THE DKAGON, IMAGE, AND DEMON,
THE
DRAGON, IMAGE, AND DEMON
OR
THE THREE RELIGIONS OF CHINA
CONFUCIANISM, BUDDHISM, AND TAOISM
GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF
THE MYTHOLOGY, IDOLATRY, AND DEMONOLATRY
OF THE CHINESE
BY REV. HAMPDEN C. DuBOSE
MI
Fourteen Years a Missionary at Soochow
" O'er the gloomy hills of darkness, ^
Look, my soul, be still, and gaze." "
V
v\
LONDON
S. W. PARTRIDGE AND CO.
9 PATERNOSTER ROW
1886
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
TO THE
REV. J. LEIGHTON WILSON, D.D.,
EIGHTEEN YEARS A MISSIONARY IN AFRICA,
AND FOR
THIRTY-THREE YEARS SECRETARY OF FOREIGN MISSIONS ;
WISE IN COUNSEL, GENTLE IN ADMINISTRATION,
A CHEERY CORRESPONDENT TO THOSE IX 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.
PEEFACE.
TOURING- a visit to the United States in 1882, a
~^^^ lecture on the " Three Keligions " 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
u 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 £200 a year to support a married
missionary ? How many churches might send out their
own man ? IL\\Q 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 Kev. E. 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 God if he neglects what he is sent to do ? The
command is not " Go, write my Gospel.'' 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 God from idols, to serve the living
and true God, 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
1 2 Contents.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HIGH-PRIEST OF CHINA.
PAGE
The park — The Temple of Heaven — The Altar of Heaven — The pro
cession — The sacrifice 57
CHAPTER Y.
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 VI.
ANCESTRAL IDOLATRY.
All en gage in it — Filial piety — An ancient cultus — Confucius — A son
— Fear, the chief motive — Three souls — The ancestral hall — The
grave— The home— The slavery 77
CHAPTER VII.
CONFUCIUS I 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 arid the altar— Death . . . 89
Contents. 1 3
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONFUCIAN SACRIFICES.
PAGE
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 .115
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
14 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 — Missionary 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 tolerant
spirit — Beneficial effects — Revival of Buddhism . . . .189
CHAPTER XII.
THE THEOLOGY OF BUDDHISM.
Atheistic — Natural science — The great Chiliocosm — 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 — Weito —
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 . 220
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 " — Compen
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 —
Religion 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— Amita— 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
Mang'ssoup . 2SO
1 6 Contents.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GODS OF BUDDHISM.
PAGE
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.
God of Wealth — God of Kiches — 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 Man and Woman of the Bed —
Gold -god — Tea-god — Salt-god — Gods of the Compass — God of
the North Place — God of the Soul — Gods of Strength— God of
Happiness — Wang Papa — Goddess of Travel — The Rambling
god — 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 TRADES.
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 Instruments— Juggler's god — God of the Paper
clothing Stores — God of Architecture ..... 333
Contents. 1 7
CHAPTER XXI.
THE ABSURDITIES OF POLYTHEISM.
PAGE
Rain clothes dwarf— Monkey-god— God of Lice — Punch and Judy
god— God of Fire-crackers — God of Cruelty — God of Revenge —
Goddess of Manure — Goddess of Fornication— Goddess of the
Corner — God of Shadows — God of Gamblers — Bad gods— The
Emperor Show— Kiang Taikung — The stone lion . . . 337
CHAPTER XXII.
TAOIST PHILOSOPHY.
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 Yang — Manichaeans— Rotation
—Gods have sin— Gods may marry— Promotion— Gods of State
—Appointing gods— The three periods — The thirteen boards —
Taoist creation — Variety temples— To escape the metem
psychosis—Religious services for the living — The fairy crane—
Saleof indulgences— Forgiveness hair-pin— Worshipping Heaven
—Bribery in worship— Dreams— Tree of the rewards of good
and evil — The Abacus— The tail-cutting mania . . . 354
CHAPTER XXIV.
POPES, PRIESTS, AND TEMPLES.
The first pope— 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
1 8 Contents.
CHAPTER XXV.
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 Koyal
Mother — Three corpse gods — Day and night recorders — Road
gods — Open Road gods — White-tiger god— Wang Ling Kwan —
Military official 382
CHAPTER XXVI.
MEDICAL DIVINITIES.
Evidences of Christianity — Leu Chen Yang, the Chinese ^Esculapius
— 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 XXVII.
THE STAR GODS.
Goddess of the North 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 XXVIII.
THE IMMORTALS.
Divine fiction — P'eng Lai islands — Five kinds of immortals — Eight
immortals — Han Chunglee — T'ih Kwalee— Chang Kwulao —
Contents. ^ 9
PAGE
Han Siangtsze — Lan Ts'aiho— Ts'ao Kwohk'iu — Ho Sienkoo—
Gods 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— Fungshuy— 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 pro
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,
Thnre Foi; !',o
I'.-in! 40
" Kelvin-./ on HI-.-IVI-M \v«- e;tt Ki. f,u
Tempi, of l|.;i\en f)H
A liar of H..! - 5(.)
