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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15250-8.txt b/15250-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b17f56 --- /dev/null +++ b/15250-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13323 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Legends of China, by E. T. C. Werner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Myths and Legends of China + +Author: E. T. C. Werner + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15250] +Last Updated: January 7, 2017 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CHINA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeroen Hellingman and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + Myths & Legends of China + + By + + E.T.C. Werner + + H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late + Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau Peking + Author of "Descriptive Sociology: Chinese" "China of the Chinese" Etc. + + + George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. + London Bombay Sydney + + + + +In Memoriam + +_Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner_ + + + +Preface + +The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the _Li tai shên hsien +t'ung chien_, in thirty-two volumes, the _Shên hsien lieh chuan_, +in eight volumes, the _Fêng shên yen i_, in eight volumes, and the +_Sou shên chi_, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I +have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also +consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese +Superstitions by Père Henri Doré, comprised in the valuable series +_Variétés Sinologiques_, published by the Catholic Mission Press +at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssu K'u Ch'üan Shu, +one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for +purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend +Mr Mu Hsüeh-hsün, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, +for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library +of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it +to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive +collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but +owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese +mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this +subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to +Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, +Shanghai, for permission to reprint from _Strange Stories from a +Chinese Studio_ the fox legends given in Chapter XV. + +This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology +in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include any +scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths. + +My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a +prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, +and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of +space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a +very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with +the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in English dress +those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives +of Chinese mythology--those which live in the minds of the people and +are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which +are merely diverting without being typical or instructive--in short, +a true, not a distorted image. + +_Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner_ + +_Peking_ +_February_ 1922 + + + +Contents + + + +Chapter + +I. The Sociology of the Chinese +II. On Chinese Mythology +III. Cosmogony--P'an Ku and the Creation Myth +IV. The Gods of China +V. Myths of the Stars +VI. Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain +VII. Myths of the Waters +VIII. Myths of Fire +IX. Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc. +X. The Goddess of Mercy +XI. The Eight Immortals +XII. The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven +XIII. A Battle of the Gods +XIV. How the Monkey Became a God +XV. Fox Legends +XVI. Miscellaneous Legends + The Pronunciation of Chinese Words + + + + + +_Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les frontières +réelles?... Ces frontières sont d'une netteté qui ne permet aucune +erreur. L'Asie est là où cesse la vulgarité, où naît la dignité, +et où commence l'élégance intellectuelle. Et l'Orient est là où sont +les sources débordantes de poésie._ + +_Mardrus_, +_La Reine de Saba_ + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Sociology of the Chinese + + +Racial Origin + +In spite of much research and conjecture, the origin of the Chinese +people remains undetermined. We do not know who they were nor whence +they came. Such evidence as there is points to their immigration +from elsewhere; the Chinese themselves have a tradition of a Western +origin. The first picture we have of their actual history shows us, not +a people behaving as if long settled in a land which was their home and +that of their forefathers, but an alien race fighting with wild beasts, +clearing dense forests, and driving back the aboriginal inhabitants. + +Setting aside several theories (including the one that the Chinese +are autochthonous and their civilization indigenous) now regarded +by the best authorities as untenable, the researches of sinologists +seem to indicate an origin (1) in early Akkadia; or (2) in Khotan, +the Tarim valley (generally what is now known as Eastern Turkestan), +or the K'un-lun Mountains (concerning which more presently). The +second hypothesis may relate only to a sojourn of longer or shorter +duration on the way from Akkadia to the ultimate settlement in China, +especially since the Khotan civilization has been shown to have +been imported from the Punjab in the third century B.C. The fact +that serious mistakes have been made regarding the identifications +of early Chinese rulers with Babylonian kings, and of the Chinese +_po-hsing_ (Cantonese _bak-sing_) 'people' with the Bak Sing or Bak +tribes, does not exclude the possibility of an Akkadian origin. But +in either case the immigration into China was probably gradual, and +may have taken the route from Western or Central Asia direct to the +banks of the Yellow River, or may possibly have followed that to the +south-east through Burma and then to the north-east through what is +now China--the settlement of the latter country having thus spread +from south-west to north-east, or in a north-easterly direction along +the Yangtzu River, and so north, instead of, as is generally supposed, +from north to south. + + +Southern Origin Improbable + +But this latter route would present many difficulties; it would seem +to have been put forward merely as ancillary to the theory that the +Chinese originated in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. This theory is +based upon the assumptions that the ancient Chinese ideograms include +representations of tropical animals and plants; that the oldest and +purest forms of the language are found in the south; and that the +Chinese and the Indo-Chinese groups of languages are both tonal. But +all of these facts or alleged facts are as easily or better accounted +for by the supposition that the Chinese arrived from the north +or north-west in successive waves of migration, the later arrivals +pushing the earlier farther and farther toward the south, so that the +oldest and purest forms of Chinese would be found just where they are, +the tonal languages of the Indo-Chinese peninsula being in that case +regarded as the languages of the vanguard of the migration. Also, the +ideograms referred to represent animals and plants of the temperate +zone rather than of the tropics, but even if it could be shown, which +it cannot, that these animals and plants now belong exclusively to the +tropics, that would be no proof of the tropical origin of the Chinese, +for in the earliest times the climate of North China was much milder +than it is now, and animals such as tigers and elephants existed in the +dense jungles which are later found only in more southern latitudes. + + +Expansion of Races from North to South + +The theory of a southern origin (to which a further serious objection +will be stated presently) implies a gradual infiltration of Chinese +immigrants through South or Mid-China (as above indicated) toward +the north, but there is little doubt that the movement of the races +has been from north to south and not _vice versa_. In what are now +the provinces of Western Kansu and Ssuch'uan there lived a people +related to the Chinese (as proved by the study of Indo-Chinese +comparative philology) who moved into the present territory of Tibet +and are known as Tibetans; in what is now the province of Yünnan were +the Shan or Ai-lao (modern Laos), who, forced by Mongol invasions, +emigrated to the peninsula in the south and became the Siamese; and in +Indo-China, not related to the Chinese, were the Annamese, Khmer, Mon, +Khasi, Colarains (whose remnants are dispersed over the hill tracts +of Central India), and other tribes, extending in prehistoric times +into Southern China, but subsequently driven back by the expansion +of the Chinese in that direction. + + +Arrival of the Chinese in China + +Taking into consideration all the existing evidence, the objections to +all other theories of the origin of the Chinese seem to be greater +than any yet raised to the theory that immigrants from the Tarim +valley or beyond (_i.e._ from Elam or Akkadia, either direct or _via_ +Eastern Turkestan) struck the banks of the Yellow River in their +eastward journey and followed its course until they reached the +localities where we first find them settled, namely, in the region +covered by parts of the three modern provinces of Shansi, Shensi, +and Honan where their frontiers join. They were then (about 2500 or +3000 B.C.) in a relatively advanced state of civilization. The country +east and south of this district was inhabited by aboriginal tribes, +with whom the Chinese fought, as they did with the wild animals and the +dense vegetation, but with whom they also commingled and intermarried, +and among whom they planted colonies as centres from which to spread +their civilization. + + +The K'un-lun Mountains + +With reference to the K'un-lun Mountains, designated in Chinese +mythology as the abode of the gods--the ancestors of the Chinese +race--it should be noted that these are identified not with the range +dividing Tibet from Chinese Turkestan, but with the Hindu Kush. That +brings us somewhat nearer to Babylon, and the apparent convergence +of the two theories, the Central Asian and the Western Asian, would +seem to point to a possible solution of the problem. Nü Kua, one of +the alleged creators of human beings, and Nü and Kua, the first two +human beings (according to a variation of the legend), are placed +in the K'un-lun Mountains. That looks hopeful. Unfortunately, the +K'un-lun legend is proved to be of Taoist origin. K'un-lun is the +central mountain of the world, and 3000 miles in height. There is +the fountain of immortality, and thence flow the four great rivers +of the world. In other words, it is the Sumêru of Hindu mythology +transplanted into Chinese legend, and for our present purpose without +historical value. + +It would take up too much space to go into details of this interesting +problem of the origin of the Chinese and their civilization, the +cultural connexions or similarities of China and Western Asia in +pre-Babylonian times, the origin of the two distinct culture-areas +so marked throughout the greater part of Chinese history, etc., and +it will be sufficient for our present purpose to state the conclusion +to which the evidence points. + + +Provisional Conclusion + +Pending the discovery of decisive evidence, the following provisional +conclusion has much to recommend it--namely, that the ancestors +of the Chinese people came from the west, from Akkadia or Elam, +or from Khotan, or (more probably) from Akkadia or Elam _via_ +Khotan, as one nomad or pastoral tribe or group of nomad or pastoral +tribes, or as successive waves of immigrants, reached what is now +China Proper at its north-west corner, settled round the elbow of +the Yellow River, spread north-eastward, eastward, and southward, +conquering, absorbing, or pushing before them the aborigines into +what is now South and South-west China. These aboriginal races, who +represent a wave or waves of neolithic immigrants from Western Asia +earlier than the relatively high-headed immigrants into North China +(who arrived about the twenty-fifth or twenty-fourth century B.C.), +and who have left so deep an impress on the Japanese, mixed and +intermarried with the Chinese in the south, eventually producing the +pronounced differences, in physical, mental, and emotional traits, +in sentiments, ideas, languages, processes, and products, from the +Northern Chinese which are so conspicuous at the present day. + + + +Inorganic Environment + +At the beginning of their known history the country occupied by the +Chinese was the comparatively small region above mentioned. It was +then a tract of an irregular oblong shape, lying between latitude 34° +and 40° N. and longitude 107° and 114° E. This territory round the +elbow of the Yellow River had an area of about 50,000 square miles, +and was gradually extended to the sea-coast on the north-east as far as +longitude 119°, when its area was about doubled. It had a population of +perhaps a million, increasing with the expansion to two millions. This +may be called infant China. Its period (the Feudal Period) was in +the two thousand years between the twenty-fourth and third centuries +B.C. During the first centuries of the Monarchical Period, which lasted +from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912, it had expanded to the south to such an +extent that it included all of the Eighteen Provinces constituting +what is known as China Proper of modern times, with the exception of +a portion of the west of Kansu and the greater portions of Ssuch'uan +and Yünnan. At the time of the Manchu conquest at the beginning of the +seventeenth century A.D. it embraced all the territory lying between +latitude 18° and 40° N. and longitude 98° and 122° E. (the Eighteen +Provinces or China Proper), with the addition of the vast outlying +territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Ili, Koko-nor, Tibet, and Corea, +with suzerainty over Burma and Annam--an area of more than 5,000,000 +square miles, including the 2,000,000 square miles covered by the +Eighteen Provinces. Generally, this territory is mountainous in the +west, sloping gradually down toward the sea on the east. It contains +three chief ranges of mountains and large alluvial plains in the north, +east, and south. Three great and about thirty large rivers intersect +the country, their numerous tributaries reaching every part of it. + +As regards geological features, the great alluvial plains rest upon +granite, new red sandstone, or limestone. In the north is found the +peculiar loess formation, having its origin probably in the accumulated +dust of ages blown from the Mongolian plateau. The passage from north +to south is generally from the older to the newer rocks; from east to +west a similar series is found, with some volcanic features in the +west and south. Coal and iron are the chief minerals, gold, silver, +copper, lead, tin, jade, etc., being also mined. + +The climate of this vast area is not uniform. In the north the winter +is long and rigorous, the summer hot and dry, with a short rainy season +in July and August; in the south the summer is long, hot, and moist, +the winter short. The mean temperature is 50.3° F. and 70° F. in the +north and south respectively. Generally, the thermometer is low for +the latitude, though perhaps it is more correct to say that the Gulf +Stream raises the temperature of the west coast of Europe above the +average. The mean rainfall in the north is 16, in the south 70 inches, +with variations in other parts. Typhoons blow in the south between +July and October. + + +Organic Environment + +The vegetal productions are abundant and most varied. The rice-zone +(significant in relation to the cultural distinctions above noted) +embraces the southern half of the country. Tea, first cultivated +for its infusion in A.D. 350, is grown in the southern and central +provinces between the twenty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of +latitude, though it is also found as far north as Shantung, the chief +'tea district,' however, being the large area south of the Yangtzu +River, east of the Tungting Lake and great Siang River, and north of +the Kuangtung Province. The other chief vegetal products are wheat, +barley, maize, millet, the bean, yam, sweet and common potato, tomato, +eggplant, ginseng, cabbage, bamboo, indigo, pepper, tobacco, camphor, +tallow, ground-nut, poppy, water-melon, sugar, cotton, hemp, and +silk. Among the fruits grown are the date, mulberry, orange, lemon, +pumelo, persimmon, lichi, pomegranate, pineapple, fig, coconut, mango, +and banana, besides the usual kinds common in Western countries. + +The wild animals include the tiger, panther, leopard, bear, sable, +otter, monkey, wolf, fox, twenty-seven or more species of ruminants, +and numerous species of rodents. The rhinoceros, elephant, and tapir +still exist in Yünnan. The domestic animals include the camel and the +water-buffalo. There are about 700 species of birds, and innumerable +species of fishes and insects. + + +Sociological Environment + +On their arrival in what is now known as China the Chinese, as already +noted, fought with the aboriginal tribes. The latter were exterminated, +absorbed, or driven south with the spread of Chinese rule. The Chinese +"picked out the eyes of the land," and consequently the non-Chinese +tribes now live in the unhealthy forests or marshes of the south, +or in mountain regions difficult of access, some even in trees (a +voluntary, not compulsory promotion), though several, such as the Dog +Jung in Fukien, retain settlements like islands among the ruling race. + +In the third century B.C. began the hostile relations of the Chinese +with the northern nomads, which continued throughout the greater +part of their history. During the first six centuries A.D. there was +intercourse with Rome, Parthia, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, India, +and Indo-China, and in the seventh century with the Arabs. Europe +was brought within the sociological environment by Christian +travellers. From the tenth to the thirteenth century the north +was occupied by Kitans and Nüchêns, and the whole Empire was under +Mongol sway for eighty-eight years in the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries. Relations of a commercial and religious nature were held +with neighbours during the following four hundred years. Regular +diplomatic intercourse with Western nations was established as a result +of a series of wars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until +recently the nation held aloof from alliances and was generally averse +to foreign intercourse. From 1537 onward, as a sequel of war or treaty, +concessions, settlements, etc., were obtained by foreign Powers. China +has now lost some of her border countries and large adjacent islands, +the military and commercial pressure of Western nations and Japan +having taken the place of the military pressure of the Tartars already +referred to. The great problem for her, an agricultural nation, is +how to find means and the military spirit to maintain her integrity, +the further violation of which could not but be regarded by the student +of sociological history as a great tragedy and a world-wide calamity. + + +Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Characters + +The physical characters of the Chinese are too well known to need +detailed recital. The original immigrants into North China all +belonged to blond races, but the modern Chinese have little left of +the immigrant stock. The oblique, almond-shaped eyes, with black iris +and the orbits far apart, have a vertical fold of skin over the inner +canthus, concealing a part of the iris, a peculiarity distinguishing +the eastern races of Asia from all other families of man. The stature +and weight of brain are generally below the average. The hair is black, +coarse, and cylindrical; the beard scanty or absent. The colour of +the skin is darker in the south than in the north. + +Emotionally the Chinese are sober, industrious, of remarkable +endurance, grateful, courteous, and ceremonious, with a high sense +of mercantile honour, but timorous, cruel, unsympathetic, mendacious, +and libidinous. + +Intellectually they were until recently, and to a large extent +still are, non-progressive, in bondage to uniformity and mechanism +in culture, imitative, unimaginative, torpid, indirect, suspicious, +and superstitious. + +The character is being modified by intercourse with other peoples +of the earth and by the strong force of physical, intellectual, +and moral education. + + +Marriage in Early Times + +Certain parts of the marriage ceremonial of China as now existing +indicate that the original form of marriage was by capture--of which, +indeed, there is evidence in the classical _Book of Odes_. But a +regular form of marriage (in reality a contract of sale) is shown +to have existed in the earliest historical times. The form was not +monogamous, though it seems soon to have assumed that of a qualified +monogamy consisting of one wife and one or more concubines, the +number of the latter being as a rule limited only by the means of the +husband. The higher the rank the larger was the number of concubines +and handmaids in addition to the wife proper, the palaces of the +kings and princes containing several hundreds of them. This form it +has retained to the present day, though associations now exist for +the abolition of concubinage. In early times, as well as throughout +the whole of Chinese history, concubinage was in fact universal, +and there is some evidence also of polyandry (which, however, cannot +have prevailed to any great extent). The age for marriage was twenty +for the man and fifteen for the girl, celibacy after thirty and twenty +respectively being officially discouraged. In the province of Shantung +it was usual for the wives to be older than their husbands. The +parents' consent to the betrothal was sought through the intervention +of a matchmaker, the proposal originating with the parents, and +the wishes of the future bride and bridegroom not being taken into +consideration. The conclusion of the marriage was the progress of the +bride from the house of her parents to that of the bridegroom, where +after various ceremonies she and he worshipped his ancestors together, +the worship amounting to little more than an announcement of the union +to the ancestral spirits. After a short sojourn with her husband the +bride revisited her parents, and the marriage was not considered as +finally consummated until after this visit had taken place. + +The status of women was low, and the power of the husband great--so +great that he could kill his wife with impunity. Divorce was common, +and all in favour of the husband, who, while he could not be +divorced by her, could put his wife away for disobedience or even +for loquaciousness. A widower remarried immediately, but refusal +to remarry by a widow was esteemed an act of chastity. She often +mutilated herself or even committed suicide to prevent remarriage, +and was posthumously honoured for doing so. Being her husband's as +much in the Otherworld as in this, remarriage would partake of the +character of unchastity and insubordination; the argument, of course, +not applying to the case of the husband, who by remarriage simply +adds another member to his clan without infringing on anyone's rights. + + +Marriage in Monarchical and Republican Periods + +The marital system of the early classical times, of which the above +were the essentials, changed but little during the long period of +monarchical rule lasting from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912. The principal +object, as before, was to secure an heir to sacrifice to the spirits of +deceased progenitors. Marriage was not compulsory, but old bachelors +and old maids were very scarce. The concubines were subject to the +wife, who was considered to be the mother of their children as well +as her own. Her status, however, was not greatly superior. Implicit +obedience was exacted from her. She could not possess property, but +could not be hired out for prostitution. The latter vice was common, +in spite of the early age at which marriage took place and in spite +of the system of concubinage--which is after all but a legalized +transfer of prostitutional cohabitation to the domestic circle. + +Since the establishment of the Republic in 1912 the 'landslide' in the +direction of Western progress has had its effect also on the domestic +institutions. But while the essentials of the marriage contract remain +practically the same as before, the most conspicuous changes have been +in the accompanying ceremonial--now sometimes quite foreign, but in a +very large, perhaps the greatest, number of cases that odious thing, +half foreign, half Chinese; as, for instance, when the procession, +otherwise native, includes foreign glass-panelled carriages, or the +bridegroom wears a 'bowler' or top-hat with his Chinese dress--and +in the greater freedom allowed to women, who are seen out of doors +much more than formerly, sit at table with their husbands, attend +public functions and dinners, dress largely in foreign fashion, +and play tennis and other games, instead of being prisoners of the +'inner apartment' and household drudges little better than slaves. + +One unexpected result of this increased freedom is certainly +remarkable, and is one not likely to have been predicted by the most +far-sighted sociologist. Many of the 'progressive' Chinese, now that +it is the fashion for Chinese wives to be seen in public with their +husbands, finding the uneducated, _gauche_, small-footed household +drudge unable to compete with the smarter foreign-educated wives +of their neighbours, have actually repudiated them and taken unto +themselves spouses whom they can exhibit in public without 'loss +of face'! It is, however, only fair to add that the total number +of these cases, though by no means inconsiderable, appears to be +proportionately small. + + +Parents and Children + +As was the power of the husband over the wife, so was that of the +father over his children. Infanticide (due chiefly to poverty, +and varying with it) was frequent, especially in the case of female +children, who were but slightly esteemed; the practice prevailing +extensively in three or four provinces, less extensively in others, +and being practically absent in a large number. Beyond the fact that +some penalties were enacted against it by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung +(A.D. 1736-96), and that by statute it was a capital offence to murder +children in order to use parts of their bodies for medicine, it was +not legally prohibited. When the abuse became too scandalous in any +district proclamations condemning it would be issued by the local +officials. A man might, by purchase and contract, adopt a person +as son, daughter, or grandchild, such person acquiring thereby all +the rights of a son or daughter. Descent, both of real and personal +property, was to all the sons of wives and concubines as joint heirs, +irrespective of seniority. Bastards received half shares. Estates were +not divisible by the children during the lifetime of their parents +or grandparents. + +The head of the family being but the life-renter of the family +property, bound by fixed rules, wills were superfluous, and were used +only where the customary respect for the parents gave them a voice +in arranging the details of the succession. For this purpose verbal +or written instructions were commonly given. + +In the absence of the father, the male relatives of the same surname +assumed the guardianship of the young. The guardian exercised full +authority and enjoyed the surplus revenues of his ward's estate, +but might not alienate the property. + +There are many instances in Chinese history of extreme devotion of +children to parents taking the form of self-wounding and even of +suicide in the hope of curing parents' illnesses or saving their lives. + + +Political History + +The country inhabited by the Chinese on their arrival from the West +was, as we saw, the district where the modern provinces of Shansi, +Shensi, and Honan join. This they extended in an easterly direction +to the shores of the Gulf of Chihli--a stretch of territory about 600 +miles long by 300 broad. The population, as already stated, was between +one and two millions. During the first two thousand years of their +known history the boundaries of this region were not greatly enlarged, +but beyond the more or less undefined borderland to the south were +_chou_ or colonies, nuclei of Chinese population, which continually +increased in size through conquest of the neighbouring territory. In +221 B.C. all the feudal states into which this territory had been +parcelled out, and which fought with one another, were subjugated +and absorbed by the state of Ch'in, which in that year instituted the +monarchical form of government--the form which obtained in China for +the next twenty-one centuries. + +Though the origin of the name 'China' has not yet been finally decided, +the best authorities regard it as derived from the name of this feudal +state of Ch'in. + +Under this short-lived dynasty of Ch'in and the famous Han dynasty +(221 B.C. to A.D. 221) which followed it, the Empire expanded until +it embraced almost all the territory now known as China Proper +(the Eighteen Provinces of Manchu times). To these were added +in order between 194 B.C. and A.D. 1414: Corea, Sinkiang (the +New Territory or Eastern Turkestan), Manchuria, Formosa, Tibet, +and Mongolia--Formosa and Corea being annexed by Japan in 1895 and +1910 respectively. Numerous other extra-China countries and islands, +acquired and lost during the long course of Chinese history (at one +time, from 73 to 48 B.C., "all Asia from Japan to the Caspian Sea was +tributary to the Middle Kingdom," _i.e._ China), it is not necessary +to mention here. During the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1280) the +Tartars owned the northern half of China, as far down as the Yangtzu +River, and in the Yüan dynasty (1280-1368) they conquered the whole +country. During the period 1644-1912 it was in the possession of +the Manchus. At present the five chief component peoples of China are +represented in the striped national flag (from the top downward) by red +(Manchus), yellow (Chinese), blue (Mongolians), white (Mohammedans), +and black (Tibetans). This flag was adopted on the establishment of the +Republic in 1912, and supplanted the triangular Dragon flag previously +in use. By this time the population--which had varied considerably at +different periods owing to war, famine, and pestilence--had increased +to about 400,000,000. + + +General Government + +The general division of the nation was into the King and the People, +The former was regarded as appointed by the will of Heaven and +as the parent of the latter. Besides being king, he was also +law-giver, commander-in-chief of the armies, high priest, and +master of ceremonies. The people were divided into four classes: (1) +_Shih_, Officers (later Scholars), consisting of _Ch'ên_, Officials +(a few of whom were ennobled), and _Shên Shih_, Gentry; (2) _Nung_, +Agriculturists; (3) _Kung_, Artisans; and (4) _Shang_, Merchants. + +For administrative purposes there were at the seat of central +government (which, first at P'ing-yang--in modern Shansi--was +moved eleven times during the Feudal Period, and was finally +at Yin) ministers, or ministers and a hierarchy of officials, +the country being divided into provinces, varying in number from +nine in the earliest times to thirty-six under the First Emperor, +221 B.C., and finally twenty-two at the present day. At first these +provinces contained states, which were models of the central state, +the ruler's 'Middle Kingdom.' The provincial administration was +in the hands of twelve Pastors or Lord-Lieutenants. They were the +chiefs of all the nobles in a province. Civil and military offices +were not differentiated. The feudal lords or princes of states often +resided at the king's court, officers of that court being also sent +forth as princes of states. The king was the source of legislation +and administered justice. The princes in their several states had +the power of rewards and punishments. Revenue was derived from a +tithe on the land, from the income of artisans, merchants, fishermen, +foresters, and from the tribute brought by savage tribes. + +The general structure and principles of this system of administration +remained the same, with few variations, down to the end of the +Monarchical Period in 1912. At the end of that period we find the +emperor still considered as of divine descent, still the head of +the civil, legislative, military, ecclesiastical, and ceremonial +administration, with the nation still divided into the same four +classes. The chief ministries at the capital, Peking, could in most +cases trace their descent from their prototypes of feudal times, and +the principal provincial administrative officials--the Governor-General +or Viceroy, governor, provincial treasurer, judge, etc.--had similarly +a pedigree running back to offices then existing--a continuous duration +of adherence to type which is probably unique. + +Appointment to office was at first by selection, followed by an +examination to test proficiency; later was introduced the system of +public competitive literary examinations for office, fully organized +in the seventeenth century, and abolished in 1903, when official +positions were thrown open to the graduates of colleges established +on a modern basis. + +In 1912, on the overthrow of the Manchu monarchy, China became a +republic, with an elected President, and a Parliament consisting +of a Senate and House of Representatives. The various government +departments were reorganized on Western lines, and a large number +of new offices instituted. Up to the present year the Law of the +Constitution, owing to political dissension between the North and +the South, has not been put into force. + + +Laws + +Chinese law, like primitive law generally, was not instituted +in order to ensure justice between man and man; its object was +to enforce subordination of the ruled to the ruler. The laws were +punitive and vindictive rather than reformatory or remedial, criminal +rather than civil. Punishments were cruel: branding, cutting off the +nose, the legs at the knees, castration, and death, the latter not +necessarily, or indeed ordinarily, for taking life. They included in +some cases punishment of the family, the clan, and the neighbours of +the offender. The _lex talionis_ was in full force. + +Nevertheless, in spite of the harsh nature of the punishments, possibly +adapted, more or less, to a harsh state of society, though the "proper +end of punishments"--to "make an end of punishing"--was missed, the +Chinese evolved a series of excellent legal codes. This series began +with the revision of King Mu's _Punishments_ in 950 B.C., the first +regular code being issued in 650 B.C., and ended with the well-known +_Ta Ch'ing lü li_ (_Laws and Statutes of the Great Ch'ing Dynasty_), +issued in A.D. 1647. Of these codes the great exemplar was the _Law +Classic_ drawn up by Li K'uei (_Li K'uei fa ching_), a statesman +in the service of the first ruler of the Wei State, in the fourth +century B.C. The _Ta Ch'ing lü li_ has been highly praised by competent +judges. Originally it sanctioned only two kinds of punishment, death +and flogging, but others were in use, and the barbarous _ling ch'ih_, +'lingering death' or 'slicing to pieces,' invented about A.D. 1000 +and abolished in 1905, was inflicted for high treason, parricide, +on women who killed their husbands, and murderers of three persons +of one family. In fact, until some first-hand knowledge of Western +systems and procedure was obtained, the vindictive as opposed to the +reformatory idea of punishments continued to obtain in China down to +quite recent years, and has not yet entirely disappeared. Though the +crueller forms of punishment had been legally abolished, they continued +to be used in many parts. Having been joint judge at Chinese trials +at which, in spite of my protests, prisoners were hung up by their +thumbs and made to kneel on chains in order to extort confession +(without which no accused person could be punished), I can testify +that the true meaning of the "proper end of punishments" had no more +entered into the Chinese mind at the close of the monarchical _régime_ +than it had 4000 years before. + +As a result of the reform movement into which China was forced as +an alternative to foreign domination toward the end of the Manchu +Period, but chiefly owing to the bait held out by Western Powers, +that extraterritoriality would be abolished when China had reformed +her judicial system, a new Provisional Criminal Code was published. It +substituted death by hanging or strangulation for decapitation, and +imprisonment for various lengths of time for bambooing. It was adopted +in large measure by the Republican _régime_, and is the chief legal +instrument in use at the present time. But close examination reveals +the fact that it is almost an exact copy of the Japanese penal code, +which in turn was modelled upon that of Germany. It is, in fact, a +Western code imitated, and as it stands is quite out of harmony with +present conditions in China. It will have to be modified and recast +to be a suitable, just, and practicable national legal instrument +for the Chinese people. Moreover, it is frequently overridden in a +high-handed manner by the police, who often keep a person acquitted +by the Courts of Justice in custody until they have 'squeezed' him +of all they can hope to get out of him. And it is noteworthy that, +though provision was made in the Draft Code for trial by jury, this +provision never went into effect; and the slavish imitation of alien +methods is shown by the curiously inconsistent reason given--that "the +fact that jury trials have been abolished in Japan is indicative of the +inadvisability of transplanting this Western institution into China!" + + +Local Government + +The central administration being a far-flung network of officialdom, +there was hardly any room for local government apart from it. We +find it only in the village elder and those associated with him, who +took up what government was necessary where the jurisdiction of the +unit of the central administration--the district magistracy--ceased, +or at least did not concern itself in meddling much. + + +Military System + +The peace-loving agricultural settlers in early China had at first +no army. When occasion arose, all the farmers exchanged their +ploughshares for swords and bows and arrows, and went forth to +fight. In the intervals between the harvests, when the fields were +clear, they held manoeuvres and practised the arts of warfare. The +king, who had his Six Armies, under the Six High Nobles, forming +the royal military force, led the troops in person, accompanied by +the spirit-tablets of his ancestors and of the gods of the land and +grain. Chariots, drawn by four horses and containing soldiers armed +with spears and javelins and archers, were much in use. A thousand +chariots was the regular force. Warriors wore buskins on their legs, +and were sometimes gagged in order to prevent the alarm being given to +the enemy. In action the chariots occupied the centre, the bowmen the +left, the spearmen the right flank. Elephants were sometimes used in +attack. Spy-kites, signal-flags, hook-ladders, horns, cymbals, drums, +and beacon-fires were in use. The ears of the vanquished were taken +to the king, quarter being rarely if ever given. + +After the establishment of absolute monarchical government standing +armies became the rule. Military science was taught, and soldiers +sometimes trained for seven years. Chariots with upper storeys or +spy-towers were used for fighting in narrow defiles, and hollow squares +were formed of mixed chariots, infantry, and dragoons. The weakness of +disunion of forces was well understood. In the sixth century A.D. the +massed troops numbered about a million and a quarter. In A.D. 627 +there was an efficient standing army of 900,000 men, the term of +service being from the ages of twenty to sixty. During the Mongol +dynasty (1280-1368) there was a navy of 5000 ships manned by 70,000 +trained fighters. The Mongols completely revolutionized tactics and +improved on all the military knowledge of the time. In 1614 the Manchu +'Eight Banners,' composed of Manchus, Mongolians, and Chinese, were +instituted. The provincial forces, designated the Army of the Green +Standard, were divided into land forces and marine forces, superseded +on active service by 'braves' (_yung_), or irregulars, enlisted and +discharged according to circumstances. After the war with Japan in +1894 reforms were seriously undertaken, with the result that the army +has now been modernized in dress, weapons, tactics, etc., and is by +no means a negligible quantity in the world's fighting forces. A +modern navy is also being acquired by building and purchase. For +many centuries the soldier, being, like the priest, unproductive, +was regarded with disdain, and now that his indispensableness for +defensive purposes is recognized he has to fight not only any actual +enemy who may attack him, but those far subtler forces from over the +sea which seem likely to obtain supremacy in his military councils, +if not actual control of his whole military system. It is, in my view, +the duty of Western nations to take steps before it is too late to +avert this great disaster. + + +Ecclesiastical Institutions + +The dancing and chanting exorcists called _wu_ were the first Chinese +priests, with temples containing gods worshipped and sacrificed +to, but there was no special sacerdotal class. Worship of Heaven +could only be performed by the king or emperor. Ecclesiastical and +political functions were not completely separated. The king was +_pontifex maximus_, the nobles, statesmen, and civil and military +officers acted as priests, the ranks being similar to those of the +political hierarchy. Worship took place in the 'Hall of Light,' +which was also a palace and audience and council chamber. Sacrifices +were offered to Heaven, the hills and rivers, ancestors, and all the +spirits. Dancing held a conspicuous place in worship. Idols are spoken +of in the earliest times. + +Of course, each religion, as it formed itself out of the original +ancestor-worship, had its own sacred places, functionaries, +observances, ceremonial. Thus, at the State worship of Heaven, Nature, +etc., there were the 'Great,' 'Medium,' and 'Inferior' sacrifices, +consisting of animals, silk, grain, jade, etc. Panegyrics were sung, +and robes of appropriate colour worn. In spring, summer, autumn, +and winter there were the seasonal sacrifices at the appropriate +altars. Taoism and Buddhism had their temples, monasteries, priests, +sacrifices, and ritual; and there were village and wayside temples +and shrines to ancestors, the gods of thunder, rain, wind, grain, +agriculture, and many others. Now encouraged, now tolerated, now +persecuted, the ecclesiastical _personnel_ and structure of Taoism and +Buddhism survived into modern times, when we find complete schemes +of ecclesiastical gradations of rank and authority grafted upon +these two priestly hierarchies, and their temples, priests, etc., +fulfilling generally, with worship of ancestors, State or official +(Confucianism) and private or unofficial, and the observance of various +annual festivals, such as 'All Souls' Day' for wandering and hungry +ghosts, the spiritual needs of the people as the 'Three Religions' +(_San Chiao_). The emperor, as high priest, took the responsibility +for calamities, etc., making confession to Heaven and praying that +as a punishment the evil be diverted from the people to his own +person. Statesmen, nobles, and officials discharged, as already noted, +priestly functions in connexion with the State religion in addition +to their ordinary duties. As a rule, priests proper, frowned upon as +non-producers, were recruited from the lower classes, were celibate, +unintellectual, idle, and immoral. There was nothing, even in the +elaborate ceremonies on special occasions in the Buddhist temples, +which could be likened to what is known as 'public worship' and +'common prayer' in the West. Worship had for its sole object either +the attainment of some good or the prevention of some evil. + +Generally this represents the state of things under the Republican +_régime_; the chief differences being greater neglect of ecclesiastical +matters and the conversion of a large number of temples into schools. + + +Professional Institutions + +We read of physicians, blind musicians, poets, teachers, prayer-makers, +architects, scribes, painters, diviners, ceremonialists, orators, +and others during the Feudal Period, These professions were of +ecclesiastical origin, not yet completely differentiated from the +'Church,' and both in earlier and later times not always or often +differentiated from each other. Thus the historiographers combined the +duties of statesmen, scholars, authors, and generals. The professions +of authors and teachers, musicians and poets, were united in one +person. And so it continued to the present day. Priests discharge +medical functions, poets still sing their verses. But experienced +medical specialists, though few, are to be found, as well as women +doctors; there are veterinary surgeons, musicians (chiefly belonging +to the poorest classes and often blind), actors, teachers, attorneys, +diviners, artists, letter-writers, and many others, men of letters +being perhaps the most prominent and most esteemed. + + + +Accessory Institutions + +A system of schools, academies, colleges, and universities obtained in +villages, districts, departments, and principalities. The instruction +was divided into 'Primary Learning' and 'Great Learning.' There were +special schools of dancing and music. Libraries and almshouses for +old men are mentioned. Associations of scholars for literary purposes +seem to have been numerous. + +Whatever form and direction education might have taken, it became +stereotyped at an early age by the road to office being made to +lead through a knowledge of the classical writings of the ancient +sages. It became not only 'the thing' to be well versed in the sayings +of Confucius, Mencius; etc., and to be able to compose good essays on +them containing not a single wrongly written character, but useless +for aspirants to office--who constituted practically the whole of the +literary class--to acquire any other knowledge. So obsessed was the +national mind by this literary mania that even infants' spines were +made to bend so as to produce when adult the 'scholarly stoop.' And +from the fact that besides the scholar class the rest of the community +consisted of agriculturists, artisans, and merchants, whose knowledge +was that of their fathers and grandfathers, inculcated in the sons +and grandsons as it had been in them, showing them how to carry on +in the same groove the calling to which Fate had assigned them, a +departure from which would have been considered 'unfilial'--unless, +of course (as it very rarely did), it went the length of attaining +through study of the classics a place in the official class, and thus +shedding eternal lustre on the family--it will readily be seen that +there was nothing to cause education to be concerned with any but one +or two of the subjects which are included by Western peoples under +that designation. It became at an early age, and remained for many +centuries, a rote-learning of the elementary text-books, followed by +a similar acquisition by heart of the texts of the works of Confucius +and other classical writers. And so it remained until the abolition, in +1905, of the old competitive examination system, and the substitution +of all that is included in the term 'modern education' at schools, +colleges, and universities all over the country, in which there is +rapidly growing up a force that is regenerating the Chinese people, +and will make itself felt throughout the whole world. + +It is this keen and shrewd appreciation of the learned, and this lust +for knowledge, which, barring the tragedy of foreign domination, will +make China, in the truest and best sense of the word, a great nation, +where, as in the United States of America, the rigid class status and +undervaluation, if not disdaining, of knowledge which are proving so +disastrous in England and other European countries will be avoided, +and the aristocracy of learning established in its place. + +Besides educational institutions, we find institutions for poor relief, +hospitals, foundling hospitals, orphan asylums, banking, insurance, +and loan associations, travellers' clubs, mercantile corporations, +anti-opium societies, co-operative burial societies, as well as many +others, some imitated from Western models. + + +Bodily Mutilations + +Compared with the practices found to exist among most primitive races, +the mutilations the Chinese were in the habit of inflicting were but +few. They flattened the skulls of their babies by means of stones, so +as to cause them to taper at the top, and we have already seen what +they did to their spines; also the mutilations in warfare, and the +punishments inflicted both within and without the law; and how filial +children and loyal wives mutilated themselves for the sake of their +parents and to prevent remarriage. Eunuchs, of course, existed in great +numbers. People bit, cut, or marked their arms to pledge oaths. But +the practices which are more peculiarly associated with the Chinese +are the compressing of women's feet and the wearing of the queue, +misnamed 'pigtail.' The former is known to have been in force about +A.D. 934, though it may have been introduced as early as 583. It did +not, however, become firmly established for more than a century. This +'extremely painful mutilation,' begun in infancy, illustrates the +tyranny of fashion, for it is supposed to have arisen in the imitation +by the women generally of the small feet of an imperial concubine +admired by one of the emperors from ten to fifteen centuries ago +(the books differ as to his identity). The second was a badge of +servitude inflicted by the Manchus on the Chinese when they conquered +China at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Discountenanced by +governmental edicts, both of these practices are now tending toward +extinction, though, of course, compressed feet and 'pigtails' are +still to be seen in every town and village. Legally, the queue was +abolished when the Chinese rid themselves of the Manchu yoke in 1912. + + +Funeral Rites + +Not understanding the real nature of death, the Chinese believed +it was merely a state of suspended animation, in which the soul +had failed to return to the body, though it might yet do so, +even after long intervals. Consequently they delayed burial, and +fed the corpse, and went on to the house-tops and called aloud +to the spirit to return. When at length they were convinced that +the absent spirit could not be induced to re-enter the body, they +placed the latter in a coffin and buried it--providing it, however, +with all that it had found necessary in this life (food, clothing, +wives, servants, etc.), which it would require also in the next (in +their view rather a continuation of the present existence than the +beginning of another)--and, having inducted or persuaded the spirit +to enter the 'soul-tablet' which accompanied the funeral procession +(which took place the moment the tablet was 'dotted,' _i.e._ when +the character _wang_, 'prince,' was changed into _chu_, 'lord'), +carried it back home again, set it up in a shrine in the main hall, +and fell down and worshipped it. Thus was the spirit propitiated, +and as long as occasional offerings were not overlooked the power +for evil possessed by it would not be exerted against the surviving +inmates of the house, whom it had so thoughtlessly deserted. + +The latter mourned by screaming, wailing, stamping their feet, +and beating their breasts, renouncing (in the earliest times) even +their clothes, dwelling, and belongings to the dead, removing to +mourning-sheds of clay, fasting, or eating only rice gruel, sleeping +on straw with a clod for a pillow, and speaking only on subjects of +death and burial. Office and public duties were resigned, and marriage, +music, and separation from the clan prohibited. + +During the lapse of the long ages of monarchical rule funeral rites +became more elaborate and magnificent, but, though less rigid and +ceremonious since the institution of the Republic, they have retained +their essential character down to the present day. + +Funeral ceremonial was more exacting than that connected with most +other observances, including those of marriage. Invitations or +notifications were sent to friends, and after receipt of these _fu_, +on the various days appointed therein, the guest was obliged to send +presents, such as money, paper horses, slaves, etc., and go and join +in the lamentations of the hired mourners and attend at the prayers +recited by the priests. Funeral etiquette could not be _pu'd, i.e._ +made good, if overlooked or neglected at the right time, as it could +in the case of the marriage ceremonial. + +Instead of symmetrical public graveyards, as in the West, the +Chinese cemeteries belong to the family or clan of the deceased, +and are generally beautiful and peaceful places planted with trees +and surrounded by artistic walls enclosing the grave-mounds and +monumental tablets. The cemeteries themselves are the metonyms of the +villages, and the graves of the houses. In the north especially the +grave is very often surmounted by a huge marble tortoise bearing the +inscribed tablet, or what we call the gravestone, on its back. The +tombs of the last two lines of emperors, the Ming and the Manchu, +are magnificent structures, spread over enormous areas, and always +artistically situated on hillsides facing natural or artificial lakes +or seas. Contrary to the practice in Egypt, with the two exceptions +above mentioned the conquering dynasties have always destroyed the +tombs of their predecessors. But for this savage vandalism, China +would probably possess the most magnificent assembly of imperial +tombs in the world's records. + + + +Laws of Intercourse + +Throughout the whole course of their existence as a social aggregate +the Chinese have pushed ceremonial observances to an extreme +limit. "Ceremonies," says the _Li chi_, the great classic of ceremonial +usages, "are the greatest of all things by which men live." Ranks were +distinguished by different headdresses, garments, badges, weapons, +writing-tablets, number of attendants, carriages, horses, height of +walls, etc. Daily as well as official life was regulated by minute +observances. There were written codes embracing almost every attitude +and act of inferiors toward superiors, of superiors toward inferiors, +and of equals toward equals. Visits, forms of address, and giving +of presents had each their set of formulae, known and observed by +every one as strictly and regularly as each child in China learned by +heart and repeated aloud the three-word sentences of the elementary +_Trimetrical Classic_. But while the school text-book was extremely +simple, ceremonial observances were extremely elaborate. A Chinese +was in this respect as much a slave to the living as in his funeral +rites he was a slave to the dead. Only now, in the rush of 'modern +progress,' is the doffing of the hat taking the place of the 'kowtow' +(_k'o-t'ou_). + +It is in this matter of ceremonial observances that the East +and the West have misunderstood each other perhaps more than in +all others. Where rules of etiquette are not only different, +but are diametrically opposed, there is every opportunity for +misunderstanding, if not estrangement. The points at issue in +such questions as 'kowtowing' to the emperor and the worshipping +of ancestors are generally known, but the Westerner, as a rule, is +ignorant of the fact that if he wishes to conform to Chinese etiquette +when in China (instead of to those Western customs which are in many +cases unfortunately taking their place) he should not, for instance, +take off his hat when entering a house or a temple, should not shake +hands with his host, nor, if he wishes to express approval, should he +clap his hands. Clapping of hands in China (_i.e._ non-Europeanized +China) is used to drive away the _sha ch'i_, or deathly influence of +evil spirits, and to clap the hands at the close of the remarks of a +Chinese host (as I have seen prominent, well-meaning, but ill-guided +men of the West do) is equivalent to disapproval, if not insult. Had +our diplomatists been sociologists instead of only commercial agents, +more than one war might have been avoided. + + +Habits and Customs + +At intervals during the year the Chinese make holiday. Their public +festivals begin with the celebration of the advent of the new +year. They let off innumerable firecrackers, and make much merriment +in their homes, drinking and feasting, and visiting their friends +for several days. Accounts are squared, houses cleaned, fresh paper +'door-gods' pasted on the front doors, strips of red paper with +characters implying happiness, wealth, good fortune, longevity, etc., +stuck on the doorposts or the lintel, tables, etc., covered with red +cloth, and flowers and decorations displayed everywhere. Business +is suspended, and the merriment, dressing in new clothes, feasting, +visiting, offerings to gods and ancestors, and idling continue pretty +consistently during the first half of the first moon, the vacation +ending with the Feast of Lanterns, which occupies the last three +days. It originated in the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. Innumerable +lanterns of all sizes, shapes, colours (except wholly white, or rather +undyed material, the colour of mourning), and designs are lit in front +of public and private buildings, but the use of these was an addition +about 800 years later, _i.e._ about 1200 years ago. Paper dragons, +hundreds of yards long, are moved along the streets at a slow pace, +supported on the heads of men whose legs only are visible, giving +the impression of huge serpents winding through the thoroughfares. + +Of the other chief festivals, about eight in number (not counting the +festivals of the four seasons with their equinoxes and solstices), four +are specially concerned with the propitiation of the spirits--namely, +the Earlier Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of second moon), the +Festival of the Tombs (about the third day of the third moon), when +graves are put in order and special offerings made to the dead, the +Middle Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of seventh moon), and the Later +Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of tenth moon). The Dragon-boat Festival +(fifth day of fifth moon) is said to have originated as a commemoration +of the death of the poet Ch'ü Yüan, who drowned himself in disgust +at the official intrigue and corruption of which he was the victim, +but the object is the procuring of sufficient rain to ensure a good +harvest. It is celebrated by racing with long narrow boats shaped to +represent dragons and propelled by scores of rowers, pasting of charms +on the doors of dwellings, and eating a special kind of rice-cake, +with a liquor as a beverage. + +The fifteenth day of the eighth moon is the Mid-autumn Festival, known +by foreigners as All Souls' Day. On this occasion the women worship the +moon, offering cakes, fruit, etc. The gates of Purgatory are opened, +and the hungry ghosts troop forth to enjoy themselves for a month on +the good things provided for them by the pious. The ninth day of the +ninth moon is the Chung Yang Festival, when every one who possibly +can ascends to a high place--a hill or temple-tower. This inaugurates +the kite-flying season, and is supposed to promote longevity. During +that season, which lasts several months, the Chinese people the sky +with dragons, centipedes, frogs, butterflies, and hundreds of other +cleverly devised creatures, which, by means of simple mechanisms worked +by the wind, roll their eyes, make appropriate sounds, and move their +paws, wings, tails, etc., in a most realistic manner. The festival +originated in a warning received by a scholar named Huan Ching from +his master Fei Ch'ang-fang, a native of Ju-nan in Honan, who lived +during the Han dynasty, that a terrible calamity was about to happen, +and enjoining him to escape with his family to a high place. On his +return he found all his domestic animals dead, and was told that +they had died instead of himself and his relatives. On New Year's Eve +(_Tuan Nien_ or _Chu Hsi_) the Kitchen-god ascends to Heaven to make +his annual report, the wise feasting him with honey and other sticky +food before his departure, so that his lips may be sealed and he be +unable to 'let on' too much to the powers that be in the regions above! + + +Sports and Games + +The first sports of the Chinese were festival gatherings for purposes +of archery, to which succeeded exercises partaking of a military +character. Hunting was a favourite amusement. They played games of +calculation, chess (or the 'game of war'), shuttlecock with the feet, +pitch-pot (throwing arrows from a distance into a narrow-necked jar), +and 'horn-goring' (fighting on the shoulders of others with horned +masks on their heads). Stilts, football, dice-throwing, boat-racing, +dog-racing, cock-fighting, kite-flying, as well as singing and dancing +marionettes, afforded recreation and amusement. + +Many of these games became obsolete in course of time, and new ones +were invented. At the end of the Monarchical Period, during the Manchu +dynasty, we find those most in use to be foot-shuttlecock, lifting of +beams headed with heavy stones--dumb-bells four feet long and weighing +thirty or forty pounds--kite-flying, quail-fighting, cricket-fighting, +sending birds after seeds thrown into the air, sauntering through +fields, playing chess or 'morra,' or gambling with cards, dice, or +over the cricket- and quail-fights or seed-catching birds. There were +numerous and varied children's games tending to develop strength, +skill, quickness of action, parental instinct, accuracy, and +sagacity. Theatricals were performed by strolling troupes on stages +erected opposite temples, though permanent theatres also existed, +female parts until recently being taken by male actors. Peep-shows, +conjurers, ventriloquists, acrobats, fortune-tellers, and story-tellers +kept crowds amused or interested. Generally, 'young China' of the +present day, identified with the party of progress, seems to have +adopted most of the outdoor but very few of the indoor games of +Western nations. + + +Domestic Life + +In domestic or private life, observances at birth, betrothal, and +marriage were elaborate, and retained superstitious elements. Early +rising was general. Shaving of the head and beard, as well as cleaning +of the ears and massage, was done by barbers. There were public +baths in all cities and towns. Shops were closed at nightfall, and, +the streets being until recent times ill-lit or unlit, passengers or +their attendants carried lanterns. Most houses, except the poorest, +had private watchmen. Generally two meals a day were taken. Dinners to +friends were served at inns or restaurants, accompanied or followed +by musical or theatrical performances. The place of honour is stated +in Western books on China to be on the left, but the fact is that the +place of honour is the one which shows the utmost solicitude for the +safety of the guest. It is therefore not necessarily one fixed place, +but would usually be the one facing the door, so that the guest might +be in a position to see an enemy enter, and take measures accordingly. + +Lap-dogs and cage-birds were kept as pets; 'wonks,' the _huang kou_, +or 'yellow dog,' were guards of houses and street scavengers. Aquaria +with goldfish were often to be seen in the houses of the upper and +middle classes, the gardens and courtyards of which usually contained +rockeries and artistic shrubs and flowers. + +Whiskers were never worn, and moustaches and beards only after forty, +before which age the hair grew, if at all, very scantily. Full, +thick beards, as in the West, were practically never seen, even on +the aged. Snuff-bottles, tobacco-pipes, and fans were carried by both +sexes. Nails were worn long by members of the literary and leisured +classes. Non-Manchu women and girls had cramped feet, and both Manchu +and Chinese women used cosmetics freely. + + +Industrial Institutions + +While the men attended to farm-work, women took care of the +mulberry-orchards and silkworms, and did spinning, weaving, and +embroidery. This, the primitive division of labour, held throughout, +though added to on both sides, so that eventually the men did most +of the agriculture, arts, production, distribution, fighting, etc., +and the women, besides the duties above named and some field-labour, +mended old clothes, drilled and sharpened needles, pasted tin-foil, +made shoes, and gathered and sorted the leaves of the tea-plant. In +course of time trades became highly specialized--their number being +legion--and localized, bankers, for instance, congregating in Shansi, +carpenters in Chi Chou, and porcelain-manufacturers in Jao Chou, +in Kiangsi. + +As to land, it became at an early age the property of the sovereign, +who farmed it out to his relatives or favourites. It was arranged on +the _ching_, or 'well' system--eight private squares round a ninth +public square cultivated by the eight farmer families in common for the +benefit of the State. From the beginning to the end of the Monarchical +Period tenure continued to be of the Crown, land being unallodial, and +mostly held in clans or families, and not entailed, the conditions +of tenure being payment of an annual tax, a fee for alienation, +and money compensation for personal services to the Government, +generally incorporated into the direct tax as scutage. Slavery, +unknown in the earliest times, existed as a recognized institution +during the whole of the Monarchical Period. + +Production was chiefly confined to human and animal labour, machinery +being only now in use on a large scale. Internal distribution +was carried on from numerous centres and at fairs, shops, markets, +etc. With few exceptions, the great trade-routes by land and sea have +remained the same during the last two thousand years. Foreign trade was +with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, Carthage, Arabia, etc., and from the +seventeenth century A.D. more generally with European countries. The +usual primitive means of conveyance, such as human beings, animals, +carts, boats, etc., were partly displaced by steam-vessels from +1861 onward. + +Exchange was effected by barter, cowries of different values being the +prototype of coins, which were cast in greater or less quantity under +each reign. But until within recent years there was only one coin, +the copper cash, in use, bullion and paper notes being the other +media of exchange. Silver Mexican dollars and subsidiary coins came +into use with the advent of foreign commerce. Weights and measures +(which generally decreased from north to south), officially arranged +partly on the decimal system, were discarded by the people in ordinary +commercial transactions for the more convenient duodecimal subdivision. + + +Arts + +Hunting, fishing, cooking, weaving, dyeing, carpentry, metallurgy, +glass-, brick-, and paper-making, printing, and book-binding were +in a more or less primitive stage, the mechanical arts showing much +servile imitation and simplicity in design; but pottery, carving, +and lacquer-work were in an exceptionally high state of development, +the articles produced being surpassed in quality and beauty by no +others in the world. + + +Agriculture and Rearing of Livestock + +From the earliest times the greater portion of the available land was +under cultivation. Except when the country has been devastated by war, +the Chinese have devoted close attention to the cultivation of the +soil continuously for forty centuries. Even the hills are terraced for +extra growing-room. But poverty and governmental inaction caused much +to lie idle. There were two annual crops in the north, and five in two +years in the south. Perhaps two-thirds of the population cultivated the +soil. The methods, however, remained primitive; but the great fertility +of the soil and the great industry of the farmer, with generous but +careful use of fertilizers, enabled the vast territory to support an +enormous population. Rice, wheat, barley, buckwheat, maize, kaoliang, +several millets, and oats were the chief grains cultivated. Beans, +peas, oil-bearing seeds (sesame, rape, etc.), fibre-plants (hemp, +ramie, jute, cotton, etc.), starch-roots (taros, yams, sweet potatoes, +etc.), tobacco, indigo, tea, sugar, fruits, were among the more +important crops produced. Fruit-growing, however, lacked scientific +method. The rotation of crops was not a usual practice, but grafting, +pruning, dwarfing, enlarging, selecting, and varying species were well +understood. Vegetable-culture had reached a high state of perfection, +the smallest patches of land being made to bring forth abundantly. This +is the more creditable inasmuch as most small farmers could not afford +to purchase expensive foreign machinery, which, in many cases, would +be too large or complicated for their purposes. + +The principal animals, birds, etc., reared were the pig, ass, horse, +mule, cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, yak, fowl, duck, goose, pigeon, +silkworm, and bee. + +The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, the successor to the Board +of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, instituted during recent +years, is now adapting Western methods to the cultivation of the +fertile soil of China, and even greater results than in the past may +be expected in the future. + + +Sentiments and Moral Ideas + +The Chinese have always shown a keen delight in the beautiful--in +flowers, music, poetry, literature, embroidery, paintings, +porcelain. They cultivated ornamental plants, almost every house, +as we saw, having its garden, large or small, and tables were often +decorated with flowers in vases or ornamental wire baskets or fruits or +sweetmeats. Confucius made music an instrument of government. Paper +bearing the written character was so respected that it might not +be thrown on the ground or trodden on. Delight was always shown in +beautiful scenery or tales of the marvellous. Commanding or agreeable +situations were chosen for temples. But until within the last few +years streets and houses were generally unclean, and decency in public +frequently absent. + +Morality was favoured by public opinion, but in spite of early +marriages and concubinage there was much laxity. Cruelty both +to human beings and animals has always been a marked trait in +the Chinese character. Savagery in warfare, cannibalism, luxury, +drunkenness, and corruption prevailed in the earliest times. The +attitude toward women was despotic. But moral principles pervaded the +classical writings, and formed the basis of law. In spite of these, +the inferior sentiment of revenge was, as we have seen, approved and +preached as a sacred duty. As a result of the universal _yin-yang_ +dualistic doctrines, immorality was leniently regarded. In modern +times, at least, mercantile honour was high, "a merchant's word +is as good as his bond" being truer in China than in many other +countries. Intemperance was rare. Opium-smoking was much indulged in +until the use of the drug was forcibly suppressed (1906-16). Even now +much is smuggled into the country, or its growth overlooked by bribed +officials. Clan quarrels and fights were common, vendettas sometimes +continuing for generations. Suicide under depressing circumstances +was approved and honoured; it was frequently resorted to under the +sting of great injustice. There was a deep reverence for parents +and superiors. Disregard of the truth, when useful, was universal, +and unattended by a sense of shame, even on detection. Thieving was +common. The illegal exactions of rulers were burdensome. In times +of prosperity pride and satisfaction in material matters was not +concealed, and was often short-sighted. Politeness was practically +universal, though said to be often superficial; but gratitude was a +marked characteristic, and was heartfelt. Mutual conjugal affection +was strong. The love of gambling was universal. + +But little has occurred in recent years to modify the above +characters. Nevertheless the inferior traits are certainly being +changed by education and by the formation of societies whose members +bind themselves against immorality, concubinage, gambling, drinking, +smoking, etc. + + +Religious Ideas + +Chinese religion is inherently an attitude toward the spirits or gods +with the object of obtaining a benefit or averting a calamity. We +shall deal with it more fully in another chapter. Suffice it to say +here that it originated in ancestor-worship, and that the greater +part of it remains ancestor-worship to the present day. The State +religion, which was Confucianism, was ancestor-worship. Taoism, +originally a philosophy, became a worship of spirits--of the souls of +dead men supposed to have taken up their abode in animals, reptiles, +insects, trees, stones, etc.--borrowed the cloak of religion from +Buddhism, which eventually outshone it, and degenerated into a system +of exorcism and magic. Buddhism, a religion originating in India, in +which Buddha, once a man, is worshipped, in which no beings are known +with greater power than can be attained to by man, and according to +which at death the soul migrates into anything from a deified human +being to an elephant, a bird, a plant, a wall, a broom, or any piece +of inorganic matter, was imported ready made into China and took the +side of popular superstition and Taoism against the orthodox belief, +finding that its power lay in the influence on the popular mind of its +doctrine respecting a future state, in contrast to the indifference +of Confucianism. Its pleading for compassion and preservation of life +met a crying need, and but for it the state of things in this respect +would be worse than it is. + +Religion, apart from ancestor-worship, does not enter largely +into Chinese life. There is none of the real 'love of God' found, +for example, in the fervent as distinguished from the conventional +Christian. And as ancestor-worship gradually loses its hold and dies +out agnosticism will take its place. + + +Superstitions + +An almost infinite variety of superstitious practices, due to the +belief in the good or evil influences of departed spirits, exists in +all parts of China. Days are lucky or unlucky. Eclipses are due to a +dragon trying to eat the sun or the moon. The rainbow is supposed to be +the result of a meeting between the impure vapours of the sun and the +earth. Amulets are worn, and charms hung up, sprigs of artemisia or +of peach-blossom are placed near beds and over lintels respectively, +children and adults are 'locked to life' by means of locks on chains +or cords worn round the neck, old brass mirrors are supposed to cure +insanity, figures of gourds, tigers' claws, or the unicorn are worn +to ensure good fortune or ward off sickness, fire, etc., spells of +many kinds, composed mostly of the written characters for happiness +and longevity, are worn, or written on paper, cloth, leaves, etc., +and burned, the ashes being made into a decoction and drunk by the +young or sick. + +Divination by means of the divining stalks (the divining plant, +milfoil or yarrow) and the tortoiseshell has been carried on from +time immemorial, but was not originally practised with the object of +ascertaining future events, but in order to decide doubts, much as +lots are drawn or a coin tossed in the West. _Fêng-shui_, "the art of +adapting the residence of the living and the dead so as to co-operate +and harmonize with the local currents of the cosmic breath" (the _yin_ +and the _yang_: see Chapter III), a doctrine which had its root in +ancestor-worship, has exercised an enormous influence on Chinese +thought and life from the earliest times, and especially from those +of Chu Hsi and other philosophers of the Sung dynasty. + + +Knowledge + +Having noted that Chinese education was mainly literary, and why it +was so, it is easy to see that there would be little or no demand +for the kind of knowledge classified in the West under the head of +science. In so far as any demand existed, it did so, at any rate at +first, only because it subserved vital needs. Thus, astronomy, or more +properly astrology, was studied in order that the calendar might be +regulated, and so the routine of agriculture correctly followed, for +on that depended the people's daily rice, or rather, in the beginning, +the various fruits and kinds of flesh which constituted their means of +sustentation before their now universal food was known. In philosophy +they have had two periods of great activity, the first beginning with +Lao Tzu and Confucius in the sixth century B.C. and ending with the +Burning of the Books by the First Emperor, Shih Huang Ti, in 213 B.C.; +the second beginning with Chou Tzu (A.D. 1017-73) and ending with Chu +Hsi (1130-1200). The department of philosophy in the imperial library +contained in 190 B.C. 2705 volumes by 137 authors. There can be no +doubt that this zeal for the orthodox learning, combined with the +literary test for office, was the reason why scientific knowledge was +prevented from developing; so much so, that after four thousand or more +years of national life we find, during the Manchu Period, which ended +the monarchical _régime_, few of the educated class, giants though they +were in knowledge of all departments of their literature and history +(the continuity of their traditions laid down in their twenty-four +Dynastic Annals has been described as one of the great wonders of the +world), with even the elementary scientific learning of a schoolboy +in the West. 'Crude,' 'primitive,' 'mediocre,' 'vague,' 'inaccurate,' +'want of analysis and generalization,' are terms we find applied to +their knowledge of such leading sciences as geography, mathematics, +chemistry, botany, and geology. Their medicine was much hampered +by superstition, and perhaps more so by such beliefs as that the +seat of the intellect is in the stomach, that thoughts proceed from +the heart, that the pit of the stomach is the seat of the breath, +that the soul resides in the liver, etc.--the result partly of the +idea that dissection of the body would maim it permanently during +its existence in the Otherworld. What progress was made was due to +European instruction; and this again is the _causa causans_ of the +great wave of progress in scientific and philosophical knowledge +which is rolling over the whole country and will have marked effects +on the history of the world during the coming century. + + +Language + +Originally polysyllabic, the Chinese language later assumed a +monosyllabic, isolating, uninflected form, grammatical relations +being indicated by position. From the earliest forms of speech several +subordinate vernacular languages arose in various districts, and from +these sprang local dialects, etc. Tone-distinctions arose--_i.e._ +the same words pronounced with a different intonation came to +mean different things. Development of these distinctions led to +carelessness of articulation, and multiplication of what would be +homonyms but for these tones. It is incorrect to assume that the tones +were invented to distinguish similar sounds. So that, at the present +day, anyone who says _ma_ will mean either an exclamation, hemp, +horse, or curse according to the quality he gives to the sound. The +language remains in a primitive state, without inflexion, declension, +or distinction of parts of speech. The order in a sentence is: subject, +verb, complement direct, complement indirect. Gender is formed by +distinctive particles; number by prefixing numerals, etc.; cases +by position or appropriate prepositions. Adjectives precede nouns; +position determines comparison; and absence of punctuation causes +ambiguity. The latter is now introduced into most newly published +works. The new education is bringing with it innumerable words and +phrases not found in the old literature or dictionaries. Japanese +idioms which are now being imported into the language are making it +less pure. + +The written language, too well known to need detailed description, a +thing of beauty and a joy for ever to those able to appreciate it, said +to have taken originally the form of knotted cords and then of notches +on wood (though this was more probably the origin of numeration than of +writing proper), took later that of rude outlines of natural objects, +and then went on to the phonetic system, under which each character is +composed of two parts, the radical, indicating the meaning, and the +phonetic, indicating the sound. They were symbols, non-agglutinative +and non-inflexional, and were written in vertical columns, probably +from having in early times been painted or cut on strips of bark. + + +Achievements of the Chinese + +As the result of all this fitful fever during so many centuries, +we find that the Chinese, after having lived in nests "in order to +avoid the animals," and then in caves, have built themselves houses +and palaces which are still made after the pattern of their prototype, +with a flat wall behind, the openings in front, the walls put in after +the pillars and roof-tree have been fixed, and out-buildings added on +as side extensions. The _k'ang_, or 'stove-bed' (now a platform made +of bricks), found all over the northern provinces, was a place scooped +out of the side of the cave, with an opening underneath in which (as +now) a fire was lit in winter. Windows and shutters opened upward, +being a survival of the mat or shade hung in front of the apertures +in the walls of the primitive cave-dwelling. Four of these buildings +facing each other round a square made the courtyard, and one or more +courtyards made the compound. They have fed themselves on almost +everything edible to be found on, under, or above land or water, +except milk, but live chiefly on rice, chicken, fish, vegetables, +including garlic, and tea, though at one time they ate flesh and +drank wine, sometimes to excess, before tea was cultivated. They +have clothed themselves in skins and feathers, and then in silks +and satins, but mostly in cotton, and hardly ever in wool. Under +the Manchu _régime_ the type of dress adopted was that of this +horse-riding race, showing the chief characteristics of that noble +animal, the broad sleeves representing the hoofs, the queue the mane, +etc. This queue was formed of the hair growing from the back part +of the scalp, the front of which was shaved. Unlike the Egyptians, +they did not wear wigs. They have nearly always had the decency to +wear their coats long, and have despised the Westerner for wearing +his too short. They are now paradoxical enough to make the mistake +of adopting the Westerner's costume. + +They have made to themselves great canals, bridges, aqueducts, and +the longest wall there has ever been on the face of the earth (which +could not be seen from the moon, as some sinologists have erroneously +supposed, any more than a hair, however long, could be seen at a +distance of a hundred yards). They have made long and wide roads, but +failed to keep them in repair during the last few centuries, though +much zeal, possibly due to commerce on oil- or electricity-driven +wheels, is now being shown in this direction. They have built honorary +portals to chaste widows, pagodas, and arched bridges of great beauty, +not forgetting to surround each city with a high and substantial wall +to keep out unfriendly people. They have made innumerable implements +and weapons, from pens and fans and chopsticks to ploughs and carts +and ships; from fiery darts, 'flame elephants,' bows and spears, +spiked chariots, battering-rams, and hurling-engines to mangonels, +trebuchets, matchlocks of wrought iron and plain bore with long +barrels resting on a stock, and gingals fourteen feet long resting on +a tripod, cuirasses of quilted cotton cloth covered with brass knobs, +and helmets of iron or polished steel, sometimes inlaid, with neck- +and ear-lappets. And they have been content not to improve upon these +to any appreciable extent; but have lately shown a tendency to make +the later patterns imported from the West in their own factories. + +They have produced one of the greatest and most remarkable +accumulations of literature the world has ever seen, and the finest +porcelain; some music, not very fine; and some magnificent painting, +though hardly any sculpture, and little architecture that will live. + + + +CHAPTER II + +On Chinese Mythology + + +Mythology and Intellectual Progress + +The Manichæst, _yin-yang_ (dualist), idea of existence, to which +further reference will be made in the next chapter, finds its +illustration in the dual life, real and imaginary, of all the +peoples of the earth. They have both real histories and mythological +histories. In the preceding chapter I have dealt briefly with the +first--the life of reality--in China from the earliest times to the +present day; the succeeding chapters are concerned with the second--the +life of imagination. A survey of the first was necessary for a complete +understanding of the second. The two react upon each other, affecting +the national character and through it the history of the world. + +Mythology is the science of the unscientific man's explanation +of what we call the Otherworld--itself and its denizens, their +mysterious habits and surprising actions both there and here, usually +including the creation of this world also. By the Otherworld he does +not necessarily mean anything distant or even invisible, though the +things he explains would mostly be included by us under those terms. In +some countries myths are abundant, in others scarce. Why should this +be? Why should some peoples tell many and marvellous tales about their +gods and others say little about them, though they may say a great deal +to them? We recall the 'great' myths of Greece and Scandinavia. Other +races are 'poor' in myths. The difference is to be explained by the +mental characters of the peoples as moulded by their surroundings and +hereditary tendencies. The problem is of course a psychological one, +for it is, as already noted, in imagination that myths have their +root. Now imagination grows with each stage of intellectual progress, +for intellectual progress implies increasing representativeness of +thought. In the lower stages of human development imagination is feeble +and unproductive; in the highest stages it is strong and constructive. + + +The Chinese Intellect + +The Chinese are not unimaginative, but their minds did not go on to the +construction of any myths which should be world-great and immortal; +and one reason why they did not construct such myths was that their +intellectual progress was arrested at a comparatively early stage. It +was arrested because there was not that contact and competition +with other peoples which demands brain-work of an active kind as the +alternative of subjugation, inferiority, or extinction, and because, +as we have already seen, the knowledge required of them was mainly +the parrot-like repetition of the old instead of the thinking-out of +the new [1]--a state of things rendered possible by the isolation +just referred to. Confucius discountenanced discussion about the +supernatural, and just as it is probable that the exhortations of Wên +Wang, the virtual founder of the Chou dynasty (1121-255 B.C.), against +drunkenness, in a time before tea was known to them, helped to make +the Chinese the sober people that they are, so it is probable--more +than probable--that this attitude of Confucius may have nipped in +the bud much that might have developed a vigorous mythology, though +for a reason to be stated later it may be doubted if he thereby +deprived the world of any beautiful and marvellous results of the +highest flights of poetical creativeness. There are times, such as +those of any great political upheaval, when human nature will assert +itself and break through its shackles in spite of all artificial +or conventional restraints. Considering the enormous influence of +Confucianism throughout the latter half of Chinese history--_i.e._ +the last two thousand years--it is surprising that the Chinese dared +to think about supernatural matters at all, except in the matter of +propitiating their dead ancestors. That they did so is evidence not +only of human nature's inherent tendency to tell stories, but also +of the irrepressible strength of feeling which breaks all laws and +commandments under great stimulus. On the opposing unæsthetic side +this may be compared to the feeling which prompts the unpremeditated +assassination of a man who is guilty of great injustice, even though +it be certain that in due course he would have met his deserts at +the hands of the public executioner. + + +The Influence of Religion + +Apart from this, the influence of Confucianism would have been even +greater than it was, but for the imperial partiality periodically +shown for rival doctrines, such as Buddhism and Taoism, which threw +their weight on the side of the supernatural, and which at times +were exalted to such great heights as to be officially recognized as +State religions. These, Buddhism especially, appealed to the popular +imagination and love of the marvellous. Buddhism spoke of the future +state and the nature of the gods in no uncertain tones. It showed +men how to reach the one and attain to the other. Its founder was +virtuous; his commandments pure and life-sustaining. It supplied in +great part what Confucianism lacked. And, as in the fifth and sixth +centuries A.D., when Buddhism and Taoism joined forces and a working +union existed between them, they practically excluded for the time +all the "chilly growth of Confucian classicism." + +Other opponents of myth, including a critical philosopher of great +ability, we shall have occasion to notice presently. + + +History and Myth + +The sobriety and accuracy of Chinese historians is proverbial. I +have dilated upon this in another work, and need add here only what +I inadvertently omitted there--a point hitherto unnoticed or at least +unremarked--that the very word for history in Chinese (_shih_) means +impartiality or an impartial annalist. It has been said that where +there is much myth there is little history, and _vice versa_, and +though this may not be universally true, undoubtedly the persistently +truthful recording of facts, events, and sayings, even at the risk +of loss, yea, and actual loss of life of the historian as the result +of his refusal to make false entries in his chronicle at the bidding +of the emperor (as in the case of the historiographers of Ch'i in +547 B.C.), indicates a type of mind which would require some very +strong stimulus to cause it to soar very far into the hazy realms of +fanciful imagination. + + +Chinese Rigidity + +A further cause, already hinted at above, for the arrest of +intellectual progress is to be found in the growth of the nation +in size during many centuries of isolation from the main stream +of world-civilization, without that increase in heterogeneity +which comes from the moulding by forces external to itself. "As +iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his +friend." Consequently we find China what is known to sociology as an +'aggregate of the first order,' which during its evolution has parted +with its internal life-heat without absorbing enough from external +sources to enable it to retain the plastic condition necessary to +further, or at least rapid, development. It is in a state of rigidity, +a state recognized and understood by the sociologist in his study of +the evolution of nations. + + +The Prerequisites to Myth + +But the mere increase of constructive imagination is not sufficient +to produce myth. If it were, it would be reasonable to argue that +as intellectual progress goes on myths become more numerous, and the +greater the progress the greater the number of myths. This we do not +find. In fact, if constructive imagination went on increasing without +the intervention of any further factor, there need not necessarily be +any myth at all. We might almost say that the reverse is the case. We +connect myth with primitive folk, not with the greatest philosophers +or the most advanced nations--not, that is, with the most advanced +stages of national progress wherein constructive imagination makes +the nation great and strong. In these stages the philosopher studies +or criticizes myth, he does not make it. + +In order that there may be myth, three further conditions must be +fulfilled. There must, as we have seen, be constructive imagination, +but, nevertheless, there must not be too much of it. As stated above, +mythology, or rather myth, is the _unscientific_ man's explanation. If +the constructive imagination is so great that it becomes self-critical, +if the story-teller doubts his own story, if, in short, his mind is +scientific enough to see that his explanation is no explanation at all, +then there can be no myth properly so called. As in religion, unless +the myth-maker believes in his myth with all his heart and soul and +strength, and each new disciple, as it is cared for and grows under +his hands during the course of years, holds that he must put his shoes +from off his feet because the place whereon he treads is holy ground, +the faith will not be propagated, for it will lack the vital spark +which alone can make it a living thing. + + +Stimulus Necessary + +The next condition is that there must be a stimulus. It is not ideas, +but feelings, which govern the world, and in the history of mythology +where feeling is absent we find either weak imitation or repetition +of the myths of other peoples (though this must not be confused +with certain elements which seem to be common to the myths of all +races), or concoction, contamination, or "genealogical tree-making," +or myths originated by "leisurely, peaceful tradition" and lacking +the essential qualities which appeal to the human soul and make their +possessors very careful to preserve them among their most loved and +valued treasures. But, on the other hand, where feeling is stirred, +where the requisite stimulus exists, where the people are in great +danger, or allured by the prize of some breathless adventure, the +contact produces the spark of divine poetry, the myths are full of +artistic, philosophic, and religious suggestiveness, and have abiding +significance and charm. They are the children, the poetic fruit, of +great labour and serious struggles, revealing the most fundamental +forces, hopes, and cravings of the human soul. Nations highly strung, +undergoing strenuous emotion, intensely energized by constant conflict +with other nations, have their imagination stimulated to exceptional +poetic creativeness. The background of the Danaïds is Egyptian, +not Greek, but it was the danger in which the Greeks were placed in +their wars with the sons of the land of the Pharaohs that stimulated +the Greek imagination to the creation of that great myth. + +This explains why so many of the greatest myths have their staging, +not in the country itself whose treasured possessions they are, but +where that country is 'playing the great game,' is carrying on wars +decisive of far-reaching national events, which arouse to the greatest +pitch of excitement the feelings both of the combatants and of those +who are watching them from their homes. It is by such great events, +not by the romance-writer in his peaceful study, that mythology, like +literature, is "incisively determined." Imagination, we saw, goes +_pari passu_ with intellectual progress, and intellectual progress, +in early times, is furthered not so much by the mere contact as +by the actual conflict of nations. And we see also that myths may, +and very frequently do, have a character quite different from that +of the nation to which they appertain, for environment plays a most +important part both in their inception and subsequent growth--a truth +too obvious to need detailed elaboration. + + +Persistent Soul-expression + +A third condition is that the type of imagination must be persistent +through fairly long periods of time, otherwise not only will there +be an absence of sufficient feeling or momentum to cause the myths +to be repeated and kept alive and transmitted to posterity, but the +inducement to add to them and so enable them to mature and become +complete and finished off and sufficiently attractive to appeal to +the human mind in spite of the foreign character they often bear will +be lacking. In other words, myths and legends grow. They resemble not +so much the narrative of the story-teller or novelist as a gradually +developing art like music, or a body of ideas like philosophy. They +are human and natural, though they express the thought not of any one +individual mind, but of the folk-soul, exemplifying in poetical form +some great psychological or physiographical truth. + + +The Character of Chinese Myth + +The nature of the case thus forbids us to expect to find the Chinese +myths exhibiting the advanced state and brilliant heterogeneity of +those which have become part of the world's permanent literature. We +must expect them to be true to type and conditions, as we expect the +other ideas of the Chinese to be, and looking for them in the light +of this knowledge we shall find them just where we should expect to +find them. + +The great sagas and eddas exalted among the world's literary +masterpieces, and forming part of the very life of a large number of +its inhabitants, are absent in China. "The Chinese people," says one +well-known sinologist, "are not prone to mythological invention." "He +who expects to find in Tibet," says another writer, "the poetical +charm of Greek or Germanic mythology will be disappointed. There is +a striking poverty of imagination in all the myths and legends. A +great monotony pervades them all. Many of their stories, taken from +the sacred texts, are quite puerile and insipid. It may be noted +that the Chinese mythology labours under the same defect." And +then there comes the crushing judgment of an over-zealous Christian +missionary sinologist: "There is no hierarchy of gods brought in to +rule and inhabit the world they made, no conclave on Mount Olympus, +nor judgment of the mortal soul by Osiris, no transfer of human love +and hate, passions and hopes, to the powers above; all here is ascribed +to disembodied agencies or principles, and their works are represented +as moving on in quiet order. There is no religion [!], no imagination; +all is impassible, passionless, uninteresting.... It has not, as in +Greece and Egypt, been explained in sublime poetry, shadowed forth in +gorgeous ritual and magnificent festivals, represented in exquisite +sculptures, nor preserved in faultless, imposing fanes and temples, +filled with ideal creations." Besides being incorrect as to many +of its alleged facts, this view would certainly be shown by further +study to be greatly exaggerated. + + +Periods Fertile in Myth + +What we should expect, then, to find from our philosophical study of +the Chinese mind as affected by its surroundings would be barrenness of +constructive imagination, except when birth was given to myth through +the operation of some external agency. And this we do find. The period +of the overthrow of the Yin dynasty and the establishment of the +great house of Chou in 1122 B.C., or of the Wars of the Three States, +for example, in the third century after Christ, a time of terrible +anarchy, a medieval age of epic heroism, sung in a hundred forms of +prose and verse, which has entered as motive into a dozen dramas, +or the advent of Buddhism, which opened up a new world of thought and +life to the simple, sober, peace-loving agricultural folk of China, +were stimuli not by any means devoid of result. In China there are gods +many and heroes many, and the very fact of the existence of so great +a multitude of gods would logically imply a wealth of mythological +lore inseparable from their apotheosis. You cannot--and the Chinese +cannot--get behind reason. A man is not made a god without some +cause being assigned for so important and far-reaching a step; and +in matters of this sort the stated cause is apt to take the form of +a narrative more or less marvellous or miraculous. These resulting +myths may, of course, be born and grow at a later time than that +in which the circumstances giving rise to them took place, but, +if so, that merely proves the persistent power of the originating +stimulus. That in China these narratives always or often reach the +highest flights of constructive imagination is not maintained--the +maintenance of that argument would indeed be contradictory; but even +in those countries where the mythological garden has produced some of +the finest flowers millions of seeds must have been sown which either +did not spring up at all or at least failed to bring forth fruit. And +in the realm of mythology it is not only those gods who sit in the +highest seats--creators of the world or heads of great religions--who +dominate mankind; the humbler, though often no less powerful gods +or spirits--those even who run on all fours and live in holes in the +ground, or buzz through the air and have their thrones in the shadow +of a leaf--have often made a deeper impress on the minds and in the +hearts of the people, and through that impress, for good or evil, have, +in greater or less degree, modified the life of the visible universe. + + +Sources of Chinese Myth + +"So, if we ask whence comes the heroic and the romantic, which supplies +the story-teller's stock-in-trade, the answer is easy. The legends and +history of early China furnish abundance of material for them. To the +Chinese mind their ancient world was crowded with heroes, fairies, and +devils, who played their part in the mixed-up drama, and left a name +and fame both remarkable and piquant. Every one who is familiar with +the ways and the language of the people knows that the country is full +of common objects to which poetic names have been given, and with many +of them there is associated a legend or a myth. A deep river's gorge is +called 'the Blind Man's Pass,' because a peculiar bit of rock, looked +at from a certain angle, assumes the outline of the human form, and +there comes to be connected therewith a pleasing story which reaches +its climax in the petrifaction of the hero. A mountain's crest shaped +like a swooping eagle will from some one have received the name of +'Eagle Mountain,' whilst by its side another shaped like a couchant +lion will have a name to match. There is no lack of poetry among the +people, and most striking objects claim a poetic name, and not a few +of them are associated with curious legends. It is, however, to their +national history that the story-teller goes for his most interesting +subjects, and as the so-called history of China imperceptibly passes +into the legendary period, and this again fades into the mythical, +and as all this is assuredly believed by the masses of the people, +it is obvious that in the national life of China there is no dearth +of heroes whose deeds of prowess will command the rapt attention of +the crowds who listen." [2] + +The soul in China is everywhere in evidence, and if myths have "first +and foremost to do with the life of the soul" it would appear strange +that the Chinese, having spiritualized everything from a stone to the +sky, have not been creative of myth. Why they have not the foregoing +considerations show us clearly enough. We must take them and their +myths as we find them. Let us, then, note briefly the result of their +mental workings as reacted on by their environment. + + +Phases of Chinese Myth + +We cannot identify the earliest mythology of the Chinese with that of +any primitive race. The myths, if any, of their place of origin may +have faded and been forgotten in their slow migration eastward. We +cannot say that when they came from the West (which they probably +did) they brought their myths with them, for in spite of certain +conjectural derivations from Babylon we do not find them possessed +of any which we can identify as imported by them at that time. But +research seems to have gone at least as far as this--namely, that +while we cannot say that Chinese myth was derived from Indian myth, +there is good reason to believe that Chinese and Indian myth had a +common origin, which was of course outside of China. + +To set forth in detail the various phases through which Chinese myth +has passed would involve a technical description foreign to the purpose +of a popular work. It will sufficiently serve our present purpose to +outline its most prominent features. + +In the earliest times there was an 'age of magic' followed by an +'heroic age,' but myths were very rare before 800 B.C., and what is +known as primitive mythology is said to have been invented or imitated +from foreign sources after 820 B.C. In the eighth century B.C. myths +of an astrological character began to attract attention. In the age +of Lao Tzu (604 B.C.), the reputed founder of the Taoist religion, +fresh legends appear, though Lao Tzu himself, absorbed in the abstract, +records none. Neither did Confucius (551-479 B.C.) nor Mencius, who +lived two hundred years later, add any legends to history. But in the +Period of the Warring States (500-100 B.C.) fresh stimuli and great +emotion prompted to mythological creation. + + +Tso-ch'iu Ming and Lieh Tzu + +Tso-ch'iu Ming, commentator on Confucius's _Annals_, frequently +introduced legend into his history. Lieh Tzu (fifth and fourth +centuries B.C.), a metaphysician, is one of the earliest authors who +deal in myths. He is the first to mention the story of Hsi Wang Mu, the +Western Queen, and from his day onward the fabulists have vied with one +another in fantastic descriptions of the wonders of her fairyland. He +was the first to mention the islands of the immortals in the ocean, +the kingdoms of the dwarfs and giants, the fruit of immortality, the +repairing of the heavens by Nü Kua Shih with five-coloured stones, +and the great tortoise which supports the universe. + + +The T'ang and Sung Epochs + +Religious romance began at this time. The T'ang epoch (A.B. 618-907) +was one of the resurrection of the arts of peace after a long period of +dissension. A purer and more enduring form of intellect was gradually +overcoming the grosser but less solid superstition. Nevertheless the +intellectual movement which now manifested itself was not strong +enough to prevail against the powers of mythological darkness. It +was reserved for the scholars of the Sung Period (A.D. 960-1280) +to carry through to victory a strong and sustained offensive against +the spiritualistic obsessions which had weighed upon the Chinese mind +more or less persistently from the Han Period (206 B.C.-A.D. 221) +onward. The dogma of materialism was specially cultivated at this +time. The struggle of sober reason against superstition or imaginative +invention was largely a struggle of Confucianism against Taoism. Though +many centuries had elapsed since the great Master walked the earth, +the anti-myth movement of the T'ang and Sung Periods was in reality the +long arm and heavy fist of Confucius emphasizing a truer rationalism +than that of his opponents and denouncing the danger of leaving the +firm earth to soar into the unknown hazy regions of fantasy. It was +Sung scholarship that gave the death-blow to Chinese mythology. + +It is unnecessary to labour the point further, because after the Sung +epoch we do not meet with any period of new mythological creation, +and its absence can be ascribed to no other cause than its defeat at +the hands of the Sung philosophers. After their time the tender plant +was always in danger of being stunted or killed by the withering blast +of philosophical criticism. Anything in the nature of myth ascribable +to post-Sung times can at best be regarded only as a late blossom +born when summer days are past. + + +Myth and Doubt + +It will bear repetition to say that unless the myth-builder firmly +believes in his myth, be he the layer of the foundation-stone or one +of the raisers of the superstructure, he will hardly make it a living +thing. Once he believes in reincarnation and the suspension of natural +laws, the boundless vistas of space and the limitless æons of time are +opened to him. He can perform miracles which astound the world. But +if he allow his mind to inquire, for instance, why it should have been +necessary for Elijah to part the waters of the Jordan with his garment +in order that he and Elisha might pass over dryshod, or for Bodhidharma +to stand on a reed to cross the great Yangtzu River, or for innumerable +Immortals to sit on 'favourable clouds' to make their journeys through +space, he spoils myth--his child is stillborn or does not survive to +maturity. Though the growth of philosophy and decay of superstition +may be good for a nation, the process is certainly conducive to the +destruction of its myth and much of its poetry. The true mythologist +takes myth for myth, enters into its spirit, and enjoys it. + +We may thus expect to find in the realm of Chinese mythology a large +number of little hills rather than a few great mountains, but the +little hills are very good ones after their kind; and the object of +this work is to present Chinese myth as it is, not as it might have +been had the universe been differently constituted. Nevertheless, if, +as we may rightly do, we judge of myth by the sentiments pervading +it and the ideals upheld and taught by it, we shall find that Chinese +myth must be ranked among the greatest. + + +Myth and Legend + +The general principles considered above, while they explain the paucity +of myth in China, explain also the abundance of legend there. The six +hundred years during which the Mongols, Mings, and Manchus sat upon +the throne of China are barren of myth, but like all periods of the +Chinese national life are fertile in legend. And this chiefly for the +reason that myths are more general, national, divine, while legends are +more local, individual, human. And since, in China as elsewhere, the +lower classes are as a rule less educated and more superstitious than +the upper classes--have a certain amount of constructive imagination, +but not enough to be self-critical--legends, rejected or even ridiculed +by the scholarly class when their knowledge has become sufficiently +scientific, continue to be invented and believed in by the peasant and +the dweller in districts far from the madding crowd long after myth, +properly so called, has exhaled its last breath. + + + +CHAPTER III + +Cosmogony-p'an Ku and the Creation Myth + + +The Fashioner of the Universe + +The most conspicuous figure in Chinese cosmogony is P'an Ku. He it was +who chiselled the universe out of Chaos. According to Chinese ideas, +he was the offspring of the original dual powers of Nature, the _yin_ +and the _yang_ (to be considered presently), which, having in some +incomprehensible way produced him, set him the task of giving form +to Chaos and "making the heavens and the earth." + +Some accounts describe him as the actual creator of the universe--"the +ancestor of Heaven and earth and all that live and move and have their +being." 'P'an' means 'the shell of an egg,' and 'Ku' 'to secure,' +'solid,' referring to P'an Ku being hatched from out of Chaos and +to his settling the arrangement of the causes to which his origin +was due. The characters themselves may, however, mean nothing more +than 'Researches into antiquity,' though some bolder translators +have assigned to them the significance if not the literal sense of +'aboriginal abyss,' or the Babylonian Tiamat, 'the Deep.' + +P'an Ku is pictured as a man of dwarfish stature clothed in bearskin, +or merely in leaves or with an apron of leaves. He has two horns on +his head. In his right hand he holds a hammer and in his left a chisel +(sometimes these are reversed), the only implements he used in carrying +out his great task. Other pictures show him attended in his labours +by the four supernatural creatures--the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise, +and dragon; others again with the sun in one hand and the moon in the +other, some of the firstfruits of his stupendous labours. (The reason +for these being there will be apparent presently.) His task occupied +eighteen thousand years, during which he formed the sun, moon, and +stars, the heavens and the earth, himself increasing in stature day +by day, being daily six feet taller than the day before, until, his +labours ended, he died that his works might live. His head became the +mountains, his breath the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder, +his limbs the four quarters of the earth, his blood the rivers, +his flesh the soil, his beard the constellations, his skin and hair +the herbs and trees, his teeth, bones, and marrow the metals, rocks, +and precious stones, his sweat the rain, and the insects creeping +over his body human beings, who thus had a lowlier origin even than +the tears of Khepera in Egyptian cosmology. [3] + +This account of P'an Ku and his achievements is of Taoist origin. The +Buddhists have given a somewhat different account of him, which is +a late adaptation from the Taoist myth, and must not be mistaken for +Buddhist cosmogony proper. [4] + + +The Sun and the Moon + +In some of the pictures of P'an Ku he is represented, as already noted, +as holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other. Sometimes +they are in the form of those bodies, sometimes in the classic +character. The legend says that when P'an Ku put things in order in +the lower world, he did not put these two luminaries in their proper +courses, so they retired into the Han Sea, and the people dwelt in +darkness. The Terrestrial Emperor sent an officer, Terrestrial Time, +with orders that they should come forth and take their places in +the heavens and give the world day and night. They refused to obey +the order. They were reported to Ju Lai; P'an Ku was called, and, +at the divine direction of Buddha, wrote the character for 'sun' +in his left hand, and that for 'moon' in his right hand; and went to +the Han Sea, and stretched forth his left hand and called the sun, +and then stretched forth his right hand and called the moon, at the +same time repeating a charm devoutly seven times; and they forthwith +ascended on high, and separated time into day and night. [5] + +Other legends recount that P'an Ku had the head of a dragon and +the body of a serpent; and that by breathing he caused the wind, +by opening his eyes he created day, his voice made the thunder, etc. + + +P'an Ku and Ymer + +Thus we have the heavens and the earth fashioned by this wonderful +being in eighteen thousand years. With regard to him we may adapt +the Scandinavian ballad: + + + It was Time's morning + When P'an Ku lived; + There was no sand, no sea, + Nor cooling billows; + + + + Earth there was none, + No lofty Heaven; + No spot of living green; + Only a deep profound. + + +And it is interesting to note, in passing, the similarity between this +Chinese artificer of the universe and Ymer, the giant, who discharges +the same functions in Scandinavian mythology. Though P'an Ku did not +have the same kind of birth nor meet with the violent death of the +latter, the results as regards the origin of the universe seem to +have been pretty much the same. [6] + + +P'an Ku a Late Creation + +But though the Chinese creation myth deals with primeval things it +does not itself belong to a primitive time. According to some writers +whose views are entitled to respect, it was invented during the fourth +century A.D. by the Taoist recluse, Magistrate Ko Hung, author of the +_Shên hsien chuan_ (_Biographies of the Gods_). The picturesque person +of P'an Ku is said to have been a concession to the popular dislike +of, or inability to comprehend, the abstract. He was conceived, some +Chinese writers say, because the philosophical explanations of the +Cosmos were too recondite for the ordinary mind to grasp. That he +did fulfil the purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with a fairly +easily comprehensible picture of the creation may be admitted; but, +as will presently be seen, it is over-stating the case to say that he +was conceived with the set purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with +a concrete solution or illustration of this great problem. There is +no evidence that P'an Ku had existed as a tradition before the time +when we meet with the written account of him; and, what is more, +there is no evidence that there existed any demand on the part of +the popular mind for any such solution or illustration. The ordinary +mind would seem to have been either indifferent to or satisfied +with the abstruse cosmogonical and cosmological theories of the +early sages for at least a thousand years. The cosmogonies of the _I +ching_, of Lao Tzu, Confucius (such as it was), Kuan Tzu, Mencius, +Chuang Tzu, were impersonal. P'an Ku and his myth must be regarded +rather as an accident than as a creation resulting from any sudden +flow of psychological forces or wind of discontent ruffling the +placid Chinese mind. If the Chinese brought with them from Babylon +or anywhere else the elements of a cosmogony, whether of a more or +less abstruse scientific nature or a personal mythological narrative, +it must have been subsequently forgotten or at least has not survived +in China. But for Ko Hung's eccentricity and his wish to experiment +with cinnabar from Cochin-China in order to find the elixir of life, +P'an Ku would probably never have been invented, and the Chinese mind +would have been content to go on ignoring the problem or would have +quietly acquiesced in the abstract philosophical explanations of the +learned which it did not understand. Chinese cosmogony would then +have consisted exclusively of the recondite impersonal metaphysics +which the Chinese mind had entertained or been fed on for the nine +hundred or more years preceding the invention of the P'an Ku myth. + + +Nü Kua Shih, the Repairer of the Heavens + +It is true that there exist one or two other explanations of the +origin of things which introduce a personal creator. There is, +for instance, the legend--first mentioned by Lieh Tzu (to whom we +shall revert later)--which represents Nü Kua Shih (also called Nü +Wa and Nü Hsi), said to have been the sister and successor of Fu +Hsi, the mythical sovereign whose reign is ascribed to the years +2953-2838 B.C., as having been the creator of human beings when +the earth first emerged from Chaos. She (or he, for the sex seems +uncertain), who had the "body of a serpent and head of an ox" (or a +human head and horns of an ox, according to some writers), "moulded +yellow earth and made man." Ssu-ma Chêng, of the eighth century A.D., +author of the _Historical Records_ and of another work on the three +great legendary emperors, Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and Huang Ti, gives +the following account of her: "Fu Hsi was succeeded by Nü Kua, who +like him had the surname Fêng. Nü Kua had the body of a serpent and +a human head, with the virtuous endowments of a divine sage. Toward +the end of her reign there was among the feudatory princes Kung Kung, +whose functions were the administration of punishment. Violent and +ambitious, he became a rebel, and sought by the influence of water +to overcome that of wood [under which Nü Kua reigned]. He did battle +with Chu Jung [said to have been one of the ministers of Huang Ti, +and later the God of Fire], but was not victorious; whereupon he +struck his head against the Imperfect Mountain, Pu Chou Shan, and +brought it down. The pillars of Heaven were broken and the corners of +the earth gave way. Hereupon Nü Kua melted stones of the five colours +to repair the heavens, and cut off the feet of the tortoise to set +upright the four extremities of the earth. [7] Gathering the ashes +of reeds she stopped the flooding waters, and thus rescued the land +of Chi, Chi Chou [the early seat of the Chinese sovereignty]." + +Another account separates the name and makes Nü and Kua brother +and sister, describing them as the only two human beings in +existence. At the creation they were placed at the foot of the K'un-lun +Mountains. Then they prayed, saying, "If thou, O God, hast sent us to +be man and wife, the smoke of our sacrifice will stay in one place; +but if not, it will be scattered." The smoke remained stationary. + +But though Nü Kua is said to have moulded the first man (or the first +human beings) out of clay, it is to be noted that, being only the +successor of Fu Hsi, long lines of rulers had preceded her of whom no +account is given, and also that, as regards the heavens and the earth +at least, she is regarded as the repairer and not the creator of them. + +Heaven-deaf (T'ien-lung) and Earth-dumb (Ti-ya), the two attendants +of Wên Ch'ang, the God of Literature (see following chapter), have +also been drawn into the cosmogonical net. From their union came the +heavens and the earth, mankind, and all living things. + +These and other brief and unelaborated personal cosmogonies, even if +not to be regarded as spurious imitations, certainly have not become +established in the Chinese mind as the explanation of the way in which +the universe came to be: in this sphere the P'an Ku legend reigns +supreme; and, owing to its concrete, easily apprehensible nature, +has probably done so ever since the time of its invention. + + +Early Cosmogony Dualistic + +The period before the appearance of the P'an Ku myth may be divided +into two parts; that from some early unknown date up to about the +middle of the Confucian epoch, say 500 B.C., and that from 500 B.C. to +A.D. 400. We know that during the latter period the minds of Chinese +scholars were frequently occupied with speculations as to the origin +of the universe. Before 500 B.C. we have no documentary remains +telling us what the Chinese believed about the origin of things; +but it is exceedingly unlikely that no theories or speculations at +all concerning the origin of themselves and their surroundings were +formed by this intelligent people during the eighteen centuries or +more which preceded the date at which we find the views held by them +put into written form. It is safe to assume that the dualism which +later occupied their philosophical thoughts to so great an extent +as almost to seem inseparable from them, and exercised so powerful +an influence throughout the course of their history, was not only +formulating itself during that long period, but had gradually reached +an advanced stage. We may even go so far as to say that dualism, or +its beginnings, existed in the very earliest times, for the belief in +the second self or ghost or double of the dead is in reality nothing +else. And we find it operating with apparently undiminished energy +after the Chinese mind had reached its maturity in the Sung dynasty. + + + +The Canon of Changes + +The Bible of Chinese dualism is the _I ching_, the _Canon of Changes_ +(or _Permutations_). It is held in great veneration both on account +of its antiquity and also because of the "unfathomable wisdom which +is supposed to lie concealed under its mysterious symbols." It is +placed first in the list of the classics, or Sacred Books, though +it is not the oldest of them. When exactly the work itself on which +the subsequent elaborations were founded was composed is not now +known. Its origin is attributed to the legendary emperor Fu Hsi +(2953-2838 B.C.). It does not furnish a cosmogony proper, but merely +a dualistic system as an explanation, or attempted explanation, +or even perhaps only a record, of the constant changes (in modern +philosophical language the "redistribution of matter and motion") +going on everywhere. That explanation or record was used for purposes +of divination. This dualistic system, by a simple addition, became +a monism, and at the same time furnished the Chinese with a cosmogony. + + +The Five Elements + +The Five Elements or Forces (_wu hsing_)--which, according to +the Chinese, are metal, air, fire, water, and wood--are first +mentioned in Chinese literature in a chapter of the classic _Book +of History_. [8] They play a very important part in Chinese thought: +'elements' meaning generally not so much the actual substances as the +forces essential to human, life. They have to be noticed in passing, +because they were involved in the development of the cosmogonical +ideas which took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. + + + +Monism + +As their imagination grew, it was natural that the Chinese should +begin to ask themselves what, if the _yang_ and the _yin_ by +their permutations produced, or gave shape to, all things, was it +that produced the _yang_ and the _yin_. When we see traces of this +inquisitive tendency we find ourselves on the borderland of dualism +where the transition is taking place into the realm of monism. But +though there may have been a tendency toward monism in early times, it +was only in the Sung dynasty that the philosophers definitely placed +behind the _yang_ and the _yin_ a First Cause--the Grand Origin, +Grand Extreme, Grand Terminus, or Ultimate Ground of Existence. [9] +They gave to it the name _t'ai chi_, and represented it by a concrete +sign, the symbol of a circle. The complete scheme shows the evolution +of the Sixty-four Diagrams (_kua_) from the _t'ai chi_ through the +_yang_ and the _yin_, the Four, Eight, Sixteen, and Thirty-two +Diagrams successively. This conception was the work of the Sung +philosopher Chou Tun-i (A.D. 1017-73), commonly known as Chou Tzu, +and his disciple Chu Hsi (A.D. 1130-1200), known as Chu Tzu or Chu +Fu Tzu, the famous historian and Confucian commentator--two of the +greatest names in Chinese philosophy. It was at this time that the +tide of constructive imagination in China, tinged though it always +was with classical Confucianism, rose to its greatest height. There +is the philosopher's seeking for causes. Yet in this matter of the +First Cause we detect, in the full flood of Confucianism, the potent +influence of Taoist and Buddhist speculations. It has even been said +that the Sung philosophy, which grew, not from the _I ching_ itself, +but from the appendixes to it, is more Taoistic than Confucian. As it +was with the P'an Ku legend, so was it with this more philosophical +cosmogony. The more fertile Taoist and Buddhist imaginations led to the +preservation of what the Confucianists, distrusting the marvellous, +would have allowed to die a natural death. It was, after all, the +mystical foreign elements which gave point to--we may rightly say +rounded off--the early dualism by converting it into monism, carrying +philosophical speculation from the Knowable to the Unknowable, and +furnishing the Chinese with their first scientific theory of the +origin, not of the changes going on in the universe (on which they +had already formed their opinions), but of the universe itself. + + +Chou Tzu's "T'ai Chi T'u" + +Chou Tun-i, appropriately apotheosized as 'Prince in the Empire of +Reason,' completed and systematized the philosophical world-conception +which had hitherto obtained in the Chinese mind. He did not ask his +fellow-countrymen to discard any part of what they had long held in +high esteem: he raised the old theories from the sphere of science to +that of philosophy by unifying them and bringing them to a focus. And +he made this unification intelligible to the Chinese mind by his famous +_T'ai chi t'u_, or Diagram of the Great Origin (or Grand Terminus), +showing that the Grand Original Cause, itself uncaused, produces the +_yang_ and the _yin_, these the Five Elements, and so on, through +the male and female norms (_tao_), to the production of all things. + + +Chu Hsi's Monistic Philosophy + +The writings of Chu Hsi, especially his treatise on _The Immaterial +Principle [li] and Primary Matter [ch'i]_, leave no doubt as to the +monism of his philosophy. In this work occurs the passage: "In the +universe there exists no primary matter devoid of the immaterial +principle; and no immaterial principle apart from primary matter"; +and although the two are never separated "the immaterial principle +[as Chou Tzu explains] is what is previous to form, while primary +matter is what is subsequent to form," the idea being that the two +are different manifestations of the same mysterious force from which +all things proceed. + +It is unnecessary to follow this philosophy along all the different +branches which grew out of it, for we are here concerned only with +the seed. We have observed how Chinese dualism became a monism, and +how while the monism was established the dualism was retained. It is +this mono-dualistic theory, combining the older and newer philosophy, +which in China, then as now, constitutes the accepted explanation of +the origin of things, of the universe itself and all that it contains. + + +Lao Tzu's "Tao" + +There are other cosmogonies in Chinese philosophy, but they need not +detain us long. Lao Tzu (sixth century B.C.), in his _Tao-tê ching, +The Canon of Reason and Virtue_ (at first entitled simply _Lao Tzu_), +gave to the then existing scattered sporadic conceptions of the +universe a literary form. His _tao_, or 'Way,' is the originator +of Heaven and earth, it is "the mother of all things." His Way, +which was "before God," is but a metaphorical expression for the +manner in which things came at first into being out of the primal +nothingness, and how the phenomena of nature continue to go on, +"in stillness and quietness, without striving or crying." Lao Tzu is +thus so far monistic, but he is also mystical, transcendental, even +pantheistic. The way that can be walked is not the Eternal Way; the +name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The Unnameable is the +originator of Heaven and earth; manifesting itself as the Nameable, +it is "the mother of all things." "In Eternal Non-Being I see the +Spirituality of Things; in Eternal Being their limitation. Though +different under these two aspects, they are the same in origin; +it is when development takes place that different names have to be +used. It is while they are in the condition of sameness that the +mystery concerning them exists. This mystery is indeed the mystery +of mysteries. It is the door of all spirituality." + +This _tao_, indefinable and in its essence unknowable, is "the +fountain-head of all beings, and the norm of all actions. But it is +not only the formative principle of the universe; it also seems to be +primordial matter: chaotic in its composition, born prior to Heaven +and earth, noiseless, formless, standing alone in its solitude, and +not changing, universal in its activity, and unrelaxing, without being +exhausted, it is capable of becoming the mother of the universe." And +there we may leave it. There is no scheme of creation, properly so +called. The Unwalkable Way leads us to nothing further in the way of +a cosmogony. + + +Confucius's Agnosticism + +Confucius (551-479 B.C.) did not throw any light on the problem of +origin. He did not speculate on the creation of things nor the end +of them. He was not troubled to account for the origin of man, nor +did he seek to know about his hereafter. He meddled neither with +physics nor metaphysics. There might, he thought, be something on +the other side of life, for he admitted the existence of spiritual +beings. They had an influence on the living, because they caused +them to clothe themselves in ceremonious dress and attend to the +sacrificial ceremonies. But we should not trouble ourselves about +them, any more than about supernatural things, or physical prowess, +or monstrosities. How can we serve spiritual beings while we do not +know how to serve men? We feel the existence of something invisible +and mysterious, but its nature and meaning are too deep for the +human understanding to grasp. The safest, indeed the only reasonable, +course is that of the agnostic--to leave alone the unknowable, while +acknowledging its existence and its mystery, and to try to understand +knowable phenomena and guide our actions accordingly. + +Between the monism of Lao Tzu and the positivism of Confucius on +the one hand, and the landmark of the Taoistic transcendentalism of +Chuang Tzu (fourth and third centuries B.C.) on the other, we find +several "guesses at the riddle of existence" which must be briefly +noted as links in the chain of Chinese speculative thought on this +important subject. + + +Mo Tzu and Creation + +In the philosophy of Mo Ti (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.), +generally known as Mo Tzu or Mu Tzu, the philosopher of humanism and +utilitarianism, we find the idea of creation. It was, he says, Heaven +(which was anthropomorphically regarded by him as a personal Supreme +Being) who "created the sun, moon, and innumerable stars." His system +closely resembles Christianity, but the great power of Confucianism as +a weapon wielded against all opponents by its doughty defender Mencius +(372-289 B.C.) is shown by the complete suppression of the influence +of Mo Tzuism at his hands. He even went so far as to describe Mo Tzu +and those who thought with him as "wild animals." + + +Mencius and the First Cause + +Mencius himself regarded Heaven as the First Cause, or Cause of Causes, +but it was not the same personal Heaven as that of Mo Tzu. Nor does +he hang any cosmogony upon it. His chief concern was to eulogize the +doctrines of the great Confucius, and like him he preferred to let +the origin of the universe look after itself. + + +Lieh Tzu's Absolute + +Lieh Tzu (said to have lived in the fifth century B.C.), one +of the brightest stars in the Taoist constellation, considered +this nameable world as having evolved from an unnameable absolute +being. The evolution did not take place through the direction of +a personal will working out a plan of creation: "In the beginning +there was Chaos [_hun tun_]. It was a mingled potentiality of Form +[_hsing_], Pneuma [_ch'i_], and Substance [_chih_]. A Great Change +[_t'ai i_] took place in it, and there was a Great Starting [_t'ai +ch'u_] which is the beginning of Form. The Great Starting evolved a +Great Beginning [_t'ai shih_], which is the inception of Pneuma. The +Great Beginning was followed by the Great Blank [_t'ai su_], which +is the first formation of Substance. Substance, Pneuma, and Form +being all evolved out of the primordial chaotic mass, this material +world as it lies before us came into existence." And that which +made it possible for Chaos to evolve was the Solitary Indeterminate +(_i tu_ or the _tao_), which is not created, but is able to create +everlastingly. And being both Solitary and Indeterminate it tells us +nothing determinate about itself. + + +Chuang Tzu's Super-tao + +Chuang Chou (fourth and third centuries B.C.), generally known +as Chuang Tzu, the most brilliant Taoist of all, maintained with +Lao Tzu that the universe started from the Nameless, but it was if +possible a more absolute and transcendental Nameless than that of +Lao Tzu. He dwells on the relativity of knowledge; as when asleep he +did not know that he was a man dreaming that he was a butterfly, so +when awake he did not know that he was not a butterfly dreaming that +he was a man. [10] But "all is embraced in the obliterating unity of +the _tao_, and the wise man, passing into the realm of the Infinite, +finds rest therein." And this _tao_, of which we hear so much in +Chinese philosophy, was before the Great Ultimate or Grand Terminus +(_t'ai chi_), and "from it came the mysterious existence of God +[_ti_]. It produced Heaven, it produced earth." + + +Popular Cosmogony still Personal or Dualistic + +These and other cosmogonies which the Chinese have devised, though +it is necessary to note their existence in order to give a just idea +of their cosmological speculations, need not, as I said, detain us +long; and the reason why they need not do so is that, in the matter +of cosmogony, the P'an Ku legend and the _yin-yang_ system with its +monistic elaboration occupy virtually the whole field of the Chinese +mental vision. It is these two--the popular and the scientific--that +we mean when we speak of Chinese cosmogony. Though here and there a +stern sectarian might deny that the universe originated in one or the +other of these two ways, still, the general rule holds good. And I +have dealt with them in this order because, though the P'an Ku legend +belongs to the fourth century A.D., the _I ching_ dualism was not, +rightly speaking, a cosmogony until Chou Tun-i made it one by the +publication of his _T'ai chi t'u_ in the eleventh century A.D. Over +the unscientific and the scientific minds of the Chinese these two +are paramount. + +Applying the general principles stated in the preceding chapter, +we find the same cause which operated to restrict the growth of +mythology in general in China operated also in like manner in this +particular branch of it. With one exception Chinese cosmogony is +non-mythological. The careful and studiously accurate historians +(whose work aimed at being _ex veritate_, 'made of truth'), the +sober literature, the vast influence of agnostic, matter-of-fact +Confucianism, supported by the heavy Mencian artillery, are +indisputable indications of a constructive imagination which grew too +quickly and became too rapidly scientific to admit of much soaring +into the realms of fantasy. Unaroused by any strong stimulus in +their ponderings over the riddle of the universe, the sober, plodding +scientists and the calm, truth-loving philosophers gained a peaceful +victory over the mythologists. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Gods of China + + +The Birth of the Soul + +The dualism noted in the last chapter is well illustrated by the +Chinese pantheon. Whether as the result of the co-operation of the +_yin_ and the _yang_ or of the final dissolution of P'an Ku, human +beings came into existence. To the primitive mind the body and its +shadow, an object and its reflection in water, real life and dream +life, sensibility and insensibility (as in fainting, etc.), suggest the +idea of another life parallel with this life and of the doings of the +'other self' in it. This 'other self,' this spirit, which leaves the +body for longer or shorter intervals in dreams, swoons, death, may +return or be brought back, and the body revive. Spirits which do not +return or are not brought back may cause mischief, either alone, or by +entry into another human or animal body or even an inanimate object, +and should therefore be propitiated. Hence worship and deification. + + +The Populous Otherworld + +The Chinese pantheon has gradually become so multitudinous that there +is scarcely a being or thing which is not, or has not been at some time +or other, propitiated or worshipped. As there are good and evil people +in this world, so there are gods and demons in the Otherworld: we find +a polytheism limited only by a polydemonism. The dualistic hierarchy is +almost all-embracing. To get a clear idea of this populous Otherworld, +of the supernal and infernal hosts and their organizations, it needs +but to imagine the social structure in its main features as it existed +throughout the greater part of Chinese history, and to make certain +additions. The social structure consisted of the ruler, his court, +his civil, military, and ecclesiastical officials, and his subjects +(classed as Scholars--officials and gentry--Agriculturists, Artisans, +and Merchants, in that order). + + +Worship of Shang Ti + +When these died, their other selves continued to exist and to hold +the same rank in the spirit world as they did in this one. The _ti_, +emperor, became the _Shang Ti_, Emperor on High, who dwelt in _T'ien_, +Heaven (originally the great dome). [11] And Shang Ti, the Emperor +on High, was worshipped by _ti_, the emperor here below, in order to +pacify or please him--to ensure a continuance of his benevolence on +his behalf in the world of spirits. Confusion of ideas and paucity +of primitive language lead to personification and worship of a thing +or being in which a spirit has taken up its abode in place of or in +addition to worship of the spirit itself. Thus Heaven (T'ien) itself +came to be personified and worshipped in addition to Shang Ti, the +Emperor who had gone to Heaven, and who was considered as the chief +ruler in the spiritual world. The worship of Shang Ti was in existence +before that of T'ien was introduced. Shang Ti was worshipped by the +emperor and his family as their ancestor, or the head of the hierarchy +of their ancestors. The people could not worship Shang Ti, for to do so +would imply a familiarity or a claim of relationship punishable with +death. The emperor worshipped his ancestors, the officials theirs, +the people theirs. But, in the same way and sense that the people +worshipped the emperor on earth, as the 'father' of the nation, +namely, by adoration and obeisance, so also could they in this way +and this sense worship Shang Ti. An Englishman may take off his hat +as the king passes in the street to his coronation without taking any +part in the official service in Westminster Abbey. So the 'worship' +of Shang Ti by the people was not done officially or with any special +ceremonial or on fixed State occasions, as in the case of the worship +of Shang Ti by the emperor. This, subject to a qualification to be +mentioned later, is really all that is meant (or should be meant) +when it is said that the Chinese worship Shang Ti. + +As regards sacrifices to Shang Ti, these could be offered officially +only by the emperor, as High Priest on earth, who was attended or +assisted in the ceremonies by members of his own family or clan or +the proper State officials (often, even in comparatively modern times, +members of the imperial family or clan). In these official sacrifices, +which formed part of the State worship, the people could not take part; +nor did they at first offer sacrifices to Shang Ti in their own homes +or elsewhere. In what way and to what extent they did so later will +be shown presently. + + +Worship of T'ien + +Owing to T'ien, Heaven, the abode of the spirits, becoming personified, +it came to be worshipped not only by the emperor, but by the people +also. But there was a difference between these two worships, because +the emperor performed his worship of Heaven officially at the great +altar of the Temple of Heaven at Peking (in early times at the altar +in the suburb of the capital), whereas the people (continuing always +to worship their ancestors) worshipped Heaven, when they did so +at all--the custom being observed by some and not by others, just +as in Western countries some people go to church, while others stay +away--usually at the time of the New Year, in a simple, unceremonious +way, by lighting some incense-sticks and waving them toward the sky +in the courtyards of their own houses or in the street just outside +their doors. + + +Confusion of Shang Ti and T'ien + +The qualification necessary to the above description is that, as +time went on and especially since the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), +much confusion arose regarding Shang Ti and T'ien, and thus it came +about that the terms became mixed and their definitions obscure. This +confusion of ideas has prevailed down to the present time. One result +of this is that the people may sometimes state, when they wave their +incense-sticks or light their candles, that their humble sacrifice +is made to Shang Ti, whom in reality they have no right either to +worship or to offer sacrifice to, but whom they may unofficially pay +respect and make obeisance to, as they might and did to the emperor +behind the high boards on the roadsides which shielded him from their +view as he was borne along in his elaborate procession on the few +occasions when he came forth from the imperial city. + +Thus we find that, while only the emperor could worship and sacrifice +to Shang Ti, and only he could officially worship and sacrifice to +T'ien, the people who early personified and worshipped T'ien, as +already shown, came, owing to confusion of the meanings of Shang Ti +and T'ien, unofficially to 'worship' both, but only in the sense and to +the extent indicated, and to offer 'sacrifices' to both, also only in +the sense and to the extent indicated. But for these qualifications, +the statement that the Chinese worship and sacrifice to Shang Ti and +T'ien would be apt to convey an incorrect idea. + +From this it will be apparent that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler on High, +and T'ien, Heaven (later personified), do not mean 'God' in the sense +that the word is used in the Christian religion. To state that they +do, as so many writers on China have done, without pointing out the +essential differences, is misleading. That Chinese religion was or is +"a monotheistic worship of God" is further disproved by the fact that +Shang Ti and T'ien do not appear in the list of the popular pantheon at +all, though all the other gods are there represented. Neither Shang Ti +nor T'ien mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the Father, +Son, and Holy Ghost of the New Testament. Did they mean this, the +efforts of the Christian missionaries to convert the Chinese would be +largely superfluous. The Christian religion, even the Holy Trinity, +is a monotheism. That the Chinese religion (even though a summary +of extracts from the majority of foreign books on China might point +to its being so) is not a monotheism, but a polytheism or even a +pantheism (as long as that term is taken in the sense of universal +deification and not in that of one spiritual being immanent in all +things), the rest of this chapter will abundantly prove. + +There have been three periods in which gods have been created in +unusually large numbers: that of the mythical emperor Hsien Yüan +(2698-2598 B.C.), that of Chiang Tzu-ya (in the twelfth century B.C.), +and that of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (in the fourteenth +century A.D.). + + +The Otherworld Similar to this World + +The similarity of the Otherworld to this world above alluded to is +well shown by Du Bose in his _Dragon, Image, and, Demon_, from which +I quote the following passages: + +"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 [now twenty-two] 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 Intendant of Circuit, 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 +_yamên_ 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 government 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. 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." (Pp. 358-359.) + +This likeness explains also why the hierarchy of beings in the +Otherworld concerns itself not only with the affairs of the Otherworld, +but with those of this world as well. So faithful is the likeness +that we find the gods (the term is used in this chapter to include +goddesses, who are, however, relatively few) subjected to many of +the rules and conditions existing on this earth. Not only do they, as +already shown, differ in rank, but they hold _levées_ and audiences +and may be promoted for distinguished services, just as the Chinese +officials are. They "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 correlative 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. 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 Dragon Tiger Mountain, but how can the people +know gods which are not the same to-day as yesterday?" (Pp. 360-361.) + +The gods also indulge in amusements, marry, sin, are punished, die, +are resurrected, or die and are transformed, or die finally. [12] + + +The Three Religions + +We have in China the universal worship of ancestors, which constitutes +(or did until A.D. 1912) the State religion, usually known as +Confucianism, and in addition we have the gods of the specific +religions (which also originally took their rise in ancestor-worship), +namely, Buddhism and Taoism. (Other religions, though tolerated, +are not recognized as Chinese religions.) It is with a brief account +of this great hierarchy and its mythology that we will now concern +ourselves. + +Besides the ordinary ancestor-worship (as distinct from the State +worship) the people took to Buddhism and Taoism, which became +the popular religions, and the _literati_ also honoured the gods +of these two sects. Buddhist deities gradually became installed in +Taoist temples, and the Taoist immortals were given seats beside the +Buddhas in their sanctuaries. Every one patronized the god who seemed +to him the most popular and the most lucrative. There even came to +be united in the same temple and worshipped at the same altar the +three religious founders or figure-heads, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao +Tzu. The three religions were even regarded as forming one whole, +or at least, though different, as having one and the same object: +_san êrh i yeh_, or _han san wei i_, "the three are one," or "the +three unite to form one" (a quotation from the phrase _T'ai chi han +san wei i_ of Fang Yü-lu: "When they reach the extreme the three are +seen to be one"). In the popular pictorial representations of the +pantheon this impartiality is clearly shown. + + +The Super-triad + +The toleration, fraternity, or co-mixture of the three +religions--ancestor-worship or Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, +and Taoism--explains the compound nature of the triune head of +the Chinese pantheon. The numerous deities of Buddhism and Taoism +culminate each in a triad of gods (the Three Precious Ones and the +Three Pure Ones respectively), but the three religions jointly have +also a triad compounded of one representative member of each. This +general or super-triad is, of course, composed of Confucius, Lao Tzu, +and Buddha. This is the officially decreed order, though it is varied +occasionally by Buddha being placed in the centre (the place of honour) +as an act of ceremonial deference shown to a 'stranger' or 'guest' +from another country. + + +Worship of the Living + +Before proceeding to consider the gods of China in detail, it is +necessary to note that ancestor-worship, which, as before stated, +is worship of the ghosts of deceased persons, who are usually but +not invariably relatives of the worshipper, has at times a sort of +preliminary stage in this world consisting of the worship of living +beings. Emperors, viceroys, popular officials, or people beloved for +their good deeds have had altars, temples, and images erected to them, +where they are worshipped in the same way as those who have already +"shuffled off this mortal coil." The most usual cases are perhaps those +of the worship of living emperors and those in which some high official +who has gained the gratitude of the people is transferred to another +post. The explanation is simple. The second self which exists after +death is identical with the second self inhabiting the body during +life. Therefore it may be propitiated or gratified by sacrifices +of food, drink, etc., or theatricals performed in its honour, and +continue its protection and good offices even though now far away. + + + +Confucianism + +Confucianism (_Ju Chiao_) is said to be the religion of the learned, +and the learned were the officials and the _literati_ or lettered +class, which includes scholars waiting for posts, those who have failed +to get posts (or, though qualified, prefer to live in retirement), and +those who have retired from posts. Of this 'religion' it has been said: + +"The name embraces education, letters, ethics, and political +philosophy. Its head was not a religious man, practised few religious +rites, and taught nothing about religion. In its usual acceptation the +term Confucianist means 'a gentleman and a scholar'; he may worship +only once a year, yet he belongs to the Church. Unlike its two sisters, +it has no priesthood, and fundamentally is not a religion at all; +yet with the many rites grafted on the original tree it becomes a +religion, and the one most difficult to deal with. Considered as a +Church, the classics are its scriptures, the schools its churches, the +teachers its priests, ethics its theology, and the written character, +so sacred, its symbol." [13] + + +Confucius not a God + +It should be noted that Confucius himself is not a god, though he +has been and is worshipped (66,000 animals used to be offered to him +every year; probably the number is about the same now). Suggestions +have been made to make him the God of China and Confucianism the +religion of China, so that he and his religion would hold the same +relative positions that Christ and Christianity do in the West. I +was present at the lengthy debate which took place on this subject +in the Chinese Parliament in February 1917, but in spite of many +long, learned, and eloquent speeches, chiefly by scholars of the +old school, the motion was not carried. Nevertheless, the worship +accorded to Confucius was and is (except by 'new' or 'young' China) +of so extreme a nature that he may almost be described as the great +unapotheosized god of China. [14] Some of his portraits even ascribe to +him superhuman attributes. But in spite of all this the fact remains +that Confucius has not been appointed a god and holds no _exequatur_ +entitling him to that rank. + +If we inquire into the reason of this we find that, astonishing +though it may seem, Confucius is classed by the Chinese not as a god +(_shên_), but as a demon (_kuei_). A short historical statement will +make the matter clear. + +In the classical _Li chi, Book of Ceremonial_, we find the categorical +assignment of the worship of certain objects to certain subjective +beings: the emperor worshipped Heaven and earth, the feudal princes the +mountains and rivers, the officials the hearth, and the _literati_ +their ancestors. Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and hearth +were called _shên_ (gods), and ancestors _kuei_ (demons). This +distinction is due to Heaven being regarded as the god and the +people as demons--the upper is the god, the lower the evil spirit or +demon. Though _kuei_ were usually bad, the term in Chinese includes +both good and evil spirits. In ancient times those who had by their +meritorious virtue while in the world averted calamities from the +people were posthumously worshipped and called gods, but those who were +worshipped by their descendants only were called spirits or demons. + +In the worship of Confucius by emperors of various dynasties (details +of which need not be given here) the highest titles conferred on him +were _Hsien Shêng_, 'Former or Ancestral Saint,' and even _Win Hsüan +Wang_, 'Accomplished and Illustrious Prince,' and others containing +like epithets. When for his image or idol there was (in the eleventh +year--A.D. 1307--of the reign-period Ta Tê of the Emperor Ch'êng +Tsung of the Yüan dynasty) substituted the tablet now seen in the +Confucian temples, these were the inscriptions engraved on it. In the +inscriptions authoritatively placed on the tablets the word _shên_ +does not occur; in those cases where it does occur it has been +placed there (as by the Taoists) illegally and without authority +by too ardent devotees. Confucius may not be called a _shên_, since +there is no record showing that the great ethical teacher was ever +apotheosized, or that any order was given that the character _shên_ +was to be applied to him. + + +The God of Literature + +In addition to the ancestors of whose worship it really consists, +Confucianism has in its pantheon the specialized gods worshipped by +the _literati_. Naturally the chief of these is Wên Ch'ang, the God of +Literature. The account of him (which varies in several particulars +in different Chinese works) relates that he was a man of the name +of Chang Ya, who was born during the T'ang dynasty in the kingdom of +Yüeh (modern Chêkiang), and went to live at Tzu T'ung in Ssuch'uan, +where his intelligence raised him to the position of President of the +Board of Ceremonies. Another account refers to him as Chang Ya Tzu, +the Soul or Spirit of Tzu T'ung, and states that he held office in the +Chin dynasty (A.D. 265-316), and was killed in a fight. Another again +states that under the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), in the third year +(A.D. 1000) of the reign-period Hsien P'ing of the Emperor Chên Tsung, +he repressed the revolt of Wang Chün at Ch'êng Tu in Ssuch'uan. General +Lei Yu-chung caused to be shot into the besieged town arrows to which +notices were attached inviting the inhabitants to surrender. Suddenly +a man mounted a ladder, and pointing to the rebels cried in a loud +voice: "The Spirit of Tzu T'ung has sent me to inform you that the +town will fall into the hands of the enemy on the twentieth day of +the ninth moon, and not a single person will escape death." Attempts +to strike down this prophet of evil were in vain, for he had already +disappeared. The town was captured on the day indicated. The general, +as a reward, caused the temple of Tzu T'ung's Spirit to be repaired, +and sacrifices offered to it. + +The object of worship nowadays in the temples dedicated to Wên Ch'ang +is Tzu T'ung Ti Chün, the God of Tzu T'ung. The convenient elasticity +of dualism enabled Chang to have as many as seventeen reincarnations, +which ranged over a period of some three thousand years. + +Various emperors at various times bestowed upon Wên Ch'ang honorific +titles, until ultimately, in the Yüan, or Mongol, dynasty, in the reign +Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, the title was conferred on him of Supporter of +the Yüan Dynasty, Diffuser of Renovating Influences, Ssu-lu of Wên +Ch'ang, God and Lord. He was thus apotheosized, and took his place +among the gods of China. By steps few or many a man in China has +often become a god. + + +Wên Ch'ang and the Great Bear + +Thus we have the God of Literature, Wên Ch'ang Ti Chün, duly installed +in the Chinese pantheon, and sacrifices were offered to him in the +schools. + +But scholars, especially those about to enter for the public +competitive examinations, worshipped as the God of Literature, or as +his palace or abode (Wên Ch'ang), the star K'uei in the Great Bear, +or Dipper, or Bushel--the latter name derived from its resemblance in +shape to the measure used by the Chinese and called _tou_. The term +K'uei was more generally applied to the four stars forming the body +or square part of the Dipper, the three forming the tail or handle +being called Shao or Piao. How all this came about is another story. + +A scholar, as famous for his literary skill as his facial deformities, +had been admitted as first academician at the metropolitan +examinations. It was the custom that the Emperor should give with +his own hand a rose of gold to the fortunate candidate. This scholar, +whose name was Chung K'uei, presented himself according to custom to +receive the reward which by right was due to him. At the sight of +his repulsive face the Emperor refused the golden rose. In despair +the miserable rejected one went and threw himself into the sea. At +the moment when he was being choked by the waters a mysterious fish +or monster called _ao_ raised him on its back and brought him to the +surface. K'uei ascended to Heaven and became arbiter of the destinies +of men of letters. His abode was said to be the star K'uei, a name +given by the Chinese to the sixteen stars of the constellation or +'mansion' of Andromeda and Pisces. The scholars quite soon began +to worship K'uei as the God of Literature, and to represent it on a +column in the temples. Then sacrifices were offered to it. This star +or constellation was regarded as the palace of the god. The legend +gave rise to an expression frequently used in Chinese of one who +comes out first in an examination, namely, _tu chan ao t'ou_, "to +stand alone on the sea-monster's head." It is especially to be noted +that though the two K'ueis have the same sound they are represented +by different characters, and that the two constellations are not the +same, but are situated in widely different parts of the heavens. + +How then did it come about that scholars worshipped the K'uei in +the Great Bear as the abode of the God of Literature? (It may be +remarked in passing that a literary people could not have chosen +a more appropriate palace for this god, since the Great Bear, +the 'Chariot of Heaven,' is regarded as the centre and governor +of the whole universe.) The worship, we saw, was at first that of +the star K'uei, the apotheosized 'homely,' successful, but rejected +candidate. As time went on, there was a general demand for a sensible, +concrete representation of this star-god: a simple character did not +satisfy the popular taste. But it was no easy matter to comply with the +demand. Eventually, guided doubtless by the community of pronunciation, +they substituted for the star or group of stars K'uei (1), +venerated in ancient times, a new star or group of stars K'uei (2), +forming the square part of the Bushel, Dipper, or Great Bear. But for +this again no bodily image could be found, so the form of the written +character itself was taken, and so drawn as to represent a _kuei_ +(3) (disembodied spirit, or ghost) with its foot raised, and bearing +aloft a _tou_ (4) (bushel-measure). The adoration was thus misplaced, +for the constellation K'uei (2) was mistaken for K'uei (1), the proper +object of worship. It was due to this confusion by the scholars that +the Northern Bushel came to be worshipped as the God of Literature. + + +Wên Ch'ang and Tzu T'ung + +This worship had nothing whatever to do with the Spirit of Tzu T'ung, +but the Taoists have connected Chang Ya with the constellation in +another way by saying that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, entrusted Chang +Ya's son with the management of the palace of Wên Ch'ang. And scholars +gradually acquired the habit of saying that they owed their success +to the Spirit of Tzu T'ung, which they falsely represented as being an +incarnation of the star Wên Ch'ang. This is how Chang Ya came to have +the honorific title of Wên Ch'ang, but, as a Chinese author points +out, Chang belonged properly to Ssuch'uan, and his worship should +be confined to that province. The _literati_ there venerated him as +their master, and as a mark of affection and gratitude built a temple +to him; but in doing so they had no intention of making him the God of +Literature. "There being no real connexion between Chang Ya and K'uei, +the worship should be stopped." The device of combining the personality +of the patron of literature enthroned among the stars with that of the +deified mortal canonized as the Spirit of Tzu T'ung was essentially a +Taoist trick. "The thaumaturgic reputation assigned to the Spirit of +Chang Ya Tzu was confined for centuries to the valleys of Ssuch'uan, +until at some period antecedent to the reign Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, +a combination was arranged between the functions of the local god +and those of the stellar patron of literature. Imperial sanction +was obtained for this stroke of priestly cunning; and notwithstanding +protests continually repeated by orthodox sticklers for accuracy in the +religious canon, the composite deity has maintained his claims intact, +and an inseparable connexion between the God of Literature created by +imperial patent and the spirit lodged among the stars of Ursa Major is +fully recognized in the State ceremonial of the present day." A temple +dedicated to this divinity by the State exists in every city of China, +besides others erected as private benefactions or speculations. + +Wherever Wên Ch'ang is worshipped there will also be found a separate +representation of K'uei Hsing, showing that while the official deity +has been allowed to 'borrow glory' from the popular god, and even +to assume his personality, the independent existence of the stellar +spirit is nevertheless sedulously maintained. The place of the latter +in the heavens above is invariably symbolized by the lodgment of his +idol in an upper storey or tower, known as the K'uei Hsing Ko or K'uei +Hsing Lou. Here students worship the patron of their profession with +incense and prayers. Thus the ancient stellar divinity still largely +monopolizes the popular idea of a guardian of literature and study, +notwithstanding that the deified recluse of Tzu T'ung has been added in +this capacity to the State pantheon for more than five hundred years. + + +Heaven-deaf and Earth-dumb + +The popular representations of Wên Ch'ang depict the god himself and +four other figures. The central and largest is the demure portrait of +the god, clothed in blue and holding a sceptre in his left hand. Behind +him stand two youthful attendants. They are the servant and groom +who always accompany him on his journeys (on which he rides a white +horse). Their names are respectively Hsüan T'ung-tzu and Ti-mu, 'Sombre +Youth' and 'Earth-mother'; more commonly they are called T'ien-lung, +'Deaf Celestial,' and Ti-ya, 'Mute Terrestrial,' or 'Deaf as Heaven' +and 'Mute as Earth.' Thus they cannot divulge the secrets of their +master's administration as he distributes intellectual gifts, literary +skill, etc. Their cosmogonical connexion has already been referred +to in a previous chapter. + + +Image of K'uei Hsing + +In front of Wên Ch'ang, on his left, stands K'uei Hsing. He is +represented as of diminutive stature, with the visage of a demon, +holding a writing-brush in his right hand and a _tou_ in his left, +one of his legs kicking up behind--the figure being obviously intended +as an impersonation of the character _k'uei_ (2). [16] He is regarded +as the distributor of literary degrees, and was invoked above all +in order to obtain success at the competitive examinations. His +images and temples are found in all towns. In the temples dedicated +to Wên Ch'ang there are always two secondary altars, one of which is +consecrated to his worship. + + +Mr Redcoat + +The other is dedicated to Chu I, 'Mr Redcoat.' He and K'uei Hsing +are represented as the two inseparable companions of the God of +Literature. The legend related of Chu I is as follows: + +During the T'ang dynasty, in the reign-period Chien Chung (A.D. 780-4) +of the Emperor Tê Tsung, the Princess T'ai Yin noticed that Lu Ch'i, +a native of Hua Chou, had the bones of an Immortal, and wished to +marry him. + +Ma P'o, her neighbour, introduced him one day into the Crystal +Palace for an interview with his future wife. The Princess gave him +the choice of three careers: to live in the Dragon Prince's Palace, +with the guarantee of immortal life, to enjoy immortality among the +people on the earth, or to have the honour of becoming a minister of +the Empire. Lu Ch'i first answered that he would like to live in the +Crystal Palace. The young lady, overjoyed, said to him: "I am Princess +T'ai Yin. I will at once inform Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler." A moment +later the arrival of a celestial messenger was announced. Two officers +bearing flags preceded him and conducted him to the foot of the flight +of steps. He then presented himself as Chu I, the envoy of Shang Ti. + +Addressing himself to Lu Ch'i, he asked: "Do you wish to live in the +Crystal Palace?" The latter did not reply. T'ai Yin urged him to give +his answer, but he persisted in keeping silent. The Princess in despair +retired to her apartment, and brought out five pieces of precious +cloth, which she presented to the divine envoy, begging him to have +patience a little longer and wait for the answer. After some time, +Chu I repeated his question. Then Lu Ch'i in a firm voice answered: +"I have consecrated my life to the hard labour of study, and wish to +attain to the dignity of minister on this earth." + +T'ai Yin ordered Ma P'o to conduct Lu Ch'i from the palace. From that +day his face became transformed: he acquired the lips of a dragon, +the head of a panther, the green face of an Immortal, etc. He took +his degree, and was promoted to be Director of the Censorate. The +Emperor, appreciating the good sense shown in his advice, appointed +him a minister of the Empire. + +From this legend it would seem that Chu I is the purveyor of official +posts; however, in practice, he is more generally regarded as the +protector of weak candidates, as the God of Good Luck for those who +present themselves at the examinations with a somewhat light equipment +of literary knowledge. The special legend relating to this _rôle_ +is known everywhere in China. It is as follows: + + +Mr Redcoat nods his Head + +An examiner, engaged in correcting the essays of the candidates, +after a superficial scrutiny of one of the essays, put it on one +side as manifestly inferior, being quite determined not to pass the +candidate who had composed it. The essay, moved by some mysterious +power, was replaced in front of his eyes, as if to invite him to +examine it more attentively. At the same time a reverend old man, +clothed in a red garment, suddenly appeared before him, and by a nod +of his head gave him to understand that he should pass the essay. The +examiner, surprised at the novelty of the incident, and fortified by +the approval of his supernatural visitor, admitted the author of the +essay to the literary degree. + +Chu I, like K'uei Hsing, is invoked by the _literati_ as a powerful +protector and aid to success. When anyone with but a poor chance of +passing presents himself at an examination, his friends encourage +him by the popular saying: "Who knows but that Mr Redcoat will nod +his head?" + + +Mr Golden Cuirass + +Chu I is sometimes accompanied by another personage, named Chin Chia, +'Mr Golden Cuirass.' Like K'uei Hsing and Chu I he has charge of the +interests of scholars, but differs from them in that he holds a flag, +which he has only to wave in front of a house for the family inhabiting +it to be assured that among their descendants will be some who will +win literary honours and be promoted to high offices under the State. + +Though Chin Chia is the protector of scholars, he is also the +redoubtable avenger of their evil actions: his flag is saluted as a +good omen, but his sword is the terror of the wicked. + + +The God of War + +Still another patron deity of literature is the God of War. "How," +it may be asked, "can so peaceful a people as the Chinese put so +peaceful an occupation as literature under the patronage of so warlike +a deity as the God of War?" But that question betrays ignorance of the +character of the Chinese Kuan Ti. He is not a cruel tyrant delighting +in battle and the slaying of enemies: he is the god who can _avert +war and protect the people from its horrors_. + +A youth, whose name was originally Chang-shêng, afterward changed to +Shou-chang, and then to Yün-chang, who was born near Chieh Liang, +in Ho Tung (now the town of Chieh Chou in Shansi), and was of an +intractable nature, having exasperated his parents, was shut up in a +room from which he escaped by breaking through the window. In one of +the neighbouring houses he heard a young lady and an old man weeping +and lamenting. Running to the foot of the wall of the compound, he +inquired the reason of their grief. The old man replied that though +his daughter was already engaged, the uncle of the local official, +smitten by her beauty, wished to make her his concubine. His petitions +to the official had only been rejected with curses. + +Beside himself with rage, the youth seized a sword and went and killed +both the official and his uncle. He escaped through the T'ung Kuan, the +pass to Shensi. Having with difficulty avoided capture by the barrier +officials, he knelt down at the side of a brook to wash his face; +when lo! his appearance was completely transformed. His complexion +had become reddish-grey, and he was absolutely unrecognizable. He +then presented himself with assurance before the officers, who asked +him his name. "My name is Kuan," he replied. It was by that name that +he was thereafter known. + + +The Meat-seller's Challenge + +One day he arrived at Chu-chou, a dependent sub-prefecture of Peking, +in Chihli. There Chang Fei, a butcher, who had been selling his meat +all the morning, at noon lowered what remained into a well, placed +over the mouth of the well a stone weighing twenty-five pounds, and +said with a sneer: "If anyone can lift that stone and take my meat, +I will make him a present of it!" Kuan Yü, going up to the edge of +the well, lifted the stone with the same ease as he would a tile, +took the meat, and made off. Chang Fei pursued him, and eventually +the two came to blows, but no one dared to separate them. Just then +Liu Pei, a hawker of straw shoes, arrived, interposed, and put a stop +to the fight. The community of ideas which they found they possessed +soon gave rise to a firm friendship between the three men. + + +The Oath in the Peach-orchard + +Another account represents Liu Pei and Chang Fei as having entered +a village inn to drink wine, when a man of gigantic stature pushing +a wheelbarrow stopped at the door to rest. As he seated himself, +he hailed the waiter, saying: "Bring me some wine quickly, because +I have to hasten to reach the town to enlist in the army." + +Liu Pei looked at this man, nine feet in height, with a beard two feet +long. His face was the colour of the fruit of the jujube-tree, and +his lips carmine. Eyebrows like sleeping silkworms shaded his phoenix +eyes, which were a scarlet red. Terrible indeed was his bearing. + +"What is your name?" asked Liu Pei. "My family name is Kuan, my own +name is Yü, my surname Yün Chang," he replied. "I am from the Ho Tung +country. For the last five or six years I have been wandering about +the world as a fugitive, to escape from my pursuers, because I killed +a powerful man of my country who was oppressing the poor people. I +hear that they are collecting a body of troops to crush the brigands, +and I should like to join the expedition." + +Chang Fêi, also named Chang I Tê, is described as eight feet in +height, with round shining eyes in a panther's head, and a pointed +chin bristling with a tiger's beard. His voice resembled the rumbling +of thunder. His ardour was like that of a fiery steed. He was a native +of Cho Chün, where he possessed some fertile farms, and was a butcher +and wine-merchant. + +Liu Pei, surnamed Hsüan Tê, otherwise Hsien Chu, was the third member +of the group. + +The three men went to Chang Fei's farm, and on the morrow met together +in his peach-orchard, and sealed their friendship with an oath. Having +procured a black ox and a white horse, with the various accessories +to a sacrifice, they immolated the victims, burnt the incense of +friendship, and after twice prostrating themselves took this oath: + +"We three, Liu Pei, Kuan Yû, and Chang Fei, already united by mutual +friendship, although belonging to different clans, now bind ourselves +by the union of our hearts, and join our forces in order to help each +other in times of danger. + +"We wish to pay to the State our debt of loyal citizens and give peace +to our black-haired compatriots. We do not inquire if we were born +in the same year, the same month, or on the same day, but we desire +only that the same year, the same month, and the same day may find us +united in death. May Heaven our King and Earth our Queen see clearly +our hearts! If any one of us violate justice or forget benefits, +may Heaven and Man unite to punish him!" + +The oath having been formally taken, Liu Pei was saluted as elder +brother, Kuan Yü as the second, and Chang Fei as the youngest. Their +sacrifice to Heaven and earth ended, they killed an ox and served +a feast, to which the soldiers of the district were invited to the +number of three hundred or more. They all drank copiously until they +were intoxicated. Liu Pei enrolled the peasants; Chang Fei procured +for them horses and arms; and then they set out to make war on the +Yellow Turbans (Huang Chin Tsei). Kuan Yü proved himself worthy +of the affection which Liu Pei showed him; brave and generous, he +never turned aside from danger. His fidelity was shown especially +on one occasion when, having been taken prisoner by Ts'ao Ts'ao, +together with two of Liu Pei's wives, and having been allotted a common +sleeping-apartment with his fellow-captives, he preserved the ladies' +reputation and his own trustworthiness by standing all night at the +door of the room with a lighted lantern in his hand. + +Into details of the various exploits of the three Brothers of the +Peach-orchard we need not enter here. They are written in full in the +book of the _Story of the Three Kingdoms_, a romance in which every +Chinese who can read takes keen delight. Kuan Yü remained faithful to +his oath, even though tempted with a marquisate by the great Ts'ao +Ts'ao, but he was at length captured by Sun Ch'üan and put to death +(A.D. 219). Long celebrated as the most renowned of China's military +heroes, he was ennobled in A.D. 1120 as Faithful and Loyal Duke. Eight +years later he had conferred on him by letters patent the still more +glorious title of Magnificent Prince and Pacificator. The Emperor Wên +(A.D. 1330-3) of the Yüan dynasty added the appellation Warrior Prince +and Civilizer, and, finally, the Emperor Wan Li of the Ming dynasty, +in 1594, conferred on him the title of Faithful and Loyal Great _Ti_, +Supporter of Heaven and Protector of the Kingdom. He thus became a god, +a _ti_, and has ever since received worship as Kuan Ti or Wu Ti, the +God of War. Temples (1600 State temples and thousands of smaller ones) +erected in his honour are to be seen in all parts of the country. He +is one of the most popular gods of China. During the last half-century +of the Manchu Period his fame greatly increased. In 1856 he is said +to have appeared in the heavens and successfully turned the tide of +battle in favour of the Imperialists. His portrait hangs in every tent, +but his worship is not confined to the officials and the army, for +many trades and professions have elected him as a patron saint. The +sword of the public executioner used to be kept within the precincts +of his temple, and after an execution the presiding magistrate would +stop there to worship for fear the ghost of the criminal might follow +him home. He knew that the spirit would not dare to enter Kuan Ti's +presence. + +Thus the Chinese have no fewer than three gods of literature--perhaps +not too many for so literary a people. A fourth, a Taoist god, will +be mentioned later. + + +Buddhism in China + +Buddhism and its mythology have formed an important part of Chinese +thought for nearly two thousand years. The religion was brought +to China about A.D. 65, ready-made in its Mahayanistic form, in +consequence of a dream of the Emperor Ming Ti (A.D. 58-76) of the +Eastern Han dynasty in or about the year 63; though some knowledge +of Buddha and his doctrines existed as early as 217 B.C. As Buddha, +the chief deity of Buddhism, was a man and became a god, the religion +originated, like the others, in ancestor-worship. When a man dies, says +this religion, his other self reappears in one form or another, "from a +clod to a divinity." The way for Buddhism in China was paved by Taoism, +and Buddhism reciprocally affected Taoism by helpful development of +its doctrines of sanctity and immortalization. Buddhism also, as it has +been well put by Dr De Groot, [17] "contributed much to the ceremonial +adornment of ancestor-worship. Its salvation work on behalf of the +dead saved its place in Confucian China; for of Confucianism itself, +piety and devotion towards parents and ancestors, and the promotion of +their happiness, were the core, and, consequently, their worship with +sacrifices and ceremonies was always a sacred duty." It was thus that +it was possible for the gods of Buddhism to be introduced into China +and to maintain their special characters and fulfil their special +functions without being absorbed into or submerged by the existing +native religions. The result was, as we have seen, in the end a +partnership rather than a relation of master and servant; and I say +'in the end' because, contrary to popular belief, the Chinese have +not been tolerant of foreign religious faiths, and at various times +have persecuted Buddhism as relentlessly as they have other rivals +to orthodox Confucianism. + + +Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood + +At the head of the Buddhist gods in China we find the triad +known as Buddha, the Law, and the Church, or Priesthood, which are +personified as Shih-chia Fo (Shâkya), O-mi-t'o Fo (Amita), and Ju-lai +Fo (Tathagata); otherwise Fo Pao, Fa Pao, and Sêng Pao (the _San Pao_, +'Three Precious Ones')--that is, Buddha, the prophet who came into the +world to teach the Law, Dharma, the Law Everlasting, and Samgha, its +mystical body, Priesthood, or Church. Dharma is an entity underived, +containing the spiritual elements and material constituents of the +universe. From it the other two evolve: Buddha (Shâkyamuni), the +creative energy, Samgha, the totality of existence and of life. To the +people these are three personal Buddhas, whom they worship without +concerning themselves about their origin. To the priests they are +simply the Buddha, past, present, or future. There are also several +other of these groups or triads, ten or more, composed of different +deities, or sometimes containing one or two of the triad already +named. Shâkyamuni heads the list, having a place in at least six. + +The legend of the Buddha belongs rather to Indian than to Chinese +mythology, and is too long to be reproduced here. [18] + +The principal gods of Buddhism are Jan-têng Fo, the Light-lamp +Buddha, Mi-lo Fo (Maitrêya), the expected Messiah of the Buddhists, +O-mi-t'o Fo (Amitabha or Amita), the guide who conducts his devotees +to the Western Paradise, Yüeh-shih Fo, the Master-physician Buddha, +Ta-shih-chih P'u-sa (Mahastama), companion of Amitabha, P'i-lu Fo +(Vairotchana), the highest of the Threefold Embodiments, Kuan Yin, +the Goddess of Mercy, Ti-tsang Wang, the God of Hades, Wei-t'o +(Vihârapâla), the Dêva protector of the Law of Buddha and Buddhist +temples, the Four Diamond Kings of Heaven, and Bodhidharma, the first +of the six Patriarchs of Eastern or Chinese Buddhism. + + +Diamond Kings of Heaven + +On the right and left sides of the entrance hall of Buddhist temples, +two on each side, are the gigantic figures of the four great _Ssu Ta +Chin-kang_ or _T'ien-wang_, the Diamond Kings of Heaven, protectors +or governors of the continents lying in the direction of the four +cardinal points from Mount Sumêru, the centre of the world. They are +four brothers named respectively Mo-li Ch'ing (Pure), or Tsêng Chang, +Mo-li Hung (Vast), or Kuang Mu, Mo-li Hai (Sea), or To Wên, and Mo-li +Shou (Age), or Ch'ih Kuo. The _Chin kuang ming_ states that they bestow +all kinds of happiness on those who honour the Three Treasures, Buddha, +the Law, and the Priesthood. Kings and nations who neglect the Law +lose their protection. They are described and represented as follows: + +Mo-li Ch'ing, the eldest, is twenty-four feet in height, with a beard +the hairs of which are like copper wire. He carries a magnificent +jade ring and a spear, and always fights on foot. He has also a magic +sword, 'Blue Cloud,' on the blade of which are engraved the characters +_Ti, Shui, Huo, Fêng_ (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind). When brandished, +it causes a black wind, which produces tens of thousands of spears, +which pierce the bodies of men and turn them to dust. The wind is +followed by a fire, which fills the air with tens of thousands of +golden fiery serpents. A thick smoke also rises out of the ground, +which blinds and burns men, none being able to escape. + +Mo-li Hung carries in his hand an umbrella, called the Umbrella of +Chaos, formed of pearls possessed of spiritual properties. Opening +this marvellous implement causes the heavens and earth to be covered +with thick darkness, and turning it upside down produces violent +storms of wind and thunder and universal earthquakes. + +Mo-li Hai holds a four-stringed guitar, the twanging of which +supernaturally affects the earth, water, fire, or wind. When it is +played all the world listens, and the camps of the enemy take fire. + +Mo-li Shou has two whips and a panther-skin bag, the home of a creature +resembling a white rat, known as Hua-hu Tiao. When at large this +creature assumes the form of a white winged elephant, which devours +men. He sometimes has also a snake or other man-eating creature, +always ready to obey his behests. + + + +Legend of the Diamond Kings + +The legend of the Four Diamond Kings given in the _Fêng shên yen i_ +is as follows: At the time of the consolidation of the Chou dynasty +in the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C., Chiang Tzu-ya, chief +counsellor to Wên Wang, and General Huang Fei-hu were defending +the town and mountain of Hsi-ch'i. The supporters of the house of +Shang appealed to the four genii Mo, who lived at Chia-mêng Kuan, +praying them to come to their aid. They agreed, raised an army +of 100,000 celestial soldiers, and traversing towns, fields, and +mountains arrived in less than a day at the north gate of Hsi-ch'i, +where Mo-li Ch'ing pitched his camp and entrenched his soldiers. + +Hearing of this, Huang Fei-hu hastened to warn Chiang Tzu-ya of the +danger which threatened him. "The four great generals who have just +arrived at the north gate," he said, "are marvellously powerful genii, +experts in all the mysteries of magic and use of wonderful charms. It +is much to be feared that we shall not be able to resist them." + +Many fierce battles ensued. At first these went in favour of the +_Chin-kang_, thanks to their magical weapons and especially to Mo-li +Shou's Hua-hu Tiao, who terrorized the enemy by devouring their +bravest warriors. + + +Hua-hu Tiao devours Yang Chien + +Unfortunately for the _Chin-kang_, the brute attacked and swallowed +Yang Chien, the nephew of Yü Huang. This genie, on entering the body +of the monster, rent his heart asunder and cut him in two. As he could +transform himself at will, he assumed the shape of Hua-hu Tiao, and +went off to Mo-li Shou, who unsuspectingly put him back into his bag. + +The Four Kings held a festival to celebrate their triumph, and having +drunk copiously gave themselves over to sleep. During the night Yang +Chien came out of the bag, with the intention of possessing himself of +the three magical weapons of the _Chin-kang_. But he succeeded only in +carrying off the umbrella of Mo-li Hung. In a subsequent engagement +No-cha, the son of Vadjrâ-pani, the God of Thunder, broke the jade +ring of Mo-li Ch'ing. Misfortune followed misfortune. The _Chin-kang_, +deprived of their magical weapons, began to lose heart. To complete +their discomfiture, Huang T'ien Hua brought to the attack a matchless +magical weapon. This was a spike 7 1/2 inches long, enclosed in a +silk sheath, and called 'Heart-piercer.' It projected so strong a +ray of light that eyes were blinded by it. + +Huang T'ien Hua, hard pressed by Mo-li Ch'ing, drew the mysterious +spike from its sheath, and hurled it at his adversary. It entered +his neck, and with a deep groan the giant fell dead. + +Mo-li Hung and Mo-li Hai hastened to avenge their brother, but ere +they could come within striking distance of Huang Ti'en Hua his +redoubtable spike reached their hearts, and they lay prone at his feet. + +The one remaining hope for the sole survivor was in Hua-hu Tiao. Mo-li +Shou, not knowing that the creature had been slain, put his hand into +the bag to pull him out, whereupon Yang Chien, who had re-entered the +bag, bit his hand off at the wrist, so that there remained nothing +but a stump of bone. + +In this moment of intense agony Mo-li Shou fell an easy prey to Huang +T'ien Hua, the magical spike pierced his heart, and he fell bathed +in his blood. Thus perished the last of the _Chin-kang_. + + + +The Three Pure Ones + +Turning to the gods of Taoism, we find that the triad or trinity, +already noted as forming the head of that hierarchy, consists of +three Supreme Gods, each in his own Heaven. These three Heavens, +the _San Ch'ing_, 'Three Pure Ones' (this name being also applied +to the sovereigns ruling in them), were formed from the three airs, +which are subdivisions of the one primordial air. + +The first Heaven is Yü Ch'ing. In it reigns the first member of +the Taoist triad. He inhabits the Jade Mountain. The entrance to +his palace is named the Golden Door. He is the source of all truth, +as the sun is the source of all light. + +Various authorities give his name differently--Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun, +or Lo Ching Hsin, and call him T'ien Pao, 'the Treasure of Heaven,' +Some state that the name of the ruler of this first Heaven is Yü +Huang, and in the popular mind he it is who occupies this supreme +position. The Three Pure Ones are above him in rank, but to him, the +Pearly Emperor, is entrusted the superintendence of the world. He has +all the power of Heaven and earth in his hands. He is the correlative +of Heaven, or rather Heaven itself. + +The second Heaven, Shang Ch'ing, is ruled by the second person of +the triad, named Ling-pao T'ien-tsun, or Tao Chün. No information is +given as to his origin. He is the custodian of the sacred books. He has +existed from the beginning of the world. He calculates time, dividing +it into different epochs. He occupies the upper pole of the world, and +determines the movements and interaction, or regulates the relations +of the _yin_ and the _yang_, the two great principles of nature. + +In the third Heaven, T'ai Ch'ing, the Taoists place Lao Tzu, the +promulgator of the true doctrine drawn up by Ling-pao T'ien-tsun. He +is alternatively called Shên Pao, 'the Treasure of the Spirits,' +and T'ai-shang Lao-chûn, 'the Most Eminent Aged Ruler.' Under various +assumed names he has appeared as the teacher of kings and emperors, +the reformer of successive generations. + +This three-storied Taoist Heaven, or three Heavens, is the result of +the wish of the Taoists not to be out-rivalled by the Buddhists. For +Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood they substitute the _Tao_, or +Reason, the Classics, and the Priesthood. + +As regards the organization of the Taoist Heavens, Yü Huang has on his +register the name of eight hundred Taoist divinities and a multitude +of Immortals. These are all divided into three categories: Saints +(_Shêng-jên_), Heroes (_Chên-jên_), and Immortals (_Hsien-jên_), +occupying the three Heavens respectively in that order. + + +The Three Causes + +Connected with Taoism, but not exclusively associated with that +religion, is the worship of the Three Causes, the deities presiding +over three departments of physical nature, Heaven, earth, and +water. They are known by various designations: _San Kuan_, 'the Three +Agents'; _San Yüan_, 'the Three Origins'; _San Kuan Ta Ti_, 'the Three +Great Emperor Agents'; and _T'ai Shang San Kuan_, 'the Three Supreme +Agents.' This worship has passed through four chief phases, as follows: + +The first comprises Heaven, earth, and water, _T'ien, Ti, Shui_, +the sources of happiness, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from +evil respectively. Each of these is called King-emperor. Their names, +written on labels and offered to Heaven (on a mountain), earth (by +burial), and water (by immersion), are supposed to cure sickness. This +idea dates from the Han dynasty, being first noted about A.D. 172. + +The second, _San Yüan_ dating from A.D. 407 under the Wei dynasty, +identified the Three Agents with three dates of which they were +respectively made the patrons. The year was divided into three unequal +parts: the first to the seventh moon; the seventh to the tenth; and +the tenth to the twelfth. Of these, the fifteenth day of the first, +seventh, and tenth moons respectively became the three principal dates +of these periods. Thus the Agent of Heaven became the principal patron +of the first division, honoured on the fifteenth day of the first moon, +and so on. + +The third phase, _San Kuan_, resulted from the first two being found +too complicated for popular favour. The _San Kuan_ were the three +sons of a man, Ch'ên Tzu-ch'un, who was so handsome and intelligent +that the three daughters of Lung Wang, the Dragon-king, fell in +love with him and went to live with him. The eldest girl was the +mother of the Superior Cause, the second of the Medium Cause, and the +third of the Inferior Cause. All these were gifted with supernatural +powers. Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun canonized them as the Three Great Emperor +Agents of Heaven, earth, and water, governors of all beings, devils +or gods, in the three regions of the universe. As in the first phase, +the _T'ien Kuan_ confers happiness, the _Ti Kuan_ grants remission +of sins, and the _Shui Kuan_ delivers from evil or misfortune. + +The fourth phase consisted simply in the substitution by the priests +for the abstract or time-principles of the three great sovereigns +of ancient times, Yao, Shun, and Yü. The _literati_, proud of the +apotheosis of their ancient rulers, hastened to offer incense to them, +and temples, _San Yüan Kung_, arose in very many parts of the Empire. + +A variation of this phase is the canonization, with the title of _San +Yüan_ or Three Causes, of _Wu-k'o San Chên Chün_, 'the Three True +Sovereigns, Guests of the Kingdom of Wu.' They were three Censors +who lived in the reign of King Li (Li Wang, 878-841 B.C.) of the Chou +dynasty. Leaving the service of the Chou on account of Li's dissolute +living, they went to live in Wu, and brought victory to that state in +its war with the Ch'u State, then returned to their own country, and +became pillars of the Chou State under Li's successor. They appeared +to protect the Emperor Chên Tsung when he was offering the _Fêng-shan_ +sacrifices on T'ai Shan in A.D. 1008, on which occasion they were +canonized with the titles of Superior, Medium, and Inferior Causes, +as before, conferring upon them the regencies of Heaven, earth, +and water respectively. + + +Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun + +Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun, or the First Cause, the Highest in Heaven, +generally placed at the head of the Taoist triad, is said never +to have existed but in the fertile imagination of the Lao Tzuist +sectarians. According to them Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun had neither origin +nor master, but is himself the cause of all beings, which is why he +is called the First Cause. + +As first member of the triad, and sovereign ruler of the First Heaven, +Yü Ch'ing, where reign the saints, he is raised in rank above all +the other gods. The name assigned to him is Lo Ching Hsin. He was +born before all beginnings; his substance is imperishable; it is +formed essentially of uncreated air, air _a se_, invisible and without +perceptible limits. No one has been able to penetrate to the beginnings +of his existence. The source of all truth, he at each renovation of +the worlds--that is, at each new _kalpa_--gives out the mysterious +doctrine which confers immortality. All who reach this knowledge +attain by degrees to life eternal, become refined like the spirits, +or instantly become Immortals, even while upon earth. + +Originally, Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun was not a member of the Taoist +triad. He resided above the Three Heavens, above the Three Pure +Ones, surviving the destructions and renovations of the universe, +as an immovable rock in the midst of a stormy sea. He set the stars +in motion, and caused the planets to revolve. The chief of his secret +police was Tsao Chün, the Kitchen-god, who rendered to him an account +of the good and evil deeds of each family. His executive agent was +Lei Tsu, the God of Thunder, and his subordinates. The seven stars +of the North Pole were the palace of his ministers, whose offices +were on the various sacred mountains. Nowadays, however, Yüan-shih +T'ien-tsun is generally neglected for Yü Huang. + + +An Avatar of P'an Ku + +According to the tradition of Chin Hung, the God of T'ai Shan +of the fifth generation from P'an Ku, this being, then called +Yüan-shih T'ien-wang, was an avatar of P'an Ku. It came about in +this wise. In remote ages there lived on the mountains an old man, +Yüan-shih T'ien-wang, who used to sit on a rock and preach to the +multitude. He spoke of the highest antiquity as if from personal +experience. When Chin Hung asked him where he lived, he just raised +his hand toward Heaven, iridescent clouds enveloped his body, and he +replied: "Whoso wishes to know where I dwell must rise to impenetrable +heights." "But how," said Chin Hung, "was he to be found in this +immense emptiness?" Two genii, Ch'ih Ching-tzu and Huang Lao, then +descended on the summit of T'ai Shan and said: "Let us go and visit +this Yüan-shih. To do so, we must cross the boundaries of the universe +and pass beyond the farthest stars." Chin Hung begged them to give +him their instructions, to which he listened attentively. They then +ascended the highest of the sacred peaks, and thence mounted into the +heavens, calling to him from the misty heights: "If you wish to know +the origin of Yüan-shih, you must pass beyond the confines of Heaven +and earth, because he lives beyond the limits of the worlds. You must +ascend and ascend until you reach the sphere of nothingness and of +being, in the plains of the luminous shadows." + +Having reached these ethereal heights, the two genii saw a bright +light, and Hsüan-hsüan Shang-jên appeared before them. The two +genii bowed to do him homage and to express their gratitude. "You +cannot better show your gratitude," he replied, "than by making my +doctrine known among men. You desire," he added, "to know the history +of Yüan-shih. I will tell it you. When P'an Ku had completed his +work in the primitive Chaos, his spirit left its mortal envelope +and found itself tossed about in empty space without any fixed +support. 'I must,' it said, 'get reborn in visible form; until I can +go through a new birth I shall remain empty and unsettled,' His soul, +carried on the wings of the wind, reached Fu-yü T'ai. There it saw +a saintly lady named T'ai Yüan, forty years of age, still a virgin, +and living alone on Mount Ts'u-o. Air and variegated clouds were +the sole nourishment of her vital spirits. An hermaphrodite, at +once both the active and the passive principle, she daily scaled the +highest peak of the mountain to gather there the flowery quintessence +of the sun and the moon. P'an Ku, captivated by her virgin purity, +took advantage of a moment when she was breathing to enter her mouth +in the form of a ray of light. She was _enceinte_ for twelve years, +at the end of which period the fruit of her womb came out through her +spinal column. From its first moment the child could walk and speak, +and its body was surrounded by a five-coloured cloud. The newly-born +took the name of Yüan-shih T'ien-wang, and his mother was generally +known as T'ai-yüan Shêng-mu, 'the Holy Mother of the First Cause.'" + + +Yü Huang + +Yü Huang means 'the Jade Emperor,' or 'the Pure August One,' jade +symbolizing purity. He is also known by the name Yü-huang Shang-ti, +'the Pure August Emperor on High.' + +The history of this deity, who later received many honorific titles +and became the most popular god, a very Chinese Jupiter, seems to be +somewhat as follows: The Emperor Ch'êng Tsung of the Sung dynasty +having been obliged in A.D. 1005 to sign a disgraceful peace with +the Tunguses or Kitans, the dynasty was in danger of losing the +support of the nation. In order to hoodwink the people the Emperor +constituted himself a seer, and announced with great pomp that he +was in direct communication with the gods of Heaven. In doing this +he was following the advice of his crafty and unreliable minister +Wang Ch'in-jo, who had often tried to persuade him that the pretended +revelations attributed to Fu Hsi, Yü Wang, and others were only pure +inventions to induce obedience. The Emperor, having studied his part +well, assembled his ministers in the tenth moon of the year 1012, +and made to them the following declaration: "In a dream I had a visit +from an Immortal, who brought me a letter from Yü Huang, the purport +of which was as follows: 'I have already sent you by your ancestor +Chao [T'ai Tsu] two celestial missives. Now I am going to send him in +person to visit you.'" A little while after his ancestor T'ai Tsu, +the founder of the dynasty, came according to Yü Huang's promise, +and Ch'êng Tsung hastened to inform his ministers of it. This is the +origin of Yü Huang. He was born of a fraud, and came ready-made from +the brain of an emperor. + + +The Cask of Pearls + +Fearing to be admonished for the fraud by another of his ministers, +the scholar Wang Tan, the Emperor resolved to put a golden gag in his +mouth. So one day, having invited him to a banquet, he overwhelmed +him with flattery and made him drunk with good wine. "I would like +the members of your family also to taste this wine," he added, "so I +am making you a present of a cask of it." When Wang Tan returned home, +he found the cask filled with precious pearls. Out of gratitude to the +Emperor he kept silent as to the fraud, and made no further opposition +to his plans, but when on his death-bed he asked that his head be +shaved like a priest's and that he be clothed in priestly robes so +that he might expiate his crime of feebleness before the Emperor. + +K'ang Hsi, the great Emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty, who had already +declared that if it is wrong to impute deceit to a man it is still +more reprehensible to impute a fraud to Heaven, stigmatized him as +follows: "Wang Tan committed two faults: the first was in showing +himself a vile flatterer of his Prince during his life; the second +was in becoming a worshipper of Buddha at his death." + + +The Legend of Yü Huang + +So much for historical record. The legend of Yü Huang relates that in +ancient times there existed a kingdom named Kuang Yen Miao Lo Kuo, +whose king was Ching Tê, his queen being called Pao Yüeh. Though +getting on in years, the latter had no son. The Taoist priests were +summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites. They recited +prayers with the object of obtaining an heir to the throne. During +the ensuing night the Queen had a vision. Lao Chün appeared to her, +riding a dragon, and carrying a male child in his arms. He floated down +through the air in her direction. The Queen begged him to give her the +child as an heir to the throne. "I am quite willing," he said. "Here +it is." She fell on her knees and thanked him. On waking she found +herself _enceinte_. At the end of a year the Prince was born. From +an early age he showed himself compassionate and generous to the +poor. On the death of his father he ascended the throne, but after +reigning only a few days abdicated in favour of his chief minister, +and became a hermit at P'u-ming, in Shensi, and also on Mount Hsiu Yen, +in Yünnan. Having attained to perfection, he passed the rest of his +days in curing sickness and saving life; and it was in the exercise +of these charitable deeds that he died. The emperors Ch'êng Tsung +and Hui Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, loaded him with all the various +titles associated with his name at the present day. + +Both Buddhists and Taoists claim him as their own, the former +identifying him with Indra, in which case Yü Huang is a Buddhist deity +incorporated into the Taoist pantheon. He has also been taken to be +the subject of a 'nature myth.' The Emperor Ching Tê, his father, +is the sun, the Queen Pao Yüeh the moon, and the marriage symbolizes +the rebirth of the vivifying power which clothes nature with green +plants and beautiful flowers. + + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu + +In modern Taoism T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu is regarded as the first of +the Patriarchs and one of the most powerful genii of the sect. His +master was Hung-chün Lao-tsu. He wore a red robe embroidered with +white cranes, and rode a _k'uei niu_, a monster resembling a buffalo, +with one long horn like a unicorn. His palace, the Pi Yu Kung, was +situated on Mount Tzu Chih Yai. + +This genie took the part of Chou Wang and helped him to resist Wu +Wang's armies. First, he sent his disciple To-pao Tao-jên to Chieh-p'ai +Kuan. He gave him four precious swords and the plan of a fort which +he was to construct and to name Chu-hsien Chên, 'the Citadel of all +the Immortals.' + +To-pao Tao-jên carried out his orders, but he had to fight a battle +with Kuang Ch'êng-tzu, and the latter, armed with a celestial seal, +struck his adversary so hard that he fell to the ground and had to +take refuge in flight. + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu came to the defence of his disciple and to +restore the morale of his forces. Unfortunately, a posse of gods +arrived to aid Wu Wang's powerful general, Chiang Tzu-ya. The first +who attacked T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was Lao Tzu, who struck him several +times with his stick. Then came Chun T'i, armed with his cane. The +buffalo of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu stamped him under foot, and Chun +T'i was thrown to the earth, and only just had time to rise quickly +and mount into the air amid a great cloud of dust. + +There could be no doubt that the fight was going against T'ung-t'ien +Chiao-chu; to complete his discomfiture Jan-têng Tao-jên cleft the air +and fell upon him unexpectedly. With a violent blow of his 'Fix-sea' +staff he cast him down and compelled him to give up the struggle. + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu then prepared plans for a new fortified camp +beyond T'ung Kuan, and tried to take the offensive again, but again +Lao Tzu stopped him with a blow of his stick. Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun +wounded his shoulder with his precious stone Ju-i, and Chun-t'i +Tao-jên waved his 'Branch of the Seven Virtues.' Immediately the +magic sword of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was reduced to splinters, and +he saved himself only by flight. + +Hung-chün Lao-tsu, the master of these three genii, seeing his three +beloved disciples in the _mêlée_, resolved to make peace between +them. He assembled all three in a tent in Chiang Tzu-ya's camp, made +them kneel before him, then reproached T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu at length +for having taken the part of the tyrant Chou, and recommended them +in future to live in harmony. After finishing his speech, he produced +three pills, and ordered each of the genii to swallow one. When they +had done so, Hung-chün Lao-tsu said to them: "I have given you these +pills to ensure an inviolable truce among you. Know that the first +who entertains a thought of discord in his heart will find that the +pill will explode in his stomach and cause his instant death." + +Hung-chün Lao-tsu then took T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu away with him on +his cloud to Heaven. + + + +Immortals, Heroes, Saints + +An Immortal, according to Taoist lore, is a solitary man of the +mountains. He appears to die, but does not. After 'death' his body +retains all the qualities of the living. The body or corpse is for +him only a means of transition, a phase of metamorphosis--a cocoon +or chrysalis, the temporary abode of the butterfly. + +To reach this state a hygienic regimen both of the body and mind must +be observed. All luxury, greed, and ambition must be avoided. But +negation is not enough. In the system of nourishment all the elements +which strengthen the essence of the constituent _yin_ and _yang_ +principles must be found by means of medicine, chemistry, gymnastic +exercises, etc. When the maximum vital force has been acquired the +means of preserving it and keeping it from the attacks of death +and disease must be discovered; in a word, he must spiritualize +himself--render himself completely independent of matter. All +the experiments have for their object the storing in the pills of +immortality the elements necessary for the development of the vital +force and for the constitution of a new spiritual and super-humanized +being. In this ascending perfection there are several grades: + +(1) The Immortal (_Hsien_). The first stage consists in bringing +about the birth of the superhuman in the ascetic's person, which +reaching perfection leaves the earthly body, like the grasshopper +its sheath. This first stage attained, the Immortal travels at will +throughout the universe, enjoys all the advantages of perfect health +without dreading disease or death, eats and drinks copiously--nothing +is wanting to complete his happiness. + +(2) The Perfect Man, or Hero (_Chên-jên_). The second stage is a higher +one. The whole body is spiritualized. It has become so subtile, so +spiritual, that it can fly in the air. Borne on the wings of the wind, +seated on the clouds of Heaven, it travels from one world to another +and fixes its habitation in the stars. It is freed from all laws of +matter, but is, however, not completely changed into pure spirit. + +(3) The Saint (_Shêng-jên_). The third stage is that of the superhuman +beings or saints. They are those who have attained to extraordinary +intelligence and virtue. + + +The God of the Immortals + +Mu Kung or Tung Wang Kung, the God of the Immortals, was also called +I Chün Ming and Yü Huang Chün, the Prince Yü Huang. + +The primitive vapour congealed, remained inactive for a time, and +then produced living beings, beginning with the formation of Mu Kung, +the purest substance of the Eastern Air, and sovereign of the active +male principle _yang_ and of all the countries of the East. His +palace is in the misty heavens, violet clouds form its dome, blue +clouds its walls. Hsien T'ung, 'the Immortal Youth,' and Yü Nü, +'the Jade Maiden,' are his servants. He keeps the register of all +the Immortals, male and female. + + +Hsi Wang Mu + +Hsi Wang Mu was formed of the pure quintessence of the Western Air, +in the legendary continent of Shên Chou. She is often called the +Golden Mother of the Tortoise. + +Her family name is variously given as Hou, Yang, and Ho. Her own name +was Hui, and first name Wan-chin. She had nine sons and twenty-four +daughters. + +As Mu Kung, formed of the Eastern Air, is the active principle of +the male air and sovereign of the Eastern Air, so Hsi Wang Mu, born +of the Western Air, is the passive or female principle (_yin_) and +sovereign of the Western Air. These two principles, co-operating, +engender Heaven and earth and all the beings of the universe, and +thus become the two principles of life and of the subsistence of all +that exists. She is the head of the troop of genii dwelling on the +K'un-lun Mountains (the Taoist equivalent of the Buddhist Sumêru), and +from time to time holds intercourse with favoured imperial votaries. + + +The Feast of Peaches + +Hsi Wang Mu's palace is situated in the high mountains of the snowy +K'un-lun. It is 1000 _li_ (about 333 miles) in circuit; a rampart of +massive gold surrounds its battlements of precious stones. Its right +wing rises on the edge of the Kingfishers' River. It is the usual +abode of the Immortals, who are divided into seven special categories +according to the colour of their garments--red, blue, black, violet, +yellow, green, and 'nature-colour.' There is a marvellous fountain +built of precious stones, where the periodical banquet of the +Immortals is held. This feast is called P'an-t'ao Hui, 'the Feast of +Peaches.' It takes place on the borders of the Yao Ch'ih, Lake of Gems, +and is attended by both male and female Immortals. Besides several +superfine meats, they are served with bears' paws, monkeys' lips, +dragons' liver, phoenix marrow, and peaches gathered in the orchard, +endowed with the mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who +have the good luck to taste them. It was by these peaches that the +date of the banquet was fixed. The tree put forth leaves once every +three thousand years, and it required three thousand years after that +for the fruit to ripen. These were Hsi Wang Mu's birthdays, when all +the Immortals assembled for the great feast, "the occasion being more +festive than solemn, for there was music on invisible instruments, +and songs not from mortal tongues." + + +The First Taoist Pope + +Chang Tao-ling, the first Taoist pope, was born in A.D. 35, in the +reign of the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti of the Han dynasty. His birthplace +is variously given as the T'ien-mu Shan, 'Eye of Heaven Mountain,' +in Lin-an Hsien, in Chekiang, and Fêng-yang Fu, in Anhui. He devoted +himself wholly to study and meditation, declining all offers to enter +the service of the State. He preferred to take up his abode in the +mountains of Western China, where he persevered in the study of alchemy +and in cultivating the virtues of purity and mental abstraction. From +the hands of Lao Tzu he received supernaturally a mystic treatise, +by following the instructions in which he was successful in his search +for the elixir of life. + +One day when he was engaged in experimenting with the 'Dragon-tiger +elixir' a spiritual being appeared to him and said: "On Po-sung +Mountain is a stone house in which are concealed the writings of the +Three Emperors of antiquity and a canonical work. By obtaining these +you may ascend to Heaven, if you undergo the course of discipline +they prescribe." + +Chang Tao-ling found these works, and by means of them obtained +the power of flying, of hearing distant sounds, and of leaving +his body. After going through a thousand days of discipline, and +receiving instruction from a goddess, who taught 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. On account of the prodigious slaughter of +demons by this hero the wind and thunder were reduced to subjection, +and various divinities came with eager haste to acknowledge their +faults. In nine years he gained the power to ascend to Heaven. + + +The Founder of Modern Taoism + +Chang Tao-ling may rightly be considered as the true founder of modern +Taoism. The recipes for the pills of immortality contained in the +mysterious books, and the invention of talismans for the cure of all +sorts of maladies, not only exalted him to the high position he has +since occupied in the minds of his numerous disciples, but enabled +them in turn to exploit successfully this new source of power and +wealth. From that time the Taoist sect began to specialize in the art +of healing. Protecting or curing talismans bearing the Master's seal +were purchased for enormous sums. It is thus seen that he was after +all a deceiver of the people, and unbelievers or rival partisans of +other sects have dubbed him a 'rice-thief'--which perhaps he was. + +He is generally represented as clothed in richly decorated garments, +brandishing with his right hand his magic sword, holding in his +left a cup containing the draught of immortality, and riding a tiger +which in one paw grasps his magic seal and with the others tramples +down the five venomous creatures: lizard, snake, spider, toad, +and centipede. Pictures of him with these accessories are pasted +up in houses on the fifth day of the fifth moon to forfend calamity +and sickness. + + + +The Peach-gathering + +It is related of him that, not wishing to ascend to Heaven too soon, +he partook of only half of the pill of immortality, dividing the +other half among several of his admirers, and that he had at least two +selves or personalities, one of which used to disport itself in a boat +on a small lake in front of his house. The other self would receive +his visitors, entertaining them with food and drink and instructive +conversation. On one occasion this self said to them: "You are unable +to quit the world altogether as I can, but by imitating my example in +the matter of family relations you could procure a medicine which would +prolong your lives by several centuries. I have given the crucible +in which Huang Ti prepared the draught of immortality to my disciple +Wang Ch'ang. Later on, a man will come from the East, who also will +make use of it. He will arrive on the seventh day of the first moon." + +Exactly on that day there arrived from the East a man named Chao +Shêng, who was the person indicated by Chang Tao-ling. He was +recognized by a manifestation of himself he had caused to appear +in advance of his coming. Chang then led all his disciples, to the +number of three hundred, to the highest peak of the Yün-t'ai. Below +them they saw a peach-tree growing near a pointed rock, stretching +out its branches like arms above a fathomless abyss. It was a large +tree, covered with ripe fruit. Chang said to his disciples: "I will +communicate a spiritual formula to the one among you who will dare +to gather the fruit of that tree." They all leaned over to look, +but each declared the feat to be impossible. Chao Shêng alone had +the courage to rush out to the point of the rock and up the tree +stretching out into space. With firm foot he stood and gathered the +peaches, placing them in the folds of his cloak, as many as it would +hold, but when he wished to climb back up the precipitous slope, +his hands slipped on the smooth rock, and all his attempts were in +vain. Accordingly, he threw the peaches, three hundred and two in all, +one by one up to Chang Tao-ling, who distributed them. Each disciple +ate one, as also did Chang, who reserved the remaining one for Chao +Shêng, whom he helped to climb up again. To do this Chang extended +his arm to a length of thirty feet, all present marvelling at the +miracle. After Chao had eaten his peach Chang stood on the edge of +the precipice, and said with a laugh: "Chao Shêng was brave enough +to climb out to that tree and his foot never tripped. I too will make +the attempt. If I succeed I will have a big peach as a reward." Having +spoken thus, he leapt into space, and alighted in the branches of the +peach-tree. Wang Ch'ang and Chao Shêng also jumped into the tree and +stood one on each side of him. There Chang communicated to them the +mysterious formula. Three days later they returned to their homes; +then, having made final arrangements, they repaired once more to the +mountain peak, whence, in the presence of the other disciples, who +followed them with their eyes until they had completely disappeared +from view, all three ascended to Heaven in broad daylight. + + +Chang Tao-ling's Great Power + +The name of Chang Tao-ling, the Heavenly Teacher, is a household +word in China. He is on earth the Vicegerent of the Pearly Emperor +in Heaven, and the Commander-in-Chief of the hosts of Taoism. He, the +chief of the wizards, the 'true [_i.e._ ideal] man,' as he is called, +wields an immense spiritual power throughout the land. The present +pope boasts of an unbroken line for three-score generations. His +family obtained possession of the Dragon-tiger Mountain in Kiangsi +about A.D. 1000. "This personage," says a pre-Republican writer, +"assumes a state which mimics the imperial. 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." + + +Kings of Heaven + +The Four Kings of Heaven, Ssu Ta T'ien-wang, reside on Mount Sumêru +(Hsü-mi Shan), the centre of the universe. It is 3,360,000 _li_--that +is, about a million miles--high. [19] Its eastern slope is of gold, its +western of silver, its south-eastern of crystal, and its north-eastern +of agate. The Four Kings appear to be the Taoist reflection of the +four _Chin-kang_ of Buddhism already noticed. Their names are Li, +Ma, Chao, and Wên. They are represented as holding a pagoda, sword, +two swords, and spiked club respectively. Their worship appears to +be due to their auspicious appearance and aid on various critical +occasions in the dynastic history of the T'ang and Sung Periods. + + +T'ai I + +Temples are found in various parts dedicated to T'ai I, the Great +One, or Great Unity. When Emperor Wu Ti (140-86 B.C.) of the Han +dynasty was in search of the secret of immortality, and various +suggestions had proved unsatisfactory, a Taoist priest, Miao Chi, +told the Emperor that his want of success was due to his omission to +sacrifice to T'ai I, the first of the celestial spirits, quoting the +classical precedent of antiquity found in the _Book of History_. The +Emperor, believing his word, ordered the Grand Master of Sacrifices to +re-establish this worship at the capital. He followed carefully the +prescriptions of Miao Chi. This enraged the _literati_, who resolved +to ruin him. One day, when the Emperor was about to drink one of +his potions, one of the chief courtiers seized the cup and drank the +contents himself. The Emperor was about to have him slain, when he +said: "Your Majesty's order is unnecessary; if the potion confers +immortality, I cannot be killed; if, on the other hand, it does not, +your Majesty should recompense me for disproving the pretensions of +the Taoist priest." The Emperor, however, was not convinced. + +One account represents T'ai I as having lived in the time of +Shên Nung, the Divine Husbandman, who visited him to consult with +him on the subjects of diseases and fortune. He was Hsien Yüan's +medical preceptor. His medical knowledge was handed down to future +generations. He was one of those who, with the Immortals, was invited +to the great Peach Assembly of the Western Royal Mother. + +As the spirit of the star T'ai I he resides in the Eastern Palace, +listening for the cries of sufferers in order to save them. For this +purpose he assumes numberless forms in various regions. With a boat +of lotus-flowers of nine colours he ferries men over to the shore of +salvation. Holding in his hand a willow-branch, he scatters from it +the dew of the doctrine. + +T'ai I is variously represented as the Ruler of the Five Celestial +Sovereigns, Cosmic Matter before it congealed into concrete shapes, the +Triune Spirit of Heaven, earth, and T'ai I as three separate entities, +an unknown Spirit, the Spirit of the Pole Star, etc., but practically +the Taoists confine their T'ai I to T'ai-i Chên-jên, in which Perfect +Man they personify the abstract philosophical notions. [20] + + +Goddess of the North Star + +Tou Mu, the Bushel Mother, or Goddess of the North Star, worshipped +by both Buddhists and Taoists, is the Indian Maritchi, and was made a +stellar divinity by the Taoists. She is said to have been the mother +of the nine Jên Huang or Human Sovereigns of fabulous antiquity, +who succeeded the lines of Celestial and Terrestrial Sovereigns. She +occupies in the Taoist religion the same relative position as Kuan +Yin, who may be said to be the heart of Buddhism. Having attained to +a profound knowledge of celestial mysteries, she shone with heavenly +light, could cross the seas, and pass from the sun to the moon. She +also had a kind heart for the sufferings of humanity. The King of Chou +Yü, in the north, married her on hearing of her many virtues. They +had nine sons. Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun came to earth to invite her, her +husband, and nine sons to enjoy the delights of Heaven. He placed +her in the palace Tou Shu, the Pivot of the Pole, because all the +other stars revolve round it, and gave her the title of Queen of the +Doctrine of Primitive Heaven. Her nine sons have their palaces in +the neighbouring stars. + +Tou Mu wears the Buddhist crown, is seated on a lotus throne, has +three eyes, eighteen arms, and holds various precious objects in her +numerous hands, such as a bow, spear, sword, flag, dragon's head, +pagoda, five chariots, sun's disk, moon's disk, etc. She has control +of 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 day of every month. + +Of her sons, two are the Northern and Southern Bushels; the latter, +dressed in red, rules birth; the former, in white, 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 years." + + +Snorter and Blower + +At the time of the overthrow of the Shang and establishment of the Chou +dynasty in 1122 B.C. there lived two marshals, Chêng Lung and Ch'ên +Ch'i. These were Hêng and Ha, the Snorter and Blower respectively. + +The former was the chief superintendent of supplies for the armies of +the tyrant emperor Chou, the Nero of China. The latter was in charge +of the victualling department of the same army. + +From his master, Tu O, the celebrated Taoist magician of the K'un-lun +Mountains, Hêng acquired a marvellous power. When he snorted, his +nostrils, with a sound like that of a bell, emitted two white columns +of light, which destroyed his enemies, body and soul. Thus through him +the Chou gained numerous victories. But one day he was captured, bound, +and taken to the general of Chou. His life was spared, and he was +made general superintendent of army stores as well as generalissimo +of five army corps. Later on he found himself face to face with the +Blower. The latter had learnt from the magician how to store in his +chest a supply of yellow gas which, when he blew it out, annihilated +anyone whom it struck. By this means he caused large gaps to be made +in the ranks of the enemy. + +Being opposed to each other, the one snorting out great streaks of +white light, the other blowing streams of yellow gas, the combat +continued until the Blower was wounded in the shoulder by No-cha, +of the army of Chou, and pierced in the stomach with a spear by Huang +Fei-hu, Yellow Flying Tiger. + +The Snorter in turn was slain in this fight by Marshal Chin Ta-shêng, +'Golden Big Pint,' who was an ox-spirit and endowed with the mysterious +power of producing in his entrails the celebrated _niu huang_, +ox-yellow, or bezoar. Facing the Snorter, he spat in his face, with +a noise like thunder, a piece of bezoar as large as a rice-bowl. It +struck him on the nose and split his nostrils. He fell to the earth, +and was immediately cut in two by a blow from his victor's sword. + +After the Chou dynasty had been definitely established Chiang Tzu-ya +canonized the two marshals Hêng and Ha, and conferred on them the +offices of guardians of the Buddhist temple gates, where their gigantic +images may be seen. + + +Blue Dragon and White Tiger + +The functions discharged by Hêng and Ha at the gates of Buddhist +temples are in Taoist temples discharged by Blue Dragon and White +Tiger. + +The former, the Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star, was Têng Chiu-kung, +one of the chief generals of the last emperor of the Yin dynasty. He +had a son named Têng Hsiu, and a daughter named Ch'an-yü. + +The army of Têng Chiu-kung was camped at San-shan Kuan, when he +received orders to proceed to the battle then taking place at Hsi +Ch'i. There, in standing up to No-cha and Huang Fei-hu, he had his +left arm broken by the former's magic bracelet, but, fortunately for +him, his subordinate, T'u Hsing-sun, a renowned magician, gave him +a remedy which quickly healed the fracture. + +His daughter then came on the scene to avenge her father. She had a +magic weapon, the Five-fire Stone, which she hurled full in the face +of Yang Chien. But the Immortal was not wounded; on the other hand, +his celestial dog jumped at Ch'an-yü and bit her neck, so that she +was obliged to flee. T'u Hsing-sun, however, healed the wound. + +After a banquet, Têng Chiu-kung promised his daughter in marriage to +T'u Hsing-sun if he would gain him the victory at Hsi Ch'i. Chiang +Tzu-ya then persuaded T'u's magic master, Chü Liu-sun, to call his +disciple over to his camp, where he asked him why he was fighting +against the new dynasty. "Because," he replied, "Chiu-kung has promised +me his daughter in marriage as a reward of success." Chiang Tzu-ya +thereupon promised to obtain the bride, and sent a force to seize +her. As a result of the fighting that ensued, Chiu-kung was beaten, +and retreated in confusion, leaving Ch'an-yü in the hands of the +victors. During the next few days the marriage was celebrated with +great ceremony in the victor's camp. According to custom, the bride +returned for some days to her father's house, and while there she +earnestly exhorted Chiu-kung to submit. Following her advice, he went +over to Chiang Tzu-ya's party. + +In the ensuing battles he fought valiantly on the side of his former +enemy, and killed many famous warriors, but he was eventually attacked +by the Blower, from whose mouth a column of yellow gas struck him, +throwing him from his steed. He was made prisoner, and executed by +order of General Ch'iu Yin. Chiang Tzu-ya conferred on him the kingdom +of the Blue Dragon Star. + +The Spirit of the White Tiger Star is Yin Ch'êng-hsiu. His father, +Yin P'o-pai, a high courtier of the tyrant Chou Wang, was sent to +negotiate peace with Chiang Tzu-ya, but was seized and put to death by +Marquis Chiang Wên-huan. His son, attempting to avenge his father's +murder, was pierced by a spear, and his head was cut off and carried +in triumph to Chiang Tzu-ya. + +As compensation he was, though somewhat tardily, canonized as the +Spirit of the White Tiger Star. + + +Apotheosized Philosophers + +The philosophers Lieh Tzu, Huai-nan Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Mo Tzu, etc., +have also been apotheosized. Nothing very remarkable is related +of them. Most of them had several reincarnations and possessed +supernatural powers. The second, who was a king, when taken by +the Eight Immortals to the genii's Heaven forgot now and then to +address them as superiors, and but for their intercession with +Yü Ti, the Pearly Emperor, would have been reincarnated. In order +to humiliate himself, he thereafter called himself Huai-nan Tzu, +'the Sage of the South of the Huai.' The third, Chuang Tzu, Chuang +Shêng, or Chuang Chou, was a disciple of Lao Tzu. Chuang Tzu was in +the habit of sleeping during the day, and at night would transform +himself into a butterfly, which fluttered gaily over the flowers in +the garden. On waking, he would still feel the sensation of flying in +his shoulders. On asking Lao Tzu the reason for this, he was told: +"Formerly you were a white butterfly which, having partaken of the +quintessence of flowers and of the _yin_ and the _yang_, should have +been immortalized; but one day you stole some peaches and flowers in +Wang Mu Niang-niang's garden. The guardian of the garden slew you, +and that is how you came to be reincarnated." At this time he was +fifty years of age. + + +Fanning the Grave + +One of the tales associated with him describes how he saw a young +woman in mourning vigorously fanning a newly made grave. On his asking +her the reason of this strange conduct, she replied: "I am doing this +because my husband begged me to wait until the earth on his tomb was +dry before I remarried!" Chuang Tzu offered to help her, and as soon +as he waved the fan once the earth was dry. The young widow thanked +him and departed. + +On his return home, Chuang Shêng related this incident to his +wife. She expressed astonishment at such conduct on the part of a +wife. "There's nothing to be surprised at," rejoined the husband; +"that's how things go in this world." Seeing that he was poking fun +at her, she protested angrily. Some little time after this Chuang +Shêng died. His wife, much grieved, buried him. + + +Husband and Wife + +A few days later a young man named Ch'u Wang-sun arrived with the +intention, as he said, of placing himself under the instruction of +Chuang Shêng. When he heard that he was dead he went and performed +prostrations before his tomb, and afterward took up his abode in an +empty room, saying that he wished to study. After half a month had +elapsed, the widow asked an old servant who had accompanied Wang-sun +if the young man was married. On his replying in the negative, she +requested the old servant to propose a match between them. Wang-sun +made some objections, saying that people would criticize their +conduct. "Since my husband is dead, what can they say?" replied +the widow. She then put off her mourning-garments and prepared for +the wedding. + +Wang-sun took her to the grave of her husband, and said to her: +"The gentleman has returned to life!" She looked at Wang-sun and +recognized the features of her husband. She was so overwhelmed with +shame that she hanged herself. Chuang Shêng buried her in an empty +tomb, and then began to sing. + +He burnt his house, went away to P'u-shui, in Hupei, and occupied +himself in fishing. From there he went on to Chung-t'iao Shan, where +he met Fêng Hou and her teacher Hsüan Nü, the Mother of Heaven. In +their company he visited the palaces of the stars. One day, when he +was attending a banquet at the palace of Wang-mu, Shang Ti gave him as +his kingdom the planet Jupiter, and assigned to him as his palace the +ancient abode of Mao Mêng, the stellar god reincarnated during the Chou +dynasty. He had not yet returned, and had left his palace empty. Shang +Ti had cautioned him never to absent himself without his permission. + + +Canonized Generalissimos + +A large number of military men also have been canonized as celestial +generalissimos. A few will serve as examples of the rest. + + + +The Three Musical Brothers + +There were three brothers: T'ien Yüan-shuai, the eldest; T'ien Hung-i, +the second; and T'ien Chih-piao, the youngest. They were all musicians +of unsurpassed talent. + +In the K'ai-yüan Period (A.D. 713-42) the Emperor Hsüan Tsung, of +the T'ang dynasty, appointed them his music masters. At the sound of +their wonderful flute the clouds in the sky stopped in their courses; +the harmony of their songs caused the odoriferous _la mei_ flower to +open in winter. They excelled also in songs and dances. + +The Emperor fell sick. He saw in a dream the three brothers +accompanying their singing on a mandolin and violin. The harmony of +their songs charmed his ear, and on waking he found himself well +again. Out of gratitude for this benefit he conferred on each the +title of marquis. + +The Grand Master of the Taoists was trying to stay the ravages +of a pestilence, but he could not conquer the devils which caused +it. Under these circumstances he appealed to the three brothers and +asked their advice as to what course to adopt. T'ien Yüan-shuai had a +large boat built, called 'Spirit-boat.' He assembled in it a million +spirits, and ordered them to beat drums. On hearing this tumult all +the demons of the town came out to listen. T'ien Yüan-shuai, seizing +the opportunity, captured them all and, with the help of the Grand +Master, expelled them from the town. + +Besides the canonization of the three T'ien brothers, all the members +of their families received posthumous titles. + + + +The Dragon-boat Festival + +This is said to be the origin of the dragon-boats which are to be +seen on all the waterways of China on the fifth day of the fifth +moon. [21] The Festival of the Dragon-boats, held on that day, was +instituted in memory of the statesman-poet Ch'ü Yüan (332-296 B.C.), +who drowned himself in the Mi-lo River, an affluent of the Tung-t'ing +Lake, after having been falsely accused by one of the petty princes +of the State. The people, out of pity for the unfortunate courtier, +sent out these boats in search of his body. + + +Chiang Tzu-ya + +In the wars which resulted in the overthrow of the tyrant Chou Wang +and his dynasty and the establishment of the great Chou dynasty, +the most influential generalissimo was Chiang Tzu-ya. His family name +was Chiang, and his own name Shang, but owing to his descent from one +of the ministers of the ancient King Yao, whose heirs owned the fief +of Lü, the family came to be called by that name, and he himself was +known as Lü Shang. His honorific title was T'ai Kung Wang, 'Hope of +T'ai Kung,' given him by Wên Wang, who recognized in the person of +Chiang Tzu-ya the wise minister whom his father T'ai Kung had caused +him to expect before his death. + + +The Battle of Mu Yeh + +Chiang Tzu-ya was originally in the service of the tyrant Chou Wang, +but transferred his services to the Chou cause, and by his wonderful +skill enabled that house finally to gain the victory. The decisive +battle took place at Mu Yeh, situated to the south of Wei-hui Fu, +in 1122 B.C. The soldiers of Yin, 700,000 in number, were defeated, +and Chou, the tyrant, shut himself up in his magnificent palace, set +it alight, and was burned alive with all his possessions. For this +achievement Chiang Tzu-ya was granted by Wu Wang the title of Father +and Counsellor, and was appointed Prince of Ch'i, with perpetual +succession to his descendants. + + +A Legend of Chiang Tzu-ya + +The _Feng shên yen i_ contains many chapters describing in detail the +various battles which resulted in the overthrow of the last tyrant +of the Shang dynasty and the establishment of the illustrious Chou +dynasty on the throne of China. This legend and the following one +are epitomized from that work. + + +No-cha defeats Chang Kuei-fang + +The redoubtable No-cha having, by means of his Heaven-and-earth +Bracelet, vanquished Fêng Lin, a star-god and subordinate officer of +Chang Kuei-fang, in spite of the black smoke-clouds which he blew +out of his nostrils, the defeated warrior fled and sought the aid +of his chief, who fought No-cha in some thirty to forty encounters +without succeeding in dislodging him from his Wind-fire Wheel, +which enabled him to move about rapidly and to perform prodigious +feats, such as causing hosts of silver flying dragons like clouds of +snow to descend upon his enemy. During one of these fights No-cha +heard his name called three times, but paid no heed. Finally, with +his Heaven-and-earth Bracelet he broke Chang Kuei-fang's left arm, +following this up by shooting out some dazzling rays of light which +knocked him off his horse. + +When he returned to the city to report his victory to Tzu-ya, +the latter asked him if during the battle Kuei-fang had called +his name. "Yes," replied No-cha, "he called, but I took no heed +of him." "When Kuei-fang calls," said Tzu-ya, "the _hun_ and the +_p'o_ [_anima_ and _umbra_] become separated, and so the body +falls apart." "But," replied No-cha, "I had changed myself into a +lotus-flower, which has neither _hun_ nor _p'o_, so he could not +succeed in getting me off my magic wheel." + + +Tzu-ya goes to K'un-lun + +Tzu-ya, however, still uncertain in mind about the finality of No-cha's +victories, went to consult Wu Wang (whose death had not yet taken +place at this time). After the interview Tzu-ya informed Wu Wang of +his wish to visit K'un-lun Mountain. Wu Wang warned him of the danger +of leaving the kingdom with the enemy so near the capital; but Tzu-ya +obtained his consent by saying he would be absent only three days +at most. So he gave instructions regarding the defence to No-cha, +and went off in his spirit chariot to K'un-lun. On his arrival at the +Unicorn Precipice he was much enraptured with the beautiful scenery, +the colours, flowers, trees, bridges, birds, deer, apes, blue lions, +white elephants, etc., all of which seemed to make earth surpass +Heaven in loveliness. + + +He receives the List of Immortals + +From the Unicorn Precipice he went on to the Jade Palace of +Abstraction. Here he was presented to Yüan-shih. From him he received +the List of Promotions to Immortals, which Nan-chi Hsien-wêng, +'Ancient Immortal of the South Pole,' had brought, and was told to +go and erect a Fêng Shên T'ai (Spirits' Promotion Terrace) on which +to exhibit it. Yüan-shih also warned him that if anyone called him +while he was on the way he was to be most careful not to answer. On +reaching the Unicorn Precipice on his way back, he heard some one +call: "Chiang Tzu-ya!" This happened three times without his paying +any heed. Then the voice was heard to say: "Now that you are Prime +Minister, how devoid of feeling and forgetful of bygone benefits you +must be not to remember one who studied with you in the Jade Palace +of Abstraction!" Tzu-ya could not but turn his head and look. He +then saw that it was Shên Kung-pao. He said: "Brother, I did not know +it was you who were calling me, and I did not heed you as Shih-tsun +told me on no account to reply." Shên Kung-pao said: "What is that +you hold in your hand?" He told him it was the List of Promotions +to Immortals. Shên Kung-pao then tried to entice Tzu-ya from his +allegiance to Chou. Among Shên's tactics was that of convincing +Tzu-ya of the superiority of the magical arts at the disposal of +the supporters of Chou Wang. "You," he said, "can drain the sea, +change the hills, and suchlike things, but what are those compared +with my powers, who can take off my head, make it mount into space, +travel 10,000,000 _li_, and return to my neck just as complete as +before and able to speak? Burn your List of Promotions to Immortals +and come with me." Tzu-ya, thinking that a head which could travel +10,000,000 _li_ and be the same as before was exceedingly rare, said: +"Brother, you take your head off, and if in reality it can do as you +say, rise into space and return and be as before, I shall be willing to +burn the List of Promotions to Immortals and return with you to Chao +Ko." Shên Kung-pao said: "You will not go back on your word?" Tzu-ya +said: "When your elder brother has spoken his word is as unchangeable +as Mount T'ai, How can there be any going back on my word?" + + +The Soaring Head + +Shên Kung-pao then doffed his Taoist cap, seized his sword, with his +left hand firmly grasped the blue thread binding his hair, and with +his right cut off his head. His body did not fall down. He then took +his head and threw it up into space. Tzu-ya gazed with upturned face +as it continued to rise, and was sorely puzzled. But the Ancient +Immortal of the South Pole had kept a watch on the proceedings. He +said: "Tzu-ya is a loyal and honest man; it looks as if he has been +deceived by this charlatan." He ordered White Crane Youth to assume +quickly the form of a crane and fetch Shên Kung-pao's head. + + +The Ancient Immortal saves the Situation + +Tzu-ya was still gazing upward when he felt a slap on his back +and, turning round, saw that it was the Ancient Immortal of the +South Pole. Tzu-ya quickly asked: "My elder brother, why have you +returned?" Hsien-wêng said: "You are a fool. Shên Kung-pao is a +man of unholy practices. These few small tricks of his you take as +realities. But if the head does not return to the neck within an hour +and three-quarters the blood will coagulate and he will die. Shih-tsun +ordered you not to reply to anyone; why did you not hearken to +his words? From the Jade Palace of Abstraction I saw you speaking +together, and knew you had promised to burn the List of Promotions to +Immortals. So I ordered White Crane Youth to bring me the head. After +an hour and three-quarters Shên Kung-pao will be recompensed." + +Tzu-ya said: "My elder brother, since you know all you can pardon +him. In the Taoist heart there is no place where mercy cannot be +exercised. Remember the many years during which he has faithfully +followed the Path." + +Eventually the Ancient Immortal was persuaded, but in the meantime +Shên Kung-pao, finding that his head did not return, became very much +troubled in mind. In an hour and three-quarters the blood would stop +flowing and he would die. However, Tzu-ya having succeeded in his +intercession with the Ancient Immortal, the latter signed to White +Crane Youth, who was flying in space with the head in his beak, to +let it drop. He did so, but when it reached the neck it was facing +backward. Shên Kung-pao quickly put up his hand, took hold of an ear, +and turned his head the right way round. He was then able to open +his eyes, when he saw the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole. The +latter arraigned him in a loud voice saying: "You as-good-as-dead +charlatan, who by means of corrupt tricks try to deceive Tzu-ya and +make him burn the List of Immortals and help Chou Wang against Chou, +what do you mean by all this? You should be taken to the Jade Palace +of Abstraction to be punished!" + +Shên Kung-pao, ashamed, could not reply; mounting his tiger, he made +off; but as he left he hurled back a threat that the Chou would yet +have their white bones piled mountains high at Hsi Ch'i. Subsequently +Tzu-ya, carefully preserving the precious List, after many adventures +succeeded in building the Fêng Shên T'ai, and posted the List up on +it. Having accomplished his mission, he returned in time to resist +the capture of Hsi Ch'i by Chang Kuei-fang, whose troops were defeated +with great slaughter. + + + +Ch'iung Hsiao's Magic Scissors + +In another of the many conflicts between the two rival states Lao Tzu +entered the battle, whereupon Ch'iung Hsiao, a goddess who fought for +the house of Shang (Chou), hurled into the air her gold scaly-dragon +scissors. As these slowly descended, opening and closing in a most +ominous manner, Lao Tzu waved the sleeve of his jacket and they fell +into the sea and became absolutely motionless. Many similar tricks +were used by the various contestants. The Gold Bushel of Chaotic +Origin succumbed to the Wind-fire Sphere, and so on. Ch'iung Hsiao +resumed the attack with some magic two-edged swords, but was killed +by a blow from White Crane Youth's Three-precious Jade Sceptre, hurled +at her by Lao Tzu's orders. Pi Hsiao, her sister, attempted to avenge +her death, but Yüan-shih, producing from his sleeve a magical box, +threw it into the air and caught Pi Hsiao in it. When it was opened +it was found that she had melted into blood and water. + + +Chiang Tzu-ya defeats Wên Chung + +After this Lao Tzu rallied many of the skilful spirits to help Chiang +Tzu-ya in his battle with Wên Chung, providing them with the Ancient +Immortal of the South Pole's Sand-blaster and an earth-conquering light +which enabled them to travel a thousand _li_ in a day. From the hot +sand used the contest became known as the Red Sand Battle. Jan Têng, +on P'êng-lai Mountain, in consultation with Tzu-ya, also arranged +the plan of battle. + + +The Red Sand Battle + +The fight began with a challenge from the Ancient Immortal of the +South Pole to Chang Shao. The latter, riding his deer, dashed into +the fray, and aimed a terrific blow with his sword at Hsien-wêng's +head, but White Crane Youth warded it off with his Three-precious Jade +Sceptre. Chang then produced a two-edged sword and renewed the attack, +but, being disarmed, dismounted from his deer and threw several +handfuls of hot sand at Hsien-wêng. The latter, however, easily +fanned them away with his Five-fire Seven-feathers Fan, rendering +them harmless. Chang then fetched a whole bushel of the hot sand and +scattered it over the enemy, but Hsien-wêng counteracted the menace +by merely waving his fan. White Crane Youth struck Chang Shao with +his jade sceptre, knocking him off his horse, and then dispatched +him with his two-edged sword. + +After this battle Wu Wang was found to be already dead. Jan Têng +on learning this ordered Lei Chên-tzu to take the corpse to Mount +P'êng and wash it. He then dissolved a pill in water and poured the +solution into Wu Wang's mouth, whereupon he revived and was escorted +back to his palace. + + +Further Fighting + +Preparations were then made for resuming the attack on Wên +Chung. While the latter was consulting with Ts'ai-yün Hsien-tzu and +Han Chih-hsien, he heard the sound of the Chou guns and the thunder of +their troops. Wên Chung, mounting his black unicorn, galloped like a +whiff of smoke to meet Tzu-ya, but was stopped by blows from two silver +hammers wielded by Huang T'ien-hua. Han Chih-hsien came to Wên's aid, +but was opposed by Pi Hsiang-yang. Ts'ai-yün Hsien-tzu dashed into +the fray, but No-cha stepped on to his Wind-fire Wheel and opposed +him. From all sides other Immortals joined in the terrific battle, +which was a turmoil of longbows and crossbows, iron armour and brass +mail, striking whips and falling hammers, weapons cleaving mail and +mail resisting weapons. In this fierce contest, while Tzu-ya was +fighting Wên Chung, Han Chih-hsien released a black wind from his +magic wind-bag, but he did not know that the Taoist Barge of Mercy +(which transports departed souls to the land of bliss), sent by +Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, had on board the Stop-wind Pearl, +by which the black storm was immediately quelled. Thereupon Tzu-ya +quickly seized his Vanquish-spirits Whip and struck Han Chih-hsien +in the middle of the skull, so that the brain-fluid gushed forth and +he died. No-cha then slew Ts'ai-yün Hsien-tzu with a spear-thrust. + +Thus the stern fight went on, until finally Tzu-ya, under cover +of night, attacked Wên Chung's troops simultaneously on all four +sides. The noise of slaughter filled the air. Generals and rank and +file, lanterns, torches, swords, spears, guns, and daggers were one +confused _mêlée_; Heaven could scarcely be distinguished from earth, +and corpses were piled mountains high. + +Tzu-ya, having broken through seven lines of the enemy's ranks, +forced his way into Wên Chung's camp. The latter mounted his unicorn, +and brandishing his magic whip dashed to meet him. Tzu-ya drew +his sword and stopped his onrush, being aided by Lung Hsü-hu, who +repeatedly cast a rain of hot stones on to the troops. In the midst +of the fight Tzu-ya brought out his great magic whip, and in spite +of Wên Chung's efforts to avoid it succeeded in wounding him in the +left arm. The Chou troops were fighting like dragons lashing their +tails and pythons curling their bodies. To add to their disasters, +the Chou now saw flames rising behind the camp, and knew that their +provisions were being burned by Yang Chien. + +The Chou armies, with gongs beating and drums rolling, advanced for a +final effort, the slaughter being so great that even the devils wept +and the spirits wailed. Wên Chung was eventually driven back seventy +_li_ to Ch'i Hill. His troops could do nothing but sigh and stumble +along. He made for Peach-blossom Range, but as he approached it he +saw a yellow banner hoisted, and under it was Kuang Ch'êng-tzu. Being +prevented from escaping in that direction he joined battle, but by +use of red-hot sand, his two-edged sword, and his Turn-heaven Seal +Kuang Ch'êng-tzu put him to flight. He then made off toward the +west, followed by Têng Chung. His design was to make for Swallow +Hill, which he reached after several days of weary marching. Here +he saw another yellow banner flying, and Ch'ih Ching-tzu informed +him that Jan Têng had forbidden him to stop at Swallow Hill or to +go through the Five Passes. This led to another pitched battle, +Wên Chung using his magic whip and Ch'ih his spiritual two-edged +sword. After several bouts Ch'ih brought out his _yin-yang_ mirror, +by use of which irresistible weapon Wên was driven to Yellow Flower +Hill and Blue Dragon Pass, and so on from battle to battle, until he +was drawn up to Heaven from the top of Dead-dragon Mountain. + + +Thousand-li Eye and Favourable-wind Ear + +Ch'ien-li Yen, 'Thousand-_li_ Eye,' and Shun-fêng Êrh, 'Favourable-wind +Ear,' were two brothers named Kao Ming and Kao Chio. On account +of their martial bearing they found favour with the tyrant emperor +Chou Wang, who appointed them generals, and sent them to serve with +Generalissimo Yüan Hung (who was a monkey which had taken human form) +at Mêng-ching. + +Kao Ming was very tall, with a blue face, flaming eyes, a large mouth, +and prominent teeth like those of a rhinoceros. + +Kao Chio had a greenish face and skin, two horns on his head, a red +beard, and a large mouth with teeth shaped like swords. + +One of their first encounters was with No-cha, who hurled at them his +mystic bracelet, which struck Kao Chio on the head, but did not leave +even a scratch. When, however, he seized his fire-globe the brothers +thought it wiser to retreat. + +Finding no means of conquering them, Yang Chien, Chiang Tzu-ya, and +Li Ching took counsel together and decided to have recourse to Fu +Hsi's trigrams, and by smearing them with the blood of a fowl and a +dog to destroy their spiritual power. + +But the two brothers were fully informed of what was +designed. Thousand-_li_ Eye had seen and Favourable-wind Ear had +heard everything, so that all their preparations proved unavailing. + +Yang Chien then went to Chiang Tzu-ya and said to him: "These +two brothers are powerful devils; I must take more effectual +measures." "Where will you go for aid?" asked Chiang Tzu-ya. "I +cannot tell you, for they would hear," replied Yang. He then +left. Favourable-wind Ear heard this dialogue, and Thousand-_li_ +Eye saw him leave. "He did not say where he was going," they said +to each other, "but we fear him not." Yang Chien went to Yü-ch'üan +Shan, where lived Yü-ting Chên-jên, 'Hero Jade-tripod.' He told him +about their two adversaries, and asked him how they were to conquer +them. "These two genii," replied the Chên-jên, "are from Ch'i-p'an +Shan, Chessboard Mountain. One is a spiritual peach-tree, the other +a spiritual pomegranate-tree. Their roots cover an area of thirty +square _li_ of ground. On that mountain there is a temple dedicated to +Huang-ti, in which are clay images of two devils called Ch'ien-li Yen +and Shun-fêng Êrh. The peach-tree and pomegranate-tree, having become +spiritual beings, have taken up their abode in these images. One has +eyes which can see objects distinctly at a distance of a thousand _li_, +the other ears that can hear sounds at a like distance. But beyond +that distance they can neither see nor hear. Return and tell Chiang +Tzu-ya to have the roots of those trees torn up and burned, and the +images destroyed; then the two genii will be easily vanquished. In +order that they may neither see nor hear you during your conversation +with Chiang Tzu-ya, wave flags about the camp and order the soldiers +to beat tom-toms and drums." + + +How the Brothers were Defeated + +Yang Chien returned to Chiang Tzu-ya. "What have you been doing?" asked +the latter. Before replying Yang Chien went to the camp and ordered +soldiers to wave large red flags and a thousand others to beat the +tom-toms and drums. The air was so filled with the flags and the +noise that nothing else could be either seen or heard. Under cover of +this device Yang Chien then communicated to Chiang Tzu-ya the course +advised by the Chên-jên. + +Accordingly Li Ching at the head of three thousand soldiers proceeded +to Ch'i-p'an Shan, pulled up and burned the roots of the two trees, +and broke the images to pieces. At the same time Lei Chên-tzu was +ordered to attack the two genii. + +Thousand-_li_ Eye and Favourable-wind Ear could neither see nor hear: +the flags effectually screened the horizon and the infernal noise of +the drums and gongs deadened all other sound. They did not know how +to stop them. + +The following night Yüan Hung decided to take the camp of Chiang +Tzu-ya by assault, and sent the brothers in advance. They were, +however, themselves surprised by Wu Wang's officers, who surrounded +them. Chiang Tzu-ya then threw into the air his 'devil-chaser' whip, +which fell on the two scouts and cleft their skulls in twain. + + +Celestial Ministries + +The dualistic idea, already referred to, of the Otherworld being +a replica of this one is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in +the celestial Ministries or official Bureaux or Boards, with their +chiefs and staffs functioning over the spiritual hierarchies. The Nine +Ministries up aloft doubtless had their origin in imitation of the Six, +Eight, or Nine Ministries or Boards which at various periods of history +have formed the executive part of the official hierarchy in China. But +their names are different and their functions do not coincide. + +Generally, the functions of the officers of the celestial Boards are +to protect mankind from the evils represented in the title of the +Board, as, for example, thunder, smallpox, fire, etc. In all cases +the duties seem to be remedial. As the God of War was, as we saw, the +god who protects people from the evils of war, so the vast hierarchy +of these various divinities is conceived as functioning for the good +of mankind. Being too numerous for inclusion here, an account of them +is given under various headings in some of the following chapters. + + +Protectors of the People + +Besides the gods who hold definite official posts in these various +Ministries, there are a very large number who are also protecting +patrons of the people; and, though _ex officio_, in many cases quite +as popular and powerful, if not more so. Among the most important +are the following: Shê-chi, Gods of the Soil and Crops; Shên Nung, +God of Agriculture; Hou-t'u, Earth-mother; Ch'êng-huang, City-god; +T'u-ti, Local Gods; Tsao Chün, Kitchen-god; T'ien-hou and An-kung, +Goddess and God of Sailors; Ts'an Nü, Goddess of Silkworms; Pa-ch'a, +God of Grasshoppers; Fu Shên, Ts'ai Shên, and Shou Hsing, Gods of +Happiness, Wealth, and Longevity; Mên Shên, Door-gods; and Shê-mo Wang, +etc., the Gods of Serpents. + + +The Ch'êng-huang + +Ch'êng-huang is the Celestial Mandarin or City-god. Every fortified +city or town in China is surrounded by a wall, _ch'êng_, composed +usually of two battlemented walls, the space between which is filled +with earth. This earth is dug from the ground outside, making a ditch, +or _huang_, running parallel with the _ch'êng_. The Ch'êng-huang +is the spiritual official of the city or town. All the numerous +Ch'êng-huang constitute a celestial Ministry of Justice, presided +over by a Ch'êng-huang-in-chief. + +The origin of the worship of the Ch'êng-huang dates back to the time +of the great Emperor Yao (2357 B.C.), who instituted a sacrifice called +Pa Cha in honour of eight spirits, of whom the seventh, Shui Yung, had +the meaning of, or corresponded to, the dyke and rampart known later +as Ch'êng-huang. Since the Sung dynasty sacrifices have been offered +to the Ch'êng-huang all over the country, though now and then some +towns have adopted another or special god as their Ch'êng-huang, such +as Chou Hsin, adopted as the Ch'êng-huang of Hangchou, the capital of +Chekiang Province. Concerning Chou Hsin, who had a "face of ice and +iron," and was so much dreaded for his severity that old and young +fled at his approach, it is related that once when he was trying a +case a storm blew some leaves on to his table. In spite of diligent +search the tree to which this kind of leaf belonged could not be found +anywhere in the neighbourhood, but was eventually discovered in a +Buddhist temple a long way off. The judge declared that the priests +of this temple must be guilty of murder. By his order the tree was +felled, and in its trunk was found the body of a woman who had been +assassinated, and the priests were convicted of the murder. + + +The Kitchen-god + +Tsao Chün is a Taoist invention, but is universally worshipped by +all families in China--about sixty millions of pictures of him are +regularly worshipped twice a month--at new and full moon. "His temple +is a little niche in the brick cooking-range; his palace is often +filled with smoke; and his Majesty sells for one farthing." He is also +called 'the God of the Stove.' The origin of his worship, according to +the legend, is that a Taoist priest, Li Shao-chün by name, of the Ch'i +State, obtained from the Kitchen-god the double favour of exemption +from growing old and of being able to live without eating. He then +went to the Emperor Hsiao Wu-ti (140-86 B.C.) of the Han dynasty, and +promised that credulous monarch that he should benefit by the powers +of the god provided that he would consent to patronize and encourage +his religion. It was by this means, he added, that the Emperor Huang +Ti obtained his knowledge of alchemy, which enabled him to make gold. + +The Emperor asked the priest to bring him his divine patron, and one +night the image of Tsao Chün appeared to him. + +Deceived by this trick, dazzled by the ingots of gold which he too +should obtain, and determined to risk everything for the pill of +immortality which was among the benefits promised, the Emperor made +a solemn sacrifice to the God of the Kitchen. + +This was the first time that a sacrifice had been officially offered +to this new deity. + +Li Shao-chün gradually lost the confidence of the Emperor and, at +his wits' end, conceived the plan of writing some phrases on a piece +of silk and then causing them to be swallowed by an ox. This done, +he announced that a wonderful script would be found in the animal's +stomach. The ox being killed, the script was found there as predicted, +but Li's unlucky star decreed that the Emperor should recognize +his handwriting, and he was forthwith put to death. Nevertheless, +the worship of the Kitchen-god continued and increased, and exists +in full vigour down to the present day. + +This deity has power over the lives of the members of each family +under his supervision, distributes riches and poverty at will, and +makes an annual report to the Supreme Being on the conduct of the +family during the year, for which purpose he is usually absent for from +four to seven days. Some hold that he also makes these reports once or +twice or several times each month. Various ceremonies are performed on +seeing him off to Heaven and welcoming him back. One of the former, +as we saw, is to regale him with honey, so that only sweet words, +if any, may be spoken by him while up aloft! + + +Ts'an Nü + +In the kingdom of Shu (modern Ssuch'uan), in the time of Kao Hsing +Ti, a band of robbers kidnapped the father of Ts'an Nü. A whole year +elapsed, and the father's horse still remained in the stable as he +had left it. The thought of not seeing her father again caused Ts'an +Nü such grief that she would take no nourishment. Her mother did +what she could to console her, and further promised her in marriage +to anyone who would bring back her father. But no one was found who +could do this. Hearing the offer, the horse stamped with impatience, +and struggled so much that at length he broke the halter by which +he was tied up. He then galloped away and disappeared. Several days +later, his owner returned riding the horse. From that time the horse +neighed incessantly, and refused all food. This caused the mother +to make known to her husband the promise she had made concerning her +daughter. "An oath made to men," he replied, "does not hold good for +a horse. Is a human being meant to live in marital relations with +a horse?" Nevertheless, however good and abundant food they offered +him, the horse would not eat. When he saw the young lady he plunged +and kicked furiously. Losing his temper, the father discharged an +arrow and killed him on the spot; then he skinned him and spread the +skin on the ground outside the house to dry. As the young lady was +passing the spot the skin suddenly moved, rose up, enveloped her, +and disappeared into space. Ten days later it was found at the foot +of a mulberry-tree; Ts'an Nü changed into a silkworm, was eating the +mulberry-leaves, and spinning for herself a silken garment. + +The parents of course were in despair. But one day, while they were +overwhelmed with sad thoughts, they saw on a cloud Ts'an Nü riding +the horse and attended by several dozens of servants. She descended +toward her parents, and said to them: "The Supreme Being, as a reward +for my martyrdom in the cause of filial piety and my love of virtue, +has conferred on me the dignity of Concubine of the Nine Palaces. Be +reassured as to my fate, for in Heaven I shall live for ever." Having +said this she disappeared into space. + +In the temples her image is to be seen covered with a horse's +skin. She is called Ma-t'ou Niang, 'the Lady with the Horse's +Head,' and is prayed to for the prosperity of mulberry-trees and +silkworms. The worship continues even in modern times. The goddess +is also represented as a stellar divinity, the star T'ien Ssu; as +the first man who reared silkworms, in this character bearing the +same name as the God of Agriculture, Pasture, and Fire; and as the +wife of the Emperor Huang Ti. + + +The God of Happiness + +The God of Happiness, Fu Shên, owes his origin to the predilection +of the Emperor Wu Ti (A.D. 502-50) of the Liang dynasty for dwarfs as +servants and comedians in his palace. The number levied from the Tao +Chou district in Hunan became greater and greater, until it seriously +prejudiced the ties of family relations. When Yang Ch'êng, _alias_ +Yang Hsi-chi, was Criminal Judge of Tao Chou he represented to the +Emperor that, according to law, the dwarfs were his subjects but not +his slaves. Being touched by this remark, the Emperor ordered the +levy to be stopped. + +Overjoyed at their liberation from this hardship, the people +of that district set up images of Yang and offered sacrifices to +him. Everywhere he was venerated as the Spirit of Happiness. It was in +this simple way that there came into being a god whose portraits and +images abound everywhere throughout the country, and who is worshipped +almost as universally as the God of Riches himself. + +Another person who attained to the dignity of God of Happiness (known +as Tsêng-fu Hsiang-kung, 'the Young Gentleman who Increases Happiness') +was Li Kuei-tsu, the minister of Emperor Wên Ti of the Wei dynasty, +the son of the famous Ts'ao Ts'ao, but in modern times the honour +seems to have passed to Kuo Tzu-i. He was the saviour of the T'ang +dynasty from the depredations of the Turfans in the reign of the +Emperor Hsüan Tsung. He lived A.D. 697-781, was a native of Hua Chou, +in Shensi, and one of the most illustrious of Chinese generals. He +is very often represented in pictures clothed in blue official robes, +leading his small son Kuo Ai to Court. + + +The God of Wealth + +As with many other Chinese gods, the proto-being of the God of Wealth, +Ts'ai Shên, has been ascribed to several persons. The original and +best known until later times was Chao Kung-ming. The accounts of him +differ also, but the following is the most popular. + +When Chiang Tzu-ya was fighting for Wu Wang of the Chou dynasty +against the last of the Shang emperors, Chao Kung-ming, then a +hermit on Mount Ô-mei, took the part of the latter. He performed +many wonderful feats. He could ride a black tiger and hurl pearls +which burst like bombshells. But he was eventually overcome by the +form of witchcraft known in Wales as _Ciurp Creadh_. Chiang Tzu-ya +made a straw image of him, wrote his name on it, burned incense and +worshipped before it for twenty days, and on the twenty-first shot +arrows made of peach-wood into its eyes and heart. At that same +moment Kung-ming, then in the enemy's camp, felt ill and fainted, +and uttering a cry gave up the ghost. + +Later on Chiang Tzu-ya persuaded Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun to release from +the Otherworld the spirits of the heroes who had died in battle, +and when Chao Kung-ming was led into his presence he praised his +bravery, deplored the circumstances of his death, and canonized him +as President of the Ministry of Riches and Prosperity. + +The God of Riches is universally worshipped in China; images and +portraits of him are to be seen everywhere. Talismans, trees of which +the branches are strings of cash, and the fruits ingots of gold, +to be obtained merely by shaking them down, a magic inexhaustible +casket full of gold and silver--these and other spiritual sources +of wealth are associated with this much-adored deity. He himself +is represented in the guise of a visitor accompanied by a crowd of +attendants laden with all the treasures that the hearts of men, women, +and children could desire. + + +The God of Longevity + +The God of Longevity, Shou Hsing, was first a stellar deity, later on +represented in human form. It was a constellation formed of the two +star-groups Chio and K'ang, the first two on the list of twenty-eight +constellations. Hence, say the Chinese writers, because of this +precedence, it was called the Star of Longevity. When it appears the +nation enjoys peace, when it disappears there will be war. Ch'in Shih +Huang-ti, the First Emperor, was the first to offer sacrifices to this +star, the Old Man of the South Pole, at Shê Po, in 246 B.C. Since then +the worship has been continued pretty regularly until modern times. + +But desire for something more concrete, or at least more personal, +than a star led to the god's being represented as an old man. Connected +with this is a long legend which turns on the point that after the +father of Chao Yen had been told by the celebrated physiognomist +Kuan Lo that his son would not live beyond the age of nineteen, the +transposition from _shih-chiu_, nineteen, to _chiu-shih_, ninety, +was made by one of two gamblers, who turned out to be the Spirit of +the North Pole, who fixes the time of decease, as the Spirit of the +South Pole does that of birth. + +The deity is a domestic god, of happy mien, with a very high +forehead, usually spoken of as Shou Hsing Lao T'ou Tzu, 'Longevity +Star Old-pate,' and is represented as riding a stag, with a flying bat +above his head. He holds in his hand a large peach, and attached to his +long staff are a gourd and a scroll. The stag and the bat both indicate +_fu_, happiness. The peach, gourd, and scroll are symbols of longevity. + + +The Door-gods + +An old legend relates that in the earliest times there grew on +Mount Tu Shuo, in the Eastern Sea, a peach-tree of fabulous size +whose branches covered an area of several thousand square _li_. The +lowest branches, which inclined toward the north-east, formed the +Door of the Devils (_kuei_), through which millions of them passed +in and out. Two spirits, named Shên Shu (or Shu Yü) and Yü Lü, had +been instructed to guard this passage. Those who had done wrong to +mankind were immediately bound by them and given over to be devoured +by tigers. When Huang Ti heard of this he had the portraits of the +two spirits painted on peach-wood tablets and hung above the doors to +keep off evil spirits. This led to the suspension of the small figures +or plaques on the doors of the people generally. Gradually they were +supplanted by paintings on paper pasted on the doors, showing the two +spirits armed with bows, arrows, spears, etc., Shên Shu on the left, +Yü Lü on the right. + +In later times, however, these Door-gods were supplanted in popular +favour by two ministers of the Emperor T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, +by name Ch'in Shu-pao and Hu Ching-tê. T'ai Tsung had fallen sick, and +imagined that he heard demons rampaging in his bedroom. The ministers +of State, on inquiring as to the nature of the malady, were informed +by the physician that his Majesty's pulse was feverish, that he seemed +nervous and saw visions, and that his life was in danger. + +The ministers were in great fear. The Empress summoned other physicians +to a consultation, and after the sick Emperor had informed them that, +though all was quiet during the daytime, he was sure he saw and heard +demons during the night, Ch'in Shu-pao and Hu Ching-tê stated that +they would sit up all night and watch outside his door. + +Accordingly they posted themselves, fully armed, outside the palace +gate all night, and the Emperor slept in peace. Next day the Emperor +thanked them heartily, and from that time his sickness diminished. The +two ministers, however, continued their vigils until the Emperor +informed them that he would no longer impose upon their readiness +to sacrifice themselves. He ordered them to paint their portraits +in full martial array and paste these on the palace doors to see if +that would not have the same effect. For some nights all was peace; +then the same commotion was heard at the back gates of the palace. The +minister Wei Chêng offered to stand guard at the back gates in the +same way that his colleagues had done at the front gates. The result +was that in a few days the Emperor's health was entirely restored. + +Thus it is that Wei Chêng is often associated with the other two +Door-gods, sometimes with them, sometimes in place of them. Pictures +of these _mên shên_, elaborately coloured, and renewed at the New Year, +are to be seen on almost every door in China. + + +Chinese Polytheism + +That the names of the gods of China are legion will be readily +conceded when it is said that, besides those already described, +those still to be mentioned, and many others to whom space will not +permit us to refer, there are also gods, goddesses, patrons, etc., +of wind, rain, snow, frost, rivers, tides, caves, trees, flowers, +theatres, horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, pigs, scorpions, +locusts, gold, tea, salt, compass, archery, bridges, lamps, gems, +wells, carpenters, masons, barbers, tailors, jugglers, nets, wine, +bean-curd, jade, paper-clothing, eye, ear, nose, tongue, teeth, +heart, liver, throat, hands, feet, skin, architecture, rain-clothes, +monkeys, lice, Punch and Judy, fire-crackers, cruelty, revenge, manure, +fornication, shadows, corners, gamblers, oculists, smallpox, liver +complaint, stomach-ache, measles, luck, womb, midwives, hasteners +of child-birth, brigands, butchers, furnishers, centipedes, frogs, +stones, beds, candle-merchants, fishermen, millers, wig-merchants, +incense-merchants, spectacle-makers, cobblers, harness-makers, +seedsmen, innkeepers, basket-makers, chemists, painters, perfumers, +jewellers, brush-makers, dyers, fortune-tellers, strolling singers, +brothels, varnishers, combs, etc., etc. There is a god of the light +of the eye as well as of the eye itself, of smallpox-marks as well as +of smallpox, of 'benign' measles as well as of measles. After reading +a full list of the gods of China, those who insist that the religion +of China was or is a monotheism may be disposed to revise their belief. + + + +CHAPTER V + +Myths of the Stars + + +Astrological Superstitions + +According to Chinese ideas, the sun, moon, and planets influence +sublunary events, especially the life and death of human beings, and +changes in their colour menace approaching calamities. Alterations +in the appearance of the sun announce misfortunes to the State or its +head, as revolts, famines, or the death of the emperor; when the moon +waxes red, or turns pale, men should be in awe of the unlucky times +thus fore-omened. + +The sun is symbolized by the figure of a raven in a circle, and +the moon by a hare on its hind-legs pounding rice in a mortar, or +by a three-legged toad. The last refers to the legend of Ch'ang Ô, +detailed later. The moon is a special object of worship in autumn, +and moon-cakes dedicated to it are sold at this season. All the +stars are ranged into constellations, and an emperor is installed +over them, who resides at the North Pole; five monarchs also live +in the five stars in Leo, where is a palace called Wu Ti Tso, or +'Throne of the Five Emperors.' In this celestial government there are +also an heir-apparent, empresses, sons and daughters, and tribunals, +and the constellations receive the names of men, animals, and other +terrestrial objects. The Great Bear, or Dipper, is worshipped as the +residence of the Fates, where the duration of life and other events +relating to mankind are measured and meted out. Fears are excited by +unusual phenomena among the heavenly bodies. + +Both the sun and the moon are worshipped by the Government in +appropriate temples on the east and west sides of Peking. + + +Various Star-gods + +Some of the star-gods, such as the God of Literature, the Goddess of +the North Star, the Gods of Happiness, Longevity, etc., are noticed +in other parts of this work. The cycle-gods are also star-gods. There +are sixty years in a cycle, and over each of these presides a special +star-deity. The one worshipped is the one which gave light on the +birthday of the worshipper, and therefore the latter burns candles +before that particular image on each succeeding anniversary. These +cycle-gods are represented by most grotesque images: "white, black, +yellow, and red; ferocious gods with vindictive eyeballs popping out, +and gentle faces as expressive as a lump of putty; some looking like +men and some like women." In one temple one of the sixty was in the +form of a hog, and another in that of a goose. "Here is an image +with arms protruding out of his eye-sockets, and eyes in the palms +of his hands, looking downward 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." + + +Shooting the Heavenly Dog + +In the family sleeping-apartments in Chinese houses hang pictures +of Chang Hsien, a white-faced, long-bearded man with a little boy by +his side, and in his hand a bow and arrow, with which he is shooting +the Heavenly Dog. The dog is the Dog-star, and if the 'fate' of the +family is under this star there will be no son, or the child will be +short-lived. Chang Hsien is the patron of child-bearing women, and was +worshipped under the Sung dynasty by women desirous of offspring. The +introduction of this name into the Chinese pantheon is due to an +incident in the history of Hua-jui Fu-jên, a name given to Lady Fei, +concubine of Mêng Ch'ang, the last ruler of the Later Shu State, +A.D. 935-964. When she was brought from Shu to grace the harem of +the founder of the Sung dynasty, in A.D. 960, she is said to have +preserved secretly the portrait of her former lord, the Prince of Shu, +whose memory she passionately cherished. Jealously questioned by her +new consort respecting her devotion to this picture, she declared it +to be the representation of Chang Hsien, the divine being worshipped +by women desirous of offspring. Opinions differ as to the origin +of the worship. One account says that the Emperor Jên Tsung, of the +Sung dynasty, saw in a dream a beautiful young man with white skin +and black hair, carrying a bow in his hand. He said to the Emperor: +"The star T'ien Kou, Heavenly Dog, in the heavens is hiding the +sun and moon, and on earth devouring small children. It is only my +presence which keeps him at bay." + +On waking, the Emperor at once ordered the young man's portrait to +be painted and exhibited, and from that time childless families would +write the name Chang Hsien on tablets and worship them. + +Another account describes Chang Hsien as the spirit of the star +Chang. In the popular representations Chang Hsien is seen in the +form of a distinguished personage drawing a bow. The spirit of the +star Chang is supposed to preside over the kitchen of Heaven and to +arrange the banquets given by the gods. + + +The Sun-king + +The worship of the sun is part of the State religion, and the officials +make their offerings to the sun-tablet. The moon also is worshipped. At +the harvest moon, the full moon of the eighth month, the Chinese +bow before the heavenly luminary, and each family burns incense as +an offering. Thus "100,000 classes all receive the blessings of the +icy-wheel in the Milky Way along the heavenly street, a mirror always +bright." In Chinese illustrations we see the moon-palace of Ch'ang O, +who stole the pill of immortality and flew to the moon, the fragrant +tree which one of the genii tried to cut down, and a hare pestling +medicine in a mortar. This refers to the following legend. + +The sun and the moon are both included by the Chinese among the +stars, the spirit of the former being called T'ai-yang Ti-chün, +'the Sun-king,' or Jih-kung Ch'ih-chiang, 'Ch'ih-chiang of the Solar +Palace,' that of the latter T'ai-yin Huang-chün, 'the Moon-queen,' +or Yüeh-fu Ch'ang O, 'Ch'ang O of the Lunar Palace.' + +Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yü lived in the reign of Hsien-yüan Huang-ti, who +appointed him Director of Construction and Furnishing. + +When Hsien-yüan went on his visit to Ô-mei Shan, a mountain in +Ssuch'uan, Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yü obtained permission to accompany +him. Their object was to be initiated into the doctrine of immortality. + +The Emperor was instructed in the secrets of the doctrine by T'ai-i +Huang-jên, the spirit of this famous mountain, who, when he was about +to take his departure, begged him to allow Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yü to +remain with him. The new hermit went out every day to gather the +flowering plants which formed the only food of his master, T'ai-i +Huang-jên, and he also took to eating these flowers, so that his body +gradually became spiritualized. + + +The Steep Summit + +One day T'ai-i Huang-jên sent him to cut some bamboos on the summit of +Ô-mei Shan, distant more than three hundred _li_ from the place where +they lived. When he reached the base of the summit, all of a sudden +three giddy peaks confronted him, so dangerous that even the monkeys +and other animals dared not attempt to scale them. But he took his +courage in his hands, climbed the steep slope, and by sheer energy +reached the summit. Having cut the bamboos, he tried to descend, but +the rocks rose like a wall in sharp points all round him, and he could +not find a foothold anywhere. Then, though laden with the bamboos, he +threw himself into the air, and was borne on the wings of the wind. He +came to earth safe and sound at the foot of the mountain, and ran with +the bamboos to his master. On account of this feat he was considered +advanced enough to be admitted to instruction in the doctrine. + + +The Divine Archer + +The Emperor Yao, in the twelfth year of his reign (2346 B.C.), one day, +while walking in the streets of Huai-yang, met a man carrying a bow +and arrows, the bow being bound round with a piece of red stuff. This +was Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yü. He told the Emperor he was a skilful archer +and could fly in the air on the wings of the wind. Yao, to test his +skill, ordered him to shoot one of his arrows at a pine-tree on the +top of a neighbouring mountain. Ch'ih shot an arrow which transfixed +the tree, and then jumped on to a current of air to go and fetch +the arrow back. Because of this the Emperor named him Shên I, 'the +Divine Archer,' attached him to his suite, and appointed him Chief +Mechanician of all Works in Wood. He continued to live only on flowers. + + +Vanquishes the Wind-spirit + +At this time terrible calamities began to lay waste the land. Ten +suns appeared in the sky, the heat of which burnt up all the crops; +dreadful storms uprooted trees and overturned houses; floods overspread +the country. Near the Tung-t'ing Lake a serpent, a thousand feet long, +devoured human beings, and wild boars of enormous size did great +damage in the eastern part of the kingdom. Yao ordered Shên I to go +and slay the devils and monsters who were causing all this mischief, +placing three hundred men at his service for that purpose. + +Shên I took up his post on Mount Ch'ing Ch'iu to study the cause of the +devastating storms, and found that these tempests were released by Fei +Lien, the Spirit of the Wind, who blew them out of a sack. As we shall +see when considering the thunder myths, the ensuing conflict ended +in Fei Lien suing for mercy and swearing friendship to his victor, +whereupon the storms ceased. + + +Dispels the Nine False Suns + +After this first victory Shên I led his troops to the banks of the +Hsi Ho, West River, at Lin Shan. Here he discovered that on three +neighbouring peaks nine extraordinary birds were blowing out fire and +thus forming nine new suns in the sky. Shên I shot nine arrows in +succession, pierced the birds, and immediately the nine false suns +resolved themselves into red clouds and melted away. Shên I and his +soldiers found the nine arrows stuck in nine red stones at the top +of the mountain. + + +Marries the Sister of the Water-spirit + +Shên I then led his soldiers to Kao-liang, where the river had risen +and formed an immense torrent. He shot an arrow into the water, +which thereupon withdrew to its source. In the flood he saw a man +clothed in white, riding a white horse and accompanied by a dozen +attendants. He quickly discharged an arrow, striking him in the left +eye, and the horseman at once took to flight. He was accompanied +by a young woman named Hêng O [22], the younger sister of Ho Po, +the Spirit of the Waters. Shên I shot an arrow into her hair. She +turned and thanked him for sparing her life, adding: "I will agree +to be your wife." After these events had been duly reported to the +Emperor Yao, the wedding took place. + + +Slays Various Dangerous Creatures + +Three months later Yao ordered Shên I to go and kill the great +Tung-t'ing serpent. An arrow in the left eye laid him out stark and +dead. The wild boars also were all caught in traps and slain. As a +reward for these achievements Yao canonized Shên I with the title of +Marquis Pacifier of the Country. + + +Builds a Palace for Chin Mu + +About this time T'ai-wu Fu-jên, the third daughter of Hsi Wang Mu, +had entered a nunnery on Nan-min Shan, to the north of Lo-fou Shan, +where her mother's palace was situated. She mounted a dragon to +visit her mother, and all along the course left a streak of light in +her wake. One day the Emperor Yao, from the top of Ch'ing-yün Shan, +saw this track of light, and asked Shên I the cause of this unusual +phenomenon. The latter mounted the current of luminous air, and +letting it carry him whither it listed, found himself on Lo-fou Shan, +in front of the door of the mountain, which was guarded by a great +spiritual monster. On seeing Shên I this creature called together +a large number of phoenixes and other birds of gigantic size and +set them at Shên I. One arrow, however, settled the matter. They +all fled, the door opened, and a lady followed by ten attendants +presented herself. She was no other than Chin Mu herself. Shên I, +having saluted her and explained the object of his visit, was admitted +to the goddess's palace, and royally entertained. + +"I have heard," said Shên I to her, "that you possess the pills of +immortality; I beg you to give me one or two." "You are a well-known +architect," replied Chin Mu; "please build me a palace near this +mountain." Together they went to inspect a celebrated site known as +Pai-yü-kuei Shan, 'White Jade-tortoise Mountain,' and fixed upon it +as the location of the new abode of the goddess. Shên I had all the +spirits of the mountain to work for him. The walls were built of jade, +sweet-smelling woods were used for the framework and wainscoting, +the roof was of glass, the steps of agate. In a fortnight's time +sixteen palace buildings stretched magnificently along the side of +the mountain. Chin Mu gave to the architect a wonderful pill which +would bestow upon him immortality as well as the faculty of being +able at will to fly through the air. "But," she said, "it must not +be eaten now: you must first go through a twelve months' preparatory +course of exercise and diet, without which the pill will not have all +the desired results." Shên I thanked the goddess, took leave of her, +and, returning to the Emperor, related to him all that had happened. + + +Kills Chisel-tooth + +On reaching home, the archer hid his precious pill under a rafter, +lest anyone should steal it, and then began the preparatory course +in immortality. + +At this time there appeared in the south a strange man named Tso Ch'ih, +'Chisel-tooth.' He had round eyes and a long projecting tooth. He +was a well-known criminal. Yao ordered Shên I and his small band +of brave followers to deal with this new enemy. This extraordinary +man lived in a cave, and when Shên I and his men arrived he emerged +brandishing a padlock. Shên I broke his long tooth by shooting an +arrow at it, and Tso Ch'ih fled, but was struck in the back and laid +low by another arrow from Shên I. The victor took the broken tooth +with him as a trophy. + + +Hêng Ô flies to the Moon + +Hêng Ô, during her husband's absence, saw a white light which seemed +to issue from a beam in the roof, while a most delicious odour filled +every room. By the aid of a ladder she reached up to the spot whence +the light came, found the pill of immortality, and ate it. She suddenly +felt that she was freed from the operation of the laws of gravity +and as if she had wings, and was just essaying her first flight when +Shên I returned. He went to look for his pill, and, not finding it, +asked Hêng Ô what had happened. + +The young wife, seized with fear, opened the window and flew out. Shên +I took his bow and pursued her. The moon was full, the night clear, +and he saw his wife flying rapidly in front of him, only about the +size of a toad. Just when he was redoubling his pace to catch her up +a blast of wind struck him to the ground like a dead leaf. + +Hêng Ô continued her flight until she reached a luminous sphere, +shining like glass, of enormous size, and very cold. The only +vegetation consisted of cinnamon-trees. No living being was to be +seen. All of a sudden she began to cough, and vomited the covering +of the pill of immortality, which was changed into a rabbit as white +as the purest jade. This was the ancestor of the spirituality of the +_yin_, or female, principle. Hêng Ô noticed a bitter taste in her +mouth, drank some dew, and, feeling hungry, ate some cinnamon. She +took up her abode in this sphere. + +As to Shên I, he was carried by the hurricane up into a high +mountain. Finding himself before the door of a palace, he was invited +to enter, and found that it was the palace of Tung-hua Ti-chün, +otherwise Tung Wang Kung, the husband of Hsi Wang Mu. + + +The Sun-palace and the Bird of Dawn + +The God of the Immortals said to Shên I: "You must not be annoyed +with Hêng Ô. Everybody's fate is settled beforehand. Your labours +are nearing an end, and you will become an Immortal. It was I who +let loose the whirlwind that brought you here. Hêng O, through having +borrowed the forces which by right belong to you, is now an Immortal +in the Palace of the Moon. As for you, you deserve much for having +so bravely fought the nine false suns. As a reward you shall have +the Palace of the Sun. Thus the _yin_ and the _yang_ will be united +in marriage." This said, Tung-hua Ti-chün ordered his servants to +bring a red Chinese sarsaparilla cake, with a lunar talisman. + +"Eat this cake," he said; "it will protect you from the heat of the +solar hearth. And by wearing this talisman you will be able at will +to visit the lunar palace of Hêng O; but the converse does not hold +good, for your wife will not have access to the solar palace." This is +why the light of the moon has its birth in the sun, and decreases in +proportion to its distance from the sun, the moon being light or dark +according as the sun comes and goes. Shên I ate the sarsaparilla cake, +attached the talisman to his body, thanked the god, and prepared to +leave. Tung Wang Kung said to him: "The sun rises and sets at fixed +times; you do not yet know the laws of day and night; it is absolutely +necessary for you to take with you the bird with the golden plumage, +which will sing to advise you of the exact times of the rising, +culmination, and setting of the sun." "Where is this bird to be +found?" asked Shên I. "It is the one you hear calling _Ia! Ia!_ +It is the ancestor of the spirituality of the _yang_, or male, +principle. Through having eaten the active principle of the sun, +it has assumed the form of a three-footed bird, which perches on the +_fu-sang_ tree [a tree said to grow at the place where the sun rises] +in the middle of the Eastern Sea. This tree is several thousands of +feet in height and of gigantic girth. The bird keeps near the source +of the dawn, and when it sees the sun taking his morning bath gives +vent to a cry that shakes the heavens and wakes up all humanity. That +is why I ordered Ling Chên-tzu to put it in a cage on T'ao-hua Shan, +Peach-blossom Hill; since then its cries have been less harsh. Go +and fetch it and take it to the Palace of the Sun. Then you will +understand all the laws of the daily movements." He then wrote a +charm which Shên I was to present to Ling Chên-tzu to make him open +the cage and hand the golden bird over to him. + +The charm worked, and Ling Chên-tzu opened the cage. The bird of +golden plumage had a sonorous voice and majestic bearing. "This +bird," he said, "lays eggs which hatch out nestlings with red combs, +who answer him every morning when he starts crowing. He is usually +called the cock of heaven, and the cocks down here which crow morning +and evening are descendants of the celestial cock." + + +Shên I visits the Moon + +Shên I, riding on the celestial bird, traversed the air and reached +the disk of the sun just at mid-day. He found himself carried into +the centre of an immense horizon, as large as the earth, and did not +perceive the rotatory movement of the sun. He then enjoyed complete +happiness without care or trouble. The thought of the happy hours +passed with his wife Hêng O, however, came back to memory, and, borne +on a ray of sunlight, he flew to the moon. He saw the cinnamon-trees +and the frozen-looking horizon. Going to a secluded spot, he found +Hêng O there all alone. On seeing him she was about to run away, +but Shên I took her hand and reassured her. "I am now living in the +solar palace," he said; "do not let the past annoy you." Shên I cut +down some cinnamon-trees, used them for pillars, shaped some precious +stones, and so built a palace, which he named Kuang-han Kung, 'Palace +of Great Cold.' From that time forth, on the fifteenth day of every +moon, he went to visit her in her palace. That is the conjunction of +the _yang_ and _yin_, male and female principles, which causes the +great brilliancy of the moon at that epoch. + +Shên I, on returning to his solar kingdom, built a wonderful palace, +which he called the Palace of the Lonely Park. + +From that time the sun and moon each had their ruling sovereign. This +_régime_ dates from the forty-ninth year (2309 B.C.) of Yao's reign. + +When the old Emperor was informed that Shên I and his wife had both +gone up to Heaven he was much grieved to lose the man who had rendered +him such valuable service, and bestowed upon him the posthumous title +of Tsung Pu, 'Governor of Countries.' In the representations of this +god and goddess the former is shown holding the sun, the latter the +moon. The Chinese add the sequel that Hêng O became changed into a +toad, whose outline is traceable on the moon's surface. + + +Star-worship + +The star-deities are adored by parents on behalf of their children; +they control courtship and marriage, bring prosperity or adversity in +business, send pestilence and war, regulate rainfall 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. The worship is performed in the native +homes either by astrologers engaged for that purpose or by Taoist +priests. In times of sickness, ten paper star-gods are arranged, +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 propitiation of +the good star-gods is in the hope that they will expel the evil stars, +and happiness thus be obtained. + +The practical effect of this worship is seen in the following +examples taken from the Chinese list of 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 others, make +up the celestial galaxy worshipped by China's millions: the Orphan +Star enables a woman to become a man; the Star of Pleasure decides +on betrothals, binding the feet of those destined to be lovers with +silver cords; the Bonepiercing Star produces rheumatism; the Morning +Star, if not worshipped, kills the father or mother during the year; +the Balustrade Star promotes lawsuits; the Three-corpse Star controls +suicide, the Peach-blossom Star lunacy; and so on. + + +The Herdsman and the Weaver-girl + +In the myths and legends which have clustered about the observations of +the stars by the Chinese there are subjects for pictorial illustration +without number. One of these stories is the fable of Aquila and Vega, +known in Chinese mythology as the Herdsman and the Weaver-girl. The +latter, the daughter of the Sun-god, was so constantly busied with her +loom that her father became worried at her close habits and thought +that by marrying her to a neighbour, who herded cattle on the banks +of the Silver Stream of Heaven (the Milky Way), she might awake to +a brighter manner of living. + +No sooner did the maiden become wife than her habits and character +utterly changed for the worse. She became not only very merry and +lively, but quite forsook loom and needle, giving up her nights +and days to play and idleness; no silly lover could have been more +foolish than she. The Sun-king, in great wrath at all this, concluded +that the husband was the cause of it, and determined to separate the +couple. So he ordered him to remove to the other side of the river of +stars, and told him that hereafter they should meet only once a year, +on the seventh night of the seventh month. To make a bridge over the +flood of stars, the Sun-king called myriads of magpies, who thereupon +flew together, and, making a bridge, supported the poor lover on +their wings and backs as if on a roadway of solid land. So, bidding +his weeping wife farewell, the lover-husband sorrowfully crossed the +River of Heaven, and all the magpies instantly flew away. But the two +were separated, the one to lead his ox, the other to ply her shuttle +during the long hours of the day with diligent toil, and the Sun-king +again rejoiced in his daughter's industry. + +At last the time for their reunion drew near, and only one fear +possessed the loving wife. What if it should rain? For the River +of Heaven is always full to the brim, and one extra drop causes a +flood which sweeps away even the bird-bridge. But not a drop fell; +all the heavens were clear. The magpies flew joyfully in myriads, +making a way for the tiny feet of the little lady. Trembling with joy, +and with heart fluttering more than the bridge of wings, she crossed +the River of Heaven and was in the arms of her husband. This she did +every year. The husband stayed on his side of the river, and the +wife came to him on the magpie bridge, save on the sad occasions +when it rained. So every year the people hope for clear weather, +and the happy festival is celebrated alike by old and young. + +These two constellations are worshipped principally by women, that +they may gain cunning in the arts of needlework and making of fancy +flowers. Water-melons, fruits, vegetables, cakes, etc., are placed +with incense in the reception-room, and before these offerings are +performed the kneeling and the knocking of the head on the ground in +the usual way. + + +The Twenty-eight Constellations + +Sacrifices were offered to these spirits by the Emperor on the marble +altar of the Temple of Heaven, and by the high officials throughout +the provinces. Of the twenty-eight the following are regarded as +propitious--namely, the Horned, Room, Tail, Sieve, Bushel, House, +Wall, Mound, Stomach, End, Bristling, Well, Drawn-bow, and Revolving +Constellations; the Neck, Bottom, Heart, Cow, Female, Empty, Danger, +Astride, Cock, Mixed, Demon, Willow, Star, Wing, are unpropitious. + +The twenty-eight constellations seem to have become the abodes of gods +as a result of the defeat of a Taoist Patriarch T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, +who had espoused the cause of the tyrant Chou, when he and all his +followers were slaughtered by the heavenly hosts in the terrible +catastrophe known as the Battle of the Ten Thousand Immortals. Chiang +Tzu-ya as a reward conferred on them the appanage of the twenty-eight +constellations. The five planets, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and +Saturn, are also the abodes of stellar divinities, called the White, +Green, Black, Red, and Yellow Rulers respectively. Stars good and +bad are all likewise inhabited by gods or demons. + + +A Victim of Ta Chi + +Concerning Tzu-wei Hsing, the constellation Tzu-wei (north circumpolar +stars), of which the stellar deity is Po I-k'ao, the following legend +is related in the _Fêng shên yen i_. + +Po I-k'ao was the eldest son of Wên Wang, and governed the kingdom +during the seven years that the old King Was detained as a prisoner of +the tyrant Chou. He did everything possible to procure his father's +release. Knowing the tastes of the cruel King, he sent him for his +harem ten of the prettiest women who could be found, accompanied by +seven chariots made of perfumed wood, and a white-faced monkey of +marvellous intelligence. Besides these he included in his presents +a magic carpet, on which it was necessary only to sit in order to +recover immediately from the effects of drunkenness. + +Unfortunately for Po I-k'ao, Chou's favourite concubine, Ta +Chi, conceived a passion for him and had recourse to all sorts +of ruses to catch him in her net; but his conduct was throughout +irreproachable. Vexed by his indifference, she tried slander in order +to bring about his ruin. But her calumnies did not at first have +the result she expected. Chou, after inquiry, was convinced of the +innocence of Po. But an accident spoiled everything. In the middle +of an amusing _séance_ the monkey which had been given to the King +by Po perceived some sweets in the hand of Ta Chi, and, jumping on +to her body, snatched them from Her. The King and his concubine were +furious, Chou had the monkey killed forthwith, and Ta Chi accused Po +I-k'ao of having brought the animal into the palace with the object +of making an attempt on the lives of the King and herself. But the +Prince explained that the monkey, being only an animal, could not +grasp even the first idea of entering into a conspiracy. + +Shortly after this Po committed an unpardonable fault which changed +the goodwill of the King into mortal enmity. He allowed himself to +go so far as to suggest to the King that he should break off his +relations with this infamous woman, the source of all the woes which +were desolating the kingdom, and when Ta Chi on this account grossly +insulted him he struck her with his lute. + +For this offence Ta Chi caused him to be crucified in the palace. Large +nails were driven through his hands and feet, and his flesh was cut +off in pieces. Not content with ruining Po I-k'ao, this wretched +woman wished also to ruin Wen Wang. She therefore advised the King to +have the flesh of the murdered man made up into rissoles and sent as +a present to his father. If he refused to eat the flesh of his own +son he was to be accused of contempt for the King, and there would +thus be a pretext for having him executed. Wen Wang, being versed in +divination and the science of the _pa kua_, Eight Trigrams, knew that +these rissoles contained the flesh of his son, and to avoid the snare +spread for him he ate three of the rissoles in the presence of the +royal envoys. On their return the latter reported this to the King, +who found himself helpless on learning of Wen Wang's conduct. + +Po I-k'ao was canonized by Chiang Tzu-ya, and appointed ruler of the +constellation Tzu-wei of the North Polar heavens. + + +Myths of Time + +T'ai Sui is the celestial spirit who presides over the year. He +is the President of the Ministry of Time. This god is much to +be feared. Whoever offends against him is sure to be destroyed. He +strikes when least expected to. T'ai Sui is also the Ministry itself, +whose members, numbering a hundred and twenty, are set over time, +years, months, and days. The conception is held by some writers to +be of Chaldeo-Assyrian origin. + +The god T'ai Sui is not mentioned in the T'ang and Sung rituals, but in +the Yüan dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) sacrifices were offered to him in the +College of the Grand Historiographer whenever any work of importance +was about to be undertaken. Under this dynasty the sacrifices were +offered to T'ai Sui and to the ruling gods of the months and of the +days. But these sacrifices were not offered at regular times: it +was only at the beginning of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (1644-1912) +that it was decided to offer the sacrifices at fixed periods. + + +The Planet Jupiter + +T'ai Sui corresponds to the planet Jupiter. He travels across the +sky, passing through the twelve sidereal mansions. He is a stellar +god. Therefore an altar is raised to him and sacrifices are offered +on it under the open sky. This practice dates from the beginning of +the Ming dynasty, when the Emperor T'ai Tsu ordered sacrifices to +this god to be made throughout the Empire. According to some authors, +he corresponds to the god of the twelve sidereal mansions. He is also +variously represented as the moon, which turns to the left in the sky, +and the sun, which turns to the right. The diviners gave to T'ai Sui +the title of Grand Marshal, following the example of the usurper Wang +Mang (A.D. 9-23) of the Western Han dynasty, who gave that title to +the year-star. + + +Legend of T'ai Sui + +The following is the legend of T'ai Sui. + +T'ai Sui was the son of the Emperor Chou, the last of the Yin +dynasty. His mother was Queen Chiang. When he was born he looked +like a lump of formless flesh. The infamous Ta Chi, the favourite +concubine of this wicked Emperor, at once informed him that a monster +had been born in the palace, and the over-credulous sovereign ordered +that it should immediately be cast outside the city. Shên Chên-jên, +who was passing, saw the small abandoned one, and said: "This is an +Immortal who has just been born." With his knife he cut open the caul +which enveloped it, and the child was exposed. + +His protector carried him to the cave Shui Lien, where he led the +life of a hermit, and entrusted the infant to Ho Hsien-ku, who acted +as his nurse and brought him up. + +The child's hermit-name was Yin Ting-nu, his ordinary name Yin +No-cha, but during his boyhood he was known as Yin Chiao, _i.e._ +'Yin the Deserted of the Suburb,' When he had reached an age when he +was sufficiently intelligent, his nurse informed him that he was not +her son, but really the son of the Emperor Chou, who, deceived by the +calumnies of his favourite Ta Chi, had taken him for an evil monster +and had him cast out of the palace. His mother had been thrown down +from an upper storey and killed. Yin Chiao went to his rescuer and +begged him to allow him to avenge his mother's death. The Goddess +T'ien Fei, the Heavenly Concubine, picked out two magic weapons from +the armoury in the cave, a battle-axe and club, both of gold, and +gave them to Yin Chiao. When the Shang army was defeated at Mu Yeh, +Yin Chiao broke into a tower where Ta Chi was, seized her, and brought +her before the victor, King Wu, who gave him permission to split her +head open with his battle-axe. But Ta Chi was a spiritual hen-pheasant +(some say a spiritual vixen). She transformed herself into smoke and +disappeared. To reward Yin Chiao for his filial piety and bravery +in fighting the demons, Yü Ti canonized him with the title T'ai Sui +Marshal Yin. + +According to another version of the legend, Yin Chiao fought on +the side of the Yin against Wu Wang, and after many adventures was +caught by Jan Têng between two mountains, which he pressed together, +leaving only Yin Chiao's head exposed above the summits. The general +Wu Chi promptly cut it off with a spade. Chiang Tz[u)]-ya subsequently +canonized Yin Chiao. + + +Worship of T'ai Sui + +The worship of T'ai Sui seems to have first taken place in the reign +of Shên Tsung (A.D. 1068-86) of the Sung dynasty, and was continued +during the remainder of the Monarchical Period. The object of the +worship is to avert calamities, T'ai Sui being a dangerous spirit +who can do injury to palaces and cottages, to people in their houses +as well as to travellers on the roads. But he has this peculiarity, +that he injures persons and things not in the district in which he +himself is, but in those districts which adjoin it. Thus, if some +constructive work is undertaken in a region where T'ai Sui happens +to be, the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts take precautions +against his evil influence. This they generally do by hanging out the +appropriate talisman. In order to ascertain in what region T'ai Sui +is at any particular time, an elaborate diagram is consulted. This +consists of a representation of the twelve terrestrial branches +or stems, _ti chih_> and the ten celestial trunks, _t'ien kan,_ +indicating the cardinal points and the intermediate points, north-east, +north-west, south-east, and south-west. The four cardinal points are +further verified with the aid of the Five Elements, the Five Colours, +and the Eight Trigrams. By using this device, it is possible to find +the geographical position of T'ai Sui during the current year, the +position of threatened districts, and the methods to be employed to +provide against danger. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain + + +The Ministry of Thunder and Storms + +As already noted, affairs in the Otherworld are managed by official +Bureaux or Ministries very similar to those on earth. The _Fêng shên +yen i_ mentions several of these, and gives full details of their +constitution. The first is the Ministry of Thunder and Storms. This +is composed of a large number of officials. The principal ones are +Lei Tsu, the Ancestor of Thunder, Lei Kung, the Duke of Thunder, Tien +Mu, the Mother of Lightning, Feng Po, the Count of Wind, and Y['u] +Shih, the Master of Rain. These correspond to the Buddhist Asuras, +the "fourth class of sentient beings, the mightiest of all demons, +titanic enemies of the Dêvas," and the Vedic Maruta, storm-demons. In +the temples Lei Tsu is placed in the centre with the other four to +right and left. There are also sometimes represented other gods of +rain, or attendants. These are Hsing T'ien Chün and T'ao T'ien Chün, +both officers of Wen Chung, or Lei Tsu, Ma Yüan-shuai, Generalissimo +Ma, whose exploits are referred to later, and others. + + +The President of the Ministry of Thunder + +This divinity has three eyes, one in the middle of his forehead, from +which, when open, a ray of white light proceeds to a distance of more +than two feet. Mounted on a black unicorn, he traverses millions of +miles in the twinkling of an eye. + +His origin is ascribed to a man named Wên Chung, generally known +as Wên Chung T'ai-shih, 'the Great Teacher Wên Chung,' He was +a minister of the tyrant king Chou (1154-1122 B.C.), and fought +against the armies of the Chou dynasty. Being defeated, he fled +to the mountains of Yen, Yen Shan, where he met Ch'ih Ching-tzu, +one of the alleged discoverers of fire, and joined battle with him; +the latter, however, flashed his _yin-yang_ mirror at the unicorn, +and put it out of action. Lei Chên-tzu, one of Wu Wang's marshals, +then struck the animal with his staff, and severed it in twain. + +Wên Chung escaped in the direction of the mountains of Chüeh-lung Ling, +where another marshal, Yün Chung-tzu, barred his way. Yün's hands had +the power of producing lightning, and eight columns of mysterious fire +suddenly came out of the earth, completely enveloping Wên Chung. They +were thirty feet high and ten feet in circumference. Ninety fiery +dragons came out of each and flew away up into the air. The sky was +like a furnace, and the earth shook with the awful claps of thunder. In +this fiery prison Wên Chung died. + +When the new dynasty finally proved victorious, Chiang Tzu-ya, by +order of Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun, conferred on Wên Chung the supreme +direction of the Ministry of Thunder, appointing him celestial prince +and plenipotentiary defender of the laws governing the distribution of +clouds and rain. His full title was Celestial and Highly-honoured Head +of the Nine Orbits of the Heavens, Voice of the Thunder, and Regulator +of the Universe. His birthday is celebrated on the twenty-fourth day +of the sixth moon. + + +The Duke of Thunder + +The Spirit of Thunder, for whom Lei Tsu is often mistaken, is +represented as an ugly, black, bat-winged demon, with clawed feet, +monkey's head, and eagle's beak, who holds in one hand a steel +chisel, and in the other a spiritual hammer, with which he beats +numerous drums strung about him, thus producing the terrific noise +of thunder. According to Chinese reasoning it is the sound of these +drums, and not the lightning, which causes death. + +A. Gruenwedel, in his _Guide to the Lamaist Collection of Prince +Uchtomsky,_ p. 161, states that the Chino-Japanese God of Thunder, +Lei Kung, has the shape of the Indian divine bird Garuda. Are we to +suppose, then, that the Chinese Lei Kung is of Indian origin? In modern +pictures the God of Thunder is depicted with a cock's head and claws, +carrying in one hand the hammer, in the other the chisel. We learn, +however, from Wang Ch'ung's _Lun Hêng_ that in the first century B.C., +when Buddhism was not yet introduced into China, the 'Thunderer' was +represented as a strong man, not as a bird, with one hand dragging +a cluster of drums, and with the other brandishing a hammer. Thus +Lei Kung existed already in China when the latter received her first +knowledge of India. Yet his modern image may well owe its wings to the +Indian rain-god Vajrapani, who in one form appears with Garuda wings. + +Lei Kung P'u-sa, the avatar of Lei Kung (whose existence as the Spirit +of Thunder is denied by at least one Chinese writer), has made various +appearances on the earth. One of these is described below. + + +Lei Kung in the Tree + +A certain Yeh Ch'ien-chao of Hsin Chou, when a youth, used to climb +the mountain Chien-ch'ang Shan for the purpose of cutting firewood and +collecting medicinal herbs. One day when he had taken refuge under +a tree during a rain-storm there was a loud clap of thunder, and he +saw a winged being, with a blue face, large mouth, and bird's claws, +caught in a cleft of the tree. This being addressed Yeh, saying: +"I am Lei Kung. In splitting this tree I got caught in it; if you +will free me I will reward you handsomely." The woodcutter opened the +cleft wider by driving in some stones as wedges, and liberated the +prisoner. "Return to this spot to-morrow," said the latter, "and I +will reward you." The next day the woodcutter kept the appointment, +and received from Lei Kung a book. "If you consult this work," he +explained, "you will be able at will to bring thunder or rain, cure +sickness, or assuage sorrow. We are five brothers, of whom I am the +youngest. When you want to bring rain call one or other of my brothers; +but call me only in case of pressing necessity, because I have a bad +character; but I will come if it is really necessary." Having said +these words, he disappeared. + +Yeh Ch'ien-chao, by means of the prescriptions contained in the +mysterious book, could cure illnesses as easily as the sun dissipates +the morning mist. One day, when he was intoxicated and had gone to +bed in the temple of Chi-chou Ssu, the magistrate wished to arrest and +punish him. But when he reached the steps of the _yamên_, Ch'ien-chao +called Lei Kung to his aid. A terrible clap of thunder immediately +resounded throughout the district. The magistrate, nearly dead with +fright, at once dismissed the case without punishing the culprit. The +four brothers never failed to come to his aid. + +By the use of his power Ch'ien-chao saved many regions from famine +by bringing timely rain. + + + +The Mysterious Bottle + +Another legend relates that an old woman living in Kiangsi had her arm +broken through being struck by lightning, when a voice from above was +heard saying: "I have made a mistake." A bottle fell out of space, and +the voice again said: "Apply the contents and you will be healed at +once." This being done, the old woman's arm was promptly mended. The +villagers, regarding the contents of the bottle as divine medicine, +wished to take it away and hide it for future use, but several of +them together could not lift it from the ground. Suddenly, however, +it rose up and disappeared into space. Other persons in Kiangsi were +also struck, and the same voice was heard to say: "Apply some grubs +to the throat and they will recover." After this had been done the +victims returned to consciousness none the worse for their experience. + +The worship of Lei Kung seems to have been carried on regularly from +about the time of the Christian era. + + +Lei Chên-tzu + +Another Son of Thunder is Lei Chên-tzu, mentioned above, whose name +when a child was Wên Yü, who was hatched from an egg after a clap +of thunder and found by the soldiers of Wên Wang in some brushwood +near an old tomb. The infant's chief characteristic was its brilliant +eyes. Wên Wang, who already had ninety-nine children, adopted it as +his hundredth, but gave it to a hermit named Yün Chung-tzu to rear +as his disciple. The hermit showed him the way to rescue his adopted +father from the tyrant who held him prisoner. In seeking for some +powerful weapon the child found on the hillside two apricots, and +ate them both. He then noticed that wings had grown on his shoulders, +and was too much ashamed to return home. + +But the hermit, who knew intuitively what had taken place, sent a +servant to seek him. When they met the servant said: "Do you know that +your face is completely altered?" The mysterious fruit had not only +caused Lei Chên-tzu to grow wings, known as Wings of the Wind and +Thunder, but his face had become green, his nose long and pointed, +and two tusks protruded horizontally from each side of his mouth, +while his eyes shone like mirrors. + +Lei Chên-tzu now went and rescued Wên Wang, dispersing his enemies +by means of his mystical power and bringing the old man back on his +shoulders. Having placed him in safety he returned to the hermit. + + +The Mother of Lightning + +This divinity is represented as a female figure, gorgeously apparelled +in blue, green, red, and white, holding in either hand a mirror from +which proceed two broad streams or flashes of light. Lightning, say +the Chinese, is caused by the rubbing together of the _yin_ and the +_yang_, just as sparks of fire may be produced by the friction of +two substances. + + +The Origin of the Spirit of Lightning + +Tung Wang Kung, the King of the Immortals, was playing at pitch-pot +[23] with Yü Nü. He lost; whereupon Heaven smiled, and from its +half-open mouth a ray of light came out. This was lightning; it is +regarded as feminine because it is supposed to come from the earth, +which is of the _yin_, or female, principle. + + +The God of the Wind + +Fêng Po, the God of the Wind, is represented as an old man with a +white beard, yellow cloak, and blue and red cap. He holds a large +sack, and directs the wind which comes from its mouth in any direction +he pleases. + +There are various ideas regarding the nature of this deity. He is +regarded as a stellar divinity under the control of the star Ch'i, +[24] because the wind blows at the time when the moon leaves that +celestial mansion. He is also said to be a dragon called Fei Lien, at +first one of the supporters of the rebel Ch'ih Yu, who was defeated +by Huang Ti. Having been transformed into a spiritual monster, he +stirred up tremendous winds in the southern regions. The Emperor +Yao sent Shên I with three hundred soldiers to quiet the storms and +appease Ch'ih Yu's relatives, who were wreaking their vengeance on the +people. Shên I ordered the people to spread a long cloth in front of +their houses, fixing it with stones. The wind, blowing against this, +had to change its direction. Shên I then flew on the wind to the top +of a high mountain, whence he saw a monster at the base. It had the +shape of a huge yellow and white sack, and kept inhaling and exhaling +in great gusts. Shên I, concluding that this was the cause of all +these storms, shot an arrow and hit the monster, whereupon it took +refuge in a deep cave. Here it turned on Shên I and, drawing a sword, +dared him to attack the Mother of the Winds. Shên I, however, bravely +faced the monster and discharged another arrow, this time hitting it +in the knee. The monster immediately threw down its sword and begged +that its life might be spared. + +Fei Lien is elsewhere described as a dragon who was originally one of +the wicked ministers of the tyrant Chou, and could walk with unheard-of +swiftness. Both he and his son Ô Lai, who was so strong that he could +tear a tiger or rhinoceros to pieces with his hands, were killed when +in the service of Chou Wang. Fei Lien is also said to have the body +of a stag, about the size of a leopard, with a bird's head, horns, +and a serpent's tail, and to be able to make the wind blow whenever +he wishes. + + +The Master of Rain + +Yü Shih, the Master of Rain, clad in yellow scale-armour, with a blue +hat and yellow busby, stands on a cloud and from a watering-can pours +rain upon the earth. Like many other gods, however, he is represented +in various forms. Sometimes he holds a plate, on which is a small +dragon, in his left hand, while with his right he pours down the +rain. He is obviously the Parjanya of Vedism. + +According to a native account, the God of Rain is one Ch'ih Sung-tzu, +who appeared during a terrible drought in the reign of Shên Nung +(2838-2698 B.C.), and owing to his reputed magical power was requested +by the latter to bring rain from the sky. "Nothing is easier," he +replied; "pour a bottleful of water into an earthen bowl and give it +to me." This being done, he plucked from a neighbouring mountain a +branch of a tree, soaked it in the water, and with it sprinkled the +earth. Immediately clouds gathered and rain fell in torrents, filling +the rivers to overflowing. Ch'ih Sung-tzu was then honoured as the God +of Rain, and his images show him holding the mystic bowl. He resides +in the K'un-lun Mountains, and has many extraordinary peculiarities, +such as the power to go through water without getting wet, to pass +through fire without being burned, and to float in space. + +This Rain-god also assumes the form of a silkworm chrysalis in +another account. He is there believed to possess a concubine who has +a black face, holds a serpent in each hand, and has other serpents, +red and green, reposing on her right and left ears respectively; +also a mysterious bird, with only one leg, the _shang yang_, which +can change its height at will and drink the seas dry. The following +legend is related of this bird. + + +The One-legged Bird + +At the time when Hsüan-ming Ta-jên instructed Fei Lien in the secrets +of magic, the latter saw a wonderful bird which drew in water with its +beak and blew it out again in the shape of rain. Fei lien tamed it, +and would take it about in his sleeve. + +Later on a one-legged bird was seen in the palace of the Prince of +Ch'i walking up and down and hopping in front of the throne. Being +much puzzled, the Prince sent a messenger to Lu to inquire of Confucius +concerning this strange behaviour. "This bird is a _shang yang_" said +Confucius; "its appearance is a sign of rain. In former times the +children used to amuse themselves by hopping on one foot, knitting +their eyebrows, and saying: 'It will rain, because the _shang yang_ +is disporting himself.' Since this bird has gone to Ch'i, heavy rain +will fall, and the people should be told to dig channels and repair +the dykes, for the whole country will be inundated." Not only Ch'i, but +all the adjacent kingdoms were flooded; all sustained grievous damage +except Ch'i, where the necessary precautions had been taken. This +caused Duke Ching to exclaim: "Alas! how few listen to the words of +the sages!" + + +Ma Yüan-shuai + +Ma Yüan-shuai is a three-eyed monster condemned by Ju Lai to +reincarnation for excessive cruelty in the extermination of evil +spirits. In order to obey this command he entered the womb of Ma +Chin-mu in the form of five globes of fire. Being a precocious youth, +he could fight when only three days old, and killed the Dragon-king +of the Eastern Sea. From his instructor he received a spiritual work +dealing with wind, thunder, snakes, etc., and a triangular piece of +stone which he could at will change into anything he liked. By order of +Yü Ti he subdued the Spirits of the Wind and Fire, the Blue Dragon, +the King of the Five Dragons, and the Spirit of the Five Hundred +Fire Ducks, all without injury to himself. For these and many other +enterprises he was rewarded by Yü Ti with various magic articles +and with the title of Generalissimo of the West, and is regarded as +so successful an interceder with Yü Ti that he is prayed to for all +sorts of benefits. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Myths of the Waters + + +The Dragons + +The dragons are spirits of the waters. "The dragon is a kind of being +whose miraculous changes are inscrutable." In a sense the dragon +is the type of a man, self-controlled, and with powers that verge +upon the supernatural. In China the dragon, except as noted below, +is not a power for evil, but a beneficent being producing rain and +representing the fecundating principle in nature. He is the essence +of the _yang_, or male, principle. "He controls the rain, and so +holds in his power prosperity and peace." The evil dragons are those +introduced by the Buddhists, who applied the current dragon legends +to the _nagas_ inhabiting the mountains. These mountain _nagas_, or +dragons (perhaps originally dreaded mountain tribes), are harmful, +those inhabiting lakes and rivers friendly and helpful. The dragon, +the "chief of the three hundred and sixty scaly reptiles," is most +generally represented as having the head of a horse and the tail of a +snake, with wings on its sides. It has four legs. The imperial dragon +has five claws on each foot, other dragons only four. The dragon is +also said to have nine 'resemblances': "its horns resemble those of +a deer, its head that of a camel, its eyes those of a devil, its neck +that of a snake, its abdomen that of a large cockle, its scales those +of a carp, its claws those of an eagle, the soles of its feet those of +a tiger, its ears those of an ox;" but some have no ears, the organ of +hearing being said to be in the horns, or the creature "hears through +its horns." These various properties are supposed to indicate the +"fossil remnants of primitive worship of many animals." The small +dragon is like the silk caterpillar. The large dragon fills the Heaven +and the earth. Before the dragon, sometimes suspended from his neck, +is a pearl. This represents the sun. There are azure, scaly, horned, +hornless, winged, etc., dragons, which apparently evolve one out +of the other: "a horned dragon," for example, "in a thousand years +changes to a flying dragon." + +The dragon is also represented as the father of the great emperors +of ancient times. His bones, teeth, and saliva are employed as a +medicine. He has the power of transformation and of rendering himself +visible or invisible at pleasure. In the spring he ascends to the +skies, and in the autumn buries himself in the watery depths. Some are +wingless, and rise into the air by their own inherent power. There is +the celestial dragon, who guards the mansions of the gods and supports +them so that they do not fall; the divine dragon, who causes the winds +to blow and produces rain for the benefit of mankind; the earth-dragon, +who marks out the courses of rivers and streams; and the dragon of the +hidden treasures, who watches over the wealth concealed from mortals. + +The Buddhists count their dragons in number equal to the fish of the +great deep, which defies arithmetical computation, and can be expressed +only 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 a dragon. "We see him," they say. The scattering of the cloud is +his disappearance. He rules the hills, is connected with _fêng-shui_ +(geomancy), dwells round the graves, is associated with the Confucian +worship, is the Neptune of the sea, and appears on dry land. + + +The Dragon-kings + +The Sea-dragon Kings live in gorgeous palaces in the depths of the +sea, where they feed on pearls and opals. There are five of these +divinities, the chief being in the centre, and the other four occupying +the north, the west, the south, and the east. Each is a league in +length, and so bulky that in shifting its posture it tosses one +mountain against another. It has five feet, one of them being in the +middle of its belly, and each foot is armed with five sharp claws. It +can reach into the heavens, and stretch itself into all quarters of +the sea. It has a glowing armour of yellow scales, a beard under its +long snout, a hairy tail, and shaggy legs. Its forehead projects over +its blazing eyes, its ears are small and thick, its mouth gaping, +its tongue long, and its teeth sharp. Fish are boiled by the blast of +its breath, and roasted by the fiery exhalations of its body. When it +rises to the surface the whole ocean surges, waterspouts foam, and +typhoons rage. When it flies, wingless, through the air, the winds +howl, torrents of rain descend, houses are unroofed, the firmament +is filled with a din, and whatever lies along its route is swept away +with a roar in the hurricane created by the speed of its passage. + +The five Sea-dragon Kings are all immortal. They know each other's +thoughts, plans, and wishes without intercommunication. Like all the +other gods they go once a year to the superior Heavens, to make an +annual report to the Supreme Ruler; but they go in the third month, +at which time none of the other gods dare appear, and their stay +above is but brief. They generally remain in the depths of the ocean, +where their courts are filled with their progeny, their dependents, +and their attendants, and where the gods and genii sometimes visit +them. Their palaces, of divers coloured transparent stones, with +crystal doors, are said to have been seen in the early morning by +persons gazing into the deep waters. + + +The Foolish Dragon + +The part of the great Buddha legend referring to the dragon is +as follows: + +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?" 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 am." + +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? Cross the +sea, and you will find forests of fruit 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?" said 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." The dragon returned +to the shore. As the monkey was tardy in coming down from 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." + + +The Ministry of Waters + +In the spirit-world there is a Ministry which controls all things +connected with the waters on earth, salt or fresh. Its main +divisions are the Department of Salt Waters, presided over by four +Dragon-kings--those of the East, South, West, and North--and the +Department of Sweet Waters, presided over by the Four Kings (_Ssu +Tu_) of the four great rivers--the Blue (Chiang), Yellow (Ho), Huai, +and Ch'i--and the Dragon-spirits who control the Secondary Waters, the +rivers, springs, lakes, pools, rapids. Into the names and functions of +the very large number of officials connected with these departments +it is unnecessary to enter. It will be sufficient here to refer only +to those whose names are connected with myth or legend. + + +An Unauthorized Portrait + +One of these legends relates to the visit of Ch'in Shih Huang-ti, +the First Emperor, to the Spirit of the Sea, Yang Hou, originally +a marquis (_bou_) of the State Yang, who became a god through being +drowned in the sea. + +Po Shih, a Taoist priest, told the Emperor that an enormous oyster +vomited from the sea a mysterious substance which accumulated in the +form of a tower, and was known as 'the market of the sea' (Chinese for +'mirage'). Every year, at a certain period, the breath from his mouth +was like the rays of the sun. The Emperor expressed a wish to see +it, and Po Shih said he would write a letter to the God of the Sea, +and the next day the Emperor could behold the wonderful sight. + +The Emperor then remembered a dream he had had the year before in +which he saw two men fighting for the sun. The one killed the other, +and carried it off. He therefore wished to visit the country where +the sun rose. Po Shih said that all that was necessary was to throw +rocks into the sea and build a bridge across them. Thereupon he +rang his magic bell, the earth shook, and rocks began to rise up; +but as they moved too slowly he struck them with his whip, and blood +came from them which left red marks in many places. The row of rocks +extended as far as the shore of the sun-country, but to build the +bridge across them was found to be beyond the reach of human skill. + +So Po Shih sent another messenger to the God of the Sea, requesting +him to raise a pillar and place a beam across it which could be used +as a bridge. The submarine spirits came and placed themselves at the +service of the Emperor, who asked for an interview with the god. To +this the latter agreed on condition that no one should make a portrait +of him, he being very ugly. Instantly a stone gangway 100,000 feet +long rose out of the sea, and the Emperor, mounting his horse, went +with his courtiers to the palace of the god. Among his followers was +one Lu Tung-shih, who tried to draw a portrait of the god by using +his foot under the surface of the water. Detecting this manoeuvre, +the god was incensed, and said to the Emperor: "You have broken your +word; did you bring Lu here to insult me? Retire at once, or evil will +befall you." The Emperor, seeing that the situation was precarious, +mounted his horse and galloped off. As soon as he reached the beach, +the stone cause-way sank, and all his suite perished in the waves. One +of the Court magicians said to the Emperor: "This god ought to be +feared as much as the God of Thunder; then he could be made to help +us. To-day a grave mistake has been made." For several days after +this incident the waves beat upon the beach with increasing fury. The +Emperor then built a temple and a pagoda to the god on Chih-fu Shan +and Wên-têng Shan respectively; by which act of propitiation he was +apparently appeased. + + +The Shipwrecked Servant + +Once the Eight Immortals (see Chapter XI) were on their way to +Ch'ang-li Shan to celebrate the birthday anniversary of Hsien Wêng, +the God of Longevity. They had with them a servant who bore the +presents they intended to offer to the god. When they reached the +seashore the Immortals walked on the waves without any difficulty, +but Lan Ts'ai-ho remarked that the servant was unable to follow them, +and said that a means of transport must be found for him. So Ts'ao +Kuo-chiu took a plank of cypress-wood and made a raft. But when they +were in mid-ocean a typhoon arose and upset the raft, and servant +and presents sank to the bottom of the sea. + +Regarding this as the hostile act of a water-devil, the Immortals said +they must demand an explanation from the Dragon-king, Ao Ch'in. Li +T'ieh-kuai took his gourd, and, directing the mouth toward the bottom +of the sea, created so brilliant a light that it illuminated the whole +palace of the Sea-king. Ao Ch'in, surprised, asked where this powerful +light originated, and deputed a courier to ascertain its cause. + +To this messenger the Immortals made their complaint. "All we want," +they added, "is that the Dragon-king shall restore to us our servant +and the presents." On this being reported to Ao Ch'in he suspected +his son of being the cause, and, having established his guilt, +severely reprimanded him. The young Prince took his sword, and, +followed by an escort, went to find those who had made the complaint +to his father. As soon as he caught sight of the Immortals he began +to inveigh against them. + + +A Battle and its Results + +Han Hsiang Tzu, not liking this undeserved abuse, changed his flute +into a fishing-line, and as soon as the Dragon-prince was within reach +caught him on the hook, with intent to retain him as a hostage. The +Prince's escort returned in great haste and informed Ao Ch'in of +what had occurred. The latter declared that his son was in the wrong, +and proposed to restore the shipwrecked servant and the presents. The +Court officers, however, held a different opinion. "These Immortals," +they said, "dare to hold captive your Majesty's son merely on account +of a few lost presents and a shipwrecked servant. This is a great +insult, which we ask permission to avenge." Eventually they won +over Ao Ch'in, and the armies of the deep gathered for the fray. The +Immortals called to their aid the other Taoist Immortals and Heroes, +and thus two formidable armies found themselves face to face. + +Several attempts were made by other divinities to avert the conflict, +but without success. The battle was a strenuous one. Ao Ch'in received +a ball of fire full on his head, and his army was threatened with +disaster when Tz'u-hang Ta-shih appeared with his bottle of lustral +water. He sprinkled the combatants with this magic fluid, using a +willow-branch for the purpose, thus causing all their magic powers +to disappear. + +Shui Kuan, the Ruler of the Watery Elements, then arrived, and +reproached Ao Ch'in; he assured him that if the matter were to +come to the knowledge of Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, he would not +only be severely punished, but would risk losing his post. Ao Ch'in +expressed penitence, restored the servant and the presents, and made +full apology to the Eight Immortals. + + +The Dragon in the Pond + +One day Chang Tao-ling, the 'father of modern Taoism,' was on +Ho-ming Shan with his disciple Wang Ch'ang. "See," he said, "that +shaft of white light on Yang Shan yonder! There are undoubtedly +some bad spirits there. Let us go and bring them to reason." When +they reached the foot of the mountain they met twelve women who had +the appearance of evil spirits. Chang Tao-ling asked them whence +came the shaft of white light. They answered that it was the _yin_, +or female, principle of the earth. "Where is the source of the salt +water?" he asked again. "That pond in front of you," they replied, +"in which lives a very wicked dragon." Chang Tao-ling tried to force +the dragon to come out, but without success. Then he drew a phoenix +with golden wings on a charm and hurled it into the air over the +pond. Thereupon the dragon took fright and fled, the pond immediately +drying up. After that Chang Tao-ling took his sword and stuck it in +the ground, whereupon a well full of salt water appeared on the spot. + + +The Spirits of the Well + +The twelve women each offered Chang Tao-ling a jade ring, and asked +that they might become his wives. He took the rings, and pressing +them together in his hands made of them one large single ring. "I +will throw this ring into the well," he said, "and the one of you +who recovers it shall be my wife." All the twelve women jumped into +the well to get the ring; whereupon Chang Tao-ling put a cover over +it and fastened it down, telling them that henceforth they should be +the spirits of the well and would never be allowed to come out. + +Shortly after this Chang Tao-ling met a hunter. He exhorted him not +to kill living beings, but to change his occupation to that of a +salt-burner, instructing him how to draw out the salt from salt-water +wells. Thus the people of that district were advantaged both by being +able to obtain the salt and by being no longer molested by the twelve +female spirits. A temple, called Temple of the Prince of Ch'ing Ho, +was built by them, and the territory of Ling Chou was given to Chang +Tao-ling in recognition of the benefits he had conferred upon the +people. + + +The Dragon-king's Daughter + +A graduate named Liu I, in the reign-period I Fêng (A.D. 676-679) +of the Emperor Kao Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, having failed in +his examination for his licentiate's degree, when passing through +Ching-yang Hsien, in Ch'ang-an, Shensi, on his way home, saw a +young woman tending goats by the roadside. She said to him: "I am the +youngest daughter of the Dragonking of the Tung-t'ing Lake. My parents +married me to the son of the God of the River Ching, but my husband, +misled by the slanders of the servants, repudiated me. I have heard +that you are returning to the Kingdom of Wu, which is quite close +to my native district, so I want to ask you to take this letter to +my father. To the north of the Tung-t'ing Lake you will find a large +orange-tree, called by the natives Protector of the Soil. Strike it +three times with your girdle and some one will appear." + +Some months later the graduate went to the spot, found the orange-tree, +and struck it three times, whereupon a warrior arose from the lake +and, saluting him, asked what he wanted. "I wish to see your great +King," the graduate replied. The warrior struck the waters, opening +a passage for Liu I, and led him to a palace. "This," he said, "is +the palace of Ling Hsü." In a few minutes there appeared a person +dressed in violet-coloured clothes and holding in his hand a piece +of jade. "This is our King," said the warrior. "I am your Majesty's +neighbour," replied Liu I. "I spent my youth in Ch'u and studied in +Ch'in. I have just failed in my licentiate examination. On my way +home I saw your daughter tending some goats; she was all dishevelled, +and in so pitiable a condition that it hurt me to see her, She has +sent you this letter." + + +Golden Dragon Great Prince + +On reading the letter the King wept, and all the courtiers followed +his example. "Stop wailing," said the King, "lest Ch'ien-t'ang +hear." "Who is Ch'ien-t'ang?" asked Liu I. "He is my dear brother," +replied the King; "formerly he was one of the chief administrators of +the Ch'ien-t'ang River; now he is the chief God of Rivers." "Why are +you so afraid that he might hear what I have just told you?" "Because +he has a terrible temper. It was he who, in the reign of Yao, caused +a nine-years flood." + +Before he had finished speaking, a red dragon, a thousand feet long, +with red scales, mane of fire, bloody tongue, and eyes blazing +like lightning, passed through the air with rapid flight and +disappeared. Barely a few moments had elapsed when it returned with +a young woman whom Liu I recognized as the one who had entrusted him +with the letter. The Dragon-king, overjoyed, said to him: "This is my +daughter; her husband is no more, and she offers you her hand." Liu +did not dare to accept, since it appeared that they had just killed +her husband. He took his departure, and married a woman named Chang, +who soon died. He then married another named Han, who also died. He +then went to live at Nanking, and, his solitude preying upon his +spirits, he decided to marry yet again. A middleman spoke to him of a +girl of Fang Yang, in Chihli, whose father, Hao, had been Magistrate +of Ch'ing Liu, in Anhui. This man was always absent on his travels, +no one knew whither. The girl's mother, Cheng, had married her two +years before to a man named Chang of Ch'ing Ho, in Chihli, who had +just died. Distressed at her daughter being left a widow so young, +the mother wished to find another husband for her. + +Liu I agreed to marry this young woman, and at the end of a year +they had a son. She then said to her husband: "I am the daughter +of the King of the Tung-t'ing Lake. It was you who saved me from +my miserable plight on the bank of the Ching, and I swore I would +reward you. Formerly you refused to accept my hand, and my parents +decided to marry me to the son of a silk-merchant. I cut my hair, +and never ceased to hope that I might some time or other be united +to you in order that I might show you my gratitude." + +In A.D. 712, in the reign-period K'ai-yüan of the Emperor Hsüan Tsung +of the T'ang dynasty, they both returned to the Tung-t'ing Lake; +but the legend says nothing further with regard to them. + +Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, conferred on Liu I the title of Chin +Lung Ta Wang, 'Golden Dragon Great Prince.' + + +The Old Mother of the Waters + +The Old Mother of the Waters, Shul-mu Niang-niang, is the legendary +spirit of Ssu-chou, in Anhui. To her is popularly ascribed the +destruction of the ancient city of Ssu-chou, which was completely +submerged by the waters of the Hung-tsê Lake in A.D. 1574. + +One author states that this Goddess of the Waters is the younger +sister of the White Spiritual Elephant, a guardian of the Door of +Buddha. This elephant is the "subtle principle of metamorphosed water." + +In his _Recherches sur Us Superstitions en Chine_, Père Henri Doré, +S.J., relates the legends he had heard with regard to this deity. One +of these is as follows: + +Shui-mu Niang-niang inundated the town of Ssu-chou almost every year. A +report was presented to Yu Huang, Lord of the Skies, begging him to +put an end to the scourge which devastated the country and cost so +many lives. The Lord of the Skies commanded the Great Kings of the +Skies and their generals to raise troops and take the field in order +to capture this goddess and deprive her of the power of doing further +mischief. But her tricks triumphed over force, and the city continued +to be periodically devastated by inundations. + +One day Shui-mu Niang-niang was seen near the city gate carrying two +buckets of water. Li Lao-chün suspected some plot, but, an open attack +being too risky, he preferred to adopt a ruse. He went and bought +a donkey, led it to the buckets of water, and let it drink their +contents. Unfortunately the animal could not drink all the water, +so that a little remained at the bottom of the buckets. Now these +magical buckets contained the sources of the five great lakes, which +held enough water to inundate the whole of China. Shui-mu Niang-niang +with her foot overturned one of the buckets, and the water that had +remained in it was enough to cause a formidable flood, which submerged +the unfortunate town, and buried it for ever under the immense sheet +of water called the Lake of Hung-tsê. + +So great a crime deserved an exemplary punishment, and accordingly Yü +Huang sent reinforcements to his armies, and a pursuit of the goddess +was methodically organized. + + +The Magic Vermicelli + +Sun Hou-tzu, the Monkey Sun, [25] the rapid courier, who in a +single skip could traverse 108,000 _li_ (36,000 miles), started in +pursuit and caught her up, but the astute goddess was clever enough +to slip through his fingers. Sun Hou-tzu, furious at this setback, +went to ask Kuan-yin P'u-sa to come to his aid. She promised to do +so. As one may imagine, the furious race she had had to escape from +her enemy had given Shui-mu Niang-niang a good appetite. Exhausted +with fatigue, and with an empty stomach, she caught sight of a woman +selling vermicelli, who had just prepared two bowls of it and was +awaiting customers. Shui-mu Niang-niang went up to her and began +to eat the strength-giving food with avidity. No sooner had she +eaten half of the vermicelli than it changed in her stomach into +iron chains, which wound round her intestines. The end of the chain +protruded from her mouth, and the contents of the bowl became another +long chain which welded itself to the end which stuck out beyond her +lips. The vermicelli-seller was no other than Kuan-yin P'u-sa herself, +who had conceived this stratagem as a means of ridding herself of +this evil-working goddess. She ordered Sun Hou-tzu to take her down +a deep well at the foot of a mountain in Hsü-i Hsien and to fasten +her securely there. It is there that Shui-mu Niang-niang remains in +her liquid prison. The end of the chain is to be seen when the water +is low. + + +Hsü, the Dragon-slayer + +Hsü Chên-chün was a native either of Ju-ning Fu in Honan, or of +Nan-ch'ang Fu in Kiangsi. His father was Hsü Su. His personal name +was Ching-chih, and his ordinary name Sun. + +At forty-one years of age, when he was Magistrate of Ching-yang, +near the modern Chih-chiang Hsien, in Hupei, during times of drought +he had only to touch a piece of tile to turn it into gold, and thus +relieve the people of their distress. He also saved many lives by +curing sickness through the use of talismans and magic formulæ. + +During the period of the dynastic troubles he resigned and joined +the famous magician Kuo P'o. Together they proceeded to the minister +Wang Tun, who had risen against the Eastern Chin dynasty. Kuo P'o's +remonstrances only irritated the minister, who cut off his head. + +Hsü Sun then threw his chalice on the ridgepole of the room, causing +it to be whirled into the air. As Wang Tun was watching the career of +the chalice, Hsü disappeared and escaped. When he reached Lu-chiang +K'ou, in Anhui, he boarded a boat, which two dragons towed into the +offing and then raised into the air. In an instant they had borne it +to the Lü Shan Mountains, to the south of Kiukiang, in Kiangsi. The +perplexed boatman opened the window of his boat and took a furtive +look out. Thereupon the dragons, finding themselves discovered by an +infidel, set the boat down on the top of the mountain and fled. + + +The Spiritual Alligator + +In this country was a dragon, or spiritual alligator, which transformed +itself into a young man named Shên Lang, and married Chia Yü, daughter +of the Chief Judge of T'an Chou (Ch'ang-sha Fu, capital of Hunan). The +young people lived in rooms below the official apartments. During +spring and summer Shên Lang, as dragons are wont to do, roamed in the +rivers and lakes. One day Hsü Chên-chün met him, recognized him as a +dragon, and knew that he was the cause of the numerous floods which +were devastating Kiangsi Province. He determined to find a means of +getting rid of him. + +Shên Lang, aware of the steps being taken against him, changed himself +into a yellow ox and fled. Hsü Chên-chün at once transformed himself +into a black ox and started in pursuit. The yellow ox jumped down a +well to hide, but the black ox followed suit. The yellow ox then jumped +out again, and escaped to Ch'ang-sha, where he reassumed a human form +and lived with Ms wife in the home of his father-in-law, Hsü Sun, +returning to the town, hastened to the _yamên,_ and called to Shên +Lang to come out and show himself, addressing him in a severe tone +of voice as follows: "Dragon, how dare you hide yourself there under +a borrowed form?" Shên Lang then reassumed the form of a spiritual +alligator, and Hsü Sun ordered the spiritual soldiers to kill him. He +then commanded his two sons to come out of their abode. By merely +spurting a mouthful of water on them he transformed them into young +dragons. Chia Yü was told to vacate the rooms with all speed, and +in the twinkling of an eye the whole _yamên_ sank beneath the earth, +and there remained nothing but a lake where it had been. + +Hsü Chên-chün, after his victory over the dragon, assembled the members +of his family, to the number of forty-two, on Hsi Shan, outside the +city of Nan-ch'ang Fu, and all ascended to Heaven in full daylight, +taking with them even the dogs and chickens. He was then 133 years +old. This took place on the first day of the eighth moon of the second +year (A.D. 374) of the reign-period Ning-K'ang of the reign of the +Emperor Hsiao Wu Ti of the Eastern Chin dynasty. + +Subsequently a temple was erected to him, and in A.D. 1111 he was +canonized as Just Prince, Admirable and Beneficent. + + +The Great Flood + +The repairing of the heavens by Nü Kua, elsewhere alluded to, is also +attributed to the following incident. + +Before the Chinese Empire was founded a noble and wonderful queen +fought with the chief of the tribes who inhabited the country round +about Ô-mei Shan. In a fierce battle the chief and his followers met +defeat; raging with anger at being beaten by a woman, he rushed up +the mountain-side; the Queen pursued him with her army, and overtook +him at the summit; finding no place to hide himself, he attempted in +desperation both to wreak vengeance upon his enemies and to end his +own life by beating his head violently against the cane of the Heavenly +Bamboo which grew there. By his mad battering he at last succeeded in +knocking down the towering trunk of the tree, and as he did so its +top tore great rents in the canopy of the sky, through which poured +great floods of water, inundating the whole earth and drowning all the +inhabitants except the victorious Queen and her soldiers. The floods +had no power to harm her or her followers, because she herself was +an all-powerful divinity and was known as the 'Mother of the Gods,' +and the 'Defender of the Gods.' From the mountain-side she gathered +together stones of a kind having five colours, and ground them into +powder; of this she made a plaster or mortar, with which she repaired +the tears in the heavens, and the floods immediately ceased. + + +The Marriage of the River-god + +In Yeh Hsien there was a witch and some official attendants who +collected money from the people yearly for the marriage of the +River-god. + +The witch would select a pretty girl of low birth, and say that she +should be the Queen of the River-god. The girl was bathed, and clothed +in a beautiful dress of gay and costly silk. She was then taken to +the bank of the river, to a monastery which was beautifully decorated +with scrolls and banners. A feast was held, and the girl was placed +on a bed which was floated out upon the tide till it disappeared +under the waters. + +Many families having beautiful daughters moved to distant places, +and gradually the city became deserted. The common belief in Yeh was +that if no queen was offered to the River-god a flood would come and +drown the people. + +One day Hsi-mên Pao, Magistrate of Yeh Hsien, said to his attendants: +"When the marriage of the River-god takes place I wish to say farewell +to the chosen girl." + +Accordingly Hsi-mên Pao was present to witness the ceremony. About +three thousand people had come together. Standing beside the old +witch were ten of her female disciples, "Call the girl out," said +Hsi-mên Pao. After seeing her, Hsi-mên Pao said to the witch: "She +is not fair. Go you to the River-god and tell him that we will find +a fairer maid and present her to him later on." His attendants then +seized the witch and threw her into the river. + +After a little while Hsi-mên Pao said: "Why does she stay so long? Send +a disciple to call her back." One of the disciples was thrown into the +river. Another and yet another followed. The magistrate then said:" +The witches are females and therefore cannot bring me a reply." So +one of the official attendants of the witch was thrown into the river. + +Hsi-mên Pao stood on the bank for a long time, apparently awaiting +a reply. The spectators were alarmed. Hsi-mên Pao then bade his +attendants send the remaining disciples of the witch and the other +official attendants to recall their mistress. The wretches threw +themselves on their knees and knocked their heads on the ground, +which was stained with the blood from their foreheads, and with tears +confessed their sin. + +"The River-god detains his guest too long," said Hsi-mên Pao at +length. "Let us adjourn." + +Thereafter none dared to celebrate the marriage of the River-god. + + +Legend of the Building of Peking + +When the Mongol Yüan dynasty had been destroyed, and the Emperor +Hung Wu had succeeded in firmly establishing that of the Great Ming, +Ta Ming, he made Chin-ling, the present Nanking, his capital, and held +his Court there with great splendour, envoys from every province within +the 'Four Seas' (the Chinese Empire) assembling there to witness his +greatness and to prostrate themselves before the Dragon Throne. + +The Emperor had many sons and daughters by his different consorts and +concubines, each mother, in her inmost heart, fondly hoping that her +own son would be selected by his father to succeed him. + +Although the Empress had a son, who was the heir-apparent, yet she felt +envious of those ladies who had likewise been blessed with children, +for fear one of the princes should supplant her son in the affection +of the Emperor and in the succession. This envy displayed itself on +every occasion; she was greatly beloved by the Emperor, and exerted +all her influence with him, as the other young princes grew up, +to get them removed from Court. Through her means most of them were +sent to the different provinces as governors; those provinces under +their government being so many principalities or kingdoms. + + + +Chu-ti + +One of the consorts of Hung Wu, the Lady Wêng, had a son named +Chu-ti. This young prince was very handsome and graceful in his +deportment; he was, moreover, of an amiable disposition. He was the +fourth son of the Emperor, and his pleasing manner and address had made +him a great favourite, not only with his father, but with every one +about the Court. The Empress noticed the evident affection the Emperor +evinced for this prince, and determined to get him removed from the +Court as soon as possible. By a judicious use of flattery and cajolery, +she ultimately persuaded the Emperor to appoint the prince governor of +the Yen country, and thenceforth he was styled Yen Wang, Prince of Yen. + + +The Sealed Packet + +The young Prince, shortly after, taking an affectionate leave of +the Emperor, left Chin-ling to proceed to his post. Ere he departed, +however, a Taoist priest, called Liu Po-wên, who had a great affection +for the Prince, put a sealed packet into his hand, and told him to +open it when he found himself in difficulty, distress, or danger; the +perusal of the first portion that came to his hand would invariably +suggest some remedy for the evil, whatever it was. After doing so, +he was again to seal the packet, without further looking into its +contents, till some other emergency arose necessitating advice or +assistance, when he would again find it. The Prince departed on his +journey, and in the course of time, without meeting with any adventures +worth recording, arrived safely at his destination. + + + +A Desolate Region + +The place where Peking now stands was originally called Yu Chou; in the +T'ang dynasty it was called Pei-p'ing Fu; and afterward became known +as Shun-t'ien Fu--but that was after the city now called Peking was +built. The name of the country in which this place was situated was +Yen. It was a mere barren wilderness, with very few inhabitants; these +lived in huts and scattered hamlets, and there was no city to afford +protection to the people and to check the depredations of robbers. + +When the Prince saw what a desolate-looking place he had been appointed +to, and thought of the long years he was probably destined to spend +there, he grew very melancholy, and nothing his attendants essayed +to do in hope of alleviating his sorrow succeeded. + + +The Prince opens the Sealed Packet + +All at once the Prince bethought himself of the packet which the old +Taoist priest had given him; he forthwith proceeded to make search for +it--for in the bustle and excitement of travelling he had forgotten +all about it--in hope that it might suggest something to better the +prospects before him. Having found the packet, he hastily broke it +open to see what instructions it contained; taking out the first +paper which came to hand, he read the following: + +"When you reach Pei-p'ing Fu you must build a city there and name +it No-cha Ch'êng, the City of No-cha. [26] But, as the work will +be costly, you must issue a proclamation inviting the wealthy to +subscribe the necessary funds for building it. At the back of this +paper is a plan of the city; you must be careful to act according to +the instructions accompanying it." + +The Prince inspected the plan, carefully read the instructions, and +found even the minutest details fully explained. He was struck with +the grandeur of the design of the proposed city, and at once acted on +the instructions contained in the packet; proclamations were posted up, +and large sums were speedily subscribed, ten of the wealthiest families +who had accompanied him from Chin-ling being the largest contributors, +supporting the plan not only with their purses, by giving immense sums, +but by their influence among their less wealthy neighbours. + + +The City is Founded + +When sufficient money had been subscribed, a propitious day was chosen +on which to commence the undertaking. Trenches where the foundations +of the walls were to be were first dug out, according to the plan +found in the packet. The foundations themselves consisted of layers +of stone quarried from the western hills; bricks of an immense size +were made and burnt in the neighbourhood; the moat was dug out, and +the earth from it used to fill in the centre of the walls, which, +when complete, were forty-eight _li_ in circumference, fifty cubits in +height, and fifty in breadth; the whole circuit of the walls having +battlements and embrasures. Above each of the nine gates of the city +immense three-storied towers were built, each tower being ninety-nine +cubits in height. + +Near the front entrance of the city, facing each other, were built the +Temples of Heaven and of Earth. In rear of it the beautiful 'Coal Hill' +(better known as 'Prospect Hill') was raised; while in the square in +front of the Great Gate of the palace was buried an immense quantity +of charcoal (that and the coal being stored as a precaution in case +of siege). + +The palace, containing many superb buildings, was built in a style of +exceeding splendour; in the various enclosures were beautiful gardens +and lakes; in the different courtyards, too, seventy-two wells were +dug and thirty-six golden tanks placed. The whole of the buildings +and grounds was surrounded by a lofty wall and a stone-paved moat, +in which the lotus and other flowers bloomed in great beauty and +profusion, and in the clear waters of which myriads of gold and silver +fish disported themselves. + +The geomancy of the city was similar to that of Chin-ling, When +everything was completed the Prince compared it with the plan and +found that the city tallied with it in every respect. He was much +delighted, and called for the ten wealthy persons who had been +the chief contributors, and gave each of them a pair of 'couchant +dragon' silk- or satin-embroidered cuffs, and allowed them great +privileges. Up to the present time there is the common saying: +"Since then the 'dragon-cuffed' gentlefolks have flourished." + + +General Prosperity + +All the people were loud in praise of the beauty and strength of the +newly built city. Merchants from every province hastened to Peking, +attracted by the news they heard of its magnificence and the prospect +there was of profitably disposing of their wares. In short, the people +were prosperous and happy, food was plentiful, the troops brave, the +monarch just, his ministers virtuous, and all enjoyed the blessings +of peace. + + +A Drought and its Cause + +While everything was thus tranquil, a sudden and untoward event +occurred which spread dismay and consternation on all sides. One day +when the Prince went into the hall of audience one of his ministers +reported that "the wells are thirsty and the rivers dried up"--there +was no water, and the people were all in the greatest alarm. The +Prince at once called his counsellors together to devise some means +of remedying this disaster and causing the water to return to the +wells and springs, but no one could suggest a suitable plan. + +It is necessary to explain the cause of this scarcity of water. There +was a dragon's cave outside the east gate of the city at a place +called Lei-chên K'ou, 'Thunder-clap Mouth' or 'Pass' (the name of a +village). The dragon had not been seen for myriads of years, yet it +was well known that he lived there. + +In digging out the earth to build the wall the workmen had broken into +this dragon's cave, little thinking of the consequences which would +result. The dragon was exceedingly wroth and determined to shift his +abode, but the she-dragon said: "We have lived here thousands of years, +and shall we suffer the Prince of Yen to drive us forth thus? If we +_do_ go we will collect all the water, place it in our _yin-yang_ +baskets [used for drawing water], and at midnight we will appear in a +dream to the Prince, requesting permission to retire. If he gives us +permission to do so, and allows us also to take our baskets of water +with us, he will fall into our trap, for we shall take the waler with +his own consent," + + + +The Prince's Dream + +The two dragons then transformed themselves into an old man and +an old woman, went to the chamber of the Prince, who was asleep, +and appeared to him in a dream. Kneeling before him, they cried: +"O Lord of a Thousand Years, we have come before you to beg leave to +retire from this place, and to beseech you out of your great bounty +to give us permission to take these two baskets of water with us." + +The Prince readily assented, little dreaming of the danger he was +incurring. The dragons were highly delighted, and hastened out of +his presence; they filled the baskets with all the water there was +in Peking, and carried them off with them. + +When the Prince awoke he paid no attention to his dream till he +heard the report of the scarcity of water, when, reflecting on the +singularity of his dream, he thought there might be some hidden meaning +in it. He therefore had recourse to the packet again, and discovered +that his dream-visitors had been dragons, who had taken the waters of +Peking away with them in their magic baskets; the packet, however, +contained directions for the recovery of the water, and he at once +prepared to follow them. + + +The Pursuit of the Dragons + +In haste the Prince donned his armour, mounted his black steed, and, +spear in hand, dashed out of the west gate of the city. He pressed on +his horse, which went swift as the wind, nor did he slacken speed till +he came up with the water-stealing dragons, who still retained the +forms in which they had appeared to him in his dream. On a cart were +the two identical baskets he had seen; in front of the cart, dragging +it, was the old woman, while behind, pushing it, was the old man. + + +An Unexpected Flood + +When the Prince saw them he galloped up to the cart, and, without +pausing, thrust his spear into one of the baskets, making a great hole, +out of which the water rushed so rapidly that the Prince was much +frightened. He dashed off at full speed to save himself from being +swallowed up by the waters, which in a very short time had risen more +than thirty feet and had flooded the surrounding country. On galloped +the Prince, followed by the roaring water, till he reached a hill, +up which he urged his startled horse. When he gained the top he found +that it stood out of the water like an island, completely surrounded; +the water was seething and swirling round the hill in a frightful +manner, but no vestige could he see of either of the dragons. + + +The Waters Subside + +The Prince was very much alarmed at his perilous position, when +suddenly a Buddhist priest appeared before him, with clasped hands and +bent head, who bade him not be alarmed, as with Heaven's assistance +he would soon disperse the water. Hereupon the priest recited a short +prayer or spell, and the waters receded as rapidly as they had risen, +and finally returned to their proper channels. + + +The Origin of Chên-shui T'a + +The broken basket became a large deep hole, some three _mu_ (about +half an English acre) in extent, in the centre of which was a fountain +which threw up a vast body of clear water. From the midst of this +there arose a pagoda, which rose and fell with the water, floating on +the top like a vessel; the spire thrusting itself far up into the sky, +and swaying about like the mast of a ship in a storm. + +The Prince returned to the city filled with wonder at what he +had seen, and with joy at having so successfully carried out the +directions contained in the packet. On all sides he was greeted by +the acclamations of the people, who hailed him as the saviour of +Peking. Since that time Peking has never had the misfortune to be +without water. + +The pagoda is called the Pagoda on the Hill of the Imperial Spring +(Yü Ch'üan Shan T'a; more commonly Chên-shui T'a, 'Water-repressing +Pagoda'). [27] The spring is still there, and day and night, +unceasingly, its clear waters bubble up and flow eastward to Peking, +which would now be a barren wilderness but for Yen Wang's pursuit of +the water. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Myths of Fire + + +The Ministry of Fire + +The celestial organization of Fire is the fifth Ministry, and is +presided over by a President, Lo Hsüan, whose titular designation is +Huo-tê Hsing-chün, 'Stellar Sovereign of the Fire-virtue,' with five +subordinate ministers, four of whom are star-gods, and the fifth a +"celestial prince who receives fire": Chieh-huo T'ien-chün. Like so +many other Chinese deities, the five were all ministers of the tyrant +emperor Chou. + +It is related that Lo Hsüan was originally a Taoist priest known as +Yen-chung Hsien, of the island Huo-lung, 'Fire-dragon.' His face was +the colour of ripe fruit of the jujube-tree, his hair and beard red, +the former done up in the shape of a fish-tail, and he had three +eyes. He wore a red cloak ornamented with the _pa kua_; his horse +snorted flames from its nostrils and fire darted from its hoofs. + +While fighting in the service of the son of the tyrant emperor, +Lo Hsüan suddenly changed himself into a giant with three heads and +six arms. In each of his hands he held a magic weapon. These were a +seal which reflected the heavens and the earth, a wheel of the five +fire-dragons, a gourd containing ten thousand fire-crows, and, in +the other hands, two swords which floated like smoke, and a column +of smoke several thousands of _li_ long enclosing swords of fire. + + +A Conflagration + +Having arrived at the city of Hsi Ch'i, Lo Hsüan sent forth his +smoke-column, the air was filled with swords of fire, the ten thousand +fire-crows, emerging from the gourd, spread themselves over the town, +and a terrible conflagration broke out, the whole place being ablaze +in a few minutes. + +At this juncture there appeared in the sky the Princess Lung Chi, +daughter of Wang-mu Niang-niang; forthwith she spread over the +city her shroud of mist and dew, and the fire was extinguished by a +heavy downpour of rain. All the mysterious mechanisms of Lo Hsüan +lost their efficacy, and the magician took to his heels down the +side of the mountain. There he was met by Li, the Pagoda-bearer, +[28] who threw his golden pagoda into the air. The pagoda fell on Lo +Hsüan's head and broke his skull. + + +C'ih Ching-tzu + +Of the various fire-gods, Ch'ih Ching-tzu, the principle of spiritual +fire, is one of the five spirits representing the Five Elements. He +is Fire personified, which has its birth in the south, on Mount +Shih-t'ang. He himself and everything connected with him--his skin, +hair, beard, trousers, cloak of leaves, etc.--are all of the colour of +fire, though he is sometimes represented with a blue cap resembling +the blue tip of a flame. He appeared in the presence of Huang Lao +in a fire-cloud. He it was who obtained fire from the wood of the +mulberry-tree, and the heat of this fire, joined with the moisture +of water, developed the germs of terrestrial beings. + + +The Red Emperor + +Chu Jung, though also otherwise personified, is generally regarded as +having been a legendary emperor who made his first appearance in the +time of Hsien Yuan (2698-2598 B.C.). In his youth he asked Kuang-shou +Lao-jên, 'Old Longevity,' to grant him immortality. "The time has +not yet come," replied Old Longevity; "before it does you have to +become an emperor. I will give you the means of reaching the end you +desire. Give orders that after you are dead you are to be buried on +the southern slope of the sacred mountain Hêng Shan; there you will +learn the doctrine of Ch'ih Ching-tzu and will become immortal." + +The Emperor Hsien Yüan, having abdicated the throne, sent for Chu Jung, +and bestowed upon him the crown. Chu Jung, having become emperor, +taught the people the use of fire and the advantages to be derived +therefrom. In those early times the forests were filled with venomous +reptiles and savage animals; he ordered the peasants to set fire to the +brushwood to drive away these dangerous neighbours and keep them at a +distance. He also taught his subjects the art of purifying, forging, +and welding metals by the action of fire. He was nicknamed Ch'ih Ti, +'the Red Emperor.' He reigned for more than two hundred years, and +became an Immortal, His capital was the ancient city of Kuei, thirty +_li_ north-east of Hsin-chêng Hsien, in the Prefecture of K'ai-fêng +Fu, Honan. His tomb is on the southern slope of Heng Shan. The peak +is known as Chu Jung Peak. His descendants, who went to live in the +south, were the ancestors of the Directors of Fire. + + +Hui Lu + +The most popular God of Fire, however, is Hui Lu, a celebrated +magician who, according to the _Shên hsien t'ung chien_, lived some +time before the reign of Ti K'u (2436-2366 B.C.), the father of Yao +the Great, and had a mysterious bird named Pi Fang and a hundred other +fire-birds shut up in a gourd. He had only to let them out to set up +a conflagration which would extend over the whole country. + +Huang Ti ordered Chu Jung to fight Hui Lu and also to subdue the +rebel Chih Yu. Chu Jung had a large bracelet of pure gold--a most +wonderful and effective weapon. He hurled it into the air, and it +fell on Hui Lu's neck, throwing him to the ground and rendering him +incapable of moving. Finding resistance impossible, he asked mercy +from his victor and promised to be his follower in the spiritual +contests. Subsequently he always called himself Huo-shih Chih T'u, +'the Disciple of the Master of Fire.' + + +The Fire-emperor + +Shen Nung, the God of Agriculture, also adds to his other functions +those appertaining to the God of Fire, the reason being that when +he succeeded the Emperor Fu Hsi on the throne he adopted fire as +the emblem of his government, just as Huang Ti adopted the symbol +of Earth. Thus he came to be called Huo Ti, the 'Fire-emperor.' He +taught his subjects the use of fire for smelting metals and making +implements and weapons, and the use of oil in lamps, etc. All the +divisions of his official hierarchy were connected in some way with +this element; thus, there were the Ministers of Fire generally, the +officers of Fire of the North, South, etc. Becoming thus doubly the +patron of fire, a second fire symbol (_huo_) was added to his name, +changing it from Huo Ti, 'Fire-emperor,' to Yen Ti, 'Blazing Emperor,' + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc. + + +The Ministry of Epidemics + +The gods of epidemics, etc., belong to the sixth, ninth, second, +and third celestial Ministries. The composition of the Ministry of +Epidemics is arranged differently in different works as Epidemics +(regarded as epidemics on earth, but as demons in Heaven) of the +Centre, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, or as the marshals clothed +in yellow, green, red, white, and blue respectively, or as the Officers +of the East, West, South, and North, with two additional members: +a Taoist who quells the plague, and the Grand Master who exhorts +people to do right. + +With regard to the Ministry of Seasonal Epidemics, it is related that +in the sixth moon of the eleventh year (A.D. 599) of the reign of Kao +Tsu, founder of the Sui dynasty, five stalwart persons appeared in +the air, clothed in robes of five colours, each carrying different +objects in his hands: the first a spoon and earthenware vase, the +second a leather bag and sword, the third a fan, the fourth a club, +the fifth a jug of fire. The Emperor asked Chang Chü-jên, his Grand +Historiographer, who these were and if they were benevolent or evil +spirits. The official answered: "These are the five powers of the five +directions. Their appearance indicates the imminence of epidemics, +which will last throughout the four seasons of the year." "What +remedy is there, and how am I to protect the people?" inquired the +Emperor. "There is no remedy," replied the official, "for epidemics +are sent by Heaven." During that year the mortality was very great. The +Emperor built a temple to the five persons, and bestowed upon them the +title of Marshals to the Five Spirits of the Plague. During that and +the following dynasty sacrifices were offered to them on the fifth +day of the fifth moon. + + +The President of the Ministry + +The following particulars are given concerning the President of the +Ministry, whose name was Lü Yüeh. He was an old Taoist hermit, living +at Chiu-lung Tao, 'Nine-dragon Island,' who became an Immortal. The +four members of the Ministry were his disciples. He wore a red garment, +had a blue face, red hair, long teeth, and three eyes. His war-horse +was named the Myopic Camel. He carried a magic sword, and was in the +service of Chou Wang, whose armies were concentrated at Hsi Ch'i. In +a duel with Mu-cha, brother of No-cha, he had his arm severed by a +sword-cut. In another battle with Huang T'ien-hua, son of Huang Fei-hu, +he appeared with three heads and six arms. In his many hands he held +the celestial seal, plague microbes, the flag of plague, the plague +sword, and two mysterious swords. His faces were green, and large +teeth protruded from his mouths. Huang T'ien-hua threw his magic +weapon, Huo-lung Piao, and hit him on the leg. Just at that moment +Chiang Tzu-ya arrived with his goblin-dispelling whip and felled him +with a blow. He was able, however, to rise again, and took to flight. + + +The Plague-disseminating Umbrellas + +Resolved to avenge his defeat, he joined General Hsü Fang, who was +commanding an army corps at Ch'uan-yün Kuan. Round the mountain he +organized a system of entrenchments and of infection against their +enemies. Yang Chien released his celestial hound, which bit Lü Yüeh +on the crown of his head. Then Yang Jên, armed with his magic fan, +pursued Lü Yüeh and compelled him to retreat to his fortress. Lü +Yüeh mounted the central raised part of the embattled wall and opened +all his plague-disseminating umbrellas, with the object of infecting +Yang Jên, but the latter, simply by waving his fan, reduced all the +umbrellas to dust, and also burned the fort, and with it Lü Yüeh. + +Similar wonderful achievements are related in short notices in the +_Fêng shên yen i_ of the four other officers of the Ministry. + +Li P'ing, the sixth officer of the Ministry, met a like fate to that +of Lü Yüeh after having failed to induce the latter to abandon the +cause of the Shang dynasty for that of Chou. + + +The Five Graduates + +In Père Henri Doré's _Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine_ +is given an interesting legend concerning five other gods of +epidemics. These gods are called the Wu Yüeh, 'Five Mountains,' +and are worshipped in the temple San-i Ko at Ju-kao, especially in +outbreaks of contagious diseases and fevers. A sufferer goes to the +temple and promises offerings to the gods in the event of recovery. The +customary offering is five small wheaten loaves, called _shao ping_, +and a pound of meat. + +The Wu Yüeh are stellar devils whom Yü Huang sent to be reincarnated on +earth. Their names were T'ien Po-hsüeh, Tung Hung-wên, Ts'ai Wên-chü, +Chao Wu-chên, and Huang Ying-tu, and they were reincarnated at +Nan-ch'ang Fu, Chien-ch'ang Fu, Yen-mên Kuan, Yang Chou, and Nanking +respectively. They were all noted for their brilliant intellects, +and were clever scholars who passed their graduate's examination +with success. + +When Li Shih-min ascended the throne, in A.D. 627, he called together +all the _literati_ of the Empire to take the Doctor's Examination +in the capital. Our five graduates started for the metropolis, but, +losing their way, were robbed by brigands, and had to beg help in +order to reach the end of their journey. By good luck they all met in +the temple San-i Ko, and related to each other the various hardships +they had undergone. But when they eventually reached the capital +the examination was over, and they were out in the streets without +resources. So they took an oath of brotherhood for life and death. They +pawned some of the few clothes they possessed, and buying some musical +instruments formed themselves into a band of strolling musicians. + +The first bought a drum, the second a seven-stringed guitar, the +third a mandolin, the fourth a clarinet, and the fifth and youngest +composed songs. + +Thus they went through the streets of the capital giving their +concerts, and Fate decreed that Li Shih-min should hear their +melodies. Charmed with the sweet sounds, he asked Hsü Mao-kung +whence came this band of musicians, whose skill was certainly +exceptional. Having made inquiries, the minister related their +experiences to the Emperor. Li Shih-min ordered them to be brought +into his presence, and after hearing them play and sing appointed them +to his private suite, and henceforth they accompanied him wherever +he went. + + +The Emperors Strategy + +The Emperor bore malice toward Chang T'ien-shih, the Master of +the Taoists, because he refused to pay the taxes on his property, +and conceived a plan to bring about his destruction. He caused a +spacious subterranean chamber to be dug under the reception-hall of +his palace. A wire passed through the ceiling to where the Emperor +sat. He could thus at will give the signal for the music to begin +or stop. Having stationed the five musicians in this subterranean +chamber, he summoned the Master of the Taoists to his presence and +invited him to a banquet. During the course of this he pulled the wire, +and a subterranean babel began. + +The Emperor pretended to be terrified, and allowed himself to fall +to the ground. Then, addressing himself to the T'ien-shih, he said: +"I know that you can at will catch the devilish hobgoblins which +molest human beings. You can hear for yourself the infernal row they +make in my palace. I order you under penalty of death to put a stop +to their pranks and to exterminate them." + + +The Musicians are Slain + +Having spoken thus, the Emperor rose and left. The Master of the +Taoists brought his projecting mirror, and began to seek for the +evil spirits. In vain he inspected the palace and its precincts; +he could discover nothing. Fearing that he was lost, he in despair +threw his mirror on the floor of the reception-hall. + +A minute later, sad and pensive, he stooped to pick it up; what was +his joyful surprise when he saw reflected in it the subterranean room +and the musicians! At once he drew five talismans on yellow paper, +burned them, and ordered his celestial general, Chao Kung-ming, to +take his sword and kill the five musicians. The order was promptly +executed, and the T'ien-shih informed the Emperor, who received the +news with ridicule, not believing it to be true. He went to his seat +and pulled the wire, but all remained silent. A second and third time +he gave the signal, but without response. He then ordered his Grand +Officer to ascertain what had happened. The officer found the five +graduates bathed in their blood, and lifeless. + +The Emperor, furious, reproached the Master of the Taoists. "But," +replied the T'ien-shih, "was it not your Majesty who ordered me under +pain of death to exterminate the authors of this pandemonium?" Li +Shih-min could not reply. He dismissed the Master of the Taoists and +ordered the five victims to be buried. + + +The Emperor Tormented + +After the funeral ceremonies, apparitions appeared at night in the +place where they had been killed, and the palace became a babel. The +spirits threw bricks and broke the tiles on the roofs. + +The Emperor ordered his uncomfortable visitors to go to the T'ien-shih +who had murdered them. They obeyed, and, seizing the garments of the +Master of the Taoists, swore not to allow him any rest if he would +not restore them to life. + +To appease them the Taoist said: "I am going to give each of you a +wonderful object. You are then to return and spread epidemics among +wicked people, beginning in the imperial palace and with the Emperor +himself, with the object of forcing him to canonize you." + +One received a fan, another a gourd filled with fire, the third a +metallic ring to encircle people's heads, the fourth a stick made of +wolves' teeth, and the fifth a cup of lustral water. + +The spirit-graduates left full of joy, and made their first experiment +on Li Shih-min. The first gave him feverish chills by waving his +fan, the second burned him with the fire from his gourd, the third +encircled his head with the ring, causing him violent headache, the +fourth struck him with his stick, and the fifth poured out his cup +of lustral water on his head. + +The same night a similar tragedy took place in the palace of the +Empress and the two chief imperial concubines. + +T'ai-po Chin-hsing, however, informed Yü Huang what had happened, +and, touched with compassion, he sent three Immortals with pills and +talismans which cured the Empress and the ladies of the palace. + + +The Graduates Canonized + +Li Shih-min, having also recovered his health, summoned the five +deceased graduates and expressed his regret for the unfortunate issue +of his design against the T'ien-shih. He proceeded: "To the south of +the capital is the temple San-i Ko. I will change its name to Hsiang +Shan Wu Yüeh Shên, 'Fragrant Hill of the Five Mountain Spirits.' On +the twenty-eighth day of the ninth moon betake yourselves to that +temple to receive the seals of your canonization." He conferred upon +them the title of Ti, 'Emperor.' + + +The Ministry of Medicine + +The celestial Ministry of Medicine is composed of three main +divisions comprising: (1) the Ancestral Gods of the Chinese race; +(2) the King of Remedies, Yao Wang; and (3) the Specialists. There +is a separate Ministry of Smallpox. This latter controls and cures +smallpox, and the establishment of a separate celestial Ministry is +significant of the prevalence and importance of the affliction. The +ravages of smallpox in China, indeed, have been terrific: so much so, +that, until recent years, it was considered as natural and inevitable +for a child to have smallpox as for it to cut its teeth. One of the +ceremonial questions addressed by a visitor to the parent of a child +was always _Ch'u la hua'rh mei yu_? "Has he had the smallpox?" and a +child who escaped the scourge was often, if not as a rule, regarded +with disfavour and, curiously enough, as a weakling. Probably the +train of thought in the Chinese mind was that, as it is the fittest +who survive, those who have successfully passed through the process of +"putting out the flowers" have proved their fitness in the struggle +for existence. Nowadays vaccination is general, and the number of +pockmarked faces seen is much smaller than it used to be--in fact, +the pockmarked are now the exception. But, as far as I have been +able to ascertain, the Ministry of Smallpox has not been abolished, +and possibly its members, like those of some more mundane ministries, +continue to draw large salaries for doing little or no work. + + +The Medicine-gods + +The chief gods of medicine are the mythical kings P'an Ku, Fu Hsi, +Shên Nung, and Huang Ti. The first two, being by different writers +regarded as the first progenitor or creator of the Chinese people, +are alternatives, so that Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and Huang Ti may be said +to be a sort of ancestral triad of medicine-gods, superior to the +actual God or King of Medicine, Yao Wang. Of P'an Ku we have spoken +sufficiently in Chapter III, and with regard to Fu Hsi, also called +T'ien Huang Shih, 'the Celestial Emperor,' the mythical sovereign +and supposed inventor of cooking, musical instruments, the calendar, +hunting, fishing, etc., the chief interest for our present purpose +centres in his discovery of the _pa kua_, or Eight Trigrams. It is on +the strength of these trigrams that Fu Hsi is regarded as the chief +god of medicine, since it is by their mystical power that the Chinese +physicians influence the minds and maladies of their patients. He +is represented as holding in front of him a disk on which the signs +are painted. + + +The Ministry of Exorcism + +The Ministry of Exorcism is a Taoist invention and is composed of seven +chief ministers, whose duty is to expel evil spirits from dwellings +and generally to counteract the annoyances of infernal demons. The +two gods usually referred to in the popular legends are P'an Kuan and +Chung K'uei. The first is really the Guardian of the Living and the +Dead in the Otherworld, Fêng-tu P'an Kuan (Fêng-tu or Fêng-tu Ch'êng +being the region beyond the tomb). He was originally a scholar named +Ts'ui Chio, who became Magistrate of Tz'u Chou, and later Minister +of Ceremonies. After his death he was appointed to the spiritual post +above mentioned. His best-known achievement is his prolongation of the +life of the Emperor T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty by twenty years by +changing _i_, 'one,' into _san_, 'three,' in the life-register kept +by the gods. The term P'an Kuan is, however, more generally used as +the designation of an officer or civil or military attendant upon +a god than of any special individual, and the original P'an Kuan, +'the Decider of Life in Hades,' has been gradually supplanted in +popular favour by Chung K'uei, 'the Protector against Evil Spirits.' + + +The Exorcism of 'Emptiness and Devastation' + +The Emperor Ming Huang of the T'ang dynasty, also known as T'ang +Hsüan Tsung, in the reign-period K'ai Yüan (A.D. 712-742), after an +expedition to Mount Li in Shensi, was attacked by fever. During a +nightmare he saw a small demon fantastically dressed in red trousers, +with a shoe on one foot but none on the other, and a shoe hanging from +his girdle. Having broken through a bamboo gate, he took possession +of an embroidered box and a jade flute, and then began to make a +tour of the palace, sporting and gambolling. The Emperor grew angry +and questioned him. "Your humble servant," replied the little demon, +"is named Hsü Hao, 'Emptiness and Devastation,'" "I have never heard +of such a person," said the Emperor. The demon rejoined, "Hsü means to +desire Emptiness, because in Emptiness one can fly just as one wishes; +Hao, 'Devastation,' changes people's joy to sadness. "The Emperor, +irritated by this flippancy, was about to call his guard, when suddenly +a great devil appeared, wearing a tattered head-covering and a blue +robe, a horn clasp on his belt, and official boots on his feet. He +went up to the sprite, tore out one of his eyes, crushed it up, and ate +it. The Emperor asked the newcomer who he was. "Your humble servant," +he replied, "is Chung K'uei, Physician of Tung-nan Shan in Shensi. In +the reign-period Wu Tê (A.D. 618-627) of the Emperor Kao Tsu of the +T'ang dynasty I was ignominiously rejected and unjustly defrauded +of a first class in the public examinations. Overwhelmed with shame, +I committed suicide on the steps of the imperial palace. The Emperor +ordered me to be buried in a green robe [reserved for members of the +imperial clan], and out of gratitude for that favour I swore to protect +the sovereign in any part of the Empire against the evil machinations +of the demon Hsü Hao." At these words the Emperor awoke and found +that the fever had left him. His Majesty called for Wu Tao-tzu (one +of the most celebrated Chinese artists) to paint the portrait of the +person he had seen in his dream. The work was so well done that the +Emperor recognized it as the actual demon he had seen in his sleep, +and rewarded the artist with a hundred taels of gold. The portrait is +said to have been still in the imperial palace during the Sung dynasty. + +Another version of the legend says that Chung K'uefs essay was +recognized by the examiners as equal to the work of the best authors +of antiquity, but that the Emperor rejected him on account of his +extremely ugly features, whereupon he committed suicide in his +presence, was honoured by the Emperor and accorded a funeral as if +he had been the successful first candidate, and canonized with the +title of Great Spiritual Chaser of Demons for the Whole Empire. + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Goddess of Mercy + + +The Guardian Angel of Buddhism + +As Mary is the guiding spirit of Rome, so is Kuan Yin of the Buddhist +faith. + +According to a beautiful Chinese legend, Kuan Yin. when about to +enter Heaven, heard a cry of anguish rising from the earth beneath +her, and, moved by pity, paused as her feet touched the glorious +threshold. Hence her name 'Kuan (Shih) Yin' (one who notices or hears +the cry, or prayer, of the world). + +Kuan Yin was at one time always represented as a man; but in the +T'ang dynasty and Five Dynasties we find him represented as a woman, +and he has been generally, though not invariably, so represented +since that time. + +In old Buddhism Shâkyamuni was the chief god, and in many temples +he still nominally occupies the seat of honour, but he is completely +eclipsed by the God or Goddess of Mercy. + +"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 Kuan Yin within its 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 relative value of a son in Chinese +estimation 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 Kuan Yin Buddha,' +She saves the tempest-tossed sailor, and 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 [P'u T'o], 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 'Kuan Yin' 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." There are many metamorphoses of this goddess. + + +The Buddhist Saviour + +"She is called Kuan Yin because at any cry of misery she 'hears the +voice and removes the sorrow.' Her appellation is 'Taking-away-fear +Buddha,' If in the midst of the fire the name of Kuan Yin 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, and a storm comes +up and threatens to carry the crew to the evil devil's kingdom, +if one on board calls on the name of Kuan Yin, the ship will be +saved. If one goes into a conflict and calls on the name of Kuan +Yin, the sword and spear of the enemy fall harmless. If the three +thousand great 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 Kuan Yin, and your heart will +be purified, Anger and wrath may be dispelled by calling on the name +of Kuan Yin. A lunatic who prays to Kuan Yin will become sane. Kuan +Yin gives sons to mothers, and if the mother asks for a daughter she +will be beautiful. Two men--one chanting the names of the 6,200,000 +Buddhas, in number like the sands of the Ganges, and the other simply +calling on Kuan Yin--have equal merit. Kuan Yin 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." + + +Miao Chuang desires an Heir + +In the twenty-first year of the reign of Ta Hao, the Great Great +One, of the Golden Heavenly Dynasty, a man named P'o Chia, whose +first name was Lo Yü, an enterprising kinglet of Hsi Yii, seized the +throne for twenty years, after carrying on a war for a space of three +years. His kingdom was known as Hsing Lin, and the title of his reign +as Miao Chuang. + +The kingdom of Hsing Lin was, so says the Chinese writer, situated +between India on the west, the kingdom of T'ien Cheng on the south, +and the kingdom of Siam on the north, and was 3000 _li_ in length. The +boundaries differ according to different authors. Of this kingdom +the two pillars of State were the Grand Minister Chao Chen and the +General Ch'u Chieh. The Queen Pao Tê, whose maiden name was Po Ya, and +the King Miao Chuang had lived nearly half a century without having +any male issue to succeed to the throne. This was a source of great +grief to them. Po Ya suggested to the King that the God of Hua Shan, +the sacred mountain in the west, had the reputation of being always +willing to help; and that if he prayed to him and asked his pardon +for having shed so much blood during the wars which preceded his +accession to the throne he might obtain an heir. + +Welcoming this suggestion, the King sent for Chao Chên and ordered +him to dispatch to the temple of Hua Shan the two Chief Ministers of +Ceremonies, Hsi Hêng-nan and Chih Tu, with instructions to request +fifty Buddhist and Taoist priests to pray for seven days and seven +nights in order that the King might obtain a son. When that period +was over, the King and Queen would go in person to offer sacrifices +in the temple. + + +Prayers to the Gods + +The envoys took with them many rare and valuable presents, and for +seven days and seven nights the temple resounded with the sound of +drums, bells, and all kinds of instruments, intermingled with the +voices of the praying priests. On their arrival the King and Queen +offered sacrifices to the god of the sacred mountain. + +But the God of Hua Shan knew that the King had been deprived of a +male heir as a punishment for the bloody hecatombs during his three +years' war. The priests, however, interceded for him, urging that the +King had come in person to offer the sacrifices, wherefore the God +could not altogether reject his prayer. So he ordered Ch'ien-li Yen, +'Thousand-_li_ Eye,' and Shun-fêng Erh, 'Favourable-wind Ear,' [29] +to go quickly and ascertain if there were not some worthy person who +was on the point of being reincarnated into this world. + +The two messengers shortly returned, and stated that in India, in the +Chiu Ling Mountains, in the village of Chih-shu Yüan, there lived a +good man named Shih Ch'in-ch'ang, whose ancestors for three generations +had observed all the ascetic rules of the Buddhists. This man was the +father of three children, the eldest Shih Wên, the second Shih Chin, +and the third Shih Shan, all worthy followers of the great Buddha. + + +The Murder of the Tais + +Wang Chê, a brigand chief, and thirty of his followers, finding +themselves pursued and harassed by the Indian soldiers, without +provisions or shelter, dying of hunger, went to Shih Wên and begged for +something to eat. Knowing that they were evildoers, Shih Wên and his +two brothers refused to give them anything; if they starved, they said, +the peasants would no longer suffer from their depredations. Thereupon +the brigands decided that it was a case of life for life, and broke +into the house of a rich family of the name of Tai, burning their +home, killing a hundred men, women, and children, and carrying off +everything they possessed. + +The local _t'u-ti_ at once made a report to Yü Huang. + +"This Shih family," replied the god, "for three generations has +given itself up to good works, and certainly the brigands were not +deserving of any pity. However, it is impossible to deny that the +three brothers Shih, in refusing them food, morally compelled them to +loot the Tai family's house, putting all to the sword or flames. Is +not this the same as if they had committed the crime themselves? Let +them be arrested and put in chains in the celestial prison, and let +them never see the light of the sun again." + +"Since," said the messenger to the God of Hua Shan, "your gratitude +toward Miao Chuang compels you to grant him an heir, why not ask Yü +Huang to pardon their crime and reincarnate them in the womb of the +Queen Po Ya, so that they may begin a new terrestrial existence and +give themselves up to good works?" As a result, the God of Hua Shan +called the Spirit of the Wind and gave him a message for Yü Huang. + + +A Message for Yü Huang + +The message was as follows: "King Miao Chuang has offered sacrifice +to me and begged me to grant him an heir. But since by his wars he +has caused the deaths of a large number of human beings, he does not +deserve to have his request granted. Now these three brothers Shih +have offended your Majesty by constraining the brigand Wang Che to be +guilty of murder and robbery. I pray you to take into account their +past good works and pardon their crime, giving them an opportunity +of expiating it by causing them all three to be reborn, but of the +female sex, in the womb of Po Ya the Queen. [30] In this way they +will be able to atone for their crime and save many souls." Yü Huang +was pleased to comply, and he ordered the Spirit of the North Pole +to release the three captives and take their souls to the palace of +King Miao Chuang, where in three years' time they would be changed +into females in the womb of Queen Po Ya. + + +Birth of the Three Daughters + +The King, who was anxiously expecting day by day the birth of an heir, +was informed one morning that a daughter had been born to him. She was +named Miao Ch'ing. A year went by, and another daughter was born. This +one was named Miao Yin. When, at the end of the third year, another +daughter was born, the King, beside himself with rage, called his +Grand Minister Chao Chên and, all disconsolate, said to him, "I am +past fifty, and have no male child to succeed me on the throne. My +dynasty will therefore become extinct. Of what use have been all my +labours and all my victories?" Chao Chen tried to console him, saying, +"Heaven has granted you three daughters: no human power can change this +divine decree. When these princesses have grown up, we will choose +three sons-in-law for your Majesty, and you can elect your successor +from among them. Who will dare to dispute his right to the throne?" + +The King named the third daughter Miao Shan. She became noted for her +modesty and many other good qualities, and scrupulously observed all +the tenets of the Buddhist doctrines. Virtuous living seemed, indeed, +to be to her a second nature. + + +Miao Shan's Ambition + +One day, when the three sisters were playing in the palace garden of +Perpetual Spring, Miao Shan, with a serious mien, said to her sisters, +"Riches and glory are like the rain in spring or the morning dew; +a little while, and all is gone. Kings and emperors think to enjoy to +the end the good fortune which places them in a rank apart from other +human beings; but sickness lays them low in their coffins, and all +is over. Where are now all those powerful dynasties which have laid +down the law to the world? As for me, I desire nothing more than a +peaceful retreat on a lone mountain, there to attempt the attainment +of perfection. If some day I can reach a high degree of goodness, +then, borne on the clouds of Heaven, I will travel throughout the +universe, passing in the twinkling of an eye from east to west. I +will rescue my father and mother, and bring them to Heaven; I will +save the miserable and afflicted on earth; I will convert the spirits +which do evil, and cause them to do good. That is my only ambition." + + +Her Sisters Marry + +No sooner had she finished speaking than a lady of the Court came to +announce that the King had found sons-in-law to his liking for his two +elder daughters. The wedding-feast was to be the very next day. "Be +quick," she added, "and prepare your presents, your dresses, and so +forth, for the King's order is imperative." The husband chosen for Miao +Ch'ing was a First Academician named Chao K'uei. His personal name was +Tê Ta, and he was the son of a celebrated minister of the reigning +dynasty. Miao Yin's husband-elect was a military officer named Ho +Fêng, whose personal name was Ch'ao Yang. He had passed first in the +examination for the Military Doctorate. The marriage ceremonies were +of a magnificent character. Festivity followed festivity; the newly-wed +were duly installed in their palaces, and general happiness prevailed. + + +Miao Shan's Renunciation + +There now remained only Miao Shan. The King and Queen wished to find +for her a man famous for knowledge and virtue, capable of ruling the +kingdom, and worthy of being the successor to the throne. So the +King called her and explained to her all his plans regarding her, +and how all his hopes rested on her. + +"It is a crime," she replied, "for me not to comply with my father's +wishes; but you must pardon me if my ideas differ from yours." + +"Tell me what your ideas are," said the King. + +"I do not wish to marry," she rejoined. "I wish to attain to perfection +and to Buddhahood. Then I promise that I will not be ungrateful +to you." + +"Wretch of a daughter," cried the King in anger, "you think you can +teach me, the head of the State and ruler of so great a people! Has +anyone ever known a daughter of a king become a nun? Can a good woman +be found in that class? Put aside all these mad ideas of a nunnery, +and tell me at once if you will marry a First Academician or a Military +First Graduate." + +"Who is there," answered the girl, "who does not love the royal +dignity?--what person who does not aspire to the happiness of +marriage? However, I wish to become a nun. With respect to the riches +and glory of this world, my heart is as cold as a dead cinder, and +I feel a keen desire to make it ever purer and purer." + +The King rose in fury, and wished to cast her out from his +presence. Miao Shan, knowing she could not openly disobey his orders, +took another course. "If you absolutely insist upon my marrying," +she said, "I will consent; only I must marry a physician." + +"A physician!" growled the King. "Are men of good family and talents +wanting in my kingdom? What an absurd idea, to want to marry a +physician!" + +"My wish is," said Miao Shan, "to heal humanity of all its ills; of +cold, heat, lust, old age, and all infirmities. I wish to equalize all +classes, putting rich and poor on the same footing, to have community +of goods, without distinction of persons. If you will grant me my wish, +I can still in this way become a Buddha, a Saviour of Mankind. There +is no necessity to call in the diviners to choose an auspicious day. I +am ready to be married now." + + +She is Exiled to the Garden + +At these words the King was mad with rage. "Wicked imbecile!" he +cried, "what diabolical suggestions are these that you dare to make +in my presence?" + +Without further ado he called Ho T'ao, who on that day was officer +of the palace guard. When he had arrived and kneeled to receive the +King's commands, the latter said: "This wicked nun dishonours me. Take +from her her Court robes, and drive her from my presence. Take her +to the Queen's garden, and let her perish there of cold: that will +be one care less for my troubled heart." + +Miao Shan fell on her face and thanked the King, and then went with +the officer to the Queen's garden, where she began to lead her retired +hermit life, with the moon for companion and the wind for friend, +content to see all obstacles overthrown on her way to Nirvana, the +highest state of spiritual bliss, and glad to exchange the pleasures +of the palace for the sweetness of solitude. + + +The Nunnery of the White Bird + +After futile attempts to dissuade her from her purpose by the Court +ladies, her parents, and sisters, the King and Queen next deputed +Miao Hung and Ts'ui Hung to make a last attempt to bring their +misguided daughter to her senses. Miao Shan, annoyed at this renewed +solicitation, in a haughty manner ordered them never again to come and +torment her with their silly prattle. "I have found out," she added, +"that there is a well-known temple at Ju Chou in Lung-shu Hsien. This +Buddhist temple is known as the Nunnery of the White Bird, Po-ch'iao +Ch'an-ssu. In it five hundred nuns give themselves up to the study +of the true doctrine and the way of perfection. Go then and ask the +Queen on my behalf to obtain the King's permission for me to retire +thither. If you can procure me this favour, I will not fail to reward +you later." + +Miao Chuang summoned the messengers and inquired the result of their +efforts. "She is more unapproachable than ever," they replied; "she has +even ordered us to ask the Queen to obtain your Majesty's permission +to retire to the Nunnery of the White Bird in Lung-shu Hsien." + +The King gave his permission, but sent strict orders to the nunnery, +instructing the nuns to do all in their power to dissuade the Princess +when she arrived from carrying out her intention to remain. + + +Her Reception at the Nunnery + +This Nunnery of the White Bird had been built by Huang Ti, and +the five hundred nuns who lived in it had as Superior a lady named +I Yu, who was remarkable for her virtue. On receipt of the royal +mandate, she had summoned Chêng Chêng-ch'ang, the choir-mistress, +and informed her that Princess Miao Shan, owing to a disagreement +with her father, would shortly arrive at the temple. She requested +her to receive the visitor courteously, but at the same time to do +all she could to dissuade her from adopting the life of a nun. Having +given these instructions, the Superior, accompanied by two novices, +went to meet Miao Shan at the gate of the temple. On her arrival +they saluted her. The Princess returned the salute, but said: "I +have just left the world in order to place myself under your orders: +why do you come and salute me on my arrival? I beg you to be so good +as to take me into the temple, in order that I may pay my respects to +the Buddha." I Yu led her into the principal hall, and instructed the +nuns to light incense-sticks, ring the bells, and beat the drums. The +visit to the temple finished, she went into the preaching-hall, where +she greeted her instructresses. The latter obeyed the King's command +and endeavoured to persuade the Princess to return to her home, but, +as none of their arguments had any effect, it was at length decided to +give her a trial, and to put her in charge of the kitchen, where she +could prepare the food for the nunnery, and generally be at the service +of all. If she did not give satisfaction they could dismiss her. + + +She makes Offering to the Buddha + +Miao Shan joyfully agreed, and proceeded to make her humble submission +to the Buddha. She knelt before Ju Lai, and made offering to him, +praying as follows: "Great Buddha, full of goodness and mercy, your +humble servant wishes to leave the world. Grant that I may never +yield to the temptations which will be sent to try my faith." Miao +Shan further promised to observe all the regulations of the nunnery +and to obey the superiors. + + +Spiritual Aid + +This generous self-sacrifice touched the heart of Yü Huang, the Master +of Heaven, who summoned the Spirit of the North Star and instructed +him as follows: "Miao Shan, the third daughter of King Miao Chuang, +has renounced the world in order to devote herself to the attainment of +perfection. Her father has consigned her to the Nunnery of the White +Bird. She has undertaken without grumbling the burden of all the work +in the nunnery. If she is left without help, who is there who will be +willing to adopt the virtuous life? Do you go quickly and order the +Three Agents, the Gods of the Five Sacred Peaks, the Eight Ministers +of the Heavenly Dragon, Ch'ieh Lan, and the _t'u-ti_ to send her help +at once. Tell the Sea-dragon to dig her a well near the kitchen, +a tiger to bring her firewood, birds to collect vegetables for the +inmates of the nunnery, and all the spirits of Heaven to help her in +her duties, that she may give herself up without disturbance to the +pursuit of perfection. See that my commands are promptly obeyed." The +Spirit of the North Star complied without delay. + + +The Nunnery on Fire + +Seeing all these gods arrive to help the novice, the Superior, I Yu, +held consultation with the choir-mistress, saying: "We assigned to +the Princess the burdensome work of the kitchen because she refused to +return to the world; but since she has entered on her duties the gods +of the eight caves of Heaven have come to offer her fruit, Ch'ieh Lan +sweeps the kitchen, the dragon has dug a well, the God of the Hearth +and the tiger bring her fuel, birds collect vegetables for her, the +nunnery bell every evening at dusk booms of itself, as if struck by +some mysterious hand. Obviously miracles are being performed. Hasten +and fetch the King, and beg his Majesty to recall his daughter." + +Chêng Chêng-ch'ang started on her way, and, on arrival, informed +the King of all that had taken place. The King called Hu Pi-li, +the chief of the guard, and ordered him to go to the sub-prefecture +of Lung-shu Hsien at the head of an army corps of 5000 infantry and +cavalry. He was to surround the Nunnery of the White Bird and burn it +to the ground, together with the nuns. When he reached the place the +commander surrounded the nunnery with his soldiers, and set fire to +it. The five hundred doomed nuns invoked the aid of Heaven and earth, +and then, addressing Miao Shan, said: "It is you who have brought +upon us this terrible disaster." + +"It is true," said Miao Shan. "I alone am the cause of your +destruction." She then knelt down and prayed to Heaven: "Great +Sovereign of the Universe, your servant is the daughter of King Miao +Chuang; you are the grandson of King Lun. Will you not rescue your +younger sister? You have left your palace; I also have left mine. You +in former times betook yourself to the snowy mountains to attain +perfection; I came here with the same object. Will you not save us +from this fiery destruction?" + +Her prayer ended, Miao Shan took a bamboo hairpin from her hair, +pricked the roof of her mouth with it, and spat the flowing blood +toward Heaven. Immediately great clouds gathered in all parts of the +sky and sent down inundating showers, which put out the fire that +threatened the nunnery. The nuns threw themselves on their knees and +thanked her effusively for having saved their lives. + +Hu Pi-li retired, and went in haste to inform the King of this +extraordinary occurrence. The King, enraged, ordered him to go back +at once, bring his daughter in chains, and behead her on the spot. + + +The Execution of Miao Shan + +But the Queen, who had heard of this new plot, begged the King to grant +her daughter a last chance. "If you will give permission," she said, +"I will have a magnificent pavilion built at the side of the road +where Miao Shan will pass in chains on the way to her execution, and +will go there with our two other daughters and our sons-in-law. As +she passes we will have music, songs, feasting, everything likely +to impress her and make her contrast our luxurious life with her +miserable plight. This will surely bring her to repentance." + +"I agree," said the King, "to counter-order her execution until your +preparations are complete." Nevertheless, when the time came, Miao +Shan showed nothing but disdain for all this worldly show, and to all +advances replied only: "I love not these pompous vanities; I swear +that I prefer death to the so-called joys of this world." She was then +led to the place of execution. All the Court was present. Sacrifices +were made to her as to one already dead. A Grand Minister pronounced +the sacrificial oration. + +In the midst of all this the Queen appeared, and ordered the officials +to return to their posts, that she might once more exhort her daughter +to repent. But Miao Shan only listened in silence with downcast eyes. + +The King felt great repugnance to shedding his daughter's blood, and +ordered her to be imprisoned in the palace, in order that he might make +a last effort to save her. "I am the King," he said; "my orders cannot +be lightly set aside. Disobedience to them involves punishment, and +in spite of my paternal love for you, if you persist in your present +attitude, you will be executed to-morrow in front of the palace gate." + +The _t'u-ti_, hearing the King's verdict, went with all speed to Yü +Huang, and reported to him the sentence which had been pronounced +against Miao Shan. Yü Huang exclaimed: "Save Buddha, there is none in +the west so noble as this Princess. To-morrow, at the appointed hour, +go to the scene of execution, break the swords, and splinter the lances +they will use to kill her. See that she suffers no pain. At the moment +of her death transform yourself into a tiger, and bring her body to +the pine-wood. Having deposited it in a safe place, put a magic pill +in her mouth to arrest decay. Her triumphant soul on its return from +the lower regions must find it in a perfect state of preservation in +order to be able to re-enter it and animate it afresh. After that, +she must betake herself to Hsiang Shan on P'u T'o Island, where she +will reach the highest state of perfection." + +On the day appointed, Commander Hu Pi-li led the condemned Princess +to the place of execution. A body of troops had been stationed +there to maintain order. The _t'u-ti_ was in attendance at the +palace gates. Miao Shan was radiant with joy. "To-day," she said, +"I leave the world for a better life. Hasten to take my life, but +beware of mutilating my body." + +The King's warrant arrived, and suddenly the sky became overcast and +darkness fell upon the earth. A bright light surrounded Miao Shan, +and when the sword of the executioner fell upon the neck of the +victim it was broken in two. Then they thrust at her with a spear, +but the weapon fell to pieces. After that the King ordered that she be +strangled with a silken cord. A few moments later a tiger leapt into +the execution ground, dispersed the executioners, put the inanimate +body of Miao Shan on his back, and disappeared into the pine-forest. Hu +Pi-li rushed to the palace, recounted to the King full details of +all that had occurred, and received a reward of two ingots of gold. + + +Miao Shan visits the Infernal Regions + +Meantime, Miao Shan's soul, which remained unhurt, was borne on +a cloud; when, waking as from a dream, she lifted her head and +looked round, she could not see her body. "My father has just had +me strangled," she sighed. "How is it that I find myself in this +place? Here are neither mountains, nor trees, nor vegetation; no sun, +moon, nor stars; no habitation, no sound, no cackling of a fowl nor +barking of a dog. How can I live in this desolate region?" + +Suddenly a young man dressed in blue, shining with a brilliant light, +and carrying a large banner, appeared and said to her: "By order of +Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, I come to take you to the eighteen +infernal regions." + +"What is this cursed place where I am now?" asked Miao Shan. + +"This is the lower world, Hell," he replied. "Your refusal to marry, +and the magnanimity with which you chose an ignominious death rather +than break your resolutions, deserve the recognition of Yü Huang, +and the ten gods of the lower regions, impressed and pleased at your +eminent virtue, have sent me to you. Fear nothing and follow me." + +Thus Miao Shan began her visit to all the infernal regions. The Gods +of the Ten Hells came to congratulate her. + +"Who am I," asked Miao Shan, "that you should deign to take the +trouble to show me such respect?" + +"We have heard," they replied, "that when you recite your prayers +all evil disappears as if by magic. We should like to hear you pray." + +"I consent," replied Miao Shan, "on condition that all the condemned +ones in the ten infernal regions be released from their chains in +order to listen to me." + +At the appointed time the condemned were led in by Niu T'ou ('Ox-head') +and Ma Mien ('Horse-face'), the two chief constables of Hell, and +Miao Shan began her prayers. No sooner had she finished than Hell was +suddenly transformed into a paradise of joy, and the instruments of +torture into lotus-flowers. + + +Hell a Paradise + +P'an Kuan, the keeper of the Register of the Living and the Dead, +presented a memorial to Yen Wang stating that since Miao Shan's +arrival there was no more pain in Hell; and all the condemned were +beside themselves with happiness. "Since it has always been decreed," +he added, "that, in justice, there must be both a Heaven and a Hell, +if you do not send this saint back to earth, there will no longer be +any Hell, but only a Heaven." + +"Since that is so," said Yen Wang, "let forty-eight flag-bearers +escort her across the Styx Bridge [Nai-ho Ch'iao], that she may be +taken to the pine-forest to reenter her body, and resume her life in +the upper world." + +The King of the Hells having paid his respects to her, the youth +in blue conducted her soul back to her body, which she found lying +under a pine-tree. Having reentered it, Miao Shan found herself alive +again. A bitter sigh escaped from her lips. "I remember," she said, +"all that I saw and heard in Hell. I sigh for the moment which will +find me free of all impediments, and yet my soul has re-entered my +body. Here, without any lonely mountain on which to give myself up +to the pursuit of perfection, what will become of me?" Great tears +welled from her eyes. + + +A Test of Virtue + +Just then Ju Lai Buddha appeared. "Why have you come to this place?" he +asked. Miao Shan explained why the King had put her to death, and +how after her descent into Hell her soul had re-entered her body. "I +greatly pity your misfortune," Ju Lai said, "but there is no one to +help you. I also am alone. Why should we not marry? We could build +ourselves a hut, and pass our days in peace. What say you?" "Sir," +she replied, "you must not make impossible suggestions. I died and +came to life again. How can you speak so lightly? Do me the pleasure +of withdrawing from my presence." + +"Well," said the visitor, "he to whom you are speaking is no other +than the Buddha of the West. I came to test your virtue. This place +is not suitable for your devotional exercises; I invite you to come +to Hsiang Shan." + +Miao Shan threw herself on her knees and said: "My bodily eyes deceived +me. I never thought that your Majesty would come to a place like +this. Pardon my seeming want of respect. Where is this Hsiang Shan?" + +"Hsiang Shan is a very old monastery," Ju Lai replied, "built in +the earliest historical times. It is inhabited by Immortals. It is +situated in the sea, on P'u T'o Island, a dependency of the kingdom +of Annam. There you will be able to reach the highest perfection." + +"How far off is this island?" Miao Shan asked. "More than three +thousand _li_," Ju Lai replied. "I fear," she said, "I could not bear +the fatigue of so long a journey." "Calm yourself," he rejoined. "I +have brought with me a magic peach, of a kind not to be found in any +earthly orchard. Once you have eaten it, you will experience neither +hunger nor thirst; old age and death will have no power over you: +you will live for ever." + +Miao Shan ate the magic peach, took leave of Ju Lai, and started +on the way to Hsiang Shan. From the clouds the Spirit of the North +Star saw her wending her way painfully toward P'u T'o. He called the +Guardian of the Soil of Hsiang Shan and said to him: "Miao Shan is +on her way to your country; the way is long and difficult. Do you +take the form of a tiger, and carry her to her journey's end." + +The _t'u-ti_ transformed himself into a tiger and stationed himself +in the middle of the road along which Miao Shan must pass, giving +vent to ferocious roars. + +"I am a poor girl devoid of filial piety," said Miao Shan when she +came up. "I have disobeyed my father's commands; devour me, and make +an end of me." + +The tiger then spoke, saying: "I am not a real tiger, but the Guardian +of the Soil of Hsiang Shan. I have received instructions to carry +you there. Get on my back." + +"Since you have received these instructions," said the girl, "I will +obey, and when I have attained to perfection I will not forget your +kindness." + +The tiger went off like a flash of lightning, and in the twinkling +of an eye Miao Shan found herself at the foot of the rocky slopes of +P'u T'o Island. + + + +Miao Shan attains to Perfection + +After nine years in this retreat Miao Shan had reached the acme +of perfection. Ti-tsang Wang then came to Hsiang Shan, and was so +astonished at her virtue that he inquired of the local _t'u-ti_ as to +what had brought about this wonderful result. "With the exception of Ju +Lai, in all the west no one equals her in dignity and perfection. She +is the Queen of the three thousand P'u-sa's and of all the beings on +earth who have skin and blood. We regard her as our sovereign in all +things. Therefore, on the nineteenth day of the eleventh moon we will +enthrone her, that the whole world may profit by her beneficence." + +The _t'u-ti_ sent out his invitations for the ceremony. The Dragon-king +of the Western Sea, the Gods of the Five Sacred Mountains, the +Emperor-saints to the number of one hundred and twenty, the thirty-six +officials of the Ministry of Time, the celestial functionaries in +charge of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, the Three Causes, the +Five Saints, the Eight Immortals, the Ten Kings of the Hells--all +were present on the appointed day. Miao Shan took her seat on the +lotus-throne, and the assembled gods proclaimed her sovereign of +Heaven and earth, and a Buddha. Moreover, they decided that it was +not meet that she should remain alone at Hsiang Shan; so they begged +her to choose a worthy young man and a virtuous damsel to serve her +in the temple. + +The _t'u-ti_ was entrusted with the task of finding them. While making +search, he met a young priest named Shan Ts'ai. After the death of +his parents he had become a hermit on Ta-hua Shan, and was still a +novice in the science of perfection. + +Miao Shan ordered him to be brought to her. "Who are you?" she asked. + +"I am a poor orphan priest of no merit," he replied. "From my earliest +youth I have led the life of a hermit. I have been told that your +power is equalled only by your goodness, so I have ventured to come +to pray you to show me how to attain to perfection." + +"My only fear," replied Miao Shan, "is that your desire for perfection +may not be sincere." + +"I have now no parents," the priest continued, "and I have come more +than a thousand _li_ to find you. How can I be wanting in sincerity?" + +"What special degree of ability have you attained during your course +of perfection?" asked Miao Shan. + +"I have no skill," replied Shan Ts'ai, "but I rely for everything +on your great pity, and under your guidance I hope to reach the +required ability." + +"Very well," said Miao Shan, "take up your station on the top of +yonder peak, and wait till I find a means of transporting you." + + +A Ruse + +Miao Shan called the _t'u-ti_ and bade him go and beg all the Immortals +to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving +torches, and threatening with swords and spears to kill her. "Then +I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice +to prove Shan Ts'ai's fidelity and affection." + +A minute later a horde of brigands of ferocious aspect rushed up +to the temple of Hsiang Shan. Miao Shan cried for help, rushed +up the steep incline, missed her footing, and rolled down into the +ravine. Shan Ts'ai, seeing her fall into the abyss, without hesitation +flung himself after her in order to rescue her. When he reached her, +he asked: "What have you to fear from the robbers? You have nothing +for them to steal; why throw yourself over the precipice, exposing +yourself to certain death?" + +Miao Shan saw that he was weeping, and wept too. "I must comply with +the wish of Heaven," she said. + + +The Transformation of Shan Ts'ai + +Shan Ts'ai, inconsolable, prayed Heaven and earth to save his +protectress. Miao Shan said to him: "You should not have risked +your life by throwing yourself over the precipice, I have not yet +transformed you. But you did a brave thing, and I know that you have +a good heart. Now, look down there." "Oh," said he, "if I mistake +not, that is a corpse." "Yes," she replied, "that is your former +body. Now you are transformed you can rise at will and fly in the +air." Shan Ts'ai bowed low to thank his benefactress, who said to him: +"Henceforth you must say your prayers by my side, and not leave me +for a single day." + + +'Brother and Sister' + +With her spiritual sight Miao Shan perceived at the bottom of the +Southern Sea the third son of Lung Wang, who, in carrying out his +father's orders, was cleaving the waves in the form of a carp. While +doing so, he was caught in a fisherman's net, taken to the market +at Yüeh Chou, and offered for sale. Miao Shan at once sent her +faithful Shan Ts'ai, in the guise of a servant, to buy him, giving +him a thousand cash to purchase the fish, which he was to take to +the foot of the rocks at P'u T'o and set free in the sea. The son +of Lung Wang heartily thanked his deliverer, and on his return to +the palace related to his father what had occurred. The King said: +"As a reward, make her a present of a luminous pearl, so that she +may recite her prayers by its light at night-time." + +Lung Nü, the daughter of Lung Wang's third son, obtained her +grandfather's permission to take the gift to Miao Shan and beg that +she might be allowed to study the doctrine of the sages under her +guidance. After having proved her sincerity, she was accepted as a +pupil. Shan Ts'ai called her his sister, and Lung Nü reciprocated +by calling him her dear brother. Both lived as brother and sister by +Miao Shan's side. + + +The King's Punishment + +After King Miao Chuang had burned the Nunnery of the White Bird and +killed his daughter, Ch'ieh Lan Buddha presented a petition to Yü Huang +praying that the crime be not allowed to go unpunished. Yü Huang, +justly irritated, ordered P'an Kuan to consult the Register of the +Living and the Dead to see how long this homicidal King had yet to +live. P'an Kuan turned over the pages of his register, and saw that +according to the divine ordinances the King's reign on the throne of +Hsing Lin should last for twenty years, but that this period had not +yet expired. [31] "That which has been decreed is immutable," said +Yü Huang, "but I will punish him by sending him illness." He called +the God of Epidemics, and ordered him to afflict the King's body with +ulcers, of a kind which could not be healed except by remedies to be +given him by his daughter Miao Shan. + +The order was promptly executed, and the King could get no rest by day +or by night. His two daughters and their husbands spent their time in +feasting while he tossed about in agony on his sick-bed. In vain the +most famous physicians were called in; the malady only grew worse, and +despair took hold of the patient. He then caused a proclamation to be +made that he would grant the succession to the throne to any person who +would provide him with an effectual remedy to restore him to health. + + +The Disguised Priest-doctor + +Miao Shan had learnt by revelation at Hsiang Shan all that was taking +place at the palace. She assumed the form of a priest-doctor, clothed +herself in a priest's gown, with the regulation headdress and straw +shoes, and attached to her girdle a gourd containing pills and other +medicines. In this apparel she went straight to the palace gate, +read the royal edict posted there, and tore it down. Some members of +the palace guard seized her, and inquired angrily: "Who are you that +you should dare to tear down the royal proclamation?" + +"I, a poor priest, am also a doctor," she replied. "I read the edict +posted on the palace gates. The King is inquiring for a doctor who +can heal him. I am a doctor of an old cultured family, and propose +to restore him to health." + +"If you are of a cultured family, why did you become a priest?" they +asked. "Would it not have been better to gain your living honestly +in practising your art than to shave your head and go loafing about +the world? Besides, all the highest physicians have tried in vain to +cure the King; do you imagine that you will be more skilful than all +the aged practitioners?" + +"Set your minds at ease," she replied. "I have received from my +ancestors the most efficacious remedies, and I guarantee that I +shall restore the King to health," The palace guard then consented +to transmit her petition to the Queen, who informed the King, and in +the end the pretended priest was admitted. Having reached the royal +bed-chamber, he sat still awhile in order to calm himself before +feeling the pulse, and to have complete control of all his faculties +while examining the King. When he felt quite sure of himself, he +approached the King's bed, took the King's hand, felt his pulse, +carefully diagnosed the nature of the illness, and assured himself +that it was easily curable. + + +Strange Medicine + +One serious difficulty, however, presented itself, and that was that +the right medicine was almost impossible to procure. The King showed +his displeasure by saying: "For every illness there is a medical +prescription, and for every prescription a specific medicine; how +can you say that the diagnosis is easy, but that there is no remedy?" + +"Your Majesty," replied the priest, "the remedy for your illness is +not to be found in any pharmacy, and no one would agree to sell it." + +The King became angry, believed that he was being imposed upon, +and ordered those about him to drive away the priest, who left smiling. + +The following night the King saw in a dream an old man who said to +him: "This priest alone can cure your illness, and if you ask him he +himself will give you the right remedy." + +The King awoke as soon as these words had been uttered, and begged +the Queen to recall the priest. When the latter had returned, the +King related his dream, and begged the priest to procure for him the +remedy required. "What, after all, is this remedy that I must have +in order to be cured?" he asked. + +"There must be the hand and eye of a living person, from which to +compound the ointment which alone can save you," answered the priest. + +The King called out in indignation: "This priest is fooling me! Who +would ever give his hand or his eye? Even if anyone would, I could +never have the heart to make use of them." + +"Nevertheless," said the priest, "there is no other effective remedy." + +"Then where can I procure this remedy?" asked the King. + +"Your Majesty must send your ministers, who must observe the Buddhist +rules of abstinence, to Hsiang Shan, where they will be given what +is required." + +"Where is Hsiang Shan, and how far from here?" + +"About three thousand or more _li_, but I myself will indicate the +route to be followed; in a very short time they will return." + +The King, who was suffering terribly, was more contented when he +heard that the journey could be rapidly accomplished. He called his +two ministers, Chao Chên and Liu Ch'in, and instructed them to lose +no time in starting for Hsiang Shan and to observe scrupulously the +Buddhist rules of abstinence. He ordered the Minister of Ceremonies +to detain the priest in the palace until their return. + + +A Conspiracy that Failed + +The two sons-in-law of the King, Ho Fêng and Chao K'uei, who had +already made secret preparations to succeed to the throne as soon as +the King should breathe his last, learned with no little surprise +that the priest had hopes of curing the King's illness, and that +he was waiting in the palace until the saving remedy was brought +to him. Fearing that they might be disappointed in their ambition, +and that after his recovery the King, faithful to his promise, +would give the crown to the priest, they entered into a conspiracy +with an unscrupulous courtier named Ho Li. They were obliged to act +quickly, because the ministers were travelling by forced marches, +and would soon be back. That same night Ho Li was to give to the +King a poisoned drink, composed, he would say, by the priest with +the object of assuaging the King's pain until the return of his +two ministers. Shortly after, an assassin, Su Ta, was to murder the +priest. Thus at one stroke both the King and the priest would meet +their death, and the kingdom would pass to the King's two sons-in-law. + +Miao Shan had returned to Hsiang Shan, leaving in the palace the bodily +form of the priest. She saw the two traitors Ho Fêng and Chao K'uei +preparing the poison, and was aware of their wicked intentions. Calling +the spirit Yu I, who was on duty that day, she told him to fly to +the palace and change into a harmless soup the poison about to be +administered to the King and to bind the assassin hand and foot. + +At midnight Ho Li, carrying in his hand the poisoned drink, knocked +at the door of the royal apartment, and said to the Queen that the +priest had prepared a soothing potion while awaiting the return of +the ministers. "I come," he said, "to offer it to his Majesty." The +Queen took the bowl in her hands and was about to give it to the King, +when Yu I arrived unannounced. Quick as thought he snatched the bowl +from the Queen and poured the contents on the ground; at the same +moment he knocked over those present in the room, so that they all +rolled on the floor. + +At the time this was happening the assassin Su Ta entered the priest's +room, and struck him with his sword. Instantly the assassin, without +knowing how, found himself enwrapped in the priest's robe and thrown +to the ground. He struggled and tried to free himself, but found +that his hands had been rendered useless by some mysterious power, +and that flight was impossible. The spirit Yu I, having fulfilled the +mission entrusted to him, now returned to Hsiang Shan and reported +to Miao Shan. + + +A Confession and its Results + +Next morning, the two sons-in-law of the King heard of the turn things +had taken during the night. The whole palace was in a state of the +greatest confusion. + +When he was informed that the priest had been killed, the King called +Ch'u Ting-lieh and ordered him to have the murderer arrested. Su Ta +was put to the torture and confessed all that he knew. Together with +Ho Li he was condemned to be cut into a thousand pieces. + +The two sons-in-law were seized and ordered to instant execution, +and it was only on the Queen's intercession that their wives were +spared. The infuriated King, however, ordered that his two daughters +should be imprisoned in the palace. + + +The Gruesome Remedy + +Meantime Chao Chên and Liu Ch'in had reached Hsiang Shan. When they +were brought to Miao Shan the ministers took out the King's letter and +read it to her. "I, Miao Chuang, King of Hsing Lin, have learned that +there dwells at Hsiang Shan an Immortal whose power and compassion +have no equal in the whole world. I have passed my fiftieth year, and +am afflicted with ulcers that all remedies have failed to cure. To-day +a priest has assured me that at Hsiang Shan I can obtain the hand and +eye of a living person, with which he will prepare an ointment able +to restore me to my usual state of health. Relying upon his word +and upon the goodness of the Immortal to whom he has directed me, +I venture to beg that those two parts of a living body necessary to +heal my ulcers be sent to me. I assure you of my everlasting gratitude, +fully confident that my request will not be refused." + +The next morning Miao Shan bade the ministers take a knife and cut +off her left hand and gouge out her left eye. Liu Ch'in took the +knife offered him, but did not dare to obey the order. "Be quick," +urged the Immortal; "you have been commanded to return as soon as +possible; why do you hesitate as if you were a young girl?" Liu +Ch'in was forced to proceed. He plunged in the knife, and the red +blood flooded the ground, spreading an odour like sweet incense. The +hand and eye were placed on a golden plate, and, having paid their +grateful respects to the Immortal, the envoys hastened to return. + +When they had left, Miao Shan, who had transformed herself in order to +allow the envoys to remove her hand and eye, told Shan Ts'ai that she +was now going to prepare the ointment necessary for the cure of the +King. "Should the Queen," she added, "send for another eye and hand, +I will transform myself again, and you can give them to her." No sooner +had she finished speaking than she mounted a cloud and disappeared +in space. The two ministers reached the palace and presented to the +Queen the gruesome remedy which they had brought from the temple. She, +overcome with gratitude and emotion, wept copiously. "What Immortal," +she asked, "can have been so charitable as to sacrifice a hand and eye +for the King's benefit?" Then suddenly her tears gushed forth with +redoubled vigour, and she uttered a great cry, for she recognized +the hand of her daughter by a black scar which was on it. + + +Half-measures + +"Who else, in fact, but his child," she continued amid her sobs, +"could have had the courage to give her hand to save her father's +life?" "What are you saying?" said the King. "In the world there are +many hands like this." While they thus reasoned, the priest entered +the King's apartment. "This great Immortal has long devoted herself +to the attainment of perfection," he said. "Those she has healed +are innumerable. Give me the hand and eye." He took them and shortly +produced an ointment which, he told the King, was to be applied to his +left side. No sooner had it touched his skin than the pain on his left +side disappeared as if by magic; no sign of ulcers was to be seen on +that side, but his right side remained swollen and painful as before. + +"Why is it," asked the King, "that this remedy, which is so efficacious +for the left side, should not be applied to the right?" "Because," +replied the priest, "the left hand and eye of the saint cures only +the left side. If you wish to be completely cured, you must send +your officers to obtain the right eye and right hand also." The King +accordingly dispatched his envoys anew with a letter of thanks, and +begging as a further favour that the cure should be completed by the +healing also of his right side. + + +The King Cured + +On the arrival of the envoys Shan Ts'ai met them in the mutilated form +of Miao Shan, and he bade them cut off his right hand, pluck out his +right eye, and put them on a plate. At the sight of the four bleeding +wounds Liu Ch'in could not refrain from calling out indignantly: +"This priest is a wicked man, thus to make a martyr of a woman in +order to obtain the succession!" + +Having thus spoken, he left with his companion for the kingdom of +Hsing Lin. On their return the King was overwhelmed with joy. The +priest quickly prepared the ointment, and the King, without delay, +applied it to his right side. At once the ulcers disappeared like the +darkness of night before the rising sun. The whole Court congratulated +the King and eulogized the priest. The King conferred upon the latter +the title Priest of the Brilliant Eye. He fell on his face to return +thanks, and added: "I, a poor priest, have left the world, and have +only one wish, namely, that your Majesty should govern your subjects +with justice and sympathy and that all the officials of the realm +should prove themselves men of integrity. As for me, I am used to +roaming about. I have no desire for any royal estate. My happiness +exceeds all earthly joys." + +Having thus spoken, the priest waved the sleeve of his cloak, a cloud +descended from Heaven, and seating himself upon it he disappeared +in the sky. From the cloud a note containing the following words was +seen to fall: "I am one of the Teachers of the West. I came to cure +the King's illness, and so to glorify the True Doctrine." + + + +The King's Daughter + +All who witnessed this miracle exclaimed with one voice: "This priest +is the Living Buddha, who is going back to Heaven!" The note was taken +to King Miao Chuang, who exclaimed: "Who am I that I should deserve +that one of the rulers of Heaven should deign to descend and cure me +by the sacrifice of hands and eyes?" + +"What was the face of the saintly person like who gave you the +remedy?" he then asked Chao Chên. + +"It was like unto that of your deceased daughter, Miao Shan," +he replied. + +"When you removed her hands and eyes did she seem to suffer?" + +"I saw a great flow of blood, and my heart failed, but the face of +the victim seemed radiant with happiness." + +"This certainly must be my daughter Miao Shan, who has attained to +perfection," said the King. "Who but she would have given hands +and eyes? Purify yourselves and observe the rules of abstinence, +and go quickly to Hsiang Shan to return thanks to the saint for this +inestimable favour. I myself will ere long make a pilgrimage thither +to return thanks in person." + + +The King and Queen taken Prisoners + +Three years later the King and Queen, with the grandees of their +Court, set out to visit Hsiang Shan, but on the way the monarchs were +captured by the Green Lion, or God of Fire, and the White Elephant, +or Spirit of the Water, the two guardians of the Temple of Buddha, +who transported them to a dark cavern in the mountains. A terrific +battle then took place between the evil spirits on the one side and +some hosts of heavenly genii, who had been summoned to the rescue, +on the other. While its issue was still uncertain, reinforcements +under the Red Child Devil, who could resist fire, and the Dragon-king +of the Eastern Sea, who could subdue water, finally routed the enemy, +and the prisoners were released. + + +The King's Repentance + +The King and Queen now resumed their pilgrimage, and Miao Shan +instructed Shan Ts'ai to receive the monarchs when they arrived +to offer incense. She herself took up her place on the altar, her +eyes torn out, her hands cut off, and her wrists all dripping with +blood. The King recognized his daughter, and bitterly reproached +himself; the Queen fell swooning at her feet. Miao Shan then spoke and +tried to comfort them. She told them of all that she had experienced +since the day when she had been executed, and how she had attained +to immortal perfection. She then went on: "In order to punish you +for having caused the deaths of all those who perished in the wars +preceding your accession to the throne, and also to avenge the burning +of the Nunnery of the White Bird, Yü Huang afflicted you with those +grievous ulcers. It was then that I changed myself into a priest in +order to heal you, and gave my eyes and hands, with which I prepared +the ointment that cured you. It was I, moreover, who procured your +liberty from Buddha when you were imprisoned in the cave by the Green +Lion and the White Elephant." + + +Sackcloth and Ashes + +At these words the King threw himself with his face on the ground, +offered incense, worshipped Heaven, earth, the sun, and the moon, +saying with a voice broken by sobs: "I committed a great crime in +killing my daughter, who has sacrificed her eyes and hands in order +to cure my sickness." + +No sooner were these words uttered than Miao Shan reassumed her +normal form, and, descending from the altar, approached her parents +and sisters. Her body had again its original completeness; and in the +presence of its perfect beauty, and at finding themselves reunited +as one family, all wept for joy. + +"Well," said Miao Shan to her father, "will you now force me to marry +and prevent my devoting myself to the attainment of perfection?" + +"Speak no more of that," replied the King. "I was in the wrong. If you +had not reached perfection, I should not now be alive. I have made up +my mind to exchange my sceptre for the pursuit of the perfect life, +which I wish to lead henceforth together with you." + + +The King renounces the Throne + +Then, in the presence of all, he addressed his Grand Minister Chao +Chên, saying: "Your devotion to the service of the State has rendered +you worthy to wear the crown: I surrender it to you." The Court +proclaimed Chao Chên King of Hsing Lin, bade farewell to Miao Chuang, +and set out for their kingdom accompanied by their new sovereign. + + +Pardon of the Green Lion and the White Elephant + +Buddha had summoned the White Elephant and the Green Lion, and +was on the point of sentencing them to eternal damnation when the +compassionate Miao Shan interceded for them. "Certainly you deserve +no forgiveness," he said, "but I cannot refuse a request made by +Miao Shan, whose clemency is without limit. I give you over to her, +to serve and obey her in everything. Follow her." + + +Miao Shan becomes a Buddha + +The guardian spirit on duty that day then announced the arrival of a +messenger from Yü Huang. It was T'ai-po Chin-hsing, who was the bearer +of a divine decree, which he handed to Miao Shan. It read as follows: +"I, the august Emperor, make known to you this decree: Miao Chuang, +King of Hsing Lin, forgetful alike of Heaven and Hell, the six virtues, +and metempsychosis, has led a blameworthy life; but your nine years +of penitence, the filial piety which caused you to sacrifice your own +body to effect his cure, in short, all your virtues, have redeemed +his faults. Your eyes can see and your ears can hear all the good +and bad deeds and words of men. You are the object of my especial +regard. Therefore I make proclamation of this decree of canonization. + +"Miao Shan will have the title of Very Merciful and Very Compassionate +P'u-sa, Saviour of the Afflicted, Miraculous and Always Helpful +Protectress of Mortals. On your lofty precious lotus-flower throne, +you will be the Sovereign of the Southern Seas and of P'u T'o Isle. + +"Your two sisters, hitherto tainted with earthly pleasures, will +gradually progress till they reach true perfection. + +"Miao Ch'ing will have the title of Very Virtuous P'u-sa, the +Completely Beautiful, Rider of the Green Lion. + +"Miao Yin will be honoured with the title of Very Virtuous and +Completely Resplendent P'u-sa, Rider of the White Elephant. + +"King Miao Chuang is raised to the dignity of Virtuous Conquering +P'u-sa, Surveyor of Mortals. + +"Queen Po Ya receives the title of P'u-sa of Ten Thousand Virtues, +Surveyor of Famous Women. + +"Shan Ts'ai has bestowed upon him the title of Golden Youth. + +"Lung Nü has the title of Jade Maiden. + +"During all time incense is to be burned before all the members of +this canonized group." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Eight Immortals + + +Pa Hsien + +Either singly or in groups the Eight Immortals, Pa Hsien, of the Taoist +religion are one of the most popular subjects of representation in +China; their portraits are to be seen everywhere--on porcelain vases, +teapots, teacups, fans, scrolls, embroidery, etc. Images of them are +made in porcelain, earthenware, roots, wood, metals. The term 'Eight +Immortals' is figuratively used for happiness. The number eight has +become lucky in association with this tradition, and persons or things +eight in number are graced accordingly. Thus we read of reverence shown +to the 'Eight Genii Table' (_Pa Hsien Cho_), the 'Eight Genii Bridge' +(_Pa Hsien Ch'iao_), 'Eight Genii Vermicelli' (_Pa Hsien Mien_), the +'Eight Genii of the Wine-cup' (_Tin Chung Pa Hsien_)--wine-bibbers of +the T'ang dynasty celebrated by Tu Fu, the poet. They are favourite +subjects of romance, and special objects of adoration. In them we see +"the embodiment of the ideas of perfect but imaginary happiness which +possess the minds of the Chinese people." Three of them (Chung-li +Ch'üan, Chang Kuo, and Lü Yen) were historical personages; the others +are mentioned only in fables or romances. They represent all kinds +of people--old, young, male, female, civil, military, rich, poor, +afflicted, cultured, noble. They are also representative of early, +middle, and later historical periods. + +The legend of the Eight Immortals is certainly not older than the time +of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), and is probably to be assigned +to that of the Yüan dynasty (1280-1368). But some, if not all, of +the group seem to have been previously celebrated as Immortals in the +Taoist legends. Their biographies are usually arranged in the order +of their official eminence or seniority in age. Here I follow that +adopted in _Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi_ [32] in which they are +described in the order in which they became Immortals. + + +Li T'ieh-kuai + +Li T'ieh-kuai, depicted always with his crutch and gourd full of +magic medicines, was of the family name of Li, his own name being +Li Yüan (Hs'üan, now read Yüan). He is also known as K'ung-mu. Hsi +Wang Mu cured him of an ulcer on the leg and taught him the art of +becoming immortal. He was canonized as Rector of the East. He is +said to have been of commanding stature and dignified mien, devoting +himself solely to the study of Taoist lore. Hsi Wang Mu made him a +present of an iron crutch, and sent him to the capital to teach the +doctrine of immortality to Han Chung-li. + +He is also identified with Li Ning-yang, to whom Lao Tzu descended +from Heaven in order to instruct him in the wisdom of the gods. Soon +after he had completed his course of instruction his soul left his +body to go on a visit to Hua Shan. Some say he was summoned by Lao +Tzu, others that Lao Tzu engaged him as escort to the countries of +Hsi Yü. He left his disciple Lang Ling in charge of his body, saying +that if he did not return within seven days he was to have the body +cremated. Unfortunately, when only six days had elapsed the disciple +was called away to the death-bed of his mother. In order to be able +to leave at once he cremated the body forthwith, and when the soul +returned it found only a heap of ashes. Some say the body was not +cremated, but only became devitalized through neglect or through +being uninhabited for so long a time. The object of the setting of +the watch was not only to prevent injury to or theft of the body, +but also to prevent any other soul from taking up its abode in it. + +In a forest near by a beggar had just died of hunger. Finding this +corpse untenanted, the wandering spirit entered it through the +temples, and made off. When he found that his head was long and +pointed, his face black, his beard and hair woolly and dishevelled, +his eyes of gigantic size, and one of his legs lame, he wished to +get out of this vile body; but Lao Tzu advised him not to make the +attempt and gave him a gold band to keep his hair in order, and an +iron crutch to help his lame leg. On lifting his hand to his eyes, +he found they were as large as buckles. That is why he was called Li +K'ung-mu, 'Li Hollow Eyes.' Popularly he is known as Li T'ieh-kuai, +'Li with the Iron Crutch.' No precise period seems to be assigned +to his career on earth, though one tradition places him in the Yüan +dynasty. Another account says that he was changed into a dragon, +and in that form ascended to Heaven. + +Elsewhere it is related that T'ieh-kuai, after entering the body of +the lame beggar, benevolently proceeded to revive the mother of Yang, +his negligent disciple. Leaning on his iron staff and carrying a gourd +of medicines on his back he went to Yang's house, where preparations +were being made for the funeral. The contents of the gourd, poured +into the mouth, revived the dead woman. He then made himself known, +and, giving Yang another pill, vanished in a gust of wind. Two hundred +years later he effected the immortalization of his disciple. + +During his peregrinations on earth he would hang a bottle on the +wall at night and jump into it, emerging on the following morning. He +frequently returned to earth, and at times tried to bring about the +transmigration of others. + +An example is the case of Ch'ao Tu, the watchman. T'ieh-kuai walked +into a fiery furnace and bade Ch'ao follow. The latter, being afraid +of imitating an act evidently associated with the supernatural world +of evil spirits, refused to do so. T'ieh-kuai then told Ch'ao to step +on to a leaf floating on the surface of the river, saying that it was +a boat that would bear him across safely. Again the watchman refused, +whereupon T'ieh-kuai, remarking that the cares of this world were +evidently too weighty for him to be able to ascend to immortality, +stepped on to the leaf himself and vanished. + + +Chung-li Ch'üan + +Regarding the origin and life of this Immortal several different +accounts are given. One states that his family name was Chung-li, +and that he lived in the Han dynasty, being therefore called Han +Chung-li. His cognomen was Ch'üan, his literary appellation Chi Tao, +and his pseudonyms Ho-ho Tzu and Wang-yang Tzu; his style Yün-fang. + +He was born in the district of Hsien-yang Hsien (a sub-prefecture of +the ancient capital Hsi-an Fu) in Shensi. He became Marshal of the +Empire in the cyclic year 2496. In his old age he became a hermit +on Yang-chio Shan, thirty _li_ north-east of I-ch'êng Hsien in the +prefecture of P'ing-yang Fu in Shansi. He is referred to by the title +of King-emperor of the True Active Principle. + +Another account describes Chung-li Ch'üan as merely a vice-marshal +in the service of Duke Chou Hsiao. He was defeated in battle, and +escaped to Chung-nan Shan, where he met the Five Heroes, the Flowers +of the East, who instructed him in the doctrine of immortality. At +the end of the T'ang dynasty Han Chung-li taught this same science of +immortality to Lü Tung-pin (see p. 297), and took the pompous title +of the Only Independent One Under Heaven. + +Other versions state that Han Chung-li is not the name of a person, +but of a country; that he was a Taoist priest Chung Li-tzu; and that +he was a beggar, Chung-li by name, who gave to one Lao Chih a pill of +immortality. No sooner had the latter swallowed it than he went mad, +left his wife, and ascended to Heaven. + +During a great famine he transmuted copper and pewter into silver +by amalgamating them with some mysterious drug. This treasure he +distributed among the poor, and thousands of lives were thus saved. + +One day, while he was meditating, the stone wall of his dwelling in the +mountains was rent asunder, and a jade casket exposed to view. This was +found to contain secret information as to how to become an Immortal. + +When he had followed these instructions for some time, his room was +filled with many-coloured clouds, music was heard, and a celestial +stork came and bore him away on its back to the regions of immortality. + +He is sometimes represented holding his feather-fan, Yü-mao Shan; +at other times the peach of immortality. Since his admission to +the ranks of the gods, he has appeared on earth at various times as +the messenger of Heaven. On one of these occasions he met Lü Yen, +as narrated on p. 297. + + + +Lan Ts'ai-ho + +Lan Ts'ai-ho is variously stated to have been a woman and an +hermaphrodite. She is the strolling singer or mountebank of the +Immortals. Usually she plays a flute or a pair of cymbals. Her origin +is unknown, but her personal name is said to have been Yang Su, +and her career is assigned to the period of the T'ang dynasty. She +wandered abroad clad in a tattered blue gown held by a black wooden +belt three inches wide, with one foot shoeless and the other shod, +wearing in summer an undergarment of wadded material, and in winter +sleeping on the snow, her breath rising in a brilliant cloud like +the steam from a boiling cauldron. In this guise she earned her +livelihood by singing in the streets, keeping time with a wand three +feet long. Though taken for a lunatic, the doggerel verse she sang +disproved the popular slanders. It denounced this fleeting life and +its delusive pleasures. When given money, she either strung it on +a cord and waved it to the time of her song or scattered it on the +ground for the poor to pick up. + +One day she was found to have become intoxicated in an inn at Fêng-yang +Fu in Anhui, and while in that state disappeared on a cloud, having +thrown down to earth her shoe, robe, belt, and castanets. + +According to popular belief, however, only one of the Eight Immortals, +namely, Ho Hsien-ku, was a woman, Lan Ts'ai-ho being represented as a +young person of about sixteen, bearing a basket of fruit. According +to the _Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi_, he was 'the Red-footed +Great Genius,' Ch'ih-chiao Ta-hsien incarnate. Though he was a man, +adds the writer, he could not understand how to be a man (which is +perhaps the reason why he has been supposed to be a woman). + + + +Chang Kuo + +The period assigned to Chang Kuo is the middle or close of the seventh +to the middle of the eighth century A.D. He lived as a hermit on +Chung-t'iao Shan, in the prefecture of P'ing-yang Fu in Shansi. The +Emperors T'ai Tsung and Kao Tsung of the T'ang dynasty frequently +invited him to Court, but he persistently refused to go. At last, +pressed once more by the Empress Wu (A.D. 684-705), he consented +to leave his retreat, but was struck down by death at the gate of +the Temple of the Jealous Woman. His body began to decay and to be +eaten by worms, when lo! he was seen again, alive and well, on the +mountains of Hêng Chou in P'ing-yang Fu. He rode on a white mule, +which carried him thousands of miles in a day, and which, when the +journey was finished, he folded up like a sheet of paper and put away +in his wallet. When he again required its services, he had only to +spurt water upon the packet from his mouth and the animal at once +assumed its proper shape. At all times he performed wonderful feats +of necromancy, and declared that he had been Grand Minister to the +Emperor Yao (2357-2255 B.C.) during a previous existence. + +In the twenty-third year (A.D. 735) of the reign-period K'ai Yüan +of the Emperor Hsüan Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, he was called to +Lo-yang in Honan, and elected Chief of the Imperial Academy, with +the honourable title of Very Perspicacious Teacher. + +It was just at this time that the famous Taoist Yeh Fa-shan, thanks +to his skill in necromancy, was in great favour at Court. The Emperor +asked him who this Chang Kuo Lao (he usually has the epithet Lao, +'old,' added to his name) was. "I know," replied the magician; +"but if I were to tell your Majesty I should fall dead at your feet, +so I dare not speak unless your Majesty will promise that you will +go with bare feet and bare head to ask Chang Kuo to forgive you, in +which case I should immediately revive." Hsüan Tsung having promised, +Fa-shan then said: "Chang Kuo is a white spiritual bat which came out +of primeval chaos." No sooner had he spoken than he dropped dead at +the Emperor's feet. + +Hsüan Tsung, with bare head and feet, went to Chang Kuo as he had +promised, and begged forgiveness for his indiscretion. The latter then +sprinkled water on Fa-shan's face and he revived. Soon after Chang fell +sick and returned to die in the Hêng Chou Mountains during the period +A.D. 742-746. When his disciples opened his tomb, they found it empty. + +He is usually seen mounted on his white mule, sometimes facing its +head, sometimes its tail. He carries a phoenix-feather or a peach +of immortality. + +At his interviews with the Emperor Ming Huang in A.D. 723 (when he +was alive still) Chang Kuo "entertained the Emperor with a variety of +magical tricks, such as rendering himself invisible, drinking off a +cup of aconite, and felling birds or flowers by pointing at them. He +refused the hand of an imperial princess, and also declined to have +his portrait placed in the Hall of Worthies." + +A picture of Chang Kuo sitting on a donkey and offering a descendant +to the newly married couple is often found in the nuptial chamber. It +seems somewhat incongruous that an old ascetic should be associated +with matrimonial happiness and the granting of offspring, but the +explanation may possibly be connected with his performance of wonderful +feats of necromancy, though he is said not to have given encouragement +to others in these things during his lifetime. + + + +Ho Hsien Ku + +A maiden holding in her hand a magic lotus-blossom, the flower of +open-heartedness, or the peach of immortality given her by Lü Tung-pin +in the mountain-gorge as a symbol of identity, playing at times the +_shêng_ or reed-organ, or drinking wine--this is the picture the +Chinese paint of the Immortal Ho Hsien Ku. + +She was the daughter of Ho T'ai, a native of Tsêng-ch'êng Hsien in +Kuangtung. Others say her father was a shopkeeper at Ling-ling in +Hunan. She lived in the time of the usurping empress Wu (A.D. 684-705) +of the T'ang dynasty. At her birth six hairs were found growing on +the crown of her head, and the account says she never had any more, +though the pictures represent her with a full head of hair. She +elected to live on Yün-mu Ling, twenty _li_ west of Tsêng-ch'êng +Hsien. On that mountain was found a stone called _yün-mu shih_, +'mother-of-pearl.' In a dream she saw a spirit who ordered her to +powder and eat one of these stones, by doing which she could acquire +both agility and immortality. She complied with this injunction, and +also vowed herself to a life of virginity. Her days were thenceforth +passed in floating from one peak to another, bringing home at night +to her mother the fruits she collected on the mountain. She gradually +found that she had no need to eat in order to live. Her fame having +reached the ears of the Empress, she was invited to Court, but while +journeying thither suddenly disappeared from mortal view and became +an Immortal. She is said to have been seen again in A.D. 750 floating +upon a cloud of many colours at the temple of Ma Ku, the famous female +Taoist magician, and again, some years later, in the city of Canton. + +She is represented as an extremely beautiful maiden, and is remarkable +as occupying so prominent a position in a cult in which no system of +female asceticism is developed. + + +Lü Tung-pin + +Lü Tung-pin's family name was Lü; his personal name Tung-pin; also Yen; +and his pseudonym Shun Yang Tzu. He was born in A.D. 798 at Yung-lo +Hsien, in the prefecture of Ho-chung Fu in Shansi, a hundred and twenty +_li_ south-east of the present sub-prefecture of Yung-chi Hsien (P'u +Chou). He came of an official family, his grandfather having been +President of the Ministry of Ceremonies, and his father Prefect of +Hai Chou. He was 5 feet 2 inches in height, and at twenty was still +unmarried. At this time he made a journey to Lu Shan in Kiangsi, +where he met the Fire-dragon, who presented him with a magic sword, +which enabled him at will to hide himself in the heavens. + +During his visit to the capital, Ch'ang-an in Shensi, he met +the Immortal Han Chung-li, who instructed him in the mysteries of +alchemy and the elixir of life. When he revealed himself as Yün-fang +Hsien-shêng, Lü Yen expressed an ardent desire to aid in converting +mankind to the true doctrine, but was first exposed to a series of +ten temptations. These being successfully overcome, he was invested +with supernatural power and magic weapons, with which he traversed +the Empire, slaying dragons and ridding the earth of divers kinds +of evils, during a period of upward of four hundred years. Another +version says that Han Chung-li was in an inn, heating a jug of +rice-wine. Here Lü met him, and going to sleep dreamed that he +was promoted to a very high office and was exceptionally favoured +by fortune in every way. This had gone on for fifty years when +unexpectedly a serious fault caused him to be condemned to exile, +and his family was exterminated. Alone in the world, he was sighing +bitterly, when he awoke with a start. All had taken place in so short +a space of time that Han Chung-li's wine was not yet hot. This is the +incident referred to in Chinese literature in the phrase 'rice-wine +dream.' Convinced of the hollowness of worldly dignities, he followed +Han Chung-li to the Ho Ling Mountains at Chung-nan in Shensi, where +he was initiated into the divine mysteries, and became an Immortal. + +In A.D. 1115 the Emperor Hui Tsung conferred on him the title of Hero +of Marvellous Wisdom; and later he was proclaimed King-emperor and +Strong Protector. + +There are various versions of the legend of Lü Tung-pin. One of these +adds that in order to fulfil his promise made to Chung-li to do what +he could to aid in the work of converting his fellow-creatures to the +true doctrine, he went to Yüch Yang in the guise of an oil-seller, +intending to immortalize all those who did not ask for additional +weight to the quantity of oil purchased. During a whole year he met +only selfish and extortionate customers, with the exception of one +old lady who alone did not ask for more than was her due. So he went +to her house, and seeing a well in the courtyard threw a few grains +of rice into it. The water miraculously turned into wine, from the +sale of which the dame amassed great wealth. + +He was very skilful in fencing, and is always represented with his +magic Excalibur named Chan-yao Kuai, 'Devil-slaying Sabre,' and in +one hand holds a fly-whisk, Yün-chou, or 'Cloud-sweeper,' a symbol +common in Taoism of being able to fly at will through the air and to +walk on the clouds of Heaven. + +Like Kuan Kung, he is shown bearing in his arms a male +child--indicating a promise of numerous progeny, including _literati_ +and famous officials. Consequently he is one of the spiritual beings +honoured by the _literati_. + + +Han Hsiang Tzu + +Han Hsiang Tzu, who is depicted with a bouquet of flowers or a basket +of peaches of immortality, is stated to have been a grand-nephew of +Han Yü (A.D. 768-824), the great statesman, philosopher, and poet of +the T'ang dynasty, and an ardent votary of transcendental study. His +own name was Ch'ing Fu. The child was entrusted to his uncle to +be educated and prepared for the public examinations. He excelled +his teacher in intelligence and the performance of wonderful feats, +such as the production from a little earth in a flower-pot of some +marvellous flowering plants, on the leaves of which were written in +letters of gold some verses to this effect: + + + The clouds hide Mount Ch'in Ling. + Where is your abode? + The snow is deep on Lan Kuan; + Your horse refuses to advance. + + +"What is the meaning of these verses?" asked Han Yü. "You will see," +replied Han Hsiang Tzu. + +Some time afterward Han Yü was sent in disgrace to the prefecture of +Ch'ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung. When he reached the foot of Lan Kuan the +snow was so deep that he could not go on. Han Hsiang Tzu appeared, and, +sweeping away the snow, made a path for him. Han Yü then understood +the prophecy in his pupil's verses. + +When Han Hsiang Tzu was leaving his uncle, he gave him the following +in verse: + +Many indeed are the eminent men who have served their country, but +which of them surpasses you in his knowledge of literature? When +you have reached a high position, you will be buried in a damp and +foggy land. + +Han Yü also gave his pupil a farewell verse: + +How many here below allow themselves to be inebriated by the love +of honours and pelf! Alone and watchful you persevere in the right +path. But a time will come when, taking your flight to the sky, +you will open in the ethereal blue a luminous roadway. + +Han Yü was depressed at the thought of the damp climate of his place +of exile. "I fear there is no doubt," he said, "that I shall die +without seeing my family again." + +Han Hsiang Tzu consoled him, gave him a prescription, and said: "Not +only will you return in perfect health to the bosom of your family, +but you will be reinstated in your former offices." All this took +place exactly as he had predicted. + +Another account states that he became the disciple of Lü Tung-pin, and, +having been carried up to the supernatural peach-tree of the genii, +fell from its branches, but during his descent attained to the state +of immortality. Still another version says that he was killed by the +fall, was transformed, and then underwent the various experiences +with Han Yü already related. + + +Ts'ao Kuo-chiu + +Ts'ao Kuo-chiu was connected with the imperial family of the Sungs, +and is shown with the tablet of admission to Court in his hand. He +became one of the Eight Immortals because the other seven, who +occupied seven of the eight grottos of the Upper Spheres, wished to +see the eighth inhabited, and nominated him because "his disposition +resembled that of a genie." The legend relates that the Empress +Ts'ao, wife of the Emperor Jên Tsung (A.D. 1023-64), had two younger +brothers. The elder of the two, Ching-hsiu, did not concern himself +with the affairs of State; the younger, Ching-chih, was notorious for +his misbehaviour. In spite of all warnings he refused to reform, and +being at last guilty of homicide was condemned to death. His brother, +ashamed at what had occurred, went and hid in the mountains, where he +clothed his head and body with wild plants, resolved to lead the life +of a hermit. One day Han Chung-li and Lü Tung-pin found him in his +retreat, and asked him what he was doing. "I am engaged in studying +the Way," he replied. "What way, and where is it?" they asked. He +pointed to the sky. "Where is the sky?" they went on. He pointed to +his heart. The two visitors smiled and said: "The heart is the sky, +and the sky is the Way; you understand the origin of things." They +then gave him a recipe for perfection, to enable him to take his +place among the Perfect Ones. In a few days only he had reached this +much-sought-after condition. + +In another version we find fuller details concerning this +Immortal. A graduate named Yüan Wên-chêng of Ch'ao-yang Hsien, in +the sub-prefecture of Ch'ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung, was travelling with +his wife to take his examinations at the capital. Ts'ao Ching-chih, +the younger brother of the Empress, saw the lady, and was struck with +her beauty. In order to gratify his passion he invited the graduate +and his young wife to the palace, where he strangled the husband and +tried to force the wife to cohabit with him. She refused obstinately, +and as a last resort he had her imprisoned in a noisome dungeon. The +soul of the graduate appeared to the imperial Censor Pao Lao-yeh, +and begged him to exact vengeance for the execrable crime. The +elder brother, Ching-hsiu, seeing the case put in the hands of the +upright Pao Lao-yeh, and knowing his brother to be guilty of homicide, +advised him to put the woman to death, in order to cut off all sources +of information and so to prevent further proceedings. The young +voluptuary thereupon caused the woman to be thrown down a deep well, +but the star T'ai-po Chin-hsing, in the form of an old man, drew her +out again. While making her escape, she met on the road an official +procession which she mistook for that of Pao Lao-yeh, and, going up to +the sedan chair, made her accusation. This official was no other than +the elder brother of the murderer. Ching-hsiu, terrified, dared not +refuse to accept the charge, but on the pretext that the woman had +not placed herself respectfully by the side of the official chair, +and thus had not left a way clear for the passage of his retinue, he +had her beaten with iron-spiked whips, and she was cast away for dead +in a neighbouring lane. This time also she revived, and ran to inform +Pao Lao-yeh. The latter immediately had Ts'ao Ching-hsiu arrested, +cangued, and fettered. Without loss of time he wrote an invitation to +the second brother, Ts'ao Ching-chih, and on his arrival confronted him +with the graduate's wife, who accused him to his face. Pao Lao-yeh had +him put in a pit, and remained deaf to all entreaties of the Emperor +and Empress on his behalf. A few days later the murderer was taken to +the place of execution, and his head rolled in the dust. The problem +now was how to get Ts'ao Ching-hsiu out of the hands of the terrible +Censor. The Emperor Jên Tsung, to please the Empress, had a universal +amnesty proclaimed throughout the Empire, under which all prisoners +were set free. On receipt of this edict, Pao Lao-yeh liberated Ts'ao +Ching-hsiu from the cangue, and allowed him to go free. As one risen +from the dead, he gave himself up to the practice of perfection, +became a hermit, and, through the instruction of the Perfect Ones, +became one of the Eight Immortals. + + +Pa Hsien Kuo Hai + +The phrase _Pa Hsien kuo hai_, 'the Eight Immortals crossing the sea,' +refers to the legend of an expedition made by these deities. Their +object was to behold the wondrous things of the sea not to be found +in the celestial sphere. + +The usual mode of celestial locomotion--by taking a seat on a +cloud--was discarded at the suggestion of Lü Yen who recommended that +they should show the infinite variety of their talents by placing +things on the surface of the sea and stepping on them. + +Li T'ieh-kuai threw down his crutch, and scudded rapidly over the +waves. Chung-li Ch'üan used his feather-fan, Chang Kuo his paper +mule, Lü Tung-pin his sword, Han Hsiang Tzu his flower-basket, Ho +Hsien Ku her lotus-flower, Lan Ts'ai-ho his musical instrument, and +Ts'ao Kuo-chiu his tablet of admission to Court. The popular pictures +often represent most of these articles changed into various kinds +of sea-monsters. The musical instrument was noticed by the son of +the Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea. This avaricious prince conceived +the idea of stealing the instrument and imprisoning its owner. The +Immortals thereupon declared war, the details of which are described at +length by the Chinese writers, the outcome being that the Dragon-king +was utterly defeated. After this the Eight Immortals continued their +submarine exploits for an indefinite time, encountering numberless +adventures; but here the author travels far into the fertile region +of romance, beyond the frontiers of our present province. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven + + +Li, the Pagoda-bearer + +In Buddhist temples there is to be seen a richly attired figure of +a man holding in his hand a model of a pagoda. He is Li, the Prime +Minister of Heaven and father of No-cha. + +He was a general under the tyrant Chou and commander of Ch'ên-t'ang +Kuan at the time when the bloody war was being waged which resulted +in the extinction of the Yin dynasty. + +No-cha is one of the most frequently mentioned heroes in Chinese +romance; he is represented in one account as being Yü Huang's +shield-bearer, sixty feet in height, his three heads with nine +eyes crowned by a golden wheel, his eight hands each holding a +magic weapon, and his mouth vomiting blue clouds. At the sound of +his Voice, we are told, the heavens shook and the foundations of the +earth trembled. His duty was to bring into submission all the demons +which desolated the world. + +His birth was in this wise. Li Ching's wife, Yin Shih, bore him three +sons, the eldest Chin-cha, the second Mu-cha, and the third No-cha, +generally known as 'the Third Prince.' + +Yin Shih dreamed one night that a Taoist priest entered her room. She +indignantly exclaimed: "How dare you come into my room in this +indiscreet manner?" The priest replied: "Woman, receive the child of +the unicorn!" Before she could reply the Taoist pushed an object to +her bosom. + +Yin Shih awoke in a fright, a cold sweat all over her body. Having +awakened her husband, she told him what she had dreamed. At that moment +she was seized with the pains of childbirth. Li Ching withdrew to an +adjoining room, uneasy at what seemed to be inauspicious omens. A +little later two servants ran to him, crying out: "Your wife has +given birth to a monstrous freak!" + + +An Avatar of the Intelligent Pearl + +Li Ching seized his sword and went into his wife's room, which he found +filled with a red light exhaling a most extraordinary odour. A ball +of flesh was rolling on the floor like a wheel; with a blow of his +sword he cut it open, and a babe emerged, surrounded by a halo of red +light. Its face was very white, a gold bracelet was on its right wrist, +and it wore a pair of red silk trousers, from which proceeded rays +of dazzling golden light. The bracelet was 'the horizon of Heaven and +earth,' and the two precious objects belonged to the cave Chin-kuang +Tung of T'ai-i Chên-jên, the priest who had bestowed them upon him +when he appeared to his mother during her sleep. The child itself +was an avatar of Ling Chu-tzu, 'the Intelligent Pearl.' + +On the morrow T'ai-i Chên-jên returned and asked Li Ching's permission +to see the new-born babe. "He shall be called No-cha," he said, +"and will become my disciple." + + +A Precocious Youth + +At seven years of age No-cha was already six feet in height. One day +he asked his mother if he might go for a walk outside the town. His +mother granted him permission on condition that he was accompanied +by a servant. She also counselled him not to remain too long outside +the wall, lest his father should become anxious. + +It was in the fifth moon: the heat was excessive. No-cha had not gone +a _li_ before he was in a profuse perspiration. Some way ahead he saw +a clump of trees, to which he hastened, and, settling himself in the +shade, opened his coat, and breathed with relief the fresher air. In +front of him he saw a stream of limpid green water running between +two rows of willows, gently agitated by the movement of the wind, and +flowing round a rock. The child ran to the banks of the stream, and +said to his guardian: "I am covered with perspiration, and will bathe +from the rock." "Be quick," said the servant; "if your father returns +home before you he will be anxious." No-cha stripped himself, took his +red silk trousers, several feet long, and dipped them in the water, +intending to use them as a towel. No sooner were the magic trousers +immersed in the stream than the water began to boil, and Heaven and +earth trembled. The water of this river, the Chiu-wan Ho, 'Nine-bends +River,' which communicated with the Eastern Sea, turned completely +red, and Lung Wang's palace shook to its foundations. The Dragon-king, +surprised at seeing the walls of his crystal palace shaking, called +his officers and inquired: "How is it that the palace threatens to +collapse? There should not be an earthquake at this time." He ordered +one of his attendants to go at once and find out what evil was giving +rise to the commotion. When the officer reached the river he saw that +the water was red, but noticed nothing else except a boy dipping a +band of silk in the stream. He cleft the water and called out angrily: +"That child should be thrown into the water for making the river red +and causing Lung Wang's palace to shake." + +"Who is that who speaks so brutally?" said No-cha. Then, seeing that +the man intended to seize him, he jumped aside, took his gold bracelet, +and hurled it in the air. It fell on the head of the officer, and +No-cha left him dead on the rock. Then he picked up his bracelet and +said smiling: "His blood has stained my precious horizon of Heaven +and earth." He then washed it in the water. + + +The Slaying of the Dragon-king's Son + +"How is it that the officer does not return?" inquired Lung Wang. At +that moment attendants came to inform him that his retainer had been +murdered by a boy. + +Thereupon Ao Ping, the third son of Lung Wang, placing himself at the +head of a troop of marines, his trident in his hand, left the palace +precincts. The warriors dashed into the river, raising on every side +waves mountains high. Seeing the water rising, No-cha stood up on +the rock and was confronted by Ao Ping mounted on a sea-monster. + +"Who slew my messenger?" cried the warrior. + +"I did," answered No-cha. + +"Who are you?" demanded Ao Ping. + +"I am No-cha, the third son of Li Ching of Ch'ên-t'ang Kuan. I came +here to bathe and refresh myself; your messenger cursed me, and I +killed him. Then--" + +"Rascal! do you not know that your victim was a deputy of the King +of Heaven? How dare you kill him, and then boast of your crime?" + +So saying, Ao Ping thrust at the boy with his trident. No-cha, by a +brisk move, evaded the thrust. + +"Who are you?" he asked in turn. + +"I am Ao Ping, the third son of Lung Wang." + +"Ah, you are a blusterer," jeered the boy; "if you dare to touch me +I will skin you alive, you and your mud-eels!" + +"You make me choke with rage," rejoined Ao Ping, at the same time +thrusting again with his trident. + +Furious at this renewed attack, No-cha spread his silk trousers in +the air, and thousands of balls of fire flew out of them, felling Lung +Wang's son. No-cha put his foot on Ao Ping's head and struck it with +his magic bracelet, whereupon he appeared in his true form of a dragon. + +"I am now going to pull out your sinews," he said, "in order to make +a belt for my father to use to bind on his cuirass." + +No-cha was as good as his word, and Ao Ping's escort ran and informed +Lung Wang of the fate of his son. The Dragon-king went to Li Ching +and demanded an explanation. + +Being entirely ignorant of what had taken place, Li Ching sought +No-cha to question him. + + +An Unruly Son + +No-cha was in the garden, occupied in weaving the belt of +dragon-sinew. The stupefaction of Li Ching may be imagined. "You +have brought most awful misfortunes upon us," he exclaimed. "Come +and give an account of your conduct." "Have no fear," replied No-cha +superciliously; "his son's sinews are still intact; I will give them +back to him if he wishes." + +When they entered the house he saluted the Dragon-king, made a curt +apology, and offered to return his son's sinews. The father, moved +with grief at the sight of the proofs of the tragedy, said bitterly +to Li Ching: "You have such a son and yet dare to deny his guilt, +though you heard him haughtily admitting it! To-morrow I shall report +the matter to Yü Huang." Having spoken thus, he departed. + +Li Ching was overwhelmed at the enormity of his son's crime. His +wife, in an adjoining room, hearing his lamentations, went to her +husband. "What obnoxious creature is this that you have brought into +the world?" he said to her angrily. "He has slain two spirits, the +son of Lung Wang and a steward sent by the King of Heaven. To-morrow +the Dragon-king is to lodge a complaint with Yü Huang, and two or +three days hence will see the end of our existence." + +The poor mother began to weep copiously. "What!" she sobbed, "you whom +I suffered so much for, you are to be the cause of our ruin and death!" + +No-cha, seeing his parents so distracted, fell on his knees. "Let me +tell you once for all," he said, "that I am no ordinary mortal. I am +the disciple of T'ai-i Chên-jên; my magic weapons I received from him; +it is they which brought upon me the undying hatred of Lung Wang. But +he cannot prevail. To-day I will go and ask my master's advice. The +guilty alone should suffer the penalty; it is unjust that his parents +should suffer in his stead." + + +Drastic Measures + +He then left for Ch'ien-yüan Shan, and entered the cave of his master +T'ai-i Chên-jên, to whom he related his adventures. The master dwelt +upon the grave consequences of the murders, and then ordered No-cha to +bare his breast. With his finger he drew on the skin a magic formula, +after which he gave him some secret instructions. "Now," he said, "go +to the gate of Heaven and await the arrival of Lung Wang, who purposes +to accuse you before Yü Huang. Then you must come again to consult me, +that your parents may not be molested because of your misdeeds." + +When No-cha reached the gate of Heaven it was closed. In vain he sought +for Lung Wang, but after a while he saw him approaching. Lung Wang did +not see No-cha, for the formula written by T'ai-i Chên-jên rendered +him invisible. As Lung Wang approached the gate No-cha ran up to him +and struck him so hard a blow with his golden bracelet that he fell +to the ground. Then No-cha stamped on him, cursing him vehemently. + +The Dragon-king now recognized his assailant and sharply reproached him +with his crimes, but the only reparation he got was a renewal of kicks +and blows. Then, partially lifting Lung Wang's cloak and raising his +shield, No-cha tore off from his body about forty scales. Blood flowed +copiously, and the Dragon-king, under stress of the pain, begged his +foe to spare his life. To this No-cha consented on condition that he +relinquished his purpose of accusing him before Yü Huang. + +"Now," went on No-cha, "change yourself into a small serpent that I +may take you back without fear of your escaping." + +Lung Wang took the form of a small blue dragon, and followed No-cha +to his father's house, upon entering which Lung Wang resumed his +normal form, and accused No-cha of having belaboured him. "I will go +with all the Dragon-kings and lay an accusation before Yü Huang," +he said. Thereupon he transformed himself into a gust of wind, +and disappeared. + + + +No-cha draws a Bow at a Venture + +"Things are going from bad to worse," sighed Li Ching, His son, +however, consoled him: "I beg you, my father, not to let the future +trouble you. I am the chosen one of the gods. My master is T'ai-i +Chên-jên, and he has assured me that he can easily protect us." + +No-cha now went out and ascended a tower which commanded a view of +the entrance of the fort. There he found a wonderful bow and three +magic arrows. No-cha did not know that this was the spiritual weapon +belonging to the fort. "My master informed me that I am destined +to fight to establish the coming Chou dynasty; I ought therefore to +perfect myself in the use of weapons. This is a good opportunity." He +accordingly seized the bow and shot an arrow toward the south-west. A +red trail indicated the path of the arrow, which hissed as it flew. At +that moment Pi Yün, a servant of Shih-chi Niang-niang, happened to be +at the foot of K'u-lou Shan (Skeleton Hill), in front of the cave of +his mistress. The arrow pierced his throat, and he fell dead, bathed +in his blood. Shih-chi Niang-niang came out of her cave, and examining +the arrow found that it bore the inscription: "Arrow which shakes the +heavens." She thus knew that it must have come from Ch'ên-t'ang Kuan, +where the magic bow was kept. + + +Another Encounter + +The goddess mounted her blue phoenix, flew over the fort, seized Li +Ching, and carried him to her cave. There she made him kneel before +her, and reminded him how she had protected him that he might gain +honour and glory on earth before he attained to immortality. "It is +thus that you show your gratitude--by killing my servant!" + +Li Ching swore that he was innocent; but the tell-tale arrow was +there, and it could not but have come from the fortress. Li Ching +begged the goddess to set him at liberty, in order that he might find +the culprit and bring him to her. "If I cannot find him," he added, +"you may take my life." + +Once again No-cha frankly admitted his deed to his father, and followed +him to the cave of Shih-chi Niang-niang. When he reached the entrance +the second servant reproached him with the crime, whereupon No-cha +struck him a heavy blow. Shih-chi Niang-niang, infuriated, threw +herself at No-cha, sword in hand; one after the other she wrenched +from him his bracelet and magic trousers. + +Deprived of his magic weapons, No-cha fled to his master, T'ai-i +Chên-jên. The goddess followed and demanded that he be put to +death. A terrible conflict ensued between the two champions, until +T'ai-i Chên-jên hurled into the air his globe of nine fire-dragons, +which, falling on Shih-chi Niang-niang, enveloped her in a whirlwind +of flame. When this had passed it was seen that she was changed +into stone. + +"Now you are safe," said T'ai-i Chên-jên to No-cha, "but return +quickly, for the Four Dragon-kings have laid their accusation before +Yü Huang, and they are going to carry off your parents. Follow my +advice, and you will rescue your parents from their misfortune." + + +No-cha commits Hara-Kiri + +On his return No-cha found the Four Dragon-kings on the point of +carrying off his parents. "It is I," he said, "who killed Ao Ping, and +I who should pay the penalty. Why are you molesting my parents? I am +about to return to them what I received from them. Will it satisfy +you?" + +Lung Wang agreed, whereupon No-cha took a sword, and before their eyes +cut off an arm, sliced open his stomach, and fell unconscious. His +soul, borne on the wind, went straight to the cave of T'ai-i Chên-jên, +while his mother busied herself with burying his body. + +"Your home is not here," said his master to him; "return to Ch'ên-t'ang +Kuan, and beg your mother to build a temple on Ts'ui-p'ing Shan, +forty _li_ farther on. Incense will be burned to you for three years, +at the end of which time you will be reincarnated." + + +A Habitation for the Soul + +During the night, toward the third watch, while his mother was in a +deep sleep, No-cha appeared to her in a dream and said: "My mother, +pity me; since my death, my soul, separated from my body, wanders about +without a home. Build me, I pray you, a temple on Ts'ui-p'ing Shan, +that I may be reincarnated." His mother awoke in tears, and related +her vision to Li Ching, who reproached her for her blind attachment +to her unnatural son, the cause of so much disaster. + +For five or six nights the son appeared to his mother, each time +repeating his request. The last time he added: "Do not forget that by +nature I am ferocious; if you refuse my request evil will befall you." + +His mother then sent builders to the mountain to construct a temple +to No-cha, and his image was set up in it. Miracles were not wanting, +and the number of pilgrims who visited the shrine increased daily. + + + +Li Ching destroys his Son's Statue + +One day Li Ching, with a troop of his soldiers, was passing this +mountain, and saw the roads crowded with pilgrims of both sexes. "Where +are these people going?" he asked. "For six months past," he was told, +"the spirit of the temple on this mountain has continued to perform +miracles. People come from far and near to worship and supplicate him." + +"What is the name of this spirit?" inquired Li Ching. + +"No-cha," they replied. + +"No-cha!" exclaimed the father. "I will go and see him myself." + +In a rage Li Ching entered the temple and examined the statue, which +was a speaking image of his son. By its side were images of two of +his servants. He took his whip and began to beat the statue, cursing +it all the while. "It is not enough, apparently, for you to have been +a source of disaster to us," he said; "but even after your death you +must deceive the multitude." He whipped the statue until it fell to +pieces; he then kicked over the images of the servants, and went back, +admonishing the people not to worship so wicked a man, the shame and +ruin of his family. By his orders the temple was burnt to the ground. + +When he reached Ch'ên-t'ang Kuan his wife came to him, but he received +her coldly. "You gave birth to that cursed son," he said, "who has been +the plague of our lives, and after his death you build him a temple in +which he deceives the people. Do you wish to have me disgraced? If I +were to be accused at Court of having instituted the worship of false +gods, would not my destruction be certain? I have burned the temple, +and intend that that shall settle the matter once for all; if ever +you think of rebuilding it I will break off all relations with you." + + +No-cha consults his Master + +At the time of his father's visit No-cha was absent from the temple. On +his return he found only its smoking remnants. The spirits of his +two servants ran up lamenting. "Who has demolished my temple?" he +asked. "Li Ching," they replied. "In doing this he has exceeded his +powers," said No-cha. "I gave him back the substance I received from +him; why did he come with violence to break up my image? I will have +nothing more to do with him." + +No-cha's soul had already begun to be spiritualised. So he determined +to go to T'ai-i Chên-jên and beg for his help. "The worship rendered +to you there," replied the Taoist, "had nothing in it which should +have offended your father; it did not concern him. He was in the +wrong. Before long Chiang Tzu-ya will descend to inaugurate the new +dynasty, and since you must throw in your lot with him I will find +a way to aid you." + + +A New No-cha + +T'ai-i Chên-jên had two water-lily stalks and three lotus-leaves +brought to him. He spread these on the ground in the form of a human +being and placed the soul of No-cha in this lotus skeleton, uttering +magic incantations the while. There emerged a new No-cha full of +life, with a fresh complexion, purple lips, keen glance, and sixteen +feet of height. "Follow me to my peach-garden," said T'ai-i Chên-jên, +"and I will give you your weapons." He handed him a fiery spear, very +sharp, and two wind-and-fire wheels which, placed under his feet, +served as a Vehicle. A brick of gold in a panther-skin bag completed +his magic armament. The new warrior, after thanking his master, +mounted his wind-and-fire wheels and returned to Ch'ên-t'ang Kuan. + + +A Battle between Father and Son + +Li Ching was informed that his son No-cha had returned and was +threatening vengeance. So he took his weapons, mounted his horse, +and went forth to meet him. Having cursed each other profusely, they +joined battle, but Li Ching was worsted and compelled to flee. No-cha +pursued his father, but as he was on the point of overtaking him Li +Ching's second son, Mu-cha, came on the scene, and keenly reproached +his brother for his unfilial conduct. + +"Li Ching is no longer my father," replied No-cha. "I gave him back +my substance; why did he burn my temple and smash up my image?" + +Mu-cha thereupon prepared to defend his father, but received on his +back a blow from the golden brick, and fell unconscious. No-cha then +resumed his pursuit of Li Ching. + +His strength exhausted, and in danger of falling into the hands +of his enemy, Li Ching drew his sword and was about to kill +himself. "Stop!" cried a Taoist priest. "Come into my cave, and I +will protect you." + +When No-cha came up he could not see Li Ching, and demanded his +surrender from the Taoist. But he had to do with one stronger than +himself, no less a being than Wên-chu T'ien-tsun, whom T'ai-i Chên-jên +had sent in order that No-cha might receive a lesson. The Taoist, +with the aid of his magic weapon, seized No-cha, and in a moment he +found a gold ring fastened round his neck, two chains on his feet, +and he was bound to a pillar of gold. + + +Peace at the Last + +At this moment, as if by accident, T'ai-i Chên-jên appeared upon the +scene. His master had No-cha brought before Wên-chu T'ien-tsun and +Li Ching, and advised him to live at peace with his father, but he +also rebuked the father for having burned the temple on Ts'ui-p'ing +Shan. This done, he ordered Li Ching to go home, and No-cha to return +to his cave. The latter, overflowing with anger, his heart full of +vengeance, started again in pursuit of Li Ching, swearing that he would +punish him. But the Taoist reappeared and prepared to protect Li Ching. + +No-cha, bristling like a savage cat, threw himself at his enemy +and tried to pierce him with his spear, but a white lotus-flower +emerged from the Taoist's mouth and arrested the course of the +weapon. As No-cha continued to threaten him, the Taoist drew from +his sleeve a mysterious object which rose in the air, and, falling +at the feet of No-cha, enveloped him in flames. Then No-cha prayed +for mercy. The Taoist exacted from him three separate promises: to +live in harmony with his father, to recognize and address him as his +father, and to throw himself at his, the Taoist's, feet, to indicate +his reconciliation with himself. + +After this act of reconciliation had been performed, Wên-chu T'ien-tsun +promised Li Ching that he should leave his official post to become an +Immortal able to place his services at the disposal of the new Chou +dynasty, shortly to come into power. In order to ensure that their +reconciliation should last for ever, and to place it beyond No-cha's +power to seek revenge, he gave Li Ching the wonderful object by whose +agency No-cha's feet had been burned, and which had been the means +of bringing him into subjection. It was a golden pagoda, which became +the characteristic weapon of Li Ching, and gave rise to his nickname, +Li the Pagoda-bearer. Finally, Yü Huang appointed him Generalissimo +of the Twenty-six Celestial Officers, Grand Marshal of the Skies, +and Guardian of the Gate of Heaven. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A Battle of the Gods + + +Multifarious Versatile Divinities + +The _Fêng shên yen i_ describes at length how, during the wars which +preceded the accession of the Chou dynasty in 1122 B.C., a multitude +of demigods, Buddhas, Immortals, etc., took part on one side or the +other, some fighting for the old, some for the new dynasty. They were +wonderful creatures, gifted with marvellous powers. They could at will +change their form, multiply their heads and limbs, become invisible, +and create, by merely uttering a word, terrible monsters who bit and +destroyed, or sent forth poison gases, or emitted flames from their +nostrils. In these battles there is much lightning, thunder, flight +of fire-dragons, dark clouds which vomit burning hails of murderous +weapons; swords, spears, and arrows fall from the sky on to the heads +of the combatants; the earth trembles, the pillars of Heaven shake. + + +Chun T'i + +One of these gifted warriors was Chun T'i, a Taoist of the Western +Paradise, who appeared on the scene when the armies of the rival +dynasties were facing each other. K'ung Hsüan was gallantly holding +the pass of the Chin-chi Ling; Chiang Tzu-ya was trying to take it +by assault--so far without success. + +Chun T'i's mission was to take K'ung Hsüan to the abode of the blest, +his wisdom and general progress having now reached the required +degree of perfection. This was a means of breaking down the invincible +resistance of this powerful enemy and at the same time of rewarding +his brilliant talents. + +But K'ung Hsüan did not approve of this plan, and a fight took +place between the two champions. At one moment Chun T'i was seized +by a luminous bow and carried into the air, but while enveloped in a +cloud of fire he appeared with eighteen arms and twenty-four heads, +holding in each hand a powerful talisman. + + +The One-eyed Peacock + +He put a silk cord round K'ung Hsüan's neck, touched him with his +wand, and forced him to reassume his original form of a red one-eyed +peacock. Chun T'i seated himself on the peacock's back, and it +flew across the sky, bearing its saviour and master to the Western +Paradise. Brilliantly variegated clouds marked its track through space. + + +Arrangements for the Siege + +On the disappearance of its defender the defile of Chin-chi Ling +was captured, and the village of Chieh-p'ai Kuan, the bulwark of the +enemy's forces, reached. This place was defended by a host of genii +and Immortals, the most distinguished among them being the Taoist +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, whose specially effective charms had so far +kept the fort secure against every attempt upon it. + +Lao Tzu himself had deigned to descend from dwelling in happiness, +together with Yüan-shih T'ien-tsun and Chieh-yin Tao-jên, to take +part in the siege. But the town had four gates, and these heavenly +rulers were only three in number. So Chun T'i was recalled, and each +member of the quartette was entrusted with the task of capturing one +of the gates. + + + +Impediments + +Chun T'i's duty was to take the Chüeh-hsien Mên, defended by +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu. The warriors who had tried to enter the town by +this gate had one and all paid for their temerity with their lives. The +moment each had crossed the threshold a clap of thunder had resounded, +and a mysterious sword, moving with lightning rapidity, had slain him. + + +Offence and Defence + +As Chun T'i advanced at the head of his warriors terrible lightning +rent the air and the mysterious sword descended like a thunderbolt +upon his head. But Chun T'i held on high his Seven-precious Branch, +whereupon there emerged from it thousands of lotus-flowers, which +formed an impenetrable covering and stopped the sword in its fall. This +and the other gates were then forced, and a grand assault was now +directed against the chief defender of the town. + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, riding his ox and surrounded by his warriors, +for the last time risked the chance of war and bravely faced his four +terrible adversaries. With his sword held aloft, he threw himself on +Chieh-yin Tao-jên, whose only weapon was his fly-whisk. But there +emerged from this a five-coloured lotus-flower, which stopped the +sword-thrust. While Lao Tzu struck the hero with his staff, Yüan-shih +T'ien-tsun warded off the terrible sword with his jade _ju-i_. + +Chun T'i now called to his help the spiritual peacock, and took the +form of a warrior with twenty-four heads and eighteen arms. His +mysterious weapons surrounded T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, and Lao Tzu +struck the hero so hard that fire came out from his eyes, nose, +and mouth. Unable to parry the assaults of his adversaries, he next +received a blow from Chun T'i's magic wand, which felled him, and he +took flight in a whirlwind of dust. + +The defenders now offered no further resistance, and Yüan-shih +T'ien-tsun thanked Chun T'i for the valuable assistance he had rendered +in the capture of the village, after which the gods returned to their +palace in the Western Heaven. + + +Attempts at Revenge + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, vanquished and routed, swore to have his +revenge. He called to his aid the spirits of the twenty-eight +constellations, and marched to attack Wu Wang's army. The honour of +the victory that ensued belonged to Chun T'i, who disarmed both the +Immortal Wu Yün and T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu. + +Wu Yün, armed with his magic sword, entered the lists against Chun +T'i; but the latter opened his mouth and a blue lotus-flower came +out and stopped the blows aimed at him. Other thrusts were met by +similar miracles. + +"Why continue so useless a fight?" said Chun T'i at last. "Abandon +the cause of the Shang, and come with me to the Western Paradise. I +came to save you, and you must not compel me to make you resume your +original form." + +An insulting flow of words was the reply; again the magic sword +descended like lightning, and again the stroke was averted by a timely +lotus-flower. Chun T'i now waved his wand, and the magic sword was +broken to bits, the handle only remaining in Wu Yün's hand. + + + +The Golden-bearded Turtle + +Mad with rage, Wu Yün seized his club and tried to fell his enemy. But +Chun T'i summoned a disciple, who appeared with a bamboo pole. This he +thrust out like a fishing-rod, and on a hook at the end of the line +attached to the pole dangled a large golden-bearded turtle. This +was the Immortal Wu Yün, now in his original form of a spiritual +turtle. The disciple seated himself on its back, and both, disappearing +into space, returned to the Western Heavens. + + +The Battle Won + +To conquer T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was more difficult, but after a long +fight Chun T'i waved his Wand of the Seven Treasures and broke his +adversary's sword. The latter, disarmed and vanquished, disappeared +in a cloud of dust. Chun T'i did not trouble to pursue him. The battle +was won. + + +Buddhahood + +A disciple of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, P'i-lu Hsien, 'the Immortal +P'i-lu,' seeing his master beaten in two successive engagements, +left the battlefield and followed Chun T'i to the Western Paradise, +to become a Buddha. He is known as P'i-lu Fo, one of the principal +gods of Buddhism. + +Chun T'i's festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the third +moon. He is generally shown with eight hands and three faces, one of +the latter being that of a pig. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +How the Monkey Became a God + + +The Hsi Yu Chi + +In dealing with the gods of China we noticed the monkey among them. Why +and in what manner he attained to that exalted rank is set forth in +detail in the _Hsi yu chi_ [33]--a work the contents of which have +become woven into the fabric of Chinese legendary lore and are known +and loved by every intelligent native. Its pages are filled with +ghosts, demons, and fairies, good and bad, but "it contains no more +than the average Chinese really believes to exist, and his belief in +such manifestations is so firm that from the cradle to the grave he +lives and moves and has his being in reference to them." Its characters +are said to be allegorical, though it may be doubted whether these +implications may rightly be read into the Chinese text. Thus: + +Hsüan (or Yüan) Chuang, or T'ang Sêng, is the pilgrim of the _Hsi yu +chi_, who symbolizes conscience, to which all actions are brought for +trial. The priestly garment of Hsüan Chuang symbolizes the good work +of the rectified human nature. It is held to be a great protection +to the new heart from the myriads of evil beings which surround it, +seeking its destruction. + +Sun Hou-tzu, the Monkey Fairy, represents human nature, which is prone +to all evil. His unreasonable vagaries moved Hsüan Chuang to compel +him to wear a Head-splitting Helmet which would contract upon his head +in moments of waywardness. The agonizing pressure thus caused would +bring him to his senses, irrespective of his distance from his master. + +The iron wand of Sun Hou-tzu is said to represent the use that can be +made of doctrine. It was useful for all purposes, great or small. By +a word it could be made invisible, and by a word it could become long +enough to span the distance between Heaven and earth. + +Chu Pa-chieh, the Pig Fairy, with his muck-rake, stands for the +coarser passions, which are constantly at war with the conscience in +their endeavours to cast off all restraint. + +Sha Ho-shang, Priest Sha, is a good representation of Mr Faithful +in _The Pilgrim's Progress_. In the _Hsi yu chi_ he stands for the +human character, which is naturally weak and which needs constant +encouragement. + + +Legend of Sun Hou-tzu + +The deeds of this marvellous creature, the hero of the _Hsi yu chi_, +are to be met with continually in Chinese popular literature, and they +are very much alive in the popular mind. In certain parts a regular +worship is offered to him, and in many temples representations of or +legends concerning him are to be seen or heard. + +Other names by which Sun Hou-tzu is referred to are: Sun Hsing-chê, +Sun Wu-k'ung, Mei Hou-wang, Ch'i-t'ien Ta Shêng, and Pi-ma Wên, the +last-mentioned being a title which caused him annoyance by recalling +the derisive dignity conferred upon him by Yü Huang. [34] Throughout +the remainder of this chapter Sun Hou-tzu will be shortly referred +to as 'Sun.' + +Beyond the seas, in the Eastern continent, in the kingdom of Ao-lai, +is the mountain Hua-kuo Shan. On the steep sides of this mountain there +is a rocky point 36 feet 5 inches high and 24 feet in circumference. At +the very top an egg formed, and, fructified by the breath of the wind, +gave birth to a stone monkey. The newly-born saluted the four points +of the horizon; from his eyes shone golden streaks of lightning, +which filled the palace of the North Pole Star with light. This light +subsided as soon as he was able to take nourishment. + +"To-day," said Yü Huang to himself, "I am going to complete the +wonderful diversity of the beings engendered by Heaven and earth. This +monkey will skip and gambol to the highest peaks of mountains, jump +about in the waters, and, eating the fruit of the trees, will be the +companion of the gibbon and the crane. Like the deer he will pass +his nights on the mountain slopes, and during the day will be seen +leaping on their summits or in their caverns. That will be the finest +ornament of all for the mountains!" + +The creature's exploits soon caused him to be proclaimed king +of the monkeys. He then began to try to find some means of +becoming immortal. After travelling for eighteen years by land +and sea he met the Immortal P'u-t'i Tsu-shih on the mountain +Ling-t'ai-fang-ts'un. During his travels the monkey had gradually +acquired human attributes; his face remained always as it had been +originally, but dressed in human apparel he began to be civilized. His +new master gave him the family name of Sun, and personal name of +Wu-k'ung, 'Discoverer of Secrets.' He taught him how to fly through +the air, and to change into seventy-two different forms. With one +leap he could cover 108,000 _li_ (about 36,000 miles). + + + +A Rod of Iron + +Sun, after his return to Hua-kuo Shan, slew the demon Hun-shih Mo-wang, +who had been molesting the monkeys during his long absence. Then he +organized his subjects into a regular army, 47,000 all told. Thus the +peace of the simian kingdom was assured. As for himself, he could +not find a weapon to suit him, and went to consult Ao Kuang, the +Lung Wang, or Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea, about it. It was from +him that he obtained the formidable rod of iron, formerly planted in +the ocean-bed by the Great Yü (Yü Wang) to regulate the level of the +waters. He pulled it out, and modified it to suit his tastes. The +two extremities he bound round with gold bands, and on it engraved +the words: 'Gold-bound Wand of my Desires.' This magic weapon could +accommodate itself to all his wishes; being able to assume the most +incredible proportions or to reduce itself to the form of the finest of +needles, which he kept hidden in his ear. He terrorized the Four Kings +of the sea, and dressed himself at their expense. The neighbouring +kings allied themselves with him. A splendid banquet with copious +libations of wine sealed the alliance of friendship with the seven +kings; but alas! Sun had partaken so liberally that when he was seeing +his guests off, no sooner had he taken a few steps than he fell into a +drunken sleep. The undertakers of Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, to +whom Lung Wang had accused him as the disturber of his watery kingdom, +seized his soul, put chains round its neck, and led it down to the +infernal regions. Sun awoke in front of the gate of the kingdom of +the dead, broke his fetters, killed his two custodians, and, armed +with his magic staff, penetrated into the realm of Yen Wang, where +he threatened to carry out general destruction. He called to the ten +infernal gods to bring him the Register of the Living and the Dead, +tore out with his own hand the page on which were written his name +and those of his monkey subjects, and then told the King of the Hells +that he was no longer subject to the laws of death. Yen Wang yielded, +though with bad grace, and Sun returned triumphant from his expedition +beyond the tomb. + +Before long Sun's escapades came to the knowledge of Yü Huang. Ao +Kuang and Yen Wang each sent deputies to the Master of Heaven, who +took note of the double accusation, and sent T'ai-po Chin-hsing to +summon before him this disturber of the heavenly peace. + + +Grand Master of the Heavenly Stables + +In order to keep him occupied, Sun was appointed Grand Master of the +Heavenly Stables, and was entrusted with the feeding of Yü Huang's +horses; his official celestial title being Pi-ma Wên. Later on, +learning the object of the creation of this derisory appointment, +he overturned the Master's throne, seized his staff, broke down the +South Gate of Heaven, and descended on a cloud to Hua-kuo Shan. + + +Grand Superintendent of the Heavenly Peach-garden + +Yü Huang in great indignation organized a siege of Hua-kuo Shan, +but the Kings of Heaven and the generals with their celestial armies +were repulsed several times. Sun now arrogated to himself the pompous +title of Grand Saint, Governor of Heaven. He had this emblazoned on +his banners, and threatened Yü Huang that he would carry destruction +into his kingdom if he refused to recognize his new dignity. Yü +Huang, alarmed at the result of the military operations, agreed to +the condition laid down by Sun. The latter was then appointed Grand +Superintendent of the Heavenly Peach-garden, the fruit of which +conferred immortality, and a new palace was built for him. + + +Double Immortality + +Having made minute observations on the secret properties of the +peaches, Sun ate of them and was thus assured against death. The +time was ripe for him to indulge in his tricks without restraint, +and an opportunity soon presented itself. Deeply hurt at not having +been invited to the feast of the Peach Festival, P'an-t'ao Hui, given +periodically to the Immortals by Wang-mu Niang-niang, the Goddess of +the Immortals, he resolved upon revenge. When the preparations for the +feast were complete he cast a spell over the servants, causing them +to fall into a deep sleep, and then ate up all the most juicy meats +and drank the fine wines provided for the heavenly guests. Sun had, +however, indulged himself too liberally; with heavy head and bleary +eye he missed the road back to his heavenly abode, and came unaware +to the gate of Lao Chün, who was, however, absent from his palace. It +was only a matter of a few minutes for Sun to enter and swallow the +pills of immortality which Lao Chün kept in five gourds. Thus Sun, +doubly immortal, riding on the mist, again descended to Hua-kuo Shan. + + +Sun Hou-tzu Captured + +These numerous misdeeds aroused the indignation of all the gods and +goddesses. Accusations poured in upon Yü Huang, and he ordered the Four +Gods of the Heavens and their chief generals to bring Sun to him. The +armies laid siege to Hua-kuo Shan, a net was spread in the heavens, +fantastic battles took place, but the resistance of the enemy was as +strenuous and obstinate as before. + +Lao Chün and Êrh-lang, nephew of Yü Huang, then appeared on the +scene. Sun's warriors resisted gallantly, but the forces of Heaven +were too much for them, and at length they were overcome. At this +juncture Sun changed his form, and in spite of the net in the sky +managed to find a way out. In vain search was made everywhere, until +Li T'ien-wang, by the help of his devil-finding mirror, detected the +quarry and informed Êrh-lang, who rushed off in pursuit. Lao Chün +hurled his magic ring on to the head of the fugitive, who stumbled +and fell. Quick as lightning, the celestial dog, T'ien Kou, who was +in Êrh-lang's service, threw himself on him, bit him in the calf, +and caused him to stumble afresh. This was the end of the fight. Sun, +surrounded on all sides, was seized and chained. The battle was won. + + +Sun escapes from Lao Chün's Furnace + +The celestial armies now raised the siege, and returned to their +quarters. But a new and unexpected difficulty arose. Yü Huang condemned +the criminal to death, but when they went to carry out the sentence +the executioners learned that he was invulnerable; swords, iron, +fire, even lightning, could make no impression on his skin. Yü Huang, +alarmed, asked Lao Chün the reason of this. The latter replied that +there was nothing surprising about it, seeing that the knave had +eaten the peaches of life in the garden of Heaven and the pills of +immortality which he had composed. "Hand him over to me," he added. "I +will distil him in my furnace of the Eight Trigrams, and extract from +his composition the elements which render him immortal." + +Yü Huang ordered that the prisoner be handed over, and in the sight +of all he was shut up in Lao Chün's alchemical furnace, which for +forty-nine days was heated white-hot. But at an unguarded moment +Sun lifted the lid, emerged in a rage, seized his magic staff, and +threatened to destroy Heaven and exterminate its inhabitants. Yü Huang, +at the end of his resources, summoned Buddha, who came and addressed +Sun as follows: "Why do you wish to possess yourself of the Kingdom +of the Heavens?" + +"Have I not power enough to be the God of Heaven?" was the arrogant +reply. + +"What qualifications have you?" asked Buddha. "Enumerate them." + +"My qualifications are innumerable," replied Sun. "I am invulnerable, +I am immortal, I can change myself into seventy-two different forms, +I can ride on the clouds of Heaven and pass through the air at will, +with one leap I can traverse a hundred and eight thousand _li_." + +"Well," replied Buddha, "have a match with me; I wager that in one +leap you cannot even jump out of the palm of my hand. If you succeed +I will bestow upon you the sovereignty of Heaven." + + +Broad-jump Competition + +Sun rose into space, flew like lightning in the great vastness, and +reached the confines of Heaven, opposite the five great red pillars +which are the boundaries of the created universe. On one of them +he wrote his name, as irrefutable evidence that he could reach this +extreme limit; this done, he returned triumphant to demand of Buddha +the coveted inheritance. + +"But, wretch," said Buddha, "you never went out of my hand!" + +"How is that?" rejoined Sun. "I went as far as the pillars of Heaven, +and even took the precaution of writing my name on one of them as +proof in case of need." + +"Look then at the words you have written," said Buddha, lifting +a finger on which Sun read with stupefaction his name as he had +inscribed it. + +Buddha then seized Sun, transported him out of Heaven, and changed +his five fingers into the five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, +and earth, which instantly formed five high mountains contiguous to +each other. The mountains were called Wu Hsing Shan, and Buddha shut +Sun up in them. + + +Conditions of Release + +Thus subdued, Sun would not have been able to get out of his stone +prison but for the intercession of Kuan Yin P'u-sa, who obtained +his release on his solemn promise that he would serve as guide, +philosopher, and friend to Hsüan Chuang, the priest who was to +undertake the difficult journey of 108,000 _li_ to the Western +Heaven. This promise, on the whole, he fulfilled in the service +of Hsüan Chuang during the fourteen years of the long journey. Now +faithful, now restive and undisciplined, he was always the one to +triumph in the end over the eighty-one fantastical tribulations which +beset them as they journeyed. + + + +Sha Ho-shang + +One of the principal of Sun's fellow-servants of the Master was +Sha Ho-shang. + +He is depicted wearing a necklace of skulls, the heads of the nine +Chinese deputies sent in former centuries to find the Buddhist canon, +but whom Sha Ho-shang had devoured on the banks of Liu-sha River when +they had attempted to cross it. + +He is also known by the name of Sha Wu-ching, and was originally +Grand Superintendent of the Manufactory of Stores for Yü Huang's +palace. During a great banquet given on the Peach Festival to all +the gods and Immortals of the Chinese Olympus he let fall a crystal +bowl, which was smashed to atoms. Yü Huang caused him to be beaten +with eight hundred blows, drove him out of Heaven, and exiled him to +earth. He lived on the banks of the Liu-sha Ho, where every seventh +day a mysterious sword appeared and wounded him in the neck. Having +no other means of subsistence, he used to devour the passers-by. + + +Sha Ho-shang becomes Baggage-coolie + +When Kuan Yin passed through that region on her way to China to find +the priest who was predestined to devote himself to the laborious +undertaking of the quest of the sacred Buddhist books, Sha Ho-shang +threw himself on his knees before her and begged her to put an end +to all his woes. + +The goddess promised that he should be delivered by the priest, +her envoy, provided he would engage himself in the service of the +pilgrim. On his promising to do this, and to lead a better life, +she herself ordained him priest. In the end it came about that Hsüan +Chuang, when passing the Sha Ho, took him into his suite as coolie +to carry his baggage. Yü Huang pardoned him in consideration of the +service he was rendering to the Buddhist cause. + + +Chu Pa-chieh + +Chu Pa-chieh is a grotesque, even gross, personage, with all the +instincts of animalism. One day, while he was occupying the high office +of Overseer-general of the Navigation of the Milky Way, he, during a +fit of drunkenness, vilely assaulted the daughter of Yü Huang. The +latter had him beaten with two thousand blows from an iron hammer, +and exiled to earth to be reincarnated. + +During his transition a mistake was made, and entering the womb of +a sow he was born half-man, half-pig, with the head and ears of a +pig and a human body. He began by killing and eating his mother, and +then devoured his little porcine brothers. Then he went to live on the +wild mountain Fu-ling Shan, where, armed with an iron rake, he first +robbed and then ate the travellers who passed through that region. + +Mao Êrh-chieh, who lived in the cave Yün-chan Tung, engaged him as +carrier of her personal effects, which she afterward bequeathed to him. + +Yielding to the exhortations of the Goddess Kuan Yin, who, at the +time of her journey to China, persuaded him to lead a less dissolute +life, he was ordained a priest by the goddess herself, who gave him +the name of Chu (Pig), and the religious name of Wu-nêng, 'Seeker +after Strength.' This monster was knocked down by Sun when the latter +was passing over the mountain accompanied by Hsüan Chuang, and he +declared himself a disciple of the pilgrim priest. He accompanied him +throughout the journey, and was also received in the Western Paradise +as a reward for his aid to the Buddhist propaganda. + + + +Hsüan Chuang, the Master + +The origin of this priest was as follows: In the reign of the Emperor +T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, Ch'ên Kuang-jui, a graduate of Hai +Chou, in his examination for the doctor's degree came out as _chuang +yüan_, first on the list. Wên Chiao (also named Man-t'ang Chiao), the +daughter of the minister Yin K'ai-shan, meeting the young academician, +fell in love with him, and married him. Several days after the wedding +the Emperor appointed Ch'ên Kuang-jui Governor of Chiang Chou (modern +Chên-chiang Fu), in Kiangsu. After a short visit to his native town he +started to take up his post. His old mother and his wife accompanied +him. When they reached Hung Chou his mother fell sick and they were +forced to stay for a time at the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers, kept +by one Liu Hsiao-êrh. Days passed; the sickness did not leave her, +and as the time for her son to take over the seals of office was +drawing near, he had to proceed without her. + + +The Released Carp + +Before his departure he noticed a fisherman holding in his hand a fine +carp; this he bought for a small sum to give to his mother. Suddenly +he noticed that the fish had a very extraordinary look, and, changing +his mind, he let it go in the waters of the Hung Chiang, afterward +telling his mother what he had done. She congratulated him on his +action, and assured him that the good deed would not go unrewarded. + + +The Chuang Yüan Murdered + +Ch'ên Kuang-jui re-entered his boat with his wife and a servant. They +were stopped by the chief waterman, Liu Hung, and his assistant. Struck +with the great beauty of Ch'ên Kuang-jui's wife, the former planned +a crime which he carried out with the help of his assistant. At the +dead of night he took the boat to a retired spot, killed Ch'ên and +his servant, threw their bodies into the river, seized his official +documents of title and the woman he coveted, passed himself off as the +real _chuang yüan_, and took possession of the magistracy of Chiang +Chou. The widow, who was with child, had two alternatives--silence +or death. Meantime she chose the former. Before she gave birth to her +child, T'ai-po Chin-hsing, the Spirit of the South Pole Star, appeared +to her, and said he had been sent by Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, +to present her with a son whose fame would fill the Empire. "Above +all," he added, "take every precaution lest Liu Hung kill the child, +for he will certainly do so if he can." When the child was born the +mother, during the absence of Liu Hung, determined to expose it rather +than see it slain. Accordingly she wrapped it up carefully in a shirt, +and carried it to the bank of the Blue River. She then bit her finger, +and with the blood wrote a short note stating the child's origin, +and hid it in its breast. Moreover, she bit off the infant's left +little toe, as an indelible mark of identity. No sooner had this been +done than a gust of wind blew a large plank to the river's edge. The +poor mother tied her infant firmly to this plank and abandoned it to +the mercy of the waves. The waif was carried to the shore of the isle +of Chin Shan, on which stands the famous monastery of Chin-shan Ssu, +near Chinkiang. The cries of the infant attracted the attention of +an old monk named Chang Lao, who rescued it and gave it the name of +Chiang Liu, 'Waif of the River.' He reared it with much care, and +treasured the note its mother had written with her blood. The child +grew up, and Chang Lao made him a priest, naming him Hsüan Chuang on +the day of his taking the vows. When he was eighteen years of age, +having one day quarrelled with another priest, who had cursed him and +reproached him with having neither father nor mother, he, much hurt, +went to his protector Chang Lao. The latter said to him: "The time has +come to reveal to you your origin." He then told him all, showed him +the note, and made him promise to avenge his assassinated father. To +this end he was made a roving priest, went to the official Court, +and eventually got into touch with his mother, who was still living +with the prefect Liu Hung. The letter placed in his bosom, and the +shirt in which he had been wrapped, easily proved the truth of his +statements. The mother, happy at having found her son, promised to +go and see him at Chin Shan. In order to do this, she pretended to +be sick, and told Liu Hung that formerly, when still young, she had +taken a vow which she had not yet been able to fulfil. Liu Hung himself +helped her to do so by sending a large gift of money to the priests, +and allowed her to go with her servants to perform her devotions at +Chin-shan Ssu. On this second visit, during which she could speak +more freely with her son, she wished to see for herself the wound +she had made on his foot. This removed the last shadow of doubt. + + +Hsüan Chuang finds his Grandmother + +She told Hsüan Chuang that he must first of all go to Hung Chou and +find his grandmother, formerly left at the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers, +and then on to Ch'ang-an to take to her father Yin K'ai-shan a letter, +putting him in possession of the chief facts concerning Liu Hung, +and praying him to avenge her. + +She gave him a stick of incense to take to her mother-in-law. The old +lady lived the life of a beggar in a wretched hovel near the city gate, +and had become blind from weeping. The priest told her of the tragic +death of her son, then touched her eyes with the stick of incense, and +her sight was restored. "And I," she exclaimed, "have so often accused +my son of ingratitude, believing him to be still alive!" He took her +back to the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers and settled the account, then +hastened to the palace of Yin K'ai-shan. Having obtained an audience, +he showed the minister the letter, and informed him of all that had +taken place. + + +The Murderer Executed + +The following day a report was presented to the Emperor, who gave +orders for the immediate arrest and execution of the murderer of +Ch'ên Kuang-jui. + +Yin K'ai-shan went with all haste to Chên-chiang, where he arrived +during the night, surrounded the official residence, and seized +the culprit, whom he sent to the place where he had committed the +murder. His heart and liver were torn out and sacrificed to the victim. + + +The Carp's Gratitude + +Now it happened that Ch'ên Kuang-jui was not dead after all. The +carp released by him was in fact no other than Lung Wang, the God +of the River, who had been going through his kingdom in that guise +and had been caught in the fisherman's net. On learning that his +rescuer had been cast into the river, Lung Wang had saved him, and +appointed him an officer of his Court. On that day, when his son, +wife, and father-in-law were sacrificing the heart of his assassin +to his _manes_ on the river-bank, Lung Wang ordered that he return +to earth. His body suddenly appeared on the surface of the water, +floated to the bank, revived, and came out full of life and health. The +happiness of the family reunited under such unexpected circumstances +may well be imagined. Ch'ên Kuang-jui returned with his father-in-law +to Chên-chiang, where he took up his official post, eighteen years +after his nomination to it. + +Hsüan Chuang became the Emperor's favourite priest. He was held in +great respect at the capital, and had innumerable honours bestowed upon +him, and in the end was chosen for the journey to the Western Paradise, +where Buddha in person handed him the sacred books of Buddhism. + + +Pai Ma, the White Horse + +When he left the capital, Hsüan Chuang had been presented by the +Emperor with a white horse to carry him on his long pilgrimage. One +day, when he reached Shê-p'an Shan, near a torrent, a dragon emerged +from the deep river-bed and devoured both the horse and its saddle. Sun +tried in vain to find the dragon, and at last had to seek the aid of +Kuan Yin. + +Now Yü Lung San T'ai-tzu, son of Ao Jun, Dragonking of the Western +Sea, having burnt a precious pearl on the roof of his father's palace, +was denounced to Yü Huang, who had him beaten with three hundred blows +and suspended in the air. He was awaiting death when Kuan Yin passed +on her way to China. The unfortunate dragon requested the goddess +to have pity on him, whereupon she prevailed upon Yü Huang to spare +his life on condition that he served as steed for her pilgrim on the +expedition to the Western Paradise. The dragon was handed over to +Kuan Yin, who showed him the deep pool in which he was to dwell while +awaiting the arrival of the priest. It was this dragon who had devoured +Hsüan Chuang's horse, and Kuan Yin now bade him change himself into a +horse of the same colour to carry the priest to his destination. He +had the honour of bearing on his back the sacred books that Buddha +gave to T'ai Tsung's deputy, and the first Buddhist temple built at +the capital bore the name of Pai-ma Miao, 'Temple of the White Horse.' + + +Perils by the Way + +It is natural to expect that numberless exciting adventures should +befall such an interesting quartette, and indeed the _Hsi yu chi_, +which contains a hundred chapters, is full of them. The pilgrims +encountered eighty difficulties on the journey out and one on the +journey home. The following examples are characteristic of the rest. + + +The Grove of Cypress-trees + +The travellers were making their way westward through shining +waters and over green hills, where they found endless luxuriance +of vegetation and flowers of all colours in profusion. But the way +was long and lonely, and as darkness came on without any sign of +habitation the Priest said: "Where shall we find a resting-place for +the night?" The Monkey replied: "My Master, he who has left home +and become a priest must dine on the wind and lodge on the water, +lie down under the moon and sleep in the forest; everywhere is his +home; why then ask where shall we rest?" But Pa-chieh, who was the +bearer of the pilgrim's baggage, was not satisfied with this reply, +and tried to get his load transferred to the horse, but was silenced +when told that the latter's sole duty was to carry the Master. + +However, the Monkey gave Pai Ma a blow with his rod, causing him to +start forward at a great pace, and in a few minutes from the brow of +a hill Hsüan Chuang espied in the distance a grove of cypress-trees, +beneath the shade of which was a large enclosure. This seemed a +suitable place to pass the night, so they made toward it, and as +they approached observed in the enclosure a spacious and luxurious +establishment. There being no indications that the place was then +inhabited, the Monkey made his way inside. + + +A Proposal of Marriage + +He was met by a lady of charming appearance, who came out of an inner +room, and said: "Who is this that ventures to intrude upon a widow's +household?" The situation was embarrassing, but the lady proved to +be most affable, welcomed them all very heartily, told them how she +became a widow and had been left in possession of riches in abundance, +and that she had three daughters, Truth, Love, and Pity by name. She +then proceeded to make a proposal of marriage, not only on behalf +of herself, but of her three daughters as well. They were four men, +and here were four women; she had mountain lands for fruit-trees, +dry lands for grain, flooded fields for rice--more than five thousand +acres of each; horses, oxen, sheep, pigs innumerable; sixty or seventy +farmsteads; granaries choked with grain; storehouses full of silks +and satins; gold and silver enough to last several lifetimes however +extravagantly they lived. Why should the four travellers not finish +their journey there, and be happy ever afterward? The temptation was +great, especially as the three daughters were ladies of surpassing +beauty as well as adepts at needlework and embroidery, well read, +and able to sing sweetly. + +But Hsüan Chuang sat as if listening to frogs after rain, unmoved +except by anger that she should attempt to divert him from his heavenly +purpose, and in the end the lady retired in a rage, slamming the door +behind her. + +The covetous Pa-chieh, however, expressed himself in favour of +accepting the widow's terms. Finding it impossible to do so openly, +he stole round to the back and secured a private interview. His +personal appearance was against him, but the widow was not altogether +uncompliant. She not only entertained the travellers, but agreed +to Pa-chieh retiring within the household in the character of a +son-in-law, the other three remaining as guests in the guest-rooms. + + +Blind Man's Buff + +But a new problem now arose. If Pa-chieh were wedded to one of the +three daughters, the others would feel aggrieved. So the widow proposed +to blindfold him with a handkerchief, and marry him to whichever +he succeeded in catching. But, with the bandage tied over his eyes, +Pa-chieh only found himself groping in darkness. "The tinkling sound +of female trinkets was all around him, the odour of musk was in his +nostrils; like fairy forms they fluttered about him, but he could no +more grasp one than he could a shadow. One way and another he ran till +he was too giddy to stand, and could only stumble helplessly about." + +The prospective mother-in-law then unloosed the bandage, and informed +Pa-chieh that it was not her daughters' 'slipperiness,' as he had +called it, which prevented their capture, but the extreme modesty of +each in being generous enough to forgo her claims in favour of one of +her sisters. Pa-chieh thereupon became very importunate, urging his +suit for any one of the daughters or for the mother herself or for all +three or all four. This was beyond all conscience, but the widow was +equal to the emergency, and suggested another solution. Each of her +daughters wore a waistcoat embroidered in jewels and gold. Pa-chieh +was to try these on in turn, and to marry the owner of the one which +fitted him. Pa-chieh put one on, but as he was tying the cord round +his waist it transformed itself into strong coils of rope which bound +him tightly in every limb. He rolled about in excruciating agony, +and as he did so the curtain of enchantment fell and the beauties +and the palace disappeared. + +Next morning the rest of the party on waking up also found that all +had changed, and saw that they had been sleeping on the ground in the +cypress-grove. On making search they found Pa-chieh bound fast to a +tree. They cut him down, to pursue the journey a sadder and wiser Pig, +and the butt of many a quip from his fellow-travellers. + + +The Lotus Cave + +When the party left the Elephant Country, seeing a mountain ahead, +the Master warned his disciples to be careful. Sun said: "Master, say +not so; remember the text of the Sacred Book, 'So long as the heart is +right there is nothing to fear.'" After this Sun kept a close watch +on Pa-chieh, who, while professing to be on guard, slept most of the +time. When they arrived at Ping-ting Shan they were approached by a +woodcutter, who warned them that in the mountain, which extended for +600 _li_ (200 miles), there was a Lotus Cave, inhabited by a band +of demons under two chiefs, who were lying in wait to devour the +travellers. The woodcutter then disappeared. Accordingly, Pa-chieh +was ordered to keep watch. But, seeing some hay, he lay down and went +to sleep, and the mountain demons carried him away to the Lotus Cave. + +On seeing Pa-chieh, the second chief said: "He is no good; you must +go in search of the Master and the Monkey." All this time the Monkey, +to protect his Master, was walking ahead of the horse, swinging his +club up and down and to right and left. The Demon-king saw him from +the top of the mountain and said to himself: "This Monkey is famous +for his magic, but I will prove that he is no match for me; I will +yet feast on his Master." So, descending the mountain, he transformed +himself into a lame beggar and waited by the roadside. The Master, +out of pity, persuaded the Monkey to carry him. While on the Monkey's +back the Demon, by magic skill, threw Mount Mêru on to Sun's head, +but the Monkey warded it off with his left shoulder, and walked +on. Then the Demon threw Mount Ô-mei on to Sun's head, and this +he warded off with his right shoulder, and walked on, much to the +Demon's surprise. Lastly the Demon caused T'ai Shan to fall on to his +head. This at last stunned the Monkey. Sha Ho-shang now defended the +Master with his staff, which was, however, no match for the Demon's +starry sword. The Demon seized the Master and carried him under one +arm and Sha Ho-shang under the other to the Lotus Cave. + +The two Demons then planned to take their two most precious things, +a yellow gourd and a jade vase, and try to bottle the Monkey. They +arranged to carry them upside down and call out the Monkey's name. If +he replied, then he would be inside, and they could seal him up, +using the seal of the great Ancient of Days, the dweller in the +mansion of T'ai Sui. [35] + + +The Monkey under the Mountain + +When the Monkey found that he was being crushed under the mountain he +was greatly distressed about his Master, and cried out: "Oh, Master, +you delivered me from under the mountain before, and trained me in +religion; how is it that you have brought me to this pass? If you +must die, why should Sha Ho-shang and Pa-chieh and the Dragon-horse +also suffer?" Then his tears poured down like rain. + +The spirits of the mountain were astonished at hearing these words. The +guardian angels of the Five Religions asked: "Whose is this mountain, +and who is crushed beneath it?" The local gods replied: "The mountain +is ours, but who is under it we do not know." "If you do not know," +the angels replied, "we will tell you. It is the Great Holy One, +the Equal of Heaven, who rebelled there five hundred years ago. He +is now converted, and is the disciple of the Chinese ambassador. How +dare you lend your mountain to the Demon for such a purpose?" The +guardian angels and local gods then recited some prayers, and the +mountain was removed. The Monkey sprang up, brandishing his spear, +and the spirits at once apologized, saying that they were under +enforced service to the Demons. + +While they were speaking Sun saw a light approaching, and asked +what it was. The spirits replied: "This light comes from the Demons' +magic treasures. We fear they are bringing them to catch you." Sun +then said: "Now we shall have some sport. Who is the Demon-chief's +associate?" "He is a Taoist," they replied, "who is always occupied in +preparing chemicals." The Monkey said: "Leave me, and I will catch them +myself." He then transformed himself into a duplicate of the Taoist. + + +The Magic Gourd + +Sun went to meet the Demons, and in conversation learnt from them that +they were on their way to catch the famous Monkey, and that the magic +gourd and vase were for that purpose. They showed these treasures to +him, and explained that the gourd, though small, could hold a thousand +people. "That is nothing," replied Sun. "I have a gourd which can +contain all the heavens." At this they marvelled greatly, and made a +bargain with him, according to which he was to give them his gourd, +after it had been tested as to its capacity to contain the heavens, +in exchange for their precious gourd and vase. Going up to Heaven, +the Monkey obtained permission to extinguish the light of the sun, +moon, and stars for one hour. At noon the next day there was complete +darkness, and the Demons believed Sun when he stated that he had put +the whole heavens into his gourd so that there could be no light. They +then handed over to the Monkey their magic gourd and vase, and in +exchange he gave them his false gourd. + + + +The Magic Rope + +On discovering that they had been deceived, the Demons made complaint +to their chiefs, who informed them that Sun, by pretending to be one +of the Immortals, had outwitted them. They had now lost two out of +their five magic treasures. There remained three, the magic sword, +the magic palm fan, and the magic rope. "Go," said they, "and invite +our dear grandmother to come and dine on human flesh." Personating +one of the Demons, Sun himself went on this errand. He told the old +lady that he wanted her to bring with her the magic rope, with which +to catch Sun. She was delighted, and set out in her chair carried by +two fairies. + +When they had gone some few _li_, Sun killed the ladies, and then saw +that they were foxes. He took the magic rope, and thus had three of +the magic treasures. Having changed the dead so that they looked like +living creatures, he returned to the Lotus Cave. Many small demons came +running up, saying that the old lady had been slain. The Demon-king, +alarmed, proposed to release the whole party. But his younger brother +said: "No, let me fight Sun. If I win, we can eat them; if I fail, +we can let them go." + +After thirty bouts Sun lost the magic rope, and the Demon lassoed him +with it and carried him to the cave, and took back the magic gourd +and vase. Sun now transformed himself into two false demons. One he +placed instead of himself in the lasso bound to a pillar, and then +went and reported to the second Demon-chief that Sun was struggling +hard, and that he should be bound with a stronger rope lest he make +his escape. Thus, by this strategy, Sun obtained possession of the +magic rope again. By a similar trick he also got back the magic gourd +and vase. + + + +The Master Rescued + +Sun and the Demons now began to wrangle about the respective merits +of their gourds, which, each assured the other, could imprison men +and make them obey their wishes. Finally, Sun succeeded in putting +one of the Demons into his gourd. + +There ensued another fight concerning the magic sword and palm fan, +during which the fan was burnt to ashes. After more encounters Sun +succeeded in bottling the second Demon in the magic vase, and sealed +him up with the seal of the Ancient of Days. Then the magic sword +was delivered, and the Demons submitted. Sun returned to the cave, +fetched his Master out, swept the cave clean of all evil spirits, and +they then started again on their westward journey. On the road they +met a blind man, who addressed them saying: "Whither away, Buddhist +Priest? I am the Ancient of Days. Give me back my magic treasures. In +the gourd I keep the pills of immortality. In the vase I keep the +water of life. The sword I use to subdue demons. With the fan I stir +up enthusiasm. With the cord I bind bundles. One of these two Demons +had charge of the gold crucible. They stole my magic treasures and +fled to the mundane sphere of mortals. You, having captured them, +are deserving of great reward." But Sun replied: "You should be +severely punished for allowing your servants to do this evil in the +world." The Ancient of Days replied: "No, without these trials your +Master and his disciples could never attain to perfection." + +Sun understood and said: "Since you have come in person for the magic +treasures, I return them to you." After receiving them, the Ancient +of Days returned to his T'ai Sui mansion in the skies. + + + +The Red Child Demon + +By the autumn the travellers arrived at a great mountain. They saw +on the road a red cloud which the Monkey thought must be a demon. It +was in fact a demon child who, in order to entrap the Master, had had +himself bound and tied to the branch of a tree. The child repeatedly +cried out to the passers-by to deliver him. Sun suspected that it was +a trick; but the Master could no longer endure the pitiful wails; he +ordered his disciples to loose the child, and the Monkey to carry him. + +As they proceeded on their way the Demon caused a strong whirlwind to +spring up, and during this he carried off the Master. Sun discovered +that the Demon was an old friend of his, who, centuries before, had +pledged himself to eternal friendship. So he consoled his comrades +by saying that he felt sure no harm would come to the Master. + + +A Prospective Feast + +Soon Sun and his companions reached a mountain covered with +pine-forests. Here they found the Demon in his cave, intent upon +feasting on the Priest. The Demon refused to recognize his ancient +friendship with Sun, so the two came to blows. The Demon set fire to +everything, so that the Monkey might be blinded by the smoke. Thus +he was unable to find his Master. In despair he said: "I must get +the help of some one more skilful than myself." Pa-chieh was sent +to fetch Kuan Yin. The Demon then seized a magic bag, transformed +himself into the shape of Kuan Yin, and invited Pa-chieh to enter the +cave. The simpleton fell into the trap and was seized and placed in +the bag. Then the Demon appeared in his true form, and said: "I am +the beggar child, and mean to cook you for my dinner. A fine man to +protect his Master you are!" The Demon then summoned six of his most +doughty generals and ordered them to accompany him to fetch his father, +King Ox-head, to dine off the pilgrim. When they had gone Sun opened +the bag, released Pa-chieh, and both followed the six generals. + + +The Generals Tricked + +Sun thought that as the Demon had played a trick on Pa-chieh, he +would play one on his generals. So he hurried on in front of them, +and changed himself into the form of King Ox-head. The Demon and +his generals were invited into his presence, and Red Child said: +"If anyone eats of the pilgrim's flesh, his life will be prolonged +indefinitely. Now he is caught and I invite you to feast on him." Sun, +personifying the father, said: "No, I cannot come. I am fasting +to-day. Moreover, Sun has charge of the pilgrim, and if any harm befall +him it will be the worse for you, for he has seventy-two magic arts. He +can make himself so big that your cave cannot contain him, and he +can make himself as small as a fly, a mosquito, a bee, or a butterfly." + +Sun then went to Kuan Yin and appealed for help. She gave him a +bottle, but he found he could not move it. "No," said Kuan Yin, +"for all the forces of the ocean are stored in it." + +Kuan Yin lifted it with ease, and said: "This dew water is different +from dragon water, and can extinguish the fire of passion. I will +send a fairy with you on your boat. You need no sails. The fairy +needs only to blow a little, and the boat moves along without any +effort." Finally, the Red Child, having been overcome, repented and +begged to be received as a disciple. Kuan Yin received him and blessed +him, giving him the name of Steward. + + +The Demons of Blackwater River + +One day the Master suddenly exclaimed: "What is that noise?" Sun +replied: "You are afraid; you have forgotten the Heart Prayer, +according to which we are to be indifferent to all the calls of the +six senses--the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. These are the Six +Thieves. If you cannot suppress them, how do you expect to see the +Great Lord?" The Master thought a while and then said: "O disciple, +when shall we see the Incarnate Model (Ju Lai) face to face?" + +Pa-chieh said: "If we are to meet such demons as these, it will take +us a thousand years to get to the West." But Sha Ho-shang rejoined: +"Both you and I are stupid; if we persevere and travel on, shoulder +to shoulder, we shall reach there at last." While thus talking, +they saw before them a dark river in flood, which the horse could not +cross. Seeing a small boat, the Master said: "Let us engage that boat +to take us across." While crossing the river in it, they discovered +that it was a boat sent by the Demon of Blackwater River to entrap +them in midstream, and the Master would have been slain had not Sun +and the Western Dragon come to the rescue. + + +The Slow-carts Country + +Having crossed the Blackwater River, they journeyed westward, +facing wind and snow. Suddenly they heard a great shout as of +ten thousand voices. The Master was alarmed, but Sun laughingly +went to investigate. Sitting on a cloud, he rose in the air, and +saw a city, outside of which there were thousands of priests and +carts laden with bricks and all kinds of building materials. This +was the city where Taoists were respected, and Buddhists were not +wanted. The Monkey, who appeared among the people as a Taoist, was +informed that the country was called the Ch'ê Ch'ih, 'Slow-carts +Country,' and for twenty years had been ruled by three Taoists who +could procure rain during times of drought. Their names were Tiger, +Deer, and Sheep. They could also command the wind, and change stones +into gold. The Monkey said to the two leading Taoists: "I wonder +if I shall be so fortunate as to see your Emperor?" They replied: +"We will see to that when we have attended to our business." The +Monkey inquired what business the priests could have. "In former +times," they said, "when our King ordered the Buddhists to pray for +rain, their prayers were not answered. Then the Taoists prayed, and +copious showers fell. Since then all the Buddhist priests have been +our slaves, and have to carry the building materials, as you see. We +must assign them their work, and then will come to you." Sun replied: +"Never mind; I am in search of an uncle of mine, from whom I have not +heard for many years. Perhaps he is here among your slaves." They said: +"You may see if you can find him." + + +Restraints on Freedom + +Sun went to look for his uncle. Hearing this, many Buddhist priests +surrounded him, hoping to be recognized as his lost relative. After +a while he smiled. They asked him the reason. He said: "Why do you +make no progress? Life is not meant for idleness." They said: "We +cannot do anything. We are terribly oppressed." "What power have your +masters?" "By using their magic they can call up wind or rain." "That +is a small matter," said Sun. "What else can they do?" "They can make +the pills of immortality, and change stone into gold." + +Sun said: "These are also small matters; many can do the same. How did +these Taoists deceive your King?" "The King attends their prayers night +and day, expecting thereby to attain to immortality." "Why do you not +leave the place?" "It is impossible, for the King has ordered pictures +of us to be hung up everywhere. In all the numerous prefectures, +magistracies, and market-places in Slow-carts Country are pictures of +the Buddhist priests, and any official who catches a runaway priest +is promoted three degrees, while every non-official receives fifty +taels. The proclamation is signed by the King. So you see we are +helpless." Sun then said: "You might as well die and end it all." + + +Immortal for Suffering + +They replied: "A great number have died. At one time we numbered +more than two thousand. But through deaths and suicides there now +remain only about five hundred. And we who remain cannot die. Ropes +cannot strangle us, swords cannot cut us; if we plunge into the +river we cannot sink; poison does not kill us." Sun said: "Then +you are fortunate, for you are all Immortals." "Alas!" said they, +"we are immortal only for suffering. We get poor food. We have only +sand to sleep on. But in the night hours spirits appear to us and +tell us not to kill ourselves, for an Arhat will come from the East +to deliver us. With him there is a disciple, the Great Holy One, +the Equal of Heaven, most powerful and tender-hearted. He will put +an end to these Taoists and have pity on us Buddhists." + + +The Saviour of the Buddhists + +Inwardly Sun was glad that his fame had gone abroad. Returning to the +city, he met the two chief Taoists. They asked him if he had found +his relative. "Yes," he replied, "they are all my relatives!" They +smiled and said: "How is it that you have so many relatives?" Sun +said: "One hundred are my father's relatives, one hundred my mother's +relatives, and the remainder my adopted relatives. If you will let +all these priests depart with me, then I will enter the city with you; +otherwise I will not enter." "You must be mad to speak to us in this +way. The priests were given us by the King. If you had asked for a +few only, we might have consented, but your request is altogether +unreasonable." Sun then asked them three times if they would liberate +the priests. When they finally refused, he grew very angry, took his +magic spear from his ear and brandished it in the air, when all their +heads fell off and rolled on the ground. + + +Anger of the Buddhist Priests + +The Buddhist priests saw from a distance what had taken place, +and shouted: "Murder, murder! The Taoist superintendents are being +killed." They surrounded Sun, saying: "These priests are our masters; +they go to the temple without visiting the King, and return home +without taking leave of the King. The King is the high priest. Why +have you killed his disciples? The Taoist chief priest will certainly +accuse us Buddhist priests of the murders. What are we to do? If we go +into the city with you they will make you pay for this with your life." + +Sun laughed. "My friends," he said, "do not trouble yourselves over +this matter. I am not the Master of the Clouds, but the Great Holy +One, a disciple of the Holy Master from China, going to the Western +Paradise to fetch the sacred books, and have come to save you." + +"No, no," said they, "this cannot be, for we know him." Sun replied: +"Having never met him, how can you know him?" They replied: "We have +seen him in our dreams. The spirit of the planet Venus has described +him to us and warned us not to make a mistake." "What description did +he give?" asked Sun. They replied: "He has a hard head, bright eyes, +a round, hairy face without cheeks, sharp teeth, prominent mouth, +a hot temper, and is uglier than the Thunder-god. He has a rod of +iron, caused a disturbance in Heaven itself, but later repented, +and is coming with the Buddhist pilgrim in order to save mankind from +calamities and misery." With mixed feelings Sun replied: "My friends, +no doubt you are right in saying I am not Sun. I am only his disciple, +who has come to learn how to carry out his plans. But," he added, +pointing with his hand, "is not that Sun coming yonder?" They all +looked in the direction in which he had pointed. + + +Sun bestows Talismans + +Sun quickly changed himself from a Taoist priest, and appeared in +his natural form. At this they all fell down and worshipped him, +asking his forgiveness because their mortal eyes could not recognize +him. They then begged him to enter the city and compel the demons to +repent. Sun told them to follow him. He then went with them to a sandy +place, emptied two carts and smashed them into splinters, and threw +all the bricks, tiles, and timber into a heap, calling upon all the +priests to disperse. "Tomorrow," he said, "I am going to see the King, +and will destroy the Taoists!" Then they said: "Sir, we dare not go +any farther, lest they attempt to seize you and cause trouble." "Have +no fear," he replied; "but if you think so I will give you a charm to +protect you." He pulled out some hairs, and gave one to each to hold +firmly on the third finger. "If anyone tries to seize you," he said, +"keep tight hold of it, call out 'Great Holy One, the Equal of Heaven,' +and I will at once come to your rescue, even though I be ten thousand +miles away." Some of them tried the charm, and, sure enough, there +he was before them like the God of Thunder. In his hand he held a +rod of iron, and he could keep ten thousand men and horses at bay. + + +The Magic Circle + +It was now winter. The pilgrims were crossing a high mountain by +a narrow pass, and the Master was afraid of wild beasts. The three +disciples bade him fear not, as they were united, and were all good +men seeking truth. Being cold and hungry they rejoiced to see a fine +building ahead of them, but Sun said: "It is another devil's trap. I +will make a ring round you. Inside that you will be safe. Do not wander +outside it. I will go and look for food." Sun returned with his bowl +full of rice, but found that his companions had got tired of waiting, +and had disappeared. They had gone forward to the fine building, which +Pa-chieh entered. Not a soul was to be seen, but on going upstairs +he was terrified to see a human skeleton of immense size lying on +the floor. At this moment the Demon of the house descended on them, +bound the Master, and said: "We have been told that if we eat of your +flesh our white hair will become black again, and our lost teeth grow +anew." So he ordered the small devils who accompanied him to bind the +others. This they did, and thrust the pilgrims into a cave, and then +lay in wait for Sun. It was not long before the Monkey came up, when +a great fight ensued. In the end, having failed, notwithstanding the +exercise of numerous magic arts, to release his companions, Sun betook +himself to the Spiritual Mountain and besought Ju Lai's aid. Eighteen +_lohan_ were sent to help him against the Demon. When Sun renewed the +attack, the _lohan_ threw diamond dust into the air, which blinded the +Demon and also half buried him. But, by skilful use of his magic coil, +he gathered up all the diamond dust and carried it back to his cave. + +The _lohan_ then advised Sun to seek the aid of the Ancient of +Days. Accordingly, Sun ascended to the thirty-third Heaven, where +was the palace of the god. He there discovered that the Demon was +none other than one of the god's ox-spirits who had stolen the magic +coil. It was, in fact, the same coil with which Sun himself had at +last been subdued when he had rebelled against Heaven. + + +Help from Ju Lai + +The Ancient of Days mounted a cloud and went with Sun to the cave. When +the Demon saw who had come he was terrified. The Ancient of Days then +recited an incantation, and the Demon surrendered the magic coil +to him. On the recitation of a second incantation all his strength +left him, and he appeared as a bull, and was led away by a ring in +his nose. The Master and his disciples were then set at liberty, +and proceeded on their journey. + + +The Fire-quenching Fan + +In the autumn the pilgrims found themselves in the Ssu Ha Li Country, +where everything was red--red walls, red tiles, red varnish on doors +and furniture. Sixty _li_ from this place was the Flaming Mountain, +which lay on their road westward. + +An old man they met told them that it was possible to cross the +Flaming Mountain only if they had the Magic Iron Fan, which, waved +once, quenched fire, waved a second time produced strong wind, and +waved a third time produced rain. This magic fan was kept by the +Iron-fan Princess in a cave on Ts'ui-yün Shan, 1500 _li_ distant. On +hearing this, Sun mounted a cloud, and in an instant was transported +to the cave. The Iron-fan Princess was one of the _lochas_ (wives +and daughters of demons), and the mother of the Red Child Demon, who +had become a disciple of Kuan Yin. On seeing Sun she was very angry, +and determined to be revenged for the outwitting of her husband, +King Ox-head, and for the carrying away of her son. The Monkey said: +"If you lend me the Iron Fan I will bring your son to see you." For +answer she struck him with a sword. They then fell to fighting, the +contest lasting a long while, until at length, feeling her strength +failing, the Princess took out the Iron Fan and waved it. The wind +it raised blew Sun to a distance of 84,000 _li_, and whirled him +about like a leaf in a whirlwind. But he soon returned, reinforced +by further magic power lent him by the Buddhist saints. The Princess, +however, deceived him by giving him a fan which increased the flames +of the mountain instead of quenching them. Sun and his friends had +to retreat more than 20 _li_, or they would have been burned. + +The local mountain-gods now appeared, bringing refreshments, and urging +the pilgrims to get the Fan so as to enable them to proceed on their +journey. Sun pointed to his fan and said: "Is not this the Fan?" They +smiled and said: "No, this is a false one which the Princess has +given you." They added: "Originally there was no Flaming Mountain, but +when you upset the furnace in Heaven five hundred years ago the fire +fell here, and has been burning ever since. For not having taken more +care in Heaven, we have been set to guard it. The Demon-king Ox-head, +though he married the _locha_ Princess, deserted her some two years +ago for the only daughter of a fox-king. They live at Chi-lei Shan, +some three thousand _li_ from here. If you can get the true Iron +Fan through his help you will be able to extinguish the flames, take +your Master to the West, save the lives of many people round here, +and enable us to return to Heaven once more." + +Sun at once mounted a cloud and was soon at Chi-lei Shan. There +he met the Fox-princess, whom he upbraided and pursued back to +her cave. The Ox-demon came out and became very angry with Sun +for having frightened her. Sun asked him to return with him to the +_locha_ Princess and persuade her to give him the Magic Fan, This he +refused to do. They then fought three battles, in all of which Sun +was successful. He changed into the Ox-demon's shape and visited the +_locha_ Princess. She, thinking he was the Ox-demon, gladly received +him, and finally gave him the Magic Fan; he then set out to return +to his Master. + + +The Power of the Magic Fan + +The Ox-demon, following after Sun, saw him walking along, joyfully +carrying the Magic Fan on his shoulder. Now Sun had forgotten to ask +how to make it small, like an apricot leaf, as it was at first. The +Ox-demon changed himself into the form of Pa-chieh, and going up to +Sun he said: "Brother Sun, I am glad to see you back; I hope you have +succeeded." "Yes," replied Sun, and described his fights, and how he +had tricked the Ox-demon's wife into giving him the Fan. The seeming +Pa-chieh said: "You must be very tired after all your efforts; let +me carry the Magic Fan for you." As soon as he had got possession of +it he appeared in his true form, and tried to use it to blow Sun away +84,000 _li_, for he did not know that the Great Holy One had swallowed +a wind-resisting pill, and was therefore immovable. He then put the +Magic Fan in his mouth and fought with his two swords. He was a match +for Sun in all the magic arts, but through the aid of Pa-chieh and +the help of the local gods sent by the Master the Monkey was able +to prevail against him. The Ox-demon changed himself many times into +a number of birds, but for each of these Sun changed himself into a +swifter and stronger one. The Ox-demon then changed himself into many +beasts, such as tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, and an ox 10,000 +feet long. He then said to Sun, with a laugh: "What can you do to me +now?" Sun seized his rod of iron, and cried: "Grow!" He immediately +became 100,000 feet high, with eyes like the sun and moon. They fought +till the heavens and the earth shook with their onslaughts. + + + +Defeat of the Ox-demon + +The Ox-demon being of so fierce and terrible a nature, both Buddha +in Heaven and the Taoist Celestial Ruler sent down whole legions of +celebrated warriors to help the Master's servant. The Ox-demon tried +to escape in every direction, one after the other, but his efforts +were in vain. Finally defeated, he was made to promise for himself and +his wife to give up their evil ways and to follow the holy precepts +of the Buddhist doctrine. + +The Magic Fan was given to Sun, who at once proceeded to test its +powers. When he waved it once the fires on Flaming Mountain died +out. When he waved it a second time a gentle breeze sprang up. When +he waved it a third time refreshing rain fell everywhere, and the +pilgrims proceeded on their way in comfort. + + +The Lovely Women + +Having travelled over many mountains, the travellers came to a +village. The Master said: "You, my disciples, are always very kind, +taking round the begging-bowl and getting food for me. To-day I will +take the begging-bowl myself." But Sun said: "That is not right; you +must let us, your disciples, do this for you." But the Master insisted. + +When he reached the village, there was not a man to be seen, but only +some lovely women. He did not think that it was right for him to speak +to women. On the other hand, if he did not procure anything for their +meal, his disciples would make fun of him. So, after long hesitation, +he went forward and begged food of them. They invited him to their cave +home, and, having learnt who he was, ordered food for him, but it was +all human flesh. The Master informed them that he was a vegetarian, +and rose to take his departure, but instead of letting him go they +surrounded and bound him, thinking that he would be a fine meal for +them next day. + + +An Awkward Predicament + +Then seven of the women went out to bathe in a pool. There Sun, in +search of his Master, found them and would have killed them, only he +thought it was not right to kill women. So he changed himself into an +eagle and carried away their clothes to his nest. This so frightened +the women that they crouched in the pool and did not dare to come out. + +But Pa-chieh, also in search of his Master, found the women bathing. He +changed himself into a fish, which the women tried to catch, chasing +him hither and thither round the pool. After a while Pa-chieh leapt +out of the pool and, appearing in his true form, threatened the +women for having bound his Master. In their fright the women fled to +a pavilion, round which they spun spiders' threads so thickly that +Pa-chieh became entangled and fell. They then escaped to their cave +and put on some clothes. + + +How the Master was Rescued + +When Pa-chieh at length had disentangled himself from the webs, he saw +Sun and Sha Ho-shang approaching. Having learnt what had happened, +they feared the women might do some injury to the Master, so they +ran to the cave to rescue him. On the way they were beset by the +seven dwarf sons of the seven women, who transformed themselves into +a swarm of dragon-flies, bees, and other insects. But Sun pulled out +some hairs and, changing them into seven different swarms of flying +insects, destroyed the hostile swarm, and the ground was covered a +foot deep with the dead bodies. On reaching the cave, the pilgrims +found it had been deserted by the women. They released the Master, +and made him promise never to beg for food again. Having given the +promise, he mounted his horse, and they proceeded on their journey. + + +The Spiders and the Extinguisher + +When they had gone a short distance they perceived a great building of +fine architecture ahead of them. It proved to be a Taoist temple. Sha +Ho-shang said: "Let us enter, for Buddhism and Taoism teach the +same things. They differ only in their vestments." The Taoist abbot +received them with civility and ordered five cups of tea. Now he was +in league with the seven women, and when the servant had made the tea +they put poison in each cup. Sun, however, suspected a conspiracy, +and did not drink his tea. Seeing that the rest had been poisoned, he +went and attacked the sisters, who transformed themselves into huge +spiders. They were able to spin ropes instead of webs with which to +bind their enemies. But Sun attacked and killed them all. + +The Taoist abbot then showed himself in his true form, a demon with +a thousand eyes. He joined battle with Sun, and a terrible contest +ensued, the result being that the Demon succeeded in putting an +extinguisher on his enemy. This was a new trick which Sun did not +understand. However, after trying in vain to break out through the +top and sides, he began to bore downward, and, finding that the +extinguisher was not deep in the ground, he succeeded in effecting +his escape from below. But he feared that his Master and the others +would die of the poison. At this juncture, while he was suffering +mental tortures on their behalf, a Bodhisattva, Lady Pi Lan, came +to his rescue. By the aid of her magic he broke the extinguisher, +gave his Master and fellow-disciples pills to counteract the poison, +and so rescued them. + + +Shaving a Whole City + +The summer had now arrived. On the road the pilgrims met an old +lady and a little boy. The old lady said: "You are priests; do not +go forward, for you are about to pass into the country known as the +Country that exterminates Religion. The inhabitants have vowed to +kill ten thousand priests. They have already slain that number all +but four noted ones whose arrival they expect; then their number will +be complete." + +This old lady was Kuan Yin, with Shên Tsai (Steward), who had come to +give them warning. Sun thereupon changed himself into a candle-moth +and flew into the city to examine for himself. He entered an inn, +and heard the innkeeper warning his guests to look after their own +clothes and belongings when they went to sleep. In order to travel +safely through the city, Sun decided that they should all put on +turbans and clothing resembling that of the citizens. Perceiving +from the innkeeper's warning that thieving was common, Sun stole some +clothing and turbans for his Master and comrades. Then they all came +to the inn at dusk, Sun representing himself as a horse-dealer. + +Fearing that in their sleep their turbans would fall off, and their +shaven heads be revealed, Sun arranged that they should sleep in a +cupboard, which he asked the landlady to lock. + +During the night robbers came and carried the cupboard away, thinking +to find in it silver to buy horses. A watchman saw many men carrying +this cupboard, and became suspicious, and called out the soldiers. The +robbers ran away, leaving the cupboard in the open. The Master was very +angry with Sun for getting him into this danger. He feared that at +daylight they would be discovered and all be executed. But Sun said: +"Do not be alarmed; I will save you yet!" He changed himself into an +ant, and escaped from the cupboard. Then he plucked out some hairs +and changed them into a thousand monkeys like himself. To each he +gave a razor and a charm for inducing sleep. When the King and all +the officials and their wives had succumbed to this charm, the monkeys +were to shave their heads. + +On the morrow there was a terrible commotion throughout the city, +as all the leaders and their families found themselves shaved like +Buddhists. + +Thus the Master was saved again. + + +The Return to China + +The pilgrims having overcome the predicted eighty difficulties of +their outward journey, there remained only one to be overcome on the +homeward way. + +They were now returning upon a cloud which had been placed at their +disposal, and which had been charged to bear them safely home. But +alas! the cloud broke and precipitated them to the earth by the side +of a wide river which they must cross. There were no ferry-boats or +rafts to be seen, so they were glad to avail themselves of the kind +offices of a turtle, who offered to take them across on his back. But +in midstream the turtle reminded Hsüan Chuang of a promise he had made +him when on his outward journey, namely, that he would intercede for +him before the Ruler of the West, and ask his Majesty to forgive all +past offences and allow him to resume his humanity again. The turtle +asked him if he had remembered to keep his word. Hsüan Chuang replied: +"I remember our conversation, but I am sorry to say that under great +pressure I quite forgot to keep my promise." "Then," said the turtle, +"you are at liberty to dispense with my services." He then disappeared +beneath the water, leaving the pilgrims floundering in the stream with +their precious books. They swam the river, and with great difficulty +managed to save a number of volumes, which they dried in the sun. + + +The Travellers Honoured + +The pilgrims reached the capital of their country without further +difficulty. As soon as they appeared in sight the whole population +became greatly excited, and cutting down branches of willow-trees +went out to meet them. As a mark of special distinction the Emperor +sent his own horse for Hsüan Chuang to ride on, and the pilgrims were +escorted with royal honours into the city, where the Emperor and his +grateful Court were waiting to receive them. Hsüan Chuang's queer +trio of converts at first caused great amusement among the crowds +who thronged to see them, but when they learned of Sun's superhuman +achievements, and his brave defence of the Master, their amusement +was changed into wondering admiration. + +But the greatest honours were conferred upon the travellers at +a meeting of the Immortals presided over by Mi-lo Fo, the Coming +Buddha. Addressing Hsüan Chuang, the Buddha said, "In a previous +existence you were one of my chief disciples. But for disobedience +and for lightly esteeming the great teaching your soul was imprisoned +in the Eastern Land. Now a memorial has been presented to me stating +that you have obtained the True Classics of Salvation, thus, by your +faithfulness, completing your meritorious labours. You are appointed +to the high office of Controller of Sacrifices to his Supreme Majesty +the Pearly Emperor." + +Turning to Sun, the Buddha said, "You, Sun, for creating a disturbance +in the palace of Heaven, were imprisoned beneath the Mountain of +the Five Elements, until the fullness of Heaven's calamities had +descended upon you, and you had repented and had joined the holy +religion of Buddha. From that time you have endeavoured to suppress +evil and cherish virtue. And on your journey to the West you have +subjugated evil spirits, ghosts, and demons. For your services you +are appointed God of Victorious Strife." + +For his repentance, and for his assistance to his Master, Chu Pa-chieh, +the Pig Fairy, was appointed Head Altar-washer to the Gods. This +was the highest office for which he was eligible, on account of his +inherent greed. + +Sha Ho-shang was elevated to the rank of Golden Body Perpetual Saint. + +Pai Ma, the white horse who had patiently carried Hsüan Chuang and +his burden of books, was led by a god down the Spirit Mountain to +the banks of the Pool of Dragon-transformation. Pai Ma plunged in, +when he changed at once into a four-footed dragon, with horns, scales, +claws, and wings complete. From this time he became the chief of the +celestial dragon tribe. + +Sun's first thought upon receiving his promotion was to get rid of the +Head-splitting Helmet. Accordingly he said to his Master, "Now that +I am, like yourself, a Buddha, I want you to relieve my head of the +helmet you imposed upon me during the years of my waywardness." Hsüan +Chuang replied, "If you have really become a Buddha, your helmet +should have disappeared of itself. Are you sure it is still upon your +head?" Sun raised his hand, and lo! the helmet was gone. + +After this the great assembly broke up, and each of the Immortals +returned in peace to his own celestial abode. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Fox Legends + + +The Fox + +Among the many animals worshipped by the Chinese, those at times +seen emerging from coffins or graves naturally hold a prominent +place. They are supposed to be the transmigrated souls of deceased +human beings. We should therefore expect such animals as the fox, +stoat, weasel, etc., to be closely associated with the worship of +ghosts, spirits, and suchlike creatures, and that they should be the +subjects of, or included in, a large number of Chinese legends. This +we find. Of these animals the fox is mentioned in Chinese legendary +lore perhaps more often than any other. + +The subject of fox-lore has been dealt with exhaustively by +my respected colleague, the late Mr Thomas Watters (formerly +H.B.M. Consul-General at Canton, a man of vast learning and extreme +modesty, insufficiently appreciated in his generation), in the _Journal +of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, viii, 45-65, +to which the reader is referred for details. Generally, the fox is +a creature of ill omen, long-lived (living to eight hundred or even +a thousand years), with a peculiar virtue in every part of his body, +able to produce fire by striking the ground with his tail, cunning, +cautious, sceptical, able to see into the future, to transform himself +(usually into old men, or scholars, or pretty young maidens), and +fond of playing pranks and tormenting mankind. + + +Fox Legends + +Many interesting fox legends are to be found in a collection of stories +entitled _Liao chai chih i_, by P'u Sung-ling (seventeenth century +A.D.), part of which was translated into English many years ago by +Professor H.A. Giles and appeared in two fascinating volumes called +_Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_. These legends were related +to the Chinese writer by various people as their own experiences. + + +Friendship with Foxes + +A certain man had an enormous stack of straw, as big as a hill, in +which his servants, taking what was daily required for use, had made +quite a large hole. In this hole a fox fixed his abode, and would +often show himself to the master of the house under the form of an +old man. One day the latter invited the master to walk into his abode; +he at first declined, but accepted on being pressed; and when he got +inside, lo! he saw a long suite of handsome apartments. They then +sat down, and exquisitely perfumed tea and wine were brought; but +the place was so gloomy that there was no difference between night +and day. By and by, the entertainment being over, the guest took his +leave; and on looking back the beautiful rooms and their contents had +all disappeared. The old man himself was in the habit of going away in +the evening and returning with the first streaks of morning; and as +no one was able to follow him, the master of the house asked him one +day whither he went. To this he replied that a friend invited him to +take wine; and then the master begged to be allowed to accompany him, +a proposal to which the old man very reluctantly consented. However, +he seized the master by the arm, and away they went as though riding +on the wings of the wind; and in about the time it takes to cook +a pot of millet they reached a city and walked into a restaurant, +where there were a number of people drinking together and making a +great noise. The old man led his companion to a gallery above, from +which they could look down on the feasters below; and he himself went +down and brought away from the tables all kinds of nice food and wine, +without appearing to be seen or noticed by any of the company. After +a while a man dressed in red garments came forward and laid upon +the table some dishes of cumquats; [36] the master at once requested +the old man to go down and get him some of these. "Ah," replied the +latter, "that is an upright man: I cannot approach him." Thereupon +the master said to himself, "By thus seeking the companionship of a +fox, I then am deflected from the true course. Henceforth I too will +be an upright man." No sooner had he formed this resolution than he +suddenly lost all control over his body, and fell from the gallery +down among the revellers below. These gentlemen were much astonished +by his unexpected descent; and he himself, looking up, saw there was +no gallery to the house, but only a large beam upon which he had +been sitting. He now detailed the whole of the circumstances, and +those present made up a purse for him to pay his travelling expenses; +for he was at Yü-t'ai--a thousand _li_ from home. + + +The Marriage Lottery + +A certain labourer, named Ma T'ien-jung, lost his wife when he was +only about twenty years of age, and was too poor to take another. One +day, when out hoeing in the fields, he beheld a nice-looking young +lady leave the path and come tripping across the furrows toward +him. Her face was well painted, [37] and she had altogether such a +refined look that Ma concluded she must have lost her way, and began +to make some playful remarks in consequence. "You go along home," +cried the young lady, "and I'll be with you by and by." Ma doubted +this rather extraordinary promise, but she vowed and declared she +would not break her word; and then Ma went off, telling her that his +front door faced the north, etc. At midnight the young lady arrived, +and then Ma saw that her hands and face were covered with fine hair, +which made him suspect at once that she was a fox. She did not deny the +accusation; and accordingly Ma said to her, "If you really are one of +those wonderful creatures you will be able to get me anything I want; +and I should be much obliged if you would begin by giving me some +money to relieve my poverty." The young lady said she would; and next +evening, when she came again, Ma asked her where the money was. "Dear +me!" replied she, "I quite forgot it." When she was going away Ma +reminded her of what he wanted, but on the following evening she made +precisely the same excuse, promising to bring it another day. A few +nights afterward Ma asked her once more for the money, and then she +drew from her sleeve two pieces of silver, each weighing about five +or six ounces. They were both of fine quality, with turned-up edges, +[38] and Ma was very pleased, and stored them away in a cupboard. Some +months after this he happened to require some money for use, and took +out these pieces; but the person to whom he showed them said they +were only pewter, and easily bit off a portion of one of them with +his teeth. Ma was much alarmed, and put the pieces away directly, +taking the opportunity when evening came of abusing the young lady +roundly. "It's all your bad luck," retorted she. "Real gold would be +too much for your inferior destiny." There was an end of that; but Ma +went on to say, "I always heard that fox-girls were of surpassing +beauty; how is it you are not?" "Oh," replied the young lady, +"we always adapt ourselves to our company. Now you haven't the luck +of an ounce of silver to call your own; and what would you do, for +instance, with a beautiful princess? My beauty may not be good enough +for the aristocracy; but among your big-footed, bent-backed rustics, +[39] why, it may safely be called 'surpassing'!" + +A few months passed away, and then one day the young lady came and +gave Ma three ounces of silver, saying, "You have often asked me for +money, but in consequence of your bad luck I have always refrained +from giving you any. Now, however, your marriage is at hand, and +I here give you the cost of a wife, which you may also regard as a +parting gift from me." Ma replied that he was not engaged, to which the +young lady answered that in a few days a go-between would visit him +to arrange the affair. "And what will she be like?" asked Ma. "Why, +as your aspirations are for 'surpassing' beauty," replied the young +lady, "of course she will be possessed of surpassing beauty." "I hardly +expect that," said Ma; "at any rate, three ounces of silver will not be +enough to get a wife." "Marriages," explained the young lady, "are made +in the moon; [40] mortals have nothing to do with them." "And why must +you be going away like this?" inquired Ma. "Because," answered she, +"for us to meet only by night is not the proper thing. I had better +get you another wife and have done with you." Then when morning came +she departed, giving Ma a pinch of yellow powder, saying, "In case +you are ill after we are separated, this will cure you." Next day, +sure enough, a go-between did come, and Ma at once asked what the +proposed bride was like; to which the former replied that she was +very passable-looking. Four or five ounces of silver was fixed as the +marriage present, Ma making no difficulty on that score, but declaring +he must have a peep at the young lady. [41] The go-between said she +was a respectable girl, and would never allow herself to be seen; +however, it was arranged that they should go to the house together, +and await a good opportunity. So off they went, Ma remaining outside +while the go-between went in, returning in a little while to tell +him it was all right. "A relative of mine lives in the same court, +and just now I saw the young lady sitting in the hall. We have only +got to pretend we are going to see my relative, and you will be able +to get a glimpse of her." Ma consented, and they accordingly passed +through the hall, where he saw the young lady sitting down with her +head bent forward while some one was scratching her back. She seemed +to be all that the go-between had said; but when they came to discuss +the money it appeared that the young lady wanted only one or two ounces +of silver, just to buy herself a few clothes, etc., which Ma thought +was a very small amount; so he gave the go-between a present for her +trouble, which just finished up the three ounces his fox-friend had +provided. An auspicious day was chosen, and the young lady came over +to his house; when lo! she was humpbacked and pigeon-breasted, with +a short neck like a tortoise, and feet which were fully ten inches +long. The meaning of his fox-friend's remarks then flashed upon him. + + +The Magnanimous Girl + +At Chin-ling there lived a young man named Ku, who had considerable +ability, but was very poor; and having an old mother, he was very +loth to leave home. So he employed himself in writing or painting +[42] for people, and gave his mother the proceeds, going on thus +till he was twenty-five years of age without taking a wife. Opposite +to their house was another building, which had long been untenanted; +and one day an old woman and a young girl came to occupy it, but there +being no gentleman with them young Ku did not make any inquiries as +to who they were or whence they hailed. Shortly afterward it chanced +that just as Ku was entering the house he observed a young lady +come out of his mother's door. She was about eighteen or nineteen, +very clever and refined-looking, and altogether such a girl as one +rarely sets eyes on; and when she noticed Mr Ku she did not run away, +but seemed quite self-possessed. "It was the young lady over the way; +she came to borrow my scissors and measure," said his mother, "and +she told me that there is only her mother and herself. They don't +seem to belong to the lower classes. I asked her why she didn't get +married, to which she replied that her mother was old. I must go and +call on her to-morrow, and find out how the land lies. If she doesn't +expect too much, you could take care of her mother for her." So next +day Ku's mother went, and found that the girl's mother was deaf, and +that they were evidently poor, apparently not having a day's food in +the house. Ku's mother asked what their employment was, and the old +lady said they trusted for food to her daughter's ten fingers. She +then threw out some hints about uniting the two families, to which +the old lady seemed to agree; but, on consultation with her daughter, +the latter would not consent. Mrs Ku returned home and told her son, +saying, "Perhaps she thinks we are too poor. She doesn't speak or +laugh, is very nice-looking, and as pure as snow; truly no ordinary +girl." There ended that; until one day, as Ku was sitting in his +study, up came a very agreeable young fellow, who said he was from a +neighbouring village, and engaged Ku to draw a picture for him. The +two youths soon struck up a firm friendship and met constantly, +and later it happened that the stranger chanced to see the young +lady of over the way. "Who is that?" said he, following her with +his eyes. Ku told him, and then he said, "She is certainly pretty, +but rather stern in her appearance." By and by Ku went in, and his +mother told him the girl had come to beg a little rice, as they had +had nothing to eat all day. "She's a good daughter," said his mother, +"and I'm very sorry for her. We must try and help them a little." Ku +thereupon shouldered a peck of rice, and, knocking at their door, +presented it with his mother's compliments. The young lady received +the rice, but said nothing; and then she got into the habit of coming +over and helping Ku's mother with her work and household affairs, +almost as if she had been her daughter-in-law, for which Ku was very +grateful to her, and whenever he had anything nice he always sent some +of it in to her mother, though the young lady herself never once took +the trouble to thank him. So things went on until Ku's mother got an +abscess on her leg, and lay writhing in agony day and night. Then the +young lady devoted herself to the invalid, waiting on her and giving +her medicine with such care and attention that at last the sick woman +cried out, "O that I could secure such a daughter-in-law as you to see +this old body into its grave!" The young lady soothed her, and replied, +"Your son is a hundred times more filial than I, a poor widow's only +daughter." "But even a filial son makes a bad nurse," answered the +patient; "besides, I am now drawing toward the evening of my life, +when my body will be exposed to the mists and the dews, and I am +vexed in spirit about our ancestral worship and the continuance of our +line." As she was speaking Ku walked in; and his mother, weeping, said, +"I am deeply indebted to this young lady; do not forget to repay her +goodness." Ku made a low bow, but the young lady said, "Sir, when you +were kind to my mother, I did not thank you; why then thank me?" Ku +thereupon became more than ever attached to her; but could never get +her to depart in the slightest degree from her cold demeanour toward +himself. One day, however, he managed to squeeze her hand, upon which +she told him never to do so again; and then for some time he neither +saw nor heard anything of her. She had conceived a violent dislike +to the young stranger above mentioned; and one evening, when he was +sitting talking with Ku, the young lady appeared. After a while she +got angry at something he said, and drew from her robe a glittering +knife about a foot long. The young man, seeing her do this, ran out +in a fright and she after him, only to find that he had vanished. She +then threw her dagger up into the air, and _whish!_ a streak of light +like a rainbow, and something came tumbling down with a flop. Ku got +a light, and ran to see what it was; and lo! there lay a white fox, +head in one place and body in another. "There is your _friend_," +cried the girl; "I knew he would cause me to destroy him sooner or +later." Ku dragged it into the house, and said, "Let us wait till +to-morrow to talk it over; we shall then be more calm." Next day the +young lady arrived, and Ku inquired about her knowledge of the black +art; but she told Ku not to trouble himself about such affairs, and +to keep it secret or it might be prejudicial to his happiness. Ku +then entreated her to consent to their union, to which she replied +that she had already been as it were a daughter-in-law to his mother, +and there was no need to push the thing further. "Is it because I am +poor?" asked Ku. "Well, I am not rich," answered she, "but the fact +is I had rather not." She then took her leave, and the next evening +when Ku went across to their house to try once more to persuade her +the young lady had disappeared, and was never seen again. + + +The Boon-companion + +Once upon a time there was a young man named Ch'ê, who was not +particularly well off, but at the same time very fond of his wine; +so much so that without his three stoups of liquor every night he was +quite unable to sleep, and bottles were seldom absent from the head +of his bed. One night he had woken up and was turning over and over, +when he fancied some one was in the bed with him; but then, thinking +it was only the clothes which had slipped off, he put out his hand +to feel, and in doing so touched something silky like a cat. Striking +a light, he found it was a fox, lying in a drunken sleep like a dog; +and then looking at his wine bottle he saw that it had been emptied. "A +boon-companion," said he, laughing, as he avoided startling the animal, +and, covering it up, lay down to sleep with his arm across it, and the +candle alight so as to see what transformation it might undergo. About +midnight the fox stretched itself, and Ch'ê cried, "Well, to be sure, +you've had a nice sleep!" He then drew off the clothes, and beheld an +elegant young man in a scholar's dress; but the young man jumped up, +and, making a low obeisance, returned his host many thanks for not +cutting off his head. "Oh," replied Ch'ê, "I am not averse to liquor +myself; in fact they say I'm too much given to it. If you have no +objection, we'll be a pair of bottle-and-glass chums." So they lay +down and went to sleep again, Ch'ê urging the young man to visit him +often, and saying that they must have faith in each other. The fox +agreed to this, but when Ch'ê awoke in the morning his bedfellow had +already disappeared. So he prepared a goblet of first-rate wine in +expectation of his friend's arrival, and at nightfall sure enough he +came. They then sat together drinking, and the fox cracked so many +jokes that Ch'ê said he regretted he had not known him before. "And +truly I don't know how to repay your kindness," replied the former, +"in preparing all this nice wine for me." "Oh," said Ch'ê, "what's +a pint or so of wine?--nothing worth speaking of." "Well," rejoined +the fox, "you are only a poor scholar, and money isn't so easily to be +got. I must see if I can't secure a little wine capital for you." Next +evening, when he arrived, he said to Ch'ê, "Two miles down toward +the south-east you will find some silver lying by the wayside. Go +early in the morning and get it." So on the morrow Ch'ê set off, +and actually obtained two lumps of silver, with which he bought some +choice morsels to help them out with their wine that evening. The fox +now told him that there was a vault in his backyard which he ought to +open; and when he did so he found therein more than a hundred strings +of cash. [43] "Now then," cried Ch'ê, delighted, "I shall have no more +anxiety about funds for buying wine with all this in my purse!" "Ah," +replied the fox, "the water in a puddle is not inexhaustible. I must +do something further for you." Some days afterward the fox said to +Ch'ê, "Buckwheat is very cheap in the market just now. Something is +to be done in that line." Accordingly Ch'ê bought over forty tons, +and thereby incurred general ridicule; but by and by there was a bad +drought, and all kinds of grain and beans were spoilt. Only buckwheat +would grow, and Ch'ê sold off his stock at a profit of 1000 per +cent. His wealth thus began to increase; he bought two hundred acres +of rich land, and always planted his crops, corn, millet, or what not, +upon the advice of the fox secretly given him beforehand. The fox +looked on Ch'ê's wife as a sister, and on Ch'ê's children as his own; +but when subsequently Ch'ê died it never came to the house again. + + +The Alchemist [44] + +At Ch'ang-an there lived a scholar named Chia Tzu-lung, who one day +noticed a very refined-looking stranger; and, on making inquiries +about him, learned that he was a Mr Chên who had taken lodgings +hard by. Accordingly, Chia called next day and sent in his card, +but did not see Chên, who happened to be out at the time. The same +thing occurred thrice; and at length Chia engaged some one to watch +and let him know when Mr Chên was at home. However, even then the +latter would not come forth to receive his guest, and Chia had to +go in and rout him out. The two now entered into conversation, and +soon became mutually charmed with each other; and by and by Chia sent +off a servant to bring wine from a neighbouring wine-shop. Mr Chên +proved himself a pleasant boon-companion, and when the wine was nearly +finished he went to a box and took from it some wine-cups and a large +and beautiful jade tankard; into the latter he poured a single cup of +wine, and immediately it was filled to the brim. They then proceeded +to help themselves from the tankard; but however much they took out, +the contents never seemed to diminish. Chia was astonished at this, +and begged Mr Chên to tell him how it was done. "Ah," replied Mr Chên, +"I tried to avoid making your acquaintance solely because of your +one bad quality--avarice. The art I practise is a secret known to +the Immortals only: how can I divulge it to you?" "You do me wrong," +rejoined Chia, "in thus attributing avarice to me. The avaricious, +indeed, are always poor." Mr Chên laughed, and they separated for that +day; but from that time they were constantly together, and all ceremony +was laid aside between them. Whenever Chia wanted money Mr Chên would +bring out a black stone, and, muttering a charm, would rub it on a tile +or a brick, which was forthwith changed into a lump of silver. This +silver he would give to Chia, and it was always just as much as he +actually required, neither more nor less; and if ever the latter asked +for more Mr Chên would rally him on the subject of avarice. Finally +Chia determined to try to get possession of this stone; and one day, +when Mr Chên was sleeping off the fumes of a drinking-bout, he tried +to extract it from his clothes. However, Chên detected him at once, +and declared that they could be friends no more, and next day he +left the place altogether. About a year afterward Chia was one day +wandering by the river-bank, when he saw a handsome-looking stone, +marvellously like that in the possession of Mr Chên; and he picked +it up at once and carried it home with him. A few days passed away, +and suddenly Mr Chên presented himself at Chia's house, and explained +that the stone in question possessed the property of changing anything +into gold, and had been bestowed upon him long before by a certain +Taoist priest whom he had followed as a disciple. "Alas!" added he, +"I got tipsy and lost it; but divination told me where it was, +and if you will now restore it to me I will take care to repay your +kindness." "You have divined rightly," replied Chia; "the stone is +with me; but recollect, if you please, that the indigent Kuan Chung +[45] shared the wealth of his friend Pao Shu." At this hint Mr Chên +said he would give Chia one hundred ounces of silver; to which the +latter replied that one hundred ounces was a fair offer, but that he +would far sooner have Mr Chên teach him the formula to utter when +rubbing the stone on anything, so that he might try the thing once +himself. Mr Chên was afraid to do this; whereupon Chia cried out, +"You are an Immortal yourself; you must know well enough that I +would never deceive a friend." So Mr Chên was prevailed upon to +teach him the formula, and then Chia would have tried the art upon +the immense stone washing-block [46] which was lying near at hand +had not Mr Chên seized his arm and begged him not to do anything +so outrageous. Chia then picked up half a brick and laid it on the +washing-block, saying to Mr Chên, "This little piece is not too much, +surely?" Accordingly Mr Chên relaxed his hold and let Chia proceed; +which he did by promptly ignoring the half-brick and quickly rubbing +the stone on the washing-block. Mr Chên turned pale when he saw him +do this, and made a dash forward to get hold of the stone, but it was +too late; the washing-block was already a solid mass of silver, and +Chia quietly handed him back the stone. "Alas! alas!" cried Mr Chên +in despair, "what is to be done now? For, having thus irregularly +conferred wealth upon a mortal, Heaven will surely punish me. Oh, +if you would save me, give away one hundred coffins [47] and one +hundred suits of wadded clothes." "My friend," replied Chia, "my +object in getting money was not to hoard it up like a miser." Mr +Chên was delighted at this; and during the next three years Chia +engaged in trade, taking care to fulfil always his promise to Mr +Chên. At the expiration of that time Mr Chên himself reappeared, and, +grasping Chia's hand, said to him, "Trustworthy and noble friend, +when we last parted the Spirit of Happiness impeached me before God, +[48] and my name was erased from the list of angels. But now that you +have carried out my request that sentence has been rescinded. Go on +as you have begun, without ceasing." Chia asked Mr Chên what office +he filled in Heaven; to which the latter replied that he was only +a fox who, by a sinless life, had finally attained to that clear +perception of the truth which leads to immortality. Wine was then +brought, and the two friends enjoyed themselves together as of old; +and even when Chia had passed the age of ninety years the fox still +used to visit him from time to time. