l62 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



wind, and sunshine. The more elaborate wayside shrines have from 

 two to five stories, each with the image of one or two gods, the 

 second less common image being the spouse of the male god. The 

 gods in wayside shrines are generally Kuanyin, the t'li-ti and his 

 spouse, Amitabha, Ling-kuan, and T'ai-shan-shih-kan-tang. A main 

 duty of each of these gods is to protect people from demons. 



The tuan kungs, priests of the Wu Chiao, the wizard society or 

 society of black magic, have no temples but have shrines for the 

 worship of many gods in the center against the back wall of the front 

 room of their homes. There is a shelf about 4 feet above the floor, 

 and above this is the usual house god, a red paper on which is written 

 the characters meaning Heaven, Earth, Rulers, Relatives, and Teach- 

 ers. On the shelf may or may not be three or more images of gods, 

 together with one or more bowls filled with ashes used for the burn- 

 ing of incense and candles. Below are generally 20 or more images of 

 gods and more bowls for the burning of incense and candles. One 

 of the gods worshiped by the tuan kung is Wu Ch'ang, who is also 

 a god of hunters. Others are Kuanyin, the god of wealth, and Ling 

 Kuan. The front door is usually left open, so that passersby can see 

 the shrine and the images. 



There is a Confucian temple in every fu or prefecture, and in 

 every hsien or township city. Since Suifu, or I-pin, is both a fu and 

 a hsien, it has two Confucian temples. In the city of Chengtu are two 

 hsiens, Chengtu hsien and Hwa-yang hsien ; hence there are three Con- 

 fucian temples in Chengtu. These temples normally have no images. 

 I have seen only one image of Confucius or of any other in a Con- 

 fucian temple, and that was at Suifu, and I heard of another in 

 Shantung. Apparently images in Confucian temples are very rare. 

 Instead there are many wooden tablets on which are the names of 

 Confucius and his most important disciples. They look like enlarged 

 spirit tablets, and incense and candles are burned to these tablets. 

 The walls of Confucian temples are red. 



In recent decades many Confucian temples have been used as 

 schools. The Chinese think that this is an appropriate use for them, 

 since Confucius was such an advocate of education. 



Buddhist and Taoist temples are houses for the gods and the 

 priests, and convenient places for worship. The priests must have 

 houses where they can live, eat, sleep, and worship, and where they 

 can store their sacred books, their ceremonial clothing, their sacred 

 implements, and other belongings. The few images of gods, gen- 

 erally of T'ai-shan-shih-kan-tang and of Amitabha, that are in way- 



