The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-08-06
LANE OF SUPERSTITION.
Chinese Have Many Strange Ideas
Which to Them are Real.

1t is not always sale to XIII snake
in China 1t doesn't matter much
whether the snake is CT the water spe-
cies or of the land variety for with
in the reptiles body is supposed to
reside the spirit of what the yellow
men worship as the Dragon King.
This latter is believed by the average
superstitious John" to have the pow
er of ruling over floods. This Drag
on King represents one symbol IN the
ritual of worship of the Chinese re-
ligion called Taoism.
China practically possessed three
different forms of religion until the
advent of the Christian missionaries.
The first of these religions was in the
form of a philosophy. This still ex-
lists to some extent, and is known as
Confucianism. The second form has
been recognized as Buddhism, which
still exists throughout China as SYM
bolized in the worship of idols. AS
you travel through the country, here
and there you will frequently run
across idols of Budha located on the
hillsides or other quiet and seques-
tered spots conducive to reverential
reflection. Plenty of worshipers yet
pay their homage to these Buddhist
idols, and you can see them conscien-
tiously observing the formal ceremon-
les of their worship. But this form
of religion is steadily dying natural
death since the advent of Christiani-
ty.
The third variety of religious OBJ
servance among the Celestials is that
of Taoism. This was started by. an
old patriarch named Lao-tgu, who
had surrounding him group of
Eight immortals" as his disciples.
One of these latter was given the re-
sponsibility of representing the god
of BARRIERS. The Taoist worshipers
have temples erected in each native
town. In those temples are pictures
portraying the horrors of the future
life. When the souls of the dead are
ferried across the river Styz, the ar
tist has painted grewsome thought.
Men and women are depicted as
climbing towering mountains of ice
only to fall back into gaping abyss
as they nearly reach the top. AS
they fall their bodies are revealed as
caught upon spears and tossed back
ward and forward by deft execution
ers. These grewsome pictures show
how the sufferers are finally ground
up between millstones. Some OF
them show sharp swords slashing to
pieces of the bodies which have es-
capped the milestone process, and little
dogs are pictured running after the
sufferers tapping up the blood. On
certain occasions after a death the
family will proceed in body to these
temples and will hold public wall.
On the drum tower of the Taoist
temple at Tientsin it has been COM
mon to see richly dressed native mer-
chants kneeling to an iron pot con-
tanning incense burned in honor of
his excellency the rat. Other similar
disgusting procedures could be OBJ
served. 1t is hard to conceive that
human beings can be so superstitious
as to deliberately endure such empty
practices of hallowed mockery. Yet
this is one phase of China, the China
of today. The few modernized Mon
golians surely have their hands full
in effectively combating this awful
element of ignorance and bigoted su-
perst't .ol and in holding their newly
organic ed republic to the main high
way of progress. Philadelphia North
American.