The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2): A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its InhabitantsWilliams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells)
History
The Middle Kingdom, Volume 1 (of 2): A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts, and History of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants
Williams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells)
China
There are about one hundred and seventy-five priests connected with the
establishment, only a portion of whom can read. Among the buildings are
several small temples dedicated to national deities whom the Buddhists
have adopted into their mythology. One of the houses adjoining holds
the hogs (not _bugs_, as was stated in one work) offered by worshippers
who feed them as long as they live.
Two other shrines belonging to the Buddhists, are both of them, like
the Honam temple, well endowed. One called _Kwanghiao sz’_, or ‘Temple
of Glorious Filial Duty,’ contains two hundred priests, who are
supported from glebe lands, estimated at three thousand five hundred
acres. The number of priests and nuns in Canton is not exactly known,
but probably exceeds two thousand, nine-tenths of whom are Buddhists.
There are only three temples of the Rationalists, their numbers and
influence being far less in this city than those of the Buddhists.
The _Ching-hwang miao_ is an important religious institution in every
Chinese city, the temple, being a sort of palladium, in which both
rulers and people offer their devotions for the welfare of the city.
The superintendent of that in Canton pays $4,000 for his situation,
which sum, with a large profit, is obtained again in a few years, by
the sale of candles, incense, etc., to the worshippers. The temples in
China are generally cheerless and gloomy abodes, well enough fitted,
however, for the residence of inanimate idols and the performance of
unsatisfying ceremonies. The entrance courts are usually occupied by
hucksters, beggars, and idlers, who are occasionally driven off to
give room for the mat-sheds in which theatrical performances got up by
priests are acted. The principal hall, where the idol sits enshrined,
is lighted only in front, and the altar, drums, bells, and other
furniture of the temple, are little calculated to enliven it; the cells
and cloisters are inhabited by men almost as senseless as the idols
they serve, miserable beings, whose droning, useless life is too often
only a cloak for vice, indolence, and crime, which make the class an
opprobrium in the eyes of their countrymen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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