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THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



great philosopher. lie was a man of great virtue, and gained an influence 

 over the whole Chinese people. The great endeavor of Confucius was to 

 remedy the political and moral evils of his time. He had many disciples, 

 who recorded the sayings and maxims of their master, and the sacred 

 hooks of the Chinese have preserved these precepts for the benefit of the 

 people through all the centuries to the present time. He was successful in 

 causing reforms, and no name stands above that of Confucius in the na- 

 tion's annals. Confucianism has been called the chief religion of the 

 Chinese. It was more an education in what pertained to material life, and 

 in many things tended to elevate the people; but the great reformer hoped 

 for more than has been realized in the progress of his people. Their re- 

 ligion has been an agnosticism, and an adherence to the worship of an- 

 cestors. Shamanism and Taoism, terms applied to Chinese religion, are 

 but other names for sorcery. Taoism is a religion of great antiquity. It 

 involves an implicit faith in sorcery. The Chinese have degenerated 

 Buddhism, the religion originally an Indian product, into these religions, 

 which have continued to the present time. 4 In the mythology of the Chi- 

 nese, as in that of ancient Egypt and Greece, distinguished physicians are 

 made to appear as deities; but in China such a distinction seems to be al- 

 lowed principally to emperors and high officials in the government. The 

 Emperor Fuh-Hi is mentioned as the first physician and the deity of doc- 

 tors. Kuang Tai Uong is the god of surgery. Ling Xa is the goddess of 

 midwifery and children. If children are sick, Taoist priests are employed 

 in her temples to perform a ceremony for their cure. Ioh Xong Cha Su 

 is the god of medicine and drugs. Druggists rather than physicians are 

 his worshippers. 5 



The veneration for ancestors and the value put upon the body after death 

 lead the Chinese to take great pains in the care and burial of their dead. 

 The motive here, and the object in view which prompts this care and re- 

 gard for the dead, differs from that which in ancient Egypt caused the 

 careful preservation of the dead body. The custom there resulted mainly 

 from the belief that the same body was to be the future tenement of the 

 soul. The time of mourning for a parent in China is three years, and 

 for other relations in proportion. No expense is spared "in rendering the 

 dead comfortable." "Every good Chinaman regularly burns incense be- 

 fore the tablet to his father's memory. There is in every respectable house 

 the hall of ancestors, where the pedigree of the family, with the grandsire 

 at the head, is inscribed, and here their descendants repair in spring to 

 perform their devotions; then they go to the graves and present rich of- 



4Berdoe, from ProT. Telle, in art.. •.Religions," Enc. Brit. 

 SKarl F. A. Gutslaff, from "China Opened." 



