 P^or scrolls they have as inscriptions, '' Invite Riches says. 
 Where is the lucky place ? " " Gain Market replies. Here 
 it is before your face." The god of riches is regularly 
 and devoutly worshipped by burning incense before the 
 shrine, lighting candles in front of the sign-board, and 
 
 21 
 
322 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 placing a cup of wine at the foot of the image. He is 
 one of the chief among the gods, and it is in his worship 
 that the streams of covetousness and idolatry flow into 
 the Great Lake of worldly-mindedness. 
 
 Heavenly MaDdarin. 
 
 The Heavenly Mandarin._This picture bangs in 
 numbers of bouses. The Heavenly Mandarin in appear- 
 ance ,s very handsome, and on his head is the nearest 
 
Gods of the People. 
 
 323 
 
 approach to a crown with which the Chinese are ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 Kitchen-god. — About sixty million pictures of this 
 god are regularly worshipped twice a month. His temple 
 is a little niche in the brick cooking-range ; his palace is 
 often filled with smoke, and his majesty sells for one half- 
 
 cent. "Every empire has an emperor, and every family 
 has a ruler," is the oft-quoted pro\ erb ; the ruler of the 
 family being the kitchen-god. His duties are two-fold ; 
 first, he knows intimately the faults of the family and takes 
 account of their sins ; second, he stands as a mediator 
 between the family and the Pearly Emperor, so he is an 
 object of fear and honour. He is worshipped at the new 
 and full moon, and he is " thanked " by a feast on the 
 
324 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 fourth, fourteenth, and twenty-fourth of the sixth month, 
 and twenty-fourth of the eighth. On the twenty-fourth 
 of the twelfth month he ascends to Heaven to report to 
 the Pearly Emperor, and is received home again on 
 old year's night. His ascension is attained by placing 
 his wee picture in a little bamboo lamp-stand covered 
 with red paper for a sedan chair ; this is put on a bundle 
 of rice straw in front of the door, sugar or syrup having 
 first been rubbed on his lips, so that he will only tell 
 sweet things when on high ; fire is set to the martyr's 
 funeral pile, a libation of alcoholic 
 wine adds to the flame, and rice straw 
 is cut small as a substitute for water- 
 melon seeds for him to eat on the 
 
 way up. 
 
 God of Theatres. — Actors worship 
 
 the god of theatres, to keep from 
 
 laughing when on the stage. 
 Theatre-god. God of Horses and Cows. — He 
 
 is much worshipped in North China, 
 and pays special attention to the domestic animals. 
 Theatricals are paid for by the owners of stock. The 
 temples are under official patronage. In the temple in 
 honour of these gods the grooms attached to the Yamens 
 worship in order to secure health and mettle to their 
 horses. 
 
 Sheep-god — His name is Hwang Tsuping, and he 
 lived near Hangchow in the Kyinhwa district. He told 
 his brother his sheep were on the other side of the hill, 
 but the latter found only white stones. Hwang Tsuping 
 came and cried, " Sheep, get up ; sheep, get up,'* when the 
 
Gods of the People, 
 
 325 
 
 whole mountain was covered with his flock. If a sliepherd 
 wishes a large flock, or his sheep are feeble, he worships 
 the sheep-god. 
 
 God of Snakes. — The image of the snake-god has 
 sometimes a man's head and a snake's body. If a snake 
 is found on the premises the tenant immediately repairs 
 to the snake-god's temple ; also he rubs out his tracks 
 with manure. At the feast in the fifth moon they mark 
 
 Snake King. 
 
 all little children's foreheads with the word " king," and 
 put yellow paint on their legs, as a charm against snakes 
 and centipedes. " Live snakes are still carried in proces- 
 sion in some parts of China, for luck, in honour of the 
 serpent king." 
 
 Holding-Snakes god — He was twenty feet high ; a 
 very powerful giant. His father's name was Faith. 
 Wherever he went there was a drought, so studying 
 the subject he became convinced that drought came from 
 
326 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 the sun, and he must try and destroy the sun. For 
 three months beside the Yellow River he studied the 
 art of flying, and taking a green snake in one hand 
 and a yellow one in the other, he followed the sun in 
 his circuit, but overcome with thirst and heat he died. 
 Afterwards sacrifices were offered to him. 
 
 The god of Scorpions is much worshipped in the 
 Honan province. Sometimes a rustic who has caught a 
 
 God and Goddess of the Bed. 
 
 basket of scorpions for medicinal use feels on his shoulder 
 the touch of an old man, the god of scorpions, who says 
 " Friend, you have taken lives enough, go home." He is 
 very effective in keeping the houses free from the green 
 intruders. 
 
 Locust-goddess.— It is said that Kiang T'aikung 
 divorced his wife B.C. 1 122, and when she was afterwards 
 killed by lightning he made her the locust-goddess. 
 
 Gods of the Bed are worshipped on the wedding 
 day, and on the first and fifteenth of each moon. 
 
Gods of the People. 327 
 
 Old Man and Woman of the Bed.— By worship- 
 ping these two venerable deities, peaceful slumbers will 
 be secured. 
 
 Gold-god.— The god of gold is worshipped by all 
 silversmiths and in the jewellery shops. 
 
 Tea-god. — He was Loh Yii of the T'ang dynasty. 
 In the north King Lingtsze is worshipped, and in South 
 China Sung Sukung. 
 
 Salt-god. — He is the first man who made salt ; his 
 name is '' World Wood." 
 
 Gods of the Compass — There is a sacrifice in the 
 autumn of the year. For the east it is Keu Mung ; south, 
 Choh Yung ; west, Suh Seu ; north, Yuen Ming. 
 
 God of the North Place. — He rules drought, flood, 
 war, famine, and pestilence ; as well as prosperous and 
 successful years. His name is Yuen Ming; probably 
 the same as the last mentioned. 
 
 God of the Soul. — Lo Yuyang. He obtained the 
 power of releasing his soul and letting it roam at pleasure. 
 He had some interviews with Laotsze. 
 
 Gods of Strength — A class of fabulous beings believed 
 to be superior to men (Gavudas). 
 
 God of Happiness. — Every Yamen (governmental 
 residence) has a god of happiness, whose duties are 
 multifarious. 
 
 Wang Papa — He is the chief of police in the land 
 of shades. The owners of lost property make application 
 to him for recovery of goods, sometimes sticking a list 
 of valuables on his person. Notices of " jNIan Lost," 
 with the character " jMan " turned upside down, are at 
 times pasted to his clay raiment. 
 
328 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Goddess of Travel. — She was the wife of the Emperor 
 Hien Yuen. The Emperor went on a journey to Mount 
 T'ai to place a handful of earth on the top as an offering 
 to Heaven, and a clod on a clean spot on the level ground 
 as an offering to the mountain, and the Empress dying 
 en route he appointed her the goddess of travel. 
 
 The Rambling god. — He roams around, and if he 
 hears a quarrel or sees anything wrong, he repairs to 
 the spot ; he records the good and bad deeds, and 
 has the power of inflicting immediate punishment. 
 
 God of Archery. — He was the first great archer. His 
 name was Emei, now called Suhchang. 
 
 God of The Wave. — Wutszeseu was drowned in the 
 River Seu. Merchants on long journeys worship him. 
 
 Field-ancestor god. — The divine husbandman. Shin 
 Nung, was the original god of the field, but as he became 
 the god of medicine, his son, Suh Kuin, is considered 
 the field-ancestor god. 
 
 God of the Favouring Wind. — He is worshipped 
 by all travellers, especially by those on the Grand Canal, 
 where it crosses the broad bosom of the Yangtsze. This 
 god acts as a kind of insurance agent. 
 
 Bridge gods — They have no images, but rule the 
 spirits of the drowned. When a funeral procession passes 
 over the bridge, the chief mourner, who is the filial son, 
 gets down on his knees and worships the god of the 
 bridge. 
 
 Lamp-god — His name is Ma Chuan. Kiang 
 T'aikung tried to kill him, but three strokes of the 
 executioner's axe did no harm. He tried to burn him, 
 but Ma Chuan fled on the wings of the flame. He 
 
Gods of the People. 329 
 
 borrowed a mirror from the liobgo])lins, and it was seen 
 that he was made of fire. The lamp for one thousand 
 years did not go out, so he became a man. 
 
 The Forty Masters.— There are seventy-two masters 
 or teachers, who are grouped in one temple, the devotee 
 worshipping the one he wishes to propitiate ; of these, 
 thirty-two are physicians and belong to the jNIedical 
 Chapter ; the names of the rest are here given, 
 the numbers corresponding to their position in the 
 temple : — 
 
 14, Warding-oflf-evil Master; 15, Master of gold; 16, 
 Silver; 17, Mitigate calamity; 19, Fortune; 20, 
 Military ; 22, Snakes ; 23, Magpies ; 24, Serpent-Demon ; 
 2^^ Fortune as you desire ; 26, Peace in Heaven ; 29, 
 Protect life; 30, To add age; 31, Police; 32, Master 
 of office ; 33, Calamity ; 35, Horses ; 37, Happiness ; 38, 
 Sages; 40, Sixty cycles; 41, Palace; 42, Earth; 43, Five 
 quarters of the earth ; 44, Grain ; 45, Marriage ; 46, 
 Literary essays ; 50, Water ; 51, Mediator to the Eastern 
 Peak; ^2^ Master of Six Household gods ; 54, Thunder; ^^^ 
 Vows ; ^^^ Canals ; 62, Misery ; 64, Rewards ; 65, Fields ; 
 67, Riches; 68, Grain; 69, Protection; 70, Cursing; 71; 
 Fate ; 72, Escaping from evil ; 73, Bridges and Boats , 
 74, Punishments. 
 
 The Five or Twenty-five gods. — They are called 
 " The five gods," but there are five groups of five. To 
 prevent murder, five gods ; to prevent robbery, five gods ; 
 to prevent fornication, five gods ; to prevent falsehood, 
 five gods ; to prevent drunkenness, five gods. 
 
 God of the Rough Gem. — Pien Ho offered a gem 
 in the rough to King Lee, who cut off both liis legs, 
 
330 The Dragon, Image, and Demo7i. 
 
 as he thought it was only granite. Afterwards discovering 
 its quality, Pien Ho was appointed by him Gem-god. 
 
 Little-boy god. — He is a prophet, and all his pre- 
 dictions are fulfilled, so if a man can inquire of him his 
 destiny, he will avoid all calamity. His residence is at 
 the south pole. 
 
 The Yin-dragon god. — He is the essence of fire, 
 and dwells in southern Kiangsu ; he has wings, and can 
 fly through the nine heavens ; with a brush of his tail 
 on the land, fountains of water spring up. 
 
 The Yellow-dragon god. — In the time of the 
 Emperor Shun all the great Mandarins saw him. His 
 scales were resplendent as gold. He gave the Emperor 
 a charm and a chart. 
 
 Silk-worm god — Near Wuseih, a countryman had 
 forty-nine basket-waiters of silk-worms, when seeing a 
 very large silk-worm he chopped it in two, whereupon 
 all his silk-worms died. He knew then he had killed the 
 god of silk-worms. Now worshipped in the silk districts. 
 Near the G-reat Lake, Madame Silk-worm is worshipped. 
 
 God of the Year. — A son of the Emperor Show, 
 named Yin Chow. His father, the abandoned tyrant, 
 killed Yin Chow's mother at the instigation of a con- 
 cubine, and was about to kill the son, when he fled, and one 
 of the genii took him for a disciple. Afterwards in battle 
 he was defeated, and Janteng Buddha caused two hills 
 to meet and hold him as if in a vice. Kiang T'aikung 
 made him the T'ai-Swuy god. He is one of the fiercest 
 gods in China. Worshipped by the Mandarins at the 
 reception of spring. 
 
 Goddess of the Male Principle of Nature — She 
 
Gods of the People, 
 
 Zl^ 
 
 was the Princess Ch'ang Yung of the Shang dynasty. 
 She became an immortal and dwelt on the mountains 
 and though this maiden lady was aged two hundred, she 
 looked like a damsel in her teens. Walking in the sun 
 she cast no shadow. 
 
 Family gods of the Door.— These diflfer from the 
 door-gods used in front of the Yamens. Their names 
 are Shinto and Yuihleu. There was a peach tree with 
 a limb bent over, thus making an arch, and through 
 this spirits passed and repassed. The two door-gods 
 
 Little Boy at the Well. 
 
 could subdue these evil spirits, and the Emperor, as his 
 palace was haunted, cut down the peach tree, painted 
 their pictures, and hung them up. The farmers at 
 the new year put them to guard their front doors. 
 
 The Ting gods.— The Tmg gods are six in number: 
 1, Kwang Chang; 2, Yii Yii ; 3, Yellow Devil; 4. Great 
 Cataract (of the eye) ; 5, Kang Shin ; 6, Tunglih. These 
 r.ix assisted the Grreat Yu in his labours with the floods 
 and streams. Chang, the Taoist Pope, can summon them 
 at his will, and the priests rely on the T'lnij gods to 
 
^^2 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 expel demons. On the land they can subdue tigers and 
 panthers, and in the water overcome dragons. 
 
 Little Boy at the Well — The picture represents a 
 Chinese well, which is generally in the open court of the 
 house. The well-god, who is a little boy, has no image, 
 but his picture is put beside the well at the new year, 
 and a sacrifice in the form of a feast is made to him. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GODS OF TRADES. 
 
 '' I ^HE Chinese speak of the " three hundred and sixty 
 ■*- trades " as inckiding all their different trades, 
 professions, and business employments. Nearly every one 
 has its patron divinity, related to it as Jubal, " the father 
 of all such as handle the harp 
 and organ," or Tubal-Cain, " an 
 instructor of every artificer in 
 brass and iron," were to their re- 
 spective arts, but now worshipped 
 as the guiding spirit. 
 
 Carpenters' god. — Lu Pan 
 was "a famous mechanician of the 
 state of Lu, said to have been con- 
 temporary with Confucius. Won- 
 derful stories are related of his 
 ingenuity ; among others it is said that his father 
 having been put to death by the men of Wu, he carved 
 an effigy in wood of a genius, whose hand pointed in tlie 
 direction of Wu, where, in consequence, a drought pre- 
 vailed for the space of three years. On receiving su})- 
 plications and largess from the men of Wu, he cut off 
 the hand of the figure, when rain at once fell. He is 
 worshipped as the patron divinity of car[)enters." Ship 
 
 Carpenter's God 
 
334 ^^^^ Di'agoji, I mage ^ and Demon. 
 
 carpenters also worship him, as he was the first to build 
 a boat. 
 
 Masons' god. — His name is Chang Pan. He was a 
 bricklayer, but afterwards became an immortal. When 
 a house is built they have the two pictures of Lu Pan 
 and Chang Pan, and both the owner of the property 
 and the workmen offer a sacrificial feast and engage in 
 worship. These two gods are worshipped in every car- 
 penter's shop and in the guild halls. 
 
 Fishermen's god. — It is said that Kiang T'aikung 
 angled, with a straight hook (if it might be called a 
 '' hook "), and a grain of rice for bait, till he was eighty 
 years of age, when he became the premier. Fishermen 
 now worship him. 
 
 God of the Net. — Fuhhe is the god of the net ; he 
 watched the spider weave her web and obtained the idea 
 of catching fish, hares, and birds. As in the time of 
 Habakkuk, '* they sacrifice unto their net and burn incense 
 unto their drag." 
 
 Bacchus — Tu K'ang was one of the early distillers 
 of wine from rice, and is worshipped in the wineshops 
 and distilleries three times a year, when he is requested 
 to flavour the sarashu and preserve it from being injured. 
 His picture with the libation is burned in the court in 
 front of the hall, his face being turned to the west to 
 let him go to the Western Paradise. The devotees 
 " hang a sign-board on their faces," as after the sacrificial 
 feast their noses are " red apples " and their cheeks 
 " peach blossoms." 
 
 Drunkards worship Lee T'aipeh, who could drink three 
 hundred cups of alcohol at one sitting. 
 
Gods of Trades. 335 
 
 Etee is the "fabled inventor of wine. The EniixMor's 
 daughter commanded Etee to make wine, and it was good. 
 She gave it to the Emperor, who, when he Iiad tasted it, 
 pom-ed the hquid upon the ground, sent Etee into bani.vli- 
 ment, and forbade the knowledge of wine." 
 
 Bean-Curd god — Hwei Nanhwang is worshipped as 
 a paper god, three times a year in the bean-curd shops 
 and in the guild hall. He taught the people how to 
 make bean-curd, and so was a benefactor to his race. 
 Wang Lingan is also said to have first manufactured 
 bean-curd. 
 
 God of Barbers. — Loh Yuinshan taught m.en the art 
 of shaving and hair-cutting, and is now worshii)ped by 
 the army of barbers who shave the heads, scrape the 
 faces, plait the queues, clean the ears, wipe the eyelids, 
 and thump the backs of the black-haired race. 
 
 The Tailors' god. — Hien Yuen. Before his time 
 men wore raiment of fig leaves, and he first taught them 
 to wear clothing. 
 
 God of Silk — His name is See Lingsze, and he is 
 worshipped by the silk merchants and by silk and satin 
 weavers. Before his era men dressed in linen. 
 
 Goddess of Embrodiery — She was the third concu- 
 bine of Hien Yuen, and was skilled in needlework, so was 
 appointed goddess of the needle and of embroidery. Little 
 girls who take lessons in embroidery worship this goddess. 
 
 Ancestor of Jade. — The old women worship him on 
 the nineteenth of the second, seventh, and ninth moons. 
 They write their names on the tinfoil money, place it 
 before the idol and burn it, hoping at death they will get 
 it back. 
 
^^6 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 God of Musical Instruments. — Cha Yung. He is 
 worshipped by drum and violin shops. 
 
 Jugglers' god.— Named Keh Sienhung. He could 
 blow a grain of rice out of his mouth and it would turn 
 into thousands of bees. He would call them back and eat 
 them as rice. 
 
 God of the Paper Clothing Stores — The paper 
 clothing stores, which are regular furnishing establish- 
 ments for the dead, worship their patron divinity. 
 
 God of Architecture. — He is worshipped when a new- 
 house is built. He is probably the ''Yellow Emperor" 
 who "regulated costume, taught his people how to manu- 
 facture utensils of w^ood, pottery, and metal, constructed 
 a palace, which is by some held to have been the first 
 royal residence, and invented a medium of currency." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE ABSURDITIES OF POLYTHEISM. 
 
 IT is not intended by this heading that all the follies 
 of paganism are collected in this chapter, for this is 
 a book full of its absurdities. The conceits of the human 
 mind in its worship and service of the creature are 
 puerile and ridiculous. 
 
 Rain Clothes Dwarf. — His father died when he was 
 an infant, his mother wept herself blind, and he, the 
 son, a dwarf, became a servant. He dresses in shaggy 
 straw clothes, such as the farmers wear in the fields when 
 it rains, and has on his head an umbrella straw hat 
 (nyah mao). 
 
 The Monkey-god.— Before heaven and earth existed, 
 or Pankoo lived, there was the monkey. By taking in 
 the flashes of light from the sun and moon, his animal 
 spirits were made perfect, and at one t-omersault he 
 could travel one thousand miles. His peregrinations were 
 to the Heavenly Palace, the isles of the Immortals, and 
 down to Hades. He stole from the Western Kcyal 
 Mother the peach of immortality, defeated the generals 
 of heaven in battle, and stirred up a row in the palace 
 of the Pearly Emperor. At length he was captured by 
 Buddha and shut up within a hill, but was released by 
 the famous traveller Hieuntsang. 
 
\2,^ TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 God of Lice. — In case some reader may doubt 
 the authenticity of this narrative, it may be stated that 
 the temple of the god of lice is within three hundred 
 yards of the author's chapel. He was a famous general, 
 who commanded a besieged city, and was so busy day 
 and night that he could not change his raiment, and 
 consequently he was covered with '' grey-backs," which, 
 as the natives say, are generated by perspiration in 
 
 the pores of the skin ; these 
 swarms of little creatures gra- 
 dually " drank his blood," 
 acting as an enemy's sword 
 to the warrior. He was 
 canonized as the god of lice. 
 When our neighbours make a 
 raid on their bodily attend- 
 ants, they wrap them up in 
 paper and put them under 
 the censer, and the god whisks 
 them to the paradise of in- 
 sects. When one of the 
 lower classes is seen sitting 
 in the sunshine examining his clothes, and making a 
 hearty meal off the multitude of insects which he finds, 
 we do not wonder that the god of lice is worshipped 
 in this country. 
 
 Punch and Judy god.— As fond as the black-haired 
 race is of Punch and Judy, it is not surprising that the 
 large number who play with these wooden men and 
 women should desire a patron for their theatricals. His 
 name is Chen Ping, >Yh<? was the minister of Han 
 
 Lice-god, 
 
The Absurdities of Polytheism. 339 
 
 Kaotsu, and first used a wooden man at the siege of 
 Peh Ten. 
 
 God of Fire-crackers. — Named Leedien. In the 
 mountains of the west there is a giant devil over ten 
 feet high, at the sight of whom men grow faint. 
 Leedien found that the popping of fire-crackers woiihl 
 frighten him away, hence they are considered a pro- 
 tection from evil spirits, and are not so much intended 
 for boys to use in sport as for an article of heathen 
 worship. 
 
 God of Cruelty.— He was called "Two Worlds.'' 
 After death he was a monster of cruelty. Hankaotsu 
 appointed him the god of cruelty. 
 
 The Chinese sometimes go before the city god, and tell 
 him of any difficulty they have had with another, and ask 
 him to adjudicate it after death. 
 
 God of Revenge. — There is nothing so sweet to the 
 Chinese as revenge, and this stands in contrast with 
 many excellent national traits of character. The god of 
 revenge is 2, straw man. When a house lias been robbed, 
 or a man has a personal enemy, there is resort to witch- 
 craft. A straw image of the enemy or the thief is made, 
 and daily worshipped ; needles are stuck in the eyes, 
 blood is made to issue from the nose and ears, the arms 
 and body are pierced, and it is confidently believed that 
 this process will send pains, sickness, and probably death 
 on the object of hatred. The practice is univer.>^al in 
 China ; I have seen it in this city of Soochow, and recently 
 in Hongkong a man made an application to the courts 
 to bind over his adversary " to keep the p-ace '" and 
 not use witchcraft, as witnesses present proved that he 
 
340 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 had made a straw image and was worshipping it at his 
 home. 
 
 Manure of Goddess. — Tsze Kou was the concubine 
 of Mr. Lee ; incurring the animosity of the head wife she 
 was killed, and was appointed by the Ancient Original as 
 goddess of manure. She is much worshipped by the 
 manure hongs. 
 
 Goddess of Fornication. — It was told the king that 
 there was a female sprite, with a red skirt, dishevelled 
 hair, arms and feet bare, who, travelling as swift as the^ 
 wind, was corrupting public morals. She was shot through 
 with an arrow and her flesh became a mountain. She is 
 the goddess of lasciviousness ; she has no temple, image, 
 or picture, but in front of houses of ill fame courtesans 
 burn incense before the door and make prostrations in her 
 honour. 
 
