Travels in China Part 24

"----Swift the fleeting pleasure seize, Nor trust to-morrow's doubtful light."

But as ills would come, and disease and death seemed to be the common lot of mankind, the beverage of immortal life was a glorious idea to hold out to mortal man. In fact, immortality was one of the attributes of the _Delai Lama_, who is supposed never to die; the soul of the reigning Lama pa.s.sing immediately into the person of his successor. This doctrine, a branch of the Metempsycosis, was converted by _Lao-Kung_ into the art of producing a renovation of the faculties in the same body, by the means of certain preparations taken from the three kingdoms of nature. The infatuated people flew with avidity to the fountain of life. Princes even sought after the draughts that should render them immortal, but which, in fact, brought on premature death. Numerous instances are said to be on record, wherein the eunuchs have prevailed on the sovereign to swallow the immortal liquor which seldom failed to dispatch him. Father Trigault, who was in Pekin when the Tartars took possession of it, speaking of the propensity of the upper cla.s.ses for the beverage of life, observes, "Even in this city, there are few of the magistrates or eunuchs or others in office free from this insanity; and as there are plenty who wish to learn the secret, there is no want of professors." This seems to be the only species of alchemy to which the Jesuits have said the Chinese are addicted. The preparation of the liquor of life is their philosopher's stone; and, in all probability, is composed of opium and other drugs which, by encreasing the stimulus, gives a momentary exhilaration to the spirits; and the succeeding languor requiring another and another draught till at length, the excitability being entirely exhausted, the patient "puts on immortality."

How much soever we may find ourselves disposed to censure the absurdity of the Chinese beverage of life, we are not a great way behind them in this respect, or the _Perkinses_, the _Solomons_, the _Velnos_, and the _Brodums_, with an innumerable host of quacks, whose indecent advertis.e.m.e.nts disgrace our daily prints, would not derive their subsistence, much less rise to affluence, by the credulity of Englishmen; for many of these pests of society are foreigners, too contemptible in their own country to meet with encouragement. What conclusion would a Chinese be apt to draw of our national character, if he had only a smattering of our language, just sufficient to enable him to read these daily effusions that are forced upon public notice[44]?

And what must he think of the reveries of Condorcet, and of his English disciples, whose monstrous doctrines (under the abused name of philosophy) would persuade him that sleep was a disease! That

"Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, The death of each day's life, fore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast"----

was a bodily infirmity, which the _perfectibility of the human mind_ (so happily commenced by the French subversion) would completely eradicate! Let us not altogether condemn the ignorant, perhaps designing, priests of _Tao-tse_, and the still more ignorant mult.i.tude, when the strong and enlightened mind of a _Descartes_ could amuse itself with the fanciful hope of being able to discover the secret of prolonging the life of man far beyond the usual limits which seem to be a.s.signed to the human species.

[44] And which, together with their pernicious practices and infamous pamphlets, addressed chiefly to youth of both s.e.xes, it may be added, have done more mischief than "plague, pestilence, or famine." Among the numerous societies that have been formed for the amendment of public morals and the suppression of vice, it is surprizing that no plan has been thought of for the suppression of impudent quacks.

Consistent with the principle of "taking no thought for the morrow," the priests of _Lao-Kung_ devoted themselves to a state of celibacy, as being more free from cares than the inc.u.mbrances which necessarily attend a family connexion; and the better to accomplish this end, they a.s.sociated in convents. Here they deal out to their votaries the decrees of the oracle agreeably to the rules prescribed by Confucius; and they practice also a number of incantations, magic, invocations of spirits, and other mystical rites that are probably as little understood by themselves as by the gazing mult.i.tude. In performing these magic tricks they march in procession round the altar, on which the sacred flame is supposed to be kept perpetually burning, being a composition of wax and tallow mixed up with sandal wood shavings and other perfumes; they chaunt in unison a kind of recitative, and they bow their heads obsequiously every time they pa.s.s before the front of the altar. The great _Gong_ is struck at intervals, accompanied by tinkling sounds emitted by gently striking small metal plates suspended in a frame as in the plate of musical instruments. Their temples are crowded with large and monstrous figures, some made of wood, some of stone, and others of baked clay daubed over with paint and varnish, and sometimes gilt. To such figures however they do not seem to pay any kind of homage. They are intended merely to represent the good and evil genii under the various pa.s.sions to which human nature is liable. The good genii, or pleasing affections, are placed on one side of the temple, and their opposites on the other. Thus the personifications of mirth and melancholy, love and hatred, pleasure and pain, are contrasted together.

