200 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



THE GODS IN THE TEMPLES 



No discussion of the temples would be complete without a study 

 of the gods and their images contained in them. Most of the Chinese 

 people regard the images in the temples as real deities who can think, 

 see, hear, speak, and act — the images are their bodies. 



Many Chinese gods are deified men or women — important persons 

 who were efficient and attracted attention and admiration. They were 

 believed to have unusual powers and have been deified and are wor- 

 shiped by people who wish to obtain their help. Others are nature 

 gods who have been personified and deified. The sun, the moon, con- 

 stellations of stars, even rocks and trees are worshiped as deities, but 

 the fire god, the lord of thunder, the thunder god, and the goddess 

 of lightning are anthropomorphic gods who control these phenomena. 

 Many gods in China were first worshiped in India and have been 

 brought to China by the Buddhists. 



In our research we endeavored to list all the gods whose images 

 were in the temples of Chengtu. In this we were handicapped, for 

 in 89 temples out of a total of 210 (42.4 percent of the whole num- 

 ber) there was no worship at all, and all the idols had been removed 

 or destroyed. In 93 temples (44.3 percent) there was very little wor- 

 ship, and most of the idols were gone. In some of the temples 30 or 

 40 idols were promiscuously placed in rooms where originally there 

 were only a few, and in a few instances the idols were piled on top 

 of each other like cordwood. A comparison with the first Suifu sur- 

 vey, made in 1928 before the destruction had begun, will indicate 

 what a loss there had been in images when our later survey was made. 

 We found 17 large temples (8.1 percent), at least partially occupied 

 by other organizations, in which the images of the gods were com- 

 plete and in which there was much worship. There were 1 1 temples, 

 (5.24 percent), mostly small, in which there was worship only. 



By far the most popular deity in West China, as in all China, 

 Korea, and Japan, is Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy. In India this 

 is a male deity, Avalokitesvara. The Chinese have a proverb, yen 

 fu, t'zii viii, ''strict father, compassionate mother." It is regarded as 

 characteristic of the males to be strict and harsh, of the females to be 

 kind and compassionate. Practically all the Chinese gods are males 

 and therefore likely to be strict and harsh and to punish. But cen- 

 turies ago the Chinese felt the need, as they now do, of a god of 

 sympathy, kindness, and mercy. Kuanyin was therefore transformed 

 into a female, the goddess of mercy and compassion. She is believed to 

 be so tender hearted that she will never turn a deaf ear to one who is 



