l88 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



Divination helps people make engagements to marry, perform fu- 

 neral and marriage ceremonies, begin journeys, start the work of 

 erecting buildings, and to do other necessary tasks at the right time 

 and in the way most likely to succeed. Bad luck can often be avoided 

 by divination. Charms and incantations enable people to accomplish 

 many necessary things and to avoid calamities. The dragon lantern 

 parade from the 13th to the 15th of the ist moon exorcises demons 

 that might do harm and so helps families and communities to prosper. 



The Ch'ing Ming festival commemorates and honors the deceased 

 ancestors through worship, the repair of the graves, and offerings of 

 food and wine. The living descendants are benefited through exercise 

 and sunshine, and through the assistance of the ancestors which this 

 ceremony helps to obtain. The Tuan Yang festival furnishes amuse- 

 ment and recreation, exorcises demons, helps people avoid diseases 

 and other calamities, and through charms helps people avoid the five 

 poisonous creatures. The ceremony of welcoming the spring induces 

 spring to come so that men can do their farming. Festivals on the 

 birthdays of the gods are generally regarded as freeing the com- 

 munity of evil spirits and bringing better health and prosperity. In 

 Li-t'o the people believed that the t'lt-ti festival caused crops to pros- 

 per, healed diseases, and warded off calamities. The basic reasoning 

 is that honoring, worshiping, and making offerings to the gods causes 

 them to be good humored and propitious, so that they will protect, 

 bless, and help the people in practical ways. The folk religion of 

 West China is vitally concerned with the practical, everyday needs 

 of the people in this world. 



For centuries Buddhism and Taoism, in order to win the allegiance 

 of the masses of the Chinese people, have stooped to their level. They 

 have encouraged the belief that through charms, incantations, the 

 worship of the gods, pilgrimages to sacred mountains, contributions 

 to priests and to build or to maintain temples, and through magical 

 religious ceremonies, practical benefits could be obtained, leading to 

 a more successful and satisfying life in this world. During recent 

 decades many Chinese have learned that this is not true, and their 

 faith in their religion has been greatly weakened. This does much 

 to explain the facts that the numbers of worshipers in the temples 

 and of pilgrims to the sacred mountains, and the number and size of 

 the contributions to priests and to temples, have been reduced to a 

 fraction of what they were before, and that many temples have been 

 torn down or confiscated and their images destroyed. 