\Voivliiji "1 He.v. en :m,| Kartli ;it the N«-w Year 07
i';il;t<:<- of t.h«: Moon i;«.)
tin- Sun ! 7<)
'riiiimlrr '."-.I 7;',
.Mi. :uid .Mi-s. 'I'linii'lcr 74
\\'or;-lii|)|niiLr at t;
. lief to Ancc-tors
( 'onf'ii
ona ;ind \\'JM' Men - 1)2
The Siiife'- Clinriot - ]< U
'I'll. S;i'je ;ui(l tin: lilUl'litti 102
Th. Mii-iri.-m ID;',
\\'< ' pinir for I In Cni'-orn- 108
Tl.e Hooks :m«l the Altar - 113
.Me to the (il'HVe of ConfucluS 116
of Confucin- 1 17
KiiijnTor Offering Sacrifice 118
S.i- 1 ifice to Confuciu- - 122
School-hoy Worslypping Confucius 124
Welichllll'j - ]•>(}
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
Buddhist Priests - 230
Cremation Jar - - - 232
Chinese Temple - 233
Four Diamonds 234
The Coming Buddha - 236
The Protector 237
Illustrations. 23
PAGE
" Long Live the Emperor ! "
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 '2(\'2
Xail Cage - '264
Hooked into the Arm - 265
Pantheon 2 U7
Gods in the Clouds 208
The Hermit 276
Theological Lecture 278
Idol Procession 280
Temple Theatre 281
The Nun 284
Goddess - 285
Child's Hat 288
Kwanyin in White Robes - 21)2
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,
PAGE
The Mortar - 310
The Chopping Knife 310
Pulling out the Tongue 310
Sawn Asunder 310
Lake of Blood - 310
Bridge of Snakes 311
Caldron of Oil - - - - 312
Hill of Knives 312
Village of Wild Dogs - 313
Burning Cylinder - - 313
Miss Mang's Pavilion - - 314
The Dragon 31 G
King Lee, holding a Pagoda - - - 317
God of Wealth - 320
List of Gods 320
God of Riches 321
Heavenly Mandarin - ... 322
Kitchen-god - 323
Theatre-god - 324
Snake King 325
God and goddess of the Bed - 326
Little Boy at the Well 331
Carpenter's god - - 333
Lice-god - - 338
Dice-god 341
General Kiang 342
Worshipping the Stone Lion - - 343
Laotsze - 346
The Great Monad 357
Fairy Crane 367
The Abacus - 370
Chang Taoling 373
Taoist Priest 375
Taoist Abbot 376
City Temple, Soochow 377
Snorter and Blower - 378
It Lustrations. 2 5
PAGE
Three Pure Ones - . 379
Lantern Pagoda .... 330
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 - .... 490
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, Office, and Age - ... 413
Age . . 414
Cycle Gods ---.... 415
Paper Gods - - - 416
List of Propitious Stars - . _ - 418
List of Evil Stars- - ... 419
Han Chunglee - - - ... 429
T'ih Kwalee .... 423
Chang Kwulao- . 423
Han Siangtsze - - 494
Lan Ts'aiho - ---... 404
Tsao Kwohk'iu - ... 495
Ho Sieukoo - - 495
2 6 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 Store - 449
The Lily Boat (South China) - - 450
Travelling 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, AND DEMON.
CHAPTER I.
THE THREE RELIGIONS DOVETAILED.
npHERE are two considerations which make the study
-*- of religion in China of prime importance. One is
the vast-ness of the population, say 350,000,000, one-
fourth of the inhabitants of the globe, men with moral
accountability, intellectual activity, and immortal destiny.
Looking 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 nourished ; 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 God. 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 Taoist s, 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 riis followers into the dark caves upon the
mountain sides, seeking for the elixir of immortality.
30 77/6^ 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 Dragon, Image , and Demon.
them present the case save in a one-sided light, and so
are only partial views of truth.
Confucianism is based on morality, Buddhism on
idolitry, 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 Three Religions Dovetailed. 33
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 Dragon, 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 literati? 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 Three Religions Dovetailed. 35
called " Imperial Euler " 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 kings
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, "the 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 Confucianists ;
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 shrines, 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 Three Religions Dovetailed. 37
more earnest ; so if Confucianism 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 religion, ancestral
idolatry, and the worship of Confucius. The Chinese term
isju kiciOj 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 u 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
^ouncl. Thou, 0 spiritual Sovereign, earnest 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 Yaju^jnu^J^n^
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
4O 'Ihe Dragon, Image, and Demon.
Yin were formed ; from their joint operation 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
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 four 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 ivhich stuck to his body
were transformed into people ! "
No Sabbath — There is no day of rest in the Land 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 ; and 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 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
sophers. It proves that the Gentiles " are a law unto
themselves," and ashow 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 princely 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 ^Egean ; 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
The Church 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 to 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," wilich 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 Church of the Learned. 45
and strip! 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, however, 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,
" KECTIFY 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, Image, and Demon.
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 heart 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 Jieart to perceive shame and
dislike he is not a man, 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
The Church of the Learned. 47
curled lip, the disdainful smile, reveal what the mind
thinks of the foreigner. The third 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
picayune 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 The 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 $600 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 Church 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.''
CHAPTEE 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
schemes, 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
men, you cannot deceive Heaven; " " Kiches and honour
are appointed by Heaven."
The most common proverb is, " We rely upon Heaven
for our food ; " and this picture of the character for Heaven,
"Relying on Heaven, we Eat Rice."
The See of Peking. 5 1
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 the
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 Man. When guilt is found in
The 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 Religion, or rather a
Minister of Keligious Kites 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 eclipsed."
The Mandarin Priests. — Very few foreigners have
any conception of the amount of religious 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 ^Esculapius. 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
temples committed to his special 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
The 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 Government, 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 Government 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 Government, 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 wooden (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.
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 wail, 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,
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- Priest 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
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
60 The 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. 61
preceded by the National 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 The 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 altar 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 Kuler," and a single voice amidst the
silence is heard, " Give 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. 63
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 the
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. " This
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 have 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 they are in blissful
ignorance of the whole affair.
CHAPTER V.
THE ADORATION OF NATURE.
IT is not held that most of the worship described in
this chapter is a worship of nature pure and simple,
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 l 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
5
66 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
prepared this paper 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
pantheists, 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 (rod.
The Adoration of Nature.
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, Image, 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
The Adoration 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."
7<D The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
Eclipse. — The Chinese do not differ from other heathen
nations in the terror they manifest at an eclipse, 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
2 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 light 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
River.
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, Ghent en ; 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 honour of these, and light
The Adoration of Nature. 73
candles and incense on the 1st and loth of the Moon.
They are not considered to worship the common gods
who rule over these departments ; these del minores 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 offerings were
Thunder-god.
offered 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 wTas 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 Adoration 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.
