NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 209 



the air raids, the destruction, confiscation, and use of the temples for 

 Other purposes was much greater than in Chengtu. When passing 

 through in 1948 I could learn of only one temple, Buddhist, that was 

 used for worship only and was prospering. I visited this temple and 

 talked with the friendly priests. 



A little less than 40 miles west of Chengtu is the city of Kuanhsien 

 with about 30,000 inhabitants. It is situated just at the end of the 

 Chengtu plain and the beginning of the mountain ranges beyond. 

 Citizens informed us that during the past 30 years war lords, espe- 

 cially Liu Wen-huei and his Twenty- fourth Army, had confiscated 

 and sold practically all the property belonging to the temples and 

 many of the temples themselves. Even the Er-lang Miao and the 

 Hu-lung Miao, which were so important to the ceremonies connected 

 with the irrigation system of the Chengtu plain that they could when 

 necessary obtain financial grants from the government, were glad to 

 rent rooms to guests who wished to spend their vacations in the 

 temples. We found that all the other temples in or near the city 

 were occupied and were being used for other purposes than worship. 



At the Yang-tzu-lin temple, a Taoist temple on top of the pass be- 

 tween Kuanhsien and the upper ]\'Iin River valley, the priests re- 

 ported that all the temple property from which income was derived 

 had been confiscated and sold by the Twenty-fourth Army. Many 

 temple rooms were divided into smaller rooms by means of partitions 

 and rented to guests, and a restaurant and teashop were opened in the 

 temple. So many travelers stopped in the temple to stay overnight or 

 to eat or to drink tea that there was a goodly income from this source, 

 and the priests and the temple got along fairly well. 



Wei-chou is a city of nearly 10,000 inhabitants, situated at the 

 juncture of the Min and the Tsa-ku-nao Rivers. It formerly had 

 more than 10 temples, but in 1944 there were only 2. In 1925 I saw 

 just above the city a large temple with idols made of white quartz 

 or white marble, all of which had been broken, although we could 

 not find out by whom. In 1944 only a few foundation stones were 

 left of this temple. In 1941 I was informed that all the temple prop- 

 erty and most of the temples had been confiscated by the officials and 

 used to construct a public park. In 1944 a large temple on a hill near 

 the city was used as a normal school. The idols were partitioned off 

 by bamboo mats so that the pupils could not see them, and there was 

 almost no worship. A small temple in the city was used only for 

 worship, but it was in very bad repair. 



On the way from Wei-chou to Mao-chou one passes through Pai- 



