The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-18
THE STORM CENTRE
 OF THE WORLD


 tBy pr. R. Warren Conant.>
 ARTICLE X.
 The Three Great Native Religions
 The Dead Hand-Ancertor Wor-
 ship--The Invasion of Fourth
 Great Religion from Outside.
 St. Paul told the Athenians that they were too superstitious, because ne inscription, To the Unknown God. What would St. Paul have said If he could have visited China! He would have found there in his time, as can be found there temples and superstitions without mum Der. Compared with the Chinese, the Athenians were Puritaas.
 It is difficult for the occidental mind to form any clear conception Of the re- ligious notions of Chinaman. if. indeed, John himself has any. The medley or nonsense. contradictions and fantastic, childish superstitions which serve him mas as out experience unless 1t be mince pie and plum pudding nightmare. It would require a large volume to describe all his superstitions; one must suffice. sim
 The belief In "feng-shui'' Is universal and implicit Rich and poor. wise and ignorant, young and old. all alike govern this superstitiop. What Is, ..'feng- -shui? ?' literal translation will not help us much. for 1t means simply wind and wa
 Every one knows in China that each locality, each spot of ground. has It's friendly. ali variable. They are easily of- tended. and in that. case the people iiv- ing in that spot will have nothing but sickness, death and misfortune until the -l s-
 The cause of the offense Is generally of the most trivial nature, but especially Is anything. which overlooks pr overtops the spot. Thus, neighbor:s window. or church spire, Is offensive to the spirits. The list of such things is infinite. and they must be remedied For the law takes cognisance of feng-shpi. end will Nor Is this chiidishness confined to the Ignorant. A foreigner in the employ of the Chinese 6ullt tn.i hoIse n cisl. The officiai conpiained of the for coal smoke, but in behalf of fsng-shui; get through the cold weather as best he gould, with fires In open braziers to keep from freezing!
 The spirits are very fnical. Sometimes. shop. they seem to have no objection to groceries or dry goods. They may take an unacceptable dislike to the family of An Sin, and bring them such misfortune as to compel the family to move out, in spite of svery effort to placate them. Then Wa Shing moves in and everything Is serene--feng-shuii What better proof could you wantf Of course, the ."bar- barian' mind sees in ali this nothing but another form of the Tuck" which so many occidentals all but worship, but to the Chinaman. 1t Is intensely, painfully real; he believes himself surrounded on every side by invisible agencies, potent for good or ill., which must be the chief object of his life to propitiate.
 Sometimes feng-shui becomes of na- tional, or even International importance. For instance, on the death of certain emperor, the diviners declared that 1t would never do to bury the remains in the imperial tombs because of feng-shui. Then there was a tremendous bother, for no one could think for g moment of act Ing contrary to feng.shili, 50 the corpse lay around unburied for a long time and thousands of dollars were expended while the diviners were finding out how to get over the difficulty. Finally they discov- cred that some trivial expedient. such as planting 2. tree in corner of the ceme- tery. would appease the spirits, and 50 at last the emperor was at rest / Even among the Chinese there are not want ing some free thinkers who will go so far as to insinuate that the diviners will fees in sight, but they insinuate 1t very cautiously, having no mind to figure the front end of heresy hunt.
 The large number of unburied coffins which diehgure the landscape in many parts of China are so left because of this same fenR-shut difficulty, and also be- cause of the expense of funeral rites and ceremonies. This only illustrates another of Johns little inconsistencies. Take him one way and he is a materialist of the materialists; his religion knows no God,