People to whom wild Nature does not appeal with irresistible force, those whom she does not "haunt like a passion," are of course in the overwhelming majority in China as everywhere else, and it is just as well, perhaps, for the practical concerns of this workaday world that such is the case. Yet let not the hermits and Nature-worshippers be despised: for it is an intense imaginative love of natural beauty that has inspired the noblest pictorial art of China and has proved the well-spring of her greatest poetry, and it was amid the glory and wonder of the eternal hills that some of her greatest philosophers have pondered the problems of life and death.
The hills of Weihaiwei, in spite of some fine scenery, are of small account when compared with the glorious mountains of southern and far western China, but even Weihaiwei has its legends of saints and monks and "immortals" who made their homes amid the rocks and woods. There are no monasteries now in this district, but the ravines still contain both Taoist and Buddhist temples, each with its priest or two, and it is easy to see that the Buddhists have generally secured the most charming sites. The bitter coldness of the winter is sufficient excuse for the absence of residential temples on the hill-tops: though, as we have seen, there are many little stone-shrines dedicated to the Jade-Imperial-God, the Governor of the Taoist universe. This is the deity that has practically taken the place (so far as Taoism is concerned) of the exalted God of Heaven—T'ien or Shang Ti[392]—who was worshipped four or five thousand years ago by the rulers of the Chinese people. There are similar little Buddhist shrines on the hills, but these are comparatively few. Among the greater hills of the Territory there are several known locally as Yü Huang Ting (the Peak of the Jade-God) and at least two known as Fo Erh Ting (the Peak of Buddha). Every hill also has its shrine—sometimes a mere heap of unhewn stones put together without mortar—dedicated to the Shan Shên or Spirit of the Hill, a divinity who belongs to the same order of beings as the Ta Ti or Great Gods of the Five Sacred Mountains. The hill-gods of Weihaiwei, though they are not visited by pilgrim-bands from afar, receive a limited amount of "worship" from herdsmen, silkworm-breeders and others. On many hill-slopes may also be seen shrines to the Niu Wang and the Ma Wang, divinities whose business it is to protect cattle and horses, and to Ch'ung Wang, the "king of locusts." Locusts, as we know, have at various times been a terrible scourge to the local farmers. It is supposed that by propitiating their king with prayers and offerings they can be banished to some locality where prayers and offerings are neglected. The Chinese of Weihaiwei say that in spite of the devastation that locusts can work among crops they are not really so much to be dreaded as many other insects who have no king and are therefore under no one's control and subject to no law. If monarchical government, it is thought, could be established among the more harmful flies and grubs, the happiness of labouring mankind would be materially augmented. The shrines to the mountain-spirit and the deities that preside over horses, cattle and locusts very often contain no images but merely small uncarved stones. The images of Yü Huang and other deities, when they exist, are usually squat, flat-faced, dwarf-like creatures with large heads and small bodies.[393] Of all these numerous mountain shrines the largest are only about eight feet high and six feet square, while the smallest are mere dolls' houses.
SHRINES TO THE MOUNTAIN-SPIRIT AND LUNG WANG (see p. [396]).
Photo by Ah Fong.
WORSHIP AT THE ANCESTRAL TOMBS (see p. [187]).
The highest hill in the Territory is the central peak of the Macdonald Range, in the South District. The Chinese name of the hill is Chêng-ch'i or Cho-ch'i Shan. Here there are half a dozen or more shrines to the various deities mentioned, each containing small stone images and stone incense-burners. Just below the summit is an old stone slab with an almost illegible inscription relating to "Heaven and Earth," and close by is a shrine to the Mother-dragon. The images are all weather-worn and have an appearance of antiquity which is perhaps deceptive, though they are probably much older than their stone canopies, which—as is stated on several mural tablets—have been restored at various times during the present dynastic period, beginning in 1644. Besides the shrines there is also a small bell-house containing an iron bell dated Hsien Fêng X (1860), and close by are the unrecognisable remains of a theatrical stage where performances were at one time given in the middle of the seventh month. The principal shrine is the San Shêng Miao, "The Temple of the Three Holy Ones" of Taoism.
