76 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 80 very well dressed, is reputed to have taught the Chinese how to make

and

to

wear

clothing.

At

the

gateway

of the

Ta O

Si temple

on

Mt.

Omei

is an idol

which

is the

image

of a

man who

^{is still living}

—

^{at least, he}

^was

ⁱⁿ

the

summer

of 1925.

He

is

an

old

man who

^is deeply devoted to

Buddhism, and who

has given

much money

to the

Ta O

Si temple

He was

thereforedeifiedwhilehe

was

stillalive.

The

writerhas heard of a similar case in

Yachow.

The mummified

priestisapeculiar

form

of adeifiedhero.

The Wan

Fuh Din

temple

and

the Ch'ien

Fuh Temple on

Mt.

Omei

each

have

one of these.

They were

priests

who

in their respective temples

went

into seclusion until they died,

when

they

were mummified and wor-

shipped as gods.

Another god who

is said to be a

mummified

priest isacross theriver

from

Kiatingnearthe Great

Buddha.

Still another

is the principal deity of the T'aiTsi Miao, a temple near the

summit

of Mt.

Omei.

It is claimed that the last one is the

mummified

son of an emperor.

He

helps the worshippers secure the birth of sons.

In Tibet thereis another

form

of the deified

man,

the

Hoh Fuh

or Living

Buddha. He

is thought tobe a reincarnationof agod. Tradi- tion says that there

was

once such a reincarnation of P'ushien

on

Mt.

Omei. That

is

what

is

meant by

the sentence quoted on a pre- vious page. ^"In the

Manchu Dynasty

there appeared here a Living P'ushien."

Not

a

few

of the gods in the Buddhist

and

Taoisttemples are great religious leaders

who

in the past have rendered distinguished service to their religious organizations,

and who

consequently have been deified.

Every

occupation has its patron deity. Scholars worship

Uen

Ts'ang P'usah, the

God

of Learning, expecting that he will assist

them

in acquiringknowledge.

Merchants

worship the

God

of

Wealth who

helps

them

secure financial prosperity.

Lu Ban

^is the

God

of Carpenters. Rice planters worship

Kuh Wang. There

is a

God

of Brewers.

No boatmen

^will begin a journey without firstworshipping

Wang

E. Physicians

and owners

of medicine shops worship loh

Wang,

the

God

ofMedicine.

There

aregodsofbutchers

and

of cooks.

At

Li

Chuang

^{there is a}

god

of thecoolies

who

carry water,

and

one for people

who

gather leaves

and

twigs for fuel

on

the river banks,

on

the hillsides, or in the forests. In a temple at

Ngan

Lin Ch'iao there are

two

idols

who

are

worshipped by

thieves,

and who

assist

them

in their undertakings.

They

themseh'-es are said to be experts at stealing.

NO.

4

^{RELIGION IN}

SZECHUAN PROVINCE — GRAHAM

_yj

Near

Suifii on the

Yangtse

River is a small temple

known

as the

White

Stone Temple. Originally there

was

only a ^large, white stone, taller

and

whiter than the others. People

began

to worship it,

and

ascribedtoitthe

power

of healing. Lateratemple

was

built

around

it,

and

a

few common

idols

were

added.

The

stone is still worshipped,

and

for a

few

cash one can purchase a tiny bitof the rock,

which

will cause

him

to recover

from

illness if he will grind it to sand, soak it

in water,

and

drink the water. Probably the process began with the natural senseof

awe

aroused because of the size

and

whitenessof the stone. This stone is not

worshipped

because a deity has taken

up

his abodein it, butbecause the stoneitself is thought tobe a

god

with beneficent

power

that is

more

than

human.

Near

the

town

of

Shuin Gien

Si, south of Suifu, there formerly lived a

man who

ran an oil factory.

He had some

large, fine bulls to run the stone rollers.

He

prospered,

and

the value of his bulls in- creased. Finally

he burned

incenseto his largest bull

and

worshipped

itas a god.

His

action was, in his

own mind and

those of his Chinese friends, the natural result of his

growing

sense of gratitude, wonder, admiration,

and awe

towards the bulls that contributed so

much

to his prosperity. I have heard Chinese

make

a similar explanation of the development of the worship of the

Sun God,

the

Moon

Goddess, the Fire God,the

Thunder

God,

and

of other deities.