TN" 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
altar 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,
especially 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. u The fact is, that filial piety in this
system has exceeded the limit set by Ofod 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 husband
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 sometimes concubinage is resorted to. The
80 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. Si
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
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 even 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 (rod ; 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.
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 Grave.
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 kneels 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. Keverently
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.
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 offered, — 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, 0 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 by 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 manes 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."
CHAPTER VII
CONFUCIUS : HIS CHARACTER ANP 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 Greece, — 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
9O 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 In/licence. 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 five venerajiLe >
men ^came from afar to -gay^ 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, Image, 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
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 93
ceremony." At the age of seven he goes to a free
school, and " he differed from other children in that his* •*•'•'
l^i£iwlejd^^-was---4iot.., acquired but intuitoiJ" 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 ^m^rj; 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
accomplished for his people what conquered Greece
did for her conquering Eoman 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,
c 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, " 1
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
Confucius : 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. " From
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 had
96 The 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, recorjed 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
pejigatetic 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
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 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 I
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 /
empire than he could have done had he been seated on /
the Imperial throne."
The recorded testimonies of his disciples would fiQ
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, jusfc 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
7
98 The 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 in " 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 Influence. 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
ioo 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. 101
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, " With coarse rice to eat, with ivater to
drink, and my bended arm for a pillow, / 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 — Djrfing all the hardships which
fell to the lot of the sage7, 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
IO2 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."
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 103
His watchword was not Advance ! but Keturn ! 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 'maker
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."
IO4 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 Gentiles :
" 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
Confucius: His Character and Influence. 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 The 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
Confucius : His Character and Influence. 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-
nentlj_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 Grecian 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 bone?"
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 Unicorn.
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
Confuciiis : His Character and Influence. 1 09
of Mount T-ai, and the latter asked, " If that white thing
outside of the Chang Grate 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.
0 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 forj
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, " 0 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 Influence. 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
Greece 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 Dragon, Image, and Demon.
sent many a beam of light across " the unpoetic life of
China." " We mast 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 literary 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 supplication, 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 CHOUGH while he lived no sovereign received him as
-*~ 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
1 1 6 The Dragon, linage, and Demon.
palace of the duke of the Confucian clan, arid 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 Rung mourned
six long years, for after his decease many of his dis
ciples remained to weep.
n8 The Dragon, Image, 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. 1 1 9
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, 0 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 duty. . . . From thee proceeds 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, 0 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.
I2O The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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-i
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 j
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, withjj
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. Lit era- ,
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 the sage has one thought for Confucius and two
for himself. 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. i 2 i
Literary Temples. — In the empire there are 1,560 f
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 by 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-General, 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 Rites ;
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; 0 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. Reverently have the sacrificial
vessels been set out. Full of awe we sound our drums
and bells." The spirit is supposed to be present, and the
Emperor offers the prayer: "I, the Emperor, offer a
sacrifice to the philosopher Confucius, the ancient teacher,
the perfect sage, and say, 0 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 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
offer 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
loth 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
School-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 Confucian 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 off 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 Wenchang
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 military, 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
during this generation
his fame has been in
creasing. In 1856 he
appeared in the heavens,
as Castor and Pollux did
to the Romans, and suc
cessfully turned the tide
of battle in favour of the
Imperialist^, 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
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
God of War.
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 Sovereigns.
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 Green Euler,
corresponding with Jupiter ; the Ked Kuler, correspond
ing with Mars ; the Yellow Euler, 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. (4) 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, Ruler, 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 — Mangtseang 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, Image, and Demon.
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) ; 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. 1 3 3
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
134 The Dragon, 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
Golden-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 misuse, and
its preservation the first among meritorious actions. Men
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 half
a crown 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 The 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.
Confucian Gods. 139
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 t'u-dee or local gods. Generals, statesmen, crown-
princes dying in boyhood, mandarins, doctors, and
140 The 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
t'u-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
Granary 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
Pao ; his temples are
numerous throughout the
land, and the highest man-
Eighth Great King.
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."
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.
CHAPTEK X.
BUDDHA, THE NIGHT OF ASIA.
SHAKYAMUNI 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 ^^ 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, arid
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, the Night of Asia.
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 77/6? Dragon, linage, 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 showed 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
Buddha, 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 Royal 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 with 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. \ 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 ? " " Great 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
endures 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
denied 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. Reaching 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 seek? " 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 four 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 was
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 offer 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,
" I'll 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 armv
of darkness escaped to the mountains, some to the caves,
while Mara and a portion of his legions prostrated them
selves before Buddha.
Attaining to Buddhaship.— Seated beneath the Bodhi-
tree, the Flcus 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, tJic Nig Jit 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 suffering
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. 157
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 ? " " Great 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, — bury thou thy child." There was no balm
in Gilead, 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 The 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 flea 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.
Ascending to Heaven.
It is recorded that after his six years' fa.st 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 Alight of Asia. 159
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
offer 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. Suddhodana, his father, seeing it, said, "It was
like fire upon the mountains, and the moon among the
160 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
<j <j
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 ! "
Shaky amuni 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 the first condition of religious
discipline is that the life be strictly that of an ascetic,
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 16 1
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
11
1 62 The 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, the 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 ; for this purpose I am going to Benares to give light
Buddha, the 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, pointed 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 (rood 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 }~ou
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 Dragon, 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
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 169
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 animal 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. "Forget-Favour"
was hungry, and killed the turtle for soup.
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 171
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,
4 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
shall 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 spoke, " 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, the Night of Asia. 173
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
1 74 The 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 who 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, why not
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 175
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 fire, and the two flames
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 Shaky a' s head went out gold flame
which changed into thousands of Buddhas " in the air,"
— little images on every side. The dragons fled into
176 The Dragon, Image, and 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 ;
Kapele.
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.
177
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
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 Night of Asia. 1 79
change into five lions, which rush on the elephants,
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.
Buddha 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
i So
The Dragon, linage, 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 was out he ran away.
