566 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
(beetween the two pagodas of southeast and northwest). The beauty 
of this region may be imagined and is expressed by an inscription 
in the mountain temple: “ How propitious is this site! Here one 
sees the river winding around, the broad plains stretching out to 
the southward, and to the westward the three highest peaks of 
Omeishan.” 
The reference to this patriarch of the mountain, and the triad of 
its highest peaks are reflected by the triad of the chief god in the 
temple. . 
This is, on the part of the Chinese, at the same time, a reminiscence 
of the Buddhistic trinity and the trinity of Chinese religion: Buddha, 
Laotze, and Confucius. 
Similarly located cities are found elsewhere than in the most 
beautiful Province of Szech’an. This feature is also characteris- 
tically seen in Canton, in the extreme southern part of Kuangtung. 
This city is also located near a mountain, its revered ancestral pro- 
genitor, with a pagoda to the southeast to guard the spiritual city. 
A five-storied temple on the summit has the two gods sitting in the 
uppermost hall, who constantly oversee and promote the daily life 
of the Chinese. These gods are Wén-chang, the good of knowledge 
and learning, and Lao-ye, the god of efficiency and bravery. The 
Chinese designate this duality as Wén Wu, which Europeans have 
correctly translated as civil and military, but the Chinese give that a 
more profound signification. They guard the city and all prosperity 
depends upon their aid. 
Canton is connected to the northward with the famous mountain 
of the White Clouds, and the hill of the city forms, as it were, a spur 
of this mountain. The souls of the departed are conceived as white 
clouds, and when the mountain is most densely enveloped in clouds 
the Chinese think that the souls of all the departed are congregated 
on the mountain from which, on the other hand, all life came. It is 
thus a conception of the circle of all existence. 
This conception is given sublime expression by the disposition of 
the graves which beginning’in the north of the city extend to the 
mountain of the White Clouds, where in many splendid temples 
countless gods are sitting, who in this life as well as in the future one 
are man’s guides and ideals. This necropolis is even for China, which 
can be designated as one large cemetery, something immense. This 
covers an area 12 kilometers long and 7 kilometers wide, and it is 
literally filled with graves on the slopes of the valleys and to the 
summit of the mountain. Without any exaggeration there are many 
millions of graves in this cemetery. Some of the graves are very 
simple, others have grand tombs, and many of them are great artistic 
works. 