At

Suifu,

two

old cypress trees are

worshipped

as divinities. It is

not that gods dwell in them, but that the trees themselves are gods.

They

are said to

have

been planted inthe

Ming

Dynasty, or possibly earlier. Itis asserted that they once

made

a pilgrimage to Mt.

Omei

Two men

giving their

names

as Beh, or White, worshipped at the different shrines

and

temples

on

the great sacred mountain,

and

promised contributions.

They

said that they

were

brothers

from

Suifu. Later apriest

came

to Suifu to collect the

money. He

could not find

any

brothers

named

Beh, but

when

he heard of the

two

cypresstrees, heh sou, he

knew

at oncethatthe

two

pilgrims

were

the

two

cypress trees. I

have

been told

by

aged priests

who were

experts in such traditions that very old trees, especially cypress trees, are able,after

many

years,todevelopinto tree-deities.

There

isa tendency in

some

localities to

burn

incense to aged trees or to the

stumps

of these trees. This is especially noticeable

on

Mt.

Omei,

on

Washan, and

at the

Yellow Dragon

Gorge.

Near Kiang

K'eo is a large

banyon

tree thatis

worshipped

because a spirit or ghost has taken its abode in the tree.

The

people began to worship it about 1917. It is called a

Huang Geh Giang

Guin, or^"General

Banyon."

Itsleavesareused tohealallkindsofdiseases.

78

SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS

VOL.

80

Incense is burnt to it. If one's feet are sore, he can get well by hanginga pair of straw sandals

on

the tree.

In the region

between

Kiating

and Chengtu

turnips often

grow

toa verylargesize.

The

Chinesesaythat they sometimes

weigh from

twenty-five to a

hundred

pounds, requiring

two men

to carry them.

When

such a turnip is found, ^it is called a

Turnip

King,

and

is re- garded as a

god

of turnips. Itis placed

on

a table or

on

a platform, divine honors are paidto it,

and

a

company

of actors are

engaged

to givetheatricals in its honor.

Then

there is a great feast to

which

the neighborhood is invited.

As

a result of thus honoring the

Turnip

King, it is thought that turnips will prosper in that locality.

But

the.

high cost of living

may

destroy this custom. All the expenses are borne

by

the farmer

on whose

land the

Turnip King

develops. Prices are rising, so that the farmers feel that they cannot afford to pay the expensesof theceremonies

and

of the feast. Therefore,

when

a turnip develops

beyond

a certain size, the farmers are apt to pull it

up and

sell it or

throw

it into a ditch.

At Ngan

Lin Ch'iao, near Suifu, there is an idol called a

Yinyang

P'usah,

which

is half

male and

half female. It represents the impor- tant yin

and yang

forces, the

male and

female principles in nature.

The

left side is male, the right side is female.

The

^left eye

and

ear

and

theleftsideof the

mouth

arelarge,

and

theright small,so that the face hasa lopsided appearance.

The

left footis natural,

and

the right foot bound.

The

left side is dressed like a

man, and

the right side likea

woman. On

thewhole, this isone of the queerestdeities thatliie

writer has seen.

One god

that is

worshipped

in

Szechuan

is called the

T'an Shen Den

Den. It is really a foundation-stone such as is used

under

the

wooden

pillars of houses

and

temples.

The

climate is very

damp,

especially in the

summer, and wood

decays easily. It is therefore

customary

to put foundation-stones

under

the

wooden

pillars to keep

them from

rotting

and

to protect

them from

theravagesof whiteants.

For some

reason these are occasionally worshipped as deities, set in places of honor,

and

regarded as very efificacious.

Wealthy

people spend

much money

ⁱⁿ their worship,

and

in return it is thought that they will cause one's family to prosper.

However,

the poor people believe that they

have bad

tempers,

and

that if

worshipped

too economically they will

become

spiteful

and do

injury in the

homes where

theyarekept.

Some

poor familiesthatcannotaffordtoworship with elaborate ceremonies simply

throw

the idols away, but the

ma-

joritycarry

them

toatemple

where

priests

and

pilgrimscan accordthe worship that theirmajesties

demand.

Foundation-stones hold

up

tre-