14 
CHINESE SECTS. 
book, and publicly declared that it was fallen from heaven. This 
trick easily imposed upon the weak prince. He immediately repaired 
with a numerous train to the spot where the sacred volume appeared ; 
and having 'taken it into his hands in a respectful manner, carried it 
in triumph to his palace, where he shut it up in a golden box. An- 
other emperor carried his reverence for the sect to such a height of 
impiety, as to order a celebrated Tao-Sse to be publicly worshipped, 
under the name ofChang-ti. The sect thus patronized by the princes, 
continued to gain ground, in spite of every opposition from the 
wiser part of the people, and is still very powerful in China. At 
present they offer up a hog, a fowl, and a fish, to a spirit whom they 
invoke. Various ceremonies, such as bowlings, drawing fantastical 
figures upon paper, making a hideous noise with kettles, drums, 
&c. are used in their incantations ; and though for the most part 
unsuccessful, yet their credit is still kept up by those cases in w'hich 
hey succeed by accident. 
The chief Tao-Sse is invested with the dignity of grand mandarin : 
he resides in a sumptuous palace in a town of Kiang-si ; and the 
superstitious confidence of the people attracts an immense number 
thither from all parts of the empire. Some come to be cured of dis- 
eases ; others to get an insight into futurity. The impostor distributes 
to them small bits of paper filled with magical characters ; and the 
ignorant wuetches depart well satisfied, without grudging the expense 
of their journey, though ever so long. 
A still more pernicious and more widely diffused sect is that of 
the idol Fo, which came originally from India. The Tao-Sse had 
promised to the brother of one of the emperors of China, to intro- 
duce him to a communication wdth spirits. The credulous prince having 
heard of a great spirit named Fo, who resided ia India, prevailed 
on his brother to send an embassy thither. On the arrival of the 
ambassadors, how'ever, they could only find two worshippers of this 
deity, both of whom they brought to China. Several images of Fo 
were also collected at the same time; and thes^, together with some 
canonical books of the Indians, were placed on a white horse, 
and carried in procession to the imperial city. This superstition 
was introduced into China about A. D. 65, and soon made vast 
progress. 
One of the principal doctrines is that of the metempsychosis, or 
transmigration of souls, of which M. Grosier thinks he was the 
inventor, and that Pythagoras, who travelled into several parts of 
India, had borrow'ed the doctrine fronr him. The account given of 
him by the bonzes is, — that finding himself, at the age of 70, oppressed 
with infirmities, he called his disciples together, and told them he was 
unwilling to leave the world without communicating the sacred and 
hidden mysteries of his doctrine ; which w’ere, in short, that all things 
proceeded from nothing, and to that they must return. This doctrine 
produced a corresponding mode of action, or rather of inaction, in 
those who believed it. 
The common doctrine, however, which admits of distinction between 
good and evil, finds more proselytes among those whose situation in life 
wdil not allow them to spend their time in idleness. They say that 