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Miscellaneous Legends + + +The Unnatural People + +The _Shan hai ching_, or _Hill and River Classic_, contains +descriptions of some curious people supposed to inhabit the regions +on the maps represented on the nine tripod vases of the Great Yü, +first emperor of the Hsia dynasty. + + +The Pygmies + +The pygmies inhabit many mountainous regions of the Empire, but are +few in number. They are less than nine inches high, but are well +formed. They live in thatched houses that resemble ants' nests. When +they walk out they go in companies of from six to ten, joining hands +in a line for mutual protection against birds that might carry them +away, or other creatures that might attack them. Their tone of voice +is too low to be distinguished by an ordinary human ear. They occupy +themselves in working in wood, gold, silver, and precious stones, but +a small proportion are tillers of the soil. They wear clothes of a red +colour. The sexes are distinguishable by a slight beard on the men, +and long tresses on the women, the latter in some cases reaching four +to five inches in length. Their heads are unduly large, being quite +out of proportion to their small bodies. A husband and wife usually +go about hand in hand. A Hakka charcoal-burner once found three of the +children playing in his tobacco-box. He kept them there, and afterward, +when he was showing them to a friend, he laughed so that drops of +saliva flew from his mouth and shot two of them dead. He then begged +his friend to take the third and put it in a place of safety before +he should laugh again. His friend attempted to lift it from the box, +but it died on being touched. + + +The Giants + +In the Country of the Giants the people are fifty feet in height. Their +footprints are six feet in length. Their teeth are like those of a +saw. Their finger-nails present the appearance of hooked claws, while +their diet consists wholly of uncooked animal food. Their eyebrows +are of such length as to protrude from the front of the carts in +which they ride, large though it is necessary for these vehicles to +be. Their bodies are covered with long black hair resembling that +of the bear. They live to the advanced age of eighteen thousand +years. Though cannibals, they never eat members of their own tribe, +confining their indulgence in human flesh chiefly to enemies taken in +battle. Their country extends some thousands of miles along certain +mountain ranges in North-eastern Asia, in the passes of which they +have strong iron gates, easy to close, but difficult to open; hence, +though their neighbours maintain large standing armies, they have +thus far never been conquered. + + +The Headless People + +The Headless People inhabit the Long Sheep range, to which their +ancestors were banished in the remote past for an offence against the +gods. One of the said ancestors had entered into a controversy with +the rulers of the heavens, and they in their anger had transformed +his two breasts into eyes and his navel into a mouth, removed his +head, leaving him without nose and ears, thus cutting him off from +smell and sound, and banished him to the Long Sheep Mountains, where +with a shield and axe, the only weapons vouchsafed to the people of +the Headless Country, he and his posterity were compelled to defend +themselves from their enemies and provide their subsistence. This, +however, does not in the least seem to have affected their tempers, +as their bodies are wreathed in perpetual smiles, except when they +flourish their warlike weapons on the approach of an enemy. They are +not without understanding, because, according to Chinese notions of +physiology, "their bellies are full of wisdom." + + +The Armless People + +In the Mountains of the Sun and Moon, which are in the Centre of the +Great Waste, are the people who have no arms, but whose legs instead +grow out of their shoulders. They pick flowers with their toes. They +bow by raising the body horizontal with the shoulders, thus turning +the face to the ground. + + +The Long-armed and Long-legged People + +The Long-armed People are about thirty feet high, their arms reaching +from the shoulders to the ground. Once when a company of explorers +was passing through the country which borders on the Eastern Sea they +inquired of an old man if he knew whether or not there were people +dwelling beyond the waters. He replied that a cloth garment, in fashion +and texture not unlike that of a Chinese coat, with sleeves thirty +feet in length, had been found in the sea. The explorers fitted out an +expedition, and the discovery of the Long-armed Country was the result. + +The natives subsist for the most part on fish, which they obtain by +wading in the water, and taking the fish with their hands instead of +with hooks or nets. + +The arms of the Long-legged People are of a normal length, the legs +are developed to a length corresponding to that of the arms of the +Long-armed People. + +The country of the latter borders on that of the Long-legs. The habits +and food of the two are similar. The difference in their physical +structure makes them of mutual assistance, those with the long arms +being able to take the shellfish of the shallow waters, while those +with the long legs take the surface fish from the deeper localities; +thus the two gather a harvest otherwise unobtainable. + + +The One-eyed People and Others + +A little to the east of the Country of the Long-legs are to be found +the One-eyed People. They have but one eye, rather larger than the +ordinary human eye, placed in the centre of the forehead, directly +above the nose. Other clans or families have but one arm and one leg, +some having a right arm and left leg, others a left arm and right +leg, while still others have both on the same side, and go in pairs, +like shoes. Another species not only has but one arm and one leg, +but is of such fashion as to have but one eye, one nostril, and beard +on but one side of the face, there being as it were rights and lefts, +the two in reality being one, for it is in this way that they pair. The +Long-eared People resemble Chinese in all except their ears. They live +in the far West among mountains and in caves. Their pendant, flabby +ears extend to the ground, and would impede their feet in walking if +they did not support them on their hands. They are sensitive to the +faintest sound. Still another people in this region are distinguished +by having six toes on each foot. + + + +The Feathered People, etc. + +The Feathered People are very tall, and are covered with fluffy +down. They have wings in place of arms, and can fly short distances. On +the points of the wings are claws, which serve as hands. Their +noses are like beaks. Gentle and timid, they do not leave their own +country. They have good voices, and like to sing ballads. If one +wishes to visit this people he must go far to the south-east and then +inquire. There is also the Land of the People with Three Faces, who +live in the centre of the Great Waste and never die; the Land of the +Three-heads, east of the K'un-lun Mountains; the Three-body Country, +the inhabitants of which have one head with three bodies, three arms +and but two legs; and yet another where the people have square heads, +broad shoulders, and three legs, and the stones on the land are all +gold and jade. + + +The People of the Punctured Bodies + +Another community is said to be composed of people who have holes +through their chests. They can be carried about on a pole put through +the orifice, or may be comfortably hung upon a peg. They sometimes +string themselves on a rope, and thus walk out in file. They are +harmless people, and eat snakes that they kill with bows and arrows, +and they are very long-lived. + + +The Women's Kingdom + +The Women's Kingdom, the country inhabited exclusively by women, is +said to be surrounded by a sea of less density than ordinary water, +so that ships sink on approaching the shores. It has been reached only +by boats carried thither in whirlwinds, and but few of those wrecked +on its rocks have survived and returned to tell of its wonders. The +women have houses, gardens, and shops. Instead of money they use gems, +perforated and strung like beads. They reproduce their kind by sleeping +where the south wind blows upon them. + + +The Land of the Flying Cart + +Situated to the north of the Plain of Great Joy, the Land of +the Flying Cart joins the Country of the One-armed People on the +south-west and that of the Three-bodied People on the south-east. The +inhabitants have but one arm, and an additional eye of large size in +the centre of the forehead, making three eyes in all. Their carts, +though wheeled, do not run along the ground, but chase each other in +mid-air as gracefully as a flock of swallows. The vehicles have a +kind of winged framework at each end, and the one-armed occupants, +each grasping a flag, talk and laugh one to another in great glee +during what might be called their aerial recreation were it not for +the fact that it seems to be their sole occupation. + + +The Expectant Wife + +A curious legend is told regarding a solitary, weird figure which +stands out, rudely weatherworn, from a hill-top in the pass called +Shao-hsing Gorge, Canton Province. This point of the pass is called +Lung-mên, or Dragon's Mouth, and the hill the Husband-expecting +Hill. The figure itself, which is called the Expectant Wife, resembles +that of a woman. Her bent head and figure down to the waist are +very lifelike. + +The story, widely known in this and the neighbouring province, runs as +follows. Centuries ago a certain poor woman was left by her husband, +who went on a journey into Kwangsi, close by, but in those days +considered a wild and distant region, full of dangers. He promised +to return in three years. The time went slowly and sadly past, for +she dearly loved her lord, but no husband appeared. He, ungrateful +and unfaithful spouse, had fallen in love with a fair one in Kwangsi, +a sorceress or witch, who threw a spell over him and charmed him to +his destruction, turning him at length into stone. To this day his +figure may be seen standing near a cave close by the river which is +known by the name of the Detained Man Cave. + +The wife, broken by grief at her husband's failure to return, was +likewise turned into a stone, and it is said that a supernatural +power will one day bring the couple to life again and reward the +ever-faithful wife. The legend receives entire credence from the +simple boatmen sad country people. + + +The Wild Men + +The wild beasts of the mountain have a king. He is a wild man, with +long, thick locks, fiery red in colour, and his body is covered with +hair. He is very strong: with a single blow of his huge fist, he can +break large rocks to pieces; he also can pull up the trees of the +forest by the root. His flesh is as hard as iron and is invulnerable +to the thrusts of knife, spear, or sword. He rides upon a tiger when +he leaves his home; he rules over the wolves, leopards, and tigers, and +governs all their affairs. Many other wild men, like him in appearance, +live in these mountains, but on account of his great strength he alone +is king. These wild men kill and eat all human beings they meet, and +other hill tribes live in terror of meeting them. Indeed, who of all +these mountain people would have been left alive had not some men, +more crafty than their fellows, devised a means of overpowering these +fierce savages? + +This is the method referred to: On leaving his home the herb-gatherer +of the mountains arms himself with two large hollow bamboo tubes which +he slips over his wrists and arms; he also carries a jar of very +strong wine. When he meets one of the wild men he stands still and +allows the giant to grasp him by the arm. As the giant holds him fast, +as he supposes, in his firm grasp, he quietly and slowly withdraws +one arm from the bamboo cuff, and, taking the pot of wine from the +other hand, quickly pours it down the throat of the stooping giant, +whose mouth is wide open with immoderate laughter at the thought of +having captured a victim so easily. The potent draught of wine acts +at once, causing the victim to drop to the ground in a dead sleep, +whereupon the herb-gatherer either dispatches him summarily with a +thrust through the heart, or leaves the drunken tyrant to sleep off the +effect of his draught, while he returns again to his work of collecting +the health-restoring herbs. In this way have the numbers of these wild +men become less and less, until at the present time but few remain. + + +The Jointed Snake + +The people on Ô-mei Shan tell of a wonderful kind of snake that is +said to live there. Part of its life is spent among the branches of +the trees; if by chance it falls to the ground it breaks up into two +or more pieces. These separate segments later on come together again +and unite. + +Many other marvellous and interesting tales are related of this +mountain and its inhabitants. + + + +The Casting of the Great Bell + +In every province of China there is a legend relating to the casting +of the great bell swung in the bell tower of the chief city. These +legends are curiously identical in almost every detail. The following +is the one current in Peking. + +It was in the reign of Yung Lo, the third monarch of the Ming dynasty, +that Peking first became the capital of China. Till that period the +'Son of Heaven' had held his Court at Nanking, and Peking had been +of comparatively little note. Now, however, on being honoured by the +'Sacred Presence,' stately buildings arose in all directions for +the accommodation of the Emperor and his courtiers. Clever men from +all parts of the Empire were attracted to the capital, and such as +possessed talent were sure of lucrative employment. About this time the +Drum Tower and the Bell Tower were built; both of them as 'look-out' +and 'alarm' towers. The Drum Tower was furnished with a monster drum, +which it still possesses, of such a size that the thunder of its tones +might be heard all over the city, the sound being almost enough to +waken the dead. + +The Bell Tower had been completed some time before attempts were +made to cast a bell proportionate to the size of the building. At +length Yung Lo ordered Kuan Yu, a mandarin of the second grade, who +was skilled in casting guns, to cast a bell the sound of which should +be heard, on the least alarm, in every part of the city. Kuan Yu at +once commenced the undertaking. He secured the services of a great +number of experienced workmen, and collected immense quantities of +material. Months passed, and at length it was announced to the Emperor +that everything was ready for the casting. A day was appointed; the +Emperor, surrounded by a crowd of courtiers, and preceded by the +Court musicians, went to witness the ceremony. At a given signal, +and to the crash of music, the melted metal rushed into the mould +prepared for it. The Emperor and his Court then retired, leaving +Kuan Yu and his subordinates to await the cooling of the metal, which +would tell of failure or success. At length the metal was sufficiently +cool to detach the mould from it. Kuan Yu, in breathless trepidation, +hastened to inspect it, but to his mortification and grief discovered +it to be honeycombed in many places. The circumstance was reported to +the Emperor, who was naturally vexed at the expenditure of so much +time, labour, and money with so unsatisfactory a result. However, +he ordered Kuan Yu to try again. + +The mandarin hastened to obey, and, thinking the failure of the +first attempt must have resulted from some oversight or omission on +his part, he watched every detail with redoubled care and attention, +fully determined that no neglect or remissness should mar the success +of this second casting. + +After months of labour the mould was again prepared, and the metal +poured into it, but again with the same result. Kuan Yu was distracted, +not only at the loss of his reputation, but at the certain loss of +the Emperor's favour. Yung Lo, when he heard of this second failure, +was very wroth, and at once ordered Kuan Yu into his presence, and +told him he would give him a third and last trial, and if he did +not succeed this time he would behead him. Kuan Yu went home in a +despairing state of mind, asking himself what crime he or any of his +ancestors could have committed to have justified this calamity. + +Now Kuan Yu had an only daughter, about sixteen years of age, and, +having no sons, the whole of his love was centred in this girl, for +he had hopes of perpetuating his name and fame through her marriage +with some deserving young nobleman. Truly she was worthy of being +loved. She had "almond-shaped eyes, like the autumn waves, which, +sparkling and dancing in the sun, seem to leap up in very joy and +wantonness to kiss the fragrant reeds that grow upon the rivers' +banks, yet of such limpid transparency that one's form could be +seen in their liquid depths as if reflected in a mirror. These were +surrounded by long silken lashes--now drooping in coy modesty, anon +rising in youthful gaiety and disclosing the laughing eyes but just +before concealed beneath them. Eyebrows like the willow leaf; cheeks +of snowy whiteness, yet tinged with the gentlest colouring of the +rose; teeth like pearls of the finest water were seen peeping from +between half-open lips, so luscious and juicy that they resembled +two cherries; hair of the jettiest blackness and of the silkiest +texture. Her form was such as poets love to describe and painters +limn; there was grace and ease in every movement; she appeared to +glide rather than walk, so light was she of foot. Add to her other +charms that she was skilful in verse-making, excellent in embroidery, +and unequalled in the execution of her household duties, and we have +but a faint description of Ko-ai, the beautiful daughter of Kuan Yu." + +Well might the father be proud of and love his beautiful child, +and she returned his love with all the ardour of her affectionate +nature; often cheering him with her innocent gaiety when he returned +from his daily vocations wearied or vexed. Seeing him now return +with despair depicted in his countenance, she tenderly inquired the +cause, not without hope of being the means of alleviating it. When +her father told her of his failures, and of the Emperor's threat, she +exclaimed: "Oh, my father, be comforted! Heaven will not always be thus +unrelenting. Are we not told that 'out of evil cometh good'? These +two failures will but enhance the glory of your eventual success, +for success _this_ time _must_ crown your efforts. I am only a girl, +and cannot assist you but with my prayers; these I will daily and +hourly offer up for your success; and the prayers of a daughter for +a loved parent _must_ be heard." Somewhat soothed by the endearments +of Ko-ai, Kuan Yu again devoted himself to his task with redoubled +energy, Ko-ai meanwhile constantly praying for him in his absence, +and ministering to his wants when he returned home. One day it +occurred to the maiden to go to a celebrated astrologer to ascertain +the cause of these failures, and to ask what means could be taken to +prevent a recurrence of them. She thus learned that the next casting +would also be a disappointment if the blood of a maiden were not +mixed with the ingredients. She returned home full of horror at this +information, yet inwardly resolving to immolate herself rather than +allow her father to fail. The day for the casting at length came, +and Ko-ai requested her father to allow her to witness the ceremony +and "to exult in his success," as she laughingly said. Kuan Yu gave +his consent, and accompanied by several servants she went, taking up +a position near the mould. + +Everything was prepared as before. An immense concourse assembled +to witness the third and final casting, which was to result either +in honour or degradation and death for Kuan Yu. A dead silence +prevailed through the vast assemblage as the melted metal once more +rushed to its destination; this was broken by a shriek, and a cry, +"For my father!" and Ko-ai was seen to throw herself headlong into the +seething, hissing metal. One of her servants attempted to seize her +while in the act of plunging into the boiling fluid, but succeeded only +in grasping one of her shoes, which came off in his hand. The father +was frantic, and had to be kept by force from following her example; +he was taken home a raving maniac. The prediction of the astrologer +was fulfilled, for, on uncovering the bell after it had cooled, it +was found to be perfect, but not a vestige of Ko-ai was to be seen; +the blood of a maiden had indeed been infused with the ingredients. + +After a time the bell was suspended by order of the Emperor, +and expectation was at its height to hear it rung for the first +time. The Emperor himself was present. The bell was struck, and far +and near was heard the deep tone of its sonorous boom. This indeed +was a triumph! Here was a bell surpassing in size and sound any +other that had ever been cast! But--and the surrounding multitudes +were horror-struck as they listened--the heavy boom of the bell was +followed by a low wailing sound like the agonized cry of a woman, and +the word _hsieh_ (shoe) was distinctly heard. To this day the bell, +each time it is rung, after every boom appears to utter the word +'hsieh,' and people when they hear it shudder and say, "There's poor +Ko-ai's voice calling for her shoe." + + +The Cursed Temple + +The reign of Ch'ung Chêng, the last monarch of the Ming dynasty, +was much troubled both by internal broils and by wars. He was +constantly threatened by Tartar hordes from without, though these +were generally beaten back by the celebrated general Wu San-kuei, +and the country was perpetually in a state of anarchy and confusion, +being overrun by bands of marauding rebels; indeed, so bold did +these become under a chief named Li Tzu-ch'êng that they actually +marched on the capital with the avowed intention of placing their +leader on the Dragon Throne. Ch'ung Chêng, on the reception of this +startling news, with no one that he could trust in such an emergency +(for Wu San-kuei was absent on an expedition against the Tartars), +was at his wits' end. The insurgents were almost in sight of Peking, +and at any moment might arrive. Rebellion threatened in the city +itself. If he went out boldly to attack the oncoming rebels his own +troops might go over to the enemy, or deliver him into their hands; +if he stayed in the city the people would naturally attribute it to +pusillanimity, and probably open the gates to the rebels. + +In this strait he resolved to go to the San Kuan Miao, an imperial +temple situated near the Ch'ao-yang Mên, and inquire of the gods as +to what he should do, and decide his fate by 'drawing the slip.' If he +drew a long slip, this would be a good omen, and he would boldly march +out to meet the rebels, confident of victory; if a middle length one, +he would remain quietly in the palace and passively await whatever +might happen; but if he should unfortunately draw a short one he would +take his own life rather than suffer death at the hands of the rebels. + +Upon arrival at the temple, in the presence of the high officers of +his Court, the sacrifices were offered up, and the incense burnt, +previous to drawing the slip on which hung the destiny of an empire, +while Ch'ung Chêng himself remained on his knees in prayer. At the +conclusion of the sacrificial ceremony the tube containing the bamboo +fortune-telling sticks was placed in the Emperor's hand by one of +the priests. His courtiers and the attendant priests stood round in +breathless suspense, watching him as he swayed the tube to and fro; +at length one fell to the ground; there was dead silence as it was +raised by a priest and handed to the Emperor. _It was a short one!_ +Dismay fell on every one present, no one daring to break the painful, +horrible silence. After a pause the Emperor, with a cry of mingled +rage and despair, dashed the slip to the ground, exclaiming: "May this +temple built by my ancestors evermore be accursed! Henceforward may +every suppliant be denied what he entreats, as I have been! Those +who come in sorrow, may that sorrow be doubled; in happiness, may +that happiness be changed to misery; in hope, may they meet despair; +in health, sickness; in the pride of life and strength, death! I, +Ch'ung Chêng, the last of the Mings, curse it!" + +Without another word he retired, followed by his courtiers, proceeded +at once to the palace, and went straight to the apartments of the +Empress. The next morning he and his Empress were found suspended from +a tree on Prospect Hill. "In their death they were not divided." The +scenes that followed; how the rebels took possession of the city and +were driven out again by the Chinese general, assisted by the Tartars; +how the Tartars finally succeeded in establishing the Manchu dynasty, +are all matters of history. The words used by the Emperor at the +temple were prophetic; he _was_ the last of the Mings. The tree on +which the monarch of a mighty Empire closed his career and brought +the Ming dynasty to an end was ordered to be surrounded with chains; +it still exists, and is still in chains. Upward of two hundred +and seventy years have passed since that time, yet the temple is +standing as of old; but the halls that at one time were crowded with +worshippers are now silent, no one ever venturing to worship there; +it is the resort of the fox and the bat, and people at night pass it +shudderingly--"It is the cursed temple!" + + +The Maniac's Mite + +An interesting story is told of a lady named Ch'ên, who was a +Buddhist nun celebrated for her virtue and austerity. Between the +years 1628 and 1643 she left her nunnery near Wei-hai city and set +out on a long journey for the purpose of collecting subscriptions for +casting a new image of the Buddha. She wandered through Shantung and +Chihli and finally reached Peking, and there--subscription-book in +hand--she stationed herself at the great south gate in order to take +toll from those who wished to lay up for themselves treasures in the +Western Heaven. The first passer-by who took any notice of her was an +amiable maniac. His dress was made of coloured shreds and patches, +and his general appearance was wild and uncouth. "Whither away, +nun?" he asked. She explained that she was collecting subscriptions +for the casting of a great image of Buddha, and had come all the +way from Shantung. "Throughout my life," remarked the madman, "I was +ever a generous giver." So, taking the nun's subscription-book, he +headed a page with his own name (in very large characters) and the +amount subscribed. The amount in question was two cash, equivalent +to a small fraction of a farthing. He then handed over the two small +coins and went on his way. + +In course of time the nun returned to Wei-hai-wei with her +subscriptions, and the work of casting the image was duly begun. When +the time had come for the process of smelting, it was observed that +the copper remained hard and intractable. Again and again the furnace +was fed with fuel, but the shapeless mass of metal remained firm as a +rock. The head workman, who was a man of wide experience, volunteered +an explanation of the mystery. "An offering of great value must be +missing," he said. "Let the collection-book be examined so that it +may be seen whose subscription has been withheld." The nun, who was +standing by, immediately produced the madman's money, which on account +of its minute value she had not taken the trouble to hand over. "There +is one cash," she said, "and there is another. Certainly the offering +of these must have been an act of the highest merit, and the giver +must be a holy man who will some day attain Buddhahood." As she said +this she threw the two cash into the midst of the cauldron. Great +bubbles rose and burst, the metal melted and ran like the sap from +a tree, limpid as flowing water, and in a few moments the work was +accomplished and the new Buddha successfully cast. + + +The City-god of Yen Ch'êng + +The following story of the Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa of Yen Ch'êng (Salt +City) is told by Helena von Poseck in the _East of Asia Magazine_, +vol. iii (1904), pp. 169-171. This legend is also related of several +other cities in China. + +The Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa is, as already noted, the tutelary god of a +city, his position in the unseen world answering to that of a _chih +hsien_, or district magistrate, among men, if the city under his +care be a _hsien_; but if the city hold the rank of a _fu_, it has +(or used to have until recently) two Ch'êng-huang P'u-sas, one a +prefect, and the other a district magistrate. One part of his duty +consists of sending small demons to carry off the spirits of the +dying, of which spirits he afterward acts as ruler and judge. He is +supposed to exercise special care over the _k'u kuei_, or spirits +which have no descendants to worship and offer sacrifices to them, +and on the occasion of the Seventh Month Festival he is carried round +the city in his chair to maintain order among them, while the people +offer food to them, and burn paper money for their benefit. He is +also carried in procession at the Ch'ing Ming Festival, and on the +first day of the tenth month. + +The Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa of the city of Yen Ch'êng is in the extremely +unfortunate predicament of having no skin to his face, which fact is +thus accounted for: + +Once upon a time there lived at Yen Ch'êng an orphan boy who was +brought up by his uncle and aunt. He was just entering upon his teens +when his aunt lost a gold hairpin, and accused him of having stolen +it. The boy, whose conscience was clear in the matter, thought of a +plan by which his innocence might be proved. + +"Let us go to-morrow to Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa's temple," he said, "and +I will there swear an oath before the god, so that he may manifest +my innocence." + +They accordingly repaired to the temple, and the boy, solemnly +addressing the idol, said: + +"If I have taken my aunt's gold pin, may my foot twist, and may I +fall as I go out of your temple door!" + +Alas for the poor suppliant! As he stepped over the threshold his +foot twisted, and he fell to the ground. Of course, everybody was +firmly convinced of his guilt, and what could the poor boy say when +his own appeal to the god thus turned against him? + +After such a proof of his depravity his aunt had no room in her house +for her orphan nephew, neither did he himself wish to stay with people +who suspected him of theft. So he left the home which had sheltered +him for years, and wandered out alone into the cold hard world. Many +a hardship did he encounter, but with rare pluck he persevered in +his studies, and at the age of twenty odd years became a mandarin. + +In course of time our hero returned to Yen Ch'êng to visit his uncle +and aunt. While there he betook himself to the temple of the deity who +had dealt so hardly with him, and prayed for a revelation as to the +whereabouts of the lost hairpin. He slept that night in the temple, +and was rewarded by a vision in which the Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa told +him that the pin would be found under the floor of his aunt's house. + +He hastened back, and informed his relatives, who took up the boards +in the place indicated, and lo! there lay the long-lost pin! The +women of the house then remembered that the pin had been used in +pasting together the various layers of the soles of shoes, and, when +night came, had been carelessly left on the table. No doubt rats, +attracted by the smell of the paste which clung to it, had carried +it off to their domains under the floor. + +The young mandarin joyfully returned to the temple, and offered +sacrifices by way of thanksgiving to the Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa for +bringing his innocence to light, but he could not refrain from +addressing to him what one is disposed to consider a well-merited +reproach. + +"You made me fall down," he said, "and so led people to think I was +guilty, and now you accept my gifts. Aren't you ashamed to do such +a thing? _You have no face!_" + +As he uttered the words all the plaster fell from the face of the idol, +and was smashed into fragments. + +From that day forward the Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa of Yen Ch'êng has had +no skin on his face. People have tried to patch up the disfigured +countenance, but in vain: the plaster always falls off, and the face +remains skinless. + +Some try to defend the Ch'êng-huang P'u-sa by saying that he was not +at home on the day when his temple was visited by the accused boy and +his relatives, and that one of the little demons employed by him in +carrying off dead people's spirits out of sheer mischief perpetrated +a practical joke on the poor boy. + +In that case it is certainly hard that his skin should so persistently +testify against him by refusing to remain on his face! + + +The Origin of a Lake + +In the city of Ta-yeh Hsien, Hupei, there is a large sheet of water +known as the Liang-ti Lake. The people of the district give the +following account of its origin: + +About five hundred years ago, during the Ming dynasty, there was no +lake where the broad waters now spread. A flourishing _hsien_ city +stood in the centre of a populous country. The city was noted for its +wickedness, but amid the wicked population dwelt one righteous woman, +a strict vegetarian and a follower of all good works. In a vision of +the night it was revealed to her that the city and neighbourhood would +be destroyed by water, and the sign promised was that when the stone +lions in front of the _yamên_ wept tears of blood, then destruction +was near at hand. Like Jonah at Nineveh, the woman, known to-day +simply as Niang-tzu, walked up and down the streets of the city, +warning all of the coming calamity. She was laughed at and looked +upon as mad by the careless people. A pork-butcher in the town, +a noted wag, took some pig's blood and sprinkled it round the eyes +of the stone lions. This had the desired effect, for when Niang-tzu +saw the blood she fled from the city amid the jeers and laughter of +the inhabitants. Before many hours had passed, however, the face of +the sky darkened, a mighty earthquake shook the country-side, there +was a great subsidence of the earth's surface, and the waters of the +Yangtzu River flowed into the hollow, burying the city and villages +out of sight. But a spot of ground on which the good woman stood, +after escaping from the doomed city, remained at its normal level, +and it stands to-day in the midst of the lake, an island called +Niang-tzu, a place at which boats anchor at night, or to which they +fly for shelter from the storms that sweep the lake. They are saved +to-day because of one good woman helped by the gods so long ago. + +As a proof of the truth of the above story, it is asserted that on +clear days traces of the buried city may be seen, while occasionally +a fisherman casting his net hauls up some household utensil or relic +of bygone days. + + +Miao Creation Legends + +If the Miao have no written records, they have many legends in verse, +which they learn to repeat and sing. The Hei Miao (or Black Miao, so +called from their dark chocolate-coloured clothes) treasure poetical +legends of the Creation and of a deluge. These are composed in lines +of five syllables, in stanzas of unequal length, one interrogative +and one responsive. They are sung or recited by two persons or two +groups at feasts and festivals, often by a group of youths and a +group of maidens. The legend of the Creation commences: + + + Who made Heaven and earth? + Who made insects? + Who made men? + Made male and made female? + I who speak don't know. + + + + + Heavenly King made Heaven and earth, + Ziene made insects, + Ziene made men and demons, + Made male and made female. + How is it you don't know? + + + + How made Heaven and earth? + How made insects? + How made men and demons? + Made male and made female? + I who speak don't know. + + + + Heavenly King was intelligent, + Spat a lot of spittle into his hand, + Clapped his hands with a noise, + Produced Heaven and earth, + Tall grass made insects, + Stories made men and demons, + Made male and made female. + How is it you don't know? + + + +The legend proceeds to state how and by whom the heavens were +propped up and how the sun was made and fixed in its place, but the +continuation is exceedingly silly. + +The legend of the Flood is another very silly composition, but it is +interesting to note that it tells of a great deluge. It commences: + + + Who came to the bad disposition, + To send fire and burn the hill? + Who came to the bad disposition, + To send water and destroy the earth? + I who sing don't know. + + + + Zie did. Zie was of bad disposition, + Zie sent fire and burned the hill; + Thunder did. Thunder was of bad disposition, + Thunder sent water and destroyed the earth. + Why don't you know? + + +In this story of the flood only two persons were saved in a large +bottle gourd used as a boat, and these were A Zie and his sister. After +the flood the brother wished his sister to become his wife, but she +objected to this as not being proper. At length she proposed that +one should take the upper and one the nether millstone, and going to +opposite hills should set the stones rolling to the valley between. If +these should be found in the valley properly adjusted one above the +other she would be his wife, but not if they came to rest apart. The +young man, considering it unlikely that two stones thus rolled down +from opposite hills would be found in the valley one upon another, +while pretending to accept the test suggested, secretly placed two +other stones in the valley one upon the other. The stones rolled from +the hills were lost in the tall wild grass, and on descending into +the valley A Zie called his sister to come and see the stones he had +placed. She, however, was not satisfied, and suggested as another test +that each should take a knife from a double sheath and, going again +to the opposite hill-tops, hurl them into the valley below. If both +these knives were found in the sheath in the valley she would marry +him, but if the knives were found apart they would live apart. Again +the brother surreptitiously placed two knives in the sheath, and, the +experiment ending as A Zie wished, his sister became his wife. They +had one child, a misshapen thing without arms or legs, which A Zie +in great anger killed and cut to pieces. He threw the pieces all +over the hill, and next morning, on awaking, he found these pieces +transformed into men and women; thus the earth was repeopled. + + +The Dream of the South Branch + +The dawn of Chinese romantic literature must be ascribed to the +period between the eighth and tenth centuries of our era, when +the cultivation of the liberal arts received encouragement at the +hands of sovereigns who had reunited the Empire under the sway of +a single ruler, and whose conquests and distant embassies attracted +representatives from every Asiatic nation to their splendid Court. It +was during this period that the vast bulk of Indian literature was +successfully attacked by a host of Buddhist translators, and that the +alchemists and mechanicians of Central Asia, Persia, and the Byzantine +Empire introduced their varied acquirements to the knowledge of the +Chinese. With the flow of new learning which thus gained admittance to +qualify the frigid and monotonous cultivation of the ancient classics +and their commentators, there came also an impetus to indulgence in +the licence of imagination in which it is impossible to mistake the +influence of Western minds. While the Sanskrit fables, on the one +hand, passed into a Chinese dress, and contributed to the colouring +of the popular mythology, the legends which circulated from mouth to +mouth in the lively Arabian bazaars found, in like manner, an echo +in the heart of China. Side by side with the mechanical efforts +of rhythmical composition which constitute the national ideal of +poetry there began, during the middle period of the T'ang dynasty +(A.D. 618-907), to grow up a class of romantic tales in which the +kinship of ideas with those that distinguish the products of Arabian +genius is too marked to be ignored. The invisible world appears +suddenly to open before the Chinese eye; the relations of the sexes +overstep for a moment the chilling limit imposed by the traditions +of Confucian decorum; a certain degree of freedom and geniality is, +in a word, for the first time and only for a brief interval infused +into the intellectual expression of a nation hitherto closely cramped +in the bonds of a narrow pedantry. It was at this period that the +drama began to flourish, and the germs of the modern novelist's art +made their first appearance. Among the works of imagination dating +from the period in question which have come down to the present +day there is perhaps none which better illustrates the effect of an +exotic fancy upon the sober and methodical authorship of the Chinese, +or which has left a more enduring mark upon the language, than the +little tale which is given in translation in the following pages. + +The _Nan k'o mêng_, or _Dream of the South Branch_ (as the title, +literally translated, should read), is the work of a writer named +Li Kung-tso, who, from an incidental mention of his own experiences +in Kiangsi which appears in another of his tales, is ascertained +to have lived at the beginning of the ninth century of our era. The +_nan k'o_, or South Branch, is the portion of a _huai_ tree (_Sophora +Japdonica_, a tree well known in China, and somewhat resembling the +American locust-tree) in which the adventures narrated in the story +are supposed to have occurred; and from this narrative of a dream, +recalling more than one of the incidents recounted in the Arabian +Nights, the Chinese have borrowed a metaphor to enrich the vocabulary +of their literature. The equivalent of our own phrase "the baseless +fabric of a vision" is in Chinese _nan k'o chih mêng_--a dream of +the south branch. + + +Ch'un-yü Fên enters the Locust-tree + +Ch'un-yü Fên, a native of Tung-p'ing, was by nature a gallant who +had little regard for the proprieties of life, and whose principal +enjoyment was found in indulgence in wine-bibbing in the society +of boon-companions. At one time he held a commission in the army, +but this he lost through his dissipated conduct, and from that time +he more than ever gave himself up to the pleasures of the wine-cup. + +One day--it was in the ninth moon of the seventh year of Chêng Yüan +(A.D. 791)--after drinking heavily with a party of friends under a +wide-spreading old locust-tree near his house, he had to be carried +to bed and there left to recover, his friends saying that they would +leave him while they went to bathe their feet. The moment he laid down +his head he fell into a deep slumber. In his dream appeared to him two +men clothed in purple, who kneeling down informed him that they had +been sent by their master the King of Huai-an ('Locust-tree Peace') to +request his presence. Unconsciously he rose, and, arranging his dress, +followed his visitors to the door, where he saw a varnished chariot +drawn by a white horse. On each side were ranged seven attendants, +by whom he was assisted to mount, whereupon the carriage drove off, +and, going out of the garden gate, passed through a hole in the trunk +of the locust-tree already spoken of. Filled with astonishment, but +too much afraid to speak, Ch'un-yü noticed that he was passing by +hills and rivers, trees and roads, but of quite a different kind from +those he was accustomed to. A few miles brought them to the walls +of a city, the approach to which was lined with men and vehicles, +who fell back at once the moment the order was given. Over the gate +of the city was a pavilion on which was written in gold letters "The +Capital of Huai-an." As he passed through, the guard turned out, and +a mounted officer, shouting that the husband of the King's daughter +had arrived, showed him the way into a hall where he was to rest +awhile. The room contained fruits and flowers of every description, +and on the tables was laid out a profuse display of refreshments. + +While Ch'un-yü still remained lost in astonishment, a cry was raised +that the Prime Minister was coming. Ch'un-yü got up to meet him, +and the two received each other with every demonstration of politeness. + + +He marries the King's Daughter + +The minister, looking at Ch'un-yü, said: "The King, my master, +has brought you to this remote region in order to give his daughter +in marriage to you." "How could I, a poor useless wretch," replied +Ch'un-yü, "have ever aspired to such honour?" With these words both +proceeded toward the audience-chamber, passing through a hall lined +with soldiers, among whom, to his great joy and surprise, Ch'un-yü +recognized an old friend of his former drinking days, to whom he +did not, however, then venture to speak; and, following the Prime +Minister, he was ushered into the King's presence. The King, a man +of noble bearing and imposing stature, was dressed in plain silk, +a jewelled crown reposing on his head. Ch'un-yü was so awe-stricken +that he was powerless even to look up, and the attendants on either +side were obliged to remind him to make his prostrations. The King, +addressing him, said: "Your father, small as my kingdom is, did not +disdain to promise that you should marry my daughter." Ch'un-yü could +not utter a word; he merely lay prostrate on the ground. After a +few moments he was taken back to his apartments, and he busied his +thoughts in trying to discover what all this meant. "My father," +he said to himself, "fought on the northern frontier, and was taken +prisoner; but whether his life was saved or not I don't know. It may +be that this affair was settled while he was in those distant regions." + +That same night preparations were made for the marriage; and the +rooms and passages were filled with damsels who passed and repassed, +filling the air with the sound of their dancing and music. They +surrounded Ch'un-yü and kept up a constant fire of witty remarks, +while he sat there overcome by their grace and beauty, unable to say +a word. "Do you remember," said one of them, coming up to Ch'un-yü, +"the other day when with the Lady Ling-chi I was listening to the +service in the courtyard of a temple, and while I, with all the other +girls, was sitting on the window step, you came up to us, talking +nonsense, and trying to get up a flirtation? Don't you remember how +we tied a handkerchief on the stem of a bamboo?" Then she continued: +"Another time at a temple, when I threw down two gold hairpins and an +ivory box as an offering, you asked the priest to let you look at the +things, and after admiring them for a long time you turned toward me, +and said that neither the gifts nor the donor were of this world; +and you wanted to know my name, and where I lived, but I wouldn't +tell you; and then you gazed on me so tenderly, and could not take +your eyes off me. You remember this, without doubt?" "I have ever +treasured the recollection in my heart; how could I possibly forget +it?" was Ch'un-yü's reply, whereat all the maidens exclaimed that they +had never expected to see him in their midst on this joyful occasion. + +At this moment three men came up to Ch'un-yü and stated that they +had been appointed his ministers. He stepped up to one of them +and asked him if his name was not Tzu-hua. "It is," was the reply; +whereupon Ch'un-yü, taking him by the hands, recalled to him their +old friendship, and questioned him as to how he had found his way +to this spot. He then proceeded to ask him if Chou-pien was also +here. "He is," replied the other, "and holding very high office; +he has often used his influence on my behalf." + +As they were talking, Ch'un-yü was summoned to the palace, and as he +passed within, a curtain in front of him was drawn aside, disclosing +a young girl of about fourteen years of age. She was known as the +Princess of the Golden Stem, and her dazzling beauty was well in +keeping with her matchless grace. + + +He writes to his Father + +The marriage was celebrated with all magnificence, and the young +couple grew fonder from day to day. Their establishment was kept up +in princely style, their principal amusement being the chase, the King +himself frequently inviting Ch'un-yü to join him in hunting expeditions +to the Tortoise-back Hill. As they were returning one day from one of +these excursions, Ch'un-yü said to the King: "On my marriage day your +Majesty told me that it was my father's desire that I should espouse +your daughter. My father was worsted in battle on the frontier, and +for seventeen years we have had no news of him. If your Majesty knows +his whereabouts, I would beg permission to go and see him." + +"Your father," replied the King, "is frequently heard of; you may +send him a letter; it is not necessary to go to him." Accordingly a +letter and some presents were got ready and sent, and in due time a +reply was received, in which Ch'un-yü's father asked many questions +about his relations, his son's occupation, but manifested no desire +that the latter should come to him. + + +He takes Office + +One day Ch'un-yü's wife asked him if he would not like to hold +office. His answer was to the effect that he had always been a rolling +stone, and had no experience of official affairs, but the Princess +promised to give him her assistance, and found occasion to speak on the +subject to her father. In consequence the King one day told Ch'un-yü +that he was not satisfied with the state of affairs in the south of his +territory, that the present governor was old and useless, and that he +would be pleased if he would proceed thither. Ch'un-yü bowed to the +King's commands, and inwardly congratulated himself that such good +fortune should have befallen a rover like him. He was supplied with a +splendid outfit, and farewell entertainments were given in his honour. + +Before leaving he acknowledged to the King that he had no great +confidence in his own powers, and suggested that he should be allowed +to take with him Chou-pien and Tzu-hua as commissioners of justice +and finance. The King gave his consent, and issued the necessary +instructions. The day of departure having arrived, both the King +and the Queen came to see Ch'un-yü and his wife off, and to Ch'un-yü +the King said: "The province of Nan-k'o is rich and fertile; and the +inhabitants are brave and prosperous; it is by kindness that you must +rule them." To her daughter the Queen said: "Your husband is violent +and fond of wine. The duty of a wife is to be kind and submissive. Act +well toward him, and I shall have no anxiety. Nan-k'o, it is true, +is not very far--only one day's journey; still, in parting from +you my tears will flow." Ch'un-yü and his bride waved a farewell, +and were whirled away toward their destination, reaching Nan-k'o the +same evening. + +Once settled in the place, Ch'un-yü set himself to become thoroughly +acquainted with the manners and customs of the people, and to relieve +distress. To Chou-pien and Tzu-hua he confided all questions of +administration, and in the course of twenty years a great improvement +was to be noticed in the affairs of the province. The people showed +their appreciation by erecting a monument to his honour, while the +King conferred upon him an estate and the dignity of a title, and in +recognition of their services promoted Chou-pien and Tzu-hua to very +high posts. Ch'un-yü's children also shared their father's rewards; +the two sons were given office, while the two daughters were betrothed +to members of the royal family. There remained nothing which could +add to his fame and greatness. + + +He meets with Disasters + +About this period the state of T'an-lo made an incursion on the +province of Nan-k'o. The King at once commanded that Chou-pien should +proceed at the head of 30,000 men to repel the enemy. Chou-pien, +full of confidence, attacked the foe, but sustained a disastrous +defeat, and, barely escaping with his life, returned to the capital, +leaving the invaders to plunder the country and retire. Ch'un-yü threw +Chou-pien into prison, and asked the King what punishment should be +visited upon him. His Majesty granted Chou-pien his pardon; but that +same month he died of disease. + +A few days later Ch'un-yü's wife also fell ill and died, whereupon +he begged permission to resign his post and return to Court with his +wife's remains. This request was granted, and Tzu-hua was appointed +in his stead. As Ch'un-yü, sad and dejected, was leaving the city +with the funeral _cortège_, he found the road lined with people giving +loud expression to their grief, and almost ready to prevent his taking +his departure. + + + +He returns Home + +As he neared the capital the King and Queen, dressed in mourning, were +awaiting the bier in tears. The Princess, after a posthumous title +had been conferred upon her, was buried with great magnificence a few +miles to the east of the city, while Ch'un-yü remained in the capital, +living in such state, and gaining so much influence, that he excited +the King's jealousy; and when it was foretold, by means of signs in +the heavens, that ruin threatened the kingdom, that its inhabitants +would be swept away, and that this would be the work of an alien, +the prophecy seemed to point to ambitious designs on the part of +Ch'un-yü, and means were taken to keep him under restraint. + +Ch'un-yü, conscious that he had faithfully filled a high office for +many years, felt greatly grieved by these calumnies--a result which +the King could not avoid noticing. He accordingly sent for Ch'un-yü, +and said: "For more than twenty years we have been connexions, +although my poor daughter, unfortunately, has not been spared to be +a companion to you in old age. Her mother is now taking care of her +children; your own home you have not seen for many years; return to +see your friends; your children will be looked after, and in three +years you will see them again." "Is not this my home? Whither else am +I to go?" was Ch'un-yü's reply. "My friend," the King said laughingly, +"you are a human being; you don't belong to this place." At these words +Ch'un-yü seemed to fall into a deep swoon, and he remained unconscious +for some time, after which he began to recall some glimpses of the +distant past. With tears in his eyes he begged that he might be +allowed to return to his home, and, saying farewell, he departed. + +Outside the palace he found the same two officials in purple clothes +who had led the way so many years ago. A conveyance was also there, +but this time it was a mere bullock-cart, with no outriders. He took +the same road as before, and noticed the same hills and streams. The +two officials were by no means imposing this time, and when he asked +how far was his destination they continued to hum and whistle and +paid no attention to him. At last they passed through an opening, and +he recognized his own village, precisely as he had left it. The two +officials desired him to get down and walk up the steps before him, +where, much to his horror, he saw himself lying down in the porch. He +was too much bedazed with terror to advance, but the two officials +called out his name several times, and upon this he awoke. The +servants were bustling about the house, and his two companions +were still washing their feet. Everything was as he had left it, +and the lifetime he had lived in his dream had occupied only a few +moments. Calling out to his two friends, he made them follow him to +the locust-tree, and pointed out the opening through which he had +begun his journey in dream-land. + +An axe was sent for, and the interior of the trunk thrown open, +whereupon a series of galleries was laid bare. At the root of the +tree a mound of earth was discovered, in shape like a city, and +swarming with ants. This was the capital of the kingdom in which +he had lived in his dream. A terrace surrounded by a guard of ants +was the residence of the King and Queen, two winged insects with +red heads. Twenty feet or so along another gallery was found an +old tortoise-shell covered with a thick growth of moss; it was the +Tortoise-back Hill of the dream. In another direction was found a +small mound of earth round which was coiled a root in shape like a +dragon's tongue; it was the grave of the King's daughter, Ch'un-yü's +wife in the vision. As he recalled each incident of the dream he was +much affected at discovering its counterpart in this nest of ants, +and he refused to allow his companions to disturb it further. They +replaced everything as they had found it; but that night a storm of +wind and rain came, and next morning not a vestige of the ants was +to be seen. They had all disappeared, and here was the fulfilment of +the warning in the dream, that the kingdom would be swept away. + + +Ch'un-yü Regenerate + +At this time Ch'un-yü had not seen Chou-pien and Tzu-hua for some +ten days. He sent a messenger to make inquiries about them, and the +news he brought back was that Chou-pien was dead and Tzu-hua lying +ill. The fleeting nature of man's existence revealed itself to him +as he recalled the greatness of these two men in the ant-world. From +that day he became a reformed man; drink and dissipation were put +aside. After three years had elapsed he died, thus giving effect to +the promise of the ant-king that he should see his children once more +at the end of three years. + + +Why the Jung Tribe have Heads of Dogs + +The wave of conquest which swept from north to south in the earliest +periods of Chinese history [49] left on its way, like small islands +in the ocean, certain remnants of aboriginal tribes which survived +and continued to exist despite the sustained hostile attitude of the +flood of alien settlers around them. When stationed at Foochow I saw +the settlements of one of these tribes which lived in the mountainous +country not very many miles inland from that place. They were those +of the Jung tribe, the members of which wore on their heads a large +and peculiar headgear constructed of bamboo splints resting on a +peg inserted in the chignon at the back of the head, the weight of +the structure in front being counterbalanced by a pad, serving as +a weight, attached to the end of the splints, which projected as +far down as the middle of the shoulders. This framework was covered +by a mantilla of red cloth which, when not rolled up, concealed the +whole head and face, The following legend, related to me on the spot, +explains the origin of this unusual headdress. + + +Two Tribes at War + +In early times the Chief of a Chinese tribe (another version says +an Emperor of China) was at war with the Chief of another tribe who +came to attack his territory from the west. The Western Chief so badly +defeated the Chinese army that none of the generals or soldiers could +be induced to renew hostilities and endeavour to drive the enemy back +to his own country. This distressed the Chinese Chief very much. As +a last resort he issued a proclamation promising his daughter in +marriage to anyone who would bring him the head of his enemy, the +Chief of the West. + + +The Chief's Promise + +The people in the palace talked much of this promise made by the +Chief, and their conversation was listened to by a fine large white +dog belonging to one of the generals. This dog, having pondered the +matter well, waited until midnight and then stole over to the tent +of the enemy Chief. The latter, as well as his guard, was asleep; +or, if the guard was not, the dog succeeded in avoiding him in the +darkness. Entering the tent, the dog gnawed through the Chief's +neck and carried his head off in his mouth. At dawn he placed it at +the Chinese Chief's feet, and waited for his reward. The Chief was +soon able to verify the fact that his enemy had been slain, for the +headless body had caused so much consternation in the hostile army +that it had already begun to retreat from Chinese territory. + + +A Strange Contract + +The dog then reminded the Chief of his promise, and asked for his +daughter's hand in marriage. "But how," said the Chief, "can I possibly +marry my daughter to a dog?" "Well," replied the dog, "will you agree +to her marrying me if I change myself into a man?" This seemed a safe +promise to make, and the Chief agreed. The dog then stipulated that +he should be placed under a large bell and that no one should move +it or look into it for a space of 280 days. + + +The Chiefs Curiosity + +This was done, and for 279 days the bell remained unmoved, but on +the 280th day the Chief could restrain his curiosity no longer, +and tilting up the bell saw that the dog had changed into a man +all except his head, the last day being required to complete the +transformation. However, the spell was now broken, and the result was +a man with a dog's head. Since it was the Chief's fault that, through +his over-inquisitiveness, the dog could not become altogether a man, +he was obliged to keep his promise, and the wedding duly took place, +the bridegroom's head being veiled for the occasion by a red mantilla. + + +The Origin of a Custom + +Unfortunately the fruit of the union took more after their father +than their mother, and though comely of limb had exceedingly ugly +features. [50] They were therefore obliged to continue to wear the +head-covering adopted by their father at the marriage ceremony, and +this became so much an integral part of the tribal costume that not +only has it been worn ever since by their descendants, but a change +of headgear has become synonymous with a change of husbands or a +divorce. One account says that at the original bridal ceremony the +bride wore the red mantilla to prevent her seeing her husband's ugly +features, and that is why the headdress is worn by the women and not by +the men, or more generally by the former than the latter, though others +say that it was originally worn by the ugly children of both sexes. + + +And of a Worship + +This legend explains the dog-worship of the Jung tribe, which now +consists of four clans, with a separate surname (Lei, Chung, Lang, +and Pan) to each, has a language of its own, and does not intermarry +with the Foochow natives. At about the time of the old Chinese New +Year (somewhere in February) they paint a large figure of a dog on a +screen and worship it, saying it is their ancestor who was victorious +over the Western invader. + + + +Conclusion + +If the greatness of nations is to be judged by the greatness of +their myths (using the word 'great' in the sense of world-famous +and of perennial influence), there would be few great nations, and +China would not be one of them. As stated in an earlier chapter, the +design has been to give an account of Chinese myth as it is, and not +as it might have been under imaginary conditions. But for the Chinese +philosophers we should in all probability have had more Chinese myths, +but philosophy is unifying, and without it we might have had a break-up +of China and perhaps no myths at all, or none specially belonging to +China as a whole and separate independent nation. Had there been great, +world-stirring myths there could hardly but have been also more wars, +more cruelty, more wounding of the "heart that weeps and trembles," +more saturating of the earth with human blood. It is not a small thing +to have conquered myth with philosophy, especially at a time when the +Western world was still steeped in the grossest superstition. Therefore +we may be thankful that the Chinese were and are a peace-loving, sober, +agricultural, industrial, non-military, non-priest-ridden, literary, +and philosophical people, and that we have instead of great myths a +great people. + +But if the real test of greatness is purity and justice, then Chinese +myth must be placed among the greatest of all; for it is not obscene, +and it is invariably just. + + + + + + +The Pronunciation of Chinese Words + +During the course of Chinese history the restriction of intercourse +due to mountain-chains or other natural obstacles between various +tribes or divisions of the Chinese people led to the birth of a number +of families of languages, which again became the parents of numerous +local dialects. These dialects have in most cases restricted ranges, +so that that of one district may be partially or wholly unintelligible +to the natives of another situated at a distance of only a hundred +miles or less. + +The Court or Government language is that spoken in Peking and the +metropolitan district, and is the language of official communication +throughout the country. Though neither the oldest nor the purest +Chinese dialect, it seems destined more than any other to come into +universal use in China. The natives of each province or district will +of course continue to speak to each other in their own particular +dialect, and foreign missionaries or merchants, for example, whose +special duties or transactions are connected with special districts +will naturally learn and use the dialects of those districts; but as +a means of intercommunication generally between natives of different +provinces, or between natives and foreigners, the Court language seems +likely to continue in use and to spread more and more over the whole +country. It is to this that the following remarks apply. + +The essentials of correct pronunciation of Chinese are accuracy of +sound, tone, and rhythm. + + +Sound + +_Vowels and Diphthongs_ + +_a_ as in _father_. + +_ai_ as in Italian _amái_. + +_ao_. Italian _ao_ in _Aosta_: sometimes _á-oo,_ the _au_ in _cauto_. + +_e_ in _eh_, _en_, as in _yet_, _lens_. + +_ei_. Nearly _ey_ in _grey_, but more as in Italian _lei_, _contei_. + +_ê_. The vowel-sound in _lurk_. + +_êi_. The foregoing _ê_ followed enclitically by _y_. _Money_ without +the _n_ = _mêi_. + +_êrh._ The _urr_ in _purr_. + +_i_. As a single or final syllable the vowel-sound in _ease_, _tree_; +in _ih_, _in_, _ing_, as in _chick_, _thing_. + +_ia_ generally as in the Italian _Maria_. + +_iai_. The _iai_ in the Italian _vecchiaia_. + +_iao_ as in _ia_ and _ao_, with the terminal peculiarity of the latter. + +_ie_ as in the Italian _siesta_. + +_io_. The French _io_ in _pioche_. + +_iu_ as a final, longer than the English _ew_. In _liu, niu_, almost +_leyew, neyew_. In _chiung, hsiung, iung_, is _eeyong_ (_o_ in _roll_). + +_o._ Between vowel-sound in _awe_ and that in _roll_. + +_ou._ Really _êo_; _ou_ in _round_. + +_ü._ The vowel-sound in the French _tu, eût_. + +_üa._ Only in _üan_, which in some tones is _üen_. The _u_ as above; +the _an_ as in _antic_. + +_üe_. The vowel-sounds in the French _tu es_. + +_üo_. A disputed sound, used, if at all, interchangeably with _io_ +in certain syllables. + +_u_. The _oo_ in _too_; in _un_ and _ung_ as in the Italian _punto_. + +_ua_. Nearly _ooa_, in many instances contracting to _wa_. + +_uai_ as in the Italian _guai_. + +_uei._ The vowel-sounds in the French _jouer_. + +_uê._ Only in final _uên_ = _ú-un_; frequently _wên_ or _wun_. + +_ui._ The vowel-sounds in _screwy_; in some tones _uei_. + +_uo._ The Italian _uo_ in _fuori_; often _wo_, and at times nearly +_oo_. + +_u._ Between the _i_ in _bit_ and the _u_ in _shut_. + +_Consonants_ + +_ch_ as in _chair_; but before _ih_ softened to _dj_. + +_ch'_. A strong breathing. _Mu_ch-ha_rm_ without the italicized +letters = _ch'a_. + +_f_ as in farm. + +_h_ as _ch_ in Scotch _loch_. + +_hs_. A slight aspirate preceding and modifying the sibilant, which is, +however, the stronger of the two consonants; _e.g. hsing_ = _hissing_ +without the first _i_, + +_j_. Nearly the French _j_ in _jaune_; the English _s_ in _fusion_. + +_k_. _c_ in _car_, _k_ in _king_; but when following other sounds +often softened to _g_ in _go, gate_. + +_k'_. The aspirate as in _ch'_. _Ki_ck-ha_rd_ without the italicized +letters = _k'a_; and _ki_ck-he_r_ == _k'ê_. + +_l_ as in English. + +_m_ as in English. + +_n_ as in English. + +_ng_. The italicized letters in the French mo_n ga_lant = _nga_; +mo_n gai_llard = _ngai_; so_n go_sier = _ngo_. + +_p_ as in English. + +_p'_ The Irish pronunciation of _p_arty, _p_arliament. _Sla_p-ha_rd_ +without the italicized letters = _p'a_. + +_s_ as in English. + +_sh_ as in English. + +_ss_. Only in _ssu_. The object of employing _ss_ is to fix attention +on the peculiar vowel-sound _u_ (see above). + +_t_ as in English. + +_t'_ The Irish _t_ in _t_orment. _Hi_t-ha_rd_ without the italicized +letters = _t'a_. + +_ts_ as in _jetsam_; after another word softened to _ds_ in _gladsome_. + +_ts'._ The aspirate intervening, as in _ch'_, etc. _Be_ts-ha_rd_ +without the italicized letters = _ts'a_. + +_tz_. Employed to mark the peculiarity of the final _u_; hardly of +greater power than _ts_. + +_tz'_ like _ts'_. This, _tz_, and _ss_ used only before _u_. + +_w_ as in English; but very faint, or even non-existent, before _ü_. + +_y_ as in English; but very faint before _i_ or _ü_. + + +Tone + +The correct pronunciation of the sound (_yin_) is not sufficient to +make a Chinese spoken word intelligible. Unless the tone (_shêng_), +or musical note, is simultaneously correctly given, either the wrong +meaning or no meaning at all will be conveyed. The tone is the key in +which the voice is pitched. Accent is a 'song added to,' and tone is +emphasized accent. The number of these tones differs in the different +dialects. In Pekingese there are now four. They are best indicated +in transliteration by numbers added to the sound, thus: + +_pa_ (1) _pa_ (2) _pa_ (3) _pa_ (4) + +To say, for example, _pa_ (3) instead of _pa_ (1) would be as great +a mistake as to say 'grasp' instead of 'trumpet.' Correctness of tone +cannot be learnt except by oral instruction. + + +Rhythm + +What tone is to the individual sound rhythm is to the sentence. This +also, together with proper appreciation of the mutual modifications +of tone and rhythm, can be correctly acquired only by oral instruction. + + + + + + +NOTES + +[1] The inventions of the Chinese during a period of four thousand +years may be numbered on the fingers of one hand. + +[2] _East of Asia Magazine_, i, 15-16. + +[3] _Cf_. Aristotle's belief that bugs arose spontaneously from sweat. + +[4] For the Buddhist account see _China Review_, xi, 80-82. + +[5] Compare the Japanese legend, which relates that the Sun-goddess was +induced to come out of a cave by being tempted to gaze at herself in a +mirror. See _Myths and Legends of Japan_, F. Hadland Davis, pp. 27-28. + +[6] See _Myths of the Norsemen_, by H. A. Guerber. These resemblances +and the further one--namely, the dualism in the prechaotic epoch +(a very interesting point in Scandinavian mythology)--illustrate the +danger of inferring identity of origin from similarity of physical, +intellectual, or moral results. Several remarkable parallelisms of +Chinese religious and mythological beliefs with those recorded in +the Hebrew scriptures may also be briefly noted. There is an age +of virtue and happiness, a garden with a tree bearing 'apples of +immortality,' guarded by a winged serpent (dragon), the fall of man, +the beginnings of lust and war (the doctrine of original sin), a great +flood, virgin-born god-men who rescue man from barbarism and endow +him with superhuman attributes, discipleship, worship of a Virgin +Mother, trinities, monasticism, celibacy, fasting, preaching, prayers, +primeval Chaos, Paradise, etc. For details see _Chinese Repository,_ +vii, 520-521. + +[7] _Cf._ the dwarfs in the Scandinavian myth. + +[8] See Legge, _Shu ching_, ii, 320, note. + +[9] In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is as well to note that the +mention of the _t'ai chi_ in the _Canon of Changes (I ching_) no more +constituted monism the philosophy of China than did the steam-driven +machinery mentioned by Hero of Alexandria constitute the first century +B.C. the 'age of steam.' Similarly, to take another example, the idea +of the earth's rotundity, though conceived centuries before Ptolemy +in the second century, did not become established before the sixteenth +century. It was, in fact, from the _I ching_ that the Chinese derived +their _dualistic_ (not their monistic) conception of the world. + +[10] "Formerly, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt that I was a butterfly, flying +about and feeling that it was enjoying itself. I did not know that +it was Chou. Suddenly I awoke and was myself again, the veritable +Chou. I did not know whether it had formerly been Chou dreaming that +he was a butterfly, or whether it was now a butterfly dreaming that +it was Chou." _Chuang Tzu_, Book II. + +[11] See the present writer's _China of the Chinese_, chapter viii. + +[12] See Du Bose, pp. 282, 286, 361, 409, 410, and _Journal of the +North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, xxxiv, 110-111. + +[13] Du Bose, p. 38. + +[14] He is sometimes represented as a reincarnation of Wên Chung; +see p. 198. + +[16] See footnote, p. 107. + +[17] _Religion_, p. 177. + +[18] See _Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists_, by Sister Nivedita and +Ananda Coomaraswamy. + +[19] The native accounts differ on this point. _Cf._ p. 16. + +[20] For further details concerning T'ai I see _Babylonian and Oriental +Record_, vi, 145-150. + +[21] _Cf._ Chapter I. + +[22] She is the same as Ch'ang Ô, the name Hêng being changed to +Ch'ang because it was the tabooed personal name of the Emperors Mu +Tsung of the T'ang dynasty and Chên Tsung of the Sung dynasty. + +[23] See p. 45. + +[24] In Sagittarius, or the Sieve; Chinese constellation of the +Leopard. + +[25] See Chapter XIV. + +[26] See Chapter XII. + +[27] This pagoda is distant about twenty _li_ (seven miles) from +Peking. It is on the top of the hill, while the spring is at the foot, +half a _li_ distant. The imperial family used the water from this +spring, whence it was carried to Peking in carts. + +[28] See Chapter XII. + +[29] See Chapter IV. + +[30] This has reference to the change of Kuan Yin from the masculine +to the feminine gender, already mentioned. + +[31] There is evidently a mistake here, since the King was twenty +when he ascended the throne and fifty at the birth of Miao Shan. + +[32] _An Illustrated Account of the Eight Immortals' Mission to +the East_. + +[33] A record of a journey to the Western Paradise to procure +the Buddhist scriptures for the Emperor of China. The work is a +dramatization of the introduction of Buddhism into China. + +[34] See p. 329. + +[35] See p. 195. + +[36] Literally 'golden oranges.' These are skilfully preserved by +the Cantonese, and form a delicious sweetmeat for dessert. + +[37] Only slave-girls and women of the poorer classes and old women +omit this very important part of a Chinese lady's toilet. + +[38] Alluding probably to the shape of the 'shoe' or ingot of silver. + +[39] Slave-girls do not have their feet compressed. + +[40] Wherein resides an old gentleman who ties together with a red cord +the feet of those destined to become man and wife. From this bond there +is no escape, no matter what distance may separate the affianced pair. + +[41] This proceeding is highly improper, but is 'winked at' in a +large majority of Chinese betrothals. + +[42] The usual occupation of poor scholars who are ashamed to go +into trade and who have not enterprise enough to start as doctors or +fortune-tellers. Besides painting pictures and fans, and illustrating +books, these men write fancy scrolls in the various ornamental styles +so much prized by the Chinese; they keep accounts for people, and +write or read business and private letters for the illiterate masses. + +[43] Say about £10. + +[44] Alchemy is first mentioned in Chinese history B.C. 133, and was +widely cultivated in China during the Han dynasty by priests of the +Taoist religion. + +[45] Kuan Chung and Pao Shu are the Chinese types of friendship. They +were two statesmen of considerable ability who flourished in the +seventh century B.C. + +[46] These are used, together with a heavy wooden _bâton_, by the +Chinese washerman, the effect being most disastrous to a European +wardrobe. + +[47] To provide coffins for poor people has ever been regarded as +an act of transcendent merit. The tornado at Canton in April 1878, +in which several thousand lives were lost, afforded an admirable +opportunity for the exercise of this form of charity--an opportunity +which was largely taken advantage of by the benevolent. + +[48] For usurping its prerogative by allowing Chia to obtain wealth. + +[49] See Chapter I. + +[50] Compare the legend of the tailed Miao Tzu tribes named Yao, +'mountain-dogs' or 'jackals,' living on the mountain ranges in the +north-west of Kuangtung Province, related in the _Jih chi so chih_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Myths and Legends of China, by E. T. C. 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Werner + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15250] +Last Updated: January 7, 2017 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CHINA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeroen Hellingman and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<a id="d0e62"></a><p id="d0e63"></p> +<div id="d0e64" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p000.jpg" alt="Confucius: Teacher and Philosopher"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Confucius: Teacher and Philosopher</p> +</div><p> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e68"></a></span></p> +<h1 class="docTitle">Myths & Legends of China</h1> +<h2 class="byline">By +<br> +<span class="docAuthor">E.T.C. Werner</span> +<br> +H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau +Peking Author of “Descriptive Sociology: Chinese” “China of the Chinese” Etc. +<br> +With Thirty-two Illustrations In Colours By Chinese Artists +</h2> +<h2 class="docImprint">George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. <br id="d0e86"> +London Bombay Sydney +</h2><a id="d0e89"></a><p id="d0e90">In Memoriam + +</p> +<p id="d0e92"><span class="smallcaps">Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner</span> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e96"></a>Page 7</span></p><a id="d0e97"></a><h1>Preface</h1> +<p id="d0e100">The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the <i>Li tai shên hsien t’ung chien</i>, in thirty-two volumes, the <i>Shên hsien lieh chuan</i>, in eight volumes, the <i>Fêng shên yen i</i>, in eight volumes, and the <i>Sou shên chi</i>, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also consulted +and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese Superstitions by Père Henri Doré, comprised in the valuable series +<i>Variétés Sinologiques</i>, published by the Catholic Mission Press at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssŭ K’u Ch’üan Shu, one of the few +public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend Mr +Mu Hsüeh-hsün, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and +useful library of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it to a Japanese baron, was good enough to +let me consult his extensive collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but owing to the fact that so +very little work has been done in Chinese mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this subject to go +direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, +Shanghai, for permission to reprint from <i>Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio</i> the fox legends given in Chapter XV. + +</p> +<p id="d0e120">This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include +any scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e122"></a>Page 8</span></p> +<p id="d0e123">My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, +and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation +of a very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth +in English dress those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives of Chinese mythology—those which live +in the minds of the people and are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which are merely diverting without +being typical or instructive—in short, a true, not a distorted image. + +</p> +<p id="d0e125"><span class="smallcaps">Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e129"><span class="smallcaps">Peking</span><br id="d0e132"> +<i>February</i> 1922 +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e137"></a>Page 9</span></p><a id="d0e138"></a><h1>Contents</h1> +<p id="d0e141"> + +</p> +<table id="d0e143" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">Chapter </td> +<td valign="top">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">I. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e153" href="#d0e558">The Sociology of the Chinese</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 13</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">II. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e162" href="#d0e1110">On Chinese Mythology</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 60</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">III. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e171" href="#d0e1278">Cosmogony—P’an Ku and the Creation Myth</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 76</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">IV. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e180" href="#d0e1663">The Gods of China</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 93</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">V. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e189" href="#d0e3006">Myths of the Stars</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">176</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">VI. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e198" href="#d0e3289">Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">198</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">VII. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e207" href="#d0e3446">Myths of the Waters</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">208</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">VIII. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e216" href="#d0e3824">Myths of Fire</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">236</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">IX. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e225" href="#d0e3892">Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc.</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">240</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">X. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e234" href="#d0e4041">The Goddess of Mercy</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">251</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">XI. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e243" href="#d0e4585">The Eight Immortals</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">288</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">XII. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e252" href="#d0e4810">The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">305</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">XIII. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e261" href="#d0e5023">A Battle of the Gods</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">320</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">XIV. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e270" href="#d0e5108">How the Monkey Became a God</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">325</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">XV. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e279" href="#d0e5705">Fox Legends</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">370</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">XVI. </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e288" href="#d0e5841">Miscellaneous Legends</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">386</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"> </td> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e297" href="#d0e6350">Glossary and Index</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">425</td> +</tr> +</table><p> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e303"></a>Page 11</span></p><a id="d0e304"></a><h1>Illustrations</h1> +<p id="d0e307"> + +</p> +<table id="d0e309" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"> </td> +<td valign="top">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e317" href="#d0e64">Confucius: Teacher and Philosopher</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e325" href="#d0e946">The Spirit that Clears the Way</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 44</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e332" href="#d0e1255">Lao Tzŭ</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 72</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e339" href="#d0e1401">Nü Kua Shih</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 82</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e346" href="#d0e1614">Mencius</a> +</td> +<td valign="top"> 90</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e353" href="#d0e1966">Wên Ch’ang, K’uei Hsing, and Chu I</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">110</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e360" href="#d0e2094">The Buddhist Triad</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">120</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e367" href="#d0e2190">The Taoist Triad</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">124</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e374" href="#d0e2419">Hsi Wang Mu</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">136</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e381" href="#d0e2447">Chang Tao-ling</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">138</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e388" href="#d0e2531">Tou Mu, Goddess of the North Star</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">144</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e395" href="#d0e2723">Chiang Tzŭ-ya At K’un-lun</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">156</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e402" href="#d0e2769">Chiang Tzŭ-ya Defeats Wên Chung</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">160</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e409" href="#d0e2879">The Kitchen-god</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">166</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e416" href="#d0e2925">The Gods of Happiness, Office, and Longevity</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">170</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e423" href="#d0e2973">The Money-tree</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">172</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e430" href="#d0e2990">The Door-gods, Civil and Military</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">174</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e437" href="#d0e3120">Hêng Ò Flies to the Moon</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">184</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e444" href="#d0e3305">Wên Chung, Minister of Thunder</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">198</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e451" href="#d0e3465">Dragon-gods</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">208</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e458" href="#d0e3558">Spirit of the Well</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">216</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e465" href="#d0e3934">The Magic Umbrellas</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">242</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e472" href="#d0e4026">P’an Kuan</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">248</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e479" href="#d0e4202">Miao Shan Reaches the Nunnery</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">262</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e486" href="#d0e4255">The Tiger Carries Off Miao Shan</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">266</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e493" href="#d0e4791">The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">302</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e500" href="#d0e5158">The Birth of the Monkey</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">326</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e507" href="#d0e5478">The Demons of Blackwater River Carry Away the Master</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">352</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e514" href="#d0e5498">Buddhists as Slaves in Slow-carts Country</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">354</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e521" href="#d0e5643">Sun Steals Clothing for His Master</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">364</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e528" href="#d0e5694">The Return to China</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">368</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><a id="d0e535" href="#d0e5806">Chia Tzŭ-lung Finds the Stone</a> +</td> +<td valign="top">382</td> +</tr> +</table><p> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e541"></a>Page 12</span></p><a id="d0e542"></a><p id="d0e543"><i>Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les frontières réelles?... Ces frontières sont d’une netteté qui ne permet +aucune erreur. L’Asie est là où cesse la vulgarité, où naît la dignité, et où commence l’élégance intellectuelle. Et l’Orient +est là où sont les sources débordantes de poésie.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e547"><span class="smallcaps">Mardrus</span>,<br id="d0e551"> +<i>La Reine de Saba</i> + +</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e556"></a>Page 13</span><a id="d0e558"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter I</h2> +<h1>The Sociology of the Chinese</h1><a id="d0e561"></a><h2>Racial Origin</h2> +<p id="d0e564">In spite of much research and conjecture, the origin of the Chinese people remains undetermined. We do not know who they were +nor whence they came. Such evidence as there is points to their immigration from elsewhere; the Chinese themselves have a +tradition of a Western origin. The first picture we have of their actual history shows us, not a people behaving as if long +settled in a land which was their home and that of their forefathers, but an alien race fighting with wild beasts, clearing +dense forests, and driving back the aboriginal inhabitants. + +</p> +<p id="d0e566">Setting aside several theories (including the one that the Chinese are autochthonous and their civilization indigenous) now +regarded by the best authorities as untenable, the researches of sinologists seem to indicate an origin (1) in early Akkadia; +or (2) in Khotan, the Tarim valley (generally what is now known as Eastern Turkestan), or the K’un-lun Mountains (concerning +which more presently). The second hypothesis may relate only to a sojourn of longer or shorter duration on the way from Akkadia +to the ultimate settlement in China, especially since the Khotan civilization has been shown to have been imported from the +Punjab in the third century B.C. The fact that serious mistakes have been made regarding the identifications of early Chinese +rulers with Babylonian kings, and of the Chinese <i>po-hsing</i> (Cantonese <i>bak-sing</i>) ‘people’ with the Bak Sing or Bak tribes, does not exclude the possibility of an Akkadian origin. But in either case the +immigration into China was probably <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e574"></a>Page 14</span>gradual, and may have taken the route from Western or Central Asia direct to the banks of the Yellow River, or may possibly +have followed that to the south-east through Burma and then to the north-east through what is now China—the settlement of +the latter country having thus spread from south-west to north-east, or in a north-easterly direction along the Yangtzŭ River, +and so north, instead of, as is generally supposed, from north to south. + +</p><a id="d0e576"></a><h2>Southern Origin Improbable</h2> +<p id="d0e579">But this latter route would present many difficulties; it would seem to have been put forward merely as ancillary to the theory +that the Chinese originated in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. This theory is based upon the assumptions that the ancient Chinese +ideograms include representations of tropical animals and plants; that the oldest and purest forms of the language are found +in the south; and that the Chinese and the Indo-Chinese groups of languages are both tonal. But all of these facts or alleged +facts are as easily or better accounted for by the supposition that the Chinese arrived from the north or north-west in successive +waves of migration, the later arrivals pushing the earlier farther and farther toward the south, so that the oldest and purest +forms of Chinese would be found just where they are, the tonal languages of the Indo-Chinese peninsula being in that case +regarded as the languages of the vanguard of the migration. Also, the ideograms referred to represent animals and plants of +the temperate zone rather than of the tropics, but even if it could be shown, which it cannot, that these animals and plants +now belong exclusively to the tropics, that would be no proof of the tropical origin of the Chinese, for in the earliest times +the climate of North China was <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e581"></a>Page 15</span>much milder than it is now, and animals such as tigers and elephants existed in the dense jungles which are later found only +in more southern latitudes. + +</p><a id="d0e583"></a><h2>Expansion of Races from North to South</h2> +<p id="d0e586">The theory of a southern origin (to which a further serious objection will be stated presently) implies a gradual infiltration +of Chinese immigrants through South or Mid-China (as above indicated) toward the north, but there is little doubt that the +movement of the races has been from north to south and not <i>vice versa</i>. In what are now the provinces of Western Kansu and Ssŭch’uan there lived a people related to the Chinese (as proved by the +study of Indo-Chinese comparative philology) who moved into the present territory of Tibet and are known as Tibetans; in what +is now the province of Yünnan were the Shan or Ai-lao (modern Laos), who, forced by Mongol invasions, emigrated to the peninsula +in the south and became the Siamese; and in Indo-China, not related to the Chinese, were the Annamese, Khmer, Mon, Khasi, +Colarains (whose remnants are dispersed over the hill tracts of Central India), and other tribes, extending in prehistoric +times into Southern China, but subsequently driven back by the expansion of the Chinese in that direction. + +</p><a id="d0e591"></a><h2>Arrival of the Chinese in China</h2> +<p id="d0e594">Taking into consideration all the existing evidence, the objections to all other theories of the origin of the Chinese seem +to be greater than any yet raised to the theory that immigrants from the Tarim valley or beyond (<i>i.e.</i> from Elam or Akkadia, either direct or <i>via</i> Eastern Turkestan) struck the banks of the Yellow River in their eastward journey and followed its course until they <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e602"></a>Page 16</span>reached the localities where we first find them settled, namely, in the region covered by parts of the three modern provinces +of Shansi, Shensi, and Honan where their frontiers join. They were then (about 2500 or 3000 B.C.) in a relatively advanced +state of civilization. The country east and south of this district was inhabited by aboriginal tribes, with whom the Chinese +fought, as they did with the wild animals and the dense vegetation, but with whom they also commingled and intermarried, and +among whom they planted colonies as centres from which to spread their civilization. + +</p><a id="d0e604"></a><h2>The K’un-lun Mountains</h2> +<p id="d0e607">With reference to the K’un-lun Mountains, designated in Chinese mythology as the abode of the gods—the ancestors of the Chinese +race—it should be noted that these are identified not with the range dividing Tibet from Chinese Turkestan, but with the Hindu +Kush. That brings us somewhat nearer to Babylon, and the apparent convergence of the two theories, the Central Asian and the +Western Asian, would seem to point to a possible solution of the problem. Nü Kua, one of the alleged creators of human beings, +and Nü and Kua, the first two human beings (according to a variation of the legend), are placed in the K’un-lun Mountains. +That looks hopeful. Unfortunately, the K’un-lun legend is proved to be of Taoist origin. K’un-lun is the central mountain +of the world, and 3000 miles in height. There is the fountain of immortality, and thence flow the four great rivers of the +world. In other words, it is the Sumêru of Hindu mythology transplanted into Chinese legend, and for our present purpose without +historical value. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e609"></a>Page 17</span></p> +<p id="d0e610">It would take up too much space to go into details of this interesting problem of the origin of the Chinese and their civilization, +the cultural connexions or similarities of China and Western Asia in pre-Babylonian times, the origin of the two distinct +culture-areas so marked throughout the greater part of Chinese history, etc., and it will be sufficient for our present purpose +to state the conclusion to which the evidence points. + +</p><a id="d0e612"></a><h2>Provisional Conclusion</h2> +<p id="d0e615">Pending the discovery of decisive evidence, the following provisional conclusion has much to recommend it—namely, that the +ancestors of the Chinese people came from the west, from Akkadia or Elam, or from Khotan, or (more probably) from Akkadia +or Elam <i>via</i> Khotan, as one nomad or pastoral tribe or group of nomad or pastoral tribes, or as successive waves of immigrants, reached +what is now China Proper at its north-west corner, settled round the elbow of the Yellow River, spread north-eastward, eastward, +and southward, conquering, absorbing, or pushing before them the aborigines into what is now South and South-west China. These +aboriginal races, who represent a wave or waves of neolithic immigrants from Western Asia earlier than the relatively high-headed +immigrants into North China (who arrived about the twenty-fifth or twenty-fourth century B.C.), and who have left so deep +an impress on the Japanese, mixed and intermarried with the Chinese in the south, eventually producing the pronounced differences, +in physical, mental, and emotional traits, in sentiments, ideas, languages, processes, and products, from the Northern Chinese +which are so conspicuous at the present day. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e620"></a>Page 18</span></p><a id="d0e621"></a><h2>Inorganic Environment</h2> +<p id="d0e624">At the beginning of their known history the country occupied by the Chinese was the comparatively small region above mentioned. +It was then a tract of an irregular oblong shape, lying between latitude 34° and 40° N. and longitude 107° and 114° E. This +territory round the elbow of the Yellow River had an area of about 50,000 square miles, and was gradually extended to the +sea-coast on the north-east as far as longitude 119°, when its area was about doubled. It had a population of perhaps a million, +increasing with the expansion to two millions. This may be called infant China. Its period (the Feudal Period) was in the +two thousand years between the twenty-fourth and third centuries B.C. During the first centuries of the Monarchical Period, +which lasted from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912, it had expanded to the south to such an extent that it included all of the Eighteen +Provinces constituting what is known as China Proper of modern times, with the exception of a portion of the west of Kansu +and the greater portions of Ssŭch’uan and Yünnan. At the time of the Manchu conquest at the beginning of the seventeenth century +A.D. it embraced all the territory lying between latitude 18° and 40° N. and longitude 98° and 122° E. (the Eighteen Provinces +or China Proper), with the addition of the vast outlying territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Ili, Koko-nor, Tibet, and Corea, +with suzerainty over Burma and Annam—an area of more than 5,000,000 square miles, including the 2,000,000 square miles covered +by the Eighteen Provinces. Generally, this territory is mountainous in the west, sloping gradually down toward the sea on +the east. It contains three chief ranges of mountains and large alluvial plains in the north, east, and south. Three great +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e626"></a>Page 19</span>and about thirty large rivers intersect the country, their numerous tributaries reaching every part of it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e628">As regards geological features, the great alluvial plains rest upon granite, new red sandstone, or limestone. In the north +is found the peculiar loess formation, having its origin probably in the accumulated dust of ages blown from the Mongolian +plateau. The passage from north to south is generally from the older to the newer rocks; from east to west a similar series +is found, with some volcanic features in the west and south. Coal and iron are the chief minerals, gold, silver, copper, lead, +tin, jade, etc., being also mined. + +</p> +<p id="d0e630">The climate of this vast area is not uniform. In the north the winter is long and rigorous, the summer hot and dry, with a +short rainy season in July and August; in the south the summer is long, hot, and moist, the winter short. The mean temperature +is 50.3° F. and 70° F. in the north and south respectively. Generally, the thermometer is low for the latitude, though perhaps +it is more correct to say that the Gulf Stream raises the temperature of the west coast of Europe above the average. The mean +rainfall in the north is 16, in the south 70 inches, with variations in other parts. Typhoons blow in the south between July +and October. + +</p><a id="d0e632"></a><h2>Organic Environment</h2> +<p id="d0e635">The vegetal productions are abundant and most varied. The rice-zone (significant in relation to the cultural distinctions +above noted) embraces the southern half of the country. Tea, first cultivated for its infusion in A.D. 350, is grown in the +southern and central provinces between the twenty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of latitude, though it is also found as far +north as Shantung, the chief ‘tea <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e637"></a>Page 20</span>district,’ however, being the large area south of the Yangtzŭ River, east of the Tungting Lake and great Siang River, and +north of the Kuangtung Province. The other chief vegetal products are wheat, barley, maize, millet, the bean, yam, sweet and +common potato, tomato, eggplant, ginseng, cabbage, bamboo, indigo, pepper, tobacco, camphor, tallow, ground-nut, poppy, water-melon, +sugar, cotton, hemp, and silk. Among the fruits grown are the date, mulberry, orange, lemon, pumelo, persimmon, lichi, pomegranate, +pineapple, fig, coconut, mango, and banana, besides the usual kinds common in Western countries. + +</p> +<p id="d0e639">The wild animals include the tiger, panther, leopard, bear, sable, otter, monkey, wolf, fox, twenty-seven or more species +of ruminants, and numerous species of rodents. The rhinoceros, elephant, and tapir still exist in Yünnan. The domestic animals +include the camel and the water-buffalo. There are about 700 species of birds, and innumerable species of fishes and insects. + + +</p><a id="d0e641"></a><h2>Sociological Environment</h2> +<p id="d0e644">On their arrival in what is now known as China the Chinese, as already noted, fought with the aboriginal tribes. The latter +were exterminated, absorbed, or driven south with the spread of Chinese rule. The Chinese “picked out the eyes of the land,” +and consequently the non-Chinese tribes now live in the unhealthy forests or marshes of the south, or in mountain regions +difficult of access, some even in trees (a voluntary, not compulsory promotion), though several, such as the Dog Jung in Fukien, +retain settlements like islands among the ruling race. + +</p> +<p id="d0e646">In the third century B.C. began the hostile relations of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e648"></a>Page 21</span>the Chinese with the northern nomads, which continued throughout the greater part of their history. During the first six centuries +A.D. there was intercourse with Rome, Parthia, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, India, and Indo-China, and in the seventh century +with the Arabs. Europe was brought within the sociological environment by Christian travellers. From the tenth to the thirteenth +century the north was occupied by Kitans and Nüchêns, and the whole Empire was under Mongol sway for eighty-eight years in +the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Relations of a commercial and religious nature were held with neighbours during the +following four hundred years. Regular diplomatic intercourse with Western nations was established as a result of a series +of wars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until recently the nation held aloof from alliances and was generally +averse to foreign intercourse. From 1537 onward, as a sequel of war or treaty, concessions, settlements, etc., were obtained +by foreign Powers. China has now lost some of her border countries and large adjacent islands, the military and commercial +pressure of Western nations and Japan having taken the place of the military pressure of the Tartars already referred to. +The great problem for her, an agricultural nation, is how to find means and the military spirit to maintain her integrity, +the further violation of which could not but be regarded by the student of sociological history as a great tragedy and a world-wide +calamity. + +</p><a id="d0e650"></a><h2>Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Characters</h2> +<p id="d0e653">The physical characters of the Chinese are too well known to need detailed recital. The original immigrants into North China +all belonged to blond races, but the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e655"></a>Page 22</span>modern Chinese have little left of the immigrant stock. The oblique, almond-shaped eyes, with black iris and the orbits far +apart, have a vertical fold of skin over the inner canthus, concealing a part of the iris, a peculiarity distinguishing the +eastern races of Asia from all other families of man. The stature and weight of brain are generally below the average. The +hair is black, coarse, and cylindrical; the beard scanty or absent. The colour of the skin is darker in the south than in +the north. + +</p> +<p id="d0e657">Emotionally the Chinese are sober, industrious, of remarkable endurance, grateful, courteous, and ceremonious, with a high +sense of mercantile honour, but timorous, cruel, unsympathetic, mendacious, and libidinous. + +</p> +<p id="d0e659">Intellectually they were until recently, and to a large extent still are, non-progressive, in bondage to uniformity and mechanism +in culture, imitative, unimaginative, torpid, indirect, suspicious, and superstitious. + +</p> +<p id="d0e661">The character is being modified by intercourse with other peoples of the earth and by the strong force of physical, intellectual, +and moral education. + +</p><a id="d0e663"></a><h2>Marriage in Early Times</h2> +<p id="d0e666">Certain parts of the marriage ceremonial of China as now existing indicate that the original form of marriage was by capture—of +which, indeed, there is evidence in the classical <i>Book of Odes</i>. But a regular form of marriage (in reality a contract of sale) is shown to have existed in the earliest historical times. +The form was not monogamous, though it seems soon to have assumed that of a qualified monogamy consisting of one wife and +one or more concubines, the number of the latter being as a rule limited only by the means of the husband. The higher the +rank the larger was the number of concubines <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e671"></a>Page 23</span>and handmaids in addition to the wife proper, the palaces of the kings and princes containing several hundreds of them. This +form it has retained to the present day, though associations now exist for the abolition of concubinage. In early times, as +well as throughout the whole of Chinese history, concubinage was in fact universal, and there is some evidence also of polyandry +(which, however, cannot have prevailed to any great extent). The age for marriage was twenty for the man and fifteen for the +girl, celibacy after thirty and twenty respectively being officially discouraged. In the province of Shantung it was usual +for the wives to be older than their husbands. The parents’ consent to the betrothal was sought through the intervention of +a matchmaker, the proposal originating with the parents, and the wishes of the future bride and bridegroom not being taken +into consideration. The conclusion of the marriage was the progress of the bride from the house of her parents to that of +the bridegroom, where after various ceremonies she and he worshipped his ancestors together, the worship amounting to little +more than an announcement of the union to the ancestral spirits. After a short sojourn with her husband the bride revisited +her parents, and the marriage was not considered as finally consummated until after this visit had taken place. + +</p> +<p id="d0e673">The status of women was low, and the power of the husband great—so great that he could kill his wife with impunity. Divorce +was common, and all in favour of the husband, who, while he could not be divorced by her, could put his wife away for disobedience +or even for loquaciousness. A widower remarried immediately, but refusal to remarry by a widow was esteemed an act of chastity. +She often mutilated herself or even committed <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e675"></a>Page 24</span>suicide to prevent remarriage, and was posthumously honoured for doing so. Being her husband’s as much in the Otherworld as +in this, remarriage would partake of the character of unchastity and insubordination; the argument, of course, not applying +to the case of the husband, who by remarriage simply adds another member to his clan without infringing on anyone’s rights. + + +</p><a id="d0e677"></a><h2>Marriage in Monarchical and Republican Periods</h2> +<p id="d0e680">The marital system of the early classical times, of which the above were the essentials, changed but little during the long +period of monarchical rule lasting from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912. The principal object, as before, was to secure an heir to sacrifice +to the spirits of deceased progenitors. Marriage was not compulsory, but old bachelors and old maids were very scarce. The +concubines were subject to the wife, who was considered to be the mother of their children as well as her own. Her status, +however, was not greatly superior. Implicit obedience was exacted from her. She could not possess property, but could not +be hired out for prostitution. The latter vice was common, in spite of the early age at which marriage took place and in spite +of the system of concubinage—which is after all but a legalized transfer of prostitutional cohabitation to the domestic circle. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e682">Since the establishment of the Republic in 1912 the ‘landslide’ in the direction of Western progress has had its effect also +on the domestic institutions. But while the essentials of the marriage contract remain practically the same as before, the +most conspicuous changes have been in the accompanying ceremonial—now sometimes quite foreign, but in a very large, perhaps +the greatest, number of cases that odious thing, half foreign, half <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e684"></a>Page 25</span>Chinese; as, for instance, when the procession, otherwise native, includes foreign glass-panelled carriages, or the bridegroom +wears a ‘bowler’ or top-hat with his Chinese dress—and in the greater freedom allowed to women, who are seen out of doors +much more than formerly, sit at table with their husbands, attend public functions and dinners, dress largely in foreign fashion, +and play tennis and other games, instead of being prisoners of the ‘inner apartment’ and household drudges little better than +slaves. + +</p> +<p id="d0e686">One unexpected result of this increased freedom is certainly remarkable, and is one not likely to have been predicted by the +most far-sighted sociologist. Many of the ‘progressive’ Chinese, now that it is the fashion for Chinese wives to be seen in +public with their husbands, finding the uneducated, <i>gauche</i>, small-footed household drudge unable to compete with the smarter foreign-educated wives of their neighbours, have actually +repudiated them and taken unto themselves spouses whom they can exhibit in public without ‘loss of face’! It is, however, +only fair to add that the total number of these cases, though by no means inconsiderable, appears to be proportionately small. + + +</p><a id="d0e691"></a><h2>Parents and Children</h2> +<p id="d0e694">As was the power of the husband over the wife, so was that of the father over his children. Infanticide (due chiefly to poverty, +and varying with it) was frequent, especially in the case of female children, who were but slightly esteemed; the practice +prevailing extensively in three or four provinces, less extensively in others, and being practically absent in a large number. +Beyond the fact that some penalties were enacted against it by the Emperor Ch’ien Lung (A.D. 1736–96), and that by statute +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e696"></a>Page 26</span>it was a capital offence to murder children in order to use parts of their bodies for medicine, it was not legally prohibited. +When the abuse became too scandalous in any district proclamations condemning it would be issued by the local officials. A +man might, by purchase and contract, adopt a person as son, daughter, or grandchild, such person acquiring thereby all the +rights of a son or daughter. Descent, both of real and personal property, was to all the sons of wives and concubines as joint +heirs, irrespective of seniority. Bastards received half shares. Estates were not divisible by the children during the lifetime +of their parents or grandparents. + +</p> +<p id="d0e698">The head of the family being but the life-renter of the family property, bound by fixed rules, wills were superfluous, and +were used only where the customary respect for the parents gave them a voice in arranging the details of the succession. For +this purpose verbal or written instructions were commonly given. + +</p> +<p id="d0e700">In the absence of the father, the male relatives of the same surname assumed the guardianship of the young. The guardian exercised +full authority and enjoyed the surplus revenues of his ward’s estate, but might not alienate the property. + +</p> +<p id="d0e702">There are many instances in Chinese history of extreme devotion of children to parents taking the form of self-wounding and +even of suicide in the hope of curing parents’ illnesses or saving their lives. + +</p><a id="d0e704"></a><h2>Political History</h2> +<p id="d0e707">The country inhabited by the Chinese on their arrival from the West was, as we saw, the district where the modern provinces +of Shansi, Shensi, and Honan join. This they extended in an easterly direction to the shores <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e709"></a>Page 27</span>of the Gulf of Chihli—a stretch of territory about 600 miles long by 300 broad. The population, as already stated, was between +one and two millions. During the first two thousand years of their known history the boundaries of this region were not greatly +enlarged, but beyond the more or less undefined borderland to the south were <i>chou</i> or colonies, nuclei of Chinese population, which continually increased in size through conquest of the neighbouring territory. +In 221 B.C. all the feudal states into which this territory had been parcelled out, and which fought with one another, were +subjugated and absorbed by the state of Ch’in, which in that year instituted the monarchical form of government—the form which +obtained in China for the next twenty-one centuries. + +</p> +<p id="d0e714">Though the origin of the name ‘China’ has not yet been finally decided, the best authorities regard it as derived from the +name of this feudal state of Ch’in. + +</p> +<p id="d0e716">Under this short-lived dynasty of Ch’in and the famous Han dynasty (221 B.C. to A.D. 221) which followed it, the Empire expanded +until it embraced almost all the territory now known as China Proper (the Eighteen Provinces of Manchu times). To these were +added in order between 194 B.C. and A.D. 1414: Corea, Sinkiang (the New Territory or Eastern Turkestan), Manchuria, Formosa, +Tibet, and Mongolia—Formosa and Corea being annexed by Japan in 1895 and 1910 respectively. Numerous other extra-China countries +and islands, acquired and lost during the long course of Chinese history (at one time, from 73 to 48 B.C., “all Asia from +Japan to the Caspian Sea was tributary to the Middle Kingdom,” <i>i.e.</i> China), it is not necessary to mention here. During the Southern Sung dynasty (1127–1280) the Tartars owned the northern +half of China, as far <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e721"></a>Page 28</span>down as the Yangtzŭ River, and in the Yüan dynasty (1280–1368) they conquered the whole country. During the period 1644–1912 +it was in the possession of the Manchus. At present the five chief component peoples of China are represented in the striped +national flag (from the top downward) by red (Manchus), yellow (Chinese), blue (Mongolians), white (Mohammedans), and black +(Tibetans). This flag was adopted on the establishment of the Republic in 1912, and supplanted the triangular Dragon flag +previously in use. By this time the population—which had varied considerably at different periods owing to war, famine, and +pestilence—had increased to about 400,000,000. + +</p><a id="d0e723"></a><h2>General Government</h2> +<p id="d0e726">The general division of the nation was into the King and the People, The former was regarded as appointed by the will of Heaven +and as the parent of the latter. Besides being king, he was also law-giver, commander-in-chief of the armies, high priest, +and master of ceremonies. The people were divided into four classes: (1) <i>Shih</i>, Officers (later Scholars), consisting of <i>Ch’ên</i>, Officials (a few of whom were ennobled), and <i>Shên Shih</i>, Gentry; (2) <i>Nung</i>, Agriculturists; (3) <i>Kung</i>, Artisans; and (4) <i>Shang</i>, Merchants. + +</p> +<p id="d0e746">For administrative purposes there were at the seat of central government (which, first at P’ing-yang—in modern Shansi—was +moved eleven times during the Feudal Period, and was finally at Yin) ministers, or ministers and a hierarchy of officials, +the country being divided into provinces, varying in number from nine in the earliest times to thirty-six under the First +Emperor, 221 B.C., and finally twenty-two at the present day. At first these <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e748"></a>Page 29</span>provinces contained states, which were models of the central state, the ruler’s ‘Middle Kingdom.’ The provincial administration +was in the hands of twelve Pastors or Lord-Lieutenants. They were the chiefs of all the nobles in a province. Civil and military +offices were not differentiated. The feudal lords or princes of states often resided at the king’s court, officers of that +court being also sent forth as princes of states. The king was the source of legislation and administered justice. The princes +in their several states had the power of rewards and punishments. Revenue was derived from a tithe on the land, from the income +of artisans, merchants, fishermen, foresters, and from the tribute brought by savage tribes. + +</p> +<p id="d0e750">The general structure and principles of this system of administration remained the same, with few variations, down to the +end of the Monarchical Period in 1912. At the end of that period we find the emperor still considered as of divine descent, +still the head of the civil, legislative, military, ecclesiastical, and ceremonial administration, with the nation still divided +into the same four classes. The chief ministries at the capital, Peking, could in most cases trace their descent from their +prototypes of feudal times, and the principal provincial administrative officials—the Governor-General or Viceroy, governor, +provincial treasurer, judge, etc.—had similarly a pedigree running back to offices then existing—a continuous duration of +adherence to type which is probably unique. + +</p> +<p id="d0e752">Appointment to office was at first by selection, followed by an examination to test proficiency; later was introduced the +system of public competitive literary examinations for office, fully organized in the seventeenth century, and abolished in +1903, when official positions were thrown open to the graduates of colleges established on a modern basis. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e754"></a>Page 30</span></p> +<p id="d0e755">In 1912, on the overthrow of the Manchu monarchy, China became a republic, with an elected President, and a Parliament consisting +of a Senate and House of Representatives. The various government departments were reorganized on Western lines, and a large +number of new offices instituted. Up to the present year the Law of the Constitution, owing to political dissension between +the North and the South, has not been put into force. + +</p><a id="d0e757"></a><h2>Laws</h2> +<p id="d0e760">Chinese law, like primitive law generally, was not instituted in order to ensure justice between man and man; its object was +to enforce subordination of the ruled to the ruler. The laws were punitive and vindictive rather than reformatory or remedial, +criminal rather than civil. Punishments were cruel: branding, cutting off the nose, the legs at the knees, castration, and +death, the latter not necessarily, or indeed ordinarily, for taking life. They included in some cases punishment of the family, +the clan, and the neighbours of the offender. The <i>lex talionis</i> was in full force. + +</p> +<p id="d0e765">Nevertheless, in spite of the harsh nature of the punishments, possibly adapted, more or less, to a harsh state of society, +though the “proper end of punishments”—to “make an end of punishing”—was missed, the Chinese evolved a series of excellent +legal codes. This series began with the revision of King Mu’s <i>Punishments</i> in 950 B.C., the first regular code being issued in 650 B.C., and ended with the well-known <i>Ta Ch’ing lü li</i> (<i>Laws and Statutes of the Great Ch’ing Dynasty</i>), issued in A.D. 1647. Of these codes the great exemplar was the <i>Law Classic</i> drawn up by Li K’uei (<i>Li K’uei fa ching</i>), a statesman in the service of the first ruler of the Wei <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e782"></a>Page 31</span>State, in the fourth century B.C. The <i>Ta Ch’ing lü li</i> has been highly praised by competent judges. Originally it sanctioned only two kinds of punishment, death and flogging, but +others were in use, and the barbarous <i>ling ch’ih</i>, ‘lingering death’ or ‘slicing to pieces,’ invented about A.D. 1000 and abolished in 1905, was inflicted for high treason, +parricide, on women who killed their husbands, and murderers of three persons of one family. In fact, until some first-hand +knowledge of Western systems and procedure was obtained, the vindictive as opposed to the reformatory idea of punishments +continued to obtain in China down to quite recent years, and has not yet entirely disappeared. Though the crueller forms of +punishment had been legally abolished, they continued to be used in many parts. Having been joint judge at Chinese trials +at which, in spite of my protests, prisoners were hung up by their thumbs and made to kneel on chains in order to extort confession +(without which no accused person could be punished), I can testify that the true meaning of the “proper end of punishments” +had no more entered into the Chinese mind at the close of the monarchical <i>régime</i> than it had 4000 years before. + +</p> +<p id="d0e793">As a result of the reform movement into which China was forced as an alternative to foreign domination toward the end of the +Manchu Period, but chiefly owing to the bait held out by Western Powers, that extraterritoriality would be abolished when +China had reformed her judicial system, a new Provisional Criminal Code was published. It substituted death by hanging or +strangulation for decapitation, and imprisonment for various lengths of time for bambooing. It was adopted in large measure +by the Republican <i>régime</i>, and is the chief legal <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e798"></a>Page 32</span>instrument in use at the present time. But close examination reveals the fact that it is almost an exact copy of the Japanese +penal code, which in turn was modelled upon that of Germany. It is, in fact, a Western code imitated, and as it stands is +quite out of harmony with present conditions in China. It will have to be modified and recast to be a suitable, just, and +practicable national legal instrument for the Chinese people. Moreover, it is frequently overridden in a high-handed manner +by the police, who often keep a person acquitted by the Courts of Justice in custody until they have ‘squeezed’ him of all +they can hope to get out of him. And it is noteworthy that, though provision was made in the Draft Code for trial by jury, +this provision never went into effect; and the slavish imitation of alien methods is shown by the curiously inconsistent reason +given—that “the fact that jury trials have been abolished in Japan is indicative of the inadvisability of transplanting this +Western institution into China!” + +</p><a id="d0e800"></a><h2>Local Government</h2> +<p id="d0e803">The central administration being a far-flung network of officialdom, there was hardly any room for local government apart +from it. We find it only in the village elder and those associated with him, who took up what government was necessary where +the jurisdiction of the unit of the central administration—the district magistracy—ceased, or at least did not concern itself +in meddling much. + +</p><a id="d0e805"></a><h2>Military System</h2> +<p id="d0e808">The peace-loving agricultural settlers in early China had at first no army. When occasion arose, all the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e810"></a>Page 33</span>farmers exchanged their ploughshares for swords and bows and arrows, and went forth to fight. In the intervals between the +harvests, when the fields were clear, they held manoeuvres and practised the arts of warfare. The king, who had his Six Armies, +under the Six High Nobles, forming the royal military force, led the troops in person, accompanied by the spirit-tablets of +his ancestors and of the gods of the land and grain. Chariots, drawn by four horses and containing soldiers armed with spears +and javelins and archers, were much in use. A thousand chariots was the regular force. Warriors wore buskins on their legs, +and were sometimes gagged in order to prevent the alarm being given to the enemy. In action the chariots occupied the centre, +the bowmen the left, the spearmen the right flank. Elephants were sometimes used in attack. Spy-kites, signal-flags, hook-ladders, +horns, cymbals, drums, and beacon-fires were in use. The ears of the vanquished were taken to the king, quarter being rarely +if ever given. + +</p> +<p id="d0e812">After the establishment of absolute monarchical government standing armies became the rule. Military science was taught, and +soldiers sometimes trained for seven years. Chariots with upper storeys or spy-towers were used for fighting in narrow defiles, +and hollow squares were formed of mixed chariots, infantry, and dragoons. The weakness of disunion of forces was well understood. +In the sixth century A.D. the massed troops numbered about a million and a quarter. In A.D. 627 there was an efficient standing +army of 900,000 men, the term of service being from the ages of twenty to sixty. During the Mongol dynasty (1280–1368) there +was a navy of 5000 ships manned by 70,000 trained fighters. The Mongols completely revolutionized tactics and improved <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e814"></a>Page 34</span>on all the military knowledge of the time. In 1614 the Manchu ‘Eight Banners,’ composed of Manchus, Mongolians, and Chinese, +were instituted. The provincial forces, designated the Army of the Green Standard, were divided into land forces and marine +forces, superseded on active service by ‘braves’ (<i>yung</i>), or irregulars, enlisted and discharged according to circumstances. After the war with Japan in 1894 reforms were seriously +undertaken, with the result that the army has now been modernized in dress, weapons, tactics, etc., and is by no means a negligible +quantity in the world’s fighting forces. A modern navy is also being acquired by building and purchase. For many centuries +the soldier, being, like the priest, unproductive, was regarded with disdain, and now that his indispensableness for defensive +purposes is recognized he has to fight not only any actual enemy who may attack him, but those far subtler forces from over +the sea which seem likely to obtain supremacy in his military councils, if not actual control of his whole military system. +It is, in my view, the duty of Western nations to take steps before it is too late to avert this great disaster. + +</p><a id="d0e819"></a><h2>Ecclesiastical Institutions</h2> +<p id="d0e822">The dancing and chanting exorcists called <i>wu</i> were the first Chinese priests, with temples containing gods worshipped and sacrificed to, but there was no special sacerdotal +class. Worship of Heaven could only be performed by the king or emperor. Ecclesiastical and political functions were not completely +separated. The king was <i>pontifex maximus</i>, the nobles, statesmen, and civil and military officers acted as priests, the ranks being similar to those of the political +hierarchy. Worship took place in the ‘Hall of Light,’ which was also a palace and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e830"></a>Page 35</span>audience and council chamber. Sacrifices were offered to Heaven, the hills and rivers, ancestors, and all the spirits. Dancing +held a conspicuous place in worship. Idols are spoken of in the earliest times. + +</p> +<p id="d0e832">Of course, each religion, as it formed itself out of the original ancestor-worship, had its own sacred places, functionaries, +observances, ceremonial. Thus, at the State worship of Heaven, Nature, etc., there were the ‘Great,’ ‘Medium,’ and ‘Inferior’ +sacrifices, consisting of animals, silk, grain, jade, etc. Panegyrics were sung, and robes of appropriate colour worn. In +spring, summer, autumn, and winter there were the seasonal sacrifices at the appropriate altars. Taoism and Buddhism had their +temples, monasteries, priests, sacrifices, and ritual; and there were village and wayside temples and shrines to ancestors, +the gods of thunder, rain, wind, grain, agriculture, and many others. Now encouraged, now tolerated, now persecuted, the ecclesiastical +<i>personnel</i> and structure of Taoism and Buddhism survived into modern times, when we find complete schemes of ecclesiastical gradations +of rank and authority grafted upon these two priestly hierarchies, and their temples, priests, etc., fulfilling generally, +with worship of ancestors, State or official (Confucianism) and private or unofficial, and the observance of various annual +festivals, such as ‘All Souls’ Day’ for wandering and hungry ghosts, the spiritual needs of the people as the ‘Three Religions’ +(<i>San Chiao</i>). The emperor, as high priest, took the responsibility for calamities, etc., making confession to Heaven and praying that +as a punishment the evil be diverted from the people to his own person. Statesmen, nobles, and officials discharged, as already +noted, priestly functions in connexion with the State religion in addition to their ordinary <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e840"></a>Page 36</span>duties. As a rule, priests proper, frowned upon as non-producers, were recruited from the lower classes, were celibate, unintellectual, +idle, and immoral. There was nothing, even in the elaborate ceremonies on special occasions in the Buddhist temples, which +could be likened to what is known as ‘public worship’ and ‘common prayer’ in the West. Worship had for its sole object either +the attainment of some good or the prevention of some evil. + +</p> +<p id="d0e842">Generally this represents the state of things under the Republican <i>régime</i>; the chief differences being greater neglect of ecclesiastical matters and the conversion of a large number of temples into +schools. + +</p><a id="d0e847"></a><h2>Professional Institutions</h2> +<p id="d0e850">We read of physicians, blind musicians, poets, teachers, prayer-makers, architects, scribes, painters, diviners, ceremonialists, +orators, and others during the Feudal Period, These professions were of ecclesiastical origin, not yet completely differentiated +from the ‘Church,’ and both in earlier and later times not always or often differentiated from each other. Thus the historiographers +combined the duties of statesmen, scholars, authors, and generals. The professions of authors and teachers, musicians and +poets, were united in one person. And so it continued to the present day. Priests discharge medical functions, poets still +sing their verses. But experienced medical specialists, though few, are to be found, as well as women doctors; there are veterinary +surgeons, musicians (chiefly belonging to the poorest classes and often blind), actors, teachers, attorneys, diviners, artists, +letter-writers, and many others, men of letters being perhaps the most prominent and most esteemed. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e852"></a>Page 37</span></p><a id="d0e853"></a><h2>Accessory Institutions</h2> +<p id="d0e856">A system of schools, academies, colleges, and universities obtained in villages, districts, departments, and principalities. +The instruction was divided into ‘Primary Learning’ and ‘Great Learning.’ There were special schools of dancing and music. +Libraries and almshouses for old men are mentioned. Associations of scholars for literary purposes seem to have been numerous. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e858">Whatever form and direction education might have taken, it became stereotyped at an early age by the road to office being +made to lead through a knowledge of the classical writings of the ancient sages. It became not only ‘the thing’ to be well +versed in the sayings of Confucius, Mencius; etc., and to be able to compose good essays on them containing not a single wrongly +written character, but useless for aspirants to office—who constituted practically the whole of the literary class—to acquire +any other knowledge. So obsessed was the national mind by this literary mania that even infants’ spines were made to bend +so as to produce when adult the ‘scholarly stoop.’ And from the fact that besides the scholar class the rest of the community +consisted of agriculturists, artisans, and merchants, whose knowledge was that of their fathers and grandfathers, inculcated +in the sons and grandsons as it had been in them, showing them how to carry on in the same groove the calling to which Fate +had assigned them, a departure from which would have been considered ‘unfilial’—unless, of course (as it very rarely did), +it went the length of attaining through study of the classics a place in the official class, and thus shedding eternal lustre +on the family—it will readily be seen that there was nothing to cause education to be concerned with any but one or two of +the subjects <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e860"></a>Page 38</span>which are included by Western peoples under that designation. It became at an early age, and remained for many centuries, +a rote-learning of the elementary text-books, followed by a similar acquisition by heart of the texts of the works of Confucius +and other classical writers. And so it remained until the abolition, in 1905, of the old competitive examination system, and +the substitution of all that is included in the term ‘modern education’ at schools, colleges, and universities all over the +country, in which there is rapidly growing up a force that is regenerating the Chinese people, and will make itself felt throughout +the whole world. + +</p> +<p id="d0e862">It is this keen and shrewd appreciation of the learned, and this lust for knowledge, which, barring the tragedy of foreign +domination, will make China, in the truest and best sense of the word, a great nation, where, as in the United States of America, +the rigid class status and undervaluation, if not disdaining, of knowledge which are proving so disastrous in England and +other European countries will be avoided, and the aristocracy of learning established in its place. + +</p> +<p id="d0e864">Besides educational institutions, we find institutions for poor relief, hospitals, foundling hospitals, orphan asylums, banking, +insurance, and loan associations, travellers’ clubs, mercantile corporations, anti-opium societies, co-operative burial societies, +as well as many others, some imitated from Western models. + +</p><a id="d0e866"></a><h2>Bodily Mutilations</h2> +<p id="d0e869">Compared with the practices found to exist among most primitive races, the mutilations the Chinese were in the habit of inflicting +were but few. They flattened the skulls of their babies by means of stones, so as to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e871"></a>Page 39</span>cause them to taper at the top, and we have already seen what they did to their spines; also the mutilations in warfare, and +the punishments inflicted both within and without the law; and how filial children and loyal wives mutilated themselves for +the sake of their parents and to prevent remarriage. Eunuchs, of course, existed in great numbers. People bit, cut, or marked +their arms to pledge oaths. But the practices which are more peculiarly associated with the Chinese are the compressing of +women’s feet and the wearing of the queue, misnamed ‘pigtail.’ The former is known to have been in force about A.D. 934, though +it may have been introduced as early as 583. It did not, however, become firmly established for more than a century. This +‘extremely painful mutilation,’ begun in infancy, illustrates the tyranny of fashion, for it is supposed to have arisen in the imitation by the women generally +of the small feet of an imperial concubine admired by one of the emperors from ten to fifteen centuries ago (the books differ +as to his identity). The second was a badge of servitude inflicted by the Manchus on the Chinese when they conquered China +at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Discountenanced by governmental edicts, both of these practices are now tending +toward extinction, though, of course, compressed feet and ‘pigtails’ are still to be seen in every town and village. Legally, +the queue was abolished when the Chinese rid themselves of the Manchu yoke in 1912. + +</p><a id="d0e876"></a><h2>Funeral Rites</h2> +<p id="d0e879">Not understanding the real nature of death, the Chinese believed it was merely a state of suspended animation, in which the +soul had failed to return to the body, though <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e881"></a>Page 40</span>it might yet do so, even after long intervals. Consequently they delayed burial, and fed the corpse, and went on to the house-tops +and called aloud to the spirit to return. When at length they were convinced that the absent spirit could not be induced to +re-enter the body, they placed the latter in a coffin and buried it—providing it, however, with all that it had found necessary +in this life (food, clothing, wives, servants, etc.), which it would require also in the next (in their view rather a continuation +of the present existence than the beginning of another)—and, having inducted or persuaded the spirit to enter the ‘soul-tablet’ +which accompanied the funeral procession (which took place the moment the tablet was ‘dotted,’ <i>i.e.</i> when the character <i>wang</i>, ‘prince,’ was changed into <i>chu</i>, ‘lord’), carried it back home again, set it up in a shrine in the main hall, and fell down and worshipped it. Thus was the +spirit propitiated, and as long as occasional offerings were not overlooked the power for evil possessed by it would not be +exerted against the surviving inmates of the house, whom it had so thoughtlessly deserted. + +</p> +<p id="d0e892">The latter mourned by screaming, wailing, stamping their feet, and beating their breasts, renouncing (in the earliest times) +even their clothes, dwelling, and belongings to the dead, removing to mourning-sheds of clay, fasting, or eating only rice +gruel, sleeping on straw with a clod for a pillow, and speaking only on subjects of death and burial. Office and public duties +were resigned, and marriage, music, and separation from the clan prohibited. + +</p> +<p id="d0e894">During the lapse of the long ages of monarchical rule funeral rites became more elaborate and magnificent, but, though less +rigid and ceremonious since the institution of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e896"></a>Page 41</span>the Republic, they have retained their essential character down to the present day. + +</p> +<p id="d0e898">Funeral ceremonial was more exacting than that connected with most other observances, including those of marriage. Invitations +or notifications were sent to friends, and after receipt of these <i>fu</i>, on the various days appointed therein, the guest was obliged to send presents, such as money, paper horses, slaves, etc., +and go and join in the lamentations of the hired mourners and attend at the prayers recited by the priests. Funeral etiquette +could not be <i>pu’d, i.e.</i> made good, if overlooked or neglected at the right time, as it could in the case of the marriage ceremonial. + +</p> +<p id="d0e906">Instead of symmetrical public graveyards, as in the West, the Chinese cemeteries belong to the family or clan of the deceased, +and are generally beautiful and peaceful places planted with trees and surrounded by artistic walls enclosing the grave-mounds +and monumental tablets. The cemeteries themselves are the metonyms of the villages, and the graves of the houses. In the north +especially the grave is very often surmounted by a huge marble tortoise bearing the inscribed tablet, or what we call the +gravestone, on its back. The tombs of the last two lines of emperors, the Ming and the Manchu, are magnificent structures, +spread over enormous areas, and always artistically situated on hillsides facing natural or artificial lakes or seas. Contrary +to the practice in Egypt, with the two exceptions above mentioned the conquering dynasties have always destroyed the tombs +of their predecessors. But for this savage vandalism, China would probably possess the most magnificent assembly of imperial +tombs in the world’s records. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e908"></a>Page 42</span></p><a id="d0e909"></a><h2>Laws of Intercourse</h2> +<p id="d0e912">Throughout the whole course of their existence as a social aggregate the Chinese have pushed ceremonial observances to an +extreme limit. “Ceremonies,” says the <i>Li chi</i>, the great classic of ceremonial usages, “are the greatest of all things by which men live.” Ranks were distinguished by +different headdresses, garments, badges, weapons, writing-tablets, number of attendants, carriages, horses, height of walls, +etc. Daily as well as official life was regulated by minute observances. There were written codes embracing almost every attitude +and act of inferiors toward superiors, of superiors toward inferiors, and of equals toward equals. Visits, forms of address, +and giving of presents had each their set of formulae, known and observed by every one as strictly and regularly as each child +in China learned by heart and repeated aloud the three-word sentences of the elementary <i>Trimetrical Classic</i>. But while the school text-book was extremely simple, ceremonial observances were extremely elaborate. A Chinese was in this +respect as much a slave to the living as in his funeral rites he was a slave to the dead. Only now, in the rush of ‘modern +progress,’ is the doffing of the hat taking the place of the ‘kowtow’ (<i>k’o-t’ou</i>). + +</p> +<p id="d0e923">It is in this matter of ceremonial observances that the East and the West have misunderstood each other perhaps more than +in all others. Where rules of etiquette are not only different, but are diametrically opposed, there is every opportunity +for misunderstanding, if not estrangement. The points at issue in such questions as ‘kowtowing’ to the emperor and the worshipping +of ancestors are generally known, but the Westerner, as a rule, is ignorant of the fact that if he wishes to conform <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e925"></a>Page 43</span>to Chinese etiquette when in China (instead of to those Western customs which are in many cases unfortunately taking their +place) he should not, for instance, take off his hat when entering a house or a temple, should not shake hands with his host, +nor, if he wishes to express approval, should he clap his hands. Clapping of hands in China (<i>i.e.</i> non-Europeanized China) is used to drive away the <i>sha ch’i</i>, or deathly influence of evil spirits, and to clap the hands at the close of the remarks of a Chinese host (as I have seen +prominent, well-meaning, but ill-guided men of the West do) is equivalent to disapproval, if not insult. Had our diplomatists +been sociologists instead of only commercial agents, more than one war might have been avoided. + +</p><a id="d0e933"></a><h2>Habits and Customs</h2> +<p id="d0e936">At intervals during the year the Chinese make holiday. Their public festivals begin with the celebration of the advent of +the new year. They let off innumerable firecrackers, and make much merriment in their homes, drinking and feasting, and visiting +their friends for several days. Accounts are squared, houses cleaned, fresh paper ‘door-gods’ pasted on the front doors, strips +of red paper with characters implying happiness, wealth, good fortune, longevity, etc., stuck on the doorposts or the lintel, +tables, etc., covered with red cloth, and flowers and decorations displayed everywhere. Business is suspended, and the merriment, +dressing in new clothes, feasting, visiting, offerings to gods and ancestors, and idling continue pretty consistently during +the first half of the first moon, the vacation ending with the Feast of Lanterns, which occupies the last three days. It originated +in the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. Innumerable <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e938"></a>Page 44</span>lanterns of all sizes, shapes, colours (except wholly white, or rather undyed material, the colour of mourning), and designs +are lit in front of public and private buildings, but the use of these was an addition about 800 years later, <i>i.e.</i> about 1200 years ago. Paper dragons, hundreds of yards long, are moved along the streets at a slow pace, supported on the +heads of men whose legs only are visible, giving the impression of huge serpents winding through the thoroughfares. + +</p> +<p id="d0e943">Of the other chief festivals, about eight in number (not counting the festivals of the four seasons with their equinoxes and +solstices), four are specially concerned with the propitiation of the spirits—namely, the Earlier Spirit Festival (fifteenth +day of second moon), the Festival of the Tombs (about the third day of the third moon), when graves are put in order and special +offerings made to the dead, the Middle Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of seventh moon), and the Later Spirit Festival (fifteenth +day of tenth moon). The Dragon-boat Festival (fifth day of fifth moon) is said to have originated as a commemoration of the +death of the poet Ch’ü Yüan, who drowned himself in disgust at the official intrigue and corruption of which he was the victim, +but the object is the procuring of sufficient rain to ensure a good harvest. It is celebrated by racing with long narrow boats +shaped to represent dragons and propelled by scores of rowers, pasting of charms on the doors of dwellings, and eating a special +kind of rice-cake, with a liquor as a beverage. + +</p> +<p id="d0e945"></p> +<div id="d0e946" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p044.jpg" alt="The Spirit That Clears the Way"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Spirit That Clears the Way</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e950">The fifteenth day of the eighth moon is the Mid-autumn Festival, known by foreigners as All Souls’ Day. On this occasion the +women worship the moon, offering cakes, fruit, etc. The gates of Purgatory are opened, and the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e952"></a>Page 45</span>hungry ghosts troop forth to enjoy themselves for a month on the good things provided for them by the pious. The ninth day +of the ninth moon is the Chung Yang Festival, when every one who possibly can ascends to a high place—a hill or temple-tower. +This inaugurates the kite-flying season, and is supposed to promote longevity. During that season, which lasts several months, +the Chinese people the sky with dragons, centipedes, frogs, butterflies, and hundreds of other cleverly devised creatures, +which, by means of simple mechanisms worked by the wind, roll their eyes, make appropriate sounds, and move their paws, wings, +tails, etc., in a most realistic manner. The festival originated in a warning received by a scholar named Huan Ching from +his master Fei Ch’ang-fang, a native of Ju-nan in Honan, who lived during the Han dynasty, that a terrible calamity was about +to happen, and enjoining him to escape with his family to a high place. On his return he found all his domestic animals dead, +and was told that they had died instead of himself and his relatives. On New Year’s Eve (<i>Tuan Nien</i> or <i>Chu Hsi</i>) the Kitchen-god ascends to Heaven to make his annual report, the wise feasting him with honey and other sticky food before +his departure, so that his lips may be sealed and he be unable to ‘let on’ too much to the powers that be in the regions above! + + +</p><a id="d0e960"></a><h2>Sports and Games</h2> +<p id="d0e963">The first sports of the Chinese were festival gatherings for purposes of archery, to which succeeded exercises partaking of +a military character. Hunting was a favourite amusement. They played games of calculation, chess (or the ‘game of war’), shuttlecock +with the feet, pitch-pot (throwing arrows from a distance into a narrow-necked <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e965"></a>Page 46</span>jar), and ‘horn-goring’ (fighting on the shoulders of others with horned masks on their heads). Stilts, football, dice-throwing, +boat-racing, dog-racing, cock-fighting, kite-flying, as well as singing and dancing marionettes, afforded recreation and amusement. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e967">Many of these games became obsolete in course of time, and new ones were invented. At the end of the Monarchical Period, during +the Manchu dynasty, we find those most in use to be foot-shuttlecock, lifting of beams headed with heavy stones—dumb-bells +four feet long and weighing thirty or forty pounds—kite-flying, quail-fighting, cricket-fighting, sending birds after seeds +thrown into the air, sauntering through fields, playing chess or ‘morra,’ or gambling with cards, dice, or over the cricket- +and quail-fights or seed-catching birds. There were numerous and varied children’s games tending to develop strength, skill, +quickness of action, parental instinct, accuracy, and sagacity. Theatricals were performed by strolling troupes on stages +erected opposite temples, though permanent theatres also existed, female parts until recently being taken by male actors. +Peep-shows, conjurers, ventriloquists, acrobats, fortune-tellers, and story-tellers kept crowds amused or interested. Generally, +‘young China’ of the present day, identified with the party of progress, seems to have adopted most of the outdoor but very +few of the indoor games of Western nations. + +</p><a id="d0e969"></a><h2>Domestic Life</h2> +<p id="d0e972">In domestic or private life, observances at birth, betrothal, and marriage were elaborate, and retained superstitious elements. +Early rising was general. Shaving of the head and beard, as well as cleaning of the ears and massage, was done by barbers. +There were public baths <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e974"></a>Page 47</span>in all cities and towns. Shops were closed at nightfall, and, the streets being until recent times ill-lit or unlit, passengers +or their attendants carried lanterns. Most houses, except the poorest, had private watchmen. Generally two meals a day were +taken. Dinners to friends were served at inns or restaurants, accompanied or followed by musical or theatrical performances. +The place of honour is stated in Western books on China to be on the left, but the fact is that the place of honour is the +one which shows the utmost solicitude for the safety of the guest. It is therefore not necessarily one fixed place, but would +usually be the one facing the door, so that the guest might be in a position to see an enemy enter, and take measures accordingly. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e976">Lap-dogs and cage-birds were kept as pets; ‘wonks,’ the <i>huang kou</i>, or ‘yellow dog,’ were guards of houses and street scavengers. Aquaria with goldfish were often to be seen in the houses +of the upper and middle classes, the gardens and courtyards of which usually contained rockeries and artistic shrubs and flowers. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e981">Whiskers were never worn, and moustaches and beards only after forty, before which age the hair grew, if at all, very scantily. +Full, thick beards, as in the West, were practically never seen, even on the aged. Snuff-bottles, tobacco-pipes, and fans +were carried by both sexes. Nails were worn long by members of the literary and leisured classes. Non-Manchu women and girls +had cramped feet, and both Manchu and Chinese women used cosmetics freely. + +</p><a id="d0e983"></a><h2>Industrial Institutions</h2> +<p id="d0e986">While the men attended to farm-work, women took care of the mulberry-orchards and silkworms, and did <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e988"></a>Page 48</span>spinning, weaving, and embroidery. This, the primitive division of labour, held throughout, though added to on both sides, +so that eventually the men did most of the agriculture, arts, production, distribution, fighting, etc., and the women, besides +the duties above named and some field-labour, mended old clothes, drilled and sharpened needles, pasted tin-foil, made shoes, +and gathered and sorted the leaves of the tea-plant. In course of time trades became highly specialized—their number being +legion—and localized, bankers, for instance, congregating in Shansi, carpenters in Chi Chou, and porcelain-manufacturers in +Jao Chou, in Kiangsi. + +</p> +<p id="d0e990">As to land, it became at an early age the property of the sovereign, who farmed it out to his relatives or favourites. It +was arranged on the <i>ching</i>, or ‘well’ system—eight private squares round a ninth public square cultivated by the eight farmer families in common for +the benefit of the State. From the beginning to the end of the Monarchical Period tenure continued to be of the Crown, land +being unallodial, and mostly held in clans or families, and not entailed, the conditions of tenure being payment of an annual +tax, a fee for alienation, and money compensation for personal services to the Government, generally incorporated into the +direct tax as scutage. Slavery, unknown in the earliest times, existed as a recognized institution during the whole of the +Monarchical Period. + +</p> +<p id="d0e995">Production was chiefly confined to human and animal labour, machinery being only now in use on a large scale. Internal distribution +was carried on from numerous centres and at fairs, shops, markets, etc. With few exceptions, the great trade-routes by land +and sea have remained the same during the last two thousand years. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e997"></a>Page 49</span>Foreign trade was with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, Carthage, Arabia, etc., and from the seventeenth century A.D. more generally +with European countries. The usual primitive means of conveyance, such as human beings, animals, carts, boats, etc., were +partly displaced by steam-vessels from 1861 onward. + +</p> +<p id="d0e999">Exchange was effected by barter, cowries of different values being the prototype of coins, which were cast in greater or less +quantity under each reign. But until within recent years there was only one coin, the copper cash, in use, bullion and paper +notes being the other media of exchange. Silver Mexican dollars and subsidiary coins came into use with the advent of foreign +commerce. Weights and measures (which generally decreased from north to south), officially arranged partly on the decimal +system, were discarded by the people in ordinary commercial transactions for the more convenient duodecimal subdivision. + +</p><a id="d0e1001"></a><h2>Arts</h2> +<p id="d0e1004">Hunting, fishing, cooking, weaving, dyeing, carpentry, metallurgy, glass-, brick-, and paper-making, printing, and book-binding +were in a more or less primitive stage, the mechanical arts showing much servile imitation and simplicity in design; but pottery, +carving, and lacquer-work were in an exceptionally high state of development, the articles produced being surpassed in quality +and beauty by no others in the world. + +</p><a id="d0e1006"></a><h2>Agriculture and Rearing of Livestock</h2> +<p id="d0e1009">From the earliest times the greater portion of the available land was under cultivation. Except when the country has been +devastated by war, the Chinese have devoted <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1011"></a>Page 50</span>close attention to the cultivation of the soil continuously for forty centuries. Even the hills are terraced for extra growing-room. +But poverty and governmental inaction caused much to lie idle. There were two annual crops in the north, and five in two years +in the south. Perhaps two-thirds of the population cultivated the soil. The methods, however, remained primitive; but the +great fertility of the soil and the great industry of the farmer, with generous but careful use of fertilizers, enabled the +vast territory to support an enormous population. Rice, wheat, barley, buckwheat, maize, kaoliang, several millets, and oats +were the chief grains cultivated. Beans, peas, oil-bearing seeds (sesame, rape, etc.), fibre-plants (hemp, ramie, jute, cotton, +etc.), starch-roots (taros, yams, sweet potatoes, etc.), tobacco, indigo, tea, sugar, fruits, were among the more important +crops produced. Fruit-growing, however, lacked scientific method. The rotation of crops was not a usual practice, but grafting, +pruning, dwarfing, enlarging, selecting, and varying species were well understood. Vegetable-culture had reached a high state +of perfection, the smallest patches of land being made to bring forth abundantly. This is the more creditable inasmuch as +most small farmers could not afford to purchase expensive foreign machinery, which, in many cases, would be too large or complicated +for their purposes. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1013">The principal animals, birds, etc., reared were the pig, ass, horse, mule, cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, yak, fowl, duck, goose, +pigeon, silkworm, and bee. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1015">The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, the successor to the Board of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, instituted +during recent years, is now adapting Western methods to the cultivation of the fertile soil of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1017"></a>Page 51</span>China, and even greater results than in the past may be expected in the future. + +</p><a id="d0e1019"></a><h2>Sentiments and Moral Ideas</h2> +<p id="d0e1022">The Chinese have always shown a keen delight in the beautiful—in flowers, music, poetry, literature, embroidery, paintings, +porcelain. They cultivated ornamental plants, almost every house, as we saw, having its garden, large or small, and tables +were often decorated with flowers in vases or ornamental wire baskets or fruits or sweetmeats. Confucius made music an instrument +of government. Paper bearing the written character was so respected that it might not be thrown on the ground or trodden on. +Delight was always shown in beautiful scenery or tales of the marvellous. Commanding or agreeable situations were chosen for +temples. But until within the last few years streets and houses were generally unclean, and decency in public frequently absent. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1024">Morality was favoured by public opinion, but in spite of early marriages and concubinage there was much laxity. Cruelty both +to human beings and animals has always been a marked trait in the Chinese character. Savagery in warfare, cannibalism, luxury, +drunkenness, and corruption prevailed in the earliest times. The attitude toward women was despotic. But moral principles +pervaded the classical writings, and formed the basis of law. In spite of these, the inferior sentiment of revenge was, as +we have seen, approved and preached as a sacred duty. As a result of the universal <i>yin-yang</i> dualistic doctrines, immorality was leniently regarded. In modern times, at least, mercantile honour was high, “a merchant’s +word is as good as his bond” being truer in China than in many <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1029"></a>Page 52</span>other countries. Intemperance was rare. Opium-smoking was much indulged in until the use of the drug was forcibly suppressed +(1906–16). Even now much is smuggled into the country, or its growth overlooked by bribed officials. Clan quarrels and fights +were common, vendettas sometimes continuing for generations. Suicide under depressing circumstances was approved and honoured; +it was frequently resorted to under the sting of great injustice. There was a deep reverence for parents and superiors. Disregard +of the truth, when useful, was universal, and unattended by a sense of shame, even on detection. Thieving was common. The +illegal exactions of rulers were burdensome. In times of prosperity pride and satisfaction in material matters was not concealed, +and was often short-sighted. Politeness was practically universal, though said to be often superficial; but gratitude was +a marked characteristic, and was heartfelt. Mutual conjugal affection was strong. The love of gambling was universal. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1031">But little has occurred in recent years to modify the above characters. Nevertheless the inferior traits are certainly being +changed by education and by the formation of societies whose members bind themselves against immorality, concubinage, gambling, +drinking, smoking, etc. + +</p><a id="d0e1033"></a><h2>Religious Ideas</h2> +<p id="d0e1036">Chinese religion is inherently an attitude toward the spirits or gods with the object of obtaining a benefit or averting a +calamity. We shall deal with it more fully in another chapter. Suffice it to say here that it originated in ancestor-worship, +and that the greater part of it remains ancestor-worship to the present day. The State religion, which was Confucianism, was +ancestor-worship. Taoism, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1038"></a>Page 53</span>originally a philosophy, became a worship of spirits—of the souls of dead men supposed to have taken up their abode in animals, +reptiles, insects, trees, stones, etc.—borrowed the cloak of religion from Buddhism, which eventually outshone it, and degenerated +into a system of exorcism and magic. Buddhism, a religion originating in India, in which Buddha, once a man, is worshipped, +in which no beings are known with greater power than can be attained to by man, and according to which at death the soul migrates +into anything from a deified human being to an elephant, a bird, a plant, a wall, a broom, or any piece of inorganic matter, +was imported ready made into China and took the side of popular superstition and Taoism against the orthodox belief, finding +that its power lay in the influence on the popular mind of its doctrine respecting a future state, in contrast to the indifference +of Confucianism. Its pleading for compassion and preservation of life met a crying need, and but for it the state of things +in this respect would be worse than it is. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1040">Religion, apart from ancestor-worship, does not enter largely into Chinese life. There is none of the real ‘love of God’ found, +for example, in the fervent as distinguished from the conventional Christian. And as ancestor-worship gradually loses its +hold and dies out agnosticism will take its place. + +</p><a id="d0e1042"></a><h2>Superstitions</h2> +<p id="d0e1045">An almost infinite variety of superstitious practices, due to the belief in the good or evil influences of departed spirits, +exists in all parts of China. Days are lucky or unlucky. Eclipses are due to a dragon trying to eat the sun or the moon. The +rainbow is supposed to be the result of a meeting between the impure vapours of the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1047"></a>Page 54</span>sun and the earth. Amulets are worn, and charms hung up, sprigs of artemisia or of peach-blossom are placed near beds and +over lintels respectively, children and adults are ‘locked to life’ by means of locks on chains or cords worn round the neck, +old brass mirrors are supposed to cure insanity, figures of gourds, tigers’ claws, or the unicorn are worn to ensure good +fortune or ward off sickness, fire, etc., spells of many kinds, composed mostly of the written characters for happiness and +longevity, are worn, or written on paper, cloth, leaves, etc., and burned, the ashes being made into a decoction and drunk +by the young or sick. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1049">Divination by means of the divining stalks (the divining plant, milfoil or yarrow) and the tortoiseshell has been carried +on from time immemorial, but was not originally practised with the object of ascertaining future events, but in order to decide +doubts, much as lots are drawn or a coin tossed in the West. <i>Fêng-shui</i>, “the art of adapting the residence of the living and the dead so as to co-operate and harmonize with the local currents +of the cosmic breath” (the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i>: see Chapter III), a doctrine which had its root in ancestor-worship, has exercised an enormous influence on Chinese thought +and life from the earliest times, and especially from those of Chu Hsi and other philosophers of the Sung dynasty. + +</p><a id="d0e1060"></a><h2>Knowledge</h2> +<p id="d0e1063">Having noted that Chinese education was mainly literary, and why it was so, it is easy to see that there would be little or +no demand for the kind of knowledge classified in the West under the head of science. In so far as any demand existed, it +did so, at any rate at first, only because it subserved vital needs. Thus, astronomy, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1065"></a>Page 55</span>or more properly astrology, was studied in order that the calendar might be regulated, and so the routine of agriculture correctly +followed, for on that depended the people’s daily rice, or rather, in the beginning, the various fruits and kinds of flesh +which constituted their means of sustentation before their now universal food was known. In philosophy they have had two periods +of great activity, the first beginning with Lao Tzŭ and Confucius in the sixth century B.C. and ending with the Burning of +the Books by the First Emperor, Shih Huang Ti, in 213 B.C.; the second beginning with Chou Tzŭ (A.D. 1017–73) and ending with +Chu Hsi (1130–1200). The department of philosophy in the imperial library contained in 190 B.C. 2705 volumes by 137 authors. +There can be no doubt that this zeal for the orthodox learning, combined with the literary test for office, was the reason +why scientific knowledge was prevented from developing; so much so, that after four thousand or more years of national life +we find, during the Manchu Period, which ended the monarchical <i>régime</i>, few of the educated class, giants though they were in knowledge of all departments of their literature and history (the +continuity of their traditions laid down in their twenty-four Dynastic Annals has been described as one of the great wonders +of the world), with even the elementary scientific learning of a schoolboy in the West. ‘Crude,’ ‘primitive,’ ‘mediocre,’ +‘vague,’ ‘inaccurate,’ ‘want of analysis and generalization,’ are terms we find applied to their knowledge of such leading +sciences as geography, mathematics, chemistry, botany, and geology. Their medicine was much hampered by superstition, and +perhaps more so by such beliefs as that the seat of the intellect is in the stomach, that thoughts proceed from the heart, +that the pit of the stomach is the seat of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1070"></a>Page 56</span>the breath, that the soul resides in the liver, etc.—the result partly of the idea that dissection of the body would maim +it permanently during its existence in the Otherworld. What progress was made was due to European instruction; and this again +is the <i>causa causans</i> of the great wave of progress in scientific and philosophical knowledge which is rolling over the whole country and will +have marked effects on the history of the world during the coming century. + +</p><a id="d0e1075"></a><h2>Language</h2> +<p id="d0e1078">Originally polysyllabic, the Chinese language later assumed a monosyllabic, isolating, uninflected form, grammatical relations +being indicated by position. From the earliest forms of speech several subordinate vernacular languages arose in various districts, +and from these sprang local dialects, etc. Tone-distinctions arose—<i>i.e.</i> the same words pronounced with a different intonation came to mean different things. Development of these distinctions led +to carelessness of articulation, and multiplication of what would be homonyms but for these tones. It is incorrect to assume +that the tones were invented to distinguish similar sounds. So that, at the present day, anyone who says <i>ma</i> will mean either an exclamation, hemp, horse, or curse according to the quality he gives to the sound. The language remains +in a primitive state, without inflexion, declension, or distinction of parts of speech. The order in a sentence is: subject, +verb, complement direct, complement indirect. Gender is formed by distinctive particles; number by prefixing numerals, etc.; +cases by position or appropriate prepositions. Adjectives precede nouns; position determines comparison; and absence of punctuation +causes ambiguity. The latter is <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1086"></a>Page 57</span>now introduced into most newly published works. The new education is bringing with it innumerable words and phrases not found +in the old literature or dictionaries. Japanese idioms which are now being imported into the language are making it less pure. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1088">The written language, too well known to need detailed description, a thing of beauty and a joy for ever to those able to appreciate +it, said to have taken originally the form of knotted cords and then of notches on wood (though this was more probably the +origin of numeration than of writing proper), took later that of rude outlines of natural objects, and then went on to the +phonetic system, under which each character is composed of two parts, the radical, indicating the meaning, and the phonetic, +indicating the sound. They were symbols, non-agglutinative and non-inflexional, and were written in vertical columns, probably +from having in early times been painted or cut on strips of bark. + +</p><a id="d0e1090"></a><h2>Achievements of the Chinese</h2> +<p id="d0e1093">As the result of all this fitful fever during so many centuries, we find that the Chinese, after having lived in nests “in +order to avoid the animals,” and then in caves, have built themselves houses and palaces which are still made after the pattern +of their prototype, with a flat wall behind, the openings in front, the walls put in after the pillars and roof-tree have +been fixed, and out-buildings added on as side extensions. The <i>k’ang</i>, or ‘stove-bed’ (now a platform made of bricks), found all over the northern provinces, was a place scooped out of the side +of the cave, with an opening underneath in which (as now) a fire was lit in winter. Windows and shutters opened upward, being +a survival of the mat or shade <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1098"></a>Page 58</span>hung in front of the apertures in the walls of the primitive cave-dwelling. Four of these buildings facing each other round +a square made the courtyard, and one or more courtyards made the compound. They have fed themselves on almost everything edible +to be found on, under, or above land or water, except milk, but live chiefly on rice, chicken, fish, vegetables, including +garlic, and tea, though at one time they ate flesh and drank wine, sometimes to excess, before tea was cultivated. They have +clothed themselves in skins and feathers, and then in silks and satins, but mostly in cotton, and hardly ever in wool. Under +the Manchu <i>régime</i> the type of dress adopted was that of this horse-riding race, showing the chief characteristics of that noble animal, the +broad sleeves representing the hoofs, the queue the mane, etc. This queue was formed of the hair growing from the back part +of the scalp, the front of which was shaved. Unlike the Egyptians, they did not wear wigs. They have nearly always had the +decency to wear their coats long, and have despised the Westerner for wearing his too short. They are now paradoxical enough +to make the mistake of adopting the Westerner’s costume. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1103">They have made to themselves great canals, bridges, aqueducts, and the longest wall there has ever been on the face of the +earth (which could not be seen from the moon, as some sinologists have erroneously supposed, any more than a hair, however +long, could be seen at a distance of a hundred yards). They have made long and wide roads, but failed to keep them in repair +during the last few centuries, though much zeal, possibly due to commerce on oil- or electricity-driven wheels, is now being +shown in this direction. They have built honorary portals to chaste widows, pagodas, and arched bridges of great <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1105"></a>Page 59</span>beauty, not forgetting to surround each city with a high and substantial wall to keep out unfriendly people. They have made +innumerable implements and weapons, from pens and fans and chopsticks to ploughs and carts and ships; from fiery darts, ‘flame +elephants,’ bows and spears, spiked chariots, battering-rams, and hurling-engines to mangonels, trebuchets, matchlocks of +wrought iron and plain bore with long barrels resting on a stock, and gingals fourteen feet long resting on a tripod, cuirasses +of quilted cotton cloth covered with brass knobs, and helmets of iron or polished steel, sometimes inlaid, with neck- and +ear-lappets. And they have been content not to improve upon these to any appreciable extent; but have lately shown a tendency +to make the later patterns imported from the West in their own factories. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1107">They have produced one of the greatest and most remarkable accumulations of literature the world has ever seen, and the finest +porcelain; some music, not very fine; and some magnificent painting, though hardly any sculpture, and little architecture +that will live. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1109"></a>Page 60</span></p><a id="d0e1110"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter II</h2> +<h1>On Chinese Mythology</h1><a id="d0e1113"></a><h2>Mythology and Intellectual Progress</h2> +<p id="d0e1116">The Manichæst, <i>yin-yang</i> (dualist), idea of existence, to which further reference will be made in the next chapter, finds its illustration in the +dual life, real and imaginary, of all the peoples of the earth. They have both real histories and mythological histories. +In the preceding chapter I have dealt briefly with the first—the life of reality—in China from the earliest times to the present +day; the succeeding chapters are concerned with the second—the life of imagination. A survey of the first was necessary for +a complete understanding of the second. The two react upon each other, affecting the national character and through it the +history of the world. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1121">Mythology is the science of the unscientific man’s explanation of what we call the Otherworld—itself and its denizens, their +mysterious habits and surprising actions both there and here, usually including the creation of this world also. By the Otherworld +he does not necessarily mean anything distant or even invisible, though the things he explains would mostly be included by +us under those terms. In some countries myths are abundant, in others scarce. Why should this be? Why should some peoples +tell many and marvellous tales about their gods and others say little about them, though they may say a great deal to them? +We recall the ‘great’ myths of Greece and Scandinavia. Other races are ‘poor’ in myths. The difference is to be explained +by the mental characters of the peoples as moulded by their surroundings and hereditary tendencies. The problem is of course +a psychological one, for it is, as already noted, in imagination <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1123"></a>Page 61</span>that myths have their root. Now imagination grows with each stage of intellectual progress, for intellectual progress implies +increasing representativeness of thought. In the lower stages of human development imagination is feeble and unproductive; +in the highest stages it is strong and constructive. + +</p><a id="d0e1125"></a><h2>The Chinese Intellect</h2> +<p id="d0e1128">The Chinese are not unimaginative, but their minds did not go on to the construction of any myths which should be world-great +and immortal; and one reason why they did not construct such myths was that their intellectual progress was arrested at a +comparatively early stage. It was arrested because there was not that contact and competition with other peoples which demands +brain-work of an active kind as the alternative of subjugation, inferiority, or extinction, and because, as we have already +seen, the knowledge required of them was mainly the parrot-like repetition of the old instead of the thinking-out of the new<a id="d0e1130src" href="#d0e1130" class="noteref">1</a>—a state of things rendered possible by the isolation just referred to. Confucius discountenanced discussion about the supernatural, +and just as it is probable that the exhortations of Wên Wang, the virtual founder of the Chou dynasty (1121–255 B.C.), against +drunkenness, in a time before tea was known to them, helped to make the Chinese the sober people that they are, so it is probable—more +than probable—that this attitude of Confucius may have nipped in the bud much that might have developed a vigorous mythology, +though for a reason to be stated later it may be doubted if he thereby deprived the world of any beautiful and marvellous +results of the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1133"></a>Page 62</span>highest flights of poetical creativeness. There are times, such as those of any great political upheaval, when human nature +will assert itself and break through its shackles in spite of all artificial or conventional restraints. Considering the enormous +influence of Confucianism throughout the latter half of Chinese history—<i>i.e.</i> the last two thousand years—it is surprising that the Chinese dared to think about supernatural matters at all, except in +the matter of propitiating their dead ancestors. That they did so is evidence not only of human nature’s inherent tendency +to tell stories, but also of the irrepressible strength of feeling which breaks all laws and commandments under great stimulus. +On the opposing unæsthetic side this may be compared to the feeling which prompts the unpremeditated assassination of a man +who is guilty of great injustice, even though it be certain that in due course he would have met his deserts at the hands +of the public executioner. + +</p><a id="d0e1138"></a><h2>The Influence of Religion</h2> +<p id="d0e1141">Apart from this, the influence of Confucianism would have been even greater than it was, but for the imperial partiality periodically +shown for rival doctrines, such as Buddhism and Taoism, which threw their weight on the side of the supernatural, and which +at times were exalted to such great heights as to be officially recognized as State religions. These, Buddhism especially, +appealed to the popular imagination and love of the marvellous. Buddhism spoke of the future state and the nature of the gods +in no uncertain tones. It showed men how to reach the one and attain to the other. Its founder was virtuous; his commandments +pure and life-sustaining. It supplied in great part what Confucianism lacked. And, as in the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1143"></a>Page 63</span>fifth and sixth centuries A.D., when Buddhism and Taoism joined forces and a working union existed between them, they practically +excluded for the time all the “chilly growth of Confucian classicism.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e1145">Other opponents of myth, including a critical philosopher of great ability, we shall have occasion to notice presently. + +</p><a id="d0e1147"></a><h2>History and Myth</h2> +<p id="d0e1150">The sobriety and accuracy of Chinese historians is proverbial. I have dilated upon this in another work, and need add here +only what I inadvertently omitted there—a point hitherto unnoticed or at least unremarked—that the very word for history in +Chinese (<i>shih</i>) means impartiality or an impartial annalist. It has been said that where there is much myth there is little history, and +<i>vice versa</i>, and though this may not be universally true, undoubtedly the persistently truthful recording of facts, events, and sayings, +even at the risk of loss, yea, and actual loss of life of the historian as the result of his refusal to make false entries +in his chronicle at the bidding of the emperor (as in the case of the historiographers of Ch’i in 547 B.C.), indicates a type +of mind which would require some very strong stimulus to cause it to soar very far into the hazy realms of fanciful imagination. + + +</p><a id="d0e1158"></a><h2>Chinese Rigidity</h2> +<p id="d0e1161">A further cause, already hinted at above, for the arrest of intellectual progress is to be found in the growth of the nation +in size during many centuries of isolation from the main stream of world-civilization, without that increase in heterogeneity +which comes from the moulding by forces external to itself. “As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance +of his friend.” <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1163"></a>Page 64</span>Consequently we find China what is known to sociology as an ‘aggregate of the first order,’ which during its evolution has +parted with its internal life-heat without absorbing enough from external sources to enable it to retain the plastic condition +necessary to further, or at least rapid, development. It is in a state of rigidity, a state recognized and understood by the +sociologist in his study of the evolution of nations. + +</p><a id="d0e1165"></a><h2>The Prerequisites to Myth</h2> +<p id="d0e1168">But the mere increase of constructive imagination is not sufficient to produce myth. If it were, it would be reasonable to +argue that as intellectual progress goes on myths become more numerous, and the greater the progress the greater the number +of myths. This we do not find. In fact, if constructive imagination went on increasing without the intervention of any further +factor, there need not necessarily be any myth at all. We might almost say that the reverse is the case. We connect myth with +primitive folk, not with the greatest philosophers or the most advanced nations—not, that is, with the most advanced stages +of national progress wherein constructive imagination makes the nation great and strong. In these stages the philosopher studies +or criticizes myth, he does not make it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1170">In order that there may be myth, three further conditions must be fulfilled. There must, as we have seen, be constructive +imagination, but, nevertheless, there must not be too much of it. As stated above, mythology, or rather myth, is the <i>unscientific</i> man’s explanation. If the constructive imagination is so great that it becomes self-critical, if the story-teller doubts +his own story, if, in short, his mind is scientific enough to see that his explanation <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1175"></a>Page 65</span>is no explanation at all, then there can be no myth properly so called. As in religion, unless the myth-maker believes in +his myth with all his heart and soul and strength, and each new disciple, as it is cared for and grows under his hands during +the course of years, holds that he must put his shoes from off his feet because the place whereon he treads is holy ground, +the faith will not be propagated, for it will lack the vital spark which alone can make it a living thing. + +</p><a id="d0e1177"></a><h2>Stimulus Necessary</h2> +<p id="d0e1180">The next condition is that there must be a stimulus. It is not ideas, but feelings, which govern the world, and in the history +of mythology where feeling is absent we find either weak imitation or repetition of the myths of other peoples (though this +must not be confused with certain elements which seem to be common to the myths of all races), or concoction, contamination, +or “genealogical tree-making,” or myths originated by “leisurely, peaceful tradition” and lacking the essential qualities +which appeal to the human soul and make their possessors very careful to preserve them among their most loved and valued treasures. +But, on the other hand, where feeling is stirred, where the requisite stimulus exists, where the people are in great danger, +or allured by the prize of some breathless adventure, the contact produces the spark of divine poetry, the myths are full +of artistic, philosophic, and religious suggestiveness, and have abiding significance and charm. They are the children, the +poetic fruit, of great labour and serious struggles, revealing the most fundamental forces, hopes, and cravings of the human +soul. Nations highly strung, undergoing strenuous emotion, intensely energized by constant conflict with <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1182"></a>Page 66</span>other nations, have their imagination stimulated to exceptional poetic creativeness. The background of the Danaïds is Egyptian, +not Greek, but it was the danger in which the Greeks were placed in their wars with the sons of the land of the Pharaohs that +stimulated the Greek imagination to the creation of that great myth. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1184">This explains why so many of the greatest myths have their staging, not in the country itself whose treasured possessions +they are, but where that country is ‘playing the great game,’ is carrying on wars decisive of far-reaching national events, +which arouse to the greatest pitch of excitement the feelings both of the combatants and of those who are watching them from +their homes. It is by such great events, not by the romance-writer in his peaceful study, that mythology, like literature, +is “incisively determined.” Imagination, we saw, goes <i>pari passu</i> with intellectual progress, and intellectual progress, in early times, is furthered not so much by the mere contact as by +the actual conflict of nations. And we see also that myths may, and very frequently do, have a character quite different from +that of the nation to which they appertain, for environment plays a most important part both in their inception and subsequent +growth—a truth too obvious to need detailed elaboration. + +</p><a id="d0e1189"></a><h2>Persistent Soul-expression</h2> +<p id="d0e1192">A third condition is that the type of imagination must be persistent through fairly long periods of time, otherwise not only +will there be an absence of sufficient feeling or momentum to cause the myths to be repeated and kept alive and transmitted +to posterity, but the inducement to add to them and so enable them to mature and become complete and finished off and sufficiently +attractive to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1194"></a>Page 67</span>appeal to the human mind in spite of the foreign character they often bear will be lacking. In other words, myths and legends +grow. They resemble not so much the narrative of the story-teller or novelist as a gradually developing art like music, or +a body of ideas like philosophy. They are human and natural, though they express the thought not of any one individual mind, +but of the folk-soul, exemplifying in poetical form some great psychological or physiographical truth. + +</p><a id="d0e1196"></a><h2>The Character of Chinese Myth</h2> +<p id="d0e1199">The nature of the case thus forbids us to expect to find the Chinese myths exhibiting the advanced state and brilliant heterogeneity +of those which have become part of the world’s permanent literature. We must expect them to be true to type and conditions, +as we expect the other ideas of the Chinese to be, and looking for them in the light of this knowledge we shall find them +just where we should expect to find them. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1201">The great sagas and eddas exalted among the world’s literary masterpieces, and forming part of the very life of a large number +of its inhabitants, are absent in China. “The Chinese people,” says one well-known sinologist, “are not prone to mythological +invention.” “He who expects to find in Tibet,” says another writer, “the poetical charm of Greek or Germanic mythology will +be disappointed. There is a striking poverty of imagination in all the myths and legends. A great monotony pervades them all. +Many of their stories, taken from the sacred texts, are quite puerile and insipid. It may be noted that the Chinese mythology +labours under the same defect.” And then there comes the crushing judgment of an over-zealous Christian missionary sinologist: +“There <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1203"></a>Page 68</span>is no hierarchy of gods brought in to rule and inhabit the world they made, no conclave on Mount Olympus, nor judgment of +the mortal soul by Osiris, no transfer of human love and hate, passions and hopes, to the powers above; all here is ascribed +to disembodied agencies or principles, and their works are represented as moving on in quiet order. There is no religion [!], +no imagination; all is impassible, passionless, uninteresting.... It has not, as in Greece and Egypt, been explained in sublime +poetry, shadowed forth in gorgeous ritual and magnificent festivals, represented in exquisite sculptures, nor preserved in +faultless, imposing fanes and temples, filled with ideal creations.” Besides being incorrect as to many of its alleged facts, +this view would certainly be shown by further study to be greatly exaggerated. + +</p><a id="d0e1205"></a><h2>Periods Fertile in Myth</h2> +<p id="d0e1208">What we should expect, then, to find from our philosophical study of the Chinese mind as affected by its surroundings would +be barrenness of constructive imagination, except when birth was given to myth through the operation of some external agency. +And this we do find. The period of the overthrow of the Yin dynasty and the establishment of the great house of Chou in 1122 +B.C., or of the Wars of the Three States, for example, in the third century after Christ, a time of terrible anarchy, a medieval +age of epic heroism, sung in a hundred forms of prose and verse, which has entered as motive into a dozen dramas, or the advent +of Buddhism, which opened up a new world of thought and life to the simple, sober, peace-loving agricultural folk of China, +were stimuli not by any means devoid of result. In China there are gods many and heroes many, and the very fact of the existence +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1210"></a>Page 69</span>of so great a multitude of gods would logically imply a wealth of mythological lore inseparable from their apotheosis. You +cannot—and the Chinese cannot—get behind reason. A man is not made a god without some cause being assigned for so important +and far-reaching a step; and in matters of this sort the stated cause is apt to take the form of a narrative more or less +marvellous or miraculous. These resulting myths may, of course, be born and grow at a later time than that in which the circumstances +giving rise to them took place, but, if so, that merely proves the persistent power of the originating stimulus. That in China +these narratives always or often reach the highest flights of constructive imagination is not maintained—the maintenance of +that argument would indeed be contradictory; but even in those countries where the mythological garden has produced some of +the finest flowers millions of seeds must have been sown which either did not spring up at all or at least failed to bring +forth fruit. And in the realm of mythology it is not only those gods who sit in the highest seats—creators of the world or +heads of great religions—who dominate mankind; the humbler, though often no less powerful gods or spirits—those even who run +on all fours and live in holes in the ground, or buzz through the air and have their thrones in the shadow of a leaf—have +often made a deeper impress on the minds and in the hearts of the people, and through that impress, for good or evil, have, +in greater or less degree, modified the life of the visible universe. + +</p><a id="d0e1212"></a><h2>Sources of Chinese Myth</h2> +<p id="d0e1215">“So, if we ask whence comes the heroic and the romantic, which supplies the story-teller’s stock-in-trade, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1217"></a>Page 70</span>the answer is easy. The legends and history of early China furnish abundance of material for them. To the Chinese mind their +ancient world was crowded with heroes, fairies, and devils, who played their part in the mixed-up drama, and left a name and +fame both remarkable and piquant. Every one who is familiar with the ways and the language of the people knows that the country +is full of common objects to which poetic names have been given, and with many of them there is associated a legend or a myth. +A deep river’s gorge is called ‘the Blind Man’s Pass,’ because a peculiar bit of rock, looked at from a certain angle, assumes +the outline of the human form, and there comes to be connected therewith a pleasing story which reaches its climax in the +petrifaction of the hero. A mountain’s crest shaped like a swooping eagle will from some one have received the name of ‘Eagle +Mountain,’ whilst by its side another shaped like a couchant lion will have a name to match. There is no lack of poetry among +the people, and most striking objects claim a poetic name, and not a few of them are associated with curious legends. It is, +however, to their national history that the story-teller goes for his most interesting subjects, and as the so-called history +of China imperceptibly passes into the legendary period, and this again fades into the mythical, and as all this is assuredly +believed by the masses of the people, it is obvious that in the national life of China there is no dearth of heroes whose +deeds of prowess will command the rapt attention of the crowds who listen.”<a id="d0e1219src" href="#d0e1219" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e1224">The soul in China is everywhere in evidence, and if myths have “first and foremost to do with the life of the soul” it would +appear strange that the Chinese, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1226"></a>Page 71</span>having spiritualized everything from a stone to the sky, have not been creative of myth. Why they have not the foregoing considerations +show us clearly enough. We must take them and their myths as we find them. Let us, then, note briefly the result of their +mental workings as reacted on by their environment. + +</p><a id="d0e1228"></a><h2>Phases of Chinese Myth</h2> +<p id="d0e1231">We cannot identify the earliest mythology of the Chinese with that of any primitive race. The myths, if any, of their place +of origin may have faded and been forgotten in their slow migration eastward. We cannot say that when they came from the West +(which they probably did) they brought their myths with them, for in spite of certain conjectural derivations from Babylon +we do not find them possessed of any which we can identify as imported by them at that time. But research seems to have gone +at least as far as this—namely, that while we cannot say that Chinese myth was derived from Indian myth, there is good reason +to believe that Chinese and Indian myth had a common origin, which was of course outside of China. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1233">To set forth in detail the various phases through which Chinese myth has passed would involve a technical description foreign +to the purpose of a popular work. It will sufficiently serve our present purpose to outline its most prominent features. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1235">In the earliest times there was an ‘age of magic’ followed by an ‘heroic age,’ but myths were very rare before 800 B.C., and +what is known as primitive mythology is said to have been invented or imitated from foreign sources after 820 B.C. In the +eighth century B.C. myths of an astrological character began to attract <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1237"></a>Page 72</span>attention. In the age of Lao Tzŭ (604 B.C.), the reputed founder of the Taoist religion, fresh legends appear, though Lao +Tzŭ himself, absorbed in the abstract, records none. Neither did Confucius (551–479 B.C.) nor Mencius, who lived two hundred +years later, add any legends to history. But in the Period of the Warring States (500–100 B.C.) fresh stimuli and great emotion +prompted to mythological creation. + +</p><a id="d0e1239"></a><h2>Tso-ch’iu Ming and Lieh Tzŭ</h2> +<p id="d0e1242">Tso-ch’iu Ming, commentator on Confucius’s <i>Annals</i>, frequently introduced legend into his history. Lieh Tzŭ (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.), a metaphysician, is one of the +earliest authors who deal in myths. He is the first to mention the story of Hsi Wang Mu, the Western Queen, and from his day +onward the fabulists have vied with one another in fantastic descriptions of the wonders of her fairyland. He was the first +to mention the islands of the immortals in the ocean, the kingdoms of the dwarfs and giants, the fruit of immortality, the +repairing of the heavens by Nü Kua Shih with five-coloured stones, and the great tortoise which supports the universe. + +</p><a id="d0e1247"></a><h2>The T’ang and Sung Epochs</h2> +<p id="d0e1250">Religious romance began at this time. The T’ang epoch (A.B. 618–907) was one of the resurrection of the arts of peace after +a long period of dissension. A purer and more enduring form of intellect was gradually overcoming the grosser but less solid +superstition. Nevertheless the intellectual movement which now manifested itself was not strong enough to prevail against +the powers of mythological darkness. It was reserved <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1252"></a>Page 73</span>for the scholars of the Sung Period (A.D. 960–1280) to carry through to victory a strong and sustained offensive against the +spiritualistic obsessions which had weighed upon the Chinese mind more or less persistently from the Han Period (206 B.C.-A.D. +221) onward. The dogma of materialism was specially cultivated at this time. The struggle of sober reason against superstition +or imaginative invention was largely a struggle of Confucianism against Taoism. Though many centuries had elapsed since the +great Master walked the earth, the anti-myth movement of the T’ang and Sung Periods was in reality the long arm and heavy +fist of Confucius emphasizing a truer rationalism than that of his opponents and denouncing the danger of leaving the firm +earth to soar into the unknown hazy regions of fantasy. It was Sung scholarship that gave the death-blow to Chinese mythology. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1254"></p> +<div id="d0e1255" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p072.jpg" alt="Lao Tzu"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Lao Tzu</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e1259">It is unnecessary to labour the point further, because after the Sung epoch we do not meet with any period of new mythological +creation, and its absence can be ascribed to no other cause than its defeat at the hands of the Sung philosophers. After their +time the tender plant was always in danger of being stunted or killed by the withering blast of philosophical criticism. Anything +in the nature of myth ascribable to post-Sung times can at best be regarded only as a late blossom born when summer days are +past. + +</p><a id="d0e1261"></a><h2>Myth and Doubt</h2> +<p id="d0e1264">It will bear repetition to say that unless the myth-builder firmly believes in his myth, be he the layer of the foundation-stone +or one of the raisers of the superstructure, he will hardly make it a living thing. Once he believes in reincarnation and +the suspension of natural <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1266"></a>Page 74</span>laws, the boundless vistas of space and the limitless æons of time are opened to him. He can perform miracles which astound +the world. But if he allow his mind to inquire, for instance, why it should have been necessary for Elijah to part the waters +of the Jordan with his garment in order that he and Elisha might pass over dryshod, or for Bodhidharma to stand on a reed +to cross the great Yangtzŭ River, or for innumerable Immortals to sit on ‘favourable clouds’ to make their journeys through +space, he spoils myth—his child is stillborn or does not survive to maturity. Though the growth of philosophy and decay of +superstition may be good for a nation, the process is certainly conducive to the destruction of its myth and much of its poetry. +The true mythologist takes myth for myth, enters into its spirit, and enjoys it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1268">We may thus expect to find in the realm of Chinese mythology a large number of little hills rather than a few great mountains, +but the little hills are very good ones after their kind; and the object of this work is to present Chinese myth as it is, +not as it might have been had the universe been differently constituted. Nevertheless, if, as we may rightly do, we judge +of myth by the sentiments pervading it and the ideals upheld and taught by it, we shall find that Chinese myth must be ranked +among the greatest. + +</p><a id="d0e1270"></a><h2>Myth and Legend</h2> +<p id="d0e1273">The general principles considered above, while they explain the paucity of myth in China, explain also the abundance of legend +there. The six hundred years during which the Mongols, Mings, and Manchus sat upon the throne of China are barren of myth, +but like all periods of the Chinese national life are fertile in legend. And <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1275"></a>Page 75</span>this chiefly for the reason that myths are more general, national, divine, while legends are more local, individual, human. +And since, in China as elsewhere, the lower classes are as a rule less educated and more superstitious than the upper classes—have +a certain amount of constructive imagination, but not enough to be self-critical—legends, rejected or even ridiculed by the +scholarly class when their knowledge has become sufficiently scientific, continue to be invented and believed in by the peasant +and the dweller in districts far from the madding crowd long after myth, properly so called, has exhaled its last breath. + +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1277"></a>Page 76</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1130" href="#d0e1130src" class="noteref">1</a> The inventions of the Chinese during a period of four thousand years may be numbered on the fingers of one hand. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1219" href="#d0e1219src" class="noteref">2</a> <i>East of Asia Magazine</i>, i, 15–16. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e1278"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter III</h2> +<h1>Cosmogony-p’an Ku and the Creation Myth</h1><a id="d0e1281"></a><h2>The Fashioner of the Universe</h2> +<p id="d0e1284">The most conspicuous figure in Chinese cosmogony is P’an Ku. He it was who chiselled the universe out of Chaos. According +to Chinese ideas, he was the offspring of the original dual powers of Nature, the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i> (to be considered presently), which, having in some incomprehensible way produced him, set him the task of giving form to +Chaos and “making the heavens and the earth.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e1292">Some accounts describe him as the actual creator of the universe—“the ancestor of Heaven and earth and all that live and move +and have their being.” ‘P’an’ means ‘the shell of an egg,’ and ‘Ku’ ‘to secure,’ ‘solid,’ referring to P’an Ku being hatched +from out of Chaos and to his settling the arrangement of the causes to which his origin was due. The characters themselves +may, however, mean nothing more than ‘Researches into antiquity,’ though some bolder translators have assigned to them the +significance if not the literal sense of ‘aboriginal abyss,’ or the Babylonian Tiamat, ‘the Deep.’ + +</p> +<p id="d0e1294">P’an Ku is pictured as a man of dwarfish stature clothed in bearskin, or merely in leaves or with an apron of leaves. He has +two horns on his head. In his right hand he holds a hammer and in his left a chisel (sometimes these are reversed), the only +implements he used in carrying out his great task. Other pictures show him attended in his labours by the four supernatural +creatures—the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise, and dragon; others again with the sun in one hand and the moon in the other, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1296"></a>Page 77</span>some of the firstfruits of his stupendous labours. (The reason for these being there will be apparent presently.) His task +occupied eighteen thousand years, during which he formed the sun, moon, and stars, the heavens and the earth, himself increasing +in stature day by day, being daily six feet taller than the day before, until, his labours ended, he died that his works might +live. His head became the mountains, his breath the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder, his limbs the four quarters of +the earth, his blood the rivers, his flesh the soil, his beard the constellations, his skin and hair the herbs and trees, +his teeth, bones, and marrow the metals, rocks, and precious stones, his sweat the rain, and the insects creeping over his +body human beings, who thus had a lowlier origin even than the tears of Khepera in Egyptian cosmology.<a id="d0e1298src" href="#d0e1298" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e1303">This account of P’an Ku and his achievements is of Taoist origin. The Buddhists have given a somewhat different account of +him, which is a late adaptation from the Taoist myth, and must not be mistaken for Buddhist cosmogony proper.<a id="d0e1305src" href="#d0e1305" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p><a id="d0e1311"></a><h2>The Sun and the Moon</h2> +<p id="d0e1314">In some of the pictures of P’an Ku he is represented, as already noted, as holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the +other. Sometimes they are in the form of those bodies, sometimes in the classic character. The legend says that when P’an +Ku put things in order in the lower world, he did not put these two luminaries in their proper courses, so they retired into +the Han Sea, and the people dwelt in darkness. The Terrestrial <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1316"></a>Page 78</span>Emperor sent an officer, Terrestrial Time, with orders that they should come forth and take their places in the heavens and +give the world day and night. They refused to obey the order. They were reported to Ju Lai; P’an Ku was called, and, at the +divine direction of Buddha, wrote the character for ‘sun’ in his left hand, and that for ‘moon’ in his right hand; and went +to the Han Sea, and stretched forth his left hand and called the sun, and then stretched forth his right hand and called the +moon, at the same time repeating a charm devoutly seven times; and they forthwith ascended on high, and separated time into +day and night.<a id="d0e1318src" href="#d0e1318" class="noteref">3</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e1324">Other legends recount that P’an Ku had the head of a dragon and the body of a serpent; and that by breathing he caused the +wind, by opening his eyes he created day, his voice made the thunder, etc. + +</p><a id="d0e1326"></a><h2>P’an Ku and Ymer</h2> +<p id="d0e1329">Thus we have the heavens and the earth fashioned by this wonderful being in eighteen thousand years. With regard to him we +may adapt the Scandinavian ballad: + +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e1332">It was Time’s morning +<br id="d0e1334">When P’an Ku lived; +<br id="d0e1336">There was no sand, no sea, +<br id="d0e1338">Nor cooling billows; +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e1341">Earth there was none, +<br id="d0e1343">No lofty Heaven; +<br id="d0e1345">No spot of living green; +<br id="d0e1347">Only a deep profound. +</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1349"></a>Page 79</span><p id="d0e1350">And it is interesting to note, in passing, the similarity between this Chinese artificer of the universe and Ymer, the giant, +who discharges the same functions in Scandinavian mythology. Though P’an Ku did not have the same kind of birth nor meet with +the violent death of the latter, the results as regards the origin of the universe seem to have been pretty much the same.<a id="d0e1352src" href="#d0e1352" class="noteref">4</a> + +</p><a id="d0e1361"></a><h2>P’an Ku a Late Creation</h2> +<p id="d0e1364">But though the Chinese creation myth deals with primeval things it does not itself belong to a primitive time. According to +some writers whose views are entitled to respect, it was invented during the fourth century A.D. by the Taoist recluse, Magistrate +Ko Hung, author of the <i>Shên hsien chuan</i> (<i>Biographies of the Gods</i>). The picturesque person of P’an Ku is said to have been a concession to the popular dislike of, or inability to comprehend, +the abstract. He was conceived, some Chinese writers say, because the philosophical explanations of the Cosmos were too recondite +for the ordinary mind to grasp. That he did fulfil the purpose of furnishing the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1372"></a>Page 80</span>ordinary mind with a fairly easily comprehensible picture of the creation may be admitted; but, as will presently be seen, +it is over-stating the case to say that he was conceived with the set purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with a concrete +solution or illustration of this great problem. There is no evidence that P’an Ku had existed as a tradition before the time +when we meet with the written account of him; and, what is more, there is no evidence that there existed any demand on the +part of the popular mind for any such solution or illustration. The ordinary mind would seem to have been either indifferent +to or satisfied with the abstruse cosmogonical and cosmological theories of the early sages for at least a thousand years. +The cosmogonies of the <i>I ching</i>, of Lao Tzŭ, Confucius (such as it was), Kuan Tzŭ, Mencius, Chuang Tzŭ, were impersonal. P’an Ku and his myth must be regarded +rather as an accident than as a creation resulting from any sudden flow of psychological forces or wind of discontent ruffling +the placid Chinese mind. If the Chinese brought with them from Babylon or anywhere else the elements of a cosmogony, whether +of a more or less abstruse scientific nature or a personal mythological narrative, it must have been subsequently forgotten +or at least has not survived in China. But for Ko Hung’s eccentricity and his wish to experiment with cinnabar from Cochin-China +in order to find the elixir of life, P’an Ku would probably never have been invented, and the Chinese mind would have been +content to go on ignoring the problem or would have quietly acquiesced in the abstract philosophical explanations of the learned +which it did not understand. Chinese cosmogony would then have consisted exclusively of the recondite impersonal metaphysics +which the Chinese <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1377"></a>Page 81</span>mind had entertained or been fed on for the nine hundred or more years preceding the invention of the P’an Ku myth. + +</p><a id="d0e1379"></a><h2>Nü Kua Shih, the Repairer of the Heavens</h2> +<p id="d0e1382">It is true that there exist one or two other explanations of the origin of things which introduce a personal creator. There +is, for instance, the legend—first mentioned by Lieh Tzŭ (to whom we shall revert later)—which represents Nü Kua Shih (also +called Nü Wa and Nü Hsi), said to have been the sister and successor of Fu Hsi, the mythical sovereign whose reign is ascribed +to the years 2953–2838 B.C., as having been the creator of human beings when the earth first emerged from Chaos. She (or he, +for the sex seems uncertain), who had the “body of a serpent and head of an ox” (or a human head and horns of an ox, according +to some writers), “moulded yellow earth and made man.” Ssŭ-ma Chêng, of the eighth century A.D., author of the <i>Historical Records</i> and of another work on the three great legendary emperors, Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and Huang Ti, gives the following account of +her: “Fu Hsi was succeeded by Nü Kua, who like him had the surname Fêng. Nü Kua had the body of a serpent and a human head, +with the virtuous endowments of a divine sage. Toward the end of her reign there was among the feudatory princes Kung Kung, +whose functions were the administration of punishment. Violent and ambitious, he became a rebel, and sought by the influence +of water to overcome that of wood [under which Nü Kua reigned]. He did battle with Chu Jung [said to have been one of the +ministers of Huang Ti, and later the God of Fire], but was not victorious; whereupon he struck his head against the Imperfect +Mountain, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1387"></a>Page 82</span>Pu Chou Shan, and brought it down. The pillars of Heaven were broken and the corners of the earth gave way. Hereupon Nü Kua +melted stones of the five colours to repair the heavens, and cut off the feet of the tortoise to set upright the four extremities +of the earth.<a id="d0e1389src" href="#d0e1389" class="noteref">5</a> Gathering the ashes of reeds she stopped the flooding waters, and thus rescued the land of Chi, Chi Chou [the early seat +of the Chinese sovereignty].” + +</p> +<p id="d0e1394">Another account separates the name and makes Nü and Kua brother and sister, describing them as the only two human beings in +existence. At the creation they were placed at the foot of the K’un-lun Mountains. Then they prayed, saying, “If thou, O God, +hast sent us to be man and wife, the smoke of our sacrifice will stay in one place; but if not, it will be scattered.” The +smoke remained stationary. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1396">But though Nü Kua is said to have moulded the first man (or the first human beings) out of clay, it is to be noted that, being +only the successor of Fu Hsi, long lines of rulers had preceded her of whom no account is given, and also that, as regards +the heavens and the earth at least, she is regarded as the repairer and not the creator of them. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1398">Heaven-deaf (T’ien-lung) and Earth-dumb (Ti-ya), the two attendants of Wên Ch’ang, the God of Literature (see following chapter), +have also been drawn into the cosmogonical net. From their union came the heavens and the earth, mankind, and all living things. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1400"></p> +<div id="d0e1401" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p082.jpg" alt="Nŭ Kua Shih"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Nŭ Kua Shih</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e1405">These and other brief and unelaborated personal cosmogonies, even if not to be regarded as spurious imitations, certainly +have not become established in the Chinese mind as the explanation of the way in which the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1407"></a>Page 83</span>universe came to be: in this sphere the P’an Ku legend reigns supreme; and, owing to its concrete, easily apprehensible nature, +has probably done so ever since the time of its invention. + +</p><a id="d0e1409"></a><h2>Early Cosmogony Dualistic</h2> +<p id="d0e1412">The period before the appearance of the P’an Ku myth may be divided into two parts; that from some early unknown date up to +about the middle of the Confucian epoch, say 500 B.C., and that from 500 B.C. to A.D. 400. We know that during the latter +period the minds of Chinese scholars were frequently occupied with speculations as to the origin of the universe. Before 500 +B.C. we have no documentary remains telling us what the Chinese believed about the origin of things; but it is exceedingly +unlikely that no theories or speculations at all concerning the origin of themselves and their surroundings were formed by +this intelligent people during the eighteen centuries or more which preceded the date at which we find the views held by them +put into written form. It is safe to assume that the dualism which later occupied their philosophical thoughts to so great +an extent as almost to seem inseparable from them, and exercised so powerful an influence throughout the course of their history, +was not only formulating itself during that long period, but had gradually reached an advanced stage. We may even go so far +as to say that dualism, or its beginnings, existed in the very earliest times, for the belief in the second self or ghost +or double of the dead is in reality nothing else. And we find it operating with apparently undiminished energy after the Chinese +mind had reached its maturity in the Sung dynasty. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1414"></a>Page 84</span></p><a id="d0e1415"></a><h2>The Canon of Changes</h2> +<p id="d0e1418">The Bible of Chinese dualism is the <i>I ching</i>, the <i>Canon of Changes</i> (or <i>Permutations</i>). It is held in great veneration both on account of its antiquity and also because of the “unfathomable wisdom which is supposed +to lie concealed under its mysterious symbols.” It is placed first in the list of the classics, or Sacred Books, though it +is not the oldest of them. When exactly the work itself on which the subsequent elaborations were founded was composed is +not now known. Its origin is attributed to the legendary emperor Fu Hsi (2953–2838 B.C.). It does not furnish a cosmogony +proper, but merely a dualistic system as an explanation, or attempted explanation, or even perhaps only a record, of the constant +changes (in modern philosophical language the “redistribution of matter and motion”) going on everywhere. That explanation +or record was used for purposes of divination. This dualistic system, by a simple addition, became a monism, and at the same +time furnished the Chinese with a cosmogony. + +</p><a id="d0e1429"></a><h2>The Five Elements</h2> +<p id="d0e1432">The Five Elements or Forces (<i>wu hsing</i>)—which, according to the Chinese, are metal, air, fire, water, and wood—are first mentioned in Chinese literature in a chapter +of the classic <i>Book of History</i>.<a id="d0e1440src" href="#d0e1440" class="noteref">6</a> They play a very important part in Chinese thought: ‘elements’ meaning generally not so much the actual substances as the +forces essential to human, life. They have to be noticed in passing, because they were involved in the development of the +cosmogonical ideas which took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1446"></a>Page 85</span></p><a id="d0e1447"></a><h2>Monism</h2> +<p id="d0e1450">As their imagination grew, it was natural that the Chinese should begin to ask themselves what, if the <i>yang</i> and the <i>yin</i> by their permutations produced, or gave shape to, all things, was it that produced the <i>yang</i> and the <i>yin</i>. When we see traces of this inquisitive tendency we find ourselves on the borderland of dualism where the transition is taking +place into the realm of monism. But though there may have been a tendency toward monism in early times, it was only in the +Sung dynasty that the philosophers definitely placed behind the <i>yang</i> and the <i>yin</i> a First Cause—the Grand Origin, Grand Extreme, Grand Terminus, or Ultimate Ground of Existence.<a id="d0e1470src" href="#d0e1470" class="noteref">7</a> They gave to it the name <i>t’ai chi</i>, and represented it by a concrete sign, the symbol of a circle. The complete scheme shows the evolution of the Sixty-four +Diagrams (<i>kua</i>) from the <i>t’ai chi</i> through the <i>yang</i> and the <i>yin</i>, the Four, Eight, Sixteen, and Thirty-two Diagrams successively. This conception was the work of the Sung philosopher Chou +Tun-i (A.D. 1017–73), commonly known as Chou Tzŭ, and his disciple Chu Hsi (A.D. 1130–1200), known as Chu Tzŭ or Chu Fu Tzŭ, +the famous historian and Confucian commentator—two of the greatest names in Chinese philosophy. It was at this time that the +tide of constructive imagination in China, tinged though it always was with classical Confucianism, rose to its greatest height. +There is the philosopher’s seeking for causes. Yet in this matter of the First Cause we detect, in the full flood of Confucianism, +the potent influence of Taoist and Buddhist speculations. It has even been said that the Sung philosophy, which grew, not +from the <i>I ching</i> itself, but from the appendixes to it, is more Taoistic than Confucian. As it was with the P’an Ku <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1503"></a>Page 86</span>legend, so was it with this more philosophical cosmogony. The more fertile Taoist and Buddhist imaginations led to the preservation +of what the Confucianists, distrusting the marvellous, would have allowed to die a natural death. It was, after all, the mystical +foreign elements which gave point to—we may rightly say rounded off—the early dualism by converting it into monism, carrying +philosophical speculation from the Knowable to the Unknowable, and furnishing the Chinese with their first scientific theory +of the origin, not of the changes going on in the universe (on which they had already formed their opinions), but of the universe +itself. + +</p><a id="d0e1505"></a><h2>Chou Tzŭ’s “T’ai Chi T’u”</h2> +<p id="d0e1508">Chou Tun-i, appropriately apotheosized as ‘Prince in the Empire of Reason,’ completed and systematized the philosophical world-conception +which had hitherto obtained in the Chinese mind. He did not ask his fellow-countrymen to discard any part of what they had +long held in high esteem: he raised the old theories from the sphere of science to that of philosophy by unifying them and +bringing them to a focus. And he made this unification intelligible to the Chinese mind by his famous <i>T’ai chi t’u</i>, or Diagram of the Great Origin (or Grand Terminus), showing that the Grand Original Cause, itself uncaused, produces the +<i>yang</i> and the <i>yin</i>, these the Five Elements, and so on, through the male and female norms (<i>tao</i>), to the production of all things. + +</p><a id="d0e1522"></a><h2>Chu Hsi’s Monistic Philosophy</h2> +<p id="d0e1525">The writings of Chu Hsi, especially his treatise on <i>The Immaterial Principle [li] and Primary Matter [ch’i]</i>, leave no doubt as to the monism of his philosophy. In this work <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1530"></a>Page 87</span>occurs the passage: “In the universe there exists no primary matter devoid of the immaterial principle; and no immaterial +principle apart from primary matter”; and although the two are never separated “the immaterial principle [as Chou Tzŭ explains] +is what is previous to form, while primary matter is what is subsequent to form,” the idea being that the two are different +manifestations of the same mysterious force from which all things proceed. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1532">It is unnecessary to follow this philosophy along all the different branches which grew out of it, for we are here concerned +only with the seed. We have observed how Chinese dualism became a monism, and how while the monism was established the dualism +was retained. It is this mono-dualistic theory, combining the older and newer philosophy, which in China, then as now, constitutes +the accepted explanation of the origin of things, of the universe itself and all that it contains. + +</p><a id="d0e1534"></a><h2>Lao Tzŭ’s “Tao”</h2> +<p id="d0e1537">There are other cosmogonies in Chinese philosophy, but they need not detain us long. Lao Tzŭ (sixth century B.C.), in his +<i>Tao-tê ching, The Canon of Reason and Virtue</i> (at first entitled simply <i>Lao Tzŭ</i>), gave to the then existing scattered sporadic conceptions of the universe a literary form. His <i>tao</i>, or ‘Way,’ is the originator of Heaven and earth, it is “the mother of all things.” His Way, which was “before God,” is but +a metaphorical expression for the manner in which things came at first into being out of the primal nothingness, and how the +phenomena of nature continue to go on, “in stillness and quietness, without striving or crying.” Lao Tzŭ is thus so far monistic, +but he is also mystical, transcendental, even <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1548"></a>Page 88</span>pantheistic. The way that can be walked is not the Eternal Way; the name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The Unnameable +is the originator of Heaven and earth; manifesting itself as the Nameable, it is “the mother of all things.” “In Eternal Non-Being +I see the Spirituality of Things; in Eternal Being their limitation. Though different under these two aspects, they are the +same in origin; it is when development takes place that different names have to be used. It is while they are in the condition +of sameness that the mystery concerning them exists. This mystery is indeed the mystery of mysteries. It is the door of all +spirituality.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e1550">This <i>tao</i>, indefinable and in its essence unknowable, is “the fountain-head of all beings, and the norm of all actions. But it is not +only the formative principle of the universe; it also seems to be primordial matter: chaotic in its composition, born prior +to Heaven and earth, noiseless, formless, standing alone in its solitude, and not changing, universal in its activity, and +unrelaxing, without being exhausted, it is capable of becoming the mother of the universe.” And there we may leave it. There +is no scheme of creation, properly so called. The Unwalkable Way leads us to nothing further in the way of a cosmogony. + +</p><a id="d0e1555"></a><h2>Confucius’s Agnosticism</h2> +<p id="d0e1558">Confucius (551–479 B.C.) did not throw any light on the problem of origin. He did not speculate on the creation of things +nor the end of them. He was not troubled to account for the origin of man, nor did he seek to know about his hereafter. He +meddled neither with physics nor metaphysics. There might, he thought, be <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1560"></a>Page 89</span>something on the other side of life, for he admitted the existence of spiritual beings. They had an influence on the living, +because they caused them to clothe themselves in ceremonious dress and attend to the sacrificial ceremonies. But we should +not trouble ourselves about them, any more than about supernatural things, or physical prowess, or monstrosities. How can +we serve spiritual beings while we do not know how to serve men? We feel the existence of something invisible and mysterious, +but its nature and meaning are too deep for the human understanding to grasp. The safest, indeed the only reasonable, course +is that of the agnostic—to leave alone the unknowable, while acknowledging its existence and its mystery, and to try to understand +knowable phenomena and guide our actions accordingly. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1562">Between the monism of Lao Tzŭ and the positivism of Confucius on the one hand, and the landmark of the Taoistic transcendentalism +of Chuang Tzŭ (fourth and third centuries B.C.) on the other, we find several “guesses at the riddle of existence” which must +be briefly noted as links in the chain of Chinese speculative thought on this important subject. + +</p><a id="d0e1564"></a><h2>Mo Tzŭ and Creation</h2> +<p id="d0e1567">In the philosophy of Mo Ti (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.), generally known as Mo Tzŭ or Mu Tzŭ, the philosopher of humanism +and utilitarianism, we find the idea of creation. It was, he says, Heaven (which was anthropomorphically regarded by him as +a personal Supreme Being) who “created the sun, moon, and innumerable stars.” His system closely resembles Christianity, but +the great power of Confucianism as a weapon wielded against all opponents by its doughty <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1569"></a>Page 90</span>defender Mencius (372–289 B.C.) is shown by the complete suppression of the influence of Mo Tzŭism at his hands. He even went +so far as to describe Mo Tzŭ and those who thought with him as “wild animals.” + +</p><a id="d0e1571"></a><h2>Mencius and the First Cause</h2> +<p id="d0e1574">Mencius himself regarded Heaven as the First Cause, or Cause of Causes, but it was not the same personal Heaven as that of +Mo Tzŭ. Nor does he hang any cosmogony upon it. His chief concern was to eulogize the doctrines of the great Confucius, and +like him he preferred to let the origin of the universe look after itself. + +</p><a id="d0e1576"></a><h2>Lieh Tzŭ’s Absolute</h2> +<p id="d0e1579">Lieh Tzŭ (said to have lived in the fifth century B.C.), one of the brightest stars in the Taoist constellation, considered +this nameable world as having evolved from an unnameable absolute being. The evolution did not take place through the direction +of a personal will working out a plan of creation: “In the beginning there was Chaos [<i>hun tun</i>]. It was a mingled potentiality of Form [<i>hsing</i>], Pneuma [<i>ch’i</i>], and Substance [<i>chih</i>]. A Great Change [<i>t’ai i</i>] took place in it, and there was a Great Starting [<i>t’ai ch’u</i>] which is the beginning of Form. The Great Starting evolved a Great Beginning [<i>t’ai shih</i>], which is the inception of Pneuma. The Great Beginning was followed by the Great Blank [<i>t’ai su</i>], which is the first formation of Substance. Substance, Pneuma, and Form being all evolved out of the primordial chaotic +mass, this material world as it lies before us came into existence.” And that which made it possible for Chaos to evolve was +the Solitary Indeterminate (<i>i tu</i> or the <i>tao</i>), <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1611"></a>Page 91</span>which is not created, but is able to create everlastingly. And being both Solitary and Indeterminate it tells us nothing determinate +about itself. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1613"></p> +<div id="d0e1614" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p090.jpg" alt="Mencius"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Mencius</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e1618"></a><h2>Chuang Tzŭ’s Super-tao</h2> +<p id="d0e1621">Chuang Chou (fourth and third centuries B.C.), generally known as Chuang Tzŭ, the most brilliant Taoist of all, maintained +with Lao Tzŭ that the universe started from the Nameless, but it was if possible a more absolute and transcendental Nameless +than that of Lao Tzŭ. He dwells on the relativity of knowledge; as when asleep he did not know that he was a man dreaming +that he was a butterfly, so when awake he did not know that he was not a butterfly dreaming that he was a man.<a id="d0e1623src" href="#d0e1623" class="noteref">8</a> But “all is embraced in the obliterating unity of the <i>tao</i>, and the wise man, passing into the realm of the Infinite, finds rest therein.” And this <i>tao</i>, of which we hear so much in Chinese philosophy, was before the Great Ultimate or Grand Terminus (<i>t’ai chi</i>), and “from it came the mysterious existence of God [<i>ti</i>]. It produced Heaven, it produced earth.” + +</p><a id="d0e1641"></a><h2>Popular Cosmogony still Personal or Dualistic</h2> +<p id="d0e1644">These and other cosmogonies which the Chinese have devised, though it is necessary to note their existence in order to give +a just idea of their cosmological speculations, need not, as I said, detain us long; and the reason <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1646"></a>Page 92</span>why they need not do so is that, in the matter of cosmogony, the P’an Ku legend and the <i>yin-yang</i> system with its monistic elaboration occupy virtually the whole field of the Chinese mental vision. It is these two—the popular +and the scientific—that we mean when we speak of Chinese cosmogony. Though here and there a stern sectarian might deny that +the universe originated in one or the other of these two ways, still, the general rule holds good. And I have dealt with them +in this order because, though the P’an Ku legend belongs to the fourth century A.D., the <i>I ching</i> dualism was not, rightly speaking, a cosmogony until Chou Tun-i made it one by the publication of his <i>T’ai chi t’u</i> in the eleventh century A.D. Over the unscientific and the scientific minds of the Chinese these two are paramount. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1657">Applying the general principles stated in the preceding chapter, we find the same cause which operated to restrict the growth +of mythology in general in China operated also in like manner in this particular branch of it. With one exception Chinese +cosmogony is non-mythological. The careful and studiously accurate historians (whose work aimed at being <i>ex veritate</i>, ‘made of truth’), the sober literature, the vast influence of agnostic, matter-of-fact Confucianism, supported by the heavy +Mencian artillery, are indisputable indications of a constructive imagination which grew too quickly and became too rapidly +scientific to admit of much soaring into the realms of fantasy. Unaroused by any strong stimulus in their ponderings over +the riddle of the universe, the sober, plodding scientists and the calm, truth-loving philosophers gained a peaceful victory +over the mythologists. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1662"></a>Page 93</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1298" href="#d0e1298src" class="noteref">1</a> <i>Cf</i>. Aristotle’s belief that bugs arose spontaneously from sweat. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1305" href="#d0e1305src" class="noteref">2</a> For the Buddhist account see <i>China Review</i>, xi, 80–82. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1318" href="#d0e1318src" class="noteref">3</a> Compare the Japanese legend, which relates that the Sun-goddess was induced to come out of a cave by being tempted to gaze +at herself in a mirror. See <i>Myths and Legends of Japan</i>, F. Hadland Davis, pp. 27–28. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1352" href="#d0e1352src" class="noteref">4</a> See <i>Myths of the Norsemen</i>, by H. A. Guerber. These resemblances and the further one—namely, the dualism in the prechaotic epoch (a very interesting +point in Scandinavian mythology)—illustrate the danger of inferring identity of origin from similarity of physical, intellectual, +or moral results. Several remarkable parallelisms of Chinese religious and mythological beliefs with those recorded in the +Hebrew scriptures may also be briefly noted. There is an age of virtue and happiness, a garden with a tree bearing ‘apples +of immortality,’ guarded by a winged serpent (dragon), the fall of man, the beginnings of lust and war (the doctrine of original +sin), a great flood, virgin-born god-men who rescue man from barbarism and endow him with superhuman attributes, discipleship, +worship of a Virgin Mother, trinities, monasticism, celibacy, fasting, preaching, prayers, primeval Chaos, Paradise, etc. +For details see <i>Chinese Repository,</i> vii, 520–521. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1389" href="#d0e1389src" class="noteref">5</a> <i>Cf.</i> the dwarfs in the Scandinavian myth. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1440" href="#d0e1440src" class="noteref">6</a> See Legge, <i>Shu ching</i>, ii, 320, note. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1470" href="#d0e1470src" class="noteref">7</a> In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is as well to note that the mention of the <i>t’ai chi</i> in the <i>Canon of Changes (I ching</i>) no more constituted monism the philosophy of China than did the steam-driven machinery mentioned by Hero of Alexandria constitute +the first century B.C. the ‘age of steam.’ Similarly, to take another example, the idea of the earth’s rotundity, though conceived +centuries before Ptolemy in the second century, did not become established before the sixteenth century. It was, in fact, +from the <i>I ching</i> that the Chinese derived their <i>dualistic</i> (not their monistic) conception of the world. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1623" href="#d0e1623src" class="noteref">8</a> “Formerly, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt that I was a butterfly, flying about and feeling that it was enjoying itself. I did not +know that it was Chou. Suddenly I awoke and was myself again, the veritable Chou. I did not know whether it had formerly been +Chou dreaming that he was a butterfly, or whether it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Chou.” <i>Chuang Tzŭ</i>, Book II. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e1663"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter IV</h2> +<h1>The Gods of China</h1><a id="d0e1666"></a><h2>The Birth of the Soul</h2> +<p id="d0e1669">The dualism noted in the last chapter is well illustrated by the Chinese pantheon. Whether as the result of the co-operation +of the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i> or of the final dissolution of P’an Ku, human beings came into existence. To the primitive mind the body and its shadow, +an object and its reflection in water, real life and dream life, sensibility and insensibility (as in fainting, etc.), suggest +the idea of another life parallel with this life and of the doings of the ‘other self’ in it. This ‘other self,’ this spirit, +which leaves the body for longer or shorter intervals in dreams, swoons, death, may return or be brought back, and the body +revive. Spirits which do not return or are not brought back may cause mischief, either alone, or by entry into another human +or animal body or even an inanimate object, and should therefore be propitiated. Hence worship and deification. + +</p><a id="d0e1677"></a><h2>The Populous Otherworld</h2> +<p id="d0e1680">The Chinese pantheon has gradually become so multitudinous that there is scarcely a being or thing which is not, or has not +been at some time or other, propitiated or worshipped. As there are good and evil people in this world, so there are gods +and demons in the Otherworld: we find a polytheism limited only by a polydemonism. The dualistic hierarchy is almost all-embracing. +To get a clear idea of this populous Otherworld, of the supernal and infernal hosts and their organizations, it needs but +to imagine the social structure in its main features as it existed <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1682"></a>Page 94</span>throughout the greater part of Chinese history, and to make certain additions. The social structure consisted of the ruler, +his court, his civil, military, and ecclesiastical officials, and his subjects (classed as Scholars—officials and gentry—Agriculturists, +Artisans, and Merchants, in that order). + +</p><a id="d0e1684"></a><h2>Worship of Shang Ti</h2> +<p id="d0e1687">When these died, their other selves continued to exist and to hold the same rank in the spirit world as they did in this one. +The <i>ti</i>, emperor, became the <i>Shang Ti</i>, Emperor on High, who dwelt in <i>T’ien</i>, Heaven (originally the great dome).<a id="d0e1698src" href="#d0e1698" class="noteref">1</a> And Shang Ti, the Emperor on High, was worshipped by <i>ti</i>, the emperor here below, in order to pacify or please him—to ensure a continuance of his benevolence on his behalf in the +world of spirits. Confusion of ideas and paucity of primitive language lead to personification and worship of a thing or being +in which a spirit has taken up its abode in place of or in addition to worship of the spirit itself. Thus Heaven (T’ien) itself +came to be personified and worshipped in addition to Shang Ti, the Emperor who had gone to Heaven, and who was considered +as the chief ruler in the spiritual world. The worship of Shang Ti was in existence before that of T’ien was introduced. Shang +Ti was worshipped by the emperor and his family as their ancestor, or the head of the hierarchy of their ancestors. The people +could not worship Shang Ti, for to do so would imply a familiarity or a claim of relationship punishable with death. The emperor +worshipped his ancestors, the officials theirs, the people theirs. But, in the same way and sense that the people worshipped +the emperor on earth, as the ‘father’ of the nation, namely, by adoration and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1707"></a>Page 95</span>obeisance, so also could they in this way and this sense worship Shang Ti. An Englishman may take off his hat as the king +passes in the street to his coronation without taking any part in the official service in Westminster Abbey. So the ‘worship’ +of Shang Ti by the people was not done officially or with any special ceremonial or on fixed State occasions, as in the case +of the worship of Shang Ti by the emperor. This, subject to a qualification to be mentioned later, is really all that is meant +(or should be meant) when it is said that the Chinese worship Shang Ti. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1709">As regards sacrifices to Shang Ti, these could be offered officially only by the emperor, as High Priest on earth, who was +attended or assisted in the ceremonies by members of his own family or clan or the proper State officials (often, even in +comparatively modern times, members of the imperial family or clan). In these official sacrifices, which formed part of the +State worship, the people could not take part; nor did they at first offer sacrifices to Shang Ti in their own homes or elsewhere. +In what way and to what extent they did so later will be shown presently. + +</p><a id="d0e1711"></a><h2>Worship of T’ien</h2> +<p id="d0e1714">Owing to T’ien, Heaven, the abode of the spirits, becoming personified, it came to be worshipped not only by the emperor, +but by the people also. But there was a difference between these two worships, because the emperor performed his worship of +Heaven officially at the great altar of the Temple of Heaven at Peking (in early times at the altar in the suburb of the capital), +whereas the people (continuing always to worship their ancestors) worshipped Heaven, when they did so at all—the custom being +observed by some and not by others, just as in Western countries some people go to church, while others <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1716"></a>Page 96</span>stay away—usually at the time of the New Year, in a simple, unceremonious way, by lighting some incense-sticks and waving +them toward the sky in the courtyards of their own houses or in the street just outside their doors. + +</p><a id="d0e1718"></a><h2>Confusion of Shang Ti and T’ien</h2> +<p id="d0e1721">The qualification necessary to the above description is that, as time went on and especially since the Sung dynasty (A.D. +960–1280), much confusion arose regarding Shang Ti and T’ien, and thus it came about that the terms became mixed and their +definitions obscure. This confusion of ideas has prevailed down to the present time. One result of this is that the people +may sometimes state, when they wave their incense-sticks or light their candles, that their humble sacrifice is made to Shang +Ti, whom in reality they have no right either to worship or to offer sacrifice to, but whom they may unofficially pay respect +and make obeisance to, as they might and did to the emperor behind the high boards on the roadsides which shielded him from +their view as he was borne along in his elaborate procession on the few occasions when he came forth from the imperial city. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1723">Thus we find that, while only the emperor could worship and sacrifice to Shang Ti, and only he could officially worship and +sacrifice to T’ien, the people who early personified and worshipped T’ien, as already shown, came, owing to confusion of the +meanings of Shang Ti and T’ien, unofficially to ‘worship’ both, but only in the sense and to the extent indicated, and to +offer ‘sacrifices’ to both, also only in the sense and to the extent indicated. But for these qualifications, the statement +that the Chinese worship and sacrifice to Shang Ti and T’ien would be apt to convey an incorrect idea. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1725"></a>Page 97</span></p> +<p id="d0e1726">From this it will be apparent that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler on High, and T’ien, Heaven (later personified), do not mean +‘God’ in the sense that the word is used in the Christian religion. To state that they do, as so many writers on China have +done, without pointing out the essential differences, is misleading. That Chinese religion was or is “a monotheistic worship +of God” is further disproved by the fact that Shang Ti and T’ien do not appear in the list of the popular pantheon at all, +though all the other gods are there represented. Neither Shang Ti nor T’ien mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or +the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost of the New Testament. Did they mean this, the efforts of the Christian missionaries to convert +the Chinese would be largely superfluous. The Christian religion, even the Holy Trinity, is a monotheism. That the Chinese +religion (even though a summary of extracts from the majority of foreign books on China might point to its being so) is not +a monotheism, but a polytheism or even a pantheism (as long as that term is taken in the sense of universal deification and +not in that of one spiritual being immanent in all things), the rest of this chapter will abundantly prove. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1728">There have been three periods in which gods have been created in unusually large numbers: that of the mythical emperor Hsien +Yüan (2698–2598 B.C.), that of Chiang Tzŭ-ya (in the twelfth century B.C.), and that of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty +(in the fourteenth century A.D.). + +</p><a id="d0e1730"></a><h2>The Otherworld Similar to this World</h2> +<p id="d0e1733">The similarity of the Otherworld to this world above alluded to is well shown by Du Bose in his <i>Dragon, Image, and, Demon</i>, from which I quote the following passages: +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1738"></a>Page 98</span></p> +<p id="d0e1739">“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 [now twenty-two] 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 Intendant of Circuit, 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 +<i>yamên</i> 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 government 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. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1744">“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. 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.” (Pp. 358–359.) +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1746"></a>Page 99</span></p> +<p id="d0e1747">This likeness explains also why the hierarchy of beings in the Otherworld concerns itself not only with the affairs of the +Otherworld, but with those of this world as well. So faithful is the likeness that we find the gods (the term is used in this +chapter to include goddesses, who are, however, relatively few) subjected to many of the rules and conditions existing on +this earth. Not only do they, as already shown, differ in rank, but they hold <i>levées</i> and audiences and may be promoted for distinguished services, just as the Chinese officials are. They “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 correlative +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. 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 Dragon Tiger Mountain, +but how can the people know gods which are not the same to-day as yesterday?” (Pp. 360–361.) + +</p> +<p id="d0e1752">The gods also indulge in amusements, marry, sin, are punished, die, are resurrected, or die and are transformed, or die finally.<a id="d0e1754src" href="#d0e1754" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p><a id="d0e1760"></a><h2>The Three Religions</h2> +<p id="d0e1763">We have in China the universal worship of ancestors, which constitutes (or did until A.D. 1912) the State <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1765"></a>Page 100</span>religion, usually known as Confucianism, and in addition we have the gods of the specific religions (which also originally +took their rise in ancestor-worship), namely, Buddhism and Taoism. (Other religions, though tolerated, are not recognized +as Chinese religions.) It is with a brief account of this great hierarchy and its mythology that we will now concern ourselves. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1767">Besides the ordinary ancestor-worship (as distinct from the State worship) the people took to Buddhism and Taoism, which became +the popular religions, and the <i>literati</i> also honoured the gods of these two sects. Buddhist deities gradually became installed in Taoist temples, and the Taoist +immortals were given seats beside the Buddhas in their sanctuaries. Every one patronized the god who seemed to him the most +popular and the most lucrative. There even came to be united in the same temple and worshipped at the same altar the three +religious founders or figure-heads, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao Tzŭ. The three religions were even regarded as forming one +whole, or at least, though different, as having one and the same object: <i>san êrh i yeh</i>, or <i>han san wei i</i>, “the three are one,” or “the three unite to form one” (a quotation from the phrase <i>T’ai chi han san wei i</i> of Fang Yü-lu: “When they reach the extreme the three are seen to be one”). In the popular pictorial representations of the +pantheon this impartiality is clearly shown. + +</p><a id="d0e1781"></a><h2>The Super-triad</h2> +<p id="d0e1784">The toleration, fraternity, or co-mixture of the three religions—ancestor-worship or Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Taoism—explains +the compound nature of the triune head of the Chinese pantheon. The <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1786"></a>Page 101</span>numerous deities of Buddhism and Taoism culminate each in a triad of gods (the Three Precious Ones and the Three Pure Ones +respectively), but the three religions jointly have also a triad compounded of one representative member of each. This general +or super-triad is, of course, composed of Confucius, Lao Tzŭ, and Buddha. This is the officially decreed order, though it +is varied occasionally by Buddha being placed in the centre (the place of honour) as an act of ceremonial deference shown +to a ‘stranger’ or ‘guest’ from another country. + +</p><a id="d0e1788"></a><h2>Worship of the Living</h2> +<p id="d0e1791">Before proceeding to consider the gods of China in detail, it is necessary to note that ancestor-worship, which, as before +stated, is worship of the ghosts of deceased persons, who are usually but not invariably relatives of the worshipper, has +at times a sort of preliminary stage in this world consisting of the worship of living beings. Emperors, viceroys, popular +officials, or people beloved for their good deeds have had altars, temples, and images erected to them, where they are worshipped +in the same way as those who have already “shuffled off this mortal coil.” The most usual cases are perhaps those of the worship +of living emperors and those in which some high official who has gained the gratitude of the people is transferred to another +post. The explanation is simple. The second self which exists after death is identical with the second self inhabiting the +body during life. Therefore it may be propitiated or gratified by sacrifices of food, drink, etc., or theatricals performed +in its honour, and continue its protection and good offices even though now far away. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1793"></a>Page 102</span></p><a id="d0e1794"></a><h2>Confucianism</h2> +<p id="d0e1797">Confucianism (<i>Ju Chiao</i>) is said to be the religion of the learned, and the learned were the officials and the <i>literati</i> or lettered class, which includes scholars waiting for posts, those who have failed to get posts (or, though qualified, prefer +to live in retirement), and those who have retired from posts. Of this ‘religion’ it has been said: + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p id="d0e1806">“The name embraces education, letters, ethics, and political philosophy. Its head was not a religious man, practised few religious +rites, and taught nothing about religion. In its usual acceptation the term Confucianist means ‘a gentleman and a scholar’; +he may worship only once a year, yet he belongs to the Church. Unlike its two sisters, it has no priesthood, and fundamentally +is not a religion at all; yet with the many rites grafted on the original tree it becomes a religion, and the one most difficult +to deal with. Considered as a Church, the classics are its scriptures, the schools its churches, the teachers its priests, +ethics its theology, and the written character, so sacred, its symbol.”<a id="d0e1808src" href="#d0e1808" class="noteref">3</a></p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e1811"></a><h2>Confucius not a God</h2> +<p id="d0e1814">It should be noted that Confucius himself is not a god, though he has been and is worshipped (66,000 animals used to be offered +to him every year; probably the number is about the same now). Suggestions have been made to make him the God of China and +Confucianism the religion of China, so that he and his religion would hold the same relative positions that Christ and Christianity +do in the West. I was present at the lengthy debate which took place on this subject in the Chinese <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1816"></a>Page 103</span>Parliament in February 1917, but in spite of many long, learned, and eloquent speeches, chiefly by scholars of the old school, +the motion was not carried. Nevertheless, the worship accorded to Confucius was and is (except by ‘new’ or ‘young’ China) +of so extreme a nature that he may almost be described as the great unapotheosized god of China.<a id="d0e1818src" href="#d0e1818" class="noteref">4</a> Some of his portraits even ascribe to him superhuman attributes. But in spite of all this the fact remains that Confucius +has not been appointed a god and holds no <i>exequatur</i> entitling him to that rank. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1827">If we inquire into the reason of this we find that, astonishing though it may seem, Confucius is classed by the Chinese not +as a god (<i>shên</i>), but as a demon (<i>kuei</i>). A short historical statement will make the matter clear. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1835">In the classical <i>Li chi, Book of Ceremonial</i>, we find the categorical assignment of the worship of certain objects to certain subjective beings: the emperor worshipped +Heaven and earth, the feudal princes the mountains and rivers, the officials the hearth, and the <i>literati</i> their ancestors. Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and hearth were called <i>shên</i> (gods), and ancestors <i>kuei</i> (demons). This distinction is due to Heaven being regarded as the god and the people as demons—the upper is the god, the +lower the evil spirit or demon. Though <i>kuei</i> were usually bad, the term in Chinese includes both good and evil spirits. In ancient times those who had by their meritorious +virtue while in the world averted calamities from the people were posthumously worshipped and called gods, but those who were +worshipped by their descendants only were called spirits or demons. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1852">In the worship of Confucius by emperors of various <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1854"></a>Page 104</span>dynasties (details of which need not be given here) the highest titles conferred on him were <i>Hsien Shêng</i>, ‘Former or Ancestral Saint,’ and even <i>Win Hsüan Wang</i>, ‘Accomplished and Illustrious Prince,’ and others containing like epithets. When for his image or idol there was (in the +eleventh year—A.D. 1307—of the reign-period Ta Tê of the Emperor Ch’êng Tsung of the Yüan dynasty) substituted the tablet +now seen in the Confucian temples, these were the inscriptions engraved on it. In the inscriptions authoritatively placed +on the tablets the word <i>shên</i> does not occur; in those cases where it does occur it has been placed there (as by the Taoists) illegally and without authority +by too ardent devotees. Confucius may not be called a <i>shên</i>, since there is no record showing that the great ethical teacher was ever apotheosized, or that any order was given that +the character <i>shên</i> was to be applied to him. + +</p><a id="d0e1871"></a><h2>The God of Literature</h2> +<p id="d0e1874">In addition to the ancestors of whose worship it really consists, Confucianism has in its pantheon the specialized gods worshipped +by the <i>literati</i>. Naturally the chief of these is Wên Ch’ang, the God of Literature. The account of him (which varies in several particulars +in different Chinese works) relates that he was a man of the name of Chang Ya, who was born during the T’ang dynasty in the +kingdom of Yüeh (modern Chêkiang), and went to live at Tzŭ T’ung in Ssŭch’uan, where his intelligence raised him to the position +of President of the Board of Ceremonies. Another account refers to him as Chang Ya Tzŭ, the Soul or Spirit of Tzŭ T’ung, and +states that he held office in the Chin dynasty (A.D. 265–316), and was killed in a fight. Another again states that under +the Sung dynasty (A.D. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1879"></a>Page 105</span>960–1280), in the third year (A.D. 1000) of the reign-period Hsien P’ing of the Emperor Chên Tsung, he repressed the revolt +of Wang Chün at Ch’êng Tu in Ssŭch’uan. General Lei Yu-chung caused to be shot into the besieged town arrows to which notices +were attached inviting the inhabitants to surrender. Suddenly a man mounted a ladder, and pointing to the rebels cried in +a loud voice: “The Spirit of Tzŭ T’ung has sent me to inform you that the town will fall into the hands of the enemy on the +twentieth day of the ninth moon, and not a single person will escape death.” Attempts to strike down this prophet of evil +were in vain, for he had already disappeared. The town was captured on the day indicated. The general, as a reward, caused +the temple of Tzŭ T’ung’s Spirit to be repaired, and sacrifices offered to it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1881">The object of worship nowadays in the temples dedicated to Wên Ch’ang is Tzŭ T’ung Ti Chün, the God of Tzŭ T’ung. The convenient +elasticity of dualism enabled Chang to have as many as seventeen reincarnations, which ranged over a period of some three +thousand years. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1883">Various emperors at various times bestowed upon Wên Ch’ang honorific titles, until ultimately, in the Yüan, or Mongol, dynasty, +in the reign Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, the title was conferred on him of Supporter of the Yüan Dynasty, Diffuser of Renovating +Influences, Ssŭ-lu of Wên Ch’ang, God and Lord. He was thus apotheosized, and took his place among the gods of China. By steps +few or many a man in China has often become a god. + +</p><a id="d0e1885"></a><h2>Wên Ch’ang and the Great Bear</h2> +<p id="d0e1888">Thus we have the God of Literature, Wên Ch’ang Ti Chün, duly installed in the Chinese pantheon, and sacrifices were offered +to him in the schools. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1890"></a>Page 106</span></p> +<p id="d0e1891">But scholars, especially those about to enter for the public competitive examinations, worshipped as the God of Literature, +or as his palace or abode (Wên Ch’ang), the star K’uei in the Great Bear, or Dipper, or Bushel—the latter name derived from +its resemblance in shape to the measure used by the Chinese and called <i>tou</i>. The term K’uei was more generally applied to the four stars forming the body or square part of the Dipper, the three forming +the tail or handle being called Shao or Piao. How all this came about is another story. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1896">A scholar, as famous for his literary skill as his facial deformities, had been admitted as first academician at the metropolitan +examinations. It was the custom that the Emperor should give with his own hand a rose of gold to the fortunate candidate. +This scholar, whose name was Chung K’uei, presented himself according to custom to receive the reward which by right was due +to him. At the sight of his repulsive face the Emperor refused the golden rose. In despair the miserable rejected one went +and threw himself into the sea. At the moment when he was being choked by the waters a mysterious fish or monster called <i>ao</i> raised him on its back and brought him to the surface. K’uei ascended to Heaven and became arbiter of the destinies of men +of letters. His abode was said to be the star K’uei, a name given by the Chinese to the sixteen stars of the constellation +or ‘mansion’ of Andromeda and Pisces. The scholars quite soon began to worship K’uei as the God of Literature, and to represent +it on a column in the temples. Then sacrifices were offered to it. This star or constellation was regarded as the palace of +the god. The legend gave rise to an expression frequently used in Chinese of one who comes out first in an examination, namely, +<i>tu chan ao <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1903"></a>Page 107</span>t’ou</i>, “to stand alone on the sea-monster’s head.” It is especially to be noted that though the two K’ueis have the same sound +they are represented by different characters, and that the two constellations are not the same, but are situated in widely +different parts of the heavens. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1906">How then did it come about that scholars worshipped the K’uei in the Great Bear as the abode of the God of Literature? (It +may be remarked in passing that a literary people could not have chosen a more appropriate palace for this god, since the +Great Bear, the ‘Chariot of Heaven,’ is regarded as the centre and governor of the whole universe.) The worship, we saw, was +at first that of the star K’uei, the apotheosized ‘homely,’ successful, but rejected candidate. As time went on, there was +a general demand for a sensible, concrete representation of this star-god: a simple character did not satisfy the popular +taste. But it was no easy matter to comply with the demand. Eventually, guided doubtless by the community of pronunciation, +they substituted for the star or group of stars K’uei (1),<a id="d0e1908src" href="#d0e1908" class="noteref">5</a> venerated in ancient times, a new star or group of stars K’uei (2), forming the square part of the Bushel, Dipper, or Great +Bear. But for this again no bodily image could be found, so the form of the written character itself was taken, and so drawn +as to represent a <i>kuei</i> (3) (disembodied spirit, or ghost) with its foot raised, and bearing aloft a <i>tou</i> (4) (bushel-measure). The adoration was thus misplaced, for the constellation K’uei (2) was mistaken for K’uei (1), <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1923"></a>Page 108</span>the proper object of worship. It was due to this confusion by the scholars that the Northern Bushel came to be worshipped +as the God of Literature. + +</p><a id="d0e1925"></a><h2>Wên Ch’ang and Tzŭ T’ung</h2> +<p id="d0e1928">This worship had nothing whatever to do with the Spirit of Tzŭ T’ung, but the Taoists have connected Chang Ya with the constellation +in another way by saying that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, entrusted Chang Ya’s son with the management of the palace of Wên +Ch’ang. And scholars gradually acquired the habit of saying that they owed their success to the Spirit of Tzŭ T’ung, which +they falsely represented as being an incarnation of the star Wên Ch’ang. This is how Chang Ya came to have the honorific title +of Wên Ch’ang, but, as a Chinese author points out, Chang belonged properly to Ssŭch’uan, and his worship should be confined +to that province. The <i>literati</i> there venerated him as their master, and as a mark of affection and gratitude built a temple to him; but in doing so they +had no intention of making him the God of Literature. “There being no real connexion between Chang Ya and K’uei, the worship +should be stopped.” The device of combining the personality of the patron of literature enthroned among the stars with that +of the deified mortal canonized as the Spirit of Tzŭ T’ung was essentially a Taoist trick. “The thaumaturgic reputation assigned +to the Spirit of Chang Ya Tzŭ was confined for centuries to the valleys of Ssŭch’uan, until at some period antecedent to the +reign Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, a combination was arranged between the functions of the local god and those of the stellar patron +of literature. Imperial sanction was obtained for this stroke of priestly cunning; and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1933"></a>Page 109</span>notwithstanding protests continually repeated by orthodox sticklers for accuracy in the religious canon, the composite deity +has maintained his claims intact, and an inseparable connexion between the God of Literature created by imperial patent and +the spirit lodged among the stars of Ursa Major is fully recognized in the State ceremonial of the present day.” A temple +dedicated to this divinity by the State exists in every city of China, besides others erected as private benefactions or speculations. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1935">Wherever Wên Ch’ang is worshipped there will also be found a separate representation of K’uei Hsing, showing that while the +official deity has been allowed to ‘borrow glory’ from the popular god, and even to assume his personality, the independent +existence of the stellar spirit is nevertheless sedulously maintained. The place of the latter in the heavens above is invariably +symbolized by the lodgment of his idol in an upper storey or tower, known as the K’uei Hsing Ko or K’uei Hsing Lou. Here students +worship the patron of their profession with incense and prayers. Thus the ancient stellar divinity still largely monopolizes +the popular idea of a guardian of literature and study, notwithstanding that the deified recluse of Tzŭ T’ung has been added +in this capacity to the State pantheon for more than five hundred years. + +</p><a id="d0e1937"></a><h2>Heaven-deaf and Earth-dumb</h2> +<p id="d0e1940">The popular representations of Wên Ch’ang depict the god himself and four other figures. The central and largest is the demure +portrait of the god, clothed in blue and holding a sceptre in his left hand. Behind him stand two youthful attendants. They +are the servant and groom who always accompany him on his journeys (on which he rides a white horse). Their names are <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1942"></a>Page 110</span>respectively Hsüan T’ung-tzŭ and Ti-mu, ‘Sombre Youth’ and ‘Earth-mother’; more commonly they are called T’ien-lung, ‘Deaf +Celestial,‘ and Ti-ya, ‘Mute Terrestrial,’ or ‘Deaf as Heaven’ and ‘Mute as Earth.’ Thus they cannot divulge the secrets of +their master’s administration as he distributes intellectual gifts, literary skill, etc. Their cosmogonical connexion has +already been referred to in a previous chapter. + +</p><a id="d0e1944"></a><h2>Image of K’uei Hsing</h2> +<p id="d0e1947">In front of Wên Ch’ang, on his left, stands K’uei Hsing. He is represented as of diminutive stature, with the visage of a +demon, holding a writing-brush in his right hand and a <i>tou</i> in his left, one of his legs kicking up behind—the figure being obviously intended as an impersonation of the character <i>k’uei</i> (2).<a id="d0e1955src" href="#d0e1955" class="noteref">6</a> He is regarded as the distributor of literary degrees, and was invoked above all in order to obtain success at the competitive +examinations. His images and temples are found in all towns. In the temples dedicated to Wên Ch’ang there are always two secondary +altars, one of which is consecrated to his worship. + +</p><a id="d0e1958"></a><h2>Mr Redcoat</h2> +<p id="d0e1961">The other is dedicated to Chu I, ‘Mr Redcoat.’ He and K’uei Hsing are represented as the two inseparable companions of the +God of Literature. The legend related of Chu I is as follows: + +</p> +<p id="d0e1963">During the T’ang dynasty, in the reign-period Chien Chung (A.D. 780–4) of the Emperor Tê Tsung, the Princess T’ai Yin noticed +that Lu Ch’i, a native of Hua Chou, had the bones of an Immortal, and wished to marry him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1965"></p> +<div id="d0e1966" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p110.jpg" alt="Wên Ch’ang, K’uei Hsing, and Chu I."></p> +<p class="figureHead">Wên Ch’ang, K’uei Hsing, and Chu I.</p> +</div><p> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1970"></a>Page 111</span></p> +<p id="d0e1971">Ma P’o, her neighbour, introduced him one day into the Crystal Palace for an interview with his future wife. The Princess +gave him the choice of three careers: to live in the Dragon Prince’s Palace, with the guarantee of immortal life, to enjoy +immortality among the people on the earth, or to have the honour of becoming a minister of the Empire. Lu Ch’i first answered +that he would like to live in the Crystal Palace. The young lady, overjoyed, said to him: “I am Princess T’ai Yin. I will +at once inform Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler.” A moment later the arrival of a celestial messenger was announced. Two officers +bearing flags preceded him and conducted him to the foot of the flight of steps. He then presented himself as Chu I, the envoy +of Shang Ti. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1973">Addressing himself to Lu Ch’i, he asked: “Do you wish to live in the Crystal Palace?” The latter did not reply. T’ai Yin urged +him to give his answer, but he persisted in keeping silent. The Princess in despair retired to her apartment, and brought +out five pieces of precious cloth, which she presented to the divine envoy, begging him to have patience a little longer and +wait for the answer. After some time, Chu I repeated his question. Then Lu Ch’i in a firm voice answered: “I have consecrated +my life to the hard labour of study, and wish to attain to the dignity of minister on this earth.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e1975">T’ai Yin ordered Ma P’o to conduct Lu Ch’i from the palace. From that day his face became transformed: he acquired the lips +of a dragon, the head of a panther, the green face of an Immortal, etc. He took his degree, and was promoted to be Director +of the Censorate. The Emperor, appreciating the good sense shown in his advice, appointed him a minister of the Empire. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1977">From this legend it would seem that Chu I is the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1979"></a>Page 112</span>purveyor of official posts; however, in practice, he is more generally regarded as the protector of weak candidates, as the +God of Good Luck for those who present themselves at the examinations with a somewhat light equipment of literary knowledge. +The special legend relating to this <i>rôle</i> is known everywhere in China. It is as follows: + +</p><a id="d0e1984"></a><h2>Mr Redcoat nods his Head</h2> +<p id="d0e1987">An examiner, engaged in correcting the essays of the candidates, after a superficial scrutiny of one of the essays, put it +on one side as manifestly inferior, being quite determined not to pass the candidate who had composed it. The essay, moved +by some mysterious power, was replaced in front of his eyes, as if to invite him to examine it more attentively. At the same +time a reverend old man, clothed in a red garment, suddenly appeared before him, and by a nod of his head gave him to understand +that he should pass the essay. The examiner, surprised at the novelty of the incident, and fortified by the approval of his +supernatural visitor, admitted the author of the essay to the literary degree. + +</p> +<p id="d0e1989">Chu I, like K’uei Hsing, is invoked by the <i>literati</i> as a powerful protector and aid to success. When anyone with but a poor chance of passing presents himself at an examination, +his friends encourage him by the popular saying: “Who knows but that Mr Redcoat will nod his head?” + +</p><a id="d0e1994"></a><h2>Mr Golden Cuirass</h2> +<p id="d0e1997">Chu I is sometimes accompanied by another personage, named Chin Chia, ‘Mr Golden Cuirass.’ Like K’uei Hsing and Chu I he has +charge of the interests of scholars, but differs from them in that he holds a flag, which he has <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1999"></a>Page 113</span>only to wave in front of a house for the family inhabiting it to be assured that among their descendants will be some who +will win literary honours and be promoted to high offices under the State. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2001">Though Chin Chia is the protector of scholars, he is also the redoubtable avenger of their evil actions: his flag is saluted +as a good omen, but his sword is the terror of the wicked. + +</p><a id="d0e2003"></a><h2>The God of War</h2> +<p id="d0e2006">Still another patron deity of literature is the God of War. “How,” it may be asked, “can so peaceful a people as the Chinese +put so peaceful an occupation as literature under the patronage of so warlike a deity as the God of War?” But that question +betrays ignorance of the character of the Chinese Kuan Ti. He is not a cruel tyrant delighting in battle and the slaying of +enemies: he is the god who can <i>avert war and protect the people from its horrors</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2011">A youth, whose name was originally Chang-shêng, afterward changed to Shou-chang, and then to Yün-chang, who was born near +Chieh Liang, in Ho Tung (now the town of Chieh Chou in Shansi), and was of an intractable nature, having exasperated his parents, +was shut up in a room from which he escaped by breaking through the window. In one of the neighbouring houses he heard a young +lady and an old man weeping and lamenting. Running to the foot of the wall of the compound, he inquired the reason of their +grief. The old man replied that though his daughter was already engaged, the uncle of the local official, smitten by her beauty, +wished to make her his concubine. His petitions to the official had only been rejected with curses. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2013"></a>Page 114</span></p> +<p id="d0e2014">Beside himself with rage, the youth seized a sword and went and killed both the official and his uncle. He escaped through +the T’ung Kuan, the pass to Shensi. Having with difficulty avoided capture by the barrier officials, he knelt down at the +side of a brook to wash his face; when lo! his appearance was completely transformed. His complexion had become reddish-grey, +and he was absolutely unrecognizable. He then presented himself with assurance before the officers, who asked him his name. +“My name is Kuan,” he replied. It was by that name that he was thereafter known. + +</p><a id="d0e2016"></a><h2>The Meat-seller’s Challenge</h2> +<p id="d0e2019">One day he arrived at Chu-chou, a dependent sub-prefecture of Peking, in Chihli. There Chang Fei, a butcher, who had been +selling his meat all the morning, at noon lowered what remained into a well, placed over the mouth of the well a stone weighing +twenty-five pounds, and said with a sneer: “If anyone can lift that stone and take my meat, I will make him a present of it!” +Kuan Yü, going up to the edge of the well, lifted the stone with the same ease as he would a tile, took the meat, and made +off. Chang Fei pursued him, and eventually the two came to blows, but no one dared to separate them. Just then Liu Pei, a +hawker of straw shoes, arrived, interposed, and put a stop to the fight. The community of ideas which they found they possessed +soon gave rise to a firm friendship between the three men. + +</p><a id="d0e2021"></a><h2>The Oath in the Peach-orchard</h2> +<p id="d0e2024">Another account represents Liu Pei and Chang Fei as having entered a village inn to drink wine, when a man of gigantic stature +pushing a wheelbarrow stopped at <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2026"></a>Page 115</span>the door to rest. As he seated himself, he hailed the waiter, saying: “Bring me some wine quickly, because I have to hasten +to reach the town to enlist in the army.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2028">Liu Pei looked at this man, nine feet in height, with a beard two feet long. His face was the colour of the fruit of the jujube-tree, +and his lips carmine. Eyebrows like sleeping silkworms shaded his phoenix eyes, which were a scarlet red. Terrible indeed +was his bearing. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2030">“What is your name?” asked Liu Pei. “My family name is Kuan, my own name is Yü, my surname Yün Chang,” he replied. “I am from +the Ho Tung country. For the last five or six years I have been wandering about the world as a fugitive, to escape from my +pursuers, because I killed a powerful man of my country who was oppressing the poor people. I hear that they are collecting +a body of troops to crush the brigands, and I should like to join the expedition.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2032">Chang Fêi, also named Chang I Tê, is described as eight feet in height, with round shining eyes in a panther’s head, and a +pointed chin bristling with a tiger’s beard. His voice resembled the rumbling of thunder. His ardour was like that of a fiery +steed. He was a native of Cho Chün, where he possessed some fertile farms, and was a butcher and wine-merchant. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2034">Liu Pei, surnamed Hsüan Tê, otherwise Hsien Chu, was the third member of the group. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2036">The three men went to Chang Fei’s farm, and on the morrow met together in his peach-orchard, and sealed their friendship with +an oath. Having procured a black ox and a white horse, with the various accessories to a sacrifice, they immolated the victims, +burnt the incense <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2038"></a>Page 116</span>of friendship, and after twice prostrating themselves took this oath: + +</p> +<p id="d0e2040">“We three, Liu Pei, Kuan Yû, and Chang Fei, already united by mutual friendship, although belonging to different clans, now +bind ourselves by the union of our hearts, and join our forces in order to help each other in times of danger. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2042">“We wish to pay to the State our debt of loyal citizens and give peace to our black-haired compatriots. We do not inquire +if we were born in the same year, the same month, or on the same day, but we desire only that the same year, the same month, +and the same day may find us united in death. May Heaven our King and Earth our Queen see clearly our hearts! If any one of +us violate justice or forget benefits, may Heaven and Man unite to punish him!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2044">The oath having been formally taken, Liu Pei was saluted as elder brother, Kuan Yü as the second, and Chang Fei as the youngest. +Their sacrifice to Heaven and earth ended, they killed an ox and served a feast, to which the soldiers of the district were +invited to the number of three hundred or more. They all drank copiously until they were intoxicated. Liu Pei enrolled the +peasants; Chang Fei procured for them horses and arms; and then they set out to make war on the Yellow Turbans (Huang Chin +Tsei). Kuan Yü proved himself worthy of the affection which Liu Pei showed him; brave and generous, he never turned aside +from danger. His fidelity was shown especially on one occasion when, having been taken prisoner by Ts’ao Ts’ao, together with +two of Liu Pei’s wives, and having been allotted a common sleeping-apartment with his fellow-captives, he preserved the ladies’ +reputation and his own trustworthiness <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2046"></a>Page 117</span>by standing all night at the door of the room with a lighted lantern in his hand. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2048">Into details of the various exploits of the three Brothers of the Peach-orchard we need not enter here. They are written in +full in the book of the <i>Story of the Three Kingdoms</i>, a romance in which every Chinese who can read takes keen delight. Kuan Yü remained faithful to his oath, even though tempted +with a marquisate by the great Ts’ao Ts’ao, but he was at length captured by Sun Ch’üan and put to death (A.D. 219). Long +celebrated as the most renowned of China’s military heroes, he was ennobled in A.D. 1120 as Faithful and Loyal Duke. Eight +years later he had conferred on him by letters patent the still more glorious title of Magnificent Prince and Pacificator. +The Emperor Wên (A.D. 1330–3) of the Yüan dynasty added the appellation Warrior Prince and Civilizer, and, finally, the Emperor +Wan Li of the Ming dynasty, in 1594, conferred on him the title of Faithful and Loyal Great <i>Ti</i>, Supporter of Heaven and Protector of the Kingdom. He thus became a god, a <i>ti</i>, and has ever since received worship as Kuan Ti or Wu Ti, the God of War. Temples (1600 State temples and thousands of smaller +ones) erected in his honour are to be seen in all parts of the country. He is one of the most popular gods of China. During +the last half-century of the Manchu Period his fame greatly increased. In 1856 he is said to have appeared in the heavens +and successfully turned the tide of battle in favour of the Imperialists. His portrait hangs in every tent, but his worship +is not confined to the officials and the army, for many trades and professions have elected him as a patron saint. The sword +of the public executioner used to be kept within the precincts of his <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2059"></a>Page 118</span>temple, and after an execution the presiding magistrate would stop there to worship for fear the ghost of the criminal might +follow him home. He knew that the spirit would not dare to enter Kuan Ti’s presence. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2061">Thus the Chinese have no fewer than three gods of literature—perhaps not too many for so literary a people. A fourth, a Taoist +god, will be mentioned later. + +</p><a id="d0e2063"></a><h2>Buddhism in China</h2> +<p id="d0e2066">Buddhism and its mythology have formed an important part of Chinese thought for nearly two thousand years. The religion was +brought to China about A.D. 65, ready-made in its Mahayanistic form, in consequence of a dream of the Emperor Ming Ti (A.D. +58–76) of the Eastern Han dynasty in or about the year 63; though some knowledge of Buddha and his doctrines existed as early +as 217 B.C. As Buddha, the chief deity of Buddhism, was a man and became a god, the religion originated, like the others, +in ancestor-worship. When a man dies, says this religion, his other self reappears in one form or another, “from a clod to +a divinity.” The way for Buddhism in China was paved by Taoism, and Buddhism reciprocally affected Taoism by helpful development +of its doctrines of sanctity and immortalization. Buddhism also, as it has been well put by Dr De Groot,<a id="d0e2068src" href="#d0e2068" class="noteref">7</a> “contributed much to the ceremonial adornment of ancestor-worship. Its salvation work on behalf of the dead saved its place +in Confucian China; for of Confucianism itself, piety and devotion towards parents and ancestors, and the promotion of their +happiness, were the core, and, consequently, their worship with sacrifices and ceremonies was always a sacred duty.” <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2073"></a>Page 119</span>It was thus that it was possible for the gods of Buddhism to be introduced into China and to maintain their special characters +and fulfil their special functions without being absorbed into or submerged by the existing native religions. The result was, +as we have seen, in the end a partnership rather than a relation of master and servant; and I say ‘in the end’ because, contrary +to popular belief, the Chinese have not been tolerant of foreign religious faiths, and at various times have persecuted Buddhism +as relentlessly as they have other rivals to orthodox Confucianism. + +</p><a id="d0e2075"></a><h2>Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood</h2> +<p id="d0e2078">At the head of the Buddhist gods in China we find the triad known as Buddha, the Law, and the Church, or Priesthood, which +are personified as Shih-chia Fo (Shâkya), O-mi-t’o Fo (Amita), and Ju-lai Fo (Tathagata); otherwise Fo Pao, Fa Pao, and Sêng +Pao (the <i>San Pao</i>, ‘Three Precious Ones’)—that is, Buddha, the prophet who came into the world to teach the Law, Dharma, the Law Everlasting, +and Samgha, its mystical body, Priesthood, or Church. Dharma is an entity underived, containing the spiritual elements and +material constituents of the universe. From it the other two evolve: Buddha (Shâkyamuni), the creative energy, Samgha, the +totality of existence and of life. To the people these are three personal Buddhas, whom they worship without concerning themselves +about their origin. To the priests they are simply the Buddha, past, present, or future. There are also several other of these +groups or triads, ten or more, composed of different deities, or sometimes containing one or two of the triad already named. +Shâkyamuni heads the list, having a place in at least six. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2083"></a>Page 120</span></p> +<p id="d0e2084">The legend of the Buddha belongs rather to Indian than to Chinese mythology, and is too long to be reproduced here.<a id="d0e2086src" href="#d0e2086" class="noteref">8</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2092">The principal gods of Buddhism are Jan-têng Fo, the Light-lamp Buddha, Mi-lo Fo (Maitrêya), the expected Messiah of the Buddhists, +O-mi-t’o Fo (Amitabha or Amita), the guide who conducts his devotees to the Western Paradise, Yüeh-shih Fo, the Master-physician +Buddha, Ta-shih-chih P’u-sa (Mahastama), companion of Amitabha, P’i-lu Fo (Vairotchana), the highest of the Threefold Embodiments, +Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, Ti-tsang Wang, the God of Hades, Wei-t’o (Vihârapâla), the Dêva protector of the Law of Buddha +and Buddhist temples, the Four Diamond Kings of Heaven, and Bodhidharma, the first of the six Patriarchs of Eastern or Chinese +Buddhism. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2094" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p120.jpg" alt="The Buddhist Triad"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Buddhist Triad</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e2098"></a><h2>Diamond Kings of Heaven</h2> +<p id="d0e2101">On the right and left sides of the entrance hall of Buddhist temples, two on each side, are the gigantic figures of the four +great <i>Ssŭ Ta Chin-kang</i> or <i>T’ien-wang</i>, the Diamond Kings of Heaven, protectors or governors of the continents lying in the direction of the four cardinal points +from Mount Sumêru, the centre of the world. They are four brothers named respectively Mo-li Ch’ing (Pure), or Tsêng Chang, +Mo-li Hung (Vast), or Kuang Mu, Mo-li Hai (Sea), or To Wên, and Mo-li Shou (Age), or Ch’ih Kuo. The <i>Chin kuang ming</i> states that they bestow all kinds of happiness on those who honour the Three Treasures, Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2112"></a>Page 121</span>Kings and nations who neglect the Law lose their protection. They are described and represented as follows: + +</p> +<p id="d0e2114">Mo-li Ch’ing, the eldest, is twenty-four feet in height, with a beard the hairs of which are like copper wire. He carries +a magnificent jade ring and a spear, and always fights on foot. He has also a magic sword, ‘Blue Cloud,’ on the blade of which +are engraved the characters <i>Ti, Shui, Huo, Fêng</i> (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind). When brandished, it causes a black wind, which produces tens of thousands of spears, which pierce +the bodies of men and turn them to dust. The wind is followed by a fire, which fills the air with tens of thousands of golden +fiery serpents. A thick smoke also rises out of the ground, which blinds and burns men, none being able to escape. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2119">Mo-li Hung carries in his hand an umbrella, called the Umbrella of Chaos, formed of pearls possessed of spiritual properties. +Opening this marvellous implement causes the heavens and earth to be covered with thick darkness, and turning it upside down +produces violent storms of wind and thunder and universal earthquakes. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2121">Mo-li Hai holds a four-stringed guitar, the twanging of which supernaturally affects the earth, water, fire, or wind. When +it is played all the world listens, and the camps of the enemy take fire. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2123">Mo-li Shou has two whips and a panther-skin bag, the home of a creature resembling a white rat, known as Hua-hu Tiao. When +at large this creature assumes the form of a white winged elephant, which devours men. He sometimes has also a snake or other +man-eating creature, always ready to obey his behests. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2125"></a>Page 122</span></p><a id="d0e2126"></a><h2>Legend of the Diamond Kings</h2> +<p id="d0e2129">The legend of the Four Diamond Kings given in the <i>Fêng shên yen i</i> is as follows: At the time of the consolidation of the Chou dynasty in the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C., Chiang Tzŭ-ya, +chief counsellor to Wên Wang, and General Huang Fei-hu were defending the town and mountain of Hsi-ch’i. The supporters of +the house of Shang appealed to the four genii Mo, who lived at Chia-mêng Kuan, praying them to come to their aid. They agreed, +raised an army of 100,000 celestial soldiers, and traversing towns, fields, and mountains arrived in less than a day at the +north gate of Hsi-ch’i, where Mo-li Ch’ing pitched his camp and entrenched his soldiers. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2134">Hearing of this, Huang Fei-hu hastened to warn Chiang Tzŭ-ya of the danger which threatened him. “The four great generals +who have just arrived at the north gate,” he said, “are marvellously powerful genii, experts in all the mysteries of magic +and use of wonderful charms. It is much to be feared that we shall not be able to resist them.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2136">Many fierce battles ensued. At first these went in favour of the <i>Chin-kang</i>, thanks to their magical weapons and especially to Mo-li Shou’s Hua-hu Tiao, who terrorized the enemy by devouring their +bravest warriors. + +</p><a id="d0e2141"></a><h2>Hua-hu Tiao devours Yang Chien</h2> +<p id="d0e2144">Unfortunately for the <i>Chin-kang</i>, the brute attacked and swallowed Yang Chien, the nephew of Yü Huang. This genie, on entering the body of the monster, rent +his heart asunder and cut him in two. As he could transform himself at will, he assumed the shape of Hua-hu Tiao, and went +off to Mo-li Shou, who unsuspectingly put him back into his bag. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2149"></a>Page 123</span></p> +<p id="d0e2150">The Four Kings held a festival to celebrate their triumph, and having drunk copiously gave themselves over to sleep. During +the night Yang Chien came out of the bag, with the intention of possessing himself of the three magical weapons of the <i>Chin-kang</i>. But he succeeded only in carrying off the umbrella of Mo-li Hung. In a subsequent engagement No-cha, the son of Vadjrâ-pani, +the God of Thunder, broke the jade ring of Mo-li Ch’ing. Misfortune followed misfortune. The <i>Chin-kang</i>, deprived of their magical weapons, began to lose heart. To complete their discomfiture, Huang T’ien Hua brought to the attack +a matchless magical weapon. This was a spike 7½ inches long, enclosed in a silk sheath, and called ‘Heart-piercer.’ It projected +so strong a ray of light that eyes were blinded by it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2158">Huang T’ien Hua, hard pressed by Mo-li Ch’ing, drew the mysterious spike from its sheath, and hurled it at his adversary. +It entered his neck, and with a deep groan the giant fell dead. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2160">Mo-li Hung and Mo-li Hai hastened to avenge their brother, but ere they could come within striking distance of Huang Ti’en +Hua his redoubtable spike reached their hearts, and they lay prone at his feet. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2162">The one remaining hope for the sole survivor was in Hua-hu Tiao. Mo-li Shou, not knowing that the creature had been slain, +put his hand into the bag to pull him out, whereupon Yang Chien, who had re-entered the bag, bit his hand off at the wrist, +so that there remained nothing but a stump of bone. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2164">In this moment of intense agony Mo-li Shou fell an easy prey to Huang T’ien Hua, the magical spike pierced his heart, and +he fell bathed in his blood. Thus perished the last of the <i>Chin-kang</i>. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2169"></a>Page 124</span></p><a id="d0e2170"></a><h2>The Three Pure Ones</h2> +<p id="d0e2173">Turning to the gods of Taoism, we find that the triad or trinity, already noted as forming the head of that hierarchy, consists +of three Supreme Gods, each in his own Heaven. These three Heavens, the <i>San Ch’ing</i>, ‘Three Pure Ones’ (this name being also applied to the sovereigns ruling in them), were formed from the three airs, which +are subdivisions of the one primordial air. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2178">The first Heaven is Yü Ch’ing. In it reigns the first member of the Taoist triad. He inhabits the Jade Mountain. The entrance +to his palace is named the Golden Door. He is the source of all truth, as the sun is the source of all light. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2180">Various authorities give his name differently—Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun, or Lo Ching Hsin, and call him T’ien Pao, ‘the Treasure +of Heaven,’ Some state that the name of the ruler of this first Heaven is Yü Huang, and in the popular mind he it is who occupies +this supreme position. The Three Pure Ones are above him in rank, but to him, the Pearly Emperor, is entrusted the superintendence +of the world. He has all the power of Heaven and earth in his hands. He is the correlative of Heaven, or rather Heaven itself. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2182">The second Heaven, Shang Ch’ing, is ruled by the second person of the triad, named Ling-pao T’ien-tsun, or Tao Chün. No information +is given as to his origin. He is the custodian of the sacred books. He has existed from the beginning of the world. He calculates +time, dividing it into different epochs. He occupies the upper pole of the world, and determines the movements and interaction, +or regulates the relations of the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i>, the two great principles of nature. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2190" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p124.jpg" alt="The Taoist Triad"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Taoist Triad</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2194">In the third Heaven, T’ai Ch’ing, the Taoists place Lao <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2196"></a>Page 125</span>Tzŭ, the promulgator of the true doctrine drawn up by Ling-pao T’ien-tsun. He is alternatively called Shên Pao, ‘the Treasure +of the Spirits,’ and T’ai-shang Lao-chûn, ‘the Most Eminent Aged Ruler.’ Under various assumed names he has appeared as the +teacher of kings and emperors, the reformer of successive generations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2198">This three-storied Taoist Heaven, or three Heavens, is the result of the wish of the Taoists not to be out-rivalled by the +Buddhists. For Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood they substitute the <i>Tao</i>, or Reason, the Classics, and the Priesthood. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2203">As regards the organization of the Taoist Heavens, Yü Huang has on his register the name of eight hundred Taoist divinities +and a multitude of Immortals. These are all divided into three categories: Saints (<i>Shêng-jên</i>), Heroes (<i>Chên-jên</i>), and Immortals (<i>Hsien-jên</i>), occupying the three Heavens respectively in that order. + +</p><a id="d0e2214"></a><h2>The Three Causes</h2> +<p id="d0e2217">Connected with Taoism, but not exclusively associated with that religion, is the worship of the Three Causes, the deities +presiding over three departments of physical nature, Heaven, earth, and water. They are known by various designations: <i>San Kuan</i>, ‘the Three Agents’; <i>San Yüan</i>, ‘the Three Origins’; <i>San Kuan Ta Ti</i>, ‘the Three Great Emperor Agents’; and <i>T’ai Shang San Kuan</i>, ‘the Three Supreme Agents.’ This worship has passed through four chief phases, as follows: + +</p> +<p id="d0e2231">The first comprises Heaven, earth, and water, <i>T’ien, Ti, Shui</i>, the sources of happiness, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from evil respectively. Each of these is called King-emperor. +Their names, written on labels and offered to Heaven (on a mountain), earth (by burial), and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2236"></a>Page 126</span>water (by immersion), are supposed to cure sickness. This idea dates from the Han dynasty, being first noted about A.D. 172. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2238">The second, <i>San Yüan</i> dating from A.D. 407 under the Wei dynasty, identified the Three Agents with three dates of which they were respectively +made the patrons. The year was divided into three unequal parts: the first to the seventh moon; the seventh to the tenth; +and the tenth to the twelfth. Of these, the fifteenth day of the first, seventh, and tenth moons respectively became the three +principal dates of these periods. Thus the Agent of Heaven became the principal patron of the first division, honoured on +the fifteenth day of the first moon, and so on. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2243">The third phase, <i>San Kuan</i>, resulted from the first two being found too complicated for popular favour. The <i>San Kuan</i> were the three sons of a man, Ch’ên Tzŭ-ch’un, who was so handsome and intelligent that the three daughters of Lung Wang, +the Dragon-king, fell in love with him and went to live with him. The eldest girl was the mother of the Superior Cause, the +second of the Medium Cause, and the third of the Inferior Cause. All these were gifted with supernatural powers. Yüan-shih +T’ien-tsun canonized them as the Three Great Emperor Agents of Heaven, earth, and water, governors of all beings, devils or +gods, in the three regions of the universe. As in the first phase, the <i>T’ien Kuan</i> confers happiness, the <i>Ti Kuan</i> grants remission of sins, and the <i>Shui Kuan</i> delivers from evil or misfortune. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2260">The fourth phase consisted simply in the substitution by the priests for the abstract or time-principles of the three great +sovereigns of ancient times, Yao, Shun, and Yü. The <i>literati</i>, proud of the apotheosis of their ancient <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2265"></a>Page 127</span>rulers, hastened to offer incense to them, and temples, <i>San Yüan Kung</i>, arose in very many parts of the Empire. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2270">A variation of this phase is the canonization, with the title of <i>San Yüan</i> or Three Causes, of <i>Wu-k’o San Chên Chün</i>, ‘the Three True Sovereigns, Guests of the Kingdom of Wu.’ They were three Censors who lived in the reign of King Li (Li +Wang, 878–841 B.C.) of the Chou dynasty. Leaving the service of the Chou on account of Li’s dissolute living, they went to +live in Wu, and brought victory to that state in its war with the Ch’u State, then returned to their own country, and became +pillars of the Chou State under Li’s successor. They appeared to protect the Emperor Chên Tsung when he was offering the <i>Fêng-shan</i> sacrifices on T’ai Shan in A.D. 1008, on which occasion they were canonized with the titles of Superior, Medium, and Inferior +Causes, as before, conferring upon them the regencies of Heaven, earth, and water respectively. + +</p><a id="d0e2281"></a><h2>Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun</h2> +<p id="d0e2286">Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun, or the First Cause, the Highest in Heaven, generally placed at the head of the Taoist triad, is said +never to have existed but in the fertile imagination of the Lao Tzŭist sectarians. According to them Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun +had neither origin nor master, but is himself the cause of all beings, which is why he is called the First Cause. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2288">As first member of the triad, and sovereign ruler of the First Heaven, Yü Ch’ing, where reign the saints, he is raised in +rank above all the other gods. The name assigned to him is Lo Ching Hsin. He was born before all beginnings; his substance +is imperishable; it is formed essentially of uncreated air, air <i>a se</i>, invisible and without <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2293"></a>Page 128</span>perceptible limits. No one has been able to penetrate to the beginnings of his existence. The source of all truth, he at each +renovation of the worlds—that is, at each new <i>kalpa</i>—gives out the mysterious doctrine which confers immortality. All who reach this knowledge attain by degrees to life eternal, +become refined like the spirits, or instantly become Immortals, even while upon earth. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2298">Originally, Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun was not a member of the Taoist triad. He resided above the Three Heavens, above the Three +Pure Ones, surviving the destructions and renovations of the universe, as an immovable rock in the midst of a stormy sea. +He set the stars in motion, and caused the planets to revolve. The chief of his secret police was Tsao Chün, the Kitchen-god, +who rendered to him an account of the good and evil deeds of each family. His executive agent was Lei Tsu, the God of Thunder, +and his subordinates. The seven stars of the North Pole were the palace of his ministers, whose offices were on the various +sacred mountains. Nowadays, however, Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun is generally neglected for Yü Huang. + +</p><a id="d0e2300"></a><h2>An Avatar of P’an Ku</h2> +<p id="d0e2303">According to the tradition of Chin Hung, the God of T’ai Shan of the fifth generation from P’an Ku, this being, then called +Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, was an avatar of P’an Ku. It came about in this wise. In remote ages there lived on the mountains an +old man, Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, who used to sit on a rock and preach to the multitude. He spoke of the highest antiquity as +if from personal experience. When Chin Hung asked him where he lived, he just raised his hand toward Heaven, iridescent clouds +enveloped his body, and he replied: “Whoso wishes to know where I dwell must <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2305"></a>Page 129</span>rise to impenetrable heights.” “But how,” said Chin Hung, “was he to be found in this immense emptiness?” Two genii, Ch’ih +Ching-tzŭ and Huang Lao, then descended on the summit of T’ai Shan and said: “Let us go and visit this Yüan-shih. To do so, +we must cross the boundaries of the universe and pass beyond the farthest stars.” Chin Hung begged them to give him their +instructions, to which he listened attentively. They then ascended the highest of the sacred peaks, and thence mounted into +the heavens, calling to him from the misty heights: “If you wish to know the origin of Yüan-shih, you must pass beyond the +confines of Heaven and earth, because he lives beyond the limits of the worlds. You must ascend and ascend until you reach +the sphere of nothingness and of being, in the plains of the luminous shadows.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2307">Having reached these ethereal heights, the two genii saw a bright light, and Hsüan-hsüan Shang-jên appeared before them. The +two genii bowed to do him homage and to express their gratitude. “You cannot better show your gratitude,” he replied, “than +by making my doctrine known among men. You desire,” he added, “to know the history of Yüan-shih. I will tell it you. When +P’an Ku had completed his work in the primitive Chaos, his spirit left its mortal envelope and found itself tossed about in +empty space without any fixed support. ‘I must,’ it said, ‘get reborn in visible form; until I can go through a new birth +I shall remain empty and unsettled,’ His soul, carried on the wings of the wind, reached Fu-yü T’ai. There it saw a saintly +lady named T’ai Yüan, forty years of age, still a virgin, and living alone on Mount Ts’u-o. Air and variegated clouds were +the sole nourishment of her vital spirits. An hermaphrodite, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2309"></a>Page 130</span>at once both the active and the passive principle, she daily scaled the highest peak of the mountain to gather there the flowery +quintessence of the sun and the moon. P’an Ku, captivated by her virgin purity, took advantage of a moment when she was breathing +to enter her mouth in the form of a ray of light. She was <i>enceinte</i> for twelve years, at the end of which period the fruit of her womb came out through her spinal column. From its first moment +the child could walk and speak, and its body was surrounded by a five-coloured cloud. The newly-born took the name of Yüan-shih +T’ien-wang, and his mother was generally known as T’ai-yüan Shêng-mu, ‘the Holy Mother of the First Cause.’” + +</p><a id="d0e2314"></a><h2>Yü Huang</h2> +<p id="d0e2317">Yü Huang means ‘the Jade Emperor,’ or ‘the Pure August One,’ jade symbolizing purity. He is also known by the name Yü-huang +Shang-ti, ‘the Pure August Emperor on High.’ + +</p> +<p id="d0e2319">The history of this deity, who later received many honorific titles and became the most popular god, a very Chinese Jupiter, +seems to be somewhat as follows: The Emperor Ch’êng Tsung of the Sung dynasty having been obliged in A.D. 1005 to sign a disgraceful +peace with the Tunguses or Kitans, the dynasty was in danger of losing the support of the nation. In order to hoodwink the +people the Emperor constituted himself a seer, and announced with great pomp that he was in direct communication with the +gods of Heaven. In doing this he was following the advice of his crafty and unreliable minister Wang Ch’in-jo, who had often +tried to persuade him that the pretended revelations attributed to Fu Hsi, Yü Wang, and others were only pure inventions <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2321"></a>Page 131</span>to induce obedience. The Emperor, having studied his part well, assembled his ministers in the tenth moon of the year 1012, +and made to them the following declaration: “In a dream I had a visit from an Immortal, who brought me a letter from Yü Huang, +the purport of which was as follows: ‘I have already sent you by your ancestor Chao [T’ai Tsu] two celestial missives. Now +I am going to send him in person to visit you.’” A little while after his ancestor T’ai Tsu, the founder of the dynasty, came +according to Yü Huang’s promise, and Ch’êng Tsung hastened to inform his ministers of it. This is the origin of Yü Huang. +He was born of a fraud, and came ready-made from the brain of an emperor. + +</p><a id="d0e2323"></a><h2>The Cask of Pearls</h2> +<p id="d0e2326">Fearing to be admonished for the fraud by another of his ministers, the scholar Wang Tan, the Emperor resolved to put a golden +gag in his mouth. So one day, having invited him to a banquet, he overwhelmed him with flattery and made him drunk with good +wine. “I would like the members of your family also to taste this wine,” he added, “so I am making you a present of a cask +of it.” When Wang Tan returned home, he found the cask filled with precious pearls. Out of gratitude to the Emperor he kept +silent as to the fraud, and made no further opposition to his plans, but when on his death-bed he asked that his head be shaved +like a priest’s and that he be clothed in priestly robes so that he might expiate his crime of feebleness before the Emperor. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2328">K’ang Hsi, the great Emperor of the Ch’ing dynasty, who had already declared that if it is wrong to impute deceit to a man +it is still more reprehensible to impute a fraud to Heaven, stigmatized him as follows: “Wang <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2330"></a>Page 132</span>Tan committed two faults: the first was in showing himself a vile flatterer of his Prince during his life; the second was +in becoming a worshipper of Buddha at his death.” + +</p><a id="d0e2332"></a><h2>The Legend of Yü Huang</h2> +<p id="d0e2335">So much for historical record. The legend of Yü Huang relates that in ancient times there existed a kingdom named Kuang Yen +Miao Lo Kuo, whose king was Ching Tê, his queen being called Pao Yüeh. Though getting on in years, the latter had no son. +The Taoist priests were summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites. They recited prayers with the object of obtaining +an heir to the throne. During the ensuing night the Queen had a vision. Lao Chün appeared to her, riding a dragon, and carrying +a male child in his arms. He floated down through the air in her direction. The Queen begged him to give her the child as +an heir to the throne. “I am quite willing,” he said. “Here it is.” She fell on her knees and thanked him. On waking she found +herself <i>enceinte</i>. At the end of a year the Prince was born. From an early age he showed himself compassionate and generous to the poor. On +the death of his father he ascended the throne, but after reigning only a few days abdicated in favour of his chief minister, +and became a hermit at P’u-ming, in Shensi, and also on Mount Hsiu Yen, in Yünnan. Having attained to perfection, he passed +the rest of his days in curing sickness and saving life; and it was in the exercise of these charitable deeds that he died. +The emperors Ch’êng Tsung and Hui Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, loaded him with all the various titles associated with his name +at the present day. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2340">Both Buddhists and Taoists claim him as their own, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2342"></a>Page 133</span>the former identifying him with Indra, in which case Yü Huang is a Buddhist deity incorporated into the Taoist pantheon. He +has also been taken to be the subject of a ‘nature myth.’ The Emperor Ching Tê, his father, is the sun, the Queen Pao Yüeh +the moon, and the marriage symbolizes the rebirth of the vivifying power which clothes nature with green plants and beautiful +flowers. + +</p><a id="d0e2344"></a><h2>T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu</h2> +<p id="d0e2347">In modern Taoism T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu is regarded as the first of the Patriarchs and one of the most powerful genii of the +sect. His master was Hung-chün Lao-tsu. He wore a red robe embroidered with white cranes, and rode a <i>k’uei niu</i>, a monster resembling a buffalo, with one long horn like a unicorn. His palace, the Pi Yu Kung, was situated on Mount Tzŭ +Chih Yai. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2352">This genie took the part of Chou Wang and helped him to resist Wu Wang’s armies. First, he sent his disciple To-pao Tao-jên +to Chieh-p’ai Kuan. He gave him four precious swords and the plan of a fort which he was to construct and to name Chu-hsien +Chên, ‘the Citadel of all the Immortals.’ + +</p> +<p id="d0e2354">To-pao Tao-jên carried out his orders, but he had to fight a battle with Kuang Ch’êng-tzŭ, and the latter, armed with a celestial +seal, struck his adversary so hard that he fell to the ground and had to take refuge in flight. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2356">T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu came to the defence of his disciple and to restore the morale of his forces. Unfortunately, a posse +of gods arrived to aid Wu Wang’s powerful general, Chiang Tzŭ-ya. The first who attacked T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu was Lao Tzŭ, +who struck him several times with his stick. Then came Chun T’i, armed with his cane. The buffalo of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2358"></a>Page 134</span>stamped him under foot, and Chun T’i was thrown to the earth, and only just had time to rise quickly and mount into the air +amid a great cloud of dust. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2360">There could be no doubt that the fight was going against T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu; to complete his discomfiture Jan-têng Tao-jên +cleft the air and fell upon him unexpectedly. With a violent blow of his ‘Fix-sea’ staff he cast him down and compelled him +to give up the struggle. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2362">T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu then prepared plans for a new fortified camp beyond T’ung Kuan, and tried to take the offensive again, +but again Lao Tzŭ stopped him with a blow of his stick. Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun wounded his shoulder with his precious stone +Ju-i, and Chun-t’i Tao-jên waved his ‘Branch of the Seven Virtues.’ Immediately the magic sword of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu was +reduced to splinters, and he saved himself only by flight. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2364">Hung-chün Lao-tsu, the master of these three genii, seeing his three beloved disciples in the <i>mêlée</i>, resolved to make peace between them. He assembled all three in a tent in Chiang Tzŭ-ya’s camp, made them kneel before him, +then reproached T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu at length for having taken the part of the tyrant Chou, and recommended them in future +to live in harmony. After finishing his speech, he produced three pills, and ordered each of the genii to swallow one. When +they had done so, Hung-chün Lao-tsu said to them: “I have given you these pills to ensure an inviolable truce among you. Know +that the first who entertains a thought of discord in his heart will find that the pill will explode in his stomach and cause +his instant death.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2369">Hung-chün Lao-tsu then took T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu away with him on his cloud to Heaven. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2371"></a>Page 135</span></p><a id="d0e2372"></a><h2>Immortals, Heroes, Saints</h2> +<p id="d0e2375">An Immortal, according to Taoist lore, is a solitary man of the mountains. He appears to die, but does not. After ‘death’ +his body retains all the qualities of the living. The body or corpse is for him only a means of transition, a phase of metamorphosis—a +cocoon or chrysalis, the temporary abode of the butterfly. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2377">To reach this state a hygienic regimen both of the body and mind must be observed. All luxury, greed, and ambition must be +avoided. But negation is not enough. In the system of nourishment all the elements which strengthen the essence of the constituent +<i>yin</i> and <i>yang</i> principles must be found by means of medicine, chemistry, gymnastic exercises, etc. When the maximum vital force has been +acquired the means of preserving it and keeping it from the attacks of death and disease must be discovered; in a word, he +must spiritualize himself—render himself completely independent of matter. All the experiments have for their object the storing +in the pills of immortality the elements necessary for the development of the vital force and for the constitution of a new +spiritual and super-humanized being. In this ascending perfection there are several grades: + +</p> +<p id="d0e2385">(1) The Immortal (<i>Hsien</i>). The first stage consists in bringing about the birth of the superhuman in the ascetic’s person, which reaching perfection +leaves the earthly body, like the grasshopper its sheath. This first stage attained, the Immortal travels at will throughout +the universe, enjoys all the advantages of perfect health without dreading disease or death, eats and drinks copiously—nothing +is wanting to complete his happiness. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2390">(2) The Perfect Man, or Hero (<i>Chên-jên</i>). The second stage is a higher one. The whole body is spiritualized. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2395"></a>Page 136</span>It has become so subtile, so spiritual, that it can fly in the air. Borne on the wings of the wind, seated on the clouds of +Heaven, it travels from one world to another and fixes its habitation in the stars. It is freed from all laws of matter, but +is, however, not completely changed into pure spirit. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2397">(3) The Saint (<i>Shêng-jên</i>). The third stage is that of the superhuman beings or saints. They are those who have attained to extraordinary intelligence +and virtue. + +</p><a id="d0e2402"></a><h2>The God of the Immortals</h2> +<p id="d0e2405">Mu Kung or Tung Wang Kung, the God of the Immortals, was also called I Chün Ming and Yü Huang Chün, the Prince Yü Huang. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2407">The primitive vapour congealed, remained inactive for a time, and then produced living beings, beginning with the formation +of Mu Kung, the purest substance of the Eastern Air, and sovereign of the active male principle <i>yang</i> and of all the countries of the East. His palace is in the misty heavens, violet clouds form its dome, blue clouds its walls. +Hsien T’ung, ‘the Immortal Youth,’ and Yü Nü, ‘the Jade Maiden,’ are his servants. He keeps the register of all the Immortals, +male and female. + +</p><a id="d0e2412"></a><h2>Hsi Wang Mu</h2> +<p id="d0e2415">Hsi Wang Mu was formed of the pure quintessence of the Western Air, in the legendary continent of Shên Chou. She is often +called the Golden Mother of the Tortoise. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2417">Her family name is variously given as Hou, Yang, and Ho. Her own name was Hui, and first name Wan-chin. She had nine sons +and twenty-four daughters. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2419" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p136.jpg" alt="Hsi Wang Mu"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Hsi Wang Mu</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2423">As Mu Kung, formed of the Eastern Air, is the active <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2425"></a>Page 137</span>principle of the male air and sovereign of the Eastern Air, so Hsi Wang Mu, born of the Western Air, is the passive or female +principle (<i>yin</i>) and sovereign of the Western Air. These two principles, co-operating, engender Heaven and earth and all the beings of the +universe, and thus become the two principles of life and of the subsistence of all that exists. She is the head of the troop +of genii dwelling on the K’un-lun Mountains (the Taoist equivalent of the Buddhist Sumêru), and from time to time holds intercourse +with favoured imperial votaries. + +</p><a id="d0e2430"></a><h2>The Feast of Peaches</h2> +<p id="d0e2433">Hsi Wang Mu’s palace is situated in the high mountains of the snowy K’un-lun. It is 1000 <i>li</i> (about 333 miles) in circuit; a rampart of massive gold surrounds its battlements of precious stones. Its right wing rises +on the edge of the Kingfishers’ River. It is the usual abode of the Immortals, who are divided into seven special categories +according to the colour of their garments—red, blue, black, violet, yellow, green, and ‘nature-colour.’ There is a marvellous +fountain built of precious stones, where the periodical banquet of the Immortals is held. This feast is called P’an-t’ao Hui, +‘the Feast of Peaches.’ It takes place on the borders of the Yao Ch’ih, Lake of Gems, and is attended by both male and female +Immortals. Besides several superfine meats, they are served with bears’ paws, monkeys’ lips, dragons’ liver, phoenix marrow, +and peaches gathered in the orchard, endowed with the mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who have the good luck +to taste them. It was by these peaches that the date of the banquet was fixed. The tree put forth leaves once every three +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2438"></a>Page 138</span>thousand years, and it required three thousand years after that for the fruit to ripen. These were Hsi Wang Mu’s birthdays, +when all the Immortals assembled for the great feast, “the occasion being more festive than solemn, for there was music on +invisible instruments, and songs not from mortal tongues.” + +</p><a id="d0e2440"></a><h2>The First Taoist Pope</h2> +<p id="d0e2443">Chang Tao-ling, the first Taoist pope, was born in A.D. 35, in the reign of the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti of the Han dynasty. His +birthplace is variously given as the T’ien-mu Shan, ‘Eye of Heaven Mountain,’ in Lin-an Hsien, in Chekiang, and Fêng-yang +Fu, in Anhui. He devoted himself wholly to study and meditation, declining all offers to enter the service of the State. He +preferred to take up his abode in the mountains of Western China, where he persevered in the study of alchemy and in cultivating +the virtues of purity and mental abstraction. From the hands of Lao Tzŭ he received supernaturally a mystic treatise, by following +the instructions in which he was successful in his search for the elixir of life. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2445">One day when he was engaged in experimenting with the ‘Dragon-tiger elixir’ a spiritual being appeared to him and said: “On +Po-sung Mountain is a stone house in which are concealed the writings of the Three Emperors of antiquity and a canonical work. +By obtaining these you may ascend to Heaven, if you undergo the course of discipline they prescribe.” + +</p> +<div id="d0e2447" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p138.jpg" alt="Chang Tao-ling"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Chang Tao-ling</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2451">Chang Tao-ling found these works, and by means of them obtained the power of flying, of hearing distant sounds, and of leaving +his body. After going through a thousand days of discipline, and receiving instruction from a goddess, who taught him to walk +about among <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2453"></a>Page 139</span>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. On account of the prodigious slaughter of demons by this hero the wind and thunder were reduced +to subjection, and various divinities came with eager haste to acknowledge their faults. In nine years he gained the power +to ascend to Heaven. + +</p><a id="d0e2455"></a><h2>The Founder of Modern Taoism</h2> +<p id="d0e2458">Chang Tao-ling may rightly be considered as the true founder of modern Taoism. The recipes for the pills of immortality contained +in the mysterious books, and the invention of talismans for the cure of all sorts of maladies, not only exalted him to the +high position he has since occupied in the minds of his numerous disciples, but enabled them in turn to exploit successfully +this new source of power and wealth. From that time the Taoist sect began to specialize in the art of healing. Protecting +or curing talismans bearing the Master’s seal were purchased for enormous sums. It is thus seen that he was after all a deceiver +of the people, and unbelievers or rival partisans of other sects have dubbed him a ‘rice-thief’—which perhaps he was. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2460">He is generally represented as clothed in richly decorated garments, brandishing with his right hand his magic sword, holding +in his left a cup containing the draught of immortality, and riding a tiger which in one paw grasps his magic seal and with +the others tramples down the five venomous creatures: lizard, snake, spider, toad, and centipede. Pictures of him with these +accessories are pasted up in houses on the fifth day of the fifth moon to forfend calamity and sickness. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2462"></a>Page 140</span></p><a id="d0e2463"></a><h2>The Peach-gathering</h2> +<p id="d0e2466">It is related of him that, not wishing to ascend to Heaven too soon, he partook of only half of the pill of immortality, dividing +the other half among several of his admirers, and that he had at least two selves or personalities, one of which used to disport +itself in a boat on a small lake in front of his house. The other self would receive his visitors, entertaining them with +food and drink and instructive conversation. On one occasion this self said to them: “You are unable to quit the world altogether +as I can, but by imitating my example in the matter of family relations you could procure a medicine which would prolong your +lives by several centuries. I have given the crucible in which Huang Ti prepared the draught of immortality to my disciple +Wang Ch’ang. Later on, a man will come from the East, who also will make use of it. He will arrive on the seventh day of the +first moon.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2468">Exactly on that day there arrived from the East a man named Chao Shêng, who was the person indicated by Chang Tao-ling. He +was recognized by a manifestation of himself he had caused to appear in advance of his coming. Chang then led all his disciples, +to the number of three hundred, to the highest peak of the Yün-t’ai. Below them they saw a peach-tree growing near a pointed +rock, stretching out its branches like arms above a fathomless abyss. It was a large tree, covered with ripe fruit. Chang +said to his disciples: “I will communicate a spiritual formula to the one among you who will dare to gather the fruit of that +tree.” They all leaned over to look, but each declared the feat to be impossible. Chao Shêng alone had the courage to rush +out to the point of the rock and up the tree stretching <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2470"></a>Page 141</span>out into space. With firm foot he stood and gathered the peaches, placing them in the folds of his cloak, as many as it would +hold, but when he wished to climb back up the precipitous slope, his hands slipped on the smooth rock, and all his attempts +were in vain. Accordingly, he threw the peaches, three hundred and two in all, one by one up to Chang Tao-ling, who distributed +them. Each disciple ate one, as also did Chang, who reserved the remaining one for Chao Shêng, whom he helped to climb up +again. To do this Chang extended his arm to a length of thirty feet, all present marvelling at the miracle. After Chao had +eaten his peach Chang stood on the edge of the precipice, and said with a laugh: “Chao Shêng was brave enough to climb out +to that tree and his foot never tripped. I too will make the attempt. If I succeed I will have a big peach as a reward.” Having +spoken thus, he leapt into space, and alighted in the branches of the peach-tree. Wang Ch’ang and Chao Shêng also jumped into +the tree and stood one on each side of him. There Chang communicated to them the mysterious formula. Three days later they +returned to their homes; then, having made final arrangements, they repaired once more to the mountain peak, whence, in the +presence of the other disciples, who followed them with their eyes until they had completely disappeared from view, all three +ascended to Heaven in broad daylight. + +</p><a id="d0e2472"></a><h2>Chang Tao-ling’s Great Power</h2> +<p id="d0e2475">The name of Chang Tao-ling, the Heavenly Teacher, is a household word in China. He is on earth the Vicegerent of the Pearly +Emperor in Heaven, and the Commander-in-Chief of the hosts of Taoism. He, the chief of the wizards, the ‘true [<i>i.e.</i> ideal] man,’ as he is called, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2480"></a>Page 142</span>wields an immense spiritual power throughout the land. The present pope boasts of an unbroken line for three-score generations. +His family obtained possession of the Dragon-tiger Mountain in Kiangsi about A.D. 1000. “This personage,” says a pre-Republican +writer, “assumes a state which mimics the imperial. 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.” + +</p><a id="d0e2482"></a><h2>Kings of Heaven</h2> +<p id="d0e2485">The Four Kings of Heaven, Ssŭ Ta T’ien-wang, reside on Mount Sumêru (Hsü-mi Shan), the centre of the universe. It is 3,360,000 +<i>li</i>—that is, about a million miles—high.<a id="d0e2490src" href="#d0e2490" class="noteref">9</a> Its eastern slope is of gold, its western of silver, its south-eastern of crystal, and its north-eastern of agate. The Four +Kings appear to be the Taoist reflection of the four <i>Chin-kang</i> of Buddhism already noticed. Their names are Li, Ma, Chao, and Wên. They are represented as holding a pagoda, sword, two +swords, and spiked club respectively. Their worship appears to be due to their auspicious appearance and aid on various critical +occasions in the dynastic history of the T’ang and Sung Periods. + +</p><a id="d0e2499"></a><h2>T’ai I</h2> +<p id="d0e2502">Temples are found in various parts dedicated to T’ai I, the Great One, or Great Unity. When Emperor Wu Ti (140–86 B.C.) of +the Han dynasty was in search of the secret of immortality, and various suggestions had proved unsatisfactory, a Taoist priest, +Miao Chi, told the Emperor that his want of success was due to his omission to sacrifice <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2504"></a>Page 143</span>to T’ai I, the first of the celestial spirits, quoting the classical precedent of antiquity found in the <i>Book of History</i>. The Emperor, believing his word, ordered the Grand Master of Sacrifices to re-establish this worship at the capital. He +followed carefully the prescriptions of Miao Chi. This enraged the <i>literati</i>, who resolved to ruin him. One day, when the Emperor was about to drink one of his potions, one of the chief courtiers seized +the cup and drank the contents himself. The Emperor was about to have him slain, when he said: “Your Majesty’s order is unnecessary; +if the potion confers immortality, I cannot be killed; if, on the other hand, it does not, your Majesty should recompense +me for disproving the pretensions of the Taoist priest.” The Emperor, however, was not convinced. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2512">One account represents T’ai I as having lived in the time of Shên Nung, the Divine Husbandman, who visited him to consult +with him on the subjects of diseases and fortune. He was Hsien Yüan’s medical preceptor. His medical knowledge was handed +down to future generations. He was one of those who, with the Immortals, was invited to the great Peach Assembly of the Western +Royal Mother. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2514">As the spirit of the star T’ai I he resides in the Eastern Palace, listening for the cries of sufferers in order to save them. +For this purpose he assumes numberless forms in various regions. With a boat of lotus-flowers of nine colours he ferries men +over to the shore of salvation. Holding in his hand a willow-branch, he scatters from it the dew of the doctrine. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2516">T’ai I is variously represented as the Ruler of the Five Celestial Sovereigns, Cosmic Matter before it congealed into concrete +shapes, the Triune Spirit of Heaven, earth, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2518"></a>Page 144</span>and T’ai I as three separate entities, an unknown Spirit, the Spirit of the Pole Star, etc., but practically the Taoists confine +their T’ai I to T’ai-i Chên-jên, in which Perfect Man they personify the abstract philosophical notions.<a id="d0e2520src" href="#d0e2520" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p><a id="d0e2526"></a><h2>Goddess of the North Star</h2> +<p id="d0e2529">Tou Mu, the Bushel Mother, or Goddess of the North Star, worshipped by both Buddhists and Taoists, is the Indian Maritchi, +and was made a stellar divinity by the Taoists. She is said to have been the mother of the nine Jên Huang or Human Sovereigns +of fabulous antiquity, who succeeded the lines of Celestial and Terrestrial Sovereigns. She occupies in the Taoist religion +the same relative position as Kuan Yin, who may be said to be the heart of Buddhism. Having attained to a profound knowledge +of celestial mysteries, she shone with heavenly light, could cross the seas, and pass from the sun to the moon. She also had +a kind heart for the sufferings of humanity. The King of Chou Yü, in the north, married her on hearing of her many virtues. +They had nine sons. Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun came to earth to invite her, her husband, and nine sons to enjoy the delights of +Heaven. He placed her in the palace Tou Shu, the Pivot of the Pole, because all the other stars revolve round it, and gave +her the title of Queen of the Doctrine of Primitive Heaven. Her nine sons have their palaces in the neighbouring stars. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2531" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p144.jpg" alt="Tou Mu, Goddess of the North Star"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Tou Mu, Goddess of the North Star</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2535">Tou Mu wears the Buddhist crown, is seated on a lotus throne, has three eyes, eighteen arms, and holds various precious objects +in her numerous hands, such as a bow, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2537"></a>Page 145</span>spear, sword, flag, dragon’s head, pagoda, five chariots, sun’s disk, moon’s disk, etc. She has control of 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 day of every month. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2539">Of her sons, two are the Northern and Southern Bushels; the latter, dressed in red, rules birth; the former, in white, 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 years.” + +</p><a id="d0e2541"></a><h2>Snorter and Blower</h2> +<p id="d0e2544">At the time of the overthrow of the Shang and establishment of the Chou dynasty in 1122 B.C. there lived two marshals, Chêng +Lung and Ch’ên Ch’i. These were Hêng and Ha, the Snorter and Blower respectively. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2546">The former was the chief superintendent of supplies for the armies of the tyrant emperor Chou, the Nero of China. The latter +was in charge of the victualling department of the same army. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2548">From his master, Tu O, the celebrated Taoist magician of the K’un-lun Mountains, Hêng acquired a marvellous power. When he +snorted, his nostrils, with a sound like that of a bell, emitted two white columns of light, which destroyed his enemies, +body and soul. Thus through him the Chou gained numerous victories. But one day he was captured, bound, and taken to the general +of Chou. His life was spared, and he was made general superintendent of army stores as well as generalissimo of five army +corps. Later on he found himself face to face with the Blower. The latter had learnt from the magician <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2550"></a>Page 146</span>how to store in his chest a supply of yellow gas which, when he blew it out, annihilated anyone whom it struck. By this means +he caused large gaps to be made in the ranks of the enemy. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2552">Being opposed to each other, the one snorting out great streaks of white light, the other blowing streams of yellow gas, the +combat continued until the Blower was wounded in the shoulder by No-cha, of the army of Chou, and pierced in the stomach with +a spear by Huang Fei-hu, Yellow Flying Tiger. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2554">The Snorter in turn was slain in this fight by Marshal Chin Ta-shêng, ‘Golden Big Pint,’ who was an ox-spirit and endowed +with the mysterious power of producing in his entrails the celebrated <i>niu huang</i>, ox-yellow, or bezoar. Facing the Snorter, he spat in his face, with a noise like thunder, a piece of bezoar as large as +a rice-bowl. It struck him on the nose and split his nostrils. He fell to the earth, and was immediately cut in two by a blow +from his victor’s sword. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2559">After the Chou dynasty had been definitely established Chiang Tzŭ-ya canonized the two marshals Hêng and Ha, and conferred +on them the offices of guardians of the Buddhist temple gates, where their gigantic images may be seen. + +</p><a id="d0e2561"></a><h2>Blue Dragon and White Tiger</h2> +<p id="d0e2564">The functions discharged by Hêng and Ha at the gates of Buddhist temples are in Taoist temples discharged by Blue Dragon and +White Tiger. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2566">The former, the Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star, was Têng Chiu-kung, one of the chief generals of the last emperor of the Yin +dynasty. He had a son named Têng Hsiu, and a daughter named Ch’an-yü. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2568"></a>Page 147</span></p> +<p id="d0e2569">The army of Têng Chiu-kung was camped at San-shan Kuan, when he received orders to proceed to the battle then taking place +at Hsi Ch’i. There, in standing up to No-cha and Huang Fei-hu, he had his left arm broken by the former’s magic bracelet, +but, fortunately for him, his subordinate, T’u Hsing-sun, a renowned magician, gave him a remedy which quickly healed the +fracture. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2571">His daughter then came on the scene to avenge her father. She had a magic weapon, the Five-fire Stone, which she hurled full +in the face of Yang Chien. But the Immortal was not wounded; on the other hand, his celestial dog jumped at Ch’an-yü and bit +her neck, so that she was obliged to flee. T’u Hsing-sun, however, healed the wound. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2573">After a banquet, Têng Chiu-kung promised his daughter in marriage to T’u Hsing-sun if he would gain him the victory at Hsi +Ch’i. Chiang Tzŭ-ya then persuaded T’u’s magic master, Chü Liu-sun, to call his disciple over to his camp, where he asked +him why he was fighting against the new dynasty. “Because,” he replied, “Chiu-kung has promised me his daughter in marriage +as a reward of success.” Chiang Tzŭ-ya thereupon promised to obtain the bride, and sent a force to seize her. As a result +of the fighting that ensued, Chiu-kung was beaten, and retreated in confusion, leaving Ch’an-yü in the hands of the victors. +During the next few days the marriage was celebrated with great ceremony in the victor’s camp. According to custom, the bride +returned for some days to her father’s house, and while there she earnestly exhorted Chiu-kung to submit. Following her advice, +he went over to Chiang Tzŭ-ya’s party. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2575">In the ensuing battles he fought valiantly on the side of his former enemy, and killed many famous warriors, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2577"></a>Page 148</span>but he was eventually attacked by the Blower, from whose mouth a column of yellow gas struck him, throwing him from his steed. +He was made prisoner, and executed by order of General Ch’iu Yin. Chiang Tzŭ-ya conferred on him the kingdom of the Blue Dragon +Star. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2579">The Spirit of the White Tiger Star is Yin Ch’êng-hsiu. His father, Yin P’o-pai, a high courtier of the tyrant Chou Wang, was +sent to negotiate peace with Chiang Tzŭ-ya, but was seized and put to death by Marquis Chiang Wên-huan. His son, attempting +to avenge his father’s murder, was pierced by a spear, and his head was cut off and carried in triumph to Chiang Tzŭ-ya. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2581">As compensation he was, though somewhat tardily, canonized as the Spirit of the White Tiger Star. + +</p><a id="d0e2583"></a><h2>Apotheosized Philosophers</h2> +<p id="d0e2586">The philosophers Lieh Tzŭ, Huai-nan Tzŭ, Chuang Tzŭ, Mo Tzŭ, etc., have also been apotheosized. Nothing very remarkable is +related of them. Most of them had several reincarnations and possessed supernatural powers. The second, who was a king, when +taken by the Eight Immortals to the genii’s Heaven forgot now and then to address them as superiors, and but for their intercession +with Yü Ti, the Pearly Emperor, would have been reincarnated. In order to humiliate himself, he thereafter called himself +Huai-nan Tzŭ, ‘the Sage of the South of the Huai.’ The third, Chuang Tzŭ, Chuang Shêng, or Chuang Chou, was a disciple of +Lao Tzŭ. Chuang Tzŭ was in the habit of sleeping during the day, and at night would transform himself into a butterfly, which +fluttered gaily over the flowers in the garden. On waking, he would still feel the sensation of flying in his shoulders. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2588"></a>Page 149</span>On asking Lao Tzŭ the reason for this, he was told: “Formerly you were a white butterfly which, having partaken of the quintessence +of flowers and of the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i>, should have been immortalized; but one day you stole some peaches and flowers in Wang Mu Niang-niang’s garden. The guardian +of the garden slew you, and that is how you came to be reincarnated.” At this time he was fifty years of age. + +</p><a id="d0e2596"></a><h2>Fanning the Grave</h2> +<p id="d0e2599">One of the tales associated with him describes how he saw a young woman in mourning vigorously fanning a newly made grave. +On his asking her the reason of this strange conduct, she replied: “I am doing this because my husband begged me to wait until +the earth on his tomb was dry before I remarried!” Chuang Tzŭ offered to help her, and as soon as he waved the fan once the +earth was dry. The young widow thanked him and departed. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2601">On his return home, Chuang Shêng related this incident to his wife. She expressed astonishment at such conduct on the part +of a wife. “There’s nothing to be surprised at,” rejoined the husband; “that’s how things go in this world.” Seeing that he +was poking fun at her, she protested angrily. Some little time after this Chuang Shêng died. His wife, much grieved, buried +him. + +</p><a id="d0e2603"></a><h2>Husband and Wife</h2> +<p id="d0e2606">A few days later a young man named Ch’u Wang-sun arrived with the intention, as he said, of placing himself under the instruction +of Chuang Shêng. When he heard that he was dead he went and performed prostrations before his tomb, and afterward took up +his abode in an <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2608"></a>Page 150</span>empty room, saying that he wished to study. After half a month had elapsed, the widow asked an old servant who had accompanied +Wang-sun if the young man was married. On his replying in the negative, she requested the old servant to propose a match between +them. Wang-sun made some objections, saying that people would criticize their conduct. “Since my husband is dead, what can +they say?” replied the widow. She then put off her mourning-garments and prepared for the wedding. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2610">Wang-sun took her to the grave of her husband, and said to her: “The gentleman has returned to life!” She looked at Wang-sun +and recognized the features of her husband. She was so overwhelmed with shame that she hanged herself. Chuang Shêng buried +her in an empty tomb, and then began to sing. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2612">He burnt his house, went away to P’u-shui, in Hupei, and occupied himself in fishing. From there he went on to Chung-t’iao +Shan, where he met Fêng Hou and her teacher Hsüan Nü, the Mother of Heaven. In their company he visited the palaces of the +stars. One day, when he was attending a banquet at the palace of Wang-mu, Shang Ti gave him as his kingdom the planet Jupiter, +and assigned to him as his palace the ancient abode of Mao Mêng, the stellar god reincarnated during the Chou dynasty. He +had not yet returned, and had left his palace empty. Shang Ti had cautioned him never to absent himself without his permission. + + +</p><a id="d0e2614"></a><h2>Canonized Generalissimos</h2> +<p id="d0e2617">A large number of military men also have been canonized as celestial generalissimos. A few will serve as examples of the rest. + +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2619"></a>Page 151</span></p><a id="d0e2620"></a><h2>The Three Musical Brothers</h2> +<p id="d0e2623">There were three brothers: T’ien Yüan-shuai, the eldest; T’ien Hung-i, the second; and T’ien Chih-piao, the youngest. They +were all musicians of unsurpassed talent. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2625">In the K’ai-yüan Period (A.D. 713–42) the Emperor Hsüan Tsung, of the T’ang dynasty, appointed them his music masters. At +the sound of their wonderful flute the clouds in the sky stopped in their courses; the harmony of their songs caused the odoriferous +<i>la mei</i> flower to open in winter. They excelled also in songs and dances. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2630">The Emperor fell sick. He saw in a dream the three brothers accompanying their singing on a mandolin and violin. The harmony +of their songs charmed his ear, and on waking he found himself well again. Out of gratitude for this benefit he conferred +on each the title of marquis. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2632">The Grand Master of the Taoists was trying to stay the ravages of a pestilence, but he could not conquer the devils which +caused it. Under these circumstances he appealed to the three brothers and asked their advice as to what course to adopt. +T’ien Yüan-shuai had a large boat built, called ‘Spirit-boat.’ He assembled in it a million spirits, and ordered them to beat +drums. On hearing this tumult all the demons of the town came out to listen. T’ien Yüan-shuai, seizing the opportunity, captured +them all and, with the help of the Grand Master, expelled them from the town. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2634">Besides the canonization of the three T’ien brothers, all the members of their families received posthumous titles. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2636"></a>Page 152</span></p><a id="d0e2637"></a><h2>The Dragon-boat Festival</h2> +<p id="d0e2640">This is said to be the origin of the dragon-boats which are to be seen on all the waterways of China on the fifth day of the +fifth moon.<a id="d0e2642src" href="#d0e2642" class="noteref">11</a> The Festival of the Dragon-boats, held on that day, was instituted in memory of the statesman-poet Ch’ü Yüan (332–296 B.C.), +who drowned himself in the Mi-lo River, an affluent of the Tung-t’ing Lake, after having been falsely accused by one of the +petty princes of the State. The people, out of pity for the unfortunate courtier, sent out these boats in search of his body. + + +</p><a id="d0e2647"></a><h2>Chiang Tzŭ-ya</h2> +<p id="d0e2650">In the wars which resulted in the overthrow of the tyrant Chou Wang and his dynasty and the establishment of the great Chou +dynasty, the most influential generalissimo was Chiang Tzŭ-ya. His family name was Chiang, and his own name Shang, but owing +to his descent from one of the ministers of the ancient King Yao, whose heirs owned the fief of Lü, the family came to be +called by that name, and he himself was known as Lü Shang. His honorific title was T’ai Kung Wang, ‘Hope of T’ai Kung,’ given +him by Wên Wang, who recognized in the person of Chiang Tzŭ-ya the wise minister whom his father T’ai Kung had caused him +to expect before his death. + +</p><a id="d0e2652"></a><h2>The Battle of Mu Yeh</h2> +<p id="d0e2655">Chiang Tzŭ-ya was originally in the service of the tyrant Chou Wang, but transferred his services to the Chou cause, and by +his wonderful skill enabled that house finally to gain the victory. The decisive battle <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2657"></a>Page 153</span>took place at Mu Yeh, situated to the south of Wei-hui Fu, in 1122 B.C. The soldiers of Yin, 700,000 in number, were defeated, +and Chou, the tyrant, shut himself up in his magnificent palace, set it alight, and was burned alive with all his possessions. +For this achievement Chiang Tzŭ-ya was granted by Wu Wang the title of Father and Counsellor, and was appointed Prince of +Ch’i, with perpetual succession to his descendants. + +</p><a id="d0e2659"></a><h2>A Legend of Chiang Tzŭ-ya</h2> +<p id="d0e2662">The <i>Feng shên yen i</i> contains many chapters describing in detail the various battles which resulted in the overthrow of the last tyrant of the +Shang dynasty and the establishment of the illustrious Chou dynasty on the throne of China. This legend and the following +one are epitomized from that work. + +</p><a id="d0e2667"></a><h2>No-cha defeats Chang Kuei-fang</h2> +<p id="d0e2670">The redoubtable No-cha having, by means of his Heaven-and-earth Bracelet, vanquished Fêng Lin, a star-god and subordinate +officer of Chang Kuei-fang, in spite of the black smoke-clouds which he blew out of his nostrils, the defeated warrior fled +and sought the aid of his chief, who fought No-cha in some thirty to forty encounters without succeeding in dislodging him +from his Wind-fire Wheel, which enabled him to move about rapidly and to perform prodigious feats, such as causing hosts of +silver flying dragons like clouds of snow to descend upon his enemy. During one of these fights No-cha heard his name called +three times, but paid no heed. Finally, with his Heaven-and-earth Bracelet he broke Chang Kuei-fang’s left arm, following +this up by shooting out some dazzling rays of light which knocked him off his horse. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2672"></a>Page 154</span></p> +<p id="d0e2673">When he returned to the city to report his victory to Tzŭ-ya, the latter asked him if during the battle Kuei-fang had called +his name. “Yes,” replied No-cha, “he called, but I took no heed of him.” “When Kuei-fang calls,” said Tzŭ-ya, “the <i>hun</i> and the <i>p’o</i> [<i>anima</i> and <i>umbra</i>] become separated, and so the body falls apart.” “But,” replied No-cha, “I had changed myself into a lotus-flower, which +has neither <i>hun</i> nor <i>p’o</i>, so he could not succeed in getting me off my magic wheel.” + +</p><a id="d0e2693"></a><h2>Tzŭ-ya goes to K’un-lun</h2> +<p id="d0e2696">Tzŭ-ya, however, still uncertain in mind about the finality of No-cha’s victories, went to consult Wu Wang (whose death had +not yet taken place at this time). After the interview Tzŭ-ya informed Wu Wang of his wish to visit K’un-lun Mountain. Wu +Wang warned him of the danger of leaving the kingdom with the enemy so near the capital; but Tzŭ-ya obtained his consent by +saying he would be absent only three days at most. So he gave instructions regarding the defence to No-cha, and went off in +his spirit chariot to K’un-lun. On his arrival at the Unicorn Precipice he was much enraptured with the beautiful scenery, +the colours, flowers, trees, bridges, birds, deer, apes, blue lions, white elephants, etc., all of which seemed to make earth +surpass Heaven in loveliness. + +</p><a id="d0e2698"></a><h2>He receives the List of Immortals</h2> +<p id="d0e2701">From the Unicorn Precipice he went on to the Jade Palace of Abstraction. Here he was presented to Yüan-shih. From him he received +the List of Promotions to Immortals, which Nan-chi Hsien-wêng, ‘Ancient Immortal of the South Pole,’ had brought, and was +told to go and erect a Fêng Shên T’ai (Spirits’ Promotion Terrace) <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2703"></a>Page 155</span>on which to exhibit it. Yüan-shih also warned him that if anyone called him while he was on the way he was to be most careful +not to answer. On reaching the Unicorn Precipice on his way back, he heard some one call: “Chiang Tzŭ-ya!” This happened three +times without his paying any heed. Then the voice was heard to say: “Now that you are Prime Minister, how devoid of feeling +and forgetful of bygone benefits you must be not to remember one who studied with you in the Jade Palace of Abstraction!” +Tzŭ-ya could not but turn his head and look. He then saw that it was Shên Kung-pao. He said: “Brother, I did not know it was +you who were calling me, and I did not heed you as Shih-tsun told me on no account to reply.” Shên Kung-pao said: “What is +that you hold in your hand?” He told him it was the List of Promotions to Immortals. Shên Kung-pao then tried to entice Tzŭ-ya +from his allegiance to Chou. Among Shên’s tactics was that of convincing Tzŭ-ya of the superiority of the magical arts at +the disposal of the supporters of Chou Wang. “You,” he said, “can drain the sea, change the hills, and suchlike things, but +what are those compared with my powers, who can take off my head, make it mount into space, travel 10,000,000 <i>li</i>, and return to my neck just as complete as before and able to speak? Burn your List of Promotions to Immortals and come with +me.” Tzŭ-ya, thinking that a head which could travel 10,000,000 <i>li</i> and be the same as before was exceedingly rare, said: “Brother, you take your head off, and if in reality it can do as you +say, rise into space and return and be as before, I shall be willing to burn the List of Promotions to Immortals and return +with you to Chao Ko.” Shên Kung-pao said: “You will not go back on your word?” <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2711"></a>Page 156</span>Tzŭ-ya said: “When your elder brother has spoken his word is as unchangeable as Mount T’ai, How can there be any going back +on my word?” + +</p><a id="d0e2713"></a><h2>The Soaring Head</h2> +<p id="d0e2716">Shên Kung-pao then doffed his Taoist cap, seized his sword, with his left hand firmly grasped the blue thread binding his +hair, and with his right cut off his head. His body did not fall down. He then took his head and threw it up into space. Tzŭ-ya +gazed with upturned face as it continued to rise, and was sorely puzzled. But the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole had kept +a watch on the proceedings. He said: “Tzŭ-ya is a loyal and honest man; it looks as if he has been deceived by this charlatan.” +He ordered White Crane Youth to assume quickly the form of a crane and fetch Shên Kung-pao’s head. + +</p><a id="d0e2718"></a><h2>The Ancient Immortal saves the Situation</h2> +<p id="d0e2721">Tzŭ-ya was still gazing upward when he felt a slap on his back and, turning round, saw that it was the Ancient Immortal of +the South Pole. Tzŭ-ya quickly asked: “My elder brother, why have you returned?” Hsien-wêng said: “You are a fool. Shên Kung-pao +is a man of unholy practices. These few small tricks of his you take as realities. But if the head does not return to the +neck within an hour and three-quarters the blood will coagulate and he will die. Shih-tsun ordered you not to reply to anyone; +why did you not hearken to his words? From the Jade Palace of Abstraction I saw you speaking together, and knew you had promised +to burn the List of Promotions to Immortals. So I ordered White Crane Youth to bring me the head. After an hour and three-quarters +Shên Kung-pao will be recompensed.” + +</p> +<div id="d0e2723" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p156.jpg" alt="Chiang Tzŭ-ya at K’un-lun"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Chiang Tzŭ-ya at K’un-lun</p> +</div><p> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2727"></a>Page 157</span></p> +<p id="d0e2728">Tzŭ-ya said: “My elder brother, since you know all you can pardon him. In the Taoist heart there is no place where mercy cannot +be exercised. Remember the many years during which he has faithfully followed the Path.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2730">Eventually the Ancient Immortal was persuaded, but in the meantime Shên Kung-pao, finding that his head did not return, became +very much troubled in mind. In an hour and three-quarters the blood would stop flowing and he would die. However, Tzŭ-ya having +succeeded in his intercession with the Ancient Immortal, the latter signed to White Crane Youth, who was flying in space with +the head in his beak, to let it drop. He did so, but when it reached the neck it was facing backward. Shên Kung-pao quickly +put up his hand, took hold of an ear, and turned his head the right way round. He was then able to open his eyes, when he +saw the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole. The latter arraigned him in a loud voice saying: “You as-good-as-dead charlatan, +who by means of corrupt tricks try to deceive Tzŭ-ya and make him burn the List of Immortals and help Chou Wang against Chou, +what do you mean by all this? You should be taken to the Jade Palace of Abstraction to be punished!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e2732">Shên Kung-pao, ashamed, could not reply; mounting his tiger, he made off; but as he left he hurled back a threat that the +Chou would yet have their white bones piled mountains high at Hsi Ch’i. Subsequently Tzŭ-ya, carefully preserving the precious +List, after many adventures succeeded in building the Fêng Shên T’ai, and posted the List up on it. Having accomplished his +mission, he returned in time to resist the capture of Hsi Ch’i by Chang Kuei-fang, whose troops were defeated with great slaughter. + +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2734"></a>Page 158</span></p><a id="d0e2735"></a><h2>Ch’iung Hsiao’s Magic Scissors</h2> +<p id="d0e2738">In another of the many conflicts between the two rival states Lao Tzŭ entered the battle, whereupon Ch’iung Hsiao, a goddess +who fought for the house of Shang (Chou), hurled into the air her gold scaly-dragon scissors. As these slowly descended, opening +and closing in a most ominous manner, Lao Tzŭ waved the sleeve of his jacket and they fell into the sea and became absolutely +motionless. Many similar tricks were used by the various contestants. The Gold Bushel of Chaotic Origin succumbed to the Wind-fire +Sphere, and so on. Ch’iung Hsiao resumed the attack with some magic two-edged swords, but was killed by a blow from White +Crane Youth’s Three-precious Jade Sceptre, hurled at her by Lao Tzŭ’s orders. Pi Hsiao, her sister, attempted to avenge her +death, but Yüan-shih, producing from his sleeve a magical box, threw it into the air and caught Pi Hsiao in it. When it was +opened it was found that she had melted into blood and water. + +</p><a id="d0e2740"></a><h2>Chiang Tzŭ-ya defeats Wên Chung</h2> +<p id="d0e2743">After this Lao Tzŭ rallied many of the skilful spirits to help Chiang Tzŭ-ya in his battle with Wên Chung, providing them +with the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole’s Sand-blaster and an earth-conquering light which enabled them to travel a thousand +<i>li</i> in a day. From the hot sand used the contest became known as the Red Sand Battle. Jan Têng, on P’êng-lai Mountain, in consultation +with Tzŭ-ya, also arranged the plan of battle. + +</p><a id="d0e2748"></a><h2>The Red Sand Battle</h2> +<p id="d0e2751">The fight began with a challenge from the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole to Chang Shao. The latter, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2753"></a>Page 159</span>riding his deer, dashed into the fray, and aimed a terrific blow with his sword at Hsien-wêng’s head, but White Crane Youth +warded it off with his Three-precious Jade Sceptre. Chang then produced a two-edged sword and renewed the attack, but, being +disarmed, dismounted from his deer and threw several handfuls of hot sand at Hsien-wêng. The latter, however, easily fanned +them away with his Five-fire Seven-feathers Fan, rendering them harmless. Chang then fetched a whole bushel of the hot sand +and scattered it over the enemy, but Hsien-wêng counteracted the menace by merely waving his fan. White Crane Youth struck +Chang Shao with his jade sceptre, knocking him off his horse, and then dispatched him with his two-edged sword. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2755">After this battle Wu Wang was found to be already dead. Jan Têng on learning this ordered Lei Chên-tzŭ to take the corpse +to Mount P’êng and wash it. He then dissolved a pill in water and poured the solution into Wu Wang’s mouth, whereupon he revived +and was escorted back to his palace. + +</p><a id="d0e2757"></a><h2>Further Fighting</h2> +<p id="d0e2760">Preparations were then made for resuming the attack on Wên Chung. While the latter was consulting with Ts’ai-yün Hsien-tzŭ +and Han Chih-hsien, he heard the sound of the Chou guns and the thunder of their troops. Wên Chung, mounting his black unicorn, +galloped like a whiff of smoke to meet Tzŭ-ya, but was stopped by blows from two silver hammers wielded by Huang T’ien-hua. +Han Chih-hsien came to Wên’s aid, but was opposed by Pi Hsiang-yang. Ts’ai-yün Hsien-tzŭ dashed into the fray, but No-cha +stepped on to his Wind-fire Wheel and opposed him. From all sides other Immortals joined in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2762"></a>Page 160</span>the terrific battle, which was a turmoil of longbows and crossbows, iron armour and brass mail, striking whips and falling +hammers, weapons cleaving mail and mail resisting weapons. In this fierce contest, while Tzŭ-ya was fighting Wên Chung, Han +Chih-hsien released a black wind from his magic wind-bag, but he did not know that the Taoist Barge of Mercy (which transports +departed souls to the land of bliss), sent by Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, had on board the Stop-wind Pearl, by which the +black storm was immediately quelled. Thereupon Tzŭ-ya quickly seized his Vanquish-spirits Whip and struck Han Chih-hsien in +the middle of the skull, so that the brain-fluid gushed forth and he died. No-cha then slew Ts’ai-yün Hsien-tzŭ with a spear-thrust. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2764">Thus the stern fight went on, until finally Tzŭ-ya, under cover of night, attacked Wên Chung’s troops simultaneously on all +four sides. The noise of slaughter filled the air. Generals and rank and file, lanterns, torches, swords, spears, guns, and +daggers were one confused <i>mêlée</i>; Heaven could scarcely be distinguished from earth, and corpses were piled mountains high. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2769" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p160.jpg" alt="Chiang Tzŭ-ya Defeats Wên Chung"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Chiang Tzŭ-ya Defeats Wên Chung</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2773">Tzŭ-ya, having broken through seven lines of the enemy’s ranks, forced his way into Wên Chung’s camp. The latter mounted his +unicorn, and brandishing his magic whip dashed to meet him. Tzŭ-ya drew his sword and stopped his onrush, being aided by Lung +Hsü-hu, who repeatedly cast a rain of hot stones on to the troops. In the midst of the fight Tzŭ-ya brought out his great +magic whip, and in spite of Wên Chung’s efforts to avoid it succeeded in wounding him in the left arm. The Chou troops were +fighting like dragons lashing their tails and pythons curling their bodies. To add to their <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2775"></a>Page 161</span>disasters, the Chou now saw flames rising behind the camp, and knew that their provisions were being burned by Yang Chien. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2777">The Chou armies, with gongs beating and drums rolling, advanced for a final effort, the slaughter being so great that even +the devils wept and the spirits wailed. Wên Chung was eventually driven back seventy <i>li</i> to Ch’i Hill. His troops could do nothing but sigh and stumble along. He made for Peach-blossom Range, but as he approached +it he saw a yellow banner hoisted, and under it was Kuang Ch’êng-tzŭ. Being prevented from escaping in that direction he joined +battle, but by use of red-hot sand, his two-edged sword, and his Turn-heaven Seal Kuang Ch’êng-tzŭ put him to flight. He then +made off toward the west, followed by Têng Chung. His design was to make for Swallow Hill, which he reached after several +days of weary marching. Here he saw another yellow banner flying, and Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ informed him that Jan Têng had forbidden +him to stop at Swallow Hill or to go through the Five Passes. This led to another pitched battle, Wên Chung using his magic +whip and Ch’ih his spiritual two-edged sword. After several bouts Ch’ih brought out his <i>yin-yang</i> mirror, by use of which irresistible weapon Wên was driven to Yellow Flower Hill and Blue Dragon Pass, and so on from battle +to battle, until he was drawn up to Heaven from the top of Dead-dragon Mountain. + +</p><a id="d0e2785"></a><h2>Thousand-li Eye and Favourable-wind Ear</h2> +<p id="d0e2788">Ch’ien-li Yen, ‘Thousand-<i>li</i> Eye,’ and Shun-fêng Êrh, ‘Favourable-wind Ear,’ were two brothers named Kao Ming and Kao Chio. On account of their martial +bearing they found favour with the tyrant emperor Chou Wang, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2793"></a>Page 162</span>who appointed them generals, and sent them to serve with Generalissimo Yüan Hung (who was a monkey which had taken human form) +at Mêng-ching. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2795">Kao Ming was very tall, with a blue face, flaming eyes, a large mouth, and prominent teeth like those of a rhinoceros. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2797">Kao Chio had a greenish face and skin, two horns on his head, a red beard, and a large mouth with teeth shaped like swords. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2799">One of their first encounters was with No-cha, who hurled at them his mystic bracelet, which struck Kao Chio on the head, +but did not leave even a scratch. When, however, he seized his fire-globe the brothers thought it wiser to retreat. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2801">Finding no means of conquering them, Yang Chien, Chiang Tzŭ-ya, and Li Ching took counsel together and decided to have recourse +to Fu Hsi’s trigrams, and by smearing them with the blood of a fowl and a dog to destroy their spiritual power. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2803">But the two brothers were fully informed of what was designed. Thousand-<i>li</i> Eye had seen and Favourable-wind Ear had heard everything, so that all their preparations proved unavailing. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2808">Yang Chien then went to Chiang Tzŭ-ya and said to him: “These two brothers are powerful devils; I must take more effectual +measures.” “Where will you go for aid?” asked Chiang Tzŭ-ya. “I cannot tell you, for they would hear,” replied Yang. He then +left. Favourable-wind Ear heard this dialogue, and Thousand-<i>li</i> Eye saw him leave. “He did not say where he was going,” they said to each other, “but we fear him not.” Yang Chien went to +Yü-ch’üan Shan, where lived Yü-ting Chên-jên, ‘Hero Jade-tripod.’ He told him about their two adversaries, and asked him how +they were to conquer <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2813"></a>Page 163</span>them. “These two genii,” replied the Chên-jên, “are from Ch’i-p’an Shan, Chessboard Mountain. One is a spiritual peach-tree, +the other a spiritual pomegranate-tree. Their roots cover an area of thirty square <i>li</i> of ground. On that mountain there is a temple dedicated to Huang-ti, in which are clay images of two devils called Ch’ien-li +Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh. The peach-tree and pomegranate-tree, having become spiritual beings, have taken up their abode in these +images. One has eyes which can see objects distinctly at a distance of a thousand <i>li</i>, the other ears that can hear sounds at a like distance. But beyond that distance they can neither see nor hear. Return and +tell Chiang Tzŭ-ya to have the roots of those trees torn up and burned, and the images destroyed; then the two genii will +be easily vanquished. In order that they may neither see nor hear you during your conversation with Chiang Tzŭ-ya, wave flags +about the camp and order the soldiers to beat tom-toms and drums.” + +</p><a id="d0e2821"></a><h2>How the Brothers were Defeated</h2> +<p id="d0e2824">Yang Chien returned to Chiang Tzŭ-ya. “What have you been doing?” asked the latter. Before replying Yang Chien went to the +camp and ordered soldiers to wave large red flags and a thousand others to beat the tom-toms and drums. The air was so filled +with the flags and the noise that nothing else could be either seen or heard. Under cover of this device Yang Chien then communicated +to Chiang Tzŭ-ya the course advised by the Chên-jên. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2826">Accordingly Li Ching at the head of three thousand soldiers proceeded to Ch’i-p’an Shan, pulled up and burned the roots of +the two trees, and broke the images to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2828"></a>Page 164</span>pieces. At the same time Lei Chên-tzŭ was ordered to attack the two genii. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2830">Thousand-<i>li</i> Eye and Favourable-wind Ear could neither see nor hear: the flags effectually screened the horizon and the infernal noise +of the drums and gongs deadened all other sound. They did not know how to stop them. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2835">The following night Yüan Hung decided to take the camp of Chiang Tzŭ-ya by assault, and sent the brothers in advance. They +were, however, themselves surprised by Wu Wang’s officers, who surrounded them. Chiang Tzŭ-ya then threw into the air his +‘devil-chaser’ whip, which fell on the two scouts and cleft their skulls in twain. + +</p><a id="d0e2837"></a><h2>Celestial Ministries</h2> +<p id="d0e2840">The dualistic idea, already referred to, of the Otherworld being a replica of this one is nowhere more clearly illustrated +than in the celestial Ministries or official Bureaux or Boards, with their chiefs and staffs functioning over the spiritual +hierarchies. The Nine Ministries up aloft doubtless had their origin in imitation of the Six, Eight, or Nine Ministries or +Boards which at various periods of history have formed the executive part of the official hierarchy in China. But their names +are different and their functions do not coincide. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2842">Generally, the functions of the officers of the celestial Boards are to protect mankind from the evils represented in the +title of the Board, as, for example, thunder, smallpox, fire, etc. In all cases the duties seem to be remedial. As the God +of War was, as we saw, the god who protects people from the evils of war, so the vast hierarchy of these various divinities +is conceived as functioning for the good of mankind. Being too numerous for inclusion <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2844"></a>Page 165</span>here, an account of them is given under various headings in some of the following chapters. + +</p><a id="d0e2846"></a><h2>Protectors of the People</h2> +<p id="d0e2849">Besides the gods who hold definite official posts in these various Ministries, there are a very large number who are also +protecting patrons of the people; and, though <i>ex officio</i>, in many cases quite as popular and powerful, if not more so. Among the most important are the following: Shê-chi, Gods of +the Soil and Crops; Shên Nung, God of Agriculture; Hou-t’u, Earth-mother; Ch’êng-huang, City-god; T’u-ti, Local Gods; Tsao +Chün, Kitchen-god; T’ien-hou and An-kung, Goddess and God of Sailors; Ts’an Nü, Goddess of Silkworms; Pa-ch’a, God of Grasshoppers; +Fu Shên, Ts’ai Shên, and Shou Hsing, Gods of Happiness, Wealth, and Longevity; Mên Shên, Door-gods; and Shê-mo Wang, etc., +the Gods of Serpents. + +</p><a id="d0e2854"></a><h2>The Ch’êng-huang</h2> +<p id="d0e2857">Ch’êng-huang is the Celestial Mandarin or City-god. Every fortified city or town in China is surrounded by a wall, <i>ch’êng</i>, composed usually of two battlemented walls, the space between which is filled with earth. This earth is dug from the ground +outside, making a ditch, or <i>huang</i>, running parallel with the <i>ch’êng</i>. The Ch’êng-huang is the spiritual official of the city or town. All the numerous Ch’êng-huang constitute a celestial Ministry +of Justice, presided over by a Ch’êng-huang-in-chief. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2868">The origin of the worship of the Ch’êng-huang dates back to the time of the great Emperor Yao (2357 B.C.), who instituted +a sacrifice called Pa Cha in honour of eight spirits, of whom the seventh, Shui Yung, had the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2870"></a>Page 166</span>meaning of, or corresponded to, the dyke and rampart known later as Ch’êng-huang. Since the Sung dynasty sacrifices have been +offered to the Ch’êng-huang all over the country, though now and then some towns have adopted another or special god as their +Ch’êng-huang, such as Chou Hsin, adopted as the Ch’êng-huang of Hangchou, the capital of Chekiang Province. Concerning Chou +Hsin, who had a “face of ice and iron,” and was so much dreaded for his severity that old and young fled at his approach, +it is related that once when he was trying a case a storm blew some leaves on to his table. In spite of diligent search the +tree to which this kind of leaf belonged could not be found anywhere in the neighbourhood, but was eventually discovered in +a Buddhist temple a long way off. The judge declared that the priests of this temple must be guilty of murder. By his order +the tree was felled, and in its trunk was found the body of a woman who had been assassinated, and the priests were convicted +of the murder. + +</p><a id="d0e2872"></a><h2>The Kitchen-god</h2> +<p id="d0e2875">Tsao Chün is a Taoist invention, but is universally worshipped by all families in China—about sixty millions of pictures of +him are regularly worshipped twice a month—at new and full moon. “His temple is a little niche in the brick cooking-range; +his palace is often filled with smoke; and his Majesty sells for one farthing.” He is also called ‘the God of the Stove.’ +The origin of his worship, according to the legend, is that a Taoist priest, Li Shao-chün by name, of the Ch’i State, obtained +from the Kitchen-god the double favour of exemption from growing old and of being able to live without eating. He then went +to the Emperor Hsiao Wu-ti (140–86 B.C.) <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2877"></a>Page 167</span>of the Han dynasty, and promised that credulous monarch that he should benefit by the powers of the god provided that he would +consent to patronize and encourage his religion. It was by this means, he added, that the Emperor Huang Ti obtained his knowledge +of alchemy, which enabled him to make gold. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2879" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p166.jpg" alt="The Kitchen-god"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Kitchen-god</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2883">The Emperor asked the priest to bring him his divine patron, and one night the image of Tsao Chün appeared to him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2885">Deceived by this trick, dazzled by the ingots of gold which he too should obtain, and determined to risk everything for the +pill of immortality which was among the benefits promised, the Emperor made a solemn sacrifice to the God of the Kitchen. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2887">This was the first time that a sacrifice had been officially offered to this new deity. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2889">Li Shao-chün gradually lost the confidence of the Emperor and, at his wits’ end, conceived the plan of writing some phrases +on a piece of silk and then causing them to be swallowed by an ox. This done, he announced that a wonderful script would be +found in the animal’s stomach. The ox being killed, the script was found there as predicted, but Li’s unlucky star decreed +that the Emperor should recognize his handwriting, and he was forthwith put to death. Nevertheless, the worship of the Kitchen-god +continued and increased, and exists in full vigour down to the present day. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2891">This deity has power over the lives of the members of each family under his supervision, distributes riches and poverty at +will, and makes an annual report to the Supreme Being on the conduct of the family during the year, for which purpose he is +usually absent for from four to seven days. Some hold that he also makes <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2893"></a>Page 168</span>these reports once or twice or several times each month. Various ceremonies are performed on seeing him off to Heaven and +welcoming him back. One of the former, as we saw, is to regale him with honey, so that only sweet words, if any, may be spoken +by him while up aloft! + +</p><a id="d0e2895"></a><h2>Ts’an Nü</h2> +<p id="d0e2898">In the kingdom of Shu (modern Ssŭch’uan), in the time of Kao Hsing Ti, a band of robbers kidnapped the father of Ts’an Nü. +A whole year elapsed, and the father’s horse still remained in the stable as he had left it. The thought of not seeing her +father again caused Ts’an Nü such grief that she would take no nourishment. Her mother did what she could to console her, +and further promised her in marriage to anyone who would bring back her father. But no one was found who could do this. Hearing +the offer, the horse stamped with impatience, and struggled so much that at length he broke the halter by which he was tied +up. He then galloped away and disappeared. Several days later, his owner returned riding the horse. From that time the horse +neighed incessantly, and refused all food. This caused the mother to make known to her husband the promise she had made concerning +her daughter. “An oath made to men,” he replied, “does not hold good for a horse. Is a human being meant to live in marital +relations with a horse?” Nevertheless, however good and abundant food they offered him, the horse would not eat. When he saw +the young lady he plunged and kicked furiously. Losing his temper, the father discharged an arrow and killed him on the spot; +then he skinned him and spread the skin on the ground outside the house to dry. As the young lady was passing the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2900"></a>Page 169</span>spot the skin suddenly moved, rose up, enveloped her, and disappeared into space. Ten days later it was found at the foot +of a mulberry-tree; Ts’an Nü changed into a silkworm, was eating the mulberry-leaves, and spinning for herself a silken garment. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2902">The parents of course were in despair. But one day, while they were overwhelmed with sad thoughts, they saw on a cloud Ts’an +Nü riding the horse and attended by several dozens of servants. She descended toward her parents, and said to them: “The Supreme +Being, as a reward for my martyrdom in the cause of filial piety and my love of virtue, has conferred on me the dignity of +Concubine of the Nine Palaces. Be reassured as to my fate, for in Heaven I shall live for ever.” Having said this she disappeared +into space. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2904">In the temples her image is to be seen covered with a horse’s skin. She is called Ma-t’ou Niang, ‘the Lady with the Horse’s +Head,’ and is prayed to for the prosperity of mulberry-trees and silkworms. The worship continues even in modern times. The +goddess is also represented as a stellar divinity, the star T’ien Ssŭ; as the first man who reared silkworms, in this character +bearing the same name as the God of Agriculture, Pasture, and Fire; and as the wife of the Emperor Huang Ti. + +</p><a id="d0e2906"></a><h2>The God of Happiness</h2> +<p id="d0e2909">The God of Happiness, Fu Shên, owes his origin to the predilection of the Emperor Wu Ti (A.D. 502–50) of the Liang dynasty +for dwarfs as servants and comedians in his palace. The number levied from the Tao Chou district in Hunan became greater and +greater, until it seriously prejudiced the ties of family relations. When Yang Ch’êng, <i>alias</i> Yang Hsi-chi, was Criminal Judge of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2914"></a>Page 170</span>Tao Chou he represented to the Emperor that, according to law, the dwarfs were his subjects but not his slaves. Being touched +by this remark, the Emperor ordered the levy to be stopped. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2916">Overjoyed at their liberation from this hardship, the people of that district set up images of Yang and offered sacrifices +to him. Everywhere he was venerated as the Spirit of Happiness. It was in this simple way that there came into being a god +whose portraits and images abound everywhere throughout the country, and who is worshipped almost as universally as the God +of Riches himself. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2918">Another person who attained to the dignity of God of Happiness (known as Tsêng-fu Hsiang-kung, ‘the Young Gentleman who Increases +Happiness’) was Li Kuei-tsu, the minister of Emperor Wên Ti of the Wei dynasty, the son of the famous Ts’ao Ts’ao, but in +modern times the honour seems to have passed to Kuo Tzŭ-i. He was the saviour of the T’ang dynasty from the depredations of +the Turfans in the reign of the Emperor Hsüan Tsung. He lived A.D. 697–781, was a native of Hua Chou, in Shensi, and one of +the most illustrious of Chinese generals. He is very often represented in pictures clothed in blue official robes, leading +his small son Kuo Ai to Court. + +</p><a id="d0e2920"></a><h2>The God of Wealth</h2> +<p id="d0e2923">As with many other Chinese gods, the proto-being of the God of Wealth, Ts’ai Shên, has been ascribed to several persons. The +original and best known until later times was Chao Kung-ming. The accounts of him differ also, but the following is the most +popular. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2925" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p170.jpg" alt="The Gods of Happiness, Office, and Longevity"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Gods of Happiness, Office, and Longevity</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2929">When Chiang Tzŭ-ya was fighting for Wu Wang of the Chou dynasty against the last of the Shang emperors, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2931"></a>Page 171</span>Chao Kung-ming, then a hermit on Mount Ô-mei, took the part of the latter. He performed many wonderful feats. He could ride +a black tiger and hurl pearls which burst like bombshells. But he was eventually overcome by the form of witchcraft known +in Wales as <i>Ciurp Creadh</i>. Chiang Tzŭ-ya made a straw image of him, wrote his name on it, burned incense and worshipped before it for twenty days, +and on the twenty-first shot arrows made of peach-wood into its eyes and heart. At that same moment Kung-ming, then in the +enemy’s camp, felt ill and fainted, and uttering a cry gave up the ghost. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2936">Later on Chiang Tzŭ-ya persuaded Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun to release from the Otherworld the spirits of the heroes who had died +in battle, and when Chao Kung-ming was led into his presence he praised his bravery, deplored the circumstances of his death, +and canonized him as President of the Ministry of Riches and Prosperity. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2938">The God of Riches is universally worshipped in China; images and portraits of him are to be seen everywhere. Talismans, trees +of which the branches are strings of cash, and the fruits ingots of gold, to be obtained merely by shaking them down, a magic +inexhaustible casket full of gold and silver—these and other spiritual sources of wealth are associated with this much-adored +deity. He himself is represented in the guise of a visitor accompanied by a crowd of attendants laden with all the treasures +that the hearts of men, women, and children could desire. + +</p><a id="d0e2940"></a><h2>The God of Longevity</h2> +<p id="d0e2943">The God of Longevity, Shou Hsing, was first a stellar deity, later on represented in human form. It was a constellation formed +of the two star-groups Chio and K’ang, the first two on the list of twenty-eight <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2945"></a>Page 172</span>constellations. Hence, say the Chinese writers, because of this precedence, it was called the Star of Longevity. When it appears +the nation enjoys peace, when it disappears there will be war. Ch’in Shih Huang-ti, the First Emperor, was the first to offer +sacrifices to this star, the Old Man of the South Pole, at Shê Po, in 246 B.C. Since then the worship has been continued pretty +regularly until modern times. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2947">But desire for something more concrete, or at least more personal, than a star led to the god’s being represented as an old +man. Connected with this is a long legend which turns on the point that after the father of Chao Yen had been told by the +celebrated physiognomist Kuan Lo that his son would not live beyond the age of nineteen, the transposition from <i>shih-chiu</i>, nineteen, to <i>chiu-shih</i>, ninety, was made by one of two gamblers, who turned out to be the Spirit of the North Pole, who fixes the time of decease, +as the Spirit of the South Pole does that of birth. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2955">The deity is a domestic god, of happy mien, with a very high forehead, usually spoken of as Shou Hsing Lao T’ou Tzŭ, ‘Longevity +Star Old-pate,’ and is represented as riding a stag, with a flying bat above his head. He holds in his hand a large peach, +and attached to his long staff are a gourd and a scroll. The stag and the bat both indicate <i>fu</i>, happiness. The peach, gourd, and scroll are symbols of longevity. + +</p><a id="d0e2960"></a><h2>The Door-gods</h2> +<p id="d0e2963">An old legend relates that in the earliest times there grew on Mount Tu Shuo, in the Eastern Sea, a peach-tree of fabulous +size whose branches covered an area of several thousand square <i>li</i>. The lowest branches, which inclined <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2968"></a>Page 173</span>toward the north-east, formed the Door of the Devils (<i>kuei</i>), through which millions of them passed in and out. Two spirits, named Shên Shu (or Shu Yü) and Yü Lü, had been instructed +to guard this passage. Those who had done wrong to mankind were immediately bound by them and given over to be devoured by +tigers. When Huang Ti heard of this he had the portraits of the two spirits painted on peach-wood tablets and hung above the +doors to keep off evil spirits. This led to the suspension of the small figures or plaques on the doors of the people generally. +Gradually they were supplanted by paintings on paper pasted on the doors, showing the two spirits armed with bows, arrows, +spears, etc., Shên Shu on the left, Yü Lü on the right. + +</p> +<div id="d0e2973" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p172.jpg" alt="The Money-tree"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Money-tree</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2977">In later times, however, these Door-gods were supplanted in popular favour by two ministers of the Emperor T’ai Tsung of the +T’ang dynasty, by name Ch’in Shu-pao and Hu Ching-tê. T’ai Tsung had fallen sick, and imagined that he heard demons rampaging +in his bedroom. The ministers of State, on inquiring as to the nature of the malady, were informed by the physician that his +Majesty’s pulse was feverish, that he seemed nervous and saw visions, and that his life was in danger. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2979">The ministers were in great fear. The Empress summoned other physicians to a consultation, and after the sick Emperor had +informed them that, though all was quiet during the daytime, he was sure he saw and heard demons during the night, Ch’in Shu-pao +and Hu Ching-tê stated that they would sit up all night and watch outside his door. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2981">Accordingly they posted themselves, fully armed, outside the palace gate all night, and the Emperor slept in peace. Next day +the Emperor thanked them heartily, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e2983"></a>Page 174</span>and from that time his sickness diminished. The two ministers, however, continued their vigils until the Emperor informed +them that he would no longer impose upon their readiness to sacrifice themselves. He ordered them to paint their portraits +in full martial array and paste these on the palace doors to see if that would not have the same effect. For some nights all +was peace; then the same commotion was heard at the back gates of the palace. The minister Wei Chêng offered to stand guard +at the back gates in the same way that his colleagues had done at the front gates. The result was that in a few days the Emperor’s +health was entirely restored. + +</p> +<p id="d0e2985">Thus it is that Wei Chêng is often associated with the other two Door-gods, sometimes with them, sometimes in place of them. +Pictures of these <i>mên shên</i>, elaborately coloured, and renewed at the New Year, are to be seen on almost every door in China. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e2990"></p> +<div id="d0e2991" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p174-1.jpg" alt="The Door-gods, Civil and Military"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Door-gods, Civil and Military</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e2995"></p> +<div id="d0e2996" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p174-2.jpg" alt=""></p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e2998"></a><h2>Chinese Polytheism</h2> +<p id="d0e3001">That the names of the gods of China are legion will be readily conceded when it is said that, besides those already described, +those still to be mentioned, and many others to whom space will not permit us to refer, there are also gods, goddesses, patrons, +etc., of wind, rain, snow, frost, rivers, tides, caves, trees, flowers, theatres, horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, +pigs, scorpions, locusts, gold, tea, salt, compass, archery, bridges, lamps, gems, wells, carpenters, masons, barbers, tailors, +jugglers, nets, wine, bean-curd, jade, paper-clothing, eye, ear, nose, tongue, teeth, heart, liver, throat, hands, feet, skin, +architecture, rain-clothes, monkeys, lice, Punch and Judy, fire-crackers, cruelty, revenge, manure, fornication, shadows, +corners, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3003"></a>Page 175</span>gamblers, oculists, smallpox, liver complaint, stomach-ache, measles, luck, womb, midwives, hasteners of child-birth, brigands, +butchers, furnishers, centipedes, frogs, stones, beds, candle-merchants, fishermen, millers, wig-merchants, incense-merchants, +spectacle-makers, cobblers, harness-makers, seedsmen, innkeepers, basket-makers, chemists, painters, perfumers, jewellers, +brush-makers, dyers, fortune-tellers, strolling singers, brothels, varnishers, combs, etc., etc. There is a god of the light +of the eye as well as of the eye itself, of smallpox-marks as well as of smallpox, of ‘benign’ measles as well as of measles. +After reading a full list of the gods of China, those who insist that the religion of China was or is a monotheism may be +disposed to revise their belief. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3005"></a>Page 176</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1698" href="#d0e1698src" class="noteref">1</a> See the present writer’s <i>China of the Chinese</i>, chapter viii. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1754" href="#d0e1754src" class="noteref">2</a> See Du Bose, pp. 282, 286, 361, 409, 410, and <i>Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society</i>, xxxiv, 110–111. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1808" href="#d0e1808src" class="noteref">3</a> Du Bose, p. 38. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1818" href="#d0e1818src" class="noteref">4</a> He is sometimes represented as a reincarnation of Wên Chung; see p. <a id="d0e1820" href="#d0e3288">198</a>. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1908" href="#d0e1908src" class="noteref">5</a> It is necessary to reproduce the written characters concerned with these stars, namely: + + +</p> +<p id="d0e1913" class="notetext"></p> +<div id="d0e1914" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p107.gif" alt=""></p> +</div><p> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e1955" href="#d0e1955src" class="noteref">6</a> See footnote, p. 107. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e2068" href="#d0e2068src" class="noteref">7</a> <i>Religion</i>, p. 177. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e2086" href="#d0e2086src" class="noteref">8</a> See <i>Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists</i>, by Sister Nivedita and Ananda Coomaraswamy. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e2490" href="#d0e2490src" class="noteref">9</a> The native accounts differ on this point. <i>Cf.</i> p. 16. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e2520" href="#d0e2520src" class="noteref">10</a> For further details concerning T’ai I see <i>Babylonian and Oriental Record</i>, vi, 145–150. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e2642" href="#d0e2642src" class="noteref">11</a> <i>Cf.</i> Chapter I. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e3006"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter V</h2> +<h1>Myths of the Stars</h1><a id="d0e3009"></a><h2>Astrological Superstitions</h2> +<p id="d0e3012">According to Chinese ideas, the sun, moon, and planets influence sublunary events, especially the life and death of human +beings, and changes in their colour menace approaching calamities. Alterations in the appearance of the sun announce misfortunes +to the State or its head, as revolts, famines, or the death of the emperor; when the moon waxes red, or turns pale, men should +be in awe of the unlucky times thus fore-omened. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3014">The sun is symbolized by the figure of a raven in a circle, and the moon by a hare on its hind-legs pounding rice in a mortar, +or by a three-legged toad. The last refers to the legend of Ch’ang Ô, detailed later. The moon is a special object of worship +in autumn, and moon-cakes dedicated to it are sold at this season. All the stars are ranged into constellations, and an emperor +is installed over them, who resides at the North Pole; five monarchs also live in the five stars in Leo, where is a palace +called Wu Ti Tso, or ‘Throne of the Five Emperors.’ In this celestial government there are also an heir-apparent, empresses, +sons and daughters, and tribunals, and the constellations receive the names of men, animals, and other terrestrial objects. +The Great Bear, or Dipper, is worshipped as the residence of the Fates, where the duration of life and other events relating +to mankind are measured and meted out. Fears are excited by unusual phenomena among the heavenly bodies. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3016">Both the sun and the moon are worshipped by the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3018"></a>Page 177</span>Government in appropriate temples on the east and west sides of Peking. + +</p><a id="d0e3020"></a><h2>Various Star-gods</h2> +<p id="d0e3023">Some of the star-gods, such as the God of Literature, the Goddess of the North Star, the Gods of Happiness, Longevity, etc., +are noticed in other parts of this work. The cycle-gods are also star-gods. There are sixty years in a cycle, and over each +of these presides a special star-deity. The one worshipped is the one which gave light on the birthday of the worshipper, +and therefore the latter burns candles before that particular image on each succeeding anniversary. These cycle-gods are represented +by most grotesque images: “white, black, yellow, and red; ferocious gods with vindictive eyeballs popping out, and gentle +faces as expressive as a lump of putty; some looking like men and some like women.” In one temple one of the sixty was in +the form of a hog, and another in that of a goose. “Here is an image with arms protruding out of his eye-sockets, and eyes +in the palms of his hands, looking downward 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.” + +</p><a id="d0e3025"></a><h2>Shooting the Heavenly Dog</h2> +<p id="d0e3028">In the family sleeping-apartments in Chinese houses hang pictures of Chang Hsien, a white-faced, long-bearded man with a little +boy by his side, and in his hand a bow and arrow, with which he is shooting the Heavenly <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3030"></a>Page 178</span>Dog. The dog is the Dog-star, and if the ‘fate’ of the family is under this star there will be no son, or the child will be +short-lived. Chang Hsien is the patron of child-bearing women, and was worshipped under the Sung dynasty by women desirous +of offspring. The introduction of this name into the Chinese pantheon is due to an incident in the history of Hua-jui Fu-jên, +a name given to Lady Fei, concubine of Mêng Ch’ang, the last ruler of the Later Shu State, A.D. 935–964. When she was brought +from Shu to grace the harem of the founder of the Sung dynasty, in A.D. 960, she is said to have preserved secretly the portrait +of her former lord, the Prince of Shu, whose memory she passionately cherished. Jealously questioned by her new consort respecting +her devotion to this picture, she declared it to be the representation of Chang Hsien, the divine being worshipped by women +desirous of offspring. Opinions differ as to the origin of the worship. One account says that the Emperor Jên Tsung, of the +Sung dynasty, saw in a dream a beautiful young man with white skin and black hair, carrying a bow in his hand. He said to +the Emperor: “The star T’ien Kou, Heavenly Dog, in the heavens is hiding the sun and moon, and on earth devouring small children. +It is only my presence which keeps him at bay.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3032">On waking, the Emperor at once ordered the young man’s portrait to be painted and exhibited, and from that time childless +families would write the name Chang Hsien on tablets and worship them. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3034">Another account describes Chang Hsien as the spirit of the star Chang. In the popular representations Chang Hsien is seen +in the form of a distinguished personage drawing a bow. The spirit of the star Chang <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3036"></a>Page 179</span>is supposed to preside over the kitchen of Heaven and to arrange the banquets given by the gods. + +</p><a id="d0e3038"></a><h2>The Sun-king</h2> +<p id="d0e3041">The worship of the sun is part of the State religion, and the officials make their offerings to the sun-tablet. The moon also +is worshipped. At the harvest moon, the full moon of the eighth month, the Chinese bow before the heavenly luminary, and each +family burns incense as an offering. Thus “100,000 classes all receive the blessings of the icy-wheel in the Milky Way along +the heavenly street, a mirror always bright.” In Chinese illustrations we see the moon-palace of Ch’ang O, who stole the pill +of immortality and flew to the moon, the fragrant tree which one of the genii tried to cut down, and a hare pestling medicine +in a mortar. This refers to the following legend. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3043">The sun and the moon are both included by the Chinese among the stars, the spirit of the former being called T’ai-yang Ti-chün, +‘the Sun-king,’ or Jih-kung Ch’ih-chiang, ‘Ch’ih-chiang of the Solar Palace,’ that of the latter T’ai-yin Huang-chün, ‘the +Moon-queen,’ or Yüeh-fu Ch’ang O, ‘Ch’ang O of the Lunar Palace.’ + +</p> +<p id="d0e3045">Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü lived in the reign of Hsien-yüan Huang-ti, who appointed him Director of Construction and Furnishing. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3047">When Hsien-yüan went on his visit to Ô-mei Shan, a mountain in Ssuch’uan, Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü obtained permission to accompany +him. Their object was to be initiated into the doctrine of immortality. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3049">The Emperor was instructed in the secrets of the doctrine by T’ai-i Huang-jên, the spirit of this famous mountain, who, when +he was about to take his departure, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3051"></a>Page 180</span>begged him to allow Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü to remain with him. The new hermit went out every day to gather the flowering plants +which formed the only food of his master, T’ai-i Huang-jên, and he also took to eating these flowers, so that his body gradually +became spiritualized. + +</p><a id="d0e3053"></a><h2>The Steep Summit</h2> +<p id="d0e3056">One day T’ai-i Huang-jên sent him to cut some bamboos on the summit of Ô-mei Shan, distant more than three hundred <i>li</i> from the place where they lived. When he reached the base of the summit, all of a sudden three giddy peaks confronted him, +so dangerous that even the monkeys and other animals dared not attempt to scale them. But he took his courage in his hands, +climbed the steep slope, and by sheer energy reached the summit. Having cut the bamboos, he tried to descend, but the rocks +rose like a wall in sharp points all round him, and he could not find a foothold anywhere. Then, though laden with the bamboos, +he threw himself into the air, and was borne on the wings of the wind. He came to earth safe and sound at the foot of the +mountain, and ran with the bamboos to his master. On account of this feat he was considered advanced enough to be admitted +to instruction in the doctrine. + +</p><a id="d0e3061"></a><h2>The Divine Archer</h2> +<p id="d0e3064">The Emperor Yao, in the twelfth year of his reign (2346 B.C.), one day, while walking in the streets of Huai-yang, met a man +carrying a bow and arrows, the bow being bound round with a piece of red stuff. This was Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü. He told the +Emperor he was a skilful archer and could fly in the air on the wings of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3066"></a>Page 181</span>the wind. Yao, to test his skill, ordered him to shoot one of his arrows at a pine-tree on the top of a neighbouring mountain. +Ch’ih shot an arrow which transfixed the tree, and then jumped on to a current of air to go and fetch the arrow back. Because +of this the Emperor named him Shên I, ‘the Divine Archer,’ attached him to his suite, and appointed him Chief Mechanician +of all Works in Wood. He continued to live only on flowers. + +</p><a id="d0e3068"></a><h2>Vanquishes the Wind-spirit</h2> +<p id="d0e3071">At this time terrible calamities began to lay waste the land. Ten suns appeared in the sky, the heat of which burnt up all +the crops; dreadful storms uprooted trees and overturned houses; floods overspread the country. Near the Tung-t’ing Lake a +serpent, a thousand feet long, devoured human beings, and wild boars of enormous size did great damage in the eastern part +of the kingdom. Yao ordered Shên I to go and slay the devils and monsters who were causing all this mischief, placing three +hundred men at his service for that purpose. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3073">Shên I took up his post on Mount Ch’ing Ch’iu to study the cause of the devastating storms, and found that these tempests +were released by Fei Lien, the Spirit of the Wind, who blew them out of a sack. As we shall see when considering the thunder +myths, the ensuing conflict ended in Fei Lien suing for mercy and swearing friendship to his victor, whereupon the storms +ceased. + +</p><a id="d0e3075"></a><h2>Dispels the Nine False Suns</h2> +<p id="d0e3078">After this first victory Shên I led his troops to the banks of the Hsi Ho, West River, at Lin Shan. Here he discovered that +on three neighbouring peaks nine <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3080"></a>Page 182</span>extraordinary birds were blowing out fire and thus forming nine new suns in the sky. Shên I shot nine arrows in succession, +pierced the birds, and immediately the nine false suns resolved themselves into red clouds and melted away. Shên I and his +soldiers found the nine arrows stuck in nine red stones at the top of the mountain. + +</p><a id="d0e3082"></a><h2>Marries the Sister of the Water-spirit</h2> +<p id="d0e3085">Shên I then led his soldiers to Kao-liang, where the river had risen and formed an immense torrent. He shot an arrow into +the water, which thereupon withdrew to its source. In the flood he saw a man clothed in white, riding a white horse and accompanied +by a dozen attendants. He quickly discharged an arrow, striking him in the left eye, and the horseman at once took to flight. +He was accompanied by a young woman named Hêng O<a id="d0e3087src" href="#d0e3087" class="noteref">1</a>, the younger sister of Ho Po, the Spirit of the Waters. Shên I shot an arrow into her hair. She turned and thanked him for +sparing her life, adding: “I will agree to be your wife.” After these events had been duly reported to the Emperor Yao, the +wedding took place. + +</p><a id="d0e3090"></a><h2>Slays Various Dangerous Creatures</h2> +<p id="d0e3093">Three months later Yao ordered Shên I to go and kill the great Tung-t’ing serpent. An arrow in the left eye laid him out stark +and dead. The wild boars also were all caught in traps and slain. As a reward for these <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3095"></a>Page 183</span>achievements Yao canonized Shên I with the title of Marquis Pacifier of the Country. + +</p><a id="d0e3097"></a><h2>Builds a Palace for Chin Mu</h2> +<p id="d0e3100">About this time T’ai-wu Fu-jên, the third daughter of Hsi Wang Mu, had entered a nunnery on Nan-min Shan, to the north of +Lo-fou Shan, where her mother’s palace was situated. She mounted a dragon to visit her mother, and all along the course left +a streak of light in her wake. One day the Emperor Yao, from the top of Ch’ing-yün Shan, saw this track of light, and asked +Shên I the cause of this unusual phenomenon. The latter mounted the current of luminous air, and letting it carry him whither +it listed, found himself on Lo-fou Shan, in front of the door of the mountain, which was guarded by a great spiritual monster. +On seeing Shên I this creature called together a large number of phoenixes and other birds of gigantic size and set them at +Shên I. One arrow, however, settled the matter. They all fled, the door opened, and a lady followed by ten attendants presented +herself. She was no other than Chin Mu herself. Shên I, having saluted her and explained the object of his visit, was admitted +to the goddess’s palace, and royally entertained. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3102">“I have heard,” said Shên I to her, “that you possess the pills of immortality; I beg you to give me one or two.” “You are +a well-known architect,” replied Chin Mu; “please build me a palace near this mountain.” Together they went to inspect a celebrated +site known as Pai-yü-kuei Shan, ‘White Jade-tortoise Mountain,’ and fixed upon it as the location of the new abode of the +goddess. Shên I had all the spirits of the mountain to work for him. The walls were built of jade, sweet-smelling <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3104"></a>Page 184</span>woods were used for the framework and wainscoting, the roof was of glass, the steps of agate. In a fortnight’s time sixteen +palace buildings stretched magnificently along the side of the mountain. Chin Mu gave to the architect a wonderful pill which +would bestow upon him immortality as well as the faculty of being able at will to fly through the air. “But,” she said, “it +must not be eaten now: you must first go through a twelve months’ preparatory course of exercise and diet, without which the +pill will not have all the desired results.” Shên I thanked the goddess, took leave of her, and, returning to the Emperor, +related to him all that had happened. + +</p><a id="d0e3106"></a><h2>Kills Chisel-tooth</h2> +<p id="d0e3109">On reaching home, the archer hid his precious pill under a rafter, lest anyone should steal it, and then began the preparatory +course in immortality. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3111">At this time there appeared in the south a strange man named Tso Ch’ih, ‘Chisel-tooth.’ He had round eyes and a long projecting +tooth. He was a well-known criminal. Yao ordered Shên I and his small band of brave followers to deal with this new enemy. +This extraordinary man lived in a cave, and when Shên I and his men arrived he emerged brandishing a padlock. Shên I broke +his long tooth by shooting an arrow at it, and Tso Ch’ih fled, but was struck in the back and laid low by another arrow from +Shên I. The victor took the broken tooth with him as a trophy. + +</p><a id="d0e3113"></a><h2>Hêng Ô flies to the Moon</h2> +<p id="d0e3116">Hêng Ô, during her husband’s absence, saw a white light which seemed to issue from a beam in the roof, while a most delicious +odour filled every room. By the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3118"></a>Page 185</span>aid of a ladder she reached up to the spot whence the light came, found the pill of immortality, and ate it. She suddenly +felt that she was freed from the operation of the laws of gravity and as if she had wings, and was just essaying her first +flight when Shên I returned. He went to look for his pill, and, not finding it, asked Hêng Ô what had happened. + +</p> +<div id="d0e3120" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p184.jpg" alt="Hêng Ô Flies to the Moon"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Hêng Ô Flies to the Moon</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e3124">The young wife, seized with fear, opened the window and flew out. Shên I took his bow and pursued her. The moon was full, +the night clear, and he saw his wife flying rapidly in front of him, only about the size of a toad. Just when he was redoubling +his pace to catch her up a blast of wind struck him to the ground like a dead leaf. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3126">Hêng Ô continued her flight until she reached a luminous sphere, shining like glass, of enormous size, and very cold. The +only vegetation consisted of cinnamon-trees. No living being was to be seen. All of a sudden she began to cough, and vomited +the covering of the pill of immortality, which was changed into a rabbit as white as the purest jade. This was the ancestor +of the spirituality of the <i>yin</i>, or female, principle. Hêng Ô noticed a bitter taste in her mouth, drank some dew, and, feeling hungry, ate some cinnamon. +She took up her abode in this sphere. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3131">As to Shên I, he was carried by the hurricane up into a high mountain. Finding himself before the door of a palace, he was +invited to enter, and found that it was the palace of Tung-hua Ti-chün, otherwise Tung Wang Kung, the husband of Hsi Wang +Mu. + +</p><a id="d0e3133"></a><h2>The Sun-palace and the Bird of Dawn</h2> +<p id="d0e3136">The God of the Immortals said to Shên I: “You must not be annoyed with Hêng Ô. Everybody’s fate is <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3138"></a>Page 186</span>settled beforehand. Your labours are nearing an end, and you will become an Immortal. It was I who let loose the whirlwind +that brought you here. Hêng O, through having borrowed the forces which by right belong to you, is now an Immortal in the +Palace of the Moon. As for you, you deserve much for having so bravely fought the nine false suns. As a reward you shall have +the Palace of the Sun. Thus the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i> will be united in marriage.” This said, Tung-hua Ti-chün ordered his servants to bring a red Chinese sarsaparilla cake, with +a lunar talisman. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3146">“Eat this cake,” he said; “it will protect you from the heat of the solar hearth. And by wearing this talisman you will be +able at will to visit the lunar palace of Hêng O; but the converse does not hold good, for your wife will not have access +to the solar palace.” This is why the light of the moon has its birth in the sun, and decreases in proportion to its distance +from the sun, the moon being light or dark according as the sun comes and goes. Shên I ate the sarsaparilla cake, attached +the talisman to his body, thanked the god, and prepared to leave. Tung Wang Kung said to him: “The sun rises and sets at fixed +times; you do not yet know the laws of day and night; it is absolutely necessary for you to take with you the bird with the +golden plumage, which will sing to advise you of the exact times of the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun.” “Where +is this bird to be found?” asked Shên I. “It is the one you hear calling <i>Ia! Ia!</i> It is the ancestor of the spirituality of the <i>yang</i>, or male, principle. Through having eaten the active principle of the sun, it has assumed the form of a three-footed bird, +which perches on the <i>fu-sang</i> tree [a tree said to grow at the place where the sun rises] in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3157"></a>Page 187</span>the middle of the Eastern Sea. This tree is several thousands of feet in height and of gigantic girth. The bird keeps near +the source of the dawn, and when it sees the sun taking his morning bath gives vent to a cry that shakes the heavens and wakes +up all humanity. That is why I ordered Ling Chên-tzŭ to put it in a cage on T’ao-hua Shan, Peach-blossom Hill; since then +its cries have been less harsh. Go and fetch it and take it to the Palace of the Sun. Then you will understand all the laws +of the daily movements.” He then wrote a charm which Shên I was to present to Ling Chên-tzŭ to make him open the cage and +hand the golden bird over to him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3159">The charm worked, and Ling Chên-tzŭ opened the cage. The bird of golden plumage had a sonorous voice and majestic bearing. +“This bird,” he said, “lays eggs which hatch out nestlings with red combs, who answer him every morning when he starts crowing. +He is usually called the cock of heaven, and the cocks down here which crow morning and evening are descendants of the celestial +cock.” + +</p><a id="d0e3161"></a><h2>Shên I visits the Moon</h2> +<p id="d0e3164">Shên I, riding on the celestial bird, traversed the air and reached the disk of the sun just at mid-day. He found himself +carried into the centre of an immense horizon, as large as the earth, and did not perceive the rotatory movement of the sun. +He then enjoyed complete happiness without care or trouble. The thought of the happy hours passed with his wife Hêng O, however, +came back to memory, and, borne on a ray of sunlight, he flew to the moon. He saw the cinnamon-trees and the frozen-looking +horizon. Going to a secluded spot, he found Hêng O there all alone. On seeing him she was <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3166"></a>Page 188</span>about to run away, but Shên I took her hand and reassured her. “I am now living in the solar palace,” he said; “do not let +the past annoy you.” Shên I cut down some cinnamon-trees, used them for pillars, shaped some precious stones, and so built +a palace, which he named Kuang-han Kung, ‘Palace of Great Cold.’ From that time forth, on the fifteenth day of every moon, +he went to visit her in her palace. That is the conjunction of the <i>yang</i> and <i>yin</i>, male and female principles, which causes the great brilliancy of the moon at that epoch. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3174">Shên I, on returning to his solar kingdom, built a wonderful palace, which he called the Palace of the Lonely Park. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3176">From that time the sun and moon each had their ruling sovereign. This <i>régime</i> dates from the forty-ninth year (2309 B.C.) of Yao’s reign. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3181">When the old Emperor was informed that Shên I and his wife had both gone up to Heaven he was much grieved to lose the man +who had rendered him such valuable service, and bestowed upon him the posthumous title of Tsung Pu, ‘Governor of Countries.’ +In the representations of this god and goddess the former is shown holding the sun, the latter the moon. The Chinese add the +sequel that Hêng O became changed into a toad, whose outline is traceable on the moon’s surface. + +</p><a id="d0e3183"></a><h2>Star-worship</h2> +<p id="d0e3186">The star-deities are adored by parents on behalf of their children; they control courtship and marriage, bring prosperity +or adversity in business, send pestilence and war, regulate rainfall and drought, and command angels and demons; so every +event in life is determined <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3188"></a>Page 189</span>by the ‘star-ruler’ who at that time from the shining firmament manages the destinies of men and nations. The worship is performed +in the native homes either by astrologers engaged for that purpose or by Taoist priests. In times of sickness, ten paper star-gods +are arranged, 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 propitiation of the good star-gods is in the +hope that they will expel the evil stars, and happiness thus be obtained. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3190">The practical effect of this worship is seen in the following examples taken from the Chinese list of 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 +others, make up the celestial galaxy worshipped by China’s millions: the Orphan Star enables a woman to become a man; the +Star of Pleasure decides on betrothals, binding the feet of those destined to be lovers with silver cords; the Bonepiercing +Star produces rheumatism; the Morning Star, if not worshipped, kills the father or mother during the year; the Balustrade +Star promotes lawsuits; the Three-corpse Star controls suicide, the Peach-blossom Star lunacy; and so on. + +</p><a id="d0e3192"></a><h2>The Herdsman and the Weaver-girl</h2> +<p id="d0e3195">In the myths and legends which have clustered about the observations of the stars by the Chinese there are subjects for pictorial +illustration without number. One of these stories is the fable of Aquila and Vega, known in Chinese mythology as the Herdsman +and the Weaver-girl. The latter, the daughter of the Sun-god, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3197"></a>Page 190</span>was so constantly busied with her loom that her father became worried at her close habits and thought that by marrying her +to a neighbour, who herded cattle on the banks of the Silver Stream of Heaven (the Milky Way), she might awake to a brighter +manner of living. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3199">No sooner did the maiden become wife than her habits and character utterly changed for the worse. She became not only very +merry and lively, but quite forsook loom and needle, giving up her nights and days to play and idleness; no silly lover could +have been more foolish than she. The Sun-king, in great wrath at all this, concluded that the husband was the cause of it, +and determined to separate the couple. So he ordered him to remove to the other side of the river of stars, and told him that +hereafter they should meet only once a year, on the seventh night of the seventh month. To make a bridge over the flood of +stars, the Sun-king called myriads of magpies, who thereupon flew together, and, making a bridge, supported the poor lover +on their wings and backs as if on a roadway of solid land. So, bidding his weeping wife farewell, the lover-husband sorrowfully +crossed the River of Heaven, and all the magpies instantly flew away. But the two were separated, the one to lead his ox, +the other to ply her shuttle during the long hours of the day with diligent toil, and the Sun-king again rejoiced in his daughter’s +industry. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3201">At last the time for their reunion drew near, and only one fear possessed the loving wife. What if it should rain? For the +River of Heaven is always full to the brim, and one extra drop causes a flood which sweeps away even the bird-bridge. But +not a drop fell; all the heavens were clear. The magpies flew joyfully in myriads, making a way for the tiny feet of the little +lady. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3203"></a>Page 191</span>Trembling with joy, and with heart fluttering more than the bridge of wings, she crossed the River of Heaven and was in the +arms of her husband. This she did every year. The husband stayed on his side of the river, and the wife came to him on the +magpie bridge, save on the sad occasions when it rained. So every year the people hope for clear weather, and the happy festival +is celebrated alike by old and young. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3205">These two constellations are worshipped principally by women, that they may gain cunning in the arts of needlework and making +of fancy flowers. Water-melons, fruits, vegetables, cakes, etc., are placed with incense in the reception-room, and before +these offerings are performed the kneeling and the knocking of the head on the ground in the usual way. + +</p><a id="d0e3207"></a><h2>The Twenty-eight Constellations</h2> +<p id="d0e3210">Sacrifices were offered to these spirits by the Emperor on the marble altar of the Temple of Heaven, and by the high officials +throughout the provinces. Of the twenty-eight the following are regarded as propitious—namely, the Horned, Room, Tail, Sieve, +Bushel, House, Wall, Mound, Stomach, End, Bristling, Well, Drawn-bow, and Revolving Constellations; the Neck, Bottom, Heart, +Cow, Female, Empty, Danger, Astride, Cock, Mixed, Demon, Willow, Star, Wing, are unpropitious. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3212">The twenty-eight constellations seem to have become the abodes of gods as a result of the defeat of a Taoist Patriarch T’ung-t’ien +Chiao-chu, who had espoused the cause of the tyrant Chou, when he and all his followers were slaughtered by the heavenly hosts +in the terrible catastrophe known as the Battle of the Ten Thousand Immortals. Chiang Tzŭ-ya as a reward conferred on <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3214"></a>Page 192</span>them the appanage of the twenty-eight constellations. The five planets, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn, are also +the abodes of stellar divinities, called the White, Green, Black, Red, and Yellow Rulers respectively. Stars good and bad +are all likewise inhabited by gods or demons. + +</p><a id="d0e3216"></a><h2>A Victim of Ta Chi</h2> +<p id="d0e3219">Concerning Tzŭ-wei Hsing, the constellation Tzŭ-wei (north circumpolar stars), of which the stellar deity is Po I-k’ao, the +following legend is related in the <i>Fêng shên yen i</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3224">Po I-k’ao was the eldest son of Wên Wang, and governed the kingdom during the seven years that the old King Was detained as +a prisoner of the tyrant Chou. He did everything possible to procure his father’s release. Knowing the tastes of the cruel +King, he sent him for his harem ten of the prettiest women who could be found, accompanied by seven chariots made of perfumed +wood, and a white-faced monkey of marvellous intelligence. Besides these he included in his presents a magic carpet, on which +it was necessary only to sit in order to recover immediately from the effects of drunkenness. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3226">Unfortunately for Po I-k’ao, Chou’s favourite concubine, Ta Chi, conceived a passion for him and had recourse to all sorts +of ruses to catch him in her net; but his conduct was throughout irreproachable. Vexed by his indifference, she tried slander +in order to bring about his ruin. But her calumnies did not at first have the result she expected. Chou, after inquiry, was +convinced of the innocence of Po. But an accident spoiled everything. In the middle of an amusing <i>séance</i> the monkey which had been given to the King by Po perceived some <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3231"></a>Page 193</span>sweets in the hand of Ta Chi, and, jumping on to her body, snatched them from Her. The King and his concubine were furious, +Chou had the monkey killed forthwith, and Ta Chi accused Po I-k’ao of having brought the animal into the palace with the object +of making an attempt on the lives of the King and herself. But the Prince explained that the monkey, being only an animal, +could not grasp even the first idea of entering into a conspiracy. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3233">Shortly after this Po committed an unpardonable fault which changed the goodwill of the King into mortal enmity. He allowed +himself to go so far as to suggest to the King that he should break off his relations with this infamous woman, the source +of all the woes which were desolating the kingdom, and when Ta Chi on this account grossly insulted him he struck her with +his lute. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3235">For this offence Ta Chi caused him to be crucified in the palace. Large nails were driven through his hands and feet, and +his flesh was cut off in pieces. Not content with ruining Po I-k’ao, this wretched woman wished also to ruin Wen Wang. She +therefore advised the King to have the flesh of the murdered man made up into rissoles and sent as a present to his father. +If he refused to eat the flesh of his own son he was to be accused of contempt for the King, and there would thus be a pretext +for having him executed. Wen Wang, being versed in divination and the science of the <i>pa kua</i>, Eight Trigrams, knew that these rissoles contained the flesh of his son, and to avoid the snare spread for him he ate three +of the rissoles in the presence of the royal envoys. On their return the latter reported this to the King, who found himself +helpless on learning of Wen Wang’s conduct. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3240"></a>Page 194</span></p> +<p id="d0e3241">Po I-k’ao was canonized by Chiang Tzu-ya, and appointed ruler of the constellation Tzu-wei of the North Polar heavens. + +</p><a id="d0e3243"></a><h2>Myths of Time</h2> +<p id="d0e3246">T’ai Sui is the celestial spirit who presides over the year. He is the President of the Ministry of Time. This god is much +to be feared. Whoever offends against him is sure to be destroyed. He strikes when least expected to. T’ai Sui is also the +Ministry itself, whose members, numbering a hundred and twenty, are set over time, years, months, and days. The conception +is held by some writers to be of Chaldeo-Assyrian origin. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3248">The god T’ai Sui is not mentioned in the T’ang and Sung rituals, but in the Yüan dynasty (A.D. 1280–1368) sacrifices were +offered to him in the College of the Grand Historiographer whenever any work of importance was about to be undertaken. Under +this dynasty the sacrifices were offered to T’ai Sui and to the ruling gods of the months and of the days. But these sacrifices +were not offered at regular times: it was only at the beginning of the Ch’ing (Manchu) dynasty (1644–1912) that it was decided +to offer the sacrifices at fixed periods. + +</p><a id="d0e3250"></a><h2>The Planet Jupiter</h2> +<p id="d0e3253">T’ai Sui corresponds to the planet Jupiter. He travels across the sky, passing through the twelve sidereal mansions. He is +a stellar god. Therefore an altar is raised to him and sacrifices are offered on it under the open sky. This practice dates +from the beginning of the Ming dynasty, when the Emperor T’ai Tsu ordered sacrifices to this god to be made throughout the +Empire. According to some authors, he corresponds to the god <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3255"></a>Page 195</span>of the twelve sidereal mansions. He is also variously represented as the moon, which turns to the left in the sky, and the +sun, which turns to the right. The diviners gave to T’ai Sui the title of Grand Marshal, following the example of the usurper +Wang Mang (A.D. 9–23) of the Western Han dynasty, who gave that title to the year-star. + +</p><a id="d0e3257"></a><h2>Legend of T’ai Sui</h2> +<p id="d0e3260">The following is the legend of T’ai Sui. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3262">T’ai Sui was the son of the Emperor Chou, the last of the Yin dynasty. His mother was Queen Chiang. When he was born he looked +like a lump of formless flesh. The infamous Ta Chi, the favourite concubine of this wicked Emperor, at once informed him that +a monster had been born in the palace, and the over-credulous sovereign ordered that it should immediately be cast outside +the city. Shên Chên-jên, who was passing, saw the small abandoned one, and said: “This is an Immortal who has just been born.” +With his knife he cut open the caul which enveloped it, and the child was exposed. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3264">His protector carried him to the cave Shui Lien, where he led the life of a hermit, and entrusted the infant to Ho Hsien-ku, +who acted as his nurse and brought him up. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3266">The child’s hermit-name was Yin Ting-nu, his ordinary name Yin No-cha, but during his boyhood he was known as Yin Chiao, <i>i.e.</i> ‘Yin the Deserted of the Suburb,’ When he had reached an age when he was sufficiently intelligent, his nurse informed him +that he was not her son, but really the son of the Emperor Chou, who, deceived by the calumnies of his favourite Ta Chi, had +taken him for an evil monster and had him cast out of the palace. His mother had been thrown down from an upper storey <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3271"></a>Page 196</span>and killed. Yin Chiao went to his rescuer and begged him to allow him to avenge his mother’s death. The Goddess T’ien Fei, +the Heavenly Concubine, picked out two magic weapons from the armoury in the cave, a battle-axe and club, both of gold, and +gave them to Yin Chiao. When the Shang army was defeated at Mu Yeh, Yin Chiao broke into a tower where Ta Chi was, seized +her, and brought her before the victor, King Wu, who gave him permission to split her head open with his battle-axe. But Ta +Chi was a spiritual hen-pheasant (some say a spiritual vixen). She transformed herself into smoke and disappeared. To reward +Yin Chiao for his filial piety and bravery in fighting the demons, Yü Ti canonized him with the title T’ai Sui Marshal Yin. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3273">According to another version of the legend, Yin Chiao fought on the side of the Yin against Wu Wang, and after many adventures +was caught by Jan Têng between two mountains, which he pressed together, leaving only Yin Chiao’s head exposed above the summits. +The general Wu Chi promptly cut it off with a spade. Chiang Tz[u)]-ya subsequently canonized Yin Chiao. + +</p><a id="d0e3275"></a><h2>Worship of T’ai Sui</h2> +<p id="d0e3278">The worship of T’ai Sui seems to have first taken place in the reign of Shên Tsung (A.D. 1068–86) of the Sung dynasty, and +was continued during the remainder of the Monarchical Period. The object of the worship is to avert calamities, T’ai Sui being +a dangerous spirit who can do injury to palaces and cottages, to people in their houses as well as to travellers on the roads. +But he has this peculiarity, that he injures persons and things not in the district in which he himself is, but in those districts +which adjoin it. Thus, if some constructive work is <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3280"></a>Page 197</span>undertaken in a region where T’ai Sui happens to be, the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts take precautions against +his evil influence. This they generally do by hanging out the appropriate talisman. In order to ascertain in what region T’ai +Sui is at any particular time, an elaborate diagram is consulted. This consists of a representation of the twelve terrestrial +branches or stems, <i>ti chih</i>> and the ten celestial trunks, <i>t’ien kan,</i> indicating the cardinal points and the intermediate points, north-east, north-west, south-east, and south-west. The four +cardinal points are further verified with the aid of the Five Elements, the Five Colours, and the Eight Trigrams. By using +this device, it is possible to find the geographical position of T’ai Sui during the current year, the position of threatened +districts, and the methods to be employed to provide against danger. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3288"></a>Page 198</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3087" href="#d0e3087src" class="noteref">1</a> She is the same as Ch’ang Ô, the name Hêng being changed to Ch’ang because it was the tabooed personal name of the Emperors +Mu Tsung of the T’ang dynasty and Chên Tsung of the Sung dynasty. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e3289"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter VI</h2> +<h1>Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain</h1><a id="d0e3292"></a><h2>The Ministry of Thunder and Storms</h2> +<p id="d0e3295">As already noted, affairs in the Otherworld are managed by official Bureaux or Ministries very similar to those on earth. +The <i>Fêng shên yen i</i> mentions several of these, and gives full details of their constitution. The first is the Ministry of Thunder and Storms. +This is composed of a large number of officials. The principal ones are Lei Tsu, the Ancestor of Thunder, Lei Kung, the Duke +of Thunder, Tien Mu, the Mother of Lightning, Feng Po, the Count of Wind, and Y[’u] Shih, the Master of Rain. These correspond +to the Buddhist Asuras, the “fourth class of sentient beings, the mightiest of all demons, titanic enemies of the Dêvas,” +and the Vedic Maruta, storm-demons. In the temples Lei Tsu is placed in the centre with the other four to right and left. +There are also sometimes represented other gods of rain, or attendants. These are Hsing T’ien Chün and T’ao T’ien Chün, both +officers of Wen Chung, or Lei Tsu, Ma Yüan-shuai, Generalissimo Ma, whose exploits are referred to later, and others. + +</p><a id="d0e3300"></a><h2>The President of the Ministry of Thunder</h2> +<p id="d0e3303">This divinity has three eyes, one in the middle of his forehead, from which, when open, a ray of white light proceeds to a +distance of more than two feet. Mounted on a black unicorn, he traverses millions of miles in the twinkling of an eye. + +</p> +<div id="d0e3305" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p198.jpg" alt="Wên Chung, Minister of Thunder"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Wên Chung, Minister of Thunder</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e3309">His origin is ascribed to a man named Wên Chung, generally known as Wên Chung T’ai-shih, ‘the Great <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3311"></a>Page 199</span>Teacher Wên Chung,’ He was a minister of the tyrant king Chou (1154–1122 B.C.), and fought against the armies of the Chou +dynasty. Being defeated, he fled to the mountains of Yen, Yen Shan, where he met Ch’ih Ching-tzu, one of the alleged discoverers +of fire, and joined battle with him; the latter, however, flashed his <i>yin-yang</i> mirror at the unicorn, and put it out of action. Lei Chên-tzu, one of Wu Wang’s marshals, then struck the animal with his +staff, and severed it in twain. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3316">Wên Chung escaped in the direction of the mountains of Chüeh-lung Ling, where another marshal, Yün Chung-tzu, barred his way. +Yün’s hands had the power of producing lightning, and eight columns of mysterious fire suddenly came out of the earth, completely +enveloping Wên Chung. They were thirty feet high and ten feet in circumference. Ninety fiery dragons came out of each and +flew away up into the air. The sky was like a furnace, and the earth shook with the awful claps of thunder. In this fiery +prison Wên Chung died. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3318">When the new dynasty finally proved victorious, Chiang Tzu-ya, by order of Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun, conferred on Wên Chung the +supreme direction of the Ministry of Thunder, appointing him celestial prince and plenipotentiary defender of the laws governing +the distribution of clouds and rain. His full title was Celestial and Highly-honoured Head of the Nine Orbits of the Heavens, +Voice of the Thunder, and Regulator of the Universe. His birthday is celebrated on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth moon. + + +</p><a id="d0e3320"></a><h2>The Duke of Thunder</h2> +<p id="d0e3323">The Spirit of Thunder, for whom Lei Tsu is often mistaken, is represented as an ugly, black, bat-winged <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3325"></a>Page 200</span>demon, with clawed feet, monkey’s head, and eagle’s beak, who holds in one hand a steel chisel, and in the other a spiritual +hammer, with which he beats numerous drums strung about him, thus producing the terrific noise of thunder. According to Chinese +reasoning it is the sound of these drums, and not the lightning, which causes death. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3327">A. Gruenwedel, in his <i>Guide to the Lamaist Collection of Prince Uchtomsky,</i> p. 161, states that the Chino-Japanese God of Thunder, Lei Kung, has the shape of the Indian divine bird Garuda. Are we to +suppose, then, that the Chinese Lei Kung is of Indian origin? In modern pictures the God of Thunder is depicted with a cock’s +head and claws, carrying in one hand the hammer, in the other the chisel. We learn, however, from Wang Ch’ung’s <i>Lun Hêng</i> that in the first century B.C., when Buddhism was not yet introduced into China, the ‘Thunderer’ was represented as a strong +man, not as a bird, with one hand dragging a cluster of drums, and with the other brandishing a hammer. Thus Lei Kung existed +already in China when the latter received her first knowledge of India. Yet his modern image may well owe its wings to the +Indian rain-god Vajrapani, who in one form appears with Garuda wings. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3335">Lei Kung P’u-sa, the avatar of Lei Kung (whose existence as the Spirit of Thunder is denied by at least one Chinese writer), +has made various appearances on the earth. One of these is described below. + +</p><a id="d0e3337"></a><h2>Lei Kung in the Tree</h2> +<p id="d0e3340">A certain Yeh Ch’ien-chao of Hsin Chou, when a youth, used to climb the mountain Chien-ch’ang Shan for the purpose of cutting +firewood and collecting medicinal <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3342"></a>Page 201</span>herbs. One day when he had taken refuge under a tree during a rain-storm there was a loud clap of thunder, and he saw a winged +being, with a blue face, large mouth, and bird’s claws, caught in a cleft of the tree. This being addressed Yeh, saying: “I +am Lei Kung. In splitting this tree I got caught in it; if you will free me I will reward you handsomely.” The woodcutter +opened the cleft wider by driving in some stones as wedges, and liberated the prisoner. “Return to this spot to-morrow,” said +the latter, “and I will reward you.” The next day the woodcutter kept the appointment, and received from Lei Kung a book. +“If you consult this work,” he explained, “you will be able at will to bring thunder or rain, cure sickness, or assuage sorrow. +We are five brothers, of whom I am the youngest. When you want to bring rain call one or other of my brothers; but call me +only in case of pressing necessity, because I have a bad character; but I will come if it is really necessary.” Having said +these words, he disappeared. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3344">Yeh Ch’ien-chao, by means of the prescriptions contained in the mysterious book, could cure illnesses as easily as the sun +dissipates the morning mist. One day, when he was intoxicated and had gone to bed in the temple of Chi-chou Ssŭ, the magistrate +wished to arrest and punish him. But when he reached the steps of the <i>yamên</i>, Ch’ien-chao called Lei Kung to his aid. A terrible clap of thunder immediately resounded throughout the district. The magistrate, +nearly dead with fright, at once dismissed the case without punishing the culprit. The four brothers never failed to come +to his aid. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3349">By the use of his power Ch’ien-chao saved many regions from famine by bringing timely rain. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3351"></a>Page 202</span></p><a id="d0e3352"></a><h2>The Mysterious Bottle</h2> +<p id="d0e3355">Another legend relates that an old woman living in Kiangsi had her arm broken through being struck by lightning, when a voice +from above was heard saying: “I have made a mistake.” A bottle fell out of space, and the voice again said: “Apply the contents +and you will be healed at once.” This being done, the old woman’s arm was promptly mended. The villagers, regarding the contents +of the bottle as divine medicine, wished to take it away and hide it for future use, but several of them together could not +lift it from the ground. Suddenly, however, it rose up and disappeared into space. Other persons in Kiangsi were also struck, +and the same voice was heard to say: ” Apply some grubs to the throat and they will recover.“After this had been done the +victims returned to consciousness none the worse for their experience. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3357">The worship of Lei Kung seems to have been carried on regularly from about the time of the Christian era. + +</p><a id="d0e3359"></a><h2>Lei Chên-tzŭ</h2> +<p id="d0e3362">Another Son of Thunder is Lei Chên-tzŭ, mentioned above, whose name when a child was Wên Yü, who was hatched from an egg after +a clap of thunder and found by the soldiers of Wên Wang in some brushwood near an old tomb. The infant’s chief characteristic +was its brilliant eyes. Wên Wang, who already had ninety-nine children, adopted it as his hundredth, but gave it to a hermit +named Yün Chung-tzŭ to rear as his disciple. The hermit showed him the way to rescue his adopted father from the tyrant who +held him prisoner. In seeking for some powerful weapon the child found on <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3364"></a>Page 203</span>the hillside two apricots, and ate them both. He then noticed that wings had grown on his shoulders, and was too much ashamed +to return home. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3366">But the hermit, who knew intuitively what had taken place, sent a servant to seek him. When they met the servant said: “Do +you know that your face is completely altered?” The mysterious fruit had not only caused Lei Chên-tzŭ to grow wings, known +as Wings of the Wind and Thunder, but his face had become green, his nose long and pointed, and two tusks protruded horizontally +from each side of his mouth, while his eyes shone like mirrors. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3368">Lei Chên-tzŭ now went and rescued Wên Wang, dispersing his enemies by means of his mystical power and bringing the old man +back on his shoulders. Having placed him in safety he returned to the hermit. + +</p><a id="d0e3370"></a><h2>The Mother of Lightning</h2> +<p id="d0e3373">This divinity is represented as a female figure, gorgeously apparelled in blue, green, red, and white, holding in either hand +a mirror from which proceed two broad streams or flashes of light. Lightning, say the Chinese, is caused by the rubbing together +of the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i>, just as sparks of fire may be produced by the friction of two substances. + +</p><a id="d0e3381"></a><h2>The Origin of the Spirit of Lightning</h2> +<p id="d0e3384">Tung Wang Kung, the King of the Immortals, was playing at pitch-pot<a id="d0e3386src" href="#d0e3386" class="noteref">1</a> with Yü Nü. He lost; whereupon Heaven smiled, and from its half-open mouth a ray of light came out. This was lightning; it +is regarded as <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3392"></a>Page 204</span>feminine because it is supposed to come from the earth, which is of the <i>yin</i>, or female, principle. + +</p><a id="d0e3397"></a><h2>The God of the Wind</h2> +<p id="d0e3400">Fêng Po, the God of the Wind, is represented as an old man with a white beard, yellow cloak, and blue and red cap. He holds +a large sack, and directs the wind which comes from its mouth in any direction he pleases. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3402">There are various ideas regarding the nature of this deity. He is regarded as a stellar divinity under the control of the +star Ch’i,<a id="d0e3404src" href="#d0e3404" class="noteref">2</a> because the wind blows at the time when the moon leaves that celestial mansion. He is also said to be a dragon called Fei +Lien, at first one of the supporters of the rebel Ch’ih Yu, who was defeated by Huang Ti. Having been transformed into a spiritual +monster, he stirred up tremendous winds in the southern regions. The Emperor Yao sent Shên I with three hundred soldiers to +quiet the storms and appease Ch’ih Yu’s relatives, who were wreaking their vengeance on the people. Shên I ordered the people +to spread a long cloth in front of their houses, fixing it with stones. The wind, blowing against this, had to change its +direction. Shên I then flew on the wind to the top of a high mountain, whence he saw a monster at the base. It had the shape +of a huge yellow and white sack, and kept inhaling and exhaling in great gusts. Shên I, concluding that this was the cause +of all these storms, shot an arrow and hit the monster, whereupon it took refuge in a deep cave. Here it turned on Shên I +and, drawing a sword, dared him to attack the Mother of the Winds. Shên I, however, bravely faced the monster and discharged +another arrow, this time <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3407"></a>Page 205</span>hitting it in the knee. The monster immediately threw down its sword and begged that its life might be spared. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3409">Fei Lien is elsewhere described as a dragon who was originally one of the wicked ministers of the tyrant Chou, and could walk +with unheard-of swiftness. Both he and his son Ô Lai, who was so strong that he could tear a tiger or rhinoceros to pieces +with his hands, were killed when in the service of Chou Wang. Fei Lien is also said to have the body of a stag, about the +size of a leopard, with a bird’s head, horns, and a serpent’s tail, and to be able to make the wind blow whenever he wishes. + + +</p><a id="d0e3411"></a><h2>The Master of Rain</h2> +<p id="d0e3414">Yü Shih, the Master of Rain, clad in yellow scale-armour, with a blue hat and yellow busby, stands on a cloud and from a watering-can +pours rain upon the earth. Like many other gods, however, he is represented in various forms. Sometimes he holds a plate, +on which is a small dragon, in his left hand, while with his right he pours down the rain. He is obviously the Parjanya of +Vedism. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3416">According to a native account, the God of Rain is one Ch’ih Sung-tzŭ, who appeared during a terrible drought in the reign +of Shên Nung (2838–2698 B.C.), and owing to his reputed magical power was requested by the latter to bring rain from the sky. +“Nothing is easier,” he replied; “pour a bottleful of water into an earthen bowl and give it to me.” This being done, he plucked +from a neighbouring mountain a branch of a tree, soaked it in the water, and with it sprinkled the earth. Immediately clouds +gathered and rain fell in torrents, filling the rivers to overflowing. Ch’ih Sung-tzŭ was then honoured as the God of Rain, +and his images show him holding the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3418"></a>Page 206</span>mystic bowl. He resides in the K’un-lun Mountains, and has many extraordinary peculiarities, such as the power to go through +water without getting wet, to pass through fire without being burned, and to float in space. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3420">This Rain-god also assumes the form of a silkworm chrysalis in another account. He is there believed to possess a concubine +who has a black face, holds a serpent in each hand, and has other serpents, red and green, reposing on her right and left +ears respectively; also a mysterious bird, with only one leg, the <i>shang yang</i>, which can change its height at will and drink the seas dry. The following legend is related of this bird. + +</p><a id="d0e3425"></a><h2>The One-legged Bird</h2> +<p id="d0e3428">At the time when Hsüan-ming Ta-jên instructed Fei Lien in the secrets of magic, the latter saw a wonderful bird which drew +in water with its beak and blew it out again in the shape of rain. Fei lien tamed it, and would take it about in his sleeve. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3430">Later on a one-legged bird was seen in the palace of the Prince of Ch’i walking up and down and hopping in front of the throne. +Being much puzzled, the Prince sent a messenger to Lu to inquire of Confucius concerning this strange behaviour. “This bird +is a <i>shang yang</i>” said Confucius; “its appearance is a sign of rain. In former times the children used to amuse themselves by hopping on one +foot, knitting their eyebrows, and saying: ‘It will rain, because the <i>shang yang</i> is disporting himself.’ Since this bird has gone to Ch’i, heavy rain will fall, and the people should be told to dig channels +and repair the dykes, for the whole country will be inundated.” Not only Ch’i, but all the adjacent kingdoms were flooded; +all sustained grievous damage except Ch’i, where the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3438"></a>Page 207</span>necessary precautions had been taken. This caused Duke Ching to exclaim: “Alas! how few listen to the words of the sages!” + + +</p><a id="d0e3440"></a><h2>Ma Yüan-shuai</h2> +<p id="d0e3443">Ma Yüan-shuai is a three-eyed monster condemned by Ju Lai to reincarnation for excessive cruelty in the extermination of evil +spirits. In order to obey this command he entered the womb of Ma Chin-mu in the form of five globes of fire. Being a precocious +youth, he could fight when only three days old, and killed the Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea. From his instructor he received +a spiritual work dealing with wind, thunder, snakes, etc., and a triangular piece of stone which he could at will change into +anything he liked. By order of Yü Ti he subdued the Spirits of the Wind and Fire, the Blue Dragon, the King of the Five Dragons, +and the Spirit of the Five Hundred Fire Ducks, all without injury to himself. For these and many other enterprises he was +rewarded by Yü Ti with various magic articles and with the title of Generalissimo of the West, and is regarded as so successful +an interceder with Yü Ti that he is prayed to for all sorts of benefits. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3445"></a>Page 208</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3386" href="#d0e3386src" class="noteref">1</a> See p. <a id="d0e3388" href="#d0e952">45</a>. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3404" href="#d0e3404src" class="noteref">2</a> In Sagittarius, or the Sieve; Chinese constellation of the Leopard. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e3446"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter VII</h2> +<h1>Myths of the Waters</h1><a id="d0e3449"></a><h2>The Dragons</h2> +<p id="d0e3452">The dragons are spirits of the waters. “The dragon is a kind of being whose miraculous changes are inscrutable.” In a sense +the dragon is the type of a man, self-controlled, and with powers that verge upon the supernatural. In China the dragon, except +as noted below, is not a power for evil, but a beneficent being producing rain and representing the fecundating principle +in nature. He is the essence of the <i>yang</i>, or male, principle. “He controls the rain, and so holds in his power prosperity and peace.” The evil dragons are those introduced +by the Buddhists, who applied the current dragon legends to the <i>nagas</i> inhabiting the mountains. These mountain <i>nagas</i>, or dragons (perhaps originally dreaded mountain tribes), are harmful, those inhabiting lakes and rivers friendly and helpful. +The dragon, the “chief of the three hundred and sixty scaly reptiles,” is most generally represented as having the head of +a horse and the tail of a snake, with wings on its sides. It has four legs. The imperial dragon has five claws on each foot, +other dragons only four. The dragon is also said to have nine ‘resemblances’: “its horns resemble those of a deer, its head +that of a camel, its eyes those of a devil, its neck that of a snake, its abdomen that of a large cockle, its scales those +of a carp, its claws those of an eagle, the soles of its feet those of a tiger, its ears those of an ox;” but some have no +ears, the organ of hearing being said to be in the horns, or the creature “hears through its horns.” These various properties +are supposed to indicate the “fossil remnants of primitive <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3463"></a>Page 209</span>worship of many animals.” The small dragon is like the silk caterpillar. The large dragon fills the Heaven and the earth. +Before the dragon, sometimes suspended from his neck, is a pearl. This represents the sun. There are azure, scaly, horned, +hornless, winged, etc., dragons, which apparently evolve one out of the other: “a horned dragon,” for example, “in a thousand +years changes to a flying dragon.” + +</p> +<div id="d0e3465" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p208.jpg" alt="Dragon-gods"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Dragon-gods</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e3469">The dragon is also represented as the father of the great emperors of ancient times. His bones, teeth, and saliva are employed +as a medicine. He has the power of transformation and of rendering himself visible or invisible at pleasure. In the spring +he ascends to the skies, and in the autumn buries himself in the watery depths. Some are wingless, and rise into the air by +their own inherent power. There is the celestial dragon, who guards the mansions of the gods and supports them so that they +do not fall; the divine dragon, who causes the winds to blow and produces rain for the benefit of mankind; the earth-dragon, +who marks out the courses of rivers and streams; and the dragon of the hidden treasures, who watches over the wealth concealed +from mortals. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3471">The Buddhists count their dragons in number equal to the fish of the great deep, which defies arithmetical computation, and +can be expressed only 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 a dragon. “We see him,” they +say. The scattering of the cloud is his disappearance. He rules the hills, is connected with <i>fêng-shui</i> (geomancy), dwells round the graves, is associated with the Confucian <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3476"></a>Page 210</span>worship, is the Neptune of the sea, and appears on dry land. + +</p><a id="d0e3478"></a><h2>The Dragon-kings</h2> +<p id="d0e3481">The Sea-dragon Kings live in gorgeous palaces in the depths of the sea, where they feed on pearls and opals. There are five +of these divinities, the chief being in the centre, and the other four occupying the north, the west, the south, and the east. +Each is a league in length, and so bulky that in shifting its posture it tosses one mountain against another. It has five +feet, one of them being in the middle of its belly, and each foot is armed with five sharp claws. It can reach into the heavens, +and stretch itself into all quarters of the sea. It has a glowing armour of yellow scales, a beard under its long snout, a +hairy tail, and shaggy legs. Its forehead projects over its blazing eyes, its ears are small and thick, its mouth gaping, +its tongue long, and its teeth sharp. Fish are boiled by the blast of its breath, and roasted by the fiery exhalations of +its body. When it rises to the surface the whole ocean surges, waterspouts foam, and typhoons rage. When it flies, wingless, +through the air, the winds howl, torrents of rain descend, houses are unroofed, the firmament is filled with a din, and whatever +lies along its route is swept away with a roar in the hurricane created by the speed of its passage. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3483">The five Sea-dragon Kings are all immortal. They know each other’s thoughts, plans, and wishes without intercommunication. +Like all the other gods they go once a year to the superior Heavens, to make an annual report to the Supreme Ruler; but they +go in the third month, at which time none of the other gods dare appear, and their stay above is but brief. They generally +remain in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3485"></a>Page 211</span>the depths of the ocean, where their courts are filled with their progeny, their dependents, and their attendants, and where +the gods and genii sometimes visit them. Their palaces, of divers coloured transparent stones, with crystal doors, are said +to have been seen in the early morning by persons gazing into the deep waters. + +</p><a id="d0e3487"></a><h2>The Foolish Dragon</h2> +<p id="d0e3490">The part of the great Buddha legend referring to the dragon is as follows: + +</p> +<p id="d0e3492">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?” 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 am.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3494">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? Cross the sea, and you will find forests of fruit 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?” said 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 <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3496"></a>Page 212</span>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.” The dragon returned +to the shore. As the monkey was tardy in coming down from the tree, the dragon said: “Hurry up, little friend, I am waiting.” +Then the monkey thought within himself, “What a fool this dragon is!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3498">Then Buddha said to his followers: “At this time I was the monkey.” + +</p><a id="d0e3500"></a><h2>The Ministry of Waters</h2> +<p id="d0e3503">In the spirit-world there is a Ministry which controls all things connected with the waters on earth, salt or fresh. Its main +divisions are the Department of Salt Waters, presided over by four Dragon-kings—those of the East, South, West, and North—and +the Department of Sweet Waters, presided over by the Four Kings (<i>Ssŭ Tu</i>) of the four great rivers—the Blue (Chiang), Yellow (Ho), Huai, and Ch’i—and the Dragon-spirits who control the Secondary +Waters, the rivers, springs, lakes, pools, rapids. Into the names and functions of the very large number of officials connected +with these departments it is unnecessary to enter. It will be sufficient here to refer only to those whose names are connected +with myth or legend. + +</p><a id="d0e3508"></a><h2>An Unauthorized Portrait</h2> +<p id="d0e3511">One of these legends relates to the visit of Ch’in Shih Huang-ti, the First Emperor, to the Spirit of the Sea, Yang Hou, originally +a marquis (<i>bou</i>) of the State Yang, who became a god through being drowned in the sea. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3516">Po Shih, a Taoist priest, told the Emperor that an enormous oyster vomited from the sea a mysterious <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3518"></a>Page 213</span>substance which accumulated in the form of a tower, and was known as ‘the market of the sea’ (Chinese for ‘mirage’). Every +year, at a certain period, the breath from his mouth was like the rays of the sun. The Emperor expressed a wish to see it, +and Po Shih said he would write a letter to the God of the Sea, and the next day the Emperor could behold the wonderful sight. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3520">The Emperor then remembered a dream he had had the year before in which he saw two men fighting for the sun. The one killed +the other, and carried it off. He therefore wished to visit the country where the sun rose. Po Shih said that all that was +necessary was to throw rocks into the sea and build a bridge across them. Thereupon he rang his magic bell, the earth shook, +and rocks began to rise up; but as they moved too slowly he struck them with his whip, and blood came from them which left +red marks in many places. The row of rocks extended as far as the shore of the sun-country, but to build the bridge across +them was found to be beyond the reach of human skill. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3522">So Po Shih sent another messenger to the God of the Sea, requesting him to raise a pillar and place a beam across it which +could be used as a bridge. The submarine spirits came and placed themselves at the service of the Emperor, who asked for an +interview with the god. To this the latter agreed on condition that no one should make a portrait of him, he being very ugly. +Instantly a stone gangway 100,000 feet long rose out of the sea, and the Emperor, mounting his horse, went with his courtiers +to the palace of the god. Among his followers was one Lu Tung-shih, who tried to draw a portrait of the god by using his foot +under the surface of the water. Detecting this manoeuvre, the god was incensed, and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3524"></a>Page 214</span>said to the Emperor: “You have broken your word; did you bring Lu here to insult me? Retire at once, or evil will befall you.” +The Emperor, seeing that the situation was precarious, mounted his horse and galloped off. As soon as he reached the beach, +the stone cause-way sank, and all his suite perished in the waves. One of the Court magicians said to the Emperor: “This god +ought to be feared as much as the God of Thunder; then he could be made to help us. To-day a grave mistake has been made.” +For several days after this incident the waves beat upon the beach with increasing fury. The Emperor then built a temple and +a pagoda to the god on Chih-fu Shan and Wên-têng Shan respectively; by which act of propitiation he was apparently appeased. + + +</p><a id="d0e3526"></a><h2>The Shipwrecked Servant</h2> +<p id="d0e3529">Once the Eight Immortals (see Chapter XI) were on their way to Ch’ang-li Shan to celebrate the birthday anniversary of Hsien +Wêng, the God of Longevity. They had with them a servant who bore the presents they intended to offer to the god. When they +reached the seashore the Immortals walked on the waves without any difficulty, but Lan Ts’ai-ho remarked that the servant +was unable to follow them, and said that a means of transport must be found for him. So Ts’ao Kuo-chiu took a plank of cypress-wood +and made a raft. But when they were in mid-ocean a typhoon arose and upset the raft, and servant and presents sank to the +bottom of the sea. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3531">Regarding this as the hostile act of a water-devil, the Immortals said they must demand an explanation from the Dragon-king, +Ao Ch’in. Li T’ieh-kuai took his gourd, and, directing the mouth toward the bottom of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3533"></a>Page 215</span>the sea, created so brilliant a light that it illuminated the whole palace of the Sea-king. Ao Ch’in, surprised, asked where +this powerful light originated, and deputed a courier to ascertain its cause. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3535">To this messenger the Immortals made their complaint. “All we want,” they added, “is that the Dragon-king shall restore to +us our servant and the presents.” On this being reported to Ao Ch’in he suspected his son of being the cause, and, having +established his guilt, severely reprimanded him. The young Prince took his sword, and, followed by an escort, went to find +those who had made the complaint to his father. As soon as he caught sight of the Immortals he began to inveigh against them. + + +</p><a id="d0e3537"></a><h2>A Battle and its Results</h2> +<p id="d0e3540">Han Hsiang Tzŭ, not liking this undeserved abuse, changed his flute into a fishing-line, and as soon as the Dragon-prince +was within reach caught him on the hook, with intent to retain him as a hostage. The Prince’s escort returned in great haste +and informed Ao Ch’in of what had occurred. The latter declared that his son was in the wrong, and proposed to restore the +shipwrecked servant and the presents. The Court officers, however, held a different opinion. “These Immortals,” they said, +“dare to hold captive your Majesty’s son merely on account of a few lost presents and a shipwrecked servant. This is a great +insult, which we ask permission to avenge.” Eventually they won over Ao Ch’in, and the armies of the deep gathered for the +fray. The Immortals called to their aid the other Taoist Immortals and Heroes, and thus two formidable armies found themselves +face to face. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3542">Several attempts were made by other divinities to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3544"></a>Page 216</span>avert the conflict, but without success. The battle was a strenuous one. Ao Ch’in received a ball of fire full on his head, +and his army was threatened with disaster when Tz’ŭ-hang Ta-shih appeared with his bottle of lustral water. He sprinkled the +combatants with this magic fluid, using a willow-branch for the purpose, thus causing all their magic powers to disappear. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3546">Shui Kuan, the Ruler of the Watery Elements, then arrived, and reproached Ao Ch’in; he assured him that if the matter were +to come to the knowledge of Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, he would not only be severely punished, but would risk losing his +post. Ao Ch’in expressed penitence, restored the servant and the presents, and made full apology to the Eight Immortals. + +</p><a id="d0e3548"></a><h2>The Dragon in the Pond</h2> +<p id="d0e3551">One day Chang Tao-ling, the ‘father of modern Taoism,’ was on Ho-ming Shan with his disciple Wang Ch’ang. “See,” he said, +“that shaft of white light on Yang Shan yonder! There are undoubtedly some bad spirits there. Let us go and bring them to +reason.” When they reached the foot of the mountain they met twelve women who had the appearance of evil spirits. Chang Tao-ling +asked them whence came the shaft of white light. They answered that it was the <i>yin</i>, or female, principle of the earth. “Where is the source of the salt water?” he asked again. “That pond in front of you,” +they replied, “in which lives a very wicked dragon.” Chang Tao-ling tried to force the dragon to come out, but without success. +Then he drew a phœnix with golden wings on a charm and hurled it into the air over the pond. Thereupon the dragon took fright +and fled, the pond immediately drying up. After that Chang <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3556"></a>Page 217</span>Tao-ling took his sword and stuck it in the ground, whereupon a well full of salt water appeared on the spot. + +</p> +<div id="d0e3558" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p216.jpg" alt="Spirit of the Well"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Spirit of the Well</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e3562"></a><h2>The Spirits of the Well</h2> +<p id="d0e3565">The twelve women each offered Chang Tao-ling a jade ring, and asked that they might become his wives. He took the rings, and +pressing them together in his hands made of them one large single ring. “I will throw this ring into the well,” he said, “and +the one of you who recovers it shall be my wife.” All the twelve women jumped into the well to get the ring; whereupon Chang +Tao-ling put a cover over it and fastened it down, telling them that henceforth they should be the spirits of the well and +would never be allowed to come out. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3567">Shortly after this Chang Tao-ling met a hunter. He exhorted him not to kill living beings, but to change his occupation to +that of a salt-burner, instructing him how to draw out the salt from salt-water wells. Thus the people of that district were +advantaged both by being able to obtain the salt and by being no longer molested by the twelve female spirits. A temple, called +Temple of the Prince of Ch’ing Ho, was built by them, and the territory of Ling Chou was given to Chang Tao-ling in recognition +of the benefits he had conferred upon the people. + +</p><a id="d0e3569"></a><h2>The Dragon-king’s Daughter</h2> +<p id="d0e3572">A graduate named Liu I, in the reign-period I Fêng (A.D. 676–679) of the Emperor Kao Tsung of the T’ang dynasty, having failed +in his examination for his licentiate’s degree, when passing through Ching-yang Hsien, in Ch’ang-an, Shensi, on his way home, +saw a young woman tending goats by the roadside. She said <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3574"></a>Page 218</span>to him: “I am the youngest daughter of the Dragonking of the Tung-t’ing Lake. My parents married me to the son of the God +of the River Ching, but my husband, misled by the slanders of the servants, repudiated me. I have heard that you are returning +to the Kingdom of Wu, which is quite close to my native district, so I want to ask you to take this letter to my father. To +the north of the Tung-t’ing Lake you will find a large orange-tree, called by the natives Protector of the Soil. Strike it +three times with your girdle and some one will appear.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3576">Some months later the graduate went to the spot, found the orange-tree, and struck it three times, whereupon a warrior arose +from the lake and, saluting him, asked what he wanted. “I wish to see your great King,” the graduate replied. The warrior +struck the waters, opening a passage for Liu I, and led him to a palace. “This,” he said, “is the palace of Ling Hsü.” In +a few minutes there appeared a person dressed in violet-coloured clothes and holding in his hand a piece of jade. “This is +our King,” said the warrior. “I am your Majesty’s neighbour,” replied Liu I. “I spent my youth in Ch’u and studied in Ch’in. +I have just failed in my licentiate examination. On my way home I saw your daughter tending some goats; she was all dishevelled, +and in so pitiable a condition that it hurt me to see her, She has sent you this letter.” + +</p><a id="d0e3578"></a><h2>Golden Dragon Great Prince</h2> +<p id="d0e3581">On reading the letter the King wept, and all the courtiers followed his example. “Stop wailing,” said the King, “lest Ch’ien-t’ang +hear.” “Who is Ch’ien-t’ang?” asked Liu I. “He is my dear brother,” replied the King; “formerly he was one of the chief administrators +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3583"></a>Page 219</span>of the Ch’ien-t’ang River; now he is the chief God of Rivers.” “Why are you so afraid that he might hear what I have just +told you?” “Because he has a terrible temper. It was he who, in the reign of Yao, caused a nine-years flood.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3585">Before he had finished speaking, a red dragon, a thousand feet long, with red scales, mane of fire, bloody tongue, and eyes +blazing like lightning, passed through the air with rapid flight and disappeared. Barely a few moments had elapsed when it +returned with a young woman whom Liu I recognized as the one who had entrusted him with the letter. The Dragon-king, overjoyed, +said to him: “This is my daughter; her husband is no more, and she offers you her hand.” Liu did not dare to accept, since +it appeared that they had just killed her husband. He took his departure, and married a woman named Chang, who soon died. +He then married another named Han, who also died. He then went to live at Nanking, and, his solitude preying upon his spirits, +he decided to marry yet again. A middleman spoke to him of a girl of Fang Yang, in Chihli, whose father, Hao, had been Magistrate +of Ch’ing Liu, in Anhui. This man was always absent on his travels, no one knew whither. The girl’s mother, Cheng, had married +her two years before to a man named Chang of Ch’ing Ho, in Chihli, who had just died. Distressed at her daughter being left +a widow so young, the mother wished to find another husband for her. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3587">Liu I agreed to marry this young woman, and at the end of a year they had a son. She then said to her husband: “I am the daughter +of the King of the Tung-t’ing Lake. It was you who saved me from my miserable plight on the bank of the Ching, and I swore +I would <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3589"></a>Page 220</span>reward you. Formerly you refused to accept my hand, and my parents decided to marry me to the son of a silk-merchant. I cut +my hair, and never ceased to hope that I might some time or other be united to you in order that I might show you my gratitude.” + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3591">In A.D. 712, in the reign-period K’ai-yüan of the Emperor Hsüan Tsung of the T’ang dynasty, they both returned to the Tung-t’ing +Lake; but the legend says nothing further with regard to them. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3593">Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, conferred on Liu I the title of Chin Lung Ta Wang, ‘Golden Dragon Great Prince.’ + +</p><a id="d0e3595"></a><h2>The Old Mother of the Waters</h2> +<p id="d0e3598">The Old Mother of the Waters, Shul-mu Niang-niang, is the legendary spirit of Ssŭ-chou, in Anhui. To her is popularly ascribed +the destruction of the ancient city of Ssŭ-chou, which was completely submerged by the waters of the Hung-tsê Lake in A.D. +1574. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3600">One author states that this Goddess of the Waters is the younger sister of the White Spiritual Elephant, a guardian of the +Door of Buddha. This elephant is the “subtle principle of metamorphosed water.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3602">In his <i>Recherches sur Us Superstitions en Chine</i>, Père Henri Doré, S.J., relates the legends he had heard with regard to this deity. One of these is as follows: + +</p> +<p id="d0e3607">Shui-mu Niang-niang inundated the town of Ssŭ-chou almost every year. A report was presented to Yu Huang, Lord of the Skies, +begging him to put an end to the scourge which devastated the country and cost so many lives. The Lord of the Skies commanded +the Great Kings of the Skies and their generals to raise troops and take the field in order to capture this goddess and deprive +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3609"></a>Page 221</span>her of the power of doing further mischief. But her tricks triumphed over force, and the city continued to be periodically +devastated by inundations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3611">One day Shui-mu Niang-niang was seen near the city gate carrying two buckets of water. Li Lao-chün suspected some plot, but, +an open attack being too risky, he preferred to adopt a ruse. He went and bought a donkey, led it to the buckets of water, +and let it drink their contents. Unfortunately the animal could not drink all the water, so that a little remained at the +bottom of the buckets. Now these magical buckets contained the sources of the five great lakes, which held enough water to +inundate the whole of China. Shui-mu Niang-niang with her foot overturned one of the buckets, and the water that had remained +in it was enough to cause a formidable flood, which submerged the unfortunate town, and buried it for ever under the immense +sheet of water called the Lake of Hung-tsê. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3613">So great a crime deserved an exemplary punishment, and accordingly Yü Huang sent reinforcements to his armies, and a pursuit +of the goddess was methodically organized. + +</p><a id="d0e3615"></a><h2>The Magic Vermicelli</h2> +<p id="d0e3618">Sun Hou-tzŭ, the Monkey Sun,<a id="d0e3620src" href="#d0e3620" class="noteref">1</a> the rapid courier, who in a single skip could traverse 108,000 <i>li</i> (36,000 miles), started in pursuit and caught her up, but the astute goddess was clever enough to slip through his fingers. +Sun Hou-tzŭ, furious at this setback, went to ask Kuan-yin P’u-sa to come to his aid. She promised to do so. As one may imagine, +the furious <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3626"></a>Page 222</span>race she had had to escape from her enemy had given Shui-mu Niang-niang a good appetite. Exhausted with fatigue, and with +an empty stomach, she caught sight of a woman selling vermicelli, who had just prepared two bowls of it and was awaiting customers. +Shui-mu Niang-niang went up to her and began to eat the strength-giving food with avidity. No sooner had she eaten half of +the vermicelli than it changed in her stomach into iron chains, which wound round her intestines. The end of the chain protruded +from her mouth, and the contents of the bowl became another long chain which welded itself to the end which stuck out beyond +her lips. The vermicelli-seller was no other than Kuan-yin P’u-sa herself, who had conceived this stratagem as a means of +ridding herself of this evil-working goddess. She ordered Sun Hou-tzŭ to take her down a deep well at the foot of a mountain +in Hsü-i Hsien and to fasten her securely there. It is there that Shui-mu Niang-niang remains in her liquid prison. The end +of the chain is to be seen when the water is low. + +</p><a id="d0e3628"></a><h2>Hsü, the Dragon-slayer</h2> +<p id="d0e3631">Hsü Chên-chün was a native either of Ju-ning Fu in Honan, or of Nan-ch’ang Fu in Kiangsi. His father was Hsü Su. His personal +name was Ching-chih, and his ordinary name Sun. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3633">At forty-one years of age, when he was Magistrate of Ching-yang, near the modern Chih-chiang Hsien, in Hupei, during times +of drought he had only to touch a piece of tile to turn it into gold, and thus relieve the people of their distress. He also +saved many lives by curing sickness through the use of talismans and magic formulæ. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3635">During the period of the dynastic troubles he resigned <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3637"></a>Page 223</span>and joined the famous magician Kuo P’o. Together they proceeded to the minister Wang Tun, who had risen against the Eastern +Chin dynasty. Kuo P’o’s remonstrances only irritated the minister, who cut off his head. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3639">Hsü Sun then threw his chalice on the ridgepole of the room, causing it to be whirled into the air. As Wang Tun was watching +the career of the chalice, Hsü disappeared and escaped. When he reached Lu-chiang K’ou, in Anhui, he boarded a boat, which +two dragons towed into the offing and then raised into the air. In an instant they had borne it to the Lü Shan Mountains, +to the south of Kiukiang, in Kiangsi. The perplexed boatman opened the window of his boat and took a furtive look out. Thereupon +the dragons, finding themselves discovered by an infidel, set the boat down on the top of the mountain and fled. + +</p><a id="d0e3641"></a><h2>The Spiritual Alligator</h2> +<p id="d0e3644">In this country was a dragon, or spiritual alligator, which transformed itself into a young man named Shên Lang, and married +Chia Yü, daughter of the Chief Judge of T’an Chou (Ch’ang-sha Fu, capital of Hunan). The young people lived in rooms below +the official apartments. During spring and summer Shên Lang, as dragons are wont to do, roamed in the rivers and lakes. One +day Hsü Chên-chün met him, recognized him as a dragon, and knew that he was the cause of the numerous floods which were devastating +Kiangsi Province. He determined to find a means of getting rid of him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3646">Shên Lang, aware of the steps being taken against him, changed himself into a yellow ox and fled. Hsü Chên-chün at once transformed +himself into a black ox and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3648"></a>Page 224</span>started in pursuit. The yellow ox jumped down a well to hide, but the black ox followed suit. The yellow ox then jumped out +again, and escaped to Ch’ang-sha, where he reassumed a human form and lived with Ms wife in the home of his father-in-law, +Hsü Sun, returning to the town, hastened to the <i>yamên,</i> and called to Shên Lang to come out and show himself, addressing him in a severe tone of voice as follows: “Dragon, how dare +you hide yourself there under a borrowed form?” Shên Lang then reassumed the form of a spiritual alligator, and Hsü Sun ordered +the spiritual soldiers to kill him. He then commanded his two sons to come out of their abode. By merely spurting a mouthful +of water on them he transformed them into young dragons. Chia Yü was told to vacate the rooms with all speed, and in the twinkling +of an eye the whole <i>yamên</i> sank beneath the earth, and there remained nothing but a lake where it had been. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3656">Hsü Chên-chün, after his victory over the dragon, assembled the members of his family, to the number of forty-two, on Hsi +Shan, outside the city of Nan-ch’ang Fu, and all ascended to Heaven in full daylight, taking with them even the dogs and chickens. +He was then 133 years old. This took place on the first day of the eighth moon of the second year (A.D. 374) of the reign-period +Ning-K’ang of the reign of the Emperor Hsiao Wu Ti of the Eastern Chin dynasty. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3658">Subsequently a temple was erected to him, and in A.D. 1111 he was canonized as Just Prince, Admirable and Beneficent. + +</p><a id="d0e3660"></a><h2>The Great Flood</h2> +<p id="d0e3663">The repairing of the heavens by Nü Kua, elsewhere alluded to, is also attributed to the following incident. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3665"></a>Page 225</span></p> +<p id="d0e3666">Before the Chinese Empire was founded a noble and wonderful queen fought with the chief of the tribes who inhabited the country +round about Ô-mei Shan. In a fierce battle the chief and his followers met defeat; raging with anger at being beaten by a +woman, he rushed up the mountain-side; the Queen pursued him with her army, and overtook him at the summit; finding no place +to hide himself, he attempted in desperation both to wreak vengeance upon his enemies and to end his own life by beating his +head violently against the cane of the Heavenly Bamboo which grew there. By his mad battering he at last succeeded in knocking +down the towering trunk of the tree, and as he did so its top tore great rents in the canopy of the sky, through which poured +great floods of water, inundating the whole earth and drowning all the inhabitants except the victorious Queen and her soldiers. +The floods had no power to harm her or her followers, because she herself was an all-powerful divinity and was known as the +‘Mother of the Gods,’ and the ‘Defender of the Gods.’ From the mountain-side she gathered together stones of a kind having +five colours, and ground them into powder; of this she made a plaster or mortar, with which she repaired the tears in the +heavens, and the floods immediately ceased. + +</p><a id="d0e3668"></a><h2>The Marriage of the River-god</h2> +<p id="d0e3671">In Yeh Hsien there was a witch and some official attendants who collected money from the people yearly for the marriage of +the River-god. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3673">The witch would select a pretty girl of low birth, and say that she should be the Queen of the River-god. The girl was bathed, +and clothed in a beautiful dress of gay and costly silk. She was then taken to the bank of the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3675"></a>Page 226</span>river, to a monastery which was beautifully decorated with scrolls and banners. A feast was held, and the girl was placed +on a bed which was floated out upon the tide till it disappeared under the waters. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3677">Many families having beautiful daughters moved to distant places, and gradually the city became deserted. The common belief +in Yeh was that if no queen was offered to the River-god a flood would come and drown the people. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3679">One day Hsi-mên Pao, Magistrate of Yeh Hsien, said to his attendants: “When the marriage of the River-god takes place I wish +to say farewell to the chosen girl.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3681">Accordingly Hsi-mên Pao was present to witness the ceremony. About three thousand people had come together. Standing beside +the old witch were ten of her female disciples, “Call the girl out,” said Hsi-mên Pao. After seeing her, Hsi-mên Pao said +to the witch: “She is not fair. Go you to the River-god and tell him that we will find a fairer maid and present her to him +later on.” His attendants then seized the witch and threw her into the river. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3683">After a little while Hsi-mên Pao said: “Why does she stay so long? Send a disciple to call her back.” One of the disciples +was thrown into the river. Another and yet another followed. The magistrate then said:” The witches are females and therefore +cannot bring me a reply.” So one of the official attendants of the witch was thrown into the river. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3685">Hsi-mên Pao stood on the bank for a long time, apparently awaiting a reply. The spectators were alarmed. Hsi-mên Pao then +bade his attendants send the remaining disciples of the witch and the other official attendants to recall their mistress. +The wretches threw <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3687"></a>Page 227</span>themselves on their knees and knocked their heads on the ground, which was stained with the blood from their foreheads, and +with tears confessed their sin. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3689">“The River-god detains his guest too long,” said Hsi-mên Pao at length. “Let us adjourn.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3691">Thereafter none dared to celebrate the marriage of the River-god. + +</p><a id="d0e3693"></a><h2>Legend of the Building of Peking</h2> +<p id="d0e3696">When the Mongol Yüan dynasty had been destroyed, and the Emperor Hung Wu had succeeded in firmly establishing that of the +Great Ming, Ta Ming, he made Chin-ling, the present Nanking, his capital, and held his Court there with great splendour, envoys +from every province within the ‘Four Seas’ (the Chinese Empire) assembling there to witness his greatness and to prostrate +themselves before the Dragon Throne. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3698">The Emperor had many sons and daughters by his different consorts and concubines, each mother, in her inmost heart, fondly +hoping that her own son would be selected by his father to succeed him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3700">Although the Empress had a son, who was the heir-apparent, yet she felt envious of those ladies who had likewise been blessed +with children, for fear one of the princes should supplant her son in the affection of the Emperor and in the succession. +This envy displayed itself on every occasion; she was greatly beloved by the Emperor, and exerted all her influence with him, +as the other young princes grew up, to get them removed from Court. Through her means most of them were sent to the different +provinces as governors; those provinces under their government being so many principalities or kingdoms. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3702"></a>Page 228</span></p><a id="d0e3703"></a><h2>Chu-ti</h2> +<p id="d0e3706">One of the consorts of Hung Wu, the Lady Wêng, had a son named Chu-ti. This young prince was very handsome and graceful in +his deportment; he was, moreover, of an amiable disposition. He was the fourth son of the Emperor, and his pleasing manner +and address had made him a great favourite, not only with his father, but with every one about the Court. The Empress noticed +the evident affection the Emperor evinced for this prince, and determined to get him removed from the Court as soon as possible. +By a judicious use of flattery and cajolery, she ultimately persuaded the Emperor to appoint the prince governor of the Yen +country, and thenceforth he was styled Yen Wang, Prince of Yen. + +</p><a id="d0e3708"></a><h2>The Sealed Packet</h2> +<p id="d0e3711">The young Prince, shortly after, taking an affectionate leave of the Emperor, left Chin-ling to proceed to his post. Ere he +departed, however, a Taoist priest, called Liu Po-wên, who had a great affection for the Prince, put a sealed packet into +his hand, and told him to open it when he found himself in difficulty, distress, or danger; the perusal of the first portion +that came to his hand would invariably suggest some remedy for the evil, whatever it was. After doing so, he was again to +seal the packet, without further looking into its contents, till some other emergency arose necessitating advice or assistance, +when he would again find it. The Prince departed on his journey, and in the course of time, without meeting with any adventures +worth recording, arrived safely at his destination. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3713"></a>Page 229</span></p><a id="d0e3714"></a><h2>A Desolate Region</h2> +<p id="d0e3717">The place where Peking now stands was originally called Yu Chou; in the T’ang dynasty it was called Pei-p’ing Fu; and afterward +became known as Shun-t’ien Fu—but that was after the city now called Peking was built. The name of the country in which this +place was situated was Yen. It was a mere barren wilderness, with very few inhabitants; these lived in huts and scattered +hamlets, and there was no city to afford protection to the people and to check the depredations of robbers. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3719">When the Prince saw what a desolate-looking place he had been appointed to, and thought of the long years he was probably +destined to spend there, he grew very melancholy, and nothing his attendants essayed to do in hope of alleviating his sorrow +succeeded. + +</p><a id="d0e3721"></a><h2>The Prince opens the Sealed Packet</h2> +<p id="d0e3724">All at once the Prince bethought himself of the packet which the old Taoist priest had given him; he forthwith proceeded to +make search for it—for in the bustle and excitement of travelling he had forgotten all about it—in hope that it might suggest +something to better the prospects before him. Having found the packet, he hastily broke it open to see what instructions it +contained; taking out the first paper which came to hand, he read the following: + +</p> +<p id="d0e3726">“When you reach Pei-p’ing Fu you must build a city there and name it No-cha Ch’êng, the City of No-cha.<a id="d0e3728src" href="#d0e3728" class="noteref">2</a> But, as the work will be costly, you must issue a proclamation inviting the wealthy to subscribe the necessary <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3731"></a>Page 230</span>funds for building it. At the back of this paper is a plan of the city; you must be careful to act according to the instructions +accompanying it.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3733">The Prince inspected the plan, carefully read the instructions, and found even the minutest details fully explained. He was +struck with the grandeur of the design of the proposed city, and at once acted on the instructions contained in the packet; +proclamations were posted up, and large sums were speedily subscribed, ten of the wealthiest families who had accompanied +him from Chin-ling being the largest contributors, supporting the plan not only with their purses, by giving immense sums, +but by their influence among their less wealthy neighbours. + +</p><a id="d0e3735"></a><h2>The City is Founded</h2> +<p id="d0e3738">When sufficient money had been subscribed, a propitious day was chosen on which to commence the undertaking. Trenches where +the foundations of the walls were to be were first dug out, according to the plan found in the packet. The foundations themselves +consisted of layers of stone quarried from the western hills; bricks of an immense size were made and burnt in the neighbourhood; +the moat was dug out, and the earth from it used to fill in the centre of the walls, which, when complete, were forty-eight +<i>li</i> in circumference, fifty cubits in height, and fifty in breadth; the whole circuit of the walls having battlements and embrasures. +Above each of the nine gates of the city immense three-storied towers were built, each tower being ninety-nine cubits in height. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3743">Near the front entrance of the city, facing each other, were built the Temples of Heaven and of Earth. In <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3745"></a>Page 231</span>rear of it the beautiful ‘Coal Hill’ (better known as ‘Prospect Hill’) was raised; while in the square in front of the Great +Gate of the palace was buried an immense quantity of charcoal (that and the coal being stored as a precaution in case of siege). + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3747">The palace, containing many superb buildings, was built in a style of exceeding splendour; in the various enclosures were +beautiful gardens and lakes; in the different courtyards, too, seventy-two wells were dug and thirty-six golden tanks placed. +The whole of the buildings and grounds was surrounded by a lofty wall and a stone-paved moat, in which the lotus and other +flowers bloomed in great beauty and profusion, and in the clear waters of which myriads of gold and silver fish disported +themselves. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3749">The geomancy of the city was similar to that of Chin-ling, When everything was completed the Prince compared it with the plan +and found that the city tallied with it in every respect. He was much delighted, and called for the ten wealthy persons who +had been the chief contributors, and gave each of them a pair of ‘couchant dragon’ silk- or satin-embroidered cuffs, and allowed +them great privileges. Up to the present time there is the common saying: “Since then the ‘dragon-cuffed’ gentlefolks have +flourished.” + +</p><a id="d0e3751"></a><h2>General Prosperity</h2> +<p id="d0e3754">All the people were loud in praise of the beauty and strength of the newly built city. Merchants from every province hastened +to Peking, attracted by the news they heard of its magnificence and the prospect there was of profitably disposing of their +wares. In short, the people were prosperous and happy, food was plentiful, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3756"></a>Page 232</span>the troops brave, the monarch just, his ministers virtuous, and all enjoyed the blessings of peace. + +</p><a id="d0e3758"></a><h2>A Drought and its Cause</h2> +<p id="d0e3761">While everything was thus tranquil, a sudden and untoward event occurred which spread dismay and consternation on all sides. +One day when the Prince went into the hall of audience one of his ministers reported that “the wells are thirsty and the rivers +dried up”—there was no water, and the people were all in the greatest alarm. The Prince at once called his counsellors together +to devise some means of remedying this disaster and causing the water to return to the wells and springs, but no one could +suggest a suitable plan. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3763">It is necessary to explain the cause of this scarcity of water. There was a dragon’s cave outside the east gate of the city +at a place called Lei-chên K’ou, ‘Thunder-clap Mouth’ or ‘Pass’ (the name of a village). The dragon had not been seen for +myriads of years, yet it was well known that he lived there. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3765">In digging out the earth to build the wall the workmen had broken into this dragon’s cave, little thinking of the consequences +which would result. The dragon was exceedingly wroth and determined to shift his abode, but the she-dragon said: “We have +lived here thousands of years, and shall we suffer the Prince of Yen to drive us forth thus? If we <i>do</i> go we will collect all the water, place it in our <i>yin-yang</i> baskets [used for drawing water], and at midnight we will appear in a dream to the Prince, requesting permission to retire. +If he gives us permission to do so, and allows us also to take our baskets of water with us, he will fall into our trap, for +we shall take the waler with his own consent,” +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3773"></a>Page 233</span></p><a id="d0e3774"></a><h2>The Prince’s Dream</h2> +<p id="d0e3777">The two dragons then transformed themselves into an old man and an old woman, went to the chamber of the Prince, who was asleep, +and appeared to him in a dream. Kneeling before him, they cried: “O Lord of a Thousand Years, we have come before you to beg +leave to retire from this place, and to beseech you out of your great bounty to give us permission to take these two baskets +of water with us.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3779">The Prince readily assented, little dreaming of the danger he was incurring. The dragons were highly delighted, and hastened +out of his presence; they filled the baskets with all the water there was in Peking, and carried them off with them. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3781">When the Prince awoke he paid no attention to his dream till he heard the report of the scarcity of water, when, reflecting +on the singularity of his dream, he thought there might be some hidden meaning in it. He therefore had recourse to the packet +again, and discovered that his dream-visitors had been dragons, who had taken the waters of Peking away with them in their +magic baskets; the packet, however, contained directions for the recovery of the water, and he at once prepared to follow +them. + +</p><a id="d0e3783"></a><h2>The Pursuit of the Dragons</h2> +<p id="d0e3786">In haste the Prince donned his armour, mounted his black steed, and, spear in hand, dashed out of the west gate of the city. +He pressed on his horse, which went swift as the wind, nor did he slacken speed till he came up with the water-stealing dragons, +who still retained the forms in which they had appeared to him in his <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3788"></a>Page 234</span>dream. On a cart were the two identical baskets he had seen; in front of the cart, dragging it, was the old woman, while behind, +pushing it, was the old man. + +</p><a id="d0e3790"></a><h2>An Unexpected Flood</h2> +<p id="d0e3793">When the Prince saw them he galloped up to the cart, and, without pausing, thrust his spear into one of the baskets, making +a great hole, out of which the water rushed so rapidly that the Prince was much frightened. He dashed off at full speed to +save himself from being swallowed up by the waters, which in a very short time had risen more than thirty feet and had flooded +the surrounding country. On galloped the Prince, followed by the roaring water, till he reached a hill, up which he urged +his startled horse. When he gained the top he found that it stood out of the water like an island, completely surrounded; +the water was seething and swirling round the hill in a frightful manner, but no vestige could he see of either of the dragons. + + +</p><a id="d0e3795"></a><h2>The Waters Subside</h2> +<p id="d0e3798">The Prince was very much alarmed at his perilous position, when suddenly a Buddhist priest appeared before him, with clasped +hands and bent head, who bade him not be alarmed, as with Heaven’s assistance he would soon disperse the water. Hereupon the +priest recited a short prayer or spell, and the waters receded as rapidly as they had risen, and finally returned to their +proper channels. + +</p><a id="d0e3800"></a><h2>The Origin of Chên-shui T’a</h2> +<p id="d0e3803">The broken basket became a large deep hole, some three <i>mu</i> (about half an English acre) in extent, in the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3808"></a>Page 235</span>centre of which was a fountain which threw up a vast body of clear water. From the midst of this there arose a pagoda, which +rose and fell with the water, floating on the top like a vessel; the spire thrusting itself far up into the sky, and swaying +about like the mast of a ship in a storm. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3810">The Prince returned to the city filled with wonder at what he had seen, and with joy at having so successfully carried out +the directions contained in the packet. On all sides he was greeted by the acclamations of the people, who hailed him as the +saviour of Peking. Since that time Peking has never had the misfortune to be without water. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3812">The pagoda is called the Pagoda on the Hill of the Imperial Spring (Yü Ch’üan Shan T’a; more commonly Chên-shui T’a, ‘Water-repressing +Pagoda’).<a id="d0e3814src" href="#d0e3814" class="noteref">3</a> The spring is still there, and day and night, unceasingly, its clear waters bubble up and flow eastward to Peking, which +would now be a barren wilderness but for Yen Wang’s pursuit of the water. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3823"></a>Page 236</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3620" href="#d0e3620src" class="noteref">1</a> See Chapter XIV. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3728" href="#d0e3728src" class="noteref">2</a> See Chapter XII. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3814" href="#d0e3814src" class="noteref">3</a> This pagoda is distant about twenty <i>li</i> (seven miles) from Peking. It is on the top of the hill, while the spring is at the foot, half a <i>li</i> distant. The imperial family used the water from this spring, whence it was carried to Peking in carts. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e3824"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter VIII</h2> +<h1>Myths of Fire</h1><a id="d0e3827"></a><h2>The Ministry of Fire</h2> +<p id="d0e3830">The celestial organization of Fire is the fifth Ministry, and is presided over by a President, Lo Hsüan, whose titular designation +is Huo-tê Hsing-chün, ‘Stellar Sovereign of the Fire-virtue,’ with five subordinate ministers, four of whom are star-gods, +and the fifth a “celestial prince who receives fire”: Chieh-huo T’ien-chün. Like so many other Chinese deities, the five were +all ministers of the tyrant emperor Chou. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3832">It is related that Lo Hsüan was originally a Taoist priest known as Yen-chung Hsien, of the island Huo-lung, ‘Fire-dragon.’ +His face was the colour of ripe fruit of the jujube-tree, his hair and beard red, the former done up in the shape of a fish-tail, +and he had three eyes. He wore a red cloak ornamented with the <i>pa kua</i>; his horse snorted flames from its nostrils and fire darted from its hoofs. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3837">While fighting in the service of the son of the tyrant emperor, Lo Hsüan suddenly changed himself into a giant with three +heads and six arms. In each of his hands he held a magic weapon. These were a seal which reflected the heavens and the earth, +a wheel of the five fire-dragons, a gourd containing ten thousand fire-crows, and, in the other hands, two swords which floated +like smoke, and a column of smoke several thousands of <i>li</i> long enclosing swords of fire. + +</p><a id="d0e3842"></a><h2>A Conflagration</h2> +<p id="d0e3845">Having arrived at the city of Hsi Ch’i, Lo Hsüan sent forth his smoke-column, the air was filled with swords of fire, the +ten thousand fire-crows, emerging from the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3847"></a>Page 237</span>gourd, spread themselves over the town, and a terrible conflagration broke out, the whole place being ablaze in a few minutes. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e3849">At this juncture there appeared in the sky the Princess Lung Chi, daughter of Wang-mu Niang-niang; forthwith she spread over +the city her shroud of mist and dew, and the fire was extinguished by a heavy downpour of rain. All the mysterious mechanisms +of Lo Hsüan lost their efficacy, and the magician took to his heels down the side of the mountain. There he was met by Li, +the Pagoda-bearer,<a id="d0e3851src" href="#d0e3851" class="noteref">1</a> who threw his golden pagoda into the air. The pagoda fell on Lo Hsüan’s head and broke his skull. + +</p><a id="d0e3854"></a><h2>C’ih Ching-tzŭ</h2> +<p id="d0e3857">Of the various fire-gods, Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ, the principle of spiritual fire, is one of the five spirits representing the Five +Elements. He is Fire personified, which has its birth in the south, on Mount Shih-t’ang. He himself and everything connected +with him—his skin, hair, beard, trousers, cloak of leaves, etc.—are all of the colour of fire, though he is sometimes represented +with a blue cap resembling the blue tip of a flame. He appeared in the presence of Huang Lao in a fire-cloud. He it was who +obtained fire from the wood of the mulberry-tree, and the heat of this fire, joined with the moisture of water, developed +the germs of terrestrial beings. + +</p><a id="d0e3859"></a><h2>The Red Emperor</h2> +<p id="d0e3862">Chu Jung, though also otherwise personified, is generally regarded as having been a legendary emperor who made his first appearance +in the time of Hsien <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3864"></a>Page 238</span>Yuan (2698–2598 B.C.). In his youth he asked Kuang-shou Lao-jên, ‘Old Longevity,’ to grant him immortality. “The time has +not yet come,” replied Old Longevity; “before it does you have to become an emperor. I will give you the means of reaching +the end you desire. Give orders that after you are dead you are to be buried on the southern slope of the sacred mountain +Hêng Shan; there you will learn the doctrine of Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ and will become immortal.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3866">The Emperor Hsien Yüan, having abdicated the throne, sent for Chu Jung, and bestowed upon him the crown. Chu Jung, having +become emperor, taught the people the use of fire and the advantages to be derived therefrom. In those early times the forests +were filled with venomous reptiles and savage animals; he ordered the peasants to set fire to the brushwood to drive away +these dangerous neighbours and keep them at a distance. He also taught his subjects the art of purifying, forging, and welding +metals by the action of fire. He was nicknamed Ch’ih Ti, ‘the Red Emperor.’ He reigned for more than two hundred years, and +became an Immortal, His capital was the ancient city of Kuei, thirty <i>li</i> north-east of Hsin-chêng Hsien, in the Prefecture of K’ai-fêng Fu, Honan. His tomb is on the southern slope of Heng Shan. +The peak is known as Chu Jung Peak. His descendants, who went to live in the south, were the ancestors of the Directors of +Fire. + +</p><a id="d0e3871"></a><h2>Hui Lu</h2> +<p id="d0e3874">The most popular God of Fire, however, is Hui Lu, a celebrated magician who, according to the <i>Shên hsien t’ung chien</i>, lived some time before the reign of Ti K’u (2436–2366 B.C.), the father of Yao the Great, and had a <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3879"></a>Page 239</span>mysterious bird named Pi Fang and a hundred other fire-birds shut up in a gourd. He had only to let them out to set up a conflagration +which would extend over the whole country. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3881">Huang Ti ordered Chu Jung to fight Hui Lu and also to subdue the rebel Chih Yu. Chu Jung had a large bracelet of pure gold—a +most wonderful and effective weapon. He hurled it into the air, and it fell on Hui Lu’s neck, throwing him to the ground and +rendering him incapable of moving. Finding resistance impossible, he asked mercy from his victor and promised to be his follower +in the spiritual contests. Subsequently he always called himself Huo-shih Chih T’u, ‘the Disciple of the Master of Fire.’ + + +</p><a id="d0e3883"></a><h2>The Fire-emperor</h2> +<p id="d0e3886">Shen Nung, the God of Agriculture, also adds to his other functions those appertaining to the God of Fire, the reason being +that when he succeeded the Emperor Fu Hsi on the throne he adopted fire as the emblem of his government, just as Huang Ti +adopted the symbol of Earth. Thus he came to be called Huo Ti, the ‘Fire-emperor.’ He taught his subjects the use of fire +for smelting metals and making implements and weapons, and the use of oil in lamps, etc. All the divisions of his official +hierarchy were connected in some way with this element; thus, there were the Ministers of Fire generally, the officers of +Fire of the North, South, etc. Becoming thus doubly the patron of fire, a second fire symbol (<i>huo</i>) was added to his name, changing it from Huo Ti, ‘Fire-emperor,’ to Yen Ti, ‘Blazing Emperor,’ +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3891"></a>Page 240</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e3851" href="#d0e3851src" class="noteref">1</a> See Chapter XII. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e3892"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter IX</h2> +<h1>Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc.</h1><a id="d0e3895"></a><h2>The Ministry of Epidemics</h2> +<p id="d0e3898">The gods of epidemics, etc., belong to the sixth, ninth, second, and third celestial Ministries. The composition of the Ministry +of Epidemics is arranged differently in different works as Epidemics (regarded as epidemics on earth, but as demons in Heaven) +of the Centre, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, or as the marshals clothed in yellow, green, red, white, and blue respectively, +or as the Officers of the East, West, South, and North, with two additional members: a Taoist who quells the plague, and the +Grand Master who exhorts people to do right. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3900">With regard to the Ministry of Seasonal Epidemics, it is related that in the sixth moon of the eleventh year (A.D. 599) of +the reign of Kao Tsu, founder of the Sui dynasty, five stalwart persons appeared in the air, clothed in robes of five colours, +each carrying different objects in his hands: the first a spoon and earthenware vase, the second a leather bag and sword, +the third a fan, the fourth a club, the fifth a jug of fire. The Emperor asked Chang Chü-jên, his Grand Historiographer, who +these were and if they were benevolent or evil spirits. The official answered: “These are the five powers of the five directions. +Their appearance indicates the imminence of epidemics, which will last throughout the four seasons of the year.” “What remedy +is there, and how am I to protect the people?” inquired the Emperor. “There is no remedy,” replied the official, “for epidemics +are sent by Heaven.” During that year the mortality was very great. The <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3902"></a>Page 241</span>Emperor built a temple to the five persons, and bestowed upon them the title of Marshals to the Five Spirits of the Plague. +During that and the following dynasty sacrifices were offered to them on the fifth day of the fifth moon. + +</p><a id="d0e3904"></a><h2>The President of the Ministry</h2> +<p id="d0e3907">The following particulars are given concerning the President of the Ministry, whose name was Lü Yüeh. He was an old Taoist +hermit, living at Chiu-lung Tao, ‘Nine-dragon Island,’ who became an Immortal. The four members of the Ministry were his disciples. +He wore a red garment, had a blue face, red hair, long teeth, and three eyes. His war-horse was named the Myopic Camel. He +carried a magic sword, and was in the service of Chou Wang, whose armies were concentrated at Hsi Ch’i. In a duel with Mu-cha, +brother of No-cha, he had his arm severed by a sword-cut. In another battle with Huang T’ien-hua, son of Huang Fei-hu, he +appeared with three heads and six arms. In his many hands he held the celestial seal, plague microbes, the flag of plague, +the plague sword, and two mysterious swords. His faces were green, and large teeth protruded from his mouths. Huang T’ien-hua +threw his magic weapon, Huo-lung Piao, and hit him on the leg. Just at that moment Chiang Tzŭ-ya arrived with his goblin-dispelling +whip and felled him with a blow. He was able, however, to rise again, and took to flight. + +</p><a id="d0e3909"></a><h2>The Plague-disseminating Umbrellas</h2> +<p id="d0e3912">Resolved to avenge his defeat, he joined General Hsü Fang, who was commanding an army corps at Ch’uan-yün Kuan. Round the +mountain he organized <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3914"></a>Page 242</span>a system of entrenchments and of infection against their enemies. Yang Chien released his celestial hound, which bit Lü Yüeh +on the crown of his head. Then Yang Jên, armed with his magic fan, pursued Lü Yüeh and compelled him to retreat to his fortress. +Lü Yüeh mounted the central raised part of the embattled wall and opened all his plague-disseminating umbrellas, with the +object of infecting Yang Jên, but the latter, simply by waving his fan, reduced all the umbrellas to dust, and also burned +the fort, and with it Lü Yüeh. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3916">Similar wonderful achievements are related in short notices in the <i>Fêng shên yen i</i> of the four other officers of the Ministry. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3921">Li P’ing, the sixth officer of the Ministry, met a like fate to that of Lü Yüeh after having failed to induce the latter to +abandon the cause of the Shang dynasty for that of Chou. + +</p><a id="d0e3923"></a><h2>The Five Graduates</h2> +<p id="d0e3926">In Père Henri Doré’s <i>Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine</i> is given an interesting legend concerning five other gods of epidemics. These gods are called the Wu Yüeh, ‘Five Mountains,’ +and are worshipped in the temple San-i Ko at Ju-kao, especially in outbreaks of contagious diseases and fevers. A sufferer +goes to the temple and promises offerings to the gods in the event of recovery. The customary offering is five small wheaten +loaves, called <i>shao ping</i>, and a pound of meat. + +</p> +<div id="d0e3934" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p242.jpg" alt="The Magic Umbrellas"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Magic Umbrellas</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e3938">The Wu Yüeh are stellar devils whom Yü Huang sent to be reincarnated on earth. Their names were T’ien Po-hsüeh, Tung Hung-wên, +Ts’ai Wên-chü, Chao Wu-chên, and Huang Ying-tu, and they were reincarnated at Nan-ch’ang Fu, Chien-ch’ang Fu, Yen-mên Kuan, +Yang Chou, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3940"></a>Page 243</span>and Nanking respectively. They were all noted for their brilliant intellects, and were clever scholars who passed their graduate’s +examination with success. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3942">When Li Shih-min ascended the throne, in A.D. 627, he called together all the <i>literati</i> of the Empire to take the Doctor’s Examination in the capital. Our five graduates started for the metropolis, but, losing +their way, were robbed by brigands, and had to beg help in order to reach the end of their journey. By good luck they all +met in the temple San-i Ko, and related to each other the various hardships they had undergone. But when they eventually reached +the capital the examination was over, and they were out in the streets without resources. So they took an oath of brotherhood +for life and death. They pawned some of the few clothes they possessed, and buying some musical instruments formed themselves +into a band of strolling musicians. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3947">The first bought a drum, the second a seven-stringed guitar, the third a mandolin, the fourth a clarinet, and the fifth and +youngest composed songs. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3949">Thus they went through the streets of the capital giving their concerts, and Fate decreed that Li Shih-min should hear their +melodies. Charmed with the sweet sounds, he asked Hsü Mao-kung whence came this band of musicians, whose skill was certainly +exceptional. Having made inquiries, the minister related their experiences to the Emperor. Li Shih-min ordered them to be +brought into his presence, and after hearing them play and sing appointed them to his private suite, and henceforth they accompanied +him wherever he went. + +</p><a id="d0e3951"></a><h2>The Emperors Strategy</h2> +<p id="d0e3954">The Emperor bore malice toward Chang T’ien-shih, the Master of the Taoists, because he refused to pay the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3956"></a>Page 244</span>taxes on his property, and conceived a plan to bring about his destruction. He caused a spacious subterranean chamber to be +dug under the reception-hall of his palace. A wire passed through the ceiling to where the Emperor sat. He could thus at will +give the signal for the music to begin or stop. Having stationed the five musicians in this subterranean chamber, he summoned +the Master of the Taoists to his presence and invited him to a banquet. During the course of this he pulled the wire, and +a subterranean babel began. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3958">The Emperor pretended to be terrified, and allowed himself to fall to the ground. Then, addressing himself to the T’ien-shih, +he said: “I know that you can at will catch the devilish hobgoblins which molest human beings. You can hear for yourself the +infernal row they make in my palace. I order you under penalty of death to put a stop to their pranks and to exterminate them.” + + +</p><a id="d0e3960"></a><h2>The Musicians are Slain</h2> +<p id="d0e3963">Having spoken thus, the Emperor rose and left. The Master of the Taoists brought his projecting mirror, and began to seek +for the evil spirits. In vain he inspected the palace and its precincts; he could discover nothing. Fearing that he was lost, +he in despair threw his mirror on the floor of the reception-hall. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3965">A minute later, sad and pensive, he stooped to pick it up; what was his joyful surprise when he saw reflected in it the subterranean +room and the musicians! At once he drew five talismans on yellow paper, burned them, and ordered his celestial general, Chao +Kung-ming, to take his sword and kill the five musicians. The order was promptly executed, and the T’ien-shih informed the +Emperor, who received the news with ridicule, not <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3967"></a>Page 245</span>believing it to be true. He went to his seat and pulled the wire, but all remained silent. A second and third time he gave +the signal, but without response. He then ordered his Grand Officer to ascertain what had happened. The officer found the +five graduates bathed in their blood, and lifeless. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3969">The Emperor, furious, reproached the Master of the Taoists. “But,” replied the T’ien-shih, “was it not your Majesty who ordered +me under pain of death to exterminate the authors of this pandemonium?” Li Shih-min could not reply. He dismissed the Master +of the Taoists and ordered the five victims to be buried. + +</p><a id="d0e3971"></a><h2>The Emperor Tormented</h2> +<p id="d0e3974">After the funeral ceremonies, apparitions appeared at night in the place where they had been killed, and the palace became +a babel. The spirits threw bricks and broke the tiles on the roofs. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3976">The Emperor ordered his uncomfortable visitors to go to the T’ien-shih who had murdered them. They obeyed, and, seizing the +garments of the Master of the Taoists, swore not to allow him any rest if he would not restore them to life. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3978">To appease them the Taoist said: “I am going to give each of you a wonderful object. You are then to return and spread epidemics +among wicked people, beginning in the imperial palace and with the Emperor himself, with the object of forcing him to canonize +you.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e3980">One received a fan, another a gourd filled with fire, the third a metallic ring to encircle people’s heads, the fourth a stick +made of wolves’ teeth, and the fifth a cup of lustral water. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3982">The spirit-graduates left full of joy, and made their <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e3984"></a>Page 246</span>first experiment on Li Shih-min. The first gave him feverish chills by waving his fan, the second burned him with the fire +from his gourd, the third encircled his head with the ring, causing him violent headache, the fourth struck him with his stick, +and the fifth poured out his cup of lustral water on his head. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3986">The same night a similar tragedy took place in the palace of the Empress and the two chief imperial concubines. + +</p> +<p id="d0e3988">T’ai-po Chin-hsing, however, informed Yü Huang what had happened, and, touched with compassion, he sent three Immortals with +pills and talismans which cured the Empress and the ladies of the palace. + +</p><a id="d0e3990"></a><h2>The Graduates Canonized</h2> +<p id="d0e3993">Li Shih-min, having also recovered his health, summoned the five deceased graduates and expressed his regret for the unfortunate +issue of his design against the T’ien-shih. He proceeded: “To the south of the capital is the temple San-i Ko. I will change +its name to Hsiang Shan Wu Yüeh Shên, ‘Fragrant Hill of the Five Mountain Spirits.’ On the twenty-eighth day of the ninth +moon betake yourselves to that temple to receive the seals of your canonization.” He conferred upon them the title of Ti, +‘Emperor.’ + +</p><a id="d0e3995"></a><h2>The Ministry of Medicine</h2> +<p id="d0e3998">The celestial Ministry of Medicine is composed of three main divisions comprising: (1) the Ancestral Gods of the Chinese race; +(2) the King of Remedies, Yao Wang; and (3) the Specialists. There is a separate Ministry of Smallpox. This latter controls +and cures smallpox, and the establishment of a separate celestial Ministry is <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4000"></a>Page 247</span>significant of the prevalence and importance of the affliction. The ravages of smallpox in China, indeed, have been terrific: +so much so, that, until recent years, it was considered as natural and inevitable for a child to have smallpox as for it to +cut its teeth. One of the ceremonial questions addressed by a visitor to the parent of a child was always <i>Ch’u la hua’rh mei yu</i>? “Has he had the smallpox?” and a child who escaped the scourge was often, if not as a rule, regarded with disfavour and, +curiously enough, as a weakling. Probably the train of thought in the Chinese mind was that, as it is the fittest who survive, +those who have successfully passed through the process of “putting out the flowers” have proved their fitness in the struggle +for existence. Nowadays vaccination is general, and the number of pockmarked faces seen is much smaller than it used to be—in +fact, the pockmarked are now the exception. But, as far as I have been able to ascertain, the Ministry of Smallpox has not +been abolished, and possibly its members, like those of some more mundane ministries, continue to draw large salaries for +doing little or no work. + +</p><a id="d0e4005"></a><h2>The Medicine-gods</h2> +<p id="d0e4008">The chief gods of medicine are the mythical kings P’an Ku, Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and Huang Ti. The first two, being by different +writers regarded as the first progenitor or creator of the Chinese people, are alternatives, so that Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and +Huang Ti may be said to be a sort of ancestral triad of medicine-gods, superior to the actual God or King of Medicine, Yao +Wang. Of P’an Ku we have spoken sufficiently in Chapter III, and with regard to Fu Hsi, also called T’ien Huang Shih, ‘the +Celestial Emperor,’ the mythical sovereign and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4010"></a>Page 248</span>supposed inventor of cooking, musical instruments, the calendar, hunting, fishing, etc., the chief interest for our present +purpose centres in his discovery of the <i>pa kua</i>, or Eight Trigrams. It is on the strength of these trigrams that Fu Hsi is regarded as the chief god of medicine, since it +is by their mystical power that the Chinese physicians influence the minds and maladies of their patients. He is represented +as holding in front of him a disk on which the signs are painted. + +</p><a id="d0e4015"></a><h2>The Ministry of Exorcism</h2> +<p id="d0e4018">The Ministry of Exorcism is a Taoist invention and is composed of seven chief ministers, whose duty is to expel evil spirits +from dwellings and generally to counteract the annoyances of infernal demons. The two gods usually referred to in the popular +legends are P’an Kuan and Chung K’uei. The first is really the Guardian of the Living and the Dead in the Otherworld, Fêng-tu +P’an Kuan (Fêng-tu or Fêng-tu Ch’êng being the region beyond the tomb). He was originally a scholar named Ts’ui Chio, who +became Magistrate of Tz’ŭ Chou, and later Minister of Ceremonies. After his death he was appointed to the spiritual post above +mentioned. His best-known achievement is his prolongation of the life of the Emperor T’ai Tsung of the T’ang dynasty by twenty +years by changing <i>i</i>, ‘one,’ into <i>san</i>, ‘three,’ in the life-register kept by the gods. The term P’an Kuan is, however, more generally used as the designation of +an officer or civil or military attendant upon a god than of any special individual, and the original P’an Kuan, ‘the Decider +of Life in Hades,’ has been gradually supplanted in popular favour by Chung K’uei, ‘the Protector against Evil Spirits.’ + +</p> +<div id="d0e4026" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p248.jpg" alt="P’an Kuan"></p> +<p class="figureHead">P’an Kuan</p> +</div><p> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4030"></a>Page 249</span></p><a id="d0e4031"></a><h2>The Exorcism of ‘Emptiness and Devastation’</h2> +<p id="d0e4034">The Emperor Ming Huang of the T’ang dynasty, also known as T’ang Hsüan Tsung, in the reign-period K’ai Yüan (A.D. 712–742), +after an expedition to Mount Li in Shensi, was attacked by fever. During a nightmare he saw a small demon fantastically dressed +in red trousers, with a shoe on one foot but none on the other, and a shoe hanging from his girdle. Having broken through +a bamboo gate, he took possession of an embroidered box and a jade flute, and then began to make a tour of the palace, sporting +and gambolling. The Emperor grew angry and questioned him. “Your humble servant,” replied the little demon, “is named Hsü +Hao, ‘Emptiness and Devastation,’” “I have never heard of such a person,” said the Emperor. The demon rejoined, “Hsü means +to desire Emptiness, because in Emptiness one can fly just as one wishes; Hao, ‘Devastation,’ changes people’s joy to sadness. +“The Emperor, irritated by this flippancy, was about to call his guard, when suddenly a great devil appeared, wearing a tattered +head-covering and a blue robe, a horn clasp on his belt, and official boots on his feet. He went up to the sprite, tore out +one of his eyes, crushed it up, and ate it. The Emperor asked the newcomer who he was. “Your humble servant,” he replied, +“is Chung K’uei, Physician of Tung-nan Shan in Shensi. In the reign-period Wu Tê (A.D. 618–627) of the Emperor Kao Tsu of +the T’ang dynasty I was ignominiously rejected and unjustly defrauded of a first class in the public examinations. Overwhelmed +with shame, I committed suicide on the steps of the imperial palace. The Emperor ordered me to be buried in a green robe [reserved +for members of the imperial clan], and out of gratitude for <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4036"></a>Page 250</span>that favour I swore to protect the sovereign in any part of the Empire against the evil machinations of the demon Hsü Hao.” +At these words the Emperor awoke and found that the fever had left him. His Majesty called for Wu Tao-tzŭ (one of the most +celebrated Chinese artists) to paint the portrait of the person he had seen in his dream. The work was so well done that the +Emperor recognized it as the actual demon he had seen in his sleep, and rewarded the artist with a hundred taels of gold. +The portrait is said to have been still in the imperial palace during the Sung dynasty. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4038">Another version of the legend says that Chung K’uefs essay was recognized by the examiners as equal to the work of the best +authors of antiquity, but that the Emperor rejected him on account of his extremely ugly features, whereupon he committed +suicide in his presence, was honoured by the Emperor and accorded a funeral as if he had been the successful first candidate, +and canonized with the title of Great Spiritual Chaser of Demons for the Whole Empire. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4040"></a>Page 251</span></p><a id="d0e4041"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter X</h2> +<h1>The Goddess of Mercy</h1><a id="d0e4044"></a><h2>The Guardian Angel of Buddhism</h2> +<p id="d0e4047">As Mary is the guiding spirit of Rome, so is Kuan Yin of the Buddhist faith. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4049">According to a beautiful Chinese legend, Kuan Yin. when about to enter Heaven, heard a cry of anguish rising from the earth +beneath her, and, moved by pity, paused as her feet touched the glorious threshold. Hence her name ‘Kuan (Shih) Yin’ (one +who notices or hears the cry, or prayer, of the world). + +</p> +<p id="d0e4051">Kuan Yin was at one time always represented as a man; but in the T’ang dynasty and Five Dynasties we find him represented +as a woman, and he has been generally, though not invariably, so represented since that time. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4053">In old Buddhism Shâkyamuni was the chief god, and in many temples he still nominally occupies the seat of honour, but he is +completely eclipsed by the God or Goddess of Mercy. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4055">“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 Kuan Yin within its 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 relative value of a son in Chinese estimation 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 Kuan Yin Buddha,’ She saves the tempest-tossed <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4057"></a>Page 252</span>sailor, and 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 [P’u T’o], +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 +‘Kuan Yin’ 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.” There are many metamorphoses of this goddess. + +</p><a id="d0e4059"></a><h2>The Buddhist Saviour</h2> +<p id="d0e4062">“She is called Kuan Yin because at any cry of misery she ‘hears the voice and removes the sorrow.’ Her appellation is ‘Taking-away-fear +Buddha,’ If in the midst of the fire the name of Kuan Yin 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, and a storm comes up and threatens to carry the crew to the evil devil’s kingdom, if one on board calls on the name +of Kuan Yin, the ship will be saved. If one goes into a conflict and calls on the name of Kuan Yin, the sword and spear of +the enemy fall harmless. If the three thousand great 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, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4064"></a>Page 253</span>only call on Kuan Yin, and your heart will be purified, Anger and wrath may be dispelled by calling on the name of Kuan Yin. +A lunatic who prays to Kuan Yin will become sane. Kuan Yin gives sons to mothers, and if the mother asks for a daughter she +will be beautiful. Two men—one chanting the names of the 6,200,000 Buddhas, in number like the sands of the Ganges, and the +other simply calling on Kuan Yin—have equal merit. Kuan Yin 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.” + +</p><a id="d0e4066"></a><h2>Miao Chuang desires an Heir</h2> +<p id="d0e4069">In the twenty-first year of the reign of Ta Hao, the Great Great One, of the Golden Heavenly Dynasty, a man named P’o Chia, +whose first name was Lo Yü, an enterprising kinglet of Hsi Yii, seized the throne for twenty years, after carrying on a war +for a space of three years. His kingdom was known as Hsing Lin, and the title of his reign as Miao Chuang. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4071">The kingdom of Hsing Lin was, so says the Chinese writer, situated between India on the west, the kingdom of T’ien Cheng on +the south, and the kingdom of Siam on the north, and was 3000 <i>li</i> in length. The boundaries differ according to different authors. Of this kingdom the two pillars of State were the Grand +Minister Chao Chen and the General Ch’u Chieh. The Queen Pao Tê, whose maiden name was Po Ya, and the King Miao Chuang had +lived nearly half a century without having any male issue to succeed to the throne. This was a source of great grief to them. +Po Ya suggested to the King that the God of Hua Shan, the sacred mountain in the west, had the reputation of being always +willing <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4076"></a>Page 254</span>to help; and that if he prayed to him and asked his pardon for having shed so much blood during the wars which preceded his +accession to the throne he might obtain an heir. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4078">Welcoming this suggestion, the King sent for Chao Chên and ordered him to dispatch to the temple of Hua Shan the two Chief +Ministers of Ceremonies, Hsi Hêng-nan and Chih Tu, with instructions to request fifty Buddhist and Taoist priests to pray +for seven days and seven nights in order that the King might obtain a son. When that period was over, the King and Queen would +go in person to offer sacrifices in the temple. + +</p><a id="d0e4080"></a><h2>Prayers to the Gods</h2> +<p id="d0e4083">The envoys took with them many rare and valuable presents, and for seven days and seven nights the temple resounded with the +sound of drums, bells, and all kinds of instruments, intermingled with the voices of the praying priests. On their arrival +the King and Queen offered sacrifices to the god of the sacred mountain. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4085">But the God of Hua Shan knew that the King had been deprived of a male heir as a punishment for the bloody hecatombs during +his three years’ war. The priests, however, interceded for him, urging that the King had come in person to offer the sacrifices, +wherefore the God could not altogether reject his prayer. So he ordered Ch’ien-li Yen, ‘Thousand-<i>li</i> Eye,’ and Shun-fêng Erh, ‘Favourable-wind Ear,’<a id="d0e4090src" href="#d0e4090" class="noteref">1</a> to go quickly and ascertain if there were not some worthy person who was on the point of being reincarnated into this world. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4093">The two messengers shortly returned, and stated that <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4095"></a>Page 255</span>in India, in the Chiu Ling Mountains, in the village of Chih-shu Yüan, there lived a good man named Shih Ch’in-ch’ang, whose +ancestors for three generations had observed all the ascetic rules of the Buddhists. This man was the father of three children, +the eldest Shih Wên, the second Shih Chin, and the third Shih Shan, all worthy followers of the great Buddha. + +</p><a id="d0e4097"></a><h2>The Murder of the Tais</h2> +<p id="d0e4100">Wang Chê, a brigand chief, and thirty of his followers, finding themselves pursued and harassed by the Indian soldiers, without +provisions or shelter, dying of hunger, went to Shih Wên and begged for something to eat. Knowing that they were evildoers, +Shih Wên and his two brothers refused to give them anything; if they starved, they said, the peasants would no longer suffer +from their depredations. Thereupon the brigands decided that it was a case of life for life, and broke into the house of a +rich family of the name of Tai, burning their home, killing a hundred men, women, and children, and carrying off everything +they possessed. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4102">The local <i>t’u-ti</i> at once made a report to Yü Huang. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4107">“This Shih family,” replied the god, “for three generations has given itself up to good works, and certainly the brigands +were not deserving of any pity. However, it is impossible to deny that the three brothers Shih, in refusing them food, morally +compelled them to loot the Tai family’s house, putting all to the sword or flames. Is not this the same as if they had committed +the crime themselves? Let them be arrested and put in chains in the celestial prison, and let them never see the light of +the sun again.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4109">“Since,” said the messenger to the God of Hua Shan, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4111"></a>Page 256</span>“your gratitude toward Miao Chuang compels you to grant him an heir, why not ask Yü Huang to pardon their crime and reincarnate +them in the womb of the Queen Po Ya, so that they may begin a new terrestrial existence and give themselves up to good works?” +As a result, the God of Hua Shan called the Spirit of the Wind and gave him a message for Yü Huang. + +</p><a id="d0e4113"></a><h2>A Message for Yü Huang</h2> +<p id="d0e4116">The message was as follows: “King Miao Chuang has offered sacrifice to me and begged me to grant him an heir. But since by +his wars he has caused the deaths of a large number of human beings, he does not deserve to have his request granted. Now +these three brothers Shih have offended your Majesty by constraining the brigand Wang Che to be guilty of murder and robbery. +I pray you to take into account their past good works and pardon their crime, giving them an opportunity of expiating it by +causing them all three to be reborn, but of the female sex, in the womb of Po Ya the Queen.<a id="d0e4118src" href="#d0e4118" class="noteref">2</a> In this way they will be able to atone for their crime and save many souls.” Yü Huang was pleased to comply, and he ordered +the Spirit of the North Pole to release the three captives and take their souls to the palace of King Miao Chuang, where in +three years’ time they would be changed into females in the womb of Queen Po Ya. + +</p><a id="d0e4121"></a><h2>Birth of the Three Daughters</h2> +<p id="d0e4124">The King, who was anxiously expecting day by day the birth of an heir, was informed one morning that a <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4126"></a>Page 257</span>daughter had been born to him. She was named Miao Ch’ing. A year went by, and another daughter was born. This one was named +Miao Yin. When, at the end of the third year, another daughter was born, the King, beside himself with rage, called his Grand +Minister Chao Chên and, all disconsolate, said to him, “I am past fifty, and have no male child to succeed me on the throne. +My dynasty will therefore become extinct. Of what use have been all my labours and all my victories?” Chao Chen tried to console +him, saying, “Heaven has granted you three daughters: no human power can change this divine decree. When these princesses +have grown up, we will choose three sons-in-law for your Majesty, and you can elect your successor from among them. Who will +dare to dispute his right to the throne?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4128">The King named the third daughter Miao Shan. She became noted for her modesty and many other good qualities, and scrupulously +observed all the tenets of the Buddhist doctrines. Virtuous living seemed, indeed, to be to her a second nature. + +</p><a id="d0e4130"></a><h2>Miao Shan’s Ambition</h2> +<p id="d0e4133">One day, when the three sisters were playing in the palace garden of Perpetual Spring, Miao Shan, with a serious mien, said +to her sisters, “Riches and glory are like the rain in spring or the morning dew; a little while, and all is gone. Kings and +emperors think to enjoy to the end the good fortune which places them in a rank apart from other human beings; but sickness +lays them low in their coffins, and all is over. Where are now all those powerful dynasties which have laid down the law to +the world? As for me, I desire nothing more than a <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4135"></a>Page 258</span>peaceful retreat on a lone mountain, there to attempt the attainment of perfection. If some day I can reach a high degree +of goodness, then, borne on the clouds of Heaven, I will travel throughout the universe, passing in the twinkling of an eye +from east to west. I will rescue my father and mother, and bring them to Heaven; I will save the miserable and afflicted on +earth; I will convert the spirits which do evil, and cause them to do good. That is my only ambition.” + +</p><a id="d0e4137"></a><h2>Her Sisters Marry</h2> +<p id="d0e4140">No sooner had she finished speaking than a lady of the Court came to announce that the King had found sons-in-law to his liking +for his two elder daughters. The wedding-feast was to be the very next day. “Be quick,” she added, “and prepare your presents, +your dresses, and so forth, for the King’s order is imperative.” The husband chosen for Miao Ch’ing was a First Academician +named Chao K’uei. His personal name was Tê Ta, and he was the son of a celebrated minister of the reigning dynasty. Miao Yin’s +husband-elect was a military officer named Ho Fêng, whose personal name was Ch’ao Yang. He had passed first in the examination +for the Military Doctorate. The marriage ceremonies were of a magnificent character. Festivity followed festivity; the newly-wed +were duly installed in their palaces, and general happiness prevailed. + +</p><a id="d0e4142"></a><h2>Miao Shan’s Renunciation</h2> +<p id="d0e4145">There now remained only Miao Shan. The King and Queen wished to find for her a man famous for knowledge and virtue, capable +of ruling the kingdom, and worthy of being the successor to the throne. So the King called <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4147"></a>Page 259</span>her and explained to her all his plans regarding her, and how all his hopes rested on her. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4149">“It is a crime,” she replied, “for me not to comply with my father’s wishes; but you must pardon me if my ideas differ from +yours.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4151">“Tell me what your ideas are,” said the King. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4153">“I do not wish to marry,” she rejoined. “I wish to attain to perfection and to Buddhahood. Then I promise that I will not +be ungrateful to you.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4155">“Wretch of a daughter,” cried the King in anger, “you think you can teach me, the head of the State and ruler of so great +a people! Has anyone ever known a daughter of a king become a nun? Can a good woman be found in that class? Put aside all +these mad ideas of a nunnery, and tell me at once if you will marry a First Academician or a Military First Graduate.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4157">“Who is there,” answered the girl, “who does not love the royal dignity?—what person who does not aspire to the happiness +of marriage? However, I wish to become a nun. With respect to the riches and glory of this world, my heart is as cold as a +dead cinder, and I feel a keen desire to make it ever purer and purer.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4159">The King rose in fury, and wished to cast her out from his presence. Miao Shan, knowing she could not openly disobey his orders, +took another course. “If you absolutely insist upon my marrying,” she said, “I will consent; only I must marry a physician.” + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4161">“A physician!” growled the King. “Are men of good family and talents wanting in my kingdom? What an absurd idea, to want to +marry a physician!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4163">“My wish is,” said Miao Shan, “to heal humanity of all its ills; of cold, heat, lust, old age, and all infirmities. I wish +to equalize all classes, putting rich and poor on <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4165"></a>Page 260</span>the same footing, to have community of goods, without distinction of persons. If you will grant me my wish, I can still in +this way become a Buddha, a Saviour of Mankind. There is no necessity to call in the diviners to choose an auspicious day. +I am ready to be married now.” + +</p><a id="d0e4167"></a><h2>She is Exiled to the Garden</h2> +<p id="d0e4170">At these words the King was mad with rage. “Wicked imbecile!” he cried, “what diabolical suggestions are these that you dare +to make in my presence?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4172">Without further ado he called Ho T’ao, who on that day was officer of the palace guard. When he had arrived and kneeled to +receive the King’s commands, the latter said: “This wicked nun dishonours me. Take from her her Court robes, and drive her +from my presence. Take her to the Queen’s garden, and let her perish there of cold: that will be one care less for my troubled heart.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4177">Miao Shan fell on her face and thanked the King, and then went with the officer to the Queen’s garden, where she began to +lead her retired hermit life, with the moon for companion and the wind for friend, content to see all obstacles overthrown +on her way to Nirvāna, the highest state of spiritual bliss, and glad to exchange the pleasures of the palace for the sweetness +of solitude. + +</p><a id="d0e4179"></a><h2>The Nunnery of the White Bird</h2> +<p id="d0e4182">After futile attempts to dissuade her from her purpose by the Court ladies, her parents, and sisters, the King and Queen next +deputed Miao Hung and Ts’ui Hung to make a last attempt to bring their misguided daughter to her senses. Miao Shan, annoyed +at this renewed <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4184"></a>Page 261</span>solicitation, in a haughty manner ordered them never again to come and torment her with their silly prattle. “I have found +out,” she added, “that there is a well-known temple at Ju Chou in Lung-shu Hsien. This Buddhist temple is known as the Nunnery +of the White Bird, Po-ch’iao Ch’an-ssŭ. In it five hundred nuns give themselves up to the study of the true doctrine and the +way of perfection. Go then and ask the Queen on my behalf to obtain the King’s permission for me to retire thither. If you +can procure me this favour, I will not fail to reward you later.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4186">Miao Chuang summoned the messengers and inquired the result of their efforts. “She is more unapproachable than ever,” they +replied; “she has even ordered us to ask the Queen to obtain your Majesty’s permission to retire to the Nunnery of the White +Bird in Lung-shu Hsien.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4188">The King gave his permission, but sent strict orders to the nunnery, instructing the nuns to do all in their power to dissuade +the Princess when she arrived from carrying out her intention to remain. + +</p><a id="d0e4190"></a><h2>Her Reception at the Nunnery</h2> +<p id="d0e4193">This Nunnery of the White Bird had been built by Huang Ti, and the five hundred nuns who lived in it had as Superior a lady +named I Yu, who was remarkable for her virtue. On receipt of the royal mandate, she had summoned Chêng Chêng-ch’ang, the choir-mistress, +and informed her that Princess Miao Shan, owing to a disagreement with her father, would shortly arrive at the temple. She +requested her to receive the visitor courteously, but at the same time to do all she could to dissuade her from adopting the +life of a nun. Having given these instructions, the Superior, accompanied by <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4195"></a>Page 262</span>two novices, went to meet Miao Shan at the gate of the temple. On her arrival they saluted her. The Princess returned the +salute, but said: “I have just left the world in order to place myself under your orders: why do you come and salute me on +my arrival? I beg you to be so good as to take me into the temple, in order that I may pay my respects to the Buddha.” I Yu +led her into the principal hall, and instructed the nuns to light incense-sticks, ring the bells, and beat the drums. The +visit to the temple finished, she went into the preaching-hall, where she greeted her instructresses. The latter obeyed the +King’s command and endeavoured to persuade the Princess to return to her home, but, as none of their arguments had any effect, +it was at length decided to give her a trial, and to put her in charge of the kitchen, where she could prepare the food for +the nunnery, and generally be at the service of all. If she did not give satisfaction they could dismiss her. + +</p><a id="d0e4197"></a><h2>She makes Offering to the Buddha</h2> +<p id="d0e4200">Miao Shan joyfully agreed, and proceeded to make her humble submission to the Buddha. She knelt before Ju Lai, and made offering +to him, praying as follows: “Great Buddha, full of goodness and mercy, your humble servant wishes to leave the world. Grant +that I may never yield to the temptations which will be sent to try my faith.” Miao Shan further promised to observe all the +regulations of the nunnery and to obey the superiors. + +</p> +<div id="d0e4202" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p262.jpg" alt="Miao Shan Reaches the Nunnery"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Miao Shan Reaches the Nunnery</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e4206"></a><h2>Spiritual Aid</h2> +<p id="d0e4209">This generous self-sacrifice touched the heart of Yü Huang, the Master of Heaven, who summoned the Spirit of the North Star +and instructed him as follows: <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4211"></a>Page 263</span>“Miao Shan, the third daughter of King Miao Chuang, has renounced the world in order to devote herself to the attainment of +perfection. Her father has consigned her to the Nunnery of the White Bird. She has undertaken without grumbling the burden +of all the work in the nunnery. If she is left without help, who is there who will be willing to adopt the virtuous life? +Do you go quickly and order the Three Agents, the Gods of the Five Sacred Peaks, the Eight Ministers of the Heavenly Dragon, +Ch’ieh Lan, and the <i>t’u-ti</i> to send her help at once. Tell the Sea-dragon to dig her a well near the kitchen, a tiger to bring her firewood, birds to +collect vegetables for the inmates of the nunnery, and all the spirits of Heaven to help her in her duties, that she may give +herself up without disturbance to the pursuit of perfection. See that my commands are promptly obeyed.” The Spirit of the +North Star complied without delay. + +</p><a id="d0e4216"></a><h2>The Nunnery on Fire</h2> +<p id="d0e4219">Seeing all these gods arrive to help the novice, the Superior, I Yu, held consultation with the choir-mistress, saying: “We +assigned to the Princess the burdensome work of the kitchen because she refused to return to the world; but since she has +entered on her duties the gods of the eight caves of Heaven have come to offer her fruit, Ch’ieh Lan sweeps the kitchen, the +dragon has dug a well, the God of the Hearth and the tiger bring her fuel, birds collect vegetables for her, the nunnery bell +every evening at dusk booms of itself, as if struck by some mysterious hand. Obviously miracles are being performed. Hasten +and fetch the King, and beg his Majesty to recall his daughter.” +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4221"></a>Page 264</span></p> +<p id="d0e4222">Chêng Chêng-ch’ang started on her way, and, on arrival, informed the King of all that had taken place. The King called Hu +Pi-li, the chief of the guard, and ordered him to go to the sub-prefecture of Lung-shu Hsien at the head of an army corps +of 5000 infantry and cavalry. He was to surround the Nunnery of the White Bird and burn it to the ground, together with the +nuns. When he reached the place the commander surrounded the nunnery with his soldiers, and set fire to it. The five hundred +doomed nuns invoked the aid of Heaven and earth, and then, addressing Miao Shan, said: “It is you who have brought upon us +this terrible disaster.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4224">“It is true,” said Miao Shan. “I alone am the cause of your destruction.” She then knelt down and prayed to Heaven: “Great +Sovereign of the Universe, your servant is the daughter of King Miao Chuang; you are the grandson of King Lun. Will you not +rescue your younger sister? You have left your palace; I also have left mine. You in former times betook yourself to the snowy +mountains to attain perfection; I came here with the same object. Will you not save us from this fiery destruction?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4226">Her prayer ended, Miao Shan took a bamboo hairpin from her hair, pricked the roof of her mouth with it, and spat the flowing +blood toward Heaven. Immediately great clouds gathered in all parts of the sky and sent down inundating showers, which put +out the fire that threatened the nunnery. The nuns threw themselves on their knees and thanked her effusively for having saved +their lives. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4228">Hu Pi-li retired, and went in haste to inform the King of this extraordinary occurrence. The King, enraged, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4230"></a>Page 265</span>ordered him to go back at once, bring his daughter in chains, and behead her on the spot. + +</p><a id="d0e4232"></a><h2>The Execution of Miao Shan</h2> +<p id="d0e4235">But the Queen, who had heard of this new plot, begged the King to grant her daughter a last chance. “If you will give permission,” +she said, “I will have a magnificent pavilion built at the side of the road where Miao Shan will pass in chains on the way +to her execution, and will go there with our two other daughters and our sons-in-law. As she passes we will have music, songs, +feasting, everything likely to impress her and make her contrast our luxurious life with her miserable plight. This will surely +bring her to repentance.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4237">“I agree,” said the King, “to counter-order her execution until your preparations are complete.” Nevertheless, when the time +came, Miao Shan showed nothing but disdain for all this worldly show, and to all advances replied only: “I love not these +pompous vanities; I swear that I prefer death to the so-called joys of this world.” She was then led to the place of execution. +All the Court was present. Sacrifices were made to her as to one already dead. A Grand Minister pronounced the sacrificial +oration. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4239">In the midst of all this the Queen appeared, and ordered the officials to return to their posts, that she might once more +exhort her daughter to repent. But Miao Shan only listened in silence with downcast eyes. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4241">The King felt great repugnance to shedding his daughter’s blood, and ordered her to be imprisoned in the palace, in order +that he might make a last effort to save her. “I am the King,” he said; “my orders cannot be lightly set aside. Disobedience +to them <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4243"></a>Page 266</span>involves punishment, and in spite of my paternal love for you, if you persist in your present attitude, you will be executed +to-morrow in front of the palace gate.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4245">The <i>t’u-ti</i>, hearing the King’s verdict, went with all speed to Yü Huang, and reported to him the sentence which had been pronounced +against Miao Shan. Yü Huang exclaimed: “Save Buddha, there is none in the west so noble as this Princess. To-morrow, at the +appointed hour, go to the scene of execution, break the swords, and splinter the lances they will use to kill her. See that +she suffers no pain. At the moment of her death transform yourself into a tiger, and bring her body to the pine-wood. Having +deposited it in a safe place, put a magic pill in her mouth to arrest decay. Her triumphant soul on its return from the lower +regions must find it in a perfect state of preservation in order to be able to re-enter it and animate it afresh. After that, +she must betake herself to Hsiang Shan on P’u T’o Island, where she will reach the highest state of perfection.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4250">On the day appointed, Commander Hu Pi-li led the condemned Princess to the place of execution. A body of troops had been stationed +there to maintain order. The <i>t’u-ti</i> was in attendance at the palace gates. Miao Shan was radiant with joy. “To-day,” she said, “I leave the world for a better +life. Hasten to take my life, but beware of mutilating my body.” + +</p> +<div id="d0e4255" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p266.jpg" alt="The Tiger Carries Off Miao Shan."></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Tiger Carries Off Miao Shan.</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e4259">The King’s warrant arrived, and suddenly the sky became overcast and darkness fell upon the earth. A bright light surrounded +Miao Shan, and when the sword of the executioner fell upon the neck of the victim it was broken in two. Then they thrust at +her with a spear, but the weapon fell to pieces. After that the King ordered that she be strangled with a silken cord. A <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4261"></a>Page 267</span>few moments later a tiger leapt into the execution ground, dispersed the executioners, put the inanimate body of Miao Shan +on his back, and disappeared into the pine-forest. Hu Pi-li rushed to the palace, recounted to the King full details of all +that had occurred, and received a reward of two ingots of gold. + +</p><a id="d0e4263"></a><h2>Miao Shan visits the Infernal Regions</h2> +<p id="d0e4266">Meantime, Miao Shan’s soul, which remained unhurt, was borne on a cloud; when, waking as from a dream, she lifted her head +and looked round, she could not see her body. “My father has just had me strangled,” she sighed. “How is it that I find myself +in this place? Here are neither mountains, nor trees, nor vegetation; no sun, moon, nor stars; no habitation, no sound, no +cackling of a fowl nor barking of a dog. How can I live in this desolate region?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4268">Suddenly a young man dressed in blue, shining with a brilliant light, and carrying a large banner, appeared and said to her: +“By order of Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, I come to take you to the eighteen infernal regions.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4270">“What is this cursed place where I am now?” asked Miao Shan. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4272">“This is the lower world, Hell,” he replied. “Your refusal to marry, and the magnanimity with which you chose an ignominious +death rather than break your resolutions, deserve the recognition of Yü Huang, and the ten gods of the lower regions, impressed +and pleased at your eminent virtue, have sent me to you. Fear nothing and follow me.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4274">Thus Miao Shan began her visit to all the infernal regions. The Gods of the Ten Hells came to congratulate her. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4276"></a>Page 268</span></p> +<p id="d0e4277">“Who am I,” asked Miao Shan, “that you should deign to take the trouble to show me such respect?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4279">“We have heard,” they replied, “that when you recite your prayers all evil disappears as if by magic. We should like to hear +you pray.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4281">“I consent,” replied Miao Shan, “on condition that all the condemned ones in the ten infernal regions be released from their +chains in order to listen to me.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4283">At the appointed time the condemned were led in by Niu T’ou (‘Ox-head’) and Ma Mien (‘Horse-face’), the two chief constables +of Hell, and Miao Shan began her prayers. No sooner had she finished than Hell was suddenly transformed into a paradise of +joy, and the instruments of torture into lotus-flowers. + +</p><a id="d0e4285"></a><h2>Hell a Paradise</h2> +<p id="d0e4288">P’an Kuan, the keeper of the Register of the Living and the Dead, presented a memorial to Yen Wang stating that since Miao +Shan’s arrival there was no more pain in Hell; and all the condemned were beside themselves with happiness. “Since it has +always been decreed,” he added, “that, in justice, there must be both a Heaven and a Hell, if you do not send this saint back +to earth, there will no longer be any Hell, but only a Heaven.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4290">“Since that is so,” said Yen Wang, “let forty-eight flag-bearers escort her across the Styx Bridge [Nai-ho Ch’iao], that she +may be taken to the pine-forest to reenter her body, and resume her life in the upper world.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4292">The King of the Hells having paid his respects to her, the youth in blue conducted her soul back to her body, which she found +lying under a pine-tree. Having reentered it, Miao Shan found herself alive again. A bitter sigh escaped from her lips. “I +remember,” she <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4294"></a>Page 269</span>said, “all that I saw and heard in Hell. I sigh for the moment which will find me free of all impediments, and yet my soul +has re-entered my body. Here, without any lonely mountain on which to give myself up to the pursuit of perfection, what will +become of me?” Great tears welled from her eyes. + +</p><a id="d0e4296"></a><h2>A Test of Virtue</h2> +<p id="d0e4299">Just then Ju Lai Buddha appeared. “Why have you come to this place?” he asked. Miao Shan explained why the King had put her +to death, and how after her descent into Hell her soul had re-entered her body. “I greatly pity your misfortune,” Ju Lai said, +“but there is no one to help you. I also am alone. Why should we not marry? We could build ourselves a hut, and pass our days +in peace. What say you?” “Sir,” she replied, “you must not make impossible suggestions. I died and came to life again. How +can you speak so lightly? Do me the pleasure of withdrawing from my presence.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4301">“Well,” said the visitor, “he to whom you are speaking is no other than the Buddha of the West. I came to test your virtue. +This place is not suitable for your devotional exercises; I invite you to come to Hsiang Shan.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4303">Miao Shan threw herself on her knees and said: “My bodily eyes deceived me. I never thought that your Majesty would come to +a place like this. Pardon my seeming want of respect. Where is this Hsiang Shan?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4305">“Hsiang Shan is a very old monastery,” Ju Lai replied, “built in the earliest historical times. It is inhabited by Immortals. +It is situated in the sea, on P’u T’o Island, a dependency of the kingdom of Annam. There you will be able to reach the highest +perfection.” +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4307"></a>Page 270</span></p> +<p id="d0e4308">“How far off is this island?” Miao Shan asked. “More than three thousand <i>li</i>,” Ju Lai replied. “I fear,” she said, “I could not bear the fatigue of so long a journey.” “Calm yourself,” he rejoined. +“I have brought with me a magic peach, of a kind not to be found in any earthly orchard. Once you have eaten it, you will +experience neither hunger nor thirst; old age and death will have no power over you: you will live for ever.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4313">Miao Shan ate the magic peach, took leave of Ju Lai, and started on the way to Hsiang Shan. From the clouds the Spirit of +the North Star saw her wending her way painfully toward P’u T’o. He called the Guardian of the Soil of Hsiang Shan and said +to him: “Miao Shan is on her way to your country; the way is long and difficult. Do you take the form of a tiger, and carry +her to her journey’s end.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4315">The <i>t’u-ti</i> transformed himself into a tiger and stationed himself in the middle of the road along which Miao Shan must pass, giving +vent to ferocious roars. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4320">“I am a poor girl devoid of filial piety,” said Miao Shan when she came up. “I have disobeyed my father’s commands; devour +me, and make an end of me.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4322">The tiger then spoke, saying: “I am not a real tiger, but the Guardian of the Soil of Hsiang Shan. I have received instructions +to carry you there. Get on my back.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4324">“Since you have received these instructions,” said the girl, “I will obey, and when I have attained to perfection I will not +forget your kindness.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4326">The tiger went off like a flash of lightning, and in the twinkling of an eye Miao Shan found herself at the foot of the rocky +slopes of P’u T’o Island. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4328"></a>Page 271</span></p><a id="d0e4329"></a><h2>Miao Shan attains to Perfection</h2> +<p id="d0e4332">After nine years in this retreat Miao Shan had reached the acme of perfection. Ti-tsang Wang then came to Hsiang Shan, and +was so astonished at her virtue that he inquired of the local <i>t’u-ti</i> as to what had brought about this wonderful result. “With the exception of Ju Lai, in all the west no one equals her in dignity +and perfection. She is the Queen of the three thousand P’u-sa’s and of all the beings on earth who have skin and blood. We +regard her as our sovereign in all things. Therefore, on the nineteenth day of the eleventh moon we will enthrone her, that +the whole world may profit by her beneficence.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4337">The <i>t’u-ti</i> sent out his invitations for the ceremony. The Dragon-king of the Western Sea, the Gods of the Five Sacred Mountains, the +Emperor-saints to the number of one hundred and twenty, the thirty-six officials of the Ministry of Time, the celestial functionaries +in charge of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, the Three Causes, the Five Saints, the Eight Immortals, the Ten Kings of +the Hells—all were present on the appointed day. Miao Shan took her seat on the lotus-throne, and the assembled gods proclaimed +her sovereign of Heaven and earth, and a Buddha. Moreover, they decided that it was not meet that she should remain alone +at Hsiang Shan; so they begged her to choose a worthy young man and a virtuous damsel to serve her in the temple. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4342">The <i>t’u-ti</i> was entrusted with the task of finding them. While making search, he met a young priest named Shan Ts’ai. After the death +of his parents he had become a hermit on Ta-hua Shan, and was still a novice in the science of perfection. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4347"></a>Page 272</span></p> +<p id="d0e4348">Miao Shan ordered him to be brought to her. “Who are you?” she asked. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4350">“I am a poor orphan priest of no merit,” he replied. “From my earliest youth I have led the life of a hermit. I have been +told that your power is equalled only by your goodness, so I have ventured to come to pray you to show me how to attain to +perfection.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4352">“My only fear,” replied Miao Shan, “is that your desire for perfection may not be sincere.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4354">“I have now no parents,” the priest continued, “and I have come more than a thousand <i>li</i> to find you. How can I be wanting in sincerity?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4359">“What special degree of ability have you attained during your course of perfection?” asked Miao Shan. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4361">“I have no skill,” replied Shan Ts’ai, “but I rely for everything on your great pity, and under your guidance I hope to reach +the required ability.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4363">“Very well,” said Miao Shan, “take up your station on the top of yonder peak, and wait till I find a means of transporting +you.” + +</p><a id="d0e4365"></a><h2>A Ruse</h2> +<p id="d0e4368">Miao Shan called the <i>t’u-ti</i> and bade him go and beg all the Immortals to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving torches, +and threatening with swords and spears to kill her. “Then I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice +to prove Shan Ts’ai’s fidelity and affection.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4373">A minute later a horde of brigands of ferocious aspect rushed up to the temple of Hsiang Shan. Miao Shan cried for help, rushed +up the steep incline, missed her footing, and rolled down into the ravine. Shan Ts’ai, seeing her fall into the abyss, without +hesitation flung himself after her in order to rescue her. When he <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4375"></a>Page 273</span>reached her, he asked: “What have you to fear from the robbers? You have nothing for them to steal; why throw yourself over +the precipice, exposing yourself to certain death?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4377">Miao Shan saw that he was weeping, and wept too. “I must comply with the wish of Heaven,” she said. + +</p><a id="d0e4379"></a><h2>The Transformation of Shan Ts’ai</h2> +<p id="d0e4382">Shan Ts’ai, inconsolable, prayed Heaven and earth to save his protectress. Miao Shan said to him: “You should not have risked +your life by throwing yourself over the precipice, I have not yet transformed you. But you did a brave thing, and I know that +you have a good heart. Now, look down there.” “Oh,” said he, “if I mistake not, that is a corpse.” “Yes,” she replied, “that +is your former body. Now you are transformed you can rise at will and fly in the air.” Shan Ts’ai bowed low to thank his benefactress, +who said to him: “Henceforth you must say your prayers by my side, and not leave me for a single day.” + +</p><a id="d0e4384"></a><h2>‘Brother and Sister’</h2> +<p id="d0e4387">With her spiritual sight Miao Shan perceived at the bottom of the Southern Sea the third son of Lung Wang, who, in carrying +out his father’s orders, was cleaving the waves in the form of a carp. While doing so, he was caught in a fisherman’s net, +taken to the market at Yüeh Chou, and offered for sale. Miao Shan at once sent her faithful Shan Ts’ai, in the guise of a +servant, to buy him, giving him a thousand cash to purchase the fish, which he was to take to the foot of the rocks at P’u +T’o and set free in the sea. The son of Lung Wang heartily thanked his deliverer, and on his return to the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4389"></a>Page 274</span>palace related to his father what had occurred. The King said: “As a reward, make her a present of a luminous pearl, so that +she may recite her prayers by its light at night-time.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4391">Lung Nü, the daughter of Lung Wang’s third son, obtained her grandfather’s permission to take the gift to Miao Shan and beg +that she might be allowed to study the doctrine of the sages under her guidance. After having proved her sincerity, she was +accepted as a pupil. Shan Ts’ai called her his sister, and Lung Nü reciprocated by calling him her dear brother. Both lived +as brother and sister by Miao Shan’s side. + +</p><a id="d0e4393"></a><h2>The King’s Punishment</h2> +<p id="d0e4396">After King Miao Chuang had burned the Nunnery of the White Bird and killed his daughter, Ch’ieh Lan Buddha presented a petition +to Yü Huang praying that the crime be not allowed to go unpunished. Yü Huang, justly irritated, ordered P’an Kuan to consult +the Register of the Living and the Dead to see how long this homicidal King had yet to live. P’an Kuan turned over the pages +of his register, and saw that according to the divine ordinances the King’s reign on the throne of Hsing Lin should last for +twenty years, but that this period had not yet expired.<a id="d0e4398src" href="#d0e4398" class="noteref">3</a> “That which has been decreed is immutable,” said Yü Huang, “but I will punish him by sending him illness.” He called the +God of Epidemics, and ordered him to afflict the King’s body with ulcers, of a kind which could not be healed except by remedies +to be given him by his daughter Miao Shan. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4401">The order was promptly executed, and the King could <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4403"></a>Page 275</span>get no rest by day or by night. His two daughters and their husbands spent their time in feasting while he tossed about in +agony on his sick-bed. In vain the most famous physicians were called in; the malady only grew worse, and despair took hold +of the patient. He then caused a proclamation to be made that he would grant the succession to the throne to any person who +would provide him with an effectual remedy to restore him to health. + +</p><a id="d0e4405"></a><h2>The Disguised Priest-doctor</h2> +<p id="d0e4408">Miao Shan had learnt by revelation at Hsiang Shan all that was taking place at the palace. She assumed the form of a priest-doctor, +clothed herself in a priest’s gown, with the regulation headdress and straw shoes, and attached to her girdle a gourd containing +pills and other medicines. In this apparel she went straight to the palace gate, read the royal edict posted there, and tore +it down. Some members of the palace guard seized her, and inquired angrily: “Who are you that you should dare to tear down +the royal proclamation?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4410">“I, a poor priest, am also a doctor,” she replied. “I read the edict posted on the palace gates. The King is inquiring for +a doctor who can heal him. I am a doctor of an old cultured family, and propose to restore him to health.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4412">“If you are of a cultured family, why did you become a priest?” they asked. “Would it not have been better to gain your living +honestly in practising your art than to shave your head and go loafing about the world? Besides, all the highest physicians +have tried in vain to cure the King; do you imagine that you will be more skilful than all the aged practitioners?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4414">“Set your minds at ease,” she replied. “I have received from my ancestors the most efficacious remedies, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4416"></a>Page 276</span>and I guarantee that I shall restore the King to health,” The palace guard then consented to transmit her petition to the +Queen, who informed the King, and in the end the pretended priest was admitted. Having reached the royal bed-chamber, he sat +still awhile in order to calm himself before feeling the pulse, and to have complete control of all his faculties while examining +the King. When he felt quite sure of himself, he approached the King’s bed, took the King’s hand, felt his pulse, carefully +diagnosed the nature of the illness, and assured himself that it was easily curable. + +</p><a id="d0e4418"></a><h2>Strange Medicine</h2> +<p id="d0e4421">One serious difficulty, however, presented itself, and that was that the right medicine was almost impossible to procure. +The King showed his displeasure by saying: “For every illness there is a medical prescription, and for every prescription +a specific medicine; how can you say that the diagnosis is easy, but that there is no remedy?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4423">“Your Majesty,” replied the priest, “the remedy for your illness is not to be found in any pharmacy, and no one would agree +to sell it.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4425">The King became angry, believed that he was being imposed upon, and ordered those about him to drive away the priest, who +left smiling. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4427">The following night the King saw in a dream an old man who said to him: “This priest alone can cure your illness, and if you +ask him he himself will give you the right remedy.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4429">The King awoke as soon as these words had been uttered, and begged the Queen to recall the priest. When the latter had returned, +the King related his dream, and begged the priest to procure for him the remedy required. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4431"></a>Page 277</span>“What, after all, is this remedy that I must have in order to be cured?” he asked. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4433">“There must be the hand and eye of a living person, from which to compound the ointment which alone can save you,” answered +the priest. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4435">The King called out in indignation: “This priest is fooling me! Who would ever give his hand or his eye? Even if anyone would, +I could never have the heart to make use of them.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4437">“Nevertheless,” said the priest, “there is no other effective remedy.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4439">“Then where can I procure this remedy?” asked the King. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4441">“Your Majesty must send your ministers, who must observe the Buddhist rules of abstinence, to Hsiang Shan, where they will +be given what is required.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4443">“Where is Hsiang Shan, and how far from here?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4445">“About three thousand or more <i>li</i>, but I myself will indicate the route to be followed; in a very short time they will return.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4450">The King, who was suffering terribly, was more contented when he heard that the journey could be rapidly accomplished. He +called his two ministers, Chao Chên and Liu Ch’in, and instructed them to lose no time in starting for Hsiang Shan and to +observe scrupulously the Buddhist rules of abstinence. He ordered the Minister of Ceremonies to detain the priest in the palace +until their return. + +</p><a id="d0e4452"></a><h2>A Conspiracy that Failed</h2> +<p id="d0e4455">The two sons-in-law of the King, Ho Fêng and Chao K’uei, who had already made secret preparations to succeed to the throne +as soon as the King should breathe <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4457"></a>Page 278</span>his last, learned with no little surprise that the priest had hopes of curing the King’s illness, and that he was waiting +in the palace until the saving remedy was brought to him. Fearing that they might be disappointed in their ambition, and that +after his recovery the King, faithful to his promise, would give the crown to the priest, they entered into a conspiracy with +an unscrupulous courtier named Ho Li. They were obliged to act quickly, because the ministers were travelling by forced marches, +and would soon be back. That same night Ho Li was to give to the King a poisoned drink, composed, he would say, by the priest +with the object of assuaging the King’s pain until the return of his two ministers. Shortly after, an assassin, Su Ta, was +to murder the priest. Thus at one stroke both the King and the priest would meet their death, and the kingdom would pass to +the King’s two sons-in-law. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4459">Miao Shan had returned to Hsiang Shan, leaving in the palace the bodily form of the priest. She saw the two traitors Ho Fêng +and Chao K’uei preparing the poison, and was aware of their wicked intentions. Calling the spirit Yu I, who was on duty that +day, she told him to fly to the palace and change into a harmless soup the poison about to be administered to the King and +to bind the assassin hand and foot. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4461">At midnight Ho Li, carrying in his hand the poisoned drink, knocked at the door of the royal apartment, and said to the Queen +that the priest had prepared a soothing potion while awaiting the return of the ministers. “I come,” he said, “to offer it +to his Majesty.” The Queen took the bowl in her hands and was about to give it to the King, when Yu I arrived unannounced. +Quick as thought he snatched the bowl from the Queen and poured <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4463"></a>Page 279</span>the contents on the ground; at the same moment he knocked over those present in the room, so that they all rolled on the floor. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4465">At the time this was happening the assassin Su Ta entered the priest’s room, and struck him with his sword. Instantly the +assassin, without knowing how, found himself enwrapped in the priest’s robe and thrown to the ground. He struggled and tried +to free himself, but found that his hands had been rendered useless by some mysterious power, and that flight was impossible. +The spirit Yu I, having fulfilled the mission entrusted to him, now returned to Hsiang Shan and reported to Miao Shan. + +</p><a id="d0e4467"></a><h2>A Confession and its Results</h2> +<p id="d0e4470">Next morning, the two sons-in-law of the King heard of the turn things had taken during the night. The whole palace was in +a state of the greatest confusion. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4472">When he was informed that the priest had been killed, the King called Ch’u Ting-lieh and ordered him to have the murderer +arrested. Su Ta was put to the torture and confessed all that he knew. Together with Ho Li he was condemned to be cut into +a thousand pieces. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4474">The two sons-in-law were seized and ordered to instant execution, and it was only on the Queen’s intercession that their wives +were spared. The infuriated King, however, ordered that his two daughters should be imprisoned in the palace. + +</p><a id="d0e4476"></a><h2>The Gruesome Remedy</h2> +<p id="d0e4479">Meantime Chao Chên and Liu Ch’in had reached Hsiang Shan. When they were brought to Miao Shan the ministers took out the King’s +letter and read it to her. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4481"></a>Page 280</span>“I, Miao Chuang, King of Hsing Lin, have learned that there dwells at Hsiang Shan an Immortal whose power and compassion have +no equal in the whole world. I have passed my fiftieth year, and am afflicted with ulcers that all remedies have failed to +cure. To-day a priest has assured me that at Hsiang Shan I can obtain the hand and eye of a living person, with which he will +prepare an ointment able to restore me to my usual state of health. Relying upon his word and upon the goodness of the Immortal +to whom he has directed me, I venture to beg that those two parts of a living body necessary to heal my ulcers be sent to +me. I assure you of my everlasting gratitude, fully confident that my request will not be refused.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4483">The next morning Miao Shan bade the ministers take a knife and cut off her left hand and gouge out her left eye. Liu Ch’in +took the knife offered him, but did not dare to obey the order. “Be quick,” urged the Immortal; “you have been commanded to +return as soon as possible; why do you hesitate as if you were a young girl?” Liu Ch’in was forced to proceed. He plunged +in the knife, and the red blood flooded the ground, spreading an odour like sweet incense. The hand and eye were placed on +a golden plate, and, having paid their grateful respects to the Immortal, the envoys hastened to return. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4485">When they had left, Miao Shan, who had transformed herself in order to allow the envoys to remove her hand and eye, told Shan +Ts’ai that she was now going to prepare the ointment necessary for the cure of the King. “Should the Queen,” she added, “send +for another eye and hand, I will transform myself again, and you can give them to her.” No sooner had she finished speaking +than she mounted a cloud and disappeared in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4487"></a>Page 281</span>space. The two ministers reached the palace and presented to the Queen the gruesome remedy which they had brought from the +temple. She, overcome with gratitude and emotion, wept copiously. “What Immortal,” she asked, “can have been so charitable +as to sacrifice a hand and eye for the King’s benefit?” Then suddenly her tears gushed forth with redoubled vigour, and she +uttered a great cry, for she recognized the hand of her daughter by a black scar which was on it. + +</p><a id="d0e4489"></a><h2>Half-measures</h2> +<p id="d0e4492">“Who else, in fact, but his child,” she continued amid her sobs, “could have had the courage to give her hand to save her +father’s life?” “What are you saying?” said the King. “In the world there are many hands like this.” While they thus reasoned, +the priest entered the King’s apartment. “This great Immortal has long devoted herself to the attainment of perfection,” he +said. “Those she has healed are innumerable. Give me the hand and eye.” He took them and shortly produced an ointment which, +he told the King, was to be applied to his left side. No sooner had it touched his skin than the pain on his left side disappeared +as if by magic; no sign of ulcers was to be seen on that side, but his right side remained swollen and painful as before. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4494">“Why is it,” asked the King, “that this remedy, which is so efficacious for the left side, should not be applied to the right?” +“Because,” replied the priest, “the left hand and eye of the saint cures only the left side. If you wish to be completely +cured, you must send your officers to obtain the right eye and right hand also.” The King accordingly dispatched his envoys +anew with a letter of thanks, and begging as a further favour that <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4496"></a>Page 282</span>the cure should be completed by the healing also of his right side. + +</p><a id="d0e4498"></a><h2>The King Cured</h2> +<p id="d0e4501">On the arrival of the envoys Shan Ts’ai met them in the mutilated form of Miao Shan, and he bade them cut off his right hand, +pluck out his right eye, and put them on a plate. At the sight of the four bleeding wounds Liu Ch’in could not refrain from +calling out indignantly: “This priest is a wicked man, thus to make a martyr of a woman in order to obtain the succession!” + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4503">Having thus spoken, he left with his companion for the kingdom of Hsing Lin. On their return the King was overwhelmed with +joy. The priest quickly prepared the ointment, and the King, without delay, applied it to his right side. At once the ulcers +disappeared like the darkness of night before the rising sun. The whole Court congratulated the King and eulogized the priest. +The King conferred upon the latter the title Priest of the Brilliant Eye. He fell on his face to return thanks, and added: +“I, a poor priest, have left the world, and have only one wish, namely, that your Majesty should govern your subjects with +justice and sympathy and that all the officials of the realm should prove themselves men of integrity. As for me, I am used +to roaming about. I have no desire for any royal estate. My happiness exceeds all earthly joys.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4505">Having thus spoken, the priest waved the sleeve of his cloak, a cloud descended from Heaven, and seating himself upon it he +disappeared in the sky. From the cloud a note containing the following words was seen to fall: “I am one of the Teachers of +the West. I came to cure the King’s illness, and so to glorify the True Doctrine.” +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4507"></a>Page 283</span></p><a id="d0e4508"></a><h2>The King’s Daughter</h2> +<p id="d0e4511">All who witnessed this miracle exclaimed with one voice: “This priest is the Living Buddha, who is going back to Heaven!” +The note was taken to King Miao Chuang, who exclaimed: “Who am I that I should deserve that one of the rulers of Heaven should +deign to descend and cure me by the sacrifice of hands and eyes?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4513">“What was the face of the saintly person like who gave you the remedy?” he then asked Chao Chên. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4515">“It was like unto that of your deceased daughter, Miao Shan,” he replied. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4517">“When you removed her hands and eyes did she seem to suffer?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4519">“I saw a great flow of blood, and my heart failed, but the face of the victim seemed radiant with happiness.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4521">“This certainly must be my daughter Miao Shan, who has attained to perfection,” said the King. “Who but she would have given +hands and eyes? Purify yourselves and observe the rules of abstinence, and go quickly to Hsiang Shan to return thanks to the +saint for this inestimable favour. I myself will ere long make a pilgrimage thither to return thanks in person.” + +</p><a id="d0e4523"></a><h2>The King and Queen taken Prisoners</h2> +<p id="d0e4526">Three years later the King and Queen, with the grandees of their Court, set out to visit Hsiang Shan, but on the way the monarchs +were captured by the Green Lion, or God of Fire, and the White Elephant, or Spirit of the Water, the two guardians of the +Temple of Buddha, who transported them to a dark cavern in the mountains. A terrific battle then took place between the evil +spirits on the one side and some hosts of heavenly genii, who had <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4528"></a>Page 284</span>been summoned to the rescue, on the other. While its issue was still uncertain, reinforcements under the Red Child Devil, +who could resist fire, and the Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea, who could subdue water, finally routed the enemy, and the prisoners +were released. + +</p><a id="d0e4530"></a><h2>The King’s Repentance</h2> +<p id="d0e4533">The King and Queen now resumed their pilgrimage, and Miao Shan instructed Shan Ts’ai to receive the monarchs when they arrived +to offer incense. She herself took up her place on the altar, her eyes torn out, her hands cut off, and her wrists all dripping +with blood. The King recognized his daughter, and bitterly reproached himself; the Queen fell swooning at her feet. Miao Shan +then spoke and tried to comfort them. She told them of all that she had experienced since the day when she had been executed, +and how she had attained to immortal perfection. She then went on: “In order to punish you for having caused the deaths of +all those who perished in the wars preceding your accession to the throne, and also to avenge the burning of the Nunnery of +the White Bird, Yü Huang afflicted you with those grievous ulcers. It was then that I changed myself into a priest in order +to heal you, and gave my eyes and hands, with which I prepared the ointment that cured you. It was I, moreover, who procured +your liberty from Buddha when you were imprisoned in the cave by the Green Lion and the White Elephant.” + +</p><a id="d0e4535"></a><h2>Sackcloth and Ashes</h2> +<p id="d0e4538">At these words the King threw himself with his face on the ground, offered incense, worshipped Heaven, earth, the sun, and +the moon, saying with a voice broken by <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4540"></a>Page 285</span>sobs: “I committed a great crime in killing my daughter, who has sacrificed her eyes and hands in order to cure my sickness.” + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4542">No sooner were these words uttered than Miao Shan reassumed her normal form, and, descending from the altar, approached her +parents and sisters. Her body had again its original completeness; and in the presence of its perfect beauty, and at finding +themselves reunited as one family, all wept for joy. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4544">“Well,” said Miao Shan to her father, “will you now force me to marry and prevent my devoting myself to the attainment of +perfection?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4546">“Speak no more of that,” replied the King. “I was in the wrong. If you had not reached perfection, I should not now be alive. +I have made up my mind to exchange my sceptre for the pursuit of the perfect life, which I wish to lead henceforth together +with you.” + +</p><a id="d0e4548"></a><h2>The King renounces the Throne</h2> +<p id="d0e4551">Then, in the presence of all, he addressed his Grand Minister Chao Chên, saying: “Your devotion to the service of the State +has rendered you worthy to wear the crown: I surrender it to you.” The Court proclaimed Chao Chên King of Hsing Lin, bade +farewell to Miao Chuang, and set out for their kingdom accompanied by their new sovereign. + +</p><a id="d0e4553"></a><h2>Pardon of the Green Lion and the White Elephant</h2> +<p id="d0e4556">Buddha had summoned the White Elephant and the Green Lion, and was on the point of sentencing them to eternal damnation when +the compassionate Miao Shan interceded for them. “Certainly you deserve no forgiveness,” he said, “but I cannot refuse a request +made by <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4558"></a>Page 286</span>Miao Shan, whose clemency is without limit. I give you over to her, to serve and obey her in everything. Follow her.” + +</p><a id="d0e4560"></a><h2>Miao Shan becomes a Buddha</h2> +<p id="d0e4563">The guardian spirit on duty that day then announced the arrival of a messenger from Yü Huang. It was T’ai-po Chin-hsing, who +was the bearer of a divine decree, which he handed to Miao Shan. It read as follows: “I, the august Emperor, make known to +you this decree: Miao Chuang, King of Hsing Lin, forgetful alike of Heaven and Hell, the six virtues, and metempsychosis, +has led a blameworthy life; but your nine years of penitence, the filial piety which caused you to sacrifice your own body +to effect his cure, in short, all your virtues, have redeemed his faults. Your eyes can see and your ears can hear all the +good and bad deeds and words of men. You are the object of my especial regard. Therefore I make proclamation of this decree +of canonization. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4565">“Miao Shan will have the title of Very Merciful and Very Compassionate P’u-sa, Saviour of the Afflicted, Miraculous and Always +Helpful Protectress of Mortals. On your lofty precious lotus-flower throne, you will be the Sovereign of the Southern Seas +and of P’u T’o Isle. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4567">“Your two sisters, hitherto tainted with earthly pleasures, will gradually progress till they reach true perfection. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4569">“Miao Ch’ing will have the title of Very Virtuous P’u-sa, the Completely Beautiful, Rider of the Green Lion. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4571">“Miao Yin will be honoured with the title of Very Virtuous and Completely Resplendent P’u-sa, Rider of the White Elephant. + +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4573"></a>Page 287</span></p> +<p id="d0e4574">“King Miao Chuang is raised to the dignity of Virtuous Conquering P’u-sa, Surveyor of Mortals. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4576">“Queen Po Ya receives the title of P’u-sa of Ten Thousand Virtues, Surveyor of Famous Women. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4578">“Shan Ts’ai has bestowed upon him the title of Golden Youth. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4580">“Lung Nü has the title of Jade Maiden. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4582">“During all time incense is to be burned before all the members of this canonized group.” +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4584"></a>Page 288</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e4090" href="#d0e4090src" class="noteref">1</a> See Chapter IV. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e4118" href="#d0e4118src" class="noteref">2</a> This has reference to the change of Kuan Yin from the masculine to the feminine gender, already mentioned. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e4398" href="#d0e4398src" class="noteref">3</a> There is evidently a mistake here, since the King was twenty when he ascended the throne and fifty at the birth of Miao Shan. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e4585"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter XI</h2> +<h1>The Eight Immortals</h1><a id="d0e4588"></a><h2>Pa Hsien</h2> +<p id="d0e4591">Either singly or in groups the Eight Immortals, Pa Hsien, of the Taoist religion are one of the most popular subjects of representation +in China; their portraits are to be seen everywhere—on porcelain vases, teapots, teacups, fans, scrolls, embroidery, etc. +Images of them are made in porcelain, earthenware, roots, wood, metals. The term ‘Eight Immortals’ is figuratively used for +happiness. The number eight has become lucky in association with this tradition, and persons or things eight in number are +graced accordingly. Thus we read of reverence shown to the ‘Eight Genii Table’ (<i>Pa Hsien Cho</i>), the ‘Eight Genii Bridge’ (<i>Pa Hsien Ch’iao</i>), ‘Eight Genii Vermicelli’ (<i>Pa Hsien Mien</i>), the ‘Eight Genii of the Wine-cup’ (<i>Tin Chung Pa Hsien</i>)—wine-bibbers of the T’ang dynasty celebrated by Tu Fu, the poet. They are favourite subjects of romance, and special objects +of adoration. In them we see “the embodiment of the ideas of perfect but imaginary happiness which possess the minds of the +Chinese people.” Three of them (Chung-li Ch’üan, Chang Kuo, and Lü Yen) were historical personages; the others are mentioned +only in fables or romances. They represent all kinds of people—old, young, male, female, civil, military, rich, poor, afflicted, +cultured, noble. They are also representative of early, middle, and later historical periods. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4605">The legend of the Eight Immortals is certainly not older than the time of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960–1280), and is probably +to be assigned to that of the Yüan dynasty (1280–1368). But some, if not all, of the group seem to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4607"></a>Page 289</span>have been previously celebrated as Immortals in the Taoist legends. Their biographies are usually arranged in the order of +their official eminence or seniority in age. Here I follow that adopted in <i>Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi</i><a id="d0e4611src" href="#d0e4611" class="noteref">1</a> in which they are described in the order in which they became Immortals. + +</p><a id="d0e4616"></a><h2>Li T’ieh-kuai</h2> +<p id="d0e4619">Li T’ieh-kuai, depicted always with his crutch and gourd full of magic medicines, was of the family name of Li, his own name +being Li Yüan (Hs’üan, now read Yüan). He is also known as K’ung-mu. Hsi Wang Mu cured him of an ulcer on the leg and taught +him the art of becoming immortal. He was canonized as Rector of the East. He is said to have been of commanding stature and +dignified mien, devoting himself solely to the study of Taoist lore. Hsi Wang Mu made him a present of an iron crutch, and +sent him to the capital to teach the doctrine of immortality to Han Chung-li. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4621">He is also identified with Li Ning-yang, to whom Lao Tzŭ descended from Heaven in order to instruct him in the wisdom of the +gods. Soon after he had completed his course of instruction his soul left his body to go on a visit to Hua Shan. Some say +he was summoned by Lao Tzŭ, others that Lao Tzŭ engaged him as escort to the countries of Hsi Yü. He left his disciple Lang +Ling in charge of his body, saying that if he did not return within seven days he was to have the body cremated. Unfortunately, +when only six days had elapsed the disciple was called away to the death-bed of his mother. In order to be able to leave at +once he cremated the body forthwith, and when the soul returned it found only a heap of ashes. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4623"></a>Page 290</span>Some say the body was not cremated, but only became devitalized through neglect or through being uninhabited for so long a +time. The object of the setting of the watch was not only to prevent injury to or theft of the body, but also to prevent any +other soul from taking up its abode in it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4625">In a forest near by a beggar had just died of hunger. Finding this corpse untenanted, the wandering spirit entered it through +the temples, and made off. When he found that his head was long and pointed, his face black, his beard and hair woolly and +dishevelled, his eyes of gigantic size, and one of his legs lame, he wished to get out of this vile body; but Lao Tzŭ advised +him not to make the attempt and gave him a gold band to keep his hair in order, and an iron crutch to help his lame leg. On +lifting his hand to his eyes, he found they were as large as buckles. That is why he was called Li K’ung-mu, ‘Li Hollow Eyes.’ +Popularly he is known as Li T’ieh-kuai, ‘Li with the Iron Crutch.’ No precise period seems to be assigned to his career on +earth, though one tradition places him in the Yüan dynasty. Another account says that he was changed into a dragon, and in +that form ascended to Heaven. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4627">Elsewhere it is related that T’ieh-kuai, after entering the body of the lame beggar, benevolently proceeded to revive the +mother of Yang, his negligent disciple. Leaning on his iron staff and carrying a gourd of medicines on his back he went to +Yang’s house, where preparations were being made for the funeral. The contents of the gourd, poured into the mouth, revived +the dead woman. He then made himself known, and, giving Yang another pill, vanished in a gust of wind. Two hundred years later +he effected the immortalization of his disciple. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4629"></a>Page 291</span></p> +<p id="d0e4630">During his peregrinations on earth he would hang a bottle on the wall at night and jump into it, emerging on the following +morning. He frequently returned to earth, and at times tried to bring about the transmigration of others. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4632">An example is the case of Ch’ao Tu, the watchman. T’ieh-kuai walked into a fiery furnace and bade Ch’ao follow. The latter, +being afraid of imitating an act evidently associated with the supernatural world of evil spirits, refused to do so. T’ieh-kuai +then told Ch’ao to step on to a leaf floating on the surface of the river, saying that it was a boat that would bear him across +safely. Again the watchman refused, whereupon T’ieh-kuai, remarking that the cares of this world were evidently too weighty +for him to be able to ascend to immortality, stepped on to the leaf himself and vanished. + +</p><a id="d0e4634"></a><h2>Chung-li Ch’üan</h2> +<p id="d0e4637">Regarding the origin and life of this Immortal several different accounts are given. One states that his family name was Chung-li, +and that he lived in the Han dynasty, being therefore called Han Chung-li. His cognomen was Ch’üan, his literary appellation +Chi Tao, and his pseudonyms Ho-ho Tzŭ and Wang-yang Tzŭ; his style Yün-fang. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4639">He was born in the district of Hsien-yang Hsien (a sub-prefecture of the ancient capital Hsi-an Fu) in Shensi. He became Marshal +of the Empire in the cyclic year 2496. In his old age he became a hermit on Yang-chio Shan, thirty <i>li</i> north-east of I-ch’êng Hsien in the prefecture of P’ing-yang Fu in Shansi. He is referred to by the title of King-emperor +of the True Active Principle. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4644"></a>Page 292</span></p> +<p id="d0e4645">Another account describes Chung-li Ch’üan as merely a vice-marshal in the service of Duke Chou Hsiao. He was defeated in battle, +and escaped to Chung-nan Shan, where he met the Five Heroes, the Flowers of the East, who instructed him in the doctrine of +immortality. At the end of the T’ang dynasty Han Chung-li taught this same science of immortality to Lü Tung-pin (see p. <a id="d0e4647" href="#d0e4712">297</a>), and took the pompous title of the Only Independent One Under Heaven. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4650">Other versions state that Han Chung-li is not the name of a person, but of a country; that he was a Taoist priest Chung Li-tzŭ; +and that he was a beggar, Chung-li by name, who gave to one Lao Chih a pill of immortality. No sooner had the latter swallowed +it than he went mad, left his wife, and ascended to Heaven. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4652">During a great famine he transmuted copper and pewter into silver by amalgamating them with some mysterious drug. This treasure +he distributed among the poor, and thousands of lives were thus saved. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4654">One day, while he was meditating, the stone wall of his dwelling in the mountains was rent asunder, and a jade casket exposed +to view. This was found to contain secret information as to how to become an Immortal. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4656">When he had followed these instructions for some time, his room was filled with many-coloured clouds, music was heard, and +a celestial stork came and bore him away on its back to the regions of immortality. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4658">He is sometimes represented holding his feather-fan, Yü-mao Shan; at other times the peach of immortality. Since his admission +to the ranks of the gods, he has appeared on earth at various times as the messenger of Heaven. On one of these occasions +he met Lü Yen, as narrated on p. 297. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4660"></a>Page 293</span></p><a id="d0e4661"></a><h2>Lan Ts’ai-ho</h2> +<p id="d0e4664">Lan Ts’ai-ho is variously stated to have been a woman and an hermaphrodite. She is the strolling singer or mountebank of the +Immortals. Usually she plays a flute or a pair of cymbals. Her origin is unknown, but her personal name is said to have been +Yang Su, and her career is assigned to the period of the T’ang dynasty. She wandered abroad clad in a tattered blue gown held +by a black wooden belt three inches wide, with one foot shoeless and the other shod, wearing in summer an undergarment of +wadded material, and in winter sleeping on the snow, her breath rising in a brilliant cloud like the steam from a boiling +cauldron. In this guise she earned her livelihood by singing in the streets, keeping time with a wand three feet long. Though +taken for a lunatic, the doggerel verse she sang disproved the popular slanders. It denounced this fleeting life and its delusive +pleasures. When given money, she either strung it on a cord and waved it to the time of her song or scattered it on the ground +for the poor to pick up. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4666">One day she was found to have become intoxicated in an inn at Fêng-yang Fu in Anhui, and while in that state disappeared on +a cloud, having thrown down to earth her shoe, robe, belt, and castanets. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4668">According to popular belief, however, only one of the Eight Immortals, namely, Ho Hsien-ku, was a woman, Lan Ts’ai-ho being +represented as a young person of about sixteen, bearing a basket of fruit. According to the <i>Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi</i>, he was ‘the Red-footed Great Genius,’ Ch’ih-chiao Ta-hsien incarnate. Though he was a man, adds the writer, he could not +understand how to be a man (which is perhaps the reason why he has been supposed to be a woman). +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4673"></a>Page 294</span></p><a id="d0e4674"></a><h2>Chang Kuo</h2> +<p id="d0e4677">The period assigned to Chang Kuo is the middle or close of the seventh to the middle of the eighth century A.D. He lived as +a hermit on Chung-t’iao Shan, in the prefecture of P’ing-yang Fu in Shansi. The Emperors T’ai Tsung and Kao Tsung of the T’ang +dynasty frequently invited him to Court, but he persistently refused to go. At last, pressed once more by the Empress Wu (A.D. +684–705), he consented to leave his retreat, but was struck down by death at the gate of the Temple of the Jealous Woman. +His body began to decay and to be eaten by worms, when lo! he was seen again, alive and well, on the mountains of Hêng Chou +in P’ing-yang Fu. He rode on a white mule, which carried him thousands of miles in a day, and which, when the journey was +finished, he folded up like a sheet of paper and put away in his wallet. When he again required its services, he had only +to spurt water upon the packet from his mouth and the animal at once assumed its proper shape. At all times he performed wonderful +feats of necromancy, and declared that he had been Grand Minister to the Emperor Yao (2357–2255 B.C.) during a previous existence. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4679">In the twenty-third year (A.D. 735) of the reign-period K’ai Yüan of the Emperor Hsüan Tsung of the T’ang dynasty, he was +called to Lo-yang in Honan, and elected Chief of the Imperial Academy, with the honourable title of Very Perspicacious Teacher. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4681">It was just at this time that the famous Taoist Yeh Fa-shan, thanks to his skill in necromancy, was in great favour at Court. +The Emperor asked him who this Chang Kuo Lao (he usually has the epithet Lao, ‘old,’ added to his name) was. “I know,” replied +the magician; “but if I were to tell your Majesty I should fall dead at your feet, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4683"></a>Page 295</span>so I dare not speak unless your Majesty will promise that you will go with bare feet and bare head to ask Chang Kuo to forgive +you, in which case I should immediately revive.” Hsüan Tsung having promised, Fa-shan then said: “Chang Kuo is a white spiritual +bat which came out of primeval chaos.” No sooner had he spoken than he dropped dead at the Emperor’s feet. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4685">Hsüan Tsung, with bare head and feet, went to Chang Kuo as he had promised, and begged forgiveness for his indiscretion. The +latter then sprinkled water on Fa-shan’s face and he revived. Soon after Chang fell sick and returned to die in the Hêng Chou +Mountains during the period A.D. 742–746. When his disciples opened his tomb, they found it empty. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4687">He is usually seen mounted on his white mule, sometimes facing its head, sometimes its tail. He carries a phœnix-feather or +a peach of immortality. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4689">At his interviews with the Emperor Ming Huang in A.D. 723 (when he was alive still) Chang Kuo “entertained the Emperor with +a variety of magical tricks, such as rendering himself invisible, drinking off a cup of aconite, and felling birds or flowers +by pointing at them. He refused the hand of an imperial princess, and also declined to have his portrait placed in the Hall +of Worthies.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4691">A picture of Chang Kuo sitting on a donkey and offering a descendant to the newly married couple is often found in the nuptial +chamber. It seems somewhat incongruous that an old ascetic should be associated with matrimonial happiness and the granting +of offspring, but the explanation may possibly be connected with his performance of wonderful feats of necromancy, though +he is said not to have given encouragement to others in these things during his lifetime. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4693"></a>Page 296</span></p><a id="d0e4694"></a><h2>Ho Hsien Ku</h2> +<p id="d0e4697">A maiden holding in her hand a magic lotus-blossom, the flower of open-heartedness, or the peach of immortality given her +by Lü Tung-pin in the mountain-gorge as a symbol of identity, playing at times the <i>shêng</i> or reed-organ, or drinking wine—this is the picture the Chinese paint of the Immortal Ho Hsien Ku. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4702">She was the daughter of Ho T’ai, a native of Tsêng-ch’êng Hsien in Kuangtung. Others say her father was a shopkeeper at Ling-ling +in Hunan. She lived in the time of the usurping empress Wu (A.D. 684–705) of the T’ang dynasty. At her birth six hairs were +found growing on the crown of her head, and the account says she never had any more, though the pictures represent her with +a full head of hair. She elected to live on Yün-mu Ling, twenty <i>li</i> west of Tsêng-ch’êng Hsien. On that mountain was found a stone called <i>yün-mu shih</i>, ‘mother-of-pearl.’ In a dream she saw a spirit who ordered her to powder and eat one of these stones, by doing which she +could acquire both agility and immortality. She complied with this injunction, and also vowed herself to a life of virginity. +Her days were thenceforth passed in floating from one peak to another, bringing home at night to her mother the fruits she +collected on the mountain. She gradually found that she had no need to eat in order to live. Her fame having reached the ears +of the Empress, she was invited to Court, but while journeying thither suddenly disappeared from mortal view and became an +Immortal. She is said to have been seen again in A.D. 750 floating upon a cloud of many colours at the temple of Ma Ku, the +famous female Taoist magician, and again, some years later, in the city of Canton. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4710">She is represented as an extremely beautiful maiden, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4712"></a>Page 297</span>and is remarkable as occupying so prominent a position in a cult in which no system of female asceticism is developed. + +</p><a id="d0e4714"></a><h2>Lü Tung-pin</h2> +<p id="d0e4717">Lü Tung-pin’s family name was Lü; his personal name Tung-pin; also Yen; and his pseudonym Shun Yang Tzŭ. He was born in A.D. +798 at Yung-lo Hsien, in the prefecture of Ho-chung Fu in Shansi, a hundred and twenty <i>li</i> south-east of the present sub-prefecture of Yung-chi Hsien (P’u Chou). He came of an official family, his grandfather having +been President of the Ministry of Ceremonies, and his father Prefect of Hai Chou. He was 5 feet 2 inches in height, and at +twenty was still unmarried. At this time he made a journey to Lu Shan in Kiangsi, where he met the Fire-dragon, who presented +him with a magic sword, which enabled him at will to hide himself in the heavens. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4722">During his visit to the capital, Ch’ang-an in Shensi, he met the Immortal Han Chung-li, who instructed him in the mysteries +of alchemy and the elixir of life. When he revealed himself as Yün-fang Hsien-shêng, Lü Yen expressed an ardent desire to +aid in converting mankind to the true doctrine, but was first exposed to a series of ten temptations. These being successfully +overcome, he was invested with supernatural power and magic weapons, with which he traversed the Empire, slaying dragons and +ridding the earth of divers kinds of evils, during a period of upward of four hundred years. Another version says that Han +Chung-li was in an inn, heating a jug of rice-wine. Here Lü met him, and going to sleep dreamed that he was promoted to a +very high office and was exceptionally favoured by fortune in every way. This had gone on for <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4724"></a>Page 298</span>fifty years when unexpectedly a serious fault caused him to be condemned to exile, and his family was exterminated. Alone +in the world, he was sighing bitterly, when he awoke with a start. All had taken place in so short a space of time that Han +Chung-li’s wine was not yet hot. This is the incident referred to in Chinese literature in the phrase ‘rice-wine dream.’ Convinced +of the hollowness of worldly dignities, he followed Han Chung-li to the Ho Ling Mountains at Chung-nan in Shensi, where he +was initiated into the divine mysteries, and became an Immortal. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4726">In A.D. 1115 the Emperor Hui Tsung conferred on him the title of Hero of Marvellous Wisdom; and later he was proclaimed King-emperor +and Strong Protector. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4728">There are various versions of the legend of Lü Tung-pin. One of these adds that in order to fulfil his promise made to Chung-li +to do what he could to aid in the work of converting his fellow-creatures to the true doctrine, he went to Yüch Yang in the +guise of an oil-seller, intending to immortalize all those who did not ask for additional weight to the quantity of oil purchased. +During a whole year he met only selfish and extortionate customers, with the exception of one old lady who alone did not ask +for more than was her due. So he went to her house, and seeing a well in the courtyard threw a few grains of rice into it. +The water miraculously turned into wine, from the sale of which the dame amassed great wealth. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4730">He was very skilful in fencing, and is always represented with his magic Excalibur named Chan-yao Kuai, ‘Devil-slaying Sabre,’ +and in one hand holds a fly-whisk, Yün-chou, or ‘Cloud-sweeper,’ a symbol common in Taoism of being able to fly at will through +the air and to walk on the clouds of Heaven. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4732"></a>Page 299</span></p> +<p id="d0e4733">Like Kuan Kung, he is shown bearing in his arms a male child—indicating a promise of numerous progeny, including <i>literati</i> and famous officials. Consequently he is one of the spiritual beings honoured by the <i>literati</i>. + +</p><a id="d0e4741"></a><h2>Han Hsiang Tzŭ</h2> +<p id="d0e4744">Han Hsiang Tzŭ, who is depicted with a bouquet of flowers or a basket of peaches of immortality, is stated to have been a +grand-nephew of Han Yü (A.D. 768–824), the great statesman, philosopher, and poet of the T’ang dynasty, and an ardent votary +of transcendental study. His own name was Ch’ing Fu. The child was entrusted to his uncle to be educated and prepared for +the public examinations. He excelled his teacher in intelligence and the performance of wonderful feats, such as the production +from a little earth in a flower-pot of some marvellous flowering plants, on the leaves of which were written in letters of +gold some verses to this effect: + +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e4747">The clouds hide Mount Ch’in Ling. +<br id="d0e4749"> Where is your abode? +<br id="d0e4751">The snow is deep on Lan Kuan; +<br id="d0e4753"> Your horse refuses to advance. +</p> +<p id="d0e4755">“What is the meaning of these verses?” asked Han Yü. “You will see,” replied Han Hsiang Tzŭ. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4757">Some time afterward Han Yü was sent in disgrace to the prefecture of Ch’ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung. When he reached the foot +of Lan Kuan the snow was so deep that he could not go on. Han Hsiang Tzŭ appeared, and, sweeping away the snow, made a path +for him. Han Yü then understood the prophecy in his pupil’s verses. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4759"></a>Page 300</span></p> +<p id="d0e4760">When Han Hsiang Tzŭ was leaving his uncle, he gave him the following in verse: + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p id="d0e4763">Many indeed are the eminent men who have served their country, but which of them surpasses you in his knowledge of literature? +When you have reached a high position, you will be buried in a damp and foggy land. +</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e4766">Han Yü also gave his pupil a farewell verse: + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p id="d0e4769">How many here below allow themselves to be inebriated by the love of honours and pelf! Alone and watchful you persevere in +the right path. But a time will come when, taking your flight to the sky, you will open in the ethereal blue a luminous roadway. +</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e4772">Han Yü was depressed at the thought of the damp climate of his place of exile. “I fear there is no doubt,” he said, “that +I shall die without seeing my family again.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4774">Han Hsiang Tzŭ consoled him, gave him a prescription, and said: “Not only will you return in perfect health to the bosom of +your family, but you will be reinstated in your former offices.” All this took place exactly as he had predicted. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4776">Another account states that he became the disciple of Lü Tung-pin, and, having been carried up to the supernatural peach-tree +of the genii, fell from its branches, but during his descent attained to the state of immortality. Still another version says +that he was killed by the fall, was transformed, and then underwent the various experiences with Han Yü already related. + +</p><a id="d0e4778"></a><h2>Ts’ao Kuo-chiu</h2> +<p id="d0e4781">Ts’ao Kuo-chiu was connected with the imperial family of the Sungs, and is shown with the tablet of admission to Court in +his hand. He became one of the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4783"></a>Page 301</span>Eight Immortals because the other seven, who occupied seven of the eight grottos of the Upper Spheres, wished to see the eighth +inhabited, and nominated him because “his disposition resembled that of a genie.” The legend relates that the Empress Ts’ao, +wife of the Emperor Jên Tsung (A.D. 1023–64), had two younger brothers. The elder of the two, Ching-hsiu, did not concern +himself with the affairs of State; the younger, Ching-chih, was notorious for his misbehaviour. In spite of all warnings he +refused to reform, and being at last guilty of homicide was condemned to death. His brother, ashamed at what had occurred, +went and hid in the mountains, where he clothed his head and body with wild plants, resolved to lead the life of a hermit. +One day Han Chung-li and Lü Tung-pin found him in his retreat, and asked him what he was doing. “I am engaged in studying +the Way,” he replied. “What way, and where is it?” they asked. He pointed to the sky. “Where is the sky?” they went on. He +pointed to his heart. The two visitors smiled and said: “The heart is the sky, and the sky is the Way; you understand the +origin of things.” They then gave him a recipe for perfection, to enable him to take his place among the Perfect Ones. In +a few days only he had reached this much-sought-after condition. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4785">In another version we find fuller details concerning this Immortal. A graduate named Yüan Wên-chêng of Ch’ao-yang Hsien, in +the sub-prefecture of Ch’ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung, was travelling with his wife to take his examinations at the capital. Ts’ao +Ching-chih, the younger brother of the Empress, saw the lady, and was struck with her beauty. In order to gratify his passion +he invited the graduate and his young wife to the palace, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4787"></a>Page 302</span>where he strangled the husband and tried to force the wife to cohabit with him. She refused obstinately, and as a last resort +he had her imprisoned in a noisome dungeon. The soul of the graduate appeared to the imperial Censor Pao Lao-yeh, and begged +him to exact vengeance for the execrable crime. The elder brother, Ching-hsiu, seeing the case put in the hands of the upright +Pao Lao-yeh, and knowing his brother to be guilty of homicide, advised him to put the woman to death, in order to cut off +all sources of information and so to prevent further proceedings. The young voluptuary thereupon caused the woman to be thrown +down a deep well, but the star T’ai-po Chin-hsing, in the form of an old man, drew her out again. While making her escape, +she met on the road an official procession which she mistook for that of Pao Lao-yeh, and, going up to the sedan chair, made +her accusation. This official was no other than the elder brother of the murderer. Ching-hsiu, terrified, dared not refuse +to accept the charge, but on the pretext that the woman had not placed herself respectfully by the side of the official chair, +and thus had not left a way clear for the passage of his retinue, he had her beaten with iron-spiked whips, and she was cast +away for dead in a neighbouring lane. This time also she revived, and ran to inform Pao Lao-yeh. The latter immediately had +Ts’ao Ching-hsiu arrested, cangued, and fettered. Without loss of time he wrote an invitation to the second brother, Ts’ao +Ching-chih, and on his arrival confronted him with the graduate’s wife, who accused him to his face. Pao Lao-yeh had him put +in a pit, and remained deaf to all entreaties of the Emperor and Empress on his behalf. A few days later the murderer was +taken to the place of execution, and his head rolled in the dust. The problem now was how to get Ts’ao <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4789"></a>Page 303</span>Ching-hsiu out of the hands of the terrible Censor. The Emperor Jên Tsung, to please the Empress, had a universal amnesty +proclaimed throughout the Empire, under which all prisoners were set free. On receipt of this edict, Pao Lao-yeh liberated +Ts’ao Ching-hsiu from the cangue, and allowed him to go free. As one risen from the dead, he gave himself up to the practice +of perfection, became a hermit, and, through the instruction of the Perfect Ones, became one of the Eight Immortals. + +</p> +<div id="d0e4791" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p302.jpg" alt="The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e4795"></a><h2>Pa Hsien Kuo Hai</h2> +<p id="d0e4798">The phrase <i>Pa Hsien kuo hai</i>, ‘the Eight Immortals crossing the sea,’ refers to the legend of an expedition made by these deities. Their object was to +behold the wondrous things of the sea not to be found in the celestial sphere. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4803">The usual mode of celestial locomotion—by taking a seat on a cloud—was discarded at the suggestion of Lü Yen who recommended +that they should show the infinite variety of their talents by placing things on the surface of the sea and stepping on them. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4805">Li T’ieh-kuai threw down his crutch, and scudded rapidly over the waves. Chung-li Ch’üan used his feather-fan, Chang Kuo his +paper mule, Lü Tung-pin his sword, Han Hsiang Tzŭ his flower-basket, Ho Hsien Ku her lotus-flower, Lan Ts’ai-ho his musical +instrument, and Ts’ao Kuo-chiu his tablet of admission to Court. The popular pictures often represent most of these articles +changed into various kinds of sea-monsters. The musical instrument was noticed by the son of the Dragon-king of the Eastern +Sea. This avaricious prince conceived the idea of stealing the instrument and imprisoning its owner. The Immortals thereupon +declared war, the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4807"></a>Page 304</span>details of which are described at length by the Chinese writers, the outcome being that the Dragon-king was utterly defeated. +After this the Eight Immortals continued their submarine exploits for an indefinite time, encountering numberless adventures; +but here the author travels far into the fertile region of romance, beyond the frontiers of our present province. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4809"></a>Page 305</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e4611" href="#d0e4611src" class="noteref">1</a> <i>An Illustrated Account of the Eight Immortals’ Mission to the East</i>. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e4810"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter XII</h2> +<h1>The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven</h1><a id="d0e4813"></a><h2>Li, the Pagoda-bearer</h2> +<p id="d0e4816">In Buddhist temples there is to be seen a richly attired figure of a man holding in his hand a model of a pagoda. He is Li, +the Prime Minister of Heaven and father of No-cha. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4818">He was a general under the tyrant Chou and commander of Ch’ên-t’ang Kuan at the time when the bloody war was being waged which +resulted in the extinction of the Yin dynasty. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4820">No-cha is one of the most frequently mentioned heroes in Chinese romance; he is represented in one account as being Yü Huang’s +shield-bearer, sixty feet in height, his three heads with nine eyes crowned by a golden wheel, his eight hands each holding +a magic weapon, and his mouth vomiting blue clouds. At the sound of his Voice, we are told, the heavens shook and the foundations +of the earth trembled. His duty was to bring into submission all the demons which desolated the world. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4822">His birth was in this wise. Li Ching’s wife, Yin Shih, bore him three sons, the eldest Chin-cha, the second Mu-cha, and the +third No-cha, generally known as ‘the Third Prince.’ + +</p> +<p id="d0e4824">Yin Shih dreamed one night that a Taoist priest entered her room. She indignantly exclaimed: “How dare you come into my room +in this indiscreet manner?” The priest replied: “Woman, receive the child of the unicorn!” Before she could reply the Taoist +pushed an object to her bosom. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4826">Yin Shih awoke in a fright, a cold sweat all over her body. Having awakened her husband, she told him <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4828"></a>Page 306</span>what she had dreamed. At that moment she was seized with the pains of childbirth. Li Ching withdrew to an adjoining room, +uneasy at what seemed to be inauspicious omens. A little later two servants ran to him, crying out: “Your wife has given birth +to a monstrous freak!” + +</p><a id="d0e4830"></a><h2>An Avatar of the Intelligent Pearl</h2> +<p id="d0e4833">Li Ching seized his sword and went into his wife’s room, which he found filled with a red light exhaling a most extraordinary +odour. A ball of flesh was rolling on the floor like a wheel; with a blow of his sword he cut it open, and a babe emerged, +surrounded by a halo of red light. Its face was very white, a gold bracelet was on its right wrist, and it wore a pair of +red silk trousers, from which proceeded rays of dazzling golden light. The bracelet was ‘the horizon of Heaven and earth,’ +and the two precious objects belonged to the cave Chin-kuang Tung of T’ai-i Chên-jên, the priest who had bestowed them upon +him when he appeared to his mother during her sleep. The child itself was an avatar of Ling Chu-tzŭ, ‘the Intelligent Pearl.’ + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4835">On the morrow T’ai-i Chên-jên returned and asked Li Ching’s permission to see the new-born babe. “He shall be called No-cha,” +he said, “and will become my disciple.” + +</p><a id="d0e4837"></a><h2>A Precocious Youth</h2> +<p id="d0e4840">At seven years of age No-cha was already six feet in height. One day he asked his mother if he might go for a walk outside +the town. His mother granted him permission on condition that he was accompanied by a servant. She also counselled him not +to remain too long outside the wall, lest his father should become anxious. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4842"></a>Page 307</span></p> +<p id="d0e4843">It was in the fifth moon: the heat was excessive. No-cha had not gone a <i>li</i> before he was in a profuse perspiration. Some way ahead he saw a clump of trees, to which he hastened, and, settling himself +in the shade, opened his coat, and breathed with relief the fresher air. In front of him he saw a stream of limpid green water +running between two rows of willows, gently agitated by the movement of the wind, and flowing round a rock. The child ran +to the banks of the stream, and said to his guardian: “I am covered with perspiration, and will bathe from the rock.” “Be +quick,” said the servant; “if your father returns home before you he will be anxious.” No-cha stripped himself, took his red +silk trousers, several feet long, and dipped them in the water, intending to use them as a towel. No sooner were the magic +trousers immersed in the stream than the water began to boil, and Heaven and earth trembled. The water of this river, the +Chiu-wan Ho, ‘Nine-bends River,’ which communicated with the Eastern Sea, turned completely red, and Lung Wang’s palace shook +to its foundations. The Dragon-king, surprised at seeing the walls of his crystal palace shaking, called his officers and +inquired: “How is it that the palace threatens to collapse? There should not be an earthquake at this time.” He ordered one +of his attendants to go at once and find out what evil was giving rise to the commotion. When the officer reached the river +he saw that the water was red, but noticed nothing else except a boy dipping a band of silk in the stream. He cleft the water +and called out angrily: “That child should be thrown into the water for making the river red and causing Lung Wang’s palace +to shake.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4848">“Who is that who speaks so brutally?” said No-cha. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4850"></a>Page 308</span>Then, seeing that the man intended to seize him, he jumped aside, took his gold bracelet, and hurled it in the air. It fell +on the head of the officer, and No-cha left him dead on the rock. Then he picked up his bracelet and said smiling: “His blood +has stained my precious horizon of Heaven and earth.” He then washed it in the water. + +</p><a id="d0e4852"></a><h2>The Slaying of the Dragon-king’s Son</h2> +<p id="d0e4855">“How is it that the officer does not return?” inquired Lung Wang. At that moment attendants came to inform him that his retainer +had been murdered by a boy. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4857">Thereupon Ao Ping, the third son of Lung Wang, placing himself at the head of a troop of marines, his trident in his hand, +left the palace precincts. The warriors dashed into the river, raising on every side waves mountains high. Seeing the water +rising, No-cha stood up on the rock and was confronted by Ao Ping mounted on a sea-monster. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4859">“Who slew my messenger?” cried the warrior. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4861">“I did,” answered No-cha. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4863">“Who are you?” demanded Ao Ping. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4865">“I am No-cha, the third son of Li Ching of Ch’ên-t’ang Kuan. I came here to bathe and refresh myself; your messenger cursed +me, and I killed him. Then—” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4867">“Rascal! do you not know that your victim was a deputy of the King of Heaven? How dare you kill him, and then boast of your +crime?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4869">So saying, Ao Ping thrust at the boy with his trident. No-cha, by a brisk move, evaded the thrust. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4871">“Who are you?” he asked in turn. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4873">“I am Ao Ping, the third son of Lung Wang.” +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4875"></a>Page 309</span></p> +<p id="d0e4876">“Ah, you are a blusterer,” jeered the boy; “if you dare to touch me I will skin you alive, you and your mud-eels!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4878">“You make me choke with rage,” rejoined Ao Ping, at the same time thrusting again with his trident. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4880">Furious at this renewed attack, No-cha spread his silk trousers in the air, and thousands of balls of fire flew out of them, +felling Lung Wang’s son. No-cha put his foot on Ao Ping’s head and struck it with his magic bracelet, whereupon he appeared +in his true form of a dragon. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4882">“I am now going to pull out your sinews,” he said, “in order to make a belt for my father to use to bind on his cuirass.” + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4884">No-cha was as good as his word, and Ao Ping’s escort ran and informed Lung Wang of the fate of his son. The Dragon-king went +to Li Ching and demanded an explanation. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4886">Being entirely ignorant of what had taken place, Li Ching sought No-cha to question him. + +</p><a id="d0e4888"></a><h2>An Unruly Son</h2> +<p id="d0e4891">No-cha was in the garden, occupied in weaving the belt of dragon-sinew. The stupefaction of Li Ching may be imagined. “You +have brought most awful misfortunes upon us,” he exclaimed. “Come and give an account of your conduct.” “Have no fear,” replied +No-cha superciliously; “his son’s sinews are still intact; I will give them back to him if he wishes.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4893">When they entered the house he saluted the Dragon-king, made a curt apology, and offered to return his son’s sinews. The father, +moved with grief at the sight of the proofs of the tragedy, said bitterly to Li Ching: <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4895"></a>Page 310</span>“You have such a son and yet dare to deny his guilt, though you heard him haughtily admitting it! To-morrow I shall report +the matter to Yü Huang.” Having spoken thus, he departed. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4897">Li Ching was overwhelmed at the enormity of his son’s crime. His wife, in an adjoining room, hearing his lamentations, went +to her husband. “What obnoxious creature is this that you have brought into the world?” he said to her angrily. “He has slain +two spirits, the son of Lung Wang and a steward sent by the King of Heaven. To-morrow the Dragon-king is to lodge a complaint +with Yü Huang, and two or three days hence will see the end of our existence.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4899">The poor mother began to weep copiously. “What!” she sobbed, “you whom I suffered so much for, you are to be the cause of +our ruin and death!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4901">No-cha, seeing his parents so distracted, fell on his knees. “Let me tell you once for all,” he said, “that I am no ordinary +mortal. I am the disciple of T’ai-i Chên-jên; my magic weapons I received from him; it is they which brought upon me the undying +hatred of Lung Wang. But he cannot prevail. To-day I will go and ask my master’s advice. The guilty alone should suffer the +penalty; it is unjust that his parents should suffer in his stead.” + +</p><a id="d0e4903"></a><h2>Drastic Measures</h2> +<p id="d0e4906">He then left for Ch’ien-yüan Shan, and entered the cave of his master T’ai-i Chên-jên, to whom he related his adventures. +The master dwelt upon the grave consequences of the murders, and then ordered No-cha to bare his breast. With his finger he +drew on the skin a magic formula, after which he gave him some secret <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4908"></a>Page 311</span>instructions. “Now,” he said, “go to the gate of Heaven and await the arrival of Lung Wang, who purposes to accuse you before +Yü Huang. Then you must come again to consult me, that your parents may not be molested because of your misdeeds.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4910">When No-cha reached the gate of Heaven it was closed. In vain he sought for Lung Wang, but after a while he saw him approaching. +Lung Wang did not see No-cha, for the formula written by T’ai-i Chên-jên rendered him invisible. As Lung Wang approached the +gate No-cha ran up to him and struck him so hard a blow with his golden bracelet that he fell to the ground. Then No-cha stamped +on him, cursing him vehemently. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4912">The Dragon-king now recognized his assailant and sharply reproached him with his crimes, but the only reparation he got was +a renewal of kicks and blows. Then, partially lifting Lung Wang’s cloak and raising his shield, No-cha tore off from his body +about forty scales. Blood flowed copiously, and the Dragon-king, under stress of the pain, begged his foe to spare his life. +To this No-cha consented on condition that he relinquished his purpose of accusing him before Yü Huang. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4914">“Now,” went on No-cha, “change yourself into a small serpent that I may take you back without fear of your escaping.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4916">Lung Wang took the form of a small blue dragon, and followed No-cha to his father’s house, upon entering which Lung Wang resumed +his normal form, and accused No-cha of having belaboured him. “I will go with all the Dragon-kings and lay an accusation before +Yü Huang,” he said. Thereupon he transformed himself into a gust of wind, and disappeared. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4918"></a>Page 312</span></p><a id="d0e4919"></a><h2>No-cha draws a Bow at a Venture</h2> +<p id="d0e4922">“Things are going from bad to worse,” sighed Li Ching, His son, however, consoled him: “I beg you, my father, not to let the +future trouble you. I am the chosen one of the gods. My master is T’ai-i Chên-jên, and he has assured me that he can easily +protect us.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4924">No-cha now went out and ascended a tower which commanded a view of the entrance of the fort. There he found a wonderful bow +and three magic arrows. No-cha did not know that this was the spiritual weapon belonging to the fort. “My master informed +me that I am destined to fight to establish the coming Chou dynasty; I ought therefore to perfect myself in the use of weapons. +This is a good opportunity.” He accordingly seized the bow and shot an arrow toward the south-west. A red trail indicated +the path of the arrow, which hissed as it flew. At that moment Pi Yün, a servant of Shih-chi Niang-niang, happened to be at +the foot of K’u-lou Shan (Skeleton Hill), in front of the cave of his mistress. The arrow pierced his throat, and he fell +dead, bathed in his blood. Shih-chi Niang-niang came out of her cave, and examining the arrow found that it bore the inscription: +“Arrow which shakes the heavens.” She thus knew that it must have come from Ch’ên-t’ang Kuan, where the magic bow was kept. + + +</p><a id="d0e4926"></a><h2>Another Encounter</h2> +<p id="d0e4929">The goddess mounted her blue phœnix, flew over the fort, seized Li Ching, and carried him to her cave. There she made him +kneel before her, and reminded him how she had protected him that he might gain honour and glory on earth before he attained +to immortality. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4931"></a>Page 313</span>“It is thus that you show your gratitude—by killing my servant!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4933">Li Ching swore that he was innocent; but the tell-tale arrow was there, and it could not but have come from the fortress. +Li Ching begged the goddess to set him at liberty, in order that he might find the culprit and bring him to her. “If I cannot +find him,” he added, “you may take my life.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4935">Once again No-cha frankly admitted his deed to his father, and followed him to the cave of Shih-chi Niang-niang. When he reached +the entrance the second servant reproached him with the crime, whereupon No-cha struck him a heavy blow. Shih-chi Niang-niang, +infuriated, threw herself at No-cha, sword in hand; one after the other she wrenched from him his bracelet and magic trousers. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4937">Deprived of his magic weapons, No-cha fled to his master, T’ai-i Chên-jên. The goddess followed and demanded that he be put +to death. A terrible conflict ensued between the two champions, until T’ai-i Chên-jên hurled into the air his globe of nine +fire-dragons, which, falling on Shih-chi Niang-niang, enveloped her in a whirlwind of flame. When this had passed it was seen +that she was changed into stone. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4939">“Now you are safe,” said T’ai-i Chên-jên to No-cha, “but return quickly, for the Four Dragon-kings have laid their accusation +before Yü Huang, and they are going to carry off your parents. Follow my advice, and you will rescue your parents from their +misfortune.” + +</p><a id="d0e4941"></a><h2>No-cha commits Hara-Kiri</h2> +<p id="d0e4944">On his return No-cha found the Four Dragon-kings on the point of carrying off his parents. “It is I,” he <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4946"></a>Page 314</span>said, “who killed Ao Ping, and I who should pay the penalty. Why are you molesting my parents? I am about to return to them +what I received from them. Will it satisfy you?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4948">Lung Wang agreed, whereupon No-cha took a sword, and before their eyes cut off an arm, sliced open his stomach, and fell unconscious. +His soul, borne on the wind, went straight to the cave of T’ai-i Chên-jên, while his mother busied herself with burying his +body. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4950">“Your home is not here,” said his master to him; “return to Ch’ên-t’ang Kuan, and beg your mother to build a temple on Ts’ui-p’ing +Shan, forty <i>li</i> farther on. Incense will be burned to you for three years, at the end of which time you will be reincarnated.” + +</p><a id="d0e4955"></a><h2>A Habitation for the Soul</h2> +<p id="d0e4958">During the night, toward the third watch, while his mother was in a deep sleep, No-cha appeared to her in a dream and said: +“My mother, pity me; since my death, my soul, separated from my body, wanders about without a home. Build me, I pray you, +a temple on Ts’ui-p’ing Shan, that I may be reincarnated.” His mother awoke in tears, and related her vision to Li Ching, +who reproached her for her blind attachment to her unnatural son, the cause of so much disaster. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4960">For five or six nights the son appeared to his mother, each time repeating his request. The last time he added: “Do not forget +that by nature I am ferocious; if you refuse my request evil will befall you.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4962">His mother then sent builders to the mountain to construct a temple to No-cha, and his image was set up in it. Miracles were +not wanting, and the number of pilgrims who visited the shrine increased daily. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4964"></a>Page 315</span></p><a id="d0e4965"></a><h2>Li Ching destroys his Son’s Statue</h2> +<p id="d0e4968">One day Li Ching, with a troop of his soldiers, was passing this mountain, and saw the roads crowded with pilgrims of both +sexes. “Where are these people going?” he asked. “For six months past,” he was told, “the spirit of the temple on this mountain +has continued to perform miracles. People come from far and near to worship and supplicate him.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4970">“What is the name of this spirit?” inquired Li Ching. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4972">“No-cha,” they replied. + +</p> +<p id="d0e4974">“No-cha!” exclaimed the father. “I will go and see him myself.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4976">In a rage Li Ching entered the temple and examined the statue, which was a speaking image of his son. By its side were images +of two of his servants. He took his whip and began to beat the statue, cursing it all the while. “It is not enough, apparently, +for you to have been a source of disaster to us,” he said; “but even after your death you must deceive the multitude.” He +whipped the statue until it fell to pieces; he then kicked over the images of the servants, and went back, admonishing the +people not to worship so wicked a man, the shame and ruin of his family. By his orders the temple was burnt to the ground. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e4978">When he reached Ch’ên-t’ang Kuan his wife came to him, but he received her coldly. “You gave birth to that cursed son,” he +said, “who has been the plague of our lives, and after his death you build him a temple in which he deceives the people. Do +you wish to have me disgraced? If I were to be accused at Court of having instituted the worship of false gods, would not +my destruction be certain? I have burned the temple, and intend <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4980"></a>Page 316</span>that that shall settle the matter once for all; if ever you think of rebuilding it I will break off all relations with you.” + + +</p><a id="d0e4982"></a><h2>No-cha consults his Master</h2> +<p id="d0e4985">At the time of his father’s visit No-cha was absent from the temple. On his return he found only its smoking remnants. The +spirits of his two servants ran up lamenting. “Who has demolished my temple?” he asked. “Li Ching,” they replied. “In doing +this he has exceeded his powers,” said No-cha. “I gave him back the substance I received from him; why did he come with violence +to break up my image? I will have nothing more to do with him.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e4987">No-cha’s soul had already begun to be spiritualised. So he determined to go to T’ai-i Chên-jên and beg for his help. “The +worship rendered to you there,” replied the Taoist, “had nothing in it which should have offended your father; it did not +concern him. He was in the wrong. Before long Chiang Tzŭ-ya will descend to inaugurate the new dynasty, and since you must +throw in your lot with him I will find a way to aid you.” + +</p><a id="d0e4989"></a><h2>A New No-cha</h2> +<p id="d0e4992">T’ai-i Chên-jên had two water-lily stalks and three lotus-leaves brought to him. He spread these on the ground in the form +of a human being and placed the soul of No-cha in this lotus skeleton, uttering magic incantations the while. There emerged +a new No-cha full of life, with a fresh complexion, purple lips, keen glance, and sixteen feet of height. “Follow me to my +peach-garden,” said T’ai-i Chên-jên, “and I will give you your weapons.” He handed him a fiery spear, very sharp, and two +wind-and-fire <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e4994"></a>Page 317</span>wheels which, placed under his feet, served as a Vehicle. A brick of gold in a panther-skin bag completed his magic armament. +The new warrior, after thanking his master, mounted his wind-and-fire wheels and returned to Ch’ên-t’ang Kuan. + +</p><a id="d0e4996"></a><h2>A Battle between Father and Son</h2> +<p id="d0e4999">Li Ching was informed that his son No-cha had returned and was threatening vengeance. So he took his weapons, mounted his +horse, and went forth to meet him. Having cursed each other profusely, they joined battle, but Li Ching was worsted and compelled +to flee. No-cha pursued his father, but as he was on the point of overtaking him Li Ching’s second son, Mu-cha, came on the +scene, and keenly reproached his brother for his unfilial conduct. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5001">“Li Ching is no longer my father,” replied No-cha. “I gave him back my substance; why did he burn my temple and smash up my +image?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5003">Mu-cha thereupon prepared to defend his father, but received on his back a blow from the golden brick, and fell unconscious. +No-cha then resumed his pursuit of Li Ching. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5005">His strength exhausted, and in danger of falling into the hands of his enemy, Li Ching drew his sword and was about to kill +himself. “Stop!” cried a Taoist priest. “Come into my cave, and I will protect you.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5007">When No-cha came up he could not see Li Ching, and demanded his surrender from the Taoist. But he had to do with one stronger +than himself, no less a being than Wên-chu T’ien-tsun, whom T’ai-i Chên-jên had sent in order that No-cha might receive a +lesson. The Taoist, with the aid of his magic weapon, seized No-cha, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5009"></a>Page 318</span>and in a moment he found a gold ring fastened round his neck, two chains on his feet, and he was bound to a pillar of gold. + + +</p><a id="d0e5011"></a><h2>Peace at the Last</h2> +<p id="d0e5014">At this moment, as if by accident, T’ai-i Chên-jên appeared upon the scene. His master had No-cha brought before Wên-chu T’ien-tsun +and Li Ching, and advised him to live at peace with his father, but he also rebuked the father for having burned the temple +on Ts’ui-p’ing Shan. This done, he ordered Li Ching to go home, and No-cha to return to his cave. The latter, overflowing +with anger, his heart full of vengeance, started again in pursuit of Li Ching, swearing that he would punish him. But the +Taoist reappeared and prepared to protect Li Ching. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5016">No-cha, bristling like a savage cat, threw himself at his enemy and tried to pierce him with his spear, but a white lotus-flower +emerged from the Taoist’s mouth and arrested the course of the weapon. As No-cha continued to threaten him, the Taoist drew +from his sleeve a mysterious object which rose in the air, and, falling at the feet of No-cha, enveloped him in flames. Then +No-cha prayed for mercy. The Taoist exacted from him three separate promises: to live in harmony with his father, to recognize +and address him as his father, and to throw himself at his, the Taoist’s, feet, to indicate his reconciliation with himself. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e5018">After this act of reconciliation had been performed, Wên-chu T’ien-tsun promised Li Ching that he should leave his official +post to become an Immortal able to place his services at the disposal of the new Chou dynasty, shortly to come into power. +In order to ensure that <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5020"></a>Page 319</span>their reconciliation should last for ever, and to place it beyond No-cha’s power to seek revenge, he gave Li Ching the wonderful +object by whose agency No-cha’s feet had been burned, and which had been the means of bringing him into subjection. It was +a golden pagoda, which became the characteristic weapon of Li Ching, and gave rise to his nickname, Li the Pagoda-bearer. +Finally, Yü Huang appointed him Generalissimo of the Twenty-six Celestial Officers, Grand Marshal of the Skies, and Guardian +of the Gate of Heaven. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5022"></a>Page 320</span></p><a id="d0e5023"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter XIII</h2> +<h1>A Battle of the Gods</h1><a id="d0e5026"></a><h2>Multifarious Versatile Divinities</h2> +<p id="d0e5029">The <i>Fêng shên yen i</i> describes at length how, during the wars which preceded the accession of the Chou dynasty in 1122 B.C., a multitude of demigods, +Buddhas, Immortals, etc., took part on one side or the other, some fighting for the old, some for the new dynasty. They were +wonderful creatures, gifted with marvellous powers. They could at will change their form, multiply their heads and limbs, +become invisible, and create, by merely uttering a word, terrible monsters who bit and destroyed, or sent forth poison gases, +or emitted flames from their nostrils. In these battles there is much lightning, thunder, flight of fire-dragons, dark clouds +which vomit burning hails of murderous weapons; swords, spears, and arrows fall from the sky on to the heads of the combatants; +the earth trembles, the pillars of Heaven shake. + +</p><a id="d0e5034"></a><h2>Chun T’i</h2> +<p id="d0e5037">One of these gifted warriors was Chun T’i, a Taoist of the Western Paradise, who appeared on the scene when the armies of +the rival dynasties were facing each other. K’ung Hsüan was gallantly holding the pass of the Chin-chi Ling; Chiang Tzŭ-ya +was trying to take it by assault—so far without success. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5039">Chun T’i’s mission was to take K’ung Hsüan to the abode of the blest, his wisdom and general progress having now reached the +required degree of perfection. This was a means of breaking down the invincible resistance of this powerful enemy and at the +same time of rewarding his brilliant talents. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5041"></a>Page 321</span></p> +<p id="d0e5042">But K’ung Hsüan did not approve of this plan, and a fight took place between the two champions. At one moment Chun T’i was +seized by a luminous bow and carried into the air, but while enveloped in a cloud of fire he appeared with eighteen arms and +twenty-four heads, holding in each hand a powerful talisman. + +</p><a id="d0e5044"></a><h2>The One-eyed Peacock</h2> +<p id="d0e5047">He put a silk cord round K’ung Hsüan’s neck, touched him with his wand, and forced him to reassume his original form of a +red one-eyed peacock. Chun T’i seated himself on the peacock’s back, and it flew across the sky, bearing its saviour and master +to the Western Paradise. Brilliantly variegated clouds marked its track through space. + +</p><a id="d0e5049"></a><h2>Arrangements for the Siege</h2> +<p id="d0e5052">On the disappearance of its defender the defile of Chin-chi Ling was captured, and the village of Chieh-p’ai Kuan, the bulwark +of the enemy’s forces, reached. This place was defended by a host of genii and Immortals, the most distinguished among them +being the Taoist T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, whose specially effective charms had so far kept the fort secure against every attempt +upon it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5054">Lao Tzŭ himself had deigned to descend from dwelling in happiness, together with Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun and Chieh-yin Tao-jên, +to take part in the siege. But the town had four gates, and these heavenly rulers were only three in number. So Chun T’i was +recalled, and each member of the quartette was entrusted with the task of capturing one of the gates. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5056"></a>Page 322</span></p><a id="d0e5057"></a><h2>Impediments</h2> +<p id="d0e5060">Chun T’i’s duty was to take the Chüeh-hsien Mên, defended by T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu. The warriors who had tried to enter the +town by this gate had one and all paid for their temerity with their lives. The moment each had crossed the threshold a clap +of thunder had resounded, and a mysterious sword, moving with lightning rapidity, had slain him. + +</p><a id="d0e5062"></a><h2>Offence and Defence</h2> +<p id="d0e5065">As Chun T’i advanced at the head of his warriors terrible lightning rent the air and the mysterious sword descended like a +thunderbolt upon his head. But Chun T’i held on high his Seven-precious Branch, whereupon there emerged from it thousands +of lotus-flowers, which formed an impenetrable covering and stopped the sword in its fall. This and the other gates were then +forced, and a grand assault was now directed against the chief defender of the town. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5067">T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, riding his ox and surrounded by his warriors, for the last time risked the chance of war and bravely +faced his four terrible adversaries. With his sword held aloft, he threw himself on Chieh-yin Tao-jên, whose only weapon was +his fly-whisk. But there emerged from this a five-coloured lotus-flower, which stopped the sword-thrust. While Lao Tzŭ struck +the hero with his staff, Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun warded off the terrible sword with his jade <i>ju-i</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5072">Chun T’i now called to his help the spiritual peacock, and took the form of a warrior with twenty-four heads and eighteen +arms. His mysterious weapons surrounded T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, and Lao Tzŭ struck the hero so <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5074"></a>Page 323</span>hard that fire came out from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Unable to parry the assaults of his adversaries, he next received +a blow from Chun T’i’s magic wand, which felled him, and he took flight in a whirlwind of dust. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5076">The defenders now offered no further resistance, and Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun thanked Chun T’i for the valuable assistance he +had rendered in the capture of the village, after which the gods returned to their palace in the Western Heaven. + +</p><a id="d0e5078"></a><h2>Attempts at Revenge</h2> +<p id="d0e5081">T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, vanquished and routed, swore to have his revenge. He called to his aid the spirits of the twenty-eight +constellations, and marched to attack Wu Wang’s army. The honour of the victory that ensued belonged to Chun T’i, who disarmed +both the Immortal Wu Yün and T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5083">Wu Yün, armed with his magic sword, entered the lists against Chun T’i; but the latter opened his mouth and a blue lotus-flower +came out and stopped the blows aimed at him. Other thrusts were met by similar miracles. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5085">“Why continue so useless a fight?” said Chun T’i at last. “Abandon the cause of the Shang, and come with me to the Western +Paradise. I came to save you, and you must not compel me to make you resume your original form.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5087">An insulting flow of words was the reply; again the magic sword descended like lightning, and again the stroke was averted +by a timely lotus-flower. Chun T’i now waved his wand, and the magic sword was broken to bits, the handle only remaining in +Wu Yün’s hand. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5089"></a>Page 324</span></p><a id="d0e5090"></a><h2>The Golden-bearded Turtle</h2> +<p id="d0e5093">Mad with rage, Wu Yün seized his club and tried to fell his enemy. But Chun T’i summoned a disciple, who appeared with a bamboo +pole. This he thrust out like a fishing-rod, and on a hook at the end of the line attached to the pole dangled a large golden-bearded +turtle. This was the Immortal Wu Yün, now in his original form of a spiritual turtle. The disciple seated himself on its back, +and both, disappearing into space, returned to the Western Heavens. + +</p><a id="d0e5095"></a><h2>The Battle Won</h2> +<p id="d0e5098">To conquer T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu was more difficult, but after a long fight Chun T’i waved his Wand of the Seven Treasures +and broke his adversary’s sword. The latter, disarmed and vanquished, disappeared in a cloud of dust. Chun T’i did not trouble +to pursue him. The battle was won. + +</p><a id="d0e5100"></a><h2>Buddhahood</h2> +<p id="d0e5103">A disciple of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, P’i-lu Hsien, ‘the Immortal P’i-lu,’ seeing his master beaten in two successive engagements, +left the battlefield and followed Chun T’i to the Western Paradise, to become a Buddha. He is known as P’i-lu Fo, one of the +principal gods of Buddhism. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5105">Chun T’i’s festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the third moon. He is generally shown with eight hands and three faces, +one of the latter being that of a pig. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5107"></a>Page 325</span></p><a id="d0e5108"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter XIV</h2> +<h1>How the Monkey Became a God</h1><a id="d0e5111"></a><h2>The Hsi Yu Chi</h2> +<p id="d0e5114">In dealing with the gods of China we noticed the monkey among them. Why and in what manner he attained to that exalted rank +is set forth in detail in the <i>Hsi yu chi</i><a id="d0e5118src" href="#d0e5118" class="noteref">1</a>—a work the contents of which have become woven into the fabric of Chinese legendary lore and are known and loved by every +intelligent native. Its pages are filled with ghosts, demons, and fairies, good and bad, but “it contains no more than the +average Chinese really believes to exist, and his belief in such manifestations is so firm that from the cradle to the grave +he lives and moves and has his being in reference to them.” Its characters are said to be allegorical, though it may be doubted +whether these implications may rightly be read into the Chinese text. Thus: + +</p> +<p id="d0e5121">Hsüan (or Yüan) Chuang, or T’ang Sêng, is the pilgrim of the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, who symbolizes conscience, to which all actions are brought for trial. The priestly garment of Hsüan Chuang symbolizes the +good work of the rectified human nature. It is held to be a great protection to the new heart from the myriads of evil beings +which surround it, seeking its destruction. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5126">Sun Hou-tzŭ, the Monkey Fairy, represents human nature, which is prone to all evil. His unreasonable vagaries moved Hsüan +Chuang to compel him to wear a Head-splitting Helmet which would contract upon his head in moments of waywardness. The agonizing +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5128"></a>Page 326</span>pressure thus caused would bring him to his senses, irrespective of his distance from his master. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5130">The iron wand of Sun Hou-tzŭ is said to represent the use that can be made of doctrine. It was useful for all purposes, great +or small. By a word it could be made invisible, and by a word it could become long enough to span the distance between Heaven +and earth. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5132">Chu Pa-chieh, the Pig Fairy, with his muck-rake, stands for the coarser passions, which are constantly at war with the conscience +in their endeavours to cast off all restraint. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5134">Sha Ho-shang, Priest Sha, is a good representation of Mr Faithful in <i>The Pilgrim’s Progress</i>. In the <i>Hsi yu chi</i> he stands for the human character, which is naturally weak and which needs constant encouragement. + +</p><a id="d0e5142"></a><h2>Legend of Sun Hou-tzŭ</h2> +<p id="d0e5145">The deeds of this marvellous creature, the hero of the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, are to be met with continually in Chinese popular literature, and they are very much alive in the popular mind. In certain +parts a regular worship is offered to him, and in many temples representations of or legends concerning him are to be seen +or heard. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5150">Other names by which Sun Hou-tzŭ is referred to are: Sun Hsing-chê, Sun Wu-k’ung, Mei Hou-wang, Ch’i-t’ien Ta Shêng, and Pi-ma +Wên, the last-mentioned being a title which caused him annoyance by recalling the derisive dignity conferred upon him by Yü +Huang.<a id="d0e5152src" href="#d0e5152" class="noteref">2</a> Throughout the remainder of this chapter Sun Hou-tzŭ will be shortly referred to as ‘Sun.’ + +</p> +<div id="d0e5158" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p326.jpg" alt="The Birth of the Monkey"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Birth of the Monkey</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e5162">Beyond the seas, in the Eastern continent, in the kingdom of Ao-lai, is the mountain Hua-kuo Shan. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5164"></a>Page 327</span>On the steep sides of this mountain there is a rocky point 36 feet 5 inches high and 24 feet in circumference. At the very +top an egg formed, and, fructified by the breath of the wind, gave birth to a stone monkey. The newly-born saluted the four +points of the horizon; from his eyes shone golden streaks of lightning, which filled the palace of the North Pole Star with +light. This light subsided as soon as he was able to take nourishment. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5166">“To-day,” said Yü Huang to himself, “I am going to complete the wonderful diversity of the beings engendered by Heaven and +earth. This monkey will skip and gambol to the highest peaks of mountains, jump about in the waters, and, eating the fruit +of the trees, will be the companion of the gibbon and the crane. Like the deer he will pass his nights on the mountain slopes, +and during the day will be seen leaping on their summits or in their caverns. That will be the finest ornament of all for +the mountains!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5168">The creature’s exploits soon caused him to be proclaimed king of the monkeys. He then began to try to find some means of becoming +immortal. After travelling for eighteen years by land and sea he met the Immortal P’u-t’i Tsu-shih on the mountain Ling-t’ai-fang-ts’un. +During his travels the monkey had gradually acquired human attributes; his face remained always as it had been originally, +but dressed in human apparel he began to be civilized. His new master gave him the family name of Sun, and personal name of +Wu-k’ung, ‘Discoverer of Secrets.’ He taught him how to fly through the air, and to change into seventy-two different forms. +With one leap he could cover 108,000 <i>li</i> (about 36,000 miles). +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5173"></a>Page 328</span></p><a id="d0e5174"></a><h2>A Rod of Iron</h2> +<p id="d0e5177">Sun, after his return to Hua-kuo Shan, slew the demon Hun-shih Mo-wang, who had been molesting the monkeys during his long +absence. Then he organized his subjects into a regular army, 47,000 all told. Thus the peace of the simian kingdom was assured. +As for himself, he could not find a weapon to suit him, and went to consult Ao Kuang, the Lung Wang, or Dragon-king of the +Eastern Sea, about it. It was from him that he obtained the formidable rod of iron, formerly planted in the ocean-bed by the +Great Yü (Yü Wang) to regulate the level of the waters. He pulled it out, and modified it to suit his tastes. The two extremities +he bound round with gold bands, and on it engraved the words: ‘Gold-bound Wand of my Desires.’ This magic weapon could accommodate +itself to all his wishes; being able to assume the most incredible proportions or to reduce itself to the form of the finest +of needles, which he kept hidden in his ear. He terrorized the Four Kings of the sea, and dressed himself at their expense. +The neighbouring kings allied themselves with him. A splendid banquet with copious libations of wine sealed the alliance of +friendship with the seven kings; but alas! Sun had partaken so liberally that when he was seeing his guests off, no sooner +had he taken a few steps than he fell into a drunken sleep. The undertakers of Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, to whom Lung +Wang had accused him as the disturber of his watery kingdom, seized his soul, put chains round its neck, and led it down to +the infernal regions. Sun awoke in front of the gate of the kingdom of the dead, broke his fetters, killed his two custodians, +and, armed with his magic staff, penetrated into the realm of Yen Wang, where he <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5179"></a>Page 329</span>threatened to carry out general destruction. He called to the ten infernal gods to bring him the Register of the Living and +the Dead, tore out with his own hand the page on which were written his name and those of his monkey subjects, and then told +the King of the Hells that he was no longer subject to the laws of death. Yen Wang yielded, though with bad grace, and Sun +returned triumphant from his expedition beyond the tomb. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5181">Before long Sun’s escapades came to the knowledge of Yü Huang. Ao Kuang and Yen Wang each sent deputies to the Master of Heaven, +who took note of the double accusation, and sent T’ai-po Chin-hsing to summon before him this disturber of the heavenly peace. + + +</p><a id="d0e5183"></a><h2>Grand Master of the Heavenly Stables</h2> +<p id="d0e5186">In order to keep him occupied, Sun was appointed Grand Master of the Heavenly Stables, and was entrusted with the feeding +of Yü Huang’s horses; his official celestial title being Pi-ma Wên. Later on, learning the object of the creation of this +derisory appointment, he overturned the Master’s throne, seized his staff, broke down the South Gate of Heaven, and descended +on a cloud to Hua-kuo Shan. + +</p><a id="d0e5188"></a><h2>Grand Superintendent of the Heavenly Peach-garden</h2> +<p id="d0e5191">Yü Huang in great indignation organized a siege of Hua-kuo Shan, but the Kings of Heaven and the generals with their celestial +armies were repulsed several times. Sun now arrogated to himself the pompous title of Grand Saint, Governor of Heaven. He +had this emblazoned on his banners, and threatened Yü Huang that he would carry destruction into his kingdom if he refused +to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5193"></a>Page 330</span>recognize his new dignity. Yü Huang, alarmed at the result of the military operations, agreed to the condition laid down by +Sun. The latter was then appointed Grand Superintendent of the Heavenly Peach-garden, the fruit of which conferred immortality, +and a new palace was built for him. + +</p><a id="d0e5195"></a><h2>Double Immortality</h2> +<p id="d0e5198">Having made minute observations on the secret properties of the peaches, Sun ate of them and was thus assured against death. +The time was ripe for him to indulge in his tricks without restraint, and an opportunity soon presented itself. Deeply hurt +at not having been invited to the feast of the Peach Festival, P’an-t’ao Hui, given periodically to the Immortals by Wang-mu +Niang-niang, the Goddess of the Immortals, he resolved upon revenge. When the preparations for the feast were complete he +cast a spell over the servants, causing them to fall into a deep sleep, and then ate up all the most juicy meats and drank +the fine wines provided for the heavenly guests. Sun had, however, indulged himself too liberally; with heavy head and bleary +eye he missed the road back to his heavenly abode, and came unaware to the gate of Lao Chün, who was, however, absent from +his palace. It was only a matter of a few minutes for Sun to enter and swallow the pills of immortality which Lao Chün kept +in five gourds. Thus Sun, doubly immortal, riding on the mist, again descended to Hua-kuo Shan. + +</p><a id="d0e5200"></a><h2>Sun Hou-tzŭ Captured</h2> +<p id="d0e5203">These numerous misdeeds aroused the indignation of all the gods and goddesses. Accusations poured in upon <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5205"></a>Page 331</span>Yü Huang, and he ordered the Four Gods of the Heavens and their chief generals to bring Sun to him. The armies laid siege +to Hua-kuo Shan, a net was spread in the heavens, fantastic battles took place, but the resistance of the enemy was as strenuous +and obstinate as before. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5207">Lao Chün and Êrh-lang, nephew of Yü Huang, then appeared on the scene. Sun’s warriors resisted gallantly, but the forces of +Heaven were too much for them, and at length they were overcome. At this juncture Sun changed his form, and in spite of the +net in the sky managed to find a way out. In vain search was made everywhere, until Li T’ien-wang, by the help of his devil-finding +mirror, detected the quarry and informed Êrh-lang, who rushed off in pursuit. Lao Chün hurled his magic ring on to the head +of the fugitive, who stumbled and fell. Quick as lightning, the celestial dog, T’ien Kou, who was in Êrh-lang’s service, threw +himself on him, bit him in the calf, and caused him to stumble afresh. This was the end of the fight. Sun, surrounded on all +sides, was seized and chained. The battle was won. + +</p><a id="d0e5209"></a><h2>Sun escapes from Lao Chün’s Furnace</h2> +<p id="d0e5212">The celestial armies now raised the siege, and returned to their quarters. But a new and unexpected difficulty arose. Yü Huang +condemned the criminal to death, but when they went to carry out the sentence the executioners learned that he was invulnerable; +swords, iron, fire, even lightning, could make no impression on his skin. Yü Huang, alarmed, asked Lao Chün the reason of +this. The latter replied that there was nothing surprising about it, seeing that the knave had eaten the peaches of life in +the garden of Heaven and the pills of immortality <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5214"></a>Page 332</span>which he had composed. “Hand him over to me,” he added. “I will distil him in my furnace of the Eight Trigrams, and extract +from his composition the elements which render him immortal.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5216">Yü Huang ordered that the prisoner be handed over, and in the sight of all he was shut up in Lao Chün’s alchemical furnace, +which for forty-nine days was heated white-hot. But at an unguarded moment Sun lifted the lid, emerged in a rage, seized his +magic staff, and threatened to destroy Heaven and exterminate its inhabitants. Yü Huang, at the end of his resources, summoned +Buddha, who came and addressed Sun as follows: “Why do you wish to possess yourself of the Kingdom of the Heavens?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5218">“Have I not power enough to be the God of Heaven?” was the arrogant reply. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5220">“What qualifications have you?” asked Buddha. “Enumerate them.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5222">“My qualifications are innumerable,” replied Sun. “I am invulnerable, I am immortal, I can change myself into seventy-two +different forms, I can ride on the clouds of Heaven and pass through the air at will, with one leap I can traverse a hundred +and eight thousand <i>li</i>.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5227">“Well,” replied Buddha, “have a match with me; I wager that in one leap you cannot even jump out of the palm of my hand. If +you succeed I will bestow upon you the sovereignty of Heaven.” + +</p><a id="d0e5229"></a><h2>Broad-jump Competition</h2> +<p id="d0e5232">Sun rose into space, flew like lightning in the great vastness, and reached the confines of Heaven, opposite the five great +red pillars which are the boundaries of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5234"></a>Page 333</span>the created universe. On one of them he wrote his name, as irrefutable evidence that he could reach this extreme limit; this +done, he returned triumphant to demand of Buddha the coveted inheritance. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5236">“But, wretch,” said Buddha, “you never went out of my hand!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5238">“How is that?” rejoined Sun. “I went as far as the pillars of Heaven, and even took the precaution of writing my name on one +of them as proof in case of need.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5240">“Look then at the words you have written,” said Buddha, lifting a finger on which Sun read with stupefaction his name as he +had inscribed it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5242">Buddha then seized Sun, transported him out of Heaven, and changed his five fingers into the five elements, metal, wood, water, +fire, and earth, which instantly formed five high mountains contiguous to each other. The mountains were called Wu Hsing Shan, +and Buddha shut Sun up in them. + +</p><a id="d0e5244"></a><h2>Conditions of Release</h2> +<p id="d0e5247">Thus subdued, Sun would not have been able to get out of his stone prison but for the intercession of Kuan Yin P’u-sa, who +obtained his release on his solemn promise that he would serve as guide, philosopher, and friend to Hsüan Chuang, the priest +who was to undertake the difficult journey of 108,000 <i>li</i> to the Western Heaven. This promise, on the whole, he fulfilled in the service of Hsüan Chuang during the fourteen years +of the long journey. Now faithful, now restive and undisciplined, he was always the one to triumph in the end over the eighty-one +fantastical tribulations which beset them as they journeyed. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5252"></a>Page 334</span></p><a id="d0e5253"></a><h2>Sha Ho-shang</h2> +<p id="d0e5256">One of the principal of Sun’s fellow-servants of the Master was Sha Ho-shang. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5258">He is depicted wearing a necklace of skulls, the heads of the nine Chinese deputies sent in former centuries to find the Buddhist +canon, but whom Sha Ho-shang had devoured on the banks of Liu-sha River when they had attempted to cross it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5260">He is also known by the name of Sha Wu-ching, and was originally Grand Superintendent of the Manufactory of Stores for Yü +Huang’s palace. During a great banquet given on the Peach Festival to all the gods and Immortals of the Chinese Olympus he +let fall a crystal bowl, which was smashed to atoms. Yü Huang caused him to be beaten with eight hundred blows, drove him +out of Heaven, and exiled him to earth. He lived on the banks of the Liu-sha Ho, where every seventh day a mysterious sword +appeared and wounded him in the neck. Having no other means of subsistence, he used to devour the passers-by. + +</p><a id="d0e5262"></a><h2>Sha Ho-shang becomes Baggage-coolie</h2> +<p id="d0e5265">When Kuan Yin passed through that region on her way to China to find the priest who was predestined to devote himself to the +laborious undertaking of the quest of the sacred Buddhist books, Sha Ho-shang threw himself on his knees before her and begged +her to put an end to all his woes. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5267">The goddess promised that he should be delivered by the priest, her envoy, provided he would engage himself in the service +of the pilgrim. On his promising to do this, and to lead a better life, she herself ordained him priest. In the end it came +about that Hsüan Chuang, when passing the Sha Ho, took him into his suite as coolie to carry <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5269"></a>Page 335</span>his baggage. Yü Huang pardoned him in consideration of the service he was rendering to the Buddhist cause. + +</p><a id="d0e5271"></a><h2>Chu Pa-chieh</h2> +<p id="d0e5274">Chu Pa-chieh is a grotesque, even gross, personage, with all the instincts of animalism. One day, while he was occupying the +high office of Overseer-general of the Navigation of the Milky Way, he, during a fit of drunkenness, vilely assaulted the +daughter of Yü Huang. The latter had him beaten with two thousand blows from an iron hammer, and exiled to earth to be reincarnated. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e5276">During his transition a mistake was made, and entering the womb of a sow he was born half-man, half-pig, with the head and +ears of a pig and a human body. He began by killing and eating his mother, and then devoured his little porcine brothers. +Then he went to live on the wild mountain Fu-ling Shan, where, armed with an iron rake, he first robbed and then ate the travellers +who passed through that region. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5278">Mao Êrh-chieh, who lived in the cave Yün-chan Tung, engaged him as carrier of her personal effects, which she afterward bequeathed +to him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5280">Yielding to the exhortations of the Goddess Kuan Yin, who, at the time of her journey to China, persuaded him to lead a less +dissolute life, he was ordained a priest by the goddess herself, who gave him the name of Chu (Pig), and the religious name +of Wu-nêng, ‘Seeker after Strength.’ This monster was knocked down by Sun when the latter was passing over the mountain accompanied +by Hsüan Chuang, and he declared himself a disciple of the pilgrim priest. He accompanied him throughout the journey, and +was also received in the Western Paradise as a reward for his aid to the Buddhist propaganda. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5282"></a>Page 336</span></p><a id="d0e5283"></a><h2>Hsüan Chuang, the Master</h2> +<p id="d0e5286">The origin of this priest was as follows: In the reign of the Emperor T’ai Tsung of the T’ang dynasty, Ch’ên Kuang-jui, a +graduate of Hai Chou, in his examination for the doctor’s degree came out as <i>chuang yüan</i>, first on the list. Wên Chiao (also named Man-t’ang Chiao), the daughter of the minister Yin K’ai-shan, meeting the young +academician, fell in love with him, and married him. Several days after the wedding the Emperor appointed Ch’ên Kuang-jui +Governor of Chiang Chou (modern Chên-chiang Fu), in Kiangsu. After a short visit to his native town he started to take up +his post. His old mother and his wife accompanied him. When they reached Hung Chou his mother fell sick and they were forced +to stay for a time at the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers, kept by one Liu Hsiao-êrh. Days passed; the sickness did not leave +her, and as the time for her son to take over the seals of office was drawing near, he had to proceed without her. + +</p><a id="d0e5291"></a><h2>The Released Carp</h2> +<p id="d0e5294">Before his departure he noticed a fisherman holding in his hand a fine carp; this he bought for a small sum to give to his +mother. Suddenly he noticed that the fish had a very extraordinary look, and, changing his mind, he let it go in the waters +of the Hung Chiang, afterward telling his mother what he had done. She congratulated him on his action, and assured him that +the good deed would not go unrewarded. + +</p><a id="d0e5296"></a><h2>The Chuang Yüan Murdered</h2> +<p id="d0e5299">Ch’ên Kuang-jui re-entered his boat with his wife and a servant. They were stopped by the chief waterman, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5301"></a>Page 337</span>Liu Hung, and his assistant. Struck with the great beauty of Ch’ên Kuang-jui’s wife, the former planned a crime which he carried +out with the help of his assistant. At the dead of night he took the boat to a retired spot, killed Ch’ên and his servant, +threw their bodies into the river, seized his official documents of title and the woman he coveted, passed himself off as +the real <i>chuang yüan</i>, and took possession of the magistracy of Chiang Chou. The widow, who was with child, had two alternatives—silence or death. +Meantime she chose the former. Before she gave birth to her child, T’ai-po Chin-hsing, the Spirit of the South Pole Star, +appeared to her, and said he had been sent by Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, to present her with a son whose fame would fill +the Empire. “Above all,” he added, “take every precaution lest Liu Hung kill the child, for he will certainly do so if he +can.” When the child was born the mother, during the absence of Liu Hung, determined to expose it rather than see it slain. +Accordingly she wrapped it up carefully in a shirt, and carried it to the bank of the Blue River. She then bit her finger, +and with the blood wrote a short note stating the child’s origin, and hid it in its breast. Moreover, she bit off the infant’s +left little toe, as an indelible mark of identity. No sooner had this been done than a gust of wind blew a large plank to +the river’s edge. The poor mother tied her infant firmly to this plank and abandoned it to the mercy of the waves. The waif +was carried to the shore of the isle of Chin Shan, on which stands the famous monastery of Chin-shan Ssŭ, near Chinkiang. +The cries of the infant attracted the attention of an old monk named Chang Lao, who rescued it and gave it the name of Chiang +Liu, ‘Waif of the River.’ He reared it with <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5306"></a>Page 338</span>much care, and treasured the note its mother had written with her blood. The child grew up, and Chang Lao made him a priest, +naming him Hsüan Chuang on the day of his taking the vows. When he was eighteen years of age, having one day quarrelled with +another priest, who had cursed him and reproached him with having neither father nor mother, he, much hurt, went to his protector +Chang Lao. The latter said to him: “The time has come to reveal to you your origin.” He then told him all, showed him the +note, and made him promise to avenge his assassinated father. To this end he was made a roving priest, went to the official +Court, and eventually got into touch with his mother, who was still living with the prefect Liu Hung. The letter placed in +his bosom, and the shirt in which he had been wrapped, easily proved the truth of his statements. The mother, happy at having +found her son, promised to go and see him at Chin Shan. In order to do this, she pretended to be sick, and told Liu Hung that +formerly, when still young, she had taken a vow which she had not yet been able to fulfil. Liu Hung himself helped her to +do so by sending a large gift of money to the priests, and allowed her to go with her servants to perform her devotions at +Chin-shan Ssŭ. On this second visit, during which she could speak more freely with her son, she wished to see for herself +the wound she had made on his foot. This removed the last shadow of doubt. + +</p><a id="d0e5308"></a><h2>Hsüan Chuang finds his Grandmother</h2> +<p id="d0e5311">She told Hsüan Chuang that he must first of all go to Hung Chou and find his grandmother, formerly left at the Inn of Ten +Thousand Flowers, and then on to Ch’ang-an to take to her father Yin K’ai-shan a letter, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5313"></a>Page 339</span>putting him in possession of the chief facts concerning Liu Hung, and praying him to avenge her. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5315">She gave him a stick of incense to take to her mother-in-law. The old lady lived the life of a beggar in a wretched hovel +near the city gate, and had become blind from weeping. The priest told her of the tragic death of her son, then touched her +eyes with the stick of incense, and her sight was restored. “And I,” she exclaimed, “have so often accused my son of ingratitude, +believing him to be still alive!” He took her back to the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers and settled the account, then hastened +to the palace of Yin K’ai-shan. Having obtained an audience, he showed the minister the letter, and informed him of all that +had taken place. + +</p><a id="d0e5317"></a><h2>The Murderer Executed</h2> +<p id="d0e5320">The following day a report was presented to the Emperor, who gave orders for the immediate arrest and execution of the murderer +of Ch’ên Kuang-jui. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5322">Yin K’ai-shan went with all haste to Chên-chiang, where he arrived during the night, surrounded the official residence, and +seized the culprit, whom he sent to the place where he had committed the murder. His heart and liver were torn out and sacrificed +to the victim. + +</p><a id="d0e5324"></a><h2>The Carp’s Gratitude</h2> +<p id="d0e5327">Now it happened that Ch’ên Kuang-jui was not dead after all. The carp released by him was in fact no other than Lung Wang, +the God of the River, who had been going through his kingdom in that guise and had been caught in the fisherman’s net. On +learning that his rescuer had been cast into the river, Lung Wang had <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5329"></a>Page 340</span>saved him, and appointed him an officer of his Court. On that day, when his son, wife, and father-in-law were sacrificing +the heart of his assassin to his <i>manes</i> on the river-bank, Lung Wang ordered that he return to earth. His body suddenly appeared on the surface of the water, floated +to the bank, revived, and came out full of life and health. The happiness of the family reunited under such unexpected circumstances +may well be imagined. Ch’ên Kuang-jui returned with his father-in-law to Chên-chiang, where he took up his official post, +eighteen years after his nomination to it. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5334">Hsüan Chuang became the Emperor’s favourite priest. He was held in great respect at the capital, and had innumerable honours +bestowed upon him, and in the end was chosen for the journey to the Western Paradise, where Buddha in person handed him the +sacred books of Buddhism. + +</p><a id="d0e5336"></a><h2>Pai Ma, the White Horse</h2> +<p id="d0e5339">When he left the capital, Hsüan Chuang had been presented by the Emperor with a white horse to carry him on his long pilgrimage. +One day, when he reached Shê-p’an Shan, near a torrent, a dragon emerged from the deep river-bed and devoured both the horse +and its saddle. Sun tried in vain to find the dragon, and at last had to seek the aid of Kuan Yin. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5341">Now Yü Lung San T’ai-tzŭ, son of Ao Jun, Dragonking of the Western Sea, having burnt a precious pearl on the roof of his father’s +palace, was denounced to Yü Huang, who had him beaten with three hundred blows and suspended in the air. He was awaiting death +when Kuan Yin passed on her way to China. The unfortunate dragon requested the goddess to have pity on him, whereupon <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5343"></a>Page 341</span>she prevailed upon Yü Huang to spare his life on condition that he served as steed for her pilgrim on the expedition to the +Western Paradise. The dragon was handed over to Kuan Yin, who showed him the deep pool in which he was to dwell while awaiting +the arrival of the priest. It was this dragon who had devoured Hsüan Chuang’s horse, and Kuan Yin now bade him change himself +into a horse of the same colour to carry the priest to his destination. He had the honour of bearing on his back the sacred +books that Buddha gave to T’ai Tsung’s deputy, and the first Buddhist temple built at the capital bore the name of Pai-ma +Miao, ‘Temple of the White Horse.’ + +</p><a id="d0e5345"></a><h2>Perils by the Way</h2> +<p id="d0e5348">It is natural to expect that numberless exciting adventures should befall such an interesting quartette, and indeed the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, which contains a hundred chapters, is full of them. The pilgrims encountered eighty difficulties on the journey out and +one on the journey home. The following examples are characteristic of the rest. + +</p><a id="d0e5353"></a><h2>The Grove of Cypress-trees</h2> +<p id="d0e5356">The travellers were making their way westward through shining waters and over green hills, where they found endless luxuriance +of vegetation and flowers of all colours in profusion. But the way was long and lonely, and as darkness came on without any +sign of habitation the Priest said: “Where shall we find a resting-place for the night?” The Monkey replied: “My Master, he +who has left home and become a priest must dine on the wind and lodge on the water, lie down under the moon <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5358"></a>Page 342</span>and sleep in the forest; everywhere is his home; why then ask where shall we rest?” But Pa-chieh, who was the bearer of the +pilgrim’s baggage, was not satisfied with this reply, and tried to get his load transferred to the horse, but was silenced +when told that the latter’s sole duty was to carry the Master. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5360">However, the Monkey gave Pai Ma a blow with his rod, causing him to start forward at a great pace, and in a few minutes from +the brow of a hill Hsüan Chuang espied in the distance a grove of cypress-trees, beneath the shade of which was a large enclosure. +This seemed a suitable place to pass the night, so they made toward it, and as they approached observed in the enclosure a +spacious and luxurious establishment. There being no indications that the place was then inhabited, the Monkey made his way +inside. + +</p><a id="d0e5362"></a><h2>A Proposal of Marriage</h2> +<p id="d0e5365">He was met by a lady of charming appearance, who came out of an inner room, and said: “Who is this that ventures to intrude +upon a widow’s household?” The situation was embarrassing, but the lady proved to be most affable, welcomed them all very +heartily, told them how she became a widow and had been left in possession of riches in abundance, and that she had three +daughters, Truth, Love, and Pity by name. She then proceeded to make a proposal of marriage, not only on behalf of herself, +but of her three daughters as well. They were four men, and here were four women; she had mountain lands for fruit-trees, +dry lands for grain, flooded fields for rice—more than five thousand acres of each; horses, oxen, sheep, pigs innumerable; +sixty or seventy farmsteads; granaries choked with grain; storehouses full <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5367"></a>Page 343</span>of silks and satins; gold and silver enough to last several lifetimes however extravagantly they lived. Why should the four +travellers not finish their journey there, and be happy ever afterward? The temptation was great, especially as the three +daughters were ladies of surpassing beauty as well as adepts at needlework and embroidery, well read, and able to sing sweetly. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e5369">But Hsüan Chuang sat as if listening to frogs after rain, unmoved except by anger that she should attempt to divert him from +his heavenly purpose, and in the end the lady retired in a rage, slamming the door behind her. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5371">The covetous Pa-chieh, however, expressed himself in favour of accepting the widow’s terms. Finding it impossible to do so +openly, he stole round to the back and secured a private interview. His personal appearance was against him, but the widow +was not altogether uncompliant. She not only entertained the travellers, but agreed to Pa-chieh retiring within the household +in the character of a son-in-law, the other three remaining as guests in the guest-rooms. + +</p><a id="d0e5373"></a><h2>Blind Man’s Buff</h2> +<p id="d0e5376">But a new problem now arose. If Pa-chieh were wedded to one of the three daughters, the others would feel aggrieved. So the +widow proposed to blindfold him with a handkerchief, and marry him to whichever he succeeded in catching. But, with the bandage +tied over his eyes, Pa-chieh only found himself groping in darkness. “The tinkling sound of female trinkets was all around +him, the odour of musk was in his nostrils; like fairy forms they fluttered about him, but he could no more grasp one than +he could a shadow. One way <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5378"></a>Page 344</span>and another he ran till he was too giddy to stand, and could only stumble helplessly about.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5380">The prospective mother-in-law then unloosed the bandage, and informed Pa-chieh that it was not her daughters’ ‘slipperiness,’ +as he had called it, which prevented their capture, but the extreme modesty of each in being generous enough to forgo her +claims in favour of one of her sisters. Pa-chieh thereupon became very importunate, urging his suit for any one of the daughters +or for the mother herself or for all three or all four. This was beyond all conscience, but the widow was equal to the emergency, +and suggested another solution. Each of her daughters wore a waistcoat embroidered in jewels and gold. Pa-chieh was to try +these on in turn, and to marry the owner of the one which fitted him. Pa-chieh put one on, but as he was tying the cord round +his waist it transformed itself into strong coils of rope which bound him tightly in every limb. He rolled about in excruciating +agony, and as he did so the curtain of enchantment fell and the beauties and the palace disappeared. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5382">Next morning the rest of the party on waking up also found that all had changed, and saw that they had been sleeping on the +ground in the cypress-grove. On making search they found Pa-chieh bound fast to a tree. They cut him down, to pursue the journey +a sadder and wiser Pig, and the butt of many a quip from his fellow-travellers. + +</p><a id="d0e5384"></a><h2>The Lotus Cave</h2> +<p id="d0e5387">When the party left the Elephant Country, seeing a mountain ahead, the Master warned his disciples to be careful. Sun said: +“Master, say not so; remember the text of the Sacred Book, ‘So long as the heart is right <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5389"></a>Page 345</span>there is nothing to fear.’” After this Sun kept a close watch on Pa-chieh, who, while professing to be on guard, slept most +of the time. When they arrived at Ping-ting Shan they were approached by a woodcutter, who warned them that in the mountain, +which extended for 600 <i>li</i> (200 miles), there was a Lotus Cave, inhabited by a band of demons under two chiefs, who were lying in wait to devour the +travellers. The woodcutter then disappeared. Accordingly, Pa-chieh was ordered to keep watch. But, seeing some hay, he lay +down and went to sleep, and the mountain demons carried him away to the Lotus Cave. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5394">On seeing Pa-chieh, the second chief said: “He is no good; you must go in search of the Master and the Monkey.” All this time +the Monkey, to protect his Master, was walking ahead of the horse, swinging his club up and down and to right and left. The +Demon-king saw him from the top of the mountain and said to himself: “This Monkey is famous for his magic, but I will prove +that he is no match for me; I will yet feast on his Master.” So, descending the mountain, he transformed himself into a lame +beggar and waited by the roadside. The Master, out of pity, persuaded the Monkey to carry him. While on the Monkey’s back +the Demon, by magic skill, threw Mount Mêru on to Sun’s head, but the Monkey warded it off with his left shoulder, and walked +on. Then the Demon threw Mount Ô-mei on to Sun’s head, and this he warded off with his right shoulder, and walked on, much +to the Demon’s surprise. Lastly the Demon caused T’ai Shan to fall on to his head. This at last stunned the Monkey. Sha Ho-shang +now defended the Master with his staff, which was, however, no match for the Demon’s starry sword. The Demon <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5396"></a>Page 346</span>seized the Master and carried him under one arm and Sha Ho-shang under the other to the Lotus Cave. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5398">The two Demons then planned to take their two most precious things, a yellow gourd and a jade vase, and try to bottle the +Monkey. They arranged to carry them upside down and call out the Monkey’s name. If he replied, then he would be inside, and +they could seal him up, using the seal of the great Ancient of Days, the dweller in the mansion of T’ai Sui.<a id="d0e5400src" href="#d0e5400" class="noteref">3</a> + +</p><a id="d0e5406"></a><h2>The Monkey under the Mountain</h2> +<p id="d0e5409">When the Monkey found that he was being crushed under the mountain he was greatly distressed about his Master, and cried out: +“Oh, Master, you delivered me from under the mountain before, and trained me in religion; how is it that you have brought +me to this pass? If you must die, why should Sha Ho-shang and Pa-chieh and the Dragon-horse also suffer?” Then his tears poured +down like rain. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5411">The spirits of the mountain were astonished at hearing these words. The guardian angels of the Five Religions asked: “Whose +is this mountain, and who is crushed beneath it?” The local gods replied: “The mountain is ours, but who is under it we do +not know.” “If you do not know,” the angels replied, “we will tell you. It is the Great Holy One, the Equal of Heaven, who +rebelled there five hundred years ago. He is now converted, and is the disciple of the Chinese ambassador. How dare you lend +your mountain to the Demon for such a purpose?” The guardian angels and local gods then recited some prayers, and the mountain +was removed. The Monkey sprang up, brandishing his spear, and the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5413"></a>Page 347</span>spirits at once apologized, saying that they were under enforced service to the Demons. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5415">While they were speaking Sun saw a light approaching, and asked what it was. The spirits replied: “This light comes from the +Demons’ magic treasures. We fear they are bringing them to catch you.” Sun then said: “Now we shall have some sport. Who is +the Demon-chief’s associate?” “He is a Taoist,” they replied, “who is always occupied in preparing chemicals.” The Monkey +said: “Leave me, and I will catch them myself.” He then transformed himself into a duplicate of the Taoist. + +</p><a id="d0e5417"></a><h2>The Magic Gourd</h2> +<p id="d0e5420">Sun went to meet the Demons, and in conversation learnt from them that they were on their way to catch the famous Monkey, +and that the magic gourd and vase were for that purpose. They showed these treasures to him, and explained that the gourd, +though small, could hold a thousand people. “That is nothing,” replied Sun. “I have a gourd which can contain all the heavens.” +At this they marvelled greatly, and made a bargain with him, according to which he was to give them his gourd, after it had +been tested as to its capacity to contain the heavens, in exchange for their precious gourd and vase. Going up to Heaven, +the Monkey obtained permission to extinguish the light of the sun, moon, and stars for one hour. At noon the next day there +was complete darkness, and the Demons believed Sun when he stated that he had put the whole heavens into his gourd so that +there could be no light. They then handed over to the Monkey their magic gourd and vase, and in exchange he gave them his +false gourd. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5422"></a>Page 348</span></p><a id="d0e5423"></a><h2>The Magic Rope</h2> +<p id="d0e5426">On discovering that they had been deceived, the Demons made complaint to their chiefs, who informed them that Sun, by pretending +to be one of the Immortals, had outwitted them. They had now lost two out of their five magic treasures. There remained three, +the magic sword, the magic palm fan, and the magic rope. “Go,” said they, “and invite our dear grandmother to come and dine +on human flesh.” Personating one of the Demons, Sun himself went on this errand. He told the old lady that he wanted her to +bring with her the magic rope, with which to catch Sun. She was delighted, and set out in her chair carried by two fairies. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e5428">When they had gone some few <i>li</i>, Sun killed the ladies, and then saw that they were foxes. He took the magic rope, and thus had three of the magic treasures. +Having changed the dead so that they looked like living creatures, he returned to the Lotus Cave. Many small demons came running +up, saying that the old lady had been slain. The Demon-king, alarmed, proposed to release the whole party. But his younger +brother said: “No, let me fight Sun. If I win, we can eat them; if I fail, we can let them go.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5433">After thirty bouts Sun lost the magic rope, and the Demon lassoed him with it and carried him to the cave, and took back the +magic gourd and vase. Sun now transformed himself into two false demons. One he placed instead of himself in the lasso bound +to a pillar, and then went and reported to the second Demon-chief that Sun was struggling hard, and that he should be bound +with a stronger rope lest he make his escape. Thus, by this strategy, Sun obtained possession of the magic rope again. By +a similar trick he also got back the magic gourd and vase. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5435"></a>Page 349</span></p><a id="d0e5436"></a><h2>The Master Rescued</h2> +<p id="d0e5439">Sun and the Demons now began to wrangle about the respective merits of their gourds, which, each assured the other, could +imprison men and make them obey their wishes. Finally, Sun succeeded in putting one of the Demons into his gourd. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5441">There ensued another fight concerning the magic sword and palm fan, during which the fan was burnt to ashes. After more encounters +Sun succeeded in bottling the second Demon in the magic vase, and sealed him up with the seal of the Ancient of Days. Then +the magic sword was delivered, and the Demons submitted. Sun returned to the cave, fetched his Master out, swept the cave +clean of all evil spirits, and they then started again on their westward journey. On the road they met a blind man, who addressed +them saying: “Whither away, Buddhist Priest? I am the Ancient of Days. Give me back my magic treasures. In the gourd I keep +the pills of immortality. In the vase I keep the water of life. The sword I use to subdue demons. With the fan I stir up enthusiasm. +With the cord I bind bundles. One of these two Demons had charge of the gold crucible. They stole my magic treasures and fled +to the mundane sphere of mortals. You, having captured them, are deserving of great reward.” But Sun replied: “You should +be severely punished for allowing your servants to do this evil in the world.” The Ancient of Days replied: “No, without these +trials your Master and his disciples could never attain to perfection.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5443">Sun understood and said: “Since you have come in person for the magic treasures, I return them to you.” After receiving them, +the Ancient of Days returned to his T’ai Sui mansion in the skies. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5445"></a>Page 350</span></p><a id="d0e5446"></a><h2>The Red Child Demon</h2> +<p id="d0e5449">By the autumn the travellers arrived at a great mountain. They saw on the road a red cloud which the Monkey thought must be +a demon. It was in fact a demon child who, in order to entrap the Master, had had himself bound and tied to the branch of +a tree. The child repeatedly cried out to the passers-by to deliver him. Sun suspected that it was a trick; but the Master +could no longer endure the pitiful wails; he ordered his disciples to loose the child, and the Monkey to carry him. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5451">As they proceeded on their way the Demon caused a strong whirlwind to spring up, and during this he carried off the Master. +Sun discovered that the Demon was an old friend of his, who, centuries before, had pledged himself to eternal friendship. +So he consoled his comrades by saying that he felt sure no harm would come to the Master. + +</p><a id="d0e5453"></a><h2>A Prospective Feast</h2> +<p id="d0e5456">Soon Sun and his companions reached a mountain covered with pine-forests. Here they found the Demon in his cave, intent upon +feasting on the Priest. The Demon refused to recognize his ancient friendship with Sun, so the two came to blows. The Demon +set fire to everything, so that the Monkey might be blinded by the smoke. Thus he was unable to find his Master. In despair +he said: “I must get the help of some one more skilful than myself.” Pa-chieh was sent to fetch Kuan Yin. The Demon then seized +a magic bag, transformed himself into the shape of Kuan Yin, and invited Pa-chieh to enter the cave. The simpleton fell into +the trap and was seized and placed in the bag. Then the Demon appeared in his true form, and said: “I am <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5458"></a>Page 351</span>the beggar child, and mean to cook you for my dinner. A fine man to protect his Master you are!” The Demon then summoned six +of his most doughty generals and ordered them to accompany him to fetch his father, King Ox-head, to dine off the pilgrim. +When they had gone Sun opened the bag, released Pa-chieh, and both followed the six generals. + +</p><a id="d0e5460"></a><h2>The Generals Tricked</h2> +<p id="d0e5463">Sun thought that as the Demon had played a trick on Pa-chieh, he would play one on his generals. So he hurried on in front +of them, and changed himself into the form of King Ox-head. The Demon and his generals were invited into his presence, and +Red Child said: “If anyone eats of the pilgrim’s flesh, his life will be prolonged indefinitely. Now he is caught and I invite +you to feast on him.” Sun, personifying the father, said: “No, I cannot come. I am fasting to-day. Moreover, Sun has charge +of the pilgrim, and if any harm befall him it will be the worse for you, for he has seventy-two magic arts. He can make himself +so big that your cave cannot contain him, and he can make himself as small as a fly, a mosquito, a bee, or a butterfly.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5465">Sun then went to Kuan Yin and appealed for help. She gave him a bottle, but he found he could not move it. “No,” said Kuan +Yin, “for all the forces of the ocean are stored in it.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5467">Kuan Yin lifted it with ease, and said: “This dew water is different from dragon water, and can extinguish the fire of passion. +I will send a fairy with you on your boat. You need no sails. The fairy needs only to blow a little, and the boat moves along +without any effort.” Finally, the Red Child, having been overcome, repented and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5469"></a>Page 352</span>begged to be received as a disciple. Kuan Yin received him and blessed him, giving him the name of Steward. + +</p><a id="d0e5471"></a><h2>The Demons of Blackwater River</h2> +<p id="d0e5474">One day the Master suddenly exclaimed: “What is that noise?” Sun replied: “You are afraid; you have forgotten the Heart Prayer, +according to which we are to be indifferent to all the calls of the six senses—the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. These +are the Six Thieves. If you cannot suppress them, how do you expect to see the Great Lord?” The Master thought a while and +then said: “O disciple, when shall we see the Incarnate Model (Ju Lai) face to face?” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5476">Pa-chieh said: “If we are to meet such demons as these, it will take us a thousand years to get to the West.” But Sha Ho-shang +rejoined: “Both you and I are stupid; if we persevere and travel on, shoulder to shoulder, we shall reach there at last.” +While thus talking, they saw before them a dark river in flood, which the horse could not cross. Seeing a small boat, the +Master said: “Let us engage that boat to take us across.” While crossing the river in it, they discovered that it was a boat +sent by the Demon of Blackwater River to entrap them in midstream, and the Master would have been slain had not Sun and the +Western Dragon come to the rescue. + +</p> +<div id="d0e5478" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p352.jpg" alt="The Demons of Blackwater River Carry Away the Master"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Demons of Blackwater River Carry Away the Master</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e5482"></a><h2>The Slow-carts Country</h2> +<p id="d0e5485">Having crossed the Blackwater River, they journeyed westward, facing wind and snow. Suddenly they heard a great shout as of +ten thousand voices. The Master was alarmed, but Sun laughingly went to investigate. Sitting on a cloud, he rose in the air, +and saw a city, outside of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5487"></a>Page 353</span>which there were thousands of priests and carts laden with bricks and all kinds of building materials. This was the city where +Taoists were respected, and Buddhists were not wanted. The Monkey, who appeared among the people as a Taoist, was informed +that the country was called the Ch’ê Ch’ih, ‘Slow-carts Country,’ and for twenty years had been ruled by three Taoists who +could procure rain during times of drought. Their names were Tiger, Deer, and Sheep. They could also command the wind, and +change stones into gold. The Monkey said to the two leading Taoists: “I wonder if I shall be so fortunate as to see your Emperor?” +They replied: “We will see to that when we have attended to our business.” The Monkey inquired what business the priests could +have. “In former times,” they said, “when our King ordered the Buddhists to pray for rain, their prayers were not answered. +Then the Taoists prayed, and copious showers fell. Since then all the Buddhist priests have been our slaves, and have to carry +the building materials, as you see. We must assign them their work, and then will come to you.” Sun replied: “Never mind; +I am in search of an uncle of mine, from whom I have not heard for many years. Perhaps he is here among your slaves.” They +said: “You may see if you can find him.” + +</p><a id="d0e5489"></a><h2>Restraints on Freedom</h2> +<p id="d0e5492">Sun went to look for his uncle. Hearing this, many Buddhist priests surrounded him, hoping to be recognized as his lost relative. +After a while he smiled. They asked him the reason. He said: “Why do you make no progress? Life is not meant for idleness.” +They said: “We cannot do anything. We are terribly oppressed.” <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5494"></a>Page 354</span>“What power have your masters?” “By using their magic they can call up wind or rain.” “That is a small matter,” said Sun. +“What else can they do?” “They can make the pills of immortality, and change stone into gold.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5496">Sun said: “These are also small matters; many can do the same. How did these Taoists deceive your King?” “The King attends +their prayers night and day, expecting thereby to attain to immortality.” “Why do you not leave the place?” “It is impossible, +for the King has ordered pictures of us to be hung up everywhere. In all the numerous prefectures, magistracies, and market-places +in Slow-carts Country are pictures of the Buddhist priests, and any official who catches a runaway priest is promoted three +degrees, while every non-official receives fifty taels. The proclamation is signed by the King. So you see we are helpless.” +Sun then said: “You might as well die and end it all.” + +</p> +<div id="d0e5498" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p354.jpg" alt="Buddhists As Slaves in Slow-cart Country"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Buddhists As Slaves in Slow-cart Country</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e5502"></a><h2>Immortal for Suffering</h2> +<p id="d0e5505">They replied: “A great number have died. At one time we numbered more than two thousand. But through deaths and suicides there +now remain only about five hundred. And we who remain cannot die. Ropes cannot strangle us, swords cannot cut us; if we plunge +into the river we cannot sink; poison does not kill us.” Sun said: “Then you are fortunate, for you are all Immortals.” “Alas!” +said they, “we are immortal only for suffering. We get poor food. We have only sand to sleep on. But in the night hours spirits +appear to us and tell us not to kill ourselves, for an Arhat will come from the East to deliver us. With him there <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5507"></a>Page 355</span>is a disciple, the Great Holy One, the Equal of Heaven, most powerful and tender-hearted. He will put an end to these Taoists +and have pity on us Buddhists.” + +</p><a id="d0e5509"></a><h2>The Saviour of the Buddhists</h2> +<p id="d0e5512">Inwardly Sun was glad that his fame had gone abroad. Returning to the city, he met the two chief Taoists. They asked him if +he had found his relative. “Yes,” he replied, “they are all my relatives!” They smiled and said: “How is it that you have +so many relatives?” Sun said: “One hundred are my father’s relatives, one hundred my mother’s relatives, and the remainder +my adopted relatives. If you will let all these priests depart with me, then I will enter the city with you; otherwise I will +not enter.” “You must be mad to speak to us in this way. The priests were given us by the King. If you had asked for a few +only, we might have consented, but your request is altogether unreasonable.” Sun then asked them three times if they would +liberate the priests. When they finally refused, he grew very angry, took his magic spear from his ear and brandished it in +the air, when all their heads fell off and rolled on the ground. + +</p><a id="d0e5514"></a><h2>Anger of the Buddhist Priests</h2> +<p id="d0e5517">The Buddhist priests saw from a distance what had taken place, and shouted: “Murder, murder! The Taoist superintendents are +being killed.” They surrounded Sun, saying: “These priests are our masters; they go to the temple without visiting the King, +and return home without taking leave of the King. The King is the high priest. Why have you killed his disciples? The Taoist +chief priest will certainly accuse <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5519"></a>Page 356</span>us Buddhist priests of the murders. What are we to do? If we go into the city with you they will make you pay for this with +your life.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5521">Sun laughed. “My friends,” he said, “do not trouble yourselves over this matter. I am not the Master of the Clouds, but the +Great Holy One, a disciple of the Holy Master from China, going to the Western Paradise to fetch the sacred books, and have +come to save you.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5523">“No, no,” said they, “this cannot be, for we know him.” Sun replied: “Having never met him, how can you know him?” They replied: +“We have seen him in our dreams. The spirit of the planet Venus has described him to us and warned us not to make a mistake.” +“What description did he give?” asked Sun. They replied: “He has a hard head, bright eyes, a round, hairy face without cheeks, +sharp teeth, prominent mouth, a hot temper, and is uglier than the Thunder-god. He has a rod of iron, caused a disturbance +in Heaven itself, but later repented, and is coming with the Buddhist pilgrim in order to save mankind from calamities and +misery.” With mixed feelings Sun replied: “My friends, no doubt you are right in saying I am not Sun. I am only his disciple, +who has come to learn how to carry out his plans. But,” he added, pointing with his hand, “is not that Sun coming yonder?” +They all looked in the direction in which he had pointed. + +</p><a id="d0e5525"></a><h2>Sun bestows Talismans</h2> +<p id="d0e5528">Sun quickly changed himself from a Taoist priest, and appeared in his natural form. At this they all fell down and worshipped +him, asking his forgiveness because their mortal eyes could not recognize him. They then begged <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5530"></a>Page 357</span>him to enter the city and compel the demons to repent. Sun told them to follow him. He then went with them to a sandy place, +emptied two carts and smashed them into splinters, and threw all the bricks, tiles, and timber into a heap, calling upon all +the priests to disperse. “Tomorrow,” he said, “I am going to see the King, and will destroy the Taoists!” Then they said: +“Sir, we dare not go any farther, lest they attempt to seize you and cause trouble.” “Have no fear,” he replied; “but if you +think so I will give you a charm to protect you.” He pulled out some hairs, and gave one to each to hold firmly on the third +finger. “If anyone tries to seize you,” he said, “keep tight hold of it, call out ‘Great Holy One, the Equal of Heaven,’ and +I will at once come to your rescue, even though I be ten thousand miles away.” Some of them tried the charm, and, sure enough, +there he was before them like the God of Thunder. In his hand he held a rod of iron, and he could keep ten thousand men and +horses at bay. + +</p><a id="d0e5532"></a><h2>The Magic Circle</h2> +<p id="d0e5535">It was now winter. The pilgrims were crossing a high mountain by a narrow pass, and the Master was afraid of wild beasts. +The three disciples bade him fear not, as they were united, and were all good men seeking truth. Being cold and hungry they +rejoiced to see a fine building ahead of them, but Sun said: “It is another devil’s trap. I will make a ring round you. Inside +that you will be safe. Do not wander outside it. I will go and look for food.” Sun returned with his bowl full of rice, but +found that his companions had got tired of waiting, and had disappeared. They had gone forward to the fine building, which +Pa-chieh entered. Not a <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5537"></a>Page 358</span>soul was to be seen, but on going upstairs he was terrified to see a human skeleton of immense size lying on the floor. At +this moment the Demon of the house descended on them, bound the Master, and said: “We have been told that if we eat of your +flesh our white hair will become black again, and our lost teeth grow anew.” So he ordered the small devils who accompanied +him to bind the others. This they did, and thrust the pilgrims into a cave, and then lay in wait for Sun. It was not long +before the Monkey came up, when a great fight ensued. In the end, having failed, notwithstanding the exercise of numerous +magic arts, to release his companions, Sun betook himself to the Spiritual Mountain and besought Ju Lai’s aid. Eighteen <i>lohan</i> were sent to help him against the Demon. When Sun renewed the attack, the <i>lohan</i> threw diamond dust into the air, which blinded the Demon and also half buried him. But, by skilful use of his magic coil, +he gathered up all the diamond dust and carried it back to his cave. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5545">The <i>lohan</i> then advised Sun to seek the aid of the Ancient of Days. Accordingly, Sun ascended to the thirty-third Heaven, where was +the palace of the god. He there discovered that the Demon was none other than one of the god’s ox-spirits who had stolen the +magic coil. It was, in fact, the same coil with which Sun himself had at last been subdued when he had rebelled against Heaven. + + +</p><a id="d0e5550"></a><h2>Help from Ju Lai</h2> +<p id="d0e5553">The Ancient of Days mounted a cloud and went with Sun to the cave. When the Demon saw who had come he was terrified. The Ancient +of Days then recited an incantation, and the Demon surrendered the magic coil <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5555"></a>Page 359</span>to him. On the recitation of a second incantation all his strength left him, and he appeared as a bull, and was led away by +a ring in his nose. The Master and his disciples were then set at liberty, and proceeded on their journey. + +</p><a id="d0e5557"></a><h2>The Fire-quenching Fan</h2> +<p id="d0e5560">In the autumn the pilgrims found themselves in the Ssŭ Ha Li Country, where everything was red—red walls, red tiles, red varnish +on doors and furniture. Sixty <i>li</i> from this place was the Flaming Mountain, which lay on their road westward. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5565">An old man they met told them that it was possible to cross the Flaming Mountain only if they had the Magic Iron Fan, which, +waved once, quenched fire, waved a second time produced strong wind, and waved a third time produced rain. This magic fan +was kept by the Iron-fan Princess in a cave on Ts’ui-yün Shan, 1500 <i>li</i> distant. On hearing this, Sun mounted a cloud, and in an instant was transported to the cave. The Iron-fan Princess was one +of the <i>lochas</i> (wives and daughters of demons), and the mother of the Red Child Demon, who had become a disciple of Kuan Yin. On seeing +Sun she was very angry, and determined to be revenged for the outwitting of her husband, King Ox-head, and for the carrying +away of her son. The Monkey said: “If you lend me the Iron Fan I will bring your son to see you.” For answer she struck him +with a sword. They then fell to fighting, the contest lasting a long while, until at length, feeling her strength failing, +the Princess took out the Iron Fan and waved it. The wind it raised blew Sun to a distance of 84,000 <i>li</i>, and whirled him about like a leaf in a whirlwind. But he soon returned, reinforced by further magic power <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5576"></a>Page 360</span>lent him by the Buddhist saints. The Princess, however, deceived him by giving him a fan which increased the flames of the +mountain instead of quenching them. Sun and his friends had to retreat more than 20 <i>li</i>, or they would have been burned. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5581">The local mountain-gods now appeared, bringing refreshments, and urging the pilgrims to get the Fan so as to enable them to +proceed on their journey. Sun pointed to his fan and said: “Is not this the Fan?” They smiled and said: “No, this is a false +one which the Princess has given you.” They added: “Originally there was no Flaming Mountain, but when you upset the furnace +in Heaven five hundred years ago the fire fell here, and has been burning ever since. For not having taken more care in Heaven, +we have been set to guard it. The Demon-king Ox-head, though he married the <i>locha</i> Princess, deserted her some two years ago for the only daughter of a fox-king. They live at Chi-lei Shan, some three thousand +<i>li</i> from here. If you can get the true Iron Fan through his help you will be able to extinguish the flames, take your Master +to the West, save the lives of many people round here, and enable us to return to Heaven once more.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5589">Sun at once mounted a cloud and was soon at Chi-lei Shan. There he met the Fox-princess, whom he upbraided and pursued back +to her cave. The Ox-demon came out and became very angry with Sun for having frightened her. Sun asked him to return with +him to the <i>locha</i> Princess and persuade her to give him the Magic Fan, This he refused to do. They then fought three battles, in all of which +Sun was successful. He changed into the Ox-demon’s shape and visited the <i>locha</i> Princess. She, thinking he was the Ox-demon, gladly received him, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5597"></a>Page 361</span>and finally gave him the Magic Fan; he then set out to return to his Master. + +</p><a id="d0e5599"></a><h2>The Power of the Magic Fan</h2> +<p id="d0e5602">The Ox-demon, following after Sun, saw him walking along, joyfully carrying the Magic Fan on his shoulder. Now Sun had forgotten +to ask how to make it small, like an apricot leaf, as it was at first. The Ox-demon changed himself into the form of Pa-chieh, +and going up to Sun he said: “Brother Sun, I am glad to see you back; I hope you have succeeded.” “Yes,” replied Sun, and +described his fights, and how he had tricked the Ox-demon’s wife into giving him the Fan. The seeming Pa-chieh said: “You +must be very tired after all your efforts; let me carry the Magic Fan for you.” As soon as he had got possession of it he +appeared in his true form, and tried to use it to blow Sun away 84,000 <i>li</i>, for he did not know that the Great Holy One had swallowed a wind-resisting pill, and was therefore immovable. He then put +the Magic Fan in his mouth and fought with his two swords. He was a match for Sun in all the magic arts, but through the aid +of Pa-chieh and the help of the local gods sent by the Master the Monkey was able to prevail against him. The Ox-demon changed +himself many times into a number of birds, but for each of these Sun changed himself into a swifter and stronger one. The +Ox-demon then changed himself into many beasts, such as tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, and an ox 10,000 feet long. He +then said to Sun, with a laugh: “What can you do to me now?” Sun seized his rod of iron, and cried: “Grow!” He immediately +became 100,000 feet high, with eyes like the sun and moon. They fought till the heavens and the earth shook with their onslaughts. + +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5607"></a>Page 362</span></p><a id="d0e5608"></a><h2>Defeat of the Ox-demon</h2> +<p id="d0e5611">The Ox-demon being of so fierce and terrible a nature, both Buddha in Heaven and the Taoist Celestial Ruler sent down whole +legions of celebrated warriors to help the Master’s servant. The Ox-demon tried to escape in every direction, one after the +other, but his efforts were in vain. Finally defeated, he was made to promise for himself and his wife to give up their evil +ways and to follow the holy precepts of the Buddhist doctrine. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5613">The Magic Fan was given to Sun, who at once proceeded to test its powers. When he waved it once the fires on Flaming Mountain +died out. When he waved it a second time a gentle breeze sprang up. When he waved it a third time refreshing rain fell everywhere, +and the pilgrims proceeded on their way in comfort. + +</p><a id="d0e5615"></a><h2>The Lovely Women</h2> +<p id="d0e5618">Having travelled over many mountains, the travellers came to a village. The Master said: “You, my disciples, are always very +kind, taking round the begging-bowl and getting food for me. To-day I will take the begging-bowl myself.” But Sun said: “That +is not right; you must let us, your disciples, do this for you.” But the Master insisted. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5620">When he reached the village, there was not a man to be seen, but only some lovely women. He did not think that it was right +for him to speak to women. On the other hand, if he did not procure anything for their meal, his disciples would make fun +of him. So, after long hesitation, he went forward and begged food of them. They invited him to their cave home, and, having +learnt who he was, ordered food for him, but it was all human flesh. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5622"></a>Page 363</span>The Master informed them that he was a vegetarian, and rose to take his departure, but instead of letting him go they surrounded +and bound him, thinking that he would be a fine meal for them next day. + +</p><a id="d0e5624"></a><h2>An Awkward Predicament</h2> +<p id="d0e5627">Then seven of the women went out to bathe in a pool. There Sun, in search of his Master, found them and would have killed +them, only he thought it was not right to kill women. So he changed himself into an eagle and carried away their clothes to +his nest. This so frightened the women that they crouched in the pool and did not dare to come out. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5629">But Pa-chieh, also in search of his Master, found the women bathing. He changed himself into a fish, which the women tried +to catch, chasing him hither and thither round the pool. After a while Pa-chieh leapt out of the pool and, appearing in his +true form, threatened the women for having bound his Master. In their fright the women fled to a pavilion, round which they +spun spiders’ threads so thickly that Pa-chieh became entangled and fell. They then escaped to their cave and put on some +clothes. + +</p><a id="d0e5631"></a><h2>How the Master was Rescued</h2> +<p id="d0e5634">When Pa-chieh at length had disentangled himself from the webs, he saw Sun and Sha Ho-shang approaching. Having learnt what +had happened, they feared the women might do some injury to the Master, so they ran to the cave to rescue him. On the way +they were beset by the seven dwarf sons of the seven women, who transformed themselves into a swarm of dragon-flies, bees, +and other insects. But Sun pulled out some hairs and, changing them into <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5636"></a>Page 364</span>seven different swarms of flying insects, destroyed the hostile swarm, and the ground was covered a foot deep with the dead +bodies. On reaching the cave, the pilgrims found it had been deserted by the women. They released the Master, and made him +promise never to beg for food again. Having given the promise, he mounted his horse, and they proceeded on their journey. + + +</p><a id="d0e5638"></a><h2>The Spiders and the Extinguisher</h2> +<p id="d0e5641">When they had gone a short distance they perceived a great building of fine architecture ahead of them. It proved to be a +Taoist temple. Sha Ho-shang said: “Let us enter, for Buddhism and Taoism teach the same things. They differ only in their +vestments.” The Taoist abbot received them with civility and ordered five cups of tea. Now he was in league with the seven +women, and when the servant had made the tea they put poison in each cup. Sun, however, suspected a conspiracy, and did not +drink his tea. Seeing that the rest had been poisoned, he went and attacked the sisters, who transformed themselves into huge +spiders. They were able to spin ropes instead of webs with which to bind their enemies. But Sun attacked and killed them all. + + +</p> +<div id="d0e5643" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p364.jpg" alt="Sun Steals Clothing for His Master"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Sun Steals Clothing for His Master</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e5647">The Taoist abbot then showed himself in his true form, a demon with a thousand eyes. He joined battle with Sun, and a terrible +contest ensued, the result being that the Demon succeeded in putting an extinguisher on his enemy. This was a new trick which +Sun did not understand. However, after trying in vain to break out through the top and sides, he began to bore downward, and, +finding that the extinguisher was not deep in the ground, he succeeded in effecting his escape from below. But he feared that +his Master and the others would die of the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5649"></a>Page 365</span>poison. At this juncture, while he was suffering mental tortures on their behalf, a Bodhisattva, Lady Pi Lan, came to his +rescue. By the aid of her magic he broke the extinguisher, gave his Master and fellow-disciples pills to counteract the poison, +and so rescued them. + +</p><a id="d0e5651"></a><h2>Shaving a Whole City</h2> +<p id="d0e5654">The summer had now arrived. On the road the pilgrims met an old lady and a little boy. The old lady said: “You are priests; +do not go forward, for you are about to pass into the country known as the Country that exterminates Religion. The inhabitants +have vowed to kill ten thousand priests. They have already slain that number all but four noted ones whose arrival they expect; +then their number will be complete.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5656">This old lady was Kuan Yin, with Shên Tsai (Steward), who had come to give them warning. Sun thereupon changed himself into +a candle-moth and flew into the city to examine for himself. He entered an inn, and heard the innkeeper warning his guests +to look after their own clothes and belongings when they went to sleep. In order to travel safely through the city, Sun decided +that they should all put on turbans and clothing resembling that of the citizens. Perceiving from the innkeeper’s warning +that thieving was common, Sun stole some clothing and turbans for his Master and comrades. Then they all came to the inn at +dusk, Sun representing himself as a horse-dealer. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5658">Fearing that in their sleep their turbans would fall off, and their shaven heads be revealed, Sun arranged that they should +sleep in a cupboard, which he asked the landlady to lock. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5660">During the night robbers came and carried the cupboard <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5662"></a>Page 366</span>away, thinking to find in it silver to buy horses. A watchman saw many men carrying this cupboard, and became suspicious, +and called out the soldiers. The robbers ran away, leaving the cupboard in the open. The Master was very angry with Sun for +getting him into this danger. He feared that at daylight they would be discovered and all be executed. But Sun said: “Do not +be alarmed; I will save you yet!” He changed himself into an ant, and escaped from the cupboard. Then he plucked out some +hairs and changed them into a thousand monkeys like himself. To each he gave a razor and a charm for inducing sleep. When +the King and all the officials and their wives had succumbed to this charm, the monkeys were to shave their heads. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5664">On the morrow there was a terrible commotion throughout the city, as all the leaders and their families found themselves shaved +like Buddhists. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5666">Thus the Master was saved again. + +</p><a id="d0e5668"></a><h2>The Return to China</h2> +<p id="d0e5671">The pilgrims having overcome the predicted eighty difficulties of their outward journey, there remained only one to be overcome +on the homeward way. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5673">They were now returning upon a cloud which had been placed at their disposal, and which had been charged to bear them safely +home. But alas! the cloud broke and precipitated them to the earth by the side of a wide river which they must cross. There +were no ferry-boats or rafts to be seen, so they were glad to avail themselves of the kind offices of a turtle, who offered +to take them across on his back. But in midstream the turtle reminded Hsüan Chuang of a promise he had made him when on his +outward journey, namely, that he would intercede for him <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5675"></a>Page 367</span>before the Ruler of the West, and ask his Majesty to forgive all past offences and allow him to resume his humanity again. +The turtle asked him if he had remembered to keep his word. Hsüan Chuang replied: “I remember our conversation, but I am sorry +to say that under great pressure I quite forgot to keep my promise.” “Then,” said the turtle, “you are at liberty to dispense +with my services.” He then disappeared beneath the water, leaving the pilgrims floundering in the stream with their precious +books. They swam the river, and with great difficulty managed to save a number of volumes, which they dried in the sun. + +</p><a id="d0e5677"></a><h2>The Travellers Honoured</h2> +<p id="d0e5680">The pilgrims reached the capital of their country without further difficulty. As soon as they appeared in sight the whole +population became greatly excited, and cutting down branches of willow-trees went out to meet them. As a mark of special distinction +the Emperor sent his own horse for Hsüan Chuang to ride on, and the pilgrims were escorted with royal honours into the city, +where the Emperor and his grateful Court were waiting to receive them. Hsüan Chuang’s queer trio of converts at first caused +great amusement among the crowds who thronged to see them, but when they learned of Sun’s superhuman achievements, and his +brave defence of the Master, their amusement was changed into wondering admiration. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5682">But the greatest honours were conferred upon the travellers at a meeting of the Immortals presided over by Mi-lo Fo, the Coming +Buddha. Addressing Hsüan Chuang, the Buddha said, “In a previous existence you were one of my chief disciples. But for disobedience +and for lightly esteeming the great teaching your soul was imprisoned <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5684"></a>Page 368</span>in the Eastern Land. Now a memorial has been presented to me stating that you have obtained the True Classics of Salvation, +thus, by your faithfulness, completing your meritorious labours. You are appointed to the high office of Controller of Sacrifices +to his Supreme Majesty the Pearly Emperor.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5686">Turning to Sun, the Buddha said, “You, Sun, for creating a disturbance in the palace of Heaven, were imprisoned beneath the +Mountain of the Five Elements, until the fullness of Heaven’s calamities had descended upon you, and you had repented and +had joined the holy religion of Buddha. From that time you have endeavoured to suppress evil and cherish virtue. And on your +journey to the West you have subjugated evil spirits, ghosts, and demons. For your services you are appointed God of Victorious +Strife.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5688">For his repentance, and for his assistance to his Master, Chu Pa-chieh, the Pig Fairy, was appointed Head Altar-washer to +the Gods. This was the highest office for which he was eligible, on account of his inherent greed. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5690">Sha Ho-shang was elevated to the rank of Golden Body Perpetual Saint. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5692">Pai Ma, the white horse who had patiently carried Hsüan Chuang and his burden of books, was led by a god down the Spirit Mountain +to the banks of the Pool of Dragon-transformation. Pai Ma plunged in, when he changed at once into a four-footed dragon, with +horns, scales, claws, and wings complete. From this time he became the chief of the celestial dragon tribe. + +</p> +<div id="d0e5694" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p368.jpg" alt="The Return to China"></p> +<p class="figureHead">The Return to China</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e5698">Sun’s first thought upon receiving his promotion was to get rid of the Head-splitting Helmet. Accordingly he said to his Master, +“Now that I am, like yourself, a Buddha, I want you to relieve my head of the helmet you <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5700"></a>Page 369</span>imposed upon me during the years of my waywardness.” Hsüan Chuang replied, “If you have really become a Buddha, your helmet +should have disappeared of itself. Are you sure it is still upon your head?” Sun raised his hand, and lo! the helmet was gone. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e5702">After this the great assembly broke up, and each of the Immortals returned in peace to his own celestial abode. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5704"></a>Page 370</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5118" href="#d0e5118src" class="noteref">1</a> A record of a journey to the Western Paradise to procure the Buddhist scriptures for the Emperor of China. The work is a dramatization +of the introduction of Buddhism into China. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5152" href="#d0e5152src" class="noteref">2</a> See p. <a id="d0e5154" href="#d0e5179">329</a>. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5400" href="#d0e5400src" class="noteref">3</a> See p. <a id="d0e5402" href="#d0e3255">195</a>. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e5705"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter XV</h2> +<h1>Fox Legends</h1><a id="d0e5708"></a><h2>The Fox</h2> +<p id="d0e5711">Among the many animals worshipped by the Chinese, those at times seen emerging from coffins or graves naturally hold a prominent +place. They are supposed to be the transmigrated souls of deceased human beings. We should therefore expect such animals as +the fox, stoat, weasel, etc., to be closely associated with the worship of ghosts, spirits, and suchlike creatures, and that +they should be the subjects of, or included in, a large number of Chinese legends. This we find. Of these animals the fox +is mentioned in Chinese legendary lore perhaps more often than any other. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5713">The subject of fox-lore has been dealt with exhaustively by my respected colleague, the late Mr Thomas Watters (formerly H.B.M. +Consul-General at Canton, a man of vast learning and extreme modesty, insufficiently appreciated in his generation), in the +<i>Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society</i>, viii, 45–65, to which the reader is referred for details. Generally, the fox is a creature of ill omen, long-lived (living +to eight hundred or even a thousand years), with a peculiar virtue in every part of his body, able to produce fire by striking +the ground with his tail, cunning, cautious, sceptical, able to see into the future, to transform himself (usually into old +men, or scholars, or pretty young maidens), and fond of playing pranks and tormenting mankind. + +</p><a id="d0e5718"></a><h2>Fox Legends</h2> +<p id="d0e5721">Many interesting fox legends are to be found in a collection of stories entitled <i>Liao chai chih i</i>, by P’u Sung-ling (seventeenth century A.D.), part of which was translated <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5726"></a>Page 371</span>into English many years ago by Professor H.A. Giles and appeared in two fascinating volumes called <i>Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio</i>. These legends were related to the Chinese writer by various people as their own experiences. + +</p><a id="d0e5731"></a><h2>Friendship with Foxes</h2> +<p id="d0e5734">A certain man had an enormous stack of straw, as big as a hill, in which his servants, taking what was daily required for +use, had made quite a large hole. In this hole a fox fixed his abode, and would often show himself to the master of the house +under the form of an old man. One day the latter invited the master to walk into his abode; he at first declined, but accepted +on being pressed; and when he got inside, lo! he saw a long suite of handsome apartments. They then sat down, and exquisitely +perfumed tea and wine were brought; but the place was so gloomy that there was no difference between night and day. By and +by, the entertainment being over, the guest took his leave; and on looking back the beautiful rooms and their contents had +all disappeared. The old man himself was in the habit of going away in the evening and returning with the first streaks of +morning; and as no one was able to follow him, the master of the house asked him one day whither he went. To this he replied +that a friend invited him to take wine; and then the master begged to be allowed to accompany him, a proposal to which the +old man very reluctantly consented. However, he seized the master by the arm, and away they went as though riding on the wings +of the wind; and in about the time it takes to cook a pot of millet they reached a city and walked into a restaurant, where +there were a number of people drinking together and making a great noise. The old man led his companion to a gallery above, +from which <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5736"></a>Page 372</span>they could look down on the feasters below; and he himself went down and brought away from the tables all kinds of nice food +and wine, without appearing to be seen or noticed by any of the company. After a while a man dressed in red garments came +forward and laid upon the table some dishes of cumquats;<a id="d0e5738src" href="#d0e5738" class="noteref">1</a> the master at once requested the old man to go down and get him some of these. “Ah,” replied the latter, “that is an upright +man: I cannot approach him.” Thereupon the master said to himself, “By thus seeking the companionship of a fox, I then am +deflected from the true course. Henceforth I too will be an upright man.” No sooner had he formed this resolution than he +suddenly lost all control over his body, and fell from the gallery down among the revellers below. These gentlemen were much +astonished by his unexpected descent; and he himself, looking up, saw there was no gallery to the house, but only a large +beam upon which he had been sitting. He now detailed the whole of the circumstances, and those present made up a purse for +him to pay his travelling expenses; for he was at Yü-t’ai—a thousand <i>li</i> from home. + +</p><a id="d0e5744"></a><h2>The Marriage Lottery</h2> +<p id="d0e5747">A certain labourer, named Ma T’ien-jung, lost his wife when he was only about twenty years of age, and was too poor to take +another. One day, when out hoeing in the fields, he beheld a nice-looking young lady leave the path and come tripping across +the furrows toward him. Her face was well painted,<a id="d0e5749src" href="#d0e5749" class="noteref">2</a> and she had altogether such a <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5752"></a>Page 373</span>refined look that Ma concluded she must have lost her way, and began to make some playful remarks in consequence. “You go +along home,” cried the young lady, “and I’ll be with you by and by.” Ma doubted this rather extraordinary promise, but she +vowed and declared she would not break her word; and then Ma went off, telling her that his front door faced the north, etc. +At midnight the young lady arrived, and then Ma saw that her hands and face were covered with fine hair, which made him suspect +at once that she was a fox. She did not deny the accusation; and accordingly Ma said to her, “If you really are one of those +wonderful creatures you will be able to get me anything I want; and I should be much obliged if you would begin by giving +me some money to relieve my poverty.” The young lady said she would; and next evening, when she came again, Ma asked her where +the money was. “Dear me!” replied she, “I quite forgot it.” When she was going away Ma reminded her of what he wanted, but +on the following evening she made precisely the same excuse, promising to bring it another day. A few nights afterward Ma +asked her once more for the money, and then she drew from her sleeve two pieces of silver, each weighing about five or six +ounces. They were both of fine quality, with turned-up edges,<a id="d0e5754src" href="#d0e5754" class="noteref">3</a> and Ma was very pleased, and stored them away in a cupboard. Some months after this he happened to require some money for +use, and took out these pieces; but the person to whom he showed them said they were only pewter, and easily bit off a portion +of one of them with his teeth. Ma was much alarmed, and put the pieces away directly, taking the opportunity when evening +came of abusing the young lady roundly. “It’s all your bad luck,” retorted she. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5757"></a>Page 374</span>“Real gold would be too much for your inferior destiny.” There was an end of that; but Ma went on to say, “I always heard +that fox-girls were of surpassing beauty; how is it you are not?” “Oh,” replied the young lady, “we always adapt ourselves +to our company. Now you haven’t the luck of an ounce of silver to call your own; and what would you do, for instance, with +a beautiful princess? My beauty may not be good enough for the aristocracy; but among your big-footed, bent-backed rustics,<a id="d0e5759src" href="#d0e5759" class="noteref">4</a> why, it may safely be called ‘surpassing’!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5762">A few months passed away, and then one day the young lady came and gave Ma three ounces of silver, saying, “You have often +asked me for money, but in consequence of your bad luck I have always refrained from giving you any. Now, however, your marriage +is at hand, and I here give you the cost of a wife, which you may also regard as a parting gift from me.” Ma replied that +he was not engaged, to which the young lady answered that in a few days a go-between would visit him to arrange the affair. +“And what will she be like?” asked Ma. “Why, as your aspirations are for ‘surpassing’ beauty,” replied the young lady, “of +course she will be possessed of surpassing beauty.” “I hardly expect that,” said Ma; “at any rate, three ounces of silver +will not be enough to get a wife.” “Marriages,” explained the young lady, “are made in the moon;<a id="d0e5764src" href="#d0e5764" class="noteref">5</a> mortals have nothing to do with them.” “And why must you be going away like this?” inquired Ma. “Because,” answered she, +“for us to meet only by night is not the proper thing. I had <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5767"></a>Page 375</span>better get you another wife and have done with you.” Then when morning came she departed, giving Ma a pinch of yellow powder, +saying, “In case you are ill after we are separated, this will cure you.” Next day, sure enough, a go-between did come, and +Ma at once asked what the proposed bride was like; to which the former replied that she was very passable-looking. Four or +five ounces of silver was fixed as the marriage present, Ma making no difficulty on that score, but declaring he must have +a peep at the young lady.<a id="d0e5769src" href="#d0e5769" class="noteref">6</a> The go-between said she was a respectable girl, and would never allow herself to be seen; however, it was arranged that +they should go to the house together, and await a good opportunity. So off they went, Ma remaining outside while the go-between +went in, returning in a little while to tell him it was all right. “A relative of mine lives in the same court, and just now +I saw the young lady sitting in the hall. We have only got to pretend we are going to see my relative, and you will be able +to get a glimpse of her.” Ma consented, and they accordingly passed through the hall, where he saw the young lady sitting +down with her head bent forward while some one was scratching her back. She seemed to be all that the go-between had said; +but when they came to discuss the money it appeared that the young lady wanted only one or two ounces of silver, just to buy +herself a few clothes, etc., which Ma thought was a very small amount; so he gave the go-between a present for her trouble, +which just finished up the three ounces his fox-friend had provided. An auspicious day was chosen, and the young lady came +over to his house; when lo! she was humpbacked and pigeon-breasted, with a short neck like <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5772"></a>Page 376</span>a tortoise, and feet which were fully ten inches long. The meaning of his fox-friend’s remarks then flashed upon him. + +</p><a id="d0e5774"></a><h2>The Magnanimous Girl</h2> +<p id="d0e5777">At Chin-ling there lived a young man named Ku, who had considerable ability, but was very poor; and having an old mother, +he was very loth to leave home. So he employed himself in writing or painting<a id="d0e5779src" href="#d0e5779" class="noteref">7</a> for people, and gave his mother the proceeds, going on thus till he was twenty-five years of age without taking a wife. Opposite +to their house was another building, which had long been untenanted; and one day an old woman and a young girl came to occupy +it, but there being no gentleman with them young Ku did not make any inquiries as to who they were or whence they hailed. +Shortly afterward it chanced that just as Ku was entering the house he observed a young lady come out of his mother’s door. +She was about eighteen or nineteen, very clever and refined-looking, and altogether such a girl as one rarely sets eyes on; +and when she noticed Mr Ku she did not run away, but seemed quite self-possessed. “It was the young lady over the way; she +came to borrow my scissors and measure,” said his mother, “and she told me that there is only her mother and herself. They +don’t seem to belong to the lower classes. I asked her why she didn’t get married, to which she replied that her mother was +old. I must go and call on <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5782"></a>Page 377</span>her to-morrow, and find out how the land lies. If she doesn’t expect too much, you could take care of her mother for her.” +So next day Ku’s mother went, and found that the girl’s mother was deaf, and that they were evidently poor, apparently not +having a day’s food in the house. Ku’s mother asked what their employment was, and the old lady said they trusted for food +to her daughter’s ten fingers. She then threw out some hints about uniting the two families, to which the old lady seemed +to agree; but, on consultation with her daughter, the latter would not consent. Mrs Ku returned home and told her son, saying, +“Perhaps she thinks we are too poor. She doesn’t speak or laugh, is very nice-looking, and as pure as snow; truly no ordinary +girl.” There ended that; until one day, as Ku was sitting in his study, up came a very agreeable young fellow, who said he +was from a neighbouring village, and engaged Ku to draw a picture for him. The two youths soon struck up a firm friendship +and met constantly, and later it happened that the stranger chanced to see the young lady of over the way. “Who is that?” +said he, following her with his eyes. Ku told him, and then he said, “She is certainly pretty, but rather stern in her appearance.” +By and by Ku went in, and his mother told him the girl had come to beg a little rice, as they had had nothing to eat all day. +“She’s a good daughter,” said his mother, “and I’m very sorry for her. We must try and help them a little.” Ku thereupon shouldered +a peck of rice, and, knocking at their door, presented it with his mother’s compliments. The young lady received the rice, +but said nothing; and then she got into the habit of coming over and helping Ku’s mother with her work and household affairs, +almost as if she had been her daughter-in-law, for which Ku was very grateful to her, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5784"></a>Page 378</span>and whenever he had anything nice he always sent some of it in to her mother, though the young lady herself never once took +the trouble to thank him. So things went on until Ku’s mother got an abscess on her leg, and lay writhing in agony day and +night. Then the young lady devoted herself to the invalid, waiting on her and giving her medicine with such care and attention +that at last the sick woman cried out, “O that I could secure such a daughter-in-law as you to see this old body into its +grave!” The young lady soothed her, and replied, “Your son is a hundred times more filial than I, a poor widow’s only daughter.” +“But even a filial son makes a bad nurse,” answered the patient; “besides, I am now drawing toward the evening of my life, +when my body will be exposed to the mists and the dews, and I am vexed in spirit about our ancestral worship and the continuance +of our line.” As she was speaking Ku walked in; and his mother, weeping, said, “I am deeply indebted to this young lady; do +not forget to repay her goodness.” Ku made a low bow, but the young lady said, “Sir, when you were kind to my mother, I did +not thank you; why then thank me?” Ku thereupon became more than ever attached to her; but could never get her to depart in +the slightest degree from her cold demeanour toward himself. One day, however, he managed to squeeze her hand, upon which +she told him never to do so again; and then for some time he neither saw nor heard anything of her. She had conceived a violent +dislike to the young stranger above mentioned; and one evening, when he was sitting talking with Ku, the young lady appeared. +After a while she got angry at something he said, and drew from her robe a glittering knife about a foot long. The young man, +seeing her do this, ran out in a fright <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5786"></a>Page 379</span>and she after him, only to find that he had vanished. She then threw her dagger up into the air, and <i>whish!</i> a streak of light like a rainbow, and something came tumbling down with a flop. Ku got a light, and ran to see what it was; +and lo! there lay a white fox, head in one place and body in another. “There is your <i>friend</i>,” cried the girl; “I knew he would cause me to destroy him sooner or later.” Ku dragged it into the house, and said, “Let +us wait till to-morrow to talk it over; we shall then be more calm.” Next day the young lady arrived, and Ku inquired about +her knowledge of the black art; but she told Ku not to trouble himself about such affairs, and to keep it secret or it might +be prejudicial to his happiness. Ku then entreated her to consent to their union, to which she replied that she had already +been as it were a daughter-in-law to his mother, and there was no need to push the thing further. “Is it because I am poor?” +asked Ku. “Well, I am not rich,” answered she, “but the fact is I had rather not.” She then took her leave, and the next evening +when Ku went across to their house to try once more to persuade her the young lady had disappeared, and was never seen again. + + +</p><a id="d0e5794"></a><h2>The Boon-companion</h2> +<p id="d0e5797">Once upon a time there was a young man named Ch’ê, who was not particularly well off, but at the same time very fond of his +wine; so much so that without his three stoups of liquor every night he was quite unable to sleep, and bottles were seldom +absent from the head of his bed. One night he had woken up and was turning over and over, when he fancied some one was in +the bed with him; but then, thinking it was only the clothes which had slipped off, he put out his hand to feel, and in doing +so touched <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5799"></a>Page 380</span>something silky like a cat. Striking a light, he found it was a fox, lying in a drunken sleep like a dog; and then looking +at his wine bottle he saw that it had been emptied. “A boon-companion,” said he, laughing, as he avoided startling the animal, +and, covering it up, lay down to sleep with his arm across it, and the candle alight so as to see what transformation it might +undergo. About midnight the fox stretched itself, and Ch’ê cried, “Well, to be sure, you’ve had a nice sleep!” He then drew +off the clothes, and beheld an elegant young man in a scholar’s dress; but the young man jumped up, and, making a low obeisance, +returned his host many thanks for not cutting off his head. “Oh,” replied Ch’ê, “I am not averse to liquor myself; in fact +they say I’m too much given to it. If you have no objection, we’ll be a pair of bottle-and-glass chums.” So they lay down +and went to sleep again, Ch’ê urging the young man to visit him often, and saying that they must have faith in each other. +The fox agreed to this, but when Ch’ê awoke in the morning his bedfellow had already disappeared. So he prepared a goblet +of first-rate wine in expectation of his friend’s arrival, and at nightfall sure enough he came. They then sat together drinking, +and the fox cracked so many jokes that Ch’ê said he regretted he had not known him before. “And truly I don’t know how to +repay your kindness,” replied the former, “in preparing all this nice wine for me.” “Oh,” said Ch’ê, “what’s a pint or so +of wine?—nothing worth speaking of.” “Well,” rejoined the fox, “you are only a poor scholar, and money isn’t so easily to +be got. I must see if I can’t secure a little wine capital for you.” Next evening, when he arrived, he said to Ch’ê, “Two +miles down toward the south-east you will find some silver lying by the wayside. Go early in the morning and get it.” So on +the morrow <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5801"></a>Page 381</span>Ch’ê set off, and actually obtained two lumps of silver, with which he bought some choice morsels to help them out with their +wine that evening. The fox now told him that there was a vault in his backyard which he ought to open; and when he did so +he found therein more than a hundred strings of cash.<a id="d0e5803src" href="#d0e5803" class="noteref">8</a> “Now then,” cried Ch’ê, delighted, “I shall have no more anxiety about funds for buying wine with all this in my purse!” +“Ah,” replied the fox, “the water in a puddle is not inexhaustible. I must do something further for you.” Some days afterward +the fox said to Ch’ê, “Buckwheat is very cheap in the market just now. Something is to be done in that line.” Accordingly +Ch’ê bought over forty tons, and thereby incurred general ridicule; but by and by there was a bad drought, and all kinds of +grain and beans were spoilt. Only buckwheat would grow, and Ch’ê sold off his stock at a profit of 1000 per cent. His wealth +thus began to increase; he bought two hundred acres of rich land, and always planted his crops, corn, millet, or what not, +upon the advice of the fox secretly given him beforehand. The fox looked on Ch’ê’s wife as a sister, and on Ch’ê’s children +as his own; but when subsequently Ch’ê died it never came to the house again. + +</p> +<div id="d0e5806" class="divFigure"> +<p class="legend"><img src="img/p382.jpg" alt="Chia Tzŭ-lung Finds the Stone"></p> +<p class="figureHead">Chia Tzŭ-lung Finds the Stone</p> +</div><p> + +</p><a id="d0e5810"></a><h2>The Alchemist<a id="d0e5813src" href="#d0e5813" class="noteref">9</a></h2> +<p id="d0e5815">At Ch’ang-an there lived a scholar named Chia Tzŭ-lung, who one day noticed a very refined-looking stranger; and, on making +inquiries about him, learned that he was a Mr Chên who had taken lodgings hard by. Accordingly, Chia called next day and sent +in his card, but did not see <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5817"></a>Page 382</span>Chên, who happened to be out at the time. The same thing occurred thrice; and at length Chia engaged some one to watch and +let him know when Mr Chên was at home. However, even then the latter would not come forth to receive his guest, and Chia had +to go in and rout him out. The two now entered into conversation, and soon became mutually charmed with each other; and by +and by Chia sent off a servant to bring wine from a neighbouring wine-shop. Mr Chên proved himself a pleasant boon-companion, +and when the wine was nearly finished he went to a box and took from it some wine-cups and a large and beautiful jade tankard; +into the latter he poured a single cup of wine, and immediately it was filled to the brim. They then proceeded to help themselves +from the tankard; but however much they took out, the contents never seemed to diminish. Chia was astonished at this, and +begged Mr Chên to tell him how it was done. “Ah,” replied Mr Chên, “I tried to avoid making your acquaintance solely because +of your one bad quality—avarice. The art I practise is a secret known to the Immortals only: how can I divulge it to you?” +“You do me wrong,” rejoined Chia, “in thus attributing avarice to me. The avaricious, indeed, are always poor.” Mr Chên laughed, +and they separated for that day; but from that time they were constantly together, and all ceremony was laid aside between +them. Whenever Chia wanted money Mr Chên would bring out a black stone, and, muttering a charm, would rub it on a tile or +a brick, which was forthwith changed into a lump of silver. This silver he would give to Chia, and it was always just as much +as he actually required, neither more nor less; and if ever the latter asked for more Mr Chên would rally him on the subject +of avarice. Finally Chia determined to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5819"></a>Page 383</span>try to get possession of this stone; and one day, when Mr Chên was sleeping off the fumes of a drinking-bout, he tried to +extract it from his clothes. However, Chên detected him at once, and declared that they could be friends no more, and next +day he left the place altogether. About a year afterward Chia was one day wandering by the river-bank, when he saw a handsome-looking +stone, marvellously like that in the possession of Mr Chên; and he picked it up at once and carried it home with him. A few +days passed away, and suddenly Mr Chên presented himself at Chia’s house, and explained that the stone in question possessed +the property of changing anything into gold, and had been bestowed upon him long before by a certain Taoist priest whom he +had followed as a disciple. “Alas!” added he, “I got tipsy and lost it; but divination told me where it was, and if you will +now restore it to me I will take care to repay your kindness.” “You have divined rightly,” replied Chia; “the stone is with +me; but recollect, if you please, that the indigent Kuan Chung<a id="d0e5821src" href="#d0e5821" class="noteref">10</a> shared the wealth of his friend Pao Shu.” At this hint Mr Chên said he would give Chia one hundred ounces of silver; to which +the latter replied that one hundred ounces was a fair offer, but that he would far sooner have Mr Chên teach him the formula +to utter when rubbing the stone on anything, so that he might try the thing once himself. Mr Chên was afraid to do this; whereupon +Chia cried out, “You are an Immortal yourself; you must know well enough that I would never deceive a friend.” So Mr Chên +was prevailed upon to teach him the formula, and then Chia would have tried the art upon the immense stone <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5824"></a>Page 384</span>washing-block<a id="d0e5826src" href="#d0e5826" class="noteref">11</a> which was lying near at hand had not Mr Chên seized his arm and begged him not to do anything so outrageous. Chia then picked +up half a brick and laid it on the washing-block, saying to Mr Chên, “This little piece is not too much, surely?” Accordingly +Mr Chên relaxed his hold and let Chia proceed; which he did by promptly ignoring the half-brick and quickly rubbing the stone +on the washing-block. Mr Chên turned pale when he saw him do this, and made a dash forward to get hold of the stone, but it +was too late; the washing-block was already a solid mass of silver, and Chia quietly handed him back the stone. “Alas! alas!” +cried Mr Chên in despair, “what is to be done now? For, having thus irregularly conferred wealth upon a mortal, Heaven will +surely punish me. Oh, if you would save me, give away one hundred coffins<a id="d0e5832src" href="#d0e5832" class="noteref">12</a> and one hundred suits of wadded clothes.” “My friend,” replied Chia, “my object in getting money was not to hoard it up like +a miser.” Mr Chên was delighted at this; and during the next three years Chia engaged in trade, taking care to fulfil always +his promise to Mr Chên. At the expiration of that time Mr Chên himself reappeared, and, grasping Chia’s hand, said to him, +“Trustworthy and noble friend, when we last parted the Spirit of Happiness impeached me before God,<a id="d0e5835src" href="#d0e5835" class="noteref">13</a> and my name was erased from the list of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5838"></a>Page 385</span>angels. But now that you have carried out my request that sentence has been rescinded. Go on as you have begun, without ceasing.” +Chia asked Mr Chên what office he filled in Heaven; to which the latter replied that he was only a fox who, by a sinless life, +had finally attained to that clear perception of the truth which leads to immortality. Wine was then brought, and the two +friends enjoyed themselves together as of old; and even when Chia had passed the age of ninety years the fox still used to +visit him from time to time. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5840"></a>Page 386</span></p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5738" href="#d0e5738src" class="noteref">1</a> Literally ‘golden oranges.’ These are skilfully preserved by the Cantonese, and form a delicious sweetmeat for dessert. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5749" href="#d0e5749src" class="noteref">2</a> Only slave-girls and women of the poorer classes and old women omit this very important part of a Chinese lady’s toilet. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5754" href="#d0e5754src" class="noteref">3</a> Alluding probably to the shape of the ‘shoe’ or ingot of silver. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5759" href="#d0e5759src" class="noteref">4</a> Slave-girls do not have their feet compressed. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5764" href="#d0e5764src" class="noteref">5</a> Wherein resides an old gentleman who ties together with a red cord the feet of those destined to become man and wife. From +this bond there is no escape, no matter what distance may separate the affianced pair. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5769" href="#d0e5769src" class="noteref">6</a> This proceeding is highly improper, but is ‘winked at’ in a large majority of Chinese betrothals. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5779" href="#d0e5779src" class="noteref">7</a> The usual occupation of poor scholars who are ashamed to go into trade and who have not enterprise enough to start as doctors +or fortune-tellers. Besides painting pictures and fans, and illustrating books, these men write fancy scrolls in the various +ornamental styles so much prized by the Chinese; they keep accounts for people, and write or read business and private letters +for the illiterate masses. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5803" href="#d0e5803src" class="noteref">8</a> Say about £10. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5813" href="#d0e5813src" class="noteref">9</a> Alchemy is first mentioned in Chinese history B.C. 133, and was widely cultivated in China during the Han dynasty by priests +of the Taoist religion. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5821" href="#d0e5821src" class="noteref">10</a> Kuan Chung and Pao Shu are the Chinese types of friendship. They were two statesmen of considerable ability who flourished +in the seventh century B.C. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5826" href="#d0e5826src" class="noteref">11</a> These are used, together with a heavy wooden <i>bâton</i>, by the Chinese washerman, the effect being most disastrous to a European wardrobe. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5832" href="#d0e5832src" class="noteref">12</a> To provide coffins for poor people has ever been regarded as an act of transcendent merit. The tornado at Canton in April +1878, in which several thousand lives were lost, afforded an admirable opportunity for the exercise of this form of charity—an +opportunity which was largely taken advantage of by the benevolent. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e5835" href="#d0e5835src" class="noteref">13</a> For usurping its prerogative by allowing Chia to obtain wealth. +</p> +</div><a id="d0e5841"></a><h2 class="abovehead">Chapter XVI</h2> +<h1>Miscellaneous Legends</h1><a id="d0e5844"></a><h2>The Unnatural People</h2> +<p id="d0e5847">The <i>Shan hai ching</i>, or <i>Hill and River Classic</i>, contains descriptions of some curious people supposed to inhabit the regions on the maps represented on the nine tripod +vases of the Great Yü, first emperor of the Hsia dynasty. + +</p><a id="d0e5855"></a><h2>The Pygmies</h2> +<p id="d0e5858">The pygmies inhabit many mountainous regions of the Empire, but are few in number. They are less than nine inches high, but +are well formed. They live in thatched houses that resemble ants’ nests. When they walk out they go in companies of from six +to ten, joining hands in a line for mutual protection against birds that might carry them away, or other creatures that might +attack them. Their tone of voice is too low to be distinguished by an ordinary human ear. They occupy themselves in working +in wood, gold, silver, and precious stones, but a small proportion are tillers of the soil. They wear clothes of a red colour. +The sexes are distinguishable by a slight beard on the men, and long tresses on the women, the latter in some cases reaching +four to five inches in length. Their heads are unduly large, being quite out of proportion to their small bodies. A husband +and wife usually go about hand in hand. A Hakka charcoal-burner once found three of the children playing in his tobacco-box. +He kept them there, and afterward, when he was showing them to a friend, he laughed so that drops of saliva flew from his +mouth and shot two of them dead. He then begged his friend to take the third and put it in a <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5860"></a>Page 387</span>place of safety before he should laugh again. His friend attempted to lift it from the box, but it died on being touched. + + +</p><a id="d0e5862"></a><h2>The Giants</h2> +<p id="d0e5865">In the Country of the Giants the people are fifty feet in height. Their footprints are six feet in length. Their teeth are +like those of a saw. Their finger-nails present the appearance of hooked claws, while their diet consists wholly of uncooked +animal food. Their eyebrows are of such length as to protrude from the front of the carts in which they ride, large though +it is necessary for these vehicles to be. Their bodies are covered with long black hair resembling that of the bear. They +live to the advanced age of eighteen thousand years. Though cannibals, they never eat members of their own tribe, confining +their indulgence in human flesh chiefly to enemies taken in battle. Their country extends some thousands of miles along certain +mountain ranges in North-eastern Asia, in the passes of which they have strong iron gates, easy to close, but difficult to +open; hence, though their neighbours maintain large standing armies, they have thus far never been conquered. + +</p><a id="d0e5867"></a><h2>The Headless People</h2> +<p id="d0e5870">The Headless People inhabit the Long Sheep range, to which their ancestors were banished in the remote past for an offence +against the gods. One of the said ancestors had entered into a controversy with the rulers of the heavens, and they in their +anger had transformed his two breasts into eyes and his navel into a mouth, removed his head, leaving him without nose and +ears, thus cutting him off from smell and sound, and banished him to the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5872"></a>Page 388</span>Long Sheep Mountains, where with a shield and axe, the only weapons vouchsafed to the people of the Headless Country, he and +his posterity were compelled to defend themselves from their enemies and provide their subsistence. This, however, does not +in the least seem to have affected their tempers, as their bodies are wreathed in perpetual smiles, except when they flourish +their warlike weapons on the approach of an enemy. They are not without understanding, because, according to Chinese notions +of physiology, “their bellies are full of wisdom.” + +</p><a id="d0e5874"></a><h2>The Armless People</h2> +<p id="d0e5877">In the Mountains of the Sun and Moon, which are in the Centre of the Great Waste, are the people who have no arms, but whose +legs instead grow out of their shoulders. They pick flowers with their toes. They bow by raising the body horizontal with +the shoulders, thus turning the face to the ground. + +</p><a id="d0e5879"></a><h2>The Long-armed and Long-legged People</h2> +<p id="d0e5882">The Long-armed People are about thirty feet high, their arms reaching from the shoulders to the ground. Once when a company +of explorers was passing through the country which borders on the Eastern Sea they inquired of an old man if he knew whether +or not there were people dwelling beyond the waters. He replied that a cloth garment, in fashion and texture not unlike that +of a Chinese coat, with sleeves thirty feet in length, had been found in the sea. The explorers fitted out an expedition, +and the discovery of the Long-armed Country was the result. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5884">The natives subsist for the most part on fish, which they <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5886"></a>Page 389</span>obtain by wading in the water, and taking the fish with their hands instead of with hooks or nets. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5888">The arms of the Long-legged People are of a normal length, the legs are developed to a length corresponding to that of the +arms of the Long-armed People. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5890">The country of the latter borders on that of the Long-legs. The habits and food of the two are similar. The difference in +their physical structure makes them of mutual assistance, those with the long arms being able to take the shellfish of the +shallow waters, while those with the long legs take the surface fish from the deeper localities; thus the two gather a harvest +otherwise unobtainable. + +</p><a id="d0e5892"></a><h2>The One-eyed People and Others</h2> +<p id="d0e5895">A little to the east of the Country of the Long-legs are to be found the One-eyed People. They have but one eye, rather larger +than the ordinary human eye, placed in the centre of the forehead, directly above the nose. Other clans or families have but +one arm and one leg, some having a right arm and left leg, others a left arm and right leg, while still others have both on +the same side, and go in pairs, like shoes. Another species not only has but one arm and one leg, but is of such fashion as +to have but one eye, one nostril, and beard on but one side of the face, there being as it were rights and lefts, the two +in reality being one, for it is in this way that they pair. The Long-eared People resemble Chinese in all except their ears. +They live in the far West among mountains and in caves. Their pendant, flabby ears extend to the ground, and would impede +their feet in walking if they did not support them on their hands. They are sensitive to the faintest sound. Still another +people in this region are distinguished by having six toes on each foot. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5897"></a>Page 390</span></p><a id="d0e5898"></a><h2>The Feathered People, etc.</h2> +<p id="d0e5901">The Feathered People are very tall, and are covered with fluffy down. They have wings in place of arms, and can fly short +distances. On the points of the wings are claws, which serve as hands. Their noses are like beaks. Gentle and timid, they +do not leave their own country. They have good voices, and like to sing ballads. If one wishes to visit this people he must +go far to the south-east and then inquire. There is also the Land of the People with Three Faces, who live in the centre of +the Great Waste and never die; the Land of the Three-heads, east of the K’un-lun Mountains; the Three-body Country, the inhabitants +of which have one head with three bodies, three arms and but two legs; and yet another where the people have square heads, +broad shoulders, and three legs, and the stones on the land are all gold and jade. + +</p><a id="d0e5903"></a><h2>The People of the Punctured Bodies</h2> +<p id="d0e5906">Another community is said to be composed of people who have holes through their chests. They can be carried about on a pole +put through the orifice, or may be comfortably hung upon a peg. They sometimes string themselves on a rope, and thus walk +out in file. They are harmless people, and eat snakes that they kill with bows and arrows, and they are very long-lived. + +</p><a id="d0e5908"></a><h2>The Women’s Kingdom</h2> +<p id="d0e5911">The Women’s Kingdom, the country inhabited exclusively by women, is said to be surrounded by a sea of less density than ordinary +water, so that ships sink on approaching the shores. It has been reached only by <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5913"></a>Page 391</span>boats carried thither in whirlwinds, and but few of those wrecked on its rocks have survived and returned to tell of its wonders. +The women have houses, gardens, and shops. Instead of money they use gems, perforated and strung like beads. They reproduce +their kind by sleeping where the south wind blows upon them. + +</p><a id="d0e5915"></a><h2>The Land of the Flying Cart</h2> +<p id="d0e5918">Situated to the north of the Plain of Great Joy, the Land of the Flying Cart joins the Country of the One-armed People on +the south-west and that of the Three-bodied People on the south-east. The inhabitants have but one arm, and an additional +eye of large size in the centre of the forehead, making three eyes in all. Their carts, though wheeled, do not run along the +ground, but chase each other in mid-air as gracefully as a flock of swallows. The vehicles have a kind of winged framework +at each end, and the one-armed occupants, each grasping a flag, talk and laugh one to another in great glee during what might +be called their aerial recreation were it not for the fact that it seems to be their sole occupation. + +</p><a id="d0e5920"></a><h2>The Expectant Wife</h2> +<p id="d0e5923">A curious legend is told regarding a solitary, weird figure which stands out, rudely weatherworn, from a hill-top in the pass +called Shao-hsing Gorge, Canton Province. This point of the pass is called Lung-mên, or Dragon’s Mouth, and the hill the Husband-expecting +Hill. The figure itself, which is called the Expectant Wife, resembles that of a woman. Her bent head and figure down to the +waist are very lifelike. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5925">The story, widely known in this and the neighbouring province, runs as follows. Centuries ago a certain poor <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5927"></a>Page 392</span>woman was left by her husband, who went on a journey into Kwangsi, close by, but in those days considered a wild and distant +region, full of dangers. He promised to return in three years. The time went slowly and sadly past, for she dearly loved her +lord, but no husband appeared. He, ungrateful and unfaithful spouse, had fallen in love with a fair one in Kwangsi, a sorceress +or witch, who threw a spell over him and charmed him to his destruction, turning him at length into stone. To this day his +figure may be seen standing near a cave close by the river which is known by the name of the Detained Man Cave. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5929">The wife, broken by grief at her husband’s failure to return, was likewise turned into a stone, and it is said that a supernatural +power will one day bring the couple to life again and reward the ever-faithful wife. The legend receives entire credence from +the simple boatmen sad country people. + +</p><a id="d0e5931"></a><h2>The Wild Men</h2> +<p id="d0e5934">The wild beasts of the mountain have a king. He is a wild man, with long, thick locks, fiery red in colour, and his body is +covered with hair. He is very strong: with a single blow of his huge fist, he can break large rocks to pieces; he also can +pull up the trees of the forest by the root. His flesh is as hard as iron and is invulnerable to the thrusts of knife, spear, +or sword. He rides upon a tiger when he leaves his home; he rules over the wolves, leopards, and tigers, and governs all their +affairs. Many other wild men, like him in appearance, live in these mountains, but on account of his great strength he alone +is king. These wild men kill and eat all human beings they meet, and other hill tribes live in terror of meeting <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5936"></a>Page 393</span>them. Indeed, who of all these mountain people would have been left alive had not some men, more crafty than their fellows, +devised a means of overpowering these fierce savages? + +</p> +<p id="d0e5938">This is the method referred to: On leaving his home the herb-gatherer of the mountains arms himself with two large hollow +bamboo tubes which he slips over his wrists and arms; he also carries a jar of very strong wine. When he meets one of the +wild men he stands still and allows the giant to grasp him by the arm. As the giant holds him fast, as he supposes, in his +firm grasp, he quietly and slowly withdraws one arm from the bamboo cuff, and, taking the pot of wine from the other hand, +quickly pours it down the throat of the stooping giant, whose mouth is wide open with immoderate laughter at the thought of +having captured a victim so easily. The potent draught of wine acts at once, causing the victim to drop to the ground in a +dead sleep, whereupon the herb-gatherer either dispatches him summarily with a thrust through the heart, or leaves the drunken +tyrant to sleep off the effect of his draught, while he returns again to his work of collecting the health-restoring herbs. +In this way have the numbers of these wild men become less and less, until at the present time but few remain. + +</p><a id="d0e5940"></a><h2>The Jointed Snake</h2> +<p id="d0e5943">The people on Ô-mei Shan tell of a wonderful kind of snake that is said to live there. Part of its life is spent among the +branches of the trees; if by chance it falls to the ground it breaks up into two or more pieces. These separate segments later +on come together again and unite. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5945">Many other marvellous and interesting tales are related of this mountain and its inhabitants. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5947"></a>Page 394</span></p><a id="d0e5948"></a><h2>The Casting of the Great Bell</h2> +<p id="d0e5951">In every province of China there is a legend relating to the casting of the great bell swung in the bell tower of the chief +city. These legends are curiously identical in almost every detail. The following is the one current in Peking. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5953">It was in the reign of Yung Lo, the third monarch of the Ming dynasty, that Peking first became the capital of China. Till +that period the ‘Son of Heaven’ had held his Court at Nanking, and Peking had been of comparatively little note. Now, however, +on being honoured by the ‘Sacred Presence,’ stately buildings arose in all directions for the accommodation of the Emperor +and his courtiers. Clever men from all parts of the Empire were attracted to the capital, and such as possessed talent were +sure of lucrative employment. About this time the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower were built; both of them as ‘look-out’ and +‘alarm’ towers. The Drum Tower was furnished with a monster drum, which it still possesses, of such a size that the thunder +of its tones might be heard all over the city, the sound being almost enough to waken the dead. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5955">The Bell Tower had been completed some time before attempts were made to cast a bell proportionate to the size of the building. +At length Yung Lo ordered Kuan Yu, a mandarin of the second grade, who was skilled in casting guns, to cast a bell the sound +of which should be heard, on the least alarm, in every part of the city. Kuan Yu at once commenced the undertaking. He secured +the services of a great number of experienced workmen, and collected immense quantities of material. Months passed, and at +length it was announced to the Emperor that everything was ready for the casting. A day was <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5957"></a>Page 395</span>appointed; the Emperor, surrounded by a crowd of courtiers, and preceded by the Court musicians, went to witness the ceremony. +At a given signal, and to the crash of music, the melted metal rushed into the mould prepared for it. The Emperor and his +Court then retired, leaving Kuan Yu and his subordinates to await the cooling of the metal, which would tell of failure or +success. At length the metal was sufficiently cool to detach the mould from it. Kuan Yu, in breathless trepidation, hastened +to inspect it, but to his mortification and grief discovered it to be honeycombed in many places. The circumstance was reported +to the Emperor, who was naturally vexed at the expenditure of so much time, labour, and money with so unsatisfactory a result. +However, he ordered Kuan Yu to try again. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5959">The mandarin hastened to obey, and, thinking the failure of the first attempt must have resulted from some oversight or omission +on his part, he watched every detail with redoubled care and attention, fully determined that no neglect or remissness should +mar the success of this second casting. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5961">After months of labour the mould was again prepared, and the metal poured into it, but again with the same result. Kuan Yu +was distracted, not only at the loss of his reputation, but at the certain loss of the Emperor’s favour. Yung Lo, when he +heard of this second failure, was very wroth, and at once ordered Kuan Yu into his presence, and told him he would give him +a third and last trial, and if he did not succeed this time he would behead him. Kuan Yu went home in a despairing state of +mind, asking himself what crime he or any of his ancestors could have committed to have justified this calamity. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5963"></a>Page 396</span></p> +<p id="d0e5964">Now Kuan Yu had an only daughter, about sixteen years of age, and, having no sons, the whole of his love was centred in this +girl, for he had hopes of perpetuating his name and fame through her marriage with some deserving young nobleman. Truly she +was worthy of being loved. She had “almond-shaped eyes, like the autumn waves, which, sparkling and dancing in the sun, seem +to leap up in very joy and wantonness to kiss the fragrant reeds that grow upon the rivers’ banks, yet of such limpid transparency +that one’s form could be seen in their liquid depths as if reflected in a mirror. These were surrounded by long silken lashes—now +drooping in coy modesty, anon rising in youthful gaiety and disclosing the laughing eyes but just before concealed beneath +them. Eyebrows like the willow leaf; cheeks of snowy whiteness, yet tinged with the gentlest colouring of the rose; teeth +like pearls of the finest water were seen peeping from between half-open lips, so luscious and juicy that they resembled two +cherries; hair of the jettiest blackness and of the silkiest texture. Her form was such as poets love to describe and painters +limn; there was grace and ease in every movement; she appeared to glide rather than walk, so light was she of foot. Add to +her other charms that she was skilful in verse-making, excellent in embroidery, and unequalled in the execution of her household +duties, and we have but a faint description of Ko-ai, the beautiful daughter of Kuan Yu.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e5966">Well might the father be proud of and love his beautiful child, and she returned his love with all the ardour of her affectionate +nature; often cheering him with her innocent gaiety when he returned from his daily vocations wearied or vexed. Seeing him +now return with despair depicted in his countenance, she tenderly inquired the cause, not <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5968"></a>Page 397</span>without hope of being the means of alleviating it. When her father told her of his failures, and of the Emperor’s threat, +she exclaimed: “Oh, my father, be comforted! Heaven will not always be thus unrelenting. Are we not told that ‘out of evil +cometh good’? These two failures will but enhance the glory of your eventual success, for success <i>this</i> time <i>must</i> crown your efforts. I am only a girl, and cannot assist you but with my prayers; these I will daily and hourly offer up for +your success; and the prayers of a daughter for a loved parent <i>must</i> be heard.” Somewhat soothed by the endearments of Ko-ai, Kuan Yu again devoted himself to his task with redoubled energy, +Ko-ai meanwhile constantly praying for him in his absence, and ministering to his wants when he returned home. One day it +occurred to the maiden to go to a celebrated astrologer to ascertain the cause of these failures, and to ask what means could +be taken to prevent a recurrence of them. She thus learned that the next casting would also be a disappointment if the blood +of a maiden were not mixed with the ingredients. She returned home full of horror at this information, yet inwardly resolving +to immolate herself rather than allow her father to fail. The day for the casting at length came, and Ko-ai requested her +father to allow her to witness the ceremony and “to exult in his success,” as she laughingly said. Kuan Yu gave his consent, +and accompanied by several servants she went, taking up a position near the mould. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5979">Everything was prepared as before. An immense concourse assembled to witness the third and final casting, which was to result +either in honour or degradation and death for Kuan Yu. A dead silence prevailed through the vast assemblage as the melted +metal once more rushed <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5981"></a>Page 398</span>to its destination; this was broken by a shriek, and a cry, “For my father!” and Ko-ai was seen to throw herself headlong +into the seething, hissing metal. One of her servants attempted to seize her while in the act of plunging into the boiling +fluid, but succeeded only in grasping one of her shoes, which came off in his hand. The father was frantic, and had to be +kept by force from following her example; he was taken home a raving maniac. The prediction of the astrologer was fulfilled, +for, on uncovering the bell after it had cooled, it was found to be perfect, but not a vestige of Ko-ai was to be seen; the +blood of a maiden had indeed been infused with the ingredients. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5983">After a time the bell was suspended by order of the Emperor, and expectation was at its height to hear it rung for the first +time. The Emperor himself was present. The bell was struck, and far and near was heard the deep tone of its sonorous boom. +This indeed was a triumph! Here was a bell surpassing in size and sound any other that had ever been cast! But—and the surrounding +multitudes were horror-struck as they listened—the heavy boom of the bell was followed by a low wailing sound like the agonized +cry of a woman, and the word <i>hsieh</i> (shoe) was distinctly heard. To this day the bell, each time it is rung, after every boom appears to utter the word ‘hsieh,’ +and people when they hear it shudder and say, “There’s poor Ko-ai’s voice calling for her shoe.” + +</p><a id="d0e5988"></a><h2>The Cursed Temple</h2> +<p id="d0e5991">The reign of Ch’ung Chêng, the last monarch of the Ming dynasty, was much troubled both by internal broils and by wars. He +was constantly threatened by Tartar hordes from without, though these were generally beaten back by the celebrated general +Wu San-kuei, and the country was <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5993"></a>Page 399</span>perpetually in a state of anarchy and confusion, being overrun by bands of marauding rebels; indeed, so bold did these become +under a chief named Li Tzŭ-ch’êng that they actually marched on the capital with the avowed intention of placing their leader +on the Dragon Throne. Ch’ung Chêng, on the reception of this startling news, with no one that he could trust in such an emergency +(for Wu San-kuei was absent on an expedition against the Tartars), was at his wits’ end. The insurgents were almost in sight +of Peking, and at any moment might arrive. Rebellion threatened in the city itself. If he went out boldly to attack the oncoming +rebels his own troops might go over to the enemy, or deliver him into their hands; if he stayed in the city the people would +naturally attribute it to pusillanimity, and probably open the gates to the rebels. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5995">In this strait he resolved to go to the San Kuan Miao, an imperial temple situated near the Ch’ao-yang Mên, and inquire of +the gods as to what he should do, and decide his fate by ‘drawing the slip.’ If he drew a long slip, this would be a good +omen, and he would boldly march out to meet the rebels, confident of victory; if a middle length one, he would remain quietly +in the palace and passively await whatever might happen; but if he should unfortunately draw a short one he would take his +own life rather than suffer death at the hands of the rebels. + +</p> +<p id="d0e5997">Upon arrival at the temple, in the presence of the high officers of his Court, the sacrifices were offered up, and the incense +burnt, previous to drawing the slip on which hung the destiny of an empire, while Ch’ung Chêng himself remained on his knees +in prayer. At the conclusion of the sacrificial ceremony the tube containing the bamboo fortune-telling sticks was placed +in the Emperor’s hand <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e5999"></a>Page 400</span>by one of the priests. His courtiers and the attendant priests stood round in breathless suspense, watching him as he swayed +the tube to and fro; at length one fell to the ground; there was dead silence as it was raised by a priest and handed to the +Emperor. <i>It was a short one!</i> Dismay fell on every one present, no one daring to break the painful, horrible silence. After a pause the Emperor, with a +cry of mingled rage and despair, dashed the slip to the ground, exclaiming: “May this temple built by my ancestors evermore +be accursed! Henceforward may every suppliant be denied what he entreats, as I have been! Those who come in sorrow, may that +sorrow be doubled; in happiness, may that happiness be changed to misery; in hope, may they meet despair; in health, sickness; +in the pride of life and strength, death! I, Ch’ung Chêng, the last of the Mings, curse it!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6004">Without another word he retired, followed by his courtiers, proceeded at once to the palace, and went straight to the apartments +of the Empress. The next morning he and his Empress were found suspended from a tree on Prospect Hill. “In their death they +were not divided.” The scenes that followed; how the rebels took possession of the city and were driven out again by the Chinese +general, assisted by the Tartars; how the Tartars finally succeeded in establishing the Manchu dynasty, are all matters of +history. The words used by the Emperor at the temple were prophetic; he <i>was</i> the last of the Mings. The tree on which the monarch of a mighty Empire closed his career and brought the Ming dynasty to +an end was ordered to be surrounded with chains; it still exists, and is still in chains. Upward of two hundred and seventy +years have passed since that time, yet the temple is standing as of old; but the halls that at <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6009"></a>Page 401</span>one time were crowded with worshippers are now silent, no one ever venturing to worship there; it is the resort of the fox +and the bat, and people at night pass it shudderingly—“It is the cursed temple!” + +</p><a id="d0e6011"></a><h2>The Maniac’s Mite</h2> +<p id="d0e6014">An interesting story is told of a lady named Ch’ên, who was a Buddhist nun celebrated for her virtue and austerity. Between +the years 1628 and 1643 she left her nunnery near Wei-hai city and set out on a long journey for the purpose of collecting +subscriptions for casting a new image of the Buddha. She wandered through Shantung and Chihli and finally reached Peking, +and there—subscription-book in hand—she stationed herself at the great south gate in order to take toll from those who wished +to lay up for themselves treasures in the Western Heaven. The first passer-by who took any notice of her was an amiable maniac. +His dress was made of coloured shreds and patches, and his general appearance was wild and uncouth. “Whither away, nun?” he +asked. She explained that she was collecting subscriptions for the casting of a great image of Buddha, and had come all the +way from Shantung. “Throughout my life,” remarked the madman, “I was ever a generous giver.” So, taking the nun’s subscription-book, +he headed a page with his own name (in very large characters) and the amount subscribed. The amount in question was two cash, +equivalent to a small fraction of a farthing. He then handed over the two small coins and went on his way. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6016">In course of time the nun returned to Wei-hai-wei with her subscriptions, and the work of casting the image was duly begun. +When the time had come for the process of smelting, it was observed that the copper remained <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6018"></a>Page 402</span>hard and intractable. Again and again the furnace was fed with fuel, but the shapeless mass of metal remained firm as a rock. +The head workman, who was a man of wide experience, volunteered an explanation of the mystery. “An offering of great value +must be missing,” he said. “Let the collection-book be examined so that it may be seen whose subscription has been withheld.” +The nun, who was standing by, immediately produced the madman’s money, which on account of its minute value she had not taken +the trouble to hand over. “There is one cash,” she said, “and there is another. Certainly the offering of these must have +been an act of the highest merit, and the giver must be a holy man who will some day attain Buddhahood.” As she said this +she threw the two cash into the midst of the cauldron. Great bubbles rose and burst, the metal melted and ran like the sap +from a tree, limpid as flowing water, and in a few moments the work was accomplished and the new Buddha successfully cast. + + +</p><a id="d0e6020"></a><h2>The City-god of Yen Ch’êng</h2> +<p id="d0e6023">The following story of the Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa of Yen Ch’êng (Salt City) is told by Helena von Poseck in the <i>East of Asia Magazine</i>, vol. iii (1904), pp. 169–171. This legend is also related of several other cities in China. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6028">The Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa is, as already noted, the tutelary god of a city, his position in the unseen world answering to that +of a <i>chih hsien</i>, or district magistrate, among men, if the city under his care be a <i>hsien</i>; but if the city hold the rank of a <i>fu</i>, it has (or used to have until recently) two Ch’êng-huang P’u-sas, one a prefect, and the other a district magistrate. One +part of his duty consists of sending small demons to carry off the spirits of the dying, of which spirits he afterward acts +as ruler and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6039"></a>Page 403</span>judge. He is supposed to exercise special care over the <i>k’u kuei</i>, or spirits which have no descendants to worship and offer sacrifices to them, and on the occasion of the Seventh Month Festival +he is carried round the city in his chair to maintain order among them, while the people offer food to them, and burn paper +money for their benefit. He is also carried in procession at the Ch’ing Ming Festival, and on the first day of the tenth month. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e6044">The Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa of the city of Yen Ch’êng is in the extremely unfortunate predicament of having no skin to his face, +which fact is thus accounted for: + +</p> +<p id="d0e6046">Once upon a time there lived at Yen Ch’êng an orphan boy who was brought up by his uncle and aunt. He was just entering upon +his teens when his aunt lost a gold hairpin, and accused him of having stolen it. The boy, whose conscience was clear in the +matter, thought of a plan by which his innocence might be proved. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6048">“Let us go to-morrow to Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa’s temple,” he said, “and I will there swear an oath before the god, so that he +may manifest my innocence.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6050">They accordingly repaired to the temple, and the boy, solemnly addressing the idol, said: + +</p> +<p id="d0e6052">“If I have taken my aunt’s gold pin, may my foot twist, and may I fall as I go out of your temple door!” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6054">Alas for the poor suppliant! As he stepped over the threshold his foot twisted, and he fell to the ground. Of course, everybody +was firmly convinced of his guilt, and what could the poor boy say when his own appeal to the god thus turned against him? + + +</p> +<p id="d0e6056">After such a proof of his depravity his aunt had no room in her house for her orphan nephew, neither did he himself wish to +stay with people who suspected him of theft. So he left the home which had sheltered him for <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6058"></a>Page 404</span>years, and wandered out alone into the cold hard world. Many a hardship did he encounter, but with rare pluck he persevered +in his studies, and at the age of twenty odd years became a mandarin. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6060">In course of time our hero returned to Yen Ch’êng to visit his uncle and aunt. While there he betook himself to the temple +of the deity who had dealt so hardly with him, and prayed for a revelation as to the whereabouts of the lost hairpin. He slept +that night in the temple, and was rewarded by a vision in which the Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa told him that the pin would be found +under the floor of his aunt’s house. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6062">He hastened back, and informed his relatives, who took up the boards in the place indicated, and lo! there lay the long-lost +pin! The women of the house then remembered that the pin had been used in pasting together the various layers of the soles +of shoes, and, when night came, had been carelessly left on the table. No doubt rats, attracted by the smell of the paste +which clung to it, had carried it off to their domains under the floor. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6064">The young mandarin joyfully returned to the temple, and offered sacrifices by way of thanksgiving to the Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa +for bringing his innocence to light, but he could not refrain from addressing to him what one is disposed to consider a well-merited +reproach. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6066">“You made me fall down,” he said, “and so led people to think I was guilty, and now you accept my gifts. Aren’t you ashamed +to do such a thing? <i>You have no face!</i>” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6071">As he uttered the words all the plaster fell from the face of the idol, and was smashed into fragments. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6073">From that day forward the Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa of Yen Ch’êng has had no skin on his face. People have <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6075"></a>Page 405</span>tried to patch up the disfigured countenance, but in vain: the plaster always falls off, and the face remains skinless. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6077">Some try to defend the Ch’êng-huang P’u-sa by saying that he was not at home on the day when his temple was visited by the +accused boy and his relatives, and that one of the little demons employed by him in carrying off dead people’s spirits out +of sheer mischief perpetrated a practical joke on the poor boy. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6079">In that case it is certainly hard that his skin should so persistently testify against him by refusing to remain on his face! + + +</p><a id="d0e6081"></a><h2>The Origin of a Lake</h2> +<p id="d0e6084">In the city of Ta-yeh Hsien, Hupei, there is a large sheet of water known as the Liang-ti Lake. The people of the district +give the following account of its origin: + +</p> +<p id="d0e6086">About five hundred years ago, during the Ming dynasty, there was no lake where the broad waters now spread. A flourishing +<i>hsien</i> city stood in the centre of a populous country. The city was noted for its wickedness, but amid the wicked population dwelt +one righteous woman, a strict vegetarian and a follower of all good works. In a vision of the night it was revealed to her +that the city and neighbourhood would be destroyed by water, and the sign promised was that when the stone lions in front +of the <i>yamên</i> wept tears of blood, then destruction was near at hand. Like Jonah at Nineveh, the woman, known to-day simply as Niang-tzŭ, +walked up and down the streets of the city, warning all of the coming calamity. She was laughed at and looked upon as mad +by the careless people. A pork-butcher in the town, a noted wag, took some pig’s blood and sprinkled it round the eyes of +the stone lions. This had the desired effect, for when Niang-tzŭ saw the blood <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6094"></a>Page 406</span>she fled from the city amid the jeers and laughter of the inhabitants. Before many hours had passed, however, the face of +the sky darkened, a mighty earthquake shook the country-side, there was a great subsidence of the earth’s surface, and the +waters of the Yangtzŭ River flowed into the hollow, burying the city and villages out of sight. But a spot of ground on which +the good woman stood, after escaping from the doomed city, remained at its normal level, and it stands to-day in the midst +of the lake, an island called Niang-tzŭ, a place at which boats anchor at night, or to which they fly for shelter from the +storms that sweep the lake. They are saved to-day because of one good woman helped by the gods so long ago. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6096">As a proof of the truth of the above story, it is asserted that on clear days traces of the buried city may be seen, while +occasionally a fisherman casting his net hauls up some household utensil or relic of bygone days. + +</p><a id="d0e6098"></a><h2>Miao Creation Legends</h2> +<p id="d0e6101">If the Miao have no written records, they have many legends in verse, which they learn to repeat and sing. The Hei Miao (or +Black Miao, so called from their dark chocolate-coloured clothes) treasure poetical legends of the Creation and of a deluge. +These are composed in lines of five syllables, in stanzas of unequal length, one interrogative and one responsive. They are +sung or recited by two persons or two groups at feasts and festivals, often by a group of youths and a group of maidens. The +legend of the Creation commences: + +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e6104">Who made Heaven and earth? +<br id="d0e6106">Who made insects? +<br id="d0e6108">Who made men? +<br id="d0e6110">Made male and made female? +<br id="d0e6112"> I who speak don’t know. +</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6114"></a>Page 407</span><p class="poetry"><br id="d0e6116">Heavenly King made Heaven and earth, +<br id="d0e6118">Ziene made insects, +<br id="d0e6120">Ziene made men and demons, +<br id="d0e6122">Made male and made female. +<br id="d0e6124"> How is it you don’t know? +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e6127">How made Heaven and earth? +<br id="d0e6129">How made insects? +<br id="d0e6131">How made men and demons? +<br id="d0e6133">Made male and made female? +<br id="d0e6135"> I who speak don’t know. +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e6138">Heavenly King was intelligent, +<br id="d0e6140">Spat a lot of spittle into his hand, +<br id="d0e6142">Clapped his hands with a noise, +<br id="d0e6144">Produced Heaven and earth, +<br id="d0e6146">Tall grass made insects, +<br id="d0e6148">Stories made men and demons, +<br id="d0e6150">Made male and made female. +<br id="d0e6152"> How is it you don’t know? +</p> +<p id="d0e6154">The legend proceeds to state how and by whom the heavens were propped up and how the sun was made and fixed in its place, +but the continuation is exceedingly silly. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6156">The legend of the Flood is another very silly composition, but it is interesting to note that it tells of a great deluge. +It commences: + +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e6159">Who came to the bad disposition, +<br id="d0e6161">To send fire and burn the hill? +<br id="d0e6163">Who came to the bad disposition, +<br id="d0e6165">To send water and destroy the earth? +<br id="d0e6167"> I who sing don’t know. +</p> +<p class="poetry"><br id="d0e6170">Zie did. Zie was of bad disposition, +<br id="d0e6172">Zie sent fire and burned the hill; +<br id="d0e6174">Thunder did. Thunder was of bad disposition, +<br id="d0e6176">Thunder sent water and destroyed the earth. +<br id="d0e6178"> Why don’t you know? +</p> +<p id="d0e6180">In this story of the flood only two persons were saved in a large bottle gourd used as a boat, and these were <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6182"></a>Page 408</span>A Zie and his sister. After the flood the brother wished his sister to become his wife, but she objected to this as not being +proper. At length she proposed that one should take the upper and one the nether millstone, and going to opposite hills should +set the stones rolling to the valley between. If these should be found in the valley properly adjusted one above the other +she would be his wife, but not if they came to rest apart. The young man, considering it unlikely that two stones thus rolled +down from opposite hills would be found in the valley one upon another, while pretending to accept the test suggested, secretly +placed two other stones in the valley one upon the other. The stones rolled from the hills were lost in the tall wild grass, +and on descending into the valley A Zie called his sister to come and see the stones he had placed. She, however, was not +satisfied, and suggested as another test that each should take a knife from a double sheath and, going again to the opposite +hill-tops, hurl them into the valley below. If both these knives were found in the sheath in the valley she would marry him, +but if the knives were found apart they would live apart. Again the brother surreptitiously placed two knives in the sheath, +and, the experiment ending as A Zie wished, his sister became his wife. They had one child, a misshapen thing without arms +or legs, which A Zie in great anger killed and cut to pieces. He threw the pieces all over the hill, and next morning, on +awaking, he found these pieces transformed into men and women; thus the earth was repeopled. + +</p><a id="d0e6184"></a><h2>The Dream of the South Branch</h2> +<p id="d0e6187">The dawn of Chinese romantic literature must be ascribed to the period between the eighth and tenth centuries of our era, +when the cultivation of the liberal <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6189"></a>Page 409</span>arts received encouragement at the hands of sovereigns who had reunited the Empire under the sway of a single ruler, and whose +conquests and distant embassies attracted representatives from every Asiatic nation to their splendid Court. It was during +this period that the vast bulk of Indian literature was successfully attacked by a host of Buddhist translators, and that +the alchemists and mechanicians of Central Asia, Persia, and the Byzantine Empire introduced their varied acquirements to +the knowledge of the Chinese. With the flow of new learning which thus gained admittance to qualify the frigid and monotonous +cultivation of the ancient classics and their commentators, there came also an impetus to indulgence in the licence of imagination +in which it is impossible to mistake the influence of Western minds. While the Sanskrit fables, on the one hand, passed into +a Chinese dress, and contributed to the colouring of the popular mythology, the legends which circulated from mouth to mouth +in the lively Arabian bazaars found, in like manner, an echo in the heart of China. Side by side with the mechanical efforts +of rhythmical composition which constitute the national ideal of poetry there began, during the middle period of the T’ang +dynasty (A.D. 618–907), to grow up a class of romantic tales in which the kinship of ideas with those that distinguish the +products of Arabian genius is too marked to be ignored. The invisible world appears suddenly to open before the Chinese eye; +the relations of the sexes overstep for a moment the chilling limit imposed by the traditions of Confucian decorum; a certain +degree of freedom and geniality is, in a word, for the first time and only for a brief interval infused into the intellectual +expression of a nation hitherto closely cramped in the bonds of a narrow pedantry. It <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6191"></a>Page 410</span>was at this period that the drama began to flourish, and the germs of the modern novelist’s art made their first appearance. +Among the works of imagination dating from the period in question which have come down to the present day there is perhaps +none which better illustrates the effect of an exotic fancy upon the sober and methodical authorship of the Chinese, or which +has left a more enduring mark upon the language, than the little tale which is given in translation in the following pages. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e6193">The <i>Nan k’o mêng</i>, or <i>Dream of the South Branch</i> (as the title, literally translated, should read), is the work of a writer named Li Kung-tso, who, from an incidental mention +of his own experiences in Kiangsi which appears in another of his tales, is ascertained to have lived at the beginning of +the ninth century of our era. The <i>nan k’o</i>, or South Branch, is the portion of a <i>huai</i> tree (<i>Sophora Japdonica</i>, a tree well known in China, and somewhat resembling the American locust-tree) in which the adventures narrated in the story +are supposed to have occurred; and from this narrative of a dream, recalling more than one of the incidents recounted in the +Arabian Nights, the Chinese have borrowed a metaphor to enrich the vocabulary of their literature. The equivalent of our own +phrase “the baseless fabric of a vision” is in Chinese <i>nan k’o chih mêng</i>—a dream of the south branch. + +</p><a id="d0e6213"></a><h2>Ch’un-yü Fên enters the Locust-tree</h2> +<p id="d0e6216">Ch’un-yü Fên, a native of Tung-p’ing, was by nature a gallant who had little regard for the proprieties of life, and whose +principal enjoyment was found in indulgence in wine-bibbing in the society of boon-companions. At one time he held a commission +in the army, but this he lost through his dissipated conduct, and from that time he <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6218"></a>Page 411</span>more than ever gave himself up to the pleasures of the wine-cup. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6220">One day—it was in the ninth moon of the seventh year of Chêng Yüan (A.D. 791)—after drinking heavily with a party of friends +under a wide-spreading old locust-tree near his house, he had to be carried to bed and there left to recover, his friends +saying that they would leave him while they went to bathe their feet. The moment he laid down his head he fell into a deep +slumber. In his dream appeared to him two men clothed in purple, who kneeling down informed him that they had been sent by +their master the King of Huai-an (‘Locust-tree Peace’) to request his presence. Unconsciously he rose, and, arranging his +dress, followed his visitors to the door, where he saw a varnished chariot drawn by a white horse. On each side were ranged +seven attendants, by whom he was assisted to mount, whereupon the carriage drove off, and, going out of the garden gate, passed +through a hole in the trunk of the locust-tree already spoken of. Filled with astonishment, but too much afraid to speak, +Ch’un-yü noticed that he was passing by hills and rivers, trees and roads, but of quite a different kind from those he was +accustomed to. A few miles brought them to the walls of a city, the approach to which was lined with men and vehicles, who +fell back at once the moment the order was given. Over the gate of the city was a pavilion on which was written in gold letters +“The Capital of Huai-an.” As he passed through, the guard turned out, and a mounted officer, shouting that the husband of +the King’s daughter had arrived, showed him the way into a hall where he was to rest awhile. The room contained fruits and +flowers of every description, and on the tables was laid out a profuse display of refreshments. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6222"></a>Page 412</span></p> +<p id="d0e6223">While Ch’un-yü still remained lost in astonishment, a cry was raised that the Prime Minister was coming. Ch’un-yü got up to +meet him, and the two received each other with every demonstration of politeness. + +</p><a id="d0e6225"></a><h2>He marries the King’s Daughter</h2> +<p id="d0e6228">The minister, looking at Ch’un-yü, said: “The King, my master, has brought you to this remote region in order to give his +daughter in marriage to you.” “How could I, a poor useless wretch,” replied Ch’un-yü, “have ever aspired to such honour?” +With these words both proceeded toward the audience-chamber, passing through a hall lined with soldiers, among whom, to his +great joy and surprise, Ch’un-yü recognized an old friend of his former drinking days, to whom he did not, however, then venture +to speak; and, following the Prime Minister, he was ushered into the King’s presence. The King, a man of noble bearing and +imposing stature, was dressed in plain silk, a jewelled crown reposing on his head. Ch’un-yü was so awe-stricken that he was +powerless even to look up, and the attendants on either side were obliged to remind him to make his prostrations. The King, +addressing him, said: “Your father, small as my kingdom is, did not disdain to promise that you should marry my daughter.” +Ch’un-yü could not utter a word; he merely lay prostrate on the ground. After a few moments he was taken back to his apartments, +and he busied his thoughts in trying to discover what all this meant. “My father,” he said to himself, “fought on the northern +frontier, and was taken prisoner; but whether his life was saved or not I don’t know. It may be that this affair was settled +while he was in those distant regions.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6230">That same night preparations were made for the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6232"></a>Page 413</span>marriage; and the rooms and passages were filled with damsels who passed and repassed, filling the air with the sound of their +dancing and music. They surrounded Ch’un-yü and kept up a constant fire of witty remarks, while he sat there overcome by their +grace and beauty, unable to say a word. “Do you remember,” said one of them, coming up to Ch’un-yü, “the other day when with +the Lady Ling-chi I was listening to the service in the courtyard of a temple, and while I, with all the other girls, was +sitting on the window step, you came up to us, talking nonsense, and trying to get up a flirtation? Don’t you remember how +we tied a handkerchief on the stem of a bamboo?” Then she continued: “Another time at a temple, when I threw down two gold +hairpins and an ivory box as an offering, you asked the priest to let you look at the things, and after admiring them for +a long time you turned toward me, and said that neither the gifts nor the donor were of this world; and you wanted to know +my name, and where I lived, but I wouldn’t tell you; and then you gazed on me so tenderly, and could not take your eyes off +me. You remember this, without doubt?” “I have ever treasured the recollection in my heart; how could I possibly forget it?” +was Ch’un-yü’s reply, whereat all the maidens exclaimed that they had never expected to see him in their midst on this joyful +occasion. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6234">At this moment three men came up to Ch’un-yü and stated that they had been appointed his ministers. He stepped up to one of +them and asked him if his name was not Tzŭ-hua. “It is,” was the reply; whereupon Ch’un-yü, taking him by the hands, recalled +to him their old friendship, and questioned him as to how he had found his way to this spot. He then proceeded to ask him +if Chou-pien was also here. “He is,” replied the other, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6236"></a>Page 414</span>“and holding very high office; he has often used his influence on my behalf.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6238">As they were talking, Ch’un-yü was summoned to the palace, and as he passed within, a curtain in front of him was drawn aside, +disclosing a young girl of about fourteen years of age. She was known as the Princess of the Golden Stem, and her dazzling +beauty was well in keeping with her matchless grace. + +</p><a id="d0e6240"></a><h2>He writes to his Father</h2> +<p id="d0e6243">The marriage was celebrated with all magnificence, and the young couple grew fonder from day to day. Their establishment was +kept up in princely style, their principal amusement being the chase, the King himself frequently inviting Ch’un-yü to join +him in hunting expeditions to the Tortoise-back Hill. As they were returning one day from one of these excursions, Ch’un-yü +said to the King: “On my marriage day your Majesty told me that it was my father’s desire that I should espouse your daughter. +My father was worsted in battle on the frontier, and for seventeen years we have had no news of him. If your Majesty knows +his whereabouts, I would beg permission to go and see him.” + +</p> +<p id="d0e6245">“Your father,” replied the King, “is frequently heard of; you may send him a letter; it is not necessary to go to him.” Accordingly +a letter and some presents were got ready and sent, and in due time a reply was received, in which Ch’un-yü’s father asked +many questions about his relations, his son’s occupation, but manifested no desire that the latter should come to him. + +</p><a id="d0e6247"></a><h2>He takes Office</h2> +<p id="d0e6250">One day Ch’un-yü’s wife asked him if he would not like to hold office. His answer was to the effect that he had <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6252"></a>Page 415</span>always been a rolling stone, and had no experience of official affairs, but the Princess promised to give him her assistance, +and found occasion to speak on the subject to her father. In consequence the King one day told Ch’un-yü that he was not satisfied +with the state of affairs in the south of his territory, that the present governor was old and useless, and that he would +be pleased if he would proceed thither. Ch’un-yü bowed to the King’s commands, and inwardly congratulated himself that such +good fortune should have befallen a rover like him. He was supplied with a splendid outfit, and farewell entertainments were +given in his honour. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6254">Before leaving he acknowledged to the King that he had no great confidence in his own powers, and suggested that he should +be allowed to take with him Chou-pien and Tzŭ-hua as commissioners of justice and finance. The King gave his consent, and +issued the necessary instructions. The day of departure having arrived, both the King and the Queen came to see Ch’un-yü and +his wife off, and to Ch’un-yü the King said: “The province of Nan-k’o is rich and fertile; and the inhabitants are brave and +prosperous; it is by kindness that you must rule them.” To her daughter the Queen said: “Your husband is violent and fond +of wine. The duty of a wife is to be kind and submissive. Act well toward him, and I shall have no anxiety. Nan-k’o, it is +true, is not very far—only one day’s journey; still, in parting from you my tears will flow.” Ch’un-yü and his bride waved +a farewell, and were whirled away toward their destination, reaching Nan-k’o the same evening. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6256">Once settled in the place, Ch’un-yü set himself to become thoroughly acquainted with the manners and customs of the people, +and to relieve distress. To Chou-pien and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6258"></a>Page 416</span>Tzŭ-hua he confided all questions of administration, and in the course of twenty years a great improvement was to be noticed +in the affairs of the province. The people showed their appreciation by erecting a monument to his honour, while the King +conferred upon him an estate and the dignity of a title, and in recognition of their services promoted Chou-pien and Tzŭ-hua +to very high posts. Ch’un-yü’s children also shared their father’s rewards; the two sons were given office, while the two +daughters were betrothed to members of the royal family. There remained nothing which could add to his fame and greatness. + + +</p><a id="d0e6260"></a><h2>He meets with Disasters</h2> +<p id="d0e6263">About this period the state of T’an-lo made an incursion on the province of Nan-k’o. The King at once commanded that Chou-pien +should proceed at the head of 30,000 men to repel the enemy. Chou-pien, full of confidence, attacked the foe, but sustained +a disastrous defeat, and, barely escaping with his life, returned to the capital, leaving the invaders to plunder the country +and retire. Ch’un-yü threw Chou-pien into prison, and asked the King what punishment should be visited upon him. His Majesty +granted Chou-pien his pardon; but that same month he died of disease. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6265">A few days later Ch’un-yü’s wife also fell ill and died, whereupon he begged permission to resign his post and return to Court +with his wife’s remains. This request was granted, and Tzŭ-hua was appointed in his stead. As Ch’un-yü, sad and dejected, +was leaving the city with the funeral <i>cortège</i>, he found the road lined with people giving loud expression to their grief, and almost ready to prevent his taking his departure. + +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6270"></a>Page 417</span></p><a id="d0e6271"></a><h2>He returns Home</h2> +<p id="d0e6274">As he neared the capital the King and Queen, dressed in mourning, were awaiting the bier in tears. The Princess, after a posthumous +title had been conferred upon her, was buried with great magnificence a few miles to the east of the city, while Ch’un-yü +remained in the capital, living in such state, and gaining so much influence, that he excited the King’s jealousy; and when +it was foretold, by means of signs in the heavens, that ruin threatened the kingdom, that its inhabitants would be swept away, +and that this would be the work of an alien, the prophecy seemed to point to ambitious designs on the part of Ch’un-yü, and +means were taken to keep him under restraint. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6276">Ch’un-yü, conscious that he had faithfully filled a high office for many years, felt greatly grieved by these calumnies—a +result which the King could not avoid noticing. He accordingly sent for Ch’un-yü, and said: “For more than twenty years we +have been connexions, although my poor daughter, unfortunately, has not been spared to be a companion to you in old age. Her +mother is now taking care of her children; your own home you have not seen for many years; return to see your friends; your +children will be looked after, and in three years you will see them again.” “Is not this my home? Whither else am I to go?” +was Ch’un-yü’s reply. “My friend,” the King said laughingly, “you are a human being; you don’t belong to this place.” At these +words Ch’un-yü seemed to fall into a deep swoon, and he remained unconscious for some time, after which he began to recall +some glimpses of the distant past. With tears in his eyes he begged that he might be allowed to return to his home, and, saying +farewell, he departed. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6278"></a>Page 418</span></p> +<p id="d0e6279">Outside the palace he found the same two officials in purple clothes who had led the way so many years ago. A conveyance was +also there, but this time it was a mere bullock-cart, with no outriders. He took the same road as before, and noticed the +same hills and streams. The two officials were by no means imposing this time, and when he asked how far was his destination +they continued to hum and whistle and paid no attention to him. At last they passed through an opening, and he recognized +his own village, precisely as he had left it. The two officials desired him to get down and walk up the steps before him, +where, much to his horror, he saw himself lying down in the porch. He was too much bedazed with terror to advance, but the +two officials called out his name several times, and upon this he awoke. The servants were bustling about the house, and his +two companions were still washing their feet. Everything was as he had left it, and the lifetime he had lived in his dream +had occupied only a few moments. Calling out to his two friends, he made them follow him to the locust-tree, and pointed out +the opening through which he had begun his journey in dream-land. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6281">An axe was sent for, and the interior of the trunk thrown open, whereupon a series of galleries was laid bare. At the root +of the tree a mound of earth was discovered, in shape like a city, and swarming with ants. This was the capital of the kingdom +in which he had lived in his dream. A terrace surrounded by a guard of ants was the residence of the King and Queen, two winged +insects with red heads. Twenty feet or so along another gallery was found an old tortoise-shell covered with a thick growth +of moss; it was the Tortoise-back Hill of the dream. In another direction was found a small mound of earth round <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6283"></a>Page 419</span>which was coiled a root in shape like a dragon’s tongue; it was the grave of the King’s daughter, Ch’un-yü’s wife in the vision. +As he recalled each incident of the dream he was much affected at discovering its counterpart in this nest of ants, and he +refused to allow his companions to disturb it further. They replaced everything as they had found it; but that night a storm +of wind and rain came, and next morning not a vestige of the ants was to be seen. They had all disappeared, and here was the +fulfilment of the warning in the dream, that the kingdom would be swept away. + +</p><a id="d0e6285"></a><h2>Ch’un-yü Regenerate</h2> +<p id="d0e6288">At this time Ch’un-yü had not seen Chou-pien and Tzŭ-hua for some ten days. He sent a messenger to make inquiries about them, +and the news he brought back was that Chou-pien was dead and Tzŭ-hua lying ill. The fleeting nature of man’s existence revealed +itself to him as he recalled the greatness of these two men in the ant-world. From that day he became a reformed man; drink +and dissipation were put aside. After three years had elapsed he died, thus giving effect to the promise of the ant-king that +he should see his children once more at the end of three years. + +</p><a id="d0e6290"></a><h2>Why the Jung Tribe have Heads of Dogs</h2> +<p id="d0e6293">The wave of conquest which swept from north to south in the earliest periods of Chinese history<a id="d0e6295src" href="#d0e6295" class="noteref">1</a> left on its way, like small islands in the ocean, certain remnants of aboriginal tribes which survived and continued to exist +despite the sustained hostile attitude of the flood of alien settlers around them. When stationed at Foochow <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6298"></a>Page 420</span>I saw the settlements of one of these tribes which lived in the mountainous country not very many miles inland from that place. +They were those of the Jung tribe, the members of which wore on their heads a large and peculiar headgear constructed of bamboo +splints resting on a peg inserted in the chignon at the back of the head, the weight of the structure in front being counterbalanced +by a pad, serving as a weight, attached to the end of the splints, which projected as far down as the middle of the shoulders. +This framework was covered by a mantilla of red cloth which, when not rolled up, concealed the whole head and face, The following +legend, related to me on the spot, explains the origin of this unusual headdress. + +</p><a id="d0e6300"></a><h2>Two Tribes at War</h2> +<p id="d0e6303">In early times the Chief of a Chinese tribe (another version says an Emperor of China) was at war with the Chief of another +tribe who came to attack his territory from the west. The Western Chief so badly defeated the Chinese army that none of the +generals or soldiers could be induced to renew hostilities and endeavour to drive the enemy back to his own country. This +distressed the Chinese Chief very much. As a last resort he issued a proclamation promising his daughter in marriage to anyone +who would bring him the head of his enemy, the Chief of the West. + +</p><a id="d0e6305"></a><h2>The Chief’s Promise</h2> +<p id="d0e6308">The people in the palace talked much of this promise made by the Chief, and their conversation was listened to by a fine large +white dog belonging to one of the generals. This dog, having pondered the matter well, waited until <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6310"></a>Page 421</span>midnight and then stole over to the tent of the enemy Chief. The latter, as well as his guard, was asleep; or, if the guard +was not, the dog succeeded in avoiding him in the darkness. Entering the tent, the dog gnawed through the Chief’s neck and +carried his head off in his mouth. At dawn he placed it at the Chinese Chief’s feet, and waited for his reward. The Chief +was soon able to verify the fact that his enemy had been slain, for the headless body had caused so much consternation in +the hostile army that it had already begun to retreat from Chinese territory. + +</p><a id="d0e6312"></a><h2>A Strange Contract</h2> +<p id="d0e6315">The dog then reminded the Chief of his promise, and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage. “But how,” said the Chief, +“can I possibly marry my daughter to a dog?” “Well,” replied the dog, “will you agree to her marrying me if I change myself +into a man?” This seemed a safe promise to make, and the Chief agreed. The dog then stipulated that he should be placed under +a large bell and that no one should move it or look into it for a space of 280 days. + +</p><a id="d0e6317"></a><h2>The Chiefs Curiosity</h2> +<p id="d0e6320">This was done, and for 279 days the bell remained unmoved, but on the 280th day the Chief could restrain his curiosity no +longer, and tilting up the bell saw that the dog had changed into a man all except his head, the last day being required to +complete the transformation. However, the spell was now broken, and the result was a man with a dog’s head. Since it was the +Chief’s fault that, through his over-inquisitiveness, the dog could not become altogether a man, he was obliged to keep his +promise, and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6322"></a>Page 422</span>the wedding duly took place, the bridegroom’s head being veiled for the occasion by a red mantilla. + +</p><a id="d0e6324"></a><h2>The Origin of a Custom</h2> +<p id="d0e6327">Unfortunately the fruit of the union took more after their father than their mother, and though comely of limb had exceedingly +ugly features.<a id="d0e6329src" href="#d0e6329" class="noteref">2</a> They were therefore obliged to continue to wear the head-covering adopted by their father at the marriage ceremony, and this +became so much an integral part of the tribal costume that not only has it been worn ever since by their descendants, but +a change of headgear has become synonymous with a change of husbands or a divorce. One account says that at the original bridal +ceremony the bride wore the red mantilla to prevent her seeing her husband’s ugly features, and that is why the headdress +is worn by the women and not by the men, or more generally by the former than the latter, though others say that it was originally +worn by the ugly children of both sexes. + +</p><a id="d0e6335"></a><h2>And of a Worship</h2> +<p id="d0e6338">This legend explains the dog-worship of the Jung tribe, which now consists of four clans, with a separate surname (Lei, Chung, +Lang, and Pan) to each, has a language of its own, and does not intermarry with the Foochow natives. At about the time of +the old Chinese New Year (somewhere in February) they paint a large figure of a dog on a screen and worship it, saying it +is their ancestor who was victorious over the Western invader. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6340"></a>Page 423</span></p><a id="d0e6341"></a><h2>Conclusion</h2> +<p id="d0e6344">If the greatness of nations is to be judged by the greatness of their myths (using the word ‘great’ in the sense of world-famous +and of perennial influence), there would be few great nations, and China would not be one of them. As stated in an earlier +chapter, the design has been to give an account of Chinese myth as it is, and not as it might have been under imaginary conditions. +But for the Chinese philosophers we should in all probability have had more Chinese myths, but philosophy is unifying, and +without it we might have had a break-up of China and perhaps no myths at all, or none specially belonging to China as a whole +and separate independent nation. Had there been great, world-stirring myths there could hardly but have been also more wars, +more cruelty, more wounding of the “heart that weeps and trembles,” more saturating of the earth with human blood. It is not +a small thing to have conquered myth with philosophy, especially at a time when the Western world was still steeped in the +grossest superstition. Therefore we may be thankful that the Chinese were and are a peace-loving, sober, agricultural, industrial, +non-military, non-priest-ridden, literary, and philosophical people, and that we have instead of great myths a great people. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e6346">But if the real test of greatness is purity and justice, then Chinese myth must be placed among the greatest of all; for it +is not obscene, and it is invariably just. + +</p> +<p></p> +<hr class="noteseparator"> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e6295" href="#d0e6295src" class="noteref">1</a> See Chapter I. +</p> +</div> +<div class="notetext"> +<p class="notetext"><a id="d0e6329" href="#d0e6329src" class="noteref">2</a> Compare the legend of the tailed Miao Tzŭ tribes named Yao, ‘mountain-dogs’ or ‘jackals,’ living on the mountain ranges in +the north-west of Kuangtung Province, related in the <i>Jih chi so chih</i>. +</p> +</div><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6348"></a>Page 425</span><a id="d0e6350"></a><h1>Glossary & Index</h1><a id="d0e6353"></a><h2>The Pronunciation of Chinese Words</h2> +<p id="d0e6356">During the course of Chinese history the restriction of intercourse due to mountain-chains or other natural obstacles between +various tribes or divisions of the Chinese people led to the birth of a number of families of languages, which again became +the parents of numerous local dialects. These dialects have in most cases restricted ranges, so that that of one district +may be partially or wholly unintelligible to the natives of another situated at a distance of only a hundred miles or less. + + +</p> +<p id="d0e6358">The Court or Government language is that spoken in Peking and the metropolitan district, and is the language of official communication +throughout the country. Though neither the oldest nor the purest Chinese dialect, it seems destined more than any other to +come into universal use in China. The natives of each province or district will of course continue to speak to each other +in their own particular dialect, and foreign missionaries or merchants, for example, whose special duties or transactions +are connected with special districts will naturally learn and use the dialects of those districts; but as a means of intercommunication +generally between natives of different provinces, or between natives and foreigners, the Court language seems likely to continue +in use and to spread more and more over the whole country. It is to this that the following remarks apply. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6360">The essentials of correct pronunciation of Chinese are accuracy of sound, tone, and rhythm. + +</p><a id="d0e6362"></a><h2>Sound</h2> +<p id="d0e6365"><span class="smallcaps">Vowels and Diphthongs</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e6369"><i>a</i> as in <i>father</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6376"><i>ai</i> as in Italian <i>amái</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6383"><i>ao</i>. Italian <i>ao</i> in <i>Aosta</i>: sometimes <i>á-oo,</i> the <i>au</i> in <i>cauto</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6402"><i>e</i> in <i>eh</i>, <i>en</i>, as in <i>yet</i>, <i>lens</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6418"><i>ei</i>. Nearly <i>ey</i> in <i>grey</i>, but more as in Italian <i>lei</i>, <i>contei</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6434"><i>ê</i>. The vowel-sound in <i>lurk</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6441"><i>êi</i>. The foregoing <i>ê</i> followed enclitically by <i>y</i>. <i>Money</i> without the <i>n</i> = <i>mêi</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6460"><i>êrh.</i> The <i>urr</i> in <i>purr</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6470"><i>i</i>. As a single or final syllable the vowel-sound in <i>ease</i>, <i>tree</i>; in <i>ih</i>, <i>in</i>, <i>ing</i>, as in <i>chick</i>, <i>thing</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6495"><i>ia</i> generally as in the Italian <i>Maria</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6502"><i>iai</i>. The <i>iai</i> in the Italian <i>vecchiaia</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6512"><i>iao</i> as in <i>ia</i> and <i>ao</i>, with the terminal peculiarity of the latter. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6522"><i>ie</i> as in the Italian <i>siesta</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6529"><i>io</i>. The French <i>io</i> in <i>pioche</i>. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6539"></a>Page 426</span></p> +<p id="d0e6540"><i>iu</i> as a final, longer than the English <i>ew</i>. In <i>liu, niu</i>, almost <i>leyew, neyew</i>. +In <i>chiung, hsiung, iung</i>, is <i>eeyong</i> (<i>ō</i> in <i>roll</i>). + +</p> +<p id="d0e6565"><i>o.</i> Between vowel-sound in <i>awe</i> and that in <i>roll</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6575"><i>ou.</i> Really <i>êō</i>; <i>ou</i> in <i>round</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6588"><i>ü.</i> The vowel-sound in the French <i>tu, eût</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6595"><i>üa.</i> Only in <i>üan</i>, which in some tones is <i>üen</i>. The <i>ū</i> as above; the <i>an</i> as in <i>antic</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6614"><i>üe</i>. The vowel-sounds in the French <i>tu es</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6621"><i>üo</i>. A disputed sound, used, if at all, interchangeably with <i>io</i> in certain syllables. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6628"><i>u</i>. The <i>oo</i> in <i>too</i>; in <i>un</i> and <i>ung</i> as in the Italian <i>punto</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6647"><i>ua</i>. Nearly <i>ooa</i>, in many instances contracting to <i>wa</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6657"><i>uai</i> as in the Italian <i>guai</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6664"><i>uei.</i> The vowel-sounds in the French <i>jouer</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6671"><i>uê.</i> Only in final <i>uên</i> = <i>ú-ŭn</i>; frequently <i>wên</i> or <i>wun</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6687"><i>ui.</i> The vowel-sounds in <i>screwy</i>; in some tones <i>uei</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6697"><i>uo.</i> The Italian <i>uo</i> in <i>fuori</i>; often <i>wo</i>, and at times nearly <i>ŏō</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6713"><i>ŭ.</i> Between the <i>i</i> in <i>bit</i> and the <i>u</i> in <i>shut</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6729"><span class="smallcaps">Consonants</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e6733"><i>ch</i> as in <i>chair</i>; but before <i>ih</i> softened to <i>dj</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6746"><i>ch’</i>. A strong breathing. <i>Mu</i>ch-ha<i>rm</i> without the italicized letters = <i>ch’a</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6759"><i>f</i> as in farm. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6763"><i>h</i> as <i>ch</i> in Scotch <i>loch</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6773"><i>hs</i>. A slight aspirate preceding and modifying the sibilant, which is, however, the stronger of the two consonants; <i>e.g. hsing</i> = <i>hissing</i> without the first <i>i</i>, + +</p> +<p id="d0e6786"><i>j</i>. Nearly the French <i>j</i> in <i>jaune</i>; the English <i>s</i> in <i>fusion</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6802"><i>k</i>. <i>c</i> in <i>car</i>, <i>k</i> in <i>king</i>; but when following other sounds often softened to <i>g</i> in <i>go, gate</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6824"><i>k’</i>. The aspirate as in <i>ch’</i>. <i>Ki</i>ck-ha<i>rd</i> without the italicized letters = <i>k’a</i>; and <i>ki</i>ck-he<i>r</i> == <i>k’ê</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6849"><i>l</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6853"><i>m</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6857"><i>n</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6861"><i>ng</i>. The italicized letters in the French mo<i>n ga</i>lant = <i>nga</i>; mo<i>n gai</i>llard = <i>ngai</i>; so<i>n go</i>sier = <i>ngo</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6883"><i>p</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6887"><i>p’</i> The Irish pronunciation of <i>p</i>arty, <i>p</i>arliament. <i>Sla</i>p-ha<i>rd</i> without the italicized letters = <i>p’a</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6906"><i>s</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6910"><i>sh</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6914"><i>ss</i>. Only in <i>ssŭ</i>. The object of employing <i>ss</i> is to fix attention on the peculiar vowel-sound <i>ŭ</i> (see above). + +</p> +<p id="d0e6927"><i>t</i> as in English. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6931"><i>t’</i> The Irish <i>t</i> in <i>t</i>orment. <i>Hi</i>t-ha<i>rd</i> without the italicized letters = <i>t’a</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6950"><i>ts</i> as in <i>jetsam</i>; after another word softened to <i>ds</i> in <i>gladsome</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6963"><i>ts’.</i> The aspirate intervening, as in <i>ch’</i>, etc. <i>Be</i>ts-ha<i>rd</i> without the italicized letters = <i>ts’a</i>. +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e6979"></a>Page 427</span></p> +<p id="d0e6980"><i>tz</i>. Employed to mark the peculiarity of the final <i>ŭ</i>; hardly of greater power than <i>ts</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e6990"><i>tz’</i> like <i>ts’</i>. This, <i>tz</i>, and <i>ss</i> used only before <i>ŭ</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e7006"><i>w</i> as in English; but very faint, or even non-existent, before <i>ü</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e7013"><i>y</i> as in English; but very faint before <i>i</i> or <i>ü</i>. + +</p><a id="d0e7023"></a><h2>Tone</h2> +<p id="d0e7026">The correct pronunciation of the sound (<i>yin</i>) is not sufficient to make a Chinese spoken word intelligible. Unless the tone (<i>shêng</i>), or musical note, is simultaneously correctly given, either the wrong meaning or no meaning at all will be conveyed. The +tone is the key in which the voice is pitched. Accent is a ‘song added to,’ and tone is emphasized accent. The number of these +tones differs in the different dialects. In Pekingese there are now four. They are best indicated in transliteration by numbers +added to the sound, thus: + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p id="d0e7035"><i>pa</i> (1) <i>pa</i> (2) <i>pa</i> (3) <i>pa</i> (4) +</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7049">To say, for example, <i>pa</i> (3) instead of <i>pa</i> (1) would be as great a mistake as to say ‘grasp’ instead of ‘trumpet.’ Correctness of tone cannot be learnt except by oral +instruction. + +</p><a id="d0e7057"></a><h2>Rhythm</h2> +<p id="d0e7060">What tone is to the individual sound rhythm is to the sentence. This also, together with proper appreciation of the mutual +modifications of tone and rhythm, can be correctly acquired only by oral instruction. + + + + +</p><a id="d0e7062"></a><h2>A</h2> +<p id="d0e7065"><span class="smallcaps">A Zie</span>. In Miao legend of the creation, <a id="d0e7069" href="#d0e6114">407</a>–<a id="d0e7072" href="#d0e6182">408</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7075"><span class="smallcaps">Absolute</span>. Of Lieh Tzŭ, <a id="d0e7079" href="#d0e1569">90</a>–<a id="d0e7082" href="#d0e1611">91</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7085"><span class="smallcaps">Accessory Institutions</span>, <a id="d0e7089" href="#d0e852">37</a>–<a id="d0e7092" href="#d0e860">38</a>; +education, <a id="d0e7095" href="#d0e852">37</a>–<a id="d0e7098" href="#d0e860">38</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7101"><span class="smallcaps">Address, Forms of</span>, <a id="d0e7105" href="#d0e908">42</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7108"><span class="smallcaps">Administration</span>. General, <a id="d0e7112" href="#d0e721">28</a> <i>sq.</i>; +in Feudal Period, <a id="d0e7118" href="#d0e721">28</a>–<a id="d0e7121" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +in Monarchical Period, <a id="d0e7124" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +in Republican Period, <a id="d0e7127" href="#d0e754">30</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7130"><span class="smallcaps">Æsthetic Products</span>, <a id="d0e7134" href="#d0e1105">59</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7137"><span class="smallcaps">Age for Marriage</span>, <a id="d0e7141" href="#d0e671">23</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7144"><span class="smallcaps">Agents</span>. +The Three, <a id="d0e7148" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +the Three Great Emperor Agents, <a id="d0e7151" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +the Three Supreme Agents, <a id="d0e7154" href="#d0e2196">125</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7157"><span class="smallcaps">Agnosticism</span>. Confucius and, <a id="d0e7161" href="#d0e1548">88</a>–<a id="d0e7164" href="#d0e1560">89</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7167"><span class="smallcaps">Agriculture</span>, <a id="d0e7171" href="#d0e997">49</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e7177" href="#d0e1011">50</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7180"><span class="smallcaps">Agriculturists</span>. <i>Nung</i>; the second class of the people, <a id="d0e7187" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7190"><span class="smallcaps">Air</span>. +Sovereign of the Eastern, <a id="d0e7194" href="#d0e2395">136</a>–<a id="d0e7197" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +sovereign of the Western, <a id="d0e7200" href="#d0e2425">137</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7203"><span class="smallcaps">Akkadia</span>. Supposed origin of the Chinese in, <a id="d0e7207" href="#d0e556">13</a>, <a id="d0e7210" href="#d0e581">15</a>, <a id="d0e7213" href="#d0e609">17</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7216"><span class="smallcaps">All Souls’ Day</span>. Festival of (Mid-autumn Festival), <a id="d0e7220" href="#d0e830">35</a>, <a id="d0e7223" href="#d0e938">44</a>–<a id="d0e7226" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7229"><span class="smallcaps">Alligator, The Spiritual</span>, <a id="d0e7233" href="#d0e3637">223</a>–<a id="d0e7236" href="#d0e3648">224</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7239"><span class="smallcaps">Amita, Amida</span>. O-mi-t’o Fo; Buddha, <a id="d0e7243" href="#d0e2073">119</a>, <a id="d0e7246" href="#d0e2083">120</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e7249"></a>Page 428</span></p> +<p id="d0e7250"><span class="smallcaps">Amitabha</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Amita</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7260"><span class="smallcaps">An-kung</span>. God of Sailors, <a id="d0e7264" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7267"><span class="smallcaps">Ancestor-worship</span>. +The origin of Chinese religion, <a id="d0e7271" href="#d0e1029">52</a>; +by rulers, <a id="d0e7274" href="#d0e1682">94</a>; +ordinary, <a id="d0e7277" href="#d0e1765">100</a>; +and Buddhism, <a id="d0e7280" href="#d0e2059">118</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7283"><span class="smallcaps">Ao</span>. A sea-monster; raises the scholar K’uei on its back, <a id="d0e7287" href="#d0e1890">106</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7290"><span class="smallcaps">Ao Ch’in</span>. A Dragon-king; and the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e7294" href="#d0e3524">214</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7300"><span class="smallcaps">Ao Ping</span>. Third son of Lung Wang, <a id="d0e7304" href="#d0e4850">308</a>–<a id="d0e7307" href="#d0e4875">309</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7310"><span class="smallcaps">Aquila</span>. Star; legend regarding Vega and, <a id="d0e7314" href="#d0e3188">189</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7320"><span class="smallcaps">Archer, The Divine</span>, <a id="d0e7324" href="#d0e3051">180</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7330"><span class="smallcaps">Armless People</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e7334" href="#d0e5872">388</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7337"><span class="smallcaps">Artisans</span>. <i>Kung</i>; the third class of the people, <a id="d0e7344" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7347"><span class="smallcaps">Arts</span>, <a id="d0e7351" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7354"><span class="smallcaps">Astrological Superstitions</span>, <a id="d0e7358" href="#d0e3005">176</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7361"><span class="smallcaps">Asuras</span>. Buddhist demons; enemies of Dêvas, <a id="d0e7365" href="#d0e3288">198</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7368"><span class="smallcaps">August</span>. The Pure August One; Yü Huang, <a id="d0e7372" href="#d0e2309">130</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e7375"></a><h2>B</h2> +<p id="d0e7378"><span class="smallcaps">Barge of Mercy, Taoist</span>, <a id="d0e7382" href="#d0e2762">160</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7385"><span class="smallcaps">Beards</span>. Little worn, <a id="d0e7389" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7392"><span class="smallcaps">Beginning</span>. +Of Form, <a id="d0e7396" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +of Pneuma, <a id="d0e7399" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +the Great, <a id="d0e7402" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +of Substance, <a id="d0e7405" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7408"><span class="smallcaps">Bell, Casting of the Great</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e7412" href="#d0e5947">394</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7418"><span class="smallcaps">Bezoar</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Niu Huang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7428"><span class="smallcaps">Bible</span>. Parallelisms of, with Chinese religious and mythological beliefs, <a id="d0e7432" href="#d0e1349">79</a> <i>n.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7438">“<span class="smallcaps">Biographies of the Gods</span>.” <i>Shên hsien chuan</i>, by Ko Hung, <a id="d0e7446" href="#d0e1349">79</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7449"><span class="smallcaps">Bird</span>. +Of Dawn, <a id="d0e7453" href="#d0e3138">186</a>–<a id="d0e7456" href="#d0e3157">187</a>; +the one-legged, <a id="d0e7459" href="#d0e3418">206</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7462"><span class="smallcaps">Birth of the Soul</span>, <a id="d0e7466" href="#d0e1662">93</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7469"><span class="smallcaps">Blackwater River, Demons of</span>. In the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e7476" href="#d0e5469">352</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7479"><span class="smallcaps">Blank, The Great</span>, <a id="d0e7483" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7486"><span class="smallcaps">Blower</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên Ch’i</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7496"><span class="smallcaps">Blue Dragon</span>. Ch’ing Lung; spirit of the Blue Dragon Star; guardian of Taoist temple gates, <a id="d0e7500" href="#d0e2550">146</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7506"><span class="smallcaps">Blue River</span>. Hsüan Chuang exposed in, as an infant, <a id="d0e7510" href="#d0e5301">337</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7513">“<span class="smallcaps">Book of Ceremonial</span>.” <i>Li chi</i>, <a id="d0e7521" href="#d0e1816">103</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7524">“<span class="smallcaps">Book of History</span>,” <a id="d0e7529" href="#d0e1414">84</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7532"><span class="smallcaps">Brothers, The Three Musical</span>, <a id="d0e7536" href="#d0e2619">151</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7539"><span class="smallcaps">Buddha</span>. +Ju Lai, <a id="d0e7543" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +and the Law and the Priesthood, <a id="d0e7546" href="#d0e2073">119</a>; +Tathagata, <a id="d0e7549" href="#d0e2073">119</a>; +Fo Pao, one of the <i>San Pao</i>, <a id="d0e7555" href="#d0e2073">119</a>; +Shâkyamuni, <a id="d0e7558" href="#d0e2073">119</a>; +Yüeh-shih Fo, the Master-Physician, <a id="d0e7561" href="#d0e2083">120</a>; +Miao Shan (Kuan Yin) becomes a, <a id="d0e7564" href="#d0e4328">271</a>; +his jumping competition with Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e7567" href="#d0e5214">332</a>–<a id="d0e7570" href="#d0e5234">333</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7573"><span class="smallcaps">Buddhism</span>. +As a Chinese religion, <a id="d0e7577" href="#d0e1038">53</a>; +effect on mythology, <a id="d0e7580" href="#d0e1133">62</a>–<a id="d0e7583" href="#d0e1143">63</a>; +one of the three religions, <a id="d0e7586" href="#d0e1765">100</a>; +brought to China, <a id="d0e7589" href="#d0e2059">118</a>; +Mahayanistic form of, <a id="d0e7592" href="#d0e2059">118</a>; +origin in ancestor-worship, <a id="d0e7595" href="#d0e2059">118</a>; +and Taoism, <a id="d0e7598" href="#d0e2059">118</a>; +and Confucianism, <a id="d0e7601" href="#d0e2059">118</a>; +Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood, <a id="d0e7604" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7607"><span class="smallcaps">Buddhist-s</span>. +Account of P’an Ku, <a id="d0e7611" href="#d0e1296">77</a>; +guardians of temple gates, <a id="d0e7614" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +evil dragons, <a id="d0e7617" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +number of dragons, <a id="d0e7620" href="#d0e3463">209</a>; +saviour of the Buddhists in Slow-carts Country, <a id="d0e7623" href="#d0e5487">353</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7629"><span class="smallcaps">Buffalo</span>. Of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e7633" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e7636" href="#d0e2358">134</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7639"><span class="smallcaps">Burial, Methods of</span>, <a id="d0e7643" href="#d0e871">39</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7649"><span class="smallcaps">Bushel Mother</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tou Mu</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7659"><span class="smallcaps">Butterfly</span>. Chuang Tzŭ and the, <a id="d0e7663" href="#d0e1611">91</a> <i>and n.</i>, <a id="d0e7669" href="#d0e2577">148</a>–<a id="d0e7672" href="#d0e2588">149</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e7675"></a><h2>C</h2> +<p id="d0e7678">“<span class="smallcaps">Canon of Changes</span>.” <i>See</i> I <span class="smallcaps">Ching</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7689"><span class="smallcaps">Capture, Marriage By</span>, <a id="d0e7693" href="#d0e655">22</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7696"><span class="smallcaps">Carp</span>. Ch’ên Kuang-jui and the released, <a id="d0e7700" href="#d0e5282">336</a>, <a id="d0e7703" href="#d0e5313">339</a>–<a id="d0e7706" href="#d0e5329">340</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7709"><span class="smallcaps">Cart, Land of the Flying</span>, <a id="d0e7713" href="#d0e5913">391</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7716"><span class="smallcaps">Cask of Pearls</span>. Wang Tan and the, <a id="d0e7720" href="#d0e2321">131</a>–<a id="d0e7723" href="#d0e2330">132</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7726"><span class="smallcaps">Cause-s</span>. +First, Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun, <a id="d0e7730" href="#d0e2265">127</a>; +Superior, Medium, and Inferior, <a id="d0e7733" href="#d0e2236">126</a>; +the Three, <a id="d0e7736" href="#d0e2196">125</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7742"><span class="smallcaps">Celestial Ministries</span>, <a id="d0e7746" href="#d0e1738">98</a>–<a id="d0e7749" href="#d0e1746">99</a>, <a id="d0e7752" href="#d0e2828">164</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7755"><span class="smallcaps">Cemeteries, Chinese</span>, <a id="d0e7759" href="#d0e896">41</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7762"><span class="smallcaps">Ceremonial Institutions</span>. +Changes in marriage ceremonial, <a id="d0e7766" href="#d0e675">24</a>–<a id="d0e7769" href="#d0e684">25</a>; +exacting nature of funeral rites, <a id="d0e7772" href="#d0e896">41</a>; +codes of ceremonial, <a id="d0e7775" href="#d0e908">42</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e7778"></a>Page 429</span></p> +<p id="d0e7779"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’an-yü</span>. Daughter of Têng Chiu-kung; helps her father, <a id="d0e7783" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +marries T’u Hsing-sun, <a id="d0e7786" href="#d0e2568">147</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7789"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Fei</span>. Chang I Tê, the meat-seller; and Kuan Yü, <a id="d0e7793" href="#d0e2013">114</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7799"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Hsien</span>. The patron of child-bearing women, <a id="d0e7803" href="#d0e3018">177</a> <i>sq.</i>; +shoots the Heavenly Dog, <a id="d0e7809" href="#d0e3018">177</a>–<a id="d0e7812" href="#d0e3030">178</a>; +spirit of the star Chang, <a id="d0e7815" href="#d0e3030">178</a>–<a id="d0e7818" href="#d0e3036">179</a>; +origin of worship of, <a id="d0e7821" href="#d0e3030">178</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7824"><span class="smallcaps">Chang I Tê</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chang Fei</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7834"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Kuei-fang</span>. Defeated by No-cha, <a id="d0e7838" href="#d0e2657">153</a>–<a id="d0e7841" href="#d0e2672">154</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7844"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Kuo</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e7848" href="#d0e4584">288</a>, <a id="d0e7851" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e7854" href="#d0e4673">294</a>–<a id="d0e7857" href="#d0e4683">295</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7860"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Lao</span>. The old priest who rescued the infant son of Ch’ên Kuang-jui, <a id="d0e7864" href="#d0e5301">337</a>–<a id="d0e7867" href="#d0e5306">338</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7870"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ang Ô</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hêng Ô</span>. Called T’ai-yin Huang-chün and Yüeh-fu Ch’ang Ô; +the younger sister of the Spirit of the Waters, <a id="d0e7877" href="#d0e3036">179</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Shên I marries, <a id="d0e7883" href="#d0e3080">182</a>; +eats pill of immortality, <a id="d0e7886" href="#d0e3104">184</a>–<a id="d0e7889" href="#d0e3118">185</a>; +flies to the moon, <a id="d0e7892" href="#d0e3118">185</a>; +and the white rabbit, <a id="d0e7895" href="#d0e3118">185</a>; +changed to a toad, <a id="d0e7898" href="#d0e3005">176</a>, <a id="d0e7901" href="#d0e3166">188</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7904"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Shao</span>. +His fight with Nan-chi Hsien-wêng, <a id="d0e7908" href="#d0e2734">158</a>–<a id="d0e7911" href="#d0e2753">159</a>; +defeated by White Crane Youth, <a id="d0e7914" href="#d0e2753">159</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7917"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Tao-ling</span>. The first Taiost pope, <a id="d0e7921" href="#d0e2438">138</a> <i>sq.</i>; +finds ancient writings, <a id="d0e7927" href="#d0e2438">138</a>–<a id="d0e7930" href="#d0e2453">139</a>; +founder of modern Taoism, <a id="d0e7933" href="#d0e2453">139</a>; +and pills of immortality, <a id="d0e7936" href="#d0e2453">139</a>, <a id="d0e7939" href="#d0e2462">140</a>; +and talismans, <a id="d0e7942" href="#d0e2453">139</a>; +a ‘rice-thief,’ <a id="d0e7945" href="#d0e2453">139</a>; +his disciple, Wang Ch’ang, <a id="d0e7948" href="#d0e2462">140</a>, <a id="d0e7951" href="#d0e2470">141</a>, <a id="d0e7954" href="#d0e3544">216</a>; +Chao Shêng plucks the peaches for, <a id="d0e7957" href="#d0e2462">140</a>–<a id="d0e7960" href="#d0e2470">141</a>; +the Heavenly Teacher, <a id="d0e7963" href="#d0e2470">141</a>; +Vicegerent of Pearly Emperor, <a id="d0e7966" href="#d0e2470">141</a>; +Commander-in-Chief of the hosts of Taoism, <a id="d0e7969" href="#d0e2470">141</a>; +his descendants, <a id="d0e7972" href="#d0e2480">142</a>; +and the dragon, <a id="d0e7975" href="#d0e3544">216</a>–<a id="d0e7978" href="#d0e3556">217</a>; +and the Spirits of the Well, <a id="d0e7981" href="#d0e3544">216</a>–<a id="d0e7984" href="#d0e3556">217</a>; +and the hunter, <a id="d0e7987" href="#d0e3556">217</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e7990"><span class="smallcaps">Chang T’ien-shih</span>. Master of the Taoists; +Emperor Li Shih-min and, <a id="d0e7994" href="#d0e3940">243</a> <i>sq.</i>; +causes death of the five graduates, <a id="d0e8000" href="#d0e3956">244</a>; +gives magic objects to graduates, <a id="d0e8003" href="#d0e3967">245</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8006"><span class="smallcaps">Chang Ya</span>. The God of Tzŭ T’ung <a id="d0e8010" href="#d0e1854">104</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8016"><span class="smallcaps">Change, The Great</span>, <a id="d0e8020" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8023">“<span class="smallcaps">Changes, The Canon of</span>.” <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">I Ching</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8034"><span class="smallcaps">Chao Chên</span>. Minister to Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e8038" href="#d0e4064">253</a>, <a id="d0e8041" href="#d0e4126">257</a>, <a id="d0e8044" href="#d0e4431">277</a>, <a id="d0e8047" href="#d0e4463">279</a>–<a id="d0e8050" href="#d0e4481">280</a>, <a id="d0e8053" href="#d0e4507">283</a>; +becomes Emperor, <a id="d0e8056" href="#d0e4540">285</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8059"><span class="smallcaps">Chao K’uei</span>. Marries Miao Ch’ing, <a id="d0e8063" href="#d0e4135">258</a>; +conspires against Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e8066" href="#d0e4431">277</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8072"><span class="smallcaps">Chao Kung-ming</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ts’ai Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8082"><span class="smallcaps">Chao Shêng</span>. Plucks the peaches, <a id="d0e8086" href="#d0e2462">140</a>–<a id="d0e8089" href="#d0e2470">141</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8092"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ao Tu</span>. A watchman; +Li T’ieh-kuai and, <a id="d0e8096" href="#d0e4629">291</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8099"><span class="smallcaps">Chao Yen</span>. His connexion with Shou Hsing, <a id="d0e8103" href="#d0e2945">172</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8106"><span class="smallcaps">Chaos</span>. Evolution of, and <i>i tu</i>, <a id="d0e8113" href="#d0e1569">90</a>–<a id="d0e8116" href="#d0e1611">91</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8119"><span class="smallcaps">Characteristics</span>. Emotional, intellectual, and physical, of the Chinese, <a id="d0e8123" href="#d0e648">21</a>–<a id="d0e8126" href="#d0e655">22</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8129"><span class="smallcaps">Charms</span>. Use of, prevalent, <a id="d0e8133" href="#d0e1047">54</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8136"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ê</span>. And the fox, <a id="d0e8140" href="#d0e5786">379</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8146"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên</span>. The Officials; the first class of the people, <a id="d0e8150" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8153"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên</span>. A Buddhist nun; collects subscriptions for casting an image of Buddha; +and the maniac’s mite, <a id="d0e8157" href="#d0e6009">401</a>–<a id="d0e8160" href="#d0e6018">402</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8163"><span class="smallcaps">Chên, Mr</span>. A fox; +and Chia Tzŭ-lung, <a id="d0e8167" href="#d0e5801">381</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8173"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên Kuang-jui</span>. A graduate of Hai Chou, <a id="d0e8177" href="#d0e5282">336</a>; +appointed Governor of Chiang Chou, <a id="d0e8180" href="#d0e5282">336</a>; +and the released carp, <a id="d0e8183" href="#d0e5282">336</a>, <a id="d0e8186" href="#d0e5313">339</a>–<a id="d0e8189" href="#d0e5329">340</a>; +murder of, by Liu Hung, <a id="d0e8192" href="#d0e5301">337</a>; +his infant son exposed on the Blue River, <a id="d0e8195" href="#d0e5301">337</a>; +his murderer executed, <a id="d0e8198" href="#d0e5313">339</a>; +saved by Lung Wang, <a id="d0e8201" href="#d0e5313">339</a>–<a id="d0e8204" href="#d0e5329">340</a>; +is reunited with his family, <a id="d0e8207" href="#d0e5329">340</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hsüan Chuang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8216"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên Ch’i</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Ha</span>. The Blower, <a id="d0e8223" href="#d0e2537">145</a>; +his battle with the Snorter, <a id="d0e8226" href="#d0e2537">145</a>–<a id="d0e8229" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +speared by Huang Fei-hu, <a id="d0e8232" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e8235" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +appointed guardian of Buddhist temple gates, <a id="d0e8238" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +overthrows Têng Chiu-kung, <a id="d0e8241" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8244"><span class="smallcaps">Chên-jên</span>. The Perfect Man, or Hero, <a id="d0e8248" href="#d0e2196">125</a>, <a id="d0e8251" href="#d0e2371">135</a>–<a id="d0e8254" href="#d0e2395">136</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8257"><span class="smallcaps">Chên-shui T’a</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yü Ch’üan Shan T’a</span> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e8267"></a>Page 430</span></p> +<p id="d0e8268"><span class="smallcaps">Chêng Chêng-ch’ang</span>. Choir-mistress in Nunnery of the White Bird, <a id="d0e8272" href="#d0e4184">261</a>, <a id="d0e8275" href="#d0e4211">263</a>–<a id="d0e8278" href="#d0e4221">264</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8281"><span class="smallcaps">Chêng Lung</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hêng</span>. The Snorter, <a id="d0e8288" href="#d0e2537">145</a>; +instructed by Tu Ô, <a id="d0e8291" href="#d0e2537">145</a>; +his battle with the Blower, <a id="d0e8294" href="#d0e2537">145</a>–<a id="d0e8297" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +killed by Chin Ta-shêng, <a id="d0e8300" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e8303" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +appointed guardian of the Buddhist temple gates, <a id="d0e8306" href="#d0e2550">146</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8309"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’êng Tsung</span>. Emperor; +and the <i>San Yüan</i>, <a id="d0e8316" href="#d0e2265">127</a>; +and Yü Huang, <a id="d0e8319" href="#d0e2309">130</a>–<a id="d0e8322" href="#d0e2321">131</a>; +and the casket of pearls, <a id="d0e8325" href="#d0e2321">131</a>–<a id="d0e8328" href="#d0e2330">132</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8331"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’êng-huang</span>, God of the City, <a id="d0e8335" href="#d0e2844">165</a>–<a id="d0e8338" href="#d0e2870">166</a>, <a id="d0e8341" href="#d0e6018">402</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8347"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’i</span>. Pneuma, <a id="d0e8351" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +Primary Matter, <a id="d0e8354" href="#d0e1503">86</a>; +Chu Tzŭ and, <a id="d0e8357" href="#d0e1530">87</a>; +<i>tao</i> and, <a id="d0e8363" href="#d0e1548">88</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8366"><span class="smallcaps">Chi Chou</span>. The early seat of Chinese sovereignty, <a id="d0e8370" href="#d0e1387">82</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8373"><span class="smallcaps">Chia Tzŭ-lung</span>. And Mr Chên, a fox, <a id="d0e8377" href="#d0e5801">381</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8383"><span class="smallcaps">Chiang Chou</span>. Ch’ên Kuang-jui appointed Governor of, <a id="d0e8387" href="#d0e5282">336</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8390"><span class="smallcaps">Chiang Shang</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chiang Tzŭ-ya</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8400"><span class="smallcaps">Chiang Tzŭ-ya</span>. His name Chiang Shang, but known as Lü Shang, famous generalissimo, <a id="d0e8404" href="#d0e2125">122</a>, <a id="d0e8407" href="#d0e2636">152</a> <i>sq.</i>; +canonizes Hêng and Ha, <a id="d0e8413" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +and Têng Chiu-kung, <a id="d0e8416" href="#d0e2568">147</a>–<a id="d0e8419" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +and Chü Liu-sun, <a id="d0e8422" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +and Yin Ch’êng-hsiu, <a id="d0e8425" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +and battle of Mu Yeh, <a id="d0e8428" href="#d0e2636">152</a>–<a id="d0e8431" href="#d0e2657">153</a>; +transfers services to Chou, <a id="d0e8434" href="#d0e2636">152</a>; +and Wu Wang, <a id="d0e8437" href="#d0e2657">153</a>, <a id="d0e8440" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +and No-cha, <a id="d0e8443" href="#d0e2657">153</a>–<a id="d0e8446" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +goes to K’un-lun, <a id="d0e8449" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +receives List of Promotions to Immortals from Yüan-shih, <a id="d0e8452" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +disobeys Yüan-shih’s commands, <a id="d0e8455" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +tempted by Shên Kung-pao, <a id="d0e8458" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +compact with Shên Kung-pao, <a id="d0e8461" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +assisted by Ancient Immortal of the South Pole against Shên Kung-pao, <a id="d0e8464" href="#d0e2711">156</a>–<a id="d0e8467" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +intercedes for Shên Kung-pao, <a id="d0e8470" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +builds the Fêng Shên T’ai, <a id="d0e8473" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +in battle with Wên Chung, <a id="d0e8476" href="#d0e2734">158</a> <i>sq.</i>; +wounds Wên Chung, <a id="d0e8482" href="#d0e2762">160</a>; +his encounter with Ch’ien-li Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh, <a id="d0e8485" href="#d0e2793">162</a> <i>sq.</i>; +causes death of Chao Kung-ming, <a id="d0e8491" href="#d0e2914">170</a>–<a id="d0e8494" href="#d0e2931">171</a>; +confers appanage of the twenty-eight constellations on T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu and his followers, <a id="d0e8497" href="#d0e3203">191</a>–<a id="d0e8500" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +and T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e8503" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +and Lei Tsu, <a id="d0e8506" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +and Lü Yüeh, <a id="d0e8509" href="#d0e3902">241</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8512"><span class="smallcaps">Chieh-yin Tao-jên</span>. Fights with T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e8516" href="#d0e5041">321</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8519"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ien-li Yen</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Kao Ming</span>. Thousand-<i>li</i> Eye, <a id="d0e8529" href="#d0e2775">161</a> <i>sq.</i>; +general of tyrant Chou, <a id="d0e8535" href="#d0e2775">161</a>–<a id="d0e8538" href="#d0e2793">162</a>; +encounters with No-cha, Yang Chien, Chiang Tzŭ-ya, Li Ching, and Lei Chên-tzŭ, <a id="d0e8541" href="#d0e2793">162</a> <i>sq.</i>; +defeated, <a id="d0e8547" href="#d0e2813">163</a>–<a id="d0e8550" href="#d0e2828">164</a>; +searches for heir to Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e8553" href="#d0e4076">254</a>–<a id="d0e8556" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8559"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ien-t’ang</span>. Chief God of Rivers, <a id="d0e8563" href="#d0e3574">218</a>–<a id="d0e8566" href="#d0e3583">219</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8569"><span class="smallcaps">Chih</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Substance</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8579"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ</span>. +Seeks Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, <a id="d0e8583" href="#d0e2305">129</a>; +defeats Wên Chung, <a id="d0e8586" href="#d0e2775">161</a>; +an alleged discoverer of fire, <a id="d0e8589" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +fights Wên Chung, <a id="d0e8592" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +personification of fire, <a id="d0e8595" href="#d0e3847">237</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8598"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ih Sung-tzŭ</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yü Shih</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8608"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ih Ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chu Jung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8618"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü</span>. +Visits Ô-mei Shan, <a id="d0e8622" href="#d0e3036">179</a>; +on the steep summit, <a id="d0e8625" href="#d0e3051">180</a>; +instructed in the doctrine of immortality, <a id="d0e8628" href="#d0e3138">186</a>; +a skilful archer, <a id="d0e8631" href="#d0e3051">180</a> <i>sq.</i>; +named Shên I; his adventures as Shên I—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shên I</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8643"><span class="smallcaps">Children</span>. Position of, in China, <a id="d0e8647" href="#d0e684">25</a>–<a id="d0e8650" href="#d0e696">26</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8653"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’in</span>. The feudal state which subjugated the other states and established the monarchy, <a id="d0e8657" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8660"><span class="smallcaps">Chin Chia</span>. ‘Mr Golden Cuirass’; protector of scholars, <a id="d0e8664" href="#d0e1979">112</a>–<a id="d0e8667" href="#d0e1999">113</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8670"><span class="smallcaps">Chin Hung</span>. God of T’ai Shan; +and Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, <a id="d0e8674" href="#d0e2293">128</a>–<a id="d0e8677" href="#d0e2305">129</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8680"><span class="smallcaps">Chin Mu</span>. +Shên I builds a palace for, <a id="d0e8684" href="#d0e3095">183</a>–<a id="d0e8687" href="#d0e3104">184</a>; +gives Shên I pill of immortality, <a id="d0e8690" href="#d0e3104">184</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8693"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’in Shih Huang-ti</span>. The First Emperor; +and the dragon, <a id="d0e8697" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8703"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’in Shu-pao</span>. A Door-god, <a id="d0e8707" href="#d0e2968">173</a>–<a id="d0e8710" href="#d0e2983">174</a>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8719"><span class="smallcaps">Chin Ta-shêng</span>. ‘Golden Big Pint,’ an ox-spirit; +kills the Snorter, <a id="d0e8723" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +and <i>niu huang</i>, or bezoar, <a id="d0e8729" href="#d0e2550">146</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8732"><span class="smallcaps">Chin-cha</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li Chin-cha</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8742"><span class="smallcaps">Chin-kang</span>. The Four Diamond Kings of Heaven; governors of the four continents surrounding <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e8746"></a>Page 431</span>Mount Sumêru, <a id="d0e8748" href="#d0e2083">120</a> <i>sq.</i>; +reflected in Taoist Kings of Heaven, <a id="d0e8754" href="#d0e2480">142</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8757"><span class="smallcaps">China</span>. +Extent in early times, <a id="d0e8761" href="#d0e609">17</a>, <a id="d0e8764" href="#d0e620">18</a>; +physical features of, <a id="d0e8767" href="#d0e620">18</a>–<a id="d0e8770" href="#d0e626">19</a>; +Manchu conquest of, <a id="d0e8773" href="#d0e620">18</a>, <a id="d0e8776" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +vegetable products of, <a id="d0e8779" href="#d0e626">19</a>–<a id="d0e8782" href="#d0e637">20</a>; +animals of, <a id="d0e8785" href="#d0e637">20</a>; +Mongol rule over, <a id="d0e8788" href="#d0e648">21</a>; +intercourse with other countries, <a id="d0e8791" href="#d0e648">21</a>; +origin of name, <a id="d0e8794" href="#d0e709">27</a>; +conquered by the Tartars, <a id="d0e8797" href="#d0e709">27</a>–<a id="d0e8800" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +government of, <a id="d0e8803" href="#d0e721">28</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Republican, <a id="d0e8809" href="#d0e754">30</a>, <a id="d0e8812" href="#d0e782">31</a>–<a id="d0e8815" href="#d0e798">32</a>, <a id="d0e8818" href="#d0e840">36</a>; +laws of, <a id="d0e8821" href="#d0e754">30</a> <i>sq.</i>; +local government of, <a id="d0e8827" href="#d0e798">32</a>; +military and naval system of, <a id="d0e8830" href="#d0e798">32</a> <i>sq.</i>; +ecclesiastical institutions, <a id="d0e8836" href="#d0e814">34</a> <i>sq.</i>; +professional institutions, <a id="d0e8842" href="#d0e840">36</a>; +accessory institutions, <a id="d0e8845" href="#d0e852">37</a>; +industrial institutions, <a id="d0e8848" href="#d0e974">47</a> <i>sq.</i>; +agriculture in, <a id="d0e8854" href="#d0e997">49</a> <i>sq.</i>; +gods of, <a id="d0e8860" href="#d0e1662">93</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Buddhism brought to, <a id="d0e8866" href="#d0e2059">118</a>; +prevalence of smallpox in, <a id="d0e8869" href="#d0e3984">246</a>–<a id="d0e8872" href="#d0e4000">247</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e8875"><span class="smallcaps">Chinese</span>. +Theories of origin of, <a id="d0e8879" href="#d0e556">13</a> <i>sq.</i>; +problem of sources of civilization of, <a id="d0e8885" href="#d0e609">17</a>; +district occupied by early, <a id="d0e8888" href="#d0e609">17</a>, <a id="d0e8891" href="#d0e620">18</a>; +cause of difference between, of North and South, <a id="d0e8894" href="#d0e609">17</a>; +physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics, <a id="d0e8897" href="#d0e648">21</a>–<a id="d0e8900" href="#d0e655">22</a>; +domestic institutions, <a id="d0e8903" href="#d0e655">22</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e8909" href="#d0e974">47</a>–<a id="d0e8912" href="#d0e988">48</a>; +expansion of Empire, <a id="d0e8915" href="#d0e709">27</a>–<a id="d0e8918" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +mutilations practised by, <a id="d0e8921" href="#d0e860">38</a>–<a id="d0e8924" href="#d0e871">39</a>; +funeral rites of, <a id="d0e8927" href="#d0e871">39</a> <i>sq.</i>; +laws of intercourse, <a id="d0e8933" href="#d0e908">42</a>; +habits and customs, <a id="d0e8936" href="#d0e925">43</a>; +sports and games, <a id="d0e8939" href="#d0e952">45</a>; +arts, <a id="d0e8942" href="#d0e997">49</a>; +sentiments and moral ideas, <a id="d0e8945" href="#d0e1017">51</a>–<a id="d0e8948" href="#d0e1029">52</a>; +religious ideas, <a id="d0e8951" href="#d0e1029">52</a>–<a id="d0e8954" href="#d0e1038">53</a>; +superstitions, <a id="d0e8957" href="#d0e1038">53</a>–<a id="d0e8960" href="#d0e1047">54</a>; +knowledge, <a id="d0e8963" href="#d0e1047">54</a> <i>sq.</i>; +language, <a id="d0e8969" href="#d0e1070">56</a>–<a id="d0e8972" href="#d0e1086">57</a>; +achievements, <a id="d0e8975" href="#d0e1086">57</a> <i>sq.</i>; +intellect and mythology, <a id="d0e8981" href="#d0e1123">61</a>; +rigidity of their mythology, <a id="d0e8984" href="#d0e1123">61</a>, <a id="d0e8987" href="#d0e1143">63</a>–<a id="d0e8990" href="#d0e1163">64</a>; +character of mythology of, <a id="d0e8993" href="#d0e1194">67</a>; +sources of mythology of, <a id="d0e8996" href="#d0e1210">69</a> <i>sq.</i>; +religion, <a id="d0e9002" href="#d0e1725">97</a>; +myths of—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mythology</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9011"><span class="smallcaps">Ching Tê</span>. In legend of Yü Huang, <a id="d0e9015" href="#d0e2330">132</a>–<a id="d0e9018" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9021"><span class="smallcaps">Chisel-tooth</span>. A strange man of the South; a criminal, <a id="d0e9025" href="#d0e3104">184</a>; +killed by Shên I, <a id="d0e9028" href="#d0e3104">184</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9031"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’iung Hsiao</span>. A goddess; assists the house of Chou with magic weapons, <a id="d0e9035" href="#d0e2734">158</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9038"><span class="smallcaps">Chou</span>. Colonies of early Chinese established among the aborigines, <a id="d0e9042" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9045"><span class="smallcaps">Chou Dynasty</span>. +No-cha and, <a id="d0e9049" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +helped by Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e9052" href="#d0e2636">152</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9058"><span class="smallcaps">Chou Hsin</span>. The Ch’êng-huang of Hangchou, <a id="d0e9062" href="#d0e2870">166</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9065"><span class="smallcaps">Chou Tun-i</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chou Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9075"><span class="smallcaps">Chou Tzŭ</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Chou Tun-i</span>. Philosopher; author of <i>T’ai chi t’u shu</i>, <a id="d0e9085" href="#d0e1503">86</a>, <a id="d0e9088" href="#d0e1530">87</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9091"><span class="smallcaps">Chou Wang</span>. Tyrant king of Yin; his battles with Wu Wang, <a id="d0e9095" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e9098" href="#d0e2358">134</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9101"><span class="smallcaps">Chou-pien</span>. In legend of Ch’un-yü Fên, <a id="d0e9105" href="#d0e6232">413</a>–<a id="d0e9108" href="#d0e6236">414</a>, <a id="d0e9111" href="#d0e6252">415</a>–<a id="d0e9114" href="#d0e6258">416</a>, <a id="d0e9117" href="#d0e6283">419</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9120"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’u Chieh</span>. General of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e9124" href="#d0e4064">253</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9127"><span class="smallcaps">Chu Fu Tzŭ</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chu Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9137"><span class="smallcaps">Chu Hsi</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chu Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9147"><span class="smallcaps">Chu</span> I. ‘Mr Redcoat’; purveyor of official posts, <a id="d0e9151" href="#d0e1942">110</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9157"><span class="smallcaps">Chu Jung</span>. The Red (Fire) Emperor, Ch’ih Ti; +a minister of Huang Ti, <a id="d0e9161" href="#d0e1377">81</a>; +victorious over Kung Kung, <a id="d0e9164" href="#d0e1377">81</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e9167" href="#d0e3847">237</a> <i>sq.</i>; +becomes emperor, <a id="d0e9173" href="#d0e3864">238</a>; +defeats Hui Lu, <a id="d0e9176" href="#d0e3879">239</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9179"><span class="smallcaps">Chü Liu-sun</span>. A magic-master; and Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e9183" href="#d0e2568">147</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9186"><span class="smallcaps">Chu Pa-chieh</span>. The Pig Fairy in the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e9193" href="#d0e5128">326</a>; +half man, half pig, <a id="d0e9196" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +Mao Êrh-chieh and, <a id="d0e9199" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +Kuan Yin and, <a id="d0e9202" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +is made a priest and receives religious name of Chu Wu-nêng, <a id="d0e9205" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +journeys with the Master, <a id="d0e9208" href="#d0e5343">341</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and the widow and her daughters, <a id="d0e9214" href="#d0e5358">342</a> <i>sq.</i>; +carried away to the Lotus Cave, <a id="d0e9220" href="#d0e5389">345</a> <i>sq.</i>; +his reward, <a id="d0e9226" href="#d0e5684">368</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9229"><span class="smallcaps">Chu Tzŭ, Chu Hsi</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Chu Fu Tzŭ</span>. Historian and Confucian commentator, <a id="d0e9236" href="#d0e1446">85</a>, <a id="d0e9239" href="#d0e1503">86</a>–<a id="d0e9242" href="#d0e1530">87</a>; +monistic philosophy of, <a id="d0e9245" href="#d0e1503">86</a>–<a id="d0e9248" href="#d0e1530">87</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9251"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’u Wang-sun</span>. Chuang Chou as, <a id="d0e9255" href="#d0e2588">149</a>–<a id="d0e9258" href="#d0e2608">150</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9261"><span class="smallcaps">Chu Wu-nêng</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chu Pa-chieh</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9271"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ü Yüan</span>. Statesman-poet; drowns himself in Mi-lo River, <a id="d0e9275" href="#d0e2636">152</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9278"><span class="smallcaps">Chu-ti, Prince</span>. Founder of Peking, <a id="d0e9282" href="#d0e3702">228</a> <i>sq.</i>; +son of Emperor Hung Wu, <a id="d0e9288" href="#d0e3702">228</a>; +and the sealed packet, <a id="d0e9291" href="#d0e3702">228</a>, <a id="d0e9294" href="#d0e3713">229</a> <i>sq.</i>; +begins to build city, <a id="d0e9300" href="#d0e3731">230</a>; +and the dragons, <a id="d0e9303" href="#d0e3756">232</a> <i>sq.</i> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e9309"></a>Page 432</span></p> +<p id="d0e9310"><span class="smallcaps">Chuang Chou</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chuang Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9320"><span class="smallcaps">Chuang Tzŭ, Chuang Chou</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Chuang Shêng</span>. +His cosmogony, <a id="d0e9327" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +his super-<i>tao</i>, <a id="d0e9333" href="#d0e1611">91</a>; +his dream, <a id="d0e9336" href="#d0e1611">91</a> <i>and n.</i>, <a id="d0e9342" href="#d0e2577">148</a>–<a id="d0e9345" href="#d0e2588">149</a>; +philosophical critic, <a id="d0e9348" href="#d0e2577">148</a>–<a id="d0e9351" href="#d0e2588">149</a>; +apotheosized, <a id="d0e9354" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +reincarnation of, <a id="d0e9357" href="#d0e2588">149</a>; +and the young widow fanning the grave, <a id="d0e9360" href="#d0e2588">149</a>; +and his wife, <a id="d0e9363" href="#d0e2588">149</a>–<a id="d0e9366" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +as Ch’u Wang-sun, <a id="d0e9369" href="#d0e2588">149</a>–<a id="d0e9372" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +and Fêng Hou, <a id="d0e9375" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +and Hsüan Nü, <a id="d0e9378" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +receives from Shang Ti the planet Jupiter, <a id="d0e9381" href="#d0e2608">150</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9384"><span class="smallcaps">Chun T’i</span>. A gifted warrior; +his battles with T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e9388" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e9391" href="#d0e2358">134</a>, <a id="d0e9394" href="#d0e5041">321</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and K’ung Hsüan, the one-eyed peacock, <a id="d0e9400" href="#d0e5022">320</a>–<a id="d0e9403" href="#d0e5041">321</a>; +and Wu Yün, <a id="d0e9406" href="#d0e5074">323</a>–<a id="d0e9409" href="#d0e5089">324</a>; +and the golden-bearded turtle, <a id="d0e9412" href="#d0e5089">324</a>; +and P’i-lu Hsien, <a id="d0e9415" href="#d0e5089">324</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9418"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’un-yü Fên</span>. +And the dream of the south branch, <a id="d0e9422" href="#d0e6191">410</a> <i>sq.</i>; +in the kingdom of Huai-an, <a id="d0e9428" href="#d0e6218">411</a> <i>sq.</i>; +marries the King’s daughter, <a id="d0e9434" href="#d0e6222">412</a> <i>sq.</i>; +takes office under the King, <a id="d0e9440" href="#d0e6236">414</a> <i>sq.</i>; +his greatness, <a id="d0e9446" href="#d0e6258">416</a>; +meets with disasters, <a id="d0e9449" href="#d0e6258">416</a>–<a id="d0e9452" href="#d0e6270">417</a>; +the prophecies, <a id="d0e9455" href="#d0e6270">417</a>; +returns home, <a id="d0e9458" href="#d0e6278">418</a>; +the prophecies come true, <a id="d0e9461" href="#d0e6283">419</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9464"><span class="smallcaps">Ch’ung Chêng</span>. Emperor; +and the cursed temple, <a id="d0e9468" href="#d0e5981">398</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9474"><span class="smallcaps">Chung K’uei</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">K’uei</span>. +As God of literature, <a id="d0e9481" href="#d0e1890">106</a> <i>sq.</i>; +as God of Exorcism, <a id="d0e9487" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +and Hsü Hao, <a id="d0e9490" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e9493" href="#d0e4036">250</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e9496" href="#d0e4036">250</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9499"><span class="smallcaps">Chung Yang Festival</span>, <a id="d0e9503" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9506"><span class="smallcaps">Chung-li Ch’üan</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Han Chung-li</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e9513" href="#d0e4584">288</a>, <a id="d0e9516" href="#d0e4607">289</a>, <a id="d0e9519" href="#d0e4712">297</a>–<a id="d0e9522" href="#d0e4724">298</a>, <a id="d0e9525" href="#d0e4783">301</a>, <a id="d0e9528" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legends of, <a id="d0e9531" href="#d0e4629">291</a>–<a id="d0e9534" href="#d0e4644">292</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9537"><span class="smallcaps">Circle, The Magic</span>, <a id="d0e9541" href="#d0e5530">357</a>–<a id="d0e9544" href="#d0e5537">358</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9547"><span class="smallcaps">City</span>. God of the, <a id="d0e9551" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +shaving a whole city, <a id="d0e9554" href="#d0e5649">365</a>–<a id="d0e9557" href="#d0e5662">366</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9560"><span class="smallcaps">City-god of Yen Ch’êng</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e9564" href="#d0e6018">402</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9570"><span class="smallcaps">Classes</span>. The four classes of the people, <a id="d0e9574" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9577"><span class="smallcaps">Classics</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Book of Ceremonial, Book of History, I Ching</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9587"><span class="smallcaps">Climate</span>. Nature of Chinese, <a id="d0e9591" href="#d0e626">19</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9594"><span class="smallcaps">Clothing</span>. Nature of, <a id="d0e9598" href="#d0e1098">58</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9601"><span class="smallcaps">Clubs</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Accessory Institutions</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9611"><span class="smallcaps">Codes</span>. Ceremonial, <a id="d0e9615" href="#d0e908">42</a>; +legal—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Laws</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9624"><span class="smallcaps">Coins</span>. Kinds in use, <a id="d0e9628" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9631"><span class="smallcaps">Concubinage</span>, <a id="d0e9635" href="#d0e655">22</a>–<a id="d0e9638" href="#d0e671">23</a>, <a id="d0e9641" href="#d0e675">24</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9644"><span class="smallcaps">Confucius</span>. Social and ethical philosopher; +his cosmogony, <a id="d0e9648" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +and agnosticism, <a id="d0e9651" href="#d0e1548">88</a>–<a id="d0e9654" href="#d0e1560">89</a>; +not a god, <a id="d0e9657" href="#d0e1793">102</a> <i>sq.</i>; +titles conferred on, <a id="d0e9663" href="#d0e1816">103</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9666"><span class="smallcaps">Confucianism</span>. The State religion, <a id="d0e9670" href="#d0e1029">52</a>, <a id="d0e9673" href="#d0e1746">99</a>–<a id="d0e9676" href="#d0e1765">100</a>; +effect on mythology, <a id="d0e9679" href="#d0e1123">61</a>–<a id="d0e9682" href="#d0e1133">62</a>; +<i>Ju Chiao</i>, religion of the learned, <a id="d0e9688" href="#d0e1793">102</a>; +scope of, <a id="d0e9691" href="#d0e1793">102</a>; +and Buddhism, <a id="d0e9694" href="#d0e2059">118</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9697"><span class="smallcaps">Constellations</span>. Worship of the, <a id="d0e9701" href="#d0e3203">191</a>; +the twenty-eight, <a id="d0e9704" href="#d0e3203">191</a>–<a id="d0e9707" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +propitious and unpropitious, <a id="d0e9710" href="#d0e3203">191</a>; +abodes of gods, <a id="d0e9713" href="#d0e3203">191</a>–<a id="d0e9716" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +Tzŭ-wei and Po I-k’ao, <a id="d0e9719" href="#d0e3214">192</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9725"><span class="smallcaps">Corea</span>. Dependency of China, <a id="d0e9729" href="#d0e709">27</a>; +annexed by Japan, <a id="d0e9732" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9735"><span class="smallcaps">Corpse</span>. Feeding of, <a id="d0e9739" href="#d0e881">40</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9742"><span class="smallcaps">Cosmetics</span>. Use of, <a id="d0e9746" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9749"><span class="smallcaps">Cosmogony</span>. Myth of P’an Ku, <a id="d0e9753" href="#d0e1277">76</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e9759" href="#d0e1372">80</a>–<a id="d0e9762" href="#d0e1377">81</a>; +of the <i>I ching</i>, <a id="d0e9768" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +of Lao Tzŭ, <a id="d0e9771" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +of Confucius, <a id="d0e9774" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +of Kuan Tzŭ, <a id="d0e9777" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +of Mencius, <a id="d0e9780" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +of Chuang Tzŭ, <a id="d0e9783" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +Chinese and Babylonian, <a id="d0e9786" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +Nü Kua and, <a id="d0e9789" href="#d0e1377">81</a>–<a id="d0e9792" href="#d0e1387">82</a>; +Wen Ch’ang’s attendants and, <a id="d0e9795" href="#d0e1387">82</a>; +dualistic nature of early, <a id="d0e9798" href="#d0e1407">83</a>; +how the Chinese obtained a, <a id="d0e9801" href="#d0e1414">84</a> <i>sq.