 Goddess of the Corner. — It is customary for young 
 ladies to apply to this deity to have their fortunes told. 
 After burning incense they take a peck measure turned 
 upside down, with a flower on it ; this is for a sedan ; then 
 one inquires, " Is Miss Corner at home ? " Answer, " No." 
 "Is the second Miss Corner here?" '^ No." "Is little 
 Miss Corner present ? " " Yes." She takes her seat in 
 the peck measure and is carried to the table, on which 
 rice is spread as an offering. One bows and asks of the 
 oracle what her fortune is to be. The peck basket is 
 held over the rice, and the answer is written by a needle 
 attached to it. 
 
 God of Shadows — This divinity can cause a shadow 
 to turn in the opposite direction. 
 
 God of Gamblers In his hand he holds the dice. 
 
The AbsMj-dities of Polytheis7n. 341 
 
 His name is "Wang, the Pure." He was a celebrated 
 gambler, and lost S1,000,000 at the Faro Bank. After that 
 he did not gamble, but when he saw a friend reduced 
 to beggary by gaming, he took him to his home and 
 taught him the science. Wang, the Pure, is the 
 gambler's god. Unfortunately many trust in him and 
 pray to him. 
 
 Bad gods. — The majority of the deities in the Chinese 
 pantheon were originally good and great men, who 
 rendered important services to the State or were the 
 people's benefactors, and it is 
 easy to see how they might be- 
 come demigods in the estimation 
 of the nation. The inquirer, 
 however, meets with the startling 
 fact that not a few of their 
 divinities were the vilest men 
 w^ho have ever wielded power in 
 China. Why is this? The answer 
 is given, that it is well to offer Dice-ffod. 
 
 sacrifice to them and keep them 
 
 quiet, and resting in their own places in Hades, lest 
 they might return to earth and disturb its inhabitants — 
 much as if Israel had worshipped Jeroboam and Ahab upon 
 the high places. In many cases the people do not know 
 they were such bad characters. The god of war was a 
 man of blood. The character of the god of wealth was 
 not above reproach. The prison-god was noted for his 
 ferocity. When preaching the other day a man asked, 
 " How about the Five Holy Ones, who ride on their 
 horses over the hills outside the city at night ? " I 
 
342 TJie Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 replied, " I do not know anything about them except 
 they are such bad gods, the mandarins have frequently 
 destroyed their temples." The god of small-pox was 
 put in charge of the pesthouse, not as a compliment to 
 his amiability and virtue. Two striking illustrations will 
 be given. 
 
 The Emperor Show. — He occupies a high rank in 
 the pantheon, though not worshipped by the people. " He 
 
 General Kiang. 
 
 was the abandoned tyrant whose downfall brought the 
 dynasty of Shang to a close, B.C. 1123. Wild extrava- 
 gance, unbridled lust, and the most ferocious cruelty are 
 enumerated among his vices. To please his infamous 
 concubine he constructed vast palaces and pleasure 
 grounds where wild forms of debauchery were practised. 
 According to the legends, he formed a lake of wine, 
 caused the trees to be hung with viands, and set men 
 and women, unrobed, to chase each other before his 
 
The Absurdities of PolytJicisui. 343 
 
 eyes. The category of his ofifences against Heaven is 
 summed up in the ' Great Declaration.' " The Emperor 
 Show figures extensively in the ''Book of appointing 
 gods." 
 
 Kiang T'aikung. — He was said to have been born \\x\ 
 1210, and died B.C. 1120. He is the most celebrated clia- 
 racter in the "Book of appointing gods;" a distinguished 
 
 Worshipping the Stone Lion. 
 
 warrior, and a counsellor to the Chief of the West, '' he 
 wielded a valiant sword and slaughtered his enemies ; he 
 was, however, as magnanimous as he was brave, for he 
 immediately made the foe weltering in his blood a god. 
 Tn this way he is the god of Chinese gods. The acconnt 
 of his earthly exploits and heavenly deeds is perhai)s the 
 greatest book of marvels ever printed. His picture is 
 
344 ^/^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 pasted on the walls of houses, so that if an inauspicious 
 word is spoken it will be powerless to injure the occupants. 
 He is the pivot of Chinese mythology, and around him 
 the celestial hosts revolve. 
 
 The Stone Lion. — In front of every official Yamen 
 there are a pair of stone lions, who guard, as Cerberus, 
 the courts of justice. It is believed that at night they 
 are living lions, and are seen roaming around, so those 
 who live near the Grovernor's residence in Soochow worship 
 these four-footed creatures. 
 
 On the " Absurdities of Polytheism " see Chapters IX., 
 page 129 ; XIV., pages 258, 265, 2m, and 270 ; XIX., 
 page 323 ; XX., page 336. 
 
CHAPTER XXir. 
 
 TAOIST PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Laotsze. — The founder of Taoism as a philosophy, 
 not as a religion, was born probably B.C. 604, in the 
 province of Honan. The details of his life are quite 
 meagre, and in this respect the first Taoist stands in 
 striking contrast with Confucius and Buddha, about whom 
 so much is known, for there are only a few historical 
 morsels, and of the legends several are so evidently 
 Buddhistic that it is not worth while to recount them. 
 It is said that the period of gestation was over threescore 
 and ten years, so the young babe had " the hoary head as 
 a crown of glory " and his face was wrinkled like an aged 
 man bowed down with years. His official title is "The 
 Grreat Supreme Venerable Prince ; " his name is Laotsze, 
 which means, literally, " Old Boy ; " or, judging from 
 some things that are said about him, the " Wild-Western " 
 appellation of " Old Coon " is not inappropriate. '' He 
 was appointed librarian by the Emperor, and diligently 
 applied himself to the study of the ancient books, 
 becoming acquainted with all the rites and histories of 
 former times." He became famous as a teacher of i)hil(>- 
 sophy, had a goodly number of students, retired from the 
 haunts of men, and devoted himself to speculation. His 
 
34^ ^/^^ i^i^(igon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 followers now speak of his pre-existence, of his deitication, 
 and of his " travelling to the West to learn their doctrines, 
 which he embodied in his work ; " his position as the third 
 person in the Taoist trinity and the creator is alluded to 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 It is on record that the young teacher, Confucius, B.C. 
 517, sought an interview with the aged man. Laotsze 
 
 Laotsze. 
 
 said to him, " Those whom you talk about are dead, 
 and their bones are mouldered to dust, — only their 
 words are left. Moreover, when the superior man gets 
 his time he mounts aloft ; but, when the time is 
 against him, he moves as if his feet were entangled. I 
 have heard that a good merchant, though he has rich 
 treasures deeply stored, appears as if he were poor, and 
 that the superior man, though his virtue is complete, is 
 
Taoist PJiilosophy. 347 
 
 yet to outward seeming stupid. Put away your proud 
 air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild 
 will. These are of no advantage to you ; — this is all 
 I have to tell you." The youtliful sage said to the 
 venerable philosopher that he had sought for the Tao for 
 twenty years. He replied, "If the Tao could be offered 
 to men, there is no one who would not willingly offer it 
 to his prince ; if it could be presented to men, everybody 
 would like to present it to his parents ; if it could be 
 announced to men, each man would gladly announce it to 
 his brothers; if it could be handed down to men, who 
 would not wish to transmit it to his children ? ^Vhy, 
 then, can you not obtain it ? This is the reason. You 
 are incapable of giving it an asylum in your heart.*' 
 Confucius, thirty-five years old, did not seem to relish the 
 blunt, or, rather, pointed remarks of old Diogenes, now 
 near ninety. He remarked to his disciples, '' I know 
 how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run. But the 
 runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer 
 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 Laotsze, and can 
 only compare him to the dragon." 
 
 The Lonely Picture — Laotsze says of himself, " The 
 world is joyful and merry as on a day of sacrifice. I 
 alone prefer solitude and quiet, and prefer not to pry into 
 futurity. I am like an infant ere it has grown to be a 
 child; listlessly I roam hither and thither, as though I 
 had no home to go to. . . . Have I therefore the heart 
 of a fool? Confused and dim, while the vulgar are 
 enlightened, I alone am in the dark. Tossed to and fro. 
 
34^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 like the sea ; roaming without cessation. ... I alone am 
 doltish as a clown." 
 
 " My words are easy to understand, easy to put in 
 practice; yet the world can neither understand nor 
 practise them. ... It is only ignorance that causes 
 men not to understand my doctrine. Those who under- 
 stand me are few." 
 
 Tao Teh King. — So thoroughly Confucian is the 
 scholarship of China, that the philosophical literature of 
 Taoism is comparatively limited ; the largest collection 
 of translations yet made is a volume of one hundred 
 pages. The great work of Laotsze is the Tao Teh King or 
 " Canons of Wisdom and Virtue," which consists of 5,000 
 words, or about twice the length of the Sermon on the 
 Mount. It is a very brief discussion ; the style is 
 " meagre and laconic ; " much of it is puzzling and 
 obscure, and not a little is puerile and misanthropic. 
 It is, however, the work of a master mind, and most of it, 
 as is seen in the extracts given, places its author in the 
 ranks of great and good men. A New England writer, 
 to whose view " distance lends enchantment," speaks of 
 it thus : " Nothing like this exists in Chinese literature ; 
 nothing, so far as yet known, so lofty, so vital, so restful 
 at the roots of strength ; in structure as wonderful as 
 in spirit ; the fixed syllabic characters, formed for visible 
 and definite meaning, here compacted into terse 
 aphorisms of a mystical and universal wisdom, so subtly 
 translated out of their ordinary spheres to meet a 
 demand for spiritual expression, that it is confessedly 
 almost impossible to render them with certainty into 
 another tongue. ... It is a book of wonderful ethical 
 
Taoist Philosophy, 34Q 
 
 and spiritual simplicity, and deals neither in speculutive 
 cosmogony nor in popular superstitions. It is in practical 
 earnest, and speaks from the heart to the heart." 
 
 The Tao.— The keynote of the Tao Teh King is Tao, 
 which is the text upon which the ancient preacher dis- 
 courses, and the term from which Taoism comes. It 
 is used in the first chapter of John to translate the 
 Logos; it is often rendered "reason;" it sometimes 
 means the " way ; " the word " method " is not a bad 
 version, but perhaps the best yet given is that by the 
 author of " Taoist Texts," where he renders Tao by 
 "Nature," or "The Principle of Nature," and this 
 translation seems to throw fresh light upon the work, and 
 certainly is a key that unlocks many of the paragrajjlis. 
 
 It is modestly suggested that in many cases Tao mii^ht 
 be translated " wisdom," and let the reader put the 
 description of Tao and the eighth chapter of Proverbs 
 in parallel columns, and he will be struck by the simi- 
 larity. In the one case we have Solomon, also an Asiatic, 
 and living three hundred years before the other, with 
 his pen guided by Divine inspiration, describing the 
 Hhohnah as " from everlasting, from the beginning 
 or ever the earth was" — but not in such life-like terms 
 as the "beloved disciple" spoke of the Logos, for he 
 had seen the " Word made flesh," and beheld Him " full 
 of grace and truth " — and on the other hand the pngaii 
 philosopher, whose far-seeing mind was striving, as it 
 were, to clothe a vague conception in the habiliments of 
 immortality. 
 
 What does Laotsze say in different passages of the 
 
350 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 " Its name may be named, but it is not an ordinary 
 name. Its nameless period preceded the birth of the 
 Universe. Having a name it is the mother of all things. 
 The Tao is full, yet in operation as though not self- 
 elated. In its origin it is, as it were, the ancestor of all 
 things. I know not whose offspring it is. Its form 
 existed before God was. It is mysterious, recondite, and 
 penetrating. Pellucid as a spreading ocean, it yet has the 
 semblance of permanence. There was something formed 
 from chaos which came into being before Heaven and 
 earth. Silent and boundless it stands alone, and never 
 changes. It pervades every place, and may be called the 
 mother of the universe, I know not its name ; but its 
 designation is Tao. Heaven is Too, and Tao survives the 
 death of him who is the embodiment of it, living on 
 unharmed for ever. The Tao of Heaven never strives, 
 yet excels in victory. The Tao of Heaven resembles a 
 drawn bow. It brings down the high and exalts the 
 lowly ; it takes from those who have superfluity and gives 
 to those who have not enough. The Grreat Tao is all- 
 pervasive ; it may be seen on the right and on the left. 
 All things depend upon it and are produced ; it denies 
 itself to none. With tenderness it nourishes all things, 
 yet claims no lordship over them." 
 
 Again the utterances of the " old moralist and mystic " 
 are misty ; " Tao, considered as an entity, is obscure and 
 vague. Vague and obscure ! yet within it there is Form. 
 Obscure and vague ! yet within it there is substance. 
 Vacuous and unfathomable ! yet within it there is 
 Quintessential Energy." 
 
 The philosopher Huai Nantsze thus describes Tao: 
 
Taoist Philosophy. 351 
 
 " Tao is that which covers Heaven and supports Eartli ; 
 its height cannot be measured nor its depth fathomed ; 
 it enfolds the Universe in its embrace." " The Tao 
 reaches upwards to Heaven and touches the Earth 
 beneath ; it holds together the Universe and the Ages, and 
 supplies the Three Luminaries with light." '• It is by Tao 
 that mountains are high and abysses deep ; that beasts 
 walk and birds fly; that the sun and moon are bright and 
 the stars revolve in their courses; that the unicorn roams 
 abroad and the phoenix hovers in the air." " Tao is the 
 beginning and end of the visible creation." " Tao^ in its 
 sublimest aspect, does not regard itself as the author of 
 Creation, or as the power which completes, transforms, 
 and gives all things their shape." " All-pervading and 
 everywhere revolving, Tao yet cannot be sought out ; 
 subtle and impalpable, it yet cannot be overlooked; if it 
 be piled up it will not be high ; if it be added to it will 
 not increase ; if it be deducted from, it will not be 
 diminished. Shadowy and indistinct ! it has no form. 
 Indistinct and shadowy ! its resources have no limit. 
 Hidden and obscure ! it reinforces all things out of 
 formlessness. Penetrating and permeating everywhere ! 
 it never acts in vain." " Utterly non-existent, Tao is yet 
 ever ready to respond to those who seek it." 
 
 The Canons of Wisdom and Virtue — A few 
 extracts from the '' Canons of Wisdom and Virtue " 
 is all that the limits of this chapter will permit, — speci- 
 mens of the best sayings in the book. 
 
 1. The Sage. — " The Sage's heart is not immutable ; he 
 regards the people's heart as his own. The virtue of the 
 sage makes others virtuous." "The sage never departs 
 
352 Ihe Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 from either calmness or gravity. Although there may 
 be spectacles of worldly glory, he sits quietly alone, 
 far above the common crowd." 
 
 2. Purity. — " By controlling the vital force and 
 bringing it to the utmost degree of pliancy, one is able 
 to become as a little child again. By washing and 
 cleansing oneself of that which Heaven alone can see [i.e., 
 secret sins], one may become without one blemish." 
 
 3. Humility. — " It is better to desist altogether, than 
 having once grasped [wisdom] to pride oneself on one's 
 self-sufficiency." " To keep oneself in the background 
 when merit has been achieved and fame has followed in 
 its wake, this is the way of Heaven." " The sage does 
 not say that he himself can see, and therefore he is 
 perspicacious. He does not say that he himself is right, 
 and therefore he is manifested to all. He does not praise 
 himself, and therefore his merit is recognized. He is not 
 self-conceited, and therefore he increases [in knowledge]." 
 " He who says himself that he can see is not enlightened. 
 He that praises himself has no merit. He who is self- 
 conceited will not increase [in knowledge]." 
 
 4. The Three Precious Things. — Compassion, frugality, 
 and modesty. " I prize compassion ; therefore I am able 
 to be fearless. I prize frugality ; therefore I am able to 
 be liberal. I prize modesty ; therefore I am able to 
 become a leader of men." '' Now when one is com- 
 passionate in battle, he will be victorious. When one is 
 compassionate in defending, his defences will be strong. 
 When Heaven intends to deliver men, it employs com- 
 passion to deliver them." 
 
 5. Good for Evil. — The brightest literary gem of the 
 
Taoist Philosophy. 353 
 
 old philosopher is when he says of the ideal vuni, '^ lie 
 recompenses injury with kindness." To return love for 
 hatred is the crowning glory of Christianity, and when 
 a sage, with only the light of heaven for a guide, utters 
 such an exalted sentiment, we must assign him a high 
 position in the temple of worthies. 
 
 23 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 TAOISM AS A RELIGION. 
 
 rr^HE philosopher Laotsze had not the slightest inten- 
 -*- tion of founding a religious sect or of establishing 
 a church : his was a school of philosophy, and his followers 
 were simply students who sat at his feet and accepted his 
 system of doctrine. Most religions spring into existence 
 created by the genius of some giant leader, but Taoism 
 was the growth of one thousand years, and in its gradual 
 evolution bears a striking analogy to Rome. Future 
 researches must reveal the rise and progress of this 
 mighty system ; how a band of scholars became adepts 
 in metallurgy, and by degrees were developed into a 
 priestly craft. Ancient China was obscured by countless 
 wild beliefs, which like scattering clouds overshadowed 
 the land ; these, Taoism gathered together, embraced 
 them in her bosom, and thus became a congeries oi 
 superstitions. The " priests pander in every possible way 
 to the superstitions of the people, and creeping into their 
 houses ' lead captive silly women.' " " Its mission is not 
 to root out deadly errors or to proclaim precious truths." 
 
 Plagiarism. — Taoism is more purely native than 
 Buddhism, and is an attempt to adapt the Indian religion 
 
laoisni as a Religion. 355 
 
 to Chinese civilisation. As the visitor comes to the 
 gate of a Taoist temple he sees two instead of the 
 four guardians ; in the great hall they have their trinity, 
 the " Three Pure Ones ; " they speak of the " Three 
 Precious Ones," "reason, the priesthood, and the classics;" 
 and the Pearly Emperor is in many respects an ape of 
 Shaky amuni. The sacred books show to what an extent 
 Taoism has plagiarised. The sutras in form, in matter, 
 in style, in the incidents, in the narrative, in the invoca- 
 tions, in the prayers, leaving out the Sanscrit, are almost 
 exact copies of the Buddhist prayer-books. This goes 
 to prove the power of Buddhism, and also that Taoism 
 did not exchange the philosopher's gown for the priest's 
 robe till after it counterfeited the Indian coin. 
 
 Alchemy — The ancient Taoists " sought to transmute 
 the baser metals into gold and silver, and to discover 
 the elixir of immortality." Their writings abound in 
 allusions to " spiritual medicine," " pearly food," and 
 " fountains of nectar." According to the recipe they 
 take several hundred ounces of gold or silver, with red 
 colouring matter, lead and mercury, put them in a crucible 
 with steady fire, and on the forty-ninth day they will 
 amalgamate ; then dipping with a ladle and rolling 
 around in a waiter, it rolls into pills. In the time of 
 poverty one of these pills put into lead or mercury will 
 transmute the whole into gold or silver, but after 500 
 years it loses its virtue, and all who hold the spurious 
 coin will '' eat bitterness." 
 
 There is another kind called the "gold elixir," a 
 mixture of stone and metals, the extract to be eaten dry 
 and hot. Some of the emperors of the Han dynasty. 
 
35^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 being desirous of immortality, ate too much, had 
 carbuncles, and were buried in the Imperial tombs. 
 
 To become an Immortal — Instead of the Western 
 Paradise of the Buddhist, Taoism offers immortality to 
 its followers. They call it the nay tan, or internal 
 elixir, and in its formation use the "three precious 
 things " in the body of a man — the fecundating fluid, 
 the breath, and the saliva ; the first to be drawn upward, 
 the second to be inhaled more than exhaled, and the 
 third to be swallowed. The first unites with the breath, 
 the breath unites with the saliva, and these three form 
 an invisible boy in the body of a man. This immaterial 
 child grows larger and larger, and may go out of the 
 body and return again to its home, but it needs to be 
 protected, as it is liable to be devoured by devils and 
 hobgoblins. When the young spiritual Chinaman be- 
 comes as large as the man's body, it can tarry on the 
 earth or depart to the better land at pleasure ; if the 
 latter, it goes like the cicada, leaving its shell, and is a 
 heavenly immortal ; if it wishes to remain in the world, 
 it becomes one of the earth genii and lives for ever. 
 
 The Great Extreme.— One of the most familiar 
 objects seen everywhere in picture and engraving is 
 the Great Monad, the " ovum mundi." The philosopher 
 Choofootsze thus speaks of it : " The great extreme is 
 merely the immaterial principle ; it is found in the male 
 and female principles of nature, in the five elements, in 
 all things. . . . From the time the great extreme came 
 into operation, all things were produced by transforma- 
 tion. . . . The great extreme has neither residence, nor 
 form, nor place, which vou can assign to it. If you 
 
Taoism as a Religion. 357 
 
 speak of it before its development, then previous to 
 that emanation it was perfect stillness ; motion and rest, 
 with the male and female principles of nature, are only 
 the descent and embodiment of this principle. ... It 
 is the immaterial principle of the two powers, the four 
 forms, and eight changes of nature ; we cannot say that 
 it does not exist, and yet no form or corporeity can be 
 ascribed to it. . . . It produced one male and one female 
 principle of nature, which are called the dual powers. 
 But from the time of Con- 
 fucius, no one has been able 
 to get hold of this idea " — 
 and, it might be added, no 
 one ever will. This simple 
 cut presents Chinese cos- 
 mogony in a nutshell. 
 
 The great monad is di- 
 vided into the dark and 
 
 liffht, with a white eve in 
 
 ^ ' - The Great Monad. 
 
 the dark, and a black eye in 
 
 the light. These white and black spots show there is a 
 
 male germ in the female principle, and a female germ in 
 
 the male principle. Heaven and earth, the sun and moon, 
 
 light and darkness, hard and soft, are used as illustrations of 
 
 these inverse powers. This dualistic principle, the male 
 
 and female principles of nature, by which all things are 
 
 produced, forms the basis of Chinese philosophy, science, 
 
 and religion ; it is the warp and woof of Chinese thought, 
 
 teaching, and literature. Let us see its application to 
 
 polytheism. 
 
 Yin and Yang — Yang is the male and Yin the female 
 
35? The Dragon, Image , and Demon, 
 
 principle of nature. This world is Yang^ and Hades Yin. 
 Nothing more fully shows the materialistic views of the 
 Chinese than their arrangement of the invisible world; 
 the world of spirits is an exact counterpart of the Chinese 
 Empire, or, as has been remarked, it is " China ploughed 
 under ; " this is the world of light, put out the lights and 
 you have Tartarus. China has eighteen provinces, so has 
 Hades ; each province has eight or nine prefects, or 
 departments ; so each province in Hades has eight or nine 
 departments ; every prefect or department averages ten 
 counties, so every department in Hades has ten counties. 
 In Soochow the Governor, the provincial Treasurer, the 
 Criminal Judge, the Imperial Tailor, the Prefect or 
 Departmental Governor, and the three District Magistrates 
 or County Governors, each have temples, with their 
 apotheoses in the other world. Not only these, but every 
 Yamen, secretary, runner, executioner, policeman, and 
 constable has his counterpart in the land of darkness. The 
 market-towns have also mandarins of lesser rank in charge, 
 besides a host of revenue collectors, the bureau of govern- 
 ment works and other departments, with several hundred 
 thousand officials, who all rank as gods beyond the grave. 
 These deities are civilians ; the military having a similar 
 gradation for the armies of Hades, whose captains are 
 gods, and whose battalions are devils. 
 
