NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM II 



tombs are also found money, bronze and more rarely iron ceremonial 

 and cooking vessels, and ornaments and other objects of gold, silver, 

 bronze, and jade. 



At the end of the Han dynasty China was divided into three warring 

 kingdoms, Wei, Shu, and Wu. Shu included Szechwan, and here the 

 last Han emperor took his final stand. His imperial tomb is on the 

 grounds of the Wu-hou-ssu, a Taoist temple outside of the Great 

 South Gate of Chengtu. 



The non-Chinese people of West China have generally been peace- 

 ful and submissive when the Chinese government was strong and 

 prosperous, but in times of turmoil and weakness they have taken 

 advantage of the situation to rise in revolt and to assert their inde- 

 pendence. Near the end of the Han dynasty and during the Three 

 Kingdoms Period many of the aborigines revolted, and Chu-ko Liang 

 (A. D. 181-234) and Chang Fei (d. A. D. 220), two of China's great- 

 est military strategists, became famous for the work they did in re- 

 ducing them to submission. 



After the conquest of the Shu and the Pa people by the warriors 

 of Ch'in during the fourth century B. C, the plains and the valleys 

 of Szechwan were gradually occupied by the Chinese. During the 

 following centuries this migration extended into Kweichow, Yunnan, 

 and eastern Tibet or Sikang. The non-Chinese people were pushed out 

 of the lower valleys into the higher altitudes, where their descendants 

 now live. The Shan or Tai people, called the P'o Jen (local Bei Ren), 

 continued to occupy the region of I-pin (or Suifu) until the year 1573. 

 In that year a war was waged against them, and they were driven 

 southward. Today there are Shan people in Yunnan, Burma, and 

 Thailand. 



The time between the Han dynasty and the T'ang dynasty, A. D. 221 

 to 618, was one of almost constant turmoil and short reigns. It was a 

 time of low official morals, many civil wars, and insecurity. The 

 T'ang dynasty, which ended in A. D. 906, was a period of material 

 prosperity, extensive trade, international contacts, and high cultural 

 attainments, and there were great poets, painters, and philosophers. In 

 pottery the famous tri -colored T'ang was developed, and in some more 

 progressive kilns monochrome porcelains were produced. Traders 

 came from foreign countries, bringing with them their religions, 

 Nestorianism, Manichaeism, and Islam. Szechwan shared in this ma- 

 terial prosperity and cultural advance. 



After a brief interregnum known as the Five Dynasties, the great 

 Sung dynasty began in 960 and lasted through several political up- 