</i>; +<i>tao</i> and, <a id="d0e9810" href="#d0e1548">88</a>; +popular, <a id="d0e9813" href="#d0e1611">91</a>–<a id="d0e9816" href="#d0e1646">92</a>; +and the <i>T’ai chi t’u</i>, <a id="d0e9822" href="#d0e1646">92</a>; +non-mythological, <a id="d0e9825" href="#d0e1646">92</a>; +and constructive imagination, <a id="d0e9828" href="#d0e1646">92</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Creation</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9837"><span class="smallcaps">Creation</span>. Mo Tzŭ and, <a id="d0e9841" href="#d0e1560">89</a>–<a id="d0e9844" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +Miao legends of the, <a id="d0e9847" href="#d0e6094">406</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9853"><span class="smallcaps">Crops</span>. Kinds raised, <a id="d0e9857" href="#d0e1011">50</a>; +Gods of the, <a id="d0e9860" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9863"><span class="smallcaps">Cursed Temple</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e9867" href="#d0e5981">398</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9873"><span class="smallcaps">Cycle-gods</span>, <a id="d0e9877" href="#d0e3018">177</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e9880"></a><h2>D</h2> +<p id="d0e9883"><span class="smallcaps">Dawn, The Bird of</span>, <a id="d0e9887" href="#d0e3138">186</a>–<a id="d0e9890" href="#d0e3157">187</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9893"><span class="smallcaps">Death</span>. Idea of, <a id="d0e9897" href="#d0e871">39</a>–<a id="d0e9900" href="#d0e881">40</a>; +of the gods, <a id="d0e9903" href="#d0e1746">99</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9906"><span class="smallcaps">Deification</span>. Origin of, <a id="d0e9910" href="#d0e1662">93</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9913"><span class="smallcaps">Demon-s</span>. <i>Kuei</i> general name for, <a id="d0e9920" href="#d0e1816">103</a>; +of pestilence, subdued by the three musical brothers, <a id="d0e9923" href="#d0e2619">151</a>; +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e9926"></a>Page 433</span>Maruta, <a id="d0e9928" href="#d0e3288">198</a>; +Asuras, <a id="d0e9931" href="#d0e3288">198</a>; +exorcism of, <a id="d0e9934" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e9937" href="#d0e4036">250</a>; +Hsü Hao a, <a id="d0e9940" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e9943" href="#d0e4036">250</a>; +of the Lotus Cave, <a id="d0e9946" href="#d0e5389">345</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Red Child Demon, <a id="d0e9952" href="#d0e5445">350</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Blackwater River, <a id="d0e9958" href="#d0e5469">352</a>; +defeat of the Ox-demon, <a id="d0e9961" href="#d0e5555">359</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9967"><span class="smallcaps">Dependencies of China</span>, <a id="d0e9971" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9974"><span class="smallcaps">Dêva</span>. General designation of the gods of Brahmanism, <a id="d0e9978" href="#d0e2083">120</a>, <a id="d0e9981" href="#d0e3288">198</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9984"><span class="smallcaps">Dharma</span>. Fa Pao, the Law, in Buddhism, <a id="d0e9988" href="#d0e2073">119</a>. +<i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Vairotchana</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e9997"><span class="smallcaps">Diamond Kings of Heaven, The Four</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chin-kang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10007"><span class="smallcaps">Dipper</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Great Bear</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10017"><span class="smallcaps">Distribution</span>. Internal, <a id="d0e10021" href="#d0e988">48</a>; +external, <a id="d0e10024" href="#d0e988">48</a>–<a id="d0e10027" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10030"><span class="smallcaps">Divine Archer</span>. Shên I, or Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü, <a id="d0e10034" href="#d0e3051">180</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10040"><span class="smallcaps">Divine Husbandman</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shên Nung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10050"><span class="smallcaps">Divorce</span>. Reasons for, <a id="d0e10054" href="#d0e671">23</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10057"><span class="smallcaps">Dog-s</span>. Jung tribe with heads of, <a id="d0e10061" href="#d0e637">20</a>; +shooting the Heavenly, <a id="d0e10064" href="#d0e3018">177</a>–<a id="d0e10067" href="#d0e3030">178</a>; +legend of Jung tribe, <a id="d0e10070" href="#d0e6283">419</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10076"><span class="smallcaps">Domestic Institutions</span>. Marital, <a id="d0e10080" href="#d0e655">22</a> <i>sq.</i>; +filial, <a id="d0e10086" href="#d0e684">25</a>–<a id="d0e10089" href="#d0e696">26</a>; +domestic customs and habits, <a id="d0e10092" href="#d0e965">46</a>–<a id="d0e10095" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10098"><span class="smallcaps">Door-gods</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10108"><span class="smallcaps">Dragon-s</span>. Symbol of, on Manchu flag, <a id="d0e10112" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +P’an Ku with head of, <a id="d0e10115" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +Blue—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Blue Dragon</span>; +Fêng Po, God of the Wind, <a id="d0e10124" href="#d0e3392">204</a>, <a id="d0e10127" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +are spirits of the waters, <a id="d0e10130" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +generally beneficent, <a id="d0e10133" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +essence of <i>yang</i> principle; +evil dragons are Buddhist, <a id="d0e10139" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +<i>nagas</i>, mountain dragons, <a id="d0e10145" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +chief of the scaly reptiles, <a id="d0e10148" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +description and properties of, <a id="d0e10151" href="#d0e3445">208</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Buddhist, <a id="d0e10157" href="#d0e3463">209</a>–<a id="d0e10160" href="#d0e3476">210</a>; +<i>fêng-shui</i> and, <a id="d0e10166" href="#d0e3463">209</a>; +legend of the foolish, <a id="d0e10169" href="#d0e3485">211</a>–<a id="d0e10172" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +spirits in charge of Salt Waters, <a id="d0e10175" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +spirits in charge of Sweet Waters, <a id="d0e10178" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +spirits in charge of Secondary Waters, <a id="d0e10181" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +legend of Ch’in Shih Huang-ti and the, <a id="d0e10184" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Chang Tao-ling and the, <a id="d0e10190" href="#d0e3544">216</a>–<a id="d0e10193" href="#d0e3556">217</a>; +Hsü Chên-chün and the, <a id="d0e10196" href="#d0e3626">222</a> <i>sq.</i>; +a spiritual alligator, <a id="d0e10202" href="#d0e3637">223</a>–<a id="d0e10205" href="#d0e3648">224</a>; +and drought in Peking, <a id="d0e10208" href="#d0e3756">232</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10214"><span class="smallcaps">Dragon-boat Festival</span>. Origin and nature of, <a id="d0e10218" href="#d0e938">44</a>, <a id="d0e10221" href="#d0e2636">152</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10224"><span class="smallcaps">Dragon-king-s</span>. The Sea-dragon Kings, the Chinese Neptunes; +three daughters of, mothers of the <i>San Kuan</i>, <a id="d0e10231" href="#d0e2236">126</a>; +description of, <a id="d0e10234" href="#d0e3476">210</a>–<a id="d0e10237" href="#d0e3485">211</a>, <a id="d0e10240" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +Ao Ch’in and the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e10243" href="#d0e3524">214</a> <i>sq.</i>; +legend of Dragon-king’s daughter, <a id="d0e10249" href="#d0e3556">217</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Li No-cha, <a id="d0e10255" href="#d0e4842">307</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10261"><span class="smallcaps">Dragon-tiger Mountain</span>. Abode of family of Chang Tao-ling, <a id="d0e10265" href="#d0e2480">142</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10268">“<span class="smallcaps">Dream of the South Branch</span>.” <i>Nan k’o mêng</i>, <a id="d0e10276" href="#d0e6191">410</a>; +story of, <a id="d0e10279" href="#d0e6191">410</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10285"><span class="smallcaps">Dualism</span>. In early cosmogony, <a id="d0e10289" href="#d0e1407">83</a>; +<i>I ching</i> and, <a id="d0e10295" href="#d0e1414">84</a>; +<i>yin-yang</i> system of, <a id="d0e10301" href="#d0e1446">85</a>; +illustrated by pantheon, <a id="d0e10304" href="#d0e1662">93</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10307"><span class="smallcaps">Du Bose</span>. Cited, <a id="d0e10311" href="#d0e1738">98</a>–<a id="d0e10314" href="#d0e1746">99</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10317"><span class="smallcaps">Duke of Thunder</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Kung</span> + + +</p><a id="d0e10327"></a><h2>E</h2> +<p id="d0e10330"><span class="smallcaps">Earlier Spirit Festival</span>, <a id="d0e10334" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10337"><span class="smallcaps">Earth</span>. Gods of the, <a id="d0e10341" href="#d0e965">46</a>; +the Earth-mother, <a id="d0e10344" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e10347" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e10350" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e10353" href="#d0e2844">165</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Soil</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ti</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10368"><span class="smallcaps">Earth-dumb</span>. Ti-ya, or Ti-mu, the Earth-mother; +one of the attendants of Wên Ch’ang, <a id="d0e10372" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e10375" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e10378" href="#d0e1942">110</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10381"><span class="smallcaps">Earth-mother</span>. Ti-ya, Ti-mu, or Hou-t’u, <a id="d0e10385" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e10388" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e10391" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e10394" href="#d0e2844">165</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Earth-dumb</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10403"><span class="smallcaps">Eastern Air, Sovereign of The</span>, <a id="d0e10407" href="#d0e2395">136</a>–<a id="d0e10410" href="#d0e2425">137</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10413"><span class="smallcaps">Eastern Palace</span>. Residence of T’ai I, star-spirit, <a id="d0e10417" href="#d0e2504">143</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10420"><span class="smallcaps">Ecclesiastical Institutions</span>, <a id="d0e10424" href="#d0e814">34</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10430"><span class="smallcaps">Education</span>. Stereotyped at an early age, <a id="d0e10434" href="#d0e852">37</a>; +restricted to study of the classics, <a id="d0e10437" href="#d0e852">37</a>; +competitive examination system of, <a id="d0e10440" href="#d0e852">37</a>, <a id="d0e10443" href="#d0e860">38</a>; +modern, <a id="d0e10446" href="#d0e860">38</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10449"><span class="smallcaps">Eight Immortals</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Pa Hsien</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10459"><span class="smallcaps">Eight Trigrams</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Pa Kua</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Trigrams</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10475"><span class="smallcaps">Eighteen Provinces</span>. China Proper, <a id="d0e10479" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10482"><span class="smallcaps">Elam</span>. Probable origin of Chinese in, <a id="d0e10486" href="#d0e581">15</a>, <a id="d0e10489" href="#d0e609">17</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10492"><span class="smallcaps">Elephant, White</span>, <a id="d0e10496" href="#d0e4507">283</a>, <a id="d0e10499" href="#d0e4528">284</a>, <a id="d0e10502" href="#d0e4540">285</a>–<a id="d0e10505" href="#d0e4558">286</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10508"><span class="smallcaps">Emperor-s</span>. Yü Huang, the Jade Emperor, <a id="d0e10512" href="#d0e2309">130</a>, <i>and see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yü Huang</span>; +‘Throne of the Five,’ <a id="d0e10521" href="#d0e3005">176</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e10524"></a>Page 434</span></p> +<p id="d0e10525"><span class="smallcaps">Emptiness and Devastation</span>. Hsü Hao, a demon; exorcism of, <a id="d0e10529" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e10532" href="#d0e4036">250</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10535"><span class="smallcaps">Environments of the Chinese</span>. Inorganic, <a id="d0e10539" href="#d0e620">18</a>–<a id="d0e10542" href="#d0e626">19</a>; +organic, <a id="d0e10545" href="#d0e626">19</a>–<a id="d0e10548" href="#d0e637">20</a>; +sociological, <a id="d0e10551" href="#d0e637">20</a>–<a id="d0e10554" href="#d0e648">21</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10557"><span class="smallcaps">Epidemics</span>. Gods of, <a id="d0e10561" href="#d0e3891">240</a> <i>sq.</i>; +myths of, <a id="d0e10567" href="#d0e3891">240</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Ministry of Seasonal, <a id="d0e10573" href="#d0e3891">240</a>–<a id="d0e10576" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +God of Epidemics afflicts Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e10579" href="#d0e4389">274</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10582"><span class="smallcaps">Equinoxes</span>. Festivals of the, <a id="d0e10586" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10589"><span class="smallcaps">Êrh-lang</span>. Helps to capture Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e10593" href="#d0e5205">331</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10596"><span class="smallcaps">Examinations</span>. Literary, as means of appointment to office, <a id="d0e10600" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10603"><span class="smallcaps">Exchange</span>. By barter, <a id="d0e10607" href="#d0e997">49</a>; +coins, <a id="d0e10610" href="#d0e997">49</a>; +weights and measures, <a id="d0e10613" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10616"><span class="smallcaps">Exorcism-ists</span>. The <i>wu</i>, <a id="d0e10623" href="#d0e814">34</a>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e10626" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +gods of, <a id="d0e10629" href="#d0e4010">248</a>–<a id="d0e10632" href="#d0e4030">249</a>; +of ‘Emptiness and Devastation,’ <a id="d0e10635" href="#d0e4030">249</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10638"><span class="smallcaps">Expectant Wife</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e10642" href="#d0e5913">391</a>–<a id="d0e10645" href="#d0e5927">392</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10648"><span class="smallcaps">Extinguisher</span>. Sun Hou-tzŭ and the, <a id="d0e10652" href="#d0e5636">364</a>–<a id="d0e10655" href="#d0e5649">365</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e10658"></a><h2>F</h2> +<p id="d0e10661"><span class="smallcaps">Fa Pao</span>. Dharma, the Law, one of the <i>San Pao</i> of Buddhism, <a id="d0e10668" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10671"><span class="smallcaps">Fan-s</span>. Use of, <a id="d0e10675" href="#d0e974">47</a>; +the Fire-quenching, <a id="d0e10678" href="#d0e5555">359</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10684"><span class="smallcaps">Fanning the Grave</span>. Story of Chuang Chou and the widow, <a id="d0e10688" href="#d0e2588">149</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10691"><span class="smallcaps">Favourable-wind Ear</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shun-fêng Êrh</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10701"><span class="smallcaps">Feast</span>. Of Lanterns, <a id="d0e10705" href="#d0e925">43</a>–<a id="d0e10708" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +of Peaches, P’an-t’ao Hui, <a id="d0e10711" href="#d0e2425">137</a>–<a id="d0e10714" href="#d0e2438">138</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Festival-s</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10723"><span class="smallcaps">Feathered People</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e10727" href="#d0e5897">390</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10730"><span class="smallcaps">Fei, Lady</span>. Concubine of Mêng Ch’ang, <a id="d0e10734" href="#d0e3030">178</a>. +<i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hua-jui Fu-jên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10743"><span class="smallcaps">Fei Lien</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Fêng Po</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10753"><span class="smallcaps">Fêng Hou</span>. And Chuang Chou, <a id="d0e10757" href="#d0e2608">150</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10760"><span class="smallcaps">Fêng Lin</span>. Vanquished by No-cha, <a id="d0e10764" href="#d0e2657">153</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10767"><span class="smallcaps">Fêng Po</span>. God of the Wind; +and Shên I, <a id="d0e10771" href="#d0e3066">181</a>, <a id="d0e10774" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e10777" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e10780" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e10783" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +a stellar divinity, <a id="d0e10786" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +a dragon, Fei Lien, <a id="d0e10789" href="#d0e3066">181</a>, <a id="d0e10792" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e10795" href="#d0e3407">205</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10798"><span class="smallcaps">Fêng Shên T’ai</span>. Chiang Tzŭ-ya builds, for List of Promotions to Immortals, <a id="d0e10802" href="#d0e2672">154</a>, <a id="d0e10805" href="#d0e2727">157</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10808">“<span class="smallcaps">Fêng Shên Yen I</span>.” Legends in, <a id="d0e10813" href="#d0e3214">192</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e10819" href="#d0e3914">242</a>, <a id="d0e10822" href="#d0e5022">320</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10828"><span class="smallcaps">Fêng-shan</span>. Sacrifices offered on T’ai Shan by Ch’êng Tsung, <a id="d0e10832" href="#d0e2265">127</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10835"><span class="smallcaps">Fêng-shui</span>, Doctrine of, <a id="d0e10839" href="#d0e1047">54</a>; +dragons connected with, <a id="d0e10842" href="#d0e3463">209</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10845"><span class="smallcaps">Festival-s</span>, <a id="d0e10849" href="#d0e925">43</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Mid-autumn (All Souls’ Day), <a id="d0e10855" href="#d0e830">35</a>, <a id="d0e10858" href="#d0e938">44</a>–<a id="d0e10861" href="#d0e952">45</a>; +New Year, <a id="d0e10864" href="#d0e925">43</a>; +of Lanterns, <a id="d0e10867" href="#d0e925">43</a>–<a id="d0e10870" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +of the four seasons and their equinoxes and solstices, <a id="d0e10873" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +Earlier Spirit, <a id="d0e10876" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +of the Tombs, <a id="d0e10879" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +Middle Spirit, <a id="d0e10882" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +Later Spirit, <a id="d0e10885" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +Dragon-boat, <a id="d0e10888" href="#d0e938">44</a>, <a id="d0e10891" href="#d0e2636">152</a>; +Chung Yang (kite-flying), <a id="d0e10894" href="#d0e952">45</a>; +New Year’s Eve, <a id="d0e10897" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10900"><span class="smallcaps">Feudal Period</span>. Duration of, <a id="d0e10904" href="#d0e620">18</a>; +administrative system in, <a id="d0e10907" href="#d0e721">28</a>–<a id="d0e10910" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +ecclesiastical institutions in, <a id="d0e10913" href="#d0e814">34</a> <i>sq.</i>; +professional institutions in, <a id="d0e10919" href="#d0e840">36</a>; +accessory institutions in, <a id="d0e10922" href="#d0e852">37</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10925"><span class="smallcaps">Feudal States</span>. Subjugated by Ch’in, <a id="d0e10929" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10932"><span class="smallcaps">Finger-nails</span>. Worn long by literary and leisured classes, <a id="d0e10936" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10939"><span class="smallcaps">Fire</span>. Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ an alleged discoverer of, <a id="d0e10943" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +myths of, <a id="d0e10946" href="#d0e3823">236</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e10952" href="#d0e3823">236</a>; +God of, burns Hsi Ch’i, <a id="d0e10955" href="#d0e3823">236</a>–<a id="d0e10958" href="#d0e3847">237</a>; +Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ a personification of, <a id="d0e10961" href="#d0e3847">237</a>; +Ch’ih Ti, the Red Emperor, <a id="d0e10964" href="#d0e3847">237</a>–<a id="d0e10967" href="#d0e3864">238</a>; +Hui Lu, <a id="d0e10970" href="#d0e3864">238</a>–<a id="d0e10973" href="#d0e3879">239</a>; +Shên Nung, <a id="d0e10976" href="#d0e3879">239</a>; +the Fire-quenching Fan, <a id="d0e10979" href="#d0e5555">359</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10985"><span class="smallcaps">Fire-quenching Fan, The Magic</span>, <a id="d0e10989" href="#d0e5555">359</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e10995"><span class="smallcaps">First Cause</span>. Sung philosophers and, <a id="d0e10999" href="#d0e1446">85</a>–<a id="d0e11002" href="#d0e1503">86</a>; +Mencius and, <a id="d0e11005" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11008"><span class="smallcaps">Five Elements</span> (<i>wu hsing</i>), <a id="d0e11015" href="#d0e1414">84</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11018"><span class="smallcaps">Five Graduates</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e11022" href="#d0e3914">242</a> <i>sq.</i>; +gain favour of the Emperor, <a id="d0e11028" href="#d0e3940">243</a>; +and Chang T’ien-shih, <a id="d0e11031" href="#d0e3956">244</a>–<a id="d0e11034" href="#d0e3967">245</a>; +killed, <a id="d0e11037" href="#d0e3956">244</a>; +their spirits appear at the palace, <a id="d0e11040" href="#d0e3956">244</a>–<a id="d0e11043" href="#d0e3967">245</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e11046" href="#d0e3984">246</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11049"><span class="smallcaps">Flag</span>. Republican, <a id="d0e11053" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +dragon-symbol on Manchu, <a id="d0e11056" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11059"><span class="smallcaps">Flood, Legend of the Great</span>, <a id="d0e11063" href="#d0e3648">224</a>–<a id="d0e11066" href="#d0e3665">225</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11069"><span class="smallcaps">Flowers</span>. Chinese love for, <a id="d0e11073" href="#d0e1017">51</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11076"><span class="smallcaps">Flying Cart, Land of the</span>, <a id="d0e11080" href="#d0e5913">391</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11083"><span class="smallcaps">Fo Pao</span>. Buddha, one of the <i>San Pao</i> of Buddhism, <a id="d0e11090" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11093"><span class="smallcaps">Food</span>. Kinds of, <a id="d0e11097" href="#d0e1098">58</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11100"><span class="smallcaps">Foot-binding</span>. Origin of, <a id="d0e11104" href="#d0e871">39</a>; +abolition of, <a id="d0e11107" href="#d0e871">39</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e11110"></a>Page 435</span></p> +<p id="d0e11111"><span class="smallcaps">Form</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hsing</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11121"><span class="smallcaps">Formosa</span>. A Chinese possession, <a id="d0e11125" href="#d0e709">27</a>; +annexed by Japan, <a id="d0e11128" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11131"><span class="smallcaps">Foxes</span>. Legends of, <a id="d0e11135" href="#d0e5704">370</a> <i>sq.</i>; +generally of ill omen, <a id="d0e11141" href="#d0e5704">370</a>; +powers of, <a id="d0e11144" href="#d0e5704">370</a>; +transformations of, <a id="d0e11147" href="#d0e5704">370</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11150"><span class="smallcaps">Fu Hsi</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">T’ien Huang Shih</span>. Mythical sovereign; +brother of Nü Kua, <a id="d0e11157" href="#d0e1377">81</a>, <a id="d0e11160" href="#d0e1387">82</a>; +creator of human beings, <a id="d0e11163" href="#d0e3879">239</a>, <a id="d0e11166" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e11169" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +a God of Medicine, <a id="d0e11172" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e11175" href="#d0e4010">248</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11178"><span class="smallcaps">Fu Shên, Yang Ch’êng</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Yang Hsi-chi</span>. The God of Happiness, <a id="d0e11185" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e11188" href="#d0e2900">169</a>–<a id="d0e11191" href="#d0e2914">170</a>; +origin of, <a id="d0e11194" href="#d0e2900">169</a>; +other Gods of Happiness, <a id="d0e11197" href="#d0e2914">170</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11200"><span class="smallcaps">Fu-sang Tree</span>. One which grows at the place where the sun rises, <a id="d0e11204" href="#d0e3138">186</a>–<a id="d0e11207" href="#d0e3157">187</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11210"><span class="smallcaps">Funeral Rites</span>, <a id="d0e11214" href="#d0e871">39</a> <i>sq.</i>; +the idea of death, <a id="d0e11220" href="#d0e871">39</a>; +recalling the soul, <a id="d0e11223" href="#d0e871">39</a>–<a id="d0e11226" href="#d0e881">40</a>; +feeding the corpse, <a id="d0e11229" href="#d0e881">40</a>; +the soul-tablet, <a id="d0e11232" href="#d0e881">40</a>; +signs of mourning, <a id="d0e11235" href="#d0e881">40</a>; +exacting nature of ceremonial, <a id="d0e11238" href="#d0e896">41</a>; +cemeteries, <a id="d0e11241" href="#d0e896">41</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e11244"></a><h2>G</h2> +<p id="d0e11247"><span class="smallcaps">Games</span>, <a id="d0e11251" href="#d0e952">45</a>–<a id="d0e11254" href="#d0e965">46</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11257"><span class="smallcaps">Gardens</span>, <a id="d0e11261" href="#d0e974">47</a>, <a id="d0e11264" href="#d0e1017">51</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11267"><span class="smallcaps">Garuda</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Kung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11277"><span class="smallcaps">Gems, Lake Of</span>. Yao Ch’ih, <a id="d0e11281" href="#d0e2425">137</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11284"><span class="smallcaps">Generalissimo-s</span>. Canonized, <a id="d0e11288" href="#d0e2608">150</a> <i>sq.</i>; +the three musical brothers, T’ien Chih-piao, T’ien Yüan-shuai, and T’ien Hung-i, <a id="d0e11294" href="#d0e2619">151</a>; +Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e11297" href="#d0e2636">152</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11303"><span class="smallcaps">Genii</span>. Hsi Wang Mu head of the, on K’un-lun Mountains, <a id="d0e11307" href="#d0e2425">137</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11310"><span class="smallcaps">Gentry</span>. <i>Shên Shih</i>; +a social division, <a id="d0e11317" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11320"><span class="smallcaps">Geological Features</span>, <a id="d0e11324" href="#d0e626">19</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11327"><span class="smallcaps">Giants</span>. Legends of, <a id="d0e11331" href="#d0e5860">387</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11334"><span class="smallcaps">God-s</span>. Of China, <a id="d0e11338" href="#d0e1662">93</a> <i>sq.</i>; +amuse themselves, <a id="d0e11344" href="#d0e1746">99</a>; +marry, <a id="d0e11347" href="#d0e1746">99</a>; +sin, <a id="d0e11350" href="#d0e1746">99</a>; +punishment of the, <a id="d0e11353" href="#d0e1746">99</a>; +die, <a id="d0e11356" href="#d0e1746">99</a>; +super-triad of, <a id="d0e11359" href="#d0e1765">100</a>–<a id="d0e11362" href="#d0e1786">101</a>; +Confucius not a, <a id="d0e11365" href="#d0e1793">102</a> <i>sq.</i>; +<i>shên</i> general name for, <a id="d0e11374" href="#d0e1816">103</a>; +stellar deities, <a id="d0e11377" href="#d0e3005">176</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e11383" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +constellations, planets, and stars abodes of, <a id="d0e11386" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +dragons, <a id="d0e11389" href="#d0e3445">208</a> <i>sq.</i>; +battle of the, <a id="d0e11395" href="#d0e5022">320</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Agriculture, <a id="d0e11401" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of the City, <a id="d0e11404" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of the Cycles, <a id="d0e11407" href="#d0e3018">177</a>; +of the Door, <a id="d0e11410" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e11413" href="#d0e2945">172</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Epidemics, <a id="d0e11419" href="#d0e3891">240</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e11425" href="#d0e4389">274</a>; +of Exorcism, <a id="d0e11428" href="#d0e4010">248</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Fire, <a id="d0e11434" href="#d0e3823">236</a> <i>sq.</i>; +the ‘Five Mountains,’ <a id="d0e11440" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +of Grasshoppers, <a id="d0e11443" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of Hades, <a id="d0e11446" href="#d0e2083">120</a>; +of Happiness, <a id="d0e11449" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e11452" href="#d0e2900">169</a>–<a id="d0e11455" href="#d0e2914">170</a>, <a id="d0e11458" href="#d0e3018">177</a>; +of the Immortals, <a id="d0e11461" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +of the Kitchen, <a id="d0e11464" href="#d0e952">45</a>, <a id="d0e11467" href="#d0e2293">128</a>, <a id="d0e11470" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e11473" href="#d0e2870">166</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Literature, <a id="d0e11479" href="#d0e1854">104</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e11485" href="#d0e3018">177</a>, <a id="d0e11488" href="#d0e4732">299</a>; +local, <i>t’u-ti</i>, <a id="d0e11494" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of Longevity, <a id="d0e11497" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e11500" href="#d0e2931">171</a>–<a id="d0e11503" href="#d0e2945">172</a>, <a id="d0e11506" href="#d0e3018">177</a>; +of Longevity and the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e11509" href="#d0e3524">214</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Medicine, <a id="d0e11515" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e11518" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +chief God of Rivers, <a id="d0e11521" href="#d0e3574">218</a>–<a id="d0e11524" href="#d0e3583">219</a>; +River-god, marriage of the, <a id="d0e11527" href="#d0e3665">225</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Sailors, <a id="d0e11533" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of Serpents, <a id="d0e11536" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of Smallpox, <a id="d0e11539" href="#d0e3003">175</a>; +of the Soil and Crops, <a id="d0e11542" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of Thunder, <a id="d0e11545" href="#d0e2293">128</a>, <a id="d0e11548" href="#d0e3288">198</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Time, <a id="d0e11554" href="#d0e3240">194</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of War, <a id="d0e11560" href="#d0e1999">113</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the Waters, <a id="d0e11566" href="#d0e3445">208</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Wealth, <a id="d0e11572" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e11575" href="#d0e2914">170</a>–<a id="d0e11578" href="#d0e2931">171</a>; +of the Wind, <a id="d0e11581" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e11584" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +of the Year, <a id="d0e11587" href="#d0e3240">194</a>; +names of numerous, <a id="d0e11590" href="#d0e2983">174</a>–<a id="d0e11593" href="#d0e3003">175</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11596"><span class="smallcaps">Goddess-es</span>. Earth-mother, <a id="d0e11600" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e11603" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e11606" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e11609" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +of Lightning, <a id="d0e11612" href="#d0e3364">203</a>; +of Mercy, <a id="d0e11615" href="#d0e4040">251</a> <i>sq.</i>, <i>and see also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Kuan Yin</span>; +of Mulberry-trees and Silkworms, <a id="d0e11627" href="#d0e2893">168</a>–<a id="d0e11630" href="#d0e2900">169</a>; +of the North Star, <a id="d0e11633" href="#d0e2518">144</a>–<a id="d0e11636" href="#d0e2537">145</a>; +of Sailors, <a id="d0e11639" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +Old Mother of the Waters, <a id="d0e11642" href="#d0e3589">220</a> <i>sq.</i>; +names of various, <a id="d0e11648" href="#d0e2983">174</a>–<a id="d0e11651" href="#d0e3003">175</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11654"><span class="smallcaps">Golden Big Pint</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chin Ta-shêng</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11664"><span class="smallcaps">Golden Cuirass, Mr</span>. <i>See</i> Chin Chia + +</p> +<p id="d0e11671"><span class="smallcaps">Golden Mother of the Tortoise</span>, <a id="d0e11675" href="#d0e2395">136</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11678"><span class="smallcaps">Golden-bearded Turtle</span>. And Chun T’i, <a id="d0e11682" href="#d0e5089">324</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11685"><span class="smallcaps">Gourd, The Magic</span>, <a id="d0e11689" href="#d0e5413">347</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11692"><span class="smallcaps">Government</span>. General, <a id="d0e11696" href="#d0e748">29</a> <i>sq.</i>; +local, small scope of, <a id="d0e11702" href="#d0e798">32</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11705"><span class="smallcaps">Graduates</span>. Legend of the five, <a id="d0e11709" href="#d0e3914">242</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11715"><span class="smallcaps">Grand Terminus</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Great Ultimate</span>, <a id="d0e11722" href="#d0e1446">85</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11725"><span class="smallcaps">Grasshoppers, God of</span>, <a id="d0e11729" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11732"><span class="smallcaps">Grave, Fanning the</span>. Story of Chuang Chou and the widow, <a id="d0e11736" href="#d0e2588">149</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11739"><span class="smallcaps">Great Bear</span>. Constellation; +Wên Ch’ang and the, <a id="d0e11743" href="#d0e1879">105</a> <i>sq.</i>; +the residence of the Fates, <a id="d0e11749" href="#d0e3005">176</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11752"><span class="smallcaps">Great Bell, Casting of the</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e11756" href="#d0e5947">394</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11762"><span class="smallcaps">Great Ultimate</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Grand Terminus</span>, <a id="d0e11769" href="#d0e1446">85</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e11772"></a>Page 436</span></p> +<p id="d0e11773"><span class="smallcaps">Green Lion</span>. In Kuan Yin legend, <a id="d0e11777" href="#d0e4507">283</a>–<a id="d0e11780" href="#d0e4528">284</a>, <a id="d0e11783" href="#d0e4540">285</a>–<a id="d0e11786" href="#d0e4558">286</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11789"><span class="smallcaps">Guardian-s</span>. Of Buddhist temple gates, <a id="d0e11793" href="#d0e2537">145</a>–<a id="d0e11796" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +of Taoist temple gates, <a id="d0e11799" href="#d0e2550">146</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Gate of Heaven, <a id="d0e11805" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11811"><span class="smallcaps">Guardianship</span>. Of the young, <a id="d0e11815" href="#d0e696">26</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e11818"></a><h2>H</h2> +<p id="d0e11821"><span class="smallcaps">Ha</span>. The Blower. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên Ch’i</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11831"><span class="smallcaps">Habitations</span>. In early times, <a id="d0e11835" href="#d0e1086">57</a>; +development of, <a id="d0e11838" href="#d0e1086">57</a>–<a id="d0e11841" href="#d0e1098">58</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11844"><span class="smallcaps">Habits and Customs</span>. Festivals and holidays, <a id="d0e11848" href="#d0e925">43</a>–<a id="d0e11851" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +domestic, <a id="d0e11854" href="#d0e965">46</a>–<a id="d0e11857" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11860"><span class="smallcaps">Hades</span>. The God of, <a id="d0e11864" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11867"><span class="smallcaps">Han</span>. Early monarchical dynasty, <a id="d0e11871" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11874"><span class="smallcaps">Han Chih-hsien</span>. Fights for Wên Chung, <a id="d0e11878" href="#d0e2753">159</a>–<a id="d0e11881" href="#d0e2762">160</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11884"><span class="smallcaps">Han Hsiang Tzŭ</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e11888" href="#d0e3533">215</a>, <a id="d0e11891" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e11894" href="#d0e4732">299</a>–<a id="d0e11897" href="#d0e4759">300</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11900"><span class="smallcaps">Han Yü</span>, Statesman, philosopher, and poet; +and Han Hsiang Tzŭ, <a id="d0e11904" href="#d0e4732">299</a>–<a id="d0e11907" href="#d0e4759">300</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11910"><span class="smallcaps">Happiness</span>. The term ‘Eight Immortals’ figuratively used for, <a id="d0e11914" href="#d0e4584">288</a>; +Gods of—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Fu Shên, Kuo Tzŭ-i</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li Kuei-tsu</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11929"><span class="smallcaps">Hare in Moon</span>, <a id="d0e11933" href="#d0e3005">176</a>, <a id="d0e11936" href="#d0e3036">179</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11939"><span class="smallcaps">Head-splitting Helmet</span>, <a id="d0e11943" href="#d0e5107">325</a>–<a id="d0e11946" href="#d0e5128">326</a>, <a id="d0e11949" href="#d0e5684">368</a>–<a id="d0e11952" href="#d0e5700">369</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11955"><span class="smallcaps">Headless People</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e11959" href="#d0e5860">387</a>–<a id="d0e11962" href="#d0e5872">388</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11965"><span class="smallcaps">Heaven-s</span>. Repair of the, <a id="d0e11969" href="#d0e1237">72</a>, <a id="d0e11972" href="#d0e1377">81</a>–<a id="d0e11975" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e11978" href="#d0e3648">224</a>–<a id="d0e11981" href="#d0e3665">225</a>; +Temple of, <a id="d0e11984" href="#d0e1707">95</a>; +Taoist Kings of, <a id="d0e11987" href="#d0e2480">142</a>; +Mother of, <a id="d0e11990" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +Guardian of the Gate of, <a id="d0e11993" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e11999"><span class="smallcaps">Heaven-deaf</span>. T’ien-lung, or Hsüan T’ung-tzŭ, one of the attendants of Wên Ch’ang, <a id="d0e12003" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e12006" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e12009" href="#d0e1942">110</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12012"><span class="smallcaps">Heavenly Dog</span>. Tien Kou; +legend of Chang Hsien and the, <a id="d0e12016" href="#d0e3018">177</a>–<a id="d0e12019" href="#d0e3030">178</a>; +and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e12022" href="#d0e5205">331</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12025"><span class="smallcaps">Heavenly Peach-garden</span>, <a id="d0e12029" href="#d0e5179">329</a>–<a id="d0e12032" href="#d0e5193">330</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12035"><span class="smallcaps">Heavenly Stables</span>, <a id="d0e12039" href="#d0e5179">329</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12042"><span class="smallcaps">Heavenly Teacher</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chang Tao-ling</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12052"><span class="smallcaps">Hell-s</span>. Kings of, <a id="d0e12056" href="#d0e2083">120</a>, <a id="d0e12059" href="#d0e4261">267</a>–<a id="d0e12062" href="#d0e4276">268</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12065"><span class="smallcaps">Hêng</span>. The Snorter. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chêng Lung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12075"><span class="smallcaps">Hêng Ô</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ang Ô</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12085"><span class="smallcaps">Herdsman</span>. Legend of the Weaver-girl and the, <a id="d0e12089" href="#d0e3188">189</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12095"><span class="smallcaps">Heroes</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chên-jên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12105">“<span class="smallcaps">Hill and River Classic</span>.” <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shan Hai Ching</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12116"><span class="smallcaps">Hindu Kush Mountains</span>. K’un-lun Mountains identified with, <a id="d0e12120" href="#d0e602">16</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12123"><span class="smallcaps">History</span>. Summary of political, of China, <a id="d0e12127" href="#d0e709">27</a>–<a id="d0e12130" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +mythology and, <a id="d0e12133" href="#d0e1143">63</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12136"><span class="smallcaps">Ho Fêng</span>. Marries Miao Yin, <a id="d0e12140" href="#d0e4135">258</a>; +conspires against Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e12143" href="#d0e4431">277</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12149"><span class="smallcaps">Ho Hsien-ku</span>. One of the Eight Immortals; +and T’ai Sui <a id="d0e12153" href="#d0e3255">195</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e12156" href="#d0e4693">296</a>–<a id="d0e12159" href="#d0e4712">297</a>; +mentioned, <a id="d0e12162" href="#d0e4660">293</a>, <a id="d0e12165" href="#d0e4789">303</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12168"><span class="smallcaps">Ho Li</span>. Conspires against Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e12172" href="#d0e4457">278</a>–<a id="d0e12175" href="#d0e4463">279</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12178"><span class="smallcaps">Ho Po</span>. The Spirit of the Waters; +Hêng Ô his younger sister, <a id="d0e12182" href="#d0e3080">182</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12185"><span class="smallcaps">Holidays</span>. Observed at certain seasons, <a id="d0e12189" href="#d0e925">43</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12192"><span class="smallcaps">Horse, The White</span>, <a id="d0e12196" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e12199" href="#d0e5343">341</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12202"><span class="smallcaps">Hou-t’u, Ti-ya</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Ti-mu</span>. Earth-mother, <a id="d0e12209" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e12212" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e12215" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e12218" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12221"><span class="smallcaps">Hsi Ch’i</span>. Town and mountain; +Têng Chiu-kung and battle at, <a id="d0e12225" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +burned by Fire-god, <a id="d0e12228" href="#d0e3823">236</a>–<a id="d0e12231" href="#d0e3847">237</a>; +Lü Yüeh in battle at, <a id="d0e12234" href="#d0e3902">241</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12237"><span class="smallcaps">Hsi Wang Mu</span>. Golden Mother of the Tortoise; +her story first mentioned, <a id="d0e12241" href="#d0e1237">72</a>; +her names, <a id="d0e12244" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +sovereign of the Western Air, <a id="d0e12247" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +head of the genii dwelling on the K’un-lun Mountains, <a id="d0e12250" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +and Feast of Peaches (P’an-t’ao Hui), <a id="d0e12253" href="#d0e2425">137</a>–<a id="d0e12256" href="#d0e2438">138</a>; +her palace, <a id="d0e12259" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +her birthdays, <a id="d0e12262" href="#d0e2438">138</a>; +and Li T’ieh-kuai, <a id="d0e12265" href="#d0e4607">289</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12268"><span class="smallcaps">Hsi Yü</span>. Miao Chuang kinglet of, <a id="d0e12272" href="#d0e4064">253</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12275">“<span class="smallcaps">Hsi Yu Chi</span>.” Record of a journey to the Western Paradise; +a dramatization of the introduction of Buddhism into China, <a id="d0e12280" href="#d0e5107">325</a>–<a id="d0e12283" href="#d0e5128">326</a>, <a id="d0e12286" href="#d0e5343">341</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12289"><span class="smallcaps">Hsi-mên Pao</span>. Magistrate of Yeh Hsien; +and marriage of the River-god, <a id="d0e12293" href="#d0e3675">226</a>–<a id="d0e12296" href="#d0e3687">227</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12299"><span class="smallcaps">Hsiang Shan</span>. Monastery inhabited by Immortals; +Miao Shan goes to, <a id="d0e12303" href="#d0e4243">266</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12309"><span class="smallcaps">Hsien</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hsien-jên</span>. Immortals, <a id="d0e12316" href="#d0e2196">125</a>, <a id="d0e12319" href="#d0e2371">135</a>; +<i>yin</i> and <i>yang</i> and, <a id="d0e12328" href="#d0e2371">135</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e12331"></a>Page 437</span></p> +<p id="d0e12332"><span class="smallcaps">Hsien Tung</span>. ‘The Immortal Youth’; +servant to Mu Kung, <a id="d0e12336" href="#d0e2395">136</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12339"><span class="smallcaps">Hsien Wêng</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shou Hsing</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12349"><span class="smallcaps">Hsien-yüan Huang-ti</span>. Mythical emperor; +Chu Jung his minister, <a id="d0e12353" href="#d0e1377">81</a>, <a id="d0e12356" href="#d0e3864">238</a>, <a id="d0e12359" href="#d0e3879">239</a>; +T’ai I his medical preceptor, <a id="d0e12362" href="#d0e2504">143</a>; +and the Door-gods, <a id="d0e12365" href="#d0e2968">173</a>; +instructed in doctrine of immortality, <a id="d0e12368" href="#d0e3036">179</a>–<a id="d0e12371" href="#d0e3051">180</a>; +God of Medicine, <a id="d0e12374" href="#d0e4000">247</a>; +mentioned, <a id="d0e12377" href="#d0e2877">167</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12380"><span class="smallcaps">Hsing</span>. Form; +beginning of, <a id="d0e12384" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12387"><span class="smallcaps">Hsing Lin</span>. Kingdom of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e12391" href="#d0e4064">253</a>, <a id="d0e12394" href="#d0e4481">280</a>, <a id="d0e12397" href="#d0e4496">282</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12400">“Hsiu <span class="smallcaps">Hsiang Pa Hsien Tung Yu Chi</span>,” <a id="d0e12405" href="#d0e4607">289</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12408"><span class="smallcaps">Hsü Chên-chün</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hsü Sun</span>. The dragon-slayer, <a id="d0e12415" href="#d0e3626">222</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12421"><span class="smallcaps">Hsü Hao</span>. A demon; +exorcism of, <a id="d0e12425" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e12428" href="#d0e4036">250</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12431"><span class="smallcaps">Hsü Sun</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hsü Chên-chün</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12441"><span class="smallcaps">Hsü-mi Shan</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Sumêru</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12451"><span class="smallcaps">Hsüan Chuang</span>. Also called Yüan Chuang and T’ang Sêng; +the pilgrim of the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e12458" href="#d0e5107">325</a>; +Sha Ho-shang his baggage-coolie, <a id="d0e12461" href="#d0e5252">334</a>–<a id="d0e12464" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +history of, <a id="d0e12467" href="#d0e5282">336</a> <i>sq.</i>; +his father murdered by Liu Hung, <a id="d0e12473" href="#d0e5282">336</a>–<a id="d0e12476" href="#d0e5301">337</a>; +exposed on Blue River, <a id="d0e12479" href="#d0e5301">337</a>; +Chang Lao rescues him, <a id="d0e12482" href="#d0e5301">337</a>–<a id="d0e12485" href="#d0e5306">338</a>; +named Chiang Liu, ‘Waif of the River,’ <a id="d0e12488" href="#d0e5301">337</a>; +finds his grandmother, <a id="d0e12491" href="#d0e5306">338</a>–<a id="d0e12494" href="#d0e5313">339</a>; +murderer of his father executed, <a id="d0e12497" href="#d0e5313">339</a>; +becomes the Emperor’s favourite priest, <a id="d0e12500" href="#d0e5329">340</a>; +journeys to the Western Paradise, <a id="d0e12503" href="#d0e5329">340</a>, <a id="d0e12506" href="#d0e5343">341</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and the White Horse, <a id="d0e12512" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e12515" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +is rescued by Ju Lai, <a id="d0e12518" href="#d0e5537">358</a>–<a id="d0e12521" href="#d0e5555">359</a>; +his return home, <a id="d0e12524" href="#d0e5675">367</a> <i>sq.</i>; +canonized, <a id="d0e12530" href="#d0e5684">368</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ên Kuang-jui</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12539"><span class="smallcaps">Hsüan Nü</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">T’ien Mu</span>. The Mother of Heaven; +and Chuang Chou, <a id="d0e12546" href="#d0e2608">150</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12549"><span class="smallcaps">Hsüan Tsung</span>. Emperor; +and Chang Kuo, <a id="d0e12553" href="#d0e4673">294</a>–<a id="d0e12556" href="#d0e4683">295</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12559"><span class="smallcaps">Hsüan T’ung-tzŭ</span>. ‘Sombre Youth.’ <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Heaven-deaf</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12569"><span class="smallcaps">Hsüan-hsüan Shang-jên</span>. Relates history of Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, <a id="d0e12573" href="#d0e2305">129</a>–<a id="d0e12576" href="#d0e2309">130</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12579"><span class="smallcaps">Hu Ching-tê</span>. A Door-god, <a id="d0e12583" href="#d0e2968">173</a>–<a id="d0e12586" href="#d0e2983">174</a>. +<i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12595"><span class="smallcaps">Hu Pi-li</span>. Chief of the guard of Miao Chuang; +sent to burn Nunnery of the White Bird, <a id="d0e12599" href="#d0e4221">264</a>–<a id="d0e12602" href="#d0e4230">265</a>; +at the execution of Miao Shan, <a id="d0e12605" href="#d0e4243">266</a>–<a id="d0e12608" href="#d0e4261">267</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12611"><span class="smallcaps">Hua Shan</span>. A sacred mountain in the west, <a id="d0e12615" href="#d0e4064">253</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12618"><span class="smallcaps">Hua-hu Tiao</span>. The white rat of Mo-li Shou, <a id="d0e12622" href="#d0e2112">121</a>; +devours Yang Chien, <a id="d0e12625" href="#d0e2125">122</a>–<a id="d0e12628" href="#d0e2149">123</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12631"><span class="smallcaps">Hua-jui Fu-jên</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Lady Fei</span>. And Chang Hsien, <a id="d0e12638" href="#d0e3030">178</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12641"><span class="smallcaps">Hua-kuo Shan</span>. A mountain in the kingdom of Ao-lai; +Sun Hou-tzŭ born on, <a id="d0e12645" href="#d0e5128">326</a>–<a id="d0e12648" href="#d0e5164">327</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12651"><span class="smallcaps">Huai-an</span>. Kingdom; +Ch’un-yü Fên in, <a id="d0e12655" href="#d0e6218">411</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12661"><span class="smallcaps">Huai-nan Tzŭ</span>. A philosopher; +apotheosized, <a id="d0e12665" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +and the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e12668" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12671"><span class="smallcaps">Huang Fei-hu</span>. Yellow Flying Tiger, <a id="d0e12675" href="#d0e2125">122</a>, <a id="d0e12678" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +spears the Blower, <a id="d0e12681" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +and Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star, <a id="d0e12684" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +father of Huang T’ien-hua, <a id="d0e12687" href="#d0e3902">241</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12690"><span class="smallcaps">Huang Lao</span>. A genie; +seeks Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, <a id="d0e12694" href="#d0e2305">129</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12697"><span class="smallcaps">Huang Ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hsien-yüan Huang-ti</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12707"><span class="smallcaps">Huang T’ien-hua</span>. Son of Huang Fei-hu; +in battle with the <i>Chin-kang</i>, <a id="d0e12714" href="#d0e2149">123</a>; +attacks Wên Chung, <a id="d0e12717" href="#d0e2753">159</a>; +in battle with Lü Yüeh, <a id="d0e12720" href="#d0e3902">241</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12723"><span class="smallcaps">Hui Lu</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Huo-shih Chih T’u</span>. God of Fire, <a id="d0e12730" href="#d0e3864">238</a>–<a id="d0e12733" href="#d0e3879">239</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12736"><span class="smallcaps">Hui Tsung</span>. Emperor, <a id="d0e12740" href="#d0e2330">132</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12743"><span class="smallcaps">Hun Tun</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chaos</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12753"><span class="smallcaps">Hung Wu</span>. Emperor; +greatness of, <a id="d0e12757" href="#d0e3687">227</a>; +father of Chu-ti, <a id="d0e12760" href="#d0e3702">228</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chu-ti, Prince</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12769"><span class="smallcaps">Hung-chün Lao-tsu</span>. Master of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e12773" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e12776" href="#d0e2358">134</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12779"><span class="smallcaps">Huo Ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shên Nung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12789"><span class="smallcaps">Huo-tê Hsing-chün</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lo Hsüan</span> + + +</p><a id="d0e12799"></a><h2>I</h2> +<p id="d0e12802">“<span class="smallcaps">I Ching</span>.” The <i>Book</i> or <i>Canon of Changes</i> or <i>Permutations</i>; +first, but not the oldest, of the classics, <a id="d0e12816" href="#d0e1372">80</a>, <a id="d0e12819" href="#d0e1414">84</a>, <a id="d0e12822" href="#d0e1446">85</a>; +reputed origin of, <a id="d0e12825" href="#d0e1414">84</a>; +Fu Hsi and, <a id="d0e12828" href="#d0e1414">84</a>; +contains no cosmogony proper, <a id="d0e12831" href="#d0e1414">84</a>, <a id="d0e12834" href="#d0e1646">92</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12837"><span class="smallcaps">I Tu</span>. The Solitary Indeterminate; +makes evolution of Chaos possible, <a id="d0e12841" href="#d0e1569">90</a>–<a id="d0e12844" href="#d0e1611">91</a>; +<i>tao</i> and, <a id="d0e12850" href="#d0e1569">90</a>–<a id="d0e12853" href="#d0e1611">91</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e12856"></a>Page 438</span></p> +<p id="d0e12857"><span class="smallcaps">I Yu</span>. Superior of Nunnery of the White Bird, <a id="d0e12861" href="#d0e4184">261</a>–<a id="d0e12864" href="#d0e4195">262</a>, <a id="d0e12867" href="#d0e4211">263</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12870"><span class="smallcaps">Ideograms, Ancient Chinese</span>, <a id="d0e12874" href="#d0e574">14</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12877"><span class="smallcaps">Immaterial Principle</span>. <i>See</i> LI + +</p> +<p id="d0e12884"><span class="smallcaps">Immortal-s</span>. <i>Hsien</i>, or <i>Hsien-jên</i>, <a id="d0e12894" href="#d0e2196">125</a>, <a id="d0e12897" href="#d0e2371">135</a>; +God of the, <a id="d0e12900" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +the Eight—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Pa Hsien</span>; +the Eight, and the God of Longevity, <a id="d0e12909" href="#d0e3524">214</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hsien</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12918"><span class="smallcaps">Immortality, Pills of</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Pills</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12928"><span class="smallcaps">Imperfect Mountain</span>. Kung Kung strikes his head against the, <a id="d0e12932" href="#d0e1377">81</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12935"><span class="smallcaps">Implements</span>. Great variety of Chinese, <a id="d0e12939" href="#d0e1105">59</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12942"><span class="smallcaps">Indo-China</span>. Supposed origin of Chinese in, <a id="d0e12946" href="#d0e574">14</a>; +language of, <a id="d0e12949" href="#d0e574">14</a>; +early tribes in, <a id="d0e12952" href="#d0e581">15</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12955"><span class="smallcaps">Indra</span>. The God of Heaven; and Yü Huang, <a id="d0e12959" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12962"><span class="smallcaps">Industrial Institutions</span>, <a id="d0e12966" href="#d0e974">47</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e12969"></a><h2>J</h2> +<p id="d0e12972"><span class="smallcaps">Jade</span>. Symbol of purity; +the Jade Emperor, <a id="d0e12976" href="#d0e2309">130</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12979"><span class="smallcaps">Jade Palace of Abstraction</span>, <a id="d0e12983" href="#d0e2672">154</a>, <a id="d0e12986" href="#d0e2703">155</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e12989"><span class="smallcaps">Jan-têng Fo</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Jan Têng</span>. Light-lamp Buddha, <a id="d0e12996" href="#d0e2083">120</a>; +and Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e12999" href="#d0e2734">158</a>; +revives Wu Wang, <a id="d0e13002" href="#d0e2753">159</a>; +and T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e13005" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +mentioned, <a id="d0e13008" href="#d0e2775">161</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13011"><span class="smallcaps">Jan-têng Tao-jên</span>. Fights with T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e13015" href="#d0e2358">134</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13018"><span class="smallcaps">Jên Huang</span>. The nine Human Sovereigns, <a id="d0e13022" href="#d0e2518">144</a>, <a id="d0e13025" href="#d0e2537">145</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13028"><span class="smallcaps">Jên Tsung</span>. Emperor; +and worship of Chang Hsien, <a id="d0e13032" href="#d0e3030">178</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13035">“<span class="smallcaps">Jih Chi So Chih</span>,” <a id="d0e13040" href="#d0e6322">422</a> <i>n</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e13046"><span class="smallcaps">Jointed Snake</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e13050" href="#d0e5936">393</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13053"><span class="smallcaps">Ju Chiao</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Confucianism</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13063"><span class="smallcaps">Ju-i</span>. ‘As you wish’; +precious stone, <a id="d0e13067" href="#d0e2358">134</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13070"><span class="smallcaps">Ju-lai Fo</span>. Chinese translation of Tathagata, the highest epithet of a Buddha, literally ‘thus come’: “bringing human nature as it really +is, with perfect knowledge and high intelligence, he comes and manifests himself”; +in the myth of P’an Ku, <a id="d0e13074" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +and Miao Shan (Kuan Yin), <a id="d0e13077" href="#d0e4294">269</a>–<a id="d0e13080" href="#d0e4307">270</a>; +rescues Hsüan Chuang, <a id="d0e13083" href="#d0e5537">358</a>–<a id="d0e13086" href="#d0e5555">359</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13089"><span class="smallcaps">Jung</span>. Tribe with heads of dogs, <a id="d0e13093" href="#d0e637">20</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e13096" href="#d0e6283">419</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e13102"><span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>. Yü Huang the Chinese, <a id="d0e13106" href="#d0e2309">130</a>; +given as a kingdom to Chuang Chou by Shang Ti, <a id="d0e13109" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +and T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e13112" href="#d0e3240">194</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e13115"></a><h2>K</h2> +<p id="d0e13118"><span class="smallcaps">Kalpa</span>. A period during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed, <a id="d0e13122" href="#d0e2293">128</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13125"><span class="smallcaps">K’ang Hsi</span>. Emperor; and Wang Tan, <a id="d0e13129" href="#d0e2321">131</a>–<a id="d0e13132" href="#d0e2330">132</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13135"><span class="smallcaps">Kao Chio</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shun-fêng Êrh</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13145"><span class="smallcaps">Kao Ming</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ien-li Yen</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13155"><span class="smallcaps">Khotan</span>. Supposed origin of the Chinese in, <a id="d0e13159" href="#d0e556">13</a>, <a id="d0e13162" href="#d0e581">15</a>, <a id="d0e13165" href="#d0e609">17</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13168"><span class="smallcaps">King-s</span>. Multiple character of kingship, <a id="d0e13172" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +the king the source of legislation and the administrator of justice, <a id="d0e13175" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +king as high priest, <a id="d0e13178" href="#d0e814">34</a>–<a id="d0e13181" href="#d0e830">35</a>; +King of Hell, <a id="d0e13184" href="#d0e2083">120</a>; +the Four, of Heaven, <a id="d0e13187" href="#d0e2480">142</a>; +Four, of the Salt Waters, <a id="d0e13190" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +Four, of the Sweet Waters, <a id="d0e13193" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +as Gods of Medicine, <a id="d0e13196" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e13199" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +the Dragon-kings, <i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Dragon-king-s</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13208"><span class="smallcaps">Kingdom, The Women’s</span>, <a id="d0e13212" href="#d0e5897">390</a>–<a id="d0e13215" href="#d0e5913">391</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13218"><span class="smallcaps">Kitchen-god</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tsao Chün</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13228"><span class="smallcaps">Kite-flying</span>. Season of, <a id="d0e13232" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13235"><span class="smallcaps">Knowledge</span>, <a id="d0e13239" href="#d0e1047">54</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e13245"><span class="smallcaps">Ko Hung</span>. Author of <i>Shên hsien chuan</i>; +inventor of P’an Ku legend, <a id="d0e13252" href="#d0e1349">79</a>, <a id="d0e13255" href="#d0e1372">80</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13258"><span class="smallcaps">Ko-ai</span>. Daughter of Kuan Yu; +and the casting of the great bell of Peking, <a id="d0e13262" href="#d0e5963">396</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e13268"><span class="smallcaps">Ku, Mr</span>. And the fox-girl, <a id="d0e13272" href="#d0e5772">376</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e13278"><span class="smallcaps">Kua</span>. Brother of Nü; +at foot of K’un-lun Mountains, <a id="d0e13282" href="#d0e1387">82</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13285"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Chung</span>. And Pao Shu, the Chinese types of friendship, <a id="d0e13289" href="#d0e5819">383</a> <i>and n</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e13295"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Lo</span>. His connexion with Shou Hsing, <a id="d0e13299" href="#d0e2945">172</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13302"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Ti</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Wu Ti</span>. Title of the God of War, <a id="d0e13309" href="#d0e2046">117</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13312"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Tzŭ</span>. A renowned statesman and sage of the Feudal Period; +his cosmogony, <a id="d0e13316" href="#d0e1372">80</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13319"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Yin</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Kuan Shih Yin</span>. The Buddhist Goddess of Mercy; +Tou Mu the equivalent of, in <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e13326"></a>Page 439</span>Taoism, <a id="d0e13328" href="#d0e2518">144</a>; +and Shui-mu Niang-niang, <a id="d0e13331" href="#d0e3609">221</a>–<a id="d0e13334" href="#d0e3626">222</a>; +attributes, etc., <a id="d0e13337" href="#d0e4040">251</a> <i>sq.</i>; +throne of, on Pootoo (P’u T’o) Isle, <a id="d0e13343" href="#d0e4057">252</a>; +the Buddhist Saviour, <a id="d0e13346" href="#d0e4057">252</a>–<a id="d0e13349" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e13352" href="#d0e5234">333</a>; +and Sha Ho-shang, <a id="d0e13355" href="#d0e5252">334</a>; +and Chu Pa-chieh, <a id="d0e13358" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +and the White Horse, <a id="d0e13361" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e13364" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +and the Red Child Demon, <a id="d0e13367" href="#d0e5445">350</a> <i>sq.</i> +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Miao Shan</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13379"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Yü</span>. God of War, <a id="d0e13383" href="#d0e1999">113</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Chang Fei, <a id="d0e13389" href="#d0e2013">114</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Liu Pei, <a id="d0e13395" href="#d0e2013">114</a> <i>sq.</i>; +deified, <a id="d0e13401" href="#d0e2046">117</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13404"><span class="smallcaps">Kuan Yu</span>. A mandarin; +and the casting of the great bell at Peking, <a id="d0e13408" href="#d0e5947">394</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13414"><span class="smallcaps">Kuang Ch’êng-tzŭ</span>. Mythical being who taught the attainment of immortality, also said to be an incarnation of Lao Tzŭ; +battle with To-pao Tao-jên, <a id="d0e13418" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +fights against Wên Chung, <a id="d0e13421" href="#d0e2775">161</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13424"><span class="smallcaps">Kuei</span>. Name for demons, <a id="d0e13428" href="#d0e1816">103</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13431"><span class="smallcaps">K’uei</span>. A star; +palace of the God of Literature, <a id="d0e13435" href="#d0e1890">106</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13441"><span class="smallcaps">K’uei</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Chung K’uei</span>. As God of Literature, <a id="d0e13448" href="#d0e1890">106</a> <i>sq.</i>; +as God of Exorcism, <a id="d0e13454" href="#d0e4010">248</a>, <a id="d0e13457" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e13460" href="#d0e4036">250</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13463"><span class="smallcaps">K’uei Hsing</span>. Distributor of literary degrees, <a id="d0e13467" href="#d0e1933">109</a>, <a id="d0e13470" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e13473" href="#d0e1979">112</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13476"><span class="smallcaps">K’uei Niu</span>. A monster resembling a buffalo, <a id="d0e13480" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13483"><span class="smallcaps">K’un-lun Mountains</span>. Supposed origin of the Chinese in, <a id="d0e13487" href="#d0e556">13</a>, <a id="d0e13490" href="#d0e602">16</a>; +Nü and Kua at foot of, <a id="d0e13493" href="#d0e1387">82</a>; +Hsi Wang Mu and, <a id="d0e13496" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +Yü Shih resides in, <a id="d0e13499" href="#d0e3418">206</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13502"><span class="smallcaps">Kung</span>. The Artisans; +the third class of the people, <a id="d0e13506" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13509"><span class="smallcaps">K’ung Hsüan</span>. The one-eyed peacock; +and Chun T’i, <a id="d0e13513" href="#d0e5022">320</a>–<a id="d0e13516" href="#d0e5041">321</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13519"><span class="smallcaps">Kung Kung</span>. A feudatory prince; +defeated by Chu Jung, <a id="d0e13523" href="#d0e1377">81</a>; +strikes his head against the Imperfect Mountain, <a id="d0e13526" href="#d0e1377">81</a>–<a id="d0e13529" href="#d0e1387">82</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13532"><span class="smallcaps">Kuo P’o</span>. Magician, <a id="d0e13536" href="#d0e3637">223</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13539"><span class="smallcaps">Kuo Tzŭ-i</span>. A God of Happiness, <a id="d0e13543" href="#d0e2914">170</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e13546"></a><h2>L</h2> +<p id="d0e13549"><span class="smallcaps">La Mei</span>. A flower; +the three musical brothers and, <a id="d0e13553" href="#d0e2619">151</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13556"><span class="smallcaps">Labour</span>. Division of, <a id="d0e13560" href="#d0e974">47</a>–<a id="d0e13563" href="#d0e988">48</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13566"><span class="smallcaps">Lake</span>. Of Gems, <a id="d0e13570" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +legend of the origin of a, <a id="d0e13573" href="#d0e6075">405</a>–<a id="d0e13576" href="#d0e6094">406</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13579"><span class="smallcaps">Lan Ts’ai-ho</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e13583" href="#d0e3524">214</a>, <a id="d0e13586" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e13589" href="#d0e4660">293</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13592"><span class="smallcaps">Land</span>. System of tenure of, <a id="d0e13596" href="#d0e988">48</a>; +greater portion under cultivation, <a id="d0e13599" href="#d0e997">49</a>–<a id="d0e13602" href="#d0e1011">50</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13605"><span class="smallcaps">Lang Ling</span>. Disciple of Li T’ieh-kuai, <a id="d0e13609" href="#d0e4607">289</a>, <a id="d0e13612" href="#d0e4623">290</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13615"><span class="smallcaps">Language, Chinese</span>, <a id="d0e13619" href="#d0e574">14</a>; +nature of, <a id="d0e13622" href="#d0e1070">56</a>–<a id="d0e13625" href="#d0e1086">57</a>; +written, <a id="d0e13628" href="#d0e1086">57</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13631"><span class="smallcaps">Lanterns, Feast of</span>, <a id="d0e13635" href="#d0e925">43</a>–<a id="d0e13638" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13641"><span class="smallcaps">Lao Chün</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lao Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13651"><span class="smallcaps">Lao Tzŭ</span>. Called also Lao Chün, T’ai-shang Lao-chün, and Shên Pao; +teacher, founder of Taoist system of philosophy; +and monism, <a id="d0e13655" href="#d0e1530">87</a>; +his <i>Tao-tê ching</i>, <a id="d0e13661" href="#d0e1530">87</a>; +and <i>tao</i>, the ‘Way,’ <a id="d0e13667" href="#d0e1530">87</a>–<a id="d0e13670" href="#d0e1548">88</a>; +third person of Taoist triad, <a id="d0e13673" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +and Yü Huang, <a id="d0e13676" href="#d0e2330">132</a>; +battles with T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e13679" href="#d0e2342">133</a>, <a id="d0e13682" href="#d0e5041">321</a>–<a id="d0e13685" href="#d0e5056">322</a>; +and Chuang Tzŭ, <a id="d0e13688" href="#d0e2577">148</a>–<a id="d0e13691" href="#d0e2588">149</a>; +fights with Ch’iung Hsiao, <a id="d0e13694" href="#d0e2734">158</a>; +and Li T’ieh-kuai, <a id="d0e13697" href="#d0e4607">289</a>, <a id="d0e13700" href="#d0e4623">290</a>; +Sun Hou-tzŭ steals pills of immortality from, <a id="d0e13703" href="#d0e5193">330</a>; +helps to capture Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e13706" href="#d0e5205">331</a>–<a id="d0e13709" href="#d0e5214">332</a>; +distils Sun Hou-tzŭ in his furnace, <a id="d0e13712" href="#d0e5205">331</a>–<a id="d0e13715" href="#d0e5214">332</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13718"><span class="smallcaps">Later Spirit Festival</span>, <a id="d0e13722" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13725"><span class="smallcaps">Law, The</span>. In Buddhism, <a id="d0e13729" href="#d0e2588">149</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13732"><span class="smallcaps">Laws</span>. Character of early, <a id="d0e13736" href="#d0e754">30</a>; +<i>lex talionis</i>, <a id="d0e13742" href="#d0e754">30</a>; +legal codes, <a id="d0e13745" href="#d0e754">30</a>–<a id="d0e13748" href="#d0e782">31</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13751"><span class="smallcaps">Legend-s</span>. Mythology and, <a id="d0e13755" href="#d0e1266">74</a>–<a id="d0e13758" href="#d0e1275">75</a>; +of the One-legged Bird, <a id="d0e13761" href="#d0e3418">206</a>–<a id="d0e13764" href="#d0e3438">207</a>; +of the Great Flood, <a id="d0e13767" href="#d0e3648">224</a>–<a id="d0e13770" href="#d0e3665">225</a>; +of the building of Peking, <a id="d0e13773" href="#d0e3687">227</a> <i>sq.</i>; +fox, <a id="d0e13779" href="#d0e5704">370</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the Unnatural People, <a id="d0e13785" href="#d0e5840">386</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the Pygmies, <a id="d0e13791" href="#d0e5840">386</a>–<a id="d0e13794" href="#d0e5860">387</a>; +of the Giants, <a id="d0e13797" href="#d0e5860">387</a>; +of the Headless People, <a id="d0e13800" href="#d0e5860">387</a>–<a id="d0e13803" href="#d0e5872">388</a>; +of the Armless People, <a id="d0e13806" href="#d0e5872">388</a>; +of the Long-armed People, <a id="d0e13809" href="#d0e5872">388</a>–<a id="d0e13812" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the Long-legged People, <a id="d0e13815" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the One-eyed People, <a id="d0e13818" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the One-armed People, <a id="d0e13821" href="#d0e5886">389</a>, <a id="d0e13824" href="#d0e5913">391</a>; +of the One-legged People, <a id="d0e13827" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the One-sided People, <a id="d0e13830" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the Long-eared People, <a id="d0e13833" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the Six-toed People, <a id="d0e13836" href="#d0e5886">389</a>; +of the Feathered People, <a id="d0e13839" href="#d0e5897">390</a>; +of the People of the Punctured Bodies, <a id="d0e13842" href="#d0e5897">390</a>; +of the Women’s Kingdom, <a id="d0e13845" href="#d0e5897">390</a>–<a id="d0e13848" href="#d0e5913">391</a>; +of the Flying Cart, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e13851"></a>Page 440</span>391; +of the Expectant Wife, <a id="d0e13853" href="#d0e5913">391</a>–<a id="d0e13856" href="#d0e5927">392</a>; +of the Wild Men, <a id="d0e13859" href="#d0e5927">392</a>–<a id="d0e13862" href="#d0e5936">393</a>; +of the Jointed Snake, <a id="d0e13865" href="#d0e5936">393</a>; +of the great bell of Peking, <a id="d0e13868" href="#d0e5947">394</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the Cursed Temple, <a id="d0e13874" href="#d0e5981">398</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the Maniac’s Mite, <a id="d0e13880" href="#d0e6009">401</a>–<a id="d0e13883" href="#d0e6018">402</a>; +of the City-god of Yen Ch’êng, <a id="d0e13886" href="#d0e6018">402</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the origin of a lake, <a id="d0e13892" href="#d0e6075">405</a>–<a id="d0e13895" href="#d0e6094">406</a>; +of creation, among Miao tribes, <a id="d0e13898" href="#d0e6094">406</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the South Branch, <a id="d0e13904" href="#d0e6191">410</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of Jung tribe with heads of dogs, <a id="d0e13910" href="#d0e6283">419</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13916"><span class="smallcaps">Lei Chên-tzŭ</span>. One of Wu Wang’s marshals; +attacks Ch’ien-li Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh, <a id="d0e13920" href="#d0e2828">164</a>; +kills unicorn of Wên Chung, <a id="d0e13923" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e13926" href="#d0e3351">202</a>–<a id="d0e13929" href="#d0e3364">203</a>; +a Son of Thunder, <a id="d0e13932" href="#d0e3351">202</a>; +called Wên Yü, <a id="d0e13935" href="#d0e3351">202</a>; +and Yün Chung-tzŭ, <a id="d0e13938" href="#d0e3351">202</a>–<a id="d0e13941" href="#d0e3364">203</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13944"><span class="smallcaps">Lei Kung</span>. Duke of Thunder, <a id="d0e13948" href="#d0e3288">198</a>, <a id="d0e13951" href="#d0e3311">199</a>–<a id="d0e13954" href="#d0e3325">200</a>; +and Garuda, <a id="d0e13957" href="#d0e3325">200</a>; +and Vajrâpani, <a id="d0e13960" href="#d0e3325">200</a>; +caught in the cleft of a tree, <a id="d0e13963" href="#d0e3325">200</a>–<a id="d0e13966" href="#d0e3342">201</a>; +and the mysterious bottle, <a id="d0e13969" href="#d0e3351">202</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e13972"><span class="smallcaps">Lei Tsu</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Wên Chung</span>. God of Thunder; +agent to Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun, <a id="d0e13979" href="#d0e2293">128</a>; +President of the Ministry of Thunder, <a id="d0e13982" href="#d0e3288">198</a>–<a id="d0e13985" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +description of, <a id="d0e13988" href="#d0e3288">198</a>; +origin of, <a id="d0e13991" href="#d0e3288">198</a>–<a id="d0e13994" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +and Ch’ih Ching-tzŭ, <a id="d0e13997" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +and Yün Chung-tzŭ, <a id="d0e14000" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +and Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e14003" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +confused with the Spirit of Thunder, <a id="d0e14006" href="#d0e3311">199</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14009"><span class="smallcaps">Li</span>. The Immaterial Principle; +Chu Hsi and, <a id="d0e14013" href="#d0e1503">86</a>–<a id="d0e14016" href="#d0e1530">87</a>; +Chou Tzŭ and, <a id="d0e14019" href="#d0e1530">87</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14022">“<span class="smallcaps">Li Chi</span>.” The classical <i>Book of Ceremonial</i>, <a id="d0e14030" href="#d0e1816">103</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14033"><span class="smallcaps">Li Chin-cha</span>. Eldest son of Li Ching, <a id="d0e14037" href="#d0e4809">305</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14040"><span class="smallcaps">Li Ching</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Li T’ien-wang</span>. The Pagoda-bearer; +his encounter with Ch’ien-li Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh, <a id="d0e14047" href="#d0e2793">162</a> <i>sq.</i>; +kills Lo Hsüan, <a id="d0e14053" href="#d0e3847">237</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e14056" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i>; +receives golden pagoda, <a id="d0e14062" href="#d0e5020">319</a>; +is made Guardian of the Gate of Heaven, <a id="d0e14065" href="#d0e5020">319</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li T’ien-wang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14074"><span class="smallcaps">Li Kuei-tsu</span>. Known as Tsêng-fu Hsiang-kung; +a God of Happiness, <a id="d0e14078" href="#d0e2914">170</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14081"><span class="smallcaps">Li Lao-chün</span>. And Shui-mu Niang-niang, <a id="d0e14085" href="#d0e3609">221</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14088"><span class="smallcaps">Li Mu-cha</span>. Second son of Li Ching, <a id="d0e14092" href="#d0e4809">305</a>, <a id="d0e14095" href="#d0e4994">317</a>; +duel with Lü Yüen, <a id="d0e14098" href="#d0e3902">241</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14101"><span class="smallcaps">Li No-cha</span>. Third son of Li Ching; +defends the Chou, <a id="d0e14105" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +and Têng Chiu-kung, <a id="d0e14108" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +vanquishes Fêng Lin, <a id="d0e14111" href="#d0e2657">153</a>; +defeats Chang Kuei-fang, <a id="d0e14114" href="#d0e2657">153</a>–<a id="d0e14117" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +and Chiang Tsŭ-ya, <a id="d0e14120" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +fights and slays Ts’ai-yün Hsien-tzŭ, <a id="d0e14123" href="#d0e2753">159</a>–<a id="d0e14126" href="#d0e2762">160</a>; +fights with Ch’ien-li Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh, <a id="d0e14129" href="#d0e2793">162</a>; +and Peking, <a id="d0e14132" href="#d0e3713">229</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e14135" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i>; +frequently mentioned in Chinese romance, <a id="d0e14141" href="#d0e4809">305</a>; +an avatar of the Intelligent Pearl, <a id="d0e14144" href="#d0e4828">306</a>; +and Lung Wang, <a id="d0e14147" href="#d0e4842">307</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Ao Ping, <a id="d0e14153" href="#d0e4850">308</a>–<a id="d0e14156" href="#d0e4875">309</a>; +discharges a magic arrow, <a id="d0e14159" href="#d0e4918">312</a>; +and Shih-chi Niang-niang, <a id="d0e14162" href="#d0e4918">312</a>–<a id="d0e14165" href="#d0e4931">313</a>; +commits <i>hara-kiri</i>, <a id="d0e14171" href="#d0e4931">313</a>–<a id="d0e14174" href="#d0e4946">314</a>; +temple built to, <a id="d0e14177" href="#d0e4946">314</a>; +his statue destroyed by his father, <a id="d0e14180" href="#d0e4964">315</a>; +consults his master, <a id="d0e14183" href="#d0e4980">316</a>; +is transformed, <a id="d0e14186" href="#d0e4980">316</a>–<a id="d0e14189" href="#d0e4994">317</a>; +battles with his father, <a id="d0e14192" href="#d0e4994">317</a> <i>sq.</i>; +is reconciled to his father, <a id="d0e14198" href="#d0e5009">318</a>–<a id="d0e14201" href="#d0e5020">319</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14204"><span class="smallcaps">Li P’ing</span>. Sixth officer of the Ministry of Epidemics, <a id="d0e14208" href="#d0e3914">242</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14211"><span class="smallcaps">Li Shao-chün</span>. And Tsao Chün, <a id="d0e14215" href="#d0e2870">166</a>–<a id="d0e14218" href="#d0e2877">167</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14221"><span class="smallcaps">Li Shih-min</span>, Emperor; +and legend of the five graduates, <a id="d0e14225" href="#d0e3940">243</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Chang T’ien-shih, <a id="d0e14231" href="#d0e3940">243</a> <i>sq.</i>; +visited by spirits of the graduates, <a id="d0e14237" href="#d0e3967">245</a>–<a id="d0e14240" href="#d0e3984">246</a>; +canonizes the graduates, <a id="d0e14243" href="#d0e3984">246</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14246"><span class="smallcaps">Li T’ieh-kuai</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e14250" href="#d0e3524">214</a>, <a id="d0e14253" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legends of, <a id="d0e14256" href="#d0e4607">289</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14262"><span class="smallcaps">Li T’ien-wang</span>. And Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e14266" href="#d0e5205">331</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li Ching</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14275">“<span class="smallcaps">Liao Chai Chih</span> I.” Seventeenth-century work; +and fox-legends, <a id="d0e14280" href="#d0e5704">370</a>–<a id="d0e14283" href="#d0e5726">371</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14286"><span class="smallcaps">Libraries</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Accessory Institutions</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14296"><span class="smallcaps">Lieh Tzŭ</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Lieh Yü-k’ou</span>. A philosopher, by some regarded as fictitious; +Chinese mythology and, <a id="d0e14303" href="#d0e1237">72</a>; +his Absolute, <a id="d0e14306" href="#d0e1569">90</a>–<a id="d0e14309" href="#d0e1611">91</a>; +apotheosized, <a id="d0e14312" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14315"><span class="smallcaps">Lieh Yü-k’ou</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lieh Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14325"><span class="smallcaps">Lightning</span>. Mother of, <a id="d0e14329" href="#d0e3364">203</a>; +and the <i>yin</i> and the <i>yang</i>, <a id="d0e14338" href="#d0e3364">203</a>–<a id="d0e14341" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +myths of, <a id="d0e14344" href="#d0e3364">203</a>–<a id="d0e14347" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +Spirit of, <a id="d0e14350" href="#d0e3364">203</a>–<a id="d0e14353" href="#d0e3392">204</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14356"><span class="smallcaps">Ling Chên-tzŭ</span>. Gives the Bird of Dawn to Shên I, <a id="d0e14360" href="#d0e3157">187</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14363"><span class="smallcaps">Ling Hsü</span>. Dragon-king, <a id="d0e14367" href="#d0e3574">218</a>–<a id="d0e14370" href="#d0e3583">219</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e14373"></a>Page 441</span></p> +<p id="d0e14374"><span class="smallcaps">Ling-pao T’ien-tsun</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Tao Chûn</span>. Second person of Taoist triad, <a id="d0e14381" href="#d0e2169">124</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14384"><span class="smallcaps">Lion, The Green</span>, <a id="d0e14388" href="#d0e4507">283</a>, <a id="d0e14391" href="#d0e4528">284</a>, <a id="d0e14394" href="#d0e4540">285</a>–<a id="d0e14397" href="#d0e4558">286</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14400"><span class="smallcaps">List of Promotions to Immortals</span>. Given to Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e14404" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +Tzŭ-ya builds Fêng Shên T’ai for, <a id="d0e14407" href="#d0e2672">154</a>, <a id="d0e14410" href="#d0e2727">157</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14413"><span class="smallcaps">Literary Degrees</span>. K’uei Hsing distributor of, <a id="d0e14417" href="#d0e1942">110</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14420"><span class="smallcaps">Literary Examinations</span>. Means of appointment to office, <a id="d0e14424" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14427"><span class="smallcaps">Literature</span>. Gods of, <a id="d0e14431" href="#d0e1854">104</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e14437" href="#d0e4732">299</a>; +Wên Ch’ang and the Great Bear, <a id="d0e14440" href="#d0e1879">105</a> <i>sq.</i>; +palace of God of, <a id="d0e14446" href="#d0e1890">106</a>; +God of War as God of, <a id="d0e14449" href="#d0e1999">113</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Chinese, <a id="d0e14455" href="#d0e6182">408</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14461"><span class="smallcaps">Liu Ch’in</span>. Minister of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e14465" href="#d0e4431">277</a>, <a id="d0e14468" href="#d0e4463">279</a>–<a id="d0e14471" href="#d0e4481">280</a>, <a id="d0e14474" href="#d0e4496">282</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14477"><span class="smallcaps">Liu Hsüan Te</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Liu Pei</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14487"><span class="smallcaps">Liu Hung</span>. Murderer of Ch’en Kuang-jui, <a id="d0e14491" href="#d0e5282">336</a>–<a id="d0e14494" href="#d0e5301">337</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14497"><span class="smallcaps">Liu I</span>. And the Dragon-king’s daughter, <a id="d0e14501" href="#d0e3556">217</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14507"><span class="smallcaps">Liu Pei, Liu Hsüan Tê</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hsien Chu</span>. Hawker of straw shoes, and founder of the Shu Han dynasty; +and Kuan Yü, <a id="d0e14514" href="#d0e2013">114</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14520"><span class="smallcaps">Liu Po-wên</span>. Taoist priest; +and Chu-ti, <a id="d0e14524" href="#d0e3702">228</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14530"><span class="smallcaps">Living, Worship of the</span>, <a id="d0e14534" href="#d0e1786">101</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14537"><span class="smallcaps">Lo Ching Hsin</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14547"><span class="smallcaps">Lo Hsüan</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Huo-tê Hsing-chün</span>. Originally Yen-chung Hsien; +President of the Ministry of Fire, <a id="d0e14554" href="#d0e3823">236</a>–<a id="d0e14557" href="#d0e3847">237</a>; +description of, <a id="d0e14560" href="#d0e3823">236</a>; +burns Hsi Ch’i, <a id="d0e14563" href="#d0e3823">236</a>–<a id="d0e14566" href="#d0e3847">237</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14569"><span class="smallcaps">Lo Yü</span>. First name of P’o Chia (Miao Chuang), <a id="d0e14573" href="#d0e4064">253</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14576"><span class="smallcaps">Long-armed People</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e14580" href="#d0e5872">388</a>–<a id="d0e14583" href="#d0e5886">389</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14586"><span class="smallcaps">Long-eared People</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e14590" href="#d0e5886">389</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14593"><span class="smallcaps">Long-legged People</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e14597" href="#d0e5886">389</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14600"><span class="smallcaps">Longevity, God of</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shou Hsing</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14610"><span class="smallcaps">Lotus Cave, The</span>, <a id="d0e14614" href="#d0e5389">345</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14620"><span class="smallcaps">Lu Ch’i</span>. Legend of, and Princess T’ai Yin, <a id="d0e14624" href="#d0e1942">110</a>–<a id="d0e14627" href="#d0e1970">111</a>; +appointed Minister of the Empire, <a id="d0e14630" href="#d0e1970">111</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14633"><span class="smallcaps">Lü Shang</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chiang Tzü-ya</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14643"><span class="smallcaps">Lü Tung-pin</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Lü Yen</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e14650" href="#d0e4584">288</a>, <a id="d0e14653" href="#d0e4644">292</a>,296, <a id="d0e14656" href="#d0e4759">300</a>, <a id="d0e14659" href="#d0e4783">301</a>, <a id="d0e14662" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legends of, <a id="d0e14665" href="#d0e4712">297</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14671"><span class="smallcaps">Lu Tung-shih</span>. Follower of Ch’in Shih Huang-ti; +draws portrait of the God of the Sea, <a id="d0e14675" href="#d0e3518">213</a>; +results of his offence, <a id="d0e14678" href="#d0e3524">214</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14681"><span class="smallcaps">Lü Yüeh</span>. President of the Ministry of Epidemics, <a id="d0e14685" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e14688" href="#d0e3902">241</a>–<a id="d0e14691" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +in battle at Hsi Ch’i <a id="d0e14694" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +his duel with Mu-cha, <a id="d0e14697" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +in battle with Huang T’ien-hua <a id="d0e14700" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +Chiang Tzŭ-ya and, <a id="d0e14703" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +and the magic umbrellas, <a id="d0e14706" href="#d0e3902">241</a>–<a id="d0e14709" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +Yang Chien and, <a id="d0e14712" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +Yang Jên and, <a id="d0e14715" href="#d0e3914">242</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14718"><span class="smallcaps">Lü Yen</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lü Tung-pin</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14728"><span class="smallcaps">Lung Chi</span>. Princess; +saves city of Hsi Ch’i from fire, <a id="d0e14732" href="#d0e3847">237</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14735"><span class="smallcaps">Lung Nü</span>. Becomes pupil of Miao Shan, <a id="d0e14739" href="#d0e4389">274</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e14742" href="#d0e4573">287</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14745"><span class="smallcaps">Lung Wang</span>. Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea; +his son saved by Miao Shan, <a id="d0e14749" href="#d0e4375">273</a>–<a id="d0e14752" href="#d0e4389">274</a>; +and No-cha, <a id="d0e14755" href="#d0e4842">307</a> <i>sq.</i>; and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e14761" href="#d0e5173">328</a>–<a id="d0e14764" href="#d0e5179">329</a>; +saves Ch’Sn Kuang-jui, <a id="d0e14767" href="#d0e5313">339</a>–<a id="d0e14770" href="#d0e5329">340</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e14773"></a><h2>M</h2> +<p id="d0e14776"><span class="smallcaps">Ma T’ien-jung</span>. His fox-friend and his marriage, <a id="d0e14780" href="#d0e5736">372</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14786"><span class="smallcaps">Ma Yüan-shuai</span>. Generalissimo Ma, a three-eyed monster, <a id="d0e14790" href="#d0e3438">207</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14793"><span class="smallcaps">Ma-t’ou Niang</span>. ‘Lady with the Horse’s Head,’ <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ts’an Nü</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14803"><span class="smallcaps">Magic</span>. Gourd, <a id="d0e14807" href="#d0e5413">347</a>; +rope, <a id="d0e14810" href="#d0e5422">348</a>; +circle, <a id="d0e14813" href="#d0e5530">357</a>–<a id="d0e14816" href="#d0e5537">358</a>; +Fire-quenching Fan, <a id="d0e14819" href="#d0e5555">359</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14825"><span class="smallcaps">Magicians</span>. T’u Hsing-sun, <a id="d0e14829" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +Chü Liu-sun, <a id="d0e14832" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +Kuo P’o, <a id="d0e14835" href="#d0e3637">223</a>; +Yang Jên, <a id="d0e14838" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +Yeh Fa-shan, <a id="d0e14841" href="#d0e4673">294</a>–<a id="d0e14844" href="#d0e4683">295</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14847"><span class="smallcaps">Mahayanistic Buddhism</span>, <a id="d0e14851" href="#d0e2059">118</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14854"><span class="smallcaps">Maitrêya</span>. Mi-lo Fo; +the successor of Shâkyamuni, <a id="d0e14858" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14861"><span class="smallcaps">Manchu-s</span>. Extent of China at time of conquest by, <a id="d0e14865" href="#d0e620">18</a>; +conquer China, <a id="d0e14868" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +symbol of dragon on flag, <a id="d0e14871" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14874"><span class="smallcaps">Manchuria</span>. As part of China, <a id="d0e14878" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14881"><span class="smallcaps">Maniac’s Mite</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e14885" href="#d0e6009">401</a>–<a id="d0e14888" href="#d0e6018">402</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14891"><span class="smallcaps">Mao Êrh-chieh</span>. Chu Pa-chieh and, <a id="d0e14895" href="#d0e5269">335</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14898"><span class="smallcaps">Maritchi</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tou Mu</span> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e14908"></a>Page 442</span></p> +<p id="d0e14909"><span class="smallcaps">Marriage</span>, <a id="d0e14913" href="#d0e655">22</a> <i>sq.</i>; +concubinage, <a id="d0e14919" href="#d0e655">22</a>–<a id="d0e14922" href="#d0e671">23</a>; +age for, <a id="d0e14925" href="#d0e671">23</a>; +matchmaker or go-between, <a id="d0e14928" href="#d0e671">23</a>; +divorce, <a id="d0e14931" href="#d0e671">23</a>; +remarriage, <a id="d0e14934" href="#d0e671">23</a>–<a id="d0e14937" href="#d0e675">24</a>; +changes in ceremonial of, <a id="d0e14940" href="#d0e675">24</a>–<a id="d0e14943" href="#d0e684">25</a>; +object of, <a id="d0e14946" href="#d0e675">24</a>; +of the gods, <a id="d0e14949" href="#d0e1746">99</a>; +of the River-god, <a id="d0e14952" href="#d0e3665">225</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14958"><span class="smallcaps">Maruta</span>. Vedic storm-demons, <a id="d0e14962" href="#d0e3288">198</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14965"><span class="smallcaps">Measures, Weights and</span>, <a id="d0e14969" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14972"><span class="smallcaps">Medicine</span>. +Primitive knowledge of, <a id="d0e14976" href="#d0e1065">55</a>–<a id="d0e14979" href="#d0e1070">56</a>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e14982" href="#d0e3984">246</a>–<a id="d0e14985" href="#d0e4000">247</a>; +Gods of, <a id="d0e14988" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e14991" href="#d0e4010">248</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e14994"><span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span>. Gods of the Door, <a id="d0e14998" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e15001" href="#d0e2945">172</a> <i>sq.</i>; +legend of, <a id="d0e15007" href="#d0e2945">172</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Shên Shu and Yû Lû as, <a id="d0e15013" href="#d0e2968">173</a>; +Ch’in Shu-pao and Hu Ching-tê as, <a id="d0e15016" href="#d0e2968">173</a>–<a id="d0e15019" href="#d0e2983">174</a>; +Wei Chêng and, <a id="d0e15022" href="#d0e2983">174</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15025"><span class="smallcaps">Mencius, Mêng K’o</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Mêng Tzŭ</span>. Teacher and philosopher; +his cosmogony, <a id="d0e15032" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +and the First Cause, <a id="d0e15035" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15038"><span class="smallcaps">Mêng K’o</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mencius</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15048"><span class="smallcaps">Mêng Tzŭ</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mencius</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15058"><span class="smallcaps">Merchants</span>. <i>Shang</i>; the fourth class of the people, <a id="d0e15065" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15068"><span class="smallcaps">Mercy, Goddess of</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Kuan Yin</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Miao Shan</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15084"><span class="smallcaps">Mi-lo</span>. A river; Ch’ü Yüan drowns himself in, <a id="d0e15088" href="#d0e2636">152</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15091"><span class="smallcaps">Mi-lo Fo</span>. Maitrêya; the successor of Shâkyamuni, <a id="d0e15095" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15098"><span class="smallcaps">Miao</span>. +Creation legends of the, <a id="d0e15102" href="#d0e6094">406</a> <i>sq.</i>; +legend of the tailed tribes, <a id="d0e15108" href="#d0e6322">422</a> <i>n.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15114"><span class="smallcaps">Miao Chi</span>. A Taoist priest; and T’ai I, <a id="d0e15118" href="#d0e2480">142</a>–<a id="d0e15121" href="#d0e2504">143</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15124"><span class="smallcaps">Miao Ch’ing</span>. Daughter of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e15128" href="#d0e4126">257</a>; +marries Chao K’uei, <a id="d0e15131" href="#d0e4135">258</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e15134" href="#d0e4558">286</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15137"><span class="smallcaps">Miao Chuang</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">P’o Chia</span>. First name Lo Yü; kinglet of Hsi Yü, <a id="d0e15144" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +Hsing Lin kingdom of, <a id="d0e15147" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +Chao Chên minister to, <a id="d0e15150" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +Ch’u Chieh general to, <a id="d0e15153" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +Pao Tê (Po Ya) Queen of, <a id="d0e15156" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +prays for a son, <a id="d0e15159" href="#d0e4064">253</a>–<a id="d0e15162" href="#d0e4076">254</a>; +birth of daughters to, <a id="d0e15165" href="#d0e4111">256</a>–<a id="d0e15168" href="#d0e4126">257</a>; +exiles Miao Shan, <a id="d0e15171" href="#d0e4165">260</a>; +orders destruction of the Nunnery of the White Bird, <a id="d0e15174" href="#d0e4221">264</a>; +orders death of Miao Shan, <a id="d0e15177" href="#d0e4230">265</a> <i>sq.</i>; +is punished for burning the nunnery, <a id="d0e15183" href="#d0e4389">274</a> <i>sq.</i>; +is healed by Miao Shan, <a id="d0e15189" href="#d0e4416">276</a> <i>sq.</i>; +conspiracy against, <a id="d0e15195" href="#d0e4431">277</a> <i>sq.</i>; +goes to Hsiang Shan, <a id="d0e15201" href="#d0e4507">283</a>; +his repentance, <a id="d0e15204" href="#d0e4528">284</a> <i>sq.</i>; +canonized, <a id="d0e15210" href="#d0e4573">287</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15213"><span class="smallcaps">Miao Shan</span>, Daughter of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e15217" href="#d0e4126">257</a>; +her ambition, <a id="d0e15220" href="#d0e4126">257</a>–<a id="d0e15223" href="#d0e4135">258</a>; +her renunciation, <a id="d0e15226" href="#d0e4135">258</a> <i>sq.</i>; +at the Nunnery of the White Bird, <a id="d0e15232" href="#d0e4184">261</a> <i>sq.</i>; +worships Buddha, <a id="d0e15238" href="#d0e4195">262</a>; +receives spiritual aid, <a id="d0e15241" href="#d0e4195">262</a>–<a id="d0e15244" href="#d0e4211">263</a>; +saves the nunnery, <a id="d0e15247" href="#d0e4221">264</a>; +her execution ordered, <a id="d0e15250" href="#d0e4230">265</a> <i>sq.</i>; +visits the infernal regions, <a id="d0e15256" href="#d0e4261">267</a>–<a id="d0e15259" href="#d0e4276">268</a>; +makes Hell a paradise, <a id="d0e15262" href="#d0e4276">268</a>; +her virtue is tested, <a id="d0e15265" href="#d0e4294">269</a>; +and Ju Lai, <a id="d0e15268" href="#d0e4294">269</a>–<a id="d0e15271" href="#d0e4307">270</a>; +attains to perfection, <a id="d0e15274" href="#d0e4328">271</a>; +becomes a Buddha, <a id="d0e15277" href="#d0e4328">271</a>, <a id="d0e15280" href="#d0e4558">286</a>; +and Shan Ts’ai, <a id="d0e15283" href="#d0e4328">271</a> <i>sq.</i>; +tests Shan Ts’ai’s fidelity, <a id="d0e15289" href="#d0e4347">272</a>–<a id="d0e15292" href="#d0e4375">273</a>; +sends help to son of Lung Wang, <a id="d0e15295" href="#d0e4375">273</a>–<a id="d0e15298" href="#d0e4389">274</a>; +disguises herself as a priest-doctor, <a id="d0e15301" href="#d0e4403">275</a> <i>sq.</i>; +suffers in order that her father may be cured, <a id="d0e15307" href="#d0e4431">277</a>, <a id="d0e15310" href="#d0e4463">279</a> <i>sq.</i>; +defeats conspiracy of the King’s sons-in-law, <a id="d0e15316" href="#d0e4457">278</a>–<a id="d0e15319" href="#d0e4463">279</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Kuan Yin</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15328"><span class="smallcaps">Miao Yin</span>. Daughter of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e15332" href="#d0e4126">257</a>; +marries Ho Fêng, <a id="d0e15335" href="#d0e4135">258</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e15338" href="#d0e4558">286</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15341"><span class="smallcaps">Mid-autumn Festival</span> (All Souls’-Day), <a id="d0e15345" href="#d0e830">35</a>, <a id="d0e15348" href="#d0e938">44</a>–<a id="d0e15351" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15354"><span class="smallcaps">Middle Kingdom</span>. A term for the Chinese Empire, <a id="d0e15358" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15361"><span class="smallcaps">Middle Spirit Festival</span>, <a id="d0e15365" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15368"><span class="smallcaps">Military System</span>. +In primitive times, <a id="d0e15372" href="#d0e798">32</a>–<a id="d0e15375" href="#d0e810">33</a>; +in relation to the ruler, <a id="d0e15378" href="#d0e810">33</a>; +weapons, <a id="d0e15381" href="#d0e810">33</a>; +standing armies, <a id="d0e15384" href="#d0e810">33</a>; +changes in, <a id="d0e15387" href="#d0e810">33</a>–<a id="d0e15390" href="#d0e814">34</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15393"><span class="smallcaps">Ministry-ies</span>. +Of Agriculture, <a id="d0e15397" href="#d0e1011">50</a>–<a id="d0e15400" href="#d0e1017">51</a>; +celestial, <a id="d0e15403" href="#d0e2828">164</a>, <a id="d0e15406" href="#d0e3288">198</a>–<a id="d0e15409" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +of Epidemics, <a id="d0e15412" href="#d0e3891">240</a>–<a id="d0e15415" href="#d0e3902">241</a>; +of Exorcism, <a id="d0e15418" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +of Fire, <a id="d0e15421" href="#d0e3823">236</a>; +of Medicine, <a id="d0e15424" href="#d0e3984">246</a>–<a id="d0e15427" href="#d0e4000">247</a>; +of Smallpox, <a id="d0e15430" href="#d0e3984">246</a>–<a id="d0e15433" href="#d0e4000">247</a>; +of Thunder and Storms, <a id="d0e15436" href="#d0e3288">198</a>; +of Time, <a id="d0e15439" href="#d0e3240">194</a>; +of Waters, <a id="d0e15442" href="#d0e3496">212</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15445"><span class="smallcaps">Ming Huang</span>. Emperor; and Hsü Hao, <a id="d0e15449" href="#d0e4030">249</a>–<a id="d0e15452" href="#d0e4036">250</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15455"><span class="smallcaps">Mo Ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mo Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15465"><span class="smallcaps">Mo Tzŭ, Mu Tzŭ</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Mo Ti</span> A philosopher; +and creation, <a id="d0e15472" href="#d0e1560">89</a>–<a id="d0e15475" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +apotheosized, <a id="d0e15478" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15481"><span class="smallcaps">Mo-li</span>. The Four Diamond Kings of Heaven, <a id="d0e15485" href="#d0e2083">120</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15491"><span class="smallcaps">Mohammedans</span>. Represented in Chinese Republican flag, <a id="d0e15495" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15498"><span class="smallcaps">Monarchical Period</span>. +Duration of, <a id="d0e15502" href="#d0e620">18</a>; +marriage in, <a id="d0e15505" href="#d0e675">24</a>; +establishment of, <a id="d0e15508" href="#d0e709">27</a>; +administrative system in, <a id="d0e15511" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +appointment to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e15514"></a>Page 443</span>office in, <a id="d0e15516" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +funeral rites in, <a id="d0e15519" href="#d0e881">40</a>–<a id="d0e15522" href="#d0e896">41</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15525"><span class="smallcaps">Mongolia</span>. A dependency of China, <a id="d0e15529" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15532"><span class="smallcaps">Mongols</span>. Their rule over China, <a id="d0e15536" href="#d0e648">21</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15539"><span class="smallcaps">Monism</span>. Transition to, from dualism, <a id="d0e15543" href="#d0e1446">85</a>–<a id="d0e15546" href="#d0e1503">86</a>; +Chu Hsi and, <a id="d0e15549" href="#d0e1503">86</a>–<a id="d0e15552" href="#d0e1530">87</a>; +Lao Tzŭ and, <a id="d0e15555" href="#d0e1530">87</a>–<a id="d0e15558" href="#d0e1548">88</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15561"><span class="smallcaps">Monkey</span>. Becomes a god, <a id="d0e15565" href="#d0e5107">325</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15571"><span class="smallcaps">Monogamy</span>. In China, <a id="d0e15575" href="#d0e655">22</a>–<a id="d0e15578" href="#d0e671">23</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15581"><span class="smallcaps">Moon</span>. P’an Ku and the, <a id="d0e15585" href="#d0e1296">77</a>–<a id="d0e15588" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +influences terrestrial events, <a id="d0e15591" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +symbol of the, <a id="d0e15594" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +hare in the, <a id="d0e15597" href="#d0e3005">176</a>, <a id="d0e15600" href="#d0e3036">179</a>; +worship of the, <a id="d0e15603" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +Shên I visits the, <a id="d0e15606" href="#d0e3157">187</a>–<a id="d0e15609" href="#d0e3166">188</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15612"><span class="smallcaps">Moon-queen</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ang Ô</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15622"><span class="smallcaps">Mother</span>. The Earth-mother, <a id="d0e15626" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e15629" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e15632" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e15635" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +Golden, of the Tortoise, <a id="d0e15638" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +Bushel—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tou Mu</span>; +of Heaven, <a id="d0e15647" href="#d0e2608">150</a>; +Old, of the Waters, <a id="d0e15650" href="#d0e3589">220</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15656"><span class="smallcaps">Mountain-s</span>. Sacrifices offered on T’ai Shan, <a id="d0e15660" href="#d0e2265">127</a>; +‘the Five,’ Wu Yüeh, <a id="d0e15663" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +Hua Shan, sacred, <a id="d0e15666" href="#d0e4064">253</a>; +monkey under the, <a id="d0e15669" href="#d0e5389">345</a>–<a id="d0e15672" href="#d0e5396">346</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15675"><span class="smallcaps">Mourning</span>. Methods of, <a id="d0e15679" href="#d0e881">40</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15682"><span class="smallcaps">Mu Kung, Tung Wang Kung</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Tung-hua Ti-chün</span>. God of the Immortals, <a id="d0e15689" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +how formed, <a id="d0e15692" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +and <i>yang</i> principle, <a id="d0e15698" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +sovereign of the Eastern Air, <a id="d0e15701" href="#d0e2395">136</a>–<a id="d0e15704" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +his servants, Hsien T’ung and Yü Nü, <a id="d0e15707" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +and Shên I, <a id="d0e15710" href="#d0e3118">185</a>–<a id="d0e15713" href="#d0e3138">186</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tung Wang Kung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15722"><span class="smallcaps">Mu Tzŭ</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mo Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15732"><span class="smallcaps">Mu Yeh</span>. Battle of, <a id="d0e15736" href="#d0e2636">152</a>–<a id="d0e15739" href="#d0e2657">153</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15742"><span class="smallcaps">Mu-cha</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li Mu-cha</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15752"><span class="smallcaps">Mulberry-trees</span>. Goddess of, <a id="d0e15756" href="#d0e2900">169</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15759"><span class="smallcaps">Mutilations</span>. Practised by the Chinese, <a id="d0e15763" href="#d0e860">38</a>–<a id="d0e15766" href="#d0e871">39</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15769"><span class="smallcaps">Mythology</span>, <a id="d0e15773" href="#d0e1109">60</a> <i>sq.</i>; +definition of, <a id="d0e15779" href="#d0e1109">60</a>; +Chinese rigidity and, <a id="d0e15782" href="#d0e1123">61</a>, <a id="d0e15785" href="#d0e1143">63</a>–<a id="d0e15788" href="#d0e1163">64</a>; +intellect and, <a id="d0e15791" href="#d0e1123">61</a>; +effect of Confucianism on, <a id="d0e15794" href="#d0e1123">61</a>–<a id="d0e15797" href="#d0e1133">62</a>; +influence of religion on, <a id="d0e15800" href="#d0e1133">62</a>–<a id="d0e15803" href="#d0e1143">63</a>; +effect of Buddhism on, <a id="d0e15806" href="#d0e1133">62</a>–<a id="d0e15809" href="#d0e1143">63</a>; +history and, <a id="d0e15812" href="#d0e1143">63</a>; +character of Chinese, <a id="d0e15815" href="#d0e1194">67</a>–<a id="d0e15818" href="#d0e1203">68</a>, <a id="d0e15821" href="#d0e6340">423</a>; +sources of Chinese, <a id="d0e15824" href="#d0e1210">69</a> <i>sq.</i>; +doubt and, <a id="d0e15830" href="#d0e1252">73</a>–<a id="d0e15833" href="#d0e1266">74</a>; +legend and, <a id="d0e15836" href="#d0e1266">74</a>–<a id="d0e15839" href="#d0e1275">75</a>; +parallelisms between Chinese and Hebrew, <a id="d0e15842" href="#d0e1349">79</a> <i>n.</i>; +cosmogony and, <a id="d0e15848" href="#d0e1646">92</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15851"><span class="smallcaps">Myth-s</span>. Prerequisites to, <a id="d0e15855" href="#d0e1163">64</a> <i>sq.</i>; +periods fertile in, <a id="d0e15861" href="#d0e1203">68</a>–<a id="d0e15864" href="#d0e1210">69</a>; +phases of, <a id="d0e15867" href="#d0e1226">71</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Sung philosophers and, <a id="d0e15873" href="#d0e1252">73</a>; +a nature myth, <a id="d0e15876" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +myths of the stars, <a id="d0e15879" href="#d0e3005">176</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of time, <a id="d0e15885" href="#d0e3240">194</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of thunder, <a id="d0e15891" href="#d0e3288">198</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of lightning, <a id="d0e15897" href="#d0e3364">203</a>–<a id="d0e15900" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +of wind, <a id="d0e15903" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e15906" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +of rain, <a id="d0e15909" href="#d0e3407">205</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of the waters, <a id="d0e15915" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +of fire, <a id="d0e15918" href="#d0e3823">236</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of epidemics, medicine, exorcism, etc., <a id="d0e15924" href="#d0e3891">240</a> <i>sq.</i>; +effect of philosophy on, <a id="d0e15930" href="#d0e6340">423</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e15933"></a><h2>N</h2> +<p id="d0e15936"><span class="smallcaps">Nagas</span>. Mountain dragons, <a id="d0e15940" href="#d0e3445">208</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15943"><span class="smallcaps">Nails</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Finger-nails</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15953"><span class="smallcaps">Nameless</span>. Universe originated from, <a id="d0e15957" href="#d0e1611">91</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15960">“<span class="smallcaps">Nan K’o Mêng</span>.” <i>Dream of the South Branch</i>; +story of, <a id="d0e15968" href="#d0e6191">410</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e15974"><span class="smallcaps">Nan-chi Hsien-wêng</span>. Ancient Immortal of the South Pole, <a id="d0e15978" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +helps Chiang Tzŭ-ya against Shên Kung-pao, <a id="d0e15981" href="#d0e2711">156</a>–<a id="d0e15984" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +orders White Crane Youth to seize Shên Kung-pao’s head, <a id="d0e15987" href="#d0e2711">156</a>; +has it restored, <a id="d0e15990" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +reproves Shên Kung-pao, <a id="d0e15993" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +fights with Chang Shao, <a id="d0e15996" href="#d0e2734">158</a>–<a id="d0e15999" href="#d0e2753">159</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16002"><span class="smallcaps">Nature Myth</span>. Yü Huang and a, <a id="d0e16006" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16009"><span class="smallcaps">Navy</span>. Modern Chinese, <a id="d0e16013" href="#d0e814">34</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16016"><span class="smallcaps">Neptune, The Chinese</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Dragon-king-s</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16026"><span class="smallcaps">New Territory</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Sinkiang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16036"><span class="smallcaps">New Year</span>. Festival of, <a id="d0e16040" href="#d0e925">43</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16043"><span class="smallcaps">New Year’s Eve</span>. Festival of, <a id="d0e16047" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16050"><span class="smallcaps">Niang-tzŭ</span>. And the origin of the Liang-ti Lake, <a id="d0e16054" href="#d0e6075">405</a>–<a id="d0e16057" href="#d0e6094">406</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16060"><span class="smallcaps">Niu Huang</span>. Ox-yellow, or bezoar, <a id="d0e16064" href="#d0e2550">146</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16067"><span class="smallcaps">No-cha</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li No-cha</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16077"><span class="smallcaps">North Star</span>. Goddess of the—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tou Mu</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16087"><span class="smallcaps">Nü</span>. First woman, <a id="d0e16091" href="#d0e1387">82</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16094"><span class="smallcaps">Nü Hsi</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Nü Kua</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16104"><span class="smallcaps">Nü Kua Shih, Nü Hsi</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Nü Wa</span>. A mythical sovereign, one of the alleged progenitors of the Chinese race; +sister and successor of Fu Hsi, <a id="d0e16111" href="#d0e602">16</a>, <a id="d0e16114" href="#d0e1377">81</a>–<a id="d0e16117" href="#d0e1387">82</a>; +repairer of the heavens, <a id="d0e16120" href="#d0e1237">72</a>, <a id="d0e16123" href="#d0e1377">81</a>–<a id="d0e16126" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e16129" href="#d0e3648">224</a>–<a id="d0e16132" href="#d0e3665">225</a>; +description of, <a id="d0e16135" href="#d0e1377">81</a>; +Nü and Kua legend, <a id="d0e16138" href="#d0e1387">82</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16141"><span class="smallcaps">Nü Wa</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Nü Kua</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16151"><span class="smallcaps">Nung</span>. The Agriculturists; +the second class of the people, <a id="d0e16155" href="#d0e721">28</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e16158"></a>Page 544</span></p><a id="d0e16159"></a><h2>O</h2> +<p id="d0e16162"><span class="smallcaps">Ô-Mei Shan</span>. Mountain in Saŭ-ch’uan, <a id="d0e16166" href="#d0e2931">171</a>, <a id="d0e16169" href="#d0e3036">179</a>, <a id="d0e16172" href="#d0e3051">180</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16175"><span class="smallcaps">O-mi-t’o Fo</span>. Amida, Amita, Buddha; +the guide who conducts to the Western Paradise, <a id="d0e16179" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16182"><span class="smallcaps">Oath in the Peach-orchard, The</span>, <a id="d0e16186" href="#d0e2013">114</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16192"><span class="smallcaps">Officers</span>. <i>Shih</i>; +the first class of the people in early times, <a id="d0e16199" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16202"><span class="smallcaps">Officials</span>. <i>Ch’ên</i>; +a social division, <a id="d0e16209" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16212"><span class="smallcaps">One, The Great</span>. First of the celestial spirits, <a id="d0e16216" href="#d0e2480">142</a>–<a id="d0e16219" href="#d0e2504">143</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16222"><span class="smallcaps">One-armed People</span>, <a id="d0e16226" href="#d0e5886">389</a>, <a id="d0e16229" href="#d0e5913">391</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16232"><span class="smallcaps">One-eyed People</span>, <a id="d0e16236" href="#d0e5886">389</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16239"><span class="smallcaps">One-legged Bird</span>, <a id="d0e16243" href="#d0e3418">206</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16246"><span class="smallcaps">One-legged People</span>, <a id="d0e16250" href="#d0e5886">389</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16253"><span class="smallcaps">One-sided People</span>, <a id="d0e16257" href="#d0e5886">389</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16260"><span class="smallcaps">Organic Environment</span>, <a id="d0e16264" href="#d0e626">19</a>–<a id="d0e16267" href="#d0e637">20</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16270"><span class="smallcaps">Origin-s</span>. Of the Chinese race, <a id="d0e16274" href="#d0e556">13</a> <i>sq.</i>; +of name China, <a id="d0e16280" href="#d0e709">27</a>; +of worship, <a id="d0e16283" href="#d0e1662">93</a>; +of deification, <a id="d0e16286" href="#d0e1662">93</a>; +of T’ien, <a id="d0e16289" href="#d0e1682">94</a>; +the Three Origins, <a id="d0e16292" href="#d0e2196">125</a>, <i>and see also</i> <span class="smallcaps">San Yüan, Shun, Yao</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yü</span>; +legend of origin of a lake, <a id="d0e16307" href="#d0e6075">405</a>–<a id="d0e16310" href="#d0e6094">406</a>; +origin of dog-worship of Jung tribe, <a id="d0e16313" href="#d0e6322">422</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16316"><span class="smallcaps">Other Self</span>. Idea of the, <a id="d0e16320" href="#d0e1662">93</a>, <a id="d0e16323" href="#d0e1725">97</a> <i>sq.</i> +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Second Self</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16335"><span class="smallcaps">Otherworld</span>. Parallel to this world, <a id="d0e16339" href="#d0e1662">93</a>–<a id="d0e16342" href="#d0e1682">94</a>; +populous, <a id="d0e16345" href="#d0e1662">93</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16348"><span class="smallcaps">Ox-yellow</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Niu Huang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16358"><span class="smallcaps">Ox-head, King</span>. Father of the Red Child Demon; +Sun Hou-tzŭ and, <a id="d0e16362" href="#d0e5458">351</a>, <a id="d0e16365" href="#d0e5537">358</a> <i>sq.</i> + + +</p><a id="d0e16371"></a><h2>P</h2> +<p id="d0e16374"><span class="smallcaps">Pa Hsien</span>. The Eight Immortals venerated by the Taoist sect; +and the Dragon-king Ao Ch’in, <a id="d0e16378" href="#d0e3524">214</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Ao Ch’in’s son, <a id="d0e16384" href="#d0e3533">215</a>; +favourite subjects of romance and frequently represented, <a id="d0e16387" href="#d0e4584">288</a>; +term used figuratively for happiness, <a id="d0e16390" href="#d0e4584">288</a>; +legend of, probably belongs to Yüan dynasty, <a id="d0e16393" href="#d0e4584">288</a>; +Li T’ieh-kuai, <a id="d0e16396" href="#d0e4607">289</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Chung-li Ch’üan, <a id="d0e16402" href="#d0e4629">291</a>–<a id="d0e16405" href="#d0e4644">292</a>, <a id="d0e16408" href="#d0e4712">297</a>–<a id="d0e16411" href="#d0e4724">298</a>; +Lan Ts’ai-ho, <a id="d0e16414" href="#d0e4660">293</a>; +Chang Kuo, <a id="d0e16417" href="#d0e4673">294</a>–<a id="d0e16420" href="#d0e4683">295</a>; +Ho Hsien-ku, <a id="d0e16423" href="#d0e4693">296</a>–<a id="d0e16426" href="#d0e4712">297</a>; +Lü Tung-pin, <a id="d0e16429" href="#d0e4712">297</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Han Hsiang Tzŭ, <a id="d0e16435" href="#d0e4732">299</a>–<a id="d0e16438" href="#d0e4759">300</a>; +Ts’ao Kuo-chiu, <a id="d0e16441" href="#d0e4759">300</a> <i>sq.</i>; +legend of the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, <a id="d0e16447" href="#d0e4789">303</a>–<a id="d0e16450" href="#d0e4807">304</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16453"><span class="smallcaps">Pa Kua</span>. The Eight Trigrams; +Wên Wang uses, to divine the flesh of his son, <a id="d0e16457" href="#d0e3231">193</a>; +discovered by Fu Hsi, <a id="d0e16460" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e16463" href="#d0e4010">248</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16466"><span class="smallcaps">Pa-ch’a</span>. God of Grasshoppers, <a id="d0e16470" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16473"><span class="smallcaps">Pagoda-bearer, The</span>. Li Ching, <a id="d0e16477" href="#d0e3847">237</a>, <a id="d0e16480" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16486"><span class="smallcaps">Pai Ma</span>. The White Horse of the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>; +Sun Hou-tzŭ and, <a id="d0e16493" href="#d0e5329">340</a>; +son of Dragon-king of the Western Sea, <a id="d0e16496" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e16499" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +Kuan Yin and, <a id="d0e16502" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e16505" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +changed into a horse, <a id="d0e16508" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +journeys with the Master to the Western Paradise, <a id="d0e16511" href="#d0e5343">341</a> <i>sq.</i>; +bearer of the sacred books, <a id="d0e16517" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +Temple of the White Horse, <a id="d0e16520" href="#d0e5343">341</a>; +his reward, <a id="d0e16523" href="#d0e5684">368</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16526"><span class="smallcaps">Palace</span>. Of God of Literature, <a id="d0e16530" href="#d0e1890">106</a>; +of Hsi Wang Mu, <a id="d0e16533" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +Shên I builds, for Chin Mu, <a id="d0e16536" href="#d0e3095">183</a>–<a id="d0e16539" href="#d0e3104">184</a>; +of the sun, conferred on Shên I, <a id="d0e16542" href="#d0e3118">185</a>–<a id="d0e16545" href="#d0e3138">186</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16548"><span class="smallcaps">P’an Ku</span>. Mythical being, alleged first development out of Chaos and fashioner of the universe, the Chinese Adam; +myths of, <a id="d0e16552" href="#d0e1277">76</a> <i>sq.</i>; +creator of the universe, <a id="d0e16558" href="#d0e1277">76</a> <i>sq.</i>; +origin of, <a id="d0e16564" href="#d0e1277">76</a>; +meaning of name, <a id="d0e16567" href="#d0e1277">76</a>; +representations of, <a id="d0e16570" href="#d0e1277">76</a>; +death of, <a id="d0e16573" href="#d0e1296">77</a>; +and the sun, <a id="d0e16576" href="#d0e1296">77</a>–<a id="d0e16579" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +and the moon, <a id="d0e16582" href="#d0e1296">77</a>–<a id="d0e16585" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +with head of a dragon, <a id="d0e16588" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +with body of a serpent, <a id="d0e16591" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +Ymer and, <a id="d0e16594" href="#d0e1349">79</a>; +a late creation, <a id="d0e16597" href="#d0e1349">79</a>–<a id="d0e16600" href="#d0e1372">80</a>; +date of legend of, <a id="d0e16603" href="#d0e1646">92</a>; +Yüan-shih T’ien-wang an avatar of, <a id="d0e16606" href="#d0e2293">128</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and T’ai Yüan, <a id="d0e16612" href="#d0e2305">129</a>–<a id="d0e16615" href="#d0e2309">130</a>; +a God of Medicine, <a id="d0e16618" href="#d0e4000">247</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16621"><span class="smallcaps">P’an Kuan</span>. God of Exorcism, <a id="d0e16625" href="#d0e4010">248</a>; +administrator of the infernal regions, <a id="d0e16628" href="#d0e4010">248</a>, <a id="d0e16631" href="#d0e4276">268</a>, <a id="d0e16634" href="#d0e4389">274</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16637"><span class="smallcaps">P’an-t’ao Hui</span>. Feast of Peaches, <a id="d0e16641" href="#d0e2425">137</a>–<a id="d0e16644" href="#d0e2438">138</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16647"><span class="smallcaps">Pao Lao-yeh</span>. Imperial Censor; +and Ts’ao Ching-chih and Ts’ao Ching-hsiu, <a id="d0e16651" href="#d0e4787">302</a>–<a id="d0e16654" href="#d0e4789">303</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16657"><span class="smallcaps">Pao Shu</span>. Kuan Chung and, the Chinese types of friendship, <a id="d0e16661" href="#d0e5819">383</a> <i>and n.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16667"><span class="smallcaps">Pao Tê</span>. Maiden name Po Ya; +Queen of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e16671" href="#d0e4064">253</a> <i>sq.</i>; +canonized, <a id="d0e16677" href="#d0e4573">287</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e16680"></a>Page 545</span></p> +<p id="d0e16681"><span class="smallcaps">Pao Yüeh</span>. In legend of Yü Huang, <a id="d0e16685" href="#d0e2330">132</a>–<a id="d0e16688" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16691"><span class="smallcaps">Parents and Children</span>, <a id="d0e16695" href="#d0e684">25</a>–<a id="d0e16698" href="#d0e696">26</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16701"><span class="smallcaps">Pastors</span>. Also called Lord-Lieutenants; the chief of the nobles in a province, <a id="d0e16705" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16708"><span class="smallcaps">Patriarch-s</span>. +Of Buddhism, <a id="d0e16712" href="#d0e2083">120</a>; +T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e16715" href="#d0e2342">133</a>, <a id="d0e16718" href="#d0e3203">191</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16721"><span class="smallcaps">Peaches</span>. Feast of, <a id="d0e16725" href="#d0e2425">137</a>–<a id="d0e16728" href="#d0e2438">138</a>; +Chang Tao-ling and the plucking of the, <a id="d0e16731" href="#d0e2462">140</a>–<a id="d0e16734" href="#d0e2470">141</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16737"><span class="smallcaps">Peach-orchard, The Oath in the</span>, <a id="d0e16741" href="#d0e2013">114</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16747"><span class="smallcaps">Pearl, The Intelligent</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Li No-cha</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16757"><span class="smallcaps">Pearly Emperor</span>. Yü Huang; Chang Tao-ling Vicegerent of, <a id="d0e16761" href="#d0e2470">141</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16764"><span class="smallcaps">Peking</span>. Capital of China; Shun-t’ien Fu, originally Yu Chou; Pei-p’ing Fu in T’ang dynasty; +legend of the building of, <a id="d0e16768" href="#d0e3687">227</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Prince Chu-ti and, <a id="d0e16774" href="#d0e3702">228</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Liu Po-wên and the founding of, <a id="d0e16780" href="#d0e3702">228</a> <i>sq.</i>; +to be called No-cha Ch’êng, <a id="d0e16786" href="#d0e3713">229</a>; +description of, <a id="d0e16789" href="#d0e3731">230</a>–<a id="d0e16792" href="#d0e3745">231</a>; +prosperity of, <a id="d0e16795" href="#d0e3745">231</a>–<a id="d0e16798" href="#d0e3756">232</a>; +the dragons and the drought in, <a id="d0e16801" href="#d0e3756">232</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16807"><span class="smallcaps">People, Four Classes of the</span>, <a id="d0e16811" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16814"><span class="smallcaps">Perfect Man</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chên-jên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16824"><span class="smallcaps">Period of the Warring States</span>. Mythology in, <a id="d0e16828" href="#d0e1237">72</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16831">“<span class="smallcaps">Permutations, Book of</span>.” <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">I Ching</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16842"><span class="smallcaps">Pestilence</span>. Demons of, subdued by the three musical brothers, <a id="d0e16846" href="#d0e2619">151</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16849"><span class="smallcaps">Pets</span>. Kinds kept, <a id="d0e16853" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16856"><span class="smallcaps">Philosophers</span>. +Of the Sung Period, and mythology, <a id="d0e16860" href="#d0e1252">73</a>; +apotheosized, <a id="d0e16863" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16866"><span class="smallcaps">Philosophy</span>. Effect of Chinese, on mythology, <a id="d0e16870" href="#d0e6340">423</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16873"><span class="smallcaps">Pi Fang</span>. Mysterious bird belonging to Hui Lu, <a id="d0e16877" href="#d0e3879">239</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16880"><span class="smallcaps">Pi Hsiang-yang</span>. Attacks Han Chih-hsien, <a id="d0e16884" href="#d0e2753">159</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16887"><span class="smallcaps">Pi Hsiao</span>. Sister of Ch’iung Hsiao; killed by Yüan-shih, <a id="d0e16891" href="#d0e2734">158</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16894"><span class="smallcaps">P’i-lu Fo</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">P’i-lu Hsien</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Vairotchana</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16910"><span class="smallcaps">P’i-lu Hsien</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">P’i-lu Fo</span>. An Immortal; +and Chun T’i, <a id="d0e16917" href="#d0e5089">324</a>; +becomes a Buddha, <a id="d0e16920" href="#d0e5089">324</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16923"><span class="smallcaps">Piao</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shao</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16933"><span class="smallcaps">Pig Fairy of the</span> “<span class="smallcaps">Hsi Yu Chi</span>,” <a id="d0e16940" href="#d0e5128">326</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16946"><span class="smallcaps">Pills of Immortality</span>. +And vital force, <a id="d0e16950" href="#d0e2371">135</a>; +Chang Tao-ling and, <a id="d0e16953" href="#d0e2453">139</a>, <a id="d0e16956" href="#d0e2462">140</a>; +Shên I and, <a id="d0e16959" href="#d0e3104">184</a>–<a id="d0e16962" href="#d0e3118">185</a>; +Hêng Ô and, <a id="d0e16965" href="#d0e3104">184</a>–<a id="d0e16968" href="#d0e3118">185</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16971"><span class="smallcaps">Pitch-pot</span>. A game, <a id="d0e16975" href="#d0e952">45</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16978"><span class="smallcaps">Planet-s</span>. +Influence terrestrial events, <a id="d0e16982" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +abodes of stellar divinities, <a id="d0e16985" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +Jupiter and T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e16988" href="#d0e3240">194</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e16991"><span class="smallcaps">Pneuma</span>. <i>Ch’i</i>; one of the elements of creation, <a id="d0e16998" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17001"><span class="smallcaps">P’o Chia</span>. Name of King Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e17005" href="#d0e4064">253</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17008"><span class="smallcaps">Po I-k’ao</span>. Stellar deity of Tzŭ-wei constellation, <a id="d0e17012" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +eldest son of Wên Wang, <a id="d0e17015" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +and Ta Chi, <a id="d0e17018" href="#d0e3214">192</a>–<a id="d0e17021" href="#d0e3231">193</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e17024" href="#d0e3240">194</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17027"><span class="smallcaps">Po Shih</span>. And legend of Ch’in Shin Huang-ti’s visit to the Spirit of the Sea, <a id="d0e17031" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17037"><span class="smallcaps">Po Ya</span>. Maiden name of Pao Tê, <a id="d0e17041" href="#d0e4064">253</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17044"><span class="smallcaps">Pole, Pivot of the</span>. Tou Shu; a palace, <a id="d0e17048" href="#d0e2518">144</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17051"><span class="smallcaps">Political History</span>. Summary of, <a id="d0e17055" href="#d0e709">27</a>–<a id="d0e17058" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17061"><span class="smallcaps">Polyandry</span>, <a id="d0e17065" href="#d0e671">23</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17068"><span class="smallcaps">Polydemonism</span>. Great extent of, <a id="d0e17072" href="#d0e1662">93</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17075"><span class="smallcaps">Polytheism</span>. Great extent of, <a id="d0e17079" href="#d0e1662">93</a>–<a id="d0e17082" href="#d0e1682">94</a>, <a id="d0e17085" href="#d0e2983">174</a>–<a id="d0e17088" href="#d0e3003">175</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17091"><span class="smallcaps">Pootoo Island</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">P’u T’o Island</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17101"><span class="smallcaps">Population</span>. +In early times, <a id="d0e17105" href="#d0e709">27</a>; +in Manchu Period, <a id="d0e17108" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17111"><span class="smallcaps">Presents</span>. Ceremonial governing giving of, <a id="d0e17115" href="#d0e908">42</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17118"><span class="smallcaps">Priest-s</span>. +<i>Wu</i>, or exorcists, <a id="d0e17125" href="#d0e814">34</a>–<a id="d0e17128" href="#d0e830">35</a>; +first, <a id="d0e17131" href="#d0e814">34</a>; +king as high, <a id="d0e17134" href="#d0e814">34</a>; +held in low esteem, <a id="d0e17137" href="#d0e840">36</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17140"><span class="smallcaps">Priesthood</span>. In Buddhism, <a id="d0e17144" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17147"><span class="smallcaps">Primary Matter</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’i</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17157"><span class="smallcaps">Princes of States</span>, <a id="d0e17161" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17164"><span class="smallcaps">Princess of the Golden Stem</span>. +Ch’un-yü Fên marries, <a id="d0e17168" href="#d0e6222">412</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17174"><span class="smallcaps">Products</span>. +Processes of production, <a id="d0e17178" href="#d0e988">48</a>; +habitations, <a id="d0e17181" href="#d0e1086">57</a>–<a id="d0e17184" href="#d0e1098">58</a>; +food, <a id="d0e17187" href="#d0e1098">58</a>; +clothing, <a id="d0e17190" href="#d0e1098">58</a>; +land-works, <a id="d0e17193" href="#d0e1098">58</a>–<a id="d0e17196" href="#d0e1105">59</a>; +implements and weapons, <a id="d0e17199" href="#d0e1105">59</a>; +æsthetic products, <a id="d0e17202" href="#d0e1105">59</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17205"><span class="smallcaps">Professional Institutions</span>, <a id="d0e17209" href="#d0e840">36</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17212"><span class="smallcaps">Prostitution</span>, <a id="d0e17216" href="#d0e675">24</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17219"><span class="smallcaps">Provinces</span>. Administrative divisions of the country, <a id="d0e17223" href="#d0e721">28</a>–<a id="d0e17226" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17229"><span class="smallcaps">P’u-t’i Tsu-shih</span>. Immortal; +becomes master of Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e17233" href="#d0e5164">327</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e17236"></a>Page 546</span></p> +<p id="d0e17237"><span class="smallcaps">P’u T’o Island</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Pootoo</span>. Throne of Kuan Yin on, <a id="d0e17244" href="#d0e4057">252</a>; +Miao Shan goes to, <a id="d0e17247" href="#d0e4307">270</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17250"><span class="smallcaps">Punctured Bodies</span>. Legend of People of the, <a id="d0e17254" href="#d0e5897">390</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17257"><span class="smallcaps">Punishments</span>. Nature of legal, <a id="d0e17261" href="#d0e754">30</a>; +<i>lex talionis</i>, <a id="d0e17267" href="#d0e754">30</a>; +codes of, <a id="d0e17270" href="#d0e754">30</a> <i>sq</i>.; +changes made by Provisional Criminal Code, <a id="d0e17276" href="#d0e782">31</a>–<a id="d0e17279" href="#d0e798">32</a>; +of the gods, <a id="d0e17282" href="#d0e1746">99</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17285"><span class="smallcaps">Pygmies</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e17289" href="#d0e5840">386</a>–<a id="d0e17292" href="#d0e5860">387</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e17295"></a><h2>Q</h2> +<p id="d0e17298"><span class="smallcaps">Queue</span>, <a id="d0e17302" href="#d0e871">39</a>, <a id="d0e17305" href="#d0e1098">58</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e17308"></a><h2>R</h2> +<p id="d0e17311"><span class="smallcaps">Rain</span>. Myths of, <a id="d0e17315" href="#d0e3407">205</a> <i>sq</i>.; +the Master of, <a id="d0e17321" href="#d0e3407">205</a>–<a id="d0e17324" href="#d0e3418">206</a> +<span class="smallcaps">Red Child Demon</span>. In <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e17333" href="#d0e5445">350</a> <i>sq</i>., <a id="d0e17339" href="#d0e5555">359</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17342"><span class="smallcaps">Red Country</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ssŭ Ha Li Kuo</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17352"><span class="smallcaps">Red Sand Battle</span>, <a id="d0e17356" href="#d0e2734">158</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e17362"><span class="smallcaps">Redcoat, Mr</span>. Purveyor of official posts; +companion of Wên Ch’ang, <a id="d0e17366" href="#d0e1942">110</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e17372"><span class="smallcaps">Reincarnation</span>. Of Chuang Chou, <a id="d0e17376" href="#d0e2588">149</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17379"><span class="smallcaps">Religious Ideas</span>. Nature of Chinese,52; +Confucianism, <a id="d0e17383" href="#d0e1029">52</a>, <a id="d0e17386" href="#d0e1038">53</a>; +State religion, <a id="d0e17389" href="#d0e1029">52</a>; +Taoism, <a id="d0e17392" href="#d0e1029">52</a>–<a id="d0e17395" href="#d0e1038">53</a>; +Buddhism, <a id="d0e17398" href="#d0e1038">53</a>; +influence of, on mythology, <a id="d0e17401" href="#d0e1133">62</a>—<a id="d0e17404" href="#d0e1143">63</a>; +Chinese religion not a monotheism, <a id="d0e17407" href="#d0e1725">97</a>; +the Three Religions, <a id="d0e17410" href="#d0e1746">99</a> <i>sq</i>.; +of the learned, <a id="d0e17416" href="#d0e1793">102</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17419"><span class="smallcaps">Republic</span>. Races represented in flag of, <a id="d0e17423" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17426"><span class="smallcaps">Republican Period</span>. Marriage in, <a id="d0e17430" href="#d0e675">24</a>–<a id="d0e17433" href="#d0e684">25</a>; +administrative system in, <a id="d0e17436" href="#d0e754">30</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17439"><span class="smallcaps">Revenue</span>. Whence derived, <a id="d0e17443" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17446"><span class="smallcaps">River-s</span>. Ch’ien-t’ang, chief God of, <a id="d0e17450" href="#d0e3574">218</a>–<a id="d0e17453" href="#d0e3583">219</a>; +marriage of River-god, <a id="d0e17456" href="#d0e3665">225</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e17462"><span class="smallcaps">Rope, The Magic</span>, <a id="d0e17466" href="#d0e5422">348</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e17469"></a><h2>S</h2> +<p id="d0e17472"><span class="smallcaps">Sacrifice-s</span>. To Shang Ti, <a id="d0e17476" href="#d0e1707">95</a>; +to T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e17479" href="#d0e3240">194</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Fêng-shan</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17488"><span class="smallcaps">Saint-s</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shêng-jên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17498"><span class="smallcaps">S’âkyamuni</span>, <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shâkyamuni</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17508"><span class="smallcaps">Samgha</span>. Sêng Pao; +the Priesthood in Buddhism, <a id="d0e17512" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17515"><span class="smallcaps">San Ch’ing</span>. The three Heavens of Taoism, <a id="d0e17519" href="#d0e2169">124</a>–<a id="d0e17522" href="#d0e2196">125</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17525"><span class="smallcaps">San Kuan</span>. The Three Agents,125; +<i>San Kuan Ta Ti</i>, <a id="d0e17532" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +<i>T’ai Shang San Kuan</i>, <a id="d0e17538" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +sons of Dragon-king’s daughters, <a id="d0e17541" href="#d0e2236">126</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17544">“<span class="smallcaps">San Kuo Chih</span>,” <i>The Story of the Three Kingdoms</i>; +an historical romance, <a id="d0e17552" href="#d0e2046">117</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e17558"><span class="smallcaps">San Pao</span>. The Three Precious Things, or Treasures—Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood, <a id="d0e17562" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17565"><span class="smallcaps">San Yüan</span>. The Three Origins,125; +and the divisions of the year, <a id="d0e17569" href="#d0e2236">126</a>; +‘the Three True Sovereigns, Guests of the Kingdom of Wu,’ <a id="d0e17572" href="#d0e2265">127</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17575"><span class="smallcaps">Scholars</span>. <i>Shih</i>; +the first class of the people, <a id="d0e17582" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17585"><span class="smallcaps">Schools</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Accessory Institutions</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17595"><span class="smallcaps">Sciences</span>, Little cultivated until modern times, <a id="d0e17599" href="#d0e1047">54</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e17605"><span class="smallcaps">Sea</span>. Dragon-kings of the, <a id="d0e17609" href="#d0e3476">210</a>–<a id="d0e17612" href="#d0e3485">211</a>, <a id="d0e17615" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +Yang Hou, Spirit of the, <a id="d0e17618" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq</i>.; +legend of the Eight Immortals crossing the, <a id="d0e17624" href="#d0e4789">303</a>–<a id="d0e17627" href="#d0e4807">304</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17630"><span class="smallcaps">Seasons</span>. Festivals of the, <a id="d0e17634" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17637"><span class="smallcaps">Second Self</span>. And worship of the living, <a id="d0e17641" href="#d0e1786">101</a>, +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Other Self</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17650"><span class="smallcaps">Sêng Pao</span>. Samgha; +the Priesthood or Church, one of the <i>San Pao</i> of Buddhism, <a id="d0e17657" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17660"><span class="smallcaps">Sentiments, Æsthetic and Moral</span>, <a id="d0e17664" href="#d0e1017">51</a>–<a id="d0e17667" href="#d0e1029">52</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17670"><span class="smallcaps">Sha Ho-shang</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Sha Wu-ching</span>. A priest in the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e17680" href="#d0e5128">326</a>; +and Kuan Yin, <a id="d0e17683" href="#d0e5252">334</a>1 baggage coolie to Hsian Chuang, <a id="d0e17686" href="#d0e5252">334</a>–<a id="d0e17689" href="#d0e5269">335</a>; +journeys with the Master, <a id="d0e17692" href="#d0e5343">341</a> <i>sq</i>.; +his reward, <a id="d0e17698" href="#d0e5684">368</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17701"><span class="smallcaps">Sha Wu-ching</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Sha Ho-shang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17711"><span class="smallcaps">Shakya</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">S’âkya</span>. Same as S’âkyamuni Buddha, Shih-chia Fo, Gautama, <a id="d0e17718" href="#d0e2073">119</a>. +<i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shâkyamuni</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17727"><span class="smallcaps">Shâkyamuni, S’âkyamuni</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Shih-chia Fo</span>. The name used in Chinese literature for Gautama Buddha, <a id="d0e17734" href="#d0e2073">119</a>; +and Kuan Yin, <a id="d0e17737" href="#d0e4040">251</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e17740"></a>Page 447</span></p> +<p id="d0e17741">“<span class="smallcaps">Shan Hai Ching</span>.” The <i>Hill and River Classic</i>, <a id="d0e17749" href="#d0e5840">386</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17752"><span class="smallcaps">Shan Ts’ai</span>. +And Miao Shan, <a id="d0e17756" href="#d0e4328">271</a> <i>sq.</i>; +his fidelity tested, <a id="d0e17762" href="#d0e4347">272</a> <i>sq.</i>; +transformation of, <a id="d0e17768" href="#d0e4375">273</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e17771" href="#d0e4573">287</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17774"><span class="smallcaps">Shang</span>. The Merchants; the fourth class of the people, <a id="d0e17778" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17781"><span class="smallcaps">Shang Ti</span>. +The Supreme Ruler, <a id="d0e17785" href="#d0e1682">94</a>; +and Ti, <a id="d0e17788" href="#d0e1682">94</a>; +worship of, <a id="d0e17791" href="#d0e1682">94</a>–<a id="d0e17794" href="#d0e1707">95</a>; +sacrifices to, <a id="d0e17797" href="#d0e1707">95</a>; +confused with T’ien, <a id="d0e17800" href="#d0e1716">96</a>–<a id="d0e17803" href="#d0e1725">97</a>; +confers on Chuang Chou the kingdom of Jupiter, <a id="d0e17806" href="#d0e2608">150</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17809"><span class="smallcaps">Shang Yang</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e17813" href="#d0e3418">206</a>–<a id="d0e17816" href="#d0e3438">207</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17819"><span class="smallcaps">Shao</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Piao</span>. Part of the constellation of the Great Bear, <a id="d0e17826" href="#d0e1890">106</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17829"><span class="smallcaps">Shê-chi</span>. Gods of the Soil and Crops, <a id="d0e17833" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17836"><span class="smallcaps">Shê-mo Wang</span>. Gods of Serpents, <a id="d0e17840" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17843"><span class="smallcaps">Shên</span>. Name for gods, <a id="d0e17847" href="#d0e1816">103</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17850"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Chên-jên</span>. And T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e17854" href="#d0e3255">195</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17857">“<span class="smallcaps">Shên Hsien Chuan</span>.” <i>Biographies of the Gods</i>, by Ko Hung, <a id="d0e17865" href="#d0e1349">79</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17868"><span class="smallcaps">Shên I</span>. +The Divine Archer Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü, <a id="d0e17872" href="#d0e3051">180</a>–<a id="d0e17875" href="#d0e3066">181</a> +and the Emperor Yao, <a id="d0e17878" href="#d0e3051">180</a> <i>sq.</i> +and Fei Lien, <a id="d0e17884" href="#d0e3066">181</a>, <a id="d0e17887" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e17890" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +shoots the nine false suns, <a id="d0e17893" href="#d0e3066">181</a>–<a id="d0e17896" href="#d0e3080">182</a>; +marries the sister of the Water-spirit, <a id="d0e17899" href="#d0e3080">182</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e17902" href="#d0e3095">183</a>; +builds a palace for Chin Mu, <a id="d0e17905" href="#d0e3095">183</a>–<a id="d0e17908" href="#d0e3104">184</a>; +and the pill of immortality, <a id="d0e17911" href="#d0e3104">184</a>–<a id="d0e17914" href="#d0e3118">185</a>; +kills Chisel-tooth, <a id="d0e17917" href="#d0e3104">184</a>; +receives the sun-palace, <a id="d0e17920" href="#d0e3118">185</a>–<a id="d0e17923" href="#d0e3138">186</a>; +and the Bird of Dawn, <a id="d0e17926" href="#d0e3138">186</a>–<a id="d0e17929" href="#d0e3157">187</a>; +visits the moon, <a id="d0e17932" href="#d0e3157">187</a>–<a id="d0e17935" href="#d0e3166">188</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17938"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Kung-pao</span>. +Meets Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e17942" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +tempts Chiang Tzŭ-ya to desert Chou, <a id="d0e17945" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +his power to separate his head from his body, <a id="d0e17948" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +discards his head, <a id="d0e17951" href="#d0e2711">156</a>; +his head taken by Ancient Immortal of the South Pole, <a id="d0e17954" href="#d0e2711">156</a>–<a id="d0e17957" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +obtains his head again, <a id="d0e17960" href="#d0e2727">157</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17963"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Lang</span>. Hsü Chên-chün and, <a id="d0e17967" href="#d0e3637">223</a>–<a id="d0e17970" href="#d0e3648">224</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e17973"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Nung</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Ti Huang Shih</span>. +A legendary emperor, <a id="d0e17980" href="#d0e1377">81</a>, <a id="d0e17983" href="#d0e4000">247</a>; +and T’ai I, <a id="d0e17986" href="#d0e2504">143</a>; +as God of Agriculture, <a id="d0e17989" href="#d0e2504">143</a>, <a id="d0e17992" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e17995" href="#d0e3879">239</a>; +as God of Fire (Huo Ti, Yen Ti), <a id="d0e17998" href="#d0e3879">239</a>; +as God of Medicine, <a id="d0e18001" href="#d0e4000">247</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18004"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Pao</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Lao Tzŭ</span>. Third person of Taoist triad, <a id="d0e18011" href="#d0e2196">125</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18014"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Shih</span>. The Gentry; a social division, <a id="d0e18018" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18021"><span class="smallcaps">Shên Shu</span>. A Door-god, <a id="d0e18025" href="#d0e2968">173</a>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18034"><span class="smallcaps">Shêng-jên</span>. Superhuman beings, saints, <a id="d0e18038" href="#d0e2196">125</a>, <a id="d0e18041" href="#d0e2395">136</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18044"><span class="smallcaps">Shih</span>. Officers, later Scholars; the first class of the people, <a id="d0e18048" href="#d0e721">28</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18051"><span class="smallcaps">Shih Chin</span>. Second son of Shih Ch’in-ch’ang, <a id="d0e18055" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18058"><span class="smallcaps">Shih Ch’in-ch’ang</span>. Father of the sons reborn as daughters of Queen Po Ya, <a id="d0e18062" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18065"><span class="smallcaps">Shih Shan</span>. Third son of Shih Ch’in-ch’ang, <a id="d0e18069" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18072"><span class="smallcaps">Shih Wên</span>. Eldest son of Shih Ch’in-ch’ang, <a id="d0e18076" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18079"><span class="smallcaps">Shih-chi Niang-niang</span>. And No-cha, <a id="d0e18083" href="#d0e4918">312</a>–<a id="d0e18086" href="#d0e4931">313</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18089"><span class="smallcaps">Shih-chia Fo</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shâkyamuni</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18099"><span class="smallcaps">Shou Hsing</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hsien Wêng</span>. +The God of Longevity, <a id="d0e18106" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e18109" href="#d0e2931">171</a>–<a id="d0e18112" href="#d0e2945">172</a>; +at first a stellar deity, <a id="d0e18115" href="#d0e2931">171</a>–<a id="d0e18118" href="#d0e2945">172</a>; +as an old man, <a id="d0e18121" href="#d0e2945">172</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e18124" href="#d0e2945">172</a>; +and the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e18127" href="#d0e3524">214</a>; +and Chu Jung, <a id="d0e18130" href="#d0e3864">238</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18133"><span class="smallcaps">Shu Yü</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18143"><span class="smallcaps">Shui</span>. Water; and deliverance from evil, <a id="d0e18147" href="#d0e2196">125</a>–<a id="d0e18150" href="#d0e2236">126</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18153"><span class="smallcaps">Shui Kuan</span>. Ruler of the Watery Elements, <a id="d0e18157" href="#d0e3544">216</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18160"><span class="smallcaps">Shui-mu Niang-niang</span>. Old Mother of the Waters; +legend of, <a id="d0e18164" href="#d0e3589">220</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e18170" href="#d0e3609">221</a>–<a id="d0e18173" href="#d0e3626">222</a>; +and Kuan Yin, <a id="d0e18176" href="#d0e3609">221</a>–<a id="d0e18179" href="#d0e3626">222</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18182"><span class="smallcaps">Shun</span>. Successor of the great Emperor Yao; with Yao and Yü as the Three Origins, <a id="d0e18186" href="#d0e2236">126</a>–<a id="d0e18189" href="#d0e2265">127</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18192"><span class="smallcaps">Shun-fêng Êrh</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Kao Chio</span>. +Favourable-wind Ear, <a id="d0e18199" href="#d0e2775">161</a> <i>sq.</i>; +general of tyrant Chou, <a id="d0e18205" href="#d0e2775">161</a>–<a id="d0e18208" href="#d0e2793">162</a>; +encounters with No-cha, Yang Chien, Chiang Tzŭ-ya, Li Ching, and Lei Chên-tzŭ, <a id="d0e18211" href="#d0e2793">162</a> <i>sq.</i>; +defeat of, <a id="d0e18217" href="#d0e2813">163</a>–<a id="d0e18220" href="#d0e2828">164</a>; +searches for heir to Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e18223" href="#d0e4076">254</a>–<a id="d0e18226" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18229"><span class="smallcaps">Silkworms, Goddess of</span>, <a id="d0e18233" href="#d0e2900">169</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18236"><span class="smallcaps">Sin</span>. By the gods, <a id="d0e18240" href="#d0e1746">99</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18243"><span class="smallcaps">Sinkiang</span>. The New Territory, or Eastern Turkestan; a dependency of China, <a id="d0e18247" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18250"><span class="smallcaps">Six-toed People</span>, <a id="d0e18254" href="#d0e5886">389</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e18257"></a>Page 448</span></p> +<p id="d0e18258"><span class="smallcaps">Slavery</span>. Unknown in early times, recognized in Monarchical Period, <a id="d0e18262" href="#d0e988">48</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18265"><span class="smallcaps">Slow-carts Country</span>. In <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e18272" href="#d0e5469">352</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18278"><span class="smallcaps">Smallpox</span>. God of, <a id="d0e18282" href="#d0e3003">175</a>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e18285" href="#d0e3984">246</a>–<a id="d0e18288" href="#d0e4000">247</a>; +prevalence of, in China, <a id="d0e18291" href="#d0e3984">246</a>–<a id="d0e18294" href="#d0e4000">247</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18297"><span class="smallcaps">Snake, The Jointed</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e18301" href="#d0e5936">393</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18304"><span class="smallcaps">Snuff</span>. Use of, <a id="d0e18308" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18311"><span class="smallcaps">Snorter</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chêng Lung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18321"><span class="smallcaps">Social Intercourse, Laws of</span>. Ceremonial observances, <a id="d0e18325" href="#d0e908">42</a>–<a id="d0e18328" href="#d0e925">43</a>; +ranks, how distinguished, <a id="d0e18331" href="#d0e908">42</a>; +visits, <a id="d0e18334" href="#d0e908">42</a>; +forms of address, <a id="d0e18337" href="#d0e908">42</a>; +presents, <a id="d0e18340" href="#d0e908">42</a>; +a source of misunderstanding between East and West, <a id="d0e18343" href="#d0e908">42</a>–<a id="d0e18346" href="#d0e925">43</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18349"><span class="smallcaps">Sociological Environment</span>, <a id="d0e18353" href="#d0e637">20</a>–<a id="d0e18356" href="#d0e648">21</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18359"><span class="smallcaps">Soil, Gods of the</span>, <a id="d0e18363" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18366"><span class="smallcaps">Solitary Indeterminate</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">I Tu</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18376"><span class="smallcaps">Solstices</span>. Festivals of the, <a id="d0e18380" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18383"><span class="smallcaps">Sombre Youth</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Heaven-deaf</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18393"><span class="smallcaps">Soul</span>. Recalling the, <a id="d0e18397" href="#d0e871">39</a>–<a id="d0e18400" href="#d0e881">40</a>; +birth of the, <a id="d0e18403" href="#d0e1662">93</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18406"><span class="smallcaps">Soul-tablet</span>, <a id="d0e18410" href="#d0e881">40</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18413">“<span class="smallcaps">South Branch, Dream of the</span>.” <i>Nan k’o mêng</i>; story of, <a id="d0e18421" href="#d0e6191">410</a> <i>sq</i>. + +</p> +<p id="d0e18427"><span class="smallcaps">Sovereign-s</span>. The Three True— <i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">San Yüan</span>; +of the Eastern Air, <a id="d0e18437" href="#d0e2395">136</a>–<a id="d0e18440" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +of the Western Air, <a id="d0e18443" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +the nine Human—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Jên Huang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18452"><span class="smallcaps">Spiders</span>. Sun Hou-tzŭ and the, <a id="d0e18456" href="#d0e5636">364</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18459"><span class="smallcaps">Spine</span>, Deformed in infancy to produce a scholarly stoop, <a id="d0e18463" href="#d0e852">37</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18466"><span class="smallcaps">Spirit-s</span>. Festivals, <a id="d0e18470" href="#d0e938">44</a>; +T’ien the abode of the, <a id="d0e18473" href="#d0e1707">95</a>–<a id="d0e18476" href="#d0e1716">96</a>; +the Great One, the Great Unity, <a id="d0e18479" href="#d0e2480">142</a>–<a id="d0e18482" href="#d0e2504">143</a>; +an ox-spirit, <a id="d0e18485" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star, <a id="d0e18488" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +of the White Tiger Star, <a id="d0e18491" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +Spirit-boat, <a id="d0e18494" href="#d0e2619">151</a>; +of Ô-mei Shan—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">T’ai-i Huang-jên</span>; +Spirit of the Waters, <a id="d0e18503" href="#d0e3080">182</a>, <i>and see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ho Po</span>; +Spirit of Lightning, <a id="d0e18512" href="#d0e3364">203</a>–<a id="d0e18515" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +dragons regarded as spirits of the waters, <a id="d0e18518" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +Spirit of the Sea, <a id="d0e18521" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq</i>.; +of the Well, <a id="d0e18527" href="#d0e3556">217</a>; +of the North Star, <a id="d0e18530" href="#d0e4195">262</a>–<a id="d0e18533" href="#d0e4211">263</a>, <a id="d0e18536" href="#d0e4307">270</a>; +of the South Pole Star, <a id="d0e18539" href="#d0e5179">329</a>, <a id="d0e18542" href="#d0e5301">337</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18545"><span class="smallcaps">Sports and Games</span>, <a id="d0e18549" href="#d0e952">45</a>–<a id="d0e18552" href="#d0e965">46</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18555"><span class="smallcaps">Ssŭ Ha Li Kuo</span>. The Red Country, <a id="d0e18559" href="#d0e5555">359</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18562"><span class="smallcaps">Ssŭ Ta T’ian-wang</span>. The Four Kings of Heaven; +Taoist reflection of <i>Chin-kang,</i> <a id="d0e18569" href="#d0e2480">142</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18572"><span class="smallcaps">Ssŭ Tu</span>. The Four Kings of the Sweet Water Department, <a id="d0e18576" href="#d0e3496">212</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18579"><span class="smallcaps">Ssŭ-ma Chêng</span>. Author of <i>Historical Records</i>; +his account of Nü Kua, <a id="d0e18586" href="#d0e1377">81</a>–<a id="d0e18589" href="#d0e1387">82</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18592"><span class="smallcaps">Star-s</span>. Myths of the, <a id="d0e18596" href="#d0e3005">176</a> <i>sq</i>.; +star-worship, <a id="d0e18602" href="#d0e3166">188</a>–<a id="d0e18605" href="#d0e3188">189</a>; +star-ruler, <a id="d0e18608" href="#d0e3188">189</a>; +effects of worship of, <a id="d0e18611" href="#d0e3188">189</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18614"><span class="smallcaps">Star-god-s</span>. The Great Bear, <a id="d0e18618" href="#d0e1890">106</a> <i>sq</i>.; +the God of Literature a star-god, <a id="d0e18624" href="#d0e1890">106</a> <i>sq</i>.; +T’ai I, <a id="d0e18630" href="#d0e2518">144</a>; +Bushel Mother, <a id="d0e18633" href="#d0e2518">144</a>–<a id="d0e18636" href="#d0e2537">145</a>; +Blue Dragon, <a id="d0e18639" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +White Tiger, <a id="d0e18642" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +Ts’an Nü, <a id="d0e18645" href="#d0e2900">169</a>; +the God of Happiness, <a id="d0e18648" href="#d0e2900">169</a>–<a id="d0e18651" href="#d0e2914">170</a>; +the God of Longevity, <a id="d0e18654" href="#d0e2931">171</a>–<a id="d0e18657" href="#d0e2945">172</a>; +Leo, ‘Throne of the Five Emperors’ in, <a id="d0e18660" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +the Cycle-gods, <a id="d0e18663" href="#d0e3018">177</a>; +Chang Hsien, <a id="d0e18666" href="#d0e3018">177</a> <i>sq</i>.; +the Heavenly Dog, <a id="d0e18672" href="#d0e3018">177</a>–<a id="d0e18675" href="#d0e3030">178</a>; +Po I-k’ao, <a id="d0e18678" href="#d0e3214">192</a> <i>sq.</i>; +God of the Wind, <a id="d0e18684" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +‘the Five Mountains,’ <a id="d0e18687" href="#d0e3914">242</a>–<a id="d0e18690" href="#d0e3940">243</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18693"><span class="smallcaps">Starting, The Great</span>. <i>T’ai ch’u</i>, <a id="d0e18700" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18703"><span class="smallcaps">States</span>. Parts of provinces in early times, <a id="d0e18707" href="#d0e748">29</a>; +power of princes of, <a id="d0e18710" href="#d0e748">29</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18713"><span class="smallcaps">Storms, Ministry of</span>, <a id="d0e18717" href="#d0e3288">198</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18720">“<span class="smallcaps">Story of the Three Kingdoms</span>,” <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">San Kuo Chih</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18731"><span class="smallcaps">Substance</span>. <i>Chih</i>; one of the elements of creation, <a id="d0e18738" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18741"><span class="smallcaps">Sumêru</span>. The central mountain or axis of the universe in Hindu mythology, <a id="d0e18745" href="#d0e602">16</a>; +called Hsü-mi Shan in Chinese, <a id="d0e18748" href="#d0e2480">142</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18751"><span class="smallcaps">Su Ta</span>. Assassin, <a id="d0e18755" href="#d0e4457">278</a>, <a id="d0e18758" href="#d0e4463">279</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18761"><span class="smallcaps">Sun-s</span>. P’an Ku and the, <a id="d0e18765" href="#d0e1296">77</a>–<a id="d0e18768" href="#d0e1316">78</a>; +influences terrestrial events, <a id="d0e18771" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +symbol of the, <a id="d0e18774" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +worship of, <a id="d0e18777" href="#d0e3005">176</a>–<a id="d0e18780" href="#d0e3018">177</a>, <a id="d0e18783" href="#d0e3036">179</a>; +the nine false, <a id="d0e18786" href="#d0e3066">181</a>–<a id="d0e18789" href="#d0e3080">182</a>; +palace of the, conferred on Shên I, <a id="d0e18792" href="#d0e3138">186</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18795"><span class="smallcaps">Sun Hou-tzŭ</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Sun Wu-k’ung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18805"><span class="smallcaps">Sun Wu-k’ung</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Sun Hou-tzŭ</span>. The Monkey Fairy in the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>; +and Shui-mu Niang-niang,221–<a id="d0e18815" href="#d0e3626">222</a>; +represents human nature, <a id="d0e18818" href="#d0e5107">325</a>; +various names of, <a id="d0e18821" href="#d0e5128">326</a>; +born on Hua-kuo Shan, <a id="d0e18824" href="#d0e5128">326</a>–<a id="d0e18827" href="#d0e5164">327</a>; +Yü Huang and, <a id="d0e18830" href="#d0e5164">327</a> <i>sq.</i>; +his rod of iron, <a id="d0e18836" href="#d0e5173">328</a>; +Grand Master of the Heavenly Stables, <a id="d0e18839" href="#d0e5179">329</a>; +Grand Superintendent of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e18842"></a>Page 449</span>the Heavenly Peach-garden, <a id="d0e18844" href="#d0e5179">329</a>–<a id="d0e18847" href="#d0e5193">330</a>; +acquires double immortality, <a id="d0e18850" href="#d0e5193">330</a>; +and T’ien Kou, <a id="d0e18853" href="#d0e5205">331</a>; +distilled in Lao Chün’s furnace, <a id="d0e18856" href="#d0e5205">331</a>–<a id="d0e18859" href="#d0e5214">332</a>; +in jumping competition with Buddha, <a id="d0e18862" href="#d0e5214">332</a>–<a id="d0e18865" href="#d0e5234">333</a>; +and Kuan Yin, <a id="d0e18868" href="#d0e5234">333</a>; +journeys to the Western Paradise with the Master, <a id="d0e18871" href="#d0e5343">341</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and the Demons of the Lotus Gave, <a id="d0e18877" href="#d0e5389">345</a> <i>sq.</i>; +saves the Master, <a id="d0e18883" href="#d0e5389">345</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e18889" href="#d0e5469">352</a>, <a id="d0e18892" href="#d0e5537">358</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e18898" href="#d0e5622">363</a>–<a id="d0e18901" href="#d0e5636">364</a>, <a id="d0e18904" href="#d0e5649">365</a>–<a id="d0e18907" href="#d0e5662">366</a>; +and the Red Child Demon, <a id="d0e18910" href="#d0e5445">350</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and the Demons of Blackwater River, <a id="d0e18916" href="#d0e5469">352</a>; +in Slow-carts Country, <a id="d0e18919" href="#d0e5469">352</a> <i>sq.</i>; +in the Buddhist temple, <a id="d0e18925" href="#d0e5636">364</a>–<a id="d0e18928" href="#d0e5649">365</a>; +returns home, <a id="d0e18931" href="#d0e5675">367</a> <i>sq.</i>; +canonized, <a id="d0e18937" href="#d0e5684">368</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18940"><span class="smallcaps">Sun-king</span>. +T’ai-yang Ti-chün, or Jih-kung Ch’ih-chiang; <a id="d0e18944" href="#d0e3036">179</a>; +and legend of Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü, <a id="d0e18947" href="#d0e3036">179</a> <i>sq.</i>; +legend of the—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ih-chiang Tzŭ-yü</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shên I</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18965"><span class="smallcaps">Sung Dynasty</span>. Philosophers of, and mythology, <a id="d0e18969" href="#d0e1252">73</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18972"><span class="smallcaps">Super-tao</span>. Chuang Tzŭ’s, <a id="d0e18976" href="#d0e1611">91</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18979"><span class="smallcaps">Super-triad of Gods</span>, <a id="d0e18983" href="#d0e1765">100</a>–<a id="d0e18986" href="#d0e1786">101</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e18989"><span class="smallcaps">Superstition-s</span>, <a id="d0e18993" href="#d0e1038">53</a>–<a id="d0e18996" href="#d0e1047">54</a>; +<i>fêng-shui</i>, <a id="d0e19002" href="#d0e1047">54</a>, <a id="d0e19005" href="#d0e3463">209</a>; +astrological, <a id="d0e19008" href="#d0e3005">176</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19011"><span class="smallcaps">Supreme Ruler</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shang Ti</span> + + +</p><a id="d0e19021"></a><h2>T</h2> +<p id="d0e19024"><span class="smallcaps">Ta Chi</span>. The barbarous concubine of Chou Hsin, the last ruler of the +Shang dynasty; +and Po I-k’ao, <a id="d0e19028" href="#d0e3214">192</a>–<a id="d0e19031" href="#d0e3231">193</a>; +and Wên Wang, <a id="d0e19034" href="#d0e3231">193</a>; +and T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e19037" href="#d0e3255">195</a>–<a id="d0e19040" href="#d0e3271">196</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19043"><span class="smallcaps">Ta Yü</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yü</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19053"><span class="smallcaps">Tai</span>. A rich family murdered by Wang Chê, <a id="d0e19057" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19060"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Chi</span>. The Grand Terminus; the producer of the two elementary +forms, <a id="d0e19064" href="#d0e1446">85</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19067"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Chi T’u</span>. The Plan of the Grand Terminus; +explanation of, <a id="d0e19071" href="#d0e1503">86</a>; +and Chinese cosmogony, <a id="d0e19074" href="#d0e1646">92</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chou Tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19083"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Ch’u</span>. The Great Starting, <a id="d0e19087" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19090"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai I</span>. The Great Change, <a id="d0e19094" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +the Great One, Great Unity, the first of the celestial spirits, <a id="d0e19097" href="#d0e2480">142</a> +<i>sq.</i>; +and Shên Nung, <a id="d0e19103" href="#d0e2504">143</a>; +Hsien Yüan’s medical preceptor, <a id="d0e19106" href="#d0e2504">143</a>; +Spirit of the Pole Star, <a id="d0e19109" href="#d0e2518">144</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">T’ai-i Chên-jên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19118"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Shan</span>. Sacred mountain; <i>Fêng-shan</i> sacrifices offered on, <a id="d0e19125" href="#d0e2265">127</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19128"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Shih</span>. The Great Beginning, <a id="d0e19132" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19135"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Su</span>. The Great Blank; one of the stages in creation, <a id="d0e19139" href="#d0e1569">90</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19142"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Sui</span>. +Called Yin Chiao; the celestial year-spirit, <a id="d0e19146" href="#d0e3240">194</a> <i>sq.</i>; +sacrifices to, <a id="d0e19152" href="#d0e3240">194</a>; +corresponds to the planet Jupiter, <a id="d0e19155" href="#d0e3240">194</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e19158" href="#d0e3255">195</a>–<a id="d0e19161" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +son of tyrant Chou, <a id="d0e19164" href="#d0e3255">195</a>; +and Ho Hsien-ku, <a id="d0e19167" href="#d0e3255">195</a>; +and Ta Chi, <a id="d0e19170" href="#d0e3255">195</a>–<a id="d0e19173" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +canonized by Yü Ti, <a id="d0e19176" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +and Jan Têng, <a id="d0e19179" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +canonized by Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e19182" href="#d0e3271">196</a>; +worship of, <a id="d0e19185" href="#d0e3271">196</a>–<a id="d0e19188" href="#d0e3280">197</a>; +divination of locality of, <a id="d0e19191" href="#d0e3280">197</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19194"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Tsung</span>. Emperor; and the Door-gods, <a id="d0e19198" href="#d0e2968">173</a>–<a id="d0e19201" href="#d0e2983">174</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19204"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai Yin</span>. Princess; and Lu Ch’i, <a id="d0e19208" href="#d0e1942">110</a>–<a id="d0e19211" href="#d0e1970">111</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19214"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai-i Chên-jên</span>. +Taoist priest, <a id="d0e19218" href="#d0e2518">144</a>, <a id="d0e19221" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i>; +appears in a dream to Yin Shih, <a id="d0e19227" href="#d0e4809">305</a>; +visits Li No-cha, <a id="d0e19230" href="#d0e4828">306</a>; +Li No-cha visits, <a id="d0e19233" href="#d0e4895">310</a>–<a id="d0e19236" href="#d0e4908">311</a>, <a id="d0e19239" href="#d0e4980">316</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19242"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai-i Huang-jên</span>. The spirit of Ô-mei Shan, <a id="d0e19246" href="#d0e3036">179</a>–<a id="d0e19249" href="#d0e3051">180</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19252"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai-po Chin-hsing</span>. Spirit of the South Pole Star, <a id="d0e19256" href="#d0e5179">329</a>, <a id="d0e19259" href="#d0e5301">337</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19262"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai-shang Lao-chün</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Lao Tzü</span>. Third person of the Taoist triad, <a id="d0e19269" href="#d0e2196">125</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19272"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai-wu Fu-jên</span>. Daughter of Hsi Wang Mu, <a id="d0e19276" href="#d0e3095">183</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19279"><span class="smallcaps">T’ai-yüan Shêng-mu</span>. An hermaphrodite, mother of Yüan-shih T’ien-wang; and P’an Ku, <a id="d0e19283" href="#d0e2305">129</a>–<a id="d0e19286" href="#d0e2309">130</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19289"><span class="smallcaps">Talismans</span>. Chang Tao-ling and, <a id="d0e19293" href="#d0e2453">139</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19296"><span class="smallcaps">Tao</span>. The ‘Way,’ <a id="d0e19300" href="#d0e1530">87</a>–<a id="d0e19303" href="#d0e1548">88</a>; +the Solitary Indeterminate, <a id="d0e19306" href="#d0e1569">90</a>; +the super-<i>tao</i>, <a id="d0e19312" href="#d0e1611">91</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19315">“<span class="smallcaps">Tao-tê Ching</span>.” <i>The Canon of Reason and Virtue</i>, first called <i>Lao Tzŭ</i>, <a id="d0e19326" href="#d0e1530">87</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19329"><span class="smallcaps">Taoism</span>. The doctrine of the Way; +as a religion, <a id="d0e19333" href="#d0e1029">52</a>–<a id="d0e19336" href="#d0e1038">53</a>; +one of the three religions, <a id="d0e19339" href="#d0e1746">99</a> <i>sq.</i>; +the three Heavens of, <a id="d0e19345" href="#d0e2169">124</a>–<a id="d0e19348" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +the Three Pure Ones of, <a id="d0e19351" href="#d0e2169">124</a>–<a id="d0e19354" href="#d0e2196">125</a>; +Yü Huang and, <a id="d0e19357" href="#d0e2169">124</a>; +the first <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e19360"></a>Page 450</span>pope of, <a id="d0e19362" href="#d0e2438">138</a>; +Chang Tao-ling, founder of modern, <a id="d0e19365" href="#d0e2453">139</a>; +the Kings of Heaven of, <a id="d0e19368" href="#d0e2480">142</a>; +the Kuan Yin of—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tou Mu</span>; +guardians of Taoist temple gates, <a id="d0e19377" href="#d0e2550">146</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19380"><span class="smallcaps">Tarim Valley</span>. Supposed origin of the Chinese in, <a id="d0e19384" href="#d0e556">13</a>, <a id="d0e19387" href="#d0e581">15</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19390"><span class="smallcaps">Tartars</span>. +Conquer Northern China, <a id="d0e19394" href="#d0e709">27</a>–<a id="d0e19397" href="#d0e721">28</a>; +conquer the whole of China, <a id="d0e19400" href="#d0e721">28</a>, <a id="d0e19403" href="#d0e5999">400</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19406"><span class="smallcaps">Tathagata</span>. Ju-lai Fo, Shâkyamuni, or Buddha, <a id="d0e19410" href="#d0e2073">119</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19413"><span class="smallcaps">Temple-s</span>, +Of Heaven, <a id="d0e19417" href="#d0e1707">95</a>; +to God of Literature, <a id="d0e19420" href="#d0e1933">109</a>; +guardians of gates of Buddhist, <a id="d0e19423" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +guardians of gates of Taoist, <a id="d0e19426" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +legend of the cursed, <a id="d0e19429" href="#d0e5981">398</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19435"><span class="smallcaps">Têng Chiu-kung</span>. Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star, <a id="d0e19439" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +and No-cha, <a id="d0e19442" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +and Huang Fei-hu, <a id="d0e19445" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +and Yang Chien, <a id="d0e19448" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +overthrown by Ch’ên Ch’i, <a id="d0e19451" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +kingdom of the Blue Dragon Star conferred on, <a id="d0e19454" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19457"><span class="smallcaps">Thousand-li Eye</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ien-li Yen</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19467"><span class="smallcaps">Three Causes</span>. Worship of the, <a id="d0e19471" href="#d0e2196">125</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19477"><span class="smallcaps">Three Faces, People with the</span>, <a id="d0e19481" href="#d0e5897">390</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19484"><span class="smallcaps">Three Heavens</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">San Ch’ing</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19494"><span class="smallcaps">Three Musical Brothers</span>. +And the <i>la mei</i> flower, <a id="d0e19501" href="#d0e2619">151</a>; +cure the Emperor Hsüan Tsung, <a id="d0e19504" href="#d0e2619">151</a>; +and the Spirit-boat, <a id="d0e19507" href="#d0e2619">151</a>; +subdue the demons of pestilence, <a id="d0e19510" href="#d0e2619">151</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">T’ien Chih-piao, T’ien Hung-i</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">T’ien Yüan-shuai</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19525"><span class="smallcaps">Three Pure Ones</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Taoism</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19535"><span class="smallcaps">Three Religions, The</span>, <a id="d0e19539" href="#d0e1746">99</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19545"><span class="smallcaps">Three-body People</span>, <a id="d0e19549" href="#d0e5897">390</a>, <a id="d0e19552" href="#d0e5913">391</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19555"><span class="smallcaps">Three-heads</span>, <a id="d0e19559" href="#d0e5897">390</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19562"><span class="smallcaps">Throne of the Five Emperors</span>. Wu Ti Tso, a celestial palace, <a id="d0e19566" href="#d0e3005">176</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19569"><span class="smallcaps">Thunder</span>. +Myths of, <a id="d0e19573" href="#d0e3288">198</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e19579" href="#d0e3288">198</a>; +Duke of—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Kung</span>; +Son of, <a id="d0e19588" href="#d0e3311">199</a>, <a id="d0e19591" href="#d0e3351">202</a>–<a id="d0e19594" href="#d0e3364">203</a>, <i>and see</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Chên-tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19603"><span class="smallcaps">Ti</span>. The earth; and forgiveness of sins, <a id="d0e19607" href="#d0e2196">125</a>–<a id="d0e19610" href="#d0e2236">126</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19613"><span class="smallcaps">Ti Chih</span>. The twelve terrestrial branches, <a id="d0e19617" href="#d0e3280">197</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19620"><span class="smallcaps">Ti-mu, Ti-ya</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hou-t’u</span>. ‘Earth-dumb,’ the Earth-mother; one of the attendants of Wên Ch’ang, <a id="d0e19627" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e19630" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e19633" href="#d0e1942">110</a>, <a id="d0e19636" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19639"><span class="smallcaps">Ti-tsang Wang</span>. The God of Hades, <a id="d0e19643" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19646"><span class="smallcaps">Ti-ya</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ti-mu</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19656"><span class="smallcaps">Tibet</span>. A dependency of China, <a id="d0e19660" href="#d0e709">27</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19663"><span class="smallcaps">Tien Mu</span>. Mother of Lightning, <a id="d0e19667" href="#d0e3364">203</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19670"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien</span>. Heaven; +worship of, <a id="d0e19674" href="#d0e1682">94</a>, <a id="d0e19677" href="#d0e1707">95</a>–<a id="d0e19680" href="#d0e1716">96</a>; +abode of the spirits, <a id="d0e19683" href="#d0e1707">95</a>–<a id="d0e19686" href="#d0e1716">96</a>; +confused with Shang Ti, <a id="d0e19689" href="#d0e1716">96</a>–<a id="d0e19692" href="#d0e1725">97</a>; +one of the sources of happiness, <a id="d0e19695" href="#d0e2196">125</a>–<a id="d0e19698" href="#d0e2236">126</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19701"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Chih-piao</span>. Third of the three musical brothers, <a id="d0e19705" href="#d0e2619">151</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19708"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Fei</span>. Heavenly Concubine; helps Yin Chiao, <a id="d0e19712" href="#d0e3271">196</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19715"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Huang Shih</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Fu Hsi</span>. As God of Medicine, <a id="d0e19722" href="#d0e4000">247</a>–<a id="d0e19725" href="#d0e4010">248</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19728"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Hung-i</span>. Second of the three musical brothers, <a id="d0e19732" href="#d0e2619">151</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19735"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Kan</span>. The ten celestial tree-trunks, <a id="d0e19739" href="#d0e3280">197</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19742"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Kou</span>. The Heavenly Dog; +and Chang Hsien, <a id="d0e19746" href="#d0e3030">178</a>; +and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e19749" href="#d0e5205">331</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19752"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Mu</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Hsüan Nŭ</span>. Mother of Heaven; and Chuang Chou, <a id="d0e19759" href="#d0e2608">150</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19762"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien Yüan-shuai</span>. Eldest of the three musical brothers, <a id="d0e19766" href="#d0e2619">151</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19769"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien-hou</span>. Goddess of Sailors, <a id="d0e19773" href="#d0e2844">165</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19776"><span class="smallcaps">T’ien-lung</span>. ‘Heaven-deaf’; one of the attendants of Wên Ch’ang, <a id="d0e19780" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e19783" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e19786" href="#d0e1942">110</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19789"><span class="smallcaps">Tiger</span>. +Yellow Flying, <a id="d0e19793" href="#d0e2550">146</a>; +White—<i>see</i> <span class="smallcaps">White Tiger</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19802"><span class="smallcaps">Time</span>. +Myths of, <a id="d0e19806" href="#d0e3240">194</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Ministry of, <a id="d0e19812" href="#d0e3240">194</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19815"><span class="smallcaps">To-pao Tao-jên</span>. Disciple of T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e19819" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +fights with Kuang Ch’êng-tzŭ, <a id="d0e19822" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19825"><span class="smallcaps">Tobacco</span>. Use of, <a id="d0e19829" href="#d0e974">47</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19832"><span class="smallcaps">Tombs, Festival of the</span>, <a id="d0e19836" href="#d0e938">44</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19839"><span class="smallcaps">Tones</span>. In Chinese speech, <a id="d0e19843" href="#d0e1070">56</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19846"><span class="smallcaps">Tortoise, Golden Mother of the</span>, <a id="d0e19850" href="#d0e2395">136</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19853"><span class="smallcaps">Tou</span>. A measure; name of a constellation, <a id="d0e19857" href="#d0e1890">106</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19860"><span class="smallcaps">Tou Mu</span>. +Bushel Mother, Goddess of the North Star; the Indian Maritchi, <a id="d0e19864" href="#d0e2518">144</a>; +mother of the nine Jên Huang, <a id="d0e19867" href="#d0e2518">144</a>, <a id="d0e19870" href="#d0e2537">145</a>; +the Kuan Yin of Taoism, <a id="d0e19873" href="#d0e2518">144</a>; +her palace, Tou Shu, the Pivot of the Pole, <a id="d0e19876" href="#d0e2518">144</a>; +description of, <a id="d0e19879" href="#d0e2518">144</a>–<a id="d0e19882" href="#d0e2537">145</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e19885"></a>Page 451</span></p> +<p id="d0e19886"><span class="smallcaps">Tou Shu</span>. The Pivot of the Pole, palace of Tou Mu, <a id="d0e19890" href="#d0e2518">144</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19893"><span class="smallcaps">Trade</span>. Foreign, <a id="d0e19897" href="#d0e648">21</a>, <a id="d0e19900" href="#d0e988">48</a>–<a id="d0e19903" href="#d0e997">49</a>; +home, <a id="d0e19906" href="#d0e988">48</a>–<a id="d0e19909" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19912"><span class="smallcaps">Triad</span>. The super-triad, <a id="d0e19916" href="#d0e1765">100</a>–<a id="d0e19919" href="#d0e1786">101</a>; +of gods, <a id="d0e19922" href="#d0e1786">101</a>; +Taoist, <a id="d0e19925" href="#d0e2169">124</a>–<a id="d0e19928" href="#d0e2196">125</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19931"><span class="smallcaps">Transformations</span>. Of the fox, <a id="d0e19935" href="#d0e5704">370</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19938"><span class="smallcaps">Treasures, The Three</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">San Pao</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19948"><span class="smallcaps">Trigrams</span>. A combination of lines used in divination; +the Eight (<i>pa kua</i>), <a id="d0e19955" href="#d0e3231">193</a>, <a id="d0e19958" href="#d0e4010">248</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19961"><span class="smallcaps">Triratna</span>. The Three Embodiments, <a id="d0e19965" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19968"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’ai Shên</span>. God of Wealth, <a id="d0e19972" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e19975" href="#d0e2914">170</a>–<a id="d0e19978" href="#d0e2931">171</a>; +Chao Kung-ming prototype of, <a id="d0e19981" href="#d0e2914">170</a>–<a id="d0e19984" href="#d0e2931">171</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e19987" href="#d0e2914">170</a>–<a id="d0e19990" href="#d0e2931">171</a>; +canonized, <a id="d0e19993" href="#d0e2931">171</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e19996"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’ai-yün Hsien-tzŭ</span>. Fights for Wên Chung, <a id="d0e20000" href="#d0e2753">159</a>–<a id="d0e20003" href="#d0e2762">160</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20006"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’an Nü</span>. Also called Ma-t’ou Niang; +Goddess of Mulberry-trees and Silkworms, <a id="d0e20010" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e20013" href="#d0e2893">168</a>–<a id="d0e20016" href="#d0e2900">169</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e20019" href="#d0e2893">168</a>–<a id="d0e20022" href="#d0e2900">169</a>; +also represented as a stellar divinity, <a id="d0e20025" href="#d0e2900">169</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20028"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’ao Ching-chih</span>. In legend of Ts’ao Kuo-chiu, <a id="d0e20032" href="#d0e4783">301</a>–<a id="d0e20035" href="#d0e4787">302</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20038"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’ao Ching-hsiu</span>. Becomes the Immortal Ts’ao Kuo-chiu, <a id="d0e20042" href="#d0e4783">301</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20048"><span class="smallcaps">Tsao Chün</span>. The Kitchen-god, <a id="d0e20052" href="#d0e952">45</a>, <a id="d0e20055" href="#d0e2293">128</a>, <a id="d0e20058" href="#d0e2844">165</a>, <a id="d0e20061" href="#d0e2870">166</a> <i>sq.</i>; +reports to Supreme Being, <a id="d0e20067" href="#d0e952">45</a>, <a id="d0e20070" href="#d0e2877">167</a>–<a id="d0e20073" href="#d0e2893">168</a>; +chief of Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun’s secret police, <a id="d0e20076" href="#d0e2293">128</a>; +origin of worship of, <a id="d0e20079" href="#d0e2870">166</a>–<a id="d0e20082" href="#d0e2877">167</a>; +Li Shao-chün and, <a id="d0e20085" href="#d0e2870">166</a>–<a id="d0e20088" href="#d0e2877">167</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20091"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’ao Kuo-chiu</span>. One of the Eight Immortals, <a id="d0e20095" href="#d0e3524">214</a>, <a id="d0e20098" href="#d0e4789">303</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e20101" href="#d0e4759">300</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20107"><span class="smallcaps">Ts’ao Ts’ao</span>. Usurping general in period of the Three Kingdoms; +and Kuan Yü, <a id="d0e20111" href="#d0e2038">116</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20114"><span class="smallcaps">Tso Ch’ih</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Chisel-tooth</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20124"><span class="smallcaps">Tso-ch’iu Ming</span>. Author of the <i>Tso chuan</i>, commentary on the <i>Annals</i> of Confucius; +and Chinese mythology, <a id="d0e20134" href="#d0e1237">72</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20137"><span class="smallcaps">T’u Hsing-sun</span>. Magician; +and Têng Chiu-kung, <a id="d0e20141" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +marries Ch’an-yü, <a id="d0e20144" href="#d0e2568">147</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20147"><span class="smallcaps">Tu Ô</span>. Taoist magician; +teaches the Snorter, <a id="d0e20151" href="#d0e2537">145</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20154"><span class="smallcaps">T’u-ti</span>. Local gods, <a id="d0e20158" href="#d0e2844">165</a>; +report murder of the Tais to Yü Huang, <a id="d0e20161" href="#d0e4095">255</a>–<a id="d0e20164" href="#d0e4111">256</a>; +sent to help Miao Shan in the Nunnery of the White Bird, <a id="d0e20167" href="#d0e4211">263</a>; +report the approaching execution of Miao Shan to Yü Huang, <a id="d0e20170" href="#d0e4243">266</a>; +carry Miao Shan to P’u T’o Island, <a id="d0e20173" href="#d0e4307">270</a>; +find companions for Miao Shan, <a id="d0e20176" href="#d0e4328">271</a>; +help Miao Shan, <a id="d0e20179" href="#d0e4347">272</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20182"><span class="smallcaps">Tung Wang Kung, Mu Kung</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Tung-hua Ti-chün</span>. God of the Immortals; +and Shên I, <a id="d0e20189" href="#d0e3118">185</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and the Spirit of Lightning, <a id="d0e20195" href="#d0e3364">203</a>. +<i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mu Kung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20204"><span class="smallcaps">Tung-hua Ti-chün</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tung Wang Kung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20214"><span class="smallcaps">T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu</span>. First of the Patriarchs of the Taoists, <a id="d0e20218" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +and Hung-chün Lao-tsu, <a id="d0e20221" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +battle with Chun T’i, <a id="d0e20224" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e20227" href="#d0e2358">134</a>; +the buffalo of, <a id="d0e20230" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e20233" href="#d0e2358">134</a>; +given pill of immortality and taken to Heaven, <a id="d0e20236" href="#d0e2358">134</a>; +and the twenty-eight constellations, <a id="d0e20239" href="#d0e3203">191</a>–<a id="d0e20242" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +and Chun T’i, <a id="d0e20245" href="#d0e5041">321</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20251"><span class="smallcaps">Turkestan, Eastern</span>. Supposed origin of the Chinese in, <a id="d0e20255" href="#d0e556">13</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Sinkiang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20264"><span class="smallcaps">Tzŭ T’ung</span>. Chang Ya at, <a id="d0e20268" href="#d0e1854">104</a>; +the God of, <a id="d0e20271" href="#d0e1879">105</a>; +Wên Ch’ang and the Spirit of, <a id="d0e20274" href="#d0e1923">108</a>–<a id="d0e20277" href="#d0e1933">109</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20280"><span class="smallcaps">Tz’ŭ-hang Ta-shih</span>. Immortal, <a id="d0e20284" href="#d0e3544">216</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20287"><span class="smallcaps">Tzŭ-hua</span>. In legend of Ch’un-yü Fên, <a id="d0e20291" href="#d0e6232">413</a>, <a id="d0e20294" href="#d0e6252">415</a>–<a id="d0e20297" href="#d0e6258">416</a>, <a id="d0e20300" href="#d0e6283">419</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20303"><span class="smallcaps">Tzŭ-wei Hsing</span>. Constellation. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Po I-k’ao</span> + + +</p><a id="d0e20313"></a><h2>U</h2> +<p id="d0e20316"><span class="smallcaps">Umbrellas, The Magic</span>, <a id="d0e20320" href="#d0e3902">241</a>–<a id="d0e20323" href="#d0e3914">242</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20326"><span class="smallcaps">Unicorn</span>. <i>K’uei niu</i> <a id="d0e20333" href="#d0e2342">133</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20336"><span class="smallcaps">Unicorn Precipice, The</span>, <a id="d0e20340" href="#d0e2672">154</a>, <a id="d0e20343" href="#d0e2703">155</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20346"><span class="smallcaps">Unity, The Great</span>. First of the celestial spirits, <a id="d0e20350" href="#d0e2480">142</a>–<a id="d0e20353" href="#d0e2504">143</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20356"><span class="smallcaps">Unnatural People</span>, <a id="d0e20360" href="#d0e5840">386</a> <i>sq.</i> + + +</p><a id="d0e20366"></a><h2>V</h2> +<p id="d0e20369"><span class="smallcaps">Vairotchana</span>. Dharma, the highest of the Three Embodiments (Triratna), representing Purity; +Chinese P’i-lu Fo, <a id="d0e20373" href="#d0e2083">120</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e20376"></a>Page 452</span></p> +<p id="d0e20377"><span class="smallcaps">Vajrâpani</span>. God of Thunder. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Kung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20387"><span class="smallcaps">Vega</span>. Star; +legend of Aquila and, <a id="d0e20391" href="#d0e3188">189</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20397"><span class="smallcaps">Vihârapâla</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Wei-t’o</span> + + +</p><a id="d0e20407"></a><h2>W</h2> +<p id="d0e20410"><span class="smallcaps">Wang Ch’ang</span>. Disciple of Chang Tao-ling, <a id="d0e20414" href="#d0e2462">140</a>, <a id="d0e20417" href="#d0e2470">141</a>, <a id="d0e20420" href="#d0e3544">216</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20423"><span class="smallcaps">Wang Chê</span>. Brigand chief; +begs of Shih family, <a id="d0e20427" href="#d0e4095">255</a>; +murders Tai family, <a id="d0e20430" href="#d0e4095">255</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20433"><span class="smallcaps">Wang Tan</span>. A minister of State; +and the cask of pearls, <a id="d0e20437" href="#d0e2321">131</a>–<a id="d0e20440" href="#d0e2330">132</a>; +K’ang Hsi on, <a id="d0e20443" href="#d0e2321">131</a>–<a id="d0e20446" href="#d0e2330">132</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20449"><span class="smallcaps">War, God of</span>, <a id="d0e20453" href="#d0e1999">113</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20459"><span class="smallcaps">Waters</span>. Shên I marries sister of the Water-spirit, <a id="d0e20463" href="#d0e3080">182</a>; +myths of the, <a id="d0e20466" href="#d0e3445">208</a> <i>sq.</i>; +dragons are spirits of the, <a id="d0e20472" href="#d0e3445">208</a>; +Ministry of the, <a id="d0e20475" href="#d0e3496">212</a>; +Yang Hou, Spirit of the Sea, <a id="d0e20478" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq.</i>; +Shui Kuan, Ruler of the Watery Elements, <a id="d0e20484" href="#d0e3544">216</a>; +Shui-mu Niang-niang, Old Mother of the, <a id="d0e20487" href="#d0e3589">220</a> <i>sq.</i> +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ho Po</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shui</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20505"><span class="smallcaps">Watters, Thomas</span>. Consul-General; +on fox-lore, <a id="d0e20509" href="#d0e5704">370</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20512"><span class="smallcaps">Way</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Tao</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20522"><span class="smallcaps">Wealth, God of</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Ts’ai Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20532"><span class="smallcaps">Weapons</span>, <a id="d0e20536" href="#d0e810">33</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20539"><span class="smallcaps">Weaver-girl, The Herdsman and the</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e20543" href="#d0e3188">189</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20549"><span class="smallcaps">Wei Chêng</span>. Associated with Door-gods. +<i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20559"><span class="smallcaps">Wei-t’o</span>. Vihârapâla; +the Dêva protector of Buddhist temples and of the Law of Buddha, <a id="d0e20563" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20566"><span class="smallcaps">Weights and Measures</span>, <a id="d0e20570" href="#d0e997">49</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20573"><span class="smallcaps">Well, Spirits of the</span>, <a id="d0e20577" href="#d0e3556">217</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20580"><span class="smallcaps">Wên Ch’ang</span>. God of Literature; +attendants on, <a id="d0e20584" href="#d0e1387">82</a>, <a id="d0e20587" href="#d0e1933">109</a>–<a id="d0e20590" href="#d0e1942">110</a>; +legends of, <a id="d0e20593" href="#d0e1854">104</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and the Great Bear, <a id="d0e20599" href="#d0e1879">105</a> <i>sq.</i>; +palace of, <a id="d0e20605" href="#d0e1890">106</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20608"><span class="smallcaps">Wên Chiao</span>. Wife of Ch’ên Kuang-jui, and mother of Hsüan Chuang, <a id="d0e20612" href="#d0e5282">336</a>, <a id="d0e20615" href="#d0e5301">337</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20621"><span class="smallcaps">Wên Chung</span>. Famous generalissimo, canonized as God of Thunder; +his battle with Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e20625" href="#d0e2734">158</a> <i>sq.</i>; +attacked by Huang T’ien-hua, <a id="d0e20631" href="#d0e2753">159</a>; +wounded by Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e20634" href="#d0e2762">160</a>; +forced to retreat, <a id="d0e20637" href="#d0e2775">161</a>; +fights more battles, <a id="d0e20640" href="#d0e2775">161</a>; +drawn up to Heaven, <a id="d0e20643" href="#d0e2775">161</a>; +another account of his battles and death, <a id="d0e20646" href="#d0e3288">198</a>–<a id="d0e20649" href="#d0e3311">199</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Tsu</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20658"><span class="smallcaps">Wên Wang</span>. Father of Po I-k’ao; +prisoner of Chou Hsin, <a id="d0e20662" href="#d0e3214">192</a>; +Ta Chi and, <a id="d0e20665" href="#d0e3214">192</a>–<a id="d0e20668" href="#d0e3231">193</a>; +Lei Chên-tzŭ and, <a id="d0e20671" href="#d0e3351">202</a>–<a id="d0e20674" href="#d0e3364">203</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20677"><span class="smallcaps">Wên Yü</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lei Chên-tzŭ</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20687"><span class="smallcaps">Wên-chu T’ien-tsun</span>. Fights with No-cha, <a id="d0e20691" href="#d0e4994">317</a>–<a id="d0e20694" href="#d0e5009">318</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20697"><span class="smallcaps">Western Air, Sovereign of the</span>, <a id="d0e20701" href="#d0e2425">137</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20704"><span class="smallcaps">White Bird Nunnery</span>. Miao Shan goes to, <a id="d0e20708" href="#d0e4184">261</a> <i>sq.</i>; +set on fire, <a id="d0e20714" href="#d0e4221">264</a>; +saved by Miao Shan, <a id="d0e20717" href="#d0e4221">264</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20720"><span class="smallcaps">White Crane Youth</span>. Captures Shên Kung-pao’s head, <a id="d0e20724" href="#d0e2711">156</a>; +restores the head, <a id="d0e20727" href="#d0e2727">157</a>; +kills Ch’iung Hsiao, <a id="d0e20730" href="#d0e2734">158</a>; +fights and defeats Chang Shao, <a id="d0e20733" href="#d0e2753">159</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20736"><span class="smallcaps">White Elephant</span>. In Kuan Yin legend, <a id="d0e20740" href="#d0e4507">283</a>, <a id="d0e20743" href="#d0e4528">284</a>, <a id="d0e20746" href="#d0e4540">285</a>–<a id="d0e20749" href="#d0e4558">286</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20752"><span class="smallcaps">White Horse</span>. Of Hsŭan Chuang, <a id="d0e20756" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e20759" href="#d0e5343">341</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20762"><span class="smallcaps">White Tiger</span>. Po Hu; +spirit of the White Tiger Star; +guardian of Taoist temple gates, <a id="d0e20766" href="#d0e2550">146</a>, <a id="d0e20769" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20772"><span class="smallcaps">Wife</span>. Status of, <a id="d0e20776" href="#d0e671">23</a>–<a id="d0e20779" href="#d0e675">24</a>; +legend of the Expectant, <a id="d0e20782" href="#d0e5913">391</a>–<a id="d0e20785" href="#d0e5927">392</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20788"><span class="smallcaps">Wild Men</span>. Legend of, <a id="d0e20792" href="#d0e5927">392</a>–<a id="d0e20795" href="#d0e5936">393</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20798"><span class="smallcaps">Wind, Spirit of the</span>. Fei Lien; +vanquished by Shên I, <a id="d0e20802" href="#d0e3066">181</a>, <a id="d0e20805" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e20808" href="#d0e3407">205</a>; +myths of the, <a id="d0e20811" href="#d0e3392">204</a>–<a id="d0e20814" href="#d0e3407">205</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Fêng Po</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20823"><span class="smallcaps">Women, The Lovely</span>. In the <i>Hsi yu chi</i>, <a id="d0e20830" href="#d0e5607">362</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20836"><span class="smallcaps">Women’s Kingdom</span>. Legend of the, <a id="d0e20840" href="#d0e5897">390</a>–<a id="d0e20843" href="#d0e5913">391</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20846"><span class="smallcaps">Worship</span>. Origin of, <a id="d0e20850" href="#d0e1662">93</a>; +of Shang Ti, <a id="d0e20853" href="#d0e1682">94</a>–<a id="d0e20856" href="#d0e1707">95</a>; +of T’ien, <a id="d0e20859" href="#d0e1682">94</a>, <a id="d0e20862" href="#d0e1707">95</a>–<a id="d0e20865" href="#d0e1716">96</a>; +of the living, <a id="d0e20868" href="#d0e1786">101</a>; +the second self and, <a id="d0e20871" href="#d0e1786">101</a>; +of the Kitchen-god, <a id="d0e20874" href="#d0e2870">166</a>–<a id="d0e20877" href="#d0e2877">167</a>; +of the harvest moon, <a id="d0e20880" href="#d0e3005">176</a>; +of the sun, <a id="d0e20883" href="#d0e3005">176</a>–<a id="d0e20886" href="#d0e3018">177</a>, <a id="d0e20889" href="#d0e3036">179</a>; +of Chang Hsien, <a id="d0e20892" href="#d0e3030">178</a>; +of constellations, <a id="d0e20895" href="#d0e3203">191</a>; +of T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e20898" href="#d0e3271">196</a>–<a id="d0e20901" href="#d0e3280">197</a>; +of Wu Yüeh, <a id="d0e20904" href="#d0e3914">242</a>; +origin of dog-worship of Jung tribe, <a id="d0e20907" href="#d0e6322">422</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20910"><span class="smallcaps">Wu</span>. Exorcists, <a id="d0e20914" href="#d0e814">34</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20917"><span class="smallcaps">Wu Hsing</span>. The Five Elements, <a id="d0e20921" href="#d0e1414">84</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20924"><span class="smallcaps">Wu San-kuei</span>. General of Emperor Ch’ung Chêng, <a id="d0e20928" href="#d0e5981">398</a>–<a id="d0e20931" href="#d0e5993">399</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20934"><span class="smallcaps">Wu Ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Kuan Ti</span> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e20944"></a>Page 453</span></p> +<p id="d0e20945"><span class="smallcaps">Wu Ti Tso</span>. ‘Throne of the Five Emperors’; +in the constellation Leo, <a id="d0e20949" href="#d0e3005">176</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20952"><span class="smallcaps">Wu Wang</span>. First king of the Chou dynasty; +his battles with Chou Wang, <a id="d0e20956" href="#d0e2342">133</a>–<a id="d0e20959" href="#d0e2358">134</a>; +and Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e20962" href="#d0e2657">153</a>, <a id="d0e20965" href="#d0e2672">154</a>; +killed and revived, <a id="d0e20968" href="#d0e2753">159</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20971"><span class="smallcaps">Wu Yüeh</span>. ‘Five Mountains’; +gods worshipped in cases of fever, etc., <a id="d0e20975" href="#d0e3914">242</a>–<a id="d0e20978" href="#d0e3940">243</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e20981" href="#d0e3940">243</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e20987"><span class="smallcaps">Wu Yün</span>. Immortal; +and Chun Ti, <a id="d0e20991" href="#d0e5074">323</a>–<a id="d0e20994" href="#d0e5089">324</a> + + +</p><a id="d0e20997"></a><h2>Y</h2> +<p id="d0e21000"><span class="smallcaps">Yang</span>. The male principle in nature, <a id="d0e21004" href="#d0e1446">85</a>, <a id="d0e21007" href="#d0e1503">86</a>, <a id="d0e21010" href="#d0e1662">93</a>; +its hold on the Chinese mind, <a id="d0e21013" href="#d0e1646">92</a>; +Mu Kung and, <a id="d0e21016" href="#d0e2395">136</a>–<a id="d0e21019" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +united with <i>yin</i> in marriage, <a id="d0e21025" href="#d0e3138">186</a>; +conjunction of <i>yin</i> and, <a id="d0e21031" href="#d0e3166">188</a>; +and lightning, <a id="d0e21034" href="#d0e3364">203</a>. +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yin</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21043"><span class="smallcaps">Yang Ch’êng</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Fu Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21053"><span class="smallcaps">Yang Chien</span>. Nephew of Yü Huang; +and Hua-hu Tiao, <a id="d0e21057" href="#d0e2125">122</a>–<a id="d0e21060" href="#d0e2149">123</a>; +and Ch’an-yü, <a id="d0e21063" href="#d0e2568">147</a>; +battles with Ch’ien-li Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh, <a id="d0e21066" href="#d0e2793">162</a> <i>sq.</i>; +and Lü Yüeh, <a id="d0e21072" href="#d0e3914">242</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21075"><span class="smallcaps">Yang Hou</span>. Spirit of the Sea, <a id="d0e21079" href="#d0e3496">212</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21085"><span class="smallcaps">Yang Hsi-chi</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Fu Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21095"><span class="smallcaps">Yang Jên</span>. Magician; +and Lü Yüeh, <a id="d0e21099" href="#d0e3914">242</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21102"><span class="smallcaps">Yao</span>. +1. Early emperor; +with Shun and Yü as the Three Origins, <a id="d0e21106" href="#d0e2236">126</a>–<a id="d0e21109" href="#d0e2265">127</a>; +and Shên I, <a id="d0e21112" href="#d0e3051">180</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a id="d0e21118" href="#d0e3392">204</a>. +2. Tailed Miao Tzŭ tribe; +legend of, <a id="d0e21121" href="#d0e6322">422</a> <i>n.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21127"><span class="smallcaps">Yao Ch’ih</span>. Lake of Gems, <a id="d0e21131" href="#d0e2425">137</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21134"><span class="smallcaps">Yao Wang</span>. God or King of Medicine, <a id="d0e21138" href="#d0e3984">246</a>, <a id="d0e21141" href="#d0e4000">247</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21144"><span class="smallcaps">Year</span>. Spirit of the, T’ai Sui, <a id="d0e21148" href="#d0e3240">194</a> <i>sq.</i> +<i>See also</i> <span class="smallcaps">San Yüan, T’ai Sui</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smallcaps">Time</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21166"><span class="smallcaps">Yeh Ch’ien-chao</span>. And Lei Kung, <a id="d0e21170" href="#d0e3325">200</a>–<a id="d0e21173" href="#d0e3342">201</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21176"><span class="smallcaps">Yeh Fa-shan</span>. Magician; +and Chang Kuo, <a id="d0e21180" href="#d0e4673">294</a>–<a id="d0e21183" href="#d0e4683">295</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21186"><span class="smallcaps">Yellow Flying Tiger</span>. Huang Fei-hu; +spears the Blower, <a id="d0e21190" href="#d0e2550">146</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21193"><span class="smallcaps">Yellow Turbans</span>. Tribe; +Liu Pei, Kuan Yü, and Chang Fei make war on, <a id="d0e21197" href="#d0e2038">116</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21200"><span class="smallcaps">Yen, District of</span>, <a id="d0e21204" href="#d0e3702">228</a>, <a id="d0e21207" href="#d0e3713">229</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21210"><span class="smallcaps">Yen Ch’êng</span>. Legend of the City-god of, <a id="d0e21214" href="#d0e6018">402</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21220"><span class="smallcaps">Yen Ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Shên Nung</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21230"><span class="smallcaps">Yen Wang</span>. The King of the Hells; +and Miao Shan, <a id="d0e21234" href="#d0e4261">267</a>, <a id="d0e21237" href="#d0e4276">268</a>; +and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e21240" href="#d0e5173">328</a>–<a id="d0e21243" href="#d0e5179">329</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21246"><span class="smallcaps">Yen-chung Hsien</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lo Hsüan</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21256"><span class="smallcaps">Yin</span>. The female principle in nature, <a id="d0e21260" href="#d0e1446">85</a>, <a id="d0e21263" href="#d0e1503">86</a>, <a id="d0e21266" href="#d0e1662">93</a>, <a id="d0e21269" href="#d0e3544">216</a>; +its hold on the Chinese mind, <a id="d0e21272" href="#d0e1646">92</a>; +Hsi Wang Mu and, <a id="d0e21275" href="#d0e2425">137</a>; +ancestor of the spirituality of the, <a id="d0e21278" href="#d0e3118">185</a>; +united in marriage with <i>yang</i>, <a id="d0e21284" href="#d0e3138">186</a>; +conjunction of <i>yang</i> and, <a id="d0e21290" href="#d0e3166">188</a>; +<i>yin-yang</i> mirror, <a id="d0e21296" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +and lightning, <a id="d0e21299" href="#d0e3364">203</a>, <a id="d0e21302" href="#d0e3392">204</a>; +<i>yin-yang</i> baskets, <a id="d0e21308" href="#d0e3756">232</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21311"><span class="smallcaps">Yin Ch’êng-hsiu</span>. Spirit of the White Tiger Star, <a id="d0e21315" href="#d0e2577">148</a>; +canonized by Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e21318" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21321"><span class="smallcaps">Yin Chiao</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">T’ai Sui</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21331"><span class="smallcaps">Yin K’ai-shan</span>, Father of Wên Chiao, <a id="d0e21335" href="#d0e5282">336</a>, <a id="d0e21338" href="#d0e5306">338</a>–<a id="d0e21341" href="#d0e5313">339</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21344"><span class="smallcaps">Yin P’o-pai</span>. Courtier of Chou Wang; +father of Yin Ch’êng-hsiu, <a id="d0e21348" href="#d0e2577">148</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21351"><span class="smallcaps">Yin Shih</span>. Wife of Li Ching, <a id="d0e21355" href="#d0e4809">305</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21361"><span class="smallcaps">Ymer</span>. The Scandinavian giant out of whose body the world was made; +compared with P’an Ku, <a id="d0e21365" href="#d0e1349">79</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21368"><span class="smallcaps">Yü</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Ta Yü</span>. The Great Yü, one of the early kings; +with Yao and Shun as the Three Origins, <a id="d0e21375" href="#d0e2236">126</a>–<a id="d0e21378" href="#d0e2265">127</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21381"><span class="smallcaps">Yu Chou</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Peking</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21391"><span class="smallcaps">Yü Ch’üan Shan T’a</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Chên-shui T’a</span>. Pagoda near Peking; +origin of, <a id="d0e21398" href="#d0e3788">234</a>–<a id="d0e21401" href="#d0e3808">235</a> <i>and n.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21407"><span class="smallcaps">Yü Huang</span>. Also called Yü-huang Shang-ti; +the Pearly Emperor, <a id="d0e21411" href="#d0e2169">124</a>; +popular head of Taoist hierarchy, <a id="d0e21414" href="#d0e2169">124</a>; +the Jade Emperor, the Pure August One, <a id="d0e21417" href="#d0e2309">130</a>; +history of, <a id="d0e21420" href="#d0e2309">130</a> <i>sq.</i>; +the Chinese Jupiter, <a id="d0e21426" href="#d0e2309">130</a>; +legend of, <a id="d0e21429" href="#d0e2330">132</a>–<a id="d0e21432" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +identified with Indra, <a id="d0e21435" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +subject of a nature myth, <a id="d0e21438" href="#d0e2342">133</a>; +and Shui-mu Niang-niang, <a id="d0e21441" href="#d0e3589">220</a>–<a id="d0e21444" href="#d0e3609">221</a>; +allows reincarnation of sons of Shih Ch’in-ch’ang, <a id="d0e21447" href="#d0e4095">255</a>–<a id="d0e21450" href="#d0e4111">256</a>; +sends spiritual aid to Miao Shan, <a id="d0e21453" href="#d0e4195">262</a>–<a id="d0e21456" href="#d0e4211">263</a>; +prevents execution of Miao Shan, <a id="d0e21459" href="#d0e4243">266</a>; +orders punishment <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e21462"></a>Page 454</span>of Miao Chuang, <a id="d0e21464" href="#d0e4389">274</a>; +canonizes Miao Shan and her family, <a id="d0e21467" href="#d0e4558">286</a>; +and Sun Hou-tzŭ, <a id="d0e21470" href="#d0e5164">327</a> <i>sq.</i> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21476"><span class="smallcaps">Yu I</span>. A spirit, <a id="d0e21480" href="#d0e4457">278</a>–<a id="d0e21483" href="#d0e4463">279</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21486"><span class="smallcaps">Yü Lü</span>. A Door-god, <a id="d0e21490" href="#d0e2968">173</a>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Mên Shên</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21499"><span class="smallcaps">Yü Lung San T’ai-tzŭ</span>. Son of Dragon-king of the Western Sea; +and the White Horse, <a id="d0e21503" href="#d0e5329">340</a>–<a id="d0e21506" href="#d0e5343">341</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21509"><span class="smallcaps">Yü Nü</span>. The Jade Maiden; +servant to Mu Kung, <a id="d0e21513" href="#d0e2395">136</a>; +and the Spirit of Lightning, <a id="d0e21516" href="#d0e3364">203</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21519"><span class="smallcaps">Yü Shih</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">Ch’ih Sung-tzŭ</span>. The Master of Rain, <a id="d0e21526" href="#d0e3407">205</a>–<a id="d0e21529" href="#d0e3418">206</a>; +resides in the K’un-lun Mountains, <a id="d0e21532" href="#d0e3418">206</a>; +and the <i>shang yang</i>, <a id="d0e21538" href="#d0e3418">206</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21541"><span class="smallcaps">Yü-huang Shang-ti</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yü Huang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21551"><span class="smallcaps">Yü-ting Chên-jên</span>. Makes plan for defeat of Ch’ien-li Yen and Shun-fêng Êrh, <a id="d0e21555" href="#d0e2793">162</a>–<a id="d0e21558" href="#d0e2813">163</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21561"><span class="smallcaps">Yüan Chuang</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Hsüan Chuang</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21571"><span class="smallcaps">Yüan Hung</span>. Generalissimo; +serves Chou Wang, <a id="d0e21575" href="#d0e2793">162</a>, <a id="d0e21578" href="#d0e2828">164</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21581"><span class="smallcaps">Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun, Lo Ching Hsin</span>, or <span class="smallcaps">T’ien Pao</span>. Son of P’an Ku and T’ai-yüan Shêng-mu; +first member of Taoist triad, <a id="d0e21588" href="#d0e2169">124</a>; +First Cause, Highest in Heaven, <a id="d0e21591" href="#d0e2265">127</a> <i>sq.</i>; +God of Lightning, <a id="d0e21597" href="#d0e2293">128</a>; +avatar of P’an Ku, <a id="d0e21600" href="#d0e2293">128</a> <i>sq.</i>; +first named Yüan-shih T’ien-wang, <a id="d0e21606" href="#d0e2293">128</a>; +legend of birth of, <a id="d0e21609" href="#d0e2293">128</a> <i>sq.</i>; +fights T’ung-t’ien Chiao-chu, <a id="d0e21615" href="#d0e2358">134</a>, <a id="d0e21618" href="#d0e5041">321</a>, <a id="d0e21621" href="#d0e5056">322</a>–<a id="d0e21624" href="#d0e5074">323</a>; +and Tou Mu, <a id="d0e21627" href="#d0e2518">144</a>; +presents List of Promotions to Immortals to Chiang Tzŭ-ya, <a id="d0e21630" href="#d0e2672">154</a>–<a id="d0e21633" href="#d0e2703">155</a>; +kills Pi Hsiao, <a id="d0e21636" href="#d0e2734">158</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21639"><span class="smallcaps">Yüan-shih T’ien-wang</span>. <i>See</i> <span class="smallcaps">Yüan-shih T’ien-tsun</span> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21649"><span class="smallcaps">Yüeh-shih Fo</span>. The Master-Physician Buddha, <a id="d0e21653" href="#d0e2083">120</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21656"><span class="smallcaps">Yün Chung-tzŭ</span>. A hermit; +causes the death of Wên Chung, <a id="d0e21660" href="#d0e3311">199</a>; +teacher of Lei Chên-tzŭ, <a id="d0e21663" href="#d0e3351">202</a>–<a id="d0e21666" href="#d0e3364">203</a> + +</p> +<p id="d0e21669"><span class="smallcaps">Yün-t’ai Mountain</span>. The peach-plucking on, <a id="d0e21673" href="#d0e2462">140</a>–<a id="d0e21676" href="#d0e2470">141</a> +<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e21679"></a></span></p><a id="d0e21680"></a><h1><span class="smallcaps">Uniform with this Volume</span></h1> +<p id="d0e21684"><b>An Introduction to Mythology</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Lewis Spence</span>, F.R.A.I. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21691"><b>The Myths of Greece and Rome</b> By <span class="smallcaps">H.A. Guerber</span>. With 57 Full-page Illustrations. A classic volume. At once a fascinating story-book and a valuable work of reference. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21698"><b>Myths of the Norsemen</b> From the Eddas and Sagas. By <span class="smallcaps">H.A. Guerber</span>. With 33 Full-page Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21705"><b>Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages</b> By <span class="smallcaps">H.A. Guerber</span>. With 36 Full-page Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21712"><b>Hero-Myths and Legends of the British Race.</b> By <span class="smallcaps">M.I. Ebbutt</span>, M.A. With 51 Original Full-page Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21719"><b>Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race</b> By <span class="smallcaps">T.W. Rolleston</span>. With 46 Original Full-page Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21726"><b>Myths and Legends of Japan</b> By <span class="smallcaps">F. Hadland Davis</span>. With 32 Plates in Colour. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21733"><b>The Myths of Mexico and Peru</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Lewis Spence</span>, F.R.A.I. With 52 Full-page Plates and other Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21740"><b>The Myths of the North American Indians.</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Lewis Spence</span>, F.R.A.I. With 30 Plates in Colour and other Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21747"><b>Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Lewis Spence</span>, F.R.A.I. With 16 Plates in Colour and 32 other Illustrations. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21754"><b>Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Sister Nivedita</span> (<span class="smallcaps">Margaret E. Noble</span>) and Dr <span class="smallcaps">Ananda Coomaraswamy</span>. With 32 Plates in Colour by Indian Artists. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21767"><b>Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria.</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Lewis Spence</span>, F.R.A.I. With 8 Plates in Colour and 32 Plates in Half-Tone. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21774"><b>Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Woislav M. Petrovitch</span>. With 32 Plates in Colour. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21781"><b>Myths and Legends of China</b> By <span class="smallcaps">E.T.C. Werner</span>. With 32 Full-page Illustrations in Colour and Gold. + +</p> +<p id="d0e21788"><b>Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine</b> By <span class="smallcaps">Lewis Spence</span>, F.R.A.I. With 24 Full-page Illustrations. + +</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Myths and Legends of China, by E. T. C. 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\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/15250.txt b/15250.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..89e1d75 --- /dev/null +++ b/15250.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13323 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths and Legends of China, by E. T. C. Werner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Myths and Legends of China + +Author: E. T. C. Werner + +Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15250] +Last Updated: January 7, 2017 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CHINA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeroen Hellingman and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + Myths & Legends of China + + By + + E.T.C. Werner + + H.B.M. Consul Foochow (Retired) Barrister-at-law Middle Temple Late + Member of The Chinese Government Historiographical Bureau Peking + Author of "Descriptive Sociology: Chinese" "China of the Chinese" Etc. + + + George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. + London Bombay Sydney + + + + +In Memoriam + +_Gladys Nina Chalmers Werner_ + + + +Preface + +The chief literary sources of Chinese myths are the _Li tai shen hsien +t'ung chien_, in thirty-two volumes, the _Shen hsien lieh chuan_, +in eight volumes, the _Feng shen yen i_, in eight volumes, and the +_Sou shen chi_, in ten volumes. In writing the following pages I +have translated or paraphrased largely from these works. I have also +consulted and at times quoted from the excellent volumes on Chinese +Superstitions by Pere Henri Dore, comprised in the valuable series +_Varietes Sinologiques_, published by the Catholic Mission Press +at Shanghai. The native works contained in the Ssu K'u Ch'uean Shu, +one of the few public libraries in Peking, have proved useful for +purposes of reference. My heartiest thanks are due to my good friend +Mr Mu Hsueeh-hsuen, a scholar of wide learning and generous disposition, +for having kindly allowed me to use his very large and useful library +of Chinese books. The late Dr G.E. Morrison also, until he sold it +to a Japanese baron, was good enough to let me consult his extensive +collection of foreign works relating to China whenever I wished, but +owing to the fact that so very little work has been done in Chinese +mythology by Western writers I found it better in dealing with this +subject to go direct to the original Chinese texts. I am indebted to +Professor H.A. Giles, and to his publishers, Messrs Kelly and Walsh, +Shanghai, for permission to reprint from _Strange Stories from a +Chinese Studio_ the fox legends given in Chapter XV. + +This is, so far as I know, the only monograph on Chinese mythology +in any non-Chinese language. Nor do the native works include any +scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths. + +My aim, after summarizing the sociology of the Chinese as a +prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, +and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with limitations of +space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a +very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with +the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in English dress +those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives +of Chinese mythology--those which live in the minds of the people and +are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which +are merely diverting without being typical or instructive--in short, +a true, not a distorted image. + +_Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner_ + +_Peking_ +_February_ 1922 + + + +Contents + + + +Chapter + +I. The Sociology of the Chinese +II. On Chinese Mythology +III. Cosmogony--P'an Ku and the Creation Myth +IV. The Gods of China +V. Myths of the Stars +VI. Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain +VII. Myths of the Waters +VIII. Myths of Fire +IX. Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc. +X. The Goddess of Mercy +XI. The Eight Immortals +XII. The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven +XIII. A Battle of the Gods +XIV. How the Monkey Became a God +XV. Fox Legends +XVI. Miscellaneous Legends + The Pronunciation of Chinese Words + + + + + +_Mais cet Orient, cette Asie, quelles en sont, enfin, les frontieres +reelles?... Ces frontieres sont d'une nettete qui ne permet aucune +erreur. L'Asie est la ou cesse la vulgarite, ou nait la dignite, +et ou commence l'elegance intellectuelle. Et l'Orient est la ou sont +les sources debordantes de poesie._ + +_Mardrus_, +_La Reine de Saba_ + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Sociology of the Chinese + + +Racial Origin + +In spite of much research and conjecture, the origin of the Chinese +people remains undetermined. We do not know who they were nor whence +they came. Such evidence as there is points to their immigration +from elsewhere; the Chinese themselves have a tradition of a Western +origin. The first picture we have of their actual history shows us, not +a people behaving as if long settled in a land which was their home and +that of their forefathers, but an alien race fighting with wild beasts, +clearing dense forests, and driving back the aboriginal inhabitants. + +Setting aside several theories (including the one that the Chinese +are autochthonous and their civilization indigenous) now regarded +by the best authorities as untenable, the researches of sinologists +seem to indicate an origin (1) in early Akkadia; or (2) in Khotan, +the Tarim valley (generally what is now known as Eastern Turkestan), +or the K'un-lun Mountains (concerning which more presently). The +second hypothesis may relate only to a sojourn of longer or shorter +duration on the way from Akkadia to the ultimate settlement in China, +especially since the Khotan civilization has been shown to have +been imported from the Punjab in the third century B.C. The fact +that serious mistakes have been made regarding the identifications +of early Chinese rulers with Babylonian kings, and of the Chinese +_po-hsing_ (Cantonese _bak-sing_) 'people' with the Bak Sing or Bak +tribes, does not exclude the possibility of an Akkadian origin. But +in either case the immigration into China was probably gradual, and +may have taken the route from Western or Central Asia direct to the +banks of the Yellow River, or may possibly have followed that to the +south-east through Burma and then to the north-east through what is +now China--the settlement of the latter country having thus spread +from south-west to north-east, or in a north-easterly direction along +the Yangtzu River, and so north, instead of, as is generally supposed, +from north to south. + + +Southern Origin Improbable + +But this latter route would present many difficulties; it would seem +to have been put forward merely as ancillary to the theory that the +Chinese originated in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. This theory is +based upon the assumptions that the ancient Chinese ideograms include +representations of tropical animals and plants; that the oldest and +purest forms of the language are found in the south; and that the +Chinese and the Indo-Chinese groups of languages are both tonal. But +all of these facts or alleged facts are as easily or better accounted +for by the supposition that the Chinese arrived from the north +or north-west in successive waves of migration, the later arrivals +pushing the earlier farther and farther toward the south, so that the +oldest and purest forms of Chinese would be found just where they are, +the tonal languages of the Indo-Chinese peninsula being in that case +regarded as the languages of the vanguard of the migration. Also, the +ideograms referred to represent animals and plants of the temperate +zone rather than of the tropics, but even if it could be shown, which +it cannot, that these animals and plants now belong exclusively to the +tropics, that would be no proof of the tropical origin of the Chinese, +for in the earliest times the climate of North China was much milder +than it is now, and animals such as tigers and elephants existed in the +dense jungles which are later found only in more southern latitudes. + + +Expansion of Races from North to South + +The theory of a southern origin (to which a further serious objection +will be stated presently) implies a gradual infiltration of Chinese +immigrants through South or Mid-China (as above indicated) toward +the north, but there is little doubt that the movement of the races +has been from north to south and not _vice versa_. In what are now +the provinces of Western Kansu and Ssuch'uan there lived a people +related to the Chinese (as proved by the study of Indo-Chinese +comparative philology) who moved into the present territory of Tibet +and are known as Tibetans; in what is now the province of Yuennan were +the Shan or Ai-lao (modern Laos), who, forced by Mongol invasions, +emigrated to the peninsula in the south and became the Siamese; and in +Indo-China, not related to the Chinese, were the Annamese, Khmer, Mon, +Khasi, Colarains (whose remnants are dispersed over the hill tracts +of Central India), and other tribes, extending in prehistoric times +into Southern China, but subsequently driven back by the expansion +of the Chinese in that direction. + + +Arrival of the Chinese in China + +Taking into consideration all the existing evidence, the objections to +all other theories of the origin of the Chinese seem to be greater +than any yet raised to the theory that immigrants from the Tarim +valley or beyond (_i.e._ from Elam or Akkadia, either direct or _via_ +Eastern Turkestan) struck the banks of the Yellow River in their +eastward journey and followed its course until they reached the +localities where we first find them settled, namely, in the region +covered by parts of the three modern provinces of Shansi, Shensi, +and Honan where their frontiers join. They were then (about 2500 or +3000 B.C.) in a relatively advanced state of civilization. The country +east and south of this district was inhabited by aboriginal tribes, +with whom the Chinese fought, as they did with the wild animals and the +dense vegetation, but with whom they also commingled and intermarried, +and among whom they planted colonies as centres from which to spread +their civilization. + + +The K'un-lun Mountains + +With reference to the K'un-lun Mountains, designated in Chinese +mythology as the abode of the gods--the ancestors of the Chinese +race--it should be noted that these are identified not with the range +dividing Tibet from Chinese Turkestan, but with the Hindu Kush. That +brings us somewhat nearer to Babylon, and the apparent convergence +of the two theories, the Central Asian and the Western Asian, would +seem to point to a possible solution of the problem. Nue Kua, one of +the alleged creators of human beings, and Nue and Kua, the first two +human beings (according to a variation of the legend), are placed +in the K'un-lun Mountains. That looks hopeful. Unfortunately, the +K'un-lun legend is proved to be of Taoist origin. K'un-lun is the +central mountain of the world, and 3000 miles in height. There is +the fountain of immortality, and thence flow the four great rivers +of the world. In other words, it is the Sumeru of Hindu mythology +transplanted into Chinese legend, and for our present purpose without +historical value. + +It would take up too much space to go into details of this interesting +problem of the origin of the Chinese and their civilization, the +cultural connexions or similarities of China and Western Asia in +pre-Babylonian times, the origin of the two distinct culture-areas +so marked throughout the greater part of Chinese history, etc., and +it will be sufficient for our present purpose to state the conclusion +to which the evidence points. + + +Provisional Conclusion + +Pending the discovery of decisive evidence, the following provisional +conclusion has much to recommend it--namely, that the ancestors +of the Chinese people came from the west, from Akkadia or Elam, +or from Khotan, or (more probably) from Akkadia or Elam _via_ +Khotan, as one nomad or pastoral tribe or group of nomad or pastoral +tribes, or as successive waves of immigrants, reached what is now +China Proper at its north-west corner, settled round the elbow of +the Yellow River, spread north-eastward, eastward, and southward, +conquering, absorbing, or pushing before them the aborigines into +what is now South and South-west China. These aboriginal races, who +represent a wave or waves of neolithic immigrants from Western Asia +earlier than the relatively high-headed immigrants into North China +(who arrived about the twenty-fifth or twenty-fourth century B.C.), +and who have left so deep an impress on the Japanese, mixed and +intermarried with the Chinese in the south, eventually producing the +pronounced differences, in physical, mental, and emotional traits, +in sentiments, ideas, languages, processes, and products, from the +Northern Chinese which are so conspicuous at the present day. + + + +Inorganic Environment + +At the beginning of their known history the country occupied by the +Chinese was the comparatively small region above mentioned. It was +then a tract of an irregular oblong shape, lying between latitude 34 deg. +and 40 deg. N. and longitude 107 deg. and 114 deg. E. This territory round the +elbow of the Yellow River had an area of about 50,000 square miles, +and was gradually extended to the sea-coast on the north-east as far as +longitude 119 deg., when its area was about doubled. It had a population of +perhaps a million, increasing with the expansion to two millions. This +may be called infant China. Its period (the Feudal Period) was in +the two thousand years between the twenty-fourth and third centuries +B.C. During the first centuries of the Monarchical Period, which lasted +from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912, it had expanded to the south to such an +extent that it included all of the Eighteen Provinces constituting +what is known as China Proper of modern times, with the exception of +a portion of the west of Kansu and the greater portions of Ssuch'uan +and Yuennan. At the time of the Manchu conquest at the beginning of the +seventeenth century A.D. it embraced all the territory lying between +latitude 18 deg. and 40 deg. N. and longitude 98 deg. and 122 deg. E. (the Eighteen +Provinces or China Proper), with the addition of the vast outlying +territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Ili, Koko-nor, Tibet, and Corea, +with suzerainty over Burma and Annam--an area of more than 5,000,000 +square miles, including the 2,000,000 square miles covered by the +Eighteen Provinces. Generally, this territory is mountainous in the +west, sloping gradually down toward the sea on the east. It contains +three chief ranges of mountains and large alluvial plains in the north, +east, and south. Three great and about thirty large rivers intersect +the country, their numerous tributaries reaching every part of it. + +As regards geological features, the great alluvial plains rest upon +granite, new red sandstone, or limestone. In the north is found the +peculiar loess formation, having its origin probably in the accumulated +dust of ages blown from the Mongolian plateau. The passage from north +to south is generally from the older to the newer rocks; from east to +west a similar series is found, with some volcanic features in the +west and south. Coal and iron are the chief minerals, gold, silver, +copper, lead, tin, jade, etc., being also mined. + +The climate of this vast area is not uniform. In the north the winter +is long and rigorous, the summer hot and dry, with a short rainy season +in July and August; in the south the summer is long, hot, and moist, +the winter short. The mean temperature is 50.3 deg. F. and 70 deg. F. in the +north and south respectively. Generally, the thermometer is low for +the latitude, though perhaps it is more correct to say that the Gulf +Stream raises the temperature of the west coast of Europe above the +average. The mean rainfall in the north is 16, in the south 70 inches, +with variations in other parts. Typhoons blow in the south between +July and October. + + +Organic Environment + +The vegetal productions are abundant and most varied. The rice-zone +(significant in relation to the cultural distinctions above noted) +embraces the southern half of the country. Tea, first cultivated +for its infusion in A.D. 350, is grown in the southern and central +provinces between the twenty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of +latitude, though it is also found as far north as Shantung, the chief +'tea district,' however, being the large area south of the Yangtzu +River, east of the Tungting Lake and great Siang River, and north of +the Kuangtung Province. The other chief vegetal products are wheat, +barley, maize, millet, the bean, yam, sweet and common potato, tomato, +eggplant, ginseng, cabbage, bamboo, indigo, pepper, tobacco, camphor, +tallow, ground-nut, poppy, water-melon, sugar, cotton, hemp, and +silk. Among the fruits grown are the date, mulberry, orange, lemon, +pumelo, persimmon, lichi, pomegranate, pineapple, fig, coconut, mango, +and banana, besides the usual kinds common in Western countries. + +The wild animals include the tiger, panther, leopard, bear, sable, +otter, monkey, wolf, fox, twenty-seven or more species of ruminants, +and numerous species of rodents. The rhinoceros, elephant, and tapir +still exist in Yuennan. The domestic animals include the camel and the +water-buffalo. There are about 700 species of birds, and innumerable +species of fishes and insects. + + +Sociological Environment + +On their arrival in what is now known as China the Chinese, as already +noted, fought with the aboriginal tribes. The latter were exterminated, +absorbed, or driven south with the spread of Chinese rule. The Chinese +"picked out the eyes of the land," and consequently the non-Chinese +tribes now live in the unhealthy forests or marshes of the south, +or in mountain regions difficult of access, some even in trees (a +voluntary, not compulsory promotion), though several, such as the Dog +Jung in Fukien, retain settlements like islands among the ruling race. + +In the third century B.C. began the hostile relations of the Chinese +with the northern nomads, which continued throughout the greater +part of their history. During the first six centuries A.D. there was +intercourse with Rome, Parthia, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Ceylon, India, +and Indo-China, and in the seventh century with the Arabs. Europe +was brought within the sociological environment by Christian +travellers. From the tenth to the thirteenth century the north +was occupied by Kitans and Nuechens, and the whole Empire was under +Mongol sway for eighty-eight years in the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries. Relations of a commercial and religious nature were held +with neighbours during the following four hundred years. Regular +diplomatic intercourse with Western nations was established as a result +of a series of wars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Until +recently the nation held aloof from alliances and was generally averse +to foreign intercourse. From 1537 onward, as a sequel of war or treaty, +concessions, settlements, etc., were obtained by foreign Powers. China +has now lost some of her border countries and large adjacent islands, +the military and commercial pressure of Western nations and Japan +having taken the place of the military pressure of the Tartars already +referred to. The great problem for her, an agricultural nation, is +how to find means and the military spirit to maintain her integrity, +the further violation of which could not but be regarded by the student +of sociological history as a great tragedy and a world-wide calamity. + + +Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Characters + +The physical characters of the Chinese are too well known to need +detailed recital. The original immigrants into North China all +belonged to blond races, but the modern Chinese have little left of +the immigrant stock. The oblique, almond-shaped eyes, with black iris +and the orbits far apart, have a vertical fold of skin over the inner +canthus, concealing a part of the iris, a peculiarity distinguishing +the eastern races of Asia from all other families of man. The stature +and weight of brain are generally below the average. The hair is black, +coarse, and cylindrical; the beard scanty or absent. The colour of +the skin is darker in the south than in the north. + +Emotionally the Chinese are sober, industrious, of remarkable +endurance, grateful, courteous, and ceremonious, with a high sense +of mercantile honour, but timorous, cruel, unsympathetic, mendacious, +and libidinous. + +Intellectually they were until recently, and to a large extent +still are, non-progressive, in bondage to uniformity and mechanism +in culture, imitative, unimaginative, torpid, indirect, suspicious, +and superstitious. + +The character is being modified by intercourse with other peoples +of the earth and by the strong force of physical, intellectual, +and moral education. + + +Marriage in Early Times + +Certain parts of the marriage ceremonial of China as now existing +indicate that the original form of marriage was by capture--of which, +indeed, there is evidence in the classical _Book of Odes_. But a +regular form of marriage (in reality a contract of sale) is shown +to have existed in the earliest historical times. The form was not +monogamous, though it seems soon to have assumed that of a qualified +monogamy consisting of one wife and one or more concubines, the +number of the latter being as a rule limited only by the means of the +husband. The higher the rank the larger was the number of concubines +and handmaids in addition to the wife proper, the palaces of the +kings and princes containing several hundreds of them. This form it +has retained to the present day, though associations now exist for +the abolition of concubinage. In early times, as well as throughout +the whole of Chinese history, concubinage was in fact universal, +and there is some evidence also of polyandry (which, however, cannot +have prevailed to any great extent). The age for marriage was twenty +for the man and fifteen for the girl, celibacy after thirty and twenty +respectively being officially discouraged. In the province of Shantung +it was usual for the wives to be older than their husbands. The +parents' consent to the betrothal was sought through the intervention +of a matchmaker, the proposal originating with the parents, and +the wishes of the future bride and bridegroom not being taken into +consideration. The conclusion of the marriage was the progress of the +bride from the house of her parents to that of the bridegroom, where +after various ceremonies she and he worshipped his ancestors together, +the worship amounting to little more than an announcement of the union +to the ancestral spirits. After a short sojourn with her husband the +bride revisited her parents, and the marriage was not considered as +finally consummated until after this visit had taken place. + +The status of women was low, and the power of the husband great--so +great that he could kill his wife with impunity. Divorce was common, +and all in favour of the husband, who, while he could not be +divorced by her, could put his wife away for disobedience or even +for loquaciousness. A widower remarried immediately, but refusal +to remarry by a widow was esteemed an act of chastity. She often +mutilated herself or even committed suicide to prevent remarriage, +and was posthumously honoured for doing so. Being her husband's as +much in the Otherworld as in this, remarriage would partake of the +character of unchastity and insubordination; the argument, of course, +not applying to the case of the husband, who by remarriage simply +adds another member to his clan without infringing on anyone's rights. + + +Marriage in Monarchical and Republican Periods + +The marital system of the early classical times, of which the above +were the essentials, changed but little during the long period of +monarchical rule lasting from 221 B.C. to A.D. 1912. The principal +object, as before, was to secure an heir to sacrifice to the spirits of +deceased progenitors. Marriage was not compulsory, but old bachelors +and old maids were very scarce. The concubines were subject to the +wife, who was considered to be the mother of their children as well +as her own. Her status, however, was not greatly superior. Implicit +obedience was exacted from her. She could not possess property, but +could not be hired out for prostitution. The latter vice was common, +in spite of the early age at which marriage took place and in spite +of the system of concubinage--which is after all but a legalized +transfer of prostitutional cohabitation to the domestic circle. + +Since the establishment of the Republic in 1912 the 'landslide' in the +direction of Western progress has had its effect also on the domestic +institutions. But while the essentials of the marriage contract remain +practically the same as before, the most conspicuous changes have been +in the accompanying ceremonial--now sometimes quite foreign, but in a +very large, perhaps the greatest, number of cases that odious thing, +half foreign, half Chinese; as, for instance, when the procession, +otherwise native, includes foreign glass-panelled carriages, or the +bridegroom wears a 'bowler' or top-hat with his Chinese dress--and +in the greater freedom allowed to women, who are seen out of doors +much more than formerly, sit at table with their husbands, attend +public functions and dinners, dress largely in foreign fashion, +and play tennis and other games, instead of being prisoners of the +'inner apartment' and household drudges little better than slaves. + +One unexpected result of this increased freedom is certainly +remarkable, and is one not likely to have been predicted by the most +far-sighted sociologist. Many of the 'progressive' Chinese, now that +it is the fashion for Chinese wives to be seen in public with their +husbands, finding the uneducated, _gauche_, small-footed household +drudge unable to compete with the smarter foreign-educated wives +of their neighbours, have actually repudiated them and taken unto +themselves spouses whom they can exhibit in public without 'loss +of face'! It is, however, only fair to add that the total number +of these cases, though by no means inconsiderable, appears to be +proportionately small. + + +Parents and Children + +As was the power of the husband over the wife, so was that of the +father over his children. Infanticide (due chiefly to poverty, +and varying with it) was frequent, especially in the case of female +children, who were but slightly esteemed; the practice prevailing +extensively in three or four provinces, less extensively in others, +and being practically absent in a large number. Beyond the fact that +some penalties were enacted against it by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung +(A.D. 1736-96), and that by statute it was a capital offence to murder +children in order to use parts of their bodies for medicine, it was +not legally prohibited. When the abuse became too scandalous in any +district proclamations condemning it would be issued by the local +officials. A man might, by purchase and contract, adopt a person +as son, daughter, or grandchild, such person acquiring thereby all +the rights of a son or daughter. Descent, both of real and personal +property, was to all the sons of wives and concubines as joint heirs, +irrespective of seniority. Bastards received half shares. Estates were +not divisible by the children during the lifetime of their parents +or grandparents. + +The head of the family being but the life-renter of the family +property, bound by fixed rules, wills were superfluous, and were used +only where the customary respect for the parents gave them a voice +in arranging the details of the succession. For this purpose verbal +or written instructions were commonly given. + +In the absence of the father, the male relatives of the same surname +assumed the guardianship of the young. The guardian exercised full +authority and enjoyed the surplus revenues of his ward's estate, +but might not alienate the property. + +There are many instances in Chinese history of extreme devotion of +children to parents taking the form of self-wounding and even of +suicide in the hope of curing parents' illnesses or saving their lives. + + +Political History + +The country inhabited by the Chinese on their arrival from the West +was, as we saw, the district where the modern provinces of Shansi, +Shensi, and Honan join. This they extended in an easterly direction +to the shores of the Gulf of Chihli--a stretch of territory about 600 +miles long by 300 broad. The population, as already stated, was between +one and two millions. During the first two thousand years of their +known history the boundaries of this region were not greatly enlarged, +but beyond the more or less undefined borderland to the south were +_chou_ or colonies, nuclei of Chinese population, which continually +increased in size through conquest of the neighbouring territory. In +221 B.C. all the feudal states into which this territory had been +parcelled out, and which fought with one another, were subjugated +and absorbed by the state of Ch'in, which in that year instituted the +monarchical form of government--the form which obtained in China for +the next twenty-one centuries. + +Though the origin of the name 'China' has not yet been finally decided, +the best authorities regard it as derived from the name of this feudal +state of Ch'in. + +Under this short-lived dynasty of Ch'in and the famous Han dynasty +(221 B.C. to A.D. 221) which followed it, the Empire expanded until +it embraced almost all the territory now known as China Proper +(the Eighteen Provinces of Manchu times). To these were added +in order between 194 B.C. and A.D. 1414: Corea, Sinkiang (the +New Territory or Eastern Turkestan), Manchuria, Formosa, Tibet, +and Mongolia--Formosa and Corea being annexed by Japan in 1895 and +1910 respectively. Numerous other extra-China countries and islands, +acquired and lost during the long course of Chinese history (at one +time, from 73 to 48 B.C., "all Asia from Japan to the Caspian Sea was +tributary to the Middle Kingdom," _i.e._ China), it is not necessary +to mention here. During the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1280) the +Tartars owned the northern half of China, as far down as the Yangtzu +River, and in the Yuean dynasty (1280-1368) they conquered the whole +country. During the period 1644-1912 it was in the possession of +the Manchus. At present the five chief component peoples of China are +represented in the striped national flag (from the top downward) by red +(Manchus), yellow (Chinese), blue (Mongolians), white (Mohammedans), +and black (Tibetans). This flag was adopted on the establishment of the +Republic in 1912, and supplanted the triangular Dragon flag previously +in use. By this time the population--which had varied considerably at +different periods owing to war, famine, and pestilence--had increased +to about 400,000,000. + + +General Government + +The general division of the nation was into the King and the People, +The former was regarded as appointed by the will of Heaven and +as the parent of the latter. Besides being king, he was also +law-giver, commander-in-chief of the armies, high priest, and +master of ceremonies. The people were divided into four classes: (1) +_Shih_, Officers (later Scholars), consisting of _Ch'en_, Officials +(a few of whom were ennobled), and _Shen Shih_, Gentry; (2) _Nung_, +Agriculturists; (3) _Kung_, Artisans; and (4) _Shang_, Merchants. + +For administrative purposes there were at the seat of central +government (which, first at P'ing-yang--in modern Shansi--was +moved eleven times during the Feudal Period, and was finally +at Yin) ministers, or ministers and a hierarchy of officials, +the country being divided into provinces, varying in number from +nine in the earliest times to thirty-six under the First Emperor, +221 B.C., and finally twenty-two at the present day. At first these +provinces contained states, which were models of the central state, +the ruler's 'Middle Kingdom.' The provincial administration was +in the hands of twelve Pastors or Lord-Lieutenants. They were the +chiefs of all the nobles in a province. Civil and military offices +were not differentiated. The feudal lords or princes of states often +resided at the king's court, officers of that court being also sent +forth as princes of states. The king was the source of legislation +and administered justice. The princes in their several states had +the power of rewards and punishments. Revenue was derived from a +tithe on the land, from the income of artisans, merchants, fishermen, +foresters, and from the tribute brought by savage tribes. + +The general structure and principles of this system of administration +remained the same, with few variations, down to the end of the +Monarchical Period in 1912. At the end of that period we find the +emperor still considered as of divine descent, still the head of +the civil, legislative, military, ecclesiastical, and ceremonial +administration, with the nation still divided into the same four +classes. The chief ministries at the capital, Peking, could in most +cases trace their descent from their prototypes of feudal times, and +the principal provincial administrative officials--the Governor-General +or Viceroy, governor, provincial treasurer, judge, etc.--had similarly +a pedigree running back to offices then existing--a continuous duration +of adherence to type which is probably unique. + +Appointment to office was at first by selection, followed by an +examination to test proficiency; later was introduced the system of +public competitive literary examinations for office, fully organized +in the seventeenth century, and abolished in 1903, when official +positions were thrown open to the graduates of colleges established +on a modern basis. + +In 1912, on the overthrow of the Manchu monarchy, China became a +republic, with an elected President, and a Parliament consisting +of a Senate and House of Representatives. The various government +departments were reorganized on Western lines, and a large number +of new offices instituted. Up to the present year the Law of the +Constitution, owing to political dissension between the North and +the South, has not been put into force. + + +Laws + +Chinese law, like primitive law generally, was not instituted +in order to ensure justice between man and man; its object was +to enforce subordination of the ruled to the ruler. The laws were +punitive and vindictive rather than reformatory or remedial, criminal +rather than civil. Punishments were cruel: branding, cutting off the +nose, the legs at the knees, castration, and death, the latter not +necessarily, or indeed ordinarily, for taking life. They included in +some cases punishment of the family, the clan, and the neighbours of +the offender. The _lex talionis_ was in full force. + +Nevertheless, in spite of the harsh nature of the punishments, possibly +adapted, more or less, to a harsh state of society, though the "proper +end of punishments"--to "make an end of punishing"--was missed, the +Chinese evolved a series of excellent legal codes. This series began +with the revision of King Mu's _Punishments_ in 950 B.C., the first +regular code being issued in 650 B.C., and ended with the well-known +_Ta Ch'ing lue li_ (_Laws and Statutes of the Great Ch'ing Dynasty_), +issued in A.D. 1647. Of these codes the great exemplar was the _Law +Classic_ drawn up by Li K'uei (_Li K'uei fa ching_), a statesman +in the service of the first ruler of the Wei State, in the fourth +century B.C. The _Ta Ch'ing lue li_ has been highly praised by competent +judges. Originally it sanctioned only two kinds of punishment, death +and flogging, but others were in use, and the barbarous _ling ch'ih_, +'lingering death' or 'slicing to pieces,' invented about A.D. 1000 +and abolished in 1905, was inflicted for high treason, parricide, +on women who killed their husbands, and murderers of three persons +of one family. In fact, until some first-hand knowledge of Western +systems and procedure was obtained, the vindictive as opposed to the +reformatory idea of punishments continued to obtain in China down to +quite recent years, and has not yet entirely disappeared. Though the +crueller forms of punishment had been legally abolished, they continued +to be used in many parts. Having been joint judge at Chinese trials +at which, in spite of my protests, prisoners were hung up by their +thumbs and made to kneel on chains in order to extort confession +(without which no accused person could be punished), I can testify +that the true meaning of the "proper end of punishments" had no more +entered into the Chinese mind at the close of the monarchical _regime_ +than it had 4000 years before. + +As a result of the reform movement into which China was forced as +an alternative to foreign domination toward the end of the Manchu +Period, but chiefly owing to the bait held out by Western Powers, +that extraterritoriality would be abolished when China had reformed +her judicial system, a new Provisional Criminal Code was published. It +substituted death by hanging or strangulation for decapitation, and +imprisonment for various lengths of time for bambooing. It was adopted +in large measure by the Republican _regime_, and is the chief legal +instrument in use at the present time. But close examination reveals +the fact that it is almost an exact copy of the Japanese penal code, +which in turn was modelled upon that of Germany. It is, in fact, a +Western code imitated, and as it stands is quite out of harmony with +present conditions in China. It will have to be modified and recast +to be a suitable, just, and practicable national legal instrument +for the Chinese people. Moreover, it is frequently overridden in a +high-handed manner by the police, who often keep a person acquitted +by the Courts of Justice in custody until they have 'squeezed' him +of all they can hope to get out of him. And it is noteworthy that, +though provision was made in the Draft Code for trial by jury, this +provision never went into effect; and the slavish imitation of alien +methods is shown by the curiously inconsistent reason given--that "the +fact that jury trials have been abolished in Japan is indicative of the +inadvisability of transplanting this Western institution into China!" + + +Local Government + +The central administration being a far-flung network of officialdom, +there was hardly any room for local government apart from it. We +find it only in the village elder and those associated with him, who +took up what government was necessary where the jurisdiction of the +unit of the central administration--the district magistracy--ceased, +or at least did not concern itself in meddling much. + + +Military System + +The peace-loving agricultural settlers in early China had at first +no army. When occasion arose, all the farmers exchanged their +ploughshares for swords and bows and arrows, and went forth to +fight. In the intervals between the harvests, when the fields were +clear, they held manoeuvres and practised the arts of warfare. The +king, who had his Six Armies, under the Six High Nobles, forming +the royal military force, led the troops in person, accompanied by +the spirit-tablets of his ancestors and of the gods of the land and +grain. Chariots, drawn by four horses and containing soldiers armed +with spears and javelins and archers, were much in use. A thousand +chariots was the regular force. Warriors wore buskins on their legs, +and were sometimes gagged in order to prevent the alarm being given to +the enemy. In action the chariots occupied the centre, the bowmen the +left, the spearmen the right flank. Elephants were sometimes used in +attack. Spy-kites, signal-flags, hook-ladders, horns, cymbals, drums, +and beacon-fires were in use. The ears of the vanquished were taken +to the king, quarter being rarely if ever given. + +After the establishment of absolute monarchical government standing +armies became the rule. Military science was taught, and soldiers +sometimes trained for seven years. Chariots with upper storeys or +spy-towers were used for fighting in narrow defiles, and hollow squares +were formed of mixed chariots, infantry, and dragoons. The weakness of +disunion of forces was well understood. In the sixth century A.D. the +massed troops numbered about a million and a quarter. In A.D. 627 +there was an efficient standing army of 900,000 men, the term of +service being from the ages of twenty to sixty. During the Mongol +dynasty (1280-1368) there was a navy of 5000 ships manned by 70,000 +trained fighters. The Mongols completely revolutionized tactics and +improved on all the military knowledge of the time. In 1614 the Manchu +'Eight Banners,' composed of Manchus, Mongolians, and Chinese, were +instituted. The provincial forces, designated the Army of the Green +Standard, were divided into land forces and marine forces, superseded +on active service by 'braves' (_yung_), or irregulars, enlisted and +discharged according to circumstances. After the war with Japan in +1894 reforms were seriously undertaken, with the result that the army +has now been modernized in dress, weapons, tactics, etc., and is by +no means a negligible quantity in the world's fighting forces. A +modern navy is also being acquired by building and purchase. For +many centuries the soldier, being, like the priest, unproductive, +was regarded with disdain, and now that his indispensableness for +defensive purposes is recognized he has to fight not only any actual +enemy who may attack him, but those far subtler forces from over the +sea which seem likely to obtain supremacy in his military councils, +if not actual control of his whole military system. It is, in my view, +the duty of Western nations to take steps before it is too late to +avert this great disaster. + + +Ecclesiastical Institutions + +The dancing and chanting exorcists called _wu_ were the first Chinese +priests, with temples containing gods worshipped and sacrificed +to, but there was no special sacerdotal class. Worship of Heaven +could only be performed by the king or emperor. Ecclesiastical and +political functions were not completely separated. The king was +_pontifex maximus_, the nobles, statesmen, and civil and military +officers acted as priests, the ranks being similar to those of the +political hierarchy. Worship took place in the 'Hall of Light,' +which was also a palace and audience and council chamber. Sacrifices +were offered to Heaven, the hills and rivers, ancestors, and all the +spirits. Dancing held a conspicuous place in worship. Idols are spoken +of in the earliest times. + +Of course, each religion, as it formed itself out of the original +ancestor-worship, had its own sacred places, functionaries, +observances, ceremonial. Thus, at the State worship of Heaven, Nature, +etc., there were the 'Great,' 'Medium,' and 'Inferior' sacrifices, +consisting of animals, silk, grain, jade, etc. Panegyrics were sung, +and robes of appropriate colour worn. In spring, summer, autumn, +and winter there were the seasonal sacrifices at the appropriate +altars. Taoism and Buddhism had their temples, monasteries, priests, +sacrifices, and ritual; and there were village and wayside temples +and shrines to ancestors, the gods of thunder, rain, wind, grain, +agriculture, and many others. Now encouraged, now tolerated, now +persecuted, the ecclesiastical _personnel_ and structure of Taoism and +Buddhism survived into modern times, when we find complete schemes +of ecclesiastical gradations of rank and authority grafted upon +these two priestly hierarchies, and their temples, priests, etc., +fulfilling generally, with worship of ancestors, State or official +(Confucianism) and private or unofficial, and the observance of various +annual festivals, such as 'All Souls' Day' for wandering and hungry +ghosts, the spiritual needs of the people as the 'Three Religions' +(_San Chiao_). The emperor, as high priest, took the responsibility +for calamities, etc., making confession to Heaven and praying that +as a punishment the evil be diverted from the people to his own +person. Statesmen, nobles, and officials discharged, as already noted, +priestly functions in connexion with the State religion in addition +to their ordinary duties. As a rule, priests proper, frowned upon as +non-producers, were recruited from the lower classes, were celibate, +unintellectual, idle, and immoral. There was nothing, even in the +elaborate ceremonies on special occasions in the Buddhist temples, +which could be likened to what is known as 'public worship' and +'common prayer' in the West. Worship had for its sole object either +the attainment of some good or the prevention of some evil. + +Generally this represents the state of things under the Republican +_regime_; the chief differences being greater neglect of ecclesiastical +matters and the conversion of a large number of temples into schools. + + +Professional Institutions + +We read of physicians, blind musicians, poets, teachers, prayer-makers, +architects, scribes, painters, diviners, ceremonialists, orators, +and others during the Feudal Period, These professions were of +ecclesiastical origin, not yet completely differentiated from the +'Church,' and both in earlier and later times not always or often +differentiated from each other. Thus the historiographers combined the +duties of statesmen, scholars, authors, and generals. The professions +of authors and teachers, musicians and poets, were united in one +person. And so it continued to the present day. Priests discharge +medical functions, poets still sing their verses. But experienced +medical specialists, though few, are to be found, as well as women +doctors; there are veterinary surgeons, musicians (chiefly belonging +to the poorest classes and often blind), actors, teachers, attorneys, +diviners, artists, letter-writers, and many others, men of letters +being perhaps the most prominent and most esteemed. + + + +Accessory Institutions + +A system of schools, academies, colleges, and universities obtained in +villages, districts, departments, and principalities. The instruction +was divided into 'Primary Learning' and 'Great Learning.' There were +special schools of dancing and music. Libraries and almshouses for +old men are mentioned. Associations of scholars for literary purposes +seem to have been numerous. + +Whatever form and direction education might have taken, it became +stereotyped at an early age by the road to office being made to +lead through a knowledge of the classical writings of the ancient +sages. It became not only 'the thing' to be well versed in the sayings +of Confucius, Mencius; etc., and to be able to compose good essays on +them containing not a single wrongly written character, but useless +for aspirants to office--who constituted practically the whole of the +literary class--to acquire any other knowledge. So obsessed was the +national mind by this literary mania that even infants' spines were +made to bend so as to produce when adult the 'scholarly stoop.' And +from the fact that besides the scholar class the rest of the community +consisted of agriculturists, artisans, and merchants, whose knowledge +was that of their fathers and grandfathers, inculcated in the sons +and grandsons as it had been in them, showing them how to carry on +in the same groove the calling to which Fate had assigned them, a +departure from which would have been considered 'unfilial'--unless, +of course (as it very rarely did), it went the length of attaining +through study of the classics a place in the official class, and thus +shedding eternal lustre on the family--it will readily be seen that +there was nothing to cause education to be concerned with any but one +or two of the subjects which are included by Western peoples under +that designation. It became at an early age, and remained for many +centuries, a rote-learning of the elementary text-books, followed by +a similar acquisition by heart of the texts of the works of Confucius +and other classical writers. And so it remained until the abolition, in +1905, of the old competitive examination system, and the substitution +of all that is included in the term 'modern education' at schools, +colleges, and universities all over the country, in which there is +rapidly growing up a force that is regenerating the Chinese people, +and will make itself felt throughout the whole world. + +It is this keen and shrewd appreciation of the learned, and this lust +for knowledge, which, barring the tragedy of foreign domination, will +make China, in the truest and best sense of the word, a great nation, +where, as in the United States of America, the rigid class status and +undervaluation, if not disdaining, of knowledge which are proving so +disastrous in England and other European countries will be avoided, +and the aristocracy of learning established in its place. + +Besides educational institutions, we find institutions for poor relief, +hospitals, foundling hospitals, orphan asylums, banking, insurance, +and loan associations, travellers' clubs, mercantile corporations, +anti-opium societies, co-operative burial societies, as well as many +others, some imitated from Western models. + + +Bodily Mutilations + +Compared with the practices found to exist among most primitive races, +the mutilations the Chinese were in the habit of inflicting were but +few. They flattened the skulls of their babies by means of stones, so +as to cause them to taper at the top, and we have already seen what +they did to their spines; also the mutilations in warfare, and the +punishments inflicted both within and without the law; and how filial +children and loyal wives mutilated themselves for the sake of their +parents and to prevent remarriage. Eunuchs, of course, existed in great +numbers. People bit, cut, or marked their arms to pledge oaths. But +the practices which are more peculiarly associated with the Chinese +are the compressing of women's feet and the wearing of the queue, +misnamed 'pigtail.' The former is known to have been in force about +A.D. 934, though it may have been introduced as early as 583. It did +not, however, become firmly established for more than a century. This +'extremely painful mutilation,' begun in infancy, illustrates the +tyranny of fashion, for it is supposed to have arisen in the imitation +by the women generally of the small feet of an imperial concubine +admired by one of the emperors from ten to fifteen centuries ago +(the books differ as to his identity). The second was a badge of +servitude inflicted by the Manchus on the Chinese when they conquered +China at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Discountenanced by +governmental edicts, both of these practices are now tending toward +extinction, though, of course, compressed feet and 'pigtails' are +still to be seen in every town and village. Legally, the queue was +abolished when the Chinese rid themselves of the Manchu yoke in 1912. + + +Funeral Rites + +Not understanding the real nature of death, the Chinese believed +it was merely a state of suspended animation, in which the soul +had failed to return to the body, though it might yet do so, +even after long intervals. Consequently they delayed burial, and +fed the corpse, and went on to the house-tops and called aloud +to the spirit to return. When at length they were convinced that +the absent spirit could not be induced to re-enter the body, they +placed the latter in a coffin and buried it--providing it, however, +with all that it had found necessary in this life (food, clothing, +wives, servants, etc.), which it would require also in the next (in +their view rather a continuation of the present existence than the +beginning of another)--and, having inducted or persuaded the spirit +to enter the 'soul-tablet' which accompanied the funeral procession +(which took place the moment the tablet was 'dotted,' _i.e._ when +the character _wang_, 'prince,' was changed into _chu_, 'lord'), +carried it back home again, set it up in a shrine in the main hall, +and fell down and worshipped it. Thus was the spirit propitiated, +and as long as occasional offerings were not overlooked the power +for evil possessed by it would not be exerted against the surviving +inmates of the house, whom it had so thoughtlessly deserted. + +The latter mourned by screaming, wailing, stamping their feet, +and beating their breasts, renouncing (in the earliest times) even +their clothes, dwelling, and belongings to the dead, removing to +mourning-sheds of clay, fasting, or eating only rice gruel, sleeping +on straw with a clod for a pillow, and speaking only on subjects of +death and burial. Office and public duties were resigned, and marriage, +music, and separation from the clan prohibited. + +During the lapse of the long ages of monarchical rule funeral rites +became more elaborate and magnificent, but, though less rigid and +ceremonious since the institution of the Republic, they have retained +their essential character down to the present day. + +Funeral ceremonial was more exacting than that connected with most +other observances, including those of marriage. Invitations or +notifications were sent to friends, and after receipt of these _fu_, +on the various days appointed therein, the guest was obliged to send +presents, such as money, paper horses, slaves, etc., and go and join +in the lamentations of the hired mourners and attend at the prayers +recited by the priests. Funeral etiquette could not be _pu'd, i.e._ +made good, if overlooked or neglected at the right time, as it could +in the case of the marriage ceremonial. + +Instead of symmetrical public graveyards, as in the West, the +Chinese cemeteries belong to the family or clan of the deceased, +and are generally beautiful and peaceful places planted with trees +and surrounded by artistic walls enclosing the grave-mounds and +monumental tablets. The cemeteries themselves are the metonyms of the +villages, and the graves of the houses. In the north especially the +grave is very often surmounted by a huge marble tortoise bearing the +inscribed tablet, or what we call the gravestone, on its back. The +tombs of the last two lines of emperors, the Ming and the Manchu, +are magnificent structures, spread over enormous areas, and always +artistically situated on hillsides facing natural or artificial lakes +or seas. Contrary to the practice in Egypt, with the two exceptions +above mentioned the conquering dynasties have always destroyed the +tombs of their predecessors. But for this savage vandalism, China +would probably possess the most magnificent assembly of imperial +tombs in the world's records. + + + +Laws of Intercourse + +Throughout the whole course of their existence as a social aggregate +the Chinese have pushed ceremonial observances to an extreme +limit. "Ceremonies," says the _Li chi_, the great classic of ceremonial +usages, "are the greatest of all things by which men live." Ranks were +distinguished by different headdresses, garments, badges, weapons, +writing-tablets, number of attendants, carriages, horses, height of +walls, etc. Daily as well as official life was regulated by minute +observances. There were written codes embracing almost every attitude +and act of inferiors toward superiors, of superiors toward inferiors, +and of equals toward equals. Visits, forms of address, and giving +of presents had each their set of formulae, known and observed by +every one as strictly and regularly as each child in China learned by +heart and repeated aloud the three-word sentences of the elementary +_Trimetrical Classic_. But while the school text-book was extremely +simple, ceremonial observances were extremely elaborate. A Chinese +was in this respect as much a slave to the living as in his funeral +rites he was a slave to the dead. Only now, in the rush of 'modern +progress,' is the doffing of the hat taking the place of the 'kowtow' +(_k'o-t'ou_). + +It is in this matter of ceremonial observances that the East +and the West have misunderstood each other perhaps more than in +all others. Where rules of etiquette are not only different, +but are diametrically opposed, there is every opportunity for +misunderstanding, if not estrangement. The points at issue in +such questions as 'kowtowing' to the emperor and the worshipping +of ancestors are generally known, but the Westerner, as a rule, is +ignorant of the fact that if he wishes to conform to Chinese etiquette +when in China (instead of to those Western customs which are in many +cases unfortunately taking their place) he should not, for instance, +take off his hat when entering a house or a temple, should not shake +hands with his host, nor, if he wishes to express approval, should he +clap his hands. Clapping of hands in China (_i.e._ non-Europeanized +China) is used to drive away the _sha ch'i_, or deathly influence of +evil spirits, and to clap the hands at the close of the remarks of a +Chinese host (as I have seen prominent, well-meaning, but ill-guided +men of the West do) is equivalent to disapproval, if not insult. Had +our diplomatists been sociologists instead of only commercial agents, +more than one war might have been avoided. + + +Habits and Customs + +At intervals during the year the Chinese make holiday. Their public +festivals begin with the celebration of the advent of the new +year. They let off innumerable firecrackers, and make much merriment +in their homes, drinking and feasting, and visiting their friends +for several days. Accounts are squared, houses cleaned, fresh paper +'door-gods' pasted on the front doors, strips of red paper with +characters implying happiness, wealth, good fortune, longevity, etc., +stuck on the doorposts or the lintel, tables, etc., covered with red +cloth, and flowers and decorations displayed everywhere. Business +is suspended, and the merriment, dressing in new clothes, feasting, +visiting, offerings to gods and ancestors, and idling continue pretty +consistently during the first half of the first moon, the vacation +ending with the Feast of Lanterns, which occupies the last three +days. It originated in the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. Innumerable +lanterns of all sizes, shapes, colours (except wholly white, or rather +undyed material, the colour of mourning), and designs are lit in front +of public and private buildings, but the use of these was an addition +about 800 years later, _i.e._ about 1200 years ago. Paper dragons, +hundreds of yards long, are moved along the streets at a slow pace, +supported on the heads of men whose legs only are visible, giving +the impression of huge serpents winding through the thoroughfares. + +Of the other chief festivals, about eight in number (not counting the +festivals of the four seasons with their equinoxes and solstices), four +are specially concerned with the propitiation of the spirits--namely, +the Earlier Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of second moon), the +Festival of the Tombs (about the third day of the third moon), when +graves are put in order and special offerings made to the dead, the +Middle Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of seventh moon), and the Later +Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of tenth moon). The Dragon-boat Festival +(fifth day of fifth moon) is said to have originated as a commemoration +of the death of the poet Ch'ue Yuean, who drowned himself in disgust +at the official intrigue and corruption of which he was the victim, +but the object is the procuring of sufficient rain to ensure a good +harvest. It is celebrated by racing with long narrow boats shaped to +represent dragons and propelled by scores of rowers, pasting of charms +on the doors of dwellings, and eating a special kind of rice-cake, +with a liquor as a beverage. + +The fifteenth day of the eighth moon is the Mid-autumn Festival, known +by foreigners as All Souls' Day. On this occasion the women worship the +moon, offering cakes, fruit, etc. The gates of Purgatory are opened, +and the hungry ghosts troop forth to enjoy themselves for a month on +the good things provided for them by the pious. The ninth day of the +ninth moon is the Chung Yang Festival, when every one who possibly +can ascends to a high place--a hill or temple-tower. This inaugurates +the kite-flying season, and is supposed to promote longevity. During +that season, which lasts several months, the Chinese people the sky +with dragons, centipedes, frogs, butterflies, and hundreds of other +cleverly devised creatures, which, by means of simple mechanisms worked +by the wind, roll their eyes, make appropriate sounds, and move their +paws, wings, tails, etc., in a most realistic manner. The festival +originated in a warning received by a scholar named Huan Ching from +his master Fei Ch'ang-fang, a native of Ju-nan in Honan, who lived +during the Han dynasty, that a terrible calamity was about to happen, +and enjoining him to escape with his family to a high place. On his +return he found all his domestic animals dead, and was told that +they had died instead of himself and his relatives. On New Year's Eve +(_Tuan Nien_ or _Chu Hsi_) the Kitchen-god ascends to Heaven to make +his annual report, the wise feasting him with honey and other sticky +food before his departure, so that his lips may be sealed and he be +unable to 'let on' too much to the powers that be in the regions above! + + +Sports and Games + +The first sports of the Chinese were festival gatherings for purposes +of archery, to which succeeded exercises partaking of a military +character. Hunting was a favourite amusement. They played games of +calculation, chess (or the 'game of war'), shuttlecock with the feet, +pitch-pot (throwing arrows from a distance into a narrow-necked jar), +and 'horn-goring' (fighting on the shoulders of others with horned +masks on their heads). Stilts, football, dice-throwing, boat-racing, +dog-racing, cock-fighting, kite-flying, as well as singing and dancing +marionettes, afforded recreation and amusement. + +Many of these games became obsolete in course of time, and new ones +were invented. At the end of the Monarchical Period, during the Manchu +dynasty, we find those most in use to be foot-shuttlecock, lifting of +beams headed with heavy stones--dumb-bells four feet long and weighing +thirty or forty pounds--kite-flying, quail-fighting, cricket-fighting, +sending birds after seeds thrown into the air, sauntering through +fields, playing chess or 'morra,' or gambling with cards, dice, or +over the cricket- and quail-fights or seed-catching birds. There were +numerous and varied children's games tending to develop strength, +skill, quickness of action, parental instinct, accuracy, and +sagacity. Theatricals were performed by strolling troupes on stages +erected opposite temples, though permanent theatres also existed, +female parts until recently being taken by male actors. Peep-shows, +conjurers, ventriloquists, acrobats, fortune-tellers, and story-tellers +kept crowds amused or interested. Generally, 'young China' of the +present day, identified with the party of progress, seems to have +adopted most of the outdoor but very few of the indoor games of +Western nations. + + +Domestic Life + +In domestic or private life, observances at birth, betrothal, and +marriage were elaborate, and retained superstitious elements. Early +rising was general. Shaving of the head and beard, as well as cleaning +of the ears and massage, was done by barbers. There were public +baths in all cities and towns. Shops were closed at nightfall, and, +the streets being until recent times ill-lit or unlit, passengers or +their attendants carried lanterns. Most houses, except the poorest, +had private watchmen. Generally two meals a day were taken. Dinners to +friends were served at inns or restaurants, accompanied or followed +by musical or theatrical performances. The place of honour is stated +in Western books on China to be on the left, but the fact is that the +place of honour is the one which shows the utmost solicitude for the +safety of the guest. It is therefore not necessarily one fixed place, +but would usually be the one facing the door, so that the guest might +be in a position to see an enemy enter, and take measures accordingly. + +Lap-dogs and cage-birds were kept as pets; 'wonks,' the _huang kou_, +or 'yellow dog,' were guards of houses and street scavengers. Aquaria +with goldfish were often to be seen in the houses of the upper and +middle classes, the gardens and courtyards of which usually contained +rockeries and artistic shrubs and flowers. + +Whiskers were never worn, and moustaches and beards only after forty, +before which age the hair grew, if at all, very scantily. Full, +thick beards, as in the West, were practically never seen, even on +the aged. Snuff-bottles, tobacco-pipes, and fans were carried by both +sexes. Nails were worn long by members of the literary and leisured +classes. Non-Manchu women and girls had cramped feet, and both Manchu +and Chinese women used cosmetics freely. + + +Industrial Institutions + +While the men attended to farm-work, women took care of the +mulberry-orchards and silkworms, and did spinning, weaving, and +embroidery. This, the primitive division of labour, held throughout, +though added to on both sides, so that eventually the men did most +of the agriculture, arts, production, distribution, fighting, etc., +and the women, besides the duties above named and some field-labour, +mended old clothes, drilled and sharpened needles, pasted tin-foil, +made shoes, and gathered and sorted the leaves of the tea-plant. In +course of time trades became highly specialized--their number being +legion--and localized, bankers, for instance, congregating in Shansi, +carpenters in Chi Chou, and porcelain-manufacturers in Jao Chou, +in Kiangsi. + +As to land, it became at an early age the property of the sovereign, +who farmed it out to his relatives or favourites. It was arranged on +the _ching_, or 'well' system--eight private squares round a ninth +public square cultivated by the eight farmer families in common for the +benefit of the State. From the beginning to the end of the Monarchical +Period tenure continued to be of the Crown, land being unallodial, and +mostly held in clans or families, and not entailed, the conditions +of tenure being payment of an annual tax, a fee for alienation, +and money compensation for personal services to the Government, +generally incorporated into the direct tax as scutage. Slavery, +unknown in the earliest times, existed as a recognized institution +during the whole of the Monarchical Period. + +Production was chiefly confined to human and animal labour, machinery +being only now in use on a large scale. Internal distribution +was carried on from numerous centres and at fairs, shops, markets, +etc. With few exceptions, the great trade-routes by land and sea have +remained the same during the last two thousand years. Foreign trade was +with Western Asia, Greece, Rome, Carthage, Arabia, etc., and from the +seventeenth century A.D. more generally with European countries. The +usual primitive means of conveyance, such as human beings, animals, +carts, boats, etc., were partly displaced by steam-vessels from +1861 onward. + +Exchange was effected by barter, cowries of different values being the +prototype of coins, which were cast in greater or less quantity under +each reign. But until within recent years there was only one coin, +the copper cash, in use, bullion and paper notes being the other +media of exchange. Silver Mexican dollars and subsidiary coins came +into use with the advent of foreign commerce. Weights and measures +(which generally decreased from north to south), officially arranged +partly on the decimal system, were discarded by the people in ordinary +commercial transactions for the more convenient duodecimal subdivision. + + +Arts + +Hunting, fishing, cooking, weaving, dyeing, carpentry, metallurgy, +glass-, brick-, and paper-making, printing, and book-binding were +in a more or less primitive stage, the mechanical arts showing much +servile imitation and simplicity in design; but pottery, carving, +and lacquer-work were in an exceptionally high state of development, +the articles produced being surpassed in quality and beauty by no +others in the world. + + +Agriculture and Rearing of Livestock + +From the earliest times the greater portion of the available land was +under cultivation. Except when the country has been devastated by war, +the Chinese have devoted close attention to the cultivation of the +soil continuously for forty centuries. Even the hills are terraced for +extra growing-room. But poverty and governmental inaction caused much +to lie idle. There were two annual crops in the north, and five in two +years in the south. Perhaps two-thirds of the population cultivated the +soil. The methods, however, remained primitive; but the great fertility +of the soil and the great industry of the farmer, with generous but +careful use of fertilizers, enabled the vast territory to support an +enormous population. Rice, wheat, barley, buckwheat, maize, kaoliang, +several millets, and oats were the chief grains cultivated. Beans, +peas, oil-bearing seeds (sesame, rape, etc.), fibre-plants (hemp, +ramie, jute, cotton, etc.), starch-roots (taros, yams, sweet potatoes, +etc.), tobacco, indigo, tea, sugar, fruits, were among the more +important crops produced. Fruit-growing, however, lacked scientific +method. The rotation of crops was not a usual practice, but grafting, +pruning, dwarfing, enlarging, selecting, and varying species were well +understood. Vegetable-culture had reached a high state of perfection, +the smallest patches of land being made to bring forth abundantly. This +is the more creditable inasmuch as most small farmers could not afford +to purchase expensive foreign machinery, which, in many cases, would +be too large or complicated for their purposes. + +The principal animals, birds, etc., reared were the pig, ass, horse, +mule, cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, yak, fowl, duck, goose, pigeon, +silkworm, and bee. + +The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, the successor to the Board +of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, instituted during recent +years, is now adapting Western methods to the cultivation of the +fertile soil of China, and even greater results than in the past may +be expected in the future. + + +Sentiments and Moral Ideas + +The Chinese have always shown a keen delight in the beautiful--in +flowers, music, poetry, literature, embroidery, paintings, +porcelain. They cultivated ornamental plants, almost every house, +as we saw, having its garden, large or small, and tables were often +decorated with flowers in vases or ornamental wire baskets or fruits or +sweetmeats. Confucius made music an instrument of government. Paper +bearing the written character was so respected that it might not +be thrown on the ground or trodden on. Delight was always shown in +beautiful scenery or tales of the marvellous. Commanding or agreeable +situations were chosen for temples. But until within the last few +years streets and houses were generally unclean, and decency in public +frequently absent. + +Morality was favoured by public opinion, but in spite of early +marriages and concubinage there was much laxity. Cruelty both +to human beings and animals has always been a marked trait in +the Chinese character. Savagery in warfare, cannibalism, luxury, +drunkenness, and corruption prevailed in the earliest times. The +attitude toward women was despotic. But moral principles pervaded the +classical writings, and formed the basis of law. In spite of these, +the inferior sentiment of revenge was, as we have seen, approved and +preached as a sacred duty. As a result of the universal _yin-yang_ +dualistic doctrines, immorality was leniently regarded. In modern +times, at least, mercantile honour was high, "a merchant's word +is as good as his bond" being truer in China than in many other +countries. Intemperance was rare. Opium-smoking was much indulged in +until the use of the drug was forcibly suppressed (1906-16). Even now +much is smuggled into the country, or its growth overlooked by bribed +officials. Clan quarrels and fights were common, vendettas sometimes +continuing for generations. Suicide under depressing circumstances +was approved and honoured; it was frequently resorted to under the +sting of great injustice. There was a deep reverence for parents +and superiors. Disregard of the truth, when useful, was universal, +and unattended by a sense of shame, even on detection. Thieving was +common. The illegal exactions of rulers were burdensome. In times +of prosperity pride and satisfaction in material matters was not +concealed, and was often short-sighted. Politeness was practically +universal, though said to be often superficial; but gratitude was a +marked characteristic, and was heartfelt. Mutual conjugal affection +was strong. The love of gambling was universal. + +But little has occurred in recent years to modify the above +characters. Nevertheless the inferior traits are certainly being +changed by education and by the formation of societies whose members +bind themselves against immorality, concubinage, gambling, drinking, +smoking, etc. + + +Religious Ideas + +Chinese religion is inherently an attitude toward the spirits or gods +with the object of obtaining a benefit or averting a calamity. We +shall deal with it more fully in another chapter. Suffice it to say +here that it originated in ancestor-worship, and that the greater +part of it remains ancestor-worship to the present day. The State +religion, which was Confucianism, was ancestor-worship. Taoism, +originally a philosophy, became a worship of spirits--of the souls of +dead men supposed to have taken up their abode in animals, reptiles, +insects, trees, stones, etc.