Norwich bulletin., 1919-08-22
china's shrinss-


 China's shrines. including those in the much discussed Shauntung, are described in bulletin from the Wash ington headquarters of The National Geographic society.
 "Coleridge could not have selected a phrase more apt than stately pleasure dome. had he intended to call attention to the best known form in Chinese architecture. Like so much of the wrought beauty of China. such as is das are the work of the Buddhist church almost exclusively" says the bulletin, which is based on a commu- nication from Frederick Mccormick
 s4The most beautiful specimens are in the Yangtse valley, where pagodas are most numerous. Every important Chinese and Manchurian city is gar landed with them. From the walls of may be counted within the city, and with good glass half a dozen famous ones may be seen rfSing from the surrounding plain
 APagodas range in height from % to more than 200 feet. and are of various sha apes-round, square, hexAgona1, oc- tagonaI, etc. They always have an odd number of stories( ranging from seven to nine. and sometimes possess ing II and even 13.
 pagoda as a counterpoise to evil and used it. subject to their rules of geo nancy.
 At the city of Tung. in the Picking plain, a region in past years visited by earthquakes, there is prominent pa- goda which at one time had more than 1000 bronze bells Suspended from it's cornices, most of which are still in place. The people have this story as to it's construction: A water owl lives underground at this place and when he shakes his tail it causes earthquakes. Geomancers located the end of his tail and the pagoda was built on it to hold it down. At the same time this did not prevent the water owl from winking his eyes; but, as his eyelids have not been accurately located, a second pagoda has not yet been built. As a result, tremblings of the earth still occur.
 "The wonder inspired in the breast of the traveller who visits China's vast remains of abandoned capitals( exten- sive temples ranged in successive court and on terraces of the noun tains its pagodas. p'ai-lous. bridges. and canals, is equalled by the awe i'm spired by the silence and splendor of the tombs of China's emperors. The tombs of the kings of the Six King doms' in Shantung, though now only earthen pyramids terraced with little fields. have the air of the Pyramids of Egypt.
 ''The Ming tombs, near Peking, are the most famed in our day. perhaps, because they are relatively in a good state of preservation and are accessi- hle to travellers. They are approached through the five-arched stone p'ai-lous already mentioned, and by an avenue of stone animals nearly two miles in length. The sacred buildings are plac- ed on the southern slope of the noun tains and nearly inclosed by their en- circling spurs.
 ''The place has an inspiration to all travellers. In front of the tomb of YunS To there is a sacrificial hall that is one of the largest buildings in China, and Is perhaps only exceeded in di- mensions by the Tai Mao. or ancen- tral temple of the Manchus. attached to the Forbidden City, Pek,ng.
 Tn the matter of tomb building the of the Three Kingdoms" 22o265 A. D.. greatly exceeded the Mings. He ordered his son to build for him 72 tombs. so that his enemies would not know which contained his tablet The achievement may be not cd of another ancient emperor who | constructed his tomb and then built, peopled and garrisoned a city near by i for it's protection. Perhaps the Chi 1 nese, who have performed the greatest | of engineering feats, have surpassed the Egyptians, Persians and Greeks in this direction also.
 "Older than these. and what may be called the one shrine in all China green with the devotion of the people, is the tomb of Confucius in Shantung Here worship continues through the ages under the patronage of a ldynasties. since the fifth century A. D., when the Emperor Kao ri set the example of imperial sacrifice there.
 "As time went on the different dy- nasties neglected the tombs of their predecessors, so that now the tombs of the Manchus are the best specimens of mausolea in China
 The Manchus followed the Chinese custom and law in respect to their an cestors. Solemn juniper forests enclose their sepulchers. which are approached through magnificent p'aij-lous and are preceded by stately buildings There are no less than five imperial Manchu burial places. The original is at Hsin- King, eastern Manchuria, and is called the Yung Ling. Two are at Mukden and two in the region of Peking.'