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BL1801 .G875V.3
Groot, J. J. M. de (Jan Jakob Maria),
1854-1921.
Relisaous s\ slem of China, its ancient forr
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3V)

THE

RELIGIOUS SYSTEM
OF

CHINA.
 Ii

PI. XXII.
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 THE

BELIGIOUS SYSTEM
OF

CHINA,
Its Ancient Forms, Evolution, History and Present Aspect
Manners, Customs and Social Institutions connected therewith.

BY

J. J. M. I)E GROOT, PH. D.

PUBLISHED WITH A SUBVENTION FROM THE DUTCH

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

VOLUME III.

BOOK I
DISPOSAL OP THE DEAD,
Part III, The Grave (Second HalfJ.

LIBRAIKIE ET IMPRIMERIE
ci-devant

E. J. P3RIX.IL,
LEIDE — 1897.
 All rights reserved.

IMPRIMEBIE , ci-devant E. J. BRILL, LEIDE.

 CONTENTS

VOLUME III.

Page
Book I. Disposal of the Dead.
Part. III. The Grave.
Chapter X. Concerning the Custom of Burying the
Dead in the same Ground with their
Ancestors.

1. On Family Graves. On Conveying the

Dead to their Native Place for Burial 829.
2. On burying the Souls of the Dead
without their Bodies 847.
» XL Of the Care bestowed by the People
and the Authorities upon the Dead of
Others.

1. Public Charity towards the Dead . 855.

2. The proper Interment of the Dead is

the Business of the Government. . 8G6.

» XI 1. Fung-shui.
1. Introductory Notice 935.
2. Fung-shui as regulated by High
Grounds and Water-courses . . 939.
3. The History of Fung-shui .... 982.
4. The Professors of Fung-shui. The In-

fluence of Fung-shui on Practical

Life 1010.
» XIII. On the Custom of Re-burying Bodies in
other Graves. Urn Burials .... 1056.
» XIV. Description of Tombs and Mausolea.
1. Concerning Graves of the Common
People, the Nobility and the Man-
darinate 1072.
 CONTENTS.

Page
Chapter XIV (continued).
2. Inscriptions placed upon and in the
Tombs HOI.
3. The Mausolea of Princes of Imperial

Lineage 1164.
4. The Imperial Cemeteries of the Ming
Dynasty 1177.
5. The Burial Grounds of the Present

Reigning Dynasty.
a. The two Cemeteries in Peh-chihli

Province 1282.
b. The three Mausolea in Manchuria 1353.
» XV. On Graveyards and free Burial Grounds 1374.
Additional Chapter. On some exceptional Ways of Disposing

of the Dead.

1. On the Custom of Throwing Away

the Dead 1384.
2. Water Burial 1389.
3. Cremation 1391.
 PART III.

THE GRAVE.

CHAPTER X.

CONCERNING THE CUSTOM OF BURYING THE DEAD IN THE SAME

GROUND WITH THEIR ANCESTORS.

1. On Family Graves. —
On conveying the Dead to their
Native Place for Burial.

The last chapter of the Second Volume on

pp. 800 sqq. has ac-
quainted our readers with an ancient Chinese custom , still prevalent,
of burying deceased women in the same grave with their hus-
bands. Seeing that this custom is a natural outgrowth of the
principle that a wife is the property of her husband and, in virtue
thereof, ought to be placed in his tomb just like his other pos-
sessions, it is certainly not unnatural that it early became a custom
in China to bury sons by the side of their parents, as being their
property, and that the was followed with regard to daughters,
same rule
if the parental power over thein had not been ceded, by marriage,

to a husband, or a husband's parents.

The simple conclusion is, that family graves must have been of
common prevalence in the ancient Chinese Empire. The custom
of living together in clans, each composed of the descendants of
one family, greatly favoured this state of things, naturally turning
the burial ground of each settlement or village into one large
family grave-yard.
Our readers have been acquainted with this state of affairs in a
few words on page 376. The C/ieu li testifies to the correctness of

our conclusion, as it states in a passage, reproduced by us on

page 421 , that royal families used to be buried in one common
sepulchral ground, in which the graves were arranged in accordance
54
830 THE GRAVE.

with the rank and position of their occupants and their place
in the family hierarchy. The same work says that the common
people too were buried in family grave-yards. »The Great officer

» for the Graves has charge of the burial grounds of the whole
» State. He maps them out, sees that the inhabitants of the ca-
» pital are buried on the same spot where the members of their
» own clan sleep , maintains the prohibitions enacted in regard of
» such clan-grounds , assigns the localities where they shall be laid
» out , determines the dimensions (of the graves) and the number
» (of trees to be planted thereon), and arranges that every clan has
» a cemetery of its own. Whenever people contend for a burial
»> ground, he hears the cause (and delivers judgment). At the head
» of the officials attached to his person, he makes tours of inspection
» around the borders of the burial grounds , and he dwells in a
» mansion situated between the grounds , in order to watch over
» them" '. Another passage says: »The Chief Director of the
» People ensures rest and peace to all the people by means of
» six of their fundamental customs , the second of which is , that
2
» the graves of each clan are placed together" .

In the Li ki (chapter 9, 1. 56) we read that »Ki Wu-tsze

» declared that burying more than one person in a grave had only
3
» been in vogue since the time of the Prince of Cheu" , who, as
our readers know, was a brother of the first ruler of the Cheu-
dynasty. According to another passage in the same Classic , repro-
duced on page 262, the same Ki Wu-tsze, who lived contemporary
with Confucius, made the same assertion on another occasion, when
the family Tu wished to bury a second person in a grave situated
on his premises. But with all deference to the knowledge Ki Wu-
tsze may have possessed of antiquity, we believe it safer to accept
his statement with a little caution, the more so, as it seems to
stand quite alone in ancient Chinese literature. It is certain at any
rate that the practice in question was of very common prevalence

*fc#. /L^£*k«&£ifi&.iili£Bffi&£JI,
Jglft X\l £ £§f , ^ j£ Chapter 21 , II. 49 and 50.

11. 36 and 37.

3
^ S£ ^ , Jl) &^ jjft-
Section
^f 3 ,
I, I.
 GRAVE-GROUNDS FOR PAiMILIES AND CLANS. 831

in the age of Cheu, some passages in the books warranting this.

Apart from the above case of the family Tu it is said that Con- ,

fucius buried his father and mother in one grave (see page 663),
and that the consort of king Chao Siang was placed in her hus-
band's tomb some time after he had been buried therein (page 443).
Besides , we have shown our readers by a special dissertation inserted
on pp. 800 sqq. that burying deceased wives in the tombs of their
pre-deceased husbands has been maintained in China as a custom
from the most ancient historical times down to this day. The
custom is confirmed at present by a popular device, borrowed from
the Poh /ni fung i, which runs-. » Burying husband and wife in
l
one grave serves to consolidate conjugal duty" .

Down to this day, clan life and family life having undergone no
change of any importance, the ancient method of burying the
dead in family grave-yards or clan grave-grounds and of placing
very near relations, especially husbands with their wives and con-
cubines, in the same tomb, has probably remained in vogue unin-
c
terruptedly. We read, for instance, in the Books of the T ang
Dynasty that Tang Hiu-kung 2 a high officer who died in A. D. ,

712, » spent several hundred thousands of his wealth to build a

» large grave-ground in which all his kinsfolk in the five degrees
,

» of mourning were buried" 3 Imperial mausolea of each dynasty, .

as printed data show were generally separated from each other

,

over one vast area, and every Son of Heaven could enjoy after
his death the company of his consort proper and his concu-
bines, whose corpses were interred in or near the precincts of his
mausoleum nay even under his own tumulus. This fact has been
,

stated on pp. 443 —

445, and illustrated by some particulars. We
have there shown that Imperial children too used to be buried in
those mausoleum-grounds, and that this honour was granted even
to distinguished ministers, the position of a servant of the Throne
with respect to his sovereign being, in theory, little different from
that of a son to his father (comp. page 508).
In Chapter XIV it will be related that the mausolea of the
sovereigns of the Ming dynasty and those of the House now reigning

«
&P* Jft# m * ii 2 g ife
c"»i-te. •
iv, s
Bit-

ch. Ill , I. 20; also the Old Books, ch. 93, 1. 6.

 ,,
,

832 THE GRAVE.

are laid out so as to form family grave-yards, and that the sepul-
chres of princes and magnates contain within their precincts the
tumuli of their descendants, arranged to the right and left. Burying
their dead in a similar way is common among the people in the
northern provinces, as may be seen from the illustration on page 375.
And the grounds in which villages use to inter their dead are
family-cemeteries, simply because each village-community is formed
as a rule of persons only who, being supposed to be descended in
the paternal line from one common ancestor, bear the same clan-
name. In Fuhkien it is uncommon though not at
, all quite out ot
fashion bury in such grounds more than one person in one grave.
, to
The chief reasons herefor will be given in Chapter XIV.
The current editions of the Rituals for Family Life generally
contain an appendix , stating how the tombs should be arranged in
family grave-grounds. It is based on the instructions of one Chao
Ki-ming l
, a scholar who lived under the Sung dynasty. As a rule
it is illustrated by a map. The Rituals for Family Life being the

chief vademecum of the people for their domestic rites and ceremo-
nies, we may assume that family grave-grounds certainly in most
cases are laid out in accordance with those instructions. Hence we
must place them before our readers. The first dead person is to be
buried with his head to the North, his wife on his right side, under
the same tumulus; but should he have been married more than once
his first wife is placed on his left, the second on his right, the third
again to the left, and so on. His sons, whether born of his wives
or of his concubines, are likewise buried with their heads to the
North, in front, on his left or principal side, and his grandsons on
the, right, each younger one a little further away from his grave.
The great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons follow in similar order,
respectively in and the grandsons, as do suc-
front of the sons
ceeding generations in regular order. Wives are buried at the sides
,

of their husbands, with observance of the rule of arrangement in

force for the first ancestor, and so are the concubines who have
given birth to sons but their graves are placed a little backward
;

as a sign of their being of lower rank than the wives.

Those who die before reaching puberty are to be buried behind
the first or central grave, the boys on the left side of the dead
man who rests therein, and the unmarried maidens on his right.
They are all to be placed witli their heads to the South. Here too
 ,

GRAVE-GROUNDS FOR FAMILIES AND CLANS. 833

the dead of the first generation lie nearest the central grave, those
of the second generation follow next, and so on. They are not buried
in the order of age , it being unreasonable , when a boy or girl dies
to keep open a place for his or her elder brother or sister, in anti-

cipation of their untimely death.

The concubines who have not born any sons to their husbands
may be buried with the latter under the same tumulus, as a great
favour. But, in general, their place is on the left side of the un-
married daughters of the same generation. The altar for the sacri-

fices to the God of Earth , the tutelary divinity of sepulchral grounds

should be placed to the North-East.
To illustrate the above order of arrangement we submit the fol-

lowing plan to the eye of the reader:

•D19 •oja •059

o o
uoijtuaugli puooas
o o o o
sJamSnsppuTug
o o o o
pau.iBiuufi
OOOOO
•suospire.ig joihui patuBiuun.
aqi jo saniqnouoo ssapuog

00000-uoiicauag jug
ooooo OOOOO
j
Tu^qgnBQ paiircimifi •suog .louttu pau.retuuQ
aqi jo sauiqnouoQ ssapuos

The Ancestor
with his
Wives and Concubines.

The Grandsons The Sons

with their Wives and Concubines. with their Wives and Concubines.
o o o o o o O O O O O O
The Great-great-grandsons The Great-grandsons
with their Wives and Concubines. with their Wives and Concubines.
O O O O O O O O O O o o
etc. etc.

South.

After all, it is obvious enough why the Chinese throughout all

ages have displayed such partiality for burying their dead, and
being themselves buried, in the same ground with their ancestors.
Is not the interring together of children of the same stock an in-
separable counterpart of the clan life which the nation has always
regarded as the chief corner stone of its social organisation? Has it

not been practised since the dawn of time, and is not posterity
therefore obliged to adhere to it as firmly as to any other institution
of the holy ancients? Moreover, is it not a sacred duty of wives
 ,

834 THE GRAVE.

and children to have their bodies and souls re-united after death
with those whom the moral laws of all ages have taught them to
follow and serve with the most absolute submission and devotion
both in this life and the life hereafter? Last not least, is it not an
invaluable advantage to every dead man to rest in the proximity ot
his living offspring, who, by taking good care of his grave, greatly
benefit his manes which dwell therein and who regularly feed ,

and clothe the same by means of sacrifices? This is even a boon

to the offspring themselves, who thus ensure the protection of a
tutelary divinity that never turns its eyes away from their needs
and wants. The doctrine that the soul dwells in the grave which
contains the body it formerly animated with life and breath although ,

it cannot, perhaps, be called the mother of the custom of interring

the dead as much as possible in their ancestral burial ground, yet
it may safely be said to form the chief factor which has ensured
to that custom an unbroken existence down to the present day.
The native books are full of evidence that the conveying of the
mortal remains of persons who have died elsewhere, to the place
where they were born and their ancestors were buried, has prevailed
in China throughout all ages. In the Li ki (ch. 9, 1. 52) it is related
c
or T ai Kung
2
of Kiang Shang :
the first ruler of the princi-
,

c 3
pality of Ts i with which he was invested by the founder of the
Cheu dynasty: » After he had been invested with his state and had
» settled in (its capital) Ying-khiu he and his descendants for five
,

» generations were taken back to Cheu (their ancestral home) to ,

» be buried there. A man of higher order has said For music we :

'

» must use that of the persons from whom we are descended, and
» in ceremonies we should not forget those to whom we trace our
» origin'. And the ancients had a saying that a dying fox turns its

» head towards the hill (where was whelped). Such things flow
it

» forth from feelings which are human" *. The Tso cliwen and the
twenty four Standard Histories relate so many instances of persons
who were carried back to their place of nativity after their decease,
that the conclusion is enforced upon us that this matter has always

% M IE j£ "i" 1 ik Section
f^- 1 '
1 '
 ,

CONVEYING THE DEAD TO THEIR ANCESTRAL HOME. 835

been considered a sacred duty of the living, a duty the fulfilment

of which children in particular might not neglect in regard of their
c
parents. Ch en Sheu 1
, a high grandee of the third century , who
is especially known as the author of the Memoirs of the Three
Kingdoms, the fourth of the Standard Histories, is said to have
been degraded by the Government as a punishment for having
overlooked this duty on the death of his mother, though he had
done so in obedience to her explicit behests. » He resigned his office
» by reason of her demise. She had ordered him before her death
» to bury her in Loh-yang and he obeyed her will in this but, ;

» he thereby rendered himself guilty of not conveying a mother to

2
» her native place for burial, and was condemned to degradation" .

It seems, indeed, to have been an established opinion during

many ages that persons who had not forwarded the bones of their
parents to the family burial ground, were unworthy to occupy a
post in the service of the State. The Official Histories recount, for
c
instance, that in the fourth century one »T ing THen, Governor of
» Yen-cheu having been murdered by Ting Ling and Tih Liao
,

» his corpse was not sent home, and yet his son Sien remained in
» office and did not resign his post so that those who discussed ,

3
» the matter blamed him for it" Mention is also made of one .

c
» Ku Ch ang-hiien from the country of Wu, prefect of Wu-ch'eng,
» who in the third year of the period Kien yuen (A. D. 481) was
» guilty of not having taken home the remains of his father Fah-
»siu, who had died in the period T c
ai shi (A. D. 465 — 471) dur-
» ing the reign of the House of Sung, while engaged in subjugating
» the northern regions he nevertheless had indulged in musical
;

» and pleasure excursions like a man in ordinary circum-

festivities ,

» stances of life. Hence an officer petitioned to be charged with an

» investigation of the matter and to project after deliberation cer- , ,

4
» tain measures to be taken in regard thereof" . Again, the records

^^0-ffl|fp§|;, ^^kiiSIil- B "" ks ut the Tsin Dvnast y- chapter

82, 1. '2.

3
%%m ife m & % t m m. & #f & m m * k > ,

^•^Itttlll^il* M^W-Z- Books of the Sun S D y na^y, ch.

64 1. 1. See also the History of the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 33, 1. 15.
 " ,,

836 THE GRAVE.

of the same period mention a military grandee Khiu Kwan-sien J ,

by name who was cruelly slain while in the imperial service and
,

» to whose son Hiung the emperor Shi Tsu thereupon said 'Your :

» father was deputed by Us to go to Honau and there to exercise

» government. Loyally and faithfully he has defended his territory
» and even in death he has not dishonoured the duties placed upon
» his shoulders by his sovereign ; We feel very grateful therefor.
» That his mortal remains are in a country far away and cannot
» be recovered We deeply deplore; but this stain is blotted out
» from your future official career and shall not impede your pro-
2
» motion' .

