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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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Here the master is represented by a 

 simple wooden tablet bearing the letters 

 of his name. It is bnt little more exalted 

 than the tablets of the four notable phi- 

 losophers and the twelve particular disci- 

 ples who share the hall with him, and 

 the two and seventy famous scholars 

 whose names are recorded in the long, 

 low building on the sides of the court. 



To this memorial to China's men of 

 learning come educators and officials at 

 the spring and autumn equinox to offer 

 sacrifice. The ceremony, say many 

 Confucianists, is not one of worship, but 

 rather of grateful remembrance of the 

 author of learning and his distinguished 

 followers, whose moral maxims have 

 been at the basis of China's life for al- 

 most three millenniums. 



THE GAY THRONGS AT A NEW YEAR EAIR 



While the Lama temple stands for the 

 decadent worship of Mongols and Man- 

 chus and the Confucian temple for the 

 cult of Chinese scholars, it is in the Tao- 

 ist temples that one finds the traditions 

 of folk superstition still alive. 



Here firecrackers are lighted before 

 the God of Valor, paper ingots of gold 

 burnt before the God of Wealth, and 

 joss-sticks offered to the Guardian of the 

 Eastern Mountain. Here, also, at the 

 Xew Year season, are the fairs and, if 

 the temple grounds be large enough, the 

 horse-races. 



Enterprising restaurateurs set up mat- 

 ting booths along the course, where the 

 holiday-makers sip tea and munch pea- 

 nuts and bread while they watch the men 

 of the Xorth ride furiously by on slender 

 mules or stocky Manchurian ponies. 



Meanwhile the temple courts are filled 

 with mountebanks, jugglers, magicians, 

 venders of figs, cigarettes, and candied 

 rice balls, and sellers of fans, ribbons, 

 mirrors, and tinsel jewelry, proprietors 

 of peep-shows, and professional story- 

 tellers, like medieval troubadours, who 

 gather a crowd to hear an old romance, 

 half told, half chanted, to the sporadic 

 accompaniment of drum or cymbal. In 

 the midst of an exciting episode these 

 story-tellers pause and politely inform 

 their auditors that the tale will be con- 

 tinued after another collection ! 



It is likewise to the temple courts that 

 merchants on bazaar days bring their 



