NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM I25 



night light candles and make other lights in the homes or the temples, 

 or on the streets. They carry torches or lanterns with them when they 

 travel about at night. Boatmen have lights on their boats, and when 

 ashore at night visiting or pulling the boat upstream, they carry torches 

 or lanterns. A bride is carried by daylight to the groom's home as 

 part of the wedding ceremony in a beautiful "flowery sedan chair." 

 Often, as a protection from demons, lighted lanterns are tied onto 

 the rear of the bridal chair. Bronze or brass mirrors and Chinese 

 almanacs are also tied onto the bridal chair in the belief that they 

 will keep away demons. 



When traveling, a person often goes through shady nooks or bends 

 where demons are likely to be, especially at night. At frequent in- 

 tervals along the roads or paths there are shrines containing gods 

 whose purpose is to protect people in that locality from demons. The 

 gods generally found in these shrines are the local earth god called 

 a t'ti-H iiJSJl, Kuanyin the goddess of mercy, Amitabha, T'ai-shan- 

 shih-kan-tang, or the T'ai Shan Stone That Dares, and Ling-kuan, 

 the efficacious Taoist deity. 



The inscriptions on the shrines of these wayside gods often indi- 

 cate that they are there to protect from demons. For instance, an 

 inscription often appearing on the two sides of the shrine of the 

 t'u-ti means, "He protects the region so that it is quiet and lucky 

 (free from demons), and protects in all four directions so that there 

 is peace." Amitabha is supposed to be a compassionate god, but in a 

 wayside shrine he is often a fierce character with tusks and so quite 

 able to frighten away the demons. The T'ai-shan-shih-kan-tang seems 

 to be a deified stone, but he is also a fierce demon chaser, Ling- 

 kuan is the Taoist equivalent of the Buddhist Wei-t'o, a protector 

 of Taoist law and temples, but he is also a fierce warrior against 

 demons, often with his golden or iron war club uplifted and ready 

 to strike. 



Demons need to be kept out of the homes, where they may enter 

 and harm the inmates. They are able to fly only in a straight line, so 

 very often a high mud or brick wall is built in front of the main 

 door to keep the demons from entering. 



A very common method of protecting homes from demons is to 

 paste paper charms above and at the center of the front door. Such 

 charms are written or printed on paper and sold by tuan kungs, 

 priests of the Wu Chiao or the religion of black magic, and by 

 Buddhist and Taoist priests. The writer has often seen several of 

 these charms pasted above the same door, one over the other, each 



