Taouism as well as in Buddhism; as other Pagan nations have had theirs in the
Orphic mythology, where there were ‘counsel, and light, and life;’ in the
Platonic theology, which had its ‘good, and mind, and the soul of the world,’ as
in the Egyptian mysteries there were ‘On, and Isis, and Neith;’ and in that of Fo,
‘Brahma, Vishnu, and Seeva.’”
The Taossi, Tien-sze, or “Celestial Doctors,”—the priests of Taouism,—are
outwardly distinguished amongst the Chinese by the manner in which they dress
their hair. They shave the sides of the head, and coil the remaining hair in a tuft
on the crown. Moreover, they wear slate-coloured robes. There are two orders;
one, the keepers of the temples, vowed to celibacy; the others, who are free to
marry, live in their own houses, or wander about the country selling charms and
medical nostrums. In the feast of one of their deities, the “High Emperor of all
the Sombre Heavens,” they assemble before his temple, and having kindled a
huge fire, about fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, go over it barefoot, carrying
the gods in their arms. “They firmly assert,” says Williams, “that if they possess
a sincere mind they will not be injured by the fire; but both priests and people
get miserably burnt on these occasions.” Escayrac de Lauture says that they leap,
dance, and whirl round the fire, striking at the devils with a straight Roman-like
sword, and sometimes wounding themselves as the priests of Baal and Moloch
were wont to do.
Some interesting particulars of the Buddhist temples of China are supplied by
Mr. Fortune. He speaks of the temple of Tien-tung as a congeries of temples, a
collection of spacious structures, which occupy the site of former buildings. All
of these are crowded with idols, or images of the favourite gods, such as the
“Three precious Buddhas,” “the Queen of Heaven,” represented as sitting on the
celebrated lotus or nelumbium—“the God of War,” and many other deified kings
and great men of former days. Many of these images are from thirty to forty feet
in height, and have a striking appearance as they stand arranged in the spacious
lofty halls. The priests themselves reside in a range of low buildings, erected at
right angles with the different temples and courts that divide them. Each has a
little temple under his own roof; a family altar crowded with petty images, where
he is often engaged in private devotion.
Mr. Fortune, after inspecting the various temples and the belfry, which contains
a noble bronze bell of large dimensions, was conducted to the house of the