The face of China, travels in East, North, Central and Western China; with some account of the new schools, universities, missions, and the old religious sacred places of Confucianism, Buddhism, and (14592957860)

Identifier: faceofchinatrav00kemp (find matches)
Title: The face of China, travels in East, North, Central and Western China; with some account of the new schools, universities, missions, and the old religious sacred places of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Kemp, Emily Georgiana, 1860-
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Duffield
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto



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s, though they have a keen sense of humour,and one is constantly tempted to laugh in the temples.Happily, they do not mind this at all, and would notthink that we were showing any lack of reverence.In the adjoining temple the monks were chanting,while two or three of them kept up a continuousbeating on the Buddha fish and other gongs, as seenin the sketch. In front of the Buddha, and almostconcealing him, was a large stone monument put upby an Indian prince. Near here we were shown apiece of stone which was said to be the Buddhastooth. It weighed several pounds, and is much vene-rated by pilgrims. We provided ourselves with stout pilgrim staves,which we found of the utmost value on both our upward and downward journeys. They have quaintlycarved dragons or tigers at the top, with a loosewooden pea which rattles in their mouths. Thesesticks cost from a penny to 2-;d., and after the pil-grimage has been performed it is the correct thingto have them painted red and black and gold. The 188
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TIGER SHRINK ch. xvii Mount Omi tiger is the mountain god who was worshipped longbefore the existence of the Buddha, and whose shrinesare still to be seen all the way up the mountain, withincense burning before them. It was interesting to find on Mount Omi the twogreat Chinese symbols of power, the dragon and thetiger. As Laurence Binyon puts it : In the super-stitions of literal minds the Dragon was the genius ofthe element of water, producing clouds and mists ; theTiger the genius of the Mountains, whose roaring isheard in the wind that shakes the forest. But in theimagination of poets and of artists these symbolsbecame charged with spiritual meanings, meaningswhich we should regard as fluid rather than fixed, andof imports varying with the dominant conceptions ofparticular epochs. In the Dragon is made visible thepower of the spirit, the power of the infinite, thepower of change ; in the Tiger the power of materialforces. It is worthy of note that the Buddhists selectedmountains al