The custom of conveying the dead to their ancestral home

being influenced in particular by the consideration that they ought
to rest where their offspring live, in order that these may take
proper care and souls for all ages to come, the
of their graves
logical consequence is that there must have lived people who,
having lost their father while residing with him abroad, and being
prevented by circumstances from conveying his remains to the
original home of the family, have resolved to settle for good in
the vicinity of the spot where they had buried him. Chang Pa 3
, a
native ofShuh 4 the present province of Sze-ch c wen » was appointed
, ,

» governor of Hwui-khi (in the province of Chehkiang) in the period

»Yung yuen (A. D. 89—105), and died there at the age of
» seventy. Before his demise he gave the following instructions to
» his sons : 'At present the road to Shuh is difficult to travel , and
» long. Hence you must not convey my body to our homestead for
» burial, but you may bury me here, confining yourself to preserving
»a little hair and a few teeth of mine'. The sons, in obedience to
» his commands buried him in Ho-nan in the district of Liang
, ,

^^ AMM
of the Realm, ch. 4,
=

1.
Jl
-16.
*}mlMMWiM Hist0, -y 0l the Southern Part

H? » 1ft $$ ^ ll! Hi M tyj

Books of the Southern Ts'i Dynasty, ch 59,]. 5.

4 JgV.
 CHILDREN NOT ABANDONING THEIR PARENTS' GRAVES. 837

» and for this reason they established their homestead there" '. Con-
a
cerning Kbung Hi , a descendant of Confucius , who died about
3
the end of the first century of our era as governor of Lin-tsin
in the present province of Shansi , we read •. » He died while in
» office , after having resided in his district for three years. His last
c
» will stated that his burial should not be postponed. Ch ang-yen
» and Ki-yen , his two sons , ten and odd years old , were urged
c
» by Hii Kiiin-jen , the governor of P u-fan , to take the dead man
» back to Lu (his native country) ; but they retorted :
'
If we take
» our father home in a cart , we disobey his commands , and to
» abandon his grave is revolting to the human feelings'. Accordingly
» they settled for good at Hwa-yin" \ Many more such instances,
drawn from the history of later dynasties, we could place before
our readers; but let these suffice.

China having, during the epoch in which the dynasties ot Cheu

and Han wielded the sceptre, produced men like Chwang-tsze, Yang
Wang-sun , Lu Chih and Hwang-fu Mill , who desired to be buried
even without a coffin or clothing, we are not surprised that there
then also lived persons who objected to being conveyed to their
ancestral home deeming it not worth while that
after their death ,

so much trouble should be bestowed on their worthless bones. Of

such social Chinese anomalies we have an interesting instance in
c
the person of Ts ui Yuen s a high magnate of the second century
,

who breathed his last in Loh-yang, the Imperial Metropolis. »When

» about to shuffle off this mortal coil he gave the following testa- ,

» mentary charge to his son Shih Human beings borrow from :

'

» Heaven and Earth the breath upon which they live and at the ,

» end of their terrestrial carreer they restitute the etherial parts of

Books of the

Later Han Dynasty, chapter 66, ). 19.

Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 109, first part, 1. 15.
83S THK GRAVE.

» that breath to Heaven giving their bones back to Earth conse-

,
;

» quently what part of the Earth can be unsuitable for concealing

,

» their skeletons? You must not take me back to my place of birth,

» nor may you accept any funeral presents, neither offerings ofmut-
» ton or pork'. Respectfully receiving these his last orders, Shin
» kept the corpse in Loh-yang and there buried it" l .

Bringing corpses home from distant places in heavy, substantial

coffins, hermetically closed, is of most common occurrence in China
at the present day. In the Amoy vernacular it is denoted by the
2
term an koan , » to send back a coffin", in writing , by the ex-
pressions ^ ^6 ,
jg |jt| ,
^ |£ etc., which all mean •.
» to send
home and bury". Scarcely anybody who can afford the expense
entailed, will fail to bring back the body and soul of his deceased
father or mother to the original homestead , unless important cir-
cumstances prevent the same, or some kinsfolk of the deceased lie

buried near at hand, their graves thus forming an off-shoot from

the original family cemetery, which offers a proper resting place.
Already on page 129 we have referred to this custom, and on page
131 we have stated that in places or towns where people from
other parts of the Empire have settled in considerable numbers, it
has occasioned the erection of special buildings, in which corpses
are preserved until a favourable opportunity occurs for sending
them home. In the southern provinces it is hardly possible to

travel without meeting almost daily with coolies carrying an en-

coffined corpse which they have been conveying for weeks, nay
months , and the whole world has heard of the numerous dead taken
home in and steamers from transmarine settlements; indeed,
ships
rumour speaks of entire cargoes of corpses forwarded to China there ,

to moulder and mingle with the dust of their beloved flowery land.
Even bones alone are frequently taken home in parcels or travelling
boxes; but we shall have to speak of this in Chapter XIII.
Wherever, in Java, Borneo, or in China itself, the writer has
witnessed the expedition of a coffin, the same ceremonies were
enacted as those which precede a burial, viz. such as have been

^um^.^mmz^^^zn-^n^.n
^M t^ ^ Hi HI W ¥k H? •
Books 0l the Later Han °y nast y. ch 82 -
>
' 15,
 COFFINS WHILE ON THE WAY HOME. 839

described at the beginning of Chapter VII of the First Part of

this Book (pp. 140 et sqq.). An auspicious day and hour are also
selected for the removal of the coffin from the mortuary house, or,
more correctly speaking, for its displacement from the spot where
it has been kept since the coffining (comp. page 140). The prayer
droned over during the farewell sacrifice contains a special clause
informing the defunct of the long voyage to be made and , expressing
sorrowful resentment on the part of the living because of his mortal
remains having to suffer the terrible dangers of waves and winds.
Pending the departure of the ship or steamer, the coffin is often
deposited for a considerable time somewhere near the anchorage or
in a lighter like a piece of merchandise and the time for embark-
, ,

ing the same is not made to depend upon any decision of the
almanac or a day-professor.
While en route , the coffin is in charge of a son or kinsman who
has made the journey for this special purpose or for other reasons.
The attentions which this guardian has to bestow upon the coffin
are neither great, nor numerous. When prompted by devotion to
the soul, or by tedium, he tries to soothe its olfactory nerves by
kindling a couple of incense sticks and inserting them somewhere
in the lid or the side boards; moreover, he regularly feeds the
white cock which , in order to strengthen the vital power of the
soul (comp. pp. 199 seq.), follows in a basket or is tied on to
the lid . When travelling by land the guardian has to hire fresh
,

carriers from station to station and whenever the object of his cares
,

is carried across private property, he has to affix small shreds of

red cloth in door-posts, gates, trees etc., for the purpose of averting
evil influences which inhabit those spots, and
from the spirits

from the corpse (see page 155). As a rule, the coffin hangs from
a rafter, both ends of which rest upon the shoulders of the car-
riers and which is tied lengthwise over the lid by means of ropes
,

passing underneath the bottom. One or two mats, or some large

sheets of oiled paper or other cheap material, are placed over the
coffin , to protect it from sun and rain. We have never seen a corpse

escorted on its way home by a ceremonial retinue of any kind or

description.
When nearing its destination, the coffin is met outside the town
or village, or at the landing place, as the case may be, by the
nearest relations, dressed in such mourning as is prescribed for
their several degrees of kinship. The chief among them pour forth
their death-howl in a kneeling attitude , after which the bearers
 840 THE GRAVE.

resume their march, everybody following in the rear. If the grave

is ready and the day happens to be felicitous for the burial of the
corpse , the procession meets one or more bands of musicians ordered
by the family, and sundry persons and groups carrying the imple-
ments for a complete burial procession including a number of ,

» auxiliary pavilions" sent by the friends (see page 167). There is

also a pavilion containing a temporary tablet for the manes {hum

peh , see p. 70); but it such a tablet has been brought along with
the corpse from abroad, an empty pavilion is sent out to fetch
it. In many cases they also put the cock therein, or else on the
top of it. Without loss of time everything is arranged and a regular
funeral procession is formed, which conveys the corpse straight to
the tomb, where it is buried with the customary ceremonies.
But, as our readers know from page 103, every interment which
takes place eight or luore days after death requires the selection
of an auspicious day and hour. Consequently, when a corpse
arrives from afar, it is generally necessary to defer the burial. It
is then met by the mourners only, and without much ceremony
c
taken to a sip ts ii, or to some spot assigned for keeping encoffined
corpses such as has been mentioned on pp. 127 sqq. from thence ;

it is afterwards transferred to the grave with the required pomp. In

many cases also, when it is expected the interment will be possible

soon after the arrival, the coffin is placed somewhere in the open
field or under a huge boulder in the mountains, to await burial.
Custom severely forbids a corpse being taken into the dwelling '.

It is indeed self-evident that people who object to persons dressed

in mourning, or even messengers announcing a demise, entering
their houses, for fear they may introduce death (see pp. 641 sqq.),
a fortiori would refuse entrance to death itself in the shape of a

human corpse. Only things of a felicitous nature may enter a house

and they must be called in as often as possible; but things of an
unfelicitous nature may leave it only.
Here we have, however, to do with a superstition in defense of

1 That this custom has a very firm hold upon the Chinese, we had an ex-
cellent opportunity of witnessing on the occasion of the following incident. In the
evening of the 12th. March '1887, when a sunny, but sultry day had enticed nearly
the whole fishing fleet of Amoy out to sea , a gale suddenly arose , capsizing dozens of
boats and causing the loss of more than a hundred For several days thereafter lives.

a considerable number of bodies were washed ashore, but not one of them was taken
home by the relations. They were all dressed and coffined on the sands where they
were found, amidst loud waitings, and carried direct to the burial ground.
 CORPSES MAY NOT BE TAKEN INTO DWELLINGS. 841

which the Chinese are not able to appeal to their ancestors of

olden times. Indeed, the Classics show that the ancients in ge-
neral by no means shared this superstitious aversion from receiving the
dead into their dwellings. The Tso cltwen informs us that the Ruler
Chwang of the kingdom of Tsc 2 who was assassinated by Ts'ui
l
i ,

Chu in the fifth month of the twenty-fifth year of the ruler Siang's
reign (B. C. 547), »was first put aside by his murderer in the
» northern suburbs, and on the day ting-hai was buried in the
» village of Shi-sun. There were only four shah (see page 187) in
» the train people were not warned out of the way there were
;
;

» only seven inferior carriages in the procession and no men at ,

» arms. In the twenty-eighth year, in the twelfth month, the

c
» people of Ts i removed their ruler from his grave and gave him
» a provisory burial in the great chamber, putting the corpse of
» Tsc ui Chu into his old coffin in the market place. The people
» could still recognize it and said This is Ts'ui '. And in the :
'

» twenty-ninth year , in the second month they buried Chwang in the ,

3
» northern suburbs" . The evidence supplied by this extract is sup-
ported by the Li ki , which work contains the following rescripts
(ch. 53 11. 1 and 4)
, : »When a ruler being on the march dies , ,

» in a mansion they do not

, , on arriving at the gate of his ancestral

» temple , demolish the wall , but straightway enter that gate and
» go to the spot (in the hall) where the provisory burial is to take
» place. And in the remove the pall
case of a Great officer they
» on arriving at his house place the corpse on a bier and enter
, ,

» the gate. At the eastern steps they set the bier down remove ,

»it and then take the body upstairs, thereupon going straight to
4
» the place of the provisory burial" .

1 2 3?-
j|£

£ ,* 5f ,T * -t: m ,* M £ tp„- + A # + - M
BA3B*H2,WB,'g-7'fc.- + #^->H»A

#r n a* m^m mn m&mm a n
o , rffi , ,
?*\ ,

IB- 11
S42 THE GRAVE.

As the ancient Chinese did not object to having dead bodies

taken into their houses, it certainly appears a strange contradiction

that, as has been stated on page 641, it was a rule among them
that nobody wearing mourning garments or a dress indicating
mourning might enter the gate of a Ruler, and that nothing
resembling funereal implements should be brought therein. Our
readers have been informed on page 642 that the first part of this
rescript is still in force at present people in the three years' mourning
,

not being allowed to enter the Imperial Palace, nor any govern-
ment building or fortress. Its second part is also maintained to this
day, no dead body may be taken into any walled city what-
for

ever without a special permit of the Board of Rites or, in the

case of Peking, of the Emperor. The » Imperial Regulations for the
Board of Rites" l contain the following rescript:
»When on the death of a mandarin in active service, or that
» of the father mother or wife of such a dignitary, the encoffined
,

» body is taken back to the original abode the Board of Rites in , ,

» case the family have presented a petition to this effect , is entitled

» to give them a letter to the local authorities ordering them to ,

» allow the deceased to be carried into the city with a view to the
» preparations for burial. But should an encoffined corpse be sent
» to the Metropolis , it is not permitted to bring it within the
» city-walls except
, in the case of high officers of the first or
» second degree, when permission to do so has been granted by
» the Emperor himself, on a proposal made to this effect by the
2
» said Board" .

Admittance into a walled town being a high favour awarded only

to deceased servants of the State and their nearest relations, any
family having among its members one to whom such honours are
granted rises enormously in the estimation of the public. The glory
it sheds upon them is so much coveted, that even when they do

not dwell in a city, but in a suburb, village or hamlet, they will

apply for the required permission and, having obtained it, will

1
# £ & ft HH ffll
•

E & ft M m # # , 7t £ A #£• See the Ta m^ luh *

ch. 17, 1. 41.
 ,

BRINGING CORPSES INTO A CITY. 843

convey the corpse through the capital of their province , department

or district, as the case may be. The entrance of the coffin becomes
a triumphal march. A complete funeral train , the longest and most
splendid the family can afford, escorts it. A large number of citi-

zens, all real or pretended relations by consanguinity or friendship,

send » auxiliary pavilions" or follow in the rear, eager to be seen
by the public and to attract to themselves a part of the
admiration
bestowed on the illustrious dead. Magistrates, seated in palankeens
of state, issue from their Yamens, each with a cortege of lictors
and soldiers, and accompany the procession till it leaves the city
through another gate. Otherand many admiring citi-
authorities
zens salute the defunct at the roadside by presenting incense
when the coffin passes, and by making bows and prostrations from
behind a table decked with sacrificial viands. Is it surprising that
the family in most cases deem it necessary to leave the corpse
outside the walls for a few days beforehand, in order to give every-
body time to make preparations for its glorious entry?
Nominally for the glorification of the defunct but in reality , for the
exaltation of the family, the latter send round printed notifications
to relations , friends and acquaintances , informing them of the happy
event of which they are so proud. These documents closely resemble
the announcements of death described on pp. 11] seq. and re-
presented by Plate VII they are printed with the same type
;

folded in the same way, and the names of the sons, grandsons,
brothers etc. parade at the end in a corresponding manner. The
tenor is also chiefly the same. Instead of the character |||* , they
bear on the outside the word ^- »announcement". The
, following
is 1877 came into our pos-
the translation of a specimen which in
c
session at Amoy when ,
!
one Ch en Kang-yung
who had perished ,

twenty-four years before in the province of Kiangnan in the war

c c
against the T ai-p ing rebels, was brought home in state.
»The crimes and sins of the unfilial .... (name of the eldest
» son) and his fellow mourners were deep and heavy but instead ;

» of killing and destroying the perpetrators thereof, the bane en-

» gendered by them fell upon their deceased father" (Here follow
the titles , names etc. of the dead , with an enumeration of the offices

he had successively held and the honours which the Emperor had
bestowed upon him such as his admission into temples for the
,

H
844 THE GRAVE.

worship of loyal mandarins , the commission of an envoy to worship

upon his grave, etc.). »Alas, bravely fighting, he sacrificed his life
» in the department of T cai-p c ing, in Kiangnan province, on the 26th.
» day of the first month in the third year of the period Hi en fung
» (1 853) , during the which harrassed the country at that
difficulties

» time he had enjoyed fifty-seven years ot life. His unfilial sons ....
;

» by different ways rushed to the spot where he fell and creeping ,

» on their knees over the ground sought for him but not until , ;

» the 23rd. of the eighth month of this year did they succeed in
» obtaining the remains of his loyal person. The unfilial sons ....
» in person have seen the remains collected and dressed and have ,

» carried them back to the ancestral home and now they intend to ;

» bring them within the walls of the city in accordance with the
» Regulations , and to prepare his funeral. You are herewith care-
» fully informed thereof.
» We have with care selected the fourth day of the twelfth month
» for accepting your cards " l 2
.