The conditions of men are also represented, and their figures opposed to one another. In this light at least they appeared to us; though the priest at _Tong-tchoo_ informed us they were intended to pourtray the different characters of the monks that had belonged to the monastery. In some temples also are met with the statues of such Emperors or ministers of state as had shewn themselves favourable to any particular convent.

If, for instance, a great man should occupy the apartments of a temple and at his departure leave a considerable sum of money, the priests, out of grat.i.tude, would place his image in a niche of the temple. In looking into one of these edifices a stranger would be apt to conclude that they were Polytheists, which I do not understand to be the case. Like the saints of the Catholics the great _Fo_, of whom I shall presently speak, with _Poo-sa_, _s.h.i.+ng-moo_, and many others, are considered only in the light of agents and intercessors, or as emanations of one creating, destroying, and renovating power, whose good providence has divided itself into a number of attributes for the better government of the universe[45].

[45] Thus among the inscriptions written over the doors of Temples, some are dedicated

_To the Holy Mother, Queen of Heaven; the G.o.ddess of peace and power, descended from the island of_ Moui-tao, _who stills the waves of the sea, allays storms, protects the empire._

Another has

_The ancient temple of the G.o.ddess (Kin-wha) of the golden flower, through whose influence fields are green and fertile like a grove of trees, and benefits are diffused as the frothy wave of the sea, that s.h.i.+nes like splendid pearls._

Next to this religion of the immortals, was introduced another of nearly the same growth which, from being patronized by the court, soon became no less popular than the former. The priests of _Fo_, coming by invitation from India, imported with them a great portion of the Hindu mythology, which some learned men have supposed to be the origin from whence the Polytheism of Egypt and Greece had its source; and others the direct contrary. Be that as it may, the affinity seems to be too strong not to ascribe them to a common parent; and the representations and the histories of many of the G.o.ds of these nations were imported, in all probability, with the religion of _Fo_, from India into China. This will better appear by comparing a few as they are observed in the different nations.

The _Budha_ of the Hindus was the son of _Ma ya_, and one of his epithets is _Amita_: the _Fo_ of China was the son of _Mo-ya_, and one of his epithets is _Om-e-to_; and, in j.a.pan, whose natives are of Chinese origin, the same G.o.d _Fo_ is wors.h.i.+pped under the name of _Amida_. I could neither collect from any of the Chinese what the literal meaning was of _Om-e-to_, nor could I decypher the characters under which it is written, but it appeared to be used as a common e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n on most occasions, just as we Europeans are too apt to make a familiar and impious use of the name of G.o.d. Perhaps it might not seem inconsistent in considering it to be derived from the Hindu mystic word _Om_.

Since the accession of the Tartar princes to the throne of China, the court religion, or at least the Tartar part of the court, which before adhered to the tenets of Confucius, has been that of _Fo_ or _Budha_.

The priests are numerous, mostly dressed in yellow gowns, live in a state of celibacy in large convents or temples, which the Chinese call _Poo-ta-la_, evidently derived from _Budha-laya_, or habitation of _Budha_, this name being adopted by the Tartars, which the Chinese have been under the necessity of following as nearly as their organs of speech would admit. They wear a sort of chapelet round their necks, consisting of a number of beads. In some of their ceremonies they march, like the _Tao-tses_, in procession round the altar, counting their beads, repeating at every bead _Om-e-to-fo_, and respectfully bowing the head. The whole string being finished, they chalk up a mark, registering in this manner the number of their e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns to _Fo_. This counting of their beads was one of the ceremonies that very much exasperated the missionaries.

