262 APPENDIX I. 



As in China and Jai)an, there is no established religion in the islands. 

 Buddhism ajjpears to have been introduced 816 a.d., but its tenets are more 

 in favour with the lower than with the upper classes of society. There are 

 said to he two sects, — the Shingon-sliiu and the Einzai-shiu, — both of which 

 also exist in Japan, and their closely-shorn priests are often to be seen among 

 the jjeople, by whom they do not apj)ear to be held in much respect. ^ 

 Confucianism is apparently the religion of the uj^per classes, and is also mingled 

 largely with the beliefs of the lower. It was inti'oducecl by the Chinese who 

 came over to Liu-kiu in the reign of Hong-ou, founder of the Ming dynasty, 

 towards the end of the fourteenth century, and was in great favour during the 

 time of Supao-kwang, who did not fail, at the ceremony of the investiture of 

 the Liu-kiu king with the full sovereignty, to perform the necessary religious 

 rites connected with that faith. The Tartar Emperor Kang-hi (the monarch 

 of whom Supao-kwang was the representative) had also introduced the worshij) 

 of a Chinese deity, — Tien-tsei, — and Gaubil informs us that at Shiuri there 

 was a sjilendid temple erected in her honour, which the amljassador duly 

 visited to offer his prayers. In Dr. Williams' translation of the " Shi Liu-kiu 

 Ki " already referred to, Li Ting-yuen notes, during his residence on the island 

 in 1801, that "the priests worship Heaven under the name of the Full, Great, 

 Self-existent heavenly God. They bar the doors, and the worshippers all kneel 

 outside. When the common people worship this God, they offer slips of 

 incense but do not burn it. Those who wish to be very devout scatter several 

 pinches of rice before it and go away. In this temple there is a Buddhist 

 hall dedicated to the God Puh-tung {i.e. the Unmoved, the Unconcerned), and 

 another god having three heads and six arms, black as ink, whom the attend- 

 ants told me was 'HeaA'en's grandson who founded the kingdom.'" 



Beechey says that the Liu-kiuans " are extremely superstitious," a phrase 

 we are somewhat too apt, with the magnificent contempt of Britishers for 

 those who hajDpen to think differently from us on any j^oint, to aj^jDly to those 

 who have a strong faith in what we do not ourselves believe. If by super- 

 stition we understand empiricism in religion, which, I take it, is its real 

 meaning, then the invocation of the deities upon every occasion, and the 

 offerings of written jjrayers instanced by that author, can hardly be regarded 

 as such. The existence of a species of wayside shrine — stones before which 

 they burn incense and offer fruits, and make vows or repeat prayers — is 

 mentioned Ijy Gaubil ; and at the jiresent day the same custom is in vogue, and 

 slabs, before which "joss-sticks " are burnt, are common enough. That a belief 

 in fairies or genii also exists is e^'ident from a story given us by Li Ting- 

 yuen. It relates how, once upon a time, a poor peasant named Minglitsz, 

 of unblemished character, but without any family, had a well of delicious 

 ^ Satow, " Traus. Asiat. Soc. of Japan," vol. i. p. 7. 