 " The framers of this wonderful scheme for the spirits 
 of the dead, having no higher standard, transferred to the 
 authorities of that world the etiquette, tastes, and venality 
 of their correlate officials in the Chinese government, 
 thus making it necessary to use similar means to appease 
 the one which are found necessary to move the other. 
 
Taois7n as a Religion. 359 
 
 AH the State gods have their assistants, attendants, door- 
 keepers, runners, horses, horsemen, detectives, and 
 executioners, corresponding in every particular to those 
 of Chinese officials of the same rank." 
 
 It will not do for the governor of the province to 
 worship the god of the prefect or department, for the 
 governor ranks higher than the god, so at the new and 
 full moon he only worships the governor of Hades. Also 
 the prefect cannot worship the city god of the county- 
 seat, for he is a greater man than this god. The governors 
 in Hades rule over the prefects, who control the county 
 governors, by whom the precinct deities are ruled ; these 
 are all gods, w^orshipped in the same way, but one god 
 differs from another god in glory. Except the few Indian 
 deities, all the gods are Chinamen. 
 
 The Manichaeans. — The doctrine of the dual principle 
 of nature is Asiatic, and we do not know whether the 
 Chinese obtained it from the Persians or vice, versa. It 
 troubled the ancient Church. According to Mosheim, 
 " Manes, educated among the ]Magi and himself one of 
 that number, instructed in all those arts and sciences 
 which the Persians and the neighbouring nations held 
 in the highest esteem, was so adventurous as to attempt 
 an amalgamation of the doctrine of the ]Magi with the 
 Christian system. . . . He taught, " There are two princi- 
 ples from which all things proceed : the one is a most 
 pure and subtile matter, called Light ; and the other a 
 gross and corrupt substance, called Darkness. Both are 
 subject to the dominion of a superintending being, whose 
 existence is from all eternity. . . . These two beings 
 have produced an immense multitude of creatures, re- 
 
360 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 sembling themselves, and distributed them through their 
 respective provinces. The prince of darkness knew not, 
 for a long series of ages, that light existed in the 
 universe; and he no sooner perceived it, by the means 
 of a war that was kindled in his dominions, than he 
 bent his endeavours toward the subjection of it to his 
 empire. The ruler of the light opposed to his efforts an 
 army. . . . The prince of darkness, after his defeat, 
 produced the first parents of the human race. The beings 
 engendered from this original stock consist of a body 
 formed out of the corrupt matter of the kingdom of 
 darkness, and of two soids^ one of which is sensuous and 
 lustful . . . the other rational and immortal, a particle 
 of that divine light w^hich was carried away by the army 
 of darkness, and immersed into the mass of malignant 
 matter. Mankind being thus formed by the prince of 
 darkness, and those minds which were the productions of 
 the eternal light being united to their mortal bodies, 
 God created the earth out of the corrupt mass of 
 matter." 
 
 The Manichseans held to transmigration : " Those 
 souls who have neglected the salutary work of their 
 purification pass, after death, into the bodies of animals, 
 or other natures, where they remain until they have 
 expiated their guilt and accomplished their probation." 
 
 Rotation. — Chinese mandarins rotate in office, generally 
 every three years, and then there is a corresponding change 
 in Hades. The image in the temple remains the same, 
 but the spirit which dwells in the clay tabernacle changes, 
 so the idol has a different name, birthday, and tenant. 
 The priests are informed by the Great Wizard of the 
 
Taoism as a Religion. 361 
 
 Dragon Tiger Mountain, but how can the people know 
 gods which are not the same to-day as yesterday ? 
 
 The gods have Sin — Men have sins, and why should 
 not the gods ? The mandarins lose their official buttons 
 when any disturbance occurs within their territory, so if 
 the gods do not direct aright the affairs of the upper world 
 they deserve removal from authority. It is the right of 
 some of the chief priests of Taoism to judge the gods, 
 and to pass sentence when they permit calamities or 
 pestilence to visit their terrestrial domains. 
 
 The gods may marry. — An old lady who was known 
 to be a pious devotee died some years ago in Soochow, 
 and her friends thought it would be very appropriate for 
 her to be a goddess. The priests kindly consented to act 
 as go-betweens, and by their ability to communicate with 
 the other world they found out that the god of diarrhoea 
 wanted a bride. The old lady had been coffined and her 
 remains placed in the tomb, but by means of paper 
 figures, and a paper bridal chair, the ceremonies were 
 conducted just as if she were '' sweet sixteen," the priests 
 receiving the usual clergyman's fee. 
 
 Promotion. — Chinese mandarins are promoted for 
 distinguished services, and have new buttons given to 
 them ; so the gods may rise from an humble position to 
 one near the Pearly Emperor, who gives them the 
 reward of merit for ruling well the affairs of men. 
 " The correlate deities of the mandarins are only of equal 
 rank, yet the fact that they have been apotheosized 
 makes them their superiors and fit objects of worship." 
 
 The gods of State. — These are all distinguished states- 
 men or warriors. The people say, " How can the Emperor 
 
362 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 obtain faithful ministers unless they have the hope of 
 promotion after death ? " The practical objection to the 
 unity of Jehovah is that " He has not time to attend to 
 minor affairs," and so must be assisted by a host of the 
 dei minores. No high mandarin of renown, or member 
 of the royal family, even if it be a prince who has not 
 attained his majority, dies without receiving office in 
 the spirit world. Of this great host of worthies, number- 
 ing ten thousand times ten thousand, and who are the 
 tutelary divinities of certain localities, no notice can be 
 taken in this work. The gods of each city must be the 
 special study of the resident missionary. The State gods 
 are continually increasing, for as the graves of earth are 
 filling so are the palaces of the gods, yet the number 
 decreases, for many gods " have their day ; " they rise, 
 flourish, and fade away, " neither have they any more a 
 reward, for the memory of them is forgotten." 
 
 Appointing gods. — This rests nominally with the 
 "Ancient Original," the central and highest of the " Three 
 Pure Ones," but as that is indefinite, the nomination is 
 made by the Emperor through Chang, the Heavenly 
 Teacher, who is the Oreat Wizard, and whose duty it is 
 to furnish the credentials and assign a temple ; pro- 
 fessedly the appointment is made by the chief of the 
 " Three Pure Ones," but actually by the Emperor and 
 Pope Chang. There is a Yin and a Ycmg appointment, 
 so that the god may receive the sacrifices of a certain 
 section of Chinese territory. In popular parlance the 
 Emperor appoints the gods, which is the fact, as the 
 other is a mere sham ! From ancient times, " wherever 
 popular sentiment seemed to indicate, a new god was 
 
Taoism as a Religion. 363 
 
 provided, either by the deification of a hero, or the per- 
 sonification of a principle." It will be noted that there 
 is only a short step from a great man to a little god ; 
 the difference being almost as imperceptible as it is in 
 North China between a large donkey and a small mule. 
 The canonisation is wholesale. 
 
 What a claim for the Emperor of the Celestials ! Not 
 only that he is the sovereign of four hundred millions, 
 but that he is king of the gods ; yea, they are constituted 
 by him and derive their power from him. As of Moab 
 it may be said, " We have heard the pride of China (he 
 is exceeding proud), his loftiness and his arrogancy and 
 his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart." 
 
 The Three Periods — In Chinese mythology there 
 are three periods when gods were appointed by the ship- 
 load. The first was in the time of the ancient Emperor, 
 Hien Yuen, whom Confucius did not regard as an his- 
 torical individual. The second, the twelfth century B.C., 
 in the time of Kiang T'aikung, who deified the heroes 
 that fell by his sword. The third, the fourteenth 
 century A.D., when the first Emperor of the Ming 
 dynasty appointed a multitude of city gods, and thus 
 expanded the india-rubber system. Thus ''an ideal 
 universe has been peopled with a race of ideal gods." 
 
 The Thirteen Boards. — The English language fails 
 in furnishing a nomenclature for the Chinese Pantheon. 
 This polytheistic people, not satisfied with having one 
 god for every separate thing, have devised a system by 
 which there are several gods ruling in the same sphere, 
 whose special powers and duties it is impossible for a 
 foreigner to distinguish or separate. In Peking there 
 
364 The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 are the six boards of the government ; in Heaven the 
 Taoists have made the number thirteen. 1, Board of 
 Thunder ; 2, Board of Fire ; 3, Board of Riches ; 4, 
 Board of Pestilence ; 5, Board of Small-pox ; 6, Board of 
 the Pole Star ; 7, Board of the North and South Stars ; 
 8, Board of all Stars ; 9, Board of all gods ; 10, Board of 
 Age; 11, Board of the Malignant Stars in Heaven; 12, 
 Board of the Malignant Stars on Earth; 13, Board of the 
 Tsu-su P'usa. 
 
 The Taoist Creation. — " As Shakyamuni Buddha was 
 the first Buddhist image to be worshipped, so it will 
 appear that Laotsze's image was the first Taoist idol." 
 What were the creative acts of Laotsze ? The Taoists say, 
 " At one afflatus he transformed ' The Three Pure Ones.' " 
 Laotsze, the third person in the trinity, " Created the 
 Ancient Original and the Spiritual Precious." Laotsze, 
 preaching to the " assembly of the gods," said, " Before 
 chaos I created all things ; I begat heaven and earth, 
 and I carried the female principle on my back and the 
 male principle in my arms. The male air went up and 
 begat heaven, and the female air descended and begat 
 earth. The remainder " of the male air was changed into 
 man, and the remainder of the female air was changed 
 into woman. The two kinds of air by their own power 
 changed into all things." 
 
 In other books the creation of man is ascribed to the 
 Eastern Emperor Kung and the Western Royal Mother. 
 At the dividing of heaven and earth there came first the 
 Primary Man from beyond the heavens, and seeing on 
 earth that there were no men, from his hand went forth 
 five thunderbolts summoning the deities of the five 
 
Taoism as a Religion, 365 
 
 regions. Earth, Wood, Fire, and Water came, and last of 
 all the Golden Mother riding on a fire-coloured cloud, who 
 told him she was asleep in a cloud when she heard his 
 thunder summons. The Primary Man said to the Golden 
 Mother and Duke Wood, " You two represent the male 
 and female principles ; on earth there are no men ; you 
 create." He gave them a heavenly furnace ; the Golden 
 Mother took a ball of clay and put it into the furnace ; 
 Duke Wood used dragon thunder, and fanned the flame 
 for seven days ; then cracked open the ball, and from it a 
 boy and girl leaped forth, and at one breath of the wind 
 they in an instant became a man and a woman, and so 
 men were created upon the earth. 
 
 Variety Temples.— The name of a temple is not 
 always an indication of the god which is there worshipped, 
 for the priests add one image after another, and one 
 shrine after another so that they may accommodate any 
 worshipper, — as the sign to a country store, " Dry goods, 
 groceries, boots, shoes, drugs, clothing, crockery, harness, 
 and general merchandise.'' Sometimes in one temple 
 there are the Buddhas, the goddess of Mercy, the Three 
 Mandarins, Amita, the Coming Buddha, the Bushel 
 Mother, the Snake-god, the gods of Fire and Thunder, 
 the god of Hades ; in all, twenty or thirty divinities. 
 
 To Escape the Metempsychosis. — In the city 
 temples there is a room full of the tablets of those who 
 for a series of years served in the procession of the god. 
 At the death of one of them a feast is given by his son to 
 the priests, his tablet is presented before the god, the 
 attendants give three whoops, and the spirit-tablet is 
 whisked into the room. The deceased thus becomes a 
 
366 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Yamen runner to the god in the other world, and is 
 excused from transmigration. 
 
 Religious Services for the Living — The Tang tsiao 
 are religious services performed for the dead, as the " All 
 Souls' festival," but more frequently for the living, the 
 form and style of the worship being much the same in 
 both cases. Often it is the " great peace service ; " a 
 number of country villages will send up deputies to join 
 with the priests in solemn worship during several days, to 
 secure tranquillity and abundant harvests, the expenses 
 being defrayed by subscription. Again, it will be a 
 sacrifice to the god of thunder, to protect the waving 
 fields of grain, in which the bakers and restaurant cooks 
 unite. Most frequently it is to the god of fire, the con- 
 stable of the ward seeing to the worship, and sticking up 
 the two characters tsai hja on the doors of contributors ; 
 after a conflagration, those who have escaped the devour- 
 ing element join in a " protecting peace service." 
 Families often have a private service with a couple of 
 abbots, and seven or nine priests ; in the day they burn 
 charms to invite the gods to be present, and at night the 
 souls of the priests are said to behold Shangte. 
 
 The Fairy Crane. — This paper crane is used at 
 funerals, images of it being carried in front of a proces- 
 sion of priests, with the abbot in a chair, and when burnt 
 it is supposed that the departed soul rides to Heaven on 
 the back of the winged messenger. 
 
 The fairy crane is also used in services for the 
 living, when it is placed on a table and carried before 
 the image of the Pearly Emperor ; the " bill of for- 
 giveness " is read by the priests, then both the cranes 
 
CD 
 
368 The Dragon, linage, and Demon. 
 
 and the document are burned, and it is supposed that 
 the crane flies to the skies with the written proof that 
 the man's sins are all forgiven. 
 
 Sale of Indulgences. — The Taoists have ''bills of 
 forgiveness " already printed, which are sold at their 
 " great peace services ; " the abbot reads, burns, and pro- 
 nounces absolution of all past guilt. 
 
 Forgiveness Hair-pin.— Old women wear a " forgive- 
 ness hair-pin," which is made on " forgiveness-day ; " this 
 " forgiveness-day " is only one day in the year, and is 
 indicated by the almanac. 
 
 Worshipping Heaven — This is one of the Taoist 
 services {tang tsiao) for the living. A large feast with a 
 variety of fruits and cakes is prepared ; also two hundred 
 copper cash, and pictures of the Buddhas of the Three 
 Ages and the thirty-six ministers of Heaven ; the priests 
 read the " bills of forgiveness," the feast is given to the 
 children, and the cash hung as charms around their necks. 
 
 Bribery in Worship.— Bribery is an integral part of 
 the government of China ; in the appointment of man- 
 darins, in the distribution of offices, and in the halls of 
 justice, money is the ruling power. It would be impos- 
 sible for materialistic pagans to have any other view of 
 the world to come than that the gods are venal. The 
 money sent to dead friends is to enable them to obtain 
 favours from the Yamen runners of Hades. A striking 
 instance is w^hen large quantities of paper sycee are sent 
 through the provincial treasurer in the temple to the 
 Pearly Emperor, the donor hoping for a quantity of silver 
 to be given in return, just as gold is given to the Emperor 
 (or to the boards) in order to obtain office. 
 
Taoism as a Religion, 369 
 
 Dreams — The Chinese, like all other superstitious 
 races, believe in dreams. For example, to dream that 
 a person is dead is a sure sign that he has either left 
 the world or soon will depart. In dreams they consider 
 that the soul goes out on a nightly ramble, even to a 
 foreign land, and sees and hears what seems so plain. 
 The black-haired race locate knowledge and the faculties 
 of thought in the large central part of the body, but with 
 a marked inconsistency all their pictures of dreams 
 represent the vision as entering the top of the head. In 
 ancient times answers to dreams were sought by divina- 
 tion ; now they " pray for a dream," as it is said at 
 Hangchow — in a temple in honour of General Yii of the 
 Ming dynasty — a man goes to the temple, sleeps all 
 night, and asks for a vision to be given him. 
 
 There is a proverb, 
 
 " As the thoughts of daylight, 
 So are the dreams of night." 
 
 Tree of the Rewards of Good and Evil In the 
 
 city of Fungtu there is a precious tree. Just before the 
 return of the soul to this earth three bows and three 
 arrows are placed in its hands. If the soul shoots the 
 eastern branches of the tree the man will be a Minister 
 of State or great mandarin ; if the southern branches, he 
 will live long and have a strong body ; if the western 
 branches, he will have riches and honour. If he always 
 worships the " Three Precious Ones," is charitable, 
 chants, and does meritorious acts for three generations, 
 he will immediately return to be a man, the governor of 
 the city will give him an arrow, and one of the " Three 
 
 24 
 
370 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Pure Ones " will help him, so that he will not shoot the 
 northern branches. 
 
 The Abacus — In the city temples there hangs a great 
 abacus ; in the shops the abacus is used in the computa- 
 tion of the millions of greasy copper cci8h (filthy lucre), 
 but in the other world it tells of a reckoning of the good 
 and the evil, with their attendant awards and punish- 
 ments. It is a sermon in wood. 
 
 The Tail-cutting Mania. — Taoism is a system fraught 
 with danger to the State for the reason that its whole 
 structure is superstition. It is best illustrated by a 
 
 
 The Abacus. 
 
 wide-spread delusion in 1877. The wave passed down 
 the Grand Canal. It was said that parties mysteriously 
 lost their pig-tails as they walked along the street, 
 caused by paper-men flying about, and what so precious 
 to a Chinaman as the national badge, the queue! The 
 peasants forsook their houses and slept in the fields 
 or under the trees, fifty or one hundred in a group. 
 Grongs had to be imported, and all night long in every 
 hamlet, was bang, bang, bang! Processions with lanterns, 
 torches, and voices passed from village to village. Aftei 
 wards it was said the paper-men could come in through 
 
Taoism as a Religion. ^il^ 
 
 the roof, expand to the size of a cow, and crush the 
 sleeper [evidently nightmare]. In town men kept to 
 the streets all night long, as they were afraid to enter 
 their homes, and the heat, the fright, the demorali- 
 zation, the excitement, and the wild rumours made the 
 city like a boiling caldron. Three Catholics, innocent 
 fishermen, were accused of having been seen sending 
 off paper-men, and were beheaded. 
 
 One night the excitement ran high, for it was reported 
 through the city that two foreigners (the writer and a 
 friend) were on a temple-roof despatching paper-men. 
 Tens of thousands assembled, an excited mob ; gongs 
 were beaten, and the crowd would yell, trying to drive 
 away the men who were about to slay all in the city. Two 
 companies of military were marched a mile and a half 
 from the camp and fired blank cartridges, all afraid to 
 injure the " foreign devils " (who happened to be absent 
 from town), lest a shower of paper-men might fall like 
 meteoric stones. After two hours it was found to be the 
 shadows of the trees on the roof in the moonlight. 
 
 During the two months of summer that this panic 
 swept through Central China, Taoist priests were busy 
 selling genii jponjdei\ which in little packages placed 
 in the queue was a charm to frighten away the paper- 
 men. The superstitions of Taoism make the Chinese 
 mind as tinder for the spark, just as an August sun 
 prepares a prairie for the wild-fire. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 POPES, PRIESTS, AND TEMPLES. 
 
 The First Pope.— The first Taoist pope was Chang 
 Taoling, who flourished in the first century of the Chris- 
 tian era. " Devoting himself wholly to study and medi- 
 tation, he steadfastly declined the offers made him by 
 emperors, who wished to attract him into the service 
 of the State. Retiring to seclusion in the mountain 
 fastnesses of Western China, he persevered in the study 
 of alchemy and in cultivating the virtues of purity and 
 mental abstraction. His search for the elixir of life was 
 successful, thanks to the instruction conveyed in a mystic 
 treatise supernaturally received from the hands of Laotsze 
 himself." 
 
 He was engaged in manipulating " the elixir of the 
 dragon and tiger," when he met a spirit who said, " In 
 the Pesung Mountain is a stone house, where may be 
 found writings of the three emperors and a liturgical 
 book. By getting these you may ascend to Heaven, if 
 you pass through the course of discipline which they 
 enjoin." " He dug and found them. By means of them 
 he was able to fly, to hear distant sounds, and to leave his 
 body. After going through a thousand days of discipline, 
 and receiving instruction from a goddess, who taught 
 
Popes, Pi'iests, and Temples. 373 
 
 him to walk about among the stars, he proceeded to fight 
 with the king of the demons, to divide mountains and 
 seas, and to command the wind" and thunder. All the 
 demons fled before him, leaving not a trace of their 
 retreating footsteps. On account of the prodigious 
 slaughter of demons by this hero, the wind and thunder 
 were reduced to subjection, and various divinities came 
 
 Chang Taoliiisr. 
 
 with eager haste to acknowledge their faults. In nine 
 years he gained the power to ascend to Heaven." 
 
 " The later years of the mystic's earthly experience 
 were spent on the Dragon-Tiger Mountain, and it was 
 here, at the age of one hundred and twenty-three, after 
 compounding and swallowing the grand elixir, he ascended 
 to the heavens to enjoy the bliss of immortality." 
 
 The Heavenly Teacher.-— The name of Chang, the 
 
374 '^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Heavenly Teacher, is on every lip in China; he is on 
 earth the Vicegerent of the Pearly Emperor in Heaven, 
 and the Co oamander-in-chief of the hosts of Taoism. 
 Whatever doubts there may be about Peter's apostolic 
 successors, the present Pope, Chang LX., boasts of an 
 unbroken line for threescore generations. He, the chief 
 of the wizards, the "true man" (i.e., "the ideal man"), 
 as he is called, wields an immense spiritual power 
 throughout the land. The family obtained possession 
 of the Dragon-Tiger Mountain in the Kiangse province 
 about A.D. 1000, and the scenery around Pope Chang's 
 rural palace is most enchanting. The present incumbent 
 is a fat jolly mandarin, who lives in pomp and luxury ; it 
 is said that he is not a celibate, and he has about " thirty 
 persons constituting his courtiers and high officers." 
 "This personage assumes a state which mimics the 
 Imperial regmie. He confers buttons like an emperor. 
 Priests come to him from various cities and temples 
 to receive promotion, whom he invests with titles and 
 presents with seals of office." 
 
 His power is fourfold. (1) He is the head of a priestly 
 army of a hundred thousand men. (2) He controls 
 the invisible hosts of demons, and is often summoned by 
 emperors and men of countless wealth to rid their houses 
 of these troublesome intruders. " To expel demons he 
 wields the double-edged sword, which is said to have 
 come down, a priceless heir-loom, from his ancestors of 
 the Han dynasty. All demons fear this sword. He 
 who wields it, the great Taoist magician, can catch 
 demons and shut them up in jars. It is said that 
 near his home there are rows of such jars, all of them 
 
Popes, Priests, and Temples. 
 
