170 REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



Recherches sur les Superstition en Chine, Henri Dore, Tome 

 XII, Heme Partie (Le Pantheon Chinois, Fin). Shanghai, 

 Tousewei Press, 1918. 



Father Dore's latest volume is up to the same high standard as 

 those which have preceded it. The colour-printing of the plates and 

 the general typography are, as before, excellent and the matter is well 

 arranged. 



This volume is the final one on the subject of the Chinese 

 "Pantheon," and deals with Protective and Patron deities, Composite 

 deities and Stellar deities. The title "Researches" given to this 

 excellent series does not perhaps convey exactly the nature of their 

 contents. Father Dore has not apparently arrived at or attempted to 

 arrive at any conclusions as to the significance of Chinese superstitions 

 but has contented himself with cataloguing them in very considerable 

 detail. Any theological bias has been well suppressed and might only 

 be suspected in a few small expressions of contempt which are so 

 infrequent as to be probably unintentional. 



The extraordinary luxuriance of the Chinese imagination in god- 

 making is well exhibited in this and the preceding volumes and it 

 would be well worth while to endeavour to show the general lines of 

 thought along which it has proceeded in the various cases. It is per- 

 fectly obvious that, as in all religions (Christianity by no means 

 excepted) many reputations for spiritual excellence have been built up 

 on misinterpretations of words or baseless association of ideas, so in 

 China the fervour of piety (or in some cases the ambition of magicians) 

 is continually creating divinities from mere names or incidents. Herein 

 we see the tendency of the human mind to anthromorphise in its 

 highest degree. Modern scientists are so anxious to avoid it that 

 some will not even acknowledge that a falling stone is attracted by the 

 earth but say sententiously that the stone "tractates towards the 

 earth," i.e., neither earth nor stone behave in any way like human 

 beings. 



Still another fascinating idea which arises, in reading these 

 volumes, is that of the extraordinary attachment which the Chinese 

 mind has for purely sociological or political issues. A very large pro- 

 portion of the gods are conceived to have manifested under the forms 

 of officials, and, while it is dangerous to generalise as to the general 

 course of thought, it almost appears as if the Chinese notions of 

 "Ling" and "Shen" are synthetic formulae for the glamour or in- 

 fluence of heredity and social organization. 



The patron saints of the first chapter are those of animals and 

 occupations, and presumably represent concrete forms of certain ideals 

 associated with the objects of their patronage. 



