CHAPTER XXIV.

BUDDHISM AND TAUISM IN THEIR POPULAR ASPECTS.

The popularity of Buddhism rests on its doctrine of retribution, and not on its ethics--Magical claims of the Tauists--Kwan-yin, since the twelfth century, usually a female--Powers and claims of Kwan-yin--Popular Buddhism loves to have prayers said for the dead--Hopes for paradise hereafter--Popular Tauism believes in haunted houses, in charms, and in the efficacy of the wizard in controlling demons--The present head of the Tauists and chief magician--Went from Western China to Kiang-si, where he has ever since resided as hereditary Pope--The Tauist divinity Yu-hwang shang-ti has incarnations assigned to him--Chang Sien the bowman, a physician--Tail-cutting delusion--Tauist prayers for the dead--The Buddhist Yen-lo wang, "God of death"--The eight genii--The eighteen Lo-hans--The Tauist delusions dangerous politically--T'ien-tsin massacre--Need of the light of education--The effect of the assault of Christianity on these religions.

BY the popular aspects of these two religions, I mean their aspects at the present time, in as far as they exercise an influence on the popular mind. They were popular formerly in a sense different from that in which they are popular at present. Thus, preaching was common among Buddhists in the early ages of their religion. The principal duty of a shaven monk was to explain the doctrine of Shakyamuni as a deliverance from the misery of life. At present the popularity of Buddhism certainly does not rest on any activity in expounding the doctrines of their faith that we have the opportunity of witnessing. It rests rather on the supposed magical powers of the priests, on