 375 
 
 supposed to hold demons in captivity." (3) The appoint- 
 ment of gods by the Emperor is made through '* the 
 Heavenly Teacher," and the rotation of the gods in 
 office is done by him like shifting men on a chess 
 board. (4) But his chief prerogative is in granting 
 
 An Audience to the Gods. — On the first day of the 
 moon the one thousand officials in a provincial capital, 
 whether in office or out of office, 
 call on His Excellency the Governor 
 to pay their respects, so at the first 
 of the month Pope Chang holds a 
 levee of the gods. From the heights 
 of Heaven, from the depths of Hades, 
 from across the wide ocean and the 
 distant palaces of the stars, come 
 an invisible host of deified beings, 
 gods and demigods, to present their 
 compliments to the great magician. 
 
 The Priests of Taoism The 
 
 Taoist priests wear blue robes, while 
 the Buddhists wear yellow. They 
 have not shaven pates, but do their 
 hair up in a little knot, and are 
 sometimes spoken of as the " yellow 
 
 caps." There are two classes of these priests, the one 
 living in the temples and professing celibacy, the other 
 dwelling at home with their families, and wearing the 
 citizen's dress except when on duty. They have not 
 the zeal of the Buddhists (if it be possible to have 
 less), are not employed in daily temple worship, and 
 deal mostly with evil spirits and quack medicines, which 
 
 Taoist Priest. 
 
2^"]^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 makes them deserve the appellation, " a dirty set of 
 fellows." 
 
 The Abbot. — The robes of the abbot are of the 
 richest gold embroidery, which make him conspicuous as 
 the chief priest. The ranks are conferred by Chang, the 
 Heavenly Teacher, and are three in number — the Major 
 
 General or Bishop, " the Praise 
 Church," or Priest, and ^' the 
 Knowing-Affairs," or Deacon. 
 In a Foo, or Prefecture, there 
 is a nominal ruler over the 
 priests in his department, who 
 is responsible to the civil 
 magistrate for their good be- 
 haviour. 
 
 The City Temple, Soo- 
 chow. — This is the only three- 
 story temple that I have met 
 with ; the temples usually 
 are only on the ground floor, 
 and the monasteries of two 
 stories. It was recently re- 
 paired at an expense of $40,000 
 by the late banker Hu of 
 Hangchow, but his failure 
 left the images simply dry mud instead of covered with 
 gold. The city temple (Yuen Miao-Kwan) is a great 
 temple, surrounded by thirteen large temples, in which 
 there are about three hundred gods, the great religious 
 centre of the Kiangsu province; the Pearly Emperor 
 occupying the third story, which overlooks the city. 
 
 Taoist Abbot. 
 
Popes, Priests, and Temples. 
 
 2>77 
 
 In front is an open court of two acres, on the sides of 
 which are stalls and shops, and in the middle arbours 
 made of matting for tea-drinkers. In the second temple, 
 
 City Temple, Soochow. 
 
 in a hall that extends 400 feet around the building, is the 
 picture gallery of the city, where native art is displayed. 
 The temple, situated in the centre of the city, is the 
 rendezvous of all pleasure-seekers, who are preceded by 
 
2,7^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 a horde of pickpockets and villains, and at times there 
 may be seen hundreds, and even many thousands, of 
 men and boys, priests and beggars, fortune-tellers and 
 gamblers, a motley assembly, calling vividly to mind 
 " the den of thieves " on Mount Moriah. It is a " Vanity 
 Fair," with stalls for chinaware, booths for fancy articles, 
 
 Snorter and Blower. 
 
 stands for toys, tables for confectionery, and cloths on 
 the ground for a variety of trinkets ; also travelling- 
 kitchens, small restaurants, and pea-nut baskets for 
 the weary ; and foreign pictures, a miniature engine, 
 jugglers, acrobats, sleight-of-hand performers, gymnastics, 
 women singers, peep-shows, puppet-shows, bear shows, 
 
Popes, Priests, and Temples. 
 
 379 
 
 Punch-and-Judy shows, the horn and the gong, for 
 those who seek amusement. 
 
 The Snorter and the Blower.— Hen and Ha. They 
 hved in the time of Kiang-T'aikung. If Hen snorted, 
 a typhoon would issue from his nose which would 
 vanquish the foe. If Ha blew a white breath the enemy 
 would wither. They guard the " Hill Door." 
 
 The Three Pure Ones. — The centre one is the 
 
 The Three Pure Ones. 
 
 " Ancient Original," the one on the right the '' Spiritual 
 Precious," and the bearded man is Laotsze. It is an 
 evident imitation of Buddhism, which has its three 
 divinities, but two of " The Pure Ones " are imaginary 
 beings, and the third is the Old Philosopher. These 
 are not considered to exercise any power or jurisdiction, 
 but simply to sit back in space, serene and quiet, while 
 the affairs of heaven and earth are directed by the 
 
380 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Pearly Emperor; the Pure Ones like the Mikado of 
 former times, and the Pearly Emperor as the Tycoon or 
 actual ruler of Japan. 
 
 The Lantern Pagoda. — During the first moon of 
 
 Lantern Pagoda. 
 
 the new year there is often erected on the bridges a 
 lantern pagoda, with fifty lanterns, in honour of the 
 gods of riches, fire, and agriculture, and also " to give 
 light to the neighbourhood ; " considering light as an 
 emblem of temporal prosperity. These seven-cornered 
 
Popes, Priests, and Temples. 381 
 
 frames of bamboo are drawn up, after the lanterns are 
 lighted, by a rope and pulley like a sail on the mast of 
 a boat. It is a beautiful tower of light, and very attrac- 
 tive. May it be that " the people which sat in darkness 
 saw great light ; and to them which sat in the region 
 and shadow of death light is sprung up." 
 
CHAPTEK XXV. 
 
 TAOIST GODS. 
 
 The Pearly Emperor. — A prominent fact in pagan 
 systems is that a secondary divinity in the estimation 
 of the people gradually usurps the first place, as is 
 seen in the gods of riches and medicine of Taoism, 
 and in the goddesses of mercy of Buddhism and 
 Eomanism. " The Three Pure Ones " are above him 
 in rank, but to the Pearly Emperor " is entrusted the 
 superintendence of the world." To refer to a European 
 monarch as the acknowledged sovereign and the Premier 
 as the actual ruler is not an exact illustration, as the 
 Pearly Emperor has all the power of Heaven and earth 
 in his hands. He is the correlative of Heaven, or rather 
 Heaven itself; his birthday and Heaven's birthday are 
 the same ; he is the Jupiter of the Middle Kingdom. 
 Whenever we preach of one supreme Euler of the universe, 
 there is an immediate reference to the Pearly Emperor, 
 so to dethrone him is to demolish image worship. 
 
 His legends are copies of the Buddhistic traditions. 
 The king and queen of the kingdom of Miao Luh were 
 worthy sovereigns. The Spiritual Precious, the second 
 among the Pure Ones, took his jade sceptre and blew his 
 breath upon it, which made it change into a living 
 
Taoist Gods. 
 
 383 
 
 being, and in a dream of the night it entered the body 
 of the Queen, who after a full year bore the Crown Prince. 
 There is a song the Chinese sing : — 
 
 *' The Spiritual Precious brought in his hands 
 The Pearly Emperor from heavenly lands." 
 
 Pearly Emperor. 
 
 The kingdom prospered during his minority ; he took 
 all the gold in the Imperial treasury to give alms. On 
 his accession to the throne, reflecting that life is a dream, 
 he gave the sceptre to another, and became a hermit for 
 a hundred years ; the next two hundred years were spent 
 in philanthropic acts, and after that he was a pupil of the 
 Spiritual Precious for thre« hundred years in the Taoist 
 
384 The Dragon, Image ^ and Demon. 
 
 scriptures ; during the next two centuries Heaven and 
 earth received his blessings ; he then became an humble 
 immortal, till on his one thousandth birthday he was 
 made god of Heaven, earth, and men. 
 
 This is the poetic account. As a matter of history, the 
 Emperor Hwei Tsung in the twelfth century conferred 
 upon a magician, by t1ie name of Chang Ye, the title of 
 Shangte, The Pearly mperor, and the people, finding 
 one deity so much simpler than an abstract triumvirate, 
 accepted him as their Optimus Maximus. His actual 
 rule has been about seven hundred and fifty years (some 
 
 locate him in the T'ang dynas- 
 
 s^f]^^^^^^:^Tr ty one thousand years ago). 
 
 ig-*;45^jf:j(^gj^gi'^a;^^^ He has thirty - six ministers 
 
 '^mtm^hEi^i^m ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ attendants, one 
 ^^:^^'Mt^^W^^^ with three heads and six arms, 
 
 ^^t'V^z^^^'^^n A .1. ,u -.1. f I. A 
 
 'A^^^f-i^/iV^gj^^p^^ and the other with tour heads 
 I^SS^IllSl a^d eight arms. 
 
 List of Gods. Tsusze P'usa — He is the 
 
 minister to the Pearly Em- 
 peror, who in turn has two assistants, the snake and 
 the turtle, which are seen by his side. His father was 
 king of Tsin Luh. He was a precocious youth ; at ten 
 years of age in one glance he understood the classics, 
 and at fifteen left home. With hair dishevelled he 
 went to the Snowy Mountains to become a hermit, but 
 could not endure the cold. On his return he met an 
 old woman grinding a crowbar. "What are you doing, 
 old lady ? " " Oh ! I am grinding this crowbar into a 
 needle." " But how can you accomplish so arduous an 
 undertaking?" "Oh! you can do anything with 
 
Taoist Gods, 
 
 .S5 
 
 patience." He returned to the hills for forty-nine 
 years, when he became an immortal. One of his four 
 ministers has a green face and a girdle of bones ; is able 
 to control hobgoblins, and can gather the clouds and 
 send rain. 
 
 The City gods. — As the government of Hades is 
 the exact counterpart of the government of the Chinese 
 Empire, all the mandarins of the world of night are 
 
 Tsusze P'usa. 
 
 Chinamen ; so the gentry are not only aspirants for 
 temporal power, but they also seek for divine honours, 
 and the generous sovereigns of the land, who also preside 
 over their departed subjects, generally try to gratify their 
 ambition. Each of the sixteen hundred cities has its city 
 god ; also the one hundred thousand great market towns 
 each claim a local god, and not a few of the million villages 
 have their village gods, so these gods are a " multitude 
 which no man can number." The mandarins act as 
 
 25 
 
386 The D^^agon, Image y and Demon, 
 
 governors, judges, magistrates, tax-collectors, and coroners, 
 all combined in one office, so the duties of the city 
 gods are multifarious. These are often taken to the 
 temple of the Pearly Emperor, and an entrance fee 
 from $20 to $100 is paid to the priests for an audience 
 of the god before the king of gods. 
 
 Assistants to the City gods. — The work of the 
 
 Eastern Peak. 
 
 Yamens is mostly performed by the secretaries, so beside 
 the gods are the images of a retinue of secretaries and 
 attendants. There are two principal ones who attend to 
 the lawsuits in Hades, and who decide what grade of 
 punishment should be inflicted, and to which prison of 
 the lost the guilty should be assigned. They are wor- 
 shipped by all. 
 
 The Mediator. — Tn the first and sixth moons there 
 
Taoist Gods. 387 
 
 are many devotees. If a man wishes to worship the Pearly 
 Emperor he first adores the Chan-Tseusze, and requests 
 that deity to obtain for him an audience. On the fifth 
 of the fifth moon, fifteenth of the eighth moon, and 
 thirtieth of the twelfth moon, all the gods must be present 
 at the Pearly Emperor's levee. These gods must first 
 present themselves at the Mediator's temple, so that he 
 may obtain tickets for their spirits at the high audience. 
 The Eastern Peak. — The " Eastern Peak " is Mount 
 Pai, and this is the god of that mountain ; his reputation 
 having rapidly increased during the last century. The 
 Chinese have not very distinct ideas about the rulers of 
 Tartarus, so among others he is now considered the " god 
 of the Judgment Day." At the "Fall Judgment" the 
 Taoists issue proclamations, calling on all the orphan 
 spirits to assemble and receive sentence, as he holds in 
 his hand the awards of good and evil, but he considers 
 the hypocrite who pays his fee as a good man. 
 
 The rank of the Eastern Peak among the long columns 
 of native gods is as high as the lofty summit of Mount 
 T'ai among the ranges of Chinese hills. One feature of 
 his worship in some places differs from others, in that the 
 temples belong to families and have no priesthood, so the 
 devotees are both men and women who mingle in the 
 nocturnal devotions. At a Hangchow temple it has been 
 computed that $1,000 every night of the worship season 
 was spent in burning paper money, contributed by the 
 gentry and by pilgrims. At this time also the sick are 
 brought for healing, and lunatics in his presence are 
 cured by the casting out of devils. In this temple the 
 processions with torches and lanterns, the tinsel and 
 
7,^S The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 embroidery, the solemn prostrations and the mimic of a 
 royal pantomime, are as gorgeous as Chinese art can 
 devise. 
 
 The Empress of Heaven or Goddess of the Sea. — 
 She is not only worshipped by " men that go down to 
 the sea in ships," but by millions on land. In girl- 
 
 Goddess of the Sea. 
 
 hood she was a Miss Ling, a prophetess whose predictions, 
 whether favourable or adverse, were sure to be fulfilled. 
 " Her brothers, four in number, were merchants. On one 
 occasion when they were absent on a trading voyage, she 
 fell into a deep trance, from which she was aroused by 
 the loud lamentations of her parents, who supposed her 
 
Taoist Gods. 389 
 
 dead. On recovering herself she informed them that 
 she had seen her brothers at sea in a violent storm. 
 Shortly afterwards the youngest son returned home and 
 reported the loss of his elder brothers. He stated that 
 during the storm a lady appeared in mid-heaven, and by 
 means of a rope dragged the ship into a safe position. 
 His sister said she had hastened to the rescue of her 
 elder brothers, but while in the very act of saving them 
 was awakened by the cries of her parents." 
 
 Afterwards old Islx. Ling was drowned in the sea, and 
 when the affectionate daughter heard the sad tidings she 
 went to the ocean's shore to weep, and her grief being 
 excessive, she threw herself into the foaming deep. Both 
 bodies floated to the shore, and were buried by mourning 
 relatives. 
 
 In after years, a mandarin travelling to Corea met 
 with a typhoon, and while all other ships foundered, he 
 saw an angel-lamp guiding his boat. After going about 
 seven hundred miles he landed at an island, and seeing 
 a temple asked what it was, and was told it was ]Miss 
 Ling's. She is the guardian protectress of the sailor, 
 and in nights of storm holds out an angel-lantern in the 
 sky to guide the almost shipwrecked mariner. 
 
 By her side are two assistant gods ; one with an eagle 
 eye, who is called " The Telescope Eye " or " The Thousand- 
 Mile Eye ; " the other bending forward his ear to hear 
 the propitious breeze, who is called " Favouring- Wind 
 Ear." Recently, in Shanghai, a temple was built on the 
 site of the former railway station. For the Queen of 
 Heaven, see Jeremiah, 44th chapter. 
 
 God of Fire.— The god of fire, called the Ho-Lih-Ta-Tee, 
 
390 The Di^agoit, Image, and Demon. 
 
 has three eyes and a red beard, and is worshipped on the 
 third, thirteenth, and twenty-third of each month. Some 
 two or three centuries ago there was a great conflagra- 
 tion in Soochow, which lasted two or three days. After 
 every method to extinguish the devouring element 
 had been exhausted, the Grovernor threw his hat, shoes, 
 and clothing in the fire, but without effect; at last he 
 jumped in and was burned to death, and was made the 
 
 god of fire for this city. He has 
 Eight Ministers. — The first 
 holds the jive how and arroivs, 
 and wherever an arrow flies there 
 is a conflagration. The second 
 minister holds the fi^^e- crow, and 
 on the house where this bird of 
 ill omen alights the insurance 
 companies suffer. The third 
 holds the fire-rat in his hand, 
 and walls, garrets, and roofs are 
 not safe from his intrusion. The 
 fourth has the foot measure and 
 fire-spade; the one to measure 
 the extent of the conflagra- 
 tion, and the other to shovel up sparks. The fifth is the 
 Captain of the " Black Flags." The sixth commands the 
 " fire-engine,"- from whose hose fire spouts out. The 
 seventh minister holds the red-hot fire halls, and the 
 eighth flashes fire from the fire-mirror. These are 
 supplicated in the " great fire service " of the eighth 
 month. 
 
 God of Pestilence. — The god of pestilence in some 
 
 God of Fire. 
 
Taoist Gods, 39 
 
 temples has a black face. He was originally a literary 
 man. One day, returning from school, he saw a demon 
 about to blow his deadly breath into a well, and reflecting 
 that this was a public well, and that a multitude would be 
 poisoned, but that if they saw a dead body in the water no 
 one would drink from it, he leaped into the well. He was 
 appointed the god of pestilence, and whenever there is 
 
 God of Pestilence. 
 
 an epidemic they take him out in a procession. He is 
 one of the four high ministers of Heaven. 
 
 The Three Mandarins. — They are much worshipped, 
 especially in North China ; the three rulers of Heaven, 
 earth, and water. The first rules Heaven, the second earth, 
 and the third the seas, lakes, rivers, and canals. Their 
 birthdays occur on the fifteenth of the first, seventh, and 
 tenth moons, and their fasts, two weeks preceding their 
 natal days. The principal time for worship is in August, 
 when the pilgrims of Soochow ascend Mount Seven-Sons ; 
 
392 The Di^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 on the pleasure boats they gamble all the way going ; 
 they ascend to the temple under the burning sun, then 
 descend and have a wine-feast. 
 
 The Three Mao. — They are three brothers ruling 
 the three peaks of Mount Mao, and they exercise a com- 
 manding influence throughout this section by means of 
 the charms from this sacred mountain, which are sold. 
 The eldest, receiving the drug of immortality, returned 
 
 Three Mandarins. 
 
 to see his parents. The old man was very angry because 
 his son had remained away so long, and had learned no 
 trade, and took a rod to chastise him. The son assured 
 him he was protected by Heavenly legions ; the father 
 smote, but the cane broke in pieces. His younger 
 brothers, who were mandarins, came on an appointed 
 day to see him leave the earth, whereupon he mounted 
 his chariot, rode upon a cloud, and ascended ; upon this. 
 
Taoist Gods. 393 
 
 the two brothers resigned their positions, and became, first 
 hermits, and then genii. The trio were once seen, the 
 first riding in a tiger chariot, and the other two upon 
 phoenixes, ascending to see Shangte. 
 
 The Five Holy Ones, or, as they are sometimes 
 termed, ''The Five Thoroughfares ; " are five brothers, and 
 
 Five Holy Ones. 
 
 in the temple in the rear are the images of their mother 
 and five wives. The first of the Ming emperors canonized 
 them. The witches use their name, and if a pretty lady is 
 sick they say, " The Five Holy Ones want her for a wife " 
 (in the other world), and hope to get good pay by telling 
 how to escape the fate. The temple by the Stone Lake 
 near this city has been twice destroyed by order of the 
 
394 ^^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Governor, as the influence of these gods was injurious to 
 the public morals, but their popularity is undiminished. 
 
 God of Witches. — He stands as a mediator beside 
 the "Five Holy Ones." When one is afflicted with 
 epilepsy the witches say, " The Five Holy Ones call him," 
 and will advise appealing to the god of witches to inter- 
 cede for him with these deities, and he will get well. 
 
 The Horse Duke— He has charge of the stables of 
 
 Western Royal Mother. 
 
 the Five Holy Ones, who are noted equestrians, and 
 choose the night for their races upon the hills. 
 
 Western Royal Mother.—" A fabulous being of the 
 female sex, dwelling upon Mount Kw'enlun, at the head 
 of the troops of genii, and holding from time to time 
 intercourse with favoured Imperial votaries ; the imagina- 
 tion of the Taoist writers of several centuries has been 
 exercised in glowing descriptions of the magnificence 
 of her mountain-palace." Kw'enlun is "a mountain of 
 Central Asia widely celebrated in Chinese legends." It 
 
Taoist Gods. 395 
 
 is to Taoism what Sumeru is to the Buddhists, and the 
 descriptions of it are evidently imitations of Hindoo 
 mythology. The Western Eoyal Mother, " the queen of 
 the genii," who goes at the head of her fairy legions 
 along the terraces where lie " the fields of sessamum," 
 and the " gardens of coriander," and by the borders of 
 the " lake of gems," has had fabulists who have " vied 
 with one another in fantastic descriptions of the wonders 
 of this abode." When she visited her Imperial votary, 
 Han Wute, there were " fairy handmaids that poured out 
 the wines with which the feasting couple were regaled, 
 and discoursed strains of divine melody during the 
 banquet." 
 
 The husband of the Western Eoyal Mother is ]Muh- 
 Kung, the Lord King of the East, who, " according to 
 Taoist legend, was one of the first beings evolved from 
 chaos," and " it appears probable that the original con- 
 ception of such a personage arose from the desire to 
 find a mate for the mystic female divinity." 
 
 In her gardens is a peach tree, which puts forth leaves 
 once in every three thousand years, and it required three 
 thousand years after this for the fruit to ripen. These 
 were her birthdays, when all the immortals assembled at 
 her palace, and there was a great ecumenical council of 
 the gods, called the '' Peach Assembly ; " the occasion 
 being more festive than solemn, for there was music on 
 invisible instruments, and songs not from mortal tongues. 
 
 Three Corpse gods. — Men die and become demons ; 
 demons die and become ghosts ; ghosts die and become 
 corpses. The first is a nun with green clothes, the second 
 with white clothes, and the third with red clothes. The 
 
39^ The D^^agon^ Image, and Demon. 
 
 first is called Pang Chu, the second Pang Cheh, the 
 third Pang Kiao. These three corpse gods are in the 
 body, and it is necessary to observe, according to the 
 almanac, a watch-night to keep them in, else on that 
 night, if one sleeps, these will go above to tell of his 
 sins. 
 
 Day and Night Recorders — There are these two 
 images in the temples, the one recording the good and 
 the bad done in daylight, and the other taking account 
 of the good and bad thoughts when in bed. 
 
 Road god — On dangerous roads he grants protection 
 from robbers and wild beasts. He is Lih Ling, and aide- 
 de-camp to the god of thunder, appointed because of his 
 speed. The Taoists, speaking of rapidity by metonomy, 
 say, "Lih Ling." He was first an escort to the wife of 
 the Emperor Hien Yuen. 
 
 Open Road gods — These are two tall giants, the one 
 a European, and the other an Ethiopian, by name Yayii 
 and Wanwen, who are drawn on chariots made of boxes 
 with little wheels such as boys improvise for their amuse- 
 ment, and go in front of the coffins of families of man- 
 darins of the first, second, and third rank. They secure 
 the repose of the soul in the coffin, and protect it from 
 any sudden frights of the spirits it may meet on the 
 way to the grave. 
 
 White Tiger god. — The Emperor Hien Yuen saw a 
 god riding on a white tiger, and coming to his palace. 
 The Western Royal Mother appointed the White Tiger 
 god as ruler of the world. 
 
 Wang Ling Kwan. — In the temple of this god there 
 is a sign-board — " Have you come ?" i.e., " I am looking 
 
Taoist Gods. 
 
