140 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



month air, the poisonous day air and the poisonous hour air, and the evil breath 

 of 120 fierce gods. Chiang T'ai Kung has arrived here. First, I will escort you 

 1,000 li; second, I will escort you 2,000 li; third, I will escort you 3,000 It; 

 fourth, I will escort you 4,000 li, and fifth, I will escort you 5,000 li. Escorting 

 you once, I will escort you to the nests of the sky and the earth (where you will 

 be caught) so you cannot return again. I am acting in accordance with the 

 orders of the most high Lao Chiin which are like law. (Graham, 1954b, p. 65.) 



Dore says (1914-1931, vol. 2, pp. 157, 160) that the drawing of 

 charms is one of the chief pursuits of Taoist priests, and that Bud- 

 dhist monks imitate the Taoists. The tuan kungs also write, print, and 

 use many charms. In the preface of volume 2 (p. iv) it is stated that 

 "a charm is a device of religious magic, an instrument for reducing 

 spectres to submission, disarming them, counteracting their evil in- 

 fluences, and preventing them from injuring man in his present and 

 future life." In volumes i, 2, and 3, Dore pictures in color many 

 written and printed charms on paper, used for a variety of purposes. 

 He also states that as an official proclamation is feared and obeyed 

 because of the official seal, hence every paper charm has the seal of a 

 deity, causing demons and spectres to fear and obey them. It is 

 further stated that "The popular mind peoples the world with spirits, 

 demons, and spectres. The struggle with this spiritual world con- 

 stitutes chiefly the religion of the masses. The charm has been adopted 

 as a device to rally the gods to the assistance of man, and help him 

 overcome the power of evil." (Vol. 2, pp. v-vi.) 



Most written charms, by their seals or the wording of their in- 

 scriptions, are believed to use the power of some god or gods. Most 

 of them are on yellow paper, in imitation of the official proclamation 

 during the Manchu dynasty. A large proportion of the charms are to 

 protect from, or exorcise, demons, or to put an end to the harm that 

 they are doing. 



Blood, believed to be efficacious in exorcising demons, is sometimes 

 seen splashed on doors and charms. The most efficacious is human 

 blood, but, of course, it is rarely used. Next best is chicken blood, 

 which is used a great deal, and less efficacious is duck blood. 



Two very important designs on charms are the pa kua or eight 

 trigrams and the picture of the yin-yang or the T'ai-chi-t'u. The 

 latter is circular in shape, and the eight trigrams are arranged to 

 form a hexagram. Sometimes the two are used separately, sometimes 

 combined by placing the T'ai-chi-t'u inside the pa kua. Separately or 

 combined, they are believed to have superhuman potency, and they 

 are often used on charms. They may be a part or the whole of the 

 charm. 