The _Ganesa_ of the Hindus, the _Ja.n.u.s_ of the Romans, and the _Men-s.h.i.+n_, or guardian spirit of the door of the Chinese, are obviously one and the same deity. Sometimes he is painted with a club in one hand, and a key in the other, representing the protector of the house. On almost every door in China, where the inhabitants profess the religion of _Fo_, is drawn the figure of _Men-s.h.i.+n_, or otherwise the two characters of this word, agreeing exactly with what Sir William Jones has observed of the new town of Gaya in Hindostan, "that every new built house, agreeably to an immemorial usage of the Hindus, has the name of _Ganesa_ superscribed on its door: and in the old town his image is placed over the gates of the temples."

The _Vishnu_ of the Hindus, riding on an eagle, and sometimes attended by an eagle, has been considered as the _Jupiter_ of the Greeks; and the _Lui-s.h.i.+n_ of the Chinese, or spirit of thunder, is figured under a man with the beak and talons of an eagle, sometimes surrounded with kettle drums, carrying in one hand a batoon and in the other a flame of fire.

The _Osiris_ of the Egyptians, from whence the Greeks had their _Jupiter_, comes still nearer to the _Lui-s.h.i.+n_ of the Chinese. When represented as the emblem of the sun, he was drawn under the figure of a man with an eagle's beak, carrying in his hand a batoon on which was painted an eye. The ingenious and fertile imagination of the Greeks separated the emblem from the G.o.d, and made the bird of prey the attendant of the divinity, which the Egyptians and the Chinese united under one symbol. It is a curious coincidence of opinion, if it be not founded on fact, that the Chinese should a.s.sign the same reason for giving an eagle's face to their _Lui-s.h.i.+n_, that Pliny has for the consecration of that bird to _Jupiter_, namely, that no instance was ever known of an eagle being destroyed by lightning. The Chinese have also an observation with regard to this bird, which has been made by other nations, and which is, that the eagle, in a thunder storm, always mounts above the clouds.

The _Varuna_ of the Hindus, riding on a fish, the _Neptune_ of the Greeks, and the Chinese _Hai-vang_, or king of the sea, reposing on the waves, with a fish in his hand, are unquestionably one and the same personage.

The giant _Briareus_, with his hundred hands, is truly in China of a most stupendous and colossal stature, being commonly from fifty to sixty feet in height, and sometimes as tall as eighty feet. But the largest of all their deities is a woman of the family of _Poo-sa_[46], apparently a personification of nature. This G.o.ddess is modelled in a variety of ways; sometimes she is to be found with four heads, and forty or fifty arms, the heads looking towards the four cardinal points of the compa.s.s, and each arm holding some natural product of the earth subservient to the use of man. Sometimes each arm produces several smaller arms, and on the head stands a pyramidal groupe of smaller heads. Van Braam mentions his having seen a statue of this G.o.ddess that was ninety feet high, having four heads and forty-four arms. It is no uncommon thing to meet with temples in ruins, in the midst of which these monstrous G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses are seen entire, exposed to the elements. It seems the inferior temples are generally upheld by the voluntary gifts of the people; and that, whenever any unusual calamity befals a town or village, such as severe famine, epidemic disease, inundations, or the like, whose dire effects cease not on repeated applications to the protecting saint, by way of punis.h.i.+ng the G.o.ds, they literally pull down the temple over their heads, and leave them sitting in the open air. The grotesque and barbarous manner of representing the manifold powers of nature, or the G.o.ddess of nature, by a plurality of heads and hands in one idol, is by no means favourable to the supposition of a refined or superior understanding in the people who adopt them into their religious wors.h.i.+p. It can be considered only as a very short step beyond the conceptions of savages, who have no other idea than that of supplying by number, or a repet.i.tion of the same thing, what may be wanting in power.