 397 
 
 for you," " You are the very man I want." These three 
 words in this simple question frighten the man and make 
 him feel his sins. 
 
 The Military Official.— In some of the Taoist services 
 a small table is placed on a large one, and a bench u[)on 
 
 Wang Ling Kwan. 
 
 that, with a dragon tablet on the top. At the window 
 opposite is a paper mounted horseman, to whom a least 
 is offered, and then he is burned ; the hypothesis is that 
 he goes to Heaven on horseback and brings back his 
 saddle-bags full of good things, — a deified Santa Claus. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MEDICAL DIVINITIES. 
 
 n^HEOLOGrlCAL works, in discussing the proofs for the 
 existence of God, have presented as an argument, 
 the belief of all mankind, of all lands and races, in beings 
 superior to men, who, in a measure, control their destinies; 
 the argument is from the religious nature of man, that 
 men must have some object to worship and adore. 
 
 An equally strong argument may be adduced from the 
 fact that there is a universal belief that invisible agencies 
 control disease, that men seek help from Grod, or the gods, 
 in times of sickness, and that when the body is suffering 
 with pain it is the special time to offer incense, prayers, 
 and sacrifices. In China, religion and medicine are 
 inseparably connected. 
 
 Leu Chen Yang, the Chinese i^sculapius. — 
 nearly every doctor's office there hangs a large scroll 
 portrait of Leu Chen Yang, who was one of the eight 
 immortals, and the most prominent medical divinity of 
 the Chinese, and though several of the gods of this 
 profession outrank him, yet in the amount of practice 
 he receives he has eclipsed them all. He was a Hanlin 
 graduate at Peking, and a mandarin, but retired to the 
 mountains to search for immortality. His birthday is 
 
Medical Divinities. 
 
 399 
 
 the fourth moon, fourteenth day, and so many go to his 
 temple, that it is popularly called, " Crowd the Divine 
 Immortal." The Governor worships him. 
 
 The King of Medicine.— There are four of these 
 gods, or perhaps one with four titles. Desiring to cure 
 
 Leu Chen Yang. 
 
 the 10,000 different forms of disease, he tasted all kinds 
 of herbs that he might know their virtue. In one day 
 he ate seventy poisons ; his body was transparent, so that 
 the effects of the medicines could be seen. 
 
 Hien Yuen and Chepah.— To the first of these the 
 Chinese not only ascribe the invention of clothing and 
 
400 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 architecture, but also of medicine. " He was the first to 
 determine the relations of the five viscera to the five 
 elements, and describe internal and external diseases." 
 Chepah was his assistant in medical investigations, " the 
 author of prescriptions," and " the reputed founder of the 
 art of healing." 
 
 Dr. Fox. — Foxes are found in the northern provinces, 
 
 Medicine God. 
 
 Dr. Fox. 
 
 and light literature abounds in legends about this 
 creature, who may become a man or a woman, and 
 practise all kinds of deceit. Houses are frequently 
 haunted by the fox, and both the gentry and peasantry 
 believe that his ingress and exit may be with closed doors. 
 In the Confucian archives in this city, the fox sees to 
 airing the books. Near the Imperial Tailors' Yamen, from 
 
Medical Divinities, 
 
 401 
 
 which, twice a year, one thousand trunks of embroidered 
 clothing are sent to Peking, is the temple of the fox 
 immortal ; if there is a spot of grease on a robe, his 
 glance is equal to benzine for removing it, and the 
 garments are folded and packed before his shrine. 
 
 The sick and their friends go to Dr. Fox with every 
 disease, and his is the most celebrated temple in the 
 city for genii prescriptions. The three sides of a large 
 hall are filled with " votive 
 tablets," presented by the devo- 
 tees on recovery. The "votive 
 tablets " say, " With a pious 
 heart I pray ; " " Piety is effica- 
 cious ; " " Prayer is sure to have 
 its answer." 
 
 Just as there are drug stores 
 in every part of the city, con- 
 venient for local trade, so there 
 are idol shrines situated in every 
 ward, whose deities have con- 
 siderable fame in the art of heal- 
 ing, and to whom the people 
 carry all their sicknesses. 
 
 Dr. Hwat'u. — This distinguished physician lived in 
 the second century of our era, and " all that is known 
 respecting his career is derived from tradition and 
 romance, in which his wonderful skill and attainments 
 are widely celebrated, and he is said to have been 
 especially successful in surgical operations of a marvel- 
 lous description." 
 
 In his later years he was imprisoned by royal command, 
 
 26 
 
 Dr. Hwat'u, 
 
402 The Dragon, linage, and Demon. 
 
 and as the jailer was very kind to the .physician, the 
 latter gave him his book of prescriptions. Unfortunately, 
 when the possessor of this legacy attended the state 
 prisoner to the execution grounds, his wife, not knowing 
 the value of the roll, used it in kindling her fire, so it 
 was lost to the world. He stands second in rank among 
 the Heavenly doctors ; the people now bow at his shrine, 
 and pray for prescriptions. He is the greatest physician 
 China ever possessed. 
 
 Eye god. 
 
 Small-pox god. 
 
 The Divine Oculist. — In this country, where ophthal- 
 Ja prevails so extensively, he is worshipped by all who 
 have diseased eyes. 
 
 God of Small-pox — In China from early ages inocula- 
 tion was practised, or, as it is called, "planting" in the 
 nose ; generally when the child is two years old. As the 
 fatality is very great, when the doctor comes to " plant 
 the small-pox" the family go through with extensive 
 religious ceremonies, the god being worshipped with 
 a feast, incense, and fire-crackers. 
 
Medical Divinities. 
 
 403 
 
 Liver Complaint and Stomach-ache Genii. — These 
 are beardless young men, who are worshipped by those 
 who have the aforesaid maladies. 
 
 God of Measles. — He has a speckled face. Wor- 
 shipped by those who break out with measles. 
 
 God of Luck — King Wan is the man ; they do not 
 call him " god of luck," but " King Wan's luck." Only 
 worshipped in times of sickness. They light three sticks 
 of incense when they go to consult the blind fortune- 
 teller, and three sticks when they 
 return. 
 
 God of the Primordial Cause. 
 — T'ai Yih. He lived in the time 
 of the Divine Husbandman, who 
 visited him to inquire about diseases 
 and fortune. He was Hien Yuen's 
 medical preceptor, and Chepah gave 
 him a treatise on physiology and a 
 roll of charms. His medical know- 
 ledge was handed down to future 
 ages. He went with the immortals 
 
 to the Peach Assembly of the gods to meet the Western 
 Koyal Mother. In times of sickness to chant seven days, 
 " T'ai Yih, honourable god, save from pain," is a certain 
 panacea. 
 
 Goddess of the Womb. — Mang Kinee. She is a 
 pigmy, only three inches in height. Before the birth of 
 a child, if worshipped, everything will be favourable. 
 
 Goddess of Midwives. — She is worshipped by the 
 female attendants, and Mrs. Kyien Sen's shrine is in 
 their homes. Both before and afterwards the happy 
 
 Goddess of Midwives. 
 
404 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 parents offer and pay their vows. Eed eggs are used in 
 her worship, which, for good luck, are often stolen by the 
 childless. 
 
 The Sleeping Buddha.— The Soochowites, if afflicted 
 with sleeplessness, burn incense to the reclining image of 
 this Buddha, and pat him with their hand to soothe his 
 nerves ; if this fails to bring back sleep, " the sweet 
 restorer," they make a bed-quilt to cover him. 
 
 The Thirty Teachers.— Among the seventy-two 
 teachers are thirty gods of medicine who are worshipped by 
 those who have the special maladies. The numbers cor- 
 respond to their positions in the temple. 
 
 1, Euler of Headache; 3, Chills; 4, Liver; 5, 
 Diarrhoea ; 6, Dropsy ; 7, Cough ; 8, Stomach-ache ; 
 
 9, Colic ; 10, The Divine Ocuhst ; 11, The Divine Aurist ; 
 
 12, Small-pox; 13, Sores; 18, Consumption; 21, Animal 
 spirits ; 27, Ague ; 28, God of the sickness from losing 
 the soul ; 34, Pestilence ; 36, To stop the Pestilence ; 39, 
 Euler of the thirteen kinds of doctors ; 47, Acupuncture ; 
 48, Haemorrhage ; 49, Criminal Judge of Pestilence ; 53, 
 Drugs ; 57, Weakness ; 58, Dyspepsia ; 59, Diseases of 
 hands and feet ; 60, Breast ; 61, Poison ; 63, Toothache. 
 
 Gods of the Body. — 1, The god of the hair is called 
 Chwang Wa ; 2, god of the brain, T'sing Ken ; 3, god of 
 the eye, Ming Chang ; 4, god of the nose, Yii Lung ; 
 5, god of the ear, K'ung Yen ; 6, god of the tongue, 
 T'ung Ming ; 7, god of the teeth, Muh Fung ; 8, god 
 of the heart. Tan Yuen ; 9, god of the lungs, Kao Wa ; 
 
 10, god of the liver, Lung Yien ; 11, god of the 
 kidneys, Yuen Ming ; 12, god of the spleen, Chang Tsai ; 
 
 13, god of the gall. Lung Yao ; 14, god of the dia- 
 
Medical Divinities. 405 
 
 plnagm, Tao Kaug ; lo, god of the nape of tlie neck, Shang 
 Kien; 16, god of the neck, Yli Nu Kiiin ; 17, god of 
 the throat. Pah Lien Fang; 18, god of the back, Nli 
 Chah; 19, god of the breast, Hu Pen; 20, god of the 
 ribs, Pih Kya Ma; 21, god of the stomach, Tung Lien 
 Yoh ; "11, god of the bowels, Chao Ten Kang ; 23, god 
 of the hand, Wen Yin ; 24, god of the feet, Chu Tien Lih ; 
 25, god of the skin, T'ang Chang. 
 
 Thanking the Earth-god— Just above the surface 
 of the ground, or just underneath, the earth-god is continu- 
 ally passing along, and sometimes when one plucks a 
 flower, or pulls a spear of grass, or upturns the soil, he 
 meets with this deity in his journeys and interferes with 
 his progress. The next day the man has neuralgic or 
 rheumatic pains in his arms, legs, or back. Tlie fortune- 
 teller informs him that he has interfered wit h the " earth" 
 or the earth-god; a musician, not a physician, is called 
 in, and a paper-god, three cups of wine, and three kinds 
 of meat are placed on the table ; the sick man beats on 
 the wooden fish-head and chants the '' Pure Sutra ; " the 
 paper-god is burnt and ascends in the smoke : the service 
 is called "burning paper" and "using cashT 
 
 The Peasants — The practice of medicine among the 
 farmers in Central China is mostly confined to idol 
 worship ; they seldom go to the drug stores, or apply to 
 the doctors, but first try incense and tinfoil money, for, 
 say they, most surely it is an evil spirit that has brought 
 sickness on the child. One day, in the country, meeting 
 a man with two large baskets of candles and paper money, 
 I asked, " My friend, what are you going to do with all 
 those articles for worship ? Sit down on the bridge here 
 
4o6 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 and let us talk about it." He says, " I am an old man, 
 fifty-three years of age, I have only one son, a little 
 boy three years old, he has been sick four days, and I 
 want to drive the evil spirit away from him." " Have you 
 called a physician ? " " No." " Have you given him any 
 medicine ? " " No." This method of curing sickness is 
 universal among the lower classes, and resorted to nearly 
 as much by the gentry. 
 
 Dedicated to the Priesthood. — When children are 
 extremely ill, in North China, the parents make a vow 
 that they will give them to the priesthood ; the priests of 
 the temple give the boy a hat and a name, and the 
 parents pay the priests a shilling per annum, and when 
 the child is old enough he either fulfils the vow or on his 
 wedding-day he is redeemed by the gift of a donkey as 
 a substitute. Thus long life for delicate children is 
 secured. 
 
 Getting a Piescription. — The sick man or his friends 
 go to the temple, light candles and incense, kneel and 
 shake the bamboo cup (as in the picture " Consulting the 
 Oracle," Chapter XIII.), till one of the slips jumps out ; 
 the number is noted, and the priest unrolls a musty bundle 
 and hands him a prescription, which is of the most harm- 
 less description, for if it does not cure, it will not kill. 
 This grafting of medicine on to religion was first practised 
 by the Taoists, but has been adopted by the Buddhists. 
 " Taoism, as it is popularly believed, is one of the most 
 abject of all the religions that the world has known. 
 There is much in it which is so wretchedly mean, that the 
 examination of it is quite dispiriting, and the reflection 
 often occurs. Can the soul of man sink so low as this ? 
 
Medical Divinities. 407 
 
 The Taoist doctors gain their living by a trade no more 
 respectable than that of a gipsy fortune-teller." 
 
 The Charmed Water. — This method was said to have 
 been originated by a Honan physician, and is extensively 
 used in various forms. They take a charm, burn it over a 
 cup of water, stir in the ashes, and drink it. It is much 
 used in this city. Buddhist priests, imitating the Taoist s 
 but differing in method, do not use the charm, but chant 
 over the water and call it " the great pity water," and 
 " the eight merit water ; " there is also " the great pity 
 plaster." The sick often look steadfastly at a cup of water 
 and chant the " Great Pity Sutra," drink it, and get well. 
 
 " Healing by prayer or charms formed one of the 
 thirteen departments of medicine in the Grreat Medical 
 College in the Yuen and Ming dynasties, but during the 
 present dynasty it has ceased to be considered one of 
 the practices." " The practice is neither local, private, 
 wonderful, new, nor hereditary, but exists all over China. 
 It is applied not to single diseases or classes of disease 
 only, but to all cases of medical or surgical practice, with 
 variations according to the seat of the disease, the whim 
 of the quack, or the particular system of the operator. 
 The characters traced to make the charms are various, 
 of various devices and curious symbolical figures, some 
 of which are meaningless ; on variously coloured paper, 
 generally yellow or gilt ; with coloured inks, red and 
 black being preferred, and prescribed to be burnt, and 
 taken in various ways. In surgical cases the patient 
 sometimes lies flat on his back, and the operator with 
 water or oil describes a charm or a series of circles around 
 the affected part, and applies the ashes of the burnt 
 
4o8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 charm in various ways." Sometimes the charm is 
 applied to the affected part by pasting. ^' For consump- 
 tion, the charm is to be pasted on both hands and feet ; 
 for diarrhoea, to be written with vermilion ink, and pasted 
 over the door ; for colds, to be pasted on the temples ; 
 for bronchitis, to be eaten ; for ulcers, charms are to be 
 written over them." When the charm is eaten or applied, 
 a mystic formula, a kind of prayer, 
 is repeated by the dealer in charms, 
 and it is considered that there is " a 
 spiritual department of healing," and 
 that " the remedy will be ineffica- 
 cious unless the heart be full of 
 honour to the gods." 
 
 Borrowing Years. — In times 
 of sickness, when one is nigh unto 
 death, the physicians having ex- 
 hausted every expedient and there 
 remaining no hope, it is customary 
 for a member of the family to lend 
 years to the sick relative ; as sons 
 and daughters may lend to fathers 
 and mothers ; daughters-in-law to 
 mothers-in-law ; wife to husband, and 3^ounger brother to 
 elder brother : fathers borrowing life from their sons is 
 most frequent. The devotee bathes and fasts, goes to 
 the nearest city temple, and writes out a " life policy," 
 certifying that he will take off twelve years from his own 
 life, and give them to the sick person; he then goes from 
 this temple to the temple of the Eastern Peak and burns 
 the certificate. Our nearest neighbour, a doctor, was at the 
 
 The Criminal. 
 
Medical Divinities. 409 
 
 point of death ; his son went into the presence of the nUer 
 of Hades and vowed to give his father twelve years ; the 
 next day the old gentleman was much better, and passed four 
 more winters on earth They can borrow but cannot return. 
 
 The Criminal. — At the three feasts of the year you 
 see little boys and young ladies, with their wealth of hair 
 floating over the shoulders, and with red robes, looking 
 very beautiful, handcuffs on their wrists, and chains 
 around their necks, passing to the temples. They are 
 called criminals. During the season they have been sick, 
 and have recorded a vow before the god that if they 
 recover they will appear as criminals in the next idol 
 procession in token of thanksgiving. 
 
 Kidnapping Pretty Women. — A few days since, 
 among our nearest neighbours, a boy of twelve summers, 
 the only son of his mother, acd she a widow, was standing 
 in his door and looking at an idol procession. That 
 night, with burning fever, he called, "Oh! mother, the 
 god has me by the hand and is dragging me to the 
 temple." The distracted mother weirt to the shrine, 
 offered dollars of incense, and prayed for the life of the 
 child. Three nights afterwards in the third watch we 
 were awaked by the piercing bitter cries of the lone 
 woman as she wandered in the alleys calling back the 
 soul of her loved boy ; she returned at dawn to find him 
 cold and lifeless. 
 
 The most frequent charge is that the god, riding in his 
 chair, and seeing a pretty face, claims her for his bride 
 (perchance not the first) in the world of spirits. The 
 young wife or maiden sickens and dies. Oh ! Heathenism, 
 Heathenism ; what a ghastly spectacle of woe ! 
 
CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 THE STAR GODS. 
 
 L' 
 
 ^' T~ OOK now towards heaven and tell the stars, if thou 
 be able to number them," and reflect that each 
 
 star has its own star god, and the reader will have a 
 bird's-eye view of polytheism. 
 
 Goddess of the North Star. — As the pole-star guides 
 the mariner, so its presiding deity, called the " Bushel 
 Mother," is the star of hope to the Chinese Church. 
 She has four heads and thirty-two hands, and each hand 
 holds a precious substance ; e.g,^ the sun's disc, the moon's 
 disc, the five chariots, a spear, a flag, a sword, a pagoda, 
 etc. As Kwanyin is the heart of Buddhism, the Bushel 
 Mother occupies the same relative position in the Taoist 
 religion. Many of the gentry in this city have private 
 chapels where she is regularly adored ; she rules the 
 books of life and death, and all who wish to prolong their 
 days worship at her shrine. Her devotees abstain from 
 animal food on the third and twenty-seventh of every 
 month. She was said to have been born in India, and 
 her books of devotions are in imitation of the Buddhists ; 
 in times of sickness the Taoist priests are invited to 
 implore the favour of the goddess of the pole-star. 
 
 Northern and Southern Bushels. — These are sons 
 
The Star Gods. 
 
 of the " Bushel Mother ; " the one dressed in red is the 
 Southern Bushel, and rules birth, and the other in white 
 robes is the Northern Bushel, and rules death. A young 
 Esau once found them on the South Mountain, under 
 a tree, playing chess, and by an offer of venison his lease 
 of life was extended from nineteen to ninety -nine. 
 
 "Bushel Mother." 
 
 Shooting the Heavenly Dog. — In the family sleep- 
 ing apartments hangs a picture of a white-faced, long- 
 bearded man with a little boy by his side, and in his 
 hand is a bow and arrow, with which he is shooting the 
 Heavenly Dog. The dog is the dog-star, and if the 
 " fate " of the family is under this star there will be 
 no son, or the child will be short-lived. Chang Sien is 
 
412 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 shooting this dog. "All that is known respecting the 
 introduction of this name into the Chinese pantheon is 
 an incident in the history of Mrs. Hwa Jui, who, when 
 brought from Shuh to grace the harem of the founder 
 of the Sung dynasty, a.d. 960, is said to have secretly 
 
 Shooting the Heavenly Dog, 
 
 preserved the portrait of her former lord, the Prince of 
 Shuh, whose memory she passionately cherished. Jea- 
 lously questioned by her new consort respecting her 
 devotion to this picture, she declared it to be the repre- 
 sentation of a divine being called Chang Sien, the patron 
 of child-bearing women." 
 
The Star Gods. 
 
 413 
 
 Happiness, Office, and Age. — This group of star 
 deities is worshipped more than any other, and this 
 scroll hangs in a hundred thousand homes, for besides 
 happiness, office, and length of life, the Chinese only 
 pray for riches and sons. The picture is worshipped at 
 
 Stars of Happiness, Office, and Age. 
 
 the feast in the reception hall with the usual kneelings 
 and knockings. 
 
 Birthday services are of frequent occurrence, especially 
 on the sixtieth, seventieth, and eiglitieth anniversaries 
 of the natal day. Among merchants, at such a time, the 
 counters are removed from the shop, and the clerks with 
 some near relatives or friends join the proprietor in 
 
414 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 kneeling and chanting prayers all day long before the 
 character " Age,"' which is gilt and is four feet high. 
 Sometimes a red scroll with one hundred golden "Ages" 
 hangs before them, to which they present thanksgiving 
 and prayers. 
 
 The Cycle gods. — There are sixty years in a cycle, 
 and over each of these presides a special star deity ; a 
 man worships the one which gave light at the time he 
 arrived on terra firma, and at each succeeding birthday 
 he lights candles before the image. Around the wall, 
 in life size, stand these sixty grotesque 
 images, and the skill of the idol- 
 makers was put to the test to devise 
 such a large number of different- 
 looking men ; white, black, yellow, and 
 red ; ferocious gods with vindictive 
 eye-balls popping out, and gentle 
 faces as expressive as a lump of putty ; 
 ;^ g,r some looking like men and some like 
 
 women, and in one temple I saw one 
 of the sixty was in the form of a hog, and one like a goose. 
 Here is an image with arms protruding out of his eye- 
 sockets, and eyes in the palms of his hands, looking down- 
 ward to see the secret things within the earth. See that 
 rabbit, Minerva-like, jumping from the divine head; again, 
 a mud-rat emerges from his occipital hiding-place, and 
 lo ! "a snake comes coiling from the brain of another god," 
 — so the long line serves as models for an artist who 
 desires to study the fantastic. 
 
 The Twenty-eight Constellations. — Sacrifices are 
 offered to these by the Emperor on the marble altar of 
 
The Star Gods. 
 
 415 
 
 Heaven, and by the mandarins throughout the eighteen 
 provinces. 
 
 1. The Horned constellation is propitious. 2. The Neck 
 constellation betokens drought. 3. The Bottom constella- 
 tion is unpropitious ; if business is started it will end 
 in bankruptcy, burial will be followed by suicide in future 
 
 generations, marriage by divorce, and a journey by 
 disasters. 4. The Room constellation is lucky. 5. The 
 Heart constellation brings lawsuits and imprisonments. 
 
 6. The Tail constellation promotes riches and honour. 
 
 7. The Sieve constellation brings luck to the family 
 graves, and the flocks cover the hills. 8. The Busiiel 
 
4i6 The Dj^agon, Image , and Demon. 
 
 constellation is propitious. 9. The Cow constellation is 
 the reverse. 10. The Female constellation is worst of 
 all; sisters are unchaste and brothers are as tigers 
 and leopards ; hobgoblins abound and diseases invade. 
 
 11. The Empty constellation does not give abundance. 
 
 12. The Danger constellation is fraught with evil. 
 
 Paper Gods. 
 
