214 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



told that at least four temples had been torn down and sold within 

 the past few months. There were people in the city who wanted to 

 worship, but most of their worship had to be performed in temples 

 too far away from the city to be useful for other purposes, or on 

 Mount Omei, the sacred mountain not too far away. Even among 

 the distant temples, some were going to ruin, some were being torn 

 down and the materials used elsewhere, and some were being occu- 

 pied by schools and other organizations. 



The first survey of Suifu, already mentioned, made in 1928 before 

 any of the temples were seriously occupied or destroyed, showed 

 83 temples. In the 1946 survey made by Chou Hsin-jen, who as- 

 sisted the survey at Chengtu, there were only 45 temples — 38 had 

 disappeared, some torn down, and some used for other purposes. 

 Of the 45 that were counted, 2 had very recently been destroyed, i by 

 fire. Out of the total, 13 temples were in good repair, 10 in medium 

 condition, and the remainder in poor repair. In 23 there was no 

 worship at all. In 11 there was little worship, and in 14 much wor- 

 ship, in some, however, only at special times. 



As to the use of the temples, 15 were being used as barracks for 

 soldiers; 9 were occupied by schools; 7 were used as residences or 

 apartments ; 4, mostly small temples, were used for worship only ; 2 

 were used as godowns ; 2 each were used as rice granaries, police sta- 

 tions, and teashops; i each was used as a theater, a library, and a 

 pubHc office. All this means that of the 83 temples formerly in and 

 near Suifu, 61 had ceased completely to function as temples. All the 

 rest except four were occupied and threatened with extinction. 



Our studies of Chinese temples in West China began in 1921, the 

 surveys in 1928, and these continued until the spring of 1948, when 

 I finally left China. Something very serious was happening to the 

 religions of the Chinese, and the temples were like a thermometer by 

 which this could be imperfectly measured. Between 191 1 and 1948 

 more than half the temples of Szechwan had been destroyed or occu- 

 pied and changed into buildings in which there was no worship. Three- 

 fourths of the remaining temples were occupied, being used primarily 

 for other purposes, and worship was a minor affair. These temples 

 were "gasping their last breaths," Most of the temples that were 

 used exclusively for worship were either too small or too far away 

 from city populations to be useful for other purposes. What was 

 taking place was the greatest social, psychological, and religious revo- 

 lution in the history of the Chinese people. 