The same figure, with numerous arms, appears in the Hindu temples that are excavated out of solid granite mountains, the most ancient and among the most wonderful monuments of art and persevering labour that have hitherto been discovered on the face of the globe, the fountain perhaps from whence the arts, the sciences, and the religious mysteries of the Egyptians and the Greeks derived their origin.

[46] _Poo-sa_ comprehends a cla.s.s of superintending deities inferior to those of _Fo_, who are consulted on trivial occasions, and the ordinary affairs of life. Of course the greater number of temples are called by the general name of _Poo-sa miau_, _temple of Poo-sa_. The name implies _all-helping_. The character _poo_ signifies _support_, and _sa_ has the character of _plant_ for its root or key united to that of _preservation_; the _plant-preserving_, or _plant-supporting_ deity; from whence it may perhaps be concluded, that _Poo-sa_ is the offspring of the _Holy Mother_ of whom I am about to speak.

But the most common of all the female deities in China is the _s.h.i.+ng-moo_, or holy mother, or rather the mother of _perfect intelligence_[47]. This lady is the exact counterpart of the Indian _Ganga_ or G.o.ddess of the river, the _Isis_ of the Egyptians, and the _Ceres_ of the Greeks. Nothing shocked the missionaries so much on their first arrival in China as the image of this lady, in whom they discovered, or thought they discovered, the most striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary. They found her generally shut up with great care in a recess at the back part of the altar, and veiled with a silken screen to hide her from common observation; sometimes with a child in her hand, at other times on her knee, and a glory round her head. On hearing the story of the _s.h.i.+ng-moo_ they were confirmed in this opinion. They were told that she conceived and bore a son while yet a virgin, by eating the flower of the _Lien-wha_ (the _Nelumbium_) which she found lying upon her clothes on the bank of a river where she was bathing: that, when the time of her gestation was expired, she went to the place where she had picked up the flower and was there delivered of a boy; that the infant was found and educated by a poor fisherman; and, in process of time, became a great man and performed miracles. Such is her story, as told by the Chinese priests. When the image of this G.o.ddess is standing, she generally holds a flower of the Nelumbium in her hand; and when sitting, she is usually placed upon the large peltate leaf of the same plant.

[47] The character _s.h.i.+ng_ is compounded of _ear, mouth_, and _ruler_ or _king_, intending perhaps to express _the faculty of hearing all that ear has heard and mouth uttered_.

The Egyptian Lotos, not that esculent plant from the use of which the _Lotophagi_ had their name, but another of a very different genus consecrated to religious purposes, is said[48] to have been ascertained from a statue of _Osiris_, preserved in the Barberini palace at Rome, to be that species of water lilly which grows in abundance in most parts of the eastern world, and which was known to botanists under the name of _Nymphaea Nelumbo_; but I understand it is now considered as a new _genus_, distinguished under a modification of its former specific name, by that of _Nelumbium_. This plant, however, is no longer to be found in Egypt. The two species that grow, at present, on the banks and ca.n.a.ls of the Nile are totally different, which furnishes a very strong presumption that, although a sacred plant and cultivated in the country, it might nevertheless be of foreign growth. In China, few temples are without some representation of the Nelumbium; sometimes the _s.h.i.+ng-moo_ is painted as standing upon its leaves in the midst of a lake. In one temple I observed the intelligent mother sitting upon the broad peltate leaf of this plant, which had been hewn out of the living rock.

Sometimes she holds in her hand a cornucopia filled with the ears of rice, of millet, and of the capsule or seed-vessel of the Nelumbium, these being articles of food which fall to the share of the poorest peasant. This very beautiful water lilly grows spontaneously in almost every lake and mora.s.s, from the middle of Tartary to the province of Canton; a curious circ.u.mstance, when we consider the very great difficulty with which it can be preserved, even by artificial means, in climates of Europe, whose temperature are less warm and less cold than many of those where, in China, it grows in a state of nature, and with the greatest degree of luxuriance. On the heights of Tartary it is found in an uncultivated state where, in winter, the thermometer frequently stands at, and generally far below, the freezing point. But here the roots strike at the bottom of very deep waters only, a circ.u.mstance from which we may perhaps conclude, that the plant may rather require uniformity of temperature, than any extraordinary degree either one way or other. Not only the seed of the Nelumbium, which is a kind of nut nearly as large as an acorn, but the long roots, jointed like canes, furnish articles of food for the table. In the capital, during the whole summer season, the latter are sliced and laid on ice, and in this state serve as part of the desert; the taste differs very little from that of a good juicy turnip, with a slight degree of astringency.

[48] By Mr. Pauw.

There is something so very striking and remarkable in this plant, that it is not surprizing the Egyptians and the Indians, fond of drawing allusions from natural objects, should have considered it as emblematic of creative power. The leaves of the succeeding plant are found involved in the middle of the seed, perfect, and of a beautiful green. When the sun goes down, the large leaves that spread themselves over the surface of the water close like an umbrella, and the returning sun gradually unfolds them. Now, as these nations considered water to be the primary element, and the first medium on which creative influence began to act, a plant of such singularity, luxuriance, utility and beauty, could not fail to be regarded by them as a proper symbol for representing that creative power, and was accordingly consecrated by the former to _Osiris_ and to _Isis_, the emblems of the sun and moon, and by the latter to _Ganga_, the river G.o.ddess, and to the sun. The coincidence of ideas between those two nations, in this respect, may be drawn from that beautiful Hindu hymn, addressed to Surya or the sun, and translated by Sir William Jones--

"Lord of the Lotos, father, friend and king, O Sun! thy powers I sing."--&c.[49]

[49] Captain Turner found the name of the Lotos inscribed over most of the temples in Bootan and Thibet, and Colonel Symes, in the account of his emba.s.sy to the kingdom of Ava, which with Pegu, Aracan, and Laos, now const.i.tute the Birman empire, describes the people as Budhists or of the sect of Fo; indeed their customs and appearance, as well as their religion, seem to indicate a Chinese or Tartar origin.

Whether the Chinese, like the Hindus, entertained the same notions of creative power, or its influence upon water as the primary element, I could not learn. No information as to the ground-work of their religion is to be looked for from the priests of the present day, who are generally very ignorant; but I suspect the dedication of the Lotos to sacred uses to be much older than the introduction of Hindu mythology by the priests of Budha. They even ascribe the fable of eating the flower to the mother of their first Emperor _Foo-shee_; and the Lotos and the lady are equally respected by all the sects in China; and even by the Mantchoo Tartars, whose history commences with the identical story of a young virgin conceiving and bearing a son, who was to be the progenitor of a race of conquerors, by eating the flower of a water lilly. If, indeed, any dependence is to be placed on the following well known inscription found on an ancient monument of Osiris, Egyptian rites may be supposed to have made their way into the east and probably into China, or, on the other hand, those of the east adopted by the Egyptians, at a period of very remote antiquity. "Saturn, the youngest of all the G.o.ds, was my father. I am Osiris, who conducted a large and numerous army as far as the deserts of India, and travelled over the greatest part of the world, &c. &c."

It may not, perhaps, be thought improbable (I offer it, however, merely as conjecture) that the story of _Osiris_ and _Isis_ was known in China at a very early period of the history of this country. _Osiris_, king of Egypt, and husband of _Isis_, was wors.h.i.+pped under the form of an ox, from his having paid particular attention to the pursuits of agriculture, and from employing this animal in the tillage of the ground.

