class, the Ta-sze, includes the Heaven and the Earth, and along with and equal to
these, the great Temple of Imperial Ancestors. Among the Chung-sze, or
“Medium Sacrifices,” are the Genii, the Great Light and the Evening Light (that
is, the Sun and the Moon), the Gods of Land and Grain, the God of Letters, and
the Inventors of Agriculture, Manufactures, and the Useful Arts. To the “Lesser
Sacrifices,” or Scaou-sze, belong the Founder of the Art of Healing, as well as
the spirits of statesmen, scholars, and persons of eminent virtue. They are
offered also to various natural phenomena, such as the clouds, the rain, the wind,
the thunder. The God of War, and Lung Wang, the dragon-king, who represents
the rivers and streams, have their worshippers; nor is Tien-How, the Queen of
Heaven, forgotten. There are, besides, a host of household deities, like the Lares
and Penates of the ancients, who are propitiated by domestic sacrifices at the
new year, when they are supposed to pay a brief visit to the Other World, and
report, as it were, the doings and misdoings of the families over which they
preside.
The chief sacrificial seasons are these: the winter solstice for all offered to
heaven, the summer season for all offered to earth. The others have their
appointed dates. Then, in the course of the year, numerous festivals of a more or
less religious character are held. First among them is the Imperial Ploughing of
the Sacred Field, which takes place towards the end of March. The Emperor,
attended by some of the princes of the blood and his chief ministers, then
proceeds to a field on one side of the central street in Peking, where fitting
preparations have, of course, been made. After certain sacrifices, consisting
chiefly of grain preserved from the produce of the same field, the Emperor takes
the plough, and drives a few furrows. His example is followed by the princes and
ministers in succession: a red tablet indicating the space allotted to each
distinguished amateur. The “five sorts of grain” are then sown; and when the
Emperor has seen the work completed by the attendant husbandmen, the field is
committed to the charge of an officer whose business it is to collect and store the
produce with a view to future sacrifices to the Gods of the Harvest.
Of the Shae-tung, or Feast of Lanterns, every traveller has spoken. There are also
the Too-te-tan, or birthdays of the familiar gods of the city; the Tsing-ming-tsee,
or Feast of Tombs; the festivals of all and sundry deities; and the birthdays of the
living Emperor and Empress, as well as the anniversaries of the deaths of their