i 3 8 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



quiet, passionless discharge of all which our nature prompts and our relations require us 

 to do, without violent striving or crying, while steadily maintaining and preserving life. 

 "Heaven" in this "Way" is not a ruler or legislator, as in Confucianism, but only a pattern. 

 The system was older than Lao-Tsze, who, however, reduced it to method. The recognised 

 head of Taoism has his seat on the Lung-hu Mountain in Chiang-hsi. To Lao-Tsze belongs 

 the merit of having formulated the grand principle that good will overcome evil, and should 

 be returned for it. 



The form of Buddhism prevailing in China is called Shamanism, or Hwang Kiao 

 (Yellow Sect) in Chinese, from the colour of the priestly robes. A Shaman is one who 

 has overcome all his passions. The Dalai Lama at Lassa, in the great monastery of the 

 Putala, is the head of the religion, the abode of deity. Mongolia swarms with Lamas; and 

 the Government at Pekin, in order to maintain its influence, aids in supporting them. The 



Photo by Messrs. Watts & Skeen] 



CHINESE HUSBAND AND WIFE. 



[Rangoon. 



ritual of the Shamans contains their ten principal precepts or commandments: "(1) Do not 

 kill; (2) Do not steal; (3) Do not commit fornication; (4) Speak not falsely; (5) Drink no 

 wine nor eat flesh; (6) Look not on gay silks or necklaces, use no perfumed ointment, 

 and paint not the body; (7) Neither sing nor dance, and do no sleight-of-hand tricks nor 

 gymnastic acts, and go not to see or hear them; (8) Sit not on a high, large couch; (9) Do 

 not eat out of time; (10) Do not grasp hold of living images, gold, silver, money, or any 

 valuable thing." 



The general character of the Chinese is irreligious; they care much more for worldly 

 gam than for religious ceremonies of any kind. Except those attaching to ancestor worship, 

 they have no ceremonies they consider so binding as to be willing to fight for their preserva- 

 tion. These are of so domestic a nature that thousands of converts might discard them 

 before much would be known or done by the people in connection with the matter. The 

 toleration of the Christian religion has been allowed throughout the empire by imperial edicts 