Buddha followed ; Nanda dodged behind a tree ; Buddha
caused the tree to be lifted up and caught him. He
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
Buddha, the Night of Asia. 181
of the earth ; finish your mortal existence, and then you
may be born in heaven."
Shaky amuni 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 ? "
Mara'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.
Shaky a 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
1 82 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. 183
At another time, Shakja 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 Shaky a 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
184 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 descension. The king brought
mimi
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, the Night of Asia. 185
is no one like you bringing gain and happiness on all
creatures." The Regent 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, Image, 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.
Buddha, the 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 sand, 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
Eising from his Coffin.
Buddha sits up like the lion king emerging from his den,
and from the pores of his skin pour forth rays 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 has 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 drop? 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
190 The Dragon, 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 Eastern 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 dvnastv
1 92 The 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 Emperor " gave a high office to Kumarajiva,
an Indian Buddhist, and he was commanded to translate
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 The 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 Government 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 al!5 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. Shakyamuni 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 Oriental Banyan.
197
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 Demon.
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 45 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 Buddha, 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 sect 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.
Boclhidharma 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
2OO The Dragon, Image, 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. In 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 tc 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 Great 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," who 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. uThe Old Testament canon was
completed in the time of Ezra ; the New 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
2O2 The Dragon, 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 German
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
kind 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
2O4 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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 carry 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 Demon.
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 driven 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.
leading tenets of the system will be presented
-L very briefly.
Buddhism is Atheistic — This seems to be a
strange charge to make against a religion where there
are a 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 Brahmans he combats their
notions of a god, coolly establishing the most crude
atheism." Buddha preferred the law of revolution, — a
Universe rising into existence and moving onward in its
2o8 77/6' 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 state
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 Buddhism, 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 sea 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.
geography 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, which 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 Buddhism. 2 1 1
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
212 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 gays, " 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. Grass, 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 \ 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 hea*rt is the ousy 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 acts 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
214 The 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-
2i6 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
ance. Reception, 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 rnind, 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 Buddhism. 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, Sangkayasheta, " 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 \Vute 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 holy" 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
218 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
soul goes 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 eight
shillings, 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 sound often ask " if we eat w" — 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
Tke Theology 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 refuse 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
22O The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
oftener men reply, " I have no sin." " But have you never
sinned in your life ? " " 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 Buddhism. 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 karma, " 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.
stitutes 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 Rules 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.
Or.
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 four shillings 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 oj Buddhism. 223
Cr.
To save a child from infanticide 50
To save one hundred insects ..... 1
To bury a bird 1
To turn loose animals, for every fivepence expended 1
To pick up one grain of rice ..... 1
To return what you pick up on the street, for every
value of fivepence . . 1
To give fivepence to beggars .... 1
For one year not to eat beef or dog meat ... 5
To publish a part of the Classics . . . .100
To forgive a debt 100
To destroy the stereotype plates of immoral books . 300
Purity through life 1000
ACCOUNT OF TRANSGRESSIONS.
Dr.
To love a wife more than father and mother . .100
To listen to a wife against one's own brothers . . 10
To allow a step-mother to illtreat a first wife's
children ; each day 1
To be double-tongued ...... 30
To be insincere . . . . . . . .10
To have one bad thought . . . . . .10
To see immoral theatricals 10
To dig up a worm in winter ..... 1
To laugh at an ugly person 3
To soil the page of a book 5
To take meat and wine to a temple .... 5
To get drunk ........ 5
To be guilty of usury 100
To counterfeit silver 100
To misuse written or printed paper .... 50
To cook beef or dog meat ...... 100
To dig up a coffin 100
For a mandarin not to prohibit infanticide . . 10
To assist in infanticide ...... 50
To drown an infant . . . . . . .100
To publish an obscene book . . . measureless.
224 The 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
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 Buddhism. 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
226 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. Kising
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 Brahman s,
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, " 0 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 gQds, 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 Budd
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,
228 The Dragon, 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.
T3UDDHISM as a religion consists not so much
-*— ' in the life 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
23° The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
successor in the temple service, but often idle tramps and
worthless vagabonds enter the ranks because they have no
employment. Occasionally the heart is touched by seeing
little boys without their own consent forced into this
Buddhist Priests.
miserable service. Once we saw a Hangchow man, who
had made a vow on a sick bed to become a priest, tear
his three handsome little sons from their mother, and
put them in a Pootoo monastery for life.
The Worship of Buddhism. 2 3 1
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 £6 or £8 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,
faggots 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 Greece and Eome. 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, which can shade
the universe. Turn it, and there would be earthquakes;
open it, and heaven would be chaos, earth darkness, and
the 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 Demon.
"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 Worship of Buddhism.
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."
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
Buddhas 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 Emperor.
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 Pouhien. — In another
temple you will see Buddha in the centre, and Wenshu
77ie Worship of Buddhism.
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 in 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, which is cut
into sections a foot long and sun-dried, then made into
itiiyy/itimOJIififgyyitiiifi
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 fivepence 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
77ie Worship of Buddhism. 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 is a stone laver 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 The Dragon, 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 communion, 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 worship. We observe
Lighting 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, 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 Worship 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 trot ting- 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. — Vows 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 Worship of Buddhism. 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." Reciting 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 Worship 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 temple 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 Grentiles that can cause
rain ? Or can the heavens give showers ? Art not Thou
he, 0 Lord, our God ? 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 Roman calendar of " Saints'
Days."
FIRST MOON.
1.— Birthday of " The Coming Buddha."
5. „ God of Riches.
7. „ „ Silver.
8. „ „ Grain.
9. „ Heaven or The Pearly Emperor.
10. „ Earth, or The Earth-god, worshipped 8th to
loth.
13. „ 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.
og .—Worship of Bodhidharma.
The Worship of Buddhism. 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 JEsculapius 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.
254 The 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.— God of War.
16. — God of the Loom.
17. — Golden Dragon of the Yellow River.