--borrowed the cloak of religion from +Buddhism, which eventually outshone it, and degenerated into a system +of exorcism and magic. Buddhism, a religion originating in India, in +which Buddha, once a man, is worshipped, in which no beings are known +with greater power than can be attained to by man, and according to +which at death the soul migrates into anything from a deified human +being to an elephant, a bird, a plant, a wall, a broom, or any piece +of inorganic matter, was imported ready made into China and took the +side of popular superstition and Taoism against the orthodox belief, +finding that its power lay in the influence on the popular mind of its +doctrine respecting a future state, in contrast to the indifference +of Confucianism. Its pleading for compassion and preservation of life +met a crying need, and but for it the state of things in this respect +would be worse than it is. + +Religion, apart from ancestor-worship, does not enter largely +into Chinese life. There is none of the real 'love of God' found, +for example, in the fervent as distinguished from the conventional +Christian. And as ancestor-worship gradually loses its hold and dies +out agnosticism will take its place. + + +Superstitions + +An almost infinite variety of superstitious practices, due to the +belief in the good or evil influences of departed spirits, exists in +all parts of China. Days are lucky or unlucky. Eclipses are due to a +dragon trying to eat the sun or the moon. The rainbow is supposed to be +the result of a meeting between the impure vapours of the sun and the +earth. Amulets are worn, and charms hung up, sprigs of artemisia or +of peach-blossom are placed near beds and over lintels respectively, +children and adults are 'locked to life' by means of locks on chains +or cords worn round the neck, old brass mirrors are supposed to cure +insanity, figures of gourds, tigers' claws, or the unicorn are worn +to ensure good fortune or ward off sickness, fire, etc., spells of +many kinds, composed mostly of the written characters for happiness +and longevity, are worn, or written on paper, cloth, leaves, etc., +and burned, the ashes being made into a decoction and drunk by the +young or sick. + +Divination by means of the divining stalks (the divining plant, +milfoil or yarrow) and the tortoiseshell has been carried on from +time immemorial, but was not originally practised with the object of +ascertaining future events, but in order to decide doubts, much as +lots are drawn or a coin tossed in the West. _Feng-shui_, "the art of +adapting the residence of the living and the dead so as to co-operate +and harmonize with the local currents of the cosmic breath" (the _yin_ +and the _yang_: see Chapter III), a doctrine which had its root in +ancestor-worship, has exercised an enormous influence on Chinese +thought and life from the earliest times, and especially from those +of Chu Hsi and other philosophers of the Sung dynasty. + + +Knowledge + +Having noted that Chinese education was mainly literary, and why it +was so, it is easy to see that there would be little or no demand +for the kind of knowledge classified in the West under the head of +science. In so far as any demand existed, it did so, at any rate at +first, only because it subserved vital needs. Thus, astronomy, or more +properly astrology, was studied in order that the calendar might be +regulated, and so the routine of agriculture correctly followed, for +on that depended the people's daily rice, or rather, in the beginning, +the various fruits and kinds of flesh which constituted their means of +sustentation before their now universal food was known. In philosophy +they have had two periods of great activity, the first beginning with +Lao Tzu and Confucius in the sixth century B.C. and ending with the +Burning of the Books by the First Emperor, Shih Huang Ti, in 213 B.C.; +the second beginning with Chou Tzu (A.D. 1017-73) and ending with Chu +Hsi (1130-1200). The department of philosophy in the imperial library +contained in 190 B.C. 2705 volumes by 137 authors. There can be no +doubt that this zeal for the orthodox learning, combined with the +literary test for office, was the reason why scientific knowledge was +prevented from developing; so much so, that after four thousand or more +years of national life we find, during the Manchu Period, which ended +the monarchical _regime_, few of the educated class, giants though they +were in knowledge of all departments of their literature and history +(the continuity of their traditions laid down in their twenty-four +Dynastic Annals has been described as one of the great wonders of the +world), with even the elementary scientific learning of a schoolboy +in the West. 'Crude,' 'primitive,' 'mediocre,' 'vague,' 'inaccurate,' +'want of analysis and generalization,' are terms we find applied to +their knowledge of such leading sciences as geography, mathematics, +chemistry, botany, and geology. Their medicine was much hampered +by superstition, and perhaps more so by such beliefs as that the +seat of the intellect is in the stomach, that thoughts proceed from +the heart, that the pit of the stomach is the seat of the breath, +that the soul resides in the liver, etc.--the result partly of the +idea that dissection of the body would maim it permanently during +its existence in the Otherworld. What progress was made was due to +European instruction; and this again is the _causa causans_ of the +great wave of progress in scientific and philosophical knowledge +which is rolling over the whole country and will have marked effects +on the history of the world during the coming century. + + +Language + +Originally polysyllabic, the Chinese language later assumed a +monosyllabic, isolating, uninflected form, grammatical relations +being indicated by position. From the earliest forms of speech several +subordinate vernacular languages arose in various districts, and from +these sprang local dialects, etc. Tone-distinctions arose--_i.e._ +the same words pronounced with a different intonation came to +mean different things. Development of these distinctions led to +carelessness of articulation, and multiplication of what would be +homonyms but for these tones. It is incorrect to assume that the tones +were invented to distinguish similar sounds. So that, at the present +day, anyone who says _ma_ will mean either an exclamation, hemp, +horse, or curse according to the quality he gives to the sound. The +language remains in a primitive state, without inflexion, declension, +or distinction of parts of speech. The order in a sentence is: subject, +verb, complement direct, complement indirect. Gender is formed by +distinctive particles; number by prefixing numerals, etc.; cases +by position or appropriate prepositions. Adjectives precede nouns; +position determines comparison; and absence of punctuation causes +ambiguity. The latter is now introduced into most newly published +works. The new education is bringing with it innumerable words and +phrases not found in the old literature or dictionaries. Japanese +idioms which are now being imported into the language are making it +less pure. + +The written language, too well known to need detailed description, a +thing of beauty and a joy for ever to those able to appreciate it, said +to have taken originally the form of knotted cords and then of notches +on wood (though this was more probably the origin of numeration than of +writing proper), took later that of rude outlines of natural objects, +and then went on to the phonetic system, under which each character is +composed of two parts, the radical, indicating the meaning, and the +phonetic, indicating the sound. They were symbols, non-agglutinative +and non-inflexional, and were written in vertical columns, probably +from having in early times been painted or cut on strips of bark. + + +Achievements of the Chinese + +As the result of all this fitful fever during so many centuries, +we find that the Chinese, after having lived in nests "in order to +avoid the animals," and then in caves, have built themselves houses +and palaces which are still made after the pattern of their prototype, +with a flat wall behind, the openings in front, the walls put in after +the pillars and roof-tree have been fixed, and out-buildings added on +as side extensions. The _k'ang_, or 'stove-bed' (now a platform made +of bricks), found all over the northern provinces, was a place scooped +out of the side of the cave, with an opening underneath in which (as +now) a fire was lit in winter. Windows and shutters opened upward, +being a survival of the mat or shade hung in front of the apertures +in the walls of the primitive cave-dwelling. Four of these buildings +facing each other round a square made the courtyard, and one or more +courtyards made the compound. They have fed themselves on almost +everything edible to be found on, under, or above land or water, +except milk, but live chiefly on rice, chicken, fish, vegetables, +including garlic, and tea, though at one time they ate flesh and +drank wine, sometimes to excess, before tea was cultivated. They +have clothed themselves in skins and feathers, and then in silks +and satins, but mostly in cotton, and hardly ever in wool. Under +the Manchu _regime_ the type of dress adopted was that of this +horse-riding race, showing the chief characteristics of that noble +animal, the broad sleeves representing the hoofs, the queue the mane, +etc. This queue was formed of the hair growing from the back part +of the scalp, the front of which was shaved. Unlike the Egyptians, +they did not wear wigs. They have nearly always had the decency to +wear their coats long, and have despised the Westerner for wearing +his too short. They are now paradoxical enough to make the mistake +of adopting the Westerner's costume. + +They have made to themselves great canals, bridges, aqueducts, and +the longest wall there has ever been on the face of the earth (which +could not be seen from the moon, as some sinologists have erroneously +supposed, any more than a hair, however long, could be seen at a +distance of a hundred yards). They have made long and wide roads, but +failed to keep them in repair during the last few centuries, though +much zeal, possibly due to commerce on oil- or electricity-driven +wheels, is now being shown in this direction. They have built honorary +portals to chaste widows, pagodas, and arched bridges of great beauty, +not forgetting to surround each city with a high and substantial wall +to keep out unfriendly people. They have made innumerable implements +and weapons, from pens and fans and chopsticks to ploughs and carts +and ships; from fiery darts, 'flame elephants,' bows and spears, +spiked chariots, battering-rams, and hurling-engines to mangonels, +trebuchets, matchlocks of wrought iron and plain bore with long +barrels resting on a stock, and gingals fourteen feet long resting on +a tripod, cuirasses of quilted cotton cloth covered with brass knobs, +and helmets of iron or polished steel, sometimes inlaid, with neck- +and ear-lappets. And they have been content not to improve upon these +to any appreciable extent; but have lately shown a tendency to make +the later patterns imported from the West in their own factories. + +They have produced one of the greatest and most remarkable +accumulations of literature the world has ever seen, and the finest +porcelain; some music, not very fine; and some magnificent painting, +though hardly any sculpture, and little architecture that will live. + + + +CHAPTER II + +On Chinese Mythology + + +Mythology and Intellectual Progress + +The Manichaest, _yin-yang_ (dualist), idea of existence, to which +further reference will be made in the next chapter, finds its +illustration in the dual life, real and imaginary, of all the +peoples of the earth. They have both real histories and mythological +histories. In the preceding chapter I have dealt briefly with the +first--the life of reality--in China from the earliest times to the +present day; the succeeding chapters are concerned with the second--the +life of imagination. A survey of the first was necessary for a complete +understanding of the second. The two react upon each other, affecting +the national character and through it the history of the world. + +Mythology is the science of the unscientific man's explanation +of what we call the Otherworld--itself and its denizens, their +mysterious habits and surprising actions both there and here, usually +including the creation of this world also. By the Otherworld he does +not necessarily mean anything distant or even invisible, though the +things he explains would mostly be included by us under those terms. In +some countries myths are abundant, in others scarce. Why should this +be? Why should some peoples tell many and marvellous tales about their +gods and others say little about them, though they may say a great deal +to them? We recall the 'great' myths of Greece and Scandinavia. Other +races are 'poor' in myths. The difference is to be explained by the +mental characters of the peoples as moulded by their surroundings and +hereditary tendencies. The problem is of course a psychological one, +for it is, as already noted, in imagination that myths have their +root. Now imagination grows with each stage of intellectual progress, +for intellectual progress implies increasing representativeness of +thought. In the lower stages of human development imagination is feeble +and unproductive; in the highest stages it is strong and constructive. + + +The Chinese Intellect + +The Chinese are not unimaginative, but their minds did not go on to the +construction of any myths which should be world-great and immortal; +and one reason why they did not construct such myths was that their +intellectual progress was arrested at a comparatively early stage. It +was arrested because there was not that contact and competition +with other peoples which demands brain-work of an active kind as the +alternative of subjugation, inferiority, or extinction, and because, +as we have already seen, the knowledge required of them was mainly +the parrot-like repetition of the old instead of the thinking-out of +the new [1]--a state of things rendered possible by the isolation +just referred to. Confucius discountenanced discussion about the +supernatural, and just as it is probable that the exhortations of Wen +Wang, the virtual founder of the Chou dynasty (1121-255 B.C.), against +drunkenness, in a time before tea was known to them, helped to make +the Chinese the sober people that they are, so it is probable--more +than probable--that this attitude of Confucius may have nipped in +the bud much that might have developed a vigorous mythology, though +for a reason to be stated later it may be doubted if he thereby +deprived the world of any beautiful and marvellous results of the +highest flights of poetical creativeness. There are times, such as +those of any great political upheaval, when human nature will assert +itself and break through its shackles in spite of all artificial +or conventional restraints. Considering the enormous influence of +Confucianism throughout the latter half of Chinese history--_i.e._ +the last two thousand years--it is surprising that the Chinese dared +to think about supernatural matters at all, except in the matter of +propitiating their dead ancestors. That they did so is evidence not +only of human nature's inherent tendency to tell stories, but also +of the irrepressible strength of feeling which breaks all laws and +commandments under great stimulus. On the opposing unaesthetic side +this may be compared to the feeling which prompts the unpremeditated +assassination of a man who is guilty of great injustice, even though +it be certain that in due course he would have met his deserts at +the hands of the public executioner. + + +The Influence of Religion + +Apart from this, the influence of Confucianism would have been even +greater than it was, but for the imperial partiality periodically +shown for rival doctrines, such as Buddhism and Taoism, which threw +their weight on the side of the supernatural, and which at times +were exalted to such great heights as to be officially recognized as +State religions. These, Buddhism especially, appealed to the popular +imagination and love of the marvellous. Buddhism spoke of the future +state and the nature of the gods in no uncertain tones. It showed +men how to reach the one and attain to the other. Its founder was +virtuous; his commandments pure and life-sustaining. It supplied in +great part what Confucianism lacked. And, as in the fifth and sixth +centuries A.D., when Buddhism and Taoism joined forces and a working +union existed between them, they practically excluded for the time +all the "chilly growth of Confucian classicism." + +Other opponents of myth, including a critical philosopher of great +ability, we shall have occasion to notice presently. + + +History and Myth + +The sobriety and accuracy of Chinese historians is proverbial. I +have dilated upon this in another work, and need add here only what +I inadvertently omitted there--a point hitherto unnoticed or at least +unremarked--that the very word for history in Chinese (_shih_) means +impartiality or an impartial annalist. It has been said that where +there is much myth there is little history, and _vice versa_, and +though this may not be universally true, undoubtedly the persistently +truthful recording of facts, events, and sayings, even at the risk +of loss, yea, and actual loss of life of the historian as the result +of his refusal to make false entries in his chronicle at the bidding +of the emperor (as in the case of the historiographers of Ch'i in +547 B.C.), indicates a type of mind which would require some very +strong stimulus to cause it to soar very far into the hazy realms of +fanciful imagination. + + +Chinese Rigidity + +A further cause, already hinted at above, for the arrest of +intellectual progress is to be found in the growth of the nation +in size during many centuries of isolation from the main stream +of world-civilization, without that increase in heterogeneity +which comes from the moulding by forces external to itself. "As +iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his +friend." Consequently we find China what is known to sociology as an +'aggregate of the first order,' which during its evolution has parted +with its internal life-heat without absorbing enough from external +sources to enable it to retain the plastic condition necessary to +further, or at least rapid, development. It is in a state of rigidity, +a state recognized and understood by the sociologist in his study of +the evolution of nations. + + +The Prerequisites to Myth + +But the mere increase of constructive imagination is not sufficient +to produce myth. If it were, it would be reasonable to argue that +as intellectual progress goes on myths become more numerous, and the +greater the progress the greater the number of myths. This we do not +find. In fact, if constructive imagination went on increasing without +the intervention of any further factor, there need not necessarily be +any myth at all. We might almost say that the reverse is the case. We +connect myth with primitive folk, not with the greatest philosophers +or the most advanced nations--not, that is, with the most advanced +stages of national progress wherein constructive imagination makes +the nation great and strong. In these stages the philosopher studies +or criticizes myth, he does not make it. + +In order that there may be myth, three further conditions must be +fulfilled. There must, as we have seen, be constructive imagination, +but, nevertheless, there must not be too much of it. As stated above, +mythology, or rather myth, is the _unscientific_ man's explanation. If +the constructive imagination is so great that it becomes self-critical, +if the story-teller doubts his own story, if, in short, his mind is +scientific enough to see that his explanation is no explanation at all, +then there can be no myth properly so called. As in religion, unless +the myth-maker believes in his myth with all his heart and soul and +strength, and each new disciple, as it is cared for and grows under +his hands during the course of years, holds that he must put his shoes +from off his feet because the place whereon he treads is holy ground, +the faith will not be propagated, for it will lack the vital spark +which alone can make it a living thing. + + +Stimulus Necessary + +The next condition is that there must be a stimulus. It is not ideas, +but feelings, which govern the world, and in the history of mythology +where feeling is absent we find either weak imitation or repetition +of the myths of other peoples (though this must not be confused +with certain elements which seem to be common to the myths of all +races), or concoction, contamination, or "genealogical tree-making," +or myths originated by "leisurely, peaceful tradition" and lacking +the essential qualities which appeal to the human soul and make their +possessors very careful to preserve them among their most loved and +valued treasures. But, on the other hand, where feeling is stirred, +where the requisite stimulus exists, where the people are in great +danger, or allured by the prize of some breathless adventure, the +contact produces the spark of divine poetry, the myths are full of +artistic, philosophic, and religious suggestiveness, and have abiding +significance and charm. They are the children, the poetic fruit, of +great labour and serious struggles, revealing the most fundamental +forces, hopes, and cravings of the human soul. Nations highly strung, +undergoing strenuous emotion, intensely energized by constant conflict +with other nations, have their imagination stimulated to exceptional +poetic creativeness. The background of the Danaids is Egyptian, +not Greek, but it was the danger in which the Greeks were placed in +their wars with the sons of the land of the Pharaohs that stimulated +the Greek imagination to the creation of that great myth. + +This explains why so many of the greatest myths have their staging, +not in the country itself whose treasured possessions they are, but +where that country is 'playing the great game,' is carrying on wars +decisive of far-reaching national events, which arouse to the greatest +pitch of excitement the feelings both of the combatants and of those +who are watching them from their homes. It is by such great events, +not by the romance-writer in his peaceful study, that mythology, like +literature, is "incisively determined." Imagination, we saw, goes +_pari passu_ with intellectual progress, and intellectual progress, +in early times, is furthered not so much by the mere contact as +by the actual conflict of nations. And we see also that myths may, +and very frequently do, have a character quite different from that +of the nation to which they appertain, for environment plays a most +important part both in their inception and subsequent growth--a truth +too obvious to need detailed elaboration. + + +Persistent Soul-expression + +A third condition is that the type of imagination must be persistent +through fairly long periods of time, otherwise not only will there +be an absence of sufficient feeling or momentum to cause the myths +to be repeated and kept alive and transmitted to posterity, but the +inducement to add to them and so enable them to mature and become +complete and finished off and sufficiently attractive to appeal to +the human mind in spite of the foreign character they often bear will +be lacking. In other words, myths and legends grow. They resemble not +so much the narrative of the story-teller or novelist as a gradually +developing art like music, or a body of ideas like philosophy. They +are human and natural, though they express the thought not of any one +individual mind, but of the folk-soul, exemplifying in poetical form +some great psychological or physiographical truth. + + +The Character of Chinese Myth + +The nature of the case thus forbids us to expect to find the Chinese +myths exhibiting the advanced state and brilliant heterogeneity of +those which have become part of the world's permanent literature. We +must expect them to be true to type and conditions, as we expect the +other ideas of the Chinese to be, and looking for them in the light +of this knowledge we shall find them just where we should expect to +find them. + +The great sagas and eddas exalted among the world's literary +masterpieces, and forming part of the very life of a large number of +its inhabitants, are absent in China. "The Chinese people," says one +well-known sinologist, "are not prone to mythological invention." "He +who expects to find in Tibet," says another writer, "the poetical +charm of Greek or Germanic mythology will be disappointed. There is +a striking poverty of imagination in all the myths and legends. A +great monotony pervades them all. Many of their stories, taken from +the sacred texts, are quite puerile and insipid. It may be noted +that the Chinese mythology labours under the same defect." And +then there comes the crushing judgment of an over-zealous Christian +missionary sinologist: "There is no hierarchy of gods brought in to +rule and inhabit the world they made, no conclave on Mount Olympus, +nor judgment of the mortal soul by Osiris, no transfer of human love +and hate, passions and hopes, to the powers above; all here is ascribed +to disembodied agencies or principles, and their works are represented +as moving on in quiet order. There is no religion [!], no imagination; +all is impassible, passionless, uninteresting.... It has not, as in +Greece and Egypt, been explained in sublime poetry, shadowed forth in +gorgeous ritual and magnificent festivals, represented in exquisite +sculptures, nor preserved in faultless, imposing fanes and temples, +filled with ideal creations." Besides being incorrect as to many +of its alleged facts, this view would certainly be shown by further +study to be greatly exaggerated. + + +Periods Fertile in Myth + +What we should expect, then, to find from our philosophical study of +the Chinese mind as affected by its surroundings would be barrenness of +constructive imagination, except when birth was given to myth through +the operation of some external agency. And this we do find. The period +of the overthrow of the Yin dynasty and the establishment of the +great house of Chou in 1122 B.C., or of the Wars of the Three States, +for example, in the third century after Christ, a time of terrible +anarchy, a medieval age of epic heroism, sung in a hundred forms of +prose and verse, which has entered as motive into a dozen dramas, +or the advent of Buddhism, which opened up a new world of thought and +life to the simple, sober, peace-loving agricultural folk of China, +were stimuli not by any means devoid of result. In China there are gods +many and heroes many, and the very fact of the existence of so great +a multitude of gods would logically imply a wealth of mythological +lore inseparable from their apotheosis. You cannot--and the Chinese +cannot--get behind reason. A man is not made a god without some +cause being assigned for so important and far-reaching a step; and +in matters of this sort the stated cause is apt to take the form of +a narrative more or less marvellous or miraculous. These resulting +myths may, of course, be born and grow at a later time than that +in which the circumstances giving rise to them took place, but, +if so, that merely proves the persistent power of the originating +stimulus. That in China these narratives always or often reach the +highest flights of constructive imagination is not maintained--the +maintenance of that argument would indeed be contradictory; but even +in those countries where the mythological garden has produced some of +the finest flowers millions of seeds must have been sown which either +did not spring up at all or at least failed to bring forth fruit. And +in the realm of mythology it is not only those gods who sit in the +highest seats--creators of the world or heads of great religions--who +dominate mankind; the humbler, though often no less powerful gods +or spirits--those even who run on all fours and live in holes in the +ground, or buzz through the air and have their thrones in the shadow +of a leaf--have often made a deeper impress on the minds and in the +hearts of the people, and through that impress, for good or evil, have, +in greater or less degree, modified the life of the visible universe. + + +Sources of Chinese Myth + +"So, if we ask whence comes the heroic and the romantic, which supplies +the story-teller's stock-in-trade, the answer is easy. The legends and +history of early China furnish abundance of material for them. To the +Chinese mind their ancient world was crowded with heroes, fairies, and +devils, who played their part in the mixed-up drama, and left a name +and fame both remarkable and piquant. Every one who is familiar with +the ways and the language of the people knows that the country is full +of common objects to which poetic names have been given, and with many +of them there is associated a legend or a myth. A deep river's gorge is +called 'the Blind Man's Pass,' because a peculiar bit of rock, looked +at from a certain angle, assumes the outline of the human form, and +there comes to be connected therewith a pleasing story which reaches +its climax in the petrifaction of the hero. A mountain's crest shaped +like a swooping eagle will from some one have received the name of +'Eagle Mountain,' whilst by its side another shaped like a couchant +lion will have a name to match. There is no lack of poetry among the +people, and most striking objects claim a poetic name, and not a few +of them are associated with curious legends. It is, however, to their +national history that the story-teller goes for his most interesting +subjects, and as the so-called history of China imperceptibly passes +into the legendary period, and this again fades into the mythical, +and as all this is assuredly believed by the masses of the people, +it is obvious that in the national life of China there is no dearth +of heroes whose deeds of prowess will command the rapt attention of +the crowds who listen." [2] + +The soul in China is everywhere in evidence, and if myths have "first +and foremost to do with the life of the soul" it would appear strange +that the Chinese, having spiritualized everything from a stone to the +sky, have not been creative of myth. Why they have not the foregoing +considerations show us clearly enough. We must take them and their +myths as we find them. Let us, then, note briefly the result of their +mental workings as reacted on by their environment. + + +Phases of Chinese Myth + +We cannot identify the earliest mythology of the Chinese with that of +any primitive race. The myths, if any, of their place of origin may +have faded and been forgotten in their slow migration eastward. We +cannot say that when they came from the West (which they probably +did) they brought their myths with them, for in spite of certain +conjectural derivations from Babylon we do not find them possessed +of any which we can identify as imported by them at that time. But +research seems to have gone at least as far as this--namely, that +while we cannot say that Chinese myth was derived from Indian myth, +there is good reason to believe that Chinese and Indian myth had a +common origin, which was of course outside of China. + +To set forth in detail the various phases through which Chinese myth +has passed would involve a technical description foreign to the purpose +of a popular work. It will sufficiently serve our present purpose to +outline its most prominent features. + +In the earliest times there was an 'age of magic' followed by an +'heroic age,' but myths were very rare before 800 B.C., and what is +known as primitive mythology is said to have been invented or imitated +from foreign sources after 820 B.C. In the eighth century B.C. myths +of an astrological character began to attract attention. In the age +of Lao Tzu (604 B.C.), the reputed founder of the Taoist religion, +fresh legends appear, though Lao Tzu himself, absorbed in the abstract, +records none. Neither did Confucius (551-479 B.C.) nor Mencius, who +lived two hundred years later, add any legends to history. But in the +Period of the Warring States (500-100 B.C.) fresh stimuli and great +emotion prompted to mythological creation. + + +Tso-ch'iu Ming and Lieh Tzu + +Tso-ch'iu Ming, commentator on Confucius's _Annals_, frequently +introduced legend into his history. Lieh Tzu (fifth and fourth +centuries B.C.), a metaphysician, is one of the earliest authors who +deal in myths. He is the first to mention the story of Hsi Wang Mu, the +Western Queen, and from his day onward the fabulists have vied with one +another in fantastic descriptions of the wonders of her fairyland. He +was the first to mention the islands of the immortals in the ocean, +the kingdoms of the dwarfs and giants, the fruit of immortality, the +repairing of the heavens by Nue Kua Shih with five-coloured stones, +and the great tortoise which supports the universe. + + +The T'ang and Sung Epochs + +Religious romance began at this time. The T'ang epoch (A.B. 618-907) +was one of the resurrection of the arts of peace after a long period of +dissension. A purer and more enduring form of intellect was gradually +overcoming the grosser but less solid superstition. Nevertheless the +intellectual movement which now manifested itself was not strong +enough to prevail against the powers of mythological darkness. It +was reserved for the scholars of the Sung Period (A.D. 960-1280) +to carry through to victory a strong and sustained offensive against +the spiritualistic obsessions which had weighed upon the Chinese mind +more or less persistently from the Han Period (206 B.C.-A.D. 221) +onward. The dogma of materialism was specially cultivated at this +time. The struggle of sober reason against superstition or imaginative +invention was largely a struggle of Confucianism against Taoism. Though +many centuries had elapsed since the great Master walked the earth, +the anti-myth movement of the T'ang and Sung Periods was in reality the +long arm and heavy fist of Confucius emphasizing a truer rationalism +than that of his opponents and denouncing the danger of leaving the +firm earth to soar into the unknown hazy regions of fantasy. It was +Sung scholarship that gave the death-blow to Chinese mythology. + +It is unnecessary to labour the point further, because after the Sung +epoch we do not meet with any period of new mythological creation, +and its absence can be ascribed to no other cause than its defeat at +the hands of the Sung philosophers. After their time the tender plant +was always in danger of being stunted or killed by the withering blast +of philosophical criticism. Anything in the nature of myth ascribable +to post-Sung times can at best be regarded only as a late blossom +born when summer days are past. + + +Myth and Doubt + +It will bear repetition to say that unless the myth-builder firmly +believes in his myth, be he the layer of the foundation-stone or one +of the raisers of the superstructure, he will hardly make it a living +thing. Once he believes in reincarnation and the suspension of natural +laws, the boundless vistas of space and the limitless aeons of time are +opened to him. He can perform miracles which astound the world. But +if he allow his mind to inquire, for instance, why it should have been +necessary for Elijah to part the waters of the Jordan with his garment +in order that he and Elisha might pass over dryshod, or for Bodhidharma +to stand on a reed to cross the great Yangtzu River, or for innumerable +Immortals to sit on 'favourable clouds' to make their journeys through +space, he spoils myth--his child is stillborn or does not survive to +maturity. Though the growth of philosophy and decay of superstition +may be good for a nation, the process is certainly conducive to the +destruction of its myth and much of its poetry. The true mythologist +takes myth for myth, enters into its spirit, and enjoys it. + +We may thus expect to find in the realm of Chinese mythology a large +number of little hills rather than a few great mountains, but the +little hills are very good ones after their kind; and the object of +this work is to present Chinese myth as it is, not as it might have +been had the universe been differently constituted. Nevertheless, if, +as we may rightly do, we judge of myth by the sentiments pervading +it and the ideals upheld and taught by it, we shall find that Chinese +myth must be ranked among the greatest. + + +Myth and Legend + +The general principles considered above, while they explain the paucity +of myth in China, explain also the abundance of legend there. The six +hundred years during which the Mongols, Mings, and Manchus sat upon +the throne of China are barren of myth, but like all periods of the +Chinese national life are fertile in legend. And this chiefly for the +reason that myths are more general, national, divine, while legends are +more local, individual, human. And since, in China as elsewhere, the +lower classes are as a rule less educated and more superstitious than +the upper classes--have a certain amount of constructive imagination, +but not enough to be self-critical--legends, rejected or even ridiculed +by the scholarly class when their knowledge has become sufficiently +scientific, continue to be invented and believed in by the peasant and +the dweller in districts far from the madding crowd long after myth, +properly so called, has exhaled its last breath. + + + +CHAPTER III + +Cosmogony-p'an Ku and the Creation Myth + + +The Fashioner of the Universe + +The most conspicuous figure in Chinese cosmogony is P'an Ku. He it was +who chiselled the universe out of Chaos. According to Chinese ideas, +he was the offspring of the original dual powers of Nature, the _yin_ +and the _yang_ (to be considered presently), which, having in some +incomprehensible way produced him, set him the task of giving form +to Chaos and "making the heavens and the earth." + +Some accounts describe him as the actual creator of the universe--"the +ancestor of Heaven and earth and all that live and move and have their +being." 'P'an' means 'the shell of an egg,' and 'Ku' 'to secure,' +'solid,' referring to P'an Ku being hatched from out of Chaos and +to his settling the arrangement of the causes to which his origin +was due. The characters themselves may, however, mean nothing more +than 'Researches into antiquity,' though some bolder translators +have assigned to them the significance if not the literal sense of +'aboriginal abyss,' or the Babylonian Tiamat, 'the Deep.' + +P'an Ku is pictured as a man of dwarfish stature clothed in bearskin, +or merely in leaves or with an apron of leaves. He has two horns on +his head. In his right hand he holds a hammer and in his left a chisel +(sometimes these are reversed), the only implements he used in carrying +out his great task. Other pictures show him attended in his labours +by the four supernatural creatures--the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise, +and dragon; others again with the sun in one hand and the moon in the +other, some of the firstfruits of his stupendous labours. (The reason +for these being there will be apparent presently.) His task occupied +eighteen thousand years, during which he formed the sun, moon, and +stars, the heavens and the earth, himself increasing in stature day +by day, being daily six feet taller than the day before, until, his +labours ended, he died that his works might live. His head became the +mountains, his breath the wind and clouds, his voice the thunder, +his limbs the four quarters of the earth, his blood the rivers, +his flesh the soil, his beard the constellations, his skin and hair +the herbs and trees, his teeth, bones, and marrow the metals, rocks, +and precious stones, his sweat the rain, and the insects creeping +over his body human beings, who thus had a lowlier origin even than +the tears of Khepera in Egyptian cosmology. [3] + +This account of P'an Ku and his achievements is of Taoist origin. The +Buddhists have given a somewhat different account of him, which is +a late adaptation from the Taoist myth, and must not be mistaken for +Buddhist cosmogony proper. [4] + + +The Sun and the Moon + +In some of the pictures of P'an Ku he is represented, as already noted, +as holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other. Sometimes +they are in the form of those bodies, sometimes in the classic +character. The legend says that when P'an Ku put things in order in +the lower world, he did not put these two luminaries in their proper +courses, so they retired into the Han Sea, and the people dwelt in +darkness. The Terrestrial Emperor sent an officer, Terrestrial Time, +with orders that they should come forth and take their places in +the heavens and give the world day and night. They refused to obey +the order. They were reported to Ju Lai; P'an Ku was called, and, +at the divine direction of Buddha, wrote the character for 'sun' +in his left hand, and that for 'moon' in his right hand; and went to +the Han Sea, and stretched forth his left hand and called the sun, +and then stretched forth his right hand and called the moon, at the +same time repeating a charm devoutly seven times; and they forthwith +ascended on high, and separated time into day and night. [5] + +Other legends recount that P'an Ku had the head of a dragon and +the body of a serpent; and that by breathing he caused the wind, +by opening his eyes he created day, his voice made the thunder, etc. + + +P'an Ku and Ymer + +Thus we have the heavens and the earth fashioned by this wonderful +being in eighteen thousand years. With regard to him we may adapt +the Scandinavian ballad: + + + It was Time's morning + When P'an Ku lived; + There was no sand, no sea, + Nor cooling billows; + + + + Earth there was none, + No lofty Heaven; + No spot of living green; + Only a deep profound. + + +And it is interesting to note, in passing, the similarity between this +Chinese artificer of the universe and Ymer, the giant, who discharges +the same functions in Scandinavian mythology. Though P'an Ku did not +have the same kind of birth nor meet with the violent death of the +latter, the results as regards the origin of the universe seem to +have been pretty much the same. [6] + + +P'an Ku a Late Creation + +But though the Chinese creation myth deals with primeval things it +does not itself belong to a primitive time. According to some writers +whose views are entitled to respect, it was invented during the fourth +century A.D. by the Taoist recluse, Magistrate Ko Hung, author of the +_Shen hsien chuan_ (_Biographies of the Gods_). The picturesque person +of P'an Ku is said to have been a concession to the popular dislike +of, or inability to comprehend, the abstract. He was conceived, some +Chinese writers say, because the philosophical explanations of the +Cosmos were too recondite for the ordinary mind to grasp. That he +did fulfil the purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with a fairly +easily comprehensible picture of the creation may be admitted; but, +as will presently be seen, it is over-stating the case to say that he +was conceived with the set purpose of furnishing the ordinary mind with +a concrete solution or illustration of this great problem. There is +no evidence that P'an Ku had existed as a tradition before the time +when we meet with the written account of him; and, what is more, +there is no evidence that there existed any demand on the part of +the popular mind for any such solution or illustration. The ordinary +mind would seem to have been either indifferent to or satisfied +with the abstruse cosmogonical and cosmological theories of the +early sages for at least a thousand years. The cosmogonies of the _I +ching_, of Lao Tzu, Confucius (such as it was), Kuan Tzu, Mencius, +Chuang Tzu, were impersonal. P'an Ku and his myth must be regarded +rather as an accident than as a creation resulting from any sudden +flow of psychological forces or wind of discontent ruffling the +placid Chinese mind. If the Chinese brought with them from Babylon +or anywhere else the elements of a cosmogony, whether of a more or +less abstruse scientific nature or a personal mythological narrative, +it must have been subsequently forgotten or at least has not survived +in China. But for Ko Hung's eccentricity and his wish to experiment +with cinnabar from Cochin-China in order to find the elixir of life, +P'an Ku would probably never have been invented, and the Chinese mind +would have been content to go on ignoring the problem or would have +quietly acquiesced in the abstract philosophical explanations of the +learned which it did not understand. Chinese cosmogony would then +have consisted exclusively of the recondite impersonal metaphysics +which the Chinese mind had entertained or been fed on for the nine +hundred or more years preceding the invention of the P'an Ku myth. + + +Nue Kua Shih, the Repairer of the Heavens + +It is true that there exist one or two other explanations of the +origin of things which introduce a personal creator. There is, +for instance, the legend--first mentioned by Lieh Tzu (to whom we +shall revert later)--which represents Nue Kua Shih (also called Nue +Wa and Nue Hsi), said to have been the sister and successor of Fu +Hsi, the mythical sovereign whose reign is ascribed to the years +2953-2838 B.C., as having been the creator of human beings when +the earth first emerged from Chaos. She (or he, for the sex seems +uncertain), who had the "body of a serpent and head of an ox" (or a +human head and horns of an ox, according to some writers), "moulded +yellow earth and made man." Ssu-ma Cheng, of the eighth century A.D., +author of the _Historical Records_ and of another work on the three +great legendary emperors, Fu Hsi, Shen Nung, and Huang Ti, gives +the following account of her: "Fu Hsi was succeeded by Nue Kua, who +like him had the surname Feng. Nue Kua had the body of a serpent and +a human head, with the virtuous endowments of a divine sage. Toward +the end of her reign there was among the feudatory princes Kung Kung, +whose functions were the administration of punishment. Violent and +ambitious, he became a rebel, and sought by the influence of water +to overcome that of wood [under which Nue Kua reigned]. He did battle +with Chu Jung [said to have been one of the ministers of Huang Ti, +and later the God of Fire], but was not victorious; whereupon he +struck his head against the Imperfect Mountain, Pu Chou Shan, and +brought it down. The pillars of Heaven were broken and the corners of +the earth gave way. Hereupon Nue Kua melted stones of the five colours +to repair the heavens, and cut off the feet of the tortoise to set +upright the four extremities of the earth. [7] Gathering the ashes +of reeds she stopped the flooding waters, and thus rescued the land +of Chi, Chi Chou [the early seat of the Chinese sovereignty]." + +Another account separates the name and makes Nue and Kua brother +and sister, describing them as the only two human beings in +existence. At the creation they were placed at the foot of the K'un-lun +Mountains. Then they prayed, saying, "If thou, O God, hast sent us to +be man and wife, the smoke of our sacrifice will stay in one place; +but if not, it will be scattered." The smoke remained stationary. + +But though Nue Kua is said to have moulded the first man (or the first +human beings) out of clay, it is to be noted that, being only the +successor of Fu Hsi, long lines of rulers had preceded her of whom no +account is given, and also that, as regards the heavens and the earth +at least, she is regarded as the repairer and not the creator of them. + +Heaven-deaf (T'ien-lung) and Earth-dumb (Ti-ya), the two attendants +of Wen Ch'ang, the God of Literature (see following chapter), have +also been drawn into the cosmogonical net. From their union came the +heavens and the earth, mankind, and all living things. + +These and other brief and unelaborated personal cosmogonies, even if +not to be regarded as spurious imitations, certainly have not become +established in the Chinese mind as the explanation of the way in which +the universe came to be: in this sphere the P'an Ku legend reigns +supreme; and, owing to its concrete, easily apprehensible nature, +has probably done so ever since the time of its invention. + + +Early Cosmogony Dualistic + +The period before the appearance of the P'an Ku myth may be divided +into two parts; that from some early unknown date up to about the +middle of the Confucian epoch, say 500 B.C., and that from 500 B.C. to +A.D. 400. We know that during the latter period the minds of Chinese +scholars were frequently occupied with speculations as to the origin +of the universe. Before 500 B.C. we have no documentary remains +telling us what the Chinese believed about the origin of things; +but it is exceedingly unlikely that no theories or speculations at +all concerning the origin of themselves and their surroundings were +formed by this intelligent people during the eighteen centuries or +more which preceded the date at which we find the views held by them +put into written form. It is safe to assume that the dualism which +later occupied their philosophical thoughts to so great an extent +as almost to seem inseparable from them, and exercised so powerful +an influence throughout the course of their history, was not only +formulating itself during that long period, but had gradually reached +an advanced stage. We may even go so far as to say that dualism, or +its beginnings, existed in the very earliest times, for the belief in +the second self or ghost or double of the dead is in reality nothing +else. And we find it operating with apparently undiminished energy +after the Chinese mind had reached its maturity in the Sung dynasty. + + + +The Canon of Changes + +The Bible of Chinese dualism is the _I ching_, the _Canon of Changes_ +(or _Permutations_). It is held in great veneration both on account +of its antiquity and also because of the "unfathomable wisdom which +is supposed to lie concealed under its mysterious symbols." It is +placed first in the list of the classics, or Sacred Books, though +it is not the oldest of them. When exactly the work itself on which +the subsequent elaborations were founded was composed is not now +known. Its origin is attributed to the legendary emperor Fu Hsi +(2953-2838 B.C.). It does not furnish a cosmogony proper, but merely +a dualistic system as an explanation, or attempted explanation, +or even perhaps only a record, of the constant changes (in modern +philosophical language the "redistribution of matter and motion") +going on everywhere. That explanation or record was used for purposes +of divination. This dualistic system, by a simple addition, became +a monism, and at the same time furnished the Chinese with a cosmogony. + + +The Five Elements + +The Five Elements or Forces (_wu hsing_)--which, according to +the Chinese, are metal, air, fire, water, and wood--are first +mentioned in Chinese literature in a chapter of the classic _Book +of History_. [8] They play a very important part in Chinese thought: +'elements' meaning generally not so much the actual substances as the +forces essential to human, life. They have to be noticed in passing, +because they were involved in the development of the cosmogonical +ideas which took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D. + + + +Monism + +As their imagination grew, it was natural that the Chinese should +begin to ask themselves what, if the _yang_ and the _yin_ by +their permutations produced, or gave shape to, all things, was it +that produced the _yang_ and the _yin_. When we see traces of this +inquisitive tendency we find ourselves on the borderland of dualism +where the transition is taking place into the realm of monism. But +though there may have been a tendency toward monism in early times, it +was only in the Sung dynasty that the philosophers definitely placed +behind the _yang_ and the _yin_ a First Cause--the Grand Origin, +Grand Extreme, Grand Terminus, or Ultimate Ground of Existence. [9] +They gave to it the name _t'ai chi_, and represented it by a concrete +sign, the symbol of a circle. The complete scheme shows the evolution +of the Sixty-four Diagrams (_kua_) from the _t'ai chi_ through the +_yang_ and the _yin_, the Four, Eight, Sixteen, and Thirty-two +Diagrams successively. This conception was the work of the Sung +philosopher Chou Tun-i (A.D. 1017-73), commonly known as Chou Tzu, +and his disciple Chu Hsi (A.D. 1130-1200), known as Chu Tzu or Chu +Fu Tzu, the famous historian and Confucian commentator--two of the +greatest names in Chinese philosophy. It was at this time that the +tide of constructive imagination in China, tinged though it always +was with classical Confucianism, rose to its greatest height. There +is the philosopher's seeking for causes. Yet in this matter of the +First Cause we detect, in the full flood of Confucianism, the potent +influence of Taoist and Buddhist speculations. It has even been said +that the Sung philosophy, which grew, not from the _I ching_ itself, +but from the appendixes to it, is more Taoistic than Confucian. As it +was with the P'an Ku legend, so was it with this more philosophical +cosmogony. The more fertile Taoist and Buddhist imaginations led to the +preservation of what the Confucianists, distrusting the marvellous, +would have allowed to die a natural death. It was, after all, the +mystical foreign elements which gave point to--we may rightly say +rounded off--the early dualism by converting it into monism, carrying +philosophical speculation from the Knowable to the Unknowable, and +furnishing the Chinese with their first scientific theory of the +origin, not of the changes going on in the universe (on which they +had already formed their opinions), but of the universe itself. + + +Chou Tzu's "T'ai Chi T'u" + +Chou Tun-i, appropriately apotheosized as 'Prince in the Empire of +Reason,' completed and systematized the philosophical world-conception +which had hitherto obtained in the Chinese mind. He did not ask his +fellow-countrymen to discard any part of what they had long held in +high esteem: he raised the old theories from the sphere of science to +that of philosophy by unifying them and bringing them to a focus. And +he made this unification intelligible to the Chinese mind by his famous +_T'ai chi t'u_, or Diagram of the Great Origin (or Grand Terminus), +showing that the Grand Original Cause, itself uncaused, produces the +_yang_ and the _yin_, these the Five Elements, and so on, through +the male and female norms (_tao_), to the production of all things. + + +Chu Hsi's Monistic Philosophy + +The writings of Chu Hsi, especially his treatise on _The Immaterial +Principle [li] and Primary Matter [ch'i]_, leave no doubt as to the +monism of his philosophy. In this work occurs the passage: "In the +universe there exists no primary matter devoid of the immaterial +principle; and no immaterial principle apart from primary matter"; +and although the two are never separated "the immaterial principle +[as Chou Tzu explains] is what is previous to form, while primary +matter is what is subsequent to form," the idea being that the two +are different manifestations of the same mysterious force from which +all things proceed. + +It is unnecessary to follow this philosophy along all the different +branches which grew out of it, for we are here concerned only with +the seed. We have observed how Chinese dualism became a monism, and +how while the monism was established the dualism was retained. It is +this mono-dualistic theory, combining the older and newer philosophy, +which in China, then as now, constitutes the accepted explanation of +the origin of things, of the universe itself and all that it contains. + + +Lao Tzu's "Tao" + +There are other cosmogonies in Chinese philosophy, but they need not +detain us long. Lao Tzu (sixth century B.C.), in his _Tao-te ching, +The Canon of Reason and Virtue_ (at first entitled simply _Lao Tzu_), +gave to the then existing scattered sporadic conceptions of the +universe a literary form. His _tao_, or 'Way,' is the originator +of Heaven and earth, it is "the mother of all things." His Way, +which was "before God," is but a metaphorical expression for the +manner in which things came at first into being out of the primal +nothingness, and how the phenomena of nature continue to go on, +"in stillness and quietness, without striving or crying." Lao Tzu is +thus so far monistic, but he is also mystical, transcendental, even +pantheistic. The way that can be walked is not the Eternal Way; the +name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The Unnameable is the +originator of Heaven and earth; manifesting itself as the Nameable, +it is "the mother of all things." "In Eternal Non-Being I see the +Spirituality of Things; in Eternal Being their limitation. Though +different under these two aspects, they are the same in origin; +it is when development takes place that different names have to be +used. It is while they are in the condition of sameness that the +mystery concerning them exists. This mystery is indeed the mystery +of mysteries. It is the door of all spirituality." + +This _tao_, indefinable and in its essence unknowable, is "the +fountain-head of all beings, and the norm of all actions. But it is +not only the formative principle of the universe; it also seems to be +primordial matter: chaotic in its composition, born prior to Heaven +and earth, noiseless, formless, standing alone in its solitude, and +not changing, universal in its activity, and unrelaxing, without being +exhausted, it is capable of becoming the mother of the universe." And +there we may leave it. There is no scheme of creation, properly so +called. The Unwalkable Way leads us to nothing further in the way of +a cosmogony. + + +Confucius's Agnosticism + +Confucius (551-479 B.C.) did not throw any light on the problem of +origin. He did not speculate on the creation of things nor the end +of them. He was not troubled to account for the origin of man, nor +did he seek to know about his hereafter. He meddled neither with +physics nor metaphysics. There might, he thought, be something on +the other side of life, for he admitted the existence of spiritual +beings. They had an influence on the living, because they caused +them to clothe themselves in ceremonious dress and attend to the +sacrificial ceremonies. But we should not trouble ourselves about +them, any more than about supernatural things, or physical prowess, +or monstrosities. How can we serve spiritual beings while we do not +know how to serve men? We feel the existence of something invisible +and mysterious, but its nature and meaning are too deep for the +human understanding to grasp. The safest, indeed the only reasonable, +course is that of the agnostic--to leave alone the unknowable, while +acknowledging its existence and its mystery, and to try to understand +knowable phenomena and guide our actions accordingly. + +Between the monism of Lao Tzu and the positivism of Confucius on +the one hand, and the landmark of the Taoistic transcendentalism of +Chuang Tzu (fourth and third centuries B.C.) on the other, we find +several "guesses at the riddle of existence" which must be briefly +noted as links in the chain of Chinese speculative thought on this +important subject. + + +Mo Tzu and Creation + +In the philosophy of Mo Ti (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.), +generally known as Mo Tzu or Mu Tzu, the philosopher of humanism and +utilitarianism, we find the idea of creation. It was, he says, Heaven +(which was anthropomorphically regarded by him as a personal Supreme +Being) who "created the sun, moon, and innumerable stars." His system +closely resembles Christianity, but the great power of Confucianism as +a weapon wielded against all opponents by its doughty defender Mencius +(372-289 B.C.) is shown by the complete suppression of the influence +of Mo Tzuism at his hands. He even went so far as to describe Mo Tzu +and those who thought with him as "wild animals." + + +Mencius and the First Cause + +Mencius himself regarded Heaven as the First Cause, or Cause of Causes, +but it was not the same personal Heaven as that of Mo Tzu. Nor does +he hang any cosmogony upon it. His chief concern was to eulogize the +doctrines of the great Confucius, and like him he preferred to let +the origin of the universe look after itself. + + +Lieh Tzu's Absolute + +Lieh Tzu (said to have lived in the fifth century B.C.), one +of the brightest stars in the Taoist constellation, considered +this nameable world as having evolved from an unnameable absolute +being. The evolution did not take place through the direction of +a personal will working out a plan of creation: "In the beginning +there was Chaos [_hun tun_]. It was a mingled potentiality of Form +[_hsing_], Pneuma [_ch'i_], and Substance [_chih_]. A Great Change +[_t'ai i_] took place in it, and there was a Great Starting [_t'ai +ch'u_] which is the beginning of Form. The Great Starting evolved a +Great Beginning [_t'ai shih_], which is the inception of Pneuma. The +Great Beginning was followed by the Great Blank [_t'ai su_], which +is the first formation of Substance. Substance, Pneuma, and Form +being all evolved out of the primordial chaotic mass, this material +world as it lies before us came into existence." And that which +made it possible for Chaos to evolve was the Solitary Indeterminate +(_i tu_ or the _tao_), which is not created, but is able to create +everlastingly. And being both Solitary and Indeterminate it tells us +nothing determinate about itself. + + +Chuang Tzu's Super-tao + +Chuang Chou (fourth and third centuries B.C.), generally known +as Chuang Tzu, the most brilliant Taoist of all, maintained with +Lao Tzu that the universe started from the Nameless, but it was if +possible a more absolute and transcendental Nameless than that of +Lao Tzu. He dwells on the relativity of knowledge; as when asleep he +did not know that he was a man dreaming that he was a butterfly, so +when awake he did not know that he was not a butterfly dreaming that +he was a man. [10] But "all is embraced in the obliterating unity of +the _tao_, and the wise man, passing into the realm of the Infinite, +finds rest therein." And this _tao_, of which we hear so much in +Chinese philosophy, was before the Great Ultimate or Grand Terminus +(_t'ai chi_), and "from it came the mysterious existence of God +[_ti_]. It produced Heaven, it produced earth." + + +Popular Cosmogony still Personal or Dualistic + +These and other cosmogonies which the Chinese have devised, though +it is necessary to note their existence in order to give a just idea +of their cosmological speculations, need not, as I said, detain us +long; and the reason why they need not do so is that, in the matter +of cosmogony, the P'an Ku legend and the _yin-yang_ system with its +monistic elaboration occupy virtually the whole field of the Chinese +mental vision. It is these two--the popular and the scientific--that +we mean when we speak of Chinese cosmogony. Though here and there a +stern sectarian might deny that the universe originated in one or the +other of these two ways, still, the general rule holds good. And I +have dealt with them in this order because, though the P'an Ku legend +belongs to the fourth century A.D., the _I ching_ dualism was not, +rightly speaking, a cosmogony until Chou Tun-i made it one by the +publication of his _T'ai chi t'u_ in the eleventh century A.D. Over +the unscientific and the scientific minds of the Chinese these two +are paramount. + +Applying the general principles stated in the preceding chapter, +we find the same cause which operated to restrict the growth of +mythology in general in China operated also in like manner in this +particular branch of it. With one exception Chinese cosmogony is +non-mythological. The careful and studiously accurate historians +(whose work aimed at being _ex veritate_, 'made of truth'), the +sober literature, the vast influence of agnostic, matter-of-fact +Confucianism, supported by the heavy Mencian artillery, are +indisputable indications of a constructive imagination which grew too +quickly and became too rapidly scientific to admit of much soaring +into the realms of fantasy. Unaroused by any strong stimulus in +their ponderings over the riddle of the universe, the sober, plodding +scientists and the calm, truth-loving philosophers gained a peaceful +victory over the mythologists. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Gods of China + + +The Birth of the Soul + +The dualism noted in the last chapter is well illustrated by the +Chinese pantheon. Whether as the result of the co-operation of the +_yin_ and the _yang_ or of the final dissolution of P'an Ku, human +beings came into existence. To the primitive mind the body and its +shadow, an object and its reflection in water, real life and dream +life, sensibility and insensibility (as in fainting, etc.), suggest the +idea of another life parallel with this life and of the doings of the +'other self' in it. This 'other self,' this spirit, which leaves the +body for longer or shorter intervals in dreams, swoons, death, may +return or be brought back, and the body revive. Spirits which do not +return or are not brought back may cause mischief, either alone, or by +entry into another human or animal body or even an inanimate object, +and should therefore be propitiated. Hence worship and deification. + + +The Populous Otherworld + +The Chinese pantheon has gradually become so multitudinous that there +is scarcely a being or thing which is not, or has not been at some time +or other, propitiated or worshipped. As there are good and evil people +in this world, so there are gods and demons in the Otherworld: we find +a polytheism limited only by a polydemonism. The dualistic hierarchy is +almost all-embracing. To get a clear idea of this populous Otherworld, +of the supernal and infernal hosts and their organizations, it needs +but to imagine the social structure in its main features as it existed +throughout the greater part of Chinese history, and to make certain +additions. The social structure consisted of the ruler, his court, +his civil, military, and ecclesiastical officials, and his subjects +(classed as Scholars--officials and gentry--Agriculturists, Artisans, +and Merchants, in that order). + + +Worship of Shang Ti + +When these died, their other selves continued to exist and to hold +the same rank in the spirit world as they did in this one. The _ti_, +emperor, became the _Shang Ti_, Emperor on High, who dwelt in _T'ien_, +Heaven (originally the great dome). [11] And Shang Ti, the Emperor +on High, was worshipped by _ti_, the emperor here below, in order to +pacify or please him--to ensure a continuance of his benevolence on +his behalf in the world of spirits. Confusion of ideas and paucity +of primitive language lead to personification and worship of a thing +or being in which a spirit has taken up its abode in place of or in +addition to worship of the spirit itself. Thus Heaven (T'ien) itself +came to be personified and worshipped in addition to Shang Ti, the +Emperor who had gone to Heaven, and who was considered as the chief +ruler in the spiritual world. The worship of Shang Ti was in existence +before that of T'ien was introduced. Shang Ti was worshipped by the +emperor and his family as their ancestor, or the head of the hierarchy +of their ancestors. The people could not worship Shang Ti, for to do so +would imply a familiarity or a claim of relationship punishable with +death. The emperor worshipped his ancestors, the officials theirs, +the people theirs. But, in the same way and sense that the people +worshipped the emperor on earth, as the 'father' of the nation, +namely, by adoration and obeisance, so also could they in this way +and this sense worship Shang Ti. An Englishman may take off his hat +as the king passes in the street to his coronation without taking any +part in the official service in Westminster Abbey. So the 'worship' +of Shang Ti by the people was not done officially or with any special +ceremonial or on fixed State occasions, as in the case of the worship +of Shang Ti by the emperor. This, subject to a qualification to be +mentioned later, is really all that is meant (or should be meant) +when it is said that the Chinese worship Shang Ti. + +As regards sacrifices to Shang Ti, these could be offered officially +only by the emperor, as High Priest on earth, who was attended or +assisted in the ceremonies by members of his own family or clan or +the proper State officials (often, even in comparatively modern times, +members of the imperial family or clan). In these official sacrifices, +which formed part of the State worship, the people could not take part; +nor did they at first offer sacrifices to Shang Ti in their own homes +or elsewhere. In what way and to what extent they did so later will +be shown presently. + + +Worship of T'ien + +Owing to T'ien, Heaven, the abode of the spirits, becoming personified, +it came to be worshipped not only by the emperor, but by the people +also. But there was a difference between these two worships, because +the emperor performed his worship of Heaven officially at the great +altar of the Temple of Heaven at Peking (in early times at the altar +in the suburb of the capital), whereas the people (continuing always +to worship their ancestors) worshipped Heaven, when they did so +at all--the custom being observed by some and not by others, just +as in Western countries some people go to church, while others stay +away--usually at the time of the New Year, in a simple, unceremonious +way, by lighting some incense-sticks and waving them toward the sky +in the courtyards of their own houses or in the street just outside +their doors. + + +Confusion of Shang Ti and T'ien + +The qualification necessary to the above description is that, as +time went on and especially since the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), +much confusion arose regarding Shang Ti and T'ien, and thus it came +about that the terms became mixed and their definitions obscure. This +confusion of ideas has prevailed down to the present time. One result +of this is that the people may sometimes state, when they wave their +incense-sticks or light their candles, that their humble sacrifice +is made to Shang Ti, whom in reality they have no right either to +worship or to offer sacrifice to, but whom they may unofficially pay +respect and make obeisance to, as they might and did to the emperor +behind the high boards on the roadsides which shielded him from their +view as he was borne along in his elaborate procession on the few +occasions when he came forth from the imperial city. + +Thus we find that, while only the emperor could worship and sacrifice +to Shang Ti, and only he could officially worship and sacrifice to +T'ien, the people who early personified and worshipped T'ien, as +already shown, came, owing to confusion of the meanings of Shang Ti +and T'ien, unofficially to 'worship' both, but only in the sense and to +the extent indicated, and to offer 'sacrifices' to both, also only in +the sense and to the extent indicated. But for these qualifications, +the statement that the Chinese worship and sacrifice to Shang Ti and +T'ien would be apt to convey an incorrect idea. + +From this it will be apparent that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler on High, +and T'ien, Heaven (later personified), do not mean 'God' in the sense +that the word is used in the Christian religion. To state that they +do, as so many writers on China have done, without pointing out the +essential differences, is misleading. That Chinese religion was or is +"a monotheistic worship of God" is further disproved by the fact that +Shang Ti and T'ien do not appear in the list of the popular pantheon at +all, though all the other gods are there represented. Neither Shang Ti +nor T'ien mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the Father, +Son, and Holy Ghost of the New Testament. Did they mean this, the +efforts of the Christian missionaries to convert the Chinese would be +largely superfluous. The Christian religion, even the Holy Trinity, +is a monotheism. That the Chinese religion (even though a summary +of extracts from the majority of foreign books on China might point +to its being so) is not a monotheism, but a polytheism or even a +pantheism (as long as that term is taken in the sense of universal +deification and not in that of one spiritual being immanent in all +things), the rest of this chapter will abundantly prove. + +There have been three periods in which gods have been created in +unusually large numbers: that of the mythical emperor Hsien Yuean +(2698-2598 B.C.), that of Chiang Tzu-ya (in the twelfth century B.C.), +and that of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (in the fourteenth +century A.D.). + + +The Otherworld Similar to this World + +The similarity of the Otherworld to this world above alluded to is +well shown by Du Bose in his _Dragon, Image, and, Demon_, from which +I quote the following passages: + +"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 [now twenty-two] 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 Intendant of Circuit, 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 government 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. 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." (Pp. 358-359.) + +This likeness explains also why the hierarchy of beings in the +Otherworld concerns itself not only with the affairs of the Otherworld, +but with those of this world as well. So faithful is the likeness +that we find the gods (the term is used in this chapter to include +goddesses, who are, however, relatively few) subjected to many of +the rules and conditions existing on this earth. Not only do they, as +already shown, differ in rank, but they hold _levees_ and audiences +and may be promoted for distinguished services, just as the Chinese +officials are. They "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 correlative 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. 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 Dragon Tiger Mountain, but how can the people +know gods which are not the same to-day as yesterday?" (Pp. 360-361.) + +The gods also indulge in amusements, marry, sin, are punished, die, +are resurrected, or die and are transformed, or die finally. [12] + + +The Three Religions + +We have in China the universal worship of ancestors, which constitutes +(or did until A.D. 1912) the State religion, usually known as +Confucianism, and in addition we have the gods of the specific +religions (which also originally took their rise in ancestor-worship), +namely, Buddhism and Taoism. (Other religions, though tolerated, +are not recognized as Chinese religions.) It is with a brief account +of this great hierarchy and its mythology that we will now concern +ourselves. + +Besides the ordinary ancestor-worship (as distinct from the State +worship) the people took to Buddhism and Taoism, which became +the popular religions, and the _literati_ also honoured the gods +of these two sects. Buddhist deities gradually became installed in +Taoist temples, and the Taoist immortals were given seats beside the +Buddhas in their sanctuaries. Every one patronized the god who seemed +to him the most popular and the most lucrative. There even came to +be united in the same temple and worshipped at the same altar the +three religious founders or figure-heads, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao +Tzu. The three religions were even regarded as forming one whole, +or at least, though different, as having one and the same object: +_san erh i yeh_, or _han san wei i_, "the three are one," or "the +three unite to form one" (a quotation from the phrase _T'ai chi han +san wei i_ of Fang Yue-lu: "When they reach the extreme the three are +seen to be one"). In the popular pictorial representations of the +pantheon this impartiality is clearly shown. + + +The Super-triad + +The toleration, fraternity, or co-mixture of the three +religions--ancestor-worship or Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, +and Taoism--explains the compound nature of the triune head of +the Chinese pantheon. The numerous deities of Buddhism and Taoism +culminate each in a triad of gods (the Three Precious Ones and the +Three Pure Ones respectively), but the three religions jointly have +also a triad compounded of one representative member of each. This +general or super-triad is, of course, composed of Confucius, Lao Tzu, +and Buddha. This is the officially decreed order, though it is varied +occasionally by Buddha being placed in the centre (the place of honour) +as an act of ceremonial deference shown to a 'stranger' or 'guest' +from another country. + + +Worship of the Living + +Before proceeding to consider the gods of China in detail, it is +necessary to note that ancestor-worship, which, as before stated, +is worship of the ghosts of deceased persons, who are usually but +not invariably relatives of the worshipper, has at times a sort of +preliminary stage in this world consisting of the worship of living +beings. Emperors, viceroys, popular officials, or people beloved for +their good deeds have had altars, temples, and images erected to them, +where they are worshipped in the same way as those who have already +"shuffled off this mortal coil." The most usual cases are perhaps those +of the worship of living emperors and those in which some high official +who has gained the gratitude of the people is transferred to another +post. The explanation is simple. The second self which exists after +death is identical with the second self inhabiting the body during +life. Therefore it may be propitiated or gratified by sacrifices +of food, drink, etc., or theatricals performed in its honour, and +continue its protection and good offices even though now far away. + + + +Confucianism + +Confucianism (_Ju Chiao_) is said to be the religion of the learned, +and the learned were the officials and the _literati_ or lettered +class, which includes scholars waiting for posts, those who have failed +to get posts (or, though qualified, prefer to live in retirement), and +those who have retired from posts. Of this 'religion' it has been said: + +"The name embraces education, letters, ethics, and political +philosophy. Its head was not a religious man, practised few religious +rites, and taught nothing about religion. In its usual acceptation the +term Confucianist means 'a gentleman and a scholar'; he may worship +only once a year, yet he belongs to the Church. Unlike its two sisters, +it has no priesthood, and fundamentally is not a religion at all; +yet with the many rites grafted on the original tree it becomes a +religion, and the one most difficult to deal with. Considered as a +Church, the classics are its scriptures, the schools its churches, the +teachers its priests, ethics its theology, and the written character, +so sacred, its symbol." [13] + + +Confucius not a God + +It should be noted that Confucius himself is not a god, though he +has been and is worshipped (66,000 animals used to be offered to him +every year; probably the number is about the same now). Suggestions +have been made to make him the God of China and Confucianism the +religion of China, so that he and his religion would hold the same +relative positions that Christ and Christianity do in the West. I +was present at the lengthy debate which took place on this subject +in the Chinese Parliament in February 1917, but in spite of many +long, learned, and eloquent speeches, chiefly by scholars of the +old school, the motion was not carried. Nevertheless, the worship +accorded to Confucius was and is (except by 'new' or 'young' China) +of so extreme a nature that he may almost be described as the great +unapotheosized god of China. [14] Some of his portraits even ascribe to +him superhuman attributes. But in spite of all this the fact remains +that Confucius has not been appointed a god and holds no _exequatur_ +entitling him to that rank. + +If we inquire into the reason of this we find that, astonishing +though it may seem, Confucius is classed by the Chinese not as a god +(_shen_), but as a demon (_kuei_). A short historical statement will +make the matter clear. + +In the classical _Li chi, Book of Ceremonial_, we find the categorical +assignment of the worship of certain objects to certain subjective +beings: the emperor worshipped Heaven and earth, the feudal princes the +mountains and rivers, the officials the hearth, and the _literati_ +their ancestors. Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and hearth +were called _shen_ (gods), and ancestors _kuei_ (demons). This +distinction is due to Heaven being regarded as the god and the +people as demons--the upper is the god, the lower the evil spirit or +demon. Though _kuei_ were usually bad, the term in Chinese includes +both good and evil spirits. In ancient times those who had by their +meritorious virtue while in the world averted calamities from the +people were posthumously worshipped and called gods, but those who were +worshipped by their descendants only were called spirits or demons. + +In the worship of Confucius by emperors of various dynasties (details +of which need not be given here) the highest titles conferred on him +were _Hsien Sheng_, 'Former or Ancestral Saint,' and even _Win Hsuean +Wang_, 'Accomplished and Illustrious Prince,' and others containing +like epithets. When for his image or idol there was (in the eleventh +year--A.D. 1307--of the reign-period Ta Te of the Emperor Ch'eng +Tsung of the Yuean dynasty) substituted the tablet now seen in the +Confucian temples, these were the inscriptions engraved on it. In the +inscriptions authoritatively placed on the tablets the word _shen_ +does not occur; in those cases where it does occur it has been +placed there (as by the Taoists) illegally and without authority +by too ardent devotees. Confucius may not be called a _shen_, since +there is no record showing that the great ethical teacher was ever +apotheosized, or that any order was given that the character _shen_ +was to be applied to him. + + +The God of Literature + +In addition to the ancestors of whose worship it really consists, +Confucianism has in its pantheon the specialized gods worshipped by +the _literati_. Naturally the chief of these is Wen Ch'ang, the God of +Literature. The account of him (which varies in several particulars +in different Chinese works) relates that he was a man of the name +of Chang Ya, who was born during the T'ang dynasty in the kingdom of +Yueeh (modern Chekiang), and went to live at Tzu T'ung in Ssuch'uan, +where his intelligence raised him to the position of President of the +Board of Ceremonies. Another account refers to him as Chang Ya Tzu, +the Soul or Spirit of Tzu T'ung, and states that he held office in the +Chin dynasty (A.D. 265-316), and was killed in a fight. Another again +states that under the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), in the third year +(A.D. 1000) of the reign-period Hsien P'ing of the Emperor Chen Tsung, +he repressed the revolt of Wang Chuen at Ch'eng Tu in Ssuch'uan. General +Lei Yu-chung caused to be shot into the besieged town arrows to which +notices were attached inviting the inhabitants to surrender. Suddenly +a man mounted a ladder, and pointing to the rebels cried in a loud +voice: "The Spirit of Tzu T'ung has sent me to inform you that the +town will fall into the hands of the enemy on the twentieth day of +the ninth moon, and not a single person will escape death." Attempts +to strike down this prophet of evil were in vain, for he had already +disappeared. The town was captured on the day indicated. The general, +as a reward, caused the temple of Tzu T'ung's Spirit to be repaired, +and sacrifices offered to it. + +The object of worship nowadays in the temples dedicated to Wen Ch'ang +is Tzu T'ung Ti Chuen, the God of Tzu T'ung. The convenient elasticity +of dualism enabled Chang to have as many as seventeen reincarnations, +which ranged over a period of some three thousand years. + +Various emperors at various times bestowed upon Wen Ch'ang honorific +titles, until ultimately, in the Yuean, or Mongol, dynasty, in the reign +Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, the title was conferred on him of Supporter of +the Yuean Dynasty, Diffuser of Renovating Influences, Ssu-lu of Wen +Ch'ang, God and Lord. He was thus apotheosized, and took his place +among the gods of China. By steps few or many a man in China has +often become a god. + + +Wen Ch'ang and the Great Bear + +Thus we have the God of Literature, Wen Ch'ang Ti Chuen, duly installed +in the Chinese pantheon, and sacrifices were offered to him in the +schools. + +But scholars, especially those about to enter for the public +competitive examinations, worshipped as the God of Literature, or as +his palace or abode (Wen Ch'ang), the star K'uei in the Great Bear, +or Dipper, or Bushel--the latter name derived from its resemblance in +shape to the measure used by the Chinese and called _tou_. The term +K'uei was more generally applied to the four stars forming the body +or square part of the Dipper, the three forming the tail or handle +being called Shao or Piao. How all this came about is another story. + +A scholar, as famous for his literary skill as his facial deformities, +had been admitted as first academician at the metropolitan +examinations. It was the custom that the Emperor should give with +his own hand a rose of gold to the fortunate candidate. This scholar, +whose name was Chung K'uei, presented himself according to custom to +receive the reward which by right was due to him. At the sight of +his repulsive face the Emperor refused the golden rose. In despair +the miserable rejected one went and threw himself into the sea. At +the moment when he was being choked by the waters a mysterious fish +or monster called _ao_ raised him on its back and brought him to the +surface. K'uei ascended to Heaven and became arbiter of the destinies +of men of letters. His abode was said to be the star K'uei, a name +given by the Chinese to the sixteen stars of the constellation or +'mansion' of Andromeda and Pisces. The scholars quite soon began +to worship K'uei as the God of Literature, and to represent it on a +column in the temples. Then sacrifices were offered to it. This star +or constellation was regarded as the palace of the god. The legend +gave rise to an expression frequently used in Chinese of one who +comes out first in an examination, namely, _tu chan ao t'ou_, "to +stand alone on the sea-monster's head." It is especially to be noted +that though the two K'ueis have the same sound they are represented +by different characters, and that the two constellations are not the +same, but are situated in widely different parts of the heavens. + +How then did it come about that scholars worshipped the K'uei in +the Great Bear as the abode of the God of Literature? (It may be +remarked in passing that a literary people could not have chosen +a more appropriate palace for this god, since the Great Bear, +the 'Chariot of Heaven,' is regarded as the centre and governor +of the whole universe.) The worship, we saw, was at first that of +the star K'uei, the apotheosized 'homely,' successful, but rejected +candidate. As time went on, there was a general demand for a sensible, +concrete representation of this star-god: a simple character did not +satisfy the popular taste. But it was no easy matter to comply with the +demand. Eventually, guided doubtless by the community of pronunciation, +they substituted for the star or group of stars K'uei (1), +venerated in ancient times, a new star or group of stars K'uei (2), +forming the square part of the Bushel, Dipper, or Great Bear. But for +this again no bodily image could be found, so the form of the written +character itself was taken, and so drawn as to represent a _kuei_ +(3) (disembodied spirit, or ghost) with its foot raised, and bearing +aloft a _tou_ (4) (bushel-measure). The adoration was thus misplaced, +for the constellation K'uei (2) was mistaken for K'uei (1), the proper +object of worship. It was due to this confusion by the scholars that +the Northern Bushel came to be worshipped as the God of Literature. + + +Wen Ch'ang and Tzu T'ung + +This worship had nothing whatever to do with the Spirit of Tzu T'ung, +but the Taoists have connected Chang Ya with the constellation in +another way by saying that Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, entrusted Chang +Ya's son with the management of the palace of Wen Ch'ang. And scholars +gradually acquired the habit of saying that they owed their success +to the Spirit of Tzu T'ung, which they falsely represented as being an +incarnation of the star Wen Ch'ang. This is how Chang Ya came to have +the honorific title of Wen Ch'ang, but, as a Chinese author points +out, Chang belonged properly to Ssuch'uan, and his worship should +be confined to that province. The _literati_ there venerated him as +their master, and as a mark of affection and gratitude built a temple +to him; but in doing so they had no intention of making him the God of +Literature. "There being no real connexion between Chang Ya and K'uei, +the worship should be stopped." The device of combining the personality +of the patron of literature enthroned among the stars with that of the +deified mortal canonized as the Spirit of Tzu T'ung was essentially a +Taoist trick. "The thaumaturgic reputation assigned to the Spirit of +Chang Ya Tzu was confined for centuries to the valleys of Ssuch'uan, +until at some period antecedent to the reign Yen Yu, in A.D. 1314, +a combination was arranged between the functions of the local god +and those of the stellar patron of literature. Imperial sanction +was obtained for this stroke of priestly cunning; and notwithstanding +protests continually repeated by orthodox sticklers for accuracy in the +religious canon, the composite deity has maintained his claims intact, +and an inseparable connexion between the God of Literature created by +imperial patent and the spirit lodged among the stars of Ursa Major is +fully recognized in the State ceremonial of the present day." A temple +dedicated to this divinity by the State exists in every city of China, +besides others erected as private benefactions or speculations. + +Wherever Wen Ch'ang is worshipped there will also be found a separate +representation of K'uei Hsing, showing that while the official deity +has been allowed to 'borrow glory' from the popular god, and even +to assume his personality, the independent existence of the stellar +spirit is nevertheless sedulously maintained. The place of the latter +in the heavens above is invariably symbolized by the lodgment of his +idol in an upper storey or tower, known as the K'uei Hsing Ko or K'uei +Hsing Lou. Here students worship the patron of their profession with +incense and prayers. Thus the ancient stellar divinity still largely +monopolizes the popular idea of a guardian of literature and study, +notwithstanding that the deified recluse of Tzu T'ung has been added in +this capacity to the State pantheon for more than five hundred years. + + +Heaven-deaf and Earth-dumb + +The popular representations of Wen Ch'ang depict the god himself and +four other figures. The central and largest is the demure portrait of +the god, clothed in blue and holding a sceptre in his left hand. Behind +him stand two youthful attendants. They are the servant and groom +who always accompany him on his journeys (on which he rides a white +horse). Their names are respectively Hsuean T'ung-tzu and Ti-mu, 'Sombre +Youth' and 'Earth-mother'; more commonly they are called T'ien-lung, +'Deaf Celestial,' and Ti-ya, 'Mute Terrestrial,' or 'Deaf as Heaven' +and 'Mute as Earth.' Thus they cannot divulge the secrets of their +master's administration as he distributes intellectual gifts, literary +skill, etc. Their cosmogonical connexion has already been referred +to in a previous chapter. + + +Image of K'uei Hsing + +In front of Wen Ch'ang, on his left, stands K'uei Hsing. He is +represented as of diminutive stature, with the visage of a demon, +holding a writing-brush in his right hand and a _tou_ in his left, +one of his legs kicking up behind--the figure being obviously intended +as an impersonation of the character _k'uei_ (2). [16] He is regarded +as the distributor of literary degrees, and was invoked above all +in order to obtain success at the competitive examinations. His +images and temples are found in all towns. In the temples dedicated +to Wen Ch'ang there are always two secondary altars, one of which is +consecrated to his worship. + + +Mr Redcoat + +The other is dedicated to Chu I, 'Mr Redcoat.' He and K'uei Hsing +are represented as the two inseparable companions of the God of +Literature. The legend related of Chu I is as follows: + +During the T'ang dynasty, in the reign-period Chien Chung (A.D. 780-4) +of the Emperor Te Tsung, the Princess T'ai Yin noticed that Lu Ch'i, +a native of Hua Chou, had the bones of an Immortal, and wished to +marry him. + +Ma P'o, her neighbour, introduced him one day into the Crystal +Palace for an interview with his future wife. The Princess gave him +the choice of three careers: to live in the Dragon Prince's Palace, +with the guarantee of immortal life, to enjoy immortality among the +people on the earth, or to have the honour of becoming a minister of +the Empire. Lu Ch'i first answered that he would like to live in the +Crystal Palace. The young lady, overjoyed, said to him: "I am Princess +T'ai Yin. I will at once inform Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler." A moment +later the arrival of a celestial messenger was announced. Two officers +bearing flags preceded him and conducted him to the foot of the flight +of steps. He then presented himself as Chu I, the envoy of Shang Ti. + +Addressing himself to Lu Ch'i, he asked: "Do you wish to live in the +Crystal Palace?" The latter did not reply. T'ai Yin urged him to give +his answer, but he persisted in keeping silent. The Princess in despair +retired to her apartment, and brought out five pieces of precious +cloth, which she presented to the divine envoy, begging him to have +patience a little longer and wait for the answer. After some time, +Chu I repeated his question. Then Lu Ch'i in a firm voice answered: +"I have consecrated my life to the hard labour of study, and wish to +attain to the dignity of minister on this earth." + +T'ai Yin ordered Ma P'o to conduct Lu Ch'i from the palace. From that +day his face became transformed: he acquired the lips of a dragon, +the head of a panther, the green face of an Immortal, etc. He took +his degree, and was promoted to be Director of the Censorate. The +Emperor, appreciating the good sense shown in his advice, appointed +him a minister of the Empire. + +From this legend it would seem that Chu I is the purveyor of official +posts; however, in practice, he is more generally regarded as the +protector of weak candidates, as the God of Good Luck for those who +present themselves at the examinations with a somewhat light equipment +of literary knowledge. The special legend relating to this _role_ +is known everywhere in China. It is as follows: + + +Mr Redcoat nods his Head + +An examiner, engaged in correcting the essays of the candidates, +after a superficial scrutiny of one of the essays, put it on one +side as manifestly inferior, being quite determined not to pass the +candidate who had composed it. The essay, moved by some mysterious +power, was replaced in front of his eyes, as if to invite him to +examine it more attentively. At the same time a reverend old man, +clothed in a red garment, suddenly appeared before him, and by a nod +of his head gave him to understand that he should pass the essay. The +examiner, surprised at the novelty of the incident, and fortified by +the approval of his supernatural visitor, admitted the author of the +essay to the literary degree. + +Chu I, like K'uei Hsing, is invoked by the _literati_ as a powerful +protector and aid to success. When anyone with but a poor chance of +passing presents himself at an examination, his friends encourage +him by the popular saying: "Who knows but that Mr Redcoat will nod +his head?" + + +Mr Golden Cuirass + +Chu I is sometimes accompanied by another personage, named Chin Chia, +'Mr Golden Cuirass.' Like K'uei Hsing and Chu I he has charge of the +interests of scholars, but differs from them in that he holds a flag, +which he has only to wave in front of a house for the family inhabiting +it to be assured that among their descendants will be some who will +win literary honours and be promoted to high offices under the State. + +Though Chin Chia is the protector of scholars, he is also the +redoubtable avenger of their evil actions: his flag is saluted as a +good omen, but his sword is the terror of the wicked. + + +The God of War + +Still another patron deity of literature is the God of War. "How," +it may be asked, "can so peaceful a people as the Chinese put so +peaceful an occupation as literature under the patronage of so warlike +a deity as the God of War?" But that question betrays ignorance of the +character of the Chinese Kuan Ti. He is not a cruel tyrant delighting +in battle and the slaying of enemies: he is the god who can _avert +war and protect the people from its horrors_. + +A youth, whose name was originally Chang-sheng, afterward changed to +Shou-chang, and then to Yuen-chang, who was born near Chieh Liang, +in Ho Tung (now the town of Chieh Chou in Shansi), and was of an +intractable nature, having exasperated his parents, was shut up in a +room from which he escaped by breaking through the window. In one of +the neighbouring houses he heard a young lady and an old man weeping +and lamenting. Running to the foot of the wall of the compound, he +inquired the reason of their grief. The old man replied that though +his daughter was already engaged, the uncle of the local official, +smitten by her beauty, wished to make her his concubine. His petitions +to the official had only been rejected with curses. + +Beside himself with rage, the youth seized a sword and went and killed +both the official and his uncle. He escaped through the T'ung Kuan, the +pass to Shensi. Having with difficulty avoided capture by the barrier +officials, he knelt down at the side of a brook to wash his face; +when lo! his appearance was completely transformed. His complexion +had become reddish-grey, and he was absolutely unrecognizable. He +then presented himself with assurance before the officers, who asked +him his name. "My name is Kuan," he replied. It was by that name that +he was thereafter known. + + +The Meat-seller's Challenge + +One day he arrived at Chu-chou, a dependent sub-prefecture of Peking, +in Chihli. There Chang Fei, a butcher, who had been selling his meat +all the morning, at noon lowered what remained into a well, placed +over the mouth of the well a stone weighing twenty-five pounds, and +said with a sneer: "If anyone can lift that stone and take my meat, +I will make him a present of it!" Kuan Yue, going up to the edge of +the well, lifted the stone with the same ease as he would a tile, +took the meat, and made off. Chang Fei pursued him, and eventually +the two came to blows, but no one dared to separate them. Just then +Liu Pei, a hawker of straw shoes, arrived, interposed, and put a stop +to the fight. The community of ideas which they found they possessed +soon gave rise to a firm friendship between the three men. + + +The Oath in the Peach-orchard + +Another account represents Liu Pei and Chang Fei as having entered +a village inn to drink wine, when a man of gigantic stature pushing +a wheelbarrow stopped at the door to rest. As he seated himself, +he hailed the waiter, saying: "Bring me some wine quickly, because +I have to hasten to reach the town to enlist in the army." + +Liu Pei looked at this man, nine feet in height, with a beard two feet +long. His face was the colour of the fruit of the jujube-tree, and +his lips carmine. Eyebrows like sleeping silkworms shaded his phoenix +eyes, which were a scarlet red. Terrible indeed was his bearing. + +"What is your name?" asked Liu Pei. "My family name is Kuan, my own +name is Yue, my surname Yuen Chang," he replied. "I am from the Ho Tung +country. For the last five or six years I have been wandering about +the world as a fugitive, to escape from my pursuers, because I killed +a powerful man of my country who was oppressing the poor people. I +hear that they are collecting a body of troops to crush the brigands, +and I should like to join the expedition." + +Chang Fei, also named Chang I Te, is described as eight feet in +height, with round shining eyes in a panther's head, and a pointed +chin bristling with a tiger's beard. His voice resembled the rumbling +of thunder. His ardour was like that of a fiery steed. He was a native +of Cho Chuen, where he possessed some fertile farms, and was a butcher +and wine-merchant. + +Liu Pei, surnamed Hsuean Te, otherwise Hsien Chu, was the third member +of the group. + +The three men went to Chang Fei's farm, and on the morrow met together +in his peach-orchard, and sealed their friendship with an oath. Having +procured a black ox and a white horse, with the various accessories +to a sacrifice, they immolated the victims, burnt the incense of +friendship, and after twice prostrating themselves took this oath: + +"We three, Liu Pei, Kuan Yu, and Chang Fei, already united by mutual +friendship, although belonging to different clans, now bind ourselves +by the union of our hearts, and join our forces in order to help each +other in times of danger. + +"We wish to pay to the State our debt of loyal citizens and give peace +to our black-haired compatriots. We do not inquire if we were born +in the same year, the same month, or on the same day, but we desire +only that the same year, the same month, and the same day may find us +united in death. May Heaven our King and Earth our Queen see clearly +our hearts! If any one of us violate justice or forget benefits, +may Heaven and Man unite to punish him!" + +The oath having been formally taken, Liu Pei was saluted as elder +brother, Kuan Yue as the second, and Chang Fei as the youngest. Their +sacrifice to Heaven and earth ended, they killed an ox and served +a feast, to which the soldiers of the district were invited to the +number of three hundred or more. They all drank copiously until they +were intoxicated. Liu Pei enrolled the peasants; Chang Fei procured +for them horses and arms; and then they set out to make war on the +Yellow Turbans (Huang Chin Tsei). Kuan Yue proved himself worthy +of the affection which Liu Pei showed him; brave and generous, he +never turned aside from danger. His fidelity was shown especially +on one occasion when, having been taken prisoner by Ts'ao Ts'ao, +together with two of Liu Pei's wives, and having been allotted a common +sleeping-apartment with his fellow-captives, he preserved the ladies' +reputation and his own trustworthiness by standing all night at the +door of the room with a lighted lantern in his hand. + +Into details of the various exploits of the three Brothers of the +Peach-orchard we need not enter here. They are written in full in the +book of the _Story of the Three Kingdoms_, a romance in which every +Chinese who can read takes keen delight. Kuan Yue remained faithful to +his oath, even though tempted with a marquisate by the great Ts'ao +Ts'ao, but he was at length captured by Sun Ch'uean and put to death +(A.D. 219). Long celebrated as the most renowned of China's military +heroes, he was ennobled in A.D. 1120 as Faithful and Loyal Duke. Eight +years later he had conferred on him by letters patent the still more +glorious title of Magnificent Prince and Pacificator. The Emperor Wen +(A.D. 1330-3) of the Yuean dynasty added the appellation Warrior Prince +and Civilizer, and, finally, the Emperor Wan Li of the Ming dynasty, +in 1594, conferred on him the title of Faithful and Loyal Great _Ti_, +Supporter of Heaven and Protector of the Kingdom. He thus became a god, +a _ti_, and has ever since received worship as Kuan Ti or Wu Ti, the +God of War. Temples (1600 State temples and thousands of smaller ones) +erected in his honour are to be seen in all parts of the country. He +is one of the most popular gods of China. During the last half-century +of the Manchu Period his fame greatly increased. In 1856 he is said +to have appeared in the heavens and successfully turned the tide of +battle in favour of the Imperialists. His portrait hangs in every tent, +but his worship is not confined to the officials and the army, for +many trades and professions have elected him as a patron saint. The +sword of the public executioner used to be kept within the precincts +of his temple, and after an execution the presiding magistrate would +stop there to worship for fear the ghost of the criminal might follow +him home. He knew that the spirit would not dare to enter Kuan Ti's +presence. + +Thus the Chinese have no fewer than three gods of literature--perhaps +not too many for so literary a people. A fourth, a Taoist god, will +be mentioned later. + + +Buddhism in China + +Buddhism and its mythology have formed an important part of Chinese +thought for nearly two thousand years. The religion was brought +to China about A.D. 65, ready-made in its Mahayanistic form, in +consequence of a dream of the Emperor Ming Ti (A.D. 58-76) of the +Eastern Han dynasty in or about the year 63; though some knowledge +of Buddha and his doctrines existed as early as 217 B.C. As Buddha, +the chief deity of Buddhism, was a man and became a god, the religion +originated, like the others, in ancestor-worship. When a man dies, says +this religion, his other self reappears in one form or another, "from a +clod to a divinity." The way for Buddhism in China was paved by Taoism, +and Buddhism reciprocally affected Taoism by helpful development of +its doctrines of sanctity and immortalization. Buddhism also, as it has +been well put by Dr De Groot, [17] "contributed much to the ceremonial +adornment of ancestor-worship. Its salvation work on behalf of the +dead saved its place in Confucian China; for of Confucianism itself, +piety and devotion towards parents and ancestors, and the promotion of +their happiness, were the core, and, consequently, their worship with +sacrifices and ceremonies was always a sacred duty." It was thus that +it was possible for the gods of Buddhism to be introduced into China +and to maintain their special characters and fulfil their special +functions without being absorbed into or submerged by the existing +native religions. The result was, as we have seen, in the end a +partnership rather than a relation of master and servant; and I say +'in the end' because, contrary to popular belief, the Chinese have +not been tolerant of foreign religious faiths, and at various times +have persecuted Buddhism as relentlessly as they have other rivals +to orthodox Confucianism. + + +Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood + +At the head of the Buddhist gods in China we find the triad +known as Buddha, the Law, and the Church, or Priesthood, which are +personified as Shih-chia Fo (Shakya), O-mi-t'o Fo (Amita), and Ju-lai +Fo (Tathagata); otherwise Fo Pao, Fa Pao, and Seng Pao (the _San Pao_, +'Three Precious Ones')--that is, Buddha, the prophet who came into the +world to teach the Law, Dharma, the Law Everlasting, and Samgha, its +mystical body, Priesthood, or Church. Dharma is an entity underived, +containing the spiritual elements and material constituents of the +universe. From it the other two evolve: Buddha (Shakyamuni), the +creative energy, Samgha, the totality of existence and of life. To the +people these are three personal Buddhas, whom they worship without +concerning themselves about their origin. To the priests they are +simply the Buddha, past, present, or future. There are also several +other of these groups or triads, ten or more, composed of different +deities, or sometimes containing one or two of the triad already +named. Shakyamuni heads the list, having a place in at least six. + +The legend of the Buddha belongs rather to Indian than to Chinese +mythology, and is too long to be reproduced here. [18] + +The principal gods of Buddhism are Jan-teng Fo, the Light-lamp +Buddha, Mi-lo Fo (Maitreya), the expected Messiah of the Buddhists, +O-mi-t'o Fo (Amitabha or Amita), the guide who conducts his devotees +to the Western Paradise, Yueeh-shih Fo, the Master-physician Buddha, +Ta-shih-chih P'u-sa (Mahastama), companion of Amitabha, P'i-lu Fo +(Vairotchana), the highest of the Threefold Embodiments, Kuan Yin, +the Goddess of Mercy, Ti-tsang Wang, the God of Hades, Wei-t'o +(Viharapala), the Deva protector of the Law of Buddha and Buddhist +temples, the Four Diamond Kings of Heaven, and Bodhidharma, the first +of the six Patriarchs of Eastern or Chinese Buddhism. + + +Diamond Kings of Heaven + +On the right and left sides of the entrance hall of Buddhist temples, +two on each side, are the gigantic figures of the four great _Ssu Ta +Chin-kang_ or _T'ien-wang_, the Diamond Kings of Heaven, protectors +or governors of the continents lying in the direction of the four +cardinal points from Mount Sumeru, the centre of the world. They are +four brothers named respectively Mo-li Ch'ing (Pure), or Tseng Chang, +Mo-li Hung (Vast), or Kuang Mu, Mo-li Hai (Sea), or To Wen, and Mo-li +Shou (Age), or Ch'ih Kuo. The _Chin kuang ming_ states that they bestow +all kinds of happiness on those who honour the Three Treasures, Buddha, +the Law, and the Priesthood. Kings and nations who neglect the Law +lose their protection. They are described and represented as follows: + +Mo-li Ch'ing, the eldest, is twenty-four feet in height, with a beard +the hairs of which are like copper wire. He carries a magnificent +jade ring and a spear, and always fights on foot. He has also a magic +sword, 'Blue Cloud,' on the blade of which are engraved the characters +_Ti, Shui, Huo, Feng_ (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind). When brandished, +it causes a black wind, which produces tens of thousands of spears, +which pierce the bodies of men and turn them to dust. The wind is +followed by a fire, which fills the air with tens of thousands of +golden fiery serpents. A thick smoke also rises out of the ground, +which blinds and burns men, none being able to escape. + +Mo-li Hung carries in his hand an umbrella, called the Umbrella of +Chaos, formed of pearls possessed of spiritual properties. Opening +this marvellous implement causes the heavens and earth to be covered +with thick darkness, and turning it upside down produces violent +storms of wind and thunder and universal earthquakes. + +Mo-li Hai holds a four-stringed guitar, the twanging of which +supernaturally affects the earth, water, fire, or wind. When it is +played all the world listens, and the camps of the enemy take fire. + +Mo-li Shou has two whips and a panther-skin bag, the home of a creature +resembling a white rat, known as Hua-hu Tiao. When at large this +creature assumes the form of a white winged elephant, which devours +men. He sometimes has also a snake or other man-eating creature, +always ready to obey his behests. + + + +Legend of the Diamond Kings + +The legend of the Four Diamond Kings given in the _Feng shen yen i_ +is as follows: At the time of the consolidation of the Chou dynasty +in the twelfth and eleventh centuries B.C., Chiang Tzu-ya, chief +counsellor to Wen Wang, and General Huang Fei-hu were defending +the town and mountain of Hsi-ch'i. The supporters of the house of +Shang appealed to the four genii Mo, who lived at Chia-meng Kuan, +praying them to come to their aid. They agreed, raised an army +of 100,000 celestial soldiers, and traversing towns, fields, and +mountains arrived in less than a day at the north gate of Hsi-ch'i, +where Mo-li Ch'ing pitched his camp and entrenched his soldiers. + +Hearing of this, Huang Fei-hu hastened to warn Chiang Tzu-ya of the +danger which threatened him. "The four great generals who have just +arrived at the north gate," he said, "are marvellously powerful genii, +experts in all the mysteries of magic and use of wonderful charms. It +is much to be feared that we shall not be able to resist them." + +Many fierce battles ensued. At first these went in favour of the +_Chin-kang_, thanks to their magical weapons and especially to Mo-li +Shou's Hua-hu Tiao, who terrorized the enemy by devouring their +bravest warriors. + + +Hua-hu Tiao devours Yang Chien + +Unfortunately for the _Chin-kang_, the brute attacked and swallowed +Yang Chien, the nephew of Yue Huang. This genie, on entering the body +of the monster, rent his heart asunder and cut him in two. As he could +transform himself at will, he assumed the shape of Hua-hu Tiao, and +went off to Mo-li Shou, who unsuspectingly put him back into his bag. + +The Four Kings held a festival to celebrate their triumph, and having +drunk copiously gave themselves over to sleep. During the night Yang +Chien came out of the bag, with the intention of possessing himself of +the three magical weapons of the _Chin-kang_. But he succeeded only in +carrying off the umbrella of Mo-li Hung. In a subsequent engagement +No-cha, the son of Vadjra-pani, the God of Thunder, broke the jade +ring of Mo-li Ch'ing. Misfortune followed misfortune. The _Chin-kang_, +deprived of their magical weapons, began to lose heart. To complete +their discomfiture, Huang T'ien Hua brought to the attack a matchless +magical weapon. This was a spike 7 1/2 inches long, enclosed in a +silk sheath, and called 'Heart-piercer.' It projected so strong a +ray of light that eyes were blinded by it. + +Huang T'ien Hua, hard pressed by Mo-li Ch'ing, drew the mysterious +spike from its sheath, and hurled it at his adversary. It entered +his neck, and with a deep groan the giant fell dead. + +Mo-li Hung and Mo-li Hai hastened to avenge their brother, but ere +they could come within striking distance of Huang Ti'en Hua his +redoubtable spike reached their hearts, and they lay prone at his feet. + +The one remaining hope for the sole survivor was in Hua-hu Tiao. Mo-li +Shou, not knowing that the creature had been slain, put his hand into +the bag to pull him out, whereupon Yang Chien, who had re-entered the +bag, bit his hand off at the wrist, so that there remained nothing +but a stump of bone. + +In this moment of intense agony Mo-li Shou fell an easy prey to Huang +T'ien Hua, the magical spike pierced his heart, and he fell bathed +in his blood. Thus perished the last of the _Chin-kang_. + + + +The Three Pure Ones + +Turning to the gods of Taoism, we find that the triad or trinity, +already noted as forming the head of that hierarchy, consists of +three Supreme Gods, each in his own Heaven. These three Heavens, +the _San Ch'ing_, 'Three Pure Ones' (this name being also applied +to the sovereigns ruling in them), were formed from the three airs, +which are subdivisions of the one primordial air. + +The first Heaven is Yue Ch'ing. In it reigns the first member of +the Taoist triad. He inhabits the Jade Mountain. The entrance to +his palace is named the Golden Door. He is the source of all truth, +as the sun is the source of all light. + +Various authorities give his name differently--Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun, +or Lo Ching Hsin, and call him T'ien Pao, 'the Treasure of Heaven,' +Some state that the name of the ruler of this first Heaven is Yue +Huang, and in the popular mind he it is who occupies this supreme +position. The Three Pure Ones are above him in rank, but to him, the +Pearly Emperor, is entrusted the superintendence of the world. He has +all the power of Heaven and earth in his hands. He is the correlative +of Heaven, or rather Heaven itself. + +The second Heaven, Shang Ch'ing, is ruled by the second person of +the triad, named Ling-pao T'ien-tsun, or Tao Chuen. No information is +given as to his origin. He is the custodian of the sacred books. He has +existed from the beginning of the world. He calculates time, dividing +it into different epochs. He occupies the upper pole of the world, and +determines the movements and interaction, or regulates the relations +of the _yin_ and the _yang_, the two great principles of nature. + +In the third Heaven, T'ai Ch'ing, the Taoists place Lao Tzu, the +promulgator of the true doctrine drawn up by Ling-pao T'ien-tsun. He +is alternatively called Shen Pao, 'the Treasure of the Spirits,' +and T'ai-shang Lao-chun, 'the Most Eminent Aged Ruler.' Under various +assumed names he has appeared as the teacher of kings and emperors, +the reformer of successive generations. + +This three-storied Taoist Heaven, or three Heavens, is the result of +the wish of the Taoists not to be out-rivalled by the Buddhists. For +Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood they substitute the _Tao_, or +Reason, the Classics, and the Priesthood. + +As regards the organization of the Taoist Heavens, Yue Huang has on his +register the name of eight hundred Taoist divinities and a multitude +of Immortals. These are all divided into three categories: Saints +(_Sheng-jen_), Heroes (_Chen-jen_), and Immortals (_Hsien-jen_), +occupying the three Heavens respectively in that order. + + +The Three Causes + +Connected with Taoism, but not exclusively associated with that +religion, is the worship of the Three Causes, the deities presiding +over three departments of physical nature, Heaven, earth, and +water. They are known by various designations: _San Kuan_, 'the Three +Agents'; _San Yuean_, 'the Three Origins'; _San Kuan Ta Ti_, 'the Three +Great Emperor Agents'; and _T'ai Shang San Kuan_, 'the Three Supreme +Agents.' This worship has passed through four chief phases, as follows: + +The first comprises Heaven, earth, and water, _T'ien, Ti, Shui_, +the sources of happiness, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from +evil respectively. Each of these is called King-emperor. Their names, +written on labels and offered to Heaven (on a mountain), earth (by +burial), and water (by immersion), are supposed to cure sickness. This +idea dates from the Han dynasty, being first noted about A.D. 172. + +The second, _San Yuean_ dating from A.D. 407 under the Wei dynasty, +identified the Three Agents with three dates of which they were +respectively made the patrons. The year was divided into three unequal +parts: the first to the seventh moon; the seventh to the tenth; and +the tenth to the twelfth. Of these, the fifteenth day of the first, +seventh, and tenth moons respectively became the three principal dates +of these periods. Thus the Agent of Heaven became the principal patron +of the first division, honoured on the fifteenth day of the first moon, +and so on. + +The third phase, _San Kuan_, resulted from the first two being found +too complicated for popular favour. The _San Kuan_ were the three +sons of a man, Ch'en Tzu-ch'un, who was so handsome and intelligent +that the three daughters of Lung Wang, the Dragon-king, fell in +love with him and went to live with him. The eldest girl was the +mother of the Superior Cause, the second of the Medium Cause, and the +third of the Inferior Cause. All these were gifted with supernatural +powers. Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun canonized them as the Three Great Emperor +Agents of Heaven, earth, and water, governors of all beings, devils +or gods, in the three regions of the universe. As in the first phase, +the _T'ien Kuan_ confers happiness, the _Ti Kuan_ grants remission +of sins, and the _Shui Kuan_ delivers from evil or misfortune. + +The fourth phase consisted simply in the substitution by the priests +for the abstract or time-principles of the three great sovereigns +of ancient times, Yao, Shun, and Yue. The _literati_, proud of the +apotheosis of their ancient rulers, hastened to offer incense to them, +and temples, _San Yuean Kung_, arose in very many parts of the Empire. + +A variation of this phase is the canonization, with the title of _San +Yuean_ or Three Causes, of _Wu-k'o San Chen Chuen_, 'the Three True +Sovereigns, Guests of the Kingdom of Wu.' They were three Censors +who lived in the reign of King Li (Li Wang, 878-841 B.C.) of the Chou +dynasty. Leaving the service of the Chou on account of Li's dissolute +living, they went to live in Wu, and brought victory to that state in +its war with the Ch'u State, then returned to their own country, and +became pillars of the Chou State under Li's successor. They appeared +to protect the Emperor Chen Tsung when he was offering the _Feng-shan_ +sacrifices on T'ai Shan in A.D. 1008, on which occasion they were +canonized with the titles of Superior, Medium, and Inferior Causes, +as before, conferring upon them the regencies of Heaven, earth, +and water respectively. + + +Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun + +Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun, or the First Cause, the Highest in Heaven, +generally placed at the head of the Taoist triad, is said never +to have existed but in the fertile imagination of the Lao Tzuist +sectarians. According to them Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun had neither origin +nor master, but is himself the cause of all beings, which is why he +is called the First Cause. + +As first member of the triad, and sovereign ruler of the First Heaven, +Yue Ch'ing, where reign the saints, he is raised in rank above all +the other gods. The name assigned to him is Lo Ching Hsin. He was +born before all beginnings; his substance is imperishable; it is +formed essentially of uncreated air, air _a se_, invisible and without +perceptible limits. No one has been able to penetrate to the beginnings +of his existence. The source of all truth, he at each renovation of +the worlds--that is, at each new _kalpa_--gives out the mysterious +doctrine which confers immortality. All who reach this knowledge +attain by degrees to life eternal, become refined like the spirits, +or instantly become Immortals, even while upon earth. + +Originally, Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun was not a member of the Taoist +triad. He resided above the Three Heavens, above the Three Pure +Ones, surviving the destructions and renovations of the universe, +as an immovable rock in the midst of a stormy sea. He set the stars +in motion, and caused the planets to revolve. The chief of his secret +police was Tsao Chuen, the Kitchen-god, who rendered to him an account +of the good and evil deeds of each family. His executive agent was +Lei Tsu, the God of Thunder, and his subordinates. The seven stars +of the North Pole were the palace of his ministers, whose offices +were on the various sacred mountains. Nowadays, however, Yuean-shih +T'ien-tsun is generally neglected for Yue Huang. + + +An Avatar of P'an Ku + +According to the tradition of Chin Hung, the God of T'ai Shan +of the fifth generation from P'an Ku, this being, then called +Yuean-shih T'ien-wang, was an avatar of P'an Ku. It came about in +this wise. In remote ages there lived on the mountains an old man, +Yuean-shih T'ien-wang, who used to sit on a rock and preach to the +multitude. He spoke of the highest antiquity as if from personal +experience. When Chin Hung asked him where he lived, he just raised +his hand toward Heaven, iridescent clouds enveloped his body, and he +replied: "Whoso wishes to know where I dwell must rise to impenetrable +heights." "But how," said Chin Hung, "was he to be found in this +immense emptiness?" Two genii, Ch'ih Ching-tzu and Huang Lao, then +descended on the summit of T'ai Shan and said: "Let us go and visit +this Yuean-shih. To do so, we must cross the boundaries of the universe +and pass beyond the farthest stars." Chin Hung begged them to give +him their instructions, to which he listened attentively. They then +ascended the highest of the sacred peaks, and thence mounted into the +heavens, calling to him from the misty heights: "If you wish to know +the origin of Yuean-shih, you must pass beyond the confines of Heaven +and earth, because he lives beyond the limits of the worlds. You must +ascend and ascend until you reach the sphere of nothingness and of +being, in the plains of the luminous shadows." + +Having reached these ethereal heights, the two genii saw a bright +light, and Hsuean-hsuean Shang-jen appeared before them. The two +genii bowed to do him homage and to express their gratitude. "You +cannot better show your gratitude," he replied, "than by making my +doctrine known among men. You desire," he added, "to know the history +of Yuean-shih. I will tell it you. When P'an Ku had completed his +work in the primitive Chaos, his spirit left its mortal envelope +and found itself tossed about in empty space without any fixed +support. 'I must,' it said, 'get reborn in visible form; until I can +go through a new birth I shall remain empty and unsettled,' His soul, +carried on the wings of the wind, reached Fu-yue T'ai. There it saw +a saintly lady named T'ai Yuean, forty years of age, still a virgin, +and living alone on Mount Ts'u-o. Air and variegated clouds were +the sole nourishment of her vital spirits. An hermaphrodite, at +once both the active and the passive principle, she daily scaled the +highest peak of the mountain to gather there the flowery quintessence +of the sun and the moon. P'an Ku, captivated by her virgin purity, +took advantage of a moment when she was breathing to enter her mouth +in the form of a ray of light. She was _enceinte_ for twelve years, +at the end of which period the fruit of her womb came out through her +spinal column. From its first moment the child could walk and speak, +and its body was surrounded by a five-coloured cloud. The newly-born +took the name of Yuean-shih T'ien-wang, and his mother was generally +known as T'ai-yuean Sheng-mu, 'the Holy Mother of the First Cause.'" + + +Yue Huang + +Yue Huang means 'the Jade Emperor,' or 'the Pure August One,' jade +symbolizing purity. He is also known by the name Yue-huang Shang-ti, +'the Pure August Emperor on High.' + +The history of this deity, who later received many honorific titles +and became the most popular god, a very Chinese Jupiter, seems to be +somewhat as follows: The Emperor Ch'eng Tsung of the Sung dynasty +having been obliged in A.D. 1005 to sign a disgraceful peace with +the Tunguses or Kitans, the dynasty was in danger of losing the +support of the nation. In order to hoodwink the people the Emperor +constituted himself a seer, and announced with great pomp that he +was in direct communication with the gods of Heaven. In doing this +he was following the advice of his crafty and unreliable minister +Wang Ch'in-jo, who had often tried to persuade him that the pretended +revelations attributed to Fu Hsi, Yue Wang, and others were only pure +inventions to induce obedience. The Emperor, having studied his part +well, assembled his ministers in the tenth moon of the year 1012, +and made to them the following declaration: "In a dream I had a visit +from an Immortal, who brought me a letter from Yue Huang, the purport +of which was as follows: 'I have already sent you by your ancestor +Chao [T'ai Tsu] two celestial missives. Now I am going to send him in +person to visit you.'" A little while after his ancestor T'ai Tsu, +the founder of the dynasty, came according to Yue Huang's promise, +and Ch'eng Tsung hastened to inform his ministers of it. This is the +origin of Yue Huang. He was born of a fraud, and came ready-made from +the brain of an emperor. + + +The Cask of Pearls + +Fearing to be admonished for the fraud by another of his ministers, +the scholar Wang Tan, the Emperor resolved to put a golden gag in his +mouth. So one day, having invited him to a banquet, he overwhelmed +him with flattery and made him drunk with good wine. "I would like +the members of your family also to taste this wine," he added, "so I +am making you a present of a cask of it." When Wang Tan returned home, +he found the cask filled with precious pearls. Out of gratitude to the +Emperor he kept silent as to the fraud, and made no further opposition +to his plans, but when on his death-bed he asked that his head be +shaved like a priest's and that he be clothed in priestly robes so +that he might expiate his crime of feebleness before the Emperor. + +K'ang Hsi, the great Emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty, who had already +declared that if it is wrong to impute deceit to a man it is still +more reprehensible to impute a fraud to Heaven, stigmatized him as +follows: "Wang Tan committed two faults: the first was in showing +himself a vile flatterer of his Prince during his life; the second +was in becoming a worshipper of Buddha at his death." + + +The Legend of Yue Huang + +So much for historical record. The legend of Yue Huang relates that in +ancient times there existed a kingdom named Kuang Yen Miao Lo Kuo, +whose king was Ching Te, his queen being called Pao Yueeh. Though +getting on in years, the latter had no son. The Taoist priests were +summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites. They recited +prayers with the object of obtaining an heir to the throne. During +the ensuing night the Queen had a vision. Lao Chuen appeared to her, +riding a dragon, and carrying a male child in his arms. He floated down +through the air in her direction. The Queen begged him to give her the +child as an heir to the throne. "I am quite willing," he said. "Here +it is." She fell on her knees and thanked him. On waking she found +herself _enceinte_. At the end of a year the Prince was born. From +an early age he showed himself compassionate and generous to the +poor. On the death of his father he ascended the throne, but after +reigning only a few days abdicated in favour of his chief minister, +and became a hermit at P'u-ming, in Shensi, and also on Mount Hsiu Yen, +in Yuennan. Having attained to perfection, he passed the rest of his +days in curing sickness and saving life; and it was in the exercise +of these charitable deeds that he died. The emperors Ch'eng Tsung +and Hui Tsung, of the Sung dynasty, loaded him with all the various +titles associated with his name at the present day. + +Both Buddhists and Taoists claim him as their own, the former +identifying him with Indra, in which case Yue Huang is a Buddhist deity +incorporated into the Taoist pantheon. He has also been taken to be +the subject of a 'nature myth.' The Emperor Ching Te, his father, +is the sun, the Queen Pao Yueeh the moon, and the marriage symbolizes +the rebirth of the vivifying power which clothes nature with green +plants and beautiful flowers. + + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu + +In modern Taoism T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu is regarded as the first of +the Patriarchs and one of the most powerful genii of the sect. His +master was Hung-chuen Lao-tsu. He wore a red robe embroidered with +white cranes, and rode a _k'uei niu_, a monster resembling a buffalo, +with one long horn like a unicorn. His palace, the Pi Yu Kung, was +situated on Mount Tzu Chih Yai. + +This genie took the part of Chou Wang and helped him to resist Wu +Wang's armies. First, he sent his disciple To-pao Tao-jen to Chieh-p'ai +Kuan. He gave him four precious swords and the plan of a fort which +he was to construct and to name Chu-hsien Chen, 'the Citadel of all +the Immortals.' + +To-pao Tao-jen carried out his orders, but he had to fight a battle +with Kuang Ch'eng-tzu, and the latter, armed with a celestial seal, +struck his adversary so hard that he fell to the ground and had to +take refuge in flight. + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu came to the defence of his disciple and to +restore the morale of his forces. Unfortunately, a posse of gods +arrived to aid Wu Wang's powerful general, Chiang Tzu-ya. The first +who attacked T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was Lao Tzu, who struck him several +times with his stick. Then came Chun T'i, armed with his cane. The +buffalo of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu stamped him under foot, and Chun +T'i was thrown to the earth, and only just had time to rise quickly +and mount into the air amid a great cloud of dust. + +There could be no doubt that the fight was going against T'ung-t'ien +Chiao-chu; to complete his discomfiture Jan-teng Tao-jen cleft the air +and fell upon him unexpectedly. With a violent blow of his 'Fix-sea' +staff he cast him down and compelled him to give up the struggle. + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu then prepared plans for a new fortified camp +beyond T'ung Kuan, and tried to take the offensive again, but again +Lao Tzu stopped him with a blow of his stick. Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun +wounded his shoulder with his precious stone Ju-i, and Chun-t'i +Tao-jen waved his 'Branch of the Seven Virtues.' Immediately the +magic sword of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was reduced to splinters, and +he saved himself only by flight. + +Hung-chuen Lao-tsu, the master of these three genii, seeing his three +beloved disciples in the _melee_, resolved to make peace between +them. He assembled all three in a tent in Chiang Tzu-ya's camp, made +them kneel before him, then reproached T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu at length +for having taken the part of the tyrant Chou, and recommended them +in future to live in harmony. After finishing his speech, he produced +three pills, and ordered each of the genii to swallow one. When they +had done so, Hung-chuen Lao-tsu said to them: "I have given you these +pills to ensure an inviolable truce among you. Know that the first +who entertains a thought of discord in his heart will find that the +pill will explode in his stomach and cause his instant death." + +Hung-chuen Lao-tsu then took T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu away with him on +his cloud to Heaven. + + + +Immortals, Heroes, Saints + +An Immortal, according to Taoist lore, is a solitary man of the +mountains. He appears to die, but does not. After 'death' his body +retains all the qualities of the living. The body or corpse is for +him only a means of transition, a phase of metamorphosis--a cocoon +or chrysalis, the temporary abode of the butterfly. + +To reach this state a hygienic regimen both of the body and mind must +be observed. All luxury, greed, and ambition must be avoided. But +negation is not enough. In the system of nourishment all the elements +which strengthen the essence of the constituent _yin_ and _yang_ +principles must be found by means of medicine, chemistry, gymnastic +exercises, etc. When the maximum vital force has been acquired the +means of preserving it and keeping it from the attacks of death +and disease must be discovered; in a word, he must spiritualize +himself--render himself completely independent of matter. All +the experiments have for their object the storing in the pills of +immortality the elements necessary for the development of the vital +force and for the constitution of a new spiritual and super-humanized +being. In this ascending perfection there are several grades: + +(1) The Immortal (_Hsien_). The first stage consists in bringing +about the birth of the superhuman in the ascetic's person, which +reaching perfection leaves the earthly body, like the grasshopper +its sheath. This first stage attained, the Immortal travels at will +throughout the universe, enjoys all the advantages of perfect health +without dreading disease or death, eats and drinks copiously--nothing +is wanting to complete his happiness. + +(2) The Perfect Man, or Hero (_Chen-jen_). The second stage is a higher +one. The whole body is spiritualized. It has become so subtile, so +spiritual, that it can fly in the air. Borne on the wings of the wind, +seated on the clouds of Heaven, it travels from one world to another +and fixes its habitation in the stars. It is freed from all laws of +matter, but is, however, not completely changed into pure spirit. + +(3) The Saint (_Sheng-jen_). The third stage is that of the superhuman +beings or saints. They are those who have attained to extraordinary +intelligence and virtue. + + +The God of the Immortals + +Mu Kung or Tung Wang Kung, the God of the Immortals, was also called +I Chuen Ming and Yue Huang Chuen, the Prince Yue Huang. + +The primitive vapour congealed, remained inactive for a time, and +then produced living beings, beginning with the formation of Mu Kung, +the purest substance of the Eastern Air, and sovereign of the active +male principle _yang_ and of all the countries of the East. His +palace is in the misty heavens, violet clouds form its dome, blue +clouds its walls. Hsien T'ung, 'the Immortal Youth,' and Yue Nue, +'the Jade Maiden,' are his servants. He keeps the register of all +the Immortals, male and female. + + +Hsi Wang Mu + +Hsi Wang Mu was formed of the pure quintessence of the Western Air, +in the legendary continent of Shen Chou. She is often called the +Golden Mother of the Tortoise. + +Her family name is variously given as Hou, Yang, and Ho. Her own name +was Hui, and first name Wan-chin. She had nine sons and twenty-four +daughters. + +As Mu Kung, formed of the Eastern Air, is the active principle of +the male air and sovereign of the Eastern Air, so Hsi Wang Mu, born +of the Western Air, is the passive or female principle (_yin_) and +sovereign of the Western Air. These two principles, co-operating, +engender Heaven and earth and all the beings of the universe, and +thus become the two principles of life and of the subsistence of all +that exists. She is the head of the troop of genii dwelling on the +K'un-lun Mountains (the Taoist equivalent of the Buddhist Sumeru), and +from time to time holds intercourse with favoured imperial votaries. + + +The Feast of Peaches + +Hsi Wang Mu's palace is situated in the high mountains of the snowy +K'un-lun. It is 1000 _li_ (about 333 miles) in circuit; a rampart of +massive gold surrounds its battlements of precious stones. Its right +wing rises on the edge of the Kingfishers' River. It is the usual +abode of the Immortals, who are divided into seven special categories +according to the colour of their garments--red, blue, black, violet, +yellow, green, and 'nature-colour.' There is a marvellous fountain +built of precious stones, where the periodical banquet of the +Immortals is held. This feast is called P'an-t'ao Hui, 'the Feast of +Peaches.' It takes place on the borders of the Yao Ch'ih, Lake of Gems, +and is attended by both male and female Immortals. Besides several +superfine meats, they are served with bears' paws, monkeys' lips, +dragons' liver, phoenix marrow, and peaches gathered in the orchard, +endowed with the mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who +have the good luck to taste them. It was by these peaches that the +date of the banquet was fixed. The tree put forth leaves once every +three thousand years, and it required three thousand years after that +for the fruit to ripen. These were Hsi Wang Mu's birthdays, when all +the Immortals assembled for the great feast, "the occasion being more +festive than solemn, for there was music on invisible instruments, +and songs not from mortal tongues." + + +The First Taoist Pope + +Chang Tao-ling, the first Taoist pope, was born in A.D. 35, in the +reign of the Emperor Kuang Wu Ti of the Han dynasty. His birthplace +is variously given as the T'ien-mu Shan, 'Eye of Heaven Mountain,' +in Lin-an Hsien, in Chekiang, and Feng-yang Fu, in Anhui. He devoted +himself wholly to study and meditation, declining all offers to enter +the service of the State. He preferred to take up his abode in the +mountains of Western China, where he persevered in the study of alchemy +and in cultivating the virtues of purity and mental abstraction. From +the hands of Lao Tzu he received supernaturally a mystic treatise, +by following the instructions in which he was successful in his search +for the elixir of life. + +One day when he was engaged in experimenting with the 'Dragon-tiger +elixir' a spiritual being appeared to him and said: "On Po-sung +Mountain is a stone house in which are concealed the writings of the +Three Emperors of antiquity and a canonical work. By obtaining these +you may ascend to Heaven, if you undergo the course of discipline +they prescribe." + +Chang Tao-ling found these works, and by means of them obtained +the power of flying, of hearing distant sounds, and of leaving +his body. After going through a thousand days of discipline, and +receiving instruction from a goddess, who taught 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. On account of the prodigious slaughter of +demons by this hero the wind and thunder were reduced to subjection, +and various divinities came with eager haste to acknowledge their +faults. In nine years he gained the power to ascend to Heaven. + + +The Founder of Modern Taoism + +Chang Tao-ling may rightly be considered as the true founder of modern +Taoism. The recipes for the pills of immortality contained in the +mysterious books, and the invention of talismans for the cure of all +sorts of maladies, not only exalted him to the high position he has +since occupied in the minds of his numerous disciples, but enabled +them in turn to exploit successfully this new source of power and +wealth. From that time the Taoist sect began to specialize in the art +of healing. Protecting or curing talismans bearing the Master's seal +were purchased for enormous sums. It is thus seen that he was after +all a deceiver of the people, and unbelievers or rival partisans of +other sects have dubbed him a 'rice-thief'--which perhaps he was. + +He is generally represented as clothed in richly decorated garments, +brandishing with his right hand his magic sword, holding in his +left a cup containing the draught of immortality, and riding a tiger +which in one paw grasps his magic seal and with the others tramples +down the five venomous creatures: lizard, snake, spider, toad, +and centipede. Pictures of him with these accessories are pasted +up in houses on the fifth day of the fifth moon to forfend calamity +and sickness. + + + +The Peach-gathering + +It is related of him that, not wishing to ascend to Heaven too soon, +he partook of only half of the pill of immortality, dividing the +other half among several of his admirers, and that he had at least two +selves or personalities, one of which used to disport itself in a boat +on a small lake in front of his house. The other self would receive +his visitors, entertaining them with food and drink and instructive +conversation. On one occasion this self said to them: "You are unable +to quit the world altogether as I can, but by imitating my example in +the matter of family relations you could procure a medicine which would +prolong your lives by several centuries. I have given the crucible +in which Huang Ti prepared the draught of immortality to my disciple +Wang Ch'ang. Later on, a man will come from the East, who also will +make use of it. He will arrive on the seventh day of the first moon." + +Exactly on that day there arrived from the East a man named Chao +Sheng, who was the person indicated by Chang Tao-ling. He was +recognized by a manifestation of himself he had caused to appear +in advance of his coming. Chang then led all his disciples, to the +number of three hundred, to the highest peak of the Yuen-t'ai. Below +them they saw a peach-tree growing near a pointed rock, stretching +out its branches like arms above a fathomless abyss. It was a large +tree, covered with ripe fruit. Chang said to his disciples: "I will +communicate a spiritual formula to the one among you who will dare +to gather the fruit of that tree." They all leaned over to look, +but each declared the feat to be impossible. Chao Sheng alone had +the courage to rush out to the point of the rock and up the tree +stretching out into space. With firm foot he stood and gathered the +peaches, placing them in the folds of his cloak, as many as it would +hold, but when he wished to climb back up the precipitous slope, +his hands slipped on the smooth rock, and all his attempts were in +vain. Accordingly, he threw the peaches, three hundred and two in all, +one by one up to Chang Tao-ling, who distributed them. Each disciple +ate one, as also did Chang, who reserved the remaining one for Chao +Sheng, whom he helped to climb up again. To do this Chang extended +his arm to a length of thirty feet, all present marvelling at the +miracle. After Chao had eaten his peach Chang stood on the edge of +the precipice, and said with a laugh: "Chao Sheng was brave enough +to climb out to that tree and his foot never tripped. I too will make +the attempt. If I succeed I will have a big peach as a reward." Having +spoken thus, he leapt into space, and alighted in the branches of the +peach-tree. Wang Ch'ang and Chao Sheng also jumped into the tree and +stood one on each side of him. There Chang communicated to them the +mysterious formula. Three days later they returned to their homes; +then, having made final arrangements, they repaired once more to the +mountain peak, whence, in the presence of the other disciples, who +followed them with their eyes until they had completely disappeared +from view, all three ascended to Heaven in broad daylight. + + +Chang Tao-ling's Great Power + +The name of Chang Tao-ling, the Heavenly Teacher, is a household +word in China. He is on earth the Vicegerent of the Pearly Emperor +in Heaven, and the Commander-in-Chief of the hosts of Taoism. He, the +chief of the wizards, the 'true [_i.e._ ideal] man,' as he is called, +wields an immense spiritual power throughout the land. The present +pope boasts of an unbroken line for three-score generations. His +family obtained possession of the Dragon-tiger Mountain in Kiangsi +about A.D. 1000. "This personage," says a pre-Republican writer, +"assumes a state which mimics the imperial. 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." + + +Kings of Heaven + +The Four Kings of Heaven, Ssu Ta T'ien-wang, reside on Mount Sumeru +(Hsue-mi Shan), the centre of the universe. It is 3,360,000 _li_--that +is, about a million miles--high. [19] Its eastern slope is of gold, its +western of silver, its south-eastern of crystal, and its north-eastern +of agate. The Four Kings appear to be the Taoist reflection of the +four _Chin-kang_ of Buddhism already noticed. Their names are Li, +Ma, Chao, and Wen. They are represented as holding a pagoda, sword, +two swords, and spiked club respectively. Their worship appears to +be due to their auspicious appearance and aid on various critical +occasions in the dynastic history of the T'ang and Sung Periods. + + +T'ai I + +Temples are found in various parts dedicated to T'ai I, the Great +One, or Great Unity. When Emperor Wu Ti (140-86 B.C.) of the Han +dynasty was in search of the secret of immortality, and various +suggestions had proved unsatisfactory, a Taoist priest, Miao Chi, +told the Emperor that his want of success was due to his omission to +sacrifice to T'ai I, the first of the celestial spirits, quoting the +classical precedent of antiquity found in the _Book of History_. The +Emperor, believing his word, ordered the Grand Master of Sacrifices to +re-establish this worship at the capital. He followed carefully the +prescriptions of Miao Chi. This enraged the _literati_, who resolved +to ruin him. One day, when the Emperor was about to drink one of +his potions, one of the chief courtiers seized the cup and drank the +contents himself. The Emperor was about to have him slain, when he +said: "Your Majesty's order is unnecessary; if the potion confers +immortality, I cannot be killed; if, on the other hand, it does not, +your Majesty should recompense me for disproving the pretensions of +the Taoist priest." The Emperor, however, was not convinced. + +One account represents T'ai I as having lived in the time of +Shen Nung, the Divine Husbandman, who visited him to consult with +him on the subjects of diseases and fortune. He was Hsien Yuean's +medical preceptor. His medical knowledge was handed down to future +generations. He was one of those who, with the Immortals, was invited +to the great Peach Assembly of the Western Royal Mother. + +As the spirit of the star T'ai I he resides in the Eastern Palace, +listening for the cries of sufferers in order to save them. For this +purpose he assumes numberless forms in various regions. With a boat +of lotus-flowers of nine colours he ferries men over to the shore of +salvation. Holding in his hand a willow-branch, he scatters from it +the dew of the doctrine. + +T'ai I is variously represented as the Ruler of the Five Celestial +Sovereigns, Cosmic Matter before it congealed into concrete shapes, the +Triune Spirit of Heaven, earth, and T'ai I as three separate entities, +an unknown Spirit, the Spirit of the Pole Star, etc., but practically +the Taoists confine their T'ai I to T'ai-i Chen-jen, in which Perfect +Man they personify the abstract philosophical notions. [20] + + +Goddess of the North Star + +Tou Mu, the Bushel Mother, or Goddess of the North Star, worshipped +by both Buddhists and Taoists, is the Indian Maritchi, and was made a +stellar divinity by the Taoists. She is said to have been the mother +of the nine Jen Huang or Human Sovereigns of fabulous antiquity, +who succeeded the lines of Celestial and Terrestrial Sovereigns. She +occupies in the Taoist religion the same relative position as Kuan +Yin, who may be said to be the heart of Buddhism. Having attained to +a profound knowledge of celestial mysteries, she shone with heavenly +light, could cross the seas, and pass from the sun to the moon. She +also had a kind heart for the sufferings of humanity. The King of Chou +Yue, in the north, married her on hearing of her many virtues. They +had nine sons. Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun came to earth to invite her, her +husband, and nine sons to enjoy the delights of Heaven. He placed +her in the palace Tou Shu, the Pivot of the Pole, because all the +other stars revolve round it, and gave her the title of Queen of the +Doctrine of Primitive Heaven. Her nine sons have their palaces in +the neighbouring stars. + +Tou Mu wears the Buddhist crown, is seated on a lotus throne, has +three eyes, eighteen arms, and holds various precious objects in her +numerous hands, such as a bow, spear, sword, flag, dragon's head, +pagoda, five chariots, sun's disk, moon's disk, etc. She has control +of 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 day of every month. + +Of her sons, two are the Northern and Southern Bushels; the latter, +dressed in red, rules birth; the former, in white, 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 years." + + +Snorter and Blower + +At the time of the overthrow of the Shang and establishment of the Chou +dynasty in 1122 B.C. there lived two marshals, Cheng Lung and Ch'en +Ch'i. These were Heng and Ha, the Snorter and Blower respectively. + +The former was the chief superintendent of supplies for the armies of +the tyrant emperor Chou, the Nero of China. The latter was in charge +of the victualling department of the same army. + +From his master, Tu O, the celebrated Taoist magician of the K'un-lun +Mountains, Heng acquired a marvellous power. When he snorted, his +nostrils, with a sound like that of a bell, emitted two white columns +of light, which destroyed his enemies, body and soul. Thus through him +the Chou gained numerous victories. But one day he was captured, bound, +and taken to the general of Chou. His life was spared, and he was +made general superintendent of army stores as well as generalissimo +of five army corps. Later on he found himself face to face with the +Blower. The latter had learnt from the magician how to store in his +chest a supply of yellow gas which, when he blew it out, annihilated +anyone whom it struck. By this means he caused large gaps to be made +in the ranks of the enemy. + +Being opposed to each other, the one snorting out great streaks of +white light, the other blowing streams of yellow gas, the combat +continued until the Blower was wounded in the shoulder by No-cha, +of the army of Chou, and pierced in the stomach with a spear by Huang +Fei-hu, Yellow Flying Tiger. + +The Snorter in turn was slain in this fight by Marshal Chin Ta-sheng, +'Golden Big Pint,' who was an ox-spirit and endowed with the mysterious +power of producing in his entrails the celebrated _niu huang_, +ox-yellow, or bezoar. Facing the Snorter, he spat in his face, with +a noise like thunder, a piece of bezoar as large as a rice-bowl. It +struck him on the nose and split his nostrils. He fell to the earth, +and was immediately cut in two by a blow from his victor's sword. + +After the Chou dynasty had been definitely established Chiang Tzu-ya +canonized the two marshals Heng and Ha, and conferred on them the +offices of guardians of the Buddhist temple gates, where their gigantic +images may be seen. + + +Blue Dragon and White Tiger + +The functions discharged by Heng and Ha at the gates of Buddhist +temples are in Taoist temples discharged by Blue Dragon and White +Tiger. + +The former, the Spirit of the Blue Dragon Star, was Teng Chiu-kung, +one of the chief generals of the last emperor of the Yin dynasty. He +had a son named Teng Hsiu, and a daughter named Ch'an-yue. + +The army of Teng Chiu-kung was camped at San-shan Kuan, when he +received orders to proceed to the battle then taking place at Hsi +Ch'i. There, in standing up to No-cha and Huang Fei-hu, he had his +left arm broken by the former's magic bracelet, but, fortunately for +him, his subordinate, T'u Hsing-sun, a renowned magician, gave him +a remedy which quickly healed the fracture. + +His daughter then came on the scene to avenge her father. She had a +magic weapon, the Five-fire Stone, which she hurled full in the face +of Yang Chien. But the Immortal was not wounded; on the other hand, +his celestial dog jumped at Ch'an-yue and bit her neck, so that she +was obliged to flee. T'u Hsing-sun, however, healed the wound. + +After a banquet, Teng Chiu-kung promised his daughter in marriage to +T'u Hsing-sun if he would gain him the victory at Hsi Ch'i. Chiang +Tzu-ya then persuaded T'u's magic master, Chue Liu-sun, to call his +disciple over to his camp, where he asked him why he was fighting +against the new dynasty. "Because," he replied, "Chiu-kung has promised +me his daughter in marriage as a reward of success." Chiang Tzu-ya +thereupon promised to obtain the bride, and sent a force to seize +her. As a result of the fighting that ensued, Chiu-kung was beaten, +and retreated in confusion, leaving Ch'an-yue in the hands of the +victors. During the next few days the marriage was celebrated with +great ceremony in the victor's camp. According to custom, the bride +returned for some days to her father's house, and while there she +earnestly exhorted Chiu-kung to submit. Following her advice, he went +over to Chiang Tzu-ya's party. + +In the ensuing battles he fought valiantly on the side of his former +enemy, and killed many famous warriors, but he was eventually attacked +by the Blower, from whose mouth a column of yellow gas struck him, +throwing him from his steed. He was made prisoner, and executed by +order of General Ch'iu Yin. Chiang Tzu-ya conferred on him the kingdom +of the Blue Dragon Star. + +The Spirit of the White Tiger Star is Yin Ch'eng-hsiu. His father, +Yin P'o-pai, a high courtier of the tyrant Chou Wang, was sent to +negotiate peace with Chiang Tzu-ya, but was seized and put to death by +Marquis Chiang Wen-huan. His son, attempting to avenge his father's +murder, was pierced by a spear, and his head was cut off and carried +in triumph to Chiang Tzu-ya. + +As compensation he was, though somewhat tardily, canonized as the +Spirit of the White Tiger Star. + + +Apotheosized Philosophers + +The philosophers Lieh Tzu, Huai-nan Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Mo Tzu, etc., +have also been apotheosized. Nothing very remarkable is related +of them. Most of them had several reincarnations and possessed +supernatural powers. The second, who was a king, when taken by +the Eight Immortals to the genii's Heaven forgot now and then to +address them as superiors, and but for their intercession with +Yue Ti, the Pearly Emperor, would have been reincarnated. In order +to humiliate himself, he thereafter called himself Huai-nan Tzu, +'the Sage of the South of the Huai.' The third, Chuang Tzu, Chuang +Sheng, or Chuang Chou, was a disciple of Lao Tzu. Chuang Tzu was in +the habit of sleeping during the day, and at night would transform +himself into a butterfly, which fluttered gaily over the flowers in +the garden. On waking, he would still feel the sensation of flying in +his shoulders. On asking Lao Tzu the reason for this, he was told: +"Formerly you were a white butterfly which, having partaken of the +quintessence of flowers and of the _yin_ and the _yang_, should have +been immortalized; but one day you stole some peaches and flowers in +Wang Mu Niang-niang's garden. The guardian of the garden slew you, +and that is how you came to be reincarnated." At this time he was +fifty years of age. + + +Fanning the Grave + +One of the tales associated with him describes how he saw a young +woman in mourning vigorously fanning a newly made grave. On his asking +her the reason of this strange conduct, she replied: "I am doing this +because my husband begged me to wait until the earth on his tomb was +dry before I remarried!" Chuang Tzu offered to help her, and as soon +as he waved the fan once the earth was dry. The young widow thanked +him and departed. + +On his return home, Chuang Sheng related this incident to his +wife. She expressed astonishment at such conduct on the part of a +wife. "There's nothing to be surprised at," rejoined the husband; +"that's how things go in this world." Seeing that he was poking fun +at her, she protested angrily. Some little time after this Chuang +Sheng died. His wife, much grieved, buried him. + + +Husband and Wife + +A few days later a young man named Ch'u Wang-sun arrived with the +intention, as he said, of placing himself under the instruction of +Chuang Sheng. When he heard that he was dead he went and performed +prostrations before his tomb, and afterward took up his abode in an +empty room, saying that he wished to study. After half a month had +elapsed, the widow asked an old servant who had accompanied Wang-sun +if the young man was married. On his replying in the negative, she +requested the old servant to propose a match between them. Wang-sun +made some objections, saying that people would criticize their +conduct. "Since my husband is dead, what can they say?" replied +the widow. She then put off her mourning-garments and prepared for +the wedding. + +Wang-sun took her to the grave of her husband, and said to her: +"The gentleman has returned to life!" She looked at Wang-sun and +recognized the features of her husband. She was so overwhelmed with +shame that she hanged herself. Chuang Sheng buried her in an empty +tomb, and then began to sing. + +He burnt his house, went away to P'u-shui, in Hupei, and occupied +himself in fishing. From there he went on to Chung-t'iao Shan, where +he met Feng Hou and her teacher Hsuean Nue, the Mother of Heaven. In +their company he visited the palaces of the stars. One day, when he +was attending a banquet at the palace of Wang-mu, Shang Ti gave him as +his kingdom the planet Jupiter, and assigned to him as his palace the +ancient abode of Mao Meng, the stellar god reincarnated during the Chou +dynasty. He had not yet returned, and had left his palace empty. Shang +Ti had cautioned him never to absent himself without his permission. + + +Canonized Generalissimos + +A large number of military men also have been canonized as celestial +generalissimos. A few will serve as examples of the rest. + + + +The Three Musical Brothers + +There were three brothers: T'ien Yuean-shuai, the eldest; T'ien Hung-i, +the second; and T'ien Chih-piao, the youngest. They were all musicians +of unsurpassed talent. + +In the K'ai-yuean Period (A.D. 713-42) the Emperor Hsuean Tsung, of +the T'ang dynasty, appointed them his music masters. At the sound of +their wonderful flute the clouds in the sky stopped in their courses; +the harmony of their songs caused the odoriferous _la mei_ flower to +open in winter. They excelled also in songs and dances. + +The Emperor fell sick. He saw in a dream the three brothers +accompanying their singing on a mandolin and violin. The harmony of +their songs charmed his ear, and on waking he found himself well +again. Out of gratitude for this benefit he conferred on each the +title of marquis. + +The Grand Master of the Taoists was trying to stay the ravages +of a pestilence, but he could not conquer the devils which caused +it. Under these circumstances he appealed to the three brothers and +asked their advice as to what course to adopt. T'ien Yuean-shuai had a +large boat built, called 'Spirit-boat.' He assembled in it a million +spirits, and ordered them to beat drums. On hearing this tumult all +the demons of the town came out to listen. T'ien Yuean-shuai, seizing +the opportunity, captured them all and, with the help of the Grand +Master, expelled them from the town. + +Besides the canonization of the three T'ien brothers, all the members +of their families received posthumous titles. + + + +The Dragon-boat Festival + +This is said to be the origin of the dragon-boats which are to be +seen on all the waterways of China on the fifth day of the fifth +moon. [21] The Festival of the Dragon-boats, held on that day, was +instituted in memory of the statesman-poet Ch'ue Yuean (332-296 B.C.), +who drowned himself in the Mi-lo River, an affluent of the Tung-t'ing +Lake, after having been falsely accused by one of the petty princes +of the State. The people, out of pity for the unfortunate courtier, +sent out these boats in search of his body. + + +Chiang Tzu-ya + +In the wars which resulted in the overthrow of the tyrant Chou Wang +and his dynasty and the establishment of the great Chou dynasty, +the most influential generalissimo was Chiang Tzu-ya. His family name +was Chiang, and his own name Shang, but owing to his descent from one +of the ministers of the ancient King Yao, whose heirs owned the fief +of Lue, the family came to be called by that name, and he himself was +known as Lue Shang. His honorific title was T'ai Kung Wang, 'Hope of +T'ai Kung,' given him by Wen Wang, who recognized in the person of +Chiang Tzu-ya the wise minister whom his father T'ai Kung had caused +him to expect before his death. + + +The Battle of Mu Yeh + +Chiang Tzu-ya was originally in the service of the tyrant Chou Wang, +but transferred his services to the Chou cause, and by his wonderful +skill enabled that house finally to gain the victory. The decisive +battle took place at Mu Yeh, situated to the south of Wei-hui Fu, +in 1122 B.C. The soldiers of Yin, 700,000 in number, were defeated, +and Chou, the tyrant, shut himself up in his magnificent palace, set +it alight, and was burned alive with all his possessions. For this +achievement Chiang Tzu-ya was granted by Wu Wang the title of Father +and Counsellor, and was appointed Prince of Ch'i, with perpetual +succession to his descendants. + + +A Legend of Chiang Tzu-ya + +The _Feng shen yen i_ contains many chapters describing in detail the +various battles which resulted in the overthrow of the last tyrant +of the Shang dynasty and the establishment of the illustrious Chou +dynasty on the throne of China. This legend and the following one +are epitomized from that work. + + +No-cha defeats Chang Kuei-fang + +The redoubtable No-cha having, by means of his Heaven-and-earth +Bracelet, vanquished Feng Lin, a star-god and subordinate officer of +Chang Kuei-fang, in spite of the black smoke-clouds which he blew +out of his nostrils, the defeated warrior fled and sought the aid +of his chief, who fought No-cha in some thirty to forty encounters +without succeeding in dislodging him from his Wind-fire Wheel, +which enabled him to move about rapidly and to perform prodigious +feats, such as causing hosts of silver flying dragons like clouds of +snow to descend upon his enemy. During one of these fights No-cha +heard his name called three times, but paid no heed. Finally, with +his Heaven-and-earth Bracelet he broke Chang Kuei-fang's left arm, +following this up by shooting out some dazzling rays of light which +knocked him off his horse. + +When he returned to the city to report his victory to Tzu-ya, +the latter asked him if during the battle Kuei-fang had called +his name. "Yes," replied No-cha, "he called, but I took no heed +of him." "When Kuei-fang calls," said Tzu-ya, "the _hun_ and the +_p'o_ [_anima_ and _umbra_] become separated, and so the body +falls apart." "But," replied No-cha, "I had changed myself into a +lotus-flower, which has neither _hun_ nor _p'o_, so he could not +succeed in getting me off my magic wheel." + + +Tzu-ya goes to K'un-lun + +Tzu-ya, however, still uncertain in mind about the finality of No-cha's +victories, went to consult Wu Wang (whose death had not yet taken +place at this time). After the interview Tzu-ya informed Wu Wang of +his wish to visit K'un-lun Mountain. Wu Wang warned him of the danger +of leaving the kingdom with the enemy so near the capital; but Tzu-ya +obtained his consent by saying he would be absent only three days +at most. So he gave instructions regarding the defence to No-cha, +and went off in his spirit chariot to K'un-lun. On his arrival at the +Unicorn Precipice he was much enraptured with the beautiful scenery, +the colours, flowers, trees, bridges, birds, deer, apes, blue lions, +white elephants, etc., all of which seemed to make earth surpass +Heaven in loveliness. + + +He receives the List of Immortals + +From the Unicorn Precipice he went on to the Jade Palace of +Abstraction. Here he was presented to Yuean-shih. From him he received +the List of Promotions to Immortals, which Nan-chi Hsien-weng, +'Ancient Immortal of the South Pole,' had brought, and was told to +go and erect a Feng Shen T'ai (Spirits' Promotion Terrace) on which +to exhibit it. Yuean-shih also warned him that if anyone called him +while he was on the way he was to be most careful not to answer. On +reaching the Unicorn Precipice on his way back, he heard some one +call: "Chiang Tzu-ya!" This happened three times without his paying +any heed. Then the voice was heard to say: "Now that you are Prime +Minister, how devoid of feeling and forgetful of bygone benefits you +must be not to remember one who studied with you in the Jade Palace +of Abstraction!" Tzu-ya could not but turn his head and look. He +then saw that it was Shen Kung-pao. He said: "Brother, I did not know +it was you who were calling me, and I did not heed you as Shih-tsun +told me on no account to reply." Shen Kung-pao said: "What is that +you hold in your hand?" He told him it was the List of Promotions +to Immortals. Shen Kung-pao then tried to entice Tzu-ya from his +allegiance to Chou. Among Shen's tactics was that of convincing +Tzu-ya of the superiority of the magical arts at the disposal of +the supporters of Chou Wang. "You," he said, "can drain the sea, +change the hills, and suchlike things, but what are those compared +with my powers, who can take off my head, make it mount into space, +travel 10,000,000 _li_, and return to my neck just as complete as +before and able to speak? Burn your List of Promotions to Immortals +and come with me." Tzu-ya, thinking that a head which could travel +10,000,000 _li_ and be the same as before was exceedingly rare, said: +"Brother, you take your head off, and if in reality it can do as you +say, rise into space and return and be as before, I shall be willing to +burn the List of Promotions to Immortals and return with you to Chao +Ko." Shen Kung-pao said: "You will not go back on your word?" Tzu-ya +said: "When your elder brother has spoken his word is as unchangeable +as Mount T'ai, How can there be any going back on my word?" + + +The Soaring Head + +Shen Kung-pao then doffed his Taoist cap, seized his sword, with his +left hand firmly grasped the blue thread binding his hair, and with +his right cut off his head. His body did not fall down. He then took +his head and threw it up into space. Tzu-ya gazed with upturned face +as it continued to rise, and was sorely puzzled. But the Ancient +Immortal of the South Pole had kept a watch on the proceedings. He +said: "Tzu-ya is a loyal and honest man; it looks as if he has been +deceived by this charlatan." He ordered White Crane Youth to assume +quickly the form of a crane and fetch Shen Kung-pao's head. + + +The Ancient Immortal saves the Situation + +Tzu-ya was still gazing upward when he felt a slap on his back +and, turning round, saw that it was the Ancient Immortal of the +South Pole. Tzu-ya quickly asked: "My elder brother, why have you +returned?" Hsien-weng said: "You are a fool. Shen Kung-pao is a +man of unholy practices. These few small tricks of his you take as +realities. But if the head does not return to the neck within an hour +and three-quarters the blood will coagulate and he will die. Shih-tsun +ordered you not to reply to anyone; why did you not hearken to +his words? From the Jade Palace of Abstraction I saw you speaking +together, and knew you had promised to burn the List of Promotions to +Immortals. So I ordered White Crane Youth to bring me the head. After +an hour and three-quarters Shen Kung-pao will be recompensed." + +Tzu-ya said: "My elder brother, since you know all you can pardon +him. In the Taoist heart there is no place where mercy cannot be +exercised. Remember the many years during which he has faithfully +followed the Path." + +Eventually the Ancient Immortal was persuaded, but in the meantime +Shen Kung-pao, finding that his head did not return, became very much +troubled in mind. In an hour and three-quarters the blood would stop +flowing and he would die. However, Tzu-ya having succeeded in his +intercession with the Ancient Immortal, the latter signed to White +Crane Youth, who was flying in space with the head in his beak, to +let it drop. He did so, but when it reached the neck it was facing +backward. Shen Kung-pao quickly put up his hand, took hold of an ear, +and turned his head the right way round. He was then able to open +his eyes, when he saw the Ancient Immortal of the South Pole. The +latter arraigned him in a loud voice saying: "You as-good-as-dead +charlatan, who by means of corrupt tricks try to deceive Tzu-ya and +make him burn the List of Immortals and help Chou Wang against Chou, +what do you mean by all this? You should be taken to the Jade Palace +of Abstraction to be punished!" + +Shen Kung-pao, ashamed, could not reply; mounting his tiger, he made +off; but as he left he hurled back a threat that the Chou would yet +have their white bones piled mountains high at Hsi Ch'i. Subsequently +Tzu-ya, carefully preserving the precious List, after many adventures +succeeded in building the Feng Shen T'ai, and posted the List up on +it. Having accomplished his mission, he returned in time to resist +the capture of Hsi Ch'i by Chang Kuei-fang, whose troops were defeated +with great slaughter. + + + +Ch'iung Hsiao's Magic Scissors + +In another of the many conflicts between the two rival states Lao Tzu +entered the battle, whereupon Ch'iung Hsiao, a goddess who fought for +the house of Shang (Chou), hurled into the air her gold scaly-dragon +scissors. As these slowly descended, opening and closing in a most +ominous manner, Lao Tzu waved the sleeve of his jacket and they fell +into the sea and became absolutely motionless. Many similar tricks +were used by the various contestants. The Gold Bushel of Chaotic +Origin succumbed to the Wind-fire Sphere, and so on. Ch'iung Hsiao +resumed the attack with some magic two-edged swords, but was killed +by a blow from White Crane Youth's Three-precious Jade Sceptre, hurled +at her by Lao Tzu's orders. Pi Hsiao, her sister, attempted to avenge +her death, but Yuean-shih, producing from his sleeve a magical box, +threw it into the air and caught Pi Hsiao in it. When it was opened +it was found that she had melted into blood and water. + + +Chiang Tzu-ya defeats Wen Chung + +After this Lao Tzu rallied many of the skilful spirits to help Chiang +Tzu-ya in his battle with Wen Chung, providing them with the Ancient +Immortal of the South Pole's Sand-blaster and an earth-conquering light +which enabled them to travel a thousand _li_ in a day. From the hot +sand used the contest became known as the Red Sand Battle. Jan Teng, +on P'eng-lai Mountain, in consultation with Tzu-ya, also arranged +the plan of battle. + + +The Red Sand Battle + +The fight began with a challenge from the Ancient Immortal of the +South Pole to Chang Shao. The latter, riding his deer, dashed into +the fray, and aimed a terrific blow with his sword at Hsien-weng's +head, but White Crane Youth warded it off with his Three-precious Jade +Sceptre. Chang then produced a two-edged sword and renewed the attack, +but, being disarmed, dismounted from his deer and threw several +handfuls of hot sand at Hsien-weng. The latter, however, easily +fanned them away with his Five-fire Seven-feathers Fan, rendering +them harmless. Chang then fetched a whole bushel of the hot sand and +scattered it over the enemy, but Hsien-weng counteracted the menace +by merely waving his fan. White Crane Youth struck Chang Shao with +his jade sceptre, knocking him off his horse, and then dispatched +him with his two-edged sword. + +After this battle Wu Wang was found to be already dead. Jan Teng +on learning this ordered Lei Chen-tzu to take the corpse to Mount +P'eng and wash it. He then dissolved a pill in water and poured the +solution into Wu Wang's mouth, whereupon he revived and was escorted +back to his palace. + + +Further Fighting + +Preparations were then made for resuming the attack on Wen +Chung. While the latter was consulting with Ts'ai-yuen Hsien-tzu and +Han Chih-hsien, he heard the sound of the Chou guns and the thunder of +their troops. Wen Chung, mounting his black unicorn, galloped like a +whiff of smoke to meet Tzu-ya, but was stopped by blows from two silver +hammers wielded by Huang T'ien-hua. Han Chih-hsien came to Wen's aid, +but was opposed by Pi Hsiang-yang. Ts'ai-yuen Hsien-tzu dashed into +the fray, but No-cha stepped on to his Wind-fire Wheel and opposed +him. From all sides other Immortals joined in the terrific battle, +which was a turmoil of longbows and crossbows, iron armour and brass +mail, striking whips and falling hammers, weapons cleaving mail and +mail resisting weapons. In this fierce contest, while Tzu-ya was +fighting Wen Chung, Han Chih-hsien released a black wind from his +magic wind-bag, but he did not know that the Taoist Barge of Mercy +(which transports departed souls to the land of bliss), sent by +Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, had on board the Stop-wind Pearl, +by which the black storm was immediately quelled. Thereupon Tzu-ya +quickly seized his Vanquish-spirits Whip and struck Han Chih-hsien +in the middle of the skull, so that the brain-fluid gushed forth and +he died. No-cha then slew Ts'ai-yuen Hsien-tzu with a spear-thrust. + +Thus the stern fight went on, until finally Tzu-ya, under cover +of night, attacked Wen Chung's troops simultaneously on all four +sides. The noise of slaughter filled the air. Generals and rank and +file, lanterns, torches, swords, spears, guns, and daggers were one +confused _melee_; Heaven could scarcely be distinguished from earth, +and corpses were piled mountains high. + +Tzu-ya, having broken through seven lines of the enemy's ranks, +forced his way into Wen Chung's camp. The latter mounted his unicorn, +and brandishing his magic whip dashed to meet him. Tzu-ya drew +his sword and stopped his onrush, being aided by Lung Hsue-hu, who +repeatedly cast a rain of hot stones on to the troops. In the midst +of the fight Tzu-ya brought out his great magic whip, and in spite +of Wen Chung's efforts to avoid it succeeded in wounding him in the +left arm. The Chou troops were fighting like dragons lashing their +tails and pythons curling their bodies. To add to their disasters, +the Chou now saw flames rising behind the camp, and knew that their +provisions were being burned by Yang Chien. + +The Chou armies, with gongs beating and drums rolling, advanced for a +final effort, the slaughter being so great that even the devils wept +and the spirits wailed. Wen Chung was eventually driven back seventy +_li_ to Ch'i Hill. His troops could do nothing but sigh and stumble +along. He made for Peach-blossom Range, but as he approached it he +saw a yellow banner hoisted, and under it was Kuang Ch'eng-tzu. Being +prevented from escaping in that direction he joined battle, but by +use of red-hot sand, his two-edged sword, and his Turn-heaven Seal +Kuang Ch'eng-tzu put him to flight. He then made off toward the +west, followed by Teng Chung. His design was to make for Swallow +Hill, which he reached after several days of weary marching. Here +he saw another yellow banner flying, and Ch'ih Ching-tzu informed +him that Jan Teng had forbidden him to stop at Swallow Hill or to +go through the Five Passes. This led to another pitched battle, +Wen Chung using his magic whip and Ch'ih his spiritual two-edged +sword. After several bouts Ch'ih brought out his _yin-yang_ mirror, +by use of which irresistible weapon Wen was driven to Yellow Flower +Hill and Blue Dragon Pass, and so on from battle to battle, until he +was drawn up to Heaven from the top of Dead-dragon Mountain. + + +Thousand-li Eye and Favourable-wind Ear + +Ch'ien-li Yen, 'Thousand-_li_ Eye,' and Shun-feng Erh, 'Favourable-wind +Ear,' were two brothers named Kao Ming and Kao Chio. On account +of their martial bearing they found favour with the tyrant emperor +Chou Wang, who appointed them generals, and sent them to serve with +Generalissimo Yuean Hung (who was a monkey which had taken human form) +at Meng-ching. + +Kao Ming was very tall, with a blue face, flaming eyes, a large mouth, +and prominent teeth like those of a rhinoceros. + +Kao Chio had a greenish face and skin, two horns on his head, a red +beard, and a large mouth with teeth shaped like swords. + +One of their first encounters was with No-cha, who hurled at them his +mystic bracelet, which struck Kao Chio on the head, but did not leave +even a scratch. When, however, he seized his fire-globe the brothers +thought it wiser to retreat. + +Finding no means of conquering them, Yang Chien, Chiang Tzu-ya, and +Li Ching took counsel together and decided to have recourse to Fu +Hsi's trigrams, and by smearing them with the blood of a fowl and a +dog to destroy their spiritual power. + +But the two brothers were fully informed of what was +designed. Thousand-_li_ Eye had seen and Favourable-wind Ear had +heard everything, so that all their preparations proved unavailing. + +Yang Chien then went to Chiang Tzu-ya and said to him: "These +two brothers are powerful devils; I must take more effectual +measures." "Where will you go for aid?" asked Chiang Tzu-ya. "I +cannot tell you, for they would hear," replied Yang. He then +left. Favourable-wind Ear heard this dialogue, and Thousand-_li_ +Eye saw him leave. "He did not say where he was going," they said +to each other, "but we fear him not." Yang Chien went to Yue-ch'uean +Shan, where lived Yue-ting Chen-jen, 'Hero Jade-tripod.' He told him +about their two adversaries, and asked him how they were to conquer +them. "These two genii," replied the Chen-jen, "are from Ch'i-p'an +Shan, Chessboard Mountain. One is a spiritual peach-tree, the other +a spiritual pomegranate-tree. Their roots cover an area of thirty +square _li_ of ground. On that mountain there is a temple dedicated to +Huang-ti, in which are clay images of two devils called Ch'ien-li Yen +and Shun-feng Erh. The peach-tree and pomegranate-tree, having become +spiritual beings, have taken up their abode in these images. One has +eyes which can see objects distinctly at a distance of a thousand _li_, +the other ears that can hear sounds at a like distance. But beyond +that distance they can neither see nor hear. Return and tell Chiang +Tzu-ya to have the roots of those trees torn up and burned, and the +images destroyed; then the two genii will be easily vanquished. In +order that they may neither see nor hear you during your conversation +with Chiang Tzu-ya, wave flags about the camp and order the soldiers +to beat tom-toms and drums." + + +How the Brothers were Defeated + +Yang Chien returned to Chiang Tzu-ya. "What have you been doing?" asked +the latter. Before replying Yang Chien went to the camp and ordered +soldiers to wave large red flags and a thousand others to beat the +tom-toms and drums. The air was so filled with the flags and the +noise that nothing else could be either seen or heard. Under cover of +this device Yang Chien then communicated to Chiang Tzu-ya the course +advised by the Chen-jen. + +Accordingly Li Ching at the head of three thousand soldiers proceeded +to Ch'i-p'an Shan, pulled up and burned the roots of the two trees, +and broke the images to pieces. At the same time Lei Chen-tzu was +ordered to attack the two genii. + +Thousand-_li_ Eye and Favourable-wind Ear could neither see nor hear: +the flags effectually screened the horizon and the infernal noise of +the drums and gongs deadened all other sound. They did not know how +to stop them. + +The following night Yuean Hung decided to take the camp of Chiang +Tzu-ya by assault, and sent the brothers in advance. They were, +however, themselves surprised by Wu Wang's officers, who surrounded +them. Chiang Tzu-ya then threw into the air his 'devil-chaser' whip, +which fell on the two scouts and cleft their skulls in twain. + + +Celestial Ministries + +The dualistic idea, already referred to, of the Otherworld being +a replica of this one is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in +the celestial Ministries or official Bureaux or Boards, with their +chiefs and staffs functioning over the spiritual hierarchies. The Nine +Ministries up aloft doubtless had their origin in imitation of the Six, +Eight, or Nine Ministries or Boards which at various periods of history +have formed the executive part of the official hierarchy in China. But +their names are different and their functions do not coincide. + +Generally, the functions of the officers of the celestial Boards are +to protect mankind from the evils represented in the title of the +Board, as, for example, thunder, smallpox, fire, etc. In all cases +the duties seem to be remedial. As the God of War was, as we saw, the +god who protects people from the evils of war, so the vast hierarchy +of these various divinities is conceived as functioning for the good +of mankind. Being too numerous for inclusion here, an account of them +is given under various headings in some of the following chapters. + + +Protectors of the People + +Besides the gods who hold definite official posts in these various +Ministries, there are a very large number who are also protecting +patrons of the people; and, though _ex officio_, in many cases quite +as popular and powerful, if not more so. Among the most important +are the following: She-chi, Gods of the Soil and Crops; Shen Nung, +God of Agriculture; Hou-t'u, Earth-mother; Ch'eng-huang, City-god; +T'u-ti, Local Gods; Tsao Chuen, Kitchen-god; T'ien-hou and An-kung, +Goddess and God of Sailors; Ts'an Nue, Goddess of Silkworms; Pa-ch'a, +God of Grasshoppers; Fu Shen, Ts'ai Shen, and Shou Hsing, Gods of +Happiness, Wealth, and Longevity; Men Shen, Door-gods; and She-mo Wang, +etc., the Gods of Serpents. + + +The Ch'eng-huang + +Ch'eng-huang is the Celestial Mandarin or City-god. Every fortified +city or town in China is surrounded by a wall, _ch'eng_, composed +usually of two battlemented walls, the space between which is filled +with earth. This earth is dug from the ground outside, making a ditch, +or _huang_, running parallel with the _ch'eng_. The Ch'eng-huang +is the spiritual official of the city or town. All the numerous +Ch'eng-huang constitute a celestial Ministry of Justice, presided +over by a Ch'eng-huang-in-chief. + +The origin of the worship of the Ch'eng-huang dates back to the time +of the great Emperor Yao (2357 B.C.), who instituted a sacrifice called +Pa Cha in honour of eight spirits, of whom the seventh, Shui Yung, had +the meaning of, or corresponded to, the dyke and rampart known later +as Ch'eng-huang. Since the Sung dynasty sacrifices have been offered +to the Ch'eng-huang all over the country, though now and then some +towns have adopted another or special god as their Ch'eng-huang, such +as Chou Hsin, adopted as the Ch'eng-huang of Hangchou, the capital of +Chekiang Province. Concerning Chou Hsin, who had a "face of ice and +iron," and was so much dreaded for his severity that old and young +fled at his approach, it is related that once when he was trying a +case a storm blew some leaves on to his table. In spite of diligent +search the tree to which this kind of leaf belonged could not be found +anywhere in the neighbourhood, but was eventually discovered in a +Buddhist temple a long way off. The judge declared that the priests +of this temple must be guilty of murder. By his order the tree was +felled, and in its trunk was found the body of a woman who had been +assassinated, and the priests were convicted of the murder. + + +The Kitchen-god + +Tsao Chuen is a Taoist invention, but is universally worshipped by +all families in China--about sixty millions of pictures of him are +regularly worshipped twice a month--at new and full moon. "His temple +is a little niche in the brick cooking-range; his palace is often +filled with smoke; and his Majesty sells for one farthing." He is also +called 'the God of the Stove.' The origin of his worship, according to +the legend, is that a Taoist priest, Li Shao-chuen by name, of the Ch'i +State, obtained from the Kitchen-god the double favour of exemption +from growing old and of being able to live without eating. He then +went to the Emperor Hsiao Wu-ti (140-86 B.C.) of the Han dynasty, and +promised that credulous monarch that he should benefit by the powers +of the god provided that he would consent to patronize and encourage +his religion. It was by this means, he added, that the Emperor Huang +Ti obtained his knowledge of alchemy, which enabled him to make gold. + +The Emperor asked the priest to bring him his divine patron, and one +night the image of Tsao Chuen appeared to him. + +Deceived by this trick, dazzled by the ingots of gold which he too +should obtain, and determined to risk everything for the pill of +immortality which was among the benefits promised, the Emperor made +a solemn sacrifice to the God of the Kitchen. + +This was the first time that a sacrifice had been officially offered +to this new deity. + +Li Shao-chuen gradually lost the confidence of the Emperor and, at +his wits' end, conceived the plan of writing some phrases on a piece +of silk and then causing them to be swallowed by an ox. This done, +he announced that a wonderful script would be found in the animal's +stomach. The ox being killed, the script was found there as predicted, +but Li's unlucky star decreed that the Emperor should recognize +his handwriting, and he was forthwith put to death. Nevertheless, +the worship of the Kitchen-god continued and increased, and exists +in full vigour down to the present day. + +This deity has power over the lives of the members of each family +under his supervision, distributes riches and poverty at will, and +makes an annual report to the Supreme Being on the conduct of the +family during the year, for which purpose he is usually absent for from +four to seven days. Some hold that he also makes these reports once or +twice or several times each month. Various ceremonies are performed on +seeing him off to Heaven and welcoming him back. One of the former, +as we saw, is to regale him with honey, so that only sweet words, +if any, may be spoken by him while up aloft! + + +Ts'an Nue + +In the kingdom of Shu (modern Ssuch'uan), in the time of Kao Hsing +Ti, a band of robbers kidnapped the father of Ts'an Nue. A whole year +elapsed, and the father's horse still remained in the stable as he +had left it. The thought of not seeing her father again caused Ts'an +Nue such grief that she would take no nourishment. Her mother did +what she could to console her, and further promised her in marriage +to anyone who would bring back her father. But no one was found who +could do this. Hearing the offer, the horse stamped with impatience, +and struggled so much that at length he broke the halter by which +he was tied up. He then galloped away and disappeared. Several days +later, his owner returned riding the horse. From that time the horse +neighed incessantly, and refused all food. This caused the mother +to make known to her husband the promise she had made concerning her +daughter. "An oath made to men," he replied, "does not hold good for +a horse. Is a human being meant to live in marital relations with +a horse?" Nevertheless, however good and abundant food they offered +him, the horse would not eat. When he saw the young lady he plunged +and kicked furiously. Losing his temper, the father discharged an +arrow and killed him on the spot; then he skinned him and spread the +skin on the ground outside the house to dry. As the young lady was +passing the spot the skin suddenly moved, rose up, enveloped her, +and disappeared into space. Ten days later it was found at the foot +of a mulberry-tree; Ts'an Nue changed into a silkworm, was eating the +mulberry-leaves, and spinning for herself a silken garment. + +The parents of course were in despair. But one day, while they were +overwhelmed with sad thoughts, they saw on a cloud Ts'an Nue riding +the horse and attended by several dozens of servants. She descended +toward her parents, and said to them: "The Supreme Being, as a reward +for my martyrdom in the cause of filial piety and my love of virtue, +has conferred on me the dignity of Concubine of the Nine Palaces. Be +reassured as to my fate, for in Heaven I shall live for ever." Having +said this she disappeared into space. + +In the temples her image is to be seen covered with a horse's +skin. She is called Ma-t'ou Niang, 'the Lady with the Horse's +Head,' and is prayed to for the prosperity of mulberry-trees and +silkworms. The worship continues even in modern times. The goddess +is also represented as a stellar divinity, the star T'ien Ssu; as +the first man who reared silkworms, in this character bearing the +same name as the God of Agriculture, Pasture, and Fire; and as the +wife of the Emperor Huang Ti. + + +The God of Happiness + +The God of Happiness, Fu Shen, owes his origin to the predilection +of the Emperor Wu Ti (A.D. 502-50) of the Liang dynasty for dwarfs as +servants and comedians in his palace. The number levied from the Tao +Chou district in Hunan became greater and greater, until it seriously +prejudiced the ties of family relations. When Yang Ch'eng, _alias_ +Yang Hsi-chi, was Criminal Judge of Tao Chou he represented to the +Emperor that, according to law, the dwarfs were his subjects but not +his slaves. Being touched by this remark, the Emperor ordered the +levy to be stopped. + +Overjoyed at their liberation from this hardship, the people +of that district set up images of Yang and offered sacrifices to +him. Everywhere he was venerated as the Spirit of Happiness. It was in +this simple way that there came into being a god whose portraits and +images abound everywhere throughout the country, and who is worshipped +almost as universally as the God of Riches himself. + +Another person who attained to the dignity of God of Happiness (known +as Tseng-fu Hsiang-kung, 'the Young Gentleman who Increases Happiness') +was Li Kuei-tsu, the minister of Emperor Wen Ti of the Wei dynasty, +the son of the famous Ts'ao Ts'ao, but in modern times the honour +seems to have passed to Kuo Tzu-i. He was the saviour of the T'ang +dynasty from the depredations of the Turfans in the reign of the +Emperor Hsuean Tsung. He lived A.D. 697-781, was a native of Hua Chou, +in Shensi, and one of the most illustrious of Chinese generals. He +is very often represented in pictures clothed in blue official robes, +leading his small son Kuo Ai to Court. + + +The God of Wealth + +As with many other Chinese gods, the proto-being of the God of Wealth, +Ts'ai Shen, has been ascribed to several persons. The original and +best known until later times was Chao Kung-ming. The accounts of him +differ also, but the following is the most popular. + +When Chiang Tzu-ya was fighting for Wu Wang of the Chou dynasty +against the last of the Shang emperors, Chao Kung-ming, then a +hermit on Mount O-mei, took the part of the latter. He performed +many wonderful feats. He could ride a black tiger and hurl pearls +which burst like bombshells. But he was eventually overcome by the +form of witchcraft known in Wales as _Ciurp Creadh_. Chiang Tzu-ya +made a straw image of him, wrote his name on it, burned incense and +worshipped before it for twenty days, and on the twenty-first shot +arrows made of peach-wood into its eyes and heart. At that same +moment Kung-ming, then in the enemy's camp, felt ill and fainted, +and uttering a cry gave up the ghost. + +Later on Chiang Tzu-ya persuaded Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun to release from +the Otherworld the spirits of the heroes who had died in battle, +and when Chao Kung-ming was led into his presence he praised his +bravery, deplored the circumstances of his death, and canonized him +as President of the Ministry of Riches and Prosperity. + +The God of Riches is universally worshipped in China; images and +portraits of him are to be seen everywhere. Talismans, trees of which +the branches are strings of cash, and the fruits ingots of gold, +to be obtained merely by shaking them down, a magic inexhaustible +casket full of gold and silver--these and other spiritual sources +of wealth are associated with this much-adored deity. He himself +is represented in the guise of a visitor accompanied by a crowd of +attendants laden with all the treasures that the hearts of men, women, +and children could desire. + + +The God of Longevity + +The God of Longevity, Shou Hsing, was first a stellar deity, later on +represented in human form. It was a constellation formed of the two +star-groups Chio and K'ang, the first two on the list of twenty-eight +constellations. Hence, say the Chinese writers, because of this +precedence, it was called the Star of Longevity. When it appears the +nation enjoys peace, when it disappears there will be war. Ch'in Shih +Huang-ti, the First Emperor, was the first to offer sacrifices to this +star, the Old Man of the South Pole, at She Po, in 246 B.C. Since then +the worship has been continued pretty regularly until modern times. + +But desire for something more concrete, or at least more personal, +than a star led to the god's being represented as an old man. Connected +with this is a long legend which turns on the point that after the +father of Chao Yen had been told by the celebrated physiognomist +Kuan Lo that his son would not live beyond the age of nineteen, the +transposition from _shih-chiu_, nineteen, to _chiu-shih_, ninety, +was made by one of two gamblers, who turned out to be the Spirit of +the North Pole, who fixes the time of decease, as the Spirit of the +South Pole does that of birth. + +The deity is a domestic god, of happy mien, with a very high +forehead, usually spoken of as Shou Hsing Lao T'ou Tzu, 'Longevity +Star Old-pate,' and is represented as riding a stag, with a flying bat +above his head. He holds in his hand a large peach, and attached to his +long staff are a gourd and a scroll. The stag and the bat both indicate +_fu_, happiness. The peach, gourd, and scroll are symbols of longevity. + + +The Door-gods + +An old legend relates that in the earliest times there grew on +Mount Tu Shuo, in the Eastern Sea, a peach-tree of fabulous size +whose branches covered an area of several thousand square _li_. The +lowest branches, which inclined toward the north-east, formed the +Door of the Devils (_kuei_), through which millions of them passed +in and out. Two spirits, named Shen Shu (or Shu Yue) and Yue Lue, had +been instructed to guard this passage. Those who had done wrong to +mankind were immediately bound by them and given over to be devoured +by tigers. When Huang Ti heard of this he had the portraits of the +two spirits painted on peach-wood tablets and hung above the doors to +keep off evil spirits. This led to the suspension of the small figures +or plaques on the doors of the people generally. Gradually they were +supplanted by paintings on paper pasted on the doors, showing the two +spirits armed with bows, arrows, spears, etc., Shen Shu on the left, +Yue Lue on the right. + +In later times, however, these Door-gods were supplanted in popular +favour by two ministers of the Emperor T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, +by name Ch'in Shu-pao and Hu Ching-te. T'ai Tsung had fallen sick, and +imagined that he heard demons rampaging in his bedroom. The ministers +of State, on inquiring as to the nature of the malady, were informed +by the physician that his Majesty's pulse was feverish, that he seemed +nervous and saw visions, and that his life was in danger. + +The ministers were in great fear. The Empress summoned other physicians +to a consultation, and after the sick Emperor had informed them that, +though all was quiet during the daytime, he was sure he saw and heard +demons during the night, Ch'in Shu-pao and Hu Ching-te stated that +they would sit up all night and watch outside his door. + +Accordingly they posted themselves, fully armed, outside the palace +gate all night, and the Emperor slept in peace. Next day the Emperor +thanked them heartily, and from that time his sickness diminished. The +two ministers, however, continued their vigils until the Emperor +informed them that he would no longer impose upon their readiness +to sacrifice themselves. He ordered them to paint their portraits +in full martial array and paste these on the palace doors to see if +that would not have the same effect. For some nights all was peace; +then the same commotion was heard at the back gates of the palace. The +minister Wei Cheng offered to stand guard at the back gates in the +same way that his colleagues had done at the front gates. The result +was that in a few days the Emperor's health was entirely restored. + +Thus it is that Wei Cheng is often associated with the other two +Door-gods, sometimes with them, sometimes in place of them. Pictures +of these _men shen_, elaborately coloured, and renewed at the New Year, +are to be seen on almost every door in China. + + +Chinese Polytheism + +That the names of the gods of China are legion will be readily +conceded when it is said that, besides those already described, +those still to be mentioned, and many others to whom space will not +permit us to refer, there are also gods, goddesses, patrons, etc., +of wind, rain, snow, frost, rivers, tides, caves, trees, flowers, +theatres, horses, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, pigs, scorpions, +locusts, gold, tea, salt, compass, archery, bridges, lamps, gems, +wells, carpenters, masons, barbers, tailors, jugglers, nets, wine, +bean-curd, jade, paper-clothing, eye, ear, nose, tongue, teeth, +heart, liver, throat, hands, feet, skin, architecture, rain-clothes, +monkeys, lice, Punch and Judy, fire-crackers, cruelty, revenge, manure, +fornication, shadows, corners, gamblers, oculists, smallpox, liver +complaint, stomach-ache, measles, luck, womb, midwives, hasteners +of child-birth, brigands, butchers, furnishers, centipedes, frogs, +stones, beds, candle-merchants, fishermen, millers, wig-merchants, +incense-merchants, spectacle-makers, cobblers, harness-makers, +seedsmen, innkeepers, basket-makers, chemists, painters, perfumers, +jewellers, brush-makers, dyers, fortune-tellers, strolling singers, +brothels, varnishers, combs, etc., etc. There is a god of the light +of the eye as well as of the eye itself, of smallpox-marks as well as +of smallpox, of 'benign' measles as well as of measles. After reading +a full list of the gods of China, those who insist that the religion +of China was or is a monotheism may be disposed to revise their belief. + + + +CHAPTER V + +Myths of the Stars + + +Astrological Superstitions + +According to Chinese ideas, the sun, moon, and planets influence +sublunary events, especially the life and death of human beings, and +changes in their colour menace approaching calamities. Alterations +in the appearance of the sun announce misfortunes to the State or its +head, as revolts, famines, or the death of the emperor; when the moon +waxes red, or turns pale, men should be in awe of the unlucky times +thus fore-omened. + +The sun is symbolized by the figure of a raven in a circle, and +the moon by a hare on its hind-legs pounding rice in a mortar, or +by a three-legged toad. The last refers to the legend of Ch'ang O, +detailed later. The moon is a special object of worship in autumn, +and moon-cakes dedicated to it are sold at this season. All the +stars are ranged into constellations, and an emperor is installed +over them, who resides at the North Pole; five monarchs also live +in the five stars in Leo, where is a palace called Wu Ti Tso, or +'Throne of the Five Emperors.' In this celestial government there are +also an heir-apparent, empresses, sons and daughters, and tribunals, +and the constellations receive the names of men, animals, and other +terrestrial objects. The Great Bear, or Dipper, is worshipped as the +residence of the Fates, where the duration of life and other events +relating to mankind are measured and meted out. Fears are excited by +unusual phenomena among the heavenly bodies. + +Both the sun and the moon are worshipped by the Government in +appropriate temples on the east and west sides of Peking. + + +Various Star-gods + +Some of the star-gods, such as the God of Literature, the Goddess of +the North Star, the Gods of Happiness, Longevity, etc., are noticed +in other parts of this work. The cycle-gods are also star-gods. There +are sixty years in a cycle, and over each of these presides a special +star-deity. The one worshipped is the one which gave light on the +birthday of the worshipper, and therefore the latter burns candles +before that particular image on each succeeding anniversary. These +cycle-gods are represented by most grotesque images: "white, black, +yellow, and red; ferocious gods with vindictive eyeballs popping out, +and gentle faces as expressive as a lump of putty; some looking like +men and some like women." In one temple one of the sixty was in the +form of a hog, and another in that of a goose. "Here is an image +with arms protruding out of his eye-sockets, and eyes in the palms +of his hands, looking downward 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." + + +Shooting the Heavenly Dog + +In the family sleeping-apartments in Chinese houses hang pictures +of Chang Hsien, a white-faced, long-bearded man with a little boy by +his side, and in his hand a bow and arrow, with which he is shooting +the Heavenly Dog. The dog is the Dog-star, and if the 'fate' of the +family is under this star there will be no son, or the child will be +short-lived. Chang Hsien is the patron of child-bearing women, and was +worshipped under the Sung dynasty by women desirous of offspring. The +introduction of this name into the Chinese pantheon is due to an +incident in the history of Hua-jui Fu-jen, a name given to Lady Fei, +concubine of Meng Ch'ang, the last ruler of the Later Shu State, +A.D. 935-964. When she was brought from Shu to grace the harem of +the founder of the Sung dynasty, in A.D. 960, she is said to have +preserved secretly the portrait of her former lord, the Prince of Shu, +whose memory she passionately cherished. Jealously questioned by her +new consort respecting her devotion to this picture, she declared it +to be the representation of Chang Hsien, the divine being worshipped +by women desirous of offspring. Opinions differ as to the origin +of the worship. One account says that the Emperor Jen Tsung, of the +Sung dynasty, saw in a dream a beautiful young man with white skin +and black hair, carrying a bow in his hand. He said to the Emperor: +"The star T'ien Kou, Heavenly Dog, in the heavens is hiding the +sun and moon, and on earth devouring small children. It is only my +presence which keeps him at bay." + +On waking, the Emperor at once ordered the young man's portrait to +be painted and exhibited, and from that time childless families would +write the name Chang Hsien on tablets and worship them. + +Another account describes Chang Hsien as the spirit of the star +Chang. In the popular representations Chang Hsien is seen in the +form of a distinguished personage drawing a bow. The spirit of the +star Chang is supposed to preside over the kitchen of Heaven and to +arrange the banquets given by the gods. + + +The Sun-king + +The worship of the sun is part of the State religion, and the officials +make their offerings to the sun-tablet. The moon also is worshipped. At +the harvest moon, the full moon of the eighth month, the Chinese +bow before the heavenly luminary, and each family burns incense as +an offering. Thus "100,000 classes all receive the blessings of the +icy-wheel in the Milky Way along the heavenly street, a mirror always +bright." In Chinese illustrations we see the moon-palace of Ch'ang O, +who stole the pill of immortality and flew to the moon, the fragrant +tree which one of the genii tried to cut down, and a hare pestling +medicine in a mortar. This refers to the following legend. + +The sun and the moon are both included by the Chinese among the +stars, the spirit of the former being called T'ai-yang Ti-chuen, +'the Sun-king,' or Jih-kung Ch'ih-chiang, 'Ch'ih-chiang of the Solar +Palace,' that of the latter T'ai-yin Huang-chuen, 'the Moon-queen,' +or Yueeh-fu Ch'ang O, 'Ch'ang O of the Lunar Palace.' + +Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yue lived in the reign of Hsien-yuean Huang-ti, who +appointed him Director of Construction and Furnishing. + +When Hsien-yuean went on his visit to O-mei Shan, a mountain in +Ssuch'uan, Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yue obtained permission to accompany +him. Their object was to be initiated into the doctrine of immortality. + +The Emperor was instructed in the secrets of the doctrine by T'ai-i +Huang-jen, the spirit of this famous mountain, who, when he was about +to take his departure, begged him to allow Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yue to +remain with him. The new hermit went out every day to gather the +flowering plants which formed the only food of his master, T'ai-i +Huang-jen, and he also took to eating these flowers, so that his body +gradually became spiritualized. + + +The Steep Summit + +One day T'ai-i Huang-jen sent him to cut some bamboos on the summit of +O-mei Shan, distant more than three hundred _li_ from the place where +they lived. When he reached the base of the summit, all of a sudden +three giddy peaks confronted him, so dangerous that even the monkeys +and other animals dared not attempt to scale them. But he took his +courage in his hands, climbed the steep slope, and by sheer energy +reached the summit. Having cut the bamboos, he tried to descend, but +the rocks rose like a wall in sharp points all round him, and he could +not find a foothold anywhere. Then, though laden with the bamboos, he +threw himself into the air, and was borne on the wings of the wind. He +came to earth safe and sound at the foot of the mountain, and ran with +the bamboos to his master. On account of this feat he was considered +advanced enough to be admitted to instruction in the doctrine. + + +The Divine Archer + +The Emperor Yao, in the twelfth year of his reign (2346 B.C.), one day, +while walking in the streets of Huai-yang, met a man carrying a bow +and arrows, the bow being bound round with a piece of red stuff. This +was Ch'ih-chiang Tzu-yue. He told the Emperor he was a skilful archer +and could fly in the air on the wings of the wind. Yao, to test his +skill, ordered him to shoot one of his arrows at a pine-tree on the +top of a neighbouring mountain. Ch'ih shot an arrow which transfixed +the tree, and then jumped on to a current of air to go and fetch +the arrow back. Because of this the Emperor named him Shen I, 'the +Divine Archer,' attached him to his suite, and appointed him Chief +Mechanician of all Works in Wood. He continued to live only on flowers. + + +Vanquishes the Wind-spirit + +At this time terrible calamities began to lay waste the land. Ten +suns appeared in the sky, the heat of which burnt up all the crops; +dreadful storms uprooted trees and overturned houses; floods overspread +the country. Near the Tung-t'ing Lake a serpent, a thousand feet long, +devoured human beings, and wild boars of enormous size did great +damage in the eastern part of the kingdom. Yao ordered Shen I to go +and slay the devils and monsters who were causing all this mischief, +placing three hundred men at his service for that purpose. + +Shen I took up his post on Mount Ch'ing Ch'iu to study the cause of the +devastating storms, and found that these tempests were released by Fei +Lien, the Spirit of the Wind, who blew them out of a sack. As we shall +see when considering the thunder myths, the ensuing conflict ended +in Fei Lien suing for mercy and swearing friendship to his victor, +whereupon the storms ceased. + + +Dispels the Nine False Suns + +After this first victory Shen I led his troops to the banks of the +Hsi Ho, West River, at Lin Shan. Here he discovered that on three +neighbouring peaks nine extraordinary birds were blowing out fire and +thus forming nine new suns in the sky. Shen I shot nine arrows in +succession, pierced the birds, and immediately the nine false suns +resolved themselves into red clouds and melted away. Shen I and his +soldiers found the nine arrows stuck in nine red stones at the top +of the mountain. + + +Marries the Sister of the Water-spirit + +Shen I then led his soldiers to Kao-liang, where the river had risen +and formed an immense torrent. He shot an arrow into the water, +which thereupon withdrew to its source. In the flood he saw a man +clothed in white, riding a white horse and accompanied by a dozen +attendants. He quickly discharged an arrow, striking him in the left +eye, and the horseman at once took to flight. He was accompanied +by a young woman named Heng O [22], the younger sister of Ho Po, +the Spirit of the Waters. Shen I shot an arrow into her hair. She +turned and thanked him for sparing her life, adding: "I will agree +to be your wife." After these events had been duly reported to the +Emperor Yao, the wedding took place. + + +Slays Various Dangerous Creatures + +Three months later Yao ordered Shen I to go and kill the great +Tung-t'ing serpent. An arrow in the left eye laid him out stark and +dead. The wild boars also were all caught in traps and slain. As a +reward for these achievements Yao canonized Shen I with the title of +Marquis Pacifier of the Country. + + +Builds a Palace for Chin Mu + +About this time T'ai-wu Fu-jen, the third daughter of Hsi Wang Mu, +had entered a nunnery on Nan-min Shan, to the north of Lo-fou Shan, +where her mother's palace was situated. She mounted a dragon to +visit her mother, and all along the course left a streak of light in +her wake. One day the Emperor Yao, from the top of Ch'ing-yuen Shan, +saw this track of light, and asked Shen I the cause of this unusual +phenomenon. The latter mounted the current of luminous air, and +letting it carry him whither it listed, found himself on Lo-fou Shan, +in front of the door of the mountain, which was guarded by a great +spiritual monster. On seeing Shen I this creature called together +a large number of phoenixes and other birds of gigantic size and +set them at Shen I. One arrow, however, settled the matter. They +all fled, the door opened, and a lady followed by ten attendants +presented herself. She was no other than Chin Mu herself. Shen I, +having saluted her and explained the object of his visit, was admitted +to the goddess's palace, and royally entertained. + +"I have heard," said Shen I to her, "that you possess the pills of +immortality; I beg you to give me one or two." "You are a well-known +architect," replied Chin Mu; "please build me a palace near this +mountain." Together they went to inspect a celebrated site known as +Pai-yue-kuei Shan, 'White Jade-tortoise Mountain,' and fixed upon it +as the location of the new abode of the goddess. Shen I had all the +spirits of the mountain to work for him. The walls were built of jade, +sweet-smelling woods were used for the framework and wainscoting, +the roof was of glass, the steps of agate. In a fortnight's time +sixteen palace buildings stretched magnificently along the side of +the mountain. Chin Mu gave to the architect a wonderful pill which +would bestow upon him immortality as well as the faculty of being +able at will to fly through the air. "But," she said, "it must not +be eaten now: you must first go through a twelve months' preparatory +course of exercise and diet, without which the pill will not have all +the desired results." Shen I thanked the goddess, took leave of her, +and, returning to the Emperor, related to him all that had happened. + + +Kills Chisel-tooth + +On reaching home, the archer hid his precious pill under a rafter, +lest anyone should steal it, and then began the preparatory course +in immortality. + +At this time there appeared in the south a strange man named Tso Ch'ih, +'Chisel-tooth.' He had round eyes and a long projecting tooth. He +was a well-known criminal. Yao ordered Shen I and his small band +of brave followers to deal with this new enemy. This extraordinary +man lived in a cave, and when Shen I and his men arrived he emerged +brandishing a padlock. Shen I broke his long tooth by shooting an +arrow at it, and Tso Ch'ih fled, but was struck in the back and laid +low by another arrow from Shen I. The victor took the broken tooth +with him as a trophy. + + +Heng O flies to the Moon + +Heng O, during her husband's absence, saw a white light which seemed +to issue from a beam in the roof, while a most delicious odour filled +every room. By the aid of a ladder she reached up to the spot whence +the light came, found the pill of immortality, and ate it. She suddenly +felt that she was freed from the operation of the laws of gravity +and as if she had wings, and was just essaying her first flight when +Shen I returned. He went to look for his pill, and, not finding it, +asked Heng O what had happened. + +The young wife, seized with fear, opened the window and flew out. Shen +I took his bow and pursued her. The moon was full, the night clear, +and he saw his wife flying rapidly in front of him, only about the +size of a toad. Just when he was redoubling his pace to catch her up +a blast of wind struck him to the ground like a dead leaf. + +Heng O continued her flight until she reached a luminous sphere, +shining like glass, of enormous size, and very cold. The only +vegetation consisted of cinnamon-trees. No living being was to be +seen. All of a sudden she began to cough, and vomited the covering +of the pill of immortality, which was changed into a rabbit as white +as the purest jade. This was the ancestor of the spirituality of the +_yin_, or female, principle. Heng O noticed a bitter taste in her +mouth, drank some dew, and, feeling hungry, ate some cinnamon. She +took up her abode in this sphere. + +As to Shen I, he was carried by the hurricane up into a high +mountain. Finding himself before the door of a palace, he was invited +to enter, and found that it was the palace of Tung-hua Ti-chuen, +otherwise Tung Wang Kung, the husband of Hsi Wang Mu. + + +The Sun-palace and the Bird of Dawn + +The God of the Immortals said to Shen I: "You must not be annoyed +with Heng O. Everybody's fate is settled beforehand. Your labours +are nearing an end, and you will become an Immortal. It was I who +let loose the whirlwind that brought you here. Heng O, through having +borrowed the forces which by right belong to you, is now an Immortal +in the Palace of the Moon. As for you, you deserve much for having +so bravely fought the nine false suns. As a reward you shall have +the Palace of the Sun. Thus the _yin_ and the _yang_ will be united +in marriage." This said, Tung-hua Ti-chuen ordered his servants to +bring a red Chinese sarsaparilla cake, with a lunar talisman. + +"Eat this cake," he said; "it will protect you from the heat of the +solar hearth. And by wearing this talisman you will be able at will +to visit the lunar palace of Heng O; but the converse does not hold +good, for your wife will not have access to the solar palace." This is +why the light of the moon has its birth in the sun, and decreases in +proportion to its distance from the sun, the moon being light or dark +according as the sun comes and goes. Shen I ate the sarsaparilla cake, +attached the talisman to his body, thanked the god, and prepared to +leave. Tung Wang Kung said to him: "The sun rises and sets at fixed +times; you do not yet know the laws of day and night; it is absolutely +necessary for you to take with you the bird with the golden plumage, +which will sing to advise you of the exact times of the rising, +culmination, and setting of the sun." "Where is this bird to be +found?" asked Shen I. "It is the one you hear calling _Ia! Ia!_ +It is the ancestor of the spirituality of the _yang_, or male, +principle. Through having eaten the active principle of the sun, +it has assumed the form of a three-footed bird, which perches on the +_fu-sang_ tree [a tree said to grow at the place where the sun rises] +in the middle of the Eastern Sea. This tree is several thousands of +feet in height and of gigantic girth. The bird keeps near the source +of the dawn, and when it sees the sun taking his morning bath gives +vent to a cry that shakes the heavens and wakes up all humanity. That +is why I ordered Ling Chen-tzu to put it in a cage on T'ao-hua Shan, +Peach-blossom Hill; since then its cries have been less harsh. Go +and fetch it and take it to the Palace of the Sun. Then you will +understand all the laws of the daily movements." He then wrote a +charm which Shen I was to present to Ling Chen-tzu to make him open +the cage and hand the golden bird over to him. + +The charm worked, and Ling Chen-tzu opened the cage. The bird of +golden plumage had a sonorous voice and majestic bearing. "This +bird," he said, "lays eggs which hatch out nestlings with red combs, +who answer him every morning when he starts crowing. He is usually +called the cock of heaven, and the cocks down here which crow morning +and evening are descendants of the celestial cock." + + +Shen I visits the Moon + +Shen I, riding on the celestial bird, traversed the air and reached +the disk of the sun just at mid-day. He found himself carried into +the centre of an immense horizon, as large as the earth, and did not +perceive the rotatory movement of the sun. He then enjoyed complete +happiness without care or trouble. The thought of the happy hours +passed with his wife Heng O, however, came back to memory, and, borne +on a ray of sunlight, he flew to the moon. He saw the cinnamon-trees +and the frozen-looking horizon. Going to a secluded spot, he found +Heng O there all alone. On seeing him she was about to run away, +but Shen I took her hand and reassured her. "I am now living in the +solar palace," he said; "do not let the past annoy you." Shen I cut +down some cinnamon-trees, used them for pillars, shaped some precious +stones, and so built a palace, which he named Kuang-han Kung, 'Palace +of Great Cold.' From that time forth, on the fifteenth day of every +moon, he went to visit her in her palace. That is the conjunction of +the _yang_ and _yin_, male and female principles, which causes the +great brilliancy of the moon at that epoch. + +Shen I, on returning to his solar kingdom, built a wonderful palace, +which he called the Palace of the Lonely Park. + +From that time the sun and moon each had their ruling sovereign. This +_regime_ dates from the forty-ninth year (2309 B.C.) of Yao's reign. + +When the old Emperor was informed that Shen I and his wife had both +gone up to Heaven he was much grieved to lose the man who had rendered +him such valuable service, and bestowed upon him the posthumous title +of Tsung Pu, 'Governor of Countries.' In the representations of this +god and goddess the former is shown holding the sun, the latter the +moon. The Chinese add the sequel that Heng O became changed into a +toad, whose outline is traceable on the moon's surface. + + +Star-worship + +The star-deities are adored by parents on behalf of their children; +they control courtship and marriage, bring prosperity or adversity in +business, send pestilence and war, regulate rainfall 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. The worship is performed in the native +homes either by astrologers engaged for that purpose or by Taoist +priests. In times of sickness, ten paper star-gods are arranged, +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 propitiation of +the good star-gods is in the hope that they will expel the evil stars, +and happiness thus be obtained. + +The practical effect of this worship is seen in the following +examples taken from the Chinese list of 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 others, make +up the celestial galaxy worshipped by China's millions: the Orphan +Star enables a woman to become a man; the Star of Pleasure decides +on betrothals, binding the feet of those destined to be lovers with +silver cords; the Bonepiercing Star produces rheumatism; the Morning +Star, if not worshipped, kills the father or mother during the year; +the Balustrade Star promotes lawsuits; the Three-corpse Star controls +suicide, the Peach-blossom Star lunacy; and so on. + + +The Herdsman and the Weaver-girl + +In the myths and legends which have clustered about the observations of +the stars by the Chinese there are subjects for pictorial illustration +without number. One of these stories is the fable of Aquila and Vega, +known in Chinese mythology as the Herdsman and the Weaver-girl. The +latter, the daughter of the Sun-god, was so constantly busied with her +loom that her father became worried at her close habits and thought +that by marrying her to a neighbour, who herded cattle on the banks +of the Silver Stream of Heaven (the Milky Way), she might awake to +a brighter manner of living. + +No sooner did the maiden become wife than her habits and character +utterly changed for the worse. She became not only very merry and +lively, but quite forsook loom and needle, giving up her nights +and days to play and idleness; no silly lover could have been more +foolish than she. The Sun-king, in great wrath at all this, concluded +that the husband was the cause of it, and determined to separate the +couple. So he ordered him to remove to the other side of the river of +stars, and told him that hereafter they should meet only once a year, +on the seventh night of the seventh month. To make a bridge over the +flood of stars, the Sun-king called myriads of magpies, who thereupon +flew together, and, making a bridge, supported the poor lover on +their wings and backs as if on a roadway of solid land. So, bidding +his weeping wife farewell, the lover-husband sorrowfully crossed the +River of Heaven, and all the magpies instantly flew away. But the two +were separated, the one to lead his ox, the other to ply her shuttle +during the long hours of the day with diligent toil, and the Sun-king +again rejoiced in his daughter's industry. + +At last the time for their reunion drew near, and only one fear +possessed the loving wife. What if it should rain? For the River +of Heaven is always full to the brim, and one extra drop causes a +flood which sweeps away even the bird-bridge. But not a drop fell; +all the heavens were clear. The magpies flew joyfully in myriads, +making a way for the tiny feet of the little lady. Trembling with joy, +and with heart fluttering more than the bridge of wings, she crossed +the River of Heaven and was in the arms of her husband. This she did +every year. The husband stayed on his side of the river, and the +wife came to him on the magpie bridge, save on the sad occasions +when it rained. So every year the people hope for clear weather, +and the happy festival is celebrated alike by old and young. + +These two constellations are worshipped principally by women, that +they may gain cunning in the arts of needlework and making of fancy +flowers. Water-melons, fruits, vegetables, cakes, etc., are placed +with incense in the reception-room, and before these offerings are +performed the kneeling and the knocking of the head on the ground in +the usual way. + + +The Twenty-eight Constellations + +Sacrifices were offered to these spirits by the Emperor on the marble +altar of the Temple of Heaven, and by the high officials throughout +the provinces. Of the twenty-eight the following are regarded as +propitious--namely, the Horned, Room, Tail, Sieve, Bushel, House, +Wall, Mound, Stomach, End, Bristling, Well, Drawn-bow, and Revolving +Constellations; the Neck, Bottom, Heart, Cow, Female, Empty, Danger, +Astride, Cock, Mixed, Demon, Willow, Star, Wing, are unpropitious. + +The twenty-eight constellations seem to have become the abodes of gods +as a result of the defeat of a Taoist Patriarch T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, +who had espoused the cause of the tyrant Chou, when he and all his +followers were slaughtered by the heavenly hosts in the terrible +catastrophe known as the Battle of the Ten Thousand Immortals. Chiang +Tzu-ya as a reward conferred on them the appanage of the twenty-eight +constellations. The five planets, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and +Saturn, are also the abodes of stellar divinities, called the White, +Green, Black, Red, and Yellow Rulers respectively. Stars good and +bad are all likewise inhabited by gods or demons. + + +A Victim of Ta Chi + +Concerning Tzu-wei Hsing, the constellation Tzu-wei (north circumpolar +stars), of which the stellar deity is Po I-k'ao, the following legend +is related in the _Feng shen yen i_. + +Po I-k'ao was the eldest son of Wen Wang, and governed the kingdom +during the seven years that the old King Was detained as a prisoner of +the tyrant Chou. He did everything possible to procure his father's +release. Knowing the tastes of the cruel King, he sent him for his +harem ten of the prettiest women who could be found, accompanied by +seven chariots made of perfumed wood, and a white-faced monkey of +marvellous intelligence. Besides these he included in his presents +a magic carpet, on which it was necessary only to sit in order to +recover immediately from the effects of drunkenness. + +Unfortunately for Po I-k'ao, Chou's favourite concubine, Ta +Chi, conceived a passion for him and had recourse to all sorts +of ruses to catch him in her net; but his conduct was throughout +irreproachable. Vexed by his indifference, she tried slander in order +to bring about his ruin. But her calumnies did not at first have +the result she expected. Chou, after inquiry, was convinced of the +innocence of Po. But an accident spoiled everything. In the middle +of an amusing _seance_ the monkey which had been given to the King +by Po perceived some sweets in the hand of Ta Chi, and, jumping on +to her body, snatched them from Her. The King and his concubine were +furious, Chou had the monkey killed forthwith, and Ta Chi accused Po +I-k'ao of having brought the animal into the palace with the object +of making an attempt on the lives of the King and herself. But the +Prince explained that the monkey, being only an animal, could not +grasp even the first idea of entering into a conspiracy. + +Shortly after this Po committed an unpardonable fault which changed +the goodwill of the King into mortal enmity. He allowed himself to +go so far as to suggest to the King that he should break off his +relations with this infamous woman, the source of all the woes which +were desolating the kingdom, and when Ta Chi on this account grossly +insulted him he struck her with his lute. + +For this offence Ta Chi caused him to be crucified in the palace. Large +nails were driven through his hands and feet, and his flesh was cut +off in pieces. Not content with ruining Po I-k'ao, this wretched +woman wished also to ruin Wen Wang. She therefore advised the King to +have the flesh of the murdered man made up into rissoles and sent as +a present to his father. If he refused to eat the flesh of his own +son he was to be accused of contempt for the King, and there would +thus be a pretext for having him executed. Wen Wang, being versed in +divination and the science of the _pa kua_, Eight Trigrams, knew that +these rissoles contained the flesh of his son, and to avoid the snare +spread for him he ate three of the rissoles in the presence of the +royal envoys. On their return the latter reported this to the King, +who found himself helpless on learning of Wen Wang's conduct. + +Po I-k'ao was canonized by Chiang Tzu-ya, and appointed ruler of the +constellation Tzu-wei of the North Polar heavens. + + +Myths of Time + +T'ai Sui is the celestial spirit who presides over the year. He +is the President of the Ministry of Time. This god is much to +be feared. Whoever offends against him is sure to be destroyed. He +strikes when least expected to. T'ai Sui is also the Ministry itself, +whose members, numbering a hundred and twenty, are set over time, +years, months, and days. The conception is held by some writers to +be of Chaldeo-Assyrian origin. + +The god T'ai Sui is not mentioned in the T'ang and Sung rituals, but in +the Yuean dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) sacrifices were offered to him in the +College of the Grand Historiographer whenever any work of importance +was about to be undertaken. Under this dynasty the sacrifices were +offered to T'ai Sui and to the ruling gods of the months and of the +days. But these sacrifices were not offered at regular times: it +was only at the beginning of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (1644-1912) +that it was decided to offer the sacrifices at fixed periods. + + +The Planet Jupiter + +T'ai Sui corresponds to the planet Jupiter. He travels across the +sky, passing through the twelve sidereal mansions. He is a stellar +god. Therefore an altar is raised to him and sacrifices are offered +on it under the open sky. This practice dates from the beginning of +the Ming dynasty, when the Emperor T'ai Tsu ordered sacrifices to +this god to be made throughout the Empire. According to some authors, +he corresponds to the god of the twelve sidereal mansions. He is also +variously represented as the moon, which turns to the left in the sky, +and the sun, which turns to the right. The diviners gave to T'ai Sui +the title of Grand Marshal, following the example of the usurper Wang +Mang (A.D. 9-23) of the Western Han dynasty, who gave that title to +the year-star. + + +Legend of T'ai Sui + +The following is the legend of T'ai Sui. + +T'ai Sui was the son of the Emperor Chou, the last of the Yin +dynasty. His mother was Queen Chiang. When he was born he looked +like a lump of formless flesh. The infamous Ta Chi, the favourite +concubine of this wicked Emperor, at once informed him that a monster +had been born in the palace, and the over-credulous sovereign ordered +that it should immediately be cast outside the city. Shen Chen-jen, +who was passing, saw the small abandoned one, and said: "This is an +Immortal who has just been born." With his knife he cut open the caul +which enveloped it, and the child was exposed. + +His protector carried him to the cave Shui Lien, where he led the +life of a hermit, and entrusted the infant to Ho Hsien-ku, who acted +as his nurse and brought him up. + +The child's hermit-name was Yin Ting-nu, his ordinary name Yin +No-cha, but during his boyhood he was known as Yin Chiao, _i.e._ +'Yin the Deserted of the Suburb,' When he had reached an age when he +was sufficiently intelligent, his nurse informed him that he was not +her son, but really the son of the Emperor Chou, who, deceived by the +calumnies of his favourite Ta Chi, had taken him for an evil monster +and had him cast out of the palace. His mother had been thrown down +from an upper storey and killed. Yin Chiao went to his rescuer and +begged him to allow him to avenge his mother's death. The Goddess +T'ien Fei, the Heavenly Concubine, picked out two magic weapons from +the armoury in the cave, a battle-axe and club, both of gold, and +gave them to Yin Chiao. When the Shang army was defeated at Mu Yeh, +Yin Chiao broke into a tower where Ta Chi was, seized her, and brought +her before the victor, King Wu, who gave him permission to split her +head open with his battle-axe. But Ta Chi was a spiritual hen-pheasant +(some say a spiritual vixen). She transformed herself into smoke and +disappeared. To reward Yin Chiao for his filial piety and bravery +in fighting the demons, Yue Ti canonized him with the title T'ai Sui +Marshal Yin. + +According to another version of the legend, Yin Chiao fought on +the side of the Yin against Wu Wang, and after many adventures was +caught by Jan Teng between two mountains, which he pressed together, +leaving only Yin Chiao's head exposed above the summits. The general +Wu Chi promptly cut it off with a spade. Chiang Tz[u)]-ya subsequently +canonized Yin Chiao. + + +Worship of T'ai Sui + +The worship of T'ai Sui seems to have first taken place in the reign +of Shen Tsung (A.D. 1068-86) of the Sung dynasty, and was continued +during the remainder of the Monarchical Period. The object of the +worship is to avert calamities, T'ai Sui being a dangerous spirit +who can do injury to palaces and cottages, to people in their houses +as well as to travellers on the roads. But he has this peculiarity, +that he injures persons and things not in the district in which he +himself is, but in those districts which adjoin it. Thus, if some +constructive work is undertaken in a region where T'ai Sui happens +to be, the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts take precautions +against his evil influence. This they generally do by hanging out the +appropriate talisman. In order to ascertain in what region T'ai Sui +is at any particular time, an elaborate diagram is consulted. This +consists of a representation of the twelve terrestrial branches +or stems, _ti chih_> and the ten celestial trunks, _t'ien kan,_ +indicating the cardinal points and the intermediate points, north-east, +north-west, south-east, and south-west. The four cardinal points are +further verified with the aid of the Five Elements, the Five Colours, +and the Eight Trigrams. By using this device, it is possible to find +the geographical position of T'ai Sui during the current year, the +position of threatened districts, and the methods to be employed to +provide against danger. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Myths of Thunder, Lightning, Wind, and Rain + + +The Ministry of Thunder and Storms + +As already noted, affairs in the Otherworld are managed by official +Bureaux or Ministries very similar to those on earth. The _Feng shen +yen i_ mentions several of these, and gives full details of their +constitution. The first is the Ministry of Thunder and Storms. This +is composed of a large number of officials. The principal ones are +Lei Tsu, the Ancestor of Thunder, Lei Kung, the Duke of Thunder, Tien +Mu, the Mother of Lightning, Feng Po, the Count of Wind, and Y['u] +Shih, the Master of Rain. These correspond to the Buddhist Asuras, +the "fourth class of sentient beings, the mightiest of all demons, +titanic enemies of the Devas," and the Vedic Maruta, storm-demons. In +the temples Lei Tsu is placed in the centre with the other four to +right and left. There are also sometimes represented other gods of +rain, or attendants. These are Hsing T'ien Chuen and T'ao T'ien Chuen, +both officers of Wen Chung, or Lei Tsu, Ma Yuean-shuai, Generalissimo +Ma, whose exploits are referred to later, and others. + + +The President of the Ministry of Thunder + +This divinity has three eyes, one in the middle of his forehead, from +which, when open, a ray of white light proceeds to a distance of more +than two feet. Mounted on a black unicorn, he traverses millions of +miles in the twinkling of an eye. + +His origin is ascribed to a man named Wen Chung, generally known +as Wen Chung T'ai-shih, 'the Great Teacher Wen Chung,' He was +a minister of the tyrant king Chou (1154-1122 B.C.), and fought +against the armies of the Chou dynasty. Being defeated, he fled +to the mountains of Yen, Yen Shan, where he met Ch'ih Ching-tzu, +one of the alleged discoverers of fire, and joined battle with him; +the latter, however, flashed his _yin-yang_ mirror at the unicorn, +and put it out of action. Lei Chen-tzu, one of Wu Wang's marshals, +then struck the animal with his staff, and severed it in twain. + +Wen Chung escaped in the direction of the mountains of Chueeh-lung Ling, +where another marshal, Yuen Chung-tzu, barred his way. Yuen's hands had +the power of producing lightning, and eight columns of mysterious fire +suddenly came out of the earth, completely enveloping Wen Chung. They +were thirty feet high and ten feet in circumference. Ninety fiery +dragons came out of each and flew away up into the air. The sky was +like a furnace, and the earth shook with the awful claps of thunder. In +this fiery prison Wen Chung died. + +When the new dynasty finally proved victorious, Chiang Tzu-ya, by +order of Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun, conferred on Wen Chung the supreme +direction of the Ministry of Thunder, appointing him celestial prince +and plenipotentiary defender of the laws governing the distribution of +clouds and rain. His full title was Celestial and Highly-honoured Head +of the Nine Orbits of the Heavens, Voice of the Thunder, and Regulator +of the Universe. His birthday is celebrated on the twenty-fourth day +of the sixth moon. + + +The Duke of Thunder + +The Spirit of Thunder, for whom Lei Tsu is often mistaken, is +represented as an ugly, black, bat-winged demon, with clawed feet, +monkey's head, and eagle's beak, who holds in one hand a steel +chisel, and in the other a spiritual hammer, with which he beats +numerous drums strung about him, thus producing the terrific noise +of thunder. According to Chinese reasoning it is the sound of these +drums, and not the lightning, which causes death. + +A. Gruenwedel, in his _Guide to the Lamaist Collection of Prince +Uchtomsky,_ p. 161, states that the Chino-Japanese God of Thunder, +Lei Kung, has the shape of the Indian divine bird Garuda. Are we to +suppose, then, that the Chinese Lei Kung is of Indian origin? In modern +pictures the God of Thunder is depicted with a cock's head and claws, +carrying in one hand the hammer, in the other the chisel. We learn, +however, from Wang Ch'ung's _Lun Heng_ that in the first century B.C., +when Buddhism was not yet introduced into China, the 'Thunderer' was +represented as a strong man, not as a bird, with one hand dragging +a cluster of drums, and with the other brandishing a hammer. Thus +Lei Kung existed already in China when the latter received her first +knowledge of India. Yet his modern image may well owe its wings to the +Indian rain-god Vajrapani, who in one form appears with Garuda wings. + +Lei Kung P'u-sa, the avatar of Lei Kung (whose existence as the Spirit +of Thunder is denied by at least one Chinese writer), has made various +appearances on the earth. One of these is described below. + + +Lei Kung in the Tree + +A certain Yeh Ch'ien-chao of Hsin Chou, when a youth, used to climb +the mountain Chien-ch'ang Shan for the purpose of cutting firewood and +collecting medicinal herbs. One day when he had taken refuge under +a tree during a rain-storm there was a loud clap of thunder, and he +saw a winged being, with a blue face, large mouth, and bird's claws, +caught in a cleft of the tree. This being addressed Yeh, saying: +"I am Lei Kung. In splitting this tree I got caught in it; if you +will free me I will reward you handsomely." The woodcutter opened the +cleft wider by driving in some stones as wedges, and liberated the +prisoner. "Return to this spot to-morrow," said the latter, "and I +will reward you." The next day the woodcutter kept the appointment, +and received from Lei Kung a book. "If you consult this work," he +explained, "you will be able at will to bring thunder or rain, cure +sickness, or assuage sorrow. We are five brothers, of whom I am the +youngest. When you want to bring rain call one or other of my brothers; +but call me only in case of pressing necessity, because I have a bad +character; but I will come if it is really necessary." Having said +these words, he disappeared. + +Yeh Ch'ien-chao, by means of the prescriptions contained in the +mysterious book, could cure illnesses as easily as the sun dissipates +the morning mist. One day, when he was intoxicated and had gone to +bed in the temple of Chi-chou Ssu, the magistrate wished to arrest and +punish him. But when he reached the steps of the _yamen_, Ch'ien-chao +called Lei Kung to his aid. A terrible clap of thunder immediately +resounded throughout the district. The magistrate, nearly dead with +fright, at once dismissed the case without punishing the culprit. The +four brothers never failed to come to his aid. + +By the use of his power Ch'ien-chao saved many regions from famine +by bringing timely rain. + + + +The Mysterious Bottle + +Another legend relates that an old woman living in Kiangsi had her arm +broken through being struck by lightning, when a voice from above was +heard saying: "I have made a mistake." A bottle fell out of space, and +the voice again said: "Apply the contents and you will be healed at +once." This being done, the old woman's arm was promptly mended. The +villagers, regarding the contents of the bottle as divine medicine, +wished to take it away and hide it for future use, but several of +them together could not lift it from the ground. Suddenly, however, +it rose up and disappeared into space. Other persons in Kiangsi were +also struck, and the same voice was heard to say: "Apply some grubs +to the throat and they will recover." After this had been done the +victims returned to consciousness none the worse for their experience. + +The worship of Lei Kung seems to have been carried on regularly from +about the time of the Christian era. + + +Lei Chen-tzu + +Another Son of Thunder is Lei Chen-tzu, mentioned above, whose name +when a child was Wen Yue, who was hatched from an egg after a clap +of thunder and found by the soldiers of Wen Wang in some brushwood +near an old tomb. The infant's chief characteristic was its brilliant +eyes. Wen Wang, who already had ninety-nine children, adopted it as +his hundredth, but gave it to a hermit named Yuen Chung-tzu to rear +as his disciple. The hermit showed him the way to rescue his adopted +father from the tyrant who held him prisoner. In seeking for some +powerful weapon the child found on the hillside two apricots, and +ate them both. He then noticed that wings had grown on his shoulders, +and was too much ashamed to return home. + +But the hermit, who knew intuitively what had taken place, sent a +servant to seek him. When they met the servant said: "Do you know that +your face is completely altered?" The mysterious fruit had not only +caused Lei Chen-tzu to grow wings, known as Wings of the Wind and +Thunder, but his face had become green, his nose long and pointed, +and two tusks protruded horizontally from each side of his mouth, +while his eyes shone like mirrors. + +Lei Chen-tzu now went and rescued Wen Wang, dispersing his enemies +by means of his mystical power and bringing the old man back on his +shoulders. Having placed him in safety he returned to the hermit. + + +The Mother of Lightning + +This divinity is represented as a female figure, gorgeously apparelled +in blue, green, red, and white, holding in either hand a mirror from +which proceed two broad streams or flashes of light. Lightning, say +the Chinese, is caused by the rubbing together of the _yin_ and the +_yang_, just as sparks of fire may be produced by the friction of +two substances. + + +The Origin of the Spirit of Lightning + +Tung Wang Kung, the King of the Immortals, was playing at pitch-pot +[23] with Yue Nue. He lost; whereupon Heaven smiled, and from its +half-open mouth a ray of light came out. This was lightning; it is +regarded as feminine because it is supposed to come from the earth, +which is of the _yin_, or female, principle. + + +The God of the Wind + +Feng Po, the God of the Wind, is represented as an old man with a +white beard, yellow cloak, and blue and red cap. He holds a large +sack, and directs the wind which comes from its mouth in any direction +he pleases. + +There are various ideas regarding the nature of this deity. He is +regarded as a stellar divinity under the control of the star Ch'i, +[24] because the wind blows at the time when the moon leaves that +celestial mansion. He is also said to be a dragon called Fei Lien, at +first one of the supporters of the rebel Ch'ih Yu, who was defeated +by Huang Ti. Having been transformed into a spiritual monster, he +stirred up tremendous winds in the southern regions. The Emperor +Yao sent Shen I with three hundred soldiers to quiet the storms and +appease Ch'ih Yu's relatives, who were wreaking their vengeance on the +people. Shen I ordered the people to spread a long cloth in front of +their houses, fixing it with stones. The wind, blowing against this, +had to change its direction. Shen I then flew on the wind to the top +of a high mountain, whence he saw a monster at the base. It had the +shape of a huge yellow and white sack, and kept inhaling and exhaling +in great gusts. Shen I, concluding that this was the cause of all +these storms, shot an arrow and hit the monster, whereupon it took +refuge in a deep cave. Here it turned on Shen I and, drawing a sword, +dared him to attack the Mother of the Winds. Shen I, however, bravely +faced the monster and discharged another arrow, this time hitting it +in the knee. The monster immediately threw down its sword and begged +that its life might be spared. + +Fei Lien is elsewhere described as a dragon who was originally one of +the wicked ministers of the tyrant Chou, and could walk with unheard-of +swiftness. Both he and his son O Lai, who was so strong that he could +tear a tiger or rhinoceros to pieces with his hands, were killed when +in the service of Chou Wang. Fei Lien is also said to have the body +of a stag, about the size of a leopard, with a bird's head, horns, +and a serpent's tail, and to be able to make the wind blow whenever +he wishes. + + +The Master of Rain + +Yue Shih, the Master of Rain, clad in yellow scale-armour, with a blue +hat and yellow busby, stands on a cloud and from a watering-can pours +rain upon the earth. Like many other gods, however, he is represented +in various forms. Sometimes he holds a plate, on which is a small +dragon, in his left hand, while with his right he pours down the +rain. He is obviously the Parjanya of Vedism. + +According to a native account, the God of Rain is one Ch'ih Sung-tzu, +who appeared during a terrible drought in the reign of Shen Nung +(2838-2698 B.C.), and owing to his reputed magical power was requested +by the latter to bring rain from the sky. "Nothing is easier," he +replied; "pour a bottleful of water into an earthen bowl and give it +to me." This being done, he plucked from a neighbouring mountain a +branch of a tree, soaked it in the water, and with it sprinkled the +earth. Immediately clouds gathered and rain fell in torrents, filling +the rivers to overflowing. Ch'ih Sung-tzu was then honoured as the God +of Rain, and his images show him holding the mystic bowl. He resides +in the K'un-lun Mountains, and has many extraordinary peculiarities, +such as the power to go through water without getting wet, to pass +through fire without being burned, and to float in space. + +This Rain-god also assumes the form of a silkworm chrysalis in +another account. He is there believed to possess a concubine who has +a black face, holds a serpent in each hand, and has other serpents, +red and green, reposing on her right and left ears respectively; +also a mysterious bird, with only one leg, the _shang yang_, which +can change its height at will and drink the seas dry. The following +legend is related of this bird. + + +The One-legged Bird + +At the time when Hsuean-ming Ta-jen instructed Fei Lien in the secrets +of magic, the latter saw a wonderful bird which drew in water with its +beak and blew it out again in the shape of rain. Fei lien tamed it, +and would take it about in his sleeve. + +Later on a one-legged bird was seen in the palace of the Prince of +Ch'i walking up and down and hopping in front of the throne. Being +much puzzled, the Prince sent a messenger to Lu to inquire of Confucius +concerning this strange behaviour. "This bird is a _shang yang_" said +Confucius; "its appearance is a sign of rain. In former times the +children used to amuse themselves by hopping on one foot, knitting +their eyebrows, and saying: 'It will rain, because the _shang yang_ +is disporting himself.' Since this bird has gone to Ch'i, heavy rain +will fall, and the people should be told to dig channels and repair +the dykes, for the whole country will be inundated." Not only Ch'i, but +all the adjacent kingdoms were flooded; all sustained grievous damage +except Ch'i, where the necessary precautions had been taken. This +caused Duke Ching to exclaim: "Alas! how few listen to the words of +the sages!" + + +Ma Yuean-shuai + +Ma Yuean-shuai is a three-eyed monster condemned by Ju Lai to +reincarnation for excessive cruelty in the extermination of evil +spirits. In order to obey this command he entered the womb of Ma +Chin-mu in the form of five globes of fire. Being a precocious youth, +he could fight when only three days old, and killed the Dragon-king +of the Eastern Sea. From his instructor he received a spiritual work +dealing with wind, thunder, snakes, etc., and a triangular piece of +stone which he could at will change into anything he liked. By order of +Yue Ti he subdued the Spirits of the Wind and Fire, the Blue Dragon, +the King of the Five Dragons, and the Spirit of the Five Hundred +Fire Ducks, all without injury to himself. For these and many other +enterprises he was rewarded by Yue Ti with various magic articles +and with the title of Generalissimo of the West, and is regarded as +so successful an interceder with Yue Ti that he is prayed to for all +sorts of benefits. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Myths of the Waters + + +The Dragons + +The dragons are spirits of the waters. "The dragon is a kind of being +whose miraculous changes are inscrutable." In a sense the dragon +is the type of a man, self-controlled, and with powers that verge +upon the supernatural. In China the dragon, except as noted below, +is not a power for evil, but a beneficent being producing rain and +representing the fecundating principle in nature. He is the essence +of the _yang_, or male, principle. "He controls the rain, and so +holds in his power prosperity and peace." The evil dragons are those +introduced by the Buddhists, who applied the current dragon legends +to the _nagas_ inhabiting the mountains. These mountain _nagas_, or +dragons (perhaps originally dreaded mountain tribes), are harmful, +those inhabiting lakes and rivers friendly and helpful. The dragon, +the "chief of the three hundred and sixty scaly reptiles," is most +generally represented as having the head of a horse and the tail of a +snake, with wings on its sides. It has four legs. The imperial dragon +has five claws on each foot, other dragons only four. The dragon is +also said to have nine 'resemblances': "its horns resemble those of +a deer, its head that of a camel, its eyes those of a devil, its neck +that of a snake, its abdomen that of a large cockle, its scales those +of a carp, its claws those of an eagle, the soles of its feet those of +a tiger, its ears those of an ox;" but some have no ears, the organ of +hearing being said to be in the horns, or the creature "hears through +its horns." These various properties are supposed to indicate the +"fossil remnants of primitive worship of many animals." The small +dragon is like the silk caterpillar. The large dragon fills the Heaven +and the earth. Before the dragon, sometimes suspended from his neck, +is a pearl. This represents the sun. There are azure, scaly, horned, +hornless, winged, etc., dragons, which apparently evolve one out +of the other: "a horned dragon," for example, "in a thousand years +changes to a flying dragon." + +The dragon is also represented as the father of the great emperors +of ancient times. His bones, teeth, and saliva are employed as a +medicine. He has the power of transformation and of rendering himself +visible or invisible at pleasure. In the spring he ascends to the +skies, and in the autumn buries himself in the watery depths. Some are +wingless, and rise into the air by their own inherent power. There is +the celestial dragon, who guards the mansions of the gods and supports +them so that they do not fall; the divine dragon, who causes the winds +to blow and produces rain for the benefit of mankind; the earth-dragon, +who marks out the courses of rivers and streams; and the dragon of the +hidden treasures, who watches over the wealth concealed from mortals. + +The Buddhists count their dragons in number equal to the fish of the +great deep, which defies arithmetical computation, and can be expressed +only 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 a dragon. "We see him," they say. The scattering of the cloud is +his disappearance. He rules the hills, is connected with _feng-shui_ +(geomancy), dwells round the graves, is associated with the Confucian +worship, is the Neptune of the sea, and appears on dry land. + + +The Dragon-kings + +The Sea-dragon Kings live in gorgeous palaces in the depths of the +sea, where they feed on pearls and opals. There are five of these +divinities, the chief being in the centre, and the other four occupying +the north, the west, the south, and the east. Each is a league in +length, and so bulky that in shifting its posture it tosses one +mountain against another. It has five feet, one of them being in the +middle of its belly, and each foot is armed with five sharp claws. It +can reach into the heavens, and stretch itself into all quarters of +the sea. It has a glowing armour of yellow scales, a beard under its +long snout, a hairy tail, and shaggy legs. Its forehead projects over +its blazing eyes, its ears are small and thick, its mouth gaping, +its tongue long, and its teeth sharp. Fish are boiled by the blast of +its breath, and roasted by the fiery exhalations of its body. When it +rises to the surface the whole ocean surges, waterspouts foam, and +typhoons rage. When it flies, wingless, through the air, the winds +howl, torrents of rain descend, houses are unroofed, the firmament +is filled with a din, and whatever lies along its route is swept away +with a roar in the hurricane created by the speed of its passage. + +The five Sea-dragon Kings are all immortal. They know each other's +thoughts, plans, and wishes without intercommunication. Like all the +other gods they go once a year to the superior Heavens, to make an +annual report to the Supreme Ruler; but they go in the third month, +at which time none of the other gods dare appear, and their stay +above is but brief. They generally remain in the depths of the ocean, +where their courts are filled with their progeny, their dependents, +and their attendants, and where the gods and genii sometimes visit +them. Their palaces, of divers coloured transparent stones, with +crystal doors, are said to have been seen in the early morning by +persons gazing into the deep waters. + + +The Foolish Dragon + +The part of the great Buddha legend referring to the dragon is +as follows: + +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?" 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 am." + +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? Cross the +sea, and you will find forests of fruit 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?" said 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." The dragon returned +to the shore. As the monkey was tardy in coming down from 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." + + +The Ministry of Waters + +In the spirit-world there is a Ministry which controls all things +connected with the waters on earth, salt or fresh. Its main +divisions are the Department of Salt Waters, presided over by four +Dragon-kings--those of the East, South, West, and North--and the +Department of Sweet Waters, presided over by the Four Kings (_Ssu +Tu_) of the four great rivers--the Blue (Chiang), Yellow (Ho), Huai, +and Ch'i--and the Dragon-spirits who control the Secondary Waters, the +rivers, springs, lakes, pools, rapids. Into the names and functions of +the very large number of officials connected with these departments +it is unnecessary to enter. It will be sufficient here to refer only +to those whose names are connected with myth or legend. + + +An Unauthorized Portrait + +One of these legends relates to the visit of Ch'in Shih Huang-ti, +the First Emperor, to the Spirit of the Sea, Yang Hou, originally +a marquis (_bou_) of the State Yang, who became a god through being +drowned in the sea. + +Po Shih, a Taoist priest, told the Emperor that an enormous oyster +vomited from the sea a mysterious substance which accumulated in the +form of a tower, and was known as 'the market of the sea' (Chinese for +'mirage'). Every year, at a certain period, the breath from his mouth +was like the rays of the sun. The Emperor expressed a wish to see +it, and Po Shih said he would write a letter to the God of the Sea, +and the next day the Emperor could behold the wonderful sight. + +The Emperor then remembered a dream he had had the year before in +which he saw two men fighting for the sun. The one killed the other, +and carried it off. He therefore wished to visit the country where +the sun rose. Po Shih said that all that was necessary was to throw +rocks into the sea and build a bridge across them. Thereupon he +rang his magic bell, the earth shook, and rocks began to rise up; +but as they moved too slowly he struck them with his whip, and blood +came from them which left red marks in many places. The row of rocks +extended as far as the shore of the sun-country, but to build the +bridge across them was found to be beyond the reach of human skill. + +So Po Shih sent another messenger to the God of the Sea, requesting +him to raise a pillar and place a beam across it which could be used +as a bridge. The submarine spirits came and placed themselves at the +service of the Emperor, who asked for an interview with the god. To +this the latter agreed on condition that no one should make a portrait +of him, he being very ugly. Instantly a stone gangway 100,000 feet +long rose out of the sea, and the Emperor, mounting his horse, went +with his courtiers to the palace of the god. Among his followers was +one Lu Tung-shih, who tried to draw a portrait of the god by using +his foot under the surface of the water. Detecting this manoeuvre, +the god was incensed, and said to the Emperor: "You have broken your +word; did you bring Lu here to insult me? Retire at once, or evil will +befall you." The Emperor, seeing that the situation was precarious, +mounted his horse and galloped off. As soon as he reached the beach, +the stone cause-way sank, and all his suite perished in the waves. One +of the Court magicians said to the Emperor: "This god ought to be +feared as much as the God of Thunder; then he could be made to help +us. To-day a grave mistake has been made." For several days after +this incident the waves beat upon the beach with increasing fury. The +Emperor then built a temple and a pagoda to the god on Chih-fu Shan +and Wen-teng Shan respectively; by which act of propitiation he was +apparently appeased. + + +The Shipwrecked Servant + +Once the Eight Immortals (see Chapter XI) were on their way to +Ch'ang-li Shan to celebrate the birthday anniversary of Hsien Weng, +the God of Longevity. They had with them a servant who bore the +presents they intended to offer to the god. When they reached the +seashore the Immortals walked on the waves without any difficulty, +but Lan Ts'ai-ho remarked that the servant was unable to follow them, +and said that a means of transport must be found for him. So Ts'ao +Kuo-chiu took a plank of cypress-wood and made a raft. But when they +were in mid-ocean a typhoon arose and upset the raft, and servant +and presents sank to the bottom of the sea. + +Regarding this as the hostile act of a water-devil, the Immortals said +they must demand an explanation from the Dragon-king, Ao Ch'in. Li +T'ieh-kuai took his gourd, and, directing the mouth toward the bottom +of the sea, created so brilliant a light that it illuminated the whole +palace of the Sea-king. Ao Ch'in, surprised, asked where this powerful +light originated, and deputed a courier to ascertain its cause. + +To this messenger the Immortals made their complaint. "All we want," +they added, "is that the Dragon-king shall restore to us our servant +and the presents." On this being reported to Ao Ch'in he suspected +his son of being the cause, and, having established his guilt, +severely reprimanded him. The young Prince took his sword, and, +followed by an escort, went to find those who had made the complaint +to his father. As soon as he caught sight of the Immortals he began +to inveigh against them. + + +A Battle and its Results + +Han Hsiang Tzu, not liking this undeserved abuse, changed his flute +into a fishing-line, and as soon as the Dragon-prince was within reach +caught him on the hook, with intent to retain him as a hostage. The +Prince's escort returned in great haste and informed Ao Ch'in of +what had occurred. The latter declared that his son was in the wrong, +and proposed to restore the shipwrecked servant and the presents. The +Court officers, however, held a different opinion. "These Immortals," +they said, "dare to hold captive your Majesty's son merely on account +of a few lost presents and a shipwrecked servant. This is a great +insult, which we ask permission to avenge." Eventually they won +over Ao Ch'in, and the armies of the deep gathered for the fray. The +Immortals called to their aid the other Taoist Immortals and Heroes, +and thus two formidable armies found themselves face to face. + +Several attempts were made by other divinities to avert the conflict, +but without success. The battle was a strenuous one. Ao Ch'in received +a ball of fire full on his head, and his army was threatened with +disaster when Tz'u-hang Ta-shih appeared with his bottle of lustral +water. He sprinkled the combatants with this magic fluid, using a +willow-branch for the purpose, thus causing all their magic powers +to disappear. + +Shui Kuan, the Ruler of the Watery Elements, then arrived, and +reproached Ao Ch'in; he assured him that if the matter were to +come to the knowledge of Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, he would not +only be severely punished, but would risk losing his post. Ao Ch'in +expressed penitence, restored the servant and the presents, and made +full apology to the Eight Immortals. + + +The Dragon in the Pond + +One day Chang Tao-ling, the 'father of modern Taoism,' was on +Ho-ming Shan with his disciple Wang Ch'ang. "See," he said, "that +shaft of white light on Yang Shan yonder! There are undoubtedly +some bad spirits there. Let us go and bring them to reason." When +they reached the foot of the mountain they met twelve women who had +the appearance of evil spirits. Chang Tao-ling asked them whence +came the shaft of white light. They answered that it was the _yin_, +or female, principle of the earth. "Where is the source of the salt +water?" he asked again. "That pond in front of you," they replied, +"in which lives a very wicked dragon." Chang Tao-ling tried to force +the dragon to come out, but without success. Then he drew a phoenix +with golden wings on a charm and hurled it into the air over the +pond. Thereupon the dragon took fright and fled, the pond immediately +drying up. After that Chang Tao-ling took his sword and stuck it in +the ground, whereupon a well full of salt water appeared on the spot. + + +The Spirits of the Well + +The twelve women each offered Chang Tao-ling a jade ring, and asked +that they might become his wives. He took the rings, and pressing +them together in his hands made of them one large single ring. "I +will throw this ring into the well," he said, "and the one of you +who recovers it shall be my wife." All the twelve women jumped into +the well to get the ring; whereupon Chang Tao-ling put a cover over +it and fastened it down, telling them that henceforth they should be +the spirits of the well and would never be allowed to come out. + +Shortly after this Chang Tao-ling met a hunter. He exhorted him not +to kill living beings, but to change his occupation to that of a +salt-burner, instructing him how to draw out the salt from salt-water +wells. Thus the people of that district were advantaged both by being +able to obtain the salt and by being no longer molested by the twelve +female spirits. A temple, called Temple of the Prince of Ch'ing Ho, +was built by them, and the territory of Ling Chou was given to Chang +Tao-ling in recognition of the benefits he had conferred upon the +people. + + +The Dragon-king's Daughter + +A graduate named Liu I, in the reign-period I Feng (A.D. 676-679) +of the Emperor Kao Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, having failed in +his examination for his licentiate's degree, when passing through +Ching-yang Hsien, in Ch'ang-an, Shensi, on his way home, saw a +young woman tending goats by the roadside. She said to him: "I am the +youngest daughter of the Dragonking of the Tung-t'ing Lake. My parents +married me to the son of the God of the River Ching, but my husband, +misled by the slanders of the servants, repudiated me. I have heard +that you are returning to the Kingdom of Wu, which is quite close +to my native district, so I want to ask you to take this letter to +my father. To the north of the Tung-t'ing Lake you will find a large +orange-tree, called by the natives Protector of the Soil. Strike it +three times with your girdle and some one will appear." + +Some months later the graduate went to the spot, found the orange-tree, +and struck it three times, whereupon a warrior arose from the lake +and, saluting him, asked what he wanted. "I wish to see your great +King," the graduate replied. The warrior struck the waters, opening +a passage for Liu I, and led him to a palace. "This," he said, "is +the palace of Ling Hsue." In a few minutes there appeared a person +dressed in violet-coloured clothes and holding in his hand a piece +of jade. "This is our King," said the warrior. "I am your Majesty's +neighbour," replied Liu I. "I spent my youth in Ch'u and studied in +Ch'in. I have just failed in my licentiate examination. On my way +home I saw your daughter tending some goats; she was all dishevelled, +and in so pitiable a condition that it hurt me to see her, She has +sent you this letter." + + +Golden Dragon Great Prince + +On reading the letter the King wept, and all the courtiers followed +his example. "Stop wailing," said the King, "lest Ch'ien-t'ang +hear." "Who is Ch'ien-t'ang?" asked Liu I. "He is my dear brother," +replied the King; "formerly he was one of the chief administrators of +the Ch'ien-t'ang River; now he is the chief God of Rivers." "Why are +you so afraid that he might hear what I have just told you?" "Because +he has a terrible temper. It was he who, in the reign of Yao, caused +a nine-years flood." + +Before he had finished speaking, a red dragon, a thousand feet long, +with red scales, mane of fire, bloody tongue, and eyes blazing +like lightning, passed through the air with rapid flight and +disappeared. Barely a few moments had elapsed when it returned with +a young woman whom Liu I recognized as the one who had entrusted him +with the letter. The Dragon-king, overjoyed, said to him: "This is my +daughter; her husband is no more, and she offers you her hand." Liu +did not dare to accept, since it appeared that they had just killed +her husband. He took his departure, and married a woman named Chang, +who soon died. He then married another named Han, who also died. He +then went to live at Nanking, and, his solitude preying upon his +spirits, he decided to marry yet again. A middleman spoke to him of a +girl of Fang Yang, in Chihli, whose father, Hao, had been Magistrate +of Ch'ing Liu, in Anhui. This man was always absent on his travels, +no one knew whither. The girl's mother, Cheng, had married her two +years before to a man named Chang of Ch'ing Ho, in Chihli, who had +just died. Distressed at her daughter being left a widow so young, +the mother wished to find another husband for her. + +Liu I agreed to marry this young woman, and at the end of a year +they had a son. She then said to her husband: "I am the daughter +of the King of the Tung-t'ing Lake. It was you who saved me from +my miserable plight on the bank of the Ching, and I swore I would +reward you. Formerly you refused to accept my hand, and my parents +decided to marry me to the son of a silk-merchant. I cut my hair, +and never ceased to hope that I might some time or other be united +to you in order that I might show you my gratitude." + +In A.D. 712, in the reign-period K'ai-yuean of the Emperor Hsuean Tsung +of the T'ang dynasty, they both returned to the Tung-t'ing Lake; +but the legend says nothing further with regard to them. + +Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, conferred on Liu I the title of Chin +Lung Ta Wang, 'Golden Dragon Great Prince.' + + +The Old Mother of the Waters + +The Old Mother of the Waters, Shul-mu Niang-niang, is the legendary +spirit of Ssu-chou, in Anhui. To her is popularly ascribed the +destruction of the ancient city of Ssu-chou, which was completely +submerged by the waters of the Hung-tse Lake in A.D. 1574. + +One author states that this Goddess of the Waters is the younger +sister of the White Spiritual Elephant, a guardian of the Door of +Buddha. This elephant is the "subtle principle of metamorphosed water." + +In his _Recherches sur Us Superstitions en Chine_, Pere Henri Dore, +S.J., relates the legends he had heard with regard to this deity. One +of these is as follows: + +Shui-mu Niang-niang inundated the town of Ssu-chou almost every year. A +report was presented to Yu Huang, Lord of the Skies, begging him to +put an end to the scourge which devastated the country and cost so +many lives. The Lord of the Skies commanded the Great Kings of the +Skies and their generals to raise troops and take the field in order +to capture this goddess and deprive her of the power of doing further +mischief. But her tricks triumphed over force, and the city continued +to be periodically devastated by inundations. + +One day Shui-mu Niang-niang was seen near the city gate carrying two +buckets of water. Li Lao-chuen suspected some plot, but, an open attack +being too risky, he preferred to adopt a ruse. He went and bought +a donkey, led it to the buckets of water, and let it drink their +contents. Unfortunately the animal could not drink all the water, +so that a little remained at the bottom of the buckets. Now these +magical buckets contained the sources of the five great lakes, which +held enough water to inundate the whole of China. Shui-mu Niang-niang +with her foot overturned one of the buckets, and the water that had +remained in it was enough to cause a formidable flood, which submerged +the unfortunate town, and buried it for ever under the immense sheet +of water called the Lake of Hung-tse. + +So great a crime deserved an exemplary punishment, and accordingly Yue +Huang sent reinforcements to his armies, and a pursuit of the goddess +was methodically organized. + + +The Magic Vermicelli + +Sun Hou-tzu, the Monkey Sun, [25] the rapid courier, who in a +single skip could traverse 108,000 _li_ (36,000 miles), started in +pursuit and caught her up, but the astute goddess was clever enough +to slip through his fingers. Sun Hou-tzu, furious at this setback, +went to ask Kuan-yin P'u-sa to come to his aid. She promised to do +so. As one may imagine, the furious race she had had to escape from +her enemy had given Shui-mu Niang-niang a good appetite. Exhausted +with fatigue, and with an empty stomach, she caught sight of a woman +selling vermicelli, who had just prepared two bowls of it and was +awaiting customers. Shui-mu Niang-niang went up to her and began +to eat the strength-giving food with avidity. No sooner had she +eaten half of the vermicelli than it changed in her stomach into +iron chains, which wound round her intestines. The end of the chain +protruded from her mouth, and the contents of the bowl became another +long chain which welded itself to the end which stuck out beyond her +lips. The vermicelli-seller was no other than Kuan-yin P'u-sa herself, +who had conceived this stratagem as a means of ridding herself of +this evil-working goddess. She ordered Sun Hou-tzu to take her down +a deep well at the foot of a mountain in Hsue-i Hsien and to fasten +her securely there. It is there that Shui-mu Niang-niang remains in +her liquid prison. The end of the chain is to be seen when the water +is low. + + +Hsue, the Dragon-slayer + +Hsue Chen-chuen was a native either of Ju-ning Fu in Honan, or of +Nan-ch'ang Fu in Kiangsi. His father was Hsue Su. His personal name +was Ching-chih, and his ordinary name Sun. + +At forty-one years of age, when he was Magistrate of Ching-yang, +near the modern Chih-chiang Hsien, in Hupei, during times of drought +he had only to touch a piece of tile to turn it into gold, and thus +relieve the people of their distress. He also saved many lives by +curing sickness through the use of talismans and magic formulae. + +During the period of the dynastic troubles he resigned and joined +the famous magician Kuo P'o. Together they proceeded to the minister +Wang Tun, who had risen against the Eastern Chin dynasty. Kuo P'o's +remonstrances only irritated the minister, who cut off his head. + +Hsue Sun then threw his chalice on the ridgepole of the room, causing +it to be whirled into the air. As Wang Tun was watching the career of +the chalice, Hsue disappeared and escaped. When he reached Lu-chiang +K'ou, in Anhui, he boarded a boat, which two dragons towed into the +offing and then raised into the air. In an instant they had borne it +to the Lue Shan Mountains, to the south of Kiukiang, in Kiangsi. The +perplexed boatman opened the window of his boat and took a furtive +look out. Thereupon the dragons, finding themselves discovered by an +infidel, set the boat down on the top of the mountain and fled. + + +The Spiritual Alligator + +In this country was a dragon, or spiritual alligator, which transformed +itself into a young man named Shen Lang, and married Chia Yue, daughter +of the Chief Judge of T'an Chou (Ch'ang-sha Fu, capital of Hunan). The +young people lived in rooms below the official apartments. During +spring and summer Shen Lang, as dragons are wont to do, roamed in the +rivers and lakes. One day Hsue Chen-chuen met him, recognized him as a +dragon, and knew that he was the cause of the numerous floods which +were devastating Kiangsi Province. He determined to find a means of +getting rid of him. + +Shen Lang, aware of the steps being taken against him, changed himself +into a yellow ox and fled. Hsue Chen-chuen at once transformed himself +into a black ox and started in pursuit. The yellow ox jumped down a +well to hide, but the black ox followed suit. The yellow ox then jumped +out again, and escaped to Ch'ang-sha, where he reassumed a human form +and lived with Ms wife in the home of his father-in-law, Hsue Sun, +returning to the town, hastened to the _yamen,_ and called to Shen +Lang to come out and show himself, addressing him in a severe tone +of voice as follows: "Dragon, how dare you hide yourself there under +a borrowed form?" Shen Lang then reassumed the form of a spiritual +alligator, and Hsue Sun ordered the spiritual soldiers to kill him. He +then commanded his two sons to come out of their abode. By merely +spurting a mouthful of water on them he transformed them into young +dragons. Chia Yue was told to vacate the rooms with all speed, and +in the twinkling of an eye the whole _yamen_ sank beneath the earth, +and there remained nothing but a lake where it had been. + +Hsue Chen-chuen, after his victory over the dragon, assembled the members +of his family, to the number of forty-two, on Hsi Shan, outside the +city of Nan-ch'ang Fu, and all ascended to Heaven in full daylight, +taking with them even the dogs and chickens. He was then 133 years +old. This took place on the first day of the eighth moon of the second +year (A.D. 374) of the reign-period Ning-K'ang of the reign of the +Emperor Hsiao Wu Ti of the Eastern Chin dynasty. + +Subsequently a temple was erected to him, and in A.D. 1111 he was +canonized as Just Prince, Admirable and Beneficent. + + +The Great Flood + +The repairing of the heavens by Nue Kua, elsewhere alluded to, is also +attributed to the following incident. + +Before the Chinese Empire was founded a noble and wonderful queen +fought with the chief of the tribes who inhabited the country round +about O-mei Shan. In a fierce battle the chief and his followers met +defeat; raging with anger at being beaten by a woman, he rushed up +the mountain-side; the Queen pursued him with her army, and overtook +him at the summit; finding no place to hide himself, he attempted in +desperation both to wreak vengeance upon his enemies and to end his +own life by beating his head violently against the cane of the Heavenly +Bamboo which grew there. By his mad battering he at last succeeded in +knocking down the towering trunk of the tree, and as he did so its +top tore great rents in the canopy of the sky, through which poured +great floods of water, inundating the whole earth and drowning all the +inhabitants except the victorious Queen and her soldiers. The floods +had no power to harm her or her followers, because she herself was +an all-powerful divinity and was known as the 'Mother of the Gods,' +and the 'Defender of the Gods.' From the mountain-side she gathered +together stones of a kind having five colours, and ground them into +powder; of this she made a plaster or mortar, with which she repaired +the tears in the heavens, and the floods immediately ceased. + + +The Marriage of the River-god + +In Yeh Hsien there was a witch and some official attendants who +collected money from the people yearly for the marriage of the +River-god. + +The witch would select a pretty girl of low birth, and say that she +should be the Queen of the River-god. The girl was bathed, and clothed +in a beautiful dress of gay and costly silk. She was then taken to +the bank of the river, to a monastery which was beautifully decorated +with scrolls and banners. A feast was held, and the girl was placed +on a bed which was floated out upon the tide till it disappeared +under the waters. + +Many families having beautiful daughters moved to distant places, +and gradually the city became deserted. The common belief in Yeh was +that if no queen was offered to the River-god a flood would come and +drown the people. + +One day Hsi-men Pao, Magistrate of Yeh Hsien, said to his attendants: +"When the marriage of the River-god takes place I wish to say farewell +to the chosen girl." + +Accordingly Hsi-men Pao was present to witness the ceremony. About +three thousand people had come together. Standing beside the old +witch were ten of her female disciples, "Call the girl out," said +Hsi-men Pao. After seeing her, Hsi-men Pao said to the witch: "She +is not fair. Go you to the River-god and tell him that we will find +a fairer maid and present her to him later on." His attendants then +seized the witch and threw her into the river. + +After a little while Hsi-men Pao said: "Why does she stay so long? Send +a disciple to call her back." One of the disciples was thrown into the +river. Another and yet another followed. The magistrate then said:" +The witches are females and therefore cannot bring me a reply." So +one of the official attendants of the witch was thrown into the river. + +Hsi-men Pao stood on the bank for a long time, apparently awaiting +a reply. The spectators were alarmed. Hsi-men Pao then bade his +attendants send the remaining disciples of the witch and the other +official attendants to recall their mistress. The wretches threw +themselves on their knees and knocked their heads on the ground, +which was stained with the blood from their foreheads, and with tears +confessed their sin. + +"The River-god detains his guest too long," said Hsi-men Pao at +length. "Let us adjourn." + +Thereafter none dared to celebrate the marriage of the River-god. + + +Legend of the Building of Peking + +When the Mongol Yuean dynasty had been destroyed, and the Emperor +Hung Wu had succeeded in firmly establishing that of the Great Ming, +Ta Ming, he made Chin-ling, the present Nanking, his capital, and held +his Court there with great splendour, envoys from every province within +the 'Four Seas' (the Chinese Empire) assembling there to witness his +greatness and to prostrate themselves before the Dragon Throne. + +The Emperor had many sons and daughters by his different consorts and +concubines, each mother, in her inmost heart, fondly hoping that her +own son would be selected by his father to succeed him. + +Although the Empress had a son, who was the heir-apparent, yet she felt +envious of those ladies who had likewise been blessed with children, +for fear one of the princes should supplant her son in the affection +of the Emperor and in the succession. This envy displayed itself on +every occasion; she was greatly beloved by the Emperor, and exerted +all her influence with him, as the other young princes grew up, +to get them removed from Court. Through her means most of them were +sent to the different provinces as governors; those provinces under +their government being so many principalities or kingdoms. + + + +Chu-ti + +One of the consorts of Hung Wu, the Lady Weng, had a son named +Chu-ti. This young prince was very handsome and graceful in his +deportment; he was, moreover, of an amiable disposition. He was the +fourth son of the Emperor, and his pleasing manner and address had made +him a great favourite, not only with his father, but with every one +about the Court. The Empress noticed the evident affection the Emperor +evinced for this prince, and determined to get him removed from the +Court as soon as possible. By a judicious use of flattery and cajolery, +she ultimately persuaded the Emperor to appoint the prince governor of +the Yen country, and thenceforth he was styled Yen Wang, Prince of Yen. + + +The Sealed Packet + +The young Prince, shortly after, taking an affectionate leave of +the Emperor, left Chin-ling to proceed to his post. Ere he departed, +however, a Taoist priest, called Liu Po-wen, who had a great affection +for the Prince, put a sealed packet into his hand, and told him to +open it when he found himself in difficulty, distress, or danger; the +perusal of the first portion that came to his hand would invariably +suggest some remedy for the evil, whatever it was. After doing so, +he was again to seal the packet, without further looking into its +contents, till some other emergency arose necessitating advice or +assistance, when he would again find it. The Prince departed on his +journey, and in the course of time, without meeting with any adventures +worth recording, arrived safely at his destination. + + + +A Desolate Region + +The place where Peking now stands was originally called Yu Chou; in the +T'ang dynasty it was called Pei-p'ing Fu; and afterward became known +as Shun-t'ien Fu--but that was after the city now called Peking was +built. The name of the country in which this place was situated was +Yen. It was a mere barren wilderness, with very few inhabitants; these +lived in huts and scattered hamlets, and there was no city to afford +protection to the people and to check the depredations of robbers. + +When the Prince saw what a desolate-looking place he had been appointed +to, and thought of the long years he was probably destined to spend +there, he grew very melancholy, and nothing his attendants essayed +to do in hope of alleviating his sorrow succeeded. + + +The Prince opens the Sealed Packet + +All at once the Prince bethought himself of the packet which the old +Taoist priest had given him; he forthwith proceeded to make search for +it--for in the bustle and excitement of travelling he had forgotten +all about it--in hope that it might suggest something to better the +prospects before him. Having found the packet, he hastily broke it +open to see what instructions it contained; taking out the first +paper which came to hand, he read the following: + +"When you reach Pei-p'ing Fu you must build a city there and name +it No-cha Ch'eng, the City of No-cha. [26] But, as the work will +be costly, you must issue a proclamation inviting the wealthy to +subscribe the necessary funds for building it. At the back of this +paper is a plan of the city; you must be careful to act according to +the instructions accompanying it." + +The Prince inspected the plan, carefully read the instructions, and +found even the minutest details fully explained. He was struck with +the grandeur of the design of the proposed city, and at once acted on +the instructions contained in the packet; proclamations were posted up, +and large sums were speedily subscribed, ten of the wealthiest families +who had accompanied him from Chin-ling being the largest contributors, +supporting the plan not only with their purses, by giving immense sums, +but by their influence among their less wealthy neighbours. + + +The City is Founded + +When sufficient money had been subscribed, a propitious day was chosen +on which to commence the undertaking. Trenches where the foundations +of the walls were to be were first dug out, according to the plan +found in the packet. The foundations themselves consisted of layers +of stone quarried from the western hills; bricks of an immense size +were made and burnt in the neighbourhood; the moat was dug out, and +the earth from it used to fill in the centre of the walls, which, +when complete, were forty-eight _li_ in circumference, fifty cubits in +height, and fifty in breadth; the whole circuit of the walls having +battlements and embrasures. Above each of the nine gates of the city +immense three-storied towers were built, each tower being ninety-nine +cubits in height. + +Near the front entrance of the city, facing each other, were built the +Temples of Heaven and of Earth. In rear of it the beautiful 'Coal Hill' +(better known as 'Prospect Hill') was raised; while in the square in +front of the Great Gate of the palace was buried an immense quantity +of charcoal (that and the coal being stored as a precaution in case +of siege). + +The palace, containing many superb buildings, was built in a style of +exceeding splendour; in the various enclosures were beautiful gardens +and lakes; in the different courtyards, too, seventy-two wells were +dug and thirty-six golden tanks placed. The whole of the buildings +and grounds was surrounded by a lofty wall and a stone-paved moat, +in which the lotus and other flowers bloomed in great beauty and +profusion, and in the clear waters of which myriads of gold and silver +fish disported themselves. + +The geomancy of the city was similar to that of Chin-ling, When +everything was completed the Prince compared it with the plan and +found that the city tallied with it in every respect. He was much +delighted, and called for the ten wealthy persons who had been +the chief contributors, and gave each of them a pair of 'couchant +dragon' silk- or satin-embroidered cuffs, and allowed them great +privileges. Up to the present time there is the common saying: +"Since then the 'dragon-cuffed' gentlefolks have flourished." + + +General Prosperity + +All the people were loud in praise of the beauty and strength of the +newly built city. Merchants from every province hastened to Peking, +attracted by the news they heard of its magnificence and the prospect +there was of profitably disposing of their wares. In short, the people +were prosperous and happy, food was plentiful, the troops brave, the +monarch just, his ministers virtuous, and all enjoyed the blessings +of peace. + + +A Drought and its Cause + +While everything was thus tranquil, a sudden and untoward event +occurred which spread dismay and consternation on all sides. One day +when the Prince went into the hall of audience one of his ministers +reported that "the wells are thirsty and the rivers dried up"--there +was no water, and the people were all in the greatest alarm. The +Prince at once called his counsellors together to devise some means +of remedying this disaster and causing the water to return to the +wells and springs, but no one could suggest a suitable plan. + +It is necessary to explain the cause of this scarcity of water. There +was a dragon's cave outside the east gate of the city at a place +called Lei-chen K'ou, 'Thunder-clap Mouth' or 'Pass' (the name of a +village). The dragon had not been seen for myriads of years, yet it +was well known that he lived there. + +In digging out the earth to build the wall the workmen had broken into +this dragon's cave, little thinking of the consequences which would +result. The dragon was exceedingly wroth and determined to shift his +abode, but the she-dragon said: "We have lived here thousands of years, +and shall we suffer the Prince of Yen to drive us forth thus? If we +_do_ go we will collect all the water, place it in our _yin-yang_ +baskets [used for drawing water], and at midnight we will appear in a +dream to the Prince, requesting permission to retire. If he gives us +permission to do so, and allows us also to take our baskets of water +with us, he will fall into our trap, for we shall take the waler with +his own consent," + + + +The Prince's Dream + +The two dragons then transformed themselves into an old man and +an old woman, went to the chamber of the Prince, who was asleep, +and appeared to him in a dream. Kneeling before him, they cried: +"O Lord of a Thousand Years, we have come before you to beg leave to +retire from this place, and to beseech you out of your great bounty +to give us permission to take these two baskets of water with us." + +The Prince readily assented, little dreaming of the danger he was +incurring. The dragons were highly delighted, and hastened out of +his presence; they filled the baskets with all the water there was +in Peking, and carried them off with them. + +When the Prince awoke he paid no attention to his dream till he +heard the report of the scarcity of water, when, reflecting on the +singularity of his dream, he thought there might be some hidden meaning +in it. He therefore had recourse to the packet again, and discovered +that his dream-visitors had been dragons, who had taken the waters of +Peking away with them in their magic baskets; the packet, however, +contained directions for the recovery of the water, and he at once +prepared to follow them. + + +The Pursuit of the Dragons + +In haste the Prince donned his armour, mounted his black steed, and, +spear in hand, dashed out of the west gate of the city. He pressed on +his horse, which went swift as the wind, nor did he slacken speed till +he came up with the water-stealing dragons, who still retained the +forms in which they had appeared to him in his dream. On a cart were +the two identical baskets he had seen; in front of the cart, dragging +it, was the old woman, while behind, pushing it, was the old man. + + +An Unexpected Flood + +When the Prince saw them he galloped up to the cart, and, without +pausing, thrust his spear into one of the baskets, making a great hole, +out of which the water rushed so rapidly that the Prince was much +frightened. He dashed off at full speed to save himself from being +swallowed up by the waters, which in a very short time had risen more +than thirty feet and had flooded the surrounding country. On galloped +the Prince, followed by the roaring water, till he reached a hill, +up which he urged his startled horse. When he gained the top he found +that it stood out of the water like an island, completely surrounded; +the water was seething and swirling round the hill in a frightful +manner, but no vestige could he see of either of the dragons. + + +The Waters Subside + +The Prince was very much alarmed at his perilous position, when +suddenly a Buddhist priest appeared before him, with clasped hands and +bent head, who bade him not be alarmed, as with Heaven's assistance +he would soon disperse the water. Hereupon the priest recited a short +prayer or spell, and the waters receded as rapidly as they had risen, +and finally returned to their proper channels. + + +The Origin of Chen-shui T'a + +The broken basket became a large deep hole, some three _mu_ (about +half an English acre) in extent, in the centre of which was a fountain +which threw up a vast body of clear water. From the midst of this +there arose a pagoda, which rose and fell with the water, floating on +the top like a vessel; the spire thrusting itself far up into the sky, +and swaying about like the mast of a ship in a storm. + +The Prince returned to the city filled with wonder at what he +had seen, and with joy at having so successfully carried out the +directions contained in the packet. On all sides he was greeted by +the acclamations of the people, who hailed him as the saviour of +Peking. Since that time Peking has never had the misfortune to be +without water. + +The pagoda is called the Pagoda on the Hill of the Imperial Spring +(Yue Ch'uean Shan T'a; more commonly Chen-shui T'a, 'Water-repressing +Pagoda'). [27] The spring is still there, and day and night, +unceasingly, its clear waters bubble up and flow eastward to Peking, +which would now be a barren wilderness but for Yen Wang's pursuit of +the water. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Myths of Fire + + +The Ministry of Fire + +The celestial organization of Fire is the fifth Ministry, and is +presided over by a President, Lo Hsuean, whose titular designation is +Huo-te Hsing-chuen, 'Stellar Sovereign of the Fire-virtue,' with five +subordinate ministers, four of whom are star-gods, and the fifth a +"celestial prince who receives fire": Chieh-huo T'ien-chuen. Like so +many other Chinese deities, the five were all ministers of the tyrant +emperor Chou. + +It is related that Lo Hsuean was originally a Taoist priest known as +Yen-chung Hsien, of the island Huo-lung, 'Fire-dragon.' His face was +the colour of ripe fruit of the jujube-tree, his hair and beard red, +the former done up in the shape of a fish-tail, and he had three +eyes. He wore a red cloak ornamented with the _pa kua_; his horse +snorted flames from its nostrils and fire darted from its hoofs. + +While fighting in the service of the son of the tyrant emperor, +Lo Hsuean suddenly changed himself into a giant with three heads and +six arms. In each of his hands he held a magic weapon. These were a +seal which reflected the heavens and the earth, a wheel of the five +fire-dragons, a gourd containing ten thousand fire-crows, and, in +the other hands, two swords which floated like smoke, and a column +of smoke several thousands of _li_ long enclosing swords of fire. + + +A Conflagration + +Having arrived at the city of Hsi Ch'i, Lo Hsuean sent forth his +smoke-column, the air was filled with swords of fire, the ten thousand +fire-crows, emerging from the gourd, spread themselves over the town, +and a terrible conflagration broke out, the whole place being ablaze +in a few minutes. + +At this juncture there appeared in the sky the Princess Lung Chi, +daughter of Wang-mu Niang-niang; forthwith she spread over the +city her shroud of mist and dew, and the fire was extinguished by a +heavy downpour of rain. All the mysterious mechanisms of Lo Hsuean +lost their efficacy, and the magician took to his heels down the +side of the mountain. There he was met by Li, the Pagoda-bearer, +[28] who threw his golden pagoda into the air. The pagoda fell on Lo +Hsuean's head and broke his skull. + + +C'ih Ching-tzu + +Of the various fire-gods, Ch'ih Ching-tzu, the principle of spiritual +fire, is one of the five spirits representing the Five Elements. He +is Fire personified, which has its birth in the south, on Mount +Shih-t'ang. He himself and everything connected with him--his skin, +hair, beard, trousers, cloak of leaves, etc.