Sending the dead back to their native soil is generally understood

by the people in China to be a matter for the care of the Govern-
ment in so far as soldiers are concerned who have died in distant
garrisons or in the dependencies of the Empire. It is doubtful,
however, whether the Government deems itself bound to do really
anything in this respect or to make
incumbent upon the man- it

darinate to assist it in the discharge of such a duty. But, seeing that

in ancient times an example was set by one of the most renowned
occupants of the Throne, it may not be unreasonable to suppose
that many emperors have subsequently sent home the remains of
their soldiers, every epoch in China, including that in which the
present dynasty reigns, having produced monarchs who were most

1 This means that they are prepared to receive on that day such relations and
friends as wish to bring sacrificial articles, specified on a card, to the family dwell-
ing and oiler them up to the manes of the defunct.

% m m ^ m ^ + *r -t m * # 00 m & a m w & .

stt ib
t»
 OF MANDARINS SENDING DEAD SOLDIERS HOME. 845

anxious to frame their conduct upon the acts recorded of their pre-
decessors. It is , indeed , stated in the Standard Histories that Kao
Tsu \ the first emperor of the Han dynasty, » ordained in the eighth
» year of his reign (199 B. C.) that for officials and private soldiers who
» had marched out with the army and lost their lives , small coffins
» should be made, and that they should be transported back to the
» districts whence they came ;
further , that they should there be pro-
» vided by the authorities with clothes, shrouds, coffins and other
» requisites for their burial and a small sacrificial victim (»'. e. a
» pig or goat) should be offered to their manes , and that the prin-
2
» cipal officials should see to their being decently interred" .

The care which, so many centuries ago, the great founder of

the Han dynasty ordered to be paid to the mortal remains of his
which is bestowed by the mandarinate of
soldiers, far exceeded that
the day upon the warriors who are levied in other parts
present
of the Empire to end their days in the garrisons in Formosa and
the Pescadores. The only thing the authorities do for these corpses
is to send them across the Formosa Channel to Amoy, the nearest
sea port on the continent, and to keep them there for some
time at the disposal of their families, in case they should claim
them and convey them home. The air-tight coffins are stored up
in a shed of clay, poorly built, which as late as 1890 stood
a few paces beyond the large, massive granite gate locally known
as the Tin-ldm koan
3
, » Barrier domineering the South". A custo-
dian, by the authorities, dwells in the immediate prox-
salaried
imity. Every coffin is inscribed with the name and birth-place of
the dead man enclosed therein. The building is vulgarly called
hdi cliiu H n*: »the shed for human bones". In former years, the
5
coffinswere kept within the precincts of the Hdi-sin si or » Con-
vent of the Sea-clams", a small Buddhist monastery located on the
shore of the outer harbour, the inmates of which acted as custo-
dians against a yearly stipend. The Memoirs concerning Amoy give
the following particulars on this head:
»In the 27th. year of the Khien lung period (A. D. 1762),

1
MtiBL-
M%
tk tt m & ,m \a & ^ ,& % m
misty, ch. 1, second part, 1. 12.
 ,

846 THE GRAVE.

c
» Hia Hu-siang ,
prefect of the district of T ai-wan (in Formosa)
» equipped a 'general-pacification ship', assigned exclusively for the
» transportation of the encoffined remains of soldiers who had been
» temporarily stationed in the island. They were to be stored up for

» safe keeping in a coffin-shed , erected within the Convent of the

» Sea-clams. By the Maritime Sub-prefect of Amoy letters were sent
» to the magistrates of the districts where these dead men had
» formerly lived, who gave notice to their respective families that they
» might search out their coffins and take possession of them. The
» time allowed them was one year at the end of which the coffins
,

» were buried in the environs of A moy. The ship sailed twice a

»year, once in the first month and once in the fifth, and was
» not then required to carry any victuals for the military. The costs
» were borne by the magistrates of the one sub-prefecture and the
c
» four which the department of T ai-wan (at the time
districts in
» embracing the whole island) was divided each contributing an- ,

» nually ten taels of silver; but in the 37th. year of the Khien
»lung period their contributions were raised to fifteen taels, so

» that the total sum amounted to seventy-five taels. This money

» was administered by the treasury of the T ai-wan district out of
c
,

» which twenty-four taels were paid to the monks of the convent

» as a compensation for the incense lamps and sacrifices which they
,

» offered up for those abandoned souls and the rest was spent in ,

» defraying the burials. In this 37th. year the stipend of the monks
» was increased by six taels.

» Afterwards , the contributions falling off or not coming in re-

»gularly, the number of unburied human remains became exceed-

ingly large. Therefore, from the first year of the Kia khing
» period (1796) contributions were levied at various periods on the
"initiative of the Maritime Sub-prefects (of Amoy) Khiu Tseng-
Yeh Shao-fen Hien Ch ing and Meh Siang and sundry
c
» sheu , , ,

» plots of ground were purchased to bury them in. In the first year
» of the period Tao kwang (1821), Sun 'Rh-chun the Head of ,

»the Civil Service in the Province (of Fuhkien), ordained that,

c
» commencing from that year, himself, the Taotai of T ai-wan and
c
» the prefect of T ai-wan and the magistrates of each of the three sub-
,

c
» prefectures and four districts of which T ai-wan consisted should ,

» each contribute fifteen taels every year which produced a total ,

» sum of one hundred and fifty taels" \

 +

INTERMENT OF EVOKED SOULS. 847

2. On burying the Souls of the Dead without their Bodies.

In tlif foregoing pages it has been demonstrated that the root ot

the custom , so generally observed by the Chinese in all ages , of
carrying the dead back to their native soil, is no other than a re-

cognized necessity of taking the soul thither, which the people have
always been perfectly sure does not separate from the body after
death. Well considered, it is the soul which has always been the
chief object of this custom the corpse being merely regarded as the
,

means by which the soul is to be enticed back to the ancestral home.

With this fact before us, we understand that the Chinese since
remote times should try to get back to their homes the souls
of those of their dead whose bodies had been lost, or could not
be taken home from foreign parts because of the great distance or
for some other reason. They called upon the soul to return home,
prepared a grave for it, and buried it therein, probably, in most

cases , by means of a soul tablet or the clothes of the deceased.

We mentioned in the books as » interments
find such curious burials
with evocation of the soul" or » burials of evoked souls" \ We will
try to throw light upon their antiquity and upon the part they
have played in religious life by giving some extracts from the native
,

literature which refer to them.

+ s^o ftmMmm, !£#f# # « iffl Hfc ft -

-hipfih^ — Wi + Prf Cha P ter "' 1K 56 and 57 -

1
ffiz&B-
 ,
:

848 THE GRAVE.

The Standard Annals of the Han dynasty afford evidence that the
custom prevailed in the Imperial family as early as the first cen-
tury of our era, the emperor Kwang Wu having observed it with
regard to his sister whose grave had been destroyed like those of
, ,

so many other members of his family during serious seditions which ,

c 1
marked the first years of his reign. When her husband Teng Ch en
died (A. D. 49), »the Emperor ordained that her soul, which was
» established in a tablet at Sin-ye, should be called back, ushered
2 c
» and placed with Teng Ch en in the same grave at Poh-mang"
in , .

Such things were by no means practised by the Court alone, it

being stated of Li Ku 3
, a military commander in the second cent-

ury, who perished in prison under the imputation of high treason

» His son Sieh after his death performed the funeral rites , the bu-
»rial, and everything connected with it. He forthwith selected aus-
» picious days had a coffin made prepared a grave-dress of silk
, ,

» fixed underneath the collar of it a piece of white glossy satin

» upon which , as upon an ancestral tablet , were written the titles

» and names of the deceased and the year and month of his
» birth and having thereupon called upon the soul he encoffined
; ,

» that dress and placed it in a tomb'' '.

In another work we read » According to the Description of Yii- :

» chang (the present province of Kiangsi) , the grave of Hii Tsze-

» tsiang is located at a distance of four miles from the local capital.

» In former times , this Tsze-tsiang came hither from afar because

» an awful sedition Middle Kingdom he
was harrassing the ;

» crossed the Yang-tsze, joined the troops of Liu Yiu, died, and
» was buried inside the Ch ang gate. This occurred under the Han
c

Later
2
miU$l%X^±*M*
Han Dynasty, chapter 45, 1. 10.
M^^^^^^ Book, of the

3 ^m-

^B^^iJ.fSl&ffij^l^^:- Wu hioh luh, ch. 19, 1. 19. The

author of this work does not mention the source from which he has drawn these
details neither have we been able to discover it. A biography of Li Ku and his son
,

occurs in chapter 93 of the Books of the Later Han Dynasty, but not a word is said
in reference to a burial without the body. We, therefore, plead some reservation as
to the reliability of the above, the assertions of the Wu hioh luh not being always
above suspicion. See, for instance, what we have stated on page 825.
 ,

ON BURYING SOULS WITHOUT THE BODIES. 849

» dynasty, in the second year of the period Hing c

p ing (A. D.
» 195). When the dynasty of Wu was settled on the throne, the
c
» Governor Ch en Ki during the T'ien ki period (A. D. 277—280)
» had a sudden vision in broad daylight while he was seated in ,

» his court , beholding , as in a dream , a man dressed in a single

» robe of a yellow colour and with a yellow kerchief around his
» head. He introduced himself as one Yang from the country of
» Jii-nan and asked for Hii Tsze-tsiang a burial in an other tomb
,

» whereupon he suddenly vanished. Ki forthwith inquired after

» the place where Hii Tsze-tsiang had died. But finding it was ,

» unknown , he evoked his soul and buried it. The verse in which
» the evocation was worded he had composed by the literator Shi
» Hia" '.

In the period in which the above episode is said to have occur-

red , the correctness of burying souls in empty graves was seriously
objected to by many. Probably mature reflection on the matter led
the thinking portion of the people to the conviction that a disem-
bodied human soul, having for the sake of its self-preservation to
stick to the body in which
had been accustomed to dwell, can- it

not but feel highly uncomfortable in a grave where that natural

support is entirely wanting, and that such a grave cannot possibly
serve to promote its happiness. Moreover, such anomalous burials
were disapproved of because no mention thereof is made in the
writings of the Cheu dynasty or in earlier times, which fact is suf-
ficient to stigmatize them as heterodox inventions. The opposition

hereto became so strong that »the Emperor forbade them in

the first year of the T c
ai hing period (A. D. 318)" \ This
prohibition,which shows that they were then practised on an ex-
tensive scalewas apparently the immediate consequence of the fol-
,

lowing event relating to Yueh 3 prince of Tung-hai 4 a military , ,

m -k il m # m yx mm % ffi >£ m t m n m,T

& ^ #f ,m w *& m z> $> £ ^ m m n ts i& #• ««

Men lei, turn, eta. 181, 1. 14.

^ $^ ^ ^$1 ?£ ?M>$$-
2 D ffl
Books 0l the Tsin y nast y> ch -
6 >
'• 8 '

3
M- *MM3.-
 ,,

850 THE GRAVE.

commander who had stood in the field in the North-west of the

Empire against the powerful Shih Lih, with whom our readers have
been made acquainted on pages 343 and 612:
»In the fifth year of the period Yung kia (A. D. 311) he died
» in Hang. His demise was kept secret. Fan prince of Siang-yang ,

» became commander-in-chief of his troops and fell back upon

» Tung-hai , to bury the deceased there. Shih Lih pursued him.
»At the city of Ning-p ing,
c
in the district of Khu , the general
» Ts'ien Twan sallied forth upon Shih Lih but he perished ; in the
» engagement and his troops were scattered on all sides.
»Shih Lih now gave orders to burn Yueh's encoffined corpse.
» This man', he said
' has disturbed the peace of the Realm in
,
'
j

» the name Realm I will avenge this crime therefore I burn

of the ;

» his bones, informing Heaven and Earth of this my deed'. Shih

» Lih's cavalry then inclosed the army on all sides which was several ,

» hundred thousands strong. Shooting his arrows into its ranks , he

» caused such large numbers to fall that the corpses lay accumu-
» lated as high as mountains. Over a hundred thousand princes
» noblemen , officers and privates thus perished. Chang a younger ,

» brother of Wang Mi , succeeded in setting fire to the rest of the

» troops, which were then entirely devoured (by the flames).
c
» P ei the consort (of Yueh) was taken prisoner (not long
, , after)
» and was sold to Madam Wu. But in the T ai hing period she
c

» managed to effect her escape across the Yang-tsze river. As she

» wished to evoke the soul of her husband and bury it the ,

» emperor Yuen ordered his officers to minutely discuss the de-

» sirability hereof, upon which the learned Fu Shun reported as
» follows The Holy Ones have instituted the rites and ceremo-
:
'

» nies in order to prolong the affection for others (after their

» death). They have introduced the use of tombs and grave vaults
» in order to hide therein the mortal remains of human beings
» and to serve the latter by means of obsequies ; — on the other
» hand , they have instituted ancestral temples and shrines for the
» purpose of establishing the disembodied souls therein and there
» to worship the same by means of felicitous ceremonies. The bodies
» of the dead are taken out of the house and carried away but ;

» the manes are on the contrary ushered in and taken back home
» which shows that a capital difference exists between graves and
» ancestral temples and that the rescripts concerning the treatment
,

» of bodies and souls are of a different character. If, further, we

» consider that the method of invoking on a broad scale the spirits
 ,

ON BURYING SOULS WITHOUT THE BODIES. 851

» of the dead consists in sacrificing to them in more than one place

» viz. in ancestral temples, sacrificial apartments in the house, and
» side-chambers and that their graves are the only places where
,

» no offerings are presented them it is quite clear that the grave is ,

» not the place where the soul resides. If in the case now sub-
» mitted to our judgment the distinction between the body and the
» soul is lost sight of, and the lines of conduct which ought to be

» followed with regard to ancestral temples on the one side and

» graves on the other are confused no transgressions of the ritual
, ,

» institutions can surpass this in monstrosity'.

» Upon this , the emperor declared that he refused his license.
c
» Madam P ei did not , however , submit to this decision , but buried
c
» Yueh in Kwang-ling. Afterwards, in the last year of the same T ai
»hing period (A. D. 321), when the grave had fallen into decay,
c 1
» she transferred the soul to another grave, situated in Tan-t u" .

Since that time, the books teach us on many a page that the
question whether burying souls alone could be deemed consistent
with good morals and orthodox ritual laws, has frequently engaged

1
*II#HT^.»7»ft. J^ftl^iiE^

m &$mm b . . ft a §l % t ,^ « ^ t m z >

HftlBAJftflfr, «**£# ***#« fro*

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w#mzffi&& a ^M. &mzm,$gmMZ%.,
:

A $1^ TvC 3S iB£ > *^t ft f\^- Books of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 59 :
1. 39.
 ,,

852 THE GRAVE.

the attention of wise and philosophical men. And no wonder,

for nothing is so intimately connected with the doctrines of the
hiao as and funeral observances. Many Chinese embraced
burials
the views of Fu Shun, maintaining that a disembodied soul, when
the body is not recoverable, ought to be lodged in a tablet, and
not in a tomb. Others , however , likewise after mature deliberation
held that, as burying the dead ranks amongst the highest duties
prescribed by the hiao, nobody can dispense with it, even though
the corpse is not at hand, unless there exist uncertainty as to the
death of the person in question. Some of those who have viewed
the matter from this point make , we find , much of the advan-
tage that, by burying the soul, a fixed date is obtained from which
the different stadiums in the period of mourning may be calculated
and also the sundry sacrifices and observances which custom requires
to be celebrated at fixed times after the burial.
Chinese moralists being far from unanimous in regard to the
propriety of the custom now under notice, it continued to be
practised in ensuing centuries. In the year 693, two consorts of
the emperor Jui Tsung '
of the Tang dynasty , respectively bear-
2
ing the family names Liu and Teu 3
, were put to death by order
of the empress- dowager the throne and Wu ' , who had usurped ;

» when Jui Tsung resumed the government (in A. U. 710), he evoked

» their souls and buried them to the south of the walls of the
5
» capital" , it being unknown what had become of their corpses.
In the same year, the lady Chao 6
consort of Chung Tsung 7 who
,

had preceded Jui Tsung on the throne, became the object of a

similar ceremony. »On the demise of Chung Tsung. they performed
» for her the rites connected with the burial of a woman at her
» husband's side with evocation of her soul as nobody knew ,

» where she was buried. P ceng King-chih Doctor in the Court ,

» of Sao. ificial Worship had presented to the emperor a memorial

,

» of the following tenor :

'
Anciently there existed no such cere-
» mony as burying evoked souls. Hence it is not allowed in the
» present case to use a coffin , vault or hearse. But , as in ancient
» times when, according to the Record of the Suburban Sacrifices

Dynasty, ch. 51, 11. 16 an.l 17.

