MADRAS JOURNAL 



OF 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



JSfo. 17.— October, 1837- 



I.— Chinese Feast to Disembodied Spirits.— By Lieutenant T. Jo 

 Newbold, Aid-de-Camp to Brigadier General Wilson, c. b. Mem- 

 ber of the Asiatic Societies of Madras and Bengal. 



The religious festivals of the Chinese are numerous, and specifically 

 laid down by the board of religious rites in China. The sacrifices are 

 divided into three great classes ; the first and most important of which 

 is subdivided into sacrifices offered to the azure heavens, to the 

 earth, to the great abode of ancestors, and to the Shay Tscih, or 

 gods of the land. The inferior sacrifices are offered to the planets, 

 ghosts of great and good men, Confucius, the deities presiding over 

 the elements, thunder, clouds, mountains, &c. Those which appear 

 the most attractive in Chinese colonies are the Yuen Tan, on their new 

 year's day ; the feast of lanterns in the first moon ; the sacrifices at 

 the tombs, Tsing-ming, in the third moon ; the feast of the dragon and 

 Quantai, in the 5 th moon, and that of Shaou-e f to the manes of their 

 relations in the 7th moon. 



The festival of Shaou-e commences on the 1st of the 7th Chinese 

 month, and continues to its conclusion. Strictly speaking, the las^ 

 fifteen days should constitute its duration. It is offered to the souls of 

 the dead, which, during the month, are supposed by the Chinese to 

 issue forth from the invisible world and visit their relations on earth. 

 Supernatural noises, whisperings, and the rush of these aerial beings 

 through the air, are pretended to be heard. It is said to have been 

 instituted in honour of the descent of a mortal into Hades, who rescued 

 his mother, as Orpheus endeavoured to rescue Eurydice, from Pluto's 