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
worship 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 are this-siders. The great body of the people
look upon religion with indifference ; in their hearts 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 ivorship 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, u 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 (rod 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 (rod 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 Great 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 thrown 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, longsuffering — 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 with
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,
260 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 Buddhism. 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 ? "
Rice 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 Demo
n.
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 oppor
tunity for obtaining merit now offered, and some one
gives him two shillings. This is conspicuously mounted
on a slip of red paper, and soon the whole side of the
house tells of the gifts — Mrs. Lee 4s. ; Mrs. Ming £40 ;
Mr. Loh, Is.; Hon. Mr. Pan £2 • Lady Chang £1,
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 Great Healer, and when
asked, " Did you get cured ? " the patient would answer,
" I am perchance a wee 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
Nail Cage.
" 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 buy 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 £10 or £20 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."
u 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 Buddhism. 267
Compendium of gods — In China there are gods
celestial and gods terrestrial, dei majores 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 the
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 one farthing, and
another will cost £200. 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, Image, 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, Eiches, and Thunder are
worshipped often. Of equal rank are the goddess of the
Pole Star ; the Eastern Peak ; Leu Chenyang, the
.flSsculapius ; 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 Buddhism. 2 7 1
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.
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. 2255,
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
274 The 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 temples of yellow porcelain, an imperial
gift, are in striking contrast with the green of the
surrounding bamboo forests, and glitter amidst the waving
Mountains, 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 and
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
£3160 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 Dragon, 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, Islands, and Festivals. 279
spring, to the Hangchow temples alone perhaps 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 at
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, little
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, Image \ 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.
THE 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 sixty or eighty
million pounds which are spent annually in idolatry
284 The Dragon, I maw, and Demon.
L
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 Governor
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.
wealth takes the veil, and to one of those in Soochow
the Emperor Kienlung gave the " Heart Sutra/' written
with his own hand ; in some the "vestal fire " (puh mih
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 with 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 were
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 Buddhism. 287
begrudge the money to be spent on her wedding ; she
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
283 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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 six pounds is 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
Women and Buddhism. 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 difficulty in accounting for
the resemblance."
1 . In both these systems it is a worship of pictures
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 worship 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 unknown tongue; the Romanists
in Latin, and the Buddhists in Sanscrit.
3. Both systems use candles and incense ; the Catholics
The Heart of Buddhism. 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.
5. Rosaries. Both the Buddhist and the Komanist
count their beads.
6. The vain repetitions. The substitute for Ave Maria
is o-me-to-fuh.
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 Peter's.
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 miracles. 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, Image, 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 XIII.
15. Floiuer-worship 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
Mother finds her perfect
counterpart in Kwanyin,
the goddess of mercy.
Let the reader judge for
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 Mary
is the guiding spirit of Eome, 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
Kwanjin in White Kobes.
The Heart of Buddhism.
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 fact important in modern
Buddhist history, that the most popular of the divinities
294 The 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
77/6' Heart of Buddhism.
295
word that if he would despatch a messenger to "The
Fragrant Mountain " an eye and a hand would be given
Giving- 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 The 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, " Great mercy, great pity, save
from sorrow, save from suffering," or, as it is in the
books, " Great 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.
71ie 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-a way-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 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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-me-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, Kwanyin. 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-me-to-fuh ; when you speak to a priest, he
utters, o-me-to-fuh; the response in prayer is o-me-to-
fuh; as the monk beats on his fish-head the name is
called, o-me-to-fuh ; as he counts his beads it is o-me-
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-me-to-fuh; 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.
301
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
3O2 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 100,000 musical instru
ments ; the listener must necessarily have a heart to
chant of Buddha, the Law, and the Church.
THE PUEE LAND.
lt 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 Heart of Buddhism. 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-me-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 The 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 Buddhism. 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 temple,
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 Mount
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
306 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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 Yang 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 Record," 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
tran s migrat ion .
White and Black Devils.— These are the Marshals
of Hades, who are despatched to arrest the dying, seize
308 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."
The Heart of Buddhism.
309
Looking Homeward — When the soul arrives at the
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 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.
Pulling 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 jyvith a knife and hacked to
pieces with hatchets ; the tongue of deceit and lying
3 1 2 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 Buddhism.
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 and 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.
316 The Dragon, Image, 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.''
77/6' Gods of Buddhism.
317
The Buddhists count their dragons in number equal 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 fungshuy, 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.
T 8 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 Great 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 Janteng 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 a moun-
TJic Gods of Buddhism. 3 1 9
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 Nu. "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.
CHAPTEK XIX.
GODS OF THE PEOPLE.
God of Wealth.
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.
121
God of Riches. — The picture represents him as sitting
in his shrine or little chapel, which is placed on a table
in nearly every store and in many homes. There were
five brothers, who were " Globe-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 Riches.
till after this sacrificial banquet is given to him. By his
side are two ministers, called " Invite Riches " and " Gain
Market," who are considered divinities of no mean rank.
For 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 Mandarin.
The Heavenly Mandarin. — This picture hangs in
numbers of houses. The Heavenly Mandarin in appear
ance is 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
Kitchen-god.
farthing. " Every empire has an emperor, and every
family has a ruler,'' is the oft-quoted proverb ; the ruler of
the family being the kitchen-god. His duties are twofold ;
first, he knows intimately the faults ot 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 shepherd
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 " Man Lost,"
with the character " Man " 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 hobgoblins, 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 Medical
Chapter ; the names of the rest are here given,
the numbers corresponding to their position in the
temple : —
14, \Varding-off-evil Master; 15, Master of gold; 16,
Silver; 17, Mitigate calamity; 19, Fortune; 20,
Military ; 22, Snakes ; 23, Magpies ; 24, Serpent-Demon ;
25, 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; 52, Master of Six Household gods ; 54, Thunder; 55,
Vows ; 56, 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 his legs,
33O The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
as he thought it was only granite. Afterwards discovering
its quality, Pien Ho was appointed by him Grem-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 Great 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 tJie People.
