1000 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



height of tlie Pai T'a, or White Pagoda, 

 at Fiichau. is also given as 261 feet. 



Pagodas built of tiles, after the manner 

 of the porcelain pagoda, are quite rare in 

 China now. iVn example of a small but 

 very beautiful one is in the Summer Pal- 

 ace near Peking. Another worth noting, 

 though not entirely of glazed tile or 

 porcelain, is that at Kai-feng, called the 

 Iron P^agoda (see page 999). 



The number of pagodas in China has 

 never been ascertained, and perhaps the 

 only estimate ever made is that by the 

 distinguished American sinologue, S. 

 Wells Williams, who placed the number 

 at "nearly 2,000"" for the Empire. Like 

 the church spires of western lands, 

 China's pagodas beckon the beholder to 

 shrines or temples frequently associated 

 with them. But there have been other 

 reasons for the building of these graceful 

 objects. 



The Chinese have appropriated the 

 pagoda as a counterpoise to evil and used 

 it subject to their rules of geomancy. 

 They adopted it in the expansion of their 

 ideas of "Eung-shui" (Good and evil 

 influences). 



At the city of Tung, in the Peking 

 plain, a region in past years visited by 

 earthquakes, there is a prominent pagoda 

 which at one time had more than 1,000 

 bronze bells suspended from its cornices, 

 most of which are still in place. The 

 people have this story as to its construc- 

 tion : A water owl lives underground at 

 this place and when he shakes his tail it 

 causes earthquakes. Geomancers located 

 the end of his tail, and the pagoda was 

 built on it to hold it down. At the same 

 time this did not prevent the water owl 

 from winking his eyes ; but, as his eye- 

 lids have not been accurately located, a 

 second pagoda has not yet been built. 

 As a result, tremblings of the earth still 

 occur. 



To Chinese their pagodas begin to ap- 

 pear as landmarks of a stage of civiliza- 

 tion to be discarded. On the eve of the 

 rebellion of 1911 the Chinese press at 

 Shanghai for the most part was adverse 

 to the continued use of the Lunghwa 

 pagoda, six miles away and one of the 

 best-known in China, with its buildings, 

 for the purposes of superstitious wor- 

 ship. Under the republic the disposition 

 appears to be to convert the temples into 



modern schools, in which case the pa- 

 godas will become monuments to the age 

 of geomancy and to the period of the 

 revival of Buddhism. 



Nothing can interfere with their grace 

 and beauty. Denizened by birds and 

 often dotted with vegetation, they are the 

 pride and inspiration of the townspeople. 

 They stand for generations like sentinels, 

 often long after the temples to which 

 they have belonged ' have disappeared. 

 Pagodas are one of the noble gifts which 

 Buddhism has conferred on China. 



MEMORIAL ARCHES TO WOMEN 



There is but one architectural object 

 to be found in China that may be said 

 to compete in grace, beauty, and numbers 

 with the pagoda. This is the p'ai-lou, or 

 commemorative arch. There are usually 

 three arches, the central one being the 

 largest. The most splendid of all the 

 p"ai-lous, perhaps, is the one of five arches 

 in front of the Ming tombs near Peking 

 (see page 1006) ; but the most famous is 

 said to be the one of colored tiles at the 

 Hall of the Classics at Peking. It is not 

 usually known that there is a duplicate 

 of this p"ai-lou in the western park ad- 

 joining the Forbidden City. 



The p'ai-lous have been almost ex- 

 clusively erected in honor of deities, 

 worthy men, and virtuous women. None 

 are more impressive than those erected, 

 at great cost, to faithful virgins, or to 

 devoted wives, symbolized in Chinese 

 legend and art by the fabled phoenix, 

 that having once selected her mate never 

 changes (see page 1002). 



Such memorials, which are many in 

 China, represent a national expression of 

 that regard for women which the Indian 

 king manifested in the building of the 

 Taj Mahal in memory of his wife — called 

 the most splendid tomb ever built to 

 woman. 



Among China's most durable monu- 

 ments are her bridges, the greatest dis- 

 play of which is perhaps along the Grand 

 Canal. A spectator has described their 

 various forms as "hump-back, horse- 

 shoe, spectacle, camel-back, and needle- 

 eye." 



The openings are often very narrow, 

 but very high, sometimes on a narrow 

 canal rising 50 feet from the water. The 

 ornamentation of bridges in China is 