 ON BURYING SOULS WITHOUT THE BODIES. 853

» which is contained in the Books of the Han Dynasty , Hwang-ti's

» clothes and caps were buried in mount Kiao ' , the soul of this
» Empress should be evoked in the sacrificial temple of the Mau-
» solemn with the aid of her sacrificial robe ; then this robe must
/> be placed on a soul-carriage , a great sacrificial victim (bullock)
» be offered and an announcement of this be made to her; then
» the dress must be taken to the sacrificial hall , be spread out on
» the right side of the Imperial resting place (i. e. the place where
» his tablet stands) be covered with a corpse-pall and finally be
, ,

» buried at the side of the Emperor'. This advice was followed" \

In those times burials of evoked souls were in vogue even amongst
,

the people. We read e. g. that one Yao Si-yun 3

, who lived in the

seventh » evoked his father's soul, buried it and, out of

century,
» sorrow that he had died on the frontiers settled in a shed upon the ,

» tomb" '. »Aud Yang Shao-tsung's wife, whose maiden name was
» Wang a native of Hwa-yin in Hwa-cheu having lost her mother
, ,

» while she was still carried on her back her step-mother brought her ,

» up with the utmost love. Her father died when he was quartered
» with the army in the country of Liao and her step-mother de- ,

» parted this life when Wang was fifteen years old. She brought
» the coffins of her two mothers together erected an image of her ,

» father called upon his soul

, and placed them all three in one ,

» grave , on the left side of which she settled in a shed. In the

» period Yung hwui (650 — 656)
was decreed by the Emperor that it

» an Imperial donation of sundry things and rice should be bestowed

» upon her and the entrance (to her house or village) should be
» decorated with a gateway , in consideration of her having , on

-1 This statement is found in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, ch. 25, I,
1. 30. It is,- however, not given by this work as an historical fact, but merely as

the private opinion of some person not named.

m±^^\M-±w,^mm^mzm.^m^m
n. m w m t m m # su * * m fr # £ m j* as
o e uj
&», jaM/5*t£^lt#f;f ^fS^ S* Wife
J^H^JnliJjftil Wbz^Z 01<i Books oftheT'ang Dynasty, ch. 51, 1.11.

tory of the Sung Dynasty, ch. 450 , 1. 14.

 ,

854 THE GRAVE.

» her father's decease in the west of Liao under the Sui dynasty
» shown herself capable of calling back his soul and burying it and ,

» in consideration also of her having dwelt in a hut of boards in the

» grave-ground of her grandparents , where her grief had affected the
l
» hearts of the passers-by" .

Later ages too afford instances of such burials. The History of the
Ming Dynasty relates that, at the conquest of the Metropolis Nan-
2
king by the rebellious king of Yen D. 1402, the conqueror in A.
issued orders for the capture of the wife and two daughters of the
minister Hwang Kwan ), wishing to detain them in custody as
3

hostages of this faithful champion for the dynasty, who was then
leading out troops against him. But these heroic women with more
than ten members of their family got the start of him by drowning
themselves from a bridge. Yet ere tidings of their death reached him,
Hwang Kwan said: »'My wife possesses so much firmness and self-

» sacrificing attachment that she will certainly have lost her life already',

»and he evoked her soul and buried it on the banks of the Yang-
» tsze river" \ The Code of Laws of the dynasty now seated on the
throne explicitly ordains that violation of a grave in which an evoked
soul is interred shall be punished just as severely as the violation
of a grave occupied by a corpse (see page 868), which shows that
the Government recognizes such burials as a good custom, deserv-
ing the protection of law and justice. Connecting this with the
fact that they have been of common prevalence for at least eighteen
centuries , we can scarcely doubt of their occurrence even nowadays.

1
4§^^#aE^H^ItA>£fM#t;Jl#

=£L HH N ew Books of the x'ang Dynasty, eh. 205, I. 4. Also the Old Books
HI .

of the same House, ch. 193, 1. 7.

2
^3E- 3
^H-
4
#m^mt p , >& ft * # & m z u. ± cha Pter 143 '
' 5 -
 CHAPTER XI.

OF THE CARE BESTOWED BY THE PEOPLE AND THE AUTHORITIES

UPON THE DEAD OF OTHERS.

1. Public Charity towards to Dead.

The customs and conceptions relating to the Grave, which have

been described work, have no doubt fully convinced our
in this
readers that in the Middle Kingdom graves are looked upon in
quite another light than amongst ourselves. On yonder side of the
globe they are not a means to rid one's self of useless mortal
remains in a way considered the most decent; nor are they merely
rendered sacred to the memory of the dead. In China the grave is

sacred , but in quite a different sense. It is sacred especially as an

abode of the soul, not only indispensable for its happiness, but
also for its existence, for no disembodied spirit can long escape
destruction unless the body co-exists with it to serve it as a natural
support. Both the body and the soul require a grave for their pre-

servation. Hence the grave being the , chief shelter of the soul , virtually

becomes the principal altar dedicated to it and to its worship.

Such ideas still prevail in China, and have prevailed there since very
ancient times. Consequently the people have always regarded it as

a dire calamity to be buried in an incomplete manner, and the

greatest possible disaster not to be buried at all. Is has been stated
in our chapter on Coffins and Grave vaults (pp. 280 sqq.) that to be
committed to the earth without a coffin was of old regarded as a
curse; how much more terrible then must it have been to be de-
prived of a grave, the disembodied soul being thus wretchedly
exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, to the scorching
summer sun, the merciless rains, snows, frost and ice which the
various seasons bring!
The conception that souls are doomed to a pitiable condition
if their bodies be badly interred, is brought out in sharp lines

in the following legend, to be found in a work of the fourth

century. In the opinion of the nation it is no legend , but an historical
 ;,

856 THE GRAVE.

event , Chinese civilisation not yet having reached that pitch at which
myth and truth can be properly distinguished. » Under the Han-
» dynasty, Wen Ying , also named Shuh-ch ang c
, was invested with
» the dignity of prefect of Kan-ling (province of Chihli) during the
» period Kien ngan (A. D. 196 — 220). Spending the night some-
» where after having crossed the frontiers of that country, he beheld
» in a dream , during the third watch , a human being who ,
prostrate
» before him , said :
'
Ere now my parents buried me hereabouts
» but when the tide rises it flows over my grave ; the coffin being
» submerged, becomes half full of water, so that I possess nothing
it

» wherein to keep myself warm Hearing that you my Lord are . , ,

» here I have come hither to take refuge with you. Bent down
,

» I express the hope that you will to-morrow deign to prolong

» your stay a little, in order to repair to the place and transfer me

"to aand dry spot'. Whereupon the spectre lifted up its

high
» clothes, to show Ying they were all wet through".
» Moved with compassion, Ying immediately arose from his sleep.
» He told his followers what had happened , but they said
:
' Dreams
» are falsehoods ; are they deserving of concern ?' He thereupon lay
» down again to rest ; but when about to fall asleep , the spectre
» appeared as before. I have informed Your Lordship of my mi- '

» series', it said, 'why do you not feel commiseration for me?'

» Ying drowsily asked: 'Who are you?' 'I was born in the country
» of Chao', was the reply, 'but am now one of the spirits of the
» family Wang-mang'. 'Where is your coffin?' asked Ying. 'Not
» far from your own bed curtains ten and odd p u to the North ;

» underneath a withered willow tree on the bank of the river. The

»> day being about the break I cannot appear before you again ,

» therefore fix memory, my Lord

the spot Ying firmly in your '

» answered he would do so and then suddenly awoke from his sleep. ,

» When the day had broken and all were ready to start Ying ,

» said It is said that dreams are deserving of no concern

:
' but ;

» might not this be a real event of no small importance?' 'Why —

» should we mind losing a few moments?' suggested his followers,
»'why and examine the matter?' Ying got up im-
don't you go
» mediately, and in the company of ten and odd men marched
» up along the river against the stream. They found indeed a
» withered willow. 'This is it', they exclaimed, dug up the earth at
» its foot and soon found a very rotten coffin half in the water.
, ,

» I declare what my men have said is idle talk ', replied Ying
'

» to his followers ; '

whatever the people tell each other should
 * ;

THE MISERIES ARISING FROM IMPROPER BURIAL. S57

» certainly be put to the test'. He had the coffin carried to another

»spot, buried it, and departed" 1
.

Insufficient and sloven burial causing severe suffering to the soul,

it was often inflicted by way of punishment upon disgraced grandees
who were deemed to have deserved no better. Many instances hereof
are to be gleaned from the Standard Histories. We read e. g. of
c
Chang T ang 9
one of the highest dignitaries of the Empire in the
,

first century before our era, who incurred the high displeasure of
the Son of Heaven : » He thereupon committed suicide. At his death
» his whole possessions amounted to no more than the five hundred
» pieces of money he had received from the Emperor ; this was all
» he left. His brothers and sons desired to give him an expensive
c
» burial, but his mother said: 'T ang has died after having been
» accused of evil things by the high ministers of the Son of Heaven
» why should we him a costly burial?' So they laid him upon
give
» an ox-cart and gave him a coffin only, but no vault. The Em-

1
m&^%m^MM>m%*ifa-#mm&.m

g m % & i& & % * ft,® m m w a. m #l

?&o , >

^ ^ m s ft & m & m & *m m ^ m . .

«=£&#,£**#&#¥. 8^*raB,*£

**R*mwtkAmz&&,iik®ffimx'%mH.
^ ^£ tg H £ ^r "" W,
ift % fift '
s/ s/ "'" chapter 16.
 ,

858 THE GRAVE.

» peror on hearing this said

, , :
'
If she were not such a mother , she
» would not have given birth to such a son'" '.

Chinese books also teach us that emperors themselves have often

forbidden disgraced officers whom they desired to punish after their
death, to be buried decently, and that the kinsmen of such dead
men were liable to be reprimanded should they presume to bury them
properly. Concerning Ma Yuen 2
, commander
a celebrated military
in the first century of our era , we read » Formerly, when sojourning
:

» in Kiao-chi (the modern Tongking to quell with a military force ,

» a revolt against the Chinese suzerainty), he had steadily swallowed

» the seeds of a plant known by the name of I-i which renders ,

» the body light tempers the animal passions and subdues the infiu-
,

» ences of malarious vapours. These seeds being larger in the South

» Yuen took with him a full cart-load when his army returned
» for the purpose of sowing them. Though the people at that time
» considered them to be remarkable and precious southern products
» and every man of wealth and influence coveted them, nobody
» made any report of the matter to the Throne Yuen being in the ,

» full enjoyment of the imperial favour. But when he died some ,

» one calumniated him in an address to the emperor stating that ,

» what he had brought home in that cart was nothing less than
» brilliant pearls and veined preciosa. The emperor's wrath was in-

» censed to such a pitch that Yuen's wife and children bewildered ,

» with fear did not venture to convey his corpse to the old family
,

» sepulchre. They selected to the west of the city a plot of ground of

»& few acres, purchased it, and contented themselves with burying
» him there in a slovenly manner. Not a single visitor or old friend
3
» ventured to come and present his condolences" . Another page

the Early Han Dynasty, ch. 59, 1. 7; also the Historical Records, ch. 122, 1. 10.
 4 % n

BURIAL DENIED TO PRISONERS. 859

in the Standard Histories of those times recounts that Liang Sung ',
maternal grandfather of the emperor and paternal grandfather Hwo 2

of the magnate Liang Shang mentioned on page 411 in A. D. 83 ,

having died in prison where he was detained under a false im-

,

putation, was left unburied but afterwards, when Hwo had ascended
;

the throne, this monarch allowed the family to convey the remains
home, and even ordered that they should be dressed and coffined
in a rich style and interred with pomp and show 3
.

It was , indeed , the rule in the first ages of our era to refuse
a decent burial to people who died in jail, it being on record
that the emperor Hiao Wen
of the Wei dynasty in A. D. 473*

issued an » thenceforth the criminals detained

edict, stating that
» in the Metropolis and elsewhere in the Empire, who died in
» prison before sentence had been pronounced against them should ,

» be buried by the authorities in a coffin and with grave clothes

» on , unless they had near relations (to provide for them in this
» way) , and that their remains should no longer be left exposed
» in the open air" \ Even as late as the Ming dynasty people who
died in captivity were not otherwise dealt with , as the following
episode proves. » When Mr. Li Tung-kang of Kao-mih (in Shantung
» province) was Governor of Kansuh , he happened to perceive in
» the capital of that province, in a corner of the walls of the jailor's
» house, a heap of bleached bones, and was informed that they were
» the remains of convicts of long years ago. Moved by commisera-
» tion he said 'But these dead men have already atoned for their
, :

» crimes why then are their bones exposed to the air ?' He laid
;

» out a public cemetery outside the city and buried them there" 6 .

If m * m % w # £ M ^ & & Wt ,m % II HI * . ,

%r $t A. Jl Wi ^ Books of the Later Han D y nast >' cb - 54 '

' 15 -

2 %\-
is&k-
3 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 64, 11. 7 seq.

4
^ jfc.

g mmn t z m p * &m # m % . ,

of the Wei Dynasty, ch. 7, first part, 1. 5.

 ,

860 THE GRAVE.

The miserable condition to which, as the Chinese believe, souls

are doomed whose bodies are not properly buried, we may place
among the chief reasons for their giving decent interment to their
parents and relations and for this being considered one of the very
,

first duties imposed upon mankind by their social laws. Further it fully
explains the fact that burying a non-interred or imperfectly inter-
red corpse of any individual to whom one is not related, is consid-
ered by the nation as the greatest service that can be rendered
to his soul and, consequently, as a charitable deed of such merit
that it cannot fail to call down blessings on the person who per-
forms it. The good that befalls a man in this world, as well as
the evil, are indeed generally ascribed to spirits who reward or
punish him. Already in the oldest of the Standard Histories, as we
have seen on page 283, the burying of the most depraved tyrant
that ever lived is represented as an act of merit deserving the
special recompense of the high Heavens. Books of subsequent ages
also contain sundry tales concerning rewards , distributed by souls to
those who had bestowed upon their bodies the greatest attention

that can be paid to a dead man. A few of these tales we will

quote, to give the readers an idea of their general tendency. The

simple fact that they are set down in black and white , stamps them
in the eyes of the Chinese as historical events , to doubt the veracity
of which would never occur to the minds of the greatest sceptics.

c
» Ts ui Hung's Account of the later times of the Kingdom of Yen
» (which existed in the fourth century: comp. page 653), makes
c
» mention of one Chao Chih a native of Ch ao-ko (in the province ,

» of Honan) who despised wordly goods and took pleasure in giving

,

» them away. The mother of his neighbour Li Yuen-tu having died

» and the family being too poor to afford the expense of the burial
» Chih said to his elder brother :
'
To run to the succour of the dead
» and to help those who have not enough is the first principle of
» human love. We give them one
have two oxen in our house ,
'.

» In way Yuen-tu was enabled to bury his mother. In one of the

this
» following years when Chih was strolling about in the dark he
, ,

» saw an old matron who gave him a jar with gold saying You , :
'

tg£ ;Jfl| ^ . Kien wen lull Jjl M^ ,

quoted in the Ku kin t'u shu tsih

ch'ing , sect, il |& , ch. 04.

 ,

THE DEAD REWARD THOSE WHO BURY THEM. 861

» knew how to give me a decent burial ; this is a present where-

» with I reward you. After your fiftieth year you will become un-
» speakably rich and esteemed; but do not then forget Yuen-tu' " '.

» During the Tsin dynasty, in the period Lung ngan (A. D.

» 397 — 402) , one Yen Tsung had built a new house. At night he
» dreamed that some one said him Why have you spoiled my
to :
'

» grave ?' The next day he dug up the ground in front of his bed
» and saw a coffin. He set out sacrificial articles on the spot and
»said: 'Being compelled to transfer you to some better spot, I will
» prepare a small grave you elsewhere'. for

»The next morning there came a man to his door and asked per-
» mission to enter. After he had made himself known as a certain
» Chu Hu the two men were seated and the visitor spoke 'I have
, :

» dwelt here for forty years and you bestowed upon me so generous
,

» a benefit yesterday how shall I show my gratitude ? This day

;

» being an auspicious one it offers you a good opportunity to remove

,

» my coffin out of your house. In my linen coffer I have mirrors

» of gold, wherewith I wish to succour you'. Taking three mir-
» rors out of a box which stood at the upper end of the
linen
» coffin, he presented them to Tsung, and suddenly vanished"-.
c
»T ang Li-yuen, when crossing the Yang-tsze-kiang ,
perceived

1
m^%$tsBB,m%k%\w<A&>mwi,ftm.

W ^ tyl 1& 7t lit iii

Yuen hien lei han >
cha P ter 18i -
' 9 -

*wm%t¥M® w&&m*&WAm^^fa ,

m\\iffir¥M&m = n ni$ » bbxr- » The c °p se °f

WondetV 4§[ ^fi", quoted in the Ku kin t'u situ tsih ch'ing , section y^ I|£ ,
ch. 94.