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 differ 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 Ting gods are six in number:
1, Kwang Chang; 2, Yii Yii ; 3, Yellow Devil; 4, Great
Cataract (of the eye); 5, Rang Shin; 6, Tunglih. These
nix assisted the Great 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 Ting gods to
332 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.
'HPHE Chinese speak of the « three hundred and sixty
-L trades" as including 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 the
direction of Wu, where, in consequence, a drought pre
vailed for the space of three years. On receiving sup
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 carpenters." Ship
334 The Dragon, linage, 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 Taikung
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 samshu 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 Emperor's
daughter commanded Etee to make wine, and it was good.
She gave it to the Emperor, who, when he had tasted it,
poured the liquid upon the ground, sent Etee into banish
ment, and forbade the knowledge of wine."
Bean-Curd god — Hwei Xanhwang 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 men the art
of shaving and hair-cutting, and is now worshipped 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.
336 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 wood, 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 XXL
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 somersault 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 Eoyal
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.
22
The 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
Lice-god.
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, who was the minister of Han
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 would
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 a straw man. When a house has 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 universal 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 peace " 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.
77/6' Absurdities of Polytheism. 341
His name is " Wang, the Pure." He was a celebrated
gambler, and lost £200,000 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
who have ever wielded power in
China. Why is this? The answer
is given, that it is well to offer Dice-god.
sacrifice to them and keep them
quiet, and resting in their own places in Hades, lest
they might return to earth arid 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 The 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 Polytheism. 343
eyes. The category of his offences 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 B.C.
1210, and died B.C. 1120. He is the most celebrated cha
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.
In this way he is the god of Chinese gods. The account
of his earthly exploits and heavenly deeds is perhaps the
greatest book of marvels ever printed. His picture is
344 The Dragon, linage, 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 Yam en
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 Governor's residence in Soochow worship
these four-footed creatures.
On the " Absurdities of Polytheism " see Chapters IX.,
page 129 ; XIV., pages 258, 265, 266, and 270 ; XIX.,
page 323 ; XX., page 336.
CHAPTER XXII.
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
Great 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 philo
sophy, had a goodly number of students, retired from the
haunts of men, and devoted himself to speculation. His
346 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
followers now speak of his pre-existence, of his deification,
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 Philosophy. 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 youthful 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 ? Why,
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.
348 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 o,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. 349
and spiritual simplicity, and deals neither in speculative
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
" Xature," 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 paragraphs.
It is modestly suggested that in many cases Tao might
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
Hhokmah 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 pagan
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
Tao?
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 Tao, 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 Great 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
" Too is that which covers Heaven and supports Earth ;
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
35 2 The Dragon, linage, 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 man, " He
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.
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 01
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
Taoism 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 classic •-
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 Taois-m
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,
356 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
light, with a white eye in
J 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
358 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.
Taoism as a Religion. 359
All 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, worshipped 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 souls, one of which is sensuous and
lustful . . . the other rational and immortal, a particle
of that divine light which 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 u 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
del 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,
nourish, 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 Great 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 Yang 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, linage, and Demon.
are the six beards 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,
"Atone 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, u 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 kya 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 crane
368 The Dragon, Image, 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 when 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 cash (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. After
wards it was said the paper-men could come in through
Taoism as a Religion. 371
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 powder, 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. Eetiring 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, Priests, 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 Taoling.
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 The 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 Commander-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 regime. 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.
376 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 £8,000
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.
377
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
378 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
lived 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
;8o 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 Ruler 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 three 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 the name of Chang Ye, the title of
Shangte, The Pearly Emperor, 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 Tcang dynas-
ty one thousand years ago).
-..- , , , . , . ...
-M-6 nas thirty -six ministers
and two chief Attendants, one
with three heads and six arms,
and the other with four heads
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. 385
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
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 Dragon, Image, 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 £4: to £20 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.
Yainens 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 — In 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
T'ai, 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 £200 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
388 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 Mr. 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 TJie Dragon, 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 Governor 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 fire bow and arrows,
and wherever an arrow flies there
is a conflagration. The second
minister holds the fire-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 balls, 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.
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 Dragon, 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 The 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 Royal 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 Koyal 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
396 The Dragon, 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 Koyal Mother appointed the White Tiger
god as ruler of the wrorld.
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 upon
Wans: Ling Kwan.
that, with a dragon tablet on the top. At the window
opposite is a paper mounted horseman, to whom a feast
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 Glaus.
CHAPTER XXVI.
MEDICAL DIVINITIES.
r I ^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 ^Esculapius. — In
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. u 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, Image, 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
mia 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
Royal 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. Ked 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, Kuler of Headache; 3, Chills; 4, Liver; 5,
Diarrhoea ; 6, Dropsy ; 7, Cough ; 8, Stomach-ache ;
9, Colic ; 10, The Divine Oculist ; 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,
Ruler 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, Tne 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
phragm, Tao Kang ; 15, god of the nape of the neck, Shang
Kien; 16, god of the neck, Yii Nii Kuin ; 17, god of
the throat, Pah Lien Fang; 18, god of the back, Nii
Chah; 19, god of the breast, Hu Pen; 20, god of the
ribs, Pih Kya Ma ; 21, god of the stomach, Tung Lien
Yoh ; 22, god of the bowels, Chao Ten Kang ; 23, god
of the hand, Wen Yin ; 24, god of the feet, Chu Tien Lib ;
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. The fortune
teller informs him that he has interfered with 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 cash"
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
406 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 Prescription. — 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 Taoists
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 Great 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
408 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 younger 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 ruler
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, and 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 went to the shrine,
offered very much incense, an(J 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 XXVII.
THE STAR GODS.
" 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.
