Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-12-18
CHINESE RELIGION.
THE RESULTS OF A SAN FRANCISCO l. REPORTERS INVESTIGATIONS.

The Confueian chinaman'. BeIief-The
 Taoist Liberal Sort of MaterialIst.
 The Metaphysical Buddhist-ReIigious
 Msxims of the CeIestiaIs.
 Stepping into shop in Chinatown. a gen ueman, among other things. asked the owner what his religious belief was. and the result of the conversation was that be found the shopkeeper to be a believer in all three of the national religions, accepting the gods of each ofhand, paylng his money to support the priests Of all, and, if it would have made busi- ness little brisker, An Wang would have undoubtedly announced himself Christian of any denomination required. This then is one of the most striking peculiarties: that, while there are three distinct religions, they see no inconsistency in accepting all The Coniucian Chinaman believes m a spiritual appeal to the moral nature He believes in conscience, sees a difference between virtue and vice pretends tO believe in Jaw and order, and Is firm believer in paying a religious venera ion to bis ancestors, and, above all, Is remarkable for bis filial piety
 THE MATERIALIsTIc TAoIsT
 The Taoist is a materialist To him the soul k something tangible, Q physical some thing, purer than the human form. It Is moi essentially immortal, but attains this state only by physical training after passing through certain pseudo-chcmical process. He believes in various gods. is a liberal of liberals m this Even the stars are divine or divinities. The TaoiSt Is also a great be
 lever in hermits, physicians, uaEicians and holy men of all kinds. The Chinese Budd hist differs from these. Ills religion Is meta physical He delights .n arEumentive phil Osophy, and gives vent Co hi, imagination iI building up his beliefs on on ethereal plat form. His gods are no. realities, but the mere personif ,ation ot ideas Matter, a. such, Is entirely Ji,ra-aricd. and ideas or theories founded upon ideas, accepted. Tao ism Is perhap, asp1pullr among the majority as any, as it Is of practical use, thus. a sick man will consult his god Of medicine. which l. Co he found in some Of the houses. and the priest will tell the patient exactly whA; medicine or drugs are required to heal him. Over and around these gods are seen testi. monials of patients that have been cured.
 The Taoist religion is buih up from work of about 5000 characters written by the famous Chincss philosopher Lao-ts IL is called the book Of the way to virtue, or Tao-Te King and extracts from it are found printed on sips in many of the stores in Chinatown. on many Of which will he found the sayings of this philosopher, whose prime Idea was to impress upon mankind that non existence was far to be preferred above ex- istenoe This is not quite up to the modern French philosopher, who proved with ease that existence was an impcSSibility IT a Taoist is asked for any papers relating to this religion be will, in all probability. provide extracts from work called the Book of Re wards and Puuishments These maxims are Co be found on many of the Chinese works of art, and probably no Chinese work has such |. circulation m San Francisco as this. The work itself is printed by subscription in China. and k given by the rich subscribers to thcse who cannot afford tO buy IL Some of the maxims that may be observed in the stores here are as follous. De humane to aninals;" Have pity upon orphans and show compassion to widows" Do not expose the faults of others" ~Bestow fla vors without expecting recompense.- Give willingly "Wives, respect your husbands mote that it k not obeyl. A handsome figure excites the admiration of the world. but it does not deceive heaven; and many moro, all of which have a decided flavor of Christian ethics about them
 GROTEsQUENESs OF THE GODS.
 Many of the grotesgue figures seen on ban ners, and especially on fans, and in the cur i0us books are the gods, nearly all of whom are the results of the imagination of Lao-tss's disciples, or, perhaps, to put it more cor rectly when Buddhism was introduced into China, the gods came as one of the results The old Buddhists had worshiped Lakya- muni, and now the Chinese Taoists defied .--asf pD'ioa.p''sr. Tao t--- Tn. ns,,isnt Buddhist doctrine presented three precious ones. the Iaoists of today go to a stepfather: they worship DaO-tSe as one called san Tsinz. yet they term him the three poor ones. .r and the visitor to Chinatown will, perhaus. find him represented by three images. The aris- tocracy ot China, or rather the higher classes do mol always worship the same god as the lower people. San Tsing k worshiped mostly hy prie>ts and rulers While the ordinary ciass-iaundrymen and the like-to introduce a home!y sInale, have a special god. that among the Taoists Is chief among l0.OO0 He Is known by the euphonious title Of the ''Pearly Emperor Supreme Ruler It is supposed by the devout believer that he is the make- and producer of every thing, and to him the other gods bend and refer all temporal and spiritual things. When anything unusual hatluens ss the last years troubles with the white u..or,l.. the devout Chinamen go to this god and burn incense, taking their other gods with them In China this god is appealed to to send rain. and Is thanked publicly when the rain ,cou.S
 Besides this god. the true Taoist worsb,u. many of the works of nature. as rivers mountains and valleys The god of thunder IS often sen figured on various objects. and resembles demoralized MepListophele, nj the annual French bali of New York. time 4 n m. He Is hald or partly 90; bears an up- lifted tOmahawk in his right hand. a bowie knife or trowel in his left, and has legs and 1 feet like 0 chicken. He Is altogether a weird l and striking object. On the other hand. tbe 1 god of the kitchen looks like the barber firSi ] brother in the Arabian Nights has calm and unrufiled mien, k arrayed in costly or I rich robes, and sits in 6 comfortable arm. hair, with his feet resting on what might l.a | ! gigantic three leaf clover. He probably ooks with complaoency upon the earthly I 'ooks, who receive 6, 900 while the Christian minister in many places tolls and lalpol,s at 'G00. Other deities that are often seen pict- lred on the various objects m Chinatown are The Mother of Lightning, The Spirit of he Sea ' Tine Lord of the Tide, The King f the Saa San Francisco Call