56
 . ,

862 THE GRAVE.

» the corpse of a woman drew it out of the water and buried

,

» it. The next night he dreamt that he found himself in a deep

» mountain recess. The bright moon had just risen above the
» horizon , a cool and gentle breeze played through his clothes
and ,

» melody produced by a Pandean pipe was heard

in the distance a
» the tones of which melted sweetly away. Suddenly a charming
» woman appeared on the brink of the bush. Between her lips she
» hummed The various melodies of the Purple Mansion (the
:
'

» heavenly spheres) could be clearly distinguished by the ear one

» after the other , in this pure , cool night '.

» When he presented himself in the Metropolis at the examina-

» tions for the highest literary degree , the following theme was given
» the candidates to write an essay upon :
'
In the Hiu mountains
» during moon-lit nights , Wang Tsze-tsin is heard playing on his
» Pandean pipe'. Li-yuen now used the words he had heard in his
» dream as the third and fourth lines in his composition , in conse-
» quence of which he succeeded and was raised to the rank of tsin-
» s h i. The people considered this a reward bestowed upon him by
» the woman he had committed to the grave" '.

»In the last year of the period Ching teh (A. D. 1521), Wang
»'Rh-pieh, a fisherman of Poh-yang (a district bordering on the
» great lake of that name) saw a corpse floating in the water. Out
,

» of pity he spent all his savings to buy a coffin and give it

» a decent burial. Everybody mocked his stupidity. Not long af-

» terwards , when he had to suffer dire privation because of the

» winter-cold , he caught several tens of big perch near the oozy
» banks. One half of his lucky take he bartered for rice and the ,

» rest he took home to his mother. When she cut them up the ,

m m mw&%n

% ^ #§ A £ $8 LaniJ Men l:l

MM ifi'
a work of the Yl,en

dynasty; quoted in the Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing, sect. A jfe , ch. 94.
 ,

COFFIN DISTRIBUTING SOCIETIES. 863

» knife gave a screaching sound, the fish being full of gold. They
» thus became rich people , and everybody considered this a reward
l
» for his filial behaviour and sense of duty" .

would be easy to glean dozens of such tales from Chinese

It

books. They pass among the people as historical truths and are
handed down by oral tradition with endless variations, exercising
a wide influence upon the line of conduct pursued with respect to
neglected human remains. Hopes of reward and, no less, fear of the
wrath of the souls concerned if they be remorselessly left in their
forlorn condition, give rise from time to time to charitable societies

for the distribution of coffins and the repair of the graves of the
indigent. Such coffin-societies are, as a rule, corporations of long
standing ; but most grave repairing societies only exist for a short time
being dissolved when the restoration of a certain number of graves
has been completed, or a certain sum of money, fixed upon before-
hand, has been expended in that work of charity.
Owing to the circumstance that each family and each clan
consider it their appointed duty to help the poor amongst them to
procure the requisites for burying the dead, very few people have
to apply to public charity for coffins. Consequently, the corporations
that them are not very numerous. They are especially
distribute
found in towns and cities, clan-fellowship being weaker there than
in the country. In 1886 there were only three in Amoy.
Coffin-distributing societies are organized in a very simple way.
Some men of means give a fixed sum , thus creating a fund which
is maintained by annual or monthly contributions. Out of this fund
the expenses required for the charity are defrayed. A salaried cash-
ier, who is at the same time the book-keeper, is appointed to
manage the daily business. When a poor man applies to a member
of the society for a coffin, a messenger is sent out with him, if

necessary, to inquire whether the conditions of the family are really

Memoirs of the Department of Jao-cheu ,

quoted in the Ku kin I u situ tsilt ch'ihg,

section A Jfi. , chapter 94.

864 THE GRAVE.

such as to require assistance. After this, a ticket furnished with the

seal of the society is given to the applicant, whom it entitles to
receive a coffin at some coffin shop the owner of which has contracted
with the society for the delivery of a certain number. If the society
has the reputation of being well managed, its funds are constantly
supplemented by voluntary donations from charitable men, anxious
to gain a stock of merit for themselves by thus succouring the
dead. Moreover, there are many men and women who contribute
in fulfilment of vows , made to the gods with the object of obtaining
a cure from sickness or rescue from dangers either for themselves,
or formembers of their family.
Some societies work in this way for several years, being dissolved
only when no more money comes in and the funds are exhausted.
Many have but a short existence being founded by men who desire
,

only to distribute a limited number of coffins. The formation of

such a temporary society is announced to the public by bills posted
up in the streets, and specially by long wooden sign-boards in front
of the houses where the poor in need of coffins must apply, stating
in big characters that » The firm N.N. will distribute so-and-so many
coffins", or bearing some other inscription of similar tenor. When the
last coffin has been given away, the boards are taken down , and the
poor have henceforth to look out for succour elsewhere. Occasionally,
some well-to-do person in a similar manner distributes coffins entirely
at his own expense, chiefly with the object of gaining popularity;
indeed, reputation, respectability and prestige, or, as the Amoy
people say, fe Men ', is eagerly coveted by whoever has money
enough to aspire thereto. In 1886, and during many years previ-
ously, a rich merchant of the name of Yeh Teh-shui 2
stood fore-
most in Amoy among this class of philantropists. He also deserved

well of his fellow townsmen by gratuitously providing the poor with

medicines.
As a rule, such charitable institutions and persons add to their
charity by supplying with each coffin they give away a small
sum of money — people say, half a dollar on an average — to

help the family to defray the funeral expenses. In many cases they
give also a certain quantity of lime , to be mixed with the clay which
is placed around the coffin at the interment (comp. page 213).

1
flif-
2
mn&-
 ,

GRAVE REPAIRING SOCIETIES. 865

Some societies even go so far as to have Buddhist masses celebrated

at regular intervals of a few years in a temple in the town or its

neighbourhood , with the object of comforting the souls of the dead

to whom they have lent succour, and thus delivering them out of
the pangs of hell.
We now come to the temporary corporations who desire to
save from suffering the souls of the multitude of dead of the
poorer classes by repairing their graves. Such graves of the indi-
gent, being covered only with a very low tumulus, are generally
soon lost sight of by the family ; they disappear without leaving
a trace behind, and are then destroyed by others, desirous of burying
their own dead on the spot. To prevent this is the object of such
corporations.
Each grave repairing society is represented by a few men con-
stituting acommittee of management. They spend the money chiefly
upon vast burial grounds in the environs of cities and towns barren ,

hills or plains unsuited for productive agricultural pursuits. These

parts teem with the graves of the poor who have been unable to bury
their dead more favourable spots. The work of repair is usually
in
let out in lots. The contractors begin the work only on such days

as are appointed by the almanac as fit for digging in the ground

for if they act otherwise, their workmen will be visited by acci-
dents and disease be sent down by the wrathful spirits of the soil
(comp. page 105), who never patiently suffer any reckless disturbance
of their rest.
In the island of Amoy, scarcely any better material is ever used
for the repairs than bits of broken jars or pots, and fragments of
tiles. The numerous holes formed in the graves in consequence of
shallow interment and decay of the coffin wood , are covered by the
workmen with such-like rubbish; some earth is spread thereover,
and then the whole surface of the graves is plastered with a mixture
of lime and clay, and finally with a thin coating of lime only.
After such a would-be restoration great prudence is required in
walking over the graves , lest one's feet sink down at every step

and render the repairs undone. But in a country where the belief
prevails that treasures and furniture of paper enrich the dead, and
paper houses are perfectly fit to shelter them a rotten coffin covered
,

with a fragile layer of potsherds and plaster can hardly be deemed

insufficient to harbour their souls. It is unnecessary to say that
within a short time such repaired graves show as many openings
as before, made by the hoofs of strayed cattle or runaway horses.
866 THE GRAVE.

Nevertheless, no new repairs are made until a new corporation un-

dertakes another general restoration.
The work ground has the aspect of a vast
finished, the burial
field of snow, irregularly undulated, which, when bathed in sun-

light, dazzles the eyes. Very often the corporation crowns its com-
mendable work with a Buddhist mass, celebrated at its expense
in a temple in the proximity of the graves, expecting to have the
souls of all those dead miraculously comforted by the priests and
carried up to the regions of higher bliss to which Buddha's Church
gives access.
Repairing other people's graves is never undertaken without the
authorisation of the local magistracy. Otherwise, there is no doubt

that employers and workmen would become the victims of the depraved
officials and low characters who, heartily welcoming the unsought-

for opportunity to extort money, would put in force the law

against the malicious violation of the graves of others, unless such

denunciation were bought off with money. Not even charity of the
highest order known in China is beyond the reach of such evil

practices! But there is another reason why the corporations always

apprize the powers that be of the virtuous work they desire
to They want to direct attention to it, and thus to
undertake.
open the way to some official recompense. The Collective Statutes
of the reigning House prescribe that, »when public spirited men
» have given burial to a great number of corpses of the poor or ,

» have covered up and interred considerable quantities of withered

» bones the authorities shall scrutinize the act and then reward
,

» it with marks of distinction in the shape of lettered boards to

» be hung That even an honorary gate can be
over their doors" '.

granted if the sum laid out has amounted to a thousand taels or

more, has been stated already on page 791.

2. The Proper Interment of the Dead is the Business of the Government.

Official Rescripts relating to the Disposal of the Dead. Laws for

the Protection of Corpses and Graves.
The great care bestowed by the Chinese people in all ages both

% > ^f ^\W)1H%ttM1fe^- Wu hioh lu >

cha P ter 2 '
'• 16 -
 PL XXIII.

9
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 ,

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS FOR FUNERALS AND BURIALS. 867

upon their own deceased relations and the neglected dead of others
almost necessarily pre-supposes that the Government of the Empire
can never have been behind hand in its concern for the proper
burial of its subjects. Government could not, indeed, follow any
other line of conduct , at the risk of belying its own devise , adopted
probably at the foundation of the State, namely, that the whole
nation is one single family and the rulers are an intrinsic part of it.

Moreover, should the Government neglect this matter, it would

commit a great inconsequence, inasmuch as active attention to
burials forms a natural part of the Religion of the Dead, which is
intimately bound up with the hiao; indeed it would thus fall short
of a thorough enforcement of the great national virtue which , as
our readers know, has always held a foremost place in its con-
cerns as being the substratum of its policy towards Society.
During a long series of ages down to the present day, the care
bestowed by the Chinese Government upon the corpses of its subjects
has had many and varied aspects. With one of them our readers
are already acquainted, namely, the rules enacted by successive dy-
nasties for the disposal of the dead of each social class, that is to

say, Emperors, members of the Imperial family, nobles and man-

darins of all grades, the gentry, and the common people. These
rules form part of each dynastic code of ritual institutions and
rescripts for the exercise of the Religion of the State. A few par-
ticulars on this head have been given already in the First Volume
of this work (pp. 235 sqq.).
Besides these official attempts to ensure to everybody in the Em-
pire after his death a treatment in accordance with his rank , dignity
or social standing, probably every dynasty has made severe laws
against the violation of dead bodies and the desecration of graves.
Unfortunately, only those in force at present, as laid down in the
Code of Laws, are accessible. Inasmuch as only a small portion of
them has ever been translated into any European language, we shall
give all these articles in the following pages.
868 THE GRAVE.

* m m m # - + m.
M #. JK fc T
c
Chapter xxv of the laws of the great ts ing dynasty.
criminal laws. —
rebellion, robbery and theft, iii.
on opening graves.

First Fundamental Article.

» Every person who opens a grave belonging to others and renders

the coffin or the vault visible, shall receive one hundred blows with
the long stick and be deported for life to a distance of 3000 miles.
Should he have opened the coffin or the vault and rendered the
corpse visible, he shall be strangled, after previously being kept in
jail to await (the confirmation of his sentence by the higher authori-
ties^. And he who has opened a grave without reaching the coffin or
the vault, shall be punished with one hundred blows with the long
stick and three years' banishment. — The same punishments shall
be inflicted if only an evoked soul were buried in the grave 1
.
—
Accessories to the crime shall be liable to a punishment one degree
less severe.

»If a coffin containing a corpse be stolen out of a grave of old

date which has become open or has caved in, or if such a coffin
be stolen before provisory burial or burial for good, the perpetrat-

"1 This clause is interesting, as it shows that the law for the protection of the
dead is chiefly intended to protect the soul , which cannot subsist without the body.
Compare pp. 847 sqq.
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 869

ors shall receive ninety blows with the long stick and be banished
for two years and a hah". Should they have opened the coffin and
rendered the corpse visible, they shall also be strangled (Comp.
page 881, the sixth supplementary article).

»In case of theft of implements and objects, bricks and stones

(from a grave), the culprits must be punished as in ordinary cases
1
of theft, according to the value of the things appropriated ; but
s
they need not be branded .

Second Fundamental Article.

-h

» Should an inferior or junior member of a family have opened

the grave of a relation who held a higher rank in the family or was
older than himself, and for whom he has, or had , to wear mourning
in one of the five degrees , he shall be put on trial just as if he had
opened the grave of a person to whom he was not related. If he
has opened the coffin or the vault and rendered the corpse visible , he
shall be beheaded , after having been kept in prison until his sentence
has been confirmed by the higher authorities. This punishment shall
be inflicted also in case he has thrown the corpse away and sold
the burial ground ; moreover , the buyer , and the broker or go-

1 A list of punishments to be indicted upon thieves in proportion to the value

of the stolen goods is given in chapter 24 of the Code, § sgK Vx£ .

2 Ordinary thieves are branded on the upper part of the right arm with the
characters $££ Y>j£ , »theft". A recidivist receives a second brand on the left arm,
and if a man who has already been branded twice is convicted of theft a third time,

he is to be condemned to strangulation. See chapter 24 of the Code, § IsIl Vj*£ .

870 THE GRAVE.

between who has effected the sale shall both be punished with
eighty blows with the long stick if they were aware of the circum-
stances of the case; the purchase-money shall be sequestered and
confiscated to the profit of the magistracy, and the ground be given
back to the members of the clan to which the deceased belonged.
But if either the buyer or broker has acted unwittingly, he shall
not be punished.
» If a higher or senior member of a family has opened the grave
of an inferior or junior relation, he shall, if he has opened the
coffin or the vault and rendered the corpse visible, be punished

with one hundred blows with the long stick and three years banish-
ment if he had to mourn for the dead in the fifth degree. But
should the dead person be such a relation of his in the fourth
or a higher degree of mourning, the punishment is to be reduced
one degree for each higher degree of mourning '.

» Paternal grandparents or parents who open the grave of their

grandchild or child and open the coffin , so that the corpse becomes
visible, shall be punished with eighty blows with the long stick.

»(In all the cases provided for by this article) neither the
superior and senior relations, nor the inferior and junior kins-
people commit any punishable crime when they transfer the dead
into another grave for valid reasons , with observance of the established
rites.

Third Fundamental Article.

flH) Mt ifiL t-f

Sft * ^4*^11*1* A +o£*#Sft§fiii&:£#

1 That is dead were to be mourned for by the perpetrator in the
to say, if the
fourth degree, the punishment shallamount to 90 blows and 2'/» years banishment;
and if his mourning were in the third or the second degree, the punishment shall
be 80 blows and 2 years, or 70 blows and l'/s years. Compare our remarks on
page 567, and the list of punishments given at the foot of that page.
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 871

&#*&#JIiAS&iii#£*EI§**i&&£

» Whoever mangles the corpse of a member of another family,

or casts it into the water , shall be punished with one hundred blows
with the long stick and be transported for life to a region three
thousand miles distant. And he who mangles or casts away the still
un buried corpse of a superior or senior member of his family for
whom he must wear mourning in one of the five degrees, shall be
decapitated, but previously be kept in jail until his sentence has
been confirmed by the higher authorities. Each of these punishments
is to be reduced one degree if the corpse thrown away were not

lost in consequence of the crime, or when the mangling only caused

injury to the hair.
»He who mangles or away the dead body of an inferior or
casts

junior relation of his for whom he must mourn in one of the five
degrees, shall be punished as if he had committed the same crime
against a person who is not a member of his family, but with a
reduction of one degree for each higher degree of mourning.
» Mangling or throwing away the corpse of a son or grandson
shall be punished with eighty blows with the long stick. But any
child or grandchild who commits
same offence against his
the
or her paternal grandparent or parent, and any male or female
slave who mangles or throws away the dead body of his or her
master or any hired workman who commits such an offence against
,

his employer, shall be beheaded, after previously being kept in jail

until the sentence has been confirmed by the higher authorities,

neither the nature of the mutilations, nor the loss of the corpse
in consequence of the crime being taken into account in such an
event.

Fourth Fundamental Article.