--are all of the colour of +fire, though he is sometimes represented with a blue cap resembling +the blue tip of a flame. He appeared in the presence of Huang Lao +in a fire-cloud. He it was who obtained fire from the wood of the +mulberry-tree, and the heat of this fire, joined with the moisture +of water, developed the germs of terrestrial beings. + + +The Red Emperor + +Chu Jung, though also otherwise personified, is generally regarded as +having been a legendary emperor who made his first appearance in the +time of Hsien Yuan (2698-2598 B.C.). In his youth he asked Kuang-shou +Lao-jen, 'Old Longevity,' to grant him immortality. "The time has +not yet come," replied Old Longevity; "before it does you have to +become an emperor. I will give you the means of reaching the end you +desire. Give orders that after you are dead you are to be buried on +the southern slope of the sacred mountain Heng Shan; there you will +learn the doctrine of Ch'ih Ching-tzu and will become immortal." + +The Emperor Hsien Yuean, having abdicated the throne, sent for Chu Jung, +and bestowed upon him the crown. Chu Jung, having become emperor, +taught the people the use of fire and the advantages to be derived +therefrom. In those early times the forests were filled with venomous +reptiles and savage animals; he ordered the peasants to set fire to the +brushwood to drive away these dangerous neighbours and keep them at a +distance. He also taught his subjects the art of purifying, forging, +and welding metals by the action of fire. He was nicknamed Ch'ih Ti, +'the Red Emperor.' He reigned for more than two hundred years, and +became an Immortal, His capital was the ancient city of Kuei, thirty +_li_ north-east of Hsin-cheng Hsien, in the Prefecture of K'ai-feng +Fu, Honan. His tomb is on the southern slope of Heng Shan. The peak +is known as Chu Jung Peak. His descendants, who went to live in the +south, were the ancestors of the Directors of Fire. + + +Hui Lu + +The most popular God of Fire, however, is Hui Lu, a celebrated +magician who, according to the _Shen hsien t'ung chien_, lived some +time before the reign of Ti K'u (2436-2366 B.C.), the father of Yao +the Great, and had a mysterious bird named Pi Fang and a hundred other +fire-birds shut up in a gourd. He had only to let them out to set up +a conflagration which would extend over the whole country. + +Huang Ti ordered Chu Jung to fight Hui Lu and also to subdue the +rebel Chih Yu. Chu Jung had a large bracelet of pure gold--a most +wonderful and effective weapon. He hurled it into the air, and it +fell on Hui Lu's neck, throwing him to the ground and rendering him +incapable of moving. Finding resistance impossible, he asked mercy +from his victor and promised to be his follower in the spiritual +contests. Subsequently he always called himself Huo-shih Chih T'u, +'the Disciple of the Master of Fire.' + + +The Fire-emperor + +Shen Nung, the God of Agriculture, also adds to his other functions +those appertaining to the God of Fire, the reason being that when +he succeeded the Emperor Fu Hsi on the throne he adopted fire as +the emblem of his government, just as Huang Ti adopted the symbol +of Earth. Thus he came to be called Huo Ti, the 'Fire-emperor.' He +taught his subjects the use of fire for smelting metals and making +implements and weapons, and the use of oil in lamps, etc. All the +divisions of his official hierarchy were connected in some way with +this element; thus, there were the Ministers of Fire generally, the +officers of Fire of the North, South, etc. Becoming thus doubly the +patron of fire, a second fire symbol (_huo_) was added to his name, +changing it from Huo Ti, 'Fire-emperor,' to Yen Ti, 'Blazing Emperor,' + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Myths of Epidemics, Medicine, Exorcism, Etc. + + +The Ministry of Epidemics + +The gods of epidemics, etc., belong to the sixth, ninth, second, +and third celestial Ministries. The composition of the Ministry of +Epidemics is arranged differently in different works as Epidemics +(regarded as epidemics on earth, but as demons in Heaven) of the +Centre, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, or as the marshals clothed +in yellow, green, red, white, and blue respectively, or as the Officers +of the East, West, South, and North, with two additional members: +a Taoist who quells the plague, and the Grand Master who exhorts +people to do right. + +With regard to the Ministry of Seasonal Epidemics, it is related that +in the sixth moon of the eleventh year (A.D. 599) of the reign of Kao +Tsu, founder of the Sui dynasty, five stalwart persons appeared in +the air, clothed in robes of five colours, each carrying different +objects in his hands: the first a spoon and earthenware vase, the +second a leather bag and sword, the third a fan, the fourth a club, +the fifth a jug of fire. The Emperor asked Chang Chue-jen, his Grand +Historiographer, who these were and if they were benevolent or evil +spirits. The official answered: "These are the five powers of the five +directions. Their appearance indicates the imminence of epidemics, +which will last throughout the four seasons of the year." "What +remedy is there, and how am I to protect the people?" inquired the +Emperor. "There is no remedy," replied the official, "for epidemics +are sent by Heaven." During that year the mortality was very great. The +Emperor built a temple to the five persons, and bestowed upon them the +title of Marshals to the Five Spirits of the Plague. During that and +the following dynasty sacrifices were offered to them on the fifth +day of the fifth moon. + + +The President of the Ministry + +The following particulars are given concerning the President of the +Ministry, whose name was Lue Yueeh. He was an old Taoist hermit, living +at Chiu-lung Tao, 'Nine-dragon Island,' who became an Immortal. The +four members of the Ministry were his disciples. He wore a red garment, +had a blue face, red hair, long teeth, and three eyes. His war-horse +was named the Myopic Camel. He carried a magic sword, and was in the +service of Chou Wang, whose armies were concentrated at Hsi Ch'i. In +a duel with Mu-cha, brother of No-cha, he had his arm severed by a +sword-cut. In another battle with Huang T'ien-hua, son of Huang Fei-hu, +he appeared with three heads and six arms. In his many hands he held +the celestial seal, plague microbes, the flag of plague, the plague +sword, and two mysterious swords. His faces were green, and large +teeth protruded from his mouths. Huang T'ien-hua threw his magic +weapon, Huo-lung Piao, and hit him on the leg. Just at that moment +Chiang Tzu-ya arrived with his goblin-dispelling whip and felled him +with a blow. He was able, however, to rise again, and took to flight. + + +The Plague-disseminating Umbrellas + +Resolved to avenge his defeat, he joined General Hsue Fang, who was +commanding an army corps at Ch'uan-yuen Kuan. Round the mountain he +organized a system of entrenchments and of infection against their +enemies. Yang Chien released his celestial hound, which bit Lue Yueeh +on the crown of his head. Then Yang Jen, armed with his magic fan, +pursued Lue Yueeh and compelled him to retreat to his fortress. Lue +Yueeh mounted the central raised part of the embattled wall and opened +all his plague-disseminating umbrellas, with the object of infecting +Yang Jen, but the latter, simply by waving his fan, reduced all the +umbrellas to dust, and also burned the fort, and with it Lue Yueeh. + +Similar wonderful achievements are related in short notices in the +_Feng shen yen i_ of the four other officers of the Ministry. + +Li P'ing, the sixth officer of the Ministry, met a like fate to that +of Lue Yueeh after having failed to induce the latter to abandon the +cause of the Shang dynasty for that of Chou. + + +The Five Graduates + +In Pere Henri Dore's _Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine_ +is given an interesting legend concerning five other gods of +epidemics. These gods are called the Wu Yueeh, 'Five Mountains,' +and are worshipped in the temple San-i Ko at Ju-kao, especially in +outbreaks of contagious diseases and fevers. A sufferer goes to the +temple and promises offerings to the gods in the event of recovery. The +customary offering is five small wheaten loaves, called _shao ping_, +and a pound of meat. + +The Wu Yueeh are stellar devils whom Yue Huang sent to be reincarnated on +earth. Their names were T'ien Po-hsueeh, Tung Hung-wen, Ts'ai Wen-chue, +Chao Wu-chen, and Huang Ying-tu, and they were reincarnated at +Nan-ch'ang Fu, Chien-ch'ang Fu, Yen-men Kuan, Yang Chou, and Nanking +respectively. They were all noted for their brilliant intellects, +and were clever scholars who passed their graduate's examination +with success. + +When Li Shih-min ascended the throne, in A.D. 627, he called together +all the _literati_ of the Empire to take the Doctor's Examination +in the capital. Our five graduates started for the metropolis, but, +losing their way, were robbed by brigands, and had to beg help in +order to reach the end of their journey. By good luck they all met in +the temple San-i Ko, and related to each other the various hardships +they had undergone. But when they eventually reached the capital +the examination was over, and they were out in the streets without +resources. So they took an oath of brotherhood for life and death. They +pawned some of the few clothes they possessed, and buying some musical +instruments formed themselves into a band of strolling musicians. + +The first bought a drum, the second a seven-stringed guitar, the +third a mandolin, the fourth a clarinet, and the fifth and youngest +composed songs. + +Thus they went through the streets of the capital giving their +concerts, and Fate decreed that Li Shih-min should hear their +melodies. Charmed with the sweet sounds, he asked Hsue Mao-kung +whence came this band of musicians, whose skill was certainly +exceptional. Having made inquiries, the minister related their +experiences to the Emperor. Li Shih-min ordered them to be brought +into his presence, and after hearing them play and sing appointed them +to his private suite, and henceforth they accompanied him wherever +he went. + + +The Emperors Strategy + +The Emperor bore malice toward Chang T'ien-shih, the Master of +the Taoists, because he refused to pay the taxes on his property, +and conceived a plan to bring about his destruction. He caused a +spacious subterranean chamber to be dug under the reception-hall of +his palace. A wire passed through the ceiling to where the Emperor +sat. He could thus at will give the signal for the music to begin +or stop. Having stationed the five musicians in this subterranean +chamber, he summoned the Master of the Taoists to his presence and +invited him to a banquet. During the course of this he pulled the wire, +and a subterranean babel began. + +The Emperor pretended to be terrified, and allowed himself to fall +to the ground. Then, addressing himself to the T'ien-shih, he said: +"I know that you can at will catch the devilish hobgoblins which +molest human beings. You can hear for yourself the infernal row they +make in my palace. I order you under penalty of death to put a stop +to their pranks and to exterminate them." + + +The Musicians are Slain + +Having spoken thus, the Emperor rose and left. The Master of the +Taoists brought his projecting mirror, and began to seek for the +evil spirits. In vain he inspected the palace and its precincts; +he could discover nothing. Fearing that he was lost, he in despair +threw his mirror on the floor of the reception-hall. + +A minute later, sad and pensive, he stooped to pick it up; what was +his joyful surprise when he saw reflected in it the subterranean room +and the musicians! At once he drew five talismans on yellow paper, +burned them, and ordered his celestial general, Chao Kung-ming, to +take his sword and kill the five musicians. The order was promptly +executed, and the T'ien-shih informed the Emperor, who received the +news with ridicule, not believing it to be true. He went to his seat +and pulled the wire, but all remained silent. A second and third time +he gave the signal, but without response. He then ordered his Grand +Officer to ascertain what had happened. The officer found the five +graduates bathed in their blood, and lifeless. + +The Emperor, furious, reproached the Master of the Taoists. "But," +replied the T'ien-shih, "was it not your Majesty who ordered me under +pain of death to exterminate the authors of this pandemonium?" Li +Shih-min could not reply. He dismissed the Master of the Taoists and +ordered the five victims to be buried. + + +The Emperor Tormented + +After the funeral ceremonies, apparitions appeared at night in the +place where they had been killed, and the palace became a babel. The +spirits threw bricks and broke the tiles on the roofs. + +The Emperor ordered his uncomfortable visitors to go to the T'ien-shih +who had murdered them. They obeyed, and, seizing the garments of the +Master of the Taoists, swore not to allow him any rest if he would +not restore them to life. + +To appease them the Taoist said: "I am going to give each of you a +wonderful object. You are then to return and spread epidemics among +wicked people, beginning in the imperial palace and with the Emperor +himself, with the object of forcing him to canonize you." + +One received a fan, another a gourd filled with fire, the third a +metallic ring to encircle people's heads, the fourth a stick made of +wolves' teeth, and the fifth a cup of lustral water. + +The spirit-graduates left full of joy, and made their first experiment +on Li Shih-min. The first gave him feverish chills by waving his +fan, the second burned him with the fire from his gourd, the third +encircled his head with the ring, causing him violent headache, the +fourth struck him with his stick, and the fifth poured out his cup +of lustral water on his head. + +The same night a similar tragedy took place in the palace of the +Empress and the two chief imperial concubines. + +T'ai-po Chin-hsing, however, informed Yue Huang what had happened, +and, touched with compassion, he sent three Immortals with pills and +talismans which cured the Empress and the ladies of the palace. + + +The Graduates Canonized + +Li Shih-min, having also recovered his health, summoned the five +deceased graduates and expressed his regret for the unfortunate issue +of his design against the T'ien-shih. He proceeded: "To the south of +the capital is the temple San-i Ko. I will change its name to Hsiang +Shan Wu Yueeh Shen, 'Fragrant Hill of the Five Mountain Spirits.' On +the twenty-eighth day of the ninth moon betake yourselves to that +temple to receive the seals of your canonization." He conferred upon +them the title of Ti, 'Emperor.' + + +The Ministry of Medicine + +The celestial Ministry of Medicine is composed of three main +divisions comprising: (1) the Ancestral Gods of the Chinese race; +(2) the King of Remedies, Yao Wang; and (3) the Specialists. There +is a separate Ministry of Smallpox. This latter controls and cures +smallpox, and the establishment of a separate celestial Ministry is +significant of the prevalence and importance of the affliction. The +ravages of smallpox in China, indeed, have been terrific: so much so, +that, until recent years, it was considered as natural and inevitable +for a child to have smallpox as for it to cut its teeth. One of the +ceremonial questions addressed by a visitor to the parent of a child +was always _Ch'u la hua'rh mei yu_? "Has he had the smallpox?" and a +child who escaped the scourge was often, if not as a rule, regarded +with disfavour and, curiously enough, as a weakling. Probably the +train of thought in the Chinese mind was that, as it is the fittest +who survive, those who have successfully passed through the process of +"putting out the flowers" have proved their fitness in the struggle +for existence. Nowadays vaccination is general, and the number of +pockmarked faces seen is much smaller than it used to be--in fact, +the pockmarked are now the exception. But, as far as I have been +able to ascertain, the Ministry of Smallpox has not been abolished, +and possibly its members, like those of some more mundane ministries, +continue to draw large salaries for doing little or no work. + + +The Medicine-gods + +The chief gods of medicine are the mythical kings P'an Ku, Fu Hsi, +Shen Nung, and Huang Ti. The first two, being by different writers +regarded as the first progenitor or creator of the Chinese people, +are alternatives, so that Fu Hsi, Shen Nung, and Huang Ti may be said +to be a sort of ancestral triad of medicine-gods, superior to the +actual God or King of Medicine, Yao Wang. Of P'an Ku we have spoken +sufficiently in Chapter III, and with regard to Fu Hsi, also called +T'ien Huang Shih, 'the Celestial Emperor,' the mythical sovereign +and supposed inventor of cooking, musical instruments, the calendar, +hunting, fishing, etc., the chief interest for our present purpose +centres in his discovery of the _pa kua_, or Eight Trigrams. It is on +the strength of these trigrams that Fu Hsi is regarded as the chief +god of medicine, since it is by their mystical power that the Chinese +physicians influence the minds and maladies of their patients. He +is represented as holding in front of him a disk on which the signs +are painted. + + +The Ministry of Exorcism + +The Ministry of Exorcism is a Taoist invention and is composed of seven +chief ministers, whose duty is to expel evil spirits from dwellings +and generally to counteract the annoyances of infernal demons. The +two gods usually referred to in the popular legends are P'an Kuan and +Chung K'uei. The first is really the Guardian of the Living and the +Dead in the Otherworld, Feng-tu P'an Kuan (Feng-tu or Feng-tu Ch'eng +being the region beyond the tomb). He was originally a scholar named +Ts'ui Chio, who became Magistrate of Tz'u Chou, and later Minister +of Ceremonies. After his death he was appointed to the spiritual post +above mentioned. His best-known achievement is his prolongation of the +life of the Emperor T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty by twenty years by +changing _i_, 'one,' into _san_, 'three,' in the life-register kept +by the gods. The term P'an Kuan is, however, more generally used as +the designation of an officer or civil or military attendant upon +a god than of any special individual, and the original P'an Kuan, +'the Decider of Life in Hades,' has been gradually supplanted in +popular favour by Chung K'uei, 'the Protector against Evil Spirits.' + + +The Exorcism of 'Emptiness and Devastation' + +The Emperor Ming Huang of the T'ang dynasty, also known as T'ang +Hsuean Tsung, in the reign-period K'ai Yuean (A.D. 712-742), after an +expedition to Mount Li in Shensi, was attacked by fever. During a +nightmare he saw a small demon fantastically dressed in red trousers, +with a shoe on one foot but none on the other, and a shoe hanging from +his girdle. Having broken through a bamboo gate, he took possession +of an embroidered box and a jade flute, and then began to make a +tour of the palace, sporting and gambolling. The Emperor grew angry +and questioned him. "Your humble servant," replied the little demon, +"is named Hsue Hao, 'Emptiness and Devastation,'" "I have never heard +of such a person," said the Emperor. The demon rejoined, "Hsue means to +desire Emptiness, because in Emptiness one can fly just as one wishes; +Hao, 'Devastation,' changes people's joy to sadness. "The Emperor, +irritated by this flippancy, was about to call his guard, when suddenly +a great devil appeared, wearing a tattered head-covering and a blue +robe, a horn clasp on his belt, and official boots on his feet. He +went up to the sprite, tore out one of his eyes, crushed it up, and ate +it. The Emperor asked the newcomer who he was. "Your humble servant," +he replied, "is Chung K'uei, Physician of Tung-nan Shan in Shensi. In +the reign-period Wu Te (A.D. 618-627) of the Emperor Kao Tsu of the +T'ang dynasty I was ignominiously rejected and unjustly defrauded +of a first class in the public examinations. Overwhelmed with shame, +I committed suicide on the steps of the imperial palace. The Emperor +ordered me to be buried in a green robe [reserved for members of the +imperial clan], and out of gratitude for that favour I swore to protect +the sovereign in any part of the Empire against the evil machinations +of the demon Hsue Hao." At these words the Emperor awoke and found +that the fever had left him. His Majesty called for Wu Tao-tzu (one +of the most celebrated Chinese artists) to paint the portrait of the +person he had seen in his dream. The work was so well done that the +Emperor recognized it as the actual demon he had seen in his sleep, +and rewarded the artist with a hundred taels of gold. The portrait is +said to have been still in the imperial palace during the Sung dynasty. + +Another version of the legend says that Chung K'uefs essay was +recognized by the examiners as equal to the work of the best authors +of antiquity, but that the Emperor rejected him on account of his +extremely ugly features, whereupon he committed suicide in his +presence, was honoured by the Emperor and accorded a funeral as if +he had been the successful first candidate, and canonized with the +title of Great Spiritual Chaser of Demons for the Whole Empire. + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Goddess of Mercy + + +The Guardian Angel of Buddhism + +As Mary is the guiding spirit of Rome, so is Kuan Yin of the Buddhist +faith. + +According to a beautiful Chinese legend, Kuan Yin. when about to +enter Heaven, heard a cry of anguish rising from the earth beneath +her, and, moved by pity, paused as her feet touched the glorious +threshold. Hence her name 'Kuan (Shih) Yin' (one who notices or hears +the cry, or prayer, of the world). + +Kuan Yin was at one time always represented as a man; but in the +T'ang dynasty and Five Dynasties we find him represented as a woman, +and he has been generally, though not invariably, so represented +since that time. + +In old Buddhism Shakyamuni was the chief god, and in many temples +he still nominally occupies the seat of honour, but he is completely +eclipsed by the God or Goddess of Mercy. + +"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 Kuan Yin within its 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 relative value of a son in Chinese +estimation 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 Kuan Yin Buddha,' +She saves the tempest-tossed sailor, and 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 [P'u T'o], 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 'Kuan Yin' 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." There are many metamorphoses of this goddess. + + +The Buddhist Saviour + +"She is called Kuan Yin because at any cry of misery she 'hears the +voice and removes the sorrow.' Her appellation is 'Taking-away-fear +Buddha,' If in the midst of the fire the name of Kuan Yin 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, and a storm comes +up and threatens to carry the crew to the evil devil's kingdom, +if one on board calls on the name of Kuan Yin, the ship will be +saved. If one goes into a conflict and calls on the name of Kuan +Yin, the sword and spear of the enemy fall harmless. If the three +thousand great 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 Kuan Yin, and your heart will +be purified, Anger and wrath may be dispelled by calling on the name +of Kuan Yin. A lunatic who prays to Kuan Yin will become sane. Kuan +Yin gives sons to mothers, and if the mother asks for a daughter she +will be beautiful. Two men--one chanting the names of the 6,200,000 +Buddhas, in number like the sands of the Ganges, and the other simply +calling on Kuan Yin--have equal merit. Kuan Yin 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." + + +Miao Chuang desires an Heir + +In the twenty-first year of the reign of Ta Hao, the Great Great +One, of the Golden Heavenly Dynasty, a man named P'o Chia, whose +first name was Lo Yue, an enterprising kinglet of Hsi Yii, seized the +throne for twenty years, after carrying on a war for a space of three +years. His kingdom was known as Hsing Lin, and the title of his reign +as Miao Chuang. + +The kingdom of Hsing Lin was, so says the Chinese writer, situated +between India on the west, the kingdom of T'ien Cheng on the south, +and the kingdom of Siam on the north, and was 3000 _li_ in length. The +boundaries differ according to different authors. Of this kingdom +the two pillars of State were the Grand Minister Chao Chen and the +General Ch'u Chieh. The Queen Pao Te, whose maiden name was Po Ya, and +the King Miao Chuang had lived nearly half a century without having +any male issue to succeed to the throne. This was a source of great +grief to them. Po Ya suggested to the King that the God of Hua Shan, +the sacred mountain in the west, had the reputation of being always +willing to help; and that if he prayed to him and asked his pardon +for having shed so much blood during the wars which preceded his +accession to the throne he might obtain an heir. + +Welcoming this suggestion, the King sent for Chao Chen and ordered +him to dispatch to the temple of Hua Shan the two Chief Ministers of +Ceremonies, Hsi Heng-nan and Chih Tu, with instructions to request +fifty Buddhist and Taoist priests to pray for seven days and seven +nights in order that the King might obtain a son. When that period +was over, the King and Queen would go in person to offer sacrifices +in the temple. + + +Prayers to the Gods + +The envoys took with them many rare and valuable presents, and for +seven days and seven nights the temple resounded with the sound of +drums, bells, and all kinds of instruments, intermingled with the +voices of the praying priests. On their arrival the King and Queen +offered sacrifices to the god of the sacred mountain. + +But the God of Hua Shan knew that the King had been deprived of a +male heir as a punishment for the bloody hecatombs during his three +years' war. The priests, however, interceded for him, urging that the +King had come in person to offer the sacrifices, wherefore the God +could not altogether reject his prayer. So he ordered Ch'ien-li Yen, +'Thousand-_li_ Eye,' and Shun-feng Erh, 'Favourable-wind Ear,' [29] +to go quickly and ascertain if there were not some worthy person who +was on the point of being reincarnated into this world. + +The two messengers shortly returned, and stated that in India, in the +Chiu Ling Mountains, in the village of Chih-shu Yuean, there lived a +good man named Shih Ch'in-ch'ang, whose ancestors for three generations +had observed all the ascetic rules of the Buddhists. This man was the +father of three children, the eldest Shih Wen, the second Shih Chin, +and the third Shih Shan, all worthy followers of the great Buddha. + + +The Murder of the Tais + +Wang Che, a brigand chief, and thirty of his followers, finding +themselves pursued and harassed by the Indian soldiers, without +provisions or shelter, dying of hunger, went to Shih Wen and begged for +something to eat. Knowing that they were evildoers, Shih Wen and his +two brothers refused to give them anything; if they starved, they said, +the peasants would no longer suffer from their depredations. Thereupon +the brigands decided that it was a case of life for life, and broke +into the house of a rich family of the name of Tai, burning their +home, killing a hundred men, women, and children, and carrying off +everything they possessed. + +The local _t'u-ti_ at once made a report to Yue Huang. + +"This Shih family," replied the god, "for three generations has +given itself up to good works, and certainly the brigands were not +deserving of any pity. However, it is impossible to deny that the +three brothers Shih, in refusing them food, morally compelled them to +loot the Tai family's house, putting all to the sword or flames. Is +not this the same as if they had committed the crime themselves? Let +them be arrested and put in chains in the celestial prison, and let +them never see the light of the sun again." + +"Since," said the messenger to the God of Hua Shan, "your gratitude +toward Miao Chuang compels you to grant him an heir, why not ask Yue +Huang to pardon their crime and reincarnate them in the womb of the +Queen Po Ya, so that they may begin a new terrestrial existence and +give themselves up to good works?" As a result, the God of Hua Shan +called the Spirit of the Wind and gave him a message for Yue Huang. + + +A Message for Yue Huang + +The message was as follows: "King Miao Chuang has offered sacrifice +to me and begged me to grant him an heir. But since by his wars he +has caused the deaths of a large number of human beings, he does not +deserve to have his request granted. Now these three brothers Shih +have offended your Majesty by constraining the brigand Wang Che to be +guilty of murder and robbery. I pray you to take into account their +past good works and pardon their crime, giving them an opportunity +of expiating it by causing them all three to be reborn, but of the +female sex, in the womb of Po Ya the Queen. [30] In this way they +will be able to atone for their crime and save many souls." Yue Huang +was pleased to comply, and he ordered the Spirit of the North Pole +to release the three captives and take their souls to the palace of +King Miao Chuang, where in three years' time they would be changed +into females in the womb of Queen Po Ya. + + +Birth of the Three Daughters + +The King, who was anxiously expecting day by day the birth of an heir, +was informed one morning that a daughter had been born to him. She was +named Miao Ch'ing. A year went by, and another daughter was born. This +one was named Miao Yin. When, at the end of the third year, another +daughter was born, the King, beside himself with rage, called his +Grand Minister Chao Chen and, all disconsolate, said to him, "I am +past fifty, and have no male child to succeed me on the throne. My +dynasty will therefore become extinct. Of what use have been all my +labours and all my victories?" Chao Chen tried to console him, saying, +"Heaven has granted you three daughters: no human power can change this +divine decree. When these princesses have grown up, we will choose +three sons-in-law for your Majesty, and you can elect your successor +from among them. Who will dare to dispute his right to the throne?" + +The King named the third daughter Miao Shan. She became noted for her +modesty and many other good qualities, and scrupulously observed all +the tenets of the Buddhist doctrines. Virtuous living seemed, indeed, +to be to her a second nature. + + +Miao Shan's Ambition + +One day, when the three sisters were playing in the palace garden of +Perpetual Spring, Miao Shan, with a serious mien, said to her sisters, +"Riches and glory are like the rain in spring or the morning dew; +a little while, and all is gone. Kings and emperors think to enjoy to +the end the good fortune which places them in a rank apart from other +human beings; but sickness lays them low in their coffins, and all +is over. Where are now all those powerful dynasties which have laid +down the law to the world? As for me, I desire nothing more than a +peaceful retreat on a lone mountain, there to attempt the attainment +of perfection. If some day I can reach a high degree of goodness, +then, borne on the clouds of Heaven, I will travel throughout the +universe, passing in the twinkling of an eye from east to west. I +will rescue my father and mother, and bring them to Heaven; I will +save the miserable and afflicted on earth; I will convert the spirits +which do evil, and cause them to do good. That is my only ambition." + + +Her Sisters Marry + +No sooner had she finished speaking than a lady of the Court came to +announce that the King had found sons-in-law to his liking for his two +elder daughters. The wedding-feast was to be the very next day. "Be +quick," she added, "and prepare your presents, your dresses, and so +forth, for the King's order is imperative." The husband chosen for Miao +Ch'ing was a First Academician named Chao K'uei. His personal name was +Te Ta, and he was the son of a celebrated minister of the reigning +dynasty. Miao Yin's husband-elect was a military officer named Ho +Feng, whose personal name was Ch'ao Yang. He had passed first in the +examination for the Military Doctorate. The marriage ceremonies were +of a magnificent character. Festivity followed festivity; the newly-wed +were duly installed in their palaces, and general happiness prevailed. + + +Miao Shan's Renunciation + +There now remained only Miao Shan. The King and Queen wished to find +for her a man famous for knowledge and virtue, capable of ruling the +kingdom, and worthy of being the successor to the throne. So the +King called her and explained to her all his plans regarding her, +and how all his hopes rested on her. + +"It is a crime," she replied, "for me not to comply with my father's +wishes; but you must pardon me if my ideas differ from yours." + +"Tell me what your ideas are," said the King. + +"I do not wish to marry," she rejoined. "I wish to attain to perfection +and to Buddhahood. Then I promise that I will not be ungrateful +to you." + +"Wretch of a daughter," cried the King in anger, "you think you can +teach me, the head of the State and ruler of so great a people! Has +anyone ever known a daughter of a king become a nun? Can a good woman +be found in that class? Put aside all these mad ideas of a nunnery, +and tell me at once if you will marry a First Academician or a Military +First Graduate." + +"Who is there," answered the girl, "who does not love the royal +dignity?--what person who does not aspire to the happiness of +marriage? However, I wish to become a nun. With respect to the riches +and glory of this world, my heart is as cold as a dead cinder, and +I feel a keen desire to make it ever purer and purer." + +The King rose in fury, and wished to cast her out from his +presence. Miao Shan, knowing she could not openly disobey his orders, +took another course. "If you absolutely insist upon my marrying," +she said, "I will consent; only I must marry a physician." + +"A physician!" growled the King. "Are men of good family and talents +wanting in my kingdom? What an absurd idea, to want to marry a +physician!" + +"My wish is," said Miao Shan, "to heal humanity of all its ills; of +cold, heat, lust, old age, and all infirmities. I wish to equalize all +classes, putting rich and poor on the same footing, to have community +of goods, without distinction of persons. If you will grant me my wish, +I can still in this way become a Buddha, a Saviour of Mankind. There +is no necessity to call in the diviners to choose an auspicious day. I +am ready to be married now." + + +She is Exiled to the Garden + +At these words the King was mad with rage. "Wicked imbecile!" he +cried, "what diabolical suggestions are these that you dare to make +in my presence?" + +Without further ado he called Ho T'ao, who on that day was officer +of the palace guard. When he had arrived and kneeled to receive the +King's commands, the latter said: "This wicked nun dishonours me. Take +from her her Court robes, and drive her from my presence. Take her +to the Queen's garden, and let her perish there of cold: that will +be one care less for my troubled heart." + +Miao Shan fell on her face and thanked the King, and then went with +the officer to the Queen's garden, where she began to lead her retired +hermit life, with the moon for companion and the wind for friend, +content to see all obstacles overthrown on her way to Nirvana, the +highest state of spiritual bliss, and glad to exchange the pleasures +of the palace for the sweetness of solitude. + + +The Nunnery of the White Bird + +After futile attempts to dissuade her from her purpose by the Court +ladies, her parents, and sisters, the King and Queen next deputed +Miao Hung and Ts'ui Hung to make a last attempt to bring their +misguided daughter to her senses. Miao Shan, annoyed at this renewed +solicitation, in a haughty manner ordered them never again to come and +torment her with their silly prattle. "I have found out," she added, +"that there is a well-known temple at Ju Chou in Lung-shu Hsien. This +Buddhist temple is known as the Nunnery of the White Bird, Po-ch'iao +Ch'an-ssu. In it five hundred nuns give themselves up to the study +of the true doctrine and the way of perfection. Go then and ask the +Queen on my behalf to obtain the King's permission for me to retire +thither. If you can procure me this favour, I will not fail to reward +you later." + +Miao Chuang summoned the messengers and inquired the result of their +efforts. "She is more unapproachable than ever," they replied; "she has +even ordered us to ask the Queen to obtain your Majesty's permission +to retire to the Nunnery of the White Bird in Lung-shu Hsien." + +The King gave his permission, but sent strict orders to the nunnery, +instructing the nuns to do all in their power to dissuade the Princess +when she arrived from carrying out her intention to remain. + + +Her Reception at the Nunnery + +This Nunnery of the White Bird had been built by Huang Ti, and +the five hundred nuns who lived in it had as Superior a lady named +I Yu, who was remarkable for her virtue. On receipt of the royal +mandate, she had summoned Cheng Cheng-ch'ang, the choir-mistress, +and informed her that Princess Miao Shan, owing to a disagreement +with her father, would shortly arrive at the temple. She requested +her to receive the visitor courteously, but at the same time to do +all she could to dissuade her from adopting the life of a nun. Having +given these instructions, the Superior, accompanied by two novices, +went to meet Miao Shan at the gate of the temple. On her arrival +they saluted her. The Princess returned the salute, but said: "I +have just left the world in order to place myself under your orders: +why do you come and salute me on my arrival? I beg you to be so good +as to take me into the temple, in order that I may pay my respects to +the Buddha." I Yu led her into the principal hall, and instructed the +nuns to light incense-sticks, ring the bells, and beat the drums. The +visit to the temple finished, she went into the preaching-hall, where +she greeted her instructresses. The latter obeyed the King's command +and endeavoured to persuade the Princess to return to her home, but, +as none of their arguments had any effect, it was at length decided to +give her a trial, and to put her in charge of the kitchen, where she +could prepare the food for the nunnery, and generally be at the service +of all. If she did not give satisfaction they could dismiss her. + + +She makes Offering to the Buddha + +Miao Shan joyfully agreed, and proceeded to make her humble submission +to the Buddha. She knelt before Ju Lai, and made offering to him, +praying as follows: "Great Buddha, full of goodness and mercy, your +humble servant wishes to leave the world. Grant that I may never +yield to the temptations which will be sent to try my faith." Miao +Shan further promised to observe all the regulations of the nunnery +and to obey the superiors. + + +Spiritual Aid + +This generous self-sacrifice touched the heart of Yue Huang, the Master +of Heaven, who summoned the Spirit of the North Star and instructed +him as follows: "Miao Shan, the third daughter of King Miao Chuang, +has renounced the world in order to devote herself to the attainment of +perfection. Her father has consigned her to the Nunnery of the White +Bird. She has undertaken without grumbling the burden of all the work +in the nunnery. If she is left without help, who is there who will be +willing to adopt the virtuous life? Do you go quickly and order the +Three Agents, the Gods of the Five Sacred Peaks, the Eight Ministers +of the Heavenly Dragon, Ch'ieh Lan, and the _t'u-ti_ to send her help +at once. Tell the Sea-dragon to dig her a well near the kitchen, +a tiger to bring her firewood, birds to collect vegetables for the +inmates of the nunnery, and all the spirits of Heaven to help her in +her duties, that she may give herself up without disturbance to the +pursuit of perfection. See that my commands are promptly obeyed." The +Spirit of the North Star complied without delay. + + +The Nunnery on Fire + +Seeing all these gods arrive to help the novice, the Superior, I Yu, +held consultation with the choir-mistress, saying: "We assigned to +the Princess the burdensome work of the kitchen because she refused to +return to the world; but since she has entered on her duties the gods +of the eight caves of Heaven have come to offer her fruit, Ch'ieh Lan +sweeps the kitchen, the dragon has dug a well, the God of the Hearth +and the tiger bring her fuel, birds collect vegetables for her, the +nunnery bell every evening at dusk booms of itself, as if struck by +some mysterious hand. Obviously miracles are being performed. Hasten +and fetch the King, and beg his Majesty to recall his daughter." + +Cheng Cheng-ch'ang started on her way, and, on arrival, informed +the King of all that had taken place. The King called Hu Pi-li, +the chief of the guard, and ordered him to go to the sub-prefecture +of Lung-shu Hsien at the head of an army corps of 5000 infantry and +cavalry. He was to surround the Nunnery of the White Bird and burn it +to the ground, together with the nuns. When he reached the place the +commander surrounded the nunnery with his soldiers, and set fire to +it. The five hundred doomed nuns invoked the aid of Heaven and earth, +and then, addressing Miao Shan, said: "It is you who have brought +upon us this terrible disaster." + +"It is true," said Miao Shan. "I alone am the cause of your +destruction." She then knelt down and prayed to Heaven: "Great +Sovereign of the Universe, your servant is the daughter of King Miao +Chuang; you are the grandson of King Lun. Will you not rescue your +younger sister? You have left your palace; I also have left mine. You +in former times betook yourself to the snowy mountains to attain +perfection; I came here with the same object. Will you not save us +from this fiery destruction?" + +Her prayer ended, Miao Shan took a bamboo hairpin from her hair, +pricked the roof of her mouth with it, and spat the flowing blood +toward Heaven. Immediately great clouds gathered in all parts of the +sky and sent down inundating showers, which put out the fire that +threatened the nunnery. The nuns threw themselves on their knees and +thanked her effusively for having saved their lives. + +Hu Pi-li retired, and went in haste to inform the King of this +extraordinary occurrence. The King, enraged, ordered him to go back +at once, bring his daughter in chains, and behead her on the spot. + + +The Execution of Miao Shan + +But the Queen, who had heard of this new plot, begged the King to grant +her daughter a last chance. "If you will give permission," she said, +"I will have a magnificent pavilion built at the side of the road +where Miao Shan will pass in chains on the way to her execution, and +will go there with our two other daughters and our sons-in-law. As +she passes we will have music, songs, feasting, everything likely +to impress her and make her contrast our luxurious life with her +miserable plight. This will surely bring her to repentance." + +"I agree," said the King, "to counter-order her execution until your +preparations are complete." Nevertheless, when the time came, Miao +Shan showed nothing but disdain for all this worldly show, and to all +advances replied only: "I love not these pompous vanities; I swear +that I prefer death to the so-called joys of this world." She was then +led to the place of execution. All the Court was present. Sacrifices +were made to her as to one already dead. A Grand Minister pronounced +the sacrificial oration. + +In the midst of all this the Queen appeared, and ordered the officials +to return to their posts, that she might once more exhort her daughter +to repent. But Miao Shan only listened in silence with downcast eyes. + +The King felt great repugnance to shedding his daughter's blood, and +ordered her to be imprisoned in the palace, in order that he might make +a last effort to save her. "I am the King," he said; "my orders cannot +be lightly set aside. Disobedience to them involves punishment, and +in spite of my paternal love for you, if you persist in your present +attitude, you will be executed to-morrow in front of the palace gate." + +The _t'u-ti_, hearing the King's verdict, went with all speed to Yue +Huang, and reported to him the sentence which had been pronounced +against Miao Shan. Yue Huang exclaimed: "Save Buddha, there is none in +the west so noble as this Princess. To-morrow, at the appointed hour, +go to the scene of execution, break the swords, and splinter the lances +they will use to kill her. See that she suffers no pain. At the moment +of her death transform yourself into a tiger, and bring her body to +the pine-wood. Having deposited it in a safe place, put a magic pill +in her mouth to arrest decay. Her triumphant soul on its return from +the lower regions must find it in a perfect state of preservation in +order to be able to re-enter it and animate it afresh. After that, +she must betake herself to Hsiang Shan on P'u T'o Island, where she +will reach the highest state of perfection." + +On the day appointed, Commander Hu Pi-li led the condemned Princess +to the place of execution. A body of troops had been stationed +there to maintain order. The _t'u-ti_ was in attendance at the +palace gates. Miao Shan was radiant with joy. "To-day," she said, +"I leave the world for a better life. Hasten to take my life, but +beware of mutilating my body." + +The King's warrant arrived, and suddenly the sky became overcast and +darkness fell upon the earth. A bright light surrounded Miao Shan, +and when the sword of the executioner fell upon the neck of the +victim it was broken in two. Then they thrust at her with a spear, +but the weapon fell to pieces. After that the King ordered that she be +strangled with a silken cord. A few moments later a tiger leapt into +the execution ground, dispersed the executioners, put the inanimate +body of Miao Shan on his back, and disappeared into the pine-forest. Hu +Pi-li rushed to the palace, recounted to the King full details of +all that had occurred, and received a reward of two ingots of gold. + + +Miao Shan visits the Infernal Regions + +Meantime, Miao Shan's soul, which remained unhurt, was borne on +a cloud; when, waking as from a dream, she lifted her head and +looked round, she could not see her body. "My father has just had +me strangled," she sighed. "How is it that I find myself in this +place? Here are neither mountains, nor trees, nor vegetation; no sun, +moon, nor stars; no habitation, no sound, no cackling of a fowl nor +barking of a dog. How can I live in this desolate region?" + +Suddenly a young man dressed in blue, shining with a brilliant light, +and carrying a large banner, appeared and said to her: "By order of +Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, I come to take you to the eighteen +infernal regions." + +"What is this cursed place where I am now?" asked Miao Shan. + +"This is the lower world, Hell," he replied. "Your refusal to marry, +and the magnanimity with which you chose an ignominious death rather +than break your resolutions, deserve the recognition of Yue Huang, +and the ten gods of the lower regions, impressed and pleased at your +eminent virtue, have sent me to you. Fear nothing and follow me." + +Thus Miao Shan began her visit to all the infernal regions. The Gods +of the Ten Hells came to congratulate her. + +"Who am I," asked Miao Shan, "that you should deign to take the +trouble to show me such respect?" + +"We have heard," they replied, "that when you recite your prayers +all evil disappears as if by magic. We should like to hear you pray." + +"I consent," replied Miao Shan, "on condition that all the condemned +ones in the ten infernal regions be released from their chains in +order to listen to me." + +At the appointed time the condemned were led in by Niu T'ou ('Ox-head') +and Ma Mien ('Horse-face'), the two chief constables of Hell, and +Miao Shan began her prayers. No sooner had she finished than Hell was +suddenly transformed into a paradise of joy, and the instruments of +torture into lotus-flowers. + + +Hell a Paradise + +P'an Kuan, the keeper of the Register of the Living and the Dead, +presented a memorial to Yen Wang stating that since Miao Shan's +arrival there was no more pain in Hell; and all the condemned were +beside themselves with happiness. "Since it has always been decreed," +he added, "that, in justice, there must be both a Heaven and a Hell, +if you do not send this saint back to earth, there will no longer be +any Hell, but only a Heaven." + +"Since that is so," said Yen Wang, "let forty-eight flag-bearers +escort her across the Styx Bridge [Nai-ho Ch'iao], that she may be +taken to the pine-forest to reenter her body, and resume her life in +the upper world." + +The King of the Hells having paid his respects to her, the youth +in blue conducted her soul back to her body, which she found lying +under a pine-tree. Having reentered it, Miao Shan found herself alive +again. A bitter sigh escaped from her lips. "I remember," she said, +"all that I saw and heard in Hell. I sigh for the moment which will +find me free of all impediments, and yet my soul has re-entered my +body. Here, without any lonely mountain on which to give myself up +to the pursuit of perfection, what will become of me?" Great tears +welled from her eyes. + + +A Test of Virtue + +Just then Ju Lai Buddha appeared. "Why have you come to this place?" he +asked. Miao Shan explained why the King had put her to death, and +how after her descent into Hell her soul had re-entered her body. "I +greatly pity your misfortune," Ju Lai said, "but there is no one to +help you. I also am alone. Why should we not marry? We could build +ourselves a hut, and pass our days in peace. What say you?" "Sir," +she replied, "you must not make impossible suggestions. I died and +came to life again. How can you speak so lightly? Do me the pleasure +of withdrawing from my presence." + +"Well," said the visitor, "he to whom you are speaking is no other +than the Buddha of the West. I came to test your virtue. This place +is not suitable for your devotional exercises; I invite you to come +to Hsiang Shan." + +Miao Shan threw herself on her knees and said: "My bodily eyes deceived +me. I never thought that your Majesty would come to a place like +this. Pardon my seeming want of respect. Where is this Hsiang Shan?" + +"Hsiang Shan is a very old monastery," Ju Lai replied, "built in +the earliest historical times. It is inhabited by Immortals. It is +situated in the sea, on P'u T'o Island, a dependency of the kingdom +of Annam. There you will be able to reach the highest perfection." + +"How far off is this island?" Miao Shan asked. "More than three +thousand _li_," Ju Lai replied. "I fear," she said, "I could not bear +the fatigue of so long a journey." "Calm yourself," he rejoined. "I +have brought with me a magic peach, of a kind not to be found in any +earthly orchard. Once you have eaten it, you will experience neither +hunger nor thirst; old age and death will have no power over you: +you will live for ever." + +Miao Shan ate the magic peach, took leave of Ju Lai, and started +on the way to Hsiang Shan. From the clouds the Spirit of the North +Star saw her wending her way painfully toward P'u T'o. He called the +Guardian of the Soil of Hsiang Shan and said to him: "Miao Shan is +on her way to your country; the way is long and difficult. Do you +take the form of a tiger, and carry her to her journey's end." + +The _t'u-ti_ transformed himself into a tiger and stationed himself +in the middle of the road along which Miao Shan must pass, giving +vent to ferocious roars. + +"I am a poor girl devoid of filial piety," said Miao Shan when she +came up. "I have disobeyed my father's commands; devour me, and make +an end of me." + +The tiger then spoke, saying: "I am not a real tiger, but the Guardian +of the Soil of Hsiang Shan. I have received instructions to carry +you there. Get on my back." + +"Since you have received these instructions," said the girl, "I will +obey, and when I have attained to perfection I will not forget your +kindness." + +The tiger went off like a flash of lightning, and in the twinkling +of an eye Miao Shan found herself at the foot of the rocky slopes of +P'u T'o Island. + + + +Miao Shan attains to Perfection + +After nine years in this retreat Miao Shan had reached the acme +of perfection. Ti-tsang Wang then came to Hsiang Shan, and was so +astonished at her virtue that he inquired of the local _t'u-ti_ as to +what had brought about this wonderful result. "With the exception of Ju +Lai, in all the west no one equals her in dignity and perfection. She +is the Queen of the three thousand P'u-sa's and of all the beings on +earth who have skin and blood. We regard her as our sovereign in all +things. Therefore, on the nineteenth day of the eleventh moon we will +enthrone her, that the whole world may profit by her beneficence." + +The _t'u-ti_ sent out his invitations for the ceremony. The Dragon-king +of the Western Sea, the Gods of the Five Sacred Mountains, the +Emperor-saints to the number of one hundred and twenty, the thirty-six +officials of the Ministry of Time, the celestial functionaries in +charge of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, the Three Causes, the +Five Saints, the Eight Immortals, the Ten Kings of the Hells--all +were present on the appointed day. Miao Shan took her seat on the +lotus-throne, and the assembled gods proclaimed her sovereign of +Heaven and earth, and a Buddha. Moreover, they decided that it was +not meet that she should remain alone at Hsiang Shan; so they begged +her to choose a worthy young man and a virtuous damsel to serve her +in the temple. + +The _t'u-ti_ was entrusted with the task of finding them. While making +search, he met a young priest named Shan Ts'ai. After the death of +his parents he had become a hermit on Ta-hua Shan, and was still a +novice in the science of perfection. + +Miao Shan ordered him to be brought to her. "Who are you?" she asked. + +"I am a poor orphan priest of no merit," he replied. "From my earliest +youth I have led the life of a hermit. I have been told that your +power is equalled only by your goodness, so I have ventured to come +to pray you to show me how to attain to perfection." + +"My only fear," replied Miao Shan, "is that your desire for perfection +may not be sincere." + +"I have now no parents," the priest continued, "and I have come more +than a thousand _li_ to find you. How can I be wanting in sincerity?" + +"What special degree of ability have you attained during your course +of perfection?" asked Miao Shan. + +"I have no skill," replied Shan Ts'ai, "but I rely for everything +on your great pity, and under your guidance I hope to reach the +required ability." + +"Very well," said Miao Shan, "take up your station on the top of +yonder peak, and wait till I find a means of transporting you." + + +A Ruse + +Miao Shan called the _t'u-ti_ and bade him go and beg all the Immortals +to disguise themselves as pirates and to besiege the mountain, waving +torches, and threatening with swords and spears to kill her. "Then +I will seek refuge on the summit, and thence leap over the precipice +to prove Shan Ts'ai's fidelity and affection." + +A minute later a horde of brigands of ferocious aspect rushed up +to the temple of Hsiang Shan. Miao Shan cried for help, rushed +up the steep incline, missed her footing, and rolled down into the +ravine. Shan Ts'ai, seeing her fall into the abyss, without hesitation +flung himself after her in order to rescue her. When he reached her, +he asked: "What have you to fear from the robbers? You have nothing +for them to steal; why throw yourself over the precipice, exposing +yourself to certain death?" + +Miao Shan saw that he was weeping, and wept too. "I must comply with +the wish of Heaven," she said. + + +The Transformation of Shan Ts'ai + +Shan Ts'ai, inconsolable, prayed Heaven and earth to save his +protectress. Miao Shan said to him: "You should not have risked +your life by throwing yourself over the precipice, I have not yet +transformed you. But you did a brave thing, and I know that you have +a good heart. Now, look down there." "Oh," said he, "if I mistake +not, that is a corpse." "Yes," she replied, "that is your former +body. Now you are transformed you can rise at will and fly in the +air." Shan Ts'ai bowed low to thank his benefactress, who said to him: +"Henceforth you must say your prayers by my side, and not leave me +for a single day." + + +'Brother and Sister' + +With her spiritual sight Miao Shan perceived at the bottom of the +Southern Sea the third son of Lung Wang, who, in carrying out his +father's orders, was cleaving the waves in the form of a carp. While +doing so, he was caught in a fisherman's net, taken to the market +at Yueeh Chou, and offered for sale. Miao Shan at once sent her +faithful Shan Ts'ai, in the guise of a servant, to buy him, giving +him a thousand cash to purchase the fish, which he was to take to +the foot of the rocks at P'u T'o and set free in the sea. The son +of Lung Wang heartily thanked his deliverer, and on his return to +the palace related to his father what had occurred. The King said: +"As a reward, make her a present of a luminous pearl, so that she +may recite her prayers by its light at night-time." + +Lung Nue, the daughter of Lung Wang's third son, obtained her +grandfather's permission to take the gift to Miao Shan and beg that +she might be allowed to study the doctrine of the sages under her +guidance. After having proved her sincerity, she was accepted as a +pupil. Shan Ts'ai called her his sister, and Lung Nue reciprocated +by calling him her dear brother. Both lived as brother and sister by +Miao Shan's side. + + +The King's Punishment + +After King Miao Chuang had burned the Nunnery of the White Bird and +killed his daughter, Ch'ieh Lan Buddha presented a petition to Yue Huang +praying that the crime be not allowed to go unpunished. Yue Huang, +justly irritated, ordered P'an Kuan to consult the Register of the +Living and the Dead to see how long this homicidal King had yet to +live. P'an Kuan turned over the pages of his register, and saw that +according to the divine ordinances the King's reign on the throne of +Hsing Lin should last for twenty years, but that this period had not +yet expired. [31] "That which has been decreed is immutable," said +Yue Huang, "but I will punish him by sending him illness." He called +the God of Epidemics, and ordered him to afflict the King's body with +ulcers, of a kind which could not be healed except by remedies to be +given him by his daughter Miao Shan. + +The order was promptly executed, and the King could get no rest by day +or by night. His two daughters and their husbands spent their time in +feasting while he tossed about in agony on his sick-bed. In vain the +most famous physicians were called in; the malady only grew worse, and +despair took hold of the patient. He then caused a proclamation to be +made that he would grant the succession to the throne to any person who +would provide him with an effectual remedy to restore him to health. + + +The Disguised Priest-doctor + +Miao Shan had learnt by revelation at Hsiang Shan all that was taking +place at the palace. She assumed the form of a priest-doctor, clothed +herself in a priest's gown, with the regulation headdress and straw +shoes, and attached to her girdle a gourd containing pills and other +medicines. In this apparel she went straight to the palace gate, +read the royal edict posted there, and tore it down. Some members of +the palace guard seized her, and inquired angrily: "Who are you that +you should dare to tear down the royal proclamation?" + +"I, a poor priest, am also a doctor," she replied. "I read the edict +posted on the palace gates. The King is inquiring for a doctor who +can heal him. I am a doctor of an old cultured family, and propose +to restore him to health." + +"If you are of a cultured family, why did you become a priest?" they +asked. "Would it not have been better to gain your living honestly +in practising your art than to shave your head and go loafing about +the world? Besides, all the highest physicians have tried in vain to +cure the King; do you imagine that you will be more skilful than all +the aged practitioners?" + +"Set your minds at ease," she replied. "I have received from my +ancestors the most efficacious remedies, and I guarantee that I +shall restore the King to health," The palace guard then consented +to transmit her petition to the Queen, who informed the King, and in +the end the pretended priest was admitted. Having reached the royal +bed-chamber, he sat still awhile in order to calm himself before +feeling the pulse, and to have complete control of all his faculties +while examining the King. When he felt quite sure of himself, he +approached the King's bed, took the King's hand, felt his pulse, +carefully diagnosed the nature of the illness, and assured himself +that it was easily curable. + + +Strange Medicine + +One serious difficulty, however, presented itself, and that was that +the right medicine was almost impossible to procure. The King showed +his displeasure by saying: "For every illness there is a medical +prescription, and for every prescription a specific medicine; how +can you say that the diagnosis is easy, but that there is no remedy?" + +"Your Majesty," replied the priest, "the remedy for your illness is +not to be found in any pharmacy, and no one would agree to sell it." + +The King became angry, believed that he was being imposed upon, +and ordered those about him to drive away the priest, who left smiling. + +The following night the King saw in a dream an old man who said to +him: "This priest alone can cure your illness, and if you ask him he +himself will give you the right remedy." + +The King awoke as soon as these words had been uttered, and begged +the Queen to recall the priest. When the latter had returned, the +King related his dream, and begged the priest to procure for him the +remedy required. "What, after all, is this remedy that I must have +in order to be cured?" he asked. + +"There must be the hand and eye of a living person, from which to +compound the ointment which alone can save you," answered the priest. + +The King called out in indignation: "This priest is fooling me! Who +would ever give his hand or his eye? Even if anyone would, I could +never have the heart to make use of them." + +"Nevertheless," said the priest, "there is no other effective remedy." + +"Then where can I procure this remedy?" asked the King. + +"Your Majesty must send your ministers, who must observe the Buddhist +rules of abstinence, to Hsiang Shan, where they will be given what +is required." + +"Where is Hsiang Shan, and how far from here?" + +"About three thousand or more _li_, but I myself will indicate the +route to be followed; in a very short time they will return." + +The King, who was suffering terribly, was more contented when he +heard that the journey could be rapidly accomplished. He called his +two ministers, Chao Chen and Liu Ch'in, and instructed them to lose +no time in starting for Hsiang Shan and to observe scrupulously the +Buddhist rules of abstinence. He ordered the Minister of Ceremonies +to detain the priest in the palace until their return. + + +A Conspiracy that Failed + +The two sons-in-law of the King, Ho Feng and Chao K'uei, who had +already made secret preparations to succeed to the throne as soon as +the King should breathe his last, learned with no little surprise +that the priest had hopes of curing the King's illness, and that +he was waiting in the palace until the saving remedy was brought +to him. Fearing that they might be disappointed in their ambition, +and that after his recovery the King, faithful to his promise, +would give the crown to the priest, they entered into a conspiracy +with an unscrupulous courtier named Ho Li. They were obliged to act +quickly, because the ministers were travelling by forced marches, +and would soon be back. That same night Ho Li was to give to the +King a poisoned drink, composed, he would say, by the priest with +the object of assuaging the King's pain until the return of his +two ministers. Shortly after, an assassin, Su Ta, was to murder the +priest. Thus at one stroke both the King and the priest would meet +their death, and the kingdom would pass to the King's two sons-in-law. + +Miao Shan had returned to Hsiang Shan, leaving in the palace the bodily +form of the priest. She saw the two traitors Ho Feng and Chao K'uei +preparing the poison, and was aware of their wicked intentions. Calling +the spirit Yu I, who was on duty that day, she told him to fly to +the palace and change into a harmless soup the poison about to be +administered to the King and to bind the assassin hand and foot. + +At midnight Ho Li, carrying in his hand the poisoned drink, knocked +at the door of the royal apartment, and said to the Queen that the +priest had prepared a soothing potion while awaiting the return of +the ministers. "I come," he said, "to offer it to his Majesty." The +Queen took the bowl in her hands and was about to give it to the King, +when Yu I arrived unannounced. Quick as thought he snatched the bowl +from the Queen and poured the contents on the ground; at the same +moment he knocked over those present in the room, so that they all +rolled on the floor. + +At the time this was happening the assassin Su Ta entered the priest's +room, and struck him with his sword. Instantly the assassin, without +knowing how, found himself enwrapped in the priest's robe and thrown +to the ground. He struggled and tried to free himself, but found +that his hands had been rendered useless by some mysterious power, +and that flight was impossible. The spirit Yu I, having fulfilled the +mission entrusted to him, now returned to Hsiang Shan and reported +to Miao Shan. + + +A Confession and its Results + +Next morning, the two sons-in-law of the King heard of the turn things +had taken during the night. The whole palace was in a state of the +greatest confusion. + +When he was informed that the priest had been killed, the King called +Ch'u Ting-lieh and ordered him to have the murderer arrested. Su Ta +was put to the torture and confessed all that he knew. Together with +Ho Li he was condemned to be cut into a thousand pieces. + +The two sons-in-law were seized and ordered to instant execution, +and it was only on the Queen's intercession that their wives were +spared. The infuriated King, however, ordered that his two daughters +should be imprisoned in the palace. + + +The Gruesome Remedy + +Meantime Chao Chen and Liu Ch'in had reached Hsiang Shan. When they +were brought to Miao Shan the ministers took out the King's letter and +read it to her. "I, Miao Chuang, King of Hsing Lin, have learned that +there dwells at Hsiang Shan an Immortal whose power and compassion +have no equal in the whole world. I have passed my fiftieth year, and +am afflicted with ulcers that all remedies have failed to cure. To-day +a priest has assured me that at Hsiang Shan I can obtain the hand and +eye of a living person, with which he will prepare an ointment able +to restore me to my usual state of health. Relying upon his word +and upon the goodness of the Immortal to whom he has directed me, +I venture to beg that those two parts of a living body necessary to +heal my ulcers be sent to me. I assure you of my everlasting gratitude, +fully confident that my request will not be refused." + +The next morning Miao Shan bade the ministers take a knife and cut +off her left hand and gouge out her left eye. Liu Ch'in took the +knife offered him, but did not dare to obey the order. "Be quick," +urged the Immortal; "you have been commanded to return as soon as +possible; why do you hesitate as if you were a young girl?" Liu +Ch'in was forced to proceed. He plunged in the knife, and the red +blood flooded the ground, spreading an odour like sweet incense. The +hand and eye were placed on a golden plate, and, having paid their +grateful respects to the Immortal, the envoys hastened to return. + +When they had left, Miao Shan, who had transformed herself in order to +allow the envoys to remove her hand and eye, told Shan Ts'ai that she +was now going to prepare the ointment necessary for the cure of the +King. "Should the Queen," she added, "send for another eye and hand, +I will transform myself again, and you can give them to her." No sooner +had she finished speaking than she mounted a cloud and disappeared +in space. The two ministers reached the palace and presented to the +Queen the gruesome remedy which they had brought from the temple. She, +overcome with gratitude and emotion, wept copiously. "What Immortal," +she asked, "can have been so charitable as to sacrifice a hand and eye +for the King's benefit?" Then suddenly her tears gushed forth with +redoubled vigour, and she uttered a great cry, for she recognized +the hand of her daughter by a black scar which was on it. + + +Half-measures + +"Who else, in fact, but his child," she continued amid her sobs, +"could have had the courage to give her hand to save her father's +life?" "What are you saying?" said the King. "In the world there are +many hands like this." While they thus reasoned, the priest entered +the King's apartment. "This great Immortal has long devoted herself +to the attainment of perfection," he said. "Those she has healed +are innumerable. Give me the hand and eye." He took them and shortly +produced an ointment which, he told the King, was to be applied to his +left side. No sooner had it touched his skin than the pain on his left +side disappeared as if by magic; no sign of ulcers was to be seen on +that side, but his right side remained swollen and painful as before. + +"Why is it," asked the King, "that this remedy, which is so efficacious +for the left side, should not be applied to the right?" "Because," +replied the priest, "the left hand and eye of the saint cures only +the left side. If you wish to be completely cured, you must send +your officers to obtain the right eye and right hand also." The King +accordingly dispatched his envoys anew with a letter of thanks, and +begging as a further favour that the cure should be completed by the +healing also of his right side. + + +The King Cured + +On the arrival of the envoys Shan Ts'ai met them in the mutilated form +of Miao Shan, and he bade them cut off his right hand, pluck out his +right eye, and put them on a plate. At the sight of the four bleeding +wounds Liu Ch'in could not refrain from calling out indignantly: +"This priest is a wicked man, thus to make a martyr of a woman in +order to obtain the succession!" + +Having thus spoken, he left with his companion for the kingdom of +Hsing Lin. On their return the King was overwhelmed with joy. The +priest quickly prepared the ointment, and the King, without delay, +applied it to his right side. At once the ulcers disappeared like the +darkness of night before the rising sun. The whole Court congratulated +the King and eulogized the priest. The King conferred upon the latter +the title Priest of the Brilliant Eye. He fell on his face to return +thanks, and added: "I, a poor priest, have left the world, and have +only one wish, namely, that your Majesty should govern your subjects +with justice and sympathy and that all the officials of the realm +should prove themselves men of integrity. As for me, I am used to +roaming about. I have no desire for any royal estate. My happiness +exceeds all earthly joys." + +Having thus spoken, the priest waved the sleeve of his cloak, a cloud +descended from Heaven, and seating himself upon it he disappeared +in the sky. From the cloud a note containing the following words was +seen to fall: "I am one of the Teachers of the West. I came to cure +the King's illness, and so to glorify the True Doctrine." + + + +The King's Daughter + +All who witnessed this miracle exclaimed with one voice: "This priest +is the Living Buddha, who is going back to Heaven!" The note was taken +to King Miao Chuang, who exclaimed: "Who am I that I should deserve +that one of the rulers of Heaven should deign to descend and cure me +by the sacrifice of hands and eyes?" + +"What was the face of the saintly person like who gave you the +remedy?" he then asked Chao Chen. + +"It was like unto that of your deceased daughter, Miao Shan," +he replied. + +"When you removed her hands and eyes did she seem to suffer?" + +"I saw a great flow of blood, and my heart failed, but the face of +the victim seemed radiant with happiness." + +"This certainly must be my daughter Miao Shan, who has attained to +perfection," said the King. "Who but she would have given hands +and eyes? Purify yourselves and observe the rules of abstinence, +and go quickly to Hsiang Shan to return thanks to the saint for this +inestimable favour. I myself will ere long make a pilgrimage thither +to return thanks in person." + + +The King and Queen taken Prisoners + +Three years later the King and Queen, with the grandees of their +Court, set out to visit Hsiang Shan, but on the way the monarchs were +captured by the Green Lion, or God of Fire, and the White Elephant, +or Spirit of the Water, the two guardians of the Temple of Buddha, +who transported them to a dark cavern in the mountains. A terrific +battle then took place between the evil spirits on the one side and +some hosts of heavenly genii, who had been summoned to the rescue, +on the other. While its issue was still uncertain, reinforcements +under the Red Child Devil, who could resist fire, and the Dragon-king +of the Eastern Sea, who could subdue water, finally routed the enemy, +and the prisoners were released. + + +The King's Repentance + +The King and Queen now resumed their pilgrimage, and Miao Shan +instructed Shan Ts'ai to receive the monarchs when they arrived +to offer incense. She herself took up her place on the altar, her +eyes torn out, her hands cut off, and her wrists all dripping with +blood. The King recognized his daughter, and bitterly reproached +himself; the Queen fell swooning at her feet. Miao Shan then spoke and +tried to comfort them. She told them of all that she had experienced +since the day when she had been executed, and how she had attained +to immortal perfection. She then went on: "In order to punish you +for having caused the deaths of all those who perished in the wars +preceding your accession to the throne, and also to avenge the burning +of the Nunnery of the White Bird, Yue Huang afflicted you with those +grievous ulcers. It was then that I changed myself into a priest in +order to heal you, and gave my eyes and hands, with which I prepared +the ointment that cured you. It was I, moreover, who procured your +liberty from Buddha when you were imprisoned in the cave by the Green +Lion and the White Elephant." + + +Sackcloth and Ashes + +At these words the King threw himself with his face on the ground, +offered incense, worshipped Heaven, earth, the sun, and the moon, +saying with a voice broken by sobs: "I committed a great crime in +killing my daughter, who has sacrificed her eyes and hands in order +to cure my sickness." + +No sooner were these words uttered than Miao Shan reassumed her +normal form, and, descending from the altar, approached her parents +and sisters. Her body had again its original completeness; and in the +presence of its perfect beauty, and at finding themselves reunited +as one family, all wept for joy. + +"Well," said Miao Shan to her father, "will you now force me to marry +and prevent my devoting myself to the attainment of perfection?" + +"Speak no more of that," replied the King. "I was in the wrong. If you +had not reached perfection, I should not now be alive. I have made up +my mind to exchange my sceptre for the pursuit of the perfect life, +which I wish to lead henceforth together with you." + + +The King renounces the Throne + +Then, in the presence of all, he addressed his Grand Minister Chao +Chen, saying: "Your devotion to the service of the State has rendered +you worthy to wear the crown: I surrender it to you." The Court +proclaimed Chao Chen King of Hsing Lin, bade farewell to Miao Chuang, +and set out for their kingdom accompanied by their new sovereign. + + +Pardon of the Green Lion and the White Elephant + +Buddha had summoned the White Elephant and the Green Lion, and +was on the point of sentencing them to eternal damnation when the +compassionate Miao Shan interceded for them. "Certainly you deserve +no forgiveness," he said, "but I cannot refuse a request made by +Miao Shan, whose clemency is without limit. I give you over to her, +to serve and obey her in everything. Follow her." + + +Miao Shan becomes a Buddha + +The guardian spirit on duty that day then announced the arrival of a +messenger from Yue Huang. It was T'ai-po Chin-hsing, who was the bearer +of a divine decree, which he handed to Miao Shan. It read as follows: +"I, the august Emperor, make known to you this decree: Miao Chuang, +King of Hsing Lin, forgetful alike of Heaven and Hell, the six virtues, +and metempsychosis, has led a blameworthy life; but your nine years +of penitence, the filial piety which caused you to sacrifice your own +body to effect his cure, in short, all your virtues, have redeemed +his faults. Your eyes can see and your ears can hear all the good +and bad deeds and words of men. You are the object of my especial +regard. Therefore I make proclamation of this decree of canonization. + +"Miao Shan will have the title of Very Merciful and Very Compassionate +P'u-sa, Saviour of the Afflicted, Miraculous and Always Helpful +Protectress of Mortals. On your lofty precious lotus-flower throne, +you will be the Sovereign of the Southern Seas and of P'u T'o Isle. + +"Your two sisters, hitherto tainted with earthly pleasures, will +gradually progress till they reach true perfection. + +"Miao Ch'ing will have the title of Very Virtuous P'u-sa, the +Completely Beautiful, Rider of the Green Lion. + +"Miao Yin will be honoured with the title of Very Virtuous and +Completely Resplendent P'u-sa, Rider of the White Elephant. + +"King Miao Chuang is raised to the dignity of Virtuous Conquering +P'u-sa, Surveyor of Mortals. + +"Queen Po Ya receives the title of P'u-sa of Ten Thousand Virtues, +Surveyor of Famous Women. + +"Shan Ts'ai has bestowed upon him the title of Golden Youth. + +"Lung Nue has the title of Jade Maiden. + +"During all time incense is to be burned before all the members of +this canonized group." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Eight Immortals + + +Pa Hsien + +Either singly or in groups the Eight Immortals, Pa Hsien, of the Taoist +religion are one of the most popular subjects of representation in +China; their portraits are to be seen everywhere--on porcelain vases, +teapots, teacups, fans, scrolls, embroidery, etc. Images of them are +made in porcelain, earthenware, roots, wood, metals. The term 'Eight +Immortals' is figuratively used for happiness. The number eight has +become lucky in association with this tradition, and persons or things +eight in number are graced accordingly. Thus we read of reverence shown +to the 'Eight Genii Table' (_Pa Hsien Cho_), the 'Eight Genii Bridge' +(_Pa Hsien Ch'iao_), 'Eight Genii Vermicelli' (_Pa Hsien Mien_), the +'Eight Genii of the Wine-cup' (_Tin Chung Pa Hsien_)--wine-bibbers of +the T'ang dynasty celebrated by Tu Fu, the poet. They are favourite +subjects of romance, and special objects of adoration. In them we see +"the embodiment of the ideas of perfect but imaginary happiness which +possess the minds of the Chinese people." Three of them (Chung-li +Ch'uean, Chang Kuo, and Lue Yen) were historical personages; the others +are mentioned only in fables or romances. They represent all kinds +of people--old, young, male, female, civil, military, rich, poor, +afflicted, cultured, noble. They are also representative of early, +middle, and later historical periods. + +The legend of the Eight Immortals is certainly not older than the time +of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280), and is probably to be assigned +to that of the Yuean dynasty (1280-1368). But some, if not all, of +the group seem to have been previously celebrated as Immortals in the +Taoist legends. Their biographies are usually arranged in the order +of their official eminence or seniority in age. Here I follow that +adopted in _Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi_ [32] in which they are +described in the order in which they became Immortals. + + +Li T'ieh-kuai + +Li T'ieh-kuai, depicted always with his crutch and gourd full of +magic medicines, was of the family name of Li, his own name being +Li Yuean (Hs'uean, now read Yuean). He is also known as K'ung-mu. Hsi +Wang Mu cured him of an ulcer on the leg and taught him the art of +becoming immortal. He was canonized as Rector of the East. He is +said to have been of commanding stature and dignified mien, devoting +himself solely to the study of Taoist lore. Hsi Wang Mu made him a +present of an iron crutch, and sent him to the capital to teach the +doctrine of immortality to Han Chung-li. + +He is also identified with Li Ning-yang, to whom Lao Tzu descended +from Heaven in order to instruct him in the wisdom of the gods. Soon +after he had completed his course of instruction his soul left his +body to go on a visit to Hua Shan. Some say he was summoned by Lao +Tzu, others that Lao Tzu engaged him as escort to the countries of +Hsi Yue. He left his disciple Lang Ling in charge of his body, saying +that if he did not return within seven days he was to have the body +cremated. Unfortunately, when only six days had elapsed the disciple +was called away to the death-bed of his mother. In order to be able +to leave at once he cremated the body forthwith, and when the soul +returned it found only a heap of ashes. Some say the body was not +cremated, but only became devitalized through neglect or through +being uninhabited for so long a time. The object of the setting of +the watch was not only to prevent injury to or theft of the body, +but also to prevent any other soul from taking up its abode in it. + +In a forest near by a beggar had just died of hunger. Finding this +corpse untenanted, the wandering spirit entered it through the +temples, and made off. When he found that his head was long and +pointed, his face black, his beard and hair woolly and dishevelled, +his eyes of gigantic size, and one of his legs lame, he wished to +get out of this vile body; but Lao Tzu advised him not to make the +attempt and gave him a gold band to keep his hair in order, and an +iron crutch to help his lame leg. On lifting his hand to his eyes, +he found they were as large as buckles. That is why he was called Li +K'ung-mu, 'Li Hollow Eyes.' Popularly he is known as Li T'ieh-kuai, +'Li with the Iron Crutch.' No precise period seems to be assigned +to his career on earth, though one tradition places him in the Yuean +dynasty. Another account says that he was changed into a dragon, +and in that form ascended to Heaven. + +Elsewhere it is related that T'ieh-kuai, after entering the body of +the lame beggar, benevolently proceeded to revive the mother of Yang, +his negligent disciple. Leaning on his iron staff and carrying a gourd +of medicines on his back he went to Yang's house, where preparations +were being made for the funeral. The contents of the gourd, poured +into the mouth, revived the dead woman. He then made himself known, +and, giving Yang another pill, vanished in a gust of wind. Two hundred +years later he effected the immortalization of his disciple. + +During his peregrinations on earth he would hang a bottle on the +wall at night and jump into it, emerging on the following morning. He +frequently returned to earth, and at times tried to bring about the +transmigration of others. + +An example is the case of Ch'ao Tu, the watchman. T'ieh-kuai walked +into a fiery furnace and bade Ch'ao follow. The latter, being afraid +of imitating an act evidently associated with the supernatural world +of evil spirits, refused to do so. T'ieh-kuai then told Ch'ao to step +on to a leaf floating on the surface of the river, saying that it was +a boat that would bear him across safely. Again the watchman refused, +whereupon T'ieh-kuai, remarking that the cares of this world were +evidently too weighty for him to be able to ascend to immortality, +stepped on to the leaf himself and vanished. + + +Chung-li Ch'uean + +Regarding the origin and life of this Immortal several different +accounts are given. One states that his family name was Chung-li, +and that he lived in the Han dynasty, being therefore called Han +Chung-li. His cognomen was Ch'uean, his literary appellation Chi Tao, +and his pseudonyms Ho-ho Tzu and Wang-yang Tzu; his style Yuen-fang. + +He was born in the district of Hsien-yang Hsien (a sub-prefecture of +the ancient capital Hsi-an Fu) in Shensi. He became Marshal of the +Empire in the cyclic year 2496. In his old age he became a hermit +on Yang-chio Shan, thirty _li_ north-east of I-ch'eng Hsien in the +prefecture of P'ing-yang Fu in Shansi. He is referred to by the title +of King-emperor of the True Active Principle. + +Another account describes Chung-li Ch'uean as merely a vice-marshal +in the service of Duke Chou Hsiao. He was defeated in battle, and +escaped to Chung-nan Shan, where he met the Five Heroes, the Flowers +of the East, who instructed him in the doctrine of immortality. At +the end of the T'ang dynasty Han Chung-li taught this same science of +immortality to Lue Tung-pin (see p. 297), and took the pompous title +of the Only Independent One Under Heaven. + +Other versions state that Han Chung-li is not the name of a person, +but of a country; that he was a Taoist priest Chung Li-tzu; and that +he was a beggar, Chung-li by name, who gave to one Lao Chih a pill of +immortality. No sooner had the latter swallowed it than he went mad, +left his wife, and ascended to Heaven. + +During a great famine he transmuted copper and pewter into silver +by amalgamating them with some mysterious drug. This treasure he +distributed among the poor, and thousands of lives were thus saved. + +One day, while he was meditating, the stone wall of his dwelling in the +mountains was rent asunder, and a jade casket exposed to view. This was +found to contain secret information as to how to become an Immortal. + +When he had followed these instructions for some time, his room was +filled with many-coloured clouds, music was heard, and a celestial +stork came and bore him away on its back to the regions of immortality. + +He is sometimes represented holding his feather-fan, Yue-mao Shan; +at other times the peach of immortality. Since his admission to +the ranks of the gods, he has appeared on earth at various times as +the messenger of Heaven. On one of these occasions he met Lue Yen, +as narrated on p. 297. + + + +Lan Ts'ai-ho + +Lan Ts'ai-ho is variously stated to have been a woman and an +hermaphrodite. She is the strolling singer or mountebank of the +Immortals. Usually she plays a flute or a pair of cymbals. Her origin +is unknown, but her personal name is said to have been Yang Su, +and her career is assigned to the period of the T'ang dynasty. She +wandered abroad clad in a tattered blue gown held by a black wooden +belt three inches wide, with one foot shoeless and the other shod, +wearing in summer an undergarment of wadded material, and in winter +sleeping on the snow, her breath rising in a brilliant cloud like +the steam from a boiling cauldron. In this guise she earned her +livelihood by singing in the streets, keeping time with a wand three +feet long. Though taken for a lunatic, the doggerel verse she sang +disproved the popular slanders. It denounced this fleeting life and +its delusive pleasures. When given money, she either strung it on +a cord and waved it to the time of her song or scattered it on the +ground for the poor to pick up. + +One day she was found to have become intoxicated in an inn at Feng-yang +Fu in Anhui, and while in that state disappeared on a cloud, having +thrown down to earth her shoe, robe, belt, and castanets. + +According to popular belief, however, only one of the Eight Immortals, +namely, Ho Hsien-ku, was a woman, Lan Ts'ai-ho being represented as a +young person of about sixteen, bearing a basket of fruit. According +to the _Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi_, he was 'the Red-footed +Great Genius,' Ch'ih-chiao Ta-hsien incarnate. Though he was a man, +adds the writer, he could not understand how to be a man (which is +perhaps the reason why he has been supposed to be a woman). + + + +Chang Kuo + +The period assigned to Chang Kuo is the middle or close of the seventh +to the middle of the eighth century A.D. He lived as a hermit on +Chung-t'iao Shan, in the prefecture of P'ing-yang Fu in Shansi. The +Emperors T'ai Tsung and Kao Tsung of the T'ang dynasty frequently +invited him to Court, but he persistently refused to go. At last, +pressed once more by the Empress Wu (A.D. 684-705), he consented +to leave his retreat, but was struck down by death at the gate of +the Temple of the Jealous Woman. His body began to decay and to be +eaten by worms, when lo! he was seen again, alive and well, on the +mountains of Heng Chou in P'ing-yang Fu. He rode on a white mule, +which carried him thousands of miles in a day, and which, when the +journey was finished, he folded up like a sheet of paper and put away +in his wallet. When he again required its services, he had only to +spurt water upon the packet from his mouth and the animal at once +assumed its proper shape. At all times he performed wonderful feats +of necromancy, and declared that he had been Grand Minister to the +Emperor Yao (2357-2255 B.C.) during a previous existence. + +In the twenty-third year (A.D. 735) of the reign-period K'ai Yuean +of the Emperor Hsuean Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, he was called to +Lo-yang in Honan, and elected Chief of the Imperial Academy, with +the honourable title of Very Perspicacious Teacher. + +It was just at this time that the famous Taoist Yeh Fa-shan, thanks +to his skill in necromancy, was in great favour at Court. The Emperor +asked him who this Chang Kuo Lao (he usually has the epithet Lao, +'old,' added to his name) was. "I know," replied the magician; +"but if I were to tell your Majesty I should fall dead at your feet, +so I dare not speak unless your Majesty will promise that you will +go with bare feet and bare head to ask Chang Kuo to forgive you, in +which case I should immediately revive." Hsuean Tsung having promised, +Fa-shan then said: "Chang Kuo is a white spiritual bat which came out +of primeval chaos." No sooner had he spoken than he dropped dead at +the Emperor's feet. + +Hsuean Tsung, with bare head and feet, went to Chang Kuo as he had +promised, and begged forgiveness for his indiscretion. The latter then +sprinkled water on Fa-shan's face and he revived. Soon after Chang fell +sick and returned to die in the Heng Chou Mountains during the period +A.D. 742-746. When his disciples opened his tomb, they found it empty. + +He is usually seen mounted on his white mule, sometimes facing its +head, sometimes its tail. He carries a phoenix-feather or a peach +of immortality. + +At his interviews with the Emperor Ming Huang in A.D. 723 (when he +was alive still) Chang Kuo "entertained the Emperor with a variety of +magical tricks, such as rendering himself invisible, drinking off a +cup of aconite, and felling birds or flowers by pointing at them. He +refused the hand of an imperial princess, and also declined to have +his portrait placed in the Hall of Worthies." + +A picture of Chang Kuo sitting on a donkey and offering a descendant +to the newly married couple is often found in the nuptial chamber. It +seems somewhat incongruous that an old ascetic should be associated +with matrimonial happiness and the granting of offspring, but the +explanation may possibly be connected with his performance of wonderful +feats of necromancy, though he is said not to have given encouragement +to others in these things during his lifetime. + + + +Ho Hsien Ku + +A maiden holding in her hand a magic lotus-blossom, the flower of +open-heartedness, or the peach of immortality given her by Lue Tung-pin +in the mountain-gorge as a symbol of identity, playing at times the +_sheng_ or reed-organ, or drinking wine--this is the picture the +Chinese paint of the Immortal Ho Hsien Ku. + +She was the daughter of Ho T'ai, a native of Tseng-ch'eng Hsien in +Kuangtung. Others say her father was a shopkeeper at Ling-ling in +Hunan. She lived in the time of the usurping empress Wu (A.D. 684-705) +of the T'ang dynasty. At her birth six hairs were found growing on +the crown of her head, and the account says she never had any more, +though the pictures represent her with a full head of hair. She +elected to live on Yuen-mu Ling, twenty _li_ west of Tseng-ch'eng +Hsien. On that mountain was found a stone called _yuen-mu shih_, +'mother-of-pearl.' In a dream she saw a spirit who ordered her to +powder and eat one of these stones, by doing which she could acquire +both agility and immortality. She complied with this injunction, and +also vowed herself to a life of virginity. Her days were thenceforth +passed in floating from one peak to another, bringing home at night +to her mother the fruits she collected on the mountain. She gradually +found that she had no need to eat in order to live. Her fame having +reached the ears of the Empress, she was invited to Court, but while +journeying thither suddenly disappeared from mortal view and became +an Immortal. She is said to have been seen again in A.D. 750 floating +upon a cloud of many colours at the temple of Ma Ku, the famous female +Taoist magician, and again, some years later, in the city of Canton. + +She is represented as an extremely beautiful maiden, and is remarkable +as occupying so prominent a position in a cult in which no system of +female asceticism is developed. + + +Lue Tung-pin + +Lue Tung-pin's family name was Lue; his personal name Tung-pin; also Yen; +and his pseudonym Shun Yang Tzu. He was born in A.D. 798 at Yung-lo +Hsien, in the prefecture of Ho-chung Fu in Shansi, a hundred and twenty +_li_ south-east of the present sub-prefecture of Yung-chi Hsien (P'u +Chou). He came of an official family, his grandfather having been +President of the Ministry of Ceremonies, and his father Prefect of +Hai Chou. He was 5 feet 2 inches in height, and at twenty was still +unmarried. At this time he made a journey to Lu Shan in Kiangsi, +where he met the Fire-dragon, who presented him with a magic sword, +which enabled him at will to hide himself in the heavens. + +During his visit to the capital, Ch'ang-an in Shensi, he met +the Immortal Han Chung-li, who instructed him in the mysteries of +alchemy and the elixir of life. When he revealed himself as Yuen-fang +Hsien-sheng, Lue Yen expressed an ardent desire to aid in converting +mankind to the true doctrine, but was first exposed to a series of +ten temptations. These being successfully overcome, he was invested +with supernatural power and magic weapons, with which he traversed +the Empire, slaying dragons and ridding the earth of divers kinds +of evils, during a period of upward of four hundred years. Another +version says that Han Chung-li was in an inn, heating a jug of +rice-wine. Here Lue met him, and going to sleep dreamed that he +was promoted to a very high office and was exceptionally favoured +by fortune in every way. This had gone on for fifty years when +unexpectedly a serious fault caused him to be condemned to exile, +and his family was exterminated. Alone in the world, he was sighing +bitterly, when he awoke with a start. All had taken place in so short +a space of time that Han Chung-li's wine was not yet hot. This is the +incident referred to in Chinese literature in the phrase 'rice-wine +dream.' Convinced of the hollowness of worldly dignities, he followed +Han Chung-li to the Ho Ling Mountains at Chung-nan in Shensi, where +he was initiated into the divine mysteries, and became an Immortal. + +In A.D. 1115 the Emperor Hui Tsung conferred on him the title of Hero +of Marvellous Wisdom; and later he was proclaimed King-emperor and +Strong Protector. + +There are various versions of the legend of Lue Tung-pin. One of these +adds that in order to fulfil his promise made to Chung-li to do what +he could to aid in the work of converting his fellow-creatures to the +true doctrine, he went to Yuech Yang in the guise of an oil-seller, +intending to immortalize all those who did not ask for additional +weight to the quantity of oil purchased. During a whole year he met +only selfish and extortionate customers, with the exception of one +old lady who alone did not ask for more than was her due. So he went +to her house, and seeing a well in the courtyard threw a few grains +of rice into it. The water miraculously turned into wine, from the +sale of which the dame amassed great wealth. + +He was very skilful in fencing, and is always represented with his +magic Excalibur named Chan-yao Kuai, 'Devil-slaying Sabre,' and in +one hand holds a fly-whisk, Yuen-chou, or 'Cloud-sweeper,' a symbol +common in Taoism of being able to fly at will through the air and to +walk on the clouds of Heaven. + +Like Kuan Kung, he is shown bearing in his arms a male +child--indicating a promise of numerous progeny, including _literati_ +and famous officials. Consequently he is one of the spiritual beings +honoured by the _literati_. + + +Han Hsiang Tzu + +Han Hsiang Tzu, who is depicted with a bouquet of flowers or a basket +of peaches of immortality, is stated to have been a grand-nephew of +Han Yue (A.D. 768-824), the great statesman, philosopher, and poet of +the T'ang dynasty, and an ardent votary of transcendental study. His +own name was Ch'ing Fu. The child was entrusted to his uncle to +be educated and prepared for the public examinations. He excelled +his teacher in intelligence and the performance of wonderful feats, +such as the production from a little earth in a flower-pot of some +marvellous flowering plants, on the leaves of which were written in +letters of gold some verses to this effect: + + + The clouds hide Mount Ch'in Ling. + Where is your abode? + The snow is deep on Lan Kuan; + Your horse refuses to advance. + + +"What is the meaning of these verses?" asked Han Yue. "You will see," +replied Han Hsiang Tzu. + +Some time afterward Han Yue was sent in disgrace to the prefecture of +Ch'ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung. When he reached the foot of Lan Kuan the +snow was so deep that he could not go on. Han Hsiang Tzu appeared, and, +sweeping away the snow, made a path for him. Han Yue then understood +the prophecy in his pupil's verses. + +When Han Hsiang Tzu was leaving his uncle, he gave him the following +in verse: + +Many indeed are the eminent men who have served their country, but +which of them surpasses you in his knowledge of literature? When +you have reached a high position, you will be buried in a damp and +foggy land. + +Han Yue also gave his pupil a farewell verse: + +How many here below allow themselves to be inebriated by the love +of honours and pelf! Alone and watchful you persevere in the right +path. But a time will come when, taking your flight to the sky, +you will open in the ethereal blue a luminous roadway. + +Han Yue was depressed at the thought of the damp climate of his place +of exile. "I fear there is no doubt," he said, "that I shall die +without seeing my family again." + +Han Hsiang Tzu consoled him, gave him a prescription, and said: "Not +only will you return in perfect health to the bosom of your family, +but you will be reinstated in your former offices." All this took +place exactly as he had predicted. + +Another account states that he became the disciple of Lue Tung-pin, and, +having been carried up to the supernatural peach-tree of the genii, +fell from its branches, but during his descent attained to the state +of immortality. Still another version says that he was killed by the +fall, was transformed, and then underwent the various experiences +with Han Yue already related. + + +Ts'ao Kuo-chiu + +Ts'ao Kuo-chiu was connected with the imperial family of the Sungs, +and is shown with the tablet of admission to Court in his hand. He +became one of the Eight Immortals because the other seven, who +occupied seven of the eight grottos of the Upper Spheres, wished to +see the eighth inhabited, and nominated him because "his disposition +resembled that of a genie." The legend relates that the Empress +Ts'ao, wife of the Emperor Jen Tsung (A.D. 1023-64), had two younger +brothers. The elder of the two, Ching-hsiu, did not concern himself +with the affairs of State; the younger, Ching-chih, was notorious for +his misbehaviour. In spite of all warnings he refused to reform, and +being at last guilty of homicide was condemned to death. His brother, +ashamed at what had occurred, went and hid in the mountains, where he +clothed his head and body with wild plants, resolved to lead the life +of a hermit. One day Han Chung-li and Lue Tung-pin found him in his +retreat, and asked him what he was doing. "I am engaged in studying +the Way," he replied. "What way, and where is it?" they asked. He +pointed to the sky. "Where is the sky?" they went on. He pointed to +his heart. The two visitors smiled and said: "The heart is the sky, +and the sky is the Way; you understand the origin of things." They +then gave him a recipe for perfection, to enable him to take his +place among the Perfect Ones. In a few days only he had reached this +much-sought-after condition. + +In another version we find fuller details concerning this +Immortal. A graduate named Yuean Wen-cheng of Ch'ao-yang Hsien, in +the sub-prefecture of Ch'ao-chou Fu in Kuangtung, was travelling with +his wife to take his examinations at the capital. Ts'ao Ching-chih, +the younger brother of the Empress, saw the lady, and was struck with +her beauty. In order to gratify his passion he invited the graduate +and his young wife to the palace, where he strangled the husband and +tried to force the wife to cohabit with him. She refused obstinately, +and as a last resort he had her imprisoned in a noisome dungeon. The +soul of the graduate appeared to the imperial Censor Pao Lao-yeh, +and begged him to exact vengeance for the execrable crime. The +elder brother, Ching-hsiu, seeing the case put in the hands of the +upright Pao Lao-yeh, and knowing his brother to be guilty of homicide, +advised him to put the woman to death, in order to cut off all sources +of information and so to prevent further proceedings. The young +voluptuary thereupon caused the woman to be thrown down a deep well, +but the star T'ai-po Chin-hsing, in the form of an old man, drew her +out again. While making her escape, she met on the road an official +procession which she mistook for that of Pao Lao-yeh, and, going up to +the sedan chair, made her accusation. This official was no other than +the elder brother of the murderer. Ching-hsiu, terrified, dared not +refuse to accept the charge, but on the pretext that the woman had +not placed herself respectfully by the side of the official chair, +and thus had not left a way clear for the passage of his retinue, he +had her beaten with iron-spiked whips, and she was cast away for dead +in a neighbouring lane. This time also she revived, and ran to inform +Pao Lao-yeh. The latter immediately had Ts'ao Ching-hsiu arrested, +cangued, and fettered. Without loss of time he wrote an invitation to +the second brother, Ts'ao Ching-chih, and on his arrival confronted him +with the graduate's wife, who accused him to his face. Pao Lao-yeh had +him put in a pit, and remained deaf to all entreaties of the Emperor +and Empress on his behalf. A few days later the murderer was taken to +the place of execution, and his head rolled in the dust. The problem +now was how to get Ts'ao Ching-hsiu out of the hands of the terrible +Censor. The Emperor Jen Tsung, to please the Empress, had a universal +amnesty proclaimed throughout the Empire, under which all prisoners +were set free. On receipt of this edict, Pao Lao-yeh liberated Ts'ao +Ching-hsiu from the cangue, and allowed him to go free. As one risen +from the dead, he gave himself up to the practice of perfection, +became a hermit, and, through the instruction of the Perfect Ones, +became one of the Eight Immortals. + + +Pa Hsien Kuo Hai + +The phrase _Pa Hsien kuo hai_, 'the Eight Immortals crossing the sea,' +refers to the legend of an expedition made by these deities. Their +object was to behold the wondrous things of the sea not to be found +in the celestial sphere. + +The usual mode of celestial locomotion--by taking a seat on a +cloud--was discarded at the suggestion of Lue Yen who recommended that +they should show the infinite variety of their talents by placing +things on the surface of the sea and stepping on them. + +Li T'ieh-kuai threw down his crutch, and scudded rapidly over the +waves. Chung-li Ch'uean used his feather-fan, Chang Kuo his paper +mule, Lue Tung-pin his sword, Han Hsiang Tzu his flower-basket, Ho +Hsien Ku her lotus-flower, Lan Ts'ai-ho his musical instrument, and +Ts'ao Kuo-chiu his tablet of admission to Court. The popular pictures +often represent most of these articles changed into various kinds +of sea-monsters. The musical instrument was noticed by the son of +the Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea. This avaricious prince conceived +the idea of stealing the instrument and imprisoning its owner. The +Immortals thereupon declared war, the details of which are described at +length by the Chinese writers, the outcome being that the Dragon-king +was utterly defeated. After this the Eight Immortals continued their +submarine exploits for an indefinite time, encountering numberless +adventures; but here the author travels far into the fertile region +of romance, beyond the frontiers of our present province. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The Guardian of the Gate of Heaven + + +Li, the Pagoda-bearer + +In Buddhist temples there is to be seen a richly attired figure of +a man holding in his hand a model of a pagoda. He is Li, the Prime +Minister of Heaven and father of No-cha. + +He was a general under the tyrant Chou and commander of Ch'en-t'ang +Kuan at the time when the bloody war was being waged which resulted +in the extinction of the Yin dynasty. + +No-cha is one of the most frequently mentioned heroes in Chinese +romance; he is represented in one account as being Yue Huang's +shield-bearer, sixty feet in height, his three heads with nine +eyes crowned by a golden wheel, his eight hands each holding a +magic weapon, and his mouth vomiting blue clouds. At the sound of +his Voice, we are told, the heavens shook and the foundations of the +earth trembled. His duty was to bring into submission all the demons +which desolated the world. + +His birth was in this wise. Li Ching's wife, Yin Shih, bore him three +sons, the eldest Chin-cha, the second Mu-cha, and the third No-cha, +generally known as 'the Third Prince.' + +Yin Shih dreamed one night that a Taoist priest entered her room. She +indignantly exclaimed: "How dare you come into my room in this +indiscreet manner?" The priest replied: "Woman, receive the child of +the unicorn!" Before she could reply the Taoist pushed an object to +her bosom. + +Yin Shih awoke in a fright, a cold sweat all over her body. Having +awakened her husband, she told him what she had dreamed. At that moment +she was seized with the pains of childbirth. Li Ching withdrew to an +adjoining room, uneasy at what seemed to be inauspicious omens. A +little later two servants ran to him, crying out: "Your wife has +given birth to a monstrous freak!" + + +An Avatar of the Intelligent Pearl + +Li Ching seized his sword and went into his wife's room, which he found +filled with a red light exhaling a most extraordinary odour. A ball +of flesh was rolling on the floor like a wheel; with a blow of his +sword he cut it open, and a babe emerged, surrounded by a halo of red +light. Its face was very white, a gold bracelet was on its right wrist, +and it wore a pair of red silk trousers, from which proceeded rays +of dazzling golden light. The bracelet was 'the horizon of Heaven and +earth,' and the two precious objects belonged to the cave Chin-kuang +Tung of T'ai-i Chen-jen, the priest who had bestowed them upon him +when he appeared to his mother during her sleep. The child itself +was an avatar of Ling Chu-tzu, 'the Intelligent Pearl.' + +On the morrow T'ai-i Chen-jen returned and asked Li Ching's permission +to see the new-born babe. "He shall be called No-cha," he said, +"and will become my disciple." + + +A Precocious Youth + +At seven years of age No-cha was already six feet in height. One day +he asked his mother if he might go for a walk outside the town. His +mother granted him permission on condition that he was accompanied +by a servant. She also counselled him not to remain too long outside +the wall, lest his father should become anxious. + +It was in the fifth moon: the heat was excessive. No-cha had not gone +a _li_ before he was in a profuse perspiration. Some way ahead he saw +a clump of trees, to which he hastened, and, settling himself in the +shade, opened his coat, and breathed with relief the fresher air. In +front of him he saw a stream of limpid green water running between +two rows of willows, gently agitated by the movement of the wind, and +flowing round a rock. The child ran to the banks of the stream, and +said to his guardian: "I am covered with perspiration, and will bathe +from the rock." "Be quick," said the servant; "if your father returns +home before you he will be anxious." No-cha stripped himself, took his +red silk trousers, several feet long, and dipped them in the water, +intending to use them as a towel. No sooner were the magic trousers +immersed in the stream than the water began to boil, and Heaven and +earth trembled. The water of this river, the Chiu-wan Ho, 'Nine-bends +River,' which communicated with the Eastern Sea, turned completely +red, and Lung Wang's palace shook to its foundations. The Dragon-king, +surprised at seeing the walls of his crystal palace shaking, called +his officers and inquired: "How is it that the palace threatens to +collapse? There should not be an earthquake at this time." He ordered +one of his attendants to go at once and find out what evil was giving +rise to the commotion. When the officer reached the river he saw that +the water was red, but noticed nothing else except a boy dipping a +band of silk in the stream. He cleft the water and called out angrily: +"That child should be thrown into the water for making the river red +and causing Lung Wang's palace to shake." + +"Who is that who speaks so brutally?" said No-cha. Then, seeing that +the man intended to seize him, he jumped aside, took his gold bracelet, +and hurled it in the air. It fell on the head of the officer, and +No-cha left him dead on the rock. Then he picked up his bracelet and +said smiling: "His blood has stained my precious horizon of Heaven +and earth." He then washed it in the water. + + +The Slaying of the Dragon-king's Son + +"How is it that the officer does not return?" inquired Lung Wang. At +that moment attendants came to inform him that his retainer had been +murdered by a boy. + +Thereupon Ao Ping, the third son of Lung Wang, placing himself at the +head of a troop of marines, his trident in his hand, left the palace +precincts. The warriors dashed into the river, raising on every side +waves mountains high. Seeing the water rising, No-cha stood up on +the rock and was confronted by Ao Ping mounted on a sea-monster. + +"Who slew my messenger?" cried the warrior. + +"I did," answered No-cha. + +"Who are you?" demanded Ao Ping. + +"I am No-cha, the third son of Li Ching of Ch'en-t'ang Kuan. I came +here to bathe and refresh myself; your messenger cursed me, and I +killed him. Then--" + +"Rascal! do you not know that your victim was a deputy of the King +of Heaven? How dare you kill him, and then boast of your crime?" + +So saying, Ao Ping thrust at the boy with his trident. No-cha, by a +brisk move, evaded the thrust. + +"Who are you?" he asked in turn. + +"I am Ao Ping, the third son of Lung Wang." + +"Ah, you are a blusterer," jeered the boy; "if you dare to touch me +I will skin you alive, you and your mud-eels!" + +"You make me choke with rage," rejoined Ao Ping, at the same time +thrusting again with his trident. + +Furious at this renewed attack, No-cha spread his silk trousers in +the air, and thousands of balls of fire flew out of them, felling Lung +Wang's son. No-cha put his foot on Ao Ping's head and struck it with +his magic bracelet, whereupon he appeared in his true form of a dragon. + +"I am now going to pull out your sinews," he said, "in order to make +a belt for my father to use to bind on his cuirass." + +No-cha was as good as his word, and Ao Ping's escort ran and informed +Lung Wang of the fate of his son. The Dragon-king went to Li Ching +and demanded an explanation. + +Being entirely ignorant of what had taken place, Li Ching sought +No-cha to question him. + + +An Unruly Son + +No-cha was in the garden, occupied in weaving the belt of +dragon-sinew. The stupefaction of Li Ching may be imagined. "You +have brought most awful misfortunes upon us," he exclaimed. "Come +and give an account of your conduct." "Have no fear," replied No-cha +superciliously; "his son's sinews are still intact; I will give them +back to him if he wishes." + +When they entered the house he saluted the Dragon-king, made a curt +apology, and offered to return his son's sinews. The father, moved +with grief at the sight of the proofs of the tragedy, said bitterly +to Li Ching: "You have such a son and yet dare to deny his guilt, +though you heard him haughtily admitting it! To-morrow I shall report +the matter to Yue Huang." Having spoken thus, he departed. + +Li Ching was overwhelmed at the enormity of his son's crime. His +wife, in an adjoining room, hearing his lamentations, went to her +husband. "What obnoxious creature is this that you have brought into +the world?" he said to her angrily. "He has slain two spirits, the +son of Lung Wang and a steward sent by the King of Heaven. To-morrow +the Dragon-king is to lodge a complaint with Yue Huang, and two or +three days hence will see the end of our existence." + +The poor mother began to weep copiously. "What!" she sobbed, "you whom +I suffered so much for, you are to be the cause of our ruin and death!" + +No-cha, seeing his parents so distracted, fell on his knees. "Let me +tell you once for all," he said, "that I am no ordinary mortal. I am +the disciple of T'ai-i Chen-jen; my magic weapons I received from him; +it is they which brought upon me the undying hatred of Lung Wang. But +he cannot prevail. To-day I will go and ask my master's advice. The +guilty alone should suffer the penalty; it is unjust that his parents +should suffer in his stead." + + +Drastic Measures + +He then left for Ch'ien-yuean Shan, and entered the cave of his master +T'ai-i Chen-jen, to whom he related his adventures. The master dwelt +upon the grave consequences of the murders, and then ordered No-cha to +bare his breast. With his finger he drew on the skin a magic formula, +after which he gave him some secret instructions. "Now," he said, "go +to the gate of Heaven and await the arrival of Lung Wang, who purposes +to accuse you before Yue Huang. Then you must come again to consult me, +that your parents may not be molested because of your misdeeds." + +When No-cha reached the gate of Heaven it was closed. In vain he sought +for Lung Wang, but after a while he saw him approaching. Lung Wang did +not see No-cha, for the formula written by T'ai-i Chen-jen rendered +him invisible. As Lung Wang approached the gate No-cha ran up to him +and struck him so hard a blow with his golden bracelet that he fell +to the ground. Then No-cha stamped on him, cursing him vehemently. + +The Dragon-king now recognized his assailant and sharply reproached him +with his crimes, but the only reparation he got was a renewal of kicks +and blows. Then, partially lifting Lung Wang's cloak and raising his +shield, No-cha tore off from his body about forty scales. Blood flowed +copiously, and the Dragon-king, under stress of the pain, begged his +foe to spare his life. To this No-cha consented on condition that he +relinquished his purpose of accusing him before Yue Huang. + +"Now," went on No-cha, "change yourself into a small serpent that I +may take you back without fear of your escaping." + +Lung Wang took the form of a small blue dragon, and followed No-cha +to his father's house, upon entering which Lung Wang resumed his +normal form, and accused No-cha of having belaboured him. "I will go +with all the Dragon-kings and lay an accusation before Yue Huang," +he said. Thereupon he transformed himself into a gust of wind, +and disappeared. + + + +No-cha draws a Bow at a Venture + +"Things are going from bad to worse," sighed Li Ching, His son, +however, consoled him: "I beg you, my father, not to let the future +trouble you. I am the chosen one of the gods. My master is T'ai-i +Chen-jen, and he has assured me that he can easily protect us." + +No-cha now went out and ascended a tower which commanded a view of +the entrance of the fort. There he found a wonderful bow and three +magic arrows. No-cha did not know that this was the spiritual weapon +belonging to the fort. "My master informed me that I am destined +to fight to establish the coming Chou dynasty; I ought therefore to +perfect myself in the use of weapons. This is a good opportunity." He +accordingly seized the bow and shot an arrow toward the south-west. A +red trail indicated the path of the arrow, which hissed as it flew. At +that moment Pi Yuen, a servant of Shih-chi Niang-niang, happened to be +at the foot of K'u-lou Shan (Skeleton Hill), in front of the cave of +his mistress. The arrow pierced his throat, and he fell dead, bathed +in his blood. Shih-chi Niang-niang came out of her cave, and examining +the arrow found that it bore the inscription: "Arrow which shakes the +heavens." She thus knew that it must have come from Ch'en-t'ang Kuan, +where the magic bow was kept. + + +Another Encounter + +The goddess mounted her blue phoenix, flew over the fort, seized Li +Ching, and carried him to her cave. There she made him kneel before +her, and reminded him how she had protected him that he might gain +honour and glory on earth before he attained to immortality. "It is +thus that you show your gratitude--by killing my servant!" + +Li Ching swore that he was innocent; but the tell-tale arrow was +there, and it could not but have come from the fortress. Li Ching +begged the goddess to set him at liberty, in order that he might find +the culprit and bring him to her. "If I cannot find him," he added, +"you may take my life." + +Once again No-cha frankly admitted his deed to his father, and followed +him to the cave of Shih-chi Niang-niang. When he reached the entrance +the second servant reproached him with the crime, whereupon No-cha +struck him a heavy blow. Shih-chi Niang-niang, infuriated, threw +herself at No-cha, sword in hand; one after the other she wrenched +from him his bracelet and magic trousers. + +Deprived of his magic weapons, No-cha fled to his master, T'ai-i +Chen-jen. The goddess followed and demanded that he be put to +death. A terrible conflict ensued between the two champions, until +T'ai-i Chen-jen hurled into the air his globe of nine fire-dragons, +which, falling on Shih-chi Niang-niang, enveloped her in a whirlwind +of flame. When this had passed it was seen that she was changed +into stone. + +"Now you are safe," said T'ai-i Chen-jen to No-cha, "but return +quickly, for the Four Dragon-kings have laid their accusation before +Yue Huang, and they are going to carry off your parents. Follow my +advice, and you will rescue your parents from their misfortune." + + +No-cha commits Hara-Kiri + +On his return No-cha found the Four Dragon-kings on the point of +carrying off his parents. "It is I," he said, "who killed Ao Ping, and +I who should pay the penalty. Why are you molesting my parents? I am +about to return to them what I received from them. Will it satisfy +you?" + +Lung Wang agreed, whereupon No-cha took a sword, and before their eyes +cut off an arm, sliced open his stomach, and fell unconscious. His +soul, borne on the wind, went straight to the cave of T'ai-i Chen-jen, +while his mother busied herself with burying his body. + +"Your home is not here," said his master to him; "return to Ch'en-t'ang +Kuan, and beg your mother to build a temple on Ts'ui-p'ing Shan, +forty _li_ farther on. Incense will be burned to you for three years, +at the end of which time you will be reincarnated." + + +A Habitation for the Soul + +During the night, toward the third watch, while his mother was in a +deep sleep, No-cha appeared to her in a dream and said: "My mother, +pity me; since my death, my soul, separated from my body, wanders about +without a home. Build me, I pray you, a temple on Ts'ui-p'ing Shan, +that I may be reincarnated." His mother awoke in tears, and related +her vision to Li Ching, who reproached her for her blind attachment +to her unnatural son, the cause of so much disaster. + +For five or six nights the son appeared to his mother, each time +repeating his request. The last time he added: "Do not forget that by +nature I am ferocious; if you refuse my request evil will befall you." + +His mother then sent builders to the mountain to construct a temple +to No-cha, and his image was set up in it. Miracles were not wanting, +and the number of pilgrims who visited the shrine increased daily. + + + +Li Ching destroys his Son's Statue + +One day Li Ching, with a troop of his soldiers, was passing this +mountain, and saw the roads crowded with pilgrims of both sexes. "Where +are these people going?" he asked. "For six months past," he was told, +"the spirit of the temple on this mountain has continued to perform +miracles. People come from far and near to worship and supplicate him." + +"What is the name of this spirit?" inquired Li Ching. + +"No-cha," they replied. + +"No-cha!" exclaimed the father. "I will go and see him myself." + +In a rage Li Ching entered the temple and examined the statue, which +was a speaking image of his son. By its side were images of two of +his servants. He took his whip and began to beat the statue, cursing +it all the while. "It is not enough, apparently, for you to have been +a source of disaster to us," he said; "but even after your death you +must deceive the multitude." He whipped the statue until it fell to +pieces; he then kicked over the images of the servants, and went back, +admonishing the people not to worship so wicked a man, the shame and +ruin of his family. By his orders the temple was burnt to the ground. + +When he reached Ch'en-t'ang Kuan his wife came to him, but he received +her coldly. "You gave birth to that cursed son," he said, "who has been +the plague of our lives, and after his death you build him a temple in +which he deceives the people. Do you wish to have me disgraced? If I +were to be accused at Court of having instituted the worship of false +gods, would not my destruction be certain? I have burned the temple, +and intend that that shall settle the matter once for all; if ever +you think of rebuilding it I will break off all relations with you." + + +No-cha consults his Master + +At the time of his father's visit No-cha was absent from the temple. On +his return he found only its smoking remnants. The spirits of his +two servants ran up lamenting. "Who has demolished my temple?" he +asked. "Li Ching," they replied. "In doing this he has exceeded his +powers," said No-cha. "I gave him back the substance I received from +him; why did he come with violence to break up my image? I will have +nothing more to do with him." + +No-cha's soul had already begun to be spiritualised. So he determined +to go to T'ai-i Chen-jen and beg for his help. "The worship rendered +to you there," replied the Taoist, "had nothing in it which should +have offended your father; it did not concern him. He was in the +wrong. Before long Chiang Tzu-ya will descend to inaugurate the new +dynasty, and since you must throw in your lot with him I will find +a way to aid you." + + +A New No-cha + +T'ai-i Chen-jen had two water-lily stalks and three lotus-leaves +brought to him. He spread these on the ground in the form of a human +being and placed the soul of No-cha in this lotus skeleton, uttering +magic incantations the while. There emerged a new No-cha full of +life, with a fresh complexion, purple lips, keen glance, and sixteen +feet of height. "Follow me to my peach-garden," said T'ai-i Chen-jen, +"and I will give you your weapons." He handed him a fiery spear, very +sharp, and two wind-and-fire wheels which, placed under his feet, +served as a Vehicle. A brick of gold in a panther-skin bag completed +his magic armament. The new warrior, after thanking his master, +mounted his wind-and-fire wheels and returned to Ch'en-t'ang Kuan. + + +A Battle between Father and Son + +Li Ching was informed that his son No-cha had returned and was +threatening vengeance. So he took his weapons, mounted his horse, +and went forth to meet him. Having cursed each other profusely, they +joined battle, but Li Ching was worsted and compelled to flee. No-cha +pursued his father, but as he was on the point of overtaking him Li +Ching's second son, Mu-cha, came on the scene, and keenly reproached +his brother for his unfilial conduct. + +"Li Ching is no longer my father," replied No-cha. "I gave him back +my substance; why did he burn my temple and smash up my image?" + +Mu-cha thereupon prepared to defend his father, but received on his +back a blow from the golden brick, and fell unconscious. No-cha then +resumed his pursuit of Li Ching. + +His strength exhausted, and in danger of falling into the hands +of his enemy, Li Ching drew his sword and was about to kill +himself. "Stop!" cried a Taoist priest. "Come into my cave, and I +will protect you." + +When No-cha came up he could not see Li Ching, and demanded his +surrender from the Taoist. But he had to do with one stronger than +himself, no less a being than Wen-chu T'ien-tsun, whom T'ai-i Chen-jen +had sent in order that No-cha might receive a lesson. The Taoist, +with the aid of his magic weapon, seized No-cha, and in a moment he +found a gold ring fastened round his neck, two chains on his feet, +and he was bound to a pillar of gold. + + +Peace at the Last + +At this moment, as if by accident, T'ai-i Chen-jen appeared upon the +scene. His master had No-cha brought before Wen-chu T'ien-tsun and +Li Ching, and advised him to live at peace with his father, but he +also rebuked the father for having burned the temple on Ts'ui-p'ing +Shan. This done, he ordered Li Ching to go home, and No-cha to return +to his cave. The latter, overflowing with anger, his heart full of +vengeance, started again in pursuit of Li Ching, swearing that he would +punish him. But the Taoist reappeared and prepared to protect Li Ching. + +No-cha, bristling like a savage cat, threw himself at his enemy +and tried to pierce him with his spear, but a white lotus-flower +emerged from the Taoist's mouth and arrested the course of the +weapon. As No-cha continued to threaten him, the Taoist drew from +his sleeve a mysterious object which rose in the air, and, falling +at the feet of No-cha, enveloped him in flames. Then No-cha prayed +for mercy. The Taoist exacted from him three separate promises: to +live in harmony with his father, to recognize and address him as his +father, and to throw himself at his, the Taoist's, feet, to indicate +his reconciliation with himself. + +After this act of reconciliation had been performed, Wen-chu T'ien-tsun +promised Li Ching that he should leave his official post to become an +Immortal able to place his services at the disposal of the new Chou +dynasty, shortly to come into power. In order to ensure that their +reconciliation should last for ever, and to place it beyond No-cha's +power to seek revenge, he gave Li Ching the wonderful object by whose +agency No-cha's feet had been burned, and which had been the means +of bringing him into subjection. It was a golden pagoda, which became +the characteristic weapon of Li Ching, and gave rise to his nickname, +Li the Pagoda-bearer. Finally, Yue Huang appointed him Generalissimo +of the Twenty-six Celestial Officers, Grand Marshal of the Skies, +and Guardian of the Gate of Heaven. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A Battle of the Gods + + +Multifarious Versatile Divinities + +The _Feng shen yen i_ describes at length how, during the wars which +preceded the accession of the Chou dynasty in 1122 B.C., a multitude +of demigods, Buddhas, Immortals, etc., took part on one side or the +other, some fighting for the old, some for the new dynasty. They were +wonderful creatures, gifted with marvellous powers. They could at will +change their form, multiply their heads and limbs, become invisible, +and create, by merely uttering a word, terrible monsters who bit and +destroyed, or sent forth poison gases, or emitted flames from their +nostrils. In these battles there is much lightning, thunder, flight +of fire-dragons, dark clouds which vomit burning hails of murderous +weapons; swords, spears, and arrows fall from the sky on to the heads +of the combatants; the earth trembles, the pillars of Heaven shake. + + +Chun T'i + +One of these gifted warriors was Chun T'i, a Taoist of the Western +Paradise, who appeared on the scene when the armies of the rival +dynasties were facing each other. K'ung Hsuean was gallantly holding +the pass of the Chin-chi Ling; Chiang Tzu-ya was trying to take it +by assault--so far without success. + +Chun T'i's mission was to take K'ung Hsuean to the abode of the blest, +his wisdom and general progress having now reached the required +degree of perfection. This was a means of breaking down the invincible +resistance of this powerful enemy and at the same time of rewarding +his brilliant talents. + +But K'ung Hsuean did not approve of this plan, and a fight took +place between the two champions. At one moment Chun T'i was seized +by a luminous bow and carried into the air, but while enveloped in a +cloud of fire he appeared with eighteen arms and twenty-four heads, +holding in each hand a powerful talisman. + + +The One-eyed Peacock + +He put a silk cord round K'ung Hsuean's neck, touched him with his +wand, and forced him to reassume his original form of a red one-eyed +peacock. Chun T'i seated himself on the peacock's back, and it +flew across the sky, bearing its saviour and master to the Western +Paradise. Brilliantly variegated clouds marked its track through space. + + +Arrangements for the Siege + +On the disappearance of its defender the defile of Chin-chi Ling +was captured, and the village of Chieh-p'ai Kuan, the bulwark of the +enemy's forces, reached. This place was defended by a host of genii +and Immortals, the most distinguished among them being the Taoist +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, whose specially effective charms had so far +kept the fort secure against every attempt upon it. + +Lao Tzu himself had deigned to descend from dwelling in happiness, +together with Yuean-shih T'ien-tsun and Chieh-yin Tao-jen, to take +part in the siege. But the town had four gates, and these heavenly +rulers were only three in number. So Chun T'i was recalled, and each +member of the quartette was entrusted with the task of capturing one +of the gates. + + + +Impediments + +Chun T'i's duty was to take the Chueeh-hsien Men, defended by +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu. The warriors who had tried to enter the town by +this gate had one and all paid for their temerity with their lives. The +moment each had crossed the threshold a clap of thunder had resounded, +and a mysterious sword, moving with lightning rapidity, had slain him. + + +Offence and Defence + +As Chun T'i advanced at the head of his warriors terrible lightning +rent the air and the mysterious sword descended like a thunderbolt +upon his head. But Chun T'i held on high his Seven-precious Branch, +whereupon there emerged from it thousands of lotus-flowers, which +formed an impenetrable covering and stopped the sword in its fall. This +and the other gates were then forced, and a grand assault was now +directed against the chief defender of the town. + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, riding his ox and surrounded by his warriors, +for the last time risked the chance of war and bravely faced his four +terrible adversaries. With his sword held aloft, he threw himself on +Chieh-yin Tao-jen, whose only weapon was his fly-whisk. But there +emerged from this a five-coloured lotus-flower, which stopped the +sword-thrust. While Lao Tzu struck the hero with his staff, Yuean-shih +T'ien-tsun warded off the terrible sword with his jade _ju-i_. + +Chun T'i now called to his help the spiritual peacock, and took the +form of a warrior with twenty-four heads and eighteen arms. His +mysterious weapons surrounded T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, and Lao Tzu +struck the hero so hard that fire came out from his eyes, nose, +and mouth. Unable to parry the assaults of his adversaries, he next +received a blow from Chun T'i's magic wand, which felled him, and he +took flight in a whirlwind of dust. + +The defenders now offered no further resistance, and Yuean-shih +T'ien-tsun thanked Chun T'i for the valuable assistance he had rendered +in the capture of the village, after which the gods returned to their +palace in the Western Heaven. + + +Attempts at Revenge + +T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, vanquished and routed, swore to have his +revenge. He called to his aid the spirits of the twenty-eight +constellations, and marched to attack Wu Wang's army. The honour of +the victory that ensued belonged to Chun T'i, who disarmed both the +Immortal Wu Yuen and T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu. + +Wu Yuen, armed with his magic sword, entered the lists against Chun +T'i; but the latter opened his mouth and a blue lotus-flower came +out and stopped the blows aimed at him. Other thrusts were met by +similar miracles. + +"Why continue so useless a fight?" said Chun T'i at last. "Abandon +the cause of the Shang, and come with me to the Western Paradise. I +came to save you, and you must not compel me to make you resume your +original form." + +An insulting flow of words was the reply; again the magic sword +descended like lightning, and again the stroke was averted by a timely +lotus-flower. Chun T'i now waved his wand, and the magic sword was +broken to bits, the handle only remaining in Wu Yuen's hand. + + + +The Golden-bearded Turtle + +Mad with rage, Wu Yuen seized his club and tried to fell his enemy. But +Chun T'i summoned a disciple, who appeared with a bamboo pole. This he +thrust out like a fishing-rod, and on a hook at the end of the line +attached to the pole dangled a large golden-bearded turtle. This +was the Immortal Wu Yuen, now in his original form of a spiritual +turtle. The disciple seated himself on its back, and both, disappearing +into space, returned to the Western Heavens. + + +The Battle Won + +To conquer T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu was more difficult, but after a long +fight Chun T'i waved his Wand of the Seven Treasures and broke his +adversary's sword. The latter, disarmed and vanquished, disappeared +in a cloud of dust. Chun T'i did not trouble to pursue him. The battle +was won. + + +Buddhahood + +A disciple of T'ung-t'ien Chiao-chu, P'i-lu Hsien, 'the Immortal +P'i-lu,' seeing his master beaten in two successive engagements, +left the battlefield and followed Chun T'i to the Western Paradise, +to become a Buddha. He is known as P'i-lu Fo, one of the principal +gods of Buddhism. + +Chun T'i's festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the third +moon. He is generally shown with eight hands and three faces, one of +the latter being that of a pig. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +How the Monkey Became a God + + +The Hsi Yu Chi + +In dealing with the gods of China we noticed the monkey among them. Why +and in what manner he attained to that exalted rank is set forth in +detail in the _Hsi yu chi_ [33]--a work the contents of which have +become woven into the fabric of Chinese legendary lore and are known +and loved by every intelligent native. Its pages are filled with +ghosts, demons, and fairies, good and bad, but "it contains no more +than the average Chinese really believes to exist, and his belief in +such manifestations is so firm that from the cradle to the grave he +lives and moves and has his being in reference to them." Its characters +are said to be allegorical, though it may be doubted whether these +implications may rightly be read into the Chinese text. Thus: + +Hsuean (or Yuean) Chuang, or T'ang Seng, is the pilgrim of the _Hsi yu +chi_, who symbolizes conscience, to which all actions are brought for +trial. The priestly garment of Hsuean Chuang symbolizes the good work +of the rectified human nature. It is held to be a great protection +to the new heart from the myriads of evil beings which surround it, +seeking its destruction. + +Sun Hou-tzu, the Monkey Fairy, represents human nature, which is prone +to all evil. His unreasonable vagaries moved Hsuean Chuang to compel +him to wear a Head-splitting Helmet which would contract upon his head +in moments of waywardness. The agonizing pressure thus caused would +bring him to his senses, irrespective of his distance from his master. + +The iron wand of Sun Hou-tzu is said to represent the use that can be +made of doctrine. It was useful for all purposes, great or small. By +a word it could be made invisible, and by a word it could become long +enough to span the distance between Heaven and earth. + +Chu Pa-chieh, the Pig Fairy, with his muck-rake, stands for the +coarser passions, which are constantly at war with the conscience in +their endeavours to cast off all restraint. + +Sha Ho-shang, Priest Sha, is a good representation of Mr Faithful +in _The Pilgrim's Progress_. In the _Hsi yu chi_ he stands for the +human character, which is naturally weak and which needs constant +encouragement. + + +Legend of Sun Hou-tzu + +The deeds of this marvellous creature, the hero of the _Hsi yu chi_, +are to be met with continually in Chinese popular literature, and they +are very much alive in the popular mind. In certain parts a regular +worship is offered to him, and in many temples representations of or +legends concerning him are to be seen or heard. + +Other names by which Sun Hou-tzu is referred to are: Sun Hsing-che, +Sun Wu-k'ung, Mei Hou-wang, Ch'i-t'ien Ta Sheng, and Pi-ma Wen, the +last-mentioned being a title which caused him annoyance by recalling +the derisive dignity conferred upon him by Yue Huang. [34] Throughout +the remainder of this chapter Sun Hou-tzu will be shortly referred +to as 'Sun.' + +Beyond the seas, in the Eastern continent, in the kingdom of Ao-lai, +is the mountain Hua-kuo Shan. On the steep sides of this mountain there +is a rocky point 36 feet 5 inches high and 24 feet in circumference. At +the very top an egg formed, and, fructified by the breath of the wind, +gave birth to a stone monkey. The newly-born saluted the four points +of the horizon; from his eyes shone golden streaks of lightning, +which filled the palace of the North Pole Star with light. This light +subsided as soon as he was able to take nourishment. + +"To-day," said Yue Huang to himself, "I am going to complete the +wonderful diversity of the beings engendered by Heaven and earth. This +monkey will skip and gambol to the highest peaks of mountains, jump +about in the waters, and, eating the fruit of the trees, will be the +companion of the gibbon and the crane. Like the deer he will pass +his nights on the mountain slopes, and during the day will be seen +leaping on their summits or in their caverns. That will be the finest +ornament of all for the mountains!" + +The creature's exploits soon caused him to be proclaimed king +of the monkeys. He then began to try to find some means of +becoming immortal. After travelling for eighteen years by land +and sea he met the Immortal P'u-t'i Tsu-shih on the mountain +Ling-t'ai-fang-ts'un. During his travels the monkey had gradually +acquired human attributes; his face remained always as it had been +originally, but dressed in human apparel he began to be civilized. His +new master gave him the family name of Sun, and personal name of +Wu-k'ung, 'Discoverer of Secrets.' He taught him how to fly through +the air, and to change into seventy-two different forms. With one +leap he could cover 108,000 _li_ (about 36,000 miles). + + + +A Rod of Iron + +Sun, after his return to Hua-kuo Shan, slew the demon Hun-shih Mo-wang, +who had been molesting the monkeys during his long absence. Then he +organized his subjects into a regular army, 47,000 all told. Thus the +peace of the simian kingdom was assured. As for himself, he could +not find a weapon to suit him, and went to consult Ao Kuang, the +Lung Wang, or Dragon-king of the Eastern Sea, about it. It was from +him that he obtained the formidable rod of iron, formerly planted in +the ocean-bed by the Great Yue (Yue Wang) to regulate the level of the +waters. He pulled it out, and modified it to suit his tastes. The +two extremities he bound round with gold bands, and on it engraved +the words: 'Gold-bound Wand of my Desires.' This magic weapon could +accommodate itself to all his wishes; being able to assume the most +incredible proportions or to reduce itself to the form of the finest of +needles, which he kept hidden in his ear. He terrorized the Four Kings +of the sea, and dressed himself at their expense. The neighbouring +kings allied themselves with him. A splendid banquet with copious +libations of wine sealed the alliance of friendship with the seven +kings; but alas! Sun had partaken so liberally that when he was seeing +his guests off, no sooner had he taken a few steps than he fell into a +drunken sleep. The undertakers of Yen Wang, the King of the Hells, to +whom Lung Wang had accused him as the disturber of his watery kingdom, +seized his soul, put chains round its neck, and led it down to the +infernal regions. Sun awoke in front of the gate of the kingdom of +the dead, broke his fetters, killed his two custodians, and, armed +with his magic staff, penetrated into the realm of Yen Wang, where +he threatened to carry out general destruction. He called to the ten +infernal gods to bring him the Register of the Living and the Dead, +tore out with his own hand the page on which were written his name +and those of his monkey subjects, and then told the King of the Hells +that he was no longer subject to the laws of death. Yen Wang yielded, +though with bad grace, and Sun returned triumphant from his expedition +beyond the tomb. + +Before long Sun's escapades came to the knowledge of Yue Huang. Ao +Kuang and Yen Wang each sent deputies to the Master of Heaven, who +took note of the double accusation, and sent T'ai-po Chin-hsing to +summon before him this disturber of the heavenly peace. + + +Grand Master of the Heavenly Stables + +In order to keep him occupied, Sun was appointed Grand Master of the +Heavenly Stables, and was entrusted with the feeding of Yue Huang's +horses; his official celestial title being Pi-ma Wen. Later on, +learning the object of the creation of this derisory appointment, +he overturned the Master's throne, seized his staff, broke down the +South Gate of Heaven, and descended on a cloud to Hua-kuo Shan. + + +Grand Superintendent of the Heavenly Peach-garden + +Yue Huang in great indignation organized a siege of Hua-kuo Shan, +but the Kings of Heaven and the generals with their celestial armies +were repulsed several times. Sun now arrogated to himself the pompous +title of Grand Saint, Governor of Heaven. He had this emblazoned on +his banners, and threatened Yue Huang that he would carry destruction +into his kingdom if he refused to recognize his new dignity. Yue +Huang, alarmed at the result of the military operations, agreed to +the condition laid down by Sun. The latter was then appointed Grand +Superintendent of the Heavenly Peach-garden, the fruit of which +conferred immortality, and a new palace was built for him. + + +Double Immortality + +Having made minute observations on the secret properties of the +peaches, Sun ate of them and was thus assured against death. The +time was ripe for him to indulge in his tricks without restraint, +and an opportunity soon presented itself. Deeply hurt at not having +been invited to the feast of the Peach Festival, P'an-t'ao Hui, given +periodically to the Immortals by Wang-mu Niang-niang, the Goddess of +the Immortals, he resolved upon revenge. When the preparations for the +feast were complete he cast a spell over the servants, causing them +to fall into a deep sleep, and then ate up all the most juicy meats +and drank the fine wines provided for the heavenly guests. Sun had, +however, indulged himself too liberally; with heavy head and bleary +eye he missed the road back to his heavenly abode, and came unaware +to the gate of Lao Chuen, who was, however, absent from his palace. It +was only a matter of a few minutes for Sun to enter and swallow the +pills of immortality which Lao Chuen kept in five gourds. Thus Sun, +doubly immortal, riding on the mist, again descended to Hua-kuo Shan. + + +Sun Hou-tzu Captured + +These numerous misdeeds aroused the indignation of all the gods and +goddesses. Accusations poured in upon Yue Huang, and he ordered the Four +Gods of the Heavens and their chief generals to bring Sun to him. The +armies laid siege to Hua-kuo Shan, a net was spread in the heavens, +fantastic battles took place, but the resistance of the enemy was as +strenuous and obstinate as before. + +Lao Chuen and Erh-lang, nephew of Yue Huang, then appeared on the +scene. Sun's warriors resisted gallantly, but the forces of Heaven +were too much for them, and at length they were overcome. At this +juncture Sun changed his form, and in spite of the net in the sky +managed to find a way out. In vain search was made everywhere, until +Li T'ien-wang, by the help of his devil-finding mirror, detected the +quarry and informed Erh-lang, who rushed off in pursuit. Lao Chuen +hurled his magic ring on to the head of the fugitive, who stumbled +and fell. Quick as lightning, the celestial dog, T'ien Kou, who was +in Erh-lang's service, threw himself on him, bit him in the calf, +and caused him to stumble afresh. This was the end of the fight. Sun, +surrounded on all sides, was seized and chained. The battle was won. + + +Sun escapes from Lao Chuen's Furnace + +The celestial armies now raised the siege, and returned to their +quarters. But a new and unexpected difficulty arose. Yue Huang condemned +the criminal to death, but when they went to carry out the sentence +the executioners learned that he was invulnerable; swords, iron, +fire, even lightning, could make no impression on his skin. Yue Huang, +alarmed, asked Lao Chuen the reason of this. The latter replied that +there was nothing surprising about it, seeing that the knave had +eaten the peaches of life in the garden of Heaven and the pills of +immortality which he had composed. "Hand him over to me," he added. "I +will distil him in my furnace of the Eight Trigrams, and extract from +his composition the elements which render him immortal." + +Yue Huang ordered that the prisoner be handed over, and in the sight +of all he was shut up in Lao Chuen's alchemical furnace, which for +forty-nine days was heated white-hot. But at an unguarded moment +Sun lifted the lid, emerged in a rage, seized his magic staff, and +threatened to destroy Heaven and exterminate its inhabitants. Yue Huang, +at the end of his resources, summoned Buddha, who came and addressed +Sun as follows: "Why do you wish to possess yourself of the Kingdom +of the Heavens?" + +"Have I not power enough to be the God of Heaven?" was the arrogant +reply. + +"What qualifications have you?" asked Buddha. "Enumerate them." + +"My qualifications are innumerable," replied Sun. "I am invulnerable, +I am immortal, I can change myself into seventy-two different forms, +I can ride on the clouds of Heaven and pass through the air at will, +with one leap I can traverse a hundred and eight thousand _li_." + +"Well," replied Buddha, "have a match with me; I wager that in one +leap you cannot even jump out of the palm of my hand. If you succeed +I will bestow upon you the sovereignty of Heaven." + + +Broad-jump Competition + +Sun rose into space, flew like lightning in the great vastness, and +reached the confines of Heaven, opposite the five great red pillars +which are the boundaries of the created universe. On one of them +he wrote his name, as irrefutable evidence that he could reach this +extreme limit; this done, he returned triumphant to demand of Buddha +the coveted inheritance. + +"But, wretch," said Buddha, "you never went out of my hand!" + +"How is that?" rejoined Sun. "I went as far as the pillars of Heaven, +and even took the precaution of writing my name on one of them as +proof in case of need." + +"Look then at the words you have written," said Buddha, lifting +a finger on which Sun read with stupefaction his name as he had +inscribed it. + +Buddha then seized Sun, transported him out of Heaven, and changed +his five fingers into the five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, +and earth, which instantly formed five high mountains contiguous to +each other. The mountains were called Wu Hsing Shan, and Buddha shut +Sun up in them. + + +Conditions of Release + +Thus subdued, Sun would not have been able to get out of his stone +prison but for the intercession of Kuan Yin P'u-sa, who obtained +his release on his solemn promise that he would serve as guide, +philosopher, and friend to Hsuean Chuang, the priest who was to +undertake the difficult journey of 108,000 _li_ to the Western +Heaven. This promise, on the whole, he fulfilled in the service +of Hsuean Chuang during the fourteen years of the long journey. Now +faithful, now restive and undisciplined, he was always the one to +triumph in the end over the eighty-one fantastical tribulations which +beset them as they journeyed. + + + +Sha Ho-shang + +One of the principal of Sun's fellow-servants of the Master was +Sha Ho-shang. + +He is depicted wearing a necklace of skulls, the heads of the nine +Chinese deputies sent in former centuries to find the Buddhist canon, +but whom Sha Ho-shang had devoured on the banks of Liu-sha River when +they had attempted to cross it. + +He is also known by the name of Sha Wu-ching, and was originally +Grand Superintendent of the Manufactory of Stores for Yue Huang's +palace. During a great banquet given on the Peach Festival to all +the gods and Immortals of the Chinese Olympus he let fall a crystal +bowl, which was smashed to atoms. Yue Huang caused him to be beaten +with eight hundred blows, drove him out of Heaven, and exiled him to +earth. He lived on the banks of the Liu-sha Ho, where every seventh +day a mysterious sword appeared and wounded him in the neck. Having +no other means of subsistence, he used to devour the passers-by. + + +Sha Ho-shang becomes Baggage-coolie + +When Kuan Yin passed through that region on her way to China to find +the priest who was predestined to devote himself to the laborious +undertaking of the quest of the sacred Buddhist books, Sha Ho-shang +threw himself on his knees before her and begged her to put an end +to all his woes. + +The goddess promised that he should be delivered by the priest, +her envoy, provided he would engage himself in the service of the +pilgrim. On his promising to do this, and to lead a better life, +she herself ordained him priest. In the end it came about that Hsuean +Chuang, when passing the Sha Ho, took him into his suite as coolie +to carry his baggage. Yue Huang pardoned him in consideration of the +service he was rendering to the Buddhist cause. + + +Chu Pa-chieh + +Chu Pa-chieh is a grotesque, even gross, personage, with all the +instincts of animalism. One day, while he was occupying the high office +of Overseer-general of the Navigation of the Milky Way, he, during a +fit of drunkenness, vilely assaulted the daughter of Yue Huang. The +latter had him beaten with two thousand blows from an iron hammer, +and exiled to earth to be reincarnated. + +During his transition a mistake was made, and entering the womb of +a sow he was born half-man, half-pig, with the head and ears of a +pig and a human body. He began by killing and eating his mother, and +then devoured his little porcine brothers. Then he went to live on the +wild mountain Fu-ling Shan, where, armed with an iron rake, he first +robbed and then ate the travellers who passed through that region. + +Mao Erh-chieh, who lived in the cave Yuen-chan Tung, engaged him as +carrier of her personal effects, which she afterward bequeathed to him. + +Yielding to the exhortations of the Goddess Kuan Yin, who, at the +time of her journey to China, persuaded him to lead a less dissolute +life, he was ordained a priest by the goddess herself, who gave him +the name of Chu (Pig), and the religious name of Wu-neng, 'Seeker +after Strength.' This monster was knocked down by Sun when the latter +was passing over the mountain accompanied by Hsuean Chuang, and he +declared himself a disciple of the pilgrim priest. He accompanied him +throughout the journey, and was also received in the Western Paradise +as a reward for his aid to the Buddhist propaganda. + + + +Hsuean Chuang, the Master + +The origin of this priest was as follows: In the reign of the Emperor +T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, Ch'en Kuang-jui, a graduate of Hai +Chou, in his examination for the doctor's degree came out as _chuang +yuean_, first on the list. Wen Chiao (also named Man-t'ang Chiao), the +daughter of the minister Yin K'ai-shan, meeting the young academician, +fell in love with him, and married him. Several days after the wedding +the Emperor appointed Ch'en Kuang-jui Governor of Chiang Chou (modern +Chen-chiang Fu), in Kiangsu. After a short visit to his native town he +started to take up his post. His old mother and his wife accompanied +him. When they reached Hung Chou his mother fell sick and they were +forced to stay for a time at the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers, kept +by one Liu Hsiao-erh. Days passed; the sickness did not leave her, +and as the time for her son to take over the seals of office was +drawing near, he had to proceed without her. + + +The Released Carp + +Before his departure he noticed a fisherman holding in his hand a fine +carp; this he bought for a small sum to give to his mother. Suddenly +he noticed that the fish had a very extraordinary look, and, changing +his mind, he let it go in the waters of the Hung Chiang, afterward +telling his mother what he had done. She congratulated him on his +action, and assured him that the good deed would not go unrewarded. + + +The Chuang Yuean Murdered + +Ch'en Kuang-jui re-entered his boat with his wife and a servant. They +were stopped by the chief waterman, Liu Hung, and his assistant. Struck +with the great beauty of Ch'en Kuang-jui's wife, the former planned +a crime which he carried out with the help of his assistant. At the +dead of night he took the boat to a retired spot, killed Ch'en and +his servant, threw their bodies into the river, seized his official +documents of title and the woman he coveted, passed himself off as the +real _chuang yuean_, and took possession of the magistracy of Chiang +Chou. The widow, who was with child, had two alternatives--silence +or death. Meantime she chose the former. Before she gave birth to her +child, T'ai-po Chin-hsing, the Spirit of the South Pole Star, appeared +to her, and said he had been sent by Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, +to present her with a son whose fame would fill the Empire. "Above +all," he added, "take every precaution lest Liu Hung kill the child, +for he will certainly do so if he can." When the child was born the +mother, during the absence of Liu Hung, determined to expose it rather +than see it slain. Accordingly she wrapped it up carefully in a shirt, +and carried it to the bank of the Blue River. She then bit her finger, +and with the blood wrote a short note stating the child's origin, +and hid it in its breast. Moreover, she bit off the infant's left +little toe, as an indelible mark of identity. No sooner had this been +done than a gust of wind blew a large plank to the river's edge. The +poor mother tied her infant firmly to this plank and abandoned it to +the mercy of the waves. The waif was carried to the shore of the isle +of Chin Shan, on which stands the famous monastery of Chin-shan Ssu, +near Chinkiang. The cries of the infant attracted the attention of +an old monk named Chang Lao, who rescued it and gave it the name of +Chiang Liu, 'Waif of the River.' He reared it with much care, and +treasured the note its mother had written with her blood. The child +grew up, and Chang Lao made him a priest, naming him Hsuean Chuang on +the day of his taking the vows. When he was eighteen years of age, +having one day quarrelled with another priest, who had cursed him and +reproached him with having neither father nor mother, he, much hurt, +went to his protector Chang Lao. The latter said to him: "The time has +come to reveal to you your origin." He then told him all, showed him +the note, and made him promise to avenge his assassinated father. To +this end he was made a roving priest, went to the official Court, +and eventually got into touch with his mother, who was still living +with the prefect Liu Hung. The letter placed in his bosom, and the +shirt in which he had been wrapped, easily proved the truth of his +statements. The mother, happy at having found her son, promised to +go and see him at Chin Shan. In order to do this, she pretended to +be sick, and told Liu Hung that formerly, when still young, she had +taken a vow which she had not yet been able to fulfil. Liu Hung himself +helped her to do so by sending a large gift of money to the priests, +and allowed her to go with her servants to perform her devotions at +Chin-shan Ssu. On this second visit, during which she could speak +more freely with her son, she wished to see for herself the wound +she had made on his foot. This removed the last shadow of doubt. + + +Hsuean Chuang finds his Grandmother + +She told Hsuean Chuang that he must first of all go to Hung Chou and +find his grandmother, formerly left at the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers, +and then on to Ch'ang-an to take to her father Yin K'ai-shan a letter, +putting him in possession of the chief facts concerning Liu Hung, +and praying him to avenge her. + +She gave him a stick of incense to take to her mother-in-law. The old +lady lived the life of a beggar in a wretched hovel near the city gate, +and had become blind from weeping. The priest told her of the tragic +death of her son, then touched her eyes with the stick of incense, and +her sight was restored. "And I," she exclaimed, "have so often accused +my son of ingratitude, believing him to be still alive!" He took her +back to the Inn of Ten Thousand Flowers and settled the account, then +hastened to the palace of Yin K'ai-shan. Having obtained an audience, +he showed the minister the letter, and informed him of all that had +taken place. + + +The Murderer Executed + +The following day a report was presented to the Emperor, who gave +orders for the immediate arrest and execution of the murderer of +Ch'en Kuang-jui. + +Yin K'ai-shan went with all haste to Chen-chiang, where he arrived +during the night, surrounded the official residence, and seized +the culprit, whom he sent to the place where he had committed the +murder. His heart and liver were torn out and sacrificed to the victim. + + +The Carp's Gratitude + +Now it happened that Ch'en Kuang-jui was not dead after all. The +carp released by him was in fact no other than Lung Wang, the God +of the River, who had been going through his kingdom in that guise +and had been caught in the fisherman's net. On learning that his +rescuer had been cast into the river, Lung Wang had saved him, and +appointed him an officer of his Court. On that day, when his son, +wife, and father-in-law were sacrificing the heart of his assassin +to his _manes_ on the river-bank, Lung Wang ordered that he return +to earth. His body suddenly appeared on the surface of the water, +floated to the bank, revived, and came out full of life and health. The +happiness of the family reunited under such unexpected circumstances +may well be imagined. Ch'en Kuang-jui returned with his father-in-law +to Chen-chiang, where he took up his official post, eighteen years +after his nomination to it. + +Hsuean Chuang became the Emperor's favourite priest. He was held in +great respect at the capital, and had innumerable honours bestowed upon +him, and in the end was chosen for the journey to the Western Paradise, +where Buddha in person handed him the sacred books of Buddhism. + + +Pai Ma, the White Horse + +When he left the capital, Hsuean Chuang had been presented by the +Emperor with a white horse to carry him on his long pilgrimage. One +day, when he reached She-p'an Shan, near a torrent, a dragon emerged +from the deep river-bed and devoured both the horse and its saddle. Sun +tried in vain to find the dragon, and at last had to seek the aid of +Kuan Yin. + +Now Yue Lung San T'ai-tzu, son of Ao Jun, Dragonking of the Western +Sea, having burnt a precious pearl on the roof of his father's palace, +was denounced to Yue Huang, who had him beaten with three hundred blows +and suspended in the air. He was awaiting death when Kuan Yin passed +on her way to China. The unfortunate dragon requested the goddess +to have pity on him, whereupon she prevailed upon Yue Huang to spare +his life on condition that he served as steed for her pilgrim on the +expedition to the Western Paradise. The dragon was handed over to +Kuan Yin, who showed him the deep pool in which he was to dwell while +awaiting the arrival of the priest. It was this dragon who had devoured +Hsuean Chuang's horse, and Kuan Yin now bade him change himself into a +horse of the same colour to carry the priest to his destination. He +had the honour of bearing on his back the sacred books that Buddha +gave to T'ai Tsung's deputy, and the first Buddhist temple built at +the capital bore the name of Pai-ma Miao, 'Temple of the White Horse.' + + +Perils by the Way + +It is natural to expect that numberless exciting adventures should +befall such an interesting quartette, and indeed the _Hsi yu chi_, +which contains a hundred chapters, is full of them. The pilgrims +encountered eighty difficulties on the journey out and one on the +journey home. The following examples are characteristic of the rest. + + +The Grove of Cypress-trees + +The travellers were making their way westward through shining +waters and over green hills, where they found endless luxuriance +of vegetation and flowers of all colours in profusion. But the way +was long and lonely, and as darkness came on without any sign of +habitation the Priest said: "Where shall we find a resting-place for +the night?" The Monkey replied: "My Master, he who has left home +and become a priest must dine on the wind and lodge on the water, +lie down under the moon and sleep in the forest; everywhere is his +home; why then ask where shall we rest?" But Pa-chieh, who was the +bearer of the pilgrim's baggage, was not satisfied with this reply, +and tried to get his load transferred to the horse, but was silenced +when told that the latter's sole duty was to carry the Master. + +However, the Monkey gave Pai Ma a blow with his rod, causing him to +start forward at a great pace, and in a few minutes from the brow of +a hill Hsuean Chuang espied in the distance a grove of cypress-trees, +beneath the shade of which was a large enclosure. This seemed a +suitable place to pass the night, so they made toward it, and as +they approached observed in the enclosure a spacious and luxurious +establishment. There being no indications that the place was then +inhabited, the Monkey made his way inside. + + +A Proposal of Marriage + +He was met by a lady of charming appearance, who came out of an inner +room, and said: "Who is this that ventures to intrude upon a widow's +household?" The situation was embarrassing, but the lady proved to +be most affable, welcomed them all very heartily, told them how she +became a widow and had been left in possession of riches in abundance, +and that she had three daughters, Truth, Love, and Pity by name. She +then proceeded to make a proposal of marriage, not only on behalf +of herself, but of her three daughters as well. They were four men, +and here were four women; she had mountain lands for fruit-trees, +dry lands for grain, flooded fields for rice--more than five thousand +acres of each; horses, oxen, sheep, pigs innumerable; sixty or seventy +farmsteads; granaries choked with grain; storehouses full of silks +and satins; gold and silver enough to last several lifetimes however +extravagantly they lived. Why should the four travellers not finish +their journey there, and be happy ever afterward? The temptation was +great, especially as the three daughters were ladies of surpassing +beauty as well as adepts at needlework and embroidery, well read, +and able to sing sweetly. + +But Hsuean Chuang sat as if listening to frogs after rain, unmoved +except by anger that she should attempt to divert him from his heavenly +purpose, and in the end the lady retired in a rage, slamming the door +behind her. + +The covetous Pa-chieh, however, expressed himself in favour of +accepting the widow's terms. Finding it impossible to do so openly, +he stole round to the back and secured a private interview. His +personal appearance was against him, but the widow was not altogether +uncompliant. She not only entertained the travellers, but agreed +to Pa-chieh retiring within the household in the character of a +son-in-law, the other three remaining as guests in the guest-rooms. + + +Blind Man's Buff + +But a new problem now arose. If Pa-chieh were wedded to one of the +three daughters, the others would feel aggrieved. So the widow proposed +to blindfold him with a handkerchief, and marry him to whichever +he succeeded in catching. But, with the bandage tied over his eyes, +Pa-chieh only found himself groping in darkness. "The tinkling sound +of female trinkets was all around him, the odour of musk was in his +nostrils; like fairy forms they fluttered about him, but he could no +more grasp one than he could a shadow. One way and another he ran till +he was too giddy to stand, and could only stumble helplessly about." + +The prospective mother-in-law then unloosed the bandage, and informed +Pa-chieh that it was not her daughters' 'slipperiness,' as he had +called it, which prevented their capture, but the extreme modesty of +each in being generous enough to forgo her claims in favour of one of +her sisters. Pa-chieh thereupon became very importunate, urging his +suit for any one of the daughters or for the mother herself or for all +three or all four. This was beyond all conscience, but the widow was +equal to the emergency, and suggested another solution. Each of her +daughters wore a waistcoat embroidered in jewels and gold. Pa-chieh +was to try these on in turn, and to marry the owner of the one which +fitted him. Pa-chieh put one on, but as he was tying the cord round +his waist it transformed itself into strong coils of rope which bound +him tightly in every limb. He rolled about in excruciating agony, +and as he did so the curtain of enchantment fell and the beauties +and the palace disappeared. + +Next morning the rest of the party on waking up also found that all +had changed, and saw that they had been sleeping on the ground in the +cypress-grove. On making search they found Pa-chieh bound fast to a +tree. They cut him down, to pursue the journey a sadder and wiser Pig, +and the butt of many a quip from his fellow-travellers. + + +The Lotus Cave + +When the party left the Elephant Country, seeing a mountain ahead, +the Master warned his disciples to be careful. Sun said: "Master, say +not so; remember the text of the Sacred Book, 'So long as the heart is +right there is nothing to fear.'" After this Sun kept a close watch +on Pa-chieh, who, while professing to be on guard, slept most of the +time. When they arrived at Ping-ting Shan they were approached by a +woodcutter, who warned them that in the mountain, which extended for +600 _li_ (200 miles), there was a Lotus Cave, inhabited by a band +of demons under two chiefs, who were lying in wait to devour the +travellers. The woodcutter then disappeared. Accordingly, Pa-chieh +was ordered to keep watch. But, seeing some hay, he lay down and went +to sleep, and the mountain demons carried him away to the Lotus Cave. + +On seeing Pa-chieh, the second chief said: "He is no good; you must +go in search of the Master and the Monkey." All this time the Monkey, +to protect his Master, was walking ahead of the horse, swinging his +club up and down and to right and left. The Demon-king saw him from +the top of the mountain and said to himself: "This Monkey is famous +for his magic, but I will prove that he is no match for me; I will +yet feast on his Master." So, descending the mountain, he transformed +himself into a lame beggar and waited by the roadside. The Master, +out of pity, persuaded the Monkey to carry him. While on the Monkey's +back the Demon, by magic skill, threw Mount Meru on to Sun's head, +but the Monkey warded it off with his left shoulder, and walked +on. Then the Demon threw Mount O-mei on to Sun's head, and this +he warded off with his right shoulder, and walked on, much to the +Demon's surprise. Lastly the Demon caused T'ai Shan to fall on to his +head. This at last stunned the Monkey. Sha Ho-shang now defended the +Master with his staff, which was, however, no match for the Demon's +starry sword. The Demon seized the Master and carried him under one +arm and Sha Ho-shang under the other to the Lotus Cave. + +The two Demons then planned to take their two most precious things, +a yellow gourd and a jade vase, and try to bottle the Monkey. They +arranged to carry them upside down and call out the Monkey's name. If +he replied, then he would be inside, and they could seal him up, +using the seal of the great Ancient of Days, the dweller in the +mansion of T'ai Sui. [35] + + +The Monkey under the Mountain + +When the Monkey found that he was being crushed under the mountain he +was greatly distressed about his Master, and cried out: "Oh, Master, +you delivered me from under the mountain before, and trained me in +religion; how is it that you have brought me to this pass? If you +must die, why should Sha Ho-shang and Pa-chieh and the Dragon-horse +also suffer?" Then his tears poured down like rain. + +The spirits of the mountain were astonished at hearing these words. The +guardian angels of the Five Religions asked: "Whose is this mountain, +and who is crushed beneath it?" The local gods replied: "The mountain +is ours, but who is under it we do not know." "If you do not know," +the angels replied, "we will tell you. It is the Great Holy One, +the Equal of Heaven, who rebelled there five hundred years ago. He +is now converted, and is the disciple of the Chinese ambassador. How +dare you lend your mountain to the Demon for such a purpose?" The +guardian angels and local gods then recited some prayers, and the +mountain was removed. The Monkey sprang up, brandishing his spear, +and the spirits at once apologized, saying that they were under +enforced service to the Demons. + +While they were speaking Sun saw a light approaching, and asked +what it was. The spirits replied: "This light comes from the Demons' +magic treasures. We fear they are bringing them to catch you." Sun +then said: "Now we shall have some sport. Who is the Demon-chief's +associate?" "He is a Taoist," they replied, "who is always occupied in +preparing chemicals." The Monkey said: "Leave me, and I will catch them +myself." He then transformed himself into a duplicate of the Taoist. + + +The Magic Gourd + +Sun went to meet the Demons, and in conversation learnt from them that +they were on their way to catch the famous Monkey, and that the magic +gourd and vase were for that purpose. They showed these treasures to +him, and explained that the gourd, though small, could hold a thousand +people. "That is nothing," replied Sun. "I have a gourd which can +contain all the heavens." At this they marvelled greatly, and made a +bargain with him, according to which he was to give them his gourd, +after it had been tested as to its capacity to contain the heavens, +in exchange for their precious gourd and vase. Going up to Heaven, +the Monkey obtained permission to extinguish the light of the sun, +moon, and stars for one hour. At noon the next day there was complete +darkness, and the Demons believed Sun when he stated that he had put +the whole heavens into his gourd so that there could be no light. They +then handed over to the Monkey their magic gourd and vase, and in +exchange he gave them his false gourd. + + + +The Magic Rope + +On discovering that they had been deceived, the Demons made complaint +to their chiefs, who informed them that Sun, by pretending to be one +of the Immortals, had outwitted them. They had now lost two out of +their five magic treasures. There remained three, the magic sword, +the magic palm fan, and the magic rope. "Go," said they, "and invite +our dear grandmother to come and dine on human flesh." Personating +one of the Demons, Sun himself went on this errand. He told the old +lady that he wanted her to bring with her the magic rope, with which +to catch Sun. She was delighted, and set out in her chair carried by +two fairies. + +When they had gone some few _li_, Sun killed the ladies, and then saw +that they were foxes. He took the magic rope, and thus had three of +the magic treasures. Having changed the dead so that they looked like +living creatures, he returned to the Lotus Cave. Many small demons came +running up, saying that the old lady had been slain. The Demon-king, +alarmed, proposed to release the whole party. But his younger brother +said: "No, let me fight Sun. If I win, we can eat them; if I fail, +we can let them go." + +After thirty bouts Sun lost the magic rope, and the Demon lassoed him +with it and carried him to the cave, and took back the magic gourd +and vase. Sun now transformed himself into two false demons. One he +placed instead of himself in the lasso bound to a pillar, and then +went and reported to the second Demon-chief that Sun was struggling +hard, and that he should be bound with a stronger rope lest he make +his escape. Thus, by this strategy, Sun obtained possession of the +magic rope again. By a similar trick he also got back the magic gourd +and vase. + + + +The Master Rescued + +Sun and the Demons now began to wrangle about the respective merits +of their gourds, which, each assured the other, could imprison men +and make them obey their wishes. Finally, Sun succeeded in putting +one of the Demons into his gourd. + +There ensued another fight concerning the magic sword and palm fan, +during which the fan was burnt to ashes. After more encounters Sun +succeeded in bottling the second Demon in the magic vase, and sealed +him up with the seal of the Ancient of Days. Then the magic sword +was delivered, and the Demons submitted. Sun returned to the cave, +fetched his Master out, swept the cave clean of all evil spirits, and +they then started again on their westward journey. On the road they +met a blind man, who addressed them saying: "Whither away, Buddhist +Priest? I am the Ancient of Days. Give me back my magic treasures. In +the gourd I keep the pills of immortality. In the vase I keep the +water of life. The sword I use to subdue demons. With the fan I stir +up enthusiasm. With the cord I bind bundles. One of these two Demons +had charge of the gold crucible. They stole my magic treasures and +fled to the mundane sphere of mortals. You, having captured them, +are deserving of great reward." But Sun replied: "You should be +severely punished for allowing your servants to do this evil in the +world." The Ancient of Days replied: "No, without these trials your +Master and his disciples could never attain to perfection." + +Sun understood and said: "Since you have come in person for the magic +treasures, I return them to you." After receiving them, the Ancient +of Days returned to his T'ai Sui mansion in the skies. + + + +The Red Child Demon + +By the autumn the travellers arrived at a great mountain. They saw +on the road a red cloud which the Monkey thought must be a demon. It +was in fact a demon child who, in order to entrap the Master, had had +himself bound and tied to the branch of a tree. The child repeatedly +cried out to the passers-by to deliver him. Sun suspected that it was +a trick; but the Master could no longer endure the pitiful wails; he +ordered his disciples to loose the child, and the Monkey to carry him. + +As they proceeded on their way the Demon caused a strong whirlwind to +spring up, and during this he carried off the Master. Sun discovered +that the Demon was an old friend of his, who, centuries before, had +pledged himself to eternal friendship. So he consoled his comrades +by saying that he felt sure no harm would come to the Master. + + +A Prospective Feast + +Soon Sun and his companions reached a mountain covered with +pine-forests. Here they found the Demon in his cave, intent upon +feasting on the Priest. The Demon refused to recognize his ancient +friendship with Sun, so the two came to blows. The Demon set fire to +everything, so that the Monkey might be blinded by the smoke. Thus +he was unable to find his Master. In despair he said: "I must get +the help of some one more skilful than myself." Pa-chieh was sent +to fetch Kuan Yin. The Demon then seized a magic bag, transformed +himself into the shape of Kuan Yin, and invited Pa-chieh to enter the +cave. The simpleton fell into the trap and was seized and placed in +the bag. Then the Demon appeared in his true form, and said: "I am +the beggar child, and mean to cook you for my dinner. A fine man to +protect his Master you are!" The Demon then summoned six of his most +doughty generals and ordered them to accompany him to fetch his father, +King Ox-head, to dine off the pilgrim. When they had gone Sun opened +the bag, released Pa-chieh, and both followed the six generals. + + +The Generals Tricked + +Sun thought that as the Demon had played a trick on Pa-chieh, he +would play one on his generals. So he hurried on in front of them, +and changed himself into the form of King Ox-head. The Demon and +his generals were invited into his presence, and Red Child said: +"If anyone eats of the pilgrim's flesh, his life will be prolonged +indefinitely. Now he is caught and I invite you to feast on him." Sun, +personifying the father, said: "No, I cannot come. I am fasting +to-day. Moreover, Sun has charge of the pilgrim, and if any harm befall +him it will be the worse for you, for he has seventy-two magic arts. He +can make himself so big that your cave cannot contain him, and he +can make himself as small as a fly, a mosquito, a bee, or a butterfly." + +Sun then went to Kuan Yin and appealed for help. She gave him a +bottle, but he found he could not move it. "No," said Kuan Yin, +"for all the forces of the ocean are stored in it." + +Kuan Yin lifted it with ease, and said: "This dew water is different +from dragon water, and can extinguish the fire of passion. I will +send a fairy with you on your boat. You need no sails. The fairy +needs only to blow a little, and the boat moves along without any +effort." Finally, the Red Child, having been overcome, repented and +begged to be received as a disciple. Kuan Yin received him and blessed +him, giving him the name of Steward. + + +The Demons of Blackwater River + +One day the Master suddenly exclaimed: "What is that noise?" Sun +replied: "You are afraid; you have forgotten the Heart Prayer, +according to which we are to be indifferent to all the calls of the +six senses--the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. These are the Six +Thieves. If you cannot suppress them, how do you expect to see the +Great Lord?" The Master thought a while and then said: "O disciple, +when shall we see the Incarnate Model (Ju Lai) face to face?" + +Pa-chieh said: "If we are to meet such demons as these, it will take +us a thousand years to get to the West." But Sha Ho-shang rejoined: +"Both you and I are stupid; if we persevere and travel on, shoulder +to shoulder, we shall reach there at last." While thus talking, +they saw before them a dark river in flood, which the horse could not +cross. Seeing a small boat, the Master said: "Let us engage that boat +to take us across." While crossing the river in it, they discovered +that it was a boat sent by the Demon of Blackwater River to entrap +them in midstream, and the Master would have been slain had not Sun +and the Western Dragon come to the rescue. + + +The Slow-carts Country + +Having crossed the Blackwater River, they journeyed westward, +facing wind and snow. Suddenly they heard a great shout as of +ten thousand voices. The Master was alarmed, but Sun laughingly +went to investigate. Sitting on a cloud, he rose in the air, and +saw a city, outside of which there were thousands of priests and +carts laden with bricks and all kinds of building materials. This +was the city where Taoists were respected, and Buddhists were not +wanted. The Monkey, who appeared among the people as a Taoist, was +informed that the country was called the Ch'e Ch'ih, 'Slow-carts +Country,' and for twenty years had been ruled by three Taoists who +could procure rain during times of drought. Their names were Tiger, +Deer, and Sheep. They could also command the wind, and change stones +into gold. The Monkey said to the two leading Taoists: "I wonder +if I shall be so fortunate as to see your Emperor?" They replied: +"We will see to that when we have attended to our business." The +Monkey inquired what business the priests could have. "In former +times," they said, "when our King ordered the Buddhists to pray for +rain, their prayers were not answered. Then the Taoists prayed, and +copious showers fell. Since then all the Buddhist priests have been +our slaves, and have to carry the building materials, as you see. We +must assign them their work, and then will come to you." Sun replied: +"Never mind; I am in search of an uncle of mine, from whom I have not +heard for many years. Perhaps he is here among your slaves." They said: +"You may see if you can find him." + + +Restraints on Freedom + +Sun went to look for his uncle. Hearing this, many Buddhist priests +surrounded him, hoping to be recognized as his lost relative. After +a while he smiled. They asked him the reason. He said: "Why do you +make no progress? Life is not meant for idleness." They said: "We +cannot do anything. We are terribly oppressed." "What power have your +masters?" "By using their magic they can call up wind or rain." "That +is a small matter," said Sun. "What else can they do?" "They can make +the pills of immortality, and change stone into gold." + +Sun said: "These are also small matters; many can do the same. How did +these Taoists deceive your King?" "The King attends their prayers night +and day, expecting thereby to attain to immortality." "Why do you not +leave the place?" "It is impossible, for the King has ordered pictures +of us to be hung up everywhere. In all the numerous prefectures, +magistracies, and market-places in Slow-carts Country are pictures of +the Buddhist priests, and any official who catches a runaway priest +is promoted three degrees, while every non-official receives fifty +taels. The proclamation is signed by the King. So you see we are +helpless." Sun then said: "You might as well die and end it all." + + +Immortal for Suffering + +They replied: "A great number have died. At one time we numbered +more than two thousand. But through deaths and suicides there now +remain only about five hundred. And we who remain cannot die. Ropes +cannot strangle us, swords cannot cut us; if we plunge into the +river we cannot sink; poison does not kill us." Sun said: "Then +you are fortunate, for you are all Immortals." "Alas!" said they, +"we are immortal only for suffering. We get poor food. We have only +sand to sleep on. But in the night hours spirits appear to us and +tell us not to kill ourselves, for an Arhat will come from the East +to deliver us. With him there is a disciple, the Great Holy One, +the Equal of Heaven, most powerful and tender-hearted. He will put +an end to these Taoists and have pity on us Buddhists." + + +The Saviour of the Buddhists + +Inwardly Sun was glad that his fame had gone abroad. Returning to the +city, he met the two chief Taoists. They asked him if he had found +his relative. "Yes," he replied, "they are all my relatives!" They +smiled and said: "How is it that you have so many relatives?" Sun +said: "One hundred are my father's relatives, one hundred my mother's +relatives, and the remainder my adopted relatives. If you will let +all these priests depart with me, then I will enter the city with you; +otherwise I will not enter." "You must be mad to speak to us in this +way. The priests were given us by the King. If you had asked for a +few only, we might have consented, but your request is altogether +unreasonable." Sun then asked them three times if they would liberate +the priests. When they finally refused, he grew very angry, took his +magic spear from his ear and brandished it in the air, when all their +heads fell off and rolled on the ground. + + +Anger of the Buddhist Priests + +The Buddhist priests saw from a distance what had taken place, +and shouted: "Murder, murder! The Taoist superintendents are being +killed." They surrounded Sun, saying: "These priests are our masters; +they go to the temple without visiting the King, and return home +without taking leave of the King. The King is the high priest. Why +have you killed his disciples? The Taoist chief priest will certainly +accuse us Buddhist priests of the murders. What are we to do? If we go +into the city with you they will make you pay for this with your life." + +Sun laughed. "My friends," he said, "do not trouble yourselves over +this matter. I am not the Master of the Clouds, but the Great Holy +One, a disciple of the Holy Master from China, going to the Western +Paradise to fetch the sacred books, and have come to save you." + +"No, no," said they, "this cannot be, for we know him." Sun replied: +"Having never met him, how can you know him?" They replied: "We have +seen him in our dreams. The spirit of the planet Venus has described +him to us and warned us not to make a mistake." "What description did +he give?" asked Sun. They replied: "He has a hard head, bright eyes, +a round, hairy face without cheeks, sharp teeth, prominent mouth, +a hot temper, and is uglier than the Thunder-god. He has a rod of +iron, caused a disturbance in Heaven itself, but later repented, +and is coming with the Buddhist pilgrim in order to save mankind from +calamities and misery." With mixed feelings Sun replied: "My friends, +no doubt you are right in saying I am not Sun. I am only his disciple, +who has come to learn how to carry out his plans. But," he added, +pointing with his hand, "is not that Sun coming yonder?" They all +looked in the direction in which he had pointed. + + +Sun bestows Talismans + +Sun quickly changed himself from a Taoist priest, and appeared in +his natural form. At this they all fell down and worshipped him, +asking his forgiveness because their mortal eyes could not recognize +him. They then begged him to enter the city and compel the demons to +repent. Sun told them to follow him. He then went with them to a sandy +place, emptied two carts and smashed them into splinters, and threw +all the bricks, tiles, and timber into a heap, calling upon all the +priests to disperse. "Tomorrow," he said, "I am going to see the King, +and will destroy the Taoists!" Then they said: "Sir, we dare not go +any farther, lest they attempt to seize you and cause trouble." "Have +no fear," he replied; "but if you think so I will give you a charm to +protect you." He pulled out some hairs, and gave one to each to hold +firmly on the third finger. "If anyone tries to seize you," he said, +"keep tight hold of it, call out 'Great Holy One, the Equal of Heaven,' +and I will at once come to your rescue, even though I be ten thousand +miles away." Some of them tried the charm, and, sure enough, there +he was before them like the God of Thunder. In his hand he held a +rod of iron, and he could keep ten thousand men and horses at bay. + + +The Magic Circle + +It was now winter. The pilgrims were crossing a high mountain by +a narrow pass, and the Master was afraid of wild beasts. The three +disciples bade him fear not, as they were united, and were all good +men seeking truth. Being cold and hungry they rejoiced to see a fine +building ahead of them, but Sun said: "It is another devil's trap. I +will make a ring round you. Inside that you will be safe. Do not wander +outside it. I will go and look for food." Sun returned with his bowl +full of rice, but found that his companions had got tired of waiting, +and had disappeared. They had gone forward to the fine building, which +Pa-chieh entered. Not a soul was to be seen, but on going upstairs +he was terrified to see a human skeleton of immense size lying on +the floor. At this moment the Demon of the house descended on them, +bound the Master, and said: "We have been told that if we eat of your +flesh our white hair will become black again, and our lost teeth grow +anew." So he ordered the small devils who accompanied him to bind the +others. This they did, and thrust the pilgrims into a cave, and then +lay in wait for Sun. It was not long before the Monkey came up, when +a great fight ensued. In the end, having failed, notwithstanding the +exercise of numerous magic arts, to release his companions, Sun betook +himself to the Spiritual Mountain and besought Ju Lai's aid. Eighteen +_lohan_ were sent to help him against the Demon. When Sun renewed the +attack, the _lohan_ threw diamond dust into the air, which blinded the +Demon and also half buried him. But, by skilful use of his magic coil, +he gathered up all the diamond dust and carried it back to his cave. + +The _lohan_ then advised Sun to seek the aid of the Ancient of +Days. Accordingly, Sun ascended to the thirty-third Heaven, where +was the palace of the god. He there discovered that the Demon was +none other than one of the god's ox-spirits who had stolen the magic +coil. It was, in fact, the same coil with which Sun himself had at +last been subdued when he had rebelled against Heaven. + + +Help from Ju Lai + +The Ancient of Days mounted a cloud and went with Sun to the cave. When +the Demon saw who had come he was terrified. The Ancient of Days then +recited an incantation, and the Demon surrendered the magic coil +to him. On the recitation of a second incantation all his strength +left him, and he appeared as a bull, and was led away by a ring in +his nose. The Master and his disciples were then set at liberty, +and proceeded on their journey. + + +The Fire-quenching Fan + +In the autumn the pilgrims found themselves in the Ssu Ha Li Country, +where everything was red--red walls, red tiles, red varnish on doors +and furniture. Sixty _li_ from this place was the Flaming Mountain, +which lay on their road westward. + +An old man they met told them that it was possible to cross the +Flaming Mountain only if they had the Magic Iron Fan, which, waved +once, quenched fire, waved a second time produced strong wind, and +waved a third time produced rain. This magic fan was kept by the +Iron-fan Princess in a cave on Ts'ui-yuen Shan, 1500 _li_ distant. On +hearing this, Sun mounted a cloud, and in an instant was transported +to the cave. The Iron-fan Princess was one of the _lochas_ (wives +and daughters of demons), and the mother of the Red Child Demon, who +had become a disciple of Kuan Yin. On seeing Sun she was very angry, +and determined to be revenged for the outwitting of her husband, +King Ox-head, and for the carrying away of her son. The Monkey said: +"If you lend me the Iron Fan I will bring your son to see you." For +answer she struck him with a sword. They then fell to fighting, the +contest lasting a long while, until at length, feeling her strength +failing, the Princess took out the Iron Fan and waved it. The wind +it raised blew Sun to a distance of 84,000 _li_, and whirled him +about like a leaf in a whirlwind. But he soon returned, reinforced +by further magic power lent him by the Buddhist saints. The Princess, +however, deceived him by giving him a fan which increased the flames +of the mountain instead of quenching them. Sun and his friends had +to retreat more than 20 _li_, or they would have been burned. + +The local mountain-gods now appeared, bringing refreshments, and urging +the pilgrims to get the Fan so as to enable them to proceed on their +journey. Sun pointed to his fan and said: "Is not this the Fan?" They +smiled and said: "No, this is a false one which the Princess has +given you." They added: "Originally there was no Flaming Mountain, but +when you upset the furnace in Heaven five hundred years ago the fire +fell here, and has been burning ever since. For not having taken more +care in Heaven, we have been set to guard it. The Demon-king Ox-head, +though he married the _locha_ Princess, deserted her some two years +ago for the only daughter of a fox-king. They live at Chi-lei Shan, +some three thousand _li_ from here. If you can get the true Iron +Fan through his help you will be able to extinguish the flames, take +your Master to the West, save the lives of many people round here, +and enable us to return to Heaven once more." + +Sun at once mounted a cloud and was soon at Chi-lei Shan. There +he met the Fox-princess, whom he upbraided and pursued back to +her cave. The Ox-demon came out and became very angry with Sun +for having frightened her. Sun asked him to return with him to the +_locha_ Princess and persuade her to give him the Magic Fan, This he +refused to do. They then fought three battles, in all of which Sun +was successful. He changed into the Ox-demon's shape and visited the +_locha_ Princess. She, thinking he was the Ox-demon, gladly received +him, and finally gave him the Magic Fan; he then set out to return +to his Master. + + +The Power of the Magic Fan + +The Ox-demon, following after Sun, saw him walking along, joyfully +carrying the Magic Fan on his shoulder. Now Sun had forgotten to ask +how to make it small, like an apricot leaf, as it was at first. The +Ox-demon changed himself into the form of Pa-chieh, and going up to +Sun he said: "Brother Sun, I am glad to see you back; I hope you have +succeeded." "Yes," replied Sun, and described his fights, and how he +had tricked the Ox-demon's wife into giving him the Fan. The seeming +Pa-chieh said: "You must be very tired after all your efforts; let +me carry the Magic Fan for you." As soon as he had got possession of +it he appeared in his true form, and tried to use it to blow Sun away +84,000 _li_, for he did not know that the Great Holy One had swallowed +a wind-resisting pill, and was therefore immovable. He then put the +Magic Fan in his mouth and fought with his two swords. He was a match +for Sun in all the magic arts, but through the aid of Pa-chieh and +the help of the local gods sent by the Master the Monkey was able +to prevail against him. The Ox-demon changed himself many times into +a number of birds, but for each of these Sun changed himself into a +swifter and stronger one. The Ox-demon then changed himself into many +beasts, such as tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, and an ox 10,000 +feet long. He then said to Sun, with a laugh: "What can you do to me +now?" Sun seized his rod of iron, and cried: "Grow!" He immediately +became 100,000 feet high, with eyes like the sun and moon. They fought +till the heavens and the earth shook with their onslaughts. + + + +Defeat of the Ox-demon + +The Ox-demon being of so fierce and terrible a nature, both Buddha +in Heaven and the Taoist Celestial Ruler sent down whole legions of +celebrated warriors to help the Master's servant. The Ox-demon tried +to escape in every direction, one after the other, but his efforts +were in vain. Finally defeated, he was made to promise for himself and +his wife to give up their evil ways and to follow the holy precepts +of the Buddhist doctrine. + +The Magic Fan was given to Sun, who at once proceeded to test its +powers. When he waved it once the fires on Flaming Mountain died +out. When he waved it a second time a gentle breeze sprang up. When +he waved it a third time refreshing rain fell everywhere, and the +pilgrims proceeded on their way in comfort. + + +The Lovely Women + +Having travelled over many mountains, the travellers came to a +village. The Master said: "You, my disciples, are always very kind, +taking round the begging-bowl and getting food for me. To-day I will +take the begging-bowl myself." But Sun said: "That is not right; you +must let us, your disciples, do this for you." But the Master insisted. + +When he reached the village, there was not a man to be seen, but only +some lovely women. He did not think that it was right for him to speak +to women. On the other hand, if he did not procure anything for their +meal, his disciples would make fun of him. So, after long hesitation, +he went forward and begged food of them. They invited him to their cave +home, and, having learnt who he was, ordered food for him, but it was +all human flesh. The Master informed them that he was a vegetarian, +and rose to take his departure, but instead of letting him go they +surrounded and bound him, thinking that he would be a fine meal for +them next day. + + +An Awkward Predicament + +Then seven of the women went out to bathe in a pool. There Sun, in +search of his Master, found them and would have killed them, only he +thought it was not right to kill women. So he changed himself into an +eagle and carried away their clothes to his nest. This so frightened +the women that they crouched in the pool and did not dare to come out. + +But Pa-chieh, also in search of his Master, found the women bathing. He +changed himself into a fish, which the women tried to catch, chasing +him hither and thither round the pool. After a while Pa-chieh leapt +out of the pool and, appearing in his true form, threatened the +women for having bound his Master. In their fright the women fled to +a pavilion, round which they spun spiders' threads so thickly that +Pa-chieh became entangled and fell. They then escaped to their cave +and put on some clothes. + + +How the Master was Rescued + +When Pa-chieh at length had disentangled himself from the webs, he saw +Sun and Sha Ho-shang approaching. Having learnt what had happened, +they feared the women might do some injury to the Master, so they +ran to the cave to rescue him. On the way they were beset by the +seven dwarf sons of the seven women, who transformed themselves into +a swarm of dragon-flies, bees, and other insects. But Sun pulled out +some hairs and, changing them into seven different swarms of flying +insects, destroyed the hostile swarm, and the ground was covered a +foot deep with the dead bodies. On reaching the cave, the pilgrims +found it had been deserted by the women. They released the Master, +and made him promise never to beg for food again. Having given the +promise, he mounted his horse, and they proceeded on their journey. + + +The Spiders and the Extinguisher + +When they had gone a short distance they perceived a great building of +fine architecture ahead of them. It proved to be a Taoist temple. Sha +Ho-shang said: "Let us enter, for Buddhism and Taoism teach the +same things. They differ only in their vestments." The Taoist abbot +received them with civility and ordered five cups of tea. Now he was +in league with the seven women, and when the servant had made the tea +they put poison in each cup. Sun, however, suspected a conspiracy, +and did not drink his tea. Seeing that the rest had been poisoned, he +went and attacked the sisters, who transformed themselves into huge +spiders. They were able to spin ropes instead of webs with which to +bind their enemies. But Sun attacked and killed them all. + +The Taoist abbot then showed himself in his true form, a demon with +a thousand eyes. He joined battle with Sun, and a terrible contest +ensued, the result being that the Demon succeeded in putting an +extinguisher on his enemy. This was a new trick which Sun did not +understand. However, after trying in vain to break out through the +top and sides, he began to bore downward, and, finding that the +extinguisher was not deep in the ground, he succeeded in effecting +his escape from below. But he feared that his Master and the others +would die of the poison. At this juncture, while he was suffering +mental tortures on their behalf, a Bodhisattva, Lady Pi Lan, came +to his rescue. By the aid of her magic he broke the extinguisher, +gave his Master and fellow-disciples pills to counteract the poison, +and so rescued them. + + +Shaving a Whole City + +The summer had now arrived. On the road the pilgrims met an old +lady and a little boy. The old lady said: "You are priests; do not +go forward, for you are about to pass into the country known as the +Country that exterminates Religion. The inhabitants have vowed to +kill ten thousand priests. They have already slain that number all +but four noted ones whose arrival they expect; then their number will +be complete." + +This old lady was Kuan Yin, with Shen Tsai (Steward), who had come to +give them warning. Sun thereupon changed himself into a candle-moth +and flew into the city to examine for himself. He entered an inn, +and heard the innkeeper warning his guests to look after their own +clothes and belongings when they went to sleep. In order to travel +safely through the city, Sun decided that they should all put on +turbans and clothing resembling that of the citizens. Perceiving +from the innkeeper's warning that thieving was common, Sun stole some +clothing and turbans for his Master and comrades. Then they all came +to the inn at dusk, Sun representing himself as a horse-dealer. + +Fearing that in their sleep their turbans would fall off, and their +shaven heads be revealed, Sun arranged that they should sleep in a +cupboard, which he asked the landlady to lock. + +During the night robbers came and carried the cupboard away, thinking +to find in it silver to buy horses. A watchman saw many men carrying +this cupboard, and became suspicious, and called out the soldiers. The +robbers ran away, leaving the cupboard in the open. The Master was very +angry with Sun for getting him into this danger. He feared that at +daylight they would be discovered and all be executed. But Sun said: +"Do not be alarmed; I will save you yet!" He changed himself into an +ant, and escaped from the cupboard. Then he plucked out some hairs +and changed them into a thousand monkeys like himself. To each he +gave a razor and a charm for inducing sleep. When the King and all +the officials and their wives had succumbed to this charm, the monkeys +were to shave their heads. + +On the morrow there was a terrible commotion throughout the city, +as all the leaders and their families found themselves shaved like +Buddhists. + +Thus the Master was saved again. + + +The Return to China + +The pilgrims having overcome the predicted eighty difficulties of +their outward journey, there remained only one to be overcome on the +homeward way. + +They were now returning upon a cloud which had been placed at their +disposal, and which had been charged to bear them safely home. But +alas! the cloud broke and precipitated them to the earth by the side +of a wide river which they must cross. There were no ferry-boats or +rafts to be seen, so they were glad to avail themselves of the kind +offices of a turtle, who offered to take them across on his back. But +in midstream the turtle reminded Hsuean Chuang of a promise he had made +him when on his outward journey, namely, that he would intercede for +him before the Ruler of the West, and ask his Majesty to forgive all +past offences and allow him to resume his humanity again. The turtle +asked him if he had remembered to keep his word. Hsuean Chuang replied: +"I remember our conversation, but I am sorry to say that under great +pressure I quite forgot to keep my promise." "Then," said the turtle, +"you are at liberty to dispense with my services." He then disappeared +beneath the water, leaving the pilgrims floundering in the stream with +their precious books. They swam the river, and with great difficulty +managed to save a number of volumes, which they dried in the sun. + + +The Travellers Honoured + +The pilgrims reached the capital of their country without further +difficulty. As soon as they appeared in sight the whole population +became greatly excited, and cutting down branches of willow-trees +went out to meet them. As a mark of special distinction the Emperor +sent his own horse for Hsuean Chuang to ride on, and the pilgrims were +escorted with royal honours into the city, where the Emperor and his +grateful Court were waiting to receive them. Hsuean Chuang's queer +trio of converts at first caused great amusement among the crowds +who thronged to see them, but when they learned of Sun's superhuman +achievements, and his brave defence of the Master, their amusement +was changed into wondering admiration. + +But the greatest honours were conferred upon the travellers at +a meeting of the Immortals presided over by Mi-lo Fo, the Coming +Buddha. Addressing Hsuean Chuang, the Buddha said, "In a previous +existence you were one of my chief disciples. But for disobedience +and for lightly esteeming the great teaching your soul was imprisoned +in the Eastern Land. Now a memorial has been presented to me stating +that you have obtained the True Classics of Salvation, thus, by your +faithfulness, completing your meritorious labours. You are appointed +to the high office of Controller of Sacrifices to his Supreme Majesty +the Pearly Emperor." + +Turning to Sun, the Buddha said, "You, Sun, for creating a disturbance +in the palace of Heaven, were imprisoned beneath the Mountain of +the Five Elements, until the fullness of Heaven's calamities had +descended upon you, and you had repented and had joined the holy +religion of Buddha. From that time you have endeavoured to suppress +evil and cherish virtue. And on your journey to the West you have +subjugated evil spirits, ghosts, and demons. For your services you +are appointed God of Victorious Strife." + +For his repentance, and for his assistance to his Master, Chu Pa-chieh, +the Pig Fairy, was appointed Head Altar-washer to the Gods. This +was the highest office for which he was eligible, on account of his +inherent greed. + +Sha Ho-shang was elevated to the rank of Golden Body Perpetual Saint. + +Pai Ma, the white horse who had patiently carried Hsuean Chuang and +his burden of books, was led by a god down the Spirit Mountain to +the banks of the Pool of Dragon-transformation. Pai Ma plunged in, +when he changed at once into a four-footed dragon, with horns, scales, +claws, and wings complete. From this time he became the chief of the +celestial dragon tribe. + +Sun's first thought upon receiving his promotion was to get rid of the +Head-splitting Helmet. Accordingly he said to his Master, "Now that +I am, like yourself, a Buddha, I want you to relieve my head of the +helmet you imposed upon me during the years of my waywardness." Hsuean +Chuang replied, "If you have really become a Buddha, your helmet +should have disappeared of itself. Are you sure it is still upon your +head?" Sun raised his hand, and lo! the helmet was gone. + +After this the great assembly broke up, and each of the Immortals +returned in peace to his own celestial abode. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Fox Legends + + +The Fox + +Among the many animals worshipped by the Chinese, those at times +seen emerging from coffins or graves naturally hold a prominent +place. They are supposed to be the transmigrated souls of deceased +human beings. We should therefore expect such animals as the fox, +stoat, weasel, etc., to be closely associated with the worship of +ghosts, spirits, and suchlike creatures, and that they should be the +subjects of, or included in, a large number of Chinese legends. This +we find. Of these animals the fox is mentioned in Chinese legendary +lore perhaps more often than any other. + +The subject of fox-lore has been dealt with exhaustively by +my respected colleague, the late Mr Thomas Watters (formerly +H.B.M. Consul-General at Canton, a man of vast learning and extreme +modesty, insufficiently appreciated in his generation), in the _Journal +of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, viii, 45-65, +to which the reader is referred for details. Generally, the fox is +a creature of ill omen, long-lived (living to eight hundred or even +a thousand years), with a peculiar virtue in every part of his body, +able to produce fire by striking the ground with his tail, cunning, +cautious, sceptical, able to see into the future, to transform himself +(usually into old men, or scholars, or pretty young maidens), and +fond of playing pranks and tormenting mankind. + + +Fox Legends + +Many interesting fox legends are to be found in a collection of stories +entitled _Liao chai chih i_, by P'u Sung-ling (seventeenth century +A.D.), part of which was translated into English many years ago by +Professor H.A. Giles and appeared in two fascinating volumes called +_Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_. These legends were related +to the Chinese writer by various people as their own experiences. + + +Friendship with Foxes + +A certain man had an enormous stack of straw, as big as a hill, in +which his servants, taking what was daily required for use, had made +quite a large hole. In this hole a fox fixed his abode, and would +often show himself to the master of the house under the form of an +old man. One day the latter invited the master to walk into his abode; +he at first declined, but accepted on being pressed; and when he got +inside, lo! he saw a long suite of handsome apartments. They then +sat down, and exquisitely perfumed tea and wine were brought; but +the place was so gloomy that there was no difference between night +and day. By and by, the entertainment being over, the guest took his +leave; and on looking back the beautiful rooms and their contents had +all disappeared. The old man himself was in the habit of going away in +the evening and returning with the first streaks of morning; and as +no one was able to follow him, the master of the house asked him one +day whither he went. To this he replied that a friend invited him to +take wine; and then the master begged to be allowed to accompany him, +a proposal to which the old man very reluctantly consented. However, +he seized the master by the arm, and away they went as though riding +on the wings of the wind; and in about the time it takes to cook +a pot of millet they reached a city and walked into a restaurant, +where there were a number of people drinking together and making a +great noise. The old man led his companion to a gallery above, from +which they could look down on the feasters below; and he himself went +down and brought away from the tables all kinds of nice food and wine, +without appearing to be seen or noticed by any of the company. After +a while a man dressed in red garments came forward and laid upon +the table some dishes of cumquats; [36] the master at once requested +the old man to go down and get him some of these. "Ah," replied the +latter, "that is an upright man: I cannot approach him." Thereupon +the master said to himself, "By thus seeking the companionship of a +fox, I then am deflected from the true course. Henceforth I too will +be an upright man." No sooner had he formed this resolution than he +suddenly lost all control over his body, and fell from the gallery +down among the revellers below. These gentlemen were much astonished +by his unexpected descent; and he himself, looking up, saw there was +no gallery to the house, but only a large beam upon which he had +been sitting. He now detailed the whole of the circumstances, and +those present made up a purse for him to pay his travelling expenses; +for he was at Yue-t'ai--a thousand _li_ from home. + + +The Marriage Lottery + +A certain labourer, named Ma T'ien-jung, lost his wife when he was +only about twenty years of age, and was too poor to take another. One +day, when out hoeing in the fields, he beheld a nice-looking young +lady leave the path and come tripping across the furrows toward +him. Her face was well painted, [37] and she had altogether such a +refined look that Ma concluded she must have lost her way, and began +to make some playful remarks in consequence. "You go along home," +cried the young lady, "and I'll be with you by and by." Ma doubted +this rather extraordinary promise, but she vowed and declared she +would not break her word; and then Ma went off, telling her that his +front door faced the north, etc. At midnight the young lady arrived, +and then Ma saw that her hands and face were covered with fine hair, +which made him suspect at once that she was a fox. She did not deny the +accusation; and accordingly Ma said to her, "If you really are one of +those wonderful creatures you will be able to get me anything I want; +and I should be much obliged if you would begin by giving me some +money to relieve my poverty." The young lady said she would; and next +evening, when she came again, Ma asked her where the money was. "Dear +me!" replied she, "I quite forgot it." When she was going away Ma +reminded her of what he wanted, but on the following evening she made +precisely the same excuse, promising to bring it another day. A few +nights afterward Ma asked her once more for the money, and then she +drew from her sleeve two pieces of silver, each weighing about five +or six ounces. They were both of fine quality, with turned-up edges, +[38] and Ma was very pleased, and stored them away in a cupboard. Some +months after this he happened to require some money for use, and took +out these pieces; but the person to whom he showed them said they +were only pewter, and easily bit off a portion of one of them with +his teeth. Ma was much alarmed, and put the pieces away directly, +taking the opportunity when evening came of abusing the young lady +roundly. "It's all your bad luck," retorted she. "Real gold would be +too much for your inferior destiny." There was an end of that; but Ma +went on to say, "I always heard that fox-girls were of surpassing +beauty; how is it you are not?" "Oh," replied the young lady, +"we always adapt ourselves to our company. Now you haven't the luck +of an ounce of silver to call your own; and what would you do, for +instance, with a beautiful princess? My beauty may not be good enough +for the aristocracy; but among your big-footed, bent-backed rustics, +[39] why, it may safely be called 'surpassing'!" + +A few months passed away, and then one day the young lady came and +gave Ma three ounces of silver, saying, "You have often asked me for +money, but in consequence of your bad luck I have always refrained +from giving you any. Now, however, your marriage is at hand, and +I here give you the cost of a wife, which you may also regard as a +parting gift from me." Ma replied that he was not engaged, to which the +young lady answered that in a few days a go-between would visit him +to arrange the affair. "And what will she be like?" asked Ma. "Why, +as your aspirations are for 'surpassing' beauty," replied the young +lady, "of course she will be possessed of surpassing beauty." "I hardly +expect that," said Ma; "at any rate, three ounces of silver will not be +enough to get a wife." "Marriages," explained the young lady, "are made +in the moon; [40] mortals have nothing to do with them." "And why must +you be going away like this?" inquired Ma. "Because," answered she, +"for us to meet only by night is not the proper thing. I had better +get you another wife and have done with you." Then when morning came +she departed, giving Ma a pinch of yellow powder, saying, "In case +you are ill after we are separated, this will cure you." Next day, +sure enough, a go-between did come, and Ma at once asked what the +proposed bride was like; to which the former replied that she was +very passable-looking. Four or five ounces of silver was fixed as the +marriage present, Ma making no difficulty on that score, but declaring +he must have a peep at the young lady. [41] The go-between said she +was a respectable girl, and would never allow herself to be seen; +however, it was arranged that they should go to the house together, +and await a good opportunity. So off they went, Ma remaining outside +while the go-between went in, returning in a little while to tell +him it was all right. "A relative of mine lives in the same court, +and just now I saw the young lady sitting in the hall. We have only +got to pretend we are going to see my relative, and you will be able +to get a glimpse of her." Ma consented, and they accordingly passed +through the hall, where he saw the young lady sitting down with her +head bent forward while some one was scratching her back. She seemed +to be all that the go-between had said; but when they came to discuss +the money it appeared that the young lady wanted only one or two ounces +of silver, just to buy herself a few clothes, etc., which Ma thought +was a very small amount; so he gave the go-between a present for her +trouble, which just finished up the three ounces his fox-friend had +provided. An auspicious day was chosen, and the young lady came over +to his house; when lo! she was humpbacked and pigeon-breasted, with +a short neck like a tortoise, and feet which were fully ten inches +long. The meaning of his fox-friend's remarks then flashed upon him. + + +The Magnanimous Girl + +At Chin-ling there lived a young man named Ku, who had considerable +ability, but was very poor; and having an old mother, he was very +loth to leave home. So he employed himself in writing or painting +[42] for people, and gave his mother the proceeds, going on thus +till he was twenty-five years of age without taking a wife. Opposite +to their house was another building, which had long been untenanted; +and one day an old woman and a young girl came to occupy it, but there +being no gentleman with them young Ku did not make any inquiries as +to who they were or whence they hailed. Shortly afterward it chanced +that just as Ku was entering the house he observed a young lady +come out of his mother's door. She was about eighteen or nineteen, +very clever and refined-looking, and altogether such a girl as one +rarely sets eyes on; and when she noticed Mr Ku she did not run away, +but seemed quite self-possessed. "It was the young lady over the way; +she came to borrow my scissors and measure," said his mother, "and +she told me that there is only her mother and herself. They don't +seem to belong to the lower classes. I asked her why she didn't get +married, to which she replied that her mother was old. I must go and +call on her to-morrow, and find out how the land lies. If she doesn't +expect too much, you could take care of her mother for her." So next +day Ku's mother went, and found that the girl's mother was deaf, and +that they were evidently poor, apparently not having a day's food in +the house. Ku's mother asked what their employment was, and the old +lady said they trusted for food to her daughter's ten fingers. She +then threw out some hints about uniting the two families, to which +the old lady seemed to agree; but, on consultation with her daughter, +the latter would not consent. Mrs Ku returned home and told her son, +saying, "Perhaps she thinks we are too poor. She doesn't speak or +laugh, is very nice-looking, and as pure as snow; truly no ordinary +girl." There ended that; until one day, as Ku was sitting in his +study, up came a very agreeable young fellow, who said he was from a +neighbouring village, and engaged Ku to draw a picture for him. The +two youths soon struck up a firm friendship and met constantly, +and later it happened that the stranger chanced to see the young +lady of over the way. "Who is that?" said he, following her with +his eyes. Ku told him, and then he said, "She is certainly pretty, +but rather stern in her appearance." By and by Ku went in, and his +mother told him the girl had come to beg a little rice, as they had +had nothing to eat all day. "She's a good daughter," said his mother, +"and I'm very sorry for her. We must try and help them a little." Ku +thereupon shouldered a peck of rice, and, knocking at their door, +presented it with his mother's compliments. The young lady received +the rice, but said nothing; and then she got into the habit of coming +over and helping Ku's mother with her work and household affairs, +almost as if she had been her daughter-in-law, for which Ku was very +grateful to her, and whenever he had anything nice he always sent some +of it in to her mother, though the young lady herself never once took +the trouble to thank him. So things went on until Ku's mother got an +abscess on her leg, and lay writhing in agony day and night. Then the +young lady devoted herself to the invalid, waiting on her and giving +her medicine with such care and attention that at last the sick woman +cried out, "O that I could secure such a daughter-in-law as you to see +this old body into its grave!" The young lady soothed her, and replied, +"Your son is a hundred times more filial than I, a poor widow's only +daughter." "But even a filial son makes a bad nurse," answered the +patient; "besides, I am now drawing toward the evening of my life, +when my body will be exposed to the mists and the dews, and I am +vexed in spirit about our ancestral worship and the continuance of our +line." As she was speaking Ku walked in; and his mother, weeping, said, +"I am deeply indebted to this young lady; do not forget to repay her +goodness." Ku made a low bow, but the young lady said, "Sir, when you +were kind to my mother, I did not thank you; why then thank me?" Ku +thereupon became more than ever attached to her; but could never get +her to depart in the slightest degree from her cold demeanour toward +himself. One day, however, he managed to squeeze her hand, upon which +she told him never to do so again; and then for some time he neither +saw nor heard anything of her. She had conceived a violent dislike +to the young stranger above mentioned; and one evening, when he was +sitting talking with Ku, the young lady appeared. After a while she +got angry at something he said, and drew from her robe a glittering +knife about a foot long. The young man, seeing her do this, ran out +in a fright and she after him, only to find that he had vanished. She +then threw her dagger up into the air, and _whish!_ a streak of light +like a rainbow, and something came tumbling down with a flop. Ku got +a light, and ran to see what it was; and lo! there lay a white fox, +head in one place and body in another. "There is your _friend_," +cried the girl; "I knew he would cause me to destroy him sooner or +later." Ku dragged it into the house, and said, "Let us wait till +to-morrow to talk it over; we shall then be more calm." Next day the +young lady arrived, and Ku inquired about her knowledge of the black +art; but she told Ku not to trouble himself about such affairs, and +to keep it secret or it might be prejudicial to his happiness. Ku +then entreated her to consent to their union, to which she replied +that she had already been as it were a daughter-in-law to his mother, +and there was no need to push the thing further. "Is it because I am +poor?" asked Ku. "Well, I am not rich," answered she, "but the fact +is I had rather not." She then took her leave, and the next evening +when Ku went across to their house to try once more to persuade her +the young lady had disappeared, and was never seen again. + + +The Boon-companion + +Once upon a time there was a young man named Ch'e, who was not +particularly well off, but at the same time very fond of his wine; +so much so that without his three stoups of liquor every night he was +quite unable to sleep, and bottles were seldom absent from the head +of his bed. One night he had woken up and was turning over and over, +when he fancied some one was in the bed with him; but then, thinking +it was only the clothes which had slipped off, he put out his hand +to feel, and in doing so touched something silky like a cat. Striking +a light, he found it was a fox, lying in a drunken sleep like a dog; +and then looking at his wine bottle he saw that it had been emptied. "A +boon-companion," said he, laughing, as he avoided startling the animal, +and, covering it up, lay down to sleep with his arm across it, and the +candle alight so as to see what transformation it might undergo. About +midnight the fox stretched itself, and Ch'e cried, "Well, to be sure, +you've had a nice sleep!" He then drew off the clothes, and beheld an +elegant young man in a scholar's dress; but the young man jumped up, +and, making a low obeisance, returned his host many thanks for not +cutting off his head. "Oh," replied Ch'e, "I am not averse to liquor +myself; in fact they say I'm too much given to it. If you have no +objection, we'll be a pair of bottle-and-glass chums." So they lay +down and went to sleep again, Ch'e urging the young man to visit him +often, and saying that they must have faith in each other. The fox +agreed to this, but when Ch'e awoke in the morning his bedfellow had +already disappeared. So he prepared a goblet of first-rate wine in +expectation of his friend's arrival, and at nightfall sure enough he +came. They then sat together drinking, and the fox cracked so many +jokes that Ch'e said he regretted he had not known him before. "And +truly I don't know how to repay your kindness," replied the former, +"in preparing all this nice wine for me." "Oh," said Ch'e, "what's +a pint or so of wine?--nothing worth speaking of." "Well," rejoined +the fox, "you are only a poor scholar, and money isn't so easily to be +got. I must see if I can't secure a little wine capital for you." Next +evening, when he arrived, he said to Ch'e, "Two miles down toward +the south-east you will find some silver lying by the wayside. Go +early in the morning and get it." So on the morrow Ch'e set off, +and actually obtained two lumps of silver, with which he bought some +choice morsels to help them out with their wine that evening. The fox +now told him that there was a vault in his backyard which he ought to +open; and when he did so he found therein more than a hundred strings +of cash. [43] "Now then," cried Ch'e, delighted, "I shall have no more +anxiety about funds for buying wine with all this in my purse!" "Ah," +replied the fox, "the water in a puddle is not inexhaustible. I must +do something further for you." Some days afterward the fox said to +Ch'e, "Buckwheat is very cheap in the market just now. Something is +to be done in that line." Accordingly Ch'e bought over forty tons, +and thereby incurred general ridicule; but by and by there was a bad +drought, and all kinds of grain and beans were spoilt. Only buckwheat +would grow, and Ch'e sold off his stock at a profit of 1000 per +cent. His wealth thus began to increase; he bought two hundred acres +of rich land, and always planted his crops, corn, millet, or what not, +upon the advice of the fox secretly given him beforehand. The fox +looked on Ch'e's wife as a sister, and on Ch'e's children as his own; +but when subsequently Ch'e died it never came to the house again. + + +The Alchemist [44] + +At Ch'ang-an there lived a scholar named Chia Tzu-lung, who one day +noticed a very refined-looking stranger; and, on making inquiries +about him, learned that he was a Mr Chen who had taken lodgings +hard by. Accordingly, Chia called next day and sent in his card, +but did not see Chen, who happened to be out at the time. The same +thing occurred thrice; and at length Chia engaged some one to watch +and let him know when Mr Chen was at home. However, even then the +latter would not come forth to receive his guest, and Chia had to +go in and rout him out. The two now entered into conversation, and +soon became mutually charmed with each other; and by and by Chia sent +off a servant to bring wine from a neighbouring wine-shop. Mr Chen +proved himself a pleasant boon-companion, and when the wine was nearly +finished he went to a box and took from it some wine-cups and a large +and beautiful jade tankard; into the latter he poured a single cup of +wine, and immediately it was filled to the brim. They then proceeded +to help themselves from the tankard; but however much they took out, +the contents never seemed to diminish. Chia was astonished at this, +and begged Mr Chen to tell him how it was done. "Ah," replied Mr Chen, +"I tried to avoid making your acquaintance solely because of your +one bad quality--avarice. The art I practise is a secret known to +the Immortals only: how can I divulge it to you?" "You do me wrong," +rejoined Chia, "in thus attributing avarice to me. The avaricious, +indeed, are always poor." Mr Chen laughed, and they separated for that +day; but from that time they were constantly together, and all ceremony +was laid aside between them. Whenever Chia wanted money Mr Chen would +bring out a black stone, and, muttering a charm, would rub it on a tile +or a brick, which was forthwith changed into a lump of silver. This +silver he would give to Chia, and it was always just as much as he +actually required, neither more nor less; and if ever the latter asked +for more Mr Chen would rally him on the subject of avarice. Finally +Chia determined to try to get possession of this stone; and one day, +when Mr Chen was sleeping off the fumes of a drinking-bout, he tried +to extract it from his clothes. However, Chen detected him at once, +and declared that they could be friends no more, and next day he +left the place altogether. About a year afterward Chia was one day +wandering by the river-bank, when he saw a handsome-looking stone, +marvellously like that in the possession of Mr Chen; and he picked +it up at once and carried it home with him. A few days passed away, +and suddenly Mr Chen presented himself at Chia's house, and explained +that the stone in question possessed the property of changing anything +into gold, and had been bestowed upon him long before by a certain +Taoist priest whom he had followed as a disciple. "Alas!" added he, +"I got tipsy and lost it; but divination told me where it was, +and if you will now restore it to me I will take care to repay your +kindness." "You have divined rightly," replied Chia; "the stone is +with me; but recollect, if you please, that the indigent Kuan Chung +[45] shared the wealth of his friend Pao Shu." At this hint Mr Chen +said he would give Chia one hundred ounces of silver; to which the +latter replied that one hundred ounces was a fair offer, but that he +would far sooner have Mr Chen teach him the formula to utter when +rubbing the stone on anything, so that he might try the thing once +himself. Mr Chen was afraid to do this; whereupon Chia cried out, +"You are an Immortal yourself; you must know well enough that I +would never deceive a friend." So Mr Chen was prevailed upon to +teach him the formula, and then Chia would have tried the art upon +the immense stone washing-block [46] which was lying near at hand +had not Mr Chen seized his arm and begged him not to do anything +so outrageous. Chia then picked up half a brick and laid it on the +washing-block, saying to Mr Chen, "This little piece is not too much, +surely?" Accordingly Mr Chen relaxed his hold and let Chia proceed; +which he did by promptly ignoring the half-brick and quickly rubbing +the stone on the washing-block. Mr Chen turned pale when he saw him +do this, and made a dash forward to get hold of the stone, but it was +too late; the washing-block was already a solid mass of silver, and +Chia quietly handed him back the stone. "Alas! alas!" cried Mr Chen +in despair, "what is to be done now? For, having thus irregularly +conferred wealth upon a mortal, Heaven will surely punish me. Oh, +if you would save me, give away one hundred coffins [47] and one +hundred suits of wadded clothes." "My friend," replied Chia, "my +object in getting money was not to hoard it up like a miser." Mr +Chen was delighted at this; and during the next three years Chia +engaged in trade, taking care to fulfil always his promise to Mr +Chen. At the expiration of that time Mr Chen himself reappeared, and, +grasping Chia's hand, said to him, "Trustworthy and noble friend, +when we last parted the Spirit of Happiness impeached me before God, +[48] and my name was erased from the list of angels. But now that you +have carried out my request that sentence has been rescinded. Go on +as you have begun, without ceasing." Chia asked Mr Chen what office +he filled in Heaven; to which the latter replied that he was only +a fox who, by a sinless life, had finally attained to that clear +perception of the truth which leads to immortality. Wine was then +brought, and the two friends enjoyed themselves together as of old; +and even when Chia had passed the age of ninety years the fox still +used to visit him from time to time. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Miscellaneous Legends + + +The Unnatural People + +The _Shan hai ching_, or _Hill and River Classic_, contains +descriptions of some curious people supposed to inhabit the regions +on the maps represented on the nine tripod vases of the Great Yue, +first emperor of the Hsia dynasty. + + +The Pygmies + +The pygmies inhabit many mountainous regions of the Empire, but are +few in number. They are less than nine inches high, but are well +formed. They live in thatched houses that resemble ants' nests. When +they walk out they go in companies of from six to ten, joining hands +in a line for mutual protection against birds that might carry them +away, or other creatures that might attack them. Their tone of voice +is too low to be distinguished by an ordinary human ear. They occupy +themselves in working in wood, gold, silver, and precious stones, but +a small proportion are tillers of the soil. They wear clothes of a red +colour. The sexes are distinguishable by a slight beard on the men, +and long tresses on the women, the latter in some cases reaching four +to five inches in length. Their heads are unduly large, being quite +out of proportion to their small bodies. A husband and wife usually +go about hand in hand. A Hakka charcoal-burner once found three of the +children playing in his tobacco-box. He kept them there, and afterward, +when he was showing them to a friend, he laughed so that drops of +saliva flew from his mouth and shot two of them dead. He then begged +his friend to take the third and put it in a place of safety before +he should laugh again. His friend attempted to lift it from the box, +but it died on being touched. + + +The Giants + +In the Country of the Giants the people are fifty feet in height. Their +footprints are six feet in length. Their teeth are like those of a +saw. Their finger-nails present the appearance of hooked claws, while +their diet consists wholly of uncooked animal food. Their eyebrows +are of such length as to protrude from the front of the carts in +which they ride, large though it is necessary for these vehicles to +be. Their bodies are covered with long black hair resembling that +of the bear. They live to the advanced age of eighteen thousand +years. Though cannibals, they never eat members of their own tribe, +confining their indulgence in human flesh chiefly to enemies taken in +battle. Their country extends some thousands of miles along certain +mountain ranges in North-eastern Asia, in the passes of which they +have strong iron gates, easy to close, but difficult to open; hence, +though their neighbours maintain large standing armies, they have +thus far never been conquered. + + +The Headless People + +The Headless People inhabit the Long Sheep range, to which their +ancestors were banished in the remote past for an offence against the +gods. One of the said ancestors had entered into a controversy with +the rulers of the heavens, and they in their anger had transformed +his two breasts into eyes and his navel into a mouth, removed his +head, leaving him without nose and ears, thus cutting him off from +smell and sound, and banished him to the Long Sheep Mountains, where +with a shield and axe, the only weapons vouchsafed to the people of +the Headless Country, he and his posterity were compelled to defend +themselves from their enemies and provide their subsistence. This, +however, does not in the least seem to have affected their tempers, +as their bodies are wreathed in perpetual smiles, except when they +flourish their warlike weapons on the approach of an enemy. They are +not without understanding, because, according to Chinese notions of +physiology, "their bellies are full of wisdom." + + +The Armless People + +In the Mountains of the Sun and Moon, which are in the Centre of the +Great Waste, are the people who have no arms, but whose legs instead +grow out of their shoulders. They pick flowers with their toes. They +bow by raising the body horizontal with the shoulders, thus turning +the face to the ground. + + +The Long-armed and Long-legged People + +The Long-armed People are about thirty feet high, their arms reaching +from the shoulders to the ground. Once when a company of explorers +was passing through the country which borders on the Eastern Sea they +inquired of an old man if he knew whether or not there were people +dwelling beyond the waters. He replied that a cloth garment, in fashion +and texture not unlike that of a Chinese coat, with sleeves thirty +feet in length, had been found in the sea. The explorers fitted out an +expedition, and the discovery of the Long-armed Country was the result. + +The natives subsist for the most part on fish, which they obtain by +wading in the water, and taking the fish with their hands instead of +with hooks or nets. + +The arms of the Long-legged People are of a normal length, the legs +are developed to a length corresponding to that of the arms of the +Long-armed People. + +The country of the latter borders on that of the Long-legs. The habits +and food of the two are similar. The difference in their physical +structure makes them of mutual assistance, those with the long arms +being able to take the shellfish of the shallow waters, while those +with the long legs take the surface fish from the deeper localities; +thus the two gather a harvest otherwise unobtainable. + + +The One-eyed People and Others + +A little to the east of the Country of the Long-legs are to be found +the One-eyed People. They have but one eye, rather larger than the +ordinary human eye, placed in the centre of the forehead, directly +above the nose. Other clans or families have but one arm and one leg, +some having a right arm and left leg, others a left arm and right +leg, while still others have both on the same side, and go in pairs, +like shoes. Another species not only has but one arm and one leg, +but is of such fashion as to have but one eye, one nostril, and beard +on but one side of the face, there being as it were rights and lefts, +the two in reality being one, for it is in this way that they pair. The +Long-eared People resemble Chinese in all except their ears. They live +in the far West among mountains and in caves. Their pendant, flabby +ears extend to the ground, and would impede their feet in walking if +they did not support them on their hands. They are sensitive to the +faintest sound. Still another people in this region are distinguished +by having six toes on each foot. + + + +The Feathered People, etc. + +The Feathered People are very tall, and are covered with fluffy +down. They have wings in place of arms, and can fly short distances. On +the points of the wings are claws, which serve as hands. Their +noses are like beaks. Gentle and timid, they do not leave their own +country. They have good voices, and like to sing ballads. If one +wishes to visit this people he must go far to the south-east and then +inquire. There is also the Land of the People with Three Faces, who +live in the centre of the Great Waste and never die; the Land of the +Three-heads, east of the K'un-lun Mountains; the Three-body Country, +the inhabitants of which have one head with three bodies, three arms +and but two legs; and yet another where the people have square heads, +broad shoulders, and three legs, and the stones on the land are all +gold and jade. + + +The People of the Punctured Bodies + +Another community is said to be composed of people who have holes +through their chests. They can be carried about on a pole put through +the orifice, or may be comfortably hung upon a peg. They sometimes +string themselves on a rope, and thus walk out in file. They are +harmless people, and eat snakes that they kill with bows and arrows, +and they are very long-lived. + + +The Women's Kingdom + +The Women's Kingdom, the country inhabited exclusively by women, is +said to be surrounded by a sea of less density than ordinary water, +so that ships sink on approaching the shores. It has been reached only +by boats carried thither in whirlwinds, and but few of those wrecked +on its rocks have survived and returned to tell of its wonders. The +women have houses, gardens, and shops. Instead of money they use gems, +perforated and strung like beads. They reproduce their kind by sleeping +where the south wind blows upon them. + + +The Land of the Flying Cart + +Situated to the north of the Plain of Great Joy, the Land of +the Flying Cart joins the Country of the One-armed People on the +south-west and that of the Three-bodied People on the south-east. The +inhabitants have but one arm, and an additional eye of large size in +the centre of the forehead, making three eyes in all. Their carts, +though wheeled, do not run along the ground, but chase each other in +mid-air as gracefully as a flock of swallows. The vehicles have a +kind of winged framework at each end, and the one-armed occupants, +each grasping a flag, talk and laugh one to another in great glee +during what might be called their aerial recreation were it not for +the fact that it seems to be their sole occupation. + + +The Expectant Wife + +A curious legend is told regarding a solitary, weird figure which +stands out, rudely weatherworn, from a hill-top in the pass called +Shao-hsing Gorge, Canton Province. This point of the pass is called +Lung-men, or Dragon's Mouth, and the hill the Husband-expecting +Hill. The figure itself, which is called the Expectant Wife, resembles +that of a woman. Her bent head and figure down to the waist are +very lifelike. + +The story, widely known in this and the neighbouring province, runs as +follows. Centuries ago a certain poor woman was left by her husband, +who went on a journey into Kwangsi, close by, but in those days +considered a wild and distant region, full of dangers. He promised +to return in three years. The time went slowly and sadly past, for +she dearly loved her lord, but no husband appeared. He, ungrateful +and unfaithful spouse, had fallen in love with a fair one in Kwangsi, +a sorceress or witch, who threw a spell over him and charmed him to +his destruction, turning him at length into stone. To this day his +figure may be seen standing near a cave close by the river which is +known by the name of the Detained Man Cave. + +The wife, broken by grief at her husband's failure to return, was +likewise turned into a stone, and it is said that a supernatural +power will one day bring the couple to life again and reward the +ever-faithful wife. The legend receives entire credence from the +simple boatmen sad country people. + + +The Wild Men + +The wild beasts of the mountain have a king. He is a wild man, with +long, thick locks, fiery red in colour, and his body is covered with +hair. He is very strong: with a single blow of his huge fist, he can +break large rocks to pieces; he also can pull up the trees of the +forest by the root. His flesh is as hard as iron and is invulnerable +to the thrusts of knife, spear, or sword. He rides upon a tiger when +he leaves his home; he rules over the wolves, leopards, and tigers, and +governs all their affairs. Many other wild men, like him in appearance, +live in these mountains, but on account of his great strength he alone +is king. These wild men kill and eat all human beings they meet, and +other hill tribes live in terror of meeting them. Indeed, who of all +these mountain people would have been left alive had not some men, +more crafty than their fellows, devised a means of overpowering these +fierce savages? + +This is the method referred to: On leaving his home the herb-gatherer +of the mountains arms himself with two large hollow bamboo tubes which +he slips over his wrists and arms; he also carries a jar of very +strong wine. When he meets one of the wild men he stands still and +allows the giant to grasp him by the arm. As the giant holds him fast, +as he supposes, in his firm grasp, he quietly and slowly withdraws +one arm from the bamboo cuff, and, taking the pot of wine from the +other hand, quickly pours it down the throat of the stooping giant, +whose mouth is wide open with immoderate laughter at the thought of +having captured a victim so easily. The potent draught of wine acts +at once, causing the victim to drop to the ground in a dead sleep, +whereupon the herb-gatherer either dispatches him summarily with a +thrust through the heart, or leaves the drunken tyrant to sleep off the +effect of his draught, while he returns again to his work of collecting +the health-restoring herbs. In this way have the numbers of these wild +men become less and less, until at the present time but few remain. + + +The Jointed Snake + +The people on O-mei Shan tell of a wonderful kind of snake that is +said to live there. Part of its life is spent among the branches of +the trees; if by chance it falls to the ground it breaks up into two +or more pieces. These separate segments later on come together again +and unite. + +Many other marvellous and interesting tales are related of this +mountain and its inhabitants. + + + +The Casting of the Great Bell + +In every province of China there is a legend relating to the casting +of the great bell swung in the bell tower of the chief city. These +legends are curiously identical in almost every detail. The following +is the one current in Peking. + +It was in the reign of Yung Lo, the third monarch of the Ming dynasty, +that Peking first became the capital of China. Till that period the +'Son of Heaven' had held his Court at Nanking, and Peking had been +of comparatively little note. Now, however, on being honoured by the +'Sacred Presence,' stately buildings arose in all directions for +the accommodation of the Emperor and his courtiers. Clever men from +all parts of the Empire were attracted to the capital, and such as +possessed talent were sure of lucrative employment. About this time the +Drum Tower and the Bell Tower were built; both of them as 'look-out' +and 'alarm' towers. The Drum Tower was furnished with a monster drum, +which it still possesses, of such a size that the thunder of its tones +might be heard all over the city, the sound being almost enough to +waken the dead. + +The Bell Tower had been completed some time before attempts were +made to cast a bell proportionate to the size of the building. At +length Yung Lo ordered Kuan Yu, a mandarin of the second grade, who +was skilled in casting guns, to cast a bell the sound of which should +be heard, on the least alarm, in every part of the city. Kuan Yu at +once commenced the undertaking. He secured the services of a great +number of experienced workmen, and collected immense quantities of +material. Months passed, and at length it was announced to the Emperor +that everything was ready for the casting. A day was appointed; the +Emperor, surrounded by a crowd of courtiers, and preceded by the +Court musicians, went to witness the ceremony. At a given signal, +and to the crash of music, the melted metal rushed into the mould +prepared for it. The Emperor and his Court then retired, leaving +Kuan Yu and his subordinates to await the cooling of the metal, which +would tell of failure or success. At length the metal was sufficiently +cool to detach the mould from it. Kuan Yu, in breathless trepidation, +hastened to inspect it, but to his mortification and grief discovered +it to be honeycombed in many places. The circumstance was reported to +the Emperor, who was naturally vexed at the expenditure of so much +time, labour, and money with so unsatisfactory a result. However, +he ordered Kuan Yu to try again. + +The mandarin hastened to obey, and, thinking the failure of the +first attempt must have resulted from some oversight or omission on +his part, he watched every detail with redoubled care and attention, +fully determined that no neglect or remissness should mar the success +of this second casting. + +After months of labour the mould was again prepared, and the metal +poured into it, but again with the same result. Kuan Yu was distracted, +not only at the loss of his reputation, but at the certain loss of +the Emperor's favour. Yung Lo, when he heard of this second failure, +was very wroth, and at once ordered Kuan Yu into his presence, and +told him he would give him a third and last trial, and if he did +not succeed this time he would behead him. Kuan Yu went home in a +despairing state of mind, asking himself what crime he or any of his +ancestors could have committed to have justified this calamity. + +Now Kuan Yu had an only daughter, about sixteen years of age, and, +having no sons, the whole of his love was centred in this girl, for +he had hopes of perpetuating his name and fame through her marriage +with some deserving young nobleman. Truly she was worthy of being +loved. She had "almond-shaped eyes, like the autumn waves, which, +sparkling and dancing in the sun, seem to leap up in very joy and +wantonness to kiss the fragrant reeds that grow upon the rivers' +banks, yet of such limpid transparency that one's form could be +seen in their liquid depths as if reflected in a mirror. These were +surrounded by long silken lashes--now drooping in coy modesty, anon +rising in youthful gaiety and disclosing the laughing eyes but just +before concealed beneath them. Eyebrows like the willow leaf; cheeks +of snowy whiteness, yet tinged with the gentlest colouring of the +rose; teeth like pearls of the finest water were seen peeping from +between half-open lips, so luscious and juicy that they resembled +two cherries; hair of the jettiest blackness and of the silkiest +texture. Her form was such as poets love to describe and painters +limn; there was grace and ease in every movement; she appeared to +glide rather than walk, so light was she of foot. Add to her other +charms that she was skilful in verse-making, excellent in embroidery, +and unequalled in the execution of her household duties, and we have +but a faint description of Ko-ai, the beautiful daughter of Kuan Yu." + +Well might the father be proud of and love his beautiful child, +and she returned his love with all the ardour of her affectionate +nature; often cheering him with her innocent gaiety when he returned +from his daily vocations wearied or vexed. Seeing him now return +with despair depicted in his countenance, she tenderly inquired the +cause, not without hope of being the means of alleviating it. When +her father told her of his failures, and of the Emperor's threat, she +exclaimed: "Oh, my father, be comforted! Heaven will not always be thus +unrelenting. Are we not told that 'out of evil cometh good'? These +two failures will but enhance the glory of your eventual success, +for success _this_ time _must_ crown your efforts. I am only a girl, +and cannot assist you but with my prayers; these I will daily and +hourly offer up for your success; and the prayers of a daughter for +a loved parent _must_ be heard." Somewhat soothed by the endearments +of Ko-ai, Kuan Yu again devoted himself to his task with redoubled +energy, Ko-ai meanwhile constantly praying for him in his absence, +and ministering to his wants when he returned home. One day it +occurred to the maiden to go to a celebrated astrologer to ascertain +the cause of these failures, and to ask what means could be taken to +prevent a recurrence of them. She thus learned that the next casting +would also be a disappointment if the blood of a maiden were not +mixed with the ingredients. She returned home full of horror at this +information, yet inwardly resolving to immolate herself rather than +allow her father to fail. The day for the casting at length came, +and Ko-ai requested her father to allow her to witness the ceremony +and "to exult in his success," as she laughingly said. Kuan Yu gave +his consent, and accompanied by several servants she went, taking up +a position near the mould. + +Everything was prepared as before. An immense concourse assembled +to witness the third and final casting, which was to result either +in honour or degradation and death for Kuan Yu. A dead silence +prevailed through the vast assemblage as the melted metal once more +rushed to its destination; this was broken by a shriek, and a cry, +"For my father!" and Ko-ai was seen to throw herself headlong into the +seething, hissing metal. One of her servants attempted to seize her +while in the act of plunging into the boiling fluid, but succeeded only +in grasping one of her shoes, which came off in his hand. The father +was frantic, and had to be kept by force from following her example; +he was taken home a raving maniac. The prediction of the astrologer +was fulfilled, for, on uncovering the bell after it had cooled, it +was found to be perfect, but not a vestige of Ko-ai was to be seen; +the blood of a maiden had indeed been infused with the ingredients. + +After a time the bell was suspended by order of the Emperor, +and expectation was at its height to hear it rung for the first +time. The Emperor himself was present. The bell was struck, and far +and near was heard the deep tone of its sonorous boom. This indeed +was a triumph! Here was a bell surpassing in size and sound any +other that had ever been cast! But--and the surrounding multitudes +were horror-struck as they listened--the heavy boom of the bell was +followed by a low wailing sound like the agonized cry of a woman, and +the word _hsieh_ (shoe) was distinctly heard. To this day the bell, +each time it is rung, after every boom appears to utter the word +'hsieh,' and people when they hear it shudder and say, "There's poor +Ko-ai's voice calling for her shoe." + + +The Cursed Temple + +The reign of Ch'ung Cheng, the last monarch of the Ming dynasty, +was much troubled both by internal broils and by wars. He was +constantly threatened by Tartar hordes from without, though these +were generally beaten back by the celebrated general Wu San-kuei, +and the country was perpetually in a state of anarchy and confusion, +being overrun by bands of marauding rebels; indeed, so bold did +these become under a chief named Li Tzu-ch'eng that they actually +marched on the capital with the avowed intention of placing their +leader on the Dragon Throne. Ch'ung Cheng, on the reception of this +startling news, with no one that he could trust in such an emergency +(for Wu San-kuei was absent on an expedition against the Tartars), +was at his wits' end. The insurgents were almost in sight of Peking, +and at any moment might arrive. Rebellion threatened in the city +itself. If he went out boldly to attack the oncoming rebels his own +troops might go over to the enemy, or deliver him into their hands; +if he stayed in the city the people would naturally attribute it to +pusillanimity, and probably open the gates to the rebels. + +In this strait he resolved to go to the San Kuan Miao, an imperial +temple situated near the Ch'ao-yang Men, and inquire of the gods as +to what he should do, and decide his fate by 'drawing the slip.' If he +drew a long slip, this would be a good omen, and he would boldly march +out to meet the rebels, confident of victory; if a middle length one, +he would remain quietly in the palace and passively await whatever +might happen; but if he should unfortunately draw a short one he would +take his own life rather than suffer death at the hands of the rebels. + +Upon arrival at the temple, in the presence of the high officers of +his Court, the sacrifices were offered up, and the incense burnt, +previous to drawing the slip on which hung the destiny of an empire, +while Ch'ung Cheng himself remained on his knees in prayer. At the +conclusion of the sacrificial ceremony the tube containing the bamboo +fortune-telling sticks was placed in the Emperor's hand by one of +the priests. His courtiers and the attendant priests stood round in +breathless suspense, watching him as he swayed the tube to and fro; +at length one fell to the ground; there was dead silence as it was +raised by a priest and handed to the Emperor. _It was a short one!_ +Dismay fell on every one present, no one daring to break the painful, +horrible silence. After a pause the Emperor, with a cry of mingled +rage and despair, dashed the slip to the ground, exclaiming: "May this +temple built by my ancestors evermore be accursed! Henceforward may +every suppliant be denied what he entreats, as I have been! Those +who come in sorrow, may that sorrow be doubled; in happiness, may +that happiness be changed to misery; in hope, may they meet despair; +in health, sickness; in the pride of life and strength, death! I, +Ch'ung Cheng, the last of the Mings, curse it!" + +Without another word he retired, followed by his courtiers, proceeded +at once to the palace, and went straight to the apartments of the +Empress. The next morning he and his Empress were found suspended from +a tree on Prospect Hill. "In their death they were not divided." The +scenes that followed; how the rebels took possession of the city and +were driven out again by the Chinese general, assisted by the Tartars; +how the Tartars finally succeeded in establishing the Manchu dynasty, +are all matters of history. The words used by the Emperor at the +temple were prophetic; he _was_ the last of the Mings. The tree on +which the monarch of a mighty Empire closed his career and brought +the Ming dynasty to an end was ordered to be surrounded with chains; +it still exists, and is still in chains. Upward of two hundred +and seventy years have passed since that time, yet the temple is +standing as of old; but the halls that at one time were crowded with +worshippers are now silent, no one ever venturing to worship there; +it is the resort of the fox and the bat, and people at night pass it +shudderingly--"It is the cursed temple!" + + +The Maniac's Mite + +An interesting story is told of a lady named Ch'en, who was a +Buddhist nun celebrated for her virtue and austerity. Between the +years 1628 and 1643 she left her nunnery near Wei-hai city and set +out on a long journey for the purpose of collecting subscriptions for +casting a new image of the Buddha. She wandered through Shantung and +Chihli and finally reached Peking, and there--subscription-book in +hand--she stationed herself at the great south gate in order to take +toll from those who wished to lay up for themselves treasures in the +Western Heaven. The first passer-by who took any notice of her was an +amiable maniac. His dress was made of coloured shreds and patches, +and his general appearance was wild and uncouth. "Whither away, +nun?" he asked. She explained that she was collecting subscriptions +for the casting of a great image of Buddha, and had come all the +way from Shantung. "Throughout my life," remarked the madman, "I was +ever a generous giver." So, taking the nun's subscription-book, he +headed a page with his own name (in very large characters) and the +amount subscribed. The amount in question was two cash, equivalent +to a small fraction of a farthing. He then handed over the two small +coins and went on his way. + +In course of time the nun returned to Wei-hai-wei with her +subscriptions, and the work of casting the image was duly begun. When +the time had come for the process of smelting, it was observed that +the copper remained hard and intractable. Again and again the furnace +was fed with fuel, but the shapeless mass of metal remained firm as a +rock. The head workman, who was a man of wide experience, volunteered +an explanation of the mystery. "An offering of great value must be +missing," he said. "Let the collection-book be examined so that it +may be seen whose subscription has been withheld." The nun, who was +standing by, immediately produced the madman's money, which on account +of its minute value she had not taken the trouble to hand over. "There +is one cash," she said, "and there is another. Certainly the offering +of these must have been an act of the highest merit, and the giver +must be a holy man who will some day attain Buddhahood." As she said +this she threw the two cash into the midst of the cauldron. Great +bubbles rose and burst, the metal melted and ran like the sap from +a tree, limpid as flowing water, and in a few moments the work was +accomplished and the new Buddha successfully cast. + + +The City-god of Yen Ch'eng + +The following story of the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa of Yen Ch'eng (Salt +City) is told by Helena von Poseck in the _East of Asia Magazine_, +vol. iii (1904), pp. 169-171. This legend is also related of several +other cities in China. + +The Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa is, as already noted, the tutelary god of a +city, his position in the unseen world answering to that of a _chih +hsien_, or district magistrate, among men, if the city under his +care be a _hsien_; but if the city hold the rank of a _fu_, it has +(or used to have until recently) two Ch'eng-huang P'u-sas, one a +prefect, and the other a district magistrate. One part of his duty +consists of sending small demons to carry off the spirits of the +dying, of which spirits he afterward acts as ruler and judge. He is +supposed to exercise special care over the _k'u kuei_, or spirits +which have no descendants to worship and offer sacrifices to them, +and on the occasion of the Seventh Month Festival he is carried round +the city in his chair to maintain order among them, while the people +offer food to them, and burn paper money for their benefit. He is +also carried in procession at the Ch'ing Ming Festival, and on the +first day of the tenth month. + +The Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa of the city of Yen Ch'eng is in the extremely +unfortunate predicament of having no skin to his face, which fact is +thus accounted for: + +Once upon a time there lived at Yen Ch'eng an orphan boy who was +brought up by his uncle and aunt. He was just entering upon his teens +when his aunt lost a gold hairpin, and accused him of having stolen +it. The boy, whose conscience was clear in the matter, thought of a +plan by which his innocence might be proved. + +"Let us go to-morrow to Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa's temple," he said, "and +I will there swear an oath before the god, so that he may manifest +my innocence." + +They accordingly repaired to the temple, and the boy, solemnly +addressing the idol, said: + +"If I have taken my aunt's gold pin, may my foot twist, and may I +fall as I go out of your temple door!" + +Alas for the poor suppliant! As he stepped over the threshold his +foot twisted, and he fell to the ground. Of course, everybody was +firmly convinced of his guilt, and what could the poor boy say when +his own appeal to the god thus turned against him? + +After such a proof of his depravity his aunt had no room in her house +for her orphan nephew, neither did he himself wish to stay with people +who suspected him of theft. So he left the home which had sheltered +him for years, and wandered out alone into the cold hard world. Many +a hardship did he encounter, but with rare pluck he persevered in +his studies, and at the age of twenty odd years became a mandarin. + +In course of time our hero returned to Yen Ch'eng to visit his uncle +and aunt. While there he betook himself to the temple of the deity who +had dealt so hardly with him, and prayed for a revelation as to the +whereabouts of the lost hairpin. He slept that night in the temple, +and was rewarded by a vision in which the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa told +him that the pin would be found under the floor of his aunt's house. + +He hastened back, and informed his relatives, who took up the boards +in the place indicated, and lo! there lay the long-lost pin! The +women of the house then remembered that the pin had been used in +pasting together the various layers of the soles of shoes, and, when +night came, had been carelessly left on the table. No doubt rats, +attracted by the smell of the paste which clung to it, had carried +it off to their domains under the floor. + +The young mandarin joyfully returned to the temple, and offered +sacrifices by way of thanksgiving to the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa for +bringing his innocence to light, but he could not refrain from +addressing to him what one is disposed to consider a well-merited +reproach. + +"You made me fall down," he said, "and so led people to think I was +guilty, and now you accept my gifts. Aren't you ashamed to do such +a thing? _You have no face!_" + +As he uttered the words all the plaster fell from the face of the idol, +and was smashed into fragments. + +From that day forward the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa of Yen Ch'eng has had +no skin on his face. People have tried to patch up the disfigured +countenance, but in vain: the plaster always falls off, and the face +remains skinless. + +Some try to defend the Ch'eng-huang P'u-sa by saying that he was not +at home on the day when his temple was visited by the accused boy and +his relatives, and that one of the little demons employed by him in +carrying off dead people's spirits out of sheer mischief perpetrated +a practical joke on the poor boy. + +In that case it is certainly hard that his skin should so persistently +testify against him by refusing to remain on his face! + + +The Origin of a Lake + +In the city of Ta-yeh Hsien, Hupei, there is a large sheet of water +known as the Liang-ti Lake. The people of the district give the +following account of its origin: + +About five hundred years ago, during the Ming dynasty, there was no +lake where the broad waters now spread. A flourishing _hsien_ city +stood in the centre of a populous country. The city was noted for its +wickedness, but amid the wicked population dwelt one righteous woman, +a strict vegetarian and a follower of all good works. In a vision of +the night it was revealed to her that the city and neighbourhood would +be destroyed by water, and the sign promised was that when the stone +lions in front of the _yamen_ wept tears of blood, then destruction +was near at hand. Like Jonah at Nineveh, the woman, known to-day +simply as Niang-tzu, walked up and down the streets of the city, +warning all of the coming calamity. She was laughed at and looked +upon as mad by the careless people. A pork-butcher in the town, +a noted wag, took some pig's blood and sprinkled it round the eyes +of the stone lions. This had the desired effect, for when Niang-tzu +saw the blood she fled from the city amid the jeers and laughter of +the inhabitants. Before many hours had passed, however, the face of +the sky darkened, a mighty earthquake shook the country-side, there +was a great subsidence of the earth's surface, and the waters of the +Yangtzu River flowed into the hollow, burying the city and villages +out of sight. But a spot of ground on which the good woman stood, +after escaping from the doomed city, remained at its normal level, +and it stands to-day in the midst of the lake, an island called +Niang-tzu, a place at which boats anchor at night, or to which they +fly for shelter from the storms that sweep the lake. They are saved +to-day because of one good woman helped by the gods so long ago. + +As a proof of the truth of the above story, it is asserted that on +clear days traces of the buried city may be seen, while occasionally +a fisherman casting his net hauls up some household utensil or relic +of bygone days. + + +Miao Creation Legends + +If the Miao have no written records, they have many legends in verse, +which they learn to repeat and sing. The Hei Miao (or Black Miao, so +called from their dark chocolate-coloured clothes) treasure poetical +legends of the Creation and of a deluge. These are composed in lines +of five syllables, in stanzas of unequal length, one interrogative +and one responsive. They are sung or recited by two persons or two +groups at feasts and festivals, often by a group of youths and a +group of maidens. The legend of the Creation commences: + + + Who made Heaven and earth? + Who made insects? + Who made men? + Made male and made female? + I who speak don't know. + + + + + Heavenly King made Heaven and earth, + Ziene made insects, + Ziene made men and demons, + Made male and made female. + How is it you don't know? + + + + How made Heaven and earth? + How made insects? + How made men and demons? + Made male and made female? + I who speak don't know. + + + + Heavenly King was intelligent, + Spat a lot of spittle into his hand, + Clapped his hands with a noise, + Produced Heaven and earth, + Tall grass made insects, + Stories made men and demons, + Made male and made female. + How is it you don't know? + + + +The legend proceeds to state how and by whom the heavens were +propped up and how the sun was made and fixed in its place, but the +continuation is exceedingly silly. + +The legend of the Flood is another very silly composition, but it is +interesting to note that it tells of a great deluge. It commences: + + + Who came to the bad disposition, + To send fire and burn the hill? + Who came to the bad disposition, + To send water and destroy the earth? + I who sing don't know. + + + + Zie did. Zie was of bad disposition, + Zie sent fire and burned the hill; + Thunder did. Thunder was of bad disposition, + Thunder sent water and destroyed the earth. + Why don't you know? + + +In this story of the flood only two persons were saved in a large +bottle gourd used as a boat, and these were A Zie and his sister. After +the flood the brother wished his sister to become his wife, but she +objected to this as not being proper. At length she proposed that +one should take the upper and one the nether millstone, and going to +opposite hills should set the stones rolling to the valley between. If +these should be found in the valley properly adjusted one above the +other she would be his wife, but not if they came to rest apart. The +young man, considering it unlikely that two stones thus rolled down +from opposite hills would be found in the valley one upon another, +while pretending to accept the test suggested, secretly placed two +other stones in the valley one upon the other. The stones rolled from +the hills were lost in the tall wild grass, and on descending into +the valley A Zie called his sister to come and see the stones he had +placed. She, however, was not satisfied, and suggested as another test +that each should take a knife from a double sheath and, going again +to the opposite hill-tops, hurl them into the valley below. If both +these knives were found in the sheath in the valley she would marry +him, but if the knives were found apart they would live apart. Again +the brother surreptitiously placed two knives in the sheath, and, the +experiment ending as A Zie wished, his sister became his wife. They +had one child, a misshapen thing without arms or legs, which A Zie +in great anger killed and cut to pieces. He threw the pieces all +over the hill, and next morning, on awaking, he found these pieces +transformed into men and women; thus the earth was repeopled. + + +The Dream of the South Branch + +The dawn of Chinese romantic literature must be ascribed to the +period between the eighth and tenth centuries of our era, when +the cultivation of the liberal arts received encouragement at the +hands of sovereigns who had reunited the Empire under the sway of +a single ruler, and whose conquests and distant embassies attracted +representatives from every Asiatic nation to their splendid Court. It +was during this period that the vast bulk of Indian literature was +successfully attacked by a host of Buddhist translators, and that the +alchemists and mechanicians of Central Asia, Persia, and the Byzantine +Empire introduced their varied acquirements to the knowledge of the +Chinese. With the flow of new learning which thus gained admittance to +qualify the frigid and monotonous cultivation of the ancient classics +and their commentators, there came also an impetus to indulgence in +the licence of imagination in which it is impossible to mistake the +influence of Western minds. While the Sanskrit fables, on the one +hand, passed into a Chinese dress, and contributed to the colouring +of the popular mythology, the legends which circulated from mouth to +mouth in the lively Arabian bazaars found, in like manner, an echo +in the heart of China. Side by side with the mechanical efforts +of rhythmical composition which constitute the national ideal of +poetry there began, during the middle period of the T'ang dynasty +(A.D. 618-907), to grow up a class of romantic tales in which the +kinship of ideas with those that distinguish the products of Arabian +genius is too marked to be ignored. The invisible world appears +suddenly to open before the Chinese eye; the relations of the sexes +overstep for a moment the chilling limit imposed by the traditions +of Confucian decorum; a certain degree of freedom and geniality is, +in a word, for the first time and only for a brief interval infused +into the intellectual expression of a nation hitherto closely cramped +in the bonds of a narrow pedantry. It was at this period that the +drama began to flourish, and the germs of the modern novelist's art +made their first appearance. Among the works of imagination dating +from the period in question which have come down to the present +day there is perhaps none which better illustrates the effect of an +exotic fancy upon the sober and methodical authorship of the Chinese, +or which has left a more enduring mark upon the language, than the +little tale which is given in translation in the following pages. + +The _Nan k'o meng_, or _Dream of the South Branch_ (as the title, +literally translated, should read), is the work of a writer named +Li Kung-tso, who, from an incidental mention of his own experiences +in Kiangsi which appears in another of his tales, is ascertained +to have lived at the beginning of the ninth century of our era. The +_nan k'o_, or South Branch, is the portion of a _huai_ tree (_Sophora +Japdonica_, a tree well known in China, and somewhat resembling the +American locust-tree) in which the adventures narrated in the story +are supposed to have occurred; and from this narrative of a dream, +recalling more than one of the incidents recounted in the Arabian +Nights, the Chinese have borrowed a metaphor to enrich the vocabulary +of their literature. The equivalent of our own phrase "the baseless +fabric of a vision" is in Chinese _nan k'o chih meng_--a dream of +the south branch. + + +Ch'un-yue Fen enters the Locust-tree + +Ch'un-yue Fen, a native of Tung-p'ing, was by nature a gallant who +had little regard for the proprieties of life, and whose principal +enjoyment was found in indulgence in wine-bibbing in the society +of boon-companions. At one time he held a commission in the army, +but this he lost through his dissipated conduct, and from that time +he more than ever gave himself up to the pleasures of the wine-cup. + +One day--it was in the ninth moon of the seventh year of Cheng Yuean +(A.D. 791)--after drinking heavily with a party of friends under a +wide-spreading old locust-tree near his house, he had to be carried +to bed and there left to recover, his friends saying that they would +leave him while they went to bathe their feet. The moment he laid down +his head he fell into a deep slumber. In his dream appeared to him two +men clothed in purple, who kneeling down informed him that they had +been sent by their master the King of Huai-an ('Locust-tree Peace') to +request his presence. Unconsciously he rose, and, arranging his dress, +followed his visitors to the door, where he saw a varnished chariot +drawn by a white horse. On each side were ranged seven attendants, +by whom he was assisted to mount, whereupon the carriage drove off, +and, going out of the garden gate, passed through a hole in the trunk +of the locust-tree already spoken of. Filled with astonishment, but +too much afraid to speak, Ch'un-yue noticed that he was passing by +hills and rivers, trees and roads, but of quite a different kind from +those he was accustomed to. A few miles brought them to the walls +of a city, the approach to which was lined with men and vehicles, +who fell back at once the moment the order was given. Over the gate +of the city was a pavilion on which was written in gold letters "The +Capital of Huai-an." As he passed through, the guard turned out, and +a mounted officer, shouting that the husband of the King's daughter +had arrived, showed him the way into a hall where he was to rest +awhile. The room contained fruits and flowers of every description, +and on the tables was laid out a profuse display of refreshments. + +While Ch'un-yue still remained lost in astonishment, a cry was raised +that the Prime Minister was coming. Ch'un-yue got up to meet him, +and the two received each other with every demonstration of politeness. + + +He marries the King's Daughter + +The minister, looking at Ch'un-yue, said: "The King, my master, +has brought you to this remote region in order to give his daughter +in marriage to you." "How could I, a poor useless wretch," replied +Ch'un-yue, "have ever aspired to such honour?" With these words both +proceeded toward the audience-chamber, passing through a hall lined +with soldiers, among whom, to his great joy and surprise, Ch'un-yue +recognized an old friend of his former drinking days, to whom he +did not, however, then venture to speak; and, following the Prime +Minister, he was ushered into the King's presence. The King, a man +of noble bearing and imposing stature, was dressed in plain silk, +a jewelled crown reposing on his head. Ch'un-yue was so awe-stricken +that he was powerless even to look up, and the attendants on either +side were obliged to remind him to make his prostrations. The King, +addressing him, said: "Your father, small as my kingdom is, did not +disdain to promise that you should marry my daughter." Ch'un-yue could +not utter a word; he merely lay prostrate on the ground. After a +few moments he was taken back to his apartments, and he busied his +thoughts in trying to discover what all this meant. "My father," +he said to himself, "fought on the northern frontier, and was taken +prisoner; but whether his life was saved or not I don't know. It may +be that this affair was settled while he was in those distant regions." + +That same night preparations were made for the marriage; and the +rooms and passages were filled with damsels who passed and repassed, +filling the air with the sound of their dancing and music. They +surrounded Ch'un-yue and kept up a constant fire of witty remarks, +while he sat there overcome by their grace and beauty, unable to say +a word. "Do you remember," said one of them, coming up to Ch'un-yue, +"the other day when with the Lady Ling-chi I was listening to the +service in the courtyard of a temple, and while I, with all the other +girls, was sitting on the window step, you came up to us, talking +nonsense, and trying to get up a flirtation? Don't you remember how +we tied a handkerchief on the stem of a bamboo?" Then she continued: +"Another time at a temple, when I threw down two gold hairpins and an +ivory box as an offering, you asked the priest to let you look at the +things, and after admiring them for a long time you turned toward me, +and said that neither the gifts nor the donor were of this world; +and you wanted to know my name, and where I lived, but I wouldn't +tell you; and then you gazed on me so tenderly, and could not take +your eyes off me. You remember this, without doubt?" "I have ever +treasured the recollection in my heart; how could I possibly forget +it?" was Ch'un-yue's reply, whereat all the maidens exclaimed that they +had never expected to see him in their midst on this joyful occasion. + +At this moment three men came up to Ch'un-yue and stated that they +had been appointed his ministers. He stepped up to one of them +and asked him if his name was not Tzu-hua. "It is," was the reply; +whereupon Ch'un-yue, taking him by the hands, recalled to him their +old friendship, and questioned him as to how he had found his way +to this spot. He then proceeded to ask him if Chou-pien was also +here. "He is," replied the other, "and holding very high office; +he has often used his influence on my behalf." + +As they were talking, Ch'un-yue was summoned to the palace, and as he +passed within, a curtain in front of him was drawn aside, disclosing +a young girl of about fourteen years of age. She was known as the +Princess of the Golden Stem, and her dazzling beauty was well in +keeping with her matchless grace. + + +He writes to his Father + +The marriage was celebrated with all magnificence, and the young +couple grew fonder from day to day. Their establishment was kept up +in princely style, their principal amusement being the chase, the King +himself frequently inviting Ch'un-yue to join him in hunting expeditions +to the Tortoise-back Hill. As they were returning one day from one of +these excursions, Ch'un-yue said to the King: "On my marriage day your +Majesty told me that it was my father's desire that I should espouse +your daughter. My father was worsted in battle on the frontier, and +for seventeen years we have had no news of him. If your Majesty knows +his whereabouts, I would beg permission to go and see him." + +"Your father," replied the King, "is frequently heard of; you may +send him a letter; it is not necessary to go to him." Accordingly a +letter and some presents were got ready and sent, and in due time a +reply was received, in which Ch'un-yue's father asked many questions +about his relations, his son's occupation, but manifested no desire +that the latter should come to him. + + +He takes Office + +One day Ch'un-yue's wife asked him if he would not like to hold +office. His answer was to the effect that he had always been a rolling +stone, and had no experience of official affairs, but the Princess +promised to give him her assistance, and found occasion to speak on the +subject to her father. In consequence the King one day told Ch'un-yue +that he was not satisfied with the state of affairs in the south of his +territory, that the present governor was old and useless, and that he +would be pleased if he would proceed thither. Ch'un-yue bowed to the +King's commands, and inwardly congratulated himself that such good +fortune should have befallen a rover like him. He was supplied with a +splendid outfit, and farewell entertainments were given in his honour. + +Before leaving he acknowledged to the King that he had no great +confidence in his own powers, and suggested that he should be allowed +to take with him Chou-pien and Tzu-hua as commissioners of justice +and finance. The King gave his consent, and issued the necessary +instructions. The day of departure having arrived, both the King +and the Queen came to see Ch'un-yue and his wife off, and to Ch'un-yue +the King said: "The province of Nan-k'o is rich and fertile; and the +inhabitants are brave and prosperous; it is by kindness that you must +rule them." To her daughter the Queen said: "Your husband is violent +and fond of wine. The duty of a wife is to be kind and submissive. Act +well toward him, and I shall have no anxiety. Nan-k'o, it is true, +is not very far--only one day's journey; still, in parting from +you my tears will flow." Ch'un-yue and his bride waved a farewell, +and were whirled away toward their destination, reaching Nan-k'o the +same evening. + +Once settled in the place, Ch'un-yue set himself to become thoroughly +acquainted with the manners and customs of the people, and to relieve +distress. To Chou-pien and Tzu-hua he confided all questions of +administration, and in the course of twenty years a great improvement +was to be noticed in the affairs of the province. The people showed +their appreciation by erecting a monument to his honour, while the +King conferred upon him an estate and the dignity of a title, and in +recognition of their services promoted Chou-pien and Tzu-hua to very +high posts. Ch'un-yue's children also shared their father's rewards; +the two sons were given office, while the two daughters were betrothed +to members of the royal family. There remained nothing which could +add to his fame and greatness. + + +He meets with Disasters + +About this period the state of T'an-lo made an incursion on the +province of Nan-k'o. The King at once commanded that Chou-pien should +proceed at the head of 30,000 men to repel the enemy. Chou-pien, +full of confidence, attacked the foe, but sustained a disastrous +defeat, and, barely escaping with his life, returned to the capital, +leaving the invaders to plunder the country and retire. Ch'un-yue threw +Chou-pien into prison, and asked the King what punishment should be +visited upon him. His Majesty granted Chou-pien his pardon; but that +same month he died of disease. + +A few days later Ch'un-yue's wife also fell ill and died, whereupon +he begged permission to resign his post and return to Court with his +wife's remains. This request was granted, and Tzu-hua was appointed +in his stead. As Ch'un-yue, sad and dejected, was leaving the city +with the funeral _cortege_, he found the road lined with people giving +loud expression to their grief, and almost ready to prevent his taking +his departure. + + + +He returns Home + +As he neared the capital the King and Queen, dressed in mourning, were +awaiting the bier in tears. The Princess, after a posthumous title +had been conferred upon her, was buried with great magnificence a few +miles to the east of the city, while Ch'un-yue remained in the capital, +living in such state, and gaining so much influence, that he excited +the King's jealousy; and when it was foretold, by means of signs in +the heavens, that ruin threatened the kingdom, that its inhabitants +would be swept away, and that this would be the work of an alien, +the prophecy seemed to point to ambitious designs on the part of +Ch'un-yue, and means were taken to keep him under restraint. + +Ch'un-yue, conscious that he had faithfully filled a high office for +many years, felt greatly grieved by these calumnies--a result which +the King could not avoid noticing. He accordingly sent for Ch'un-yue, +and said: "For more than twenty years we have been connexions, +although my poor daughter, unfortunately, has not been spared to be +a companion to you in old age. Her mother is now taking care of her +children; your own home you have not seen for many years; return to +see your friends; your children will be looked after, and in three +years you will see them again." "Is not this my home? Whither else am +I to go?" was Ch'un-yue's reply. "My friend," the King said laughingly, +"you are a human being; you don't belong to this place." At these words +Ch'un-yue seemed to fall into a deep swoon, and he remained unconscious +for some time, after which he began to recall some glimpses of the +distant past. With tears in his eyes he begged that he might be +allowed to return to his home, and, saying farewell, he departed. + +Outside the palace he found the same two officials in purple clothes +who had led the way so many years ago. A conveyance was also there, +but this time it was a mere bullock-cart, with no outriders. He took +the same road as before, and noticed the same hills and streams. The +two officials were by no means imposing this time, and when he asked +how far was his destination they continued to hum and whistle and +paid no attention to him. At last they passed through an opening, and +he recognized his own village, precisely as he had left it. The two +officials desired him to get down and walk up the steps before him, +where, much to his horror, he saw himself lying down in the porch. He +was too much bedazed with terror to advance, but the two officials +called out his name several times, and upon this he awoke. The +servants were bustling about the house, and his two companions +were still washing their feet. Everything was as he had left it, +and the lifetime he had lived in his dream had occupied only a few +moments. Calling out to his two friends, he made them follow him to +the locust-tree, and pointed out the opening through which he had +begun his journey in dream-land. + +An axe was sent for, and the interior of the trunk thrown open, +whereupon a series of galleries was laid bare. At the root of the +tree a mound of earth was discovered, in shape like a city, and +swarming with ants. This was the capital of the kingdom in which +he had lived in his dream. A terrace surrounded by a guard of ants +was the residence of the King and Queen, two winged insects with +red heads. Twenty feet or so along another gallery was found an +old tortoise-shell covered with a thick growth of moss; it was the +Tortoise-back Hill of the dream. In another direction was found a +small mound of earth round which was coiled a root in shape like a +dragon's tongue; it was the grave of the King's daughter, Ch'un-yue's +wife in the vision. As he recalled each incident of the dream he was +much affected at discovering its counterpart in this nest of ants, +and he refused to allow his companions to disturb it further. They +replaced everything as they had found it; but that night a storm of +wind and rain came, and next morning not a vestige of the ants was +to be seen. They had all disappeared, and here was the fulfilment of +the warning in the dream, that the kingdom would be swept away. + + +Ch'un-yue Regenerate + +At this time Ch'un-yue had not seen Chou-pien and Tzu-hua for some +ten days. He sent a messenger to make inquiries about them, and the +news he brought back was that Chou-pien was dead and Tzu-hua lying +ill. The fleeting nature of man's existence revealed itself to him +as he recalled the greatness of these two men in the ant-world. From +that day he became a reformed man; drink and dissipation were put +aside. After three years had elapsed he died, thus giving effect to +the promise of the ant-king that he should see his children once more +at the end of three years. + + +Why the Jung Tribe have Heads of Dogs + +The wave of conquest which swept from north to south in the earliest +periods of Chinese history [49] left on its way, like small islands +in the ocean, certain remnants of aboriginal tribes which survived +and continued to exist despite the sustained hostile attitude of the +flood of alien settlers around them. When stationed at Foochow I saw +the settlements of one of these tribes which lived in the mountainous +country not very many miles inland from that place. They were those +of the Jung tribe, the members of which wore on their heads a large +and peculiar headgear constructed of bamboo splints resting on a +peg inserted in the chignon at the back of the head, the weight of +the structure in front being counterbalanced by a pad, serving as +a weight, attached to the end of the splints, which projected as +far down as the middle of the shoulders. This framework was covered +by a mantilla of red cloth which, when not rolled up, concealed the +whole head and face, The following legend, related to me on the spot, +explains the origin of this unusual headdress. + + +Two Tribes at War + +In early times the Chief of a Chinese tribe (another version says +an Emperor of China) was at war with the Chief of another tribe who +came to attack his territory from the west. The Western Chief so badly +defeated the Chinese army that none of the generals or soldiers could +be induced to renew hostilities and endeavour to drive the enemy back +to his own country. This distressed the Chinese Chief very much. As +a last resort he issued a proclamation promising his daughter in +marriage to anyone who would bring him the head of his enemy, the +Chief of the West. + + +The Chief's Promise + +The people in the palace talked much of this promise made by the +Chief, and their conversation was listened to by a fine large white +dog belonging to one of the generals. This dog, having pondered the +matter well, waited until midnight and then stole over to the tent +of the enemy Chief. The latter, as well as his guard, was asleep; +or, if the guard was not, the dog succeeded in avoiding him in the +darkness. Entering the tent, the dog gnawed through the Chief's +neck and carried his head off in his mouth. At dawn he placed it at +the Chinese Chief's feet, and waited for his reward. The Chief was +soon able to verify the fact that his enemy had been slain, for the +headless body had caused so much consternation in the hostile army +that it had already begun to retreat from Chinese territory. + + +A Strange Contract + +The dog then reminded the Chief of his promise, and asked for his +daughter's hand in marriage. "But how," said the Chief, "can I possibly +marry my daughter to a dog?" "Well," replied the dog, "will you agree +to her marrying me if I change myself into a man?" This seemed a safe +promise to make, and the Chief agreed. The dog then stipulated that +he should be placed under a large bell and that no one should move +it or look into it for a space of 280 days. + + +The Chiefs Curiosity + +This was done, and for 279 days the bell remained unmoved, but on +the 280th day the Chief could restrain his curiosity no longer, +and tilting up the bell saw that the dog had changed into a man +all except his head, the last day being required to complete the +transformation. However, the spell was now broken, and the result was +a man with a dog's head. Since it was the Chief's fault that, through +his over-inquisitiveness, the dog could not become altogether a man, +he was obliged to keep his promise, and the wedding duly took place, +the bridegroom's head being veiled for the occasion by a red mantilla. + + +The Origin of a Custom + +Unfortunately the fruit of the union took more after their father +than their mother, and though comely of limb had exceedingly ugly +features. [50] They were therefore obliged to continue to wear the +head-covering adopted by their father at the marriage ceremony, and +this became so much an integral part of the tribal costume that not +only has it been worn ever since by their descendants, but a change +of headgear has become synonymous with a change of husbands or a +divorce. One account says that at the original bridal ceremony the +bride wore the red mantilla to prevent her seeing her husband's ugly +features, and that is why the headdress is worn by the women and not by +the men, or more generally by the former than the latter, though others +say that it was originally worn by the ugly children of both sexes. + + +And of a Worship + +This legend explains the dog-worship of the Jung tribe, which now +consists of four clans, with a separate surname (Lei, Chung, Lang, +and Pan) to each, has a language of its own, and does not intermarry +with the Foochow natives. At about the time of the old Chinese New +Year (somewhere in February) they paint a large figure of a dog on a +screen and worship it, saying it is their ancestor who was victorious +over the Western invader. + + + +Conclusion + +If the greatness of nations is to be judged by the greatness of +their myths (using the word 'great' in the sense of world-famous +and of perennial influence), there would be few great nations, and +China would not be one of them. As stated in an earlier chapter, the +design has been to give an account of Chinese myth as it is, and not +as it might have been under imaginary conditions. But for the Chinese +philosophers we should in all probability have had more Chinese myths, +but philosophy is unifying, and without it we might have had a break-up +of China and perhaps no myths at all, or none specially belonging to +China as a whole and separate independent nation. Had there been great, +world-stirring myths there could hardly but have been also more wars, +more cruelty, more wounding of the "heart that weeps and trembles," +more saturating of the earth with human blood. It is not a small thing +to have conquered myth with philosophy, especially at a time when the +Western world was still steeped in the grossest superstition. Therefore +we may be thankful that the Chinese were and are a peace-loving, sober, +agricultural, industrial, non-military, non-priest-ridden, literary, +and philosophical people, and that we have instead of great myths a +great people. + +But if the real test of greatness is purity and justice, then Chinese +myth must be placed among the greatest of all; for it is not obscene, +and it is invariably just. + + + + + + +The Pronunciation of Chinese Words + +During the course of Chinese history the restriction of intercourse +due to mountain-chains or other natural obstacles between various +tribes or divisions of the Chinese people led to the birth of a number +of families of languages, which again became the parents of numerous +local dialects. These dialects have in most cases restricted ranges, +so that that of one district may be partially or wholly unintelligible +to the natives of another situated at a distance of only a hundred +miles or less. + +The Court or Government language is that spoken in Peking and the +metropolitan district, and is the language of official communication +throughout the country. Though neither the oldest nor the purest +Chinese dialect, it seems destined more than any other to come into +universal use in China. The natives of each province or district will +of course continue to speak to each other in their own particular +dialect, and foreign missionaries or merchants, for example, whose +special duties or transactions are connected with special districts +will naturally learn and use the dialects of those districts; but as +a means of intercommunication generally between natives of different +provinces, or between natives and foreigners, the Court language seems +likely to continue in use and to spread more and more over the whole +country. It is to this that the following remarks apply. + +The essentials of correct pronunciation of Chinese are accuracy of +sound, tone, and rhythm. + + +Sound + +_Vowels and Diphthongs_ + +_a_ as in _father_. + +_ai_ as in Italian _amai_. + +_ao_. Italian _ao_ in _Aosta_: sometimes _a-oo,_ the _au_ in _cauto_. + +_e_ in _eh_, _en_, as in _yet_, _lens_. + +_ei_. Nearly _ey_ in _grey_, but more as in Italian _lei_, _contei_. + +_e_. The vowel-sound in _lurk_. + +_ei_. The foregoing _e_ followed enclitically by _y_. _Money_ without +the _n_ = _mei_. + +_erh._ The _urr_ in _purr_. + +_i_. As a single or final syllable the vowel-sound in _ease_, _tree_; +in _ih_, _in_, _ing_, as in _chick_, _thing_. + +_ia_ generally as in the Italian _Maria_. + +_iai_. The _iai_ in the Italian _vecchiaia_. + +_iao_ as in _ia_ and _ao_, with the terminal peculiarity of the latter. + +_ie_ as in the Italian _siesta_. + +_io_. The French _io_ in _pioche_. + +_iu_ as a final, longer than the English _ew_. In _liu, niu_, almost +_leyew, neyew_. In _chiung, hsiung, iung_, is _eeyong_ (_o_ in _roll_). + +_o._ Between vowel-sound in _awe_ and that in _roll_. + +_ou._ Really _eo_; _ou_ in _round_. + +_ue._ The vowel-sound in the French _tu, eut_. + +_uea._ Only in _uean_, which in some tones is _ueen_. The _u_ as above; +the _an_ as in _antic_. + +_uee_. The vowel-sounds in the French _tu es_. + +_ueo_. A disputed sound, used, if at all, interchangeably with _io_ +in certain syllables. + +_u_. The _oo_ in _too_; in _un_ and _ung_ as in the Italian _punto_. + +_ua_. Nearly _ooa_, in many instances contracting to _wa_. + +_uai_ as in the Italian _guai_. + +_uei._ The vowel-sounds in the French _jouer_. + +_ue._ Only in final _uen_ = _u-un_; frequently _wen_ or _wun_. + +_ui._ The vowel-sounds in _screwy_; in some tones _uei_. + +_uo._ The Italian _uo_ in _fuori_; often _wo_, and at times nearly +_oo_. + +_u._ Between the _i_ in _bit_ and the _u_ in _shut_. + +_Consonants_ + +_ch_ as in _chair_; but before _ih_ softened to _dj_. + +_ch'_. A strong breathing. _Mu_ch-ha_rm_ without the italicized +letters = _ch'a_. + +_f_ as in farm. + +_h_ as _ch_ in Scotch _loch_. + +_hs_. A slight aspirate preceding and modifying the sibilant, which is, +however, the stronger of the two consonants; _e.g. hsing_ = _hissing_ +without the first _i_, + +_j_. Nearly the French _j_ in _jaune_; the English _s_ in _fusion_. + +_k_. _c_ in _car_, _k_ in _king_; but when following other sounds +often softened to _g_ in _go, gate_. + +_k'_. The aspirate as in _ch'_. _Ki_ck-ha_rd_ without the italicized +letters = _k'a_; and _ki_ck-he_r_ == _k'e_. + +_l_ as in English. + +_m_ as in English. + +_n_ as in English. + +_ng_. The italicized letters in the French mo_n ga_lant = _nga_; +mo_n gai_llard = _ngai_; so_n go_sier = _ngo_. + +_p_ as in English. + +_p'_ The Irish pronunciation of _p_arty, _p_arliament. _Sla_p-ha_rd_ +without the italicized letters = _p'a_. + +_s_ as in English. + +_sh_ as in English. + +_ss_. Only in _ssu_. The object of employing _ss_ is to fix attention +on the peculiar vowel-sound _u_ (see above). + +_t_ as in English. + +_t'_ The Irish _t_ in _t_orment. _Hi_t-ha_rd_ without the italicized +letters = _t'a_. + +_ts_ as in _jetsam_; after another word softened to _ds_ in _gladsome_. + +_ts'._ The aspirate intervening, as in _ch'_, etc. _Be_ts-ha_rd_ +without the italicized letters = _ts'a_. + +_tz_. Employed to mark the peculiarity of the final _u_; hardly of +greater power than _ts_. + +_tz'_ like _ts'_. This, _tz_, and _ss_ used only before _u_. + +_w_ as in English; but very faint, or even non-existent, before _ue_. + +_y_ as in English; but very faint before _i_ or _ue_. + + +Tone + +The correct pronunciation of the sound (_yin_) is not sufficient to +make a Chinese spoken word intelligible. Unless the tone (_sheng_), +or musical note, is simultaneously correctly given, either the wrong +meaning or no meaning at all will be conveyed. The tone is the key in +which the voice is pitched. Accent is a 'song added to,' and tone is +emphasized accent. The number of these tones differs in the different +dialects. In Pekingese there are now four. They are best indicated +in transliteration by numbers added to the sound, thus: + +_pa_ (1) _pa_ (2) _pa_ (3) _pa_ (4) + +To say, for example, _pa_ (3) instead of _pa_ (1) would be as great +a mistake as to say 'grasp' instead of 'trumpet.' Correctness of tone +cannot be learnt except by oral instruction. + + +Rhythm + +What tone is to the individual sound rhythm is to the sentence. This +also, together with proper appreciation of the mutual modifications +of tone and rhythm, can be correctly acquired only by oral instruction. + + + + + + +NOTES + +[1] The inventions of the Chinese during a period of four thousand +years may be numbered on the fingers of one hand. + +[2] _East of Asia Magazine_, i, 15-16. + +[3] _Cf_. Aristotle's belief that bugs arose spontaneously from sweat. + +[4] For the Buddhist account see _China Review_, xi, 80-82. + +[5] Compare the Japanese legend, which relates that the Sun-goddess was +induced to come out of a cave by being tempted to gaze at herself in a +mirror. See _Myths and Legends of Japan_, F. Hadland Davis, pp. 27-28. + +[6] See _Myths of the Norsemen_, by H. A. Guerber. These resemblances +and the further one--namely, the dualism in the prechaotic epoch +(a very interesting point in Scandinavian mythology)--illustrate the +danger of inferring identity of origin from similarity of physical, +intellectual, or moral results. Several remarkable parallelisms of +Chinese religious and mythological beliefs with those recorded in +the Hebrew scriptures may also be briefly noted. There is an age +of virtue and happiness, a garden with a tree bearing 'apples of +immortality,' guarded by a winged serpent (dragon), the fall of man, +the beginnings of lust and war (the doctrine of original sin), a great +flood, virgin-born god-men who rescue man from barbarism and endow +him with superhuman attributes, discipleship, worship of a Virgin +Mother, trinities, monasticism, celibacy, fasting, preaching, prayers, +primeval Chaos, Paradise, etc. For details see _Chinese Repository,_ +vii, 520-521. + +[7] _Cf._ the dwarfs in the Scandinavian myth. + +[8] See Legge, _Shu ching_, ii, 320, note. + +[9] In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is as well to note that the +mention of the _t'ai chi_ in the _Canon of Changes (I ching_) no more +constituted monism the philosophy of China than did the steam-driven +machinery mentioned by Hero of Alexandria constitute the first century +B.C. the 'age of steam.' Similarly, to take another example, the idea +of the earth's rotundity, though conceived centuries before Ptolemy +in the second century, did not become established before the sixteenth +century. It was, in fact, from the _I ching_ that the Chinese derived +their _dualistic_ (not their monistic) conception of the world. + +[10] "Formerly, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt that I was a butterfly, flying +about and feeling that it was enjoying itself. I did not know that +it was Chou. Suddenly I awoke and was myself again, the veritable +Chou. I did not know whether it had formerly been Chou dreaming that +he was a butterfly, or whether it was now a butterfly dreaming that +it was Chou." _Chuang Tzu_, Book II. + +[11] See the present writer's _China of the Chinese_, chapter viii. + +[12] See Du Bose, pp. 282, 286, 361, 409, 410, and _Journal of the +North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, xxxiv, 110-111. + +[13] Du Bose, p. 38. + +[14] He is sometimes represented as a reincarnation of Wen Chung; +see p. 198. + +[16] See footnote, p. 107. + +[17] _Religion_, p. 177. + +[18] See _Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists_, by Sister Nivedita and +Ananda Coomaraswamy. + +[19] The native accounts differ on this point. _Cf._ p. 16. + +[20] For further details concerning T'ai I see _Babylonian and Oriental +Record_, vi, 145-150. + +[21] _Cf._ Chapter I. + +[22] She is the same as Ch'ang O, the name Heng being changed to +Ch'ang because it was the tabooed personal name of the Emperors Mu +Tsung of the T'ang dynasty and Chen Tsung of the Sung dynasty. + +[23] See p. 45. + +[24] In Sagittarius, or the Sieve; Chinese constellation of the +Leopard. + +[25] See Chapter XIV. + +[26] See Chapter XII. + +[27] This pagoda is distant about twenty _li_ (seven miles) from +Peking. It is on the top of the hill, while the spring is at the foot, +half a _li_ distant. The imperial family used the water from this +spring, whence it was carried to Peking in carts. + +[28] See Chapter XII. + +[29] See Chapter IV. + +[30] This has reference to the change of Kuan Yin from the masculine +to the feminine gender, already mentioned. + +[31] There is evidently a mistake here, since the King was twenty +when he ascended the throne and fifty at the birth of Miao Shan. + +[32] _An Illustrated Account of the Eight Immortals' Mission to +the East_. + +[33] A record of a journey to the Western Paradise to procure +the Buddhist scriptures for the Emperor of China. The work is a +dramatization of the introduction of Buddhism into China. + +[34] See p. 329. + +[35] See p. 195. + +[36] Literally 'golden oranges.' These are skilfully preserved by +the Cantonese, and form a delicious sweetmeat for dessert. + +[37] Only slave-girls and women of the poorer classes and old women +omit this very important part of a Chinese lady's toilet. + +[38] Alluding probably to the shape of the 'shoe' or ingot of silver. + +[39] Slave-girls do not have their feet compressed. + +[40] Wherein resides an old gentleman who ties together with a red cord +the feet of those destined to become man and wife. From this bond there +is no escape, no matter what distance may separate the affianced pair. + +[41] This proceeding is highly improper, but is 'winked at' in a +large majority of Chinese betrothals. + +[42] The usual occupation of poor scholars who are ashamed to go +into trade and who have not enterprise enough to start as doctors or +fortune-tellers. Besides painting pictures and fans, and illustrating +books, these men write fancy scrolls in the various ornamental styles +so much prized by the Chinese; they keep accounts for people, and +write or read business and private letters for the illiterate masses. + +[43] Say about L10. + +[44] Alchemy is first mentioned in Chinese history B.C. 133, and was +widely cultivated in China during the Han dynasty by priests of the +Taoist religion. + +[45] Kuan Chung and Pao Shu are the Chinese types of friendship. They +were two statesmen of considerable ability who flourished in the +seventh century B.C. + +[46] These are used, together with a heavy wooden _baton_, by the +Chinese washerman, the effect being most disastrous to a European +wardrobe. + +[47] To provide coffins for poor people has ever been regarded as +an act of transcendent merit. The tornado at Canton in April 1878, +in which several thousand lives were lost, afforded an admirable +opportunity for the exercise of this form of charity--an opportunity +which was largely taken advantage of by the benevolent. + +[48] For usurping its prerogative by allowing Chia to obtain wealth. + +[49] See Chapter I. + +[50] Compare the legend of the tailed Miao Tzu tribes named Yao, +'mountain-dogs' or 'jackals,' living on the mountain ranges in the +north-west of Kuangtung Province, related in the _Jih chi so chih_. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Myths and Legends of China, by E. T. C. 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