202 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



Three gods occur 13 times. One is Lei-chu, the god of thunder, 

 who is feared and worshiped because he causes the terrible thunder 

 and lightning that are so fearful and so harmful. If he is worshiped 

 he will protect people from this danger. Yo-wang, the god of medi- 

 cine, is the patron deity of doctors and those who sell medicine, and 

 he also helps heal those who are sick. Also found 13 times is the Big 

 Dipper goddess, who controls birth and death. It is said that each 

 person has a star in the sky — great persons have large stars and little 

 people have small stars. When a "falling star" is seen, the people 

 believe that some person has died. 



Ling-kuan or Ling-chu occurs 12 times. He is the protector of 

 Taoist law and temples, and is par excellence an exorciser of demons, 

 for generally his mouth is wide open from wrath and with his war 

 club he fiercely strikes the demons and drives them away. 



Yii-huang, the Jade or "Pearly" Emperor, is one of the highest 

 gods of the Taoists. Once a Chinese man, he so cultivated his re- 

 ligious knowledge and virtue that he finally became the ruler of the 

 sky and the Jade Emperor. 



Six gods occur nine times. They are, first, Li-lao-chiin, the Old 

 Gentleman Li, sometimes called Lao-tzu, or Old Boy, because of the 

 tradition that when he was born he was already 70 years old and had 

 gray hair. He was the founder of Taoism and is said to have written 

 only one treatise, the Tao-te-ching, or the classic of doctrine and 

 virtue. The second is P'u-hsien. He is the patron deity of Mount 

 Omei and is said to have ridden a white elephant to that mountain. 

 His statue is in many Buddhist temples, always riding a white ele- 

 phant. Third is Ti-mu, the earth mother, who lives under the 

 ground and causes everything to grow. Day and night she watches 

 the scorpion which holds the earth up on top of its body. If she did 

 not watch, the scorpion might turn and let the earth crash down, with 

 dire results. Then come the three rulers — the sky ruler, the earth 

 ruler, and the ruler of water. The sky ruler controls everything that 

 has to do with the happiness of mankind. The earth ruler controls 

 the earth, and the water ruler, the water. 



Five gods were found eight times each; 3, seven times; 3, six 

 times; 11, five times; 7, four times; 21, three times; 19, twice; and 

 29, once. 



It should be noted that Wang-yeh, the boatmen's god, is 25th or 

 26th in Chengtu, occurring eight times, while in Suifu he is sixth, 

 not excluding the Buddhas and those that are merely the attendants 