872 THE GRAVE.

»He who, while digging in the earth, finds a corpse which has
no owner, and does not forthwith cover it up with earth, shall
receive eighty blows with the long stick.
» Should any person smoke foxes out of a grave which belongs to
others, and thereby set fire to the coffin or the vault, he shall be
punished with eighty blows with the long stick and be banished
for two years. If the corpse is burnt, he shall receive a hundred

blows and be banished for three years. If the corpse be that of a

superior or senior member of his family for whom he must mourn
in any of the five degrees, each of these punishments shall be
increased one degree for each higher degree of mourning; but if

an inferior or junior relation of his be buried in the grave, the

punishment shall be in proportion to the mourning which the
perpetrator must observe for him, that is to say, it will be the
same as is inflicted in the case of a corpse belonging to another
family, but with the reduction of one degree for each higher degree
of mourning.
»If a son or grandson smokes a fox out of the grave of one of
his parents or paternal grandparents, or if a slave or slave woman
does such a thing in the grave of his or her master, or a hired
workman in employer, the culprit shall receive one
that of his
hundred blows with the long stick. Should the coffin or the vault
have suffered by the fire, the punishment shall be one hundred
of such blows and three years banishment; and if the corpse be
burnt, strangulation shall be inflicted, the culprit being previously
kept in jail till the sentence has been confirmed by the higher
authorities.

Fifth Fundamental Article.

» Whosoever levels another's grave even with the ground and

converts it into a field or garden , shall receive one hundred blows
with the long stick, though he may not have rendered the coffin or
 ,

LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OP CORPSES AND GRAVES. 873

the vault visible. Moreover he shall be ordered to put it into good

condition again (Coinp. p. 894, the seventeenth supplementary article).
»Any one who fraudulently inters a corpse in a grave-ground
owned by another, shall be liable to a punishment of eighty blows
with the long stick and be compelled to remove the body elsewhere
within a fixed time.

Sixth Fundamental Article.

#-w> #!ft*fii it*** t #* + «-#.

» When a person is found dead within the precincts of a place

the headman of the village and the people living in the neigh-
bourhood shall be punished with eighty blows with the long stick
should they neglect to inform the magistrates of the fact, that
these latter may hold an inquest, or if they arbitrarily transfer the
corpse to another spot, or bury it. If the corpse is in consequence
lost, the chief culprits among them shall receive one hundred blows,
and should it be mutilated (by others) or cast into the water, they
shall then receive sixty blows and be banished for one year. Should
it be cast away, but not lost, or the hair only be injured, a punish-
ment one degree less severe, that is to say, one hundred blows
with the long stick, shall be inflicted upon them.
»If in such a case people have stolen the clothes from the corpse,
they may be tried for ordinary theft and the punishment be fixed
in accordance with the value of the things appropriated; but they
need not be branded *.

The above fundamental articles have been completed ,

partly modi-
fied and sharpened by sundry supplementary articles, enacted at
different periods. Some earlier editions of the Code contain a few
of such articles which are sought for in vain in later editions. We give
them as found in an edition published in 1882, the latest reprint
at our disposal.

•1
See notes 1 and 2 at the foot of page 809.
874 THE GRAVE.

First Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1870)

®m% A#mmtt amiss mm ffi±m,&

®mm#)Lm 8ft%nT j

f-mtt%,xm
s

*RH*#J:*A;fttit*>--3K*A;ftJi£
A^^^
M»ffiftA#«Jt.tif$£-f*#$&a2;

»If the grave of an ordinary person has been dug up, the coffin
opened and the corpse rendered visible, the chief culprits shall be
condemned to decapitation with the sword and their execution ,

not be postponed (for confirmation of the sentence by the higher

authorities). As for the accomplices: without taking into consi-
deration how many times they have joined in such a crime, they
shall be condemned to strangulation and be kept in jail till their
sentence has been confirmed by the higher authorities (Comp. the
first fundamental article).

» He who has opened a grave and rendered the coffin visible , then
sawn a seam or made a hole in it and extracted clothes and ornaments
from it even without laying bare the corpse , shall , if he has acted as
chief culprit , be condemned to strangulation and be executed without
awaiting confirmation of his sentence by the higher authorities.
All his accomplices shall likewise be sentenced to strangulation and ,

be confined in jail until their sentence has been confirmed by the

higher authorities.
»When graves have been dug up, the coffins opened and the
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 875

corpses rendered visible, all the accomplices who have assisted the
chief culprits by laying hands on the graves and opening the cof-
fins shall, without the number of times they have committed such
an act being taken into consideration, at the autumnal revision of
their sentence (by the high provincial authorities) be ranked among
the criminals whose cases are properly verified (and whose sentence
consequently need not be sent up to the Metropolis for Imperial

confirmation). And those who , without having been actively engaged

in the crime, have been present as spectators, shall, if they have
been present on one or two such occasions, be ranked (at the said

revision) among the criminals whose execution must be delayed,

(their sentence having to be sent up to Peking for confirmation);
but if they have been present on three or more occasions, they
shall be ranked among those whose cases are properly verified.
»And in case graves have been opened, the coffins rendered
visibleand seams have been sawn or holes made therein, then the
accomplices who have assisted in cutting and sawing shall if they ,

have committed the crime on three or more occasions be ranked at ,

the provincial revision among the criminals whose cases are properly
verified ; but if they have rendered themselves guilty thereof only once
or twice, they shall be ranked among those whose execution must
be delayed. And those who, without having been actively engaged
in the crime, have been present as spectators, shall, if they have
been present on six occasions , be ranked among the criminals whose
cases are properly verified; and if they have been present on from
one to five occasions,they shall be classed amongst those whose
execution is to be delayed until the Imperial confirmation of their

sentence has been given.

» If the grave of an ordinary person has been dug up , so that

the coffin or vault has become visible, the chief culprits shall be

transported for life to a province not far distant ', but if they are
fifty or over fifty years old, they shall be transported for life to an
adjacent province. The accomplices shall receive one hundred blows

with the long stick and be banished for three years (Comp. the first

fundamental article).

1 The provinces or departments, near or far-off, where convicts condemned to

lifelong banishment are to be sent, are enumerated for each province separately in
chapter 5 of the Code, §§
victs condemned to
%%^^j and
fe j§| f£ jfa j} ^
temporary banishment are not sent out of their province.
Con-
870 THE GRAVE.

Second Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1821)

& *^ * Jffi ii *E 18 tig ftfc^r ---**#

»If a person has once or twice stolen a coffin containing a

corpse, which was not yet temporarily buried or buried for good,
and has then sawn a seam or made a hole in it, he shall, if he
has acted as chief culprit, be punished with one hundred blows
with the long stick and three years banishment. Should he have
committed such a crime three times, he shall be banished for four

years; if four or five times, he shall be banished tor life to a

distant province; and if more

he has committed the offence six or

times, he shall be banished for ever to the remotest province where

a malarious climate reigns (Kwangtung).
»As for the accomplices: — if they have joined in the crime
once or twice , they shall be liable to ninety blows with the long
stick and banishment for two years and a half. If they have done
so three times, they shall receive one hundred and be
blows
banished for three years, and if four or five times, the banishment
shall Should they have joined in such a crime
last for four years.

six or seven times, they shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a

distant province, and if they have done so eight or more times,
they shall be sent into lifelong banishment in the remotest province
where a malarious climate reigns.

Third Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1806)
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 877

» Any slave , either male or female , who has opened the grave
of his or her master, or any hired workman who has opened
that of his employer, the work being commenced, but the coffin
not yet being rendered visible , shall , if he (or she) has acted as
chief culprit, be strangled, being previously kept in prison for
the confirmation of the sentence by the higher authorities. The
accomplices shall be sent into lifelong banishment in a province
not far distant.
» Should the coffin or vault have become visible in such a case,
the chief culprits shall be strangled and their execution not be
postponed till the sentence has been confirmed. And their accom-
plices too shall be executed in the same way, being previously
detained in prison for confirmation of their sentence by the higher
authorities.
»And if the coffin or vault has been opened and the corpse has
become visible, the chief culprits shall be decapitated without awaiting
revision of their sentence, and their heads be exposed on stakes as
a warning to the public. The accomplices too shall be liable to de-
capitation, but shall be kept in prison to await confirmation of their
sentence by the higher authorities.
» Finally, if the corpse has been mutilated, thrown away, beaten,
or tossed about, both the chief culprits and the accomplices shall
be beheaded ; their execution shall not be postponed for confirmation
of their sentence, and their heads shall be exposed as a warning
to the public.
»Tf, in the above cases, there be among the chief culprits and
the accomplices elders of the family of the dead person , or superior
and inferior relations of his , or members of other families , each one
must be severally seutenced , in his capacity of chief culprit or ac-
complice, in accordance with the mourning which he must observe
for the dead person , or in accordance with the circumstance of his
being no relation to the same.

57
 m

878 THE GRAVE.

Fourth Supplementary Article.

#A d
, T^Hr
MM * >Tv

is #^$ tiE , pg m m m m m m% tr % m
, ,

fct

%mi%*Amm.zmmAi$M-&B>mmffi
•^mzm^mmm^.mm^n^nm^^^

»tr^B5W.^m*^^if. *w *r a as #g #l hr
*h#ft*r*EAfi63*/'S&i[l&f fSJr. 5

#«rtJrlfg> ^HR»«iK. £ * 1 fit Jt, J* *

*n IS St $ # & » £0r«4B2£#*Hfll|g
,

»If some one, coveting another's burial ground which brings

good luck (to the offspring), has fraudulently dug up a grave of
ancient date, and the descendants of that dead person lodge a
complaint against him with the magistrates who on investigating the
, ,

case, find incontestable proofs of the crime, the perpetrator thereof

shall be condemned to strangulation in accordance with the funda-
mental law against opening coffins and rendering visible the corpses
therein contained, and be imprisoned until his sentence has been
confirmed by the higher authorities (See the first fundamental article).

» Should there, however, be no offspring of that dead person,

or no incontestable proofs exist that the old grave is really that of
some person of former times, and it should appear that people, on
seeing a burial performed in a place where there was a heap of
earth, have pretended without good reasons that it was a grave of
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OP CORPSES AND GRAVES. 879

a remote ancestor of theirs , bringing with them bad folks of the same
sort as themselves to lodge a complaint in concert with them and to
bear witness with them, for the purpose of plunging innocent folks
into grief and trouble — in such a case, after the truth has been
properly ascertained, the chief culprits shall be sentenced according
to the law which provides for cases of false accusation against others
when the sentence of death has not yet been executed , that is to
say, they shall be punished with one hundred blows with the long
stick and transportation for life to a distance of 3000 miles 1
. And
their accomplices shall each be sentenced in accordance with the law
which contains provisos against accomplices in false complaints.
»But, if the grave be really that of a remote ancestor of the
party concerned, and this ancestor has been dug up by others and
another corpse fraudulently buried in his place, — it then this
second coffin be dug up (by the original owners of the grave) and
cast away, they shall be punished with sixty blows with the long
stick, in accordance with the law against sons or grandsons who,
should their grandparents or parents be killed , do not enter a
complaint with the authorities, but, taking the law into their own
hands, slay the murderer.
» Should the parties who have buried the corpse in a fraudulent
manner not have unearthed the old corpse or done any damage to
the same, but simply performed the burial in the immediate prox-
imity of the tumulus, then the original owners shall, if they have
dug out the second corpse without authorisation be sentenced , accord-
ing to the fundamental law which provides against those who when
,

a person is found dead within the precincts of a place, do not

inform the magistrates thereof, but arbitrarily transfer the corpse
to another spot (sixth fundamental art.). And if thereafter the corpse
or the skeleton be mutilated (by others), or cast away, they shall
be sentenced according to the fundamental law which provides
against those who, when a person is found dead within the
precincts of a place, transfer the corpse to another spot, in con-
sequence of which it is mutilated or cast away (see the sixth

fundamental art.).

»If the fraudulent burial has not been performed in a burial ground,
but simply in a field, meadow or garden, and the owner of this
ground has dug up the grave opened the coffin and rendered the
, ,

corpse visible, he shall be condemned to strangulation, in accord-

1 Comp. Chapter 30 of the Code, § gjjT; &£• .

 ,

880 THE GRAVE.

ance with the fundamental law (art. I). But if he has not opened
the coffin or rendered the corpse visible, his sentence shall be re-
duced by one degree of punishment, likewise in accordance with
the fundamental law (art. I).
»If both parties are relations by consanguinity or affinity, so that
mourning ties between the corpse in the damaged grave or
there exist
coffin and the perpetrators , each one of the latter shall be sentenced
in accordance with the gradations of mourning as fixed by law.

Fifth Supplementary Article.

®APt m 5® w a \u % m-ftn.
£
m % %> n ti m % m ** *r ± *m «s a ti m % %
m. %ntii&Amm%m%M{&Ammm7&

»If — apart from the case when people, without valid reasons,

take a buried coffin out of a grave and burn it, which is a crime
that must be punished in accordance with the supplementary arti-
cles — it should occur that obstacles are laid, in the way of a burial
because the ground and yet such burial be arrogantly
is in dispute,

performed in those grounds after the parties have opened a coffin

therein buried placed the remains in an urn and interred them
,

they shall also be punished according to the (first and second)

fundamental articles which contain provisos against opening coffins,

rendering corpses visible and mutilating them.

» Should any person secretly bury other bones under a tumulus
which he has thrown up for that purpose, and then falsely

pretend that the spot is a patrimonial possession of his, it

shall be inquired into whether this burial has taken place by an

abuse of authority, and the culprit in this case shall be punished
according to the fundamental law which provides against forcible
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 881

appropriation of grounds reserved by the Government or belonging

to the people '.

»If, however, the enquiry brings to light that the deed was done
in an underhand, clandestine manner, the culprit shall be punished
according to the (fifth) fundamental article which provides against
burying corpses stealthily in the burial grounds of others. And if he
has thus encroached upon a grave of the other party, he shall be
punished according to the (first) fundamental article which provides
against digging up other people's graves.
»In case it is discovered that the culprit has been seduced by
geomancers to commit the act, they shall be punished according
to the fundamental law which provides against inducing people by
2
bad suggestions to transgress the laws . The local authorities also
shall, according to the supplementary articles, be included in the
case and punished , should they have hushed up , evaded or connived
at such a crime, or neglected to investigate it with promptitude.

Sixth Supplementary Article.

(Passed in 1821)

» They who have stolen a coffin containing a corpse not yet buried
temporarily or for good , and also they who have dug up a grave that
had become open or had caved in with age , shall , if they have not
opened the be sentenced to one hundred blows with
coffin or the vault ,

the long stick and three years banishment (Comp. the first fundamental
art. and the second supplementary art.). Their accomplices shall
receive ninety blows and be banished for two years and a half.
» Should they have opened the coffin and rendered the corpse

1 To be found in chapter 9 of the Code, § '#£

j| |JJ
i£ . It stipulates one
hundred blows with the long stick , followed by lifelong banishment in a country
three thousand miles away.
2 This law, contained in chapter 32 of the Code, stipulates the same punishment
for the man who has induced another to a crime , as for the perpetrator himself.
882 THE GRAVE.

visible, the chief culprits shall, if they have committed this offence
only once, be sent to a distant province into lifelong banishment.
Should they have committed it twice, they shall be sent into such
banishment to the remotest province where a malarious climate
reigns (Kwangtung) but should they have perpetrated the crime
;

three times, they shall be strangled (Comp. the first fundamental art.).

As for the accomplices: — if guilty of the offence for the first time,
they shall be banished for four years; if they have committed it

twice, they shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a distant pro-

vince; having committed the offence three times, they shall be banished
to the most distant province where malarious diseases reign ; and having
repeated it more than three times, they shall be strangled.

Seventh Supplementary Article.

»If among the ignorant people which is led astray by the fung-
shui anybody, pretending without valid reasons that he
theories,
ought wash the remains and examine them should exhume the
to ,

bones of his buried father or mother, or of a superior and senior

member of his family for whom he must observe mourning in
one of the five degrees, and examine the bones and augur good
or evil therefrom, he shall be sentenced as if he had mangled
the corpse or thrown it away, but in accordance with (the rela-
tionship existing between him and the dead man according to) the
rescripts on mourning (See the third fundamental art.). Those who
have assisted him in washing and examining the bones, shall all
be dealt with as accomplices; and the headman of the ward and
his assistants if they have hushed up the matter shall be punished
, ,

with one hundred blows with the long stick, as required by the
law against those who knowing that any one intends to do harm to
,

another do not immediately take measures to prevent the conspirator.

,

» If the remains are transferred into another grave for valid reasons
and with observance of the proper ceremonial the case is according , ,

to the (second) fundamental article, not actionable.

