NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 1 99 



Or, the study and interpretation of the eight characters of a child 

 may indicate that the child's life is to be very unlucky and that it is 

 unlikely that he or she will live long and happily. Becoming a priest 

 or a nun may change the luck of the child so that he can live happily 

 to ripe old age. A family may have too many children so that one 

 can easily be spared, or the family may be so poor that it is very diffi- 

 cult to support all the children, and giving one or more to the tem- 

 ples and the gods relieves the financial burden. 



Some men have bad consciences because of their evil deeds. Per- 

 haps they have robbed, or killed in war, or committed other crimes. 

 Merchants may have used false weights and measures or false ma- 

 terials. By becoming priests they believe that they can accumulate 

 merit to oflfset their sins and save them from hell, giving them a 

 good and happy future existence. Then there are poor people who 

 find it difficult to earn enough to provide their food, clothing, and 

 lodging, and they enter the temples as priests or nuns because a 

 living is provided and there need be no worry. Some enter the tem- 

 ples because they are very unhappy over the death of loved ones. 

 Some women become nuns because they have been discarded and 

 divorced by their husbands. It is said that in rare instances a man 

 enters the priesthood as a means of avoiding punishment by the gov- 

 ernment for crimes he has committed. 



There are some men who, approaching old age, although they have 

 lived and enjoyed good, happy, and successful lives, enter the priest- 

 hood because they believe that it is a wise plan to spend their last 

 years as a priest, cultivating their virtue and merit so as to be sure 

 to enjoy a more happy and prosperous future either in heaven or in 

 a future existence. For several years the head of the department of 

 Chinese studies in the West China Union University was Feng Lao 

 Ssu, or "Old Scholar Feng," a devout Buddhist. He finally resigned 

 and entered the priesthood for the reasons given above. 



People enter the priesthood at all ages after early infancy, but most 

 commonly at early manhood or womanhood. I have seen boys only 

 6 or 7 years old in the temples, but the priests are not anxious to ac- 

 cept them so young because they have to be fed for many years before 

 they are very useful. Those given to the temples at a tender age serve 

 as apprentices and servants of the priests until they reach maturity 

 and can be ordained as priests. The number of people entering the 

 priesthood has diminished greatly in recent years. 



