Among the aboriginal Lolo tribes of Yunnan an animal represents each day of the month. Accordingly the body of a caravaner is kept for burial until the lucky day of the horse arrives. A coin is put between the lips to pay the way, which shows that the rites are Taoist, and quite similar to old Grecian and Egyptian rites. When the revolutionists were fortifying Hanyang, in October, 1911, they did not hesitate to use a Taoist monastery as a fort in the hills. This marks a step forward against old superstitions, which were once insurmountable. The Chinese declare that a positive omen of a coming conflagration is the crowing of a cock during the night. Of course, all the cooks of Hankau recited this to their masters on the day when the imperialists burned the native city. Statues are many in the temples, monasteries, guild halls, pagodas and road shrines. Although Confucius is generally represented by a tablet merely, there are some temples which have statues of him and his disciples. Buddha is represented by three statues of the Past, Present and Future Buddha. Emperors of popular dynasties have statues erected to them in the temples. Then the Taoists have innumerable gods, including the famous gods of the War Temples. The guilds of the three hundred trades and twenty-one provinces all have patron gods, and it is orthodox to rub your finger on the god’s body in the place that corresponds with your sore spot, if you feel ill! You touch his back if you have lumbago (and find out that he is hollow!); his nose if you have asthma, and so on.
There are household gods; a god “Tsan” of the kitchen; pictures of gods to paste on the gates of the compound, and the God of Literature, who is very popular and has many temples. All over the north the Manchus have erected temples to the Fox, their wily patron god. This dependence on idols is not so dense as in India. The Chinese do it more as a good luck omen, just as we wear an opal or a turquoise, and not always as an essential religious rite. They have too much humor really to be as foolish as they may look when in the god’s presence. A god who doesn’t do his business well is as quickly dragged out by a rope and burned in times of stress as a human being would be treated with contumely whose prophecies always failed. In the south, religious edifices are being occupied for educational and civic purposes. When in 1908 the new learning broke over China like the full burst of a tropical day, the schools at first had to be housed in temples and monasteries. Recently, at Canton, the Wah Lum Monastery was used to entertain a public-spirited Chinese of Singapore, Chang U. Him, who brought both new learning and new wealth. “All interested in industries, self-government, charities and new education” were invited by circular to come up and see him “at the temple!”
Some of their religious proverbs, often touched with humor, are:
“If you must thrash a priest, wait until he has finished praying for you.”
“Man’s myriad schemes are not equal to a thought of God.”
“God gives birth and death to every man, but honors only to the few who deserve them.”
“The deeper your cave, the smaller is your heaven.”
“Man’s blow hits everything but heaven.”
“Do no wrong by light, and you’ll see no devil at night.”
“Penitence is good, but it should be proved by pennies.”