 13. The House constellation is fortunate, and so is 
 (14) the Wall constellation. 15. The Astride constellation 
 is unlucky. 16. The Mound constellation is propitious. 
 .17 The Stomach constellation is also propitious. 
 18. The Mao constellation is unlucky. 19. The End 
 constellation is fortunate. 20. The Bristling constella- 
 
The Star Gods. 417 
 
 tion is the same. 21. The Mixed constellation is un- 
 propitious. 2'1. The Well constellation brings luck. 
 23. The Demon constellation portends terror. 24. The 
 Willow constellation is almost as bad, and {2^^) the Star 
 constellation is not much better. 26. The Drawn-bow 
 constellation wings an arrow of peace. 27. The Wing 
 constellation in its aerial flight brings misfortune. 
 28. The Kevolving constellation brings prosperity on 
 its orbit. 
 
 Star Worship — The worship of the stars is carried on 
 in Chinese homes either by astrologers who are invited 
 to conduct the services or by Taoist priests. In times 
 of sickness they have ten paper star-gods, five good on 
 one side and five bad on the other ; a feast is placed 
 before them, and it is supposed that when the bad 
 have eaten enough they will take their flight to the 
 south-west ; the good are propitiated in the hope that 
 they will expel the evil stars and so happiness may 
 be obtained. The star deities are adored by parents in 
 behalf of their children ; they control courtship and 
 marriage, bring prosperity or adversity in business, send 
 pestilence and war, regulate rain-fall and drought, and 
 command angels and demons ; so every event in life is 
 determined by the ^' star ruler," who at that time from 
 the shining firmament manages the destinies of men and 
 nations. Astrology spreads its dread pall over night- 
 cursed China. 
 
 Good and Bad Stars.— The "All Stars Board" of 
 divinities was constituted by Kiang T'aikung, who com- 
 missioned his slain generals to be rulers over the thirty- 
 three propitious and the seventy-nine malignant stars. 
 
 27 
 
41 8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 The Chinese list gives one hundred and twenty-nine 
 lucky and unlucky stars, which with the sixty cycle 
 stars and the twenty-eight constellations, besides a vast 
 multitude of the diamonds in the sky, form a celestial 
 galaxy for terrestrial adoration. 
 
 Of the propitious stars are the Sun Star, under which a 
 
 man will never be poor; the Heaven-forgiveness Star, which 
 
 old men worship four days of the year, and for which old 
 
 women wear the " Forgiveness Hair-pin ; " the Emperor's 
 
 Favour-star, adored by all graduates ; the Star of Healing, 
 
 which gives a fine practice to phy- 
 
 fH^fflSliai^^^lit sicians who worship it ; the Orphan 
 
 tiil&lillli ^^^^' ^^^^^^ enables a woman to 
 
 f5*Sita^"% become a man, and the Star of 
 
 gflitli^"^>3 J.^5;^ Pleasure, which decides on matches, 
 
 ^_^^%'^MjM.^i\ ^^^ ^^s silver cords with which to 
 
 '^llf mill bind the feet of those destined to 
 
 List of Propitious Stars, be lovers. All Soochowites annually 
 
 inquire of the astrologers if the 
 
 Star of Pleasure is to shine upon their home ; under its 
 
 favouring light the betrothed maiden marries, the widow 
 
 enjoys uninterrupted health, and the child will have all 
 
 the embroidered clothes and pretty toys he desires. 
 
 To worship the unpropitious stars, a lucky day on 
 which the lucky star-gods rule is chosen, that they may 
 accept the sacrifice and drive away the bad stars, so the 
 good and the evil in the celestial abodes are continually 
 at strife as they are within the heart of man. During 
 the sacrifice they put a fish, called the " hen fish," in a 
 tub of water under the table, and suppose that the 
 malignant star rulers enter it and leave, as this fish 
 
7 lie Shir Gods. 419 
 
 worships the stars, and should it forget any night to say 
 its prayers, the next day it is trapped. Thus astrology 
 is but a species of witchcraft or demonolatry. 
 
 Some of the fierce stars are the Morning Star, which 
 if not worshipped father or mother will die that year ; 
 the White-tiger Star, under which misfortune will attend 
 every undertaking, the ruler of which was first killed and 
 then canonized by Kiang T'aikung ; the Piercing-bone 
 Star, which produces rheumatism ; the Balustrade Star, 
 the promoter of lawsuits and litigations ; the Thief Star, 
 which is " three-handed ; " the Three-corpse Star for 
 
 List of Evil stars. 
 
 suicides ; the Iron-broom Star of ill fame ; the Ten-evils' 
 Star, which sends to prison ; the Peach-blossom Star, 
 producing lunacy ; the Sackcloth Star, betokening mourn- 
 ing ; the Knife Star, an execution ; the P^ive Poor Stars, 
 penury ; the Broken Star is for widows ; the Floating and 
 Drowning Star for the perishing; and the Male and 
 Female-wrong Star, under which, if a young lady is born, 
 it is absolutely necessary to change her age, for no man 
 would marry her, because her father or mother-in-law 
 would immediately be laid in the grave, but if she puts 
 her birthday in another year, she will not die an old maid. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE IMMORTALS. 
 
 THE tales of the genii or the immortals found in 
 Chinese books satisfy the national craving for 
 fictitious literature, and might be termed "divine fiction;" 
 it also enables the writer to be graphic, as he is not 
 hampered by natural laws, for in an instant he can divest 
 his characters of mortality and let them, invisible and 
 immaterial, soar through space, so that in the descrip- 
 tions there is a decided air of the marvellous. Let the 
 characters of some noted novelist be canonized, and let 
 men adore and pray to them, and we have w^iat Taoist 
 romance has given to a people longing for something 
 better than flesh and blood. This state of terrestrial 
 immortality the doctors of this religion substitute for 
 the Buddhist Paradise, and to this they invite their 
 devotees, though practically the ranks are full, and it is 
 not supposed that men of this age will attain the joys 
 of the gods of the hills and forests. " The primitive 
 Chinese tales of hermits and genii have perpetuated the 
 recollection of many fabulous and semi-fabulous in- 
 dividuals belonging to the early centuries of the nation's 
 history. Among them are not a few hermits and 
 alchemists, men of rigid morals and having a fondness 
 
TJie IiiiDiortals. 421 
 
 for solitude, seekers of the plant that confers immortality, 
 and students of the hidden love of mystics, and magicians 
 who under the title of seen jin form the mass of the 
 inhabitants of Heaven." 
 
 P'eng Lai Islands. — One of the most beautiful cities 
 in China, embowered in trees and with a girdle of hills, 
 is Tungchow, upon the north side of the Shantung 
 promontory, the county seat of the P'eng Lai district. 
 Its poetic name is taken from the promontory overlooking 
 the Gulf of Pechelle, from whence an emperor in ancient 
 days despatched an expedition in search of the P'eng Lai 
 islands, the abodes of the blissful immortals. " These 
 islands, it was believed in the third century B.C., were to 
 be found in the Eastern Sea, opposite to the coast of 
 China. They are all inhabited by genii, whose lustrous 
 forms are nourished upon the gems which lie scattered 
 upon their shores, or with the fountain of life which 
 flows perennially for their enjoyment.*' This is the 
 Eastern Paradise of Taoists. There is also a mountain 
 in the western province in Szecheun, called Mount Ts'ing 
 Chen, which "is reputed in Taoist legend as one of the 
 sanctuaries of the genii, and it is said to possess seventy- 
 two caves. The Taoist books call this mountain the 
 Fifth-cave Heaven, and describe it as the general place 
 of assemblage for the gods and genii." 
 
 Five Kinds of Immortals. — There are five classes 
 of genii or supernatural beings. I. Demon Immortals ; 
 "disembodied spirits, having no resting-place in the 
 abodes either of mankind or the happier immortals, denied 
 alike metempsychosis and eternal bliss." 2. Human 
 Immortals ; " men who have succeeded in freeing them- 
 
42 2 The Dragon, linage, and Demon. 
 
 selves from perturbation of spirit and the infirmities of 
 the flesh." 3. Earthly Immortals ; " human beings who 
 have attained to immortality in the existing world." 
 4. Deified Immortals ; " immortalized spirits who have 
 bidden farewell to earth and have departed to roam 
 among the Three Islands of the blessed." 5. Celestial 
 Immortals ; " those who have attained to consummate 
 purity and perpetual life in Heaven." 
 
 The Eight Immortals. — 
 The Eight Immortals are 
 favourite characters of Chinese 
 romance, and special objects 
 of adoration. An artistic 
 method is to embroider them 
 on silk and hang as a pair of 
 scrolls. Leu Chen Yang has 
 been noticed in the chapter 
 on Medical Divinities. 
 
 Han Chunglee — This, the 
 first of the genii, is variously 
 placed in the Han and Chow 
 dynasties. As to his appear- 
 ance, he is full set, corporeally considered, has a red face, 
 long hair, and two bunches of hair on the sides of his 
 head. "He is said to have encountered the Patriarch 
 of the Genii, who revealed to him the mystic formula 
 of longevity and the secret of the powder of transmutation 
 and of magic craft. He eventually became admitted 
 among the genii, and has appeared from time to time on 
 earth as the messenger of Heaven." 
 
 T'ih Kwalee. — He was one of the gentry, but one day, 
 
 Han Chunglee. 
 
The Ininiortals. 
 
 423 
 
 when his " spiritual man " was out roaming around, a wild 
 beast ate his body, so when the spirit returned it found 
 only the skeleton, but fortunately near by was a beggar's 
 corpse, black and lame ; this he took as a substitute for 
 his own body, and always walked with an iron staff, so he 
 was popularly known as Iron-staff Lee, or Mr. Lee with 
 the iron staff. The breath out of the gourd on his back 
 could in the heavens be turned into his original body. 
 
 T'ih Kwalee. 
 
 Chang Kwulao. 
 
 As a philosopher, " he devoted himself wholly to the study 
 of Taoist lore, in which he was instructed by the sage 
 Laotsze himself, who at times descended to earth, and 
 at times used to summon his pupil to interviews with 
 him in the celestial spheres." 
 
 Chang Kwulao — He was fond of legerdemain, " and 
 performed wonderful feats of necromancy." He is said to 
 have been a contemporary of the first emperors, Yao and 
 Shun, and though his years were beyond those of Methu- 
 
424 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 selab, he appeared not over fifty. He raade a paper 
 donkey, which by a breath and the sprinkling of water, 
 became a living animal, and could carry him a thousand 
 miles a day. This erratic genius rode backwards to 
 show how the Chinese looked backwards and not 
 forwards. 
 
 Han Siangtsze. — He was a nephew of the great 
 scholar Han Yii ; left home when a child, and returned on 
 
 Han Siangtsze. 
 
 Lan Ts'aiho. 
 
 the birthday of his uncle, who inquired, " What have you 
 been doing all these years ? " He replied, " I have been 
 engaged in transcendental study, and have learned the 
 magical arts." As a proof he dashed a glass of wine on 
 the floor, which was immediately changed into a nosegay ; 
 and upon each flower there was a delicate character, 
 making a couplet, which was a prophecy in reference to 
 Han Yii ; this was shortly fulfilled. It is said that Han 
 Siangtsze having been carried up to the supernatural 
 
The Inivwrtals. 
 
 425 
 
 peach tree of the genii, fell from its branches, and in 
 descending entered upon the state of immortality. 
 
 Lan Ts aiho. — '• A legendary being, usually reputed 
 as a female. She wandered abroad, clad in a tattered blue 
 gown, with one foot shoeless and the other shod, wearing 
 in summer a wadded garment, and in winter choosing snow 
 and ice for a sleeping-place. In this guise this weird 
 person begged a livelihood in the streets, waving a wand 
 
 Ts'ao Kwohk'iu. 
 
 Ho Sienkoo. 
 
 aloft, and chanting a doggerel verse denunciatory of fleet- 
 ing life and its delusive pleasures," hoping by this means 
 to rectify the conduct of men. 
 
 Ts'ao Kwohk'iu. — He was a brother-in-law of one of 
 the emperors of the Sung dynasty. He was known by a 
 bad nickname, which he obtained from his brother. He 
 is one of the characters of Taoist fable. 
 
 Ho Sienkoo. — This maiden immortal, "when fourteen 
 years old, dreamed that a spirit gave her instruction in the 
 
426 The D^^agon^ Image, and Demon. 
 
 art of obtaining immortality, to achieve which she was to 
 eat the powder of mother-of-pearl. She complied with 
 this injunction, and vowed herself to a life of virginity. 
 Her days were thenceforth passed in solitary wanderings 
 among the hills, where she passed to and fro as though 
 endowed with wings, returning to her home at night with 
 the herbs she gathered during her lonely pilgrimages. 
 She gradually renounced the use of the ordinary food of 
 
 Gods ot Marriage. 
 
 mortals, and the fame of her wondrous mode of life having 
 reached the Empress Wu, that sovereign summoned her 
 to the court ; but while journeying thither she suddenly 
 disappeared from mortal view. She is said to have been 
 seen once more, in a.d. 750, floating upon a cloud of many 
 colours, and again, some years later, she was revealed to 
 human sight in the city of Canton." This young lady is 
 the last of the Eight Immortals. 
 
 Gods of Marriage. — Peace and Union are their appro- 
 
The Immortals. 427 
 
 priate names, and they are only worshii)ped while the 
 marriage ceremony is being performed. Peace and Union 
 are two little boys with straight hair, one holding in his 
 hand a lily, and the other a spherical casket. " Ho '" for 
 peace and " ho " for lily are the same in sound ; " heh " 
 for union and '' heh " for casket also sound alike, which 
 symphony is considered very propitious. In contrast to 
 this happy combination, on each side hang the dragon and 
 tiger scrolls as a warning to the happy couple. 
 
 The Immortal Ma.— Ma Koo is the only immortal 
 that Soochow has furnished the pantheon, and his temple 
 is outside the south gate of the city. 
 
 Two Brothers and the Dog. — It is related that Wei 
 Pehyang, " having devoted himself in a mountain retreat 
 to the preparation of the elixir of immortality, at length 
 completed the magic powder, which, by way of experi- 
 ment, he administered to a dog. The animal instantly fell 
 dead, but, undismayed, Wei Pehyang himself swallowed a 
 portion of the drug, and likewise expired immediately. 
 His elder brother, still confiding in the virtues of the 
 elixir, next swallowed a dose, with the same result. The 
 third brother remarking that if this were the result of 
 the search after immortality it seemed better to leave the 
 quest alone, went to prepare for the interment of the 
 bodies. He had scarcely turned his back when Wei 
 Pehyang, arose, and completing the mixture of his drugs, 
 placed a portion in the mouth of his brother and the dog, 
 both of whom at once revived. The two brothers and the 
 dog forthwith entered upon immortality, and became 
 enrolled among the ranks of the genii." 
 
 The Rosebud Immortal. — During the Sung dynasty 
 
428 The Di^agon^ Image, and Demon, 
 
 there was a little boy named Lei Hai. He is represented 
 in the pictures with a string of gold cash in his hand and 
 a three-legged frog bj his side. In the processions they 
 make his doll image of rosebuds and seat him on the 
 pole, to which is suspended the great gong, borne by 
 two men, so that he has a happy ride. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 AFTER DEATH, THE SEVEN-SEVENS. 
 
 ~TTT"HENEVER the subject of death is mentioned a 
 ' ^ Chinaman invariably laughs. It is a difficult 
 phenomenon to account for, save on the general principle 
 of antipodes, for when we hear that a friend has died the 
 tears naturally fall. They never use the word " death," 
 but substitute an euphemism, — " gone,'' " passed away," 
 "returned home;" poetically — ''travelling by the Yellow 
 Spring," and prosaically, in more common parlance, " stuck 
 up the pig-tail." They avoid every unlucky allusion to 
 the subject, and the Chinese are truly the people "who 
 through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to 
 bondage." With many it is " the great unknown." The 
 preparation for death is often, according to their ideas, 
 attended to. The question is often asked, " Old man, 
 are you prepared for death ? " and the stereotyped reply 
 is, " Oh yes, I have my clothes and coffin." " Have you 
 any one to rely on after death ? " " Yes, I have a son 
 and a grandson." In many a Chinese parlour you see 
 the old man's coffin standing in one corner and the old 
 woman's in the other ; large, black, uninviting places of 
 repose, made of wood three inches thick ; in their esteem 
 our neat caskets are " beggar coffins," because the wood 
 of which they are made is so thin. 
 
430 The Dragon, Image, a7td Demon. 
 
 Do the dead live ? There are no rehgions which pay 
 more attention to the state of the soul after death than 
 do Buddhism and Taoism. The spirits of the departed are 
 in the hands of the living, and it is a convenient way of 
 passing through this world with no care for the life to 
 come, feeling secure that relatives and priests will supply 
 all necessities in the unknown land. There are nearly 
 fifteen special services — think of fifteen funerals! — 
 during the seven-sevens or the forty-nine days after 
 death. 
 
 The Corpse.— The body of the dead is laid out, 
 generally in the front room of the house, on boards 
 resting on benches ; one foot is placed in a peck basket 
 (to detect any signs of life), paper sycee is laid over the 
 eyes, incense burned at the feet, and a pavilion, like a 
 mosquito net, is made, behind which mourning women 
 utter loud and bitter lamentations. The first ceremony 
 after death is to burn a suit of clothes and a cotton 
 comforter for the departed to use in Hades. As the sick 
 man approaches the dark river his friends make ready 
 quantities of ting or ''joss paper," which is burnt when 
 his pulse ceases to beat, so that the soul on entering 
 the other world will not be penniless. '' The coffin and 
 burial clothes form most important items in the list of 
 things deemed necessary for the respectability, comfort, 
 and repose of a man in the spirit world. The clothes 
 must be new, with satin cap and boots ; the corpse dressed 
 as if for a feast. A man's respectability in the other 
 world is as much affected by his personal appearance as 
 in this life. Hence the relatives and family of a deceased 
 person often impoverish themselves for years, in order to 
 
After Death, the Seven Sevens. 431 
 
 provide a decent burial." A cup of water is placed at 
 the door, to help the spirit to clear its throat. 
 
 In some of the cities of North China whenever a death 
 occurs the god of the precinct is informed. The friends 
 take an earthen vessel of millet gruel and sprinkle it 
 about the temple, giving a fee to the priest, who keeps 
 a register of the deaths which occur, and, in a recent 
 cholera epidemic in Tungchow, a person could find out 
 the approximate number of deaths daily by inquiring at 
 the T'ldee Miao. 
 
 The next point requiring attention is the selection of a 
 site for a grave, which brings us to the consideration of 
 
 Fungshuy. — Fungshiiy, literally " wind and water," 
 or " the influences of wind and water," is the most 
 prominent of the superstitions ingrained into the con- 
 stitution of the Chinese. It does not fall within the 
 limits of this volume to discuss its origin and growth, 
 its wide-spread influence, the rude elements of natural 
 science it embraces, or how it retards progress, forbids 
 railways, closes coal mines, prevents enterprise, checks 
 new efforts at advancement, " interrupts the free thought 
 of the people, and keeps them wrapped in the mummy 
 folds of ancient prejudices." It is only to deal with 
 fungshuy as it touches upon the domain of religion, 
 especially the rites practised concerning the dead and 
 the choice of a location for the tomb ; in this respect it 
 is a " black art." 
 
 1. The first point to be noted is the relation between 
 the living and the dead ; the quiet of the one ensuring 
 the peace and prosperity of the other, and the unrest of 
 the dead causing them to wander back home " and avenge 
 
432 The Di^agon, Image ^ and Demon. 
 
 themselves by withholding from the living prosperity and 
 happiness." " It is therefore considered a matter of prime 
 importance in selecting a place for the family grave, 
 that it should be done with reference to conserving the 
 interest and happiness of both parties." 
 
 2. The Chinese notice that when cold blasts blow 
 from the north the autumn leaves of the forest fall 
 to the ground, and that nature puts on the attire of 
 death, but when the gentle zephyrs of spring with their 
 genial influences blow from the south the earth is 
 carpeted with grass, the trees put forth their foliage, 
 and the hills are fragrant with flowers, so they infer that 
 baneful influences proceed from the north, and that the 
 south is benign, genial, and animating. Thus the grave 
 to be propitious must be on the southern side of the hill, 
 and the horse-shoe embankment, which surrounds the 
 mound, must have its opening to the south ; if it has 
 not the rising bluff in the rear, a cluster of trees will 
 act as a shield. 
 
 3. Another point in fungshuy is the relation between 
 the five planets and the five elements ; the rotary course 
 of Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn find their 
 counterparts in the permutations of wood, fire, metal, 
 water, and earth, by which names these planets are called. 
 With this is the relation between the planets and the 
 hills ; the terrestrial being a dim reflex of the splendid 
 scenery of heaven's firmament, and the skill of the fung- 
 shuy professor or geomancer lies in being able at a 
 glance to say that this mountain with a flat summit is 
 wood, and the peak jutting clear and sharp is fire, — the 
 tomb must not lie between these two incompatibles. 
 
After Death, the Seven-Sevens. 433 
 
 4. A fourth consideration is the position of the 
 dragon and the tiger. " The luck-bringing site must 
 have the dragon on the left and the tiger on the right. 
 The geomancer must determine by his skill which 
 elevation is the dragon and which ridge the tiger, and 
 by his compass the favourable point of conjunction where 
 the ashes of the dead requiescat in pace" 
 
 5. By a grave the course of the rippling brook is 
 noted, and the direction of the current is taken. " Riches 
 and rank are personified by the undisturbed flow of the 
 stream, and if due care is taken by the geomancer, a 
 perpetual stream of honour and wealth may be expected 
 to flow into the possession of the family." This is the 
 element of shuy or " water." 
 
 6. The element of fung or " wind " is equally im- 
 portant. " A grave should not have a hollow near it. 
 The wind will blow into the grave from that hollow and 
 gradually disturb the bones and the coffin." In ten 
 years they will be one-half turned over, and in twenty 
 years entirely turned over. An outer wind must not 
 invade the chambers of the dead for fear the family 
 fortunes will be overturned, so the aim of the geomancer 
 must be to find a spot where " the cold air which issues 
 from the earth is hidden, and if there is no hollow there 
 will be no outlet by which the pernicious wind will 
 disturb the dead." 
 
 7. One of the most unfortunate circumstances is for 
 a snake or a turtle to issue from the grave ; the living 
 exclaim, " Alas ! we are ruined." This is equal to 
 opium and the T'aipings. 
 
 8. Greomancy became a profession about A.D. 1200. 
 
 28 
 
434 ^/^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 The geomancers or fiing-shuy doctors try to find how 
 the two (magnetic) currents of the earth run, the one 
 male and the other female, the one positive and the 
 other negative, the one favourable and the other un- 
 favourable. The coffin must be placed in the line of 
 
 Spreading the Lamps. 
 
 these currents, not athwart them, so as not to disturb 
 the repose of the soul. If the Chinese are priest-ridden, 
 they are no less the dupes of the geomancers, for these 
 professionals hold the " keys of the grave." They will say 
 to the elder brother, " If your father is buried this year, 
 it will be propitious to the younger brother but sad for 
 
After Death, the Seven- Sevens. 435 
 
 you," and he, of course, will not consent to the burial. 
 The next year is favourable to the elder but destructive 
 to the younger, so the coffin remains at home. The 
 third year they are perhaps short of funds. During the 
 fourth year, it may be, the geomancer finds a plot of 
 ground which he can purchase cheap and sell dear, — 
 there the grave must be. So it is seen that " the filial 
 piety of China is less sincere than is by many supposed ; 
 it is more selfish than generous, more calculating than 
 spontaneous, and is deadened by the prevailing desire 
 for riches and rank." 
 