411
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 Bog. 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
4 1 2 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 eightieth 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
4 14 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 ;
«AO€« 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
Cycle Gods.
generations, marriage by divorce, and a journey by
disasters. 4. The Room constellation is lucky. 6. 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 Bushel
416 The Dragon, 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. 22. The Well constellation brings luck.
23. The Demon constellation portends terror. 24. The
Willow constellation is almost as bad, and (25) 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 Revolving 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
4i 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-
Hil^lIE^^^lif sicians who worship it ; the Orphan
Star' which enables a woman to
' become a man, and the Star of
Pleasure, which decides on matches,
... , . ,
an(* "as S1lver cords with which to
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
The Star 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 Five 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.
riHHE tales of the genii or the immortals found in
-*- Chinese books satisfy the national craving for
fictitious literature, and might be termed a 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 what 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
77/6' Immortals. 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. 1. 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-
422 The Dragon, Image, 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 Immortals.
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.
selah, he appeared not over fifty. He made 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.
Laii 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 Immortals.
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, uwhen fourteen
years old, dreamed that a spirit gave her instruction in the
426 The Dragon, 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 worshipped 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 Dragon, 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 by 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.
"TTTHENEVER 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, and Demon.
Do the dead live ? There are no religions 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'utee Miao.
The next point requiring attention is the selection of a
site for a grave, which brings us to the consideration of
Fungshuy. — Fungshuy, 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
43 2 The Dragon, 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
O
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 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
The geomancers or fung-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 cash 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 cash, which symbolizes the scattering
436 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
delights 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-tablets, they wave
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. The 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 8 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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 sumptuous
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 soul. 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 forty-nine 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 the
440 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
metempsychosis returns a priest, who at death may go
to Heaven.
The Last 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 luh 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 button 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.
442 The Dragon, 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.
r I ^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 The 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
Demonolatry.
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
446 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
Demonolatry. 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 form
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 corner 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 8 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
sticks 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
Demonolatry. 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
450 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
(rod." 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
45 2 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 Grand 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 £133 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 public
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,
' A Pillar to Tranquillize
that it is by no means an uncommon Drowned Spirits.
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
454 The 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 water's 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, he asked me, " Will you not obtain some
well-authenticated cases ? " I assured him tHat " ivell-
authenticated cases on any question did not exist in
China." There are, however, some suggestive thoughts
on the topic.
1. First, 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, wrhose mouthpiece they are
supposed to become." " The familiar spirit takes 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
456 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 believe
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 Dragon, linage, 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
460 The Dragon, Image, and Demon.
prayers they will be expanded. The picture represents
a musical entertainment called fang yen freu^ 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 three hundred pounds 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. Mara
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 Mara 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 7 he Dragon, Image, and Demon.
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 Z ion's towers, " Watchman, what of
the night ? The watchman saith, The morning cometh ! "
" The Sun of Eighteousness arises."
As a minister was speaking of the " folly of idolatry,
and telling the story of God's love," aa white-haired
village patriarch " said, " We did not know that this was
wrong. Our fathers worshipped thus. We cannot find
the door." 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.
PRINTED B\
HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
INDEX.
Abacus
Page
. 370
Cremation .
.18?
Abbot .
. 37()
Criminal
. 408
Alchemy
. 355
Chung Kw'ei
. 446
Altar .
. 59
Death . .113,
185, 289
Amita .
. 298
Dedication .
. 260
Ananda
. 185, 199
Demons
. 443
Ancestors .
. 77, -286
Demoniacal Possession
. 454
Ancestral Hall .
. 81
Devil ....
. 461
Antiquity .
27, 05, 77
Doctor Fox
. '400
Asia .
. 191
- Hwat'u
. 401
Atheism
. 207
Dragon 133, 134, 172,
315, 330
^Escnlapius .
. 398
Dreams
. 369
Baby Devil
. 179
Drowned
. 454
Bank of Hades .
. 451
Elephants .
173, 178
Bodhidharma
. 199
Emperor Show .
. 342
Borrowing Years
. 408
Emperors .
. 192
Brahma
. 161, 207
Emptiness .
168, 215
Brahmans .
Breath of Death .
Bribery
Buddha
. 160
. 458
. 308
. 145
Family Worship
Fairy Crane
Faith ....
Fascinating
56
. 366
. 183
281,283
Calendar
. 252
Fear ....
. 80
Chang, The
Heivenly
Fetish
. 203
Teacher
. 362, 373
Filial Piety
. 77
Charms
. 407,444
Five . . 130, 329,
393, 421
Chiliocosm .
. 210
Fix-Light Buddha .
. 318
China
. 191
Forgiveness
214, 368
Citadel
. 48
o
Funeral
. 442
Confucianist
. 46
Fungshuy .
. 431
Confucius .
. 78, 89
Fungtu
. 306
— Disciples of
. 138
Genealogical Tables .
. 82
Conscience .
. 46
Gods Appointed
. 362
Constellations
. 414
Gods' Audience .
. 375
Corpse
. 430
-Bad .
. 341
Creator 38, 161
, 207, 211, 364
Compendium of .
. 267
Credentials .
. 440
— Dei Ma j ores
. 270
30
466
Index.
Gods differ in Rank .
have Sin
— kidnapping Pretty Wo
men ....
— may be Bambooed
Marry . . 285,
go to the Theatre
be sent to the "Earth
Prison" .
Page
358
361
409
140
361
282
313
362
361
360
227
285
340
335
76
340
75
292
326
330
1540
403
314
318
410
388
319
328
31)4
76
403
131
328
336
334
335
335
326
404
328
333
75
385
141
135
be promoted
be transmigrated
Goddesses ....
Goddess, Corner
— Embroidery
• Flowers
Fro°t
— Male Principle of Na
ture
- Manure
Midwives .
— Miss Mang
Arn+Vipr rvf TtnrJrlViQ
— North Star
— Sea .
— Sombre Maiden .
TYnvpl
— Western Roval Mother
- Wheat
"WrYrnVk
Gods of
Agriculture
Archery ....
Architecture .
Bacchus ....
Barbers ....
Bean-Curd
Bed .
Body .
Bridge .
Carpenters
Caverns .
City .
City Wall
Classics .
Gods of—
Compass .
Constables
Corpse-gods
Cruelty . . .
Cycle .
