156 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



without a promise or vow. First incense and candles are lighted, then 

 there are bows and prostrations, and the worshiper calls the god 

 by name and makes a request. The incense and the candles may be 

 omitted. 



I once traveled on the Min River between I-pin and Lo-shan when 

 monsoon rains had turned the river into a muddy, roaring torrent. 

 Boatmen were pulling the boat upstream by means of a bamboo cable, 

 when the cable broke. Only the head boatman was on the boat to 

 man the oars. We found ourselves in a boat that was being driven 

 rapidly downstream by the swift water and in danger of being 

 wrecked by the rocks below. The boatman was so frightened that he 

 did nothing but pray, "God Wang Yeh, come and save our lives." 

 A Chinese passenger who believed less in the gods than in the efficacy 

 of human effort said, "Stop praying to Wang Yeh and take an oar 

 and row us to shore, or we may all be drowned." The boatman obeyed, 

 and we were rowed safely to shore. 



One day we were in a ferryboat between Lo-shan and Ch'ien-wei. 

 On the cliff above us was a shrine in which tliere was an image of 

 Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy. In the boat a woman holding a baby 

 looked up at the image of Kuanyin above and said, "Goddess of 

 Mercy, protect my child." 



Generally a person or a family prepares for a prayer by burning 

 incense and candles and by reverently bowing and kowtowing. Some- 

 times spirit money is also burned and an offering is made. After the 

 prayer there are generally more bows and prostrations, and vows ac- 

 companying prayers are very common. 



The Chinese have elaborate ceremonies to obtain sons and to bring 

 rain, and Westerners describe all these ceremonies as praying for 

 sons and praying for rain. In so doing there may be some miscon- 

 ception of what the Chinese are doing and what is in their minds. 

 For instance, the Chinese do little praying when they repeat or chant 

 their sacred books, for there is little prayer in the books, sometimes 

 none. Chanting the sacred books brings favor with the gods and 

 makes them propitious, it being thought by many to have a com- 

 pelling, magical effect. In the procession of men and boys when seek- 

 ing rain, the throwing of water and letting it fall on people and on 

 the ground is imitative magic. Pilfering a wooden baby from the 

 shrine of a god or stealing clothing or bedding from the shrine of a 

 sleeping Buddha constitute the seeking of sons by magic, although 

 these acts may be accompanied by prayer. 



Most Chinese prayers are not devotional services for spiritual edi- 