 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 883

Eighth Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1810)

fc*,gm®mmzA,mmittM%MMA^
m&mmzA,m&&®i8wiGtommffiti:
&nkmmm&&*bmmp &&* + &-#.
iim&ft&Afe&&mziMmi£3fr*Vimm

%ViMmRft^ttAT^tniinm&Mmtt;
A+ .

Mfr^mfo^m^ * ill # B§r K # $ s #, n w

%u&mft&temmu&&zi\L,&&m

#n ^ t£ ^ 2 # 1i # fUI ^ J€ l§ 13 & II * ;Jc

mmm&%mmmmttP*&ftn.
i&mnWimxmz&AGftmm&M&m*
»If in a case of wilful murder committed in a riot the murderers
suggest the mutilation or mangling of the corpse , or the casting of
it into the water, those who suffer the corpse to be carried off and
thrown away shall all be punished , as accomplices , under the (third)
fundamental which provides against the throwing away of
article

corpses and
, without its being taken into consideration whether
,

they have or have not received any wounds on the spot, they shall
receive one hundred blows with the long stick and be banished
884 THE GRAVE.

for three Should the murderers have effaced vestiges of

years \
the riot by burying the corpse the men who have tolerated ,

their carrying away the same and burying it shall if it be —

judicially proved that they were present on the spot and had a
hand in the affray or were wounded , in which case the law
requires the highest number of blows ever inflicted — also receive
one hundred blows with the long stick and be banished for three
years. But those who have merely been present on the spot without
receiving wounds, being thus only guilty of having suffered the
culprits to bear the corpse away and bury it, shall come under the
(sixth) fundamental article which provides against village chiefs and
neighbours suffering a corpse to be thrown away, and be sentenced
to sixty blows with the long stick and banishment for one year.

» [Should in the above case other persons than the rioters have
suggested a mangling of the corpse or the throwing of it away, or

have effaced traces of the by burying it, they shall be adjudged

fact
in accordance with the (third) fundamental article which contains
provisos against those acting as chief culprits in the crime of throwing
away a corpse, and be punished with one hundred blows with the
long stick and transportation for life to a distance of three thousand
miles.]
» Should the corpse not be lost, each of the above punishments
shall be abated one degree. And if the corpse has been conveyed
away and buried by men who were paid for their work or were
unacquainted with the circumstances of the case, they shall fall under
the (sixth) fundamental article which contains provisos against those
who, when a person is found dead within the precincts of a place,
do not inform the magistrates or arbitrarily transfer the corpse to
another spot and bury it, and, like such offenders, receive eighty
blows with the long stick.

»Now passing on to cases of theft and robbery. If in a ship on

a lake or river there occur a fight in which some one is killed,
and away and is not rescued;
his corpse falls into the water, floats
or if somewhere in the mountains on a steep and dangerous path
any one should meet with a cruel death by violence, which may
occasion his corpse to be swallowed up by a brook in both of —
these cases, if originally there existed no intention to mutilate the
corpse or to cast it away, sentence shall be pronounced according

1 That is to say, with one degree less punishment than the third fundamental
article requires for the chief offenders. It is a general rule in China that accom-
plices are punished one degree less severely than the chief culprits.
 ,

LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 885

to the fundamental laws against homicide, and the article concerning

the throwing away of dead bodies is here not applicable.
»And if in a house, in the dark, an attack has been made,
entailing manslaughter in consequence of fornication or robbery, or
if thieves or robbers have murderously assailed any one in the open
field or on the public highroad, then to those who cannot be
brought up for trial for this crime, but who have tolerated the
mutilation of the corpse, its being cast away, buried or taken to an
abyss or well and thrown therein, the (sixth) fundamental article

containing provisos against those who, when a person is found dead

within the precincts of a place, do not inform the magistrates, but
secretly transfer it elsewhere and hide it in the ground, shall be
applicable, that is to say, eighty blows with the long stick shall be
inflicted upon them. And if in consequence of their non-activity the
corpse was lost, the (sixth) fundamental article against those who,
when a dead body is found within the precincts of a place, trans-
fer it to another spot so that it is lost shall be applicable to them
, ,

and a hundred blows with the long stick shall be inflicted.

»If, after such a murder, some one, harbouring feelings of hatred
and revenge in a fit of cruelty mutilates the corpse or throws it into
,

the water or the fire, or cuts and hacks, injures and wounds it, he
shall be sentenced according to the (third) fundamental article which
contains provisos against mutilating or throwing away of dead bodies.

» All other persons who have accompanied the perpetrators of the

crime, helped them in the attack or taken an active part in the
fight shall if accused of the throwing away or the mangling of the
, ,

corpse, or of its transportation to another spot, or of its burial etc.,

be specially tried under the application of the provisos contained
in the present supplementary article.

Ninth Supplementary Article.

m % ^ # t& m # n % n *h #n m&m#n*

m m ^ ± $ m # ra %mm&\u%ffim&M u
 ,

886 THE GRAVE.

» Whenever people have fraudulently buried a corpse apart from —

the cases when they have encroached upon the grave of another,
dug it up, opened the coffiu, or rendered the corpse visible, for
which crimes they are to be punished according to the funda-
mental and supplementary articles if then —
after that burial has ,

been performed the grave be dug up by the owner of the ground

,

and the corpse thrown away or mutilated, it shall not be taken

into consideration whether the buried corpse is that of a superior
or senior family member (of the buriers) or an inferior or junior
but to all of them the fundamental law shall be
relation of theirs,
applicablewhich contains provisos against forcible appropriation of
grounds which are reserved by the Government or belong to the
people (Comp. the fifth supplementary article), viz. one hundred
blows with the long stick shall be inflicted, followed by a lifelong
banishment to a country three thousand miles away.
» Should such a fraudulent burial have been performed in burial
ground which is owned by another, or in the close proximity of a
tumulus without incroaching upon the grave itself, then, in case
the owner of the ground has dug up the (new) grave and has acted
as above, the same law which demands transportation for life for
forcible appropriation of grounds shall be applicable (to the buriers)
but with a reduction of one degree, so that the punishment shall
amount to one hundred blows with the long stick and banishment
for three years.
» And if they had only fraudulently buried the dead in a field
or in an ordinary plot of ground again the same law shall be
,

applicable them, but with a reduction of two degrees, so that

to
they shall receive ninety blows with the long stick and be banished
for two years and a half.

» Besides ,
(in each of these three cases) the family of the offenders
shall be remove the remains within one month, and
enjoined to
if they do not do so, they shall be placed in the cangue, no more

to be released from it until the day on which the order is exe-

cuted. The geomancers and the advocates who have induced the
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 887

culprits to perform the fraudulent burial , shall be punished together

with the chief offenders.

Tenth Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1845)

ji ? % ® mmitn an mm &*&&&. ,

» Should children or grandchildren dig up the grave of their

parent or grandparent, no distinction between chief culprits and
accomplices shall be made. If they have begun the work, but not
yet rendered the coffin or the vault visible, they shall be strangled,
without postponement of execution till their sentence has been con-
firmed. coffin or the vault have been rendered visible,
Should the
they shall all be beheaded, likewise without such postponement;
and if they have opened the coffin and rendered the corpse visible,
or if they have mutilated the remains, or cast them away, they
shall all undergo slow death by the knives J
(Comp. fundamental
art. II and III).

»lf people have opened the coffins in three graves, rendering

the corpses visible, they shall all, excepted the chief culprits, who
shall suffer by the knives, be transported
slow death to Hi and
there be placed in government thraldom. If the chief culprits or

1 The punishment also applied in cases of parricide, matricide and rebellion. It

is called ling-ch'i, generally written Jj^fc sM, though the correct form is
/jg Jpl] .

The word means »ignominious slashing". »It is", says the commentary to the Code,

»to be inflicted in the following manner: The criminal is sliced and slashed until

• there remain no fleshy parts on male organs are destroyed

his body. After this, the
"with the knife, or, in the case of a woman, the female organ, and then the body
»is vicerated, in order to extinguish life. Subsequently the limbs are severed from

»the trunk and the bones destroyed, after which no more is done": /g| j|ji
^

ChaP ter *» 3. It seems, however, that

^filli^^^'Pi'iffil^ti- '•'

practically the mutilation is confined to a few slashes quickly followed by decapitation.

 ,;

888 THE GRAVE.

accomplices are superior and senior relations of the buried persons,

or and junior relations, or people not belonging to their
inferior
family, they must be severally sentenced in their capacity of chief ,

culprits or accomplices, in accordance with the mourning which

they must observe (for the buried persons), or in accordance with
the circumstance of their being no relations of the same.

Eleventh Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1806)

» If people declare a dead man to be a devil who causes drought

and dig up his grave and mangle the corpse, the chief offenders
shall suffer under the (first) fundamental article which provides
against the digging up of graves with the opening of the coffin and
rendering visible of the corpse, and be sentenced to strangulation,
but be kept in jail to await the confirmation of their sentence
by the higher authorities. If it has been proved at the judicial
nvestigation that the culprits cannot really be suspected of having
used the accusation of the dead as a pretext, their sentence shall
at the provincial autumn revision be ranked among those which
are to be delayed (and sent to Peking for Imperial confirmation)

but if it be proved that they have acted from a grudge, or in

an outburst of hatred , the case shall at the autumnal revision be
placed among the cases properly verified (and not be sent up to the

Metropolis).
» As to the accomplices who have assisted in digging up the grave
and mangling the corpse, they shall be sent into lifelong banish-
ment in a province not far distant, or, if they are over fifty years
of age to an adjacent province
, and those who have done nothing ;

more than tolerate the crime or have accompanied the culprits,

without moving their hands, shall receive one hundred blows with
the long stick and be banished for three years.
 . W A ,

LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OP CORPSES AND GRAVES. 889

Twelfth Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1814)

m » r$ m % p % w ff ± & . *» * i *& ti ,* ^ a

JlA#J#-f $ff
»Sons or grandsons who steal a coffin containing the corpse of

their parent or grandparent not yet buried temporarily or for good

shall, whether they are chief culprits or accomplices, be beheaded
without postponement of the execution till their sentence has been

confirmed by the higher authorities, if they have opened the coffin

and rendered the corpse visible. Should they not have opened
the coffin or the vault, but unmistakable marks be found that a
beginning of this crime had been made , they shall all be strangled,
without postponement of their execution for confirmation of their

sentence.
»If, in the above cases, there be among the chief culprits and
accomplices superior and senior or inferior and junior relations of
the dead person, or members of other families, each one must be
severally sentenced, in his capacity of chief culprit or accomplice,
in accordance with the mourning which he must observe (for the
dead person), or in accordance with the circumstance of his being
no relation of the same.

Thirteenth Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1814)

m t& je, p % $ tr m nm ® m $ m * m n s

±h g« 1M
vJ $& fa "#W
-m. tSL 7u JP -

*H*r3^tf*hA$-£3#. & M m JL
 ,

890 THE GRAVE.

» Inferior or junior members of a family, who have stolen a

coffin containing the corpse of a superior or senior relation not yet
buried temporarily or for good , shall , if they must mourn for the
defunct, be sentenced as follows, should they not have opened the
coffin or the vault: — in case they acted as chief culprits, they
shall be banished for life to a most distant province four thousand
miles away if they are inferior or junior relations who must mourn
in the second degree; and to lifelong transportation to a distant
province if they are such relations in the three lower degrees of
mourning. In case they have acted the part of accomplices, they
shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a distant province if they
belong to the mourners of the second degree; and if they are
mourners of the three lower degrees, to a province not far away.
»But, if they have opened the coffin and rendered the corpse
visible, chief culprits who are inferior or junior relatives of the
dead person and must mourn for him in the second degree, shall
be decidedly banished for life to a most distant province where
the climate is malarious, such as Yunnan, Kweicheu, Kwangsi, or
Kwangtung ; or if they are such relations in the three lower degrees
of mourning, they shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a most
distant province four thousand miles away. And of the accomplices,
those who rank among the inferior and junior mourners in the
second degree shall be banished for life to a most distant province
four thousand miles away, and such as rank among those in the
third, fourth or fifth degree, to a distant province.
» Should, in the above cases, there be among the chief culprits
and accomplices superior and senior relations of the dead person
or members of other families, each one must be severally sentenced,
in his capacity of chief culprit or accomplice, in accordance with
the mourning he must observe (for the dead person), or in accord-
ance with the circumstance of his being no relation of the same.

Fourteenth Supplementary Article-

(Dating from 1870)

&&%w. &&$&&&&&&&%&, dm*

 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 891

f^ ^ m y^ w o

imii mm "*# A3 ££#, ammmnA

» Inferior or junior members of a family, who have dug up

the grave of a superior or senior relation without rendering the
coffin or vault visible, shall, if they must mourn for the defunct,

be sentenced as follows : — in case they have acted as chief cul-

prits, they shall be banished for life to a most distant province
four thousand miles away if they are inferior or junior relations who
must mourn in the second degree , and subjected to lifelong banishment
in a distant province if they are such relations in the three lower
degrees of mourning. If they have been engaged in the crime as
accomplices, they shall be banished for life to a distant province
should they be relations in the second degree; but if they are re-
lations in the three lower degrees, to a province not far away.
»If the coffin or vault has been rendered visible, the chief cul-
prits, if they are inferior or junior relations of the dead who
must mourn for him in the second degree, shall be sent decidedly

into lifelong banishment to a most distant province where a mal-

arious climate reigns , such as Yunnan , Kweicheu , Kwangsi or
Kwangtung; but if they are such relations in the three lower degrees
of mourning, they shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a
most distant province four thousand miles away. And of the accom-
,

plices, those inferior and junior relations who rank in the second
degree of mourning shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a
most distant province, four thousand miles away, and such as
rank in the three lowest degrees, to a distant province.
» Should the chief offenders or accomplices be superior and
senior relations of the dead person, or people not belonging to his
family, then they must be severally sentenced , in their capacity
of chief offenders or accomplices, in accordance with the mourning
which they must observe (for the occupant of the desecrated grave),
or in accordance with the circumstance of their being no relations
of the same.
892 THE GRAVE.

» Persons who have opened the coffin of a dead person of whom

they are inferior or junior relations and rendered the corpse visible,
or have sawn a seam in the coffin or cut a hole in it, shall,
whether they are chief culprits or accomplices, all be brought up
and sentenced according to the (first) supplementary article
for trial
which contains provisos against such crimes when perpetrated against
an ordinary person without its being taken into consideration whether
,

they are relatives in the second, third, fourth or fifth degree ot

mourning.

Fifteenth Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1810)

» Superior or senior members of a family, who have stolen away

a coffin which contains the corpse of an inferior or junior relation
not yet buried temporarily or for good , shall , if they must mourn
for the defunct, be sentenced as follows, should they have opened
the and rendered the corpse visible:
coffin if they are superior —
or senior relations who must mourn in the fifth degree, they shall,
if they have acted as chief offenders, come under the (second)
fundamental article which stipulates one hundred blows with the
long stick and three years banishment for those who dig up the
grave of an inferior or junior relation, open the coffin and render
the corpse visible, but they shall be punished one degree less

severely. Should they not have opened the coffin or the vault,
their punishment shall be abated one degree more. And if they
are superior or senior relations in the fourth degree of mourning
or in a higher degree, their punishment shall, if they have acted
as chief offenders, be reduced in proportion, in accordance with
the same fundamental article. Should they have acted as accom-
plices, each of them shall be punished one degree less severely
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 8 J3
(

than the chief offenders, in accordance with their relationship as

established by fehe degrees of mourning.
»If among the chief culprits or accomplices in the crime there
are inferior or junior relations of the dead person, or people who
are no relations of his, then they must be severally sentenced, in
their capacity of chief culprits or accomplices, in accordance with
the mourning they must observe (for the deceased), or in accord-
ance with the circumstance of their being no relations of the same.

Sixteenth Supplementary Article.

(Dating in this revised shape from 1870)

&&&&&#&%&&, * # &M a# at
x % ® t ^ §t m u m «t * z n it * m & % m

>»-» J&Si 3K o

»If any party have opened a grave, taken the coffin out of it
and set a ransom upon it then if they have already received a
, ,

ransom, those who have suggested the deed, their accomplices and
those who have lent a helping hand in digging up the coffin and
removing it, shall come under the fundamental law which pro-
vides against those who have appropriated wealth by robbery with
main force ', that is to say, both the chief offenders and their
accomplices shall be condemned to be beheaded with the sword,
and their execution shall not be postponed for confirmation of
the sentence by the higher authorities. Those who have followed
close at their heels, or have been present at the scene of the
crime as spectators, shall be deported to Turkestan and there be
given in slavery to the soldiery of the authorities. And if the of-

fenders have not yet received a ransom, the fundamental law which
provides against appropriating wealth by robbery with main force
shall likewise be applied to the chief culprits and they shall be

1 See chapter 23 of the Code, § Grfi '^£ , the first fundamental article.

58
894 THE GRAVE.

decapitated, without postponement of their execution till their sen-

tence has been confirmed, and all the accomplices shall be sent
to Turkestan and there be given into slavery to the soldiery of
the authorities.
» Should the offenders, after opening the grave, have thrown
away the remains on the road and then accused somebody else of a
murder, the law which provides against appropriating goods by
main force shall also in this case be applicable to them and de-
capitation without revision of the sentence be the punishment of
them all, no distinction being made between chief culprits and
accomplices.