Day and Night Recorders
Divine Husbandman
Page
Door
Earth
Eastern Peak .
Eight
Eighth .
Eye.
Favouring Wind
Field Ancestor
Fire.
Fire- crackers .
Fishermen
Five Elements
Forty Masters .
Gamblers
Gold
Granary .
Happiness
Heavenly Mandarin
Holding- Snakes
Horses and Cows .
Household
Jade
Jugglers .
King Lee
Kitchen .
Lamp
Land and Grain
Lice
Lightning
Literature
Luck
Marriage .
Masons .
Master of Lily Lake
Measles .
Medicine .
Monkey .
Moon
Mountains
Musical Instruments
Net.
181
327
140
395
339
414
396
139
331
. 68
. 387
. 139
. 142
. 402
. 328
. 328
. 389
. 339
. 334
. 72
. 329
. 340
. 327
. 141
. 327
322
! 325
. 324
. 130
. 335
. 336
. 318
. 323
. 328
. 139
. 338
72, 73
. 126
. 403
. 426
. 334
. 318
. 403
. 399
. 337
. 68
. 72
. 336
. 334
Index. 467
Page
I'age
Gods of —
Gods of—
North Place .
327
Writing ....
135
Noxious .
. 438
Year ....
330
Office .
. 120
Grave ....
82
Paper Clothing
. 336
Great Extreme .
356
Pestilence
. 390
Goose
179
Precincts
. 139
Guest ....
444
Prison
Punch and Judy
. 140
. 338
Han Wenkung .
Heart . . . 44,
197
211
Rain
Rain Clothes .
72, 73
. 337
Heaven . . 50, 183,
gon of
308
51
Revenge .
. 339
07
Riches
River
Road
Rough Gem .
. 321
. 72
. 390
. 329
Heavenly Dog .
Hell .... 3C5,
Hermit ....
Hien Yuen
411
311
152
Hi! 9
Salt.
Scorpions
. 327
. 326
Historian ....
Home ....
110
84
Sea .
Seasons .
Shadows .
. 71
. 72
. 340
Huai Nantsze
Humility ....
350
104
Sheep
324 Iconoclasts ....
206
Silk.
335 Immortals . . .350.
420
Silk -worm
. 330 India
190
Smnll-pox
402 Indulgences
368
Snakes .
. 325 Industry .
261
Snow
. 75 Itinerant .
161
Soul
Stone Lion
SI Janteng ....
315
Strength .
327 K'anghe ....
31
Sun.
. 68 Kashiapa . . . 175,
199
Tailors .
. 335 Kiang T'aikung . 334, 343,
363
Tea .
Theatres .
. 327
. 324
Laotsze ....
T ITW
345
164
Thunder .
Tides
Time
72,73
. 132
. 72
JUcl W . . • . •
Lies .... 110,
Lih Ling ....
Lilv . 294.
•201
396
303
Ting
331 T -L '
-~ Lohans ....
240
Tree
915
Wang Papa
War
454
Water .
. 71
Magician ....
176
Wave
. 328 Mandarins ....
54
Wealth .
. 320 Manhood . . .119,
137
Well
. 332 Manichaeans
359
White Tiger .
. 396
Mara .... 153,
461
Willow
75 i Mnssps for fhp. Dparl .
437
Wind
. 72
Mediator . . . 323,
386
Witches .
. 394
Mencius . . . 44,
135
468
Index.
Page
Paw
Merit ....
. 221
Sabbath
. 41
Military official .
. 397
Sacrifice . . 61
121, 159
Ming Dynasty
. 65
Sanscrit
231, 249
Miracles
. 173
School
. 124
Mirror
. 309
Schools of Buddhism .
. 200
Missionary .
. 190
Science
. 209
Monasticism
163, 214
Services for the Living
. 366
Morality
41, 212
Sign ....
. 256
Mother (Heathen)
. 288
Sin .
. 219
Mount T'ai
. 273
Slavery
. 87
Musician
. 104
Son ....
. 79
Kail Cage .
Nanda
Nihilism
Nirvana
. 265
. 179
. 216
. 227
O A
Soul . . . 435,
Stability .
Star ....
Stealing
Street Guards
439, 443
55, 106
127, 417
. 266
. 447
Nuns ....
84
Suicide
. 453
Pagodas
196, 376
Superstitions
. 109
Pantheism .
66, 211
Tail Cutting
. 370
Paper Clothing .
. 448
Tao
349
Parables
. 170
Tao Teh King .
. 348
Paradise
148, 294
Temple 57, 115, 121,
134, 141,
Park ....
57, 165
234, 261,
368, 376
Parrot
Patience
Patriarchs .
Pearly Emperor .
P'eng Lai Islands
Persecutions
. 182
. 192
. 199
. 382
. 421
. 195
Theatricals .
Thirteen Boards
Thirty Teachers .
Tola ....
Tolerance .
Tortures
. 278
. 363
. 404
. 150
. 204
. 265
Pilgrims
. 278
i c e
Tsusze P'usa
. 3X4
Pity ....
Plagiarism .
. 15o
. 354
Transmigration . 224,
360, 366,
369, 439
Pope .
. 372
Travellers .
. 195
Po.otoo
Pouhien
Prayer 69, 71, 85, 119,
. 274
238, 319
123, 231,
248
Travelling in Hades .
Triads 130, 237, 379,
Vegetarians
. 452
391, 392
. 218
Prescriptions
Previous Existence
. 406
. 109
Vice ....
Vision of Hell .
. 43
. 308
Priests
229, 375
Votive Tablets .
. 401
Procession .
. 60
Vows ....
. 248
Prohibitions
. 165
Wang Ling Kwan
. 396
Pure Land .
. 302
Want of Religion
47, 244
Rain .
Redemption
Relics. . . 185,
Revival
73, 250
220
196, 291
. 205
Water Lamps
Wenshu
Women
Worship
. 448
. 238
. 286
. 240
Roman Catholics
. 290
Yin and Yang
. 357
5891
*wr 1 2
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11