"Primus aratra manu solerti fecit Osiris."

Osiris first constructed ploughs with dext'rous skill.

Historians say, that _Isis_, on the murder of her husband, enjoined the priests of Egypt, by a solemn oath, to establish a form of wors.h.i.+p in which divine honours should be paid to their deceased prince; that they should select what kind of animal they pleased to represent the person and the divinity of _Osiris_, and that they should inter it with solemn funeral honours when dead. In consideration of this apotheosis, she allotted a portion of land to each sacerdotal body. The priests were obliged to make a vow of chast.i.ty; their heads were shaven and they went barefooted. Divine honours were likewise conferred on _Isis_ after her death, and she was wors.h.i.+pped under the form of a cow.

Now, although the festival in China, at which the Emperor holds the plough in the commencement of the spring, be considered at this day as nothing more than a political inst.i.tution, and continued as an example to the lower orders of people, an incitement for them to pursue the labours of agriculture as the most important employment in the state;--yet, as this condescension of the sovereign militates so strongly against all their maxims of government, which place an immense distance between him and the first of his people, it may not, perhaps, be much amiss in supposing it to have originated in some religious opinion. Indeed he still continues to prepare himself for the solemn occasion, by devoting three days entirely to pious ceremonies and rigid devotion. On the day appointed by the tribunal of mathematics, a _cow_ is sacrificed in the _Tee-tan_, or temple dedicated to the earth; and on the same day, in some of the provinces, the figure of a cow of baked clay, of an immense size, is carried in procession by a number of the peasantry, followed by the princ.i.p.al officers of government and the other inhabitants. The horns and the hoofs are gilded and ornamented with silken ribbons. The prostrations being made and the offerings placed on the altar, the earthen cow is broken in pieces and distributed among the people. In like manner the body of _Osiris_, wors.h.i.+pped afterwards under the form of an ox, was distributed by _Isis_ among the priests; and the _Isia_[50] were long celebrated in Egypt in the same manner as the festival of holding the plough is at this day observed in China, both being intended, no doubt, to commemorate the persons who had rendered the most solid advantages to the state, by the encouragement they had held out for the cultivation of the ground.

[50] No festivals, perhaps, were so universally adopted and so far extended, as those in honour of _Isis_. They not only found their way into every part of the East, but from Greece they were also received by the Romans, and from these they pa.s.sed into Gaul. It has even been conjectured, that the modern name of Paris has its derivation from a temple that was dedicated to this G.o.ddess, ?a?a ?s??, not very distant from this ancient capital of Gaul. The city arms are a s.h.i.+p, which _Isis_ was depicted to hold in her hand, as the patroness of navigation. In fact, a statue of _Isis_[51] is said to have been preserved with great care in the church of Saint Germain until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the zeal of a bigotted cardinal caused it to be demolished as an unsanctified relick of pagan superst.i.tion.

[51] Encyclopedie des Connoissances Humaines.

The disputes, quarrels, persecutions and ma.s.sacres, that have happened at various times among the different sects of Christianity in Europe, have not been much less violent, nor productive of less dreadful consequences, between the sect of immortals and that of Fo, in China, whenever the court, or rather the intriguing eunuchs, seemed to favour the opinions of one sect in preference to those of the other.

Persecutions never failed to begin whenever either party was fortunate enough to gain over to its side the chief of the eunuchs, who had always sufficient influence with the reigning monarch to prevail upon him to espouse the same cause. They were, however, wars of priests alone in which the people remained neutral, or took no active part. Whole monasteries have been levelled with the ground, and thousands of priests put to death on both sides. Since, however, the accession of the present Tartar dynasty, they have met with no particular marks of favour or distinction; and, on that account, are apparently reconciled to each other; indeed, they are scarcely distinguishable either by their temples or by their dress. The prediction of future events being best suited to the minds of the mult.i.tude, and most sought after, the oracle of fate may be consulted in any temple, whether of _Fo_ or of _Tao-tze_. The government interferes not in religious opinions, and it gives no support to any particular sect, except that of the Lama, whose priests are paid and maintained as a part of the Imperial establishment. The Tartar officers of state are likewise attached to the faith of the Lama, without the absurdities that have been mixed with it by the immortals.

However strictly the women may be kept at home by the customs of the country, they are nevertheless permitted, on certain occasions, to consult their destiny at the altar, without being exposed to the censure of vulgarity or impropriety. Barren wives are even encouraged to visit the temples, not so much for the purpose of knowing their destiny, as under a firm belief that, by rubbing the bellies of certain little copper G.o.ds, they shall conceive and bear children. But, the women in general who, from habit, feel little inclination to stir abroad, except on very pressing occasions, encourage a set of fortune-tellers, mountebanks and jugglers, who thus pick up a livelihood by travelling the country and telling fortunes from house to house. They are known by a wretched squalling flute on which they play, and are beckoned to call where their art is required. By being made acquainted with the day and hour of a person's birth, they pretend to _cast his nativity_, which is called _Swan-ming_, or the art of discovering events by means of numbers. A Chinese, even in the higher ranks, has no great idea of a man's learning, if he be ignorant of the _Swan-ming_. I was very frequently applied to at _Yuen-min-yuen_, by persons in office, to know if I could tell them their fortune; and it was difficult to persuade them I had any knowledge of the astronomical instruments intended for the Emperor, after professing my ignorance in _casting a nativity_.

The priests of both sects are supposed to be no less attentive in keeping up a perpetual fire burning upon the altars than the Roman Vestals were in this respect; but no expiation nor punishment being considered necessary, as in the latter case, they cannot boast that "flames unextinguish'd on their altars s.h.i.+ne." They are, in fact, frequently extinguished by carelessness or accident. No virgins attend this holy flame, but the charge of it is committed generally to young boys under training for the priesthood. Like the Greeks and the Romans, the Chinese have also their penates or household G.o.ds, which are not represented under any particular personification, but generally by a tablet bearing a short inscription and a taper burning before it. Every s.h.i.+p, however small, has its tablet and its taper; and within the compa.s.s-box or binnacle a taper is continually kept burning.

In every city, town and village, sometimes in the midst of woods, in the mountains and most lonely places, are small temples, the doors of which are continually left open for the admittance of such as may be desirous of consulting their destiny. The practical part of Chinese religion may, in fact, be said to consist in predestination. A priest is not at all necessary for unravelling the book of fate. If any one be about to undertake a journey, or to purchase a wife, or to build a house, or, above all, to bury a deceased relation, and any doubt should arise in his mind as to the fortunate result of such undertaking, he repairs to the nearest temple; and, if he should not be able to read himself, he takes a friend by the hand who can. On the altar of every temple is placed a wooden cup, filled with a number of small sticks, marked at the extremities with certain characters. Taking the cup in his hands he shakes it till one of the sticks falls upon the ground and, having examined the character upon it, he looks for the corresponding mark in a book which is generally appended to the wall of the temple. The lot, in this manner, is cast several times, and if one lucky flick in three should happen to turn up, he is willing to consider the omen as favourable; and, if the event should answer the expectation he has been led to form from the book of fate, he considers it as a duty to return to the temple and to burn a sheet or two of painted paper, or of paper covered with tin foil, and to deposit a few pieces of copper money on the altar, in token of grat.i.tude for the favour he has received[52]. In this manner is consumed the greatest part of the tin that is carried to China by the trading companies of Europe. I have already observed that they have no communion of wors.h.i.+p to offer up, in a public manner, their prayers or thanksgivings.

[52] The present Emperor shewed his grat.i.tude for his prayers having been heard, by granting in a public edict an additional t.i.tle to the temple in which they were offered.