Seventeenth Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1821)

It lit — W^H4£,

m m w. m m mm -m %m m ® * m # %m % m*

»He who has levelled a tumulus belonging to others and made

a field or garden of it, shall, if he has not rendered the coffin
or the vault visible and has levelled only one grave, be punished
with one hundred blows with the long stick in accordance with the
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 895

(fifth) fundamental article. But if he has levelled several tumuli,

his punishment shall be increased one degree for every three, up

to one hundred blows and three years banishment as a maximum.

» Should inferior or junior members of a family violate the grave
of a superior or senior relation in the above way, their punishment
shall, in case the perpetrators are mourners in the three lowest
degrees, be one degree more severe than if they had violated the
grave of a person not belonging to their family, and it shall again

be increased by one degree if they are mourners in the second

degree. Should sons or grandsons level the grave of an ancestor,

or slaves that of their master, or workmen that of their employer,
they shall receive one hundred blows and be banished for three

years. These punishments shall be increased one degree for each

extra grave levelled by them; but such increase shall never entail
the pain of death on the culprits, nor shall it ever exceed lifelong
banishment to a most distant province with a malarious climate,
such as Yunnan, Kwei-cheu, Kwangtung or Kwangsi.
»If people who have levelled another's grave fraudulently sell the
ground, they shall, if they have received money, be sentenced as
for ordinary theft according to the amount received, in accordance
with the fundamental law concerning such offence ' , but with the
addition one degree of punishment. If but a small sum has
of
been obtained by the sale, each culprit shall be punished one
degree more severely than it he had merely levelled the grave.
And if those who have bought the ground were aware of the cir-

cumstances of the case, they shall be punished in the same way

as the offenders ; but they shall not be punished if they have bought
it unwittingly.
»And if people who have levelled another's grave appropriate
the ground by abuse of power and then fraudulently sell it or keep
possession of it, sentence of temporary or lifelong banishment shall
be pronounced on them, in accordance with the supplementary
articles, in proportion to the size of the ground in question.
» Should, in levelling the ground, the coffin or the corpse become
visible or the remains be thrown away or mutilated, so that the
supplementary requiring lifelong banishment, decapitation,
articles

strangling , or slow death by the knives become applicable then in

, ,

each of these cases the severest punishment required by the sup-

plementary article relevant hereto shall be applied.

1 Comp. note 1 on page 869.

 ,,

896 THE GRAVE.

» Should sons or grandsons sell their family sepulchral grounds

because of poverty, but leave the graves as they are, sacrificing
upon them and sweeping them (on the established annual dates)
without levelling them , there being , moreover , no question of
fraudulent sale, then such case would not fall under this article.

Eighteenth Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1821)

J» jgb Igfc Jfc

»If slaves or hired workmen steal the coffin which contains their
master's or employer's corpse not yet buried temporarily or for good,
they shall , if the coffin was not opened by them , but unmistakable
signs are found that a beginning had been made for such purpose, fall
under the (third) supplementary article which provides against the
opening of (their master's or employer's) grave without the coffin
being rendered visible, that is to say, the chief culprits shall be
strangled, after having been detained in prison for confirmation

of then -
by the higher authorities, and the accomplices
sentence
shall be sent into lifelong banishment to a province not far distant.

» Should they have opened the coffin and rendered the corpse
visible, they shall come under the (third) supplementary article which
provides against the digging up of (their master's or employer's)
grave so that the coffin or vault is rendered visible, that is to
say, the chief culprits shall be strangled and their execution not be
postponed till the sentence has been confirmed, and the accomplices
too shall be strangled, after having been kept in jail for confirma-
tion of their sentence by the higher authorities.
» And if they have mutilated , thrown away or beaten the corpse
or tossed it about, they shall fall under the same supplementary
article and both chief culprits and accomplices shall be beheaded,
without their sentence being subjected to revision by the higher
authorities.
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 897

Nineteenth Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1821)

#ftfP@,«fe£i&£"f*8:glAlS#*S:ft
ih# *#«&*#* «li *B £ 18 *iS?L 2 IIS

g§AS^Jite2fcliteJa.M$ft#it3K»'/&P.
» When graves have been dug up , or coffins containing corpses

not yet buried temporarily or for good have been stolen, whether
the coffins in those graves have been opened or not, or whether
seams have been sawn or holes made in those stolen coffins, or
other matters of the kind have occurred, then for every offender
the punishment shall be fixed after comparing together the sundry
punishments he is bable to for each of those crimes, either in the
capacity of chief culprit or accomplice.
» Should a man have many times stolen a corpse in the capacity of
either chief culprit or accomplice , then the punishments he is liable to

for all the cases in which he has acted in either of these capacities
must be compared, and the severest punishment be inflicted upon
him. Should the punishment for the cases in which he has acted
as chief culprit calculated by comparison turn out not to be heavy,
, ,

it is allowed to place such cases among those in which he has

acted as accomplice, and to fix his punishment by the same com-
parative method; but never shall the cases in which he has acted
as accomplice be so compared with those in which he has acted
as chief culprit. Neither is it allowed to place the cases in which
he has stolen a coffin containing a corpse not yet buried tempo-
rarily or for good, or in which he has sawn a seam in such a
coffin, or chiseled a hole in it, among the cases in which he
has opened a grave and rendered the coffin visible, or has opened
such a coffin and rendered the corpse visible, and to inflict the
punishment resulting from such comparison.
898 THE GRAVE.

Twentieth Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1821)

#£& *#*«!!*# *LH*l!*i$ 18 lifi

*,*i?Tfe»**S§$*f'A&SKI&*EPftW
#Jw^teaS*#T^P«iI!R/LA-£##
»If a salaried keeper or custodian of a grave digs up the same,
whether he opens the coffin or the vault, or not; or if a free
person who is a slave in name and has to perform duties as
such, steals the coffin containing his master's corpse not yet buried
temporarily or for good , and saws a seam in it or makes a
hole in it, the culprit shall, whether he has opened the grave
or committed the theft himself, or has permitted others to do so,
be sentenced according to the present laws just as any ordinary
person who has committed the same crime in the capacity of
chief culprit or accomplice,with an addition of one degree of
punishment if he should incur lifelong banishment or a lighter
punishment; for if he incurs the penalty of death, this may not
be increased.

Twenty-first Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1870)

^tm±m^ £#w&ssfe. *M*i#s-t«

&teM$EP^ffi»$#A*g*£«*htfc#
»fBHS«A^»*P±*P-^^P.
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 899

» Whosoever digs up the grave of an Imperial prince of the third

or fourth order (Bei-leh or Bei-tsze) or of one of a lower
degree, or the grave of the consort of a prince, or of any one of
similar rank, having opened the coffin or vault and rendered the
corpse visible, shall, if he has acted in the capacity of chief cul-
prit, be decapitated with the sword and the execution not be
postponed till the sentence has been confirmed; his head shall
be exposed in public as a warning to the people, and the accom-
plices shall all be strangled, without postponement for the con-
firmation of the sentence. Should the coffin have been rendered
merely visible, the chief culprits shall be strangled without post-
ponement of the execution till their sentence is confirmed, and the
accomplices be strangled after having been kept in custody till such
a confirmation arrives. And if they have not dug so far as to reach
the coffin , the chief culprits shall be strangled after having been
kept in jail till their sentence has been confirmed by the higher
authorities, and the accomplices be sent into lifelong banishment
in a distant province.
»This article shall also apply to those who have dug up the
mausoleum emperor or ruler of a former dynasty, or the
of an
grave of an ancient sage or renowned statesman of whom a tablet
inscribed with the name is worshipped at the official sacrifices of

the State in obedience to the Collective Statutes, or the grave of

a feudatory Imperial prince or any other prince of the nearest
Imperial kin of the past dynasty, or of any one who has then
inherited such a rank by birth.
» Those who have dug up the grave of an Imperial prince of
the second generation of the past dynasty invested with a fief,

or of any one who then was, after his death, invested with the
dignity of feudatory Imperial prince, shall be punished one degree
more severely than those who have dug up the grave of an ordinary
individual, except when they incur the pain of death, in which case
they shall be sentenced as if they had dug up the grave of an
ordinary person.
»The gold and silver which in any of the above cases might
have been exhumed, shall be delivered to the Provincial Governor-
General or Governor . who shall order the local magistrates to repair
the violated grave. The pearls, precious articles and other things
which the royal inmate of the grave wore on his body, shall
again be placed in the tomb.
900 THE GRAVE.

Twenty-second Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1825)

» If a husband mangles or casts away the corpse of his wife, the

(third) fundamental article which contains provisos against superior
and senior relations who mangleaway the corpse of an inferior
or cast
or junior member of their family for whom they must mourn in the
second degree, shall be applicable to him and he accordingly be
condemned to a punishment which stands four degrees higher than
the bastinado and transportation which would have to be inflicted
on him had he committed the same crime against a person not
related to him viz. to seventy blows with the long stick and banish-
,

ment for one year and a half. Should the corpse not be lost or the
mangling only affect the hair, his punishment shall be diminished
one degree and thus amount to sixty blows with the long stick
and banishment for one year.

Twenty-third Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1862)

%s&mmffinzm, MM&mmm* tarn mm

» Whenever theft has taken place in connection with digging up

a grave, sawing a seam in a coffin or making a hole in it, then
only in case some spoil has been appropriated shall the quantity
thereof be minutely calculated , in order to sentence the culprit in
l
proportion to its value . Should the punishment required for such
an amount of spoil be lighter than that which the culprit would
have to suffer for the crime proper (the violation of the grave or the
coffin), the articles relevant hereto shall be applied; but should the
contrary be the case, the heavier punishment shall be inflicted.

1 Comp. note 1 on page 869.

 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CORPSES AND GRAVES. 90 J

Certainly itwould hardly be possible to find more palpable evi-

dence of the stress which the rulers of the Chinese nation
great
lay upon the inviolability of the dead and their graves, than
the above collection of laws, providing so minutely against their
desecration in every imaginable form. Probably we do not go
beyond the truth when we say that no people on the face of the
earth possesses a Codex on this head of like extent and severity,
and this again suggests that the Religion of the Human Corpse
is nowhere so highly developed as in China. And still our readers
must not suppose that these laws include everything which the
present dynasty has enacted on the subject. An article, the text

of which has been given on page 133 , forbids the people to leave

the dead un buried for over a year ; others, which will be reproduced

in the last chapter of this Volume , forbid their being thrown into the
Even to corpses of executed criminals
1
water, or their being burnt .

the Code gives its protection, prescribing that »he who after an
» execution mutilates the corpse shall be punished with fifty blows
» with the short bamboo stick"
2
. Elsewhere we read : » He who
» mutilates or spoils in another's sepulchal ground inscribed stone
» tablets or stone animals , shall be punished with eighty blows
»with the long stick"
3
. »And any person who, within the precincts
» of an imperial mausoleum, has caused a fire by accident, shall,

» if the fire did not spread , receive eighty blows with the long stick
» and be banished for two years ; but if it spreads over the forest
» which covers the mountains , or attacks the trees growing in the
» burial ground he shall be punished with one hundred of such blows
,

4
» and lifelong banishment to a country two thousand miles distant" .

But this article is by no means the only one by which the Govern-
ment protects the trees which, since very ancient times, filial de-

scendants have deemed it a holy duty to plant upon the graves of

1 ^ ?6
See chapter 17 of the Code, § .

2 £&^$:§i;2i)Mi3£Ef§^i+ Chapter 37 '

& — $£ ,fi m *i \u # % & ft # * % ft - w s5fc —

={ JI Chapter 34, § -£ >J^.
902 THE GRAVE.

their ancestors. A
whole series of laws have been enacted for the
purpose. This will appear natural rather than surprising to such
of our readers as remember from our dissertation on sepulchral
trees (pp. 460 sqq.) the important place they have ever held in the
Religion of the Dead since times immemorial. We place these
articles before our readers as found in an edition of the Code
published in 1882.

ft m m
 . ,

LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF GRAVE TREES. 903

First Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1825)

*. 18 Mb j£g,W$&&>tt*&Ui ££!###
6 *S # ft * IP BR ft # 13 ft $-- # £ -f W # .

*nffie#«^,ff#0ft#lS-ttt-W«H

— 3F, # A + It — #
£ 04 # at £ - + M *K iP0zi + m«> JSl

*^n + fflaft,iHKwai^fjti*fii».

£ * ii % m m mm j& » > ii ^e» @ >* it p j§

» In general there exist , both in front of the high grounds (in which
the Imperial inausolea are situated) and at the back thereof, limits
upon which it is not allowed to trespass. Should any one inside the
red posts fell trees with a thievish intent , take away earth or stones
erect a kiln and burn pottery or bricks, or set the hills on fire,
he shall be punished as if he had violated the fundamental article
 904 THE GRAVE.

against stealing Imperial implements assigned for the Great Im-

perial Sacrifice to the Deity (Heaven) ', that is to say, he shall
be beheaded, after the Imperial confirmation of his sentence has
been asked for and obtained. And his accomplices shall be banished
for life to a province not far distant.
»If people with a thievish intent fell trees belonging to Govern-
ment outside the red posts, but still inside the limits of the grounds
reserved to the Government, or if they open the mountains there
to collect stones, or dig in the earth to make a canal, or erect a
kiln for burning pottery or bricks, or set the hills on fire, they
shall be punished one degree less severely than if they had done
the same thing within the red posts, provided the crime be per-
petrated outside the latter and within the white posts; that is to
say, the chief culprits shall be condemned to lifelong banishment
in a province not far distant, and the accomplices be beaten with

one hundred blows of the long stick and be banished for three years.
Gathering fuel branches or leaves are acts which according to former
, ,

supplementary laws need not be forbidden further taking away ot

, ; ,

earth and digging away of declivities for no more than one chang,
for the purpose of repairing people's houses or graves, or fetching
to this end loose stones from the mountains, which are not bigger
than one chang, or felling and removing trees which are their private
property, having been planted by themselves, — all such things,
not being forbidden, do not fall under this law.
» Should an offence such as the above have taken place outside
the white posts and within the blue posts, the chief culprits shall
receive one hundred blows with the long stick and be banished for
three years, and the accomplices shall undergo a punishment one
degree less severe, namely, ninety blows with the long stick and
banishment for two years and a half. And if it has been committed
outside the blue posts, but still in the grounds reserved for Govern-
ment use , the chief culprits shall receive the last mentioned punish-
ment, and their accomplices one a degree less severe, viz., ninety
blows and banishment for two years.
» If theft of articles of the same value as the appropriated (or damaged)
things should require a punishment heavier than such banishment,
then in each of the above cases the punishment required for the theft of
such an amount of spoil shall be inflicted
increased by one degree ,

» Should the landmarks of the Government reservation grounds

1 See chapter 23 of the Code.

 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF SEPULCHRAL TREES. 905

be placed beyond twenty miles, the boundaries shall nevertheless

be deemed to terminate at twenty; and if they are placed within
twenty miles, the boundaries shall be considered to terminate at
the points to which the Government grounds extend.
»If officials or soldiers (settled in the mausoleum-grounds as
guardians) have wittingly tolerated an offence such as the above
for a bribe, they shall, if the culprits proper have to be punished
with lifelong or temporary banishment, be imprisoned together
with them and receive the same punishment. And if the appro-
priated (or damaged) things represent a considerable value, their
value shall be calculated, and the heavier of the two punishments
required by the violated laws shall be inflicted upon them. Should
the perpetrators, however, deserve decapitation, those officials and
soldiers shall be sentenced to strangulation.
» And should they not have received any bribes but secretly have ,

informed the offenders so that the latter could effect their escape they
, ,

shall , if the offenders are to be punished with lifelong or temporary

banishment, be imprisoned with them and receive the same punish-
ment. But if the offenders are sentenced to decapitation , such officials

and soldiers shall be punished one degree less severely, and be banished
for life to the most distant province with a malarious climate.
» Those who have merely been negligent in maintaining the
regulations regarding the guarding of the ground, shall, if they
are soldiers, be chastised with one hundred blows with the long
stick, and if they are officials, be delivered over to the Board to
which they belong, and be brought up for trial by it.

Second Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1801)

ft%, 3ff fc t* - W to * - 1B JJ . ftflitst-Wfli

jr
Vfl |jfe dbjL ^

*##j#JMