SUPERSTITION IN CHINA.

Timaru Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 5353, 4 February 1892, Page 4

SUPERSTITION IN CHINA.

(BVom the- Times.) Wo are m the presence of an outburst of anti-foreign, not of anti- missionary, hatred. Unlike Mahometan peoples, the Chinese are no fanatics j to the vast mass of the people of all classes one religion ia much the same as another ; they will pay their dutieß to all idola and at all ahrines quite indifferently, and sometimes they will vi.it every temple and shrine m their neighbourhood, one after the othor, without the slightest regard to the deity to whom it is dedicated. It can do no harm, and — who knowa ?— it may do some good, they aay. There ie no religious hostility m them to those who worship BtraDgo gods j on the contrary, they will cheerfully worship the same gods themsolvos, if they know how, m the hopo that somo personal good may come of it, and, at the worst, they havo done what tbey can to conciliate a new set of powers that may, perchance, work thorn evil. The feeling upon whioh the anti-foreign agitators work is the dense superstition and ignorance of the Ohineße, and the tondency to frenzied eiceßsea of terror consequent on superstition. To the ordinary Chinese, official oa well aa coolie, the earth on which he walks, the water, the air ha breathes, are filled with Bpirits, whose quiescence may m a moment be converted into the utmost malignance j every corner of his house harbors a spirit ; the aouls of his parents and relatives, or hia friends, and of bia enemies, may, by some uninten • tional act or omisßion of his.become tormenting demons, raging fiends, who would deßtroy him or his. In a land where a malicious man will drown himself m a neighbour's well, or hang himßelf from hiß neigbbour'a rafter, m the full hopo that hia epirit will ever aftorwarda haunt and torment that neighbour and thereby five lhe .i.icidn sweet revenge on the latter — ta such a land anr belief ia possiblo when it i.'oines to a question of what spirits will do. The shadow of a fc t >legraph wire or of a house which ia built facing a particular way is considered sufficient to rouie to malignant activity (he spirits of a whole neighbourhood • to bring on cholera, smallpox, apoplexy, aud all tho "other ills to which flesh ia heir ; and bloody and destructive riots have often broken out m Ohina about a piece of wire or a housß facing the wrong way. The fang shul, or g«omatic influences, of a place are matters of tho Srst coneideratijn to every Chinese living i m it 5 they are, to hia terror-stricken apprehension easily deranged, and then follows death and destruction ; hia family fall ill, his cattle die, his well runa dry, hiß harvests are bad, the rain will not fall if it ie wanted, and^thero will be an inundation if it is not, hia dobtora become bankrupt, his wares are burnt or otherwise destroyed, hia father dies, his wife deserts him, and so on, all bfcause thafeng shui have been disturbed by the ahadow of a new house or the digging of a new well (whioh, m addition to everything else, dißtnrbs tbe earth dragon with additionally calamitous, though quite independent, jfeaults) or with some other equally trivial and everyday occurrence. With this inflammable material to work on, it cannot fail to be interesting to watoh how the agitators have gone about their task, whioh waa to inflame tbe ignorant populace to the pitch of ,-ttaoking Europeans and their reaidences. Ihe resulta we all know by thia time ; the men murdered and mutilated by howling mobs of ' thousands of perscnß; ladies and children flying at night froa. their burning homes io native dress to escape observation, or striving to paß3 to some place of comparative safety through a meroilesa crowd assailing them with foul lanouage and missiles, their faces torn and bleeding— all this and muoh more we find m ' dry official language m the Bluo Book, or m the brief descriptions telegraphed home from time to lime. As to the specimens of the literature which haa been one of the main causes of these cruelties, it should be said that, though it may be deßirable to convey a completely accurate account of them, it is quite impossible (to print some of them. The allegations are so abominable that they cannot be printed, and this leads to some difficulty, inasmuch as •these obscene charges run through whole broadsheets, so that when thoy are excised yerr little remains.