Among the aboriginal Lolo tribes of Yunnan an animal represents
each day of the month. Accordingly the body of a caravaner is kept
for burial until the lucky day of the horse arrives. A coin is put
between the lips to pay the way, which shows that the rites are
Taoist, and quite similar to old Grecian and Egyptian rites. When the
revolutionists were fortifying Hanyang, in October, 1911, they did not
hesitate to use a Taoist monastery as a fort in the hills. This marks a
step forward against old superstitions, which were once insurmountable.
The Chinese declare that a positive omen of a coming conflagration is
the crowing of a cock during the night. Of course, all the cooks of
Hankau recited this to their masters on the day when the imperialists
burned the native city. Statues are many in the temples, monasteries,
guild halls, pagodas and road shrines. Although Confucius is generally
represented by a tablet merely, there are some temples which have
statues of him and his disciples. Buddha is represented by three
statues of the Past, Present and Future Buddha. Emperors of popular
dynasties have statues erected to them in the temples. Then the Taoists
have innumerable gods, including the famous gods of the War Temples.
The guilds of the three hundred trades and twenty-one provinces all
have patron gods, and it is orthodox to rub your finger on the god’s
body in the place that corresponds with your sore spot, if you feel
ill! You touch his back if you have lumbago (and find out that he is
hollow!); his nose if you have asthma, and so on.
There are household gods; a god “Tsan” of the kitchen; pictures of gods
to paste on the gates of the compound, and the God of Literature, who
is very popular and has many temples. All over the north the Manchus
have erected temples to the Fox, their wily patron god. This dependence
on idols is not so dense as in India. The Chinese do it more as a good
luck omen, just as we wear an opal or a turquoise, and not always as
an essential religious rite. They have too much humor really to be as
foolish as they may look when in the god’s presence. A god who doesn’t
do his business well is as quickly dragged out by a rope and burned
in times of stress as a human being would be treated with contumely
whose prophecies always failed. In the south, religious edifices are
being occupied for educational and civic purposes. When in 1908 the
new learning broke over China like the full burst of a tropical day,
the schools at first had to be housed in temples and monasteries.
Recently, at Canton, the Wah Lum Monastery was used to entertain
a public-spirited Chinese of Singapore, Chang U. Him, who brought
both new learning and new wealth. “All interested in industries,
self-government, charities and new education” were invited by circular
to come up and see him “at the temple!”
Some of their religious proverbs, often touched with humor, are:
“If you must thrash a priest, wait until he has finished praying for
you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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