 The Four Death 'Ceremonies. The Lamps. — The 
 Chinese put a carpet on the floor, and on it with rice draw 
 the picture of an immortal. Then they put little hillocks 
 of rice around, 21, 35, or 49 in number, and a lamp on 
 each. This is to give light in Hades. The oil and rice 
 are the perquisites of the priests. 
 
 Bathing the Soul. — The priest takes a basin of water, 
 a paper man representing the soul of the deceased, and 
 a willow branch, with which he sprinkles the paper man, 
 then gently wipes with a towel. 
 
 Crossing the Bridge. — Chairs and tables piled up 
 form the piers, and the chasm is spanned by a paper 
 bridge. The priests with gongs and cymbals pass under 
 the arch several times, then make the paper man walk 
 over the bridge. 
 
 Scattering the Cash. — According to the number of 
 the priests, bunches of cask on red cord are placed on 
 a waiter, in the centre of which is a small cake with a 
 flower on it. Each priest takes a string and jerks it 
 so as to scatter the easily which symbolizes the scattering 
 
43^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 of any unknown enmities in the spirit-world ; after this 
 there is a grab game for the copper. 
 
 Ornamental Hangings at Funerals. — Paganism 
 dehghts in the ornate, so when the priests assemble to 
 pray for souls in purgatory the hall is '' decorated in a 
 gorgeous manner with temple regalia, emblems of 
 authority in the spirit- world," and ornamented with 
 
 Paper Bridge. 
 
 embroidered scrolls, the handiwork of Chinese women. 
 The table is covered with red, there are long streamers of 
 exquisite workmanship, the " pleasure-door " is a curtain 
 with needlework of gold, the dragon tablet is of richest 
 silk, a picture of Buddha adorns the wall, while lying 
 around are drums, bells, cymbals, gongs, wooden fish-heads, 
 etc. The Buddhists on the last day have seven crowns 
 for Buddha, five kinds of food, a water-jar, rice-box, file, 
 
After Death, the Seven-Sevens. 437 
 
 knife, etc. The Taoists have spirit-ta])lets, they ^vave 
 flags and brandish swords, bring a big gong, a big drum, 
 and a big bell, which the people call "the three big 
 noises ; " the whole services are much like theatricals. 
 
 Tossing the Cymbals. — Funeral services in China 
 are entertaining as well as mournful. Tne Taoists have 
 
 Masses for the Dead. 
 
 quite a sleight of hand in tossing up the cymbals and 
 keeping quite a number in the air at one time, which 
 is a pleasant diversion in the midst of sad scenes. 
 
 Masses for the Dead. — Here is the chief source of 
 revenue to heathen religions, and the constant employ- 
 ment of their priesthood, the amount paid being accord- 
 
43^ The Dragon, Image, and Denton. 
 
 ing to the wealth of the family. During the seven weeks, 
 the first and fifth are necessarily Buddhist and the last 
 Taoist, the others at option. Each day a sumptuou s 
 feast is ordered from the restaurant for the priests. 
 There are generally five, seven, or nine of them, but if 
 it is a great funeral there may be three hundred priests, 
 who, " attired in richly embroidered imperial robes, march 
 in measured pace, chanting their incantations. This 
 ceremony of getting a man out of purgatory is continued 
 day and night, enlivened at intervals by music and 
 gong." After the services have been continued, the priests 
 in the name of the regents of Hades strike for higher 
 wages, in order to finish the work of emancipation, and 
 when they get them "they return to their work with 
 renewed zeal. The chanting is more energetic, the step 
 is much quicker, and the ringing of the abbot's bell more 
 frequent, and ere the sun sets a fearful din of gongs and 
 fire-crackers announces the deliverance of the captive." 
 
 At the Temple. — In the temples an assistant is 
 employed to toll the funeral bell for forty-nine days ; 
 it is dark in the land of spirits, but each stroke of the 
 bell causes light to flash in the chambers of Tartarus. 
 
 In addition to the masses for the dead, the sons and 
 relatives go to the city temple to burn incense, as the 
 deceased is in the same county in Hades ; also on the 
 last day the friends rub the posts of the temple, for 
 fear the gods have stuck the soul of the dead to them. 
 
 The Noxious god.— Called the Sen Shin, and the 
 time of his worship called the tsih sen ; the day is fixed 
 two or three weeks after death by the Taoists ; this is the 
 most important service during the seven weeks, and is 
 
After Death, the Seven-Sevens. 439 
 
 never omitted even by the poorest. The " noxious god," 
 who is in the form of a cock, takes the dead man's soul 
 and brings it back home. One feast is spread for the 
 *' noxious god," and another for the returning souk Upon 
 the bed on which the man died must be placed a full 
 suit of clothes. The evil deity brings the man's soul, and 
 it is the part of the Taoist priests to dismiss the " noxious 
 god " and retain the soul, which after an hour's entertain- 
 ment is allowed to leave. The day previous all the nails 
 in the house must be covered with red paper, to keep the 
 '' noxious god " from hanging the soul upon a nail. See 
 Picture, " The Breath of Death," on page 458. 
 
 Remembering the Dead.— Before the body is laid 
 in the coffin, an image of Amita is placed on the table, 
 and a string of cash is taken from the god's hand and 
 placed in the hand of the deceased, then the priests 
 and the sons try by prayer to get the lost soul out of sin 
 to the Western Paradise. 
 
 Feast to the Soul. — It is made during the first three 
 weeks after death, and it is considered that the dead 
 person alone eats. The picture of the goddess of mercy 
 is on the table, priests and relatives worship and have 
 floral decorations. 
 
 A Priest Next Time — The Buddhists have a service 
 by which men may go to Heaven after the next trans- 
 migration. During the fortvrnine days, a company of 
 priests hold a five days' worship, when an abbot takes 
 a yellow robe of paper and a paper rice-bowl and puts 
 them in a paper trunk ; then the priests march three 
 times around the coffin, and the abbot commands the 
 spirit to be a good Buddhist, — the dead man after tlie 
 
440 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 metempsychosis returns a priest, who at death may go 
 to Heaven. 
 
 The Lasc Ceremony is called hang-hyiang. On the 
 forty-ninth day they have an abbot to go to the largest 
 temple, whether Buddhist or Taoist, to burn the message 
 to Buddha, or to one of the Taoist gods. The abbot 
 in his official regalia rides in an open chair, preceded 
 by the friends of the deceased, bearers of flags and 
 streamers, a man carrying the '' fairy crane," and a 
 company of musicians, and when they arrive at the 
 temple the message to the throne is burnt to inform 
 the gods that the ceremonies are complete. It is done 
 mostly for effect as a street parade. See Chapter XXIII., 
 Picture of the Fairy Crane. 
 
 Magic Credentials. — The hih is an official passport 
 to travel in the foreign kingdom of Hades. The Taoist 
 priests go to Chang, the magician, and get a supply with 
 which they trade with the people. The rank and title 
 is according to the amount of money paid by the living, 
 and secures freedom from litigation in the other world, 
 as, without this passport, a poor man would be unable 
 to redress wrongs upon one of rank. Sometimes a 
 mandarin's batton for the land of shade is purchased 
 during life, but generally the rich obtain it for their 
 friends soon after death. After the credentials are made 
 out the priests perform high mass for the dead, confess 
 the sins of his life, and obtain forgiveness for him, and 
 the credentials are burned. They take the ashes in a 
 yellow bag, go first to the temple of the Water Immortal 
 to worship, and afterwards the yellow bag is tied to the 
 tail of a carp, and he is turned loose in the canal. 
 
/«ill|i'5i|iif;'Ilf |ii||i' 
 
442 The Dj^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 Funeral Procession. — When music is heard in the 
 streets, even the natives cannot tell from the sound 
 whether it is a coffin or a bride passing by. The picture 
 represents the procession to the grave, with the banners, 
 gong, red mandarin umbrella, fan, official sign-boards, 
 musicians, Buddhist priests, Taoist priests, happy-spirit 
 pavilion, soul sedan-chair having the tablet within, the 
 lanterns, and the coffin. When the soul sedan returns, 
 the tablet is exchanged for a " divine tablet," which is 
 placed on the " divine seat ; " the priests chant words of 
 comfort, and the ceremonies are over. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 DEMONOLATRY. 
 
 rr^HIS chapter does not embrace the whole of the 
 -■- subject, for scattered throughout the book are the 
 views of the Chinese about spirits and demons. 
 
 Calling back the Soul — Often the weird sound is 
 heard during the silent watches of the night of a man 
 calling back the soul of a sick child. The lost soul ! how 
 fearful are the words to us ! With the Chinese the sick 
 frequently lose their souls. Passing along the street a 
 foreigner sometimes sees a cloth spread on the ground and 
 some beans thrown on it. An old lady standing in the 
 street calls the child by name, " Ah-do, come back," 
 — a voice upstairs responds, " Ah." Again, a son is 
 sick. The aged mother goes in front with a lighted 
 lantern burning tinfoil money at every corner. The 
 father follows with a basket of the sick boy's clothing 
 and his hat, and utters a piercing wail, " My son, come 
 back, come back ! " At times one is behind the kitchen 
 range and the other is in front. Most frequently one is 
 on the ladder to respond, as in the picture, and the other 
 stands below to call. An insect on the roof is caught, 
 folded nicely in paper, and put beside the sick pillow, and 
 
444 ^/^^ Dragon^ Image, and Demon. 
 
 the lost soul is now found ! Sickness came from losing 
 it, and recovery follows its return home. 
 
 Accompanying the Guest. — Another device in case 
 of sickness, instead of sending for the doctor, is to sup- 
 pose that there is an evil spirit, who as a guest is 
 stopping within the sick man as at an inn, or, as it is 
 said, " The devil-guest is making a squeeze." To get rid 
 of this troublesome visitor a subtle expedient is resorted 
 
 Calling back the Soul. 
 
 to. A savoury dish of rice, meat, and eggs is prepared, a 
 lantern lit, and incense and "joss paper" burnt ; the food 
 is taken on a waiter into the sick room, which, when the 
 devil-guest smells, it will follow the old servant as she 
 takes it to the corner of another lane, and gives it as a 
 feast to the beggars. 
 
 Charms. — TheTaoists carry on a busy traffic in charms, 
 which are sheets of paper or placards with a mysterious 
 
Deinonolatry. 
 
 445 
 
 black scratch on them as if inscribed with a " chicken 
 foot." There are several different kinds of these, 
 and, stuck on the beams of houses, they are effectual in 
 keeping out evil spirits. Towards the close of the year 
 the Taoists sell them from house to house ; the best are 
 from the Dragon-tiger :Mountain, with the angel-stamp 
 
 Accompanying the Guest. 
 
 A Charm. 
 
 of Pope Chang upon them, and in this section those from 
 Mount Mao are also famous. The charms are used to 
 summon the gods, to expel the demons, to heal disease, 
 and to cleanse the house. Sometimes there are several 
 pasted to one beam. 
 
 An official stamp is considered as a powerful warder 
 
44^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 against evil influences, and if a child is sick, one is cut 
 from a proclamation and put in its queue to frighten 
 spirits. They sometimes have a scroll of four characters 
 with the Governor's seal upon it. An almanac hung 
 inside a boy's clothing is also a valuable remedy. If 
 there is a corpse lying in the street, a broom is turned 
 upside down in front of every door. In times of sickness 
 
 Chung Kw'ei. 
 
 the evil spirits hover around, but when the party dies, 
 these leave also. At the birth of children attendant 
 demons throng the room. 
 
 Chung Kw'ei. — "An imaginary being, believed to 
 wield powers of exorcism over malignant demons, and 
 frequently depicted as an aged man clad in ragged 
 apparel," and holding a fan to his face to conceal his 
 ugliness. An ancient emperor once saw him going into 
 
Demo7tolatry. 
 
 447 
 
 a house, and asked him, "What are you going there for?" 
 He answered, ''To catch evil spirits." During the fifth 
 moon his picture is sold and hung as a charm. 
 
 Fifth Moon, Fifth Day. — At this feast a bunch of 
 sweet flag leaves, rushes, and garlic is hung in the foim 
 of a sword in front of every door ; demons can stand a 
 good deal, but they cannot endure the fragrance of onions. 
 
 Lake Lamps. 
 
 The fifth moon is a " poison month." and the people all 
 the time have to beware of devils. 
 
 Street Guards. — Little deities, guardians of the peace, 
 are at every comer and in every niche. Especially where 
 a street meets a blank wall, it is necessary to have a 
 stone with an inscription on it, an image, or a tiger's head, 
 inserted in the masonry to confront the flying spirit and 
 send it howling down the other way. If a well is opposite 
 a house a tiger's head is painted on the wall. 
 
 Spirit of the House.— When Soochowites move, they 
 
44^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 inquire of the landlord if the regular sacrifice has been 
 offered to the " spirit of the residence." The feast is 
 offered on a bench at the door, and it guards the ancestral 
 service from intruding spirits. 
 
 Cleansing the house.— If there has been a death in a 
 house, or a suicide, Taoist priests are called to clean the 
 house, not from dirt and filth, but to get rid of all that is 
 unpropitious. In the day the priests chant, and at night 
 an abbot is invited, who stands beside the altar to burn 
 the charms and to summon the regents of the skies. The 
 abbot wrings off the head of a chicken, pours the blood 
 into a cup, and sprinkles it in the halls and courts, and 
 dticks up a charm in every room, lest the family live in 
 perpetual dread. 
 
 Floating Water Lamps — The spirits under the 
 water, or that travel by water, need light, so the priests on 
 a boat put a piece of lighted resin on a little bunch of 
 straw, and the whole canal is beautifully illuminated 
 by these floating lamps ; it is a charming night 
 scene. 
 
 Paper Clothing Store. — This is the most enterprising 
 business in Soochow, and year by year new goods adorn 
 the counters. The trunks with brass paper locks are 
 filled with every kind of clothing ; if for a man, they are 
 mandarin robes, official hat and top boots, with all kinds 
 of underclothes, paper nail boots for the rain, etc. ; if for 
 women, their garments are painted as if of the richest 
 embroidery, and are truly very beautiful patterns. The 
 assortment of goods comprises chairs, tables, beds, mos- 
 quito nets, bed-spreads, pillows, sedan-chairs, horses, men- 
 servants, maid-servants, cups, tea-pots, basins, writing 
 
Denionolatry. 
 
 449 
 
 materials, tobacco-pipes, opium-pipes, fans, musical in- 
 struments, clocks and watches, these last such perfect 
 imitations that for years I thought them genuine. 
 
 Preparation for Heaven — Sometimes an aged couple 
 feel that it is time for them to prepare for the other 
 world. A '^ house," with '' many mansions '' of reeds and 
 
 Paper Clothing Store. 
 
 paper, covers a plot of ground ; the kitchen, the servants' 
 quarters, the reception halls, and bedrooms are made com- 
 plete with every article of needful furniture ; trunks of 
 clothing and bags of money are piled within ; the father 
 leads the daughter and the son the mother, as they with 
 the chanting priests pass around, then the fire is kindled 
 
 29 
 
45^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 and the paper is quickly consumed, but the reeds must 
 be beaten down with poles : the lurid flames scarcely 
 remind one of the city whose "Builder and Maker is 
 God." The priests furnish title deeds to this property, 
 which must also be committed to the flames. 
 
 The "Lily-boat" (South China). 
 
 The Bank of Hades — The priests sometimes give 
 notice by gongs and placards that they will despatch a 
 treasure-boat to Hades; the old women all bring their 
 strings of silvered paper to the boat, which is placed by 
 the canal, till it is full of its precious freight, when, after 
 the amply-rewarded priests march around and chant, it is 
 
452 The Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 burnt ; a cheque on the Bank of Hades being handed to 
 each one who makes a deposit. 
 
 Travelling in Hades — From the well-watered region 
 surrounding Soochow a man takes a '' lily-boat " to travel 
 on the Grrand Canal of Tartarus, burning it as he starts 
 on his journey, not like the North American Indian, who 
 places his canoe on the mountain side. 
 
 But in North China travelling is done almost entirely 
 by carts, whose axles turn under the body. These carts 
 are without springs, so that they go bump, bump, now 
 in a hole and then against a stone, over roads rough 
 beyond description. The departed soul is thought to 
 travel by the same kind of conveyance in the spirit land, 
 so the mourning family always sends by combustion, 
 which is the packet-post between the two worlds, a full- 
 sized paper cart, with paper horses, and from twenty to 
 fifty outriders and gangs of servants, so that the man 
 can make a princely entrance into the hill country of 
 Hades. 
 
 Headless Ghosts. — The views of the Chinese as seen 
 above are materialistic in the extreme. Decapitation 
 makes a headless soul in Hades. During the T'aiping 
 troubles as much as ;S666 was paid for a head to be buried 
 with a body, so as to make a respectable appearance in 
 the other world. " The practice of suspending in pul:)lic 
 places the heads of decapitated men is as much designed 
 to inspire fear of severe punishment in the other world as 
 of the executioner's knife in this." 
 
 Cannot die in the Inn — The fear of a Chinese to 
 have any one die in his house is so great that a sick 
 stranger will be taken from the hotel and put on the 
 
Demonolatry. 
 
 453 
 
 bridge to breathe his last. The busy throng, as it passes 
 carelessly by, casts but a listless glance at the dying form 
 of a fellow-creature. There is not one pitying heart in 
 all the crowd to exclaim indignantly, Who did this act of 
 cruelty ? Not one who has enough love toward humanity 
 to pick the sufferer up and let him die comfortably in his 
 home ; not one Good Samaritan, — 
 they all " pass by on the other side." 
 Suicides — Perhaps there is no 
 other country where this terrible crime 
 is so alarmingly prevalent. The appeals 
 for help to foreigners in an interior 
 city, from the friends of the dying, 
 are frequent. It is often attempted 
 in a fit of passion. Eevenge is the 
 object sought, and when "a man is 
 dead he is in the position to avenge 
 himself of all the injuries he may 
 have thought himself the subject." 
 " So prevalent is the opinion that the 
 dead have power over the living, 
 that it is by no means an uncommon 
 tragedy for a person having an irre- 
 concilable difficulty with another, to take his life in order 
 to place himself in a position to be avenged." Many a 
 young woman, after a severe beating by her husband or 
 mother-in-law, with a dose of opium goes into the other 
 world that she may return and take revenge on her 
 oppressors. In the examination hall the essay of a 
 literary man may be spoiled by the returning spirit of 
 a woman whose virtue he robbed, and who, on taking 
 
 A Pillar to Tranquillize 
 Drowned Spirits, 
 
454 ^^^^ Dragon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 the fatal dose, expressed the wish that she might not be 
 transmigrated but remain a suicidal ghost to haunt her 
 deceiver. 
 
 Drowned Spirits — The souls of the drowned are sup- 
 posed to remain under the water for three years, when 
 they seize some other man, pull him into the water, and 
 escape. Boatmen are in continual dread of these drowned 
 demons, and men sometimes at dusk suppose they see 
 them squatting beside the waters edge. Stone pillars 
 are erected on the unfortunate spots in order to control 
 the souls of the drowned. 
 
 Lunacy. — Chinese physicians say that lunacy comes 
 from the phlegm which seals up the orifices of the heart. 
 The Taoists ascribe it to demons, and they are called in ; 
 they require the lunatic to drink water with the ashes of 
 a charm in it, and the gods are requested to come and 
 drive away the demon. " The Chinese consider that all 
 mad persons are possessed with a devil, and that the only 
 cure is to make the sufferer prostrate himself before the 
 god called " The Eastern Peak." In Hangchow these 
 unfortunates are locked up at night in a room filled with 
 hideous figures, representing the punishments of hell. 
 In the midst of yells to frighten away the devil within 
 the lunatic's body, and the flames of an immense pile of 
 paper money lighting up the whole court as if it were 
 noon-day, a poor wretch is hurried into the idol's presence 
 and made to prostrate himself. He is pronounced guilty, 
 and a number of blows are ordered ; these are bestowed 
 upon a straw figure which is his representative. 
 
 Demoniacal Possession. — On this topic what is 
 written is merely tentative. In speaking with a friend 
 
Demonolatry. 455 
 
 on the subject, lie asked me, " Will you not obtain some 
 well-authenticated cases ? " I assured him that " wdl- 
 aidhenticated cases on any question did not exist in 
 Claina." There are, however, some suggestive thoughts 
 on the topic. 
 
 1. P'irst, there is a universal belief in this section 
 of the country as to demoniacal possession. This does 
 not prove anything, but as most of their religious errors 
 have a slight basis of truth, it is not impossible that so 
 general an impression might be in a small degree based 
 on facts. 
 
 2. Soochow is a witch-ridden city. To the south-east 
 near the hills their number is legion, and outside the 
 north-east gate some years ago the mandarins had to issue 
 proclamations against them, so thoroughly demoralizing 
 was the effect upon the people. They are to be seen 
 calling up spirits from Hades, which descend on the 
 smoke of an incense stick and take possession of the 
 witch's body, so that her words are the words of the 
 departed, and there she sits tossing her head backwards, 
 from side to side, and rolling her eyes wildly as she rants 
 a jargon, partly inarticulate. 
 
 '■ Many women in China at times fall into a trance 
 followed by frenzy, and are consulted as spirit mediums 
 or interpreters of the gods, whose mouthpiece they are 
 supposed to become." " The familiar spirit takies posses- 
 sion of the medium at any moment and without invita- 
 tion." •' Almost every village has one or more spirit 
 mediums, each having his or her familiar spirit. If 
 spiritualism is good, China ought to be one of the most 
 enlightened and holy of countries. But though spirit 
 
45^ The Dragon, Image, and Demon 
 
 mediums are so numerous, no practical wisdom has come 
 from the other world through them. While they swarm 
 in China, they fail, as in England and America, to 
 convey any useful knowledge to mankind." 
 
 3. There are, outside the city, bad gods who deal with 
 those possessed with devils. One of the most noted 
 temples has twice within a century been demolished by 
 
 Exorcising the Demon Fox. 
 
 the officials. The forms that demonolatry assume are 
 manifold. 
 
 Catching Demons. — In the historical books there are 
 accounts "of hogs crying, dragons fighting, stones talking, 
 and of voices in the temples. At the sound of the wind, 
 the rustling of the leaves, or the voice of the birds, the 
 people think there are demons. They call the Taoists 
 to burn the charms, brandish the swords, and call the 
 gods to arrest the evil spirits, and sometimes the affluent 
 
Demonolatry. 457 
 
 ask Pope Chang to despatch a messenger to exorcise the 
 demons. 
 
 China the Land of Demons. — The people beheve 
 that evil spirits flit hither and thither, so in front of the 
 door there are protection walls to shield the living from 
 the intrusion of the dead. The house walls are built 
 high and the windows open in the courts only, so as to 
 prevent the ingress of spirits ; there are no straight 
 passages, for as spirits travel in bee-lines, in order to 
 intercept their progress the passages are zigzag ; and 
 there is a succession of screen-doors which meet you at 
 every turn ; the object- is to build the residence demon- 
 proof. In front of the door lime is often sprinkled in 
 the shape of spears and swords to frighten the invisible 
 intruders. " Thus the Chinese have been taught to 
 consider themselves as constantly surrounded by a spirit 
 world, invisible indeed and inaccessible to touch or hand- 
 ling, but none the less real, none the less influential." 
 They do not consider the inhabitants of the other world 
 as a separate class of beings, but look upon all spirits, 
 demons, and devils, as the souls of dead men ; and when 
 they view the dense population of these vast plains, and 
 consider that each Chinaman has three souls, it is no 
 wonder they think, ^' Seeing we are compassed about with 
 so great a cloud" of demons. Such is the version of 
 Taoism. " The system seems to dog their steps, and let 
 loose billions of malevolent, malignant, and ruthless spirits 
 to trouble them. Though they see them not, hosts of 
 them may be all about them seeking opportunity to inflict 
 some injury, so that to the fanciful mind of a Chinese, 
 a numberless host of invisible beings are about him, 
 
45 8 The Dj^agon, Image, and Demon. 
 
 concealed at every corner, wandering through the air, 
 and their sounds, weird and eerie, are heard in the 
 darkness of the night as the wind howls about the roof. 
 The dread of spirits is the nightmare of the Chinaman's 
 life." Here it is a ministration of demons, not of angels. 
 He has, not his guardian angel, but his host of invading 
 demons. In times of excitement, when wild alarms 
 disturb the public tranquillity, it is almost equal to that 
 
 Breath of Death. 
 
 phase of delirium tremens when little demons are seen 
 upon the wall and upon the bed, nodding, beckoning, 
 jeering, threatening. 
 
 The Breath of Death. — This is the deity they worship 
 as the "noxious god" during the masses for the dead.. 
 He comes as the harbinger of evil, and brings swift 
 destruction on his wings. 
 
 The Great Feast to Spirits.— The first of the Ming 
 
Demonolatry 
 
 459 
 
 emperors, who feared, from the numbers of soldiers that 
 were slain in battle, that there might be a hungry horde 
 despatched from Hades to hover as a war cloud over his 
 newly-attained empire, ordered three feasts a year during 
 April, August, and November to be offered by the 
 
 Feasting the Spirits. 
 
 mandarins to these deceased warriors, and now it includes 
 all penniless, orphan spirits. Sometimes the priests take 
 a bowl of rice and throw it out grain by grain, and this 
 as food for the dwellers in Tartarus may be turned into 
 as much as the sands of the Ganges. The throats of the 
 spirits are small like a hair, but by chanting Buddhist 
 
46o The Dragon, Image, and Demon, 
 
 prayers they will be expanded. The picture represents 
 a musical entertainment called fang yen k'eu, given 
 to spirits, when the priests blow rice out of their 
 mouths. 
 On the thirtieth of the seventh moon, it is supposed 
 
 Mara. 
 
 that all the spirits in prison, all the devils in hell, are 
 turned loose ; countless myriads coming as swarms of 
 locusts from the unseen abyss, black, hungry, and 
 naked, whose motto is " Your money or your life." In 
 front of every door piles of paper-tinsel are burned, 
 and it is estimated that at one temple at Hangchow 
 
Demonolatry. 46 1 
 
 during two weeks fifteen hundred dollars daily are ex- 
 pended in paper sycee. On this dread night there is 
 The Devils' Procession. — Mara, the god of lust, sin, 
 and death, comes in two ways, — to frighten and to deceive. 
 The goddess of mercy, pitying the devils in Hades, 
 wished to visit them and bestow her gracious favours upon 
 them, but fearing lest these, so long accustomed to sin, 
 might on seeing her beautiful face have depraved inclina- 
 tions, and so increase their guilt, she was metamorphosed 
 into the devil king, — also called " the burnt-faced devil 
 king," — so that none would love, but all would fear. ]\Iara 
 has a green complexion, long tusks, and a frightful face ; 
 his paper image is twelve feet high ; with two smaller 
 devils, one white and the other black, who as the Yamen 
 runners of Hades receive the souls of the dying, he leads 
 the procession with lanterns and gongs. He comes not 
 now as the " prince of this world," or as " an angel of 
 light," but clad in the habiliments of the prison of the 
 lost. He is worshipped and honoured by a great people, 
 and as he triumphantly enters every city, the rejoicing 
 multitudes that go before and that follow after, cry, 
 Hosanna to the son of darkness ; Hosanna in the lowest ! 
 and then, in this climax of devil-worship, when ^lara is 
 assigned the highest place in the pantheon, an adoring 
 nation bows to him as their high ruler, their accursed 
 guardian, their faithless guide, and their chief divinity. 
 Conclusion — Let us follow Him who came to " destroy 
 the works of the devil " in His triumphal entry into 
 Jerusalem, as he paused on Olivet's brow, and as '' when 
 He beheld the city. He wept over it." If when He saw 
 the 3,000,000 of Judea, " He was moved with compassion 
 
462 The Di^agon, Lnage, and Dejnon. 
 
 on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, 
 as sheep having no shepherd," should not our pity for this 
 countless people be a hundredfold ? As we witness the 
 downward progress of their systems from the school to the 
 temple, from philosophy to demonolatry, and from asceti- 
 cism to devil-worship, we instinctively cry, " The night is 
 far spent ! " the night of superstition and idolatry, and 
 call to the heralds on Zion's towers, " Watchman, what of 
 the night ? The watchman saith. The morning cometh ! " 
 " The Sun of Kighteousness arises." 
 
 As a minister was speaking of the " folly of idolatry, 
 and telling the story of God's love," " a white-haired 
 village patriarch " said, " We did not know that this was 
 wrong. Our fathers worshipped thus. We cannot find 
 the door J' The Good Shepherd says, " I am the door." 
 The sweet Psalmist of Israel sung, " Their sorrows shall 
 be multiplied that hasten after another god." One day, 
 a year after we came to Soochow, an old lady walked 
 to the chapel leaning upon her staff. She was invited 
 in, and was asked by the missionary's wife, " Who did 
 you come here to see ? " She told her story : " I went 
 outside the West Gate to make some purchases, and 
 the shop-keeper's wife, seeing I had such a sad face, asked 
 me what was the matter. I told her that my husband's 
 two sons died during the T'aiping rebellion, and there 
 was left only my youngest boy, who was clerk to a pawn- 
 broker ; he was taken sick and died the day after they 
 brought him home, and now in my old age I am all alone ; 
 then she said to me, ' If you want comfort, go to the 
 Yang Yoh Hong, they have a doctrine that comforts 
 people.' " We have had many good things and many 
 
Demonolatry, 463 
 
 bad things said about us, but never a better than this, 
 that " we have a doctrine that comforts people." One 
 morning, going to my chapel, I saw laid out in the front 
 room of a house the icy form of a young maiden of 
 seventeen years, and beside her a little girl weeping 
 and saying, " My golden sister, my golden sister, I do 
 not know where you have gone to ! " And many a 
 time has this bitter wail pierced my heart, " My golden 
 sister, my golden sister, I do not know where you have 
 gone to ! " 
 
 THE END. 
 

 INDEX. 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Abacus 
 
 . 570 
 
 Cremation . 
 
 . 187 
 
 Abbot . 
 
 . 376 
 
 Criminal 
 
 . 408 
 
 Alchemy . 
 
 . 355 
 
 Chung Kw'ei 
 
 . 446 
 
 Altar . 
 
 . 59 
 
 Death . .11,- 
 
 5, 185, 289 
 
 Amita . 
 
 . 298 
 
 Dedication . 
 
 . 260 
 
 Ananda 
 
 . 185, 199 
 
 Demons 
 
 443 
 
 Ancestors . 
 
 . 77, 286 
 
 Demoniacal Possessior 
 
 I . 454 
 
 Ancestral Hall 
 
 . 81 
 
 Devil 
 
 461 
 
 Antiquity . 
 
 27, 65, 77 
 
 Doctor Fox 
 
 *. 400 
 
 Asia . 
 Atheism 
 ^sculapius . 
 
 . 191 
 . 207 
 . 398 
 
 Hwat'u 
 
 Dragon 133, 134, 172 
 Dreams 
 
 . 401 
 
 , 315, 330 
 
 . 369 
 
 Baby Devil 
 
 . 179 
 
 Drowned . 
 
 . 454 
 
 Bank of Hades 
 
 . 451 
 
 Elephants . 
 
 173, 178 
 
 Bodhidharma 
 
 . 199 
 
 Emperor Show . 
 
 . 342 
 
 Borrowing Year: 
 
 . 408 
 
 Emperors . 
 
 . 192 
 
 Brahma 
 
 . 161, 207 
 
 Emptiness . 
 
 168, 215 
 
 Brahmans . 
 
 . 160 
 
 
 
 Breath of Death 
 
 . 458 
 
 Family Worship 
 
 . 56 
 
 Bribery 
 Buddha 
 
 . 368 
 . 145 
 
 Fairy Crane 
 
 Faith . . . . 
 
 . 366 
 
 . 183 
 
 
 
 Fascinating 
 
 281,283 
 
 Calendar . 
 
 . 252 
 
 Fear . . . . 
 
 . 80 
 
 Chang, The 
 
 Heavenly 
 
 Fetish 
 
 . 203 
 
 Teacher 
 
 . 362, 373 
 
 Fihal Piety 
 
 . 77 
 
 Charms 
 
 . 407,444 
 
 Five . . 130,329 
 
 , 393, 421 
 
 Chiliocosm . 
 
 . 210 
 
 Fix-Light Buddha 
 
 . 318 
 
 China . 
 
 . 191 
 
 Forgiveness 
 
 214, 368 
 
 Citadel . 
 
 . 48 
 
 Funeral 
 
 . 442 
 
 Confacianist 
 
 . 46 
 
 Fungshuy . 
 
 . 431 
 
 Confucius . 
 
 . 78, 89 
 
 Fungtu 
 
 . 306 
 
 Disciples of 
 
 . 138 1 
 
 Genealogical Tables , 
 
 . 82 
 
 Conscience . 
 
 . . 46 
 
 Gods Appointed 
 
 . 362 
 
 Constellations 
 
 . 414 1 
 
 Gods' Audience . 
 
 . 375 
 
 Corpse 
 
 . 430 
 
 Bad . 
 
 . 341 
 
 Creator 38, IG 
 
 I, 207, 211, 364 
 
 Compendium of . 
 
 . 2(;7 
 
 Credentials . 
 
 . 440 
 
 Dei Majores 
 
 . 270 
 
 A 
 
466 
 
 Index, 
 
 
 Page 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Gods differ in Rank . 
 
 358 
 
 Gods of - 
 
 
 have Sin 
 
 361 
 
 Compass . 
 
 . 327 
 
 kidnapping Pretty Wo- 
 
 
 Constables 
 
 . 140 
 
 men .... 
 
 409 
 
 Corpse-gods . 
 
 . 395 
 
 may be Bambooed 
 
 140 
 
 Cruelty . 
 
 . 339 
 
 Marry . . 285 
 
 361 
 
 Cycle 
 
 . 414 
 
 go to the Theatre 
 
 282 
 
 Day and Night Recorders 396 
 
 be sent to the "Earth 
 
 
 Divine Husbandman . 139 
 
 Prison" . 
 
 313 
 
 Door 
 
 131, 331 
 
 jass out of Date 
 
 362 
 
 Earth 
 
 . 68 
 
 36 promoted 
 
 361 
 
 Eastern Peak . 
 
 . 387 
 
 • rotate, 
 
 360 
 
 Eight 
 
 . 139 
 
 be transmigrated 
 
 227 
 
 Eighth . 
 
 . 142 
 
 Goddesses .... 
 
 285 
 
 Eye. 
 
 . 402 
 
 Goddess, Corner 
 
 340 
 
 Favouring Wind 
 
 . 328 
 
 Embroidery 
 
 335 
 
 Field Ancestor 
 
 . 328 
 
 • Flowers 
 
 76 
 
 Fire. 
 
 . 389 
 
 Fornication 
 
 340 
 
 Fire- crackers . 
 
 . 339 
 
 ■ Frost .... 
 
 75 
 
 Fishermen 
 
 . 334 
 
 Kwanyin . 
 
 292 
 
 Five Elements 
 
 . 72 
 
 Locust 
 
 326 
 
 Forty Masters . 
 
 . 329 
 
 Male Principle of Na- 
 
 
 Gamblers 
 
 . 340 
 
 ture 
 
 330 
 
 Gold 
 
 . 327 
 
 Manure 
 
 340 
 
 Granary . 
 
 . 141 
 
 ■ Midwives . 
 
 403 
 
 Happiness 
 
 . 327 
 
 Miss Mang 
 
 314 
 
 Heavenly Mandarir 
 
 1 . 322 
 
 Mother of Buddha 
 
 318 
 
 Holding- Snakes 
 
 . 325 
 
 North Star 
 
 410 
 
 Horses and Cows 
 
 . 324 
 
 Sea . 
 
 388 
 
 Household 
 
 . 130 
 
 Sombre Maiden . 
 
 319 
 
 Jade 
 
 . 335 
 
 Travel 
 
 . 328 
 
 Jugglers . 
 
 . 336 
 
 Western Royal Mother 394 
 
 King Lee 
 
 . 318 
 
 Wheat 
 
 . 76 
 
 Kitchen . 
 
 . 323 
 
 Womb 
 
 . 403 
 
 Lamp 
 
 . 328 
 
 Gods of 
 
 
 Land and Grain 
 
 . 139 
 
 Agriculture . 
 
 . 131 
 
 Lice 
 
 . 338 
 
 Archery . 
 
 . 328 
 
 Lightning 
 
 . 72, 73 
 
 Architecture . 
 
 . 336 
 
 Literature 
 
 . 126 
 
 Bacchus . 
 
 . 334 
 
 Luck 
 
 . 403 
 
 Barbers . 
 
 . 335 
 
 Marriage . 
 
 . 426 
 
 Bean-Curd 
 
 . 335 
 
 Masons . 
 
 . 334 
 
 Bed ... 
 
 . 326 
 
 Master of Lily Lak 
 
 e . 318 
 
 Body . 
 
 . 404 
 
 Measles . 
 
 . 403 
 
 Bridge 
 
 . 328 
 
 Medicine . 
 
 . 399 
 
 Carpenters 
 
 . 333 
 
 Monkey . 
 
 . 337 
 
 Caverns . 
 
 . 75 
 
 Moon 
 
 . 68 
 
 City 
 
 . 385 
 
 Mountains 
 
 . 72 
 
 City Wall 
 
 . 141 
 
 Musical Instrument 
 
 Ls . 336 
 
 Classics . 
 
 . 135 
 
 1 Net. 
 
 . 334 
 
Index. 
 
 Page 
 
 Gods of — 
 
 North Place . . . 327 
 Noxious .... 438 
 Office . . . .120 
 Paper Clothing . . 336 
 Pestilence . . . 390 
 Precincts . . .139 
 
 Prison . . . .140 
 Punch and Judy . . 338 
 Rain ... 72, 73 
 Rain Clothes . . . 337 
 Revenge .... 339 
 Riches . . . .321 
 River . . . .72 
 Road .... 396 
 Rough Gem . . . 329 
 
 Salt 327 
 
 Scorpions . . .326 
 
 Sea 71 
 
 Seasons . . . .72 
 Shadows .... 340 
 Sheep .... 324 
 Silk. . . . .335 
 Silk-worm . . . 330 
 Small- pox . . .402 
 Snakes .... 325 
 Snow . . . .75 
 Soul . . . .327 
 Stone Lion . . . 344 
 Strength .... 327 
 
 Sun 68 
 
 Tailors . . . .335 
 Tea. . . . . 327 
 Theatres. . . .324 
 Thunder . . .72, 73 
 Tides .... 132 
 Time . . . .72 
 Ting .... 331 
 Tree . . . .75 
 Wang Papa . . .327 
 War . . . .128 
 
 Water . . . .71 
 Wave .... 328 
 Wealth .... 320 
 Well .... 332 
 White Tiger . . . 396 
 Willow . . .75 
 
 Wind . . .72 
 
 Witches . . . . 394 I 
 
 467 
 
 Page 
 
 Gods of— 
 
 •^"6" 
 
 Writing . 
 
 . 1.35 
 
 Year . . 
 
 . 330 
 
 Grave 
 
 . 82 
 
 Great Extreme . 
 
 356 
 
 Goose . 
 
 . 179 
 
 Guest . 
 
 . 444 
 
 Han Wenkung . 
 
 . 197 
 
 Heart 
 
 . 44,211 
 
 Heaven . . 5 
 
 0, 183, 368 
 
 Son of 
 
 . 51 
 
 and Earth . 
 
 . 67 
 
 Heavenly Dog . 
 
 . 411 
 
 Hell . 
 
 . 305, 311 
 
 Hermit 
 
 . 152 
 
 Hien Yuen 
 
 . 399 
 
 Historian . 
 
 . 110 
 
 Home 
 
 . 84 
 
 Huai Xant ze 
 
 . 350 
 
 Humility . 
 
 . 104 
 
 Iconoclasts . 
 
 . 206 
 
 Immortals . 
 
 . 356, 420 
 
 India . 
 
 . 190 
 
 Indulgences 
 
 . 368 
 
 Industry 
 
 . 261 
 
 Itinerant . 
 
 . 161 
 
 Janteng 
 
 . 315 
 
 K'anghe 
 
 . 31 
 
 Kashiapa . 
 
 175, 199 
 
 Kiang T'aikung . 33-1 
 
 \, 343, 363 
 
 Laotsze 
 
 . .345 
 
 Law . . . . 
 
 . 164 
 
 Lies . , . . 
 
 110, 201 
 
 Lih Ling 
 
 . 396 
 
 Lily . 
 
 294, 303 
 
 Lohans 
 
 . 240 
 
 Love . . . . 
 
 . 215 
 
 Lunacy 
 
 . 454 
 
 Magician 
 
 . 176 
 
 Mandarins . 
 
 . 54 
 
 Manhood . 
 
 119, 137 
 
 Manichseans 
 
 . 359 
 
 Mara . . . . 
 
 153, 461 
 
 Masses for the Dead . 
 
 . 437 
 
 Mediator 
 
 323, 386 
 
 Mencius 
 
 44, 135 
 
468 
 
 Index. 
 
 Merit . 
 
 Military official 
 
 Ming Dynasty 
 
 Miracles 
 
 Mirror 
 
 Missionary . 
 
 Monasticism 
 
 Morality 
 
 Mother (Heathen) 
 
 Mount T"'ai 
 
 Musician 
 
 "Nail Cage . 
 Nanda 
 Nihilism 
 Nirvana 
 Nuns . 
 
 Pagodas 
 
 Pantheism . 
 
 Paper Clothing 
 
 Parables 
 
 Paradise 
 
 Park . 
 
 Parrot 
 
 Patience 
 
 Patriarchs . 
 
 Pearly Emperor 
 
 P'eng Lai Islands 
 
 Persecutions 
 
 Pilgrims 
 
 Pity . 
 
 Plagiarism 
 
 Pope . 
 
 Pootoo 
 
 Pouhien 
 
 Prayer 69, 71, 85, 119 
 
 Prescriptions 
 Previous Existence 
 Priests 
 Procession 
 Prohibitions 
 Pure Land 
 
 Rain . 
 
 Redemption 
 
 Relic;^ . 
 
 Revival 
 
 Roman Catholics 
 
 185 
 
 Page 
 
 . 221 
 . 397 
 . 65 
 . 173 
 . 309 
 . 190 
 163, 214 
 41, 212 
 . 288 
 . 273 
 . 104 
 
 . 265 
 
 . 179 
 
 . 216 
 
 . 227 
 
 . 84 
 
 196, 376 
 
 66,211 
 
 . 448 
 
 . 170 
 
 148, 294 
 57, 165 
 . 182 
 . 192 
 . 199 
 . 382 
 . 421 
 . 195 
 . 278 
 . 155 
 . 354 
 . 372 
 . 274 
 
 238, 319 
 
 123, 231, 
 
 248 
 
 . 406 
 
 . 169 
 
 229, 375 
 . 60 
 . 165 
 . 302 
 
 73, 250 
 . 220 
 
 196, 291 
 . 205 
 . 290 
 
 Sabbath 
 
 Sacrifice . . 61, 
 
 Sanscrit 
 
 School 
 
 Schools of Buddhism . 
 
 Science 
 
 Services for the Living 
 
 Sign .... 
 
 Sin . 
 
 Slavery. 
 
 Son ... . 
 
 Soul . . . 435, 
 
 Stability 
 
 Star . . . 
 
 Stealing 
 
 Street Guards 
 
 Suicide 
 
 Superstitions 
 
 Page 
 
 . 41 
 
 121, 159 
 
 231, 249 
 
 124 
 
 200 
 
 209 
 
 366 
 
 256 
 
 219 
 
 87 
 
 79 
 
 439, 443 
 
 55, 106 
 
 127, 417 
 
 . 266 
 
 . 447 
 
 . 453 
 
 . 109 
 
 Tail Cutting . . .370 
 
 Tao 349 
 
 Tao Teh King . . .348 
 
 Temple 57, 115, 121, 134, 141, 
 
 234, 261, 368, 376 
 
 Theatricals . 
 
 
 278 
 
 Thirteen Boards 
 
 
 363 
 
 Thirty Teachers . 
 
 
 404 
 
 Tola . 
 
 
 156 
 
 Tolerance . 
 
 
 204 
 
 Tortures 
 
 
 265 
 
 Tsusze Pusa 
 
 
 384 
 
 Transmigration . 224 
 
 , 360,' 
 
 366, 
 
 
 369 
 
 , 439 
 
 Travellers . 
 
 
 195 
 
 TraveUing in Hades 
 
 
 452 
 
 Triads 130, 237, 37^ 
 
 ), 391 
 
 ,392 
 
 Vegetarians 
 
 
 218 
 
 Vice . 
 
 
 43 
 
 Vision of Hell . 
 
 
 308 
 
 Votive Tablets . 
 
 
 401 
 
 Vows . 
 
 
 248 
 
 Wang Ling Kwan 
 
 
 396 
 
 Want of Rehgion 
 
 47 
 
 244 
 
 Water Lamps 
 
 
 448 
 
 Wenshu 
 
 
 238 
 
 Women 
 
 
 286 
 
 Worship 
 
 
 240 
 
 Yin and Yang . 
 
 
 357 
 
1 
 Date Due 
 
 
 'n7 
 
 
 
 r^ C ;.:._- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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