Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-10-13
BAR TO PROGRESS
Superstition Has a Powerful Hold on
the Chinese.
ENTERS into THEIR DAILY LIFE
Accounts for Much of the Feeling
Against Foreigners.

!
MYSTERIOUS FENG SHUA
Copyright, 1900. by I. T. Headland.)
Written for The Evening Star by Prof Issac t
Headland Of the University of Pekin.
In the reconstruction of China, which
must come in spite Of the present Boxer
disturbances, monster difficulties will meet
the foreigner at every step Of the way. The
reconstruction or reformation must, in the
nature of the case, be the work of the for
eigner. The Chinaman is not able to &C
complish 1t. Nevertheless, 1t must be done
with the cooperation Of either the ma
jority or a most powerful minority Of in
telligent and influential young Chinese
Among these difficulties there will be none
perhaps more difficult to overcome than su-
perstition, first, because superstition is so
nearly related to the religious nature Of the
Chinaman, and, second, because it Is so
deeply and firmly rooted in the character
Of the people. This difficulty will be en-
HANGED by the fact that the Chinese are a
people of character beyond that of almost
all, If not all, non-Christian people. More
over, superstition will be added to supersti-
ton, because Of the ideas they hold regard
ing the foreigner-that is. that he is kuei
tzu, or devil" literally. 'son Of devil"
Why We Are Called Devils.
The Chinese idea of devil Is that Of a
red haired. red-whiskered. blue-eyed indi-
vidual who quatls at nothing. In this con-
nection a very amusing story is told of a
haired, red whiskered, blue-eyed British
consul at Canton. One day, when Chinese
official was calling. the consul asked him:
why is 1t that the Chinese call US dew
ils7"
The official at first hesitated, and IN
ally said: II do not WISH to tell you
But, should take 1t as a great favor If
you would tell me. 1 am very anxious to
know"
But you will be angry II / tell YOU"
by no means. On the other hand. I
shall &c greatly obliged to you"
Being thus pressed until he was unable to
refuse, the official finally answered: We'll,
then, it is because you look like devils"
The natural superstitions Of the people
have been taken up by the Boxers and
have been circulated still more widely by
all kinds Of placards, both in prose and In
verse I have before me one in verse,
part of which reads as follows:
1.-THE devils are not human beings like ~
II you doubt what say,
That the eyes Of the devils In color are bl...'
In the original this reads:
'Kuei tzu shih- jen % ch'uan.
Ju pu hsin
TIN hsi kan.
Kuei txu yen chu tou IA lan.
Feng Shua.
Superstitions are not only connected with
the religion Of the people, but with their
natural science as well. The Taoist priests
as alchemists have organized all that they
know and do not know about the powers
of nature into a system Of superstition call
ed ''Feng Shua'' Qiterally, wind and
water'D, and this enters into the daily life
Of the people. Everything they do must
be done in such way as not to inter-
fere with the Feng Shua of the place or
the Immediately surrounding country The
principles of this system are believed by
high and low alike. as may be seen from
the following incident:
Opposite the Methodist compound In
Pekin is the residence of Huang Tai
Tzu or yellow gtrdle man." man who
is of direct descent from the royal tanliy.
Now, the Chinese house has no chimney,
but at the risk Of being out Of the fashion
the foreigners prepared to construct CHM
neys on their houses. one OF tnese cnlm-
neys, 1t happened. rose exactly opposite
the front gate Of the yellow girdle mans
house. Now, all this mans children were
girls OF course, he wanted to know the
reason. He called in the geomancer, VINO,
On examination. discovered that our chin
new had destroyed the Feng Shua OF his
place. One day the old man dressed HIM
self in his best silk garments and came
over to call on the foreign teachers
He spent a half hour or more In pleasant
conversation on various topics which led
1p to the 'luck'' Of the place and the va.ue
and Importance of male children. and then
explained the nature or his Visit, when
was to ask If the foreign teacher would
not tear the chimney down to level with
the highest part Of the roof In order that
his miserable home might be blessed with
the hope of male offspring" OF course.
the foreign teacher consented, the CHIMNEY
was torn down. and, behold, as confirma-
ton Of the acumen of the geomancer and
the power Of the immortal principles of
Fene Shua, yellow girdle mans" next
child was boy!
Encounter With Feng Shua.
within the wells Of the city Of Fuchao
there Is a hill which the inhabitants OF
that city look upon as very important as
governing the health and controlling the
general prosperity as well as happiness OF
the city and people. In the earlier days
some English missionaries bought property
and built upon that hill, when the people,
fearing that the Feng Shua OF the city
would be injured, arose and destroyed the
entire property Of the nilsson, consisting
of church. school house ana dwelling.
chao was believed by the people to have
resulted from a mission building on hill
not far from his official residence. The
those In Fuchao. and requested the mis-
sionaries to accept site In a different part
of the city, which they. of course. con-
scented to do.
For many years the Methodist mission in
Tien Tsin had great difficulty with both Of
icials and people because of a street chapel
located Just inside the east gate OF the
city. The reason given was that the chapel
DESTROYED the Feng shua OF the place. Eff
forts were made again and again to settle
the matter, but always without success.
Finally both the officials on the one hand
tired Of the constant trouble. and the for
mer offered either to buy the chapel and
property or to give In exchange a new site.
They were asked to select q site. and. II
they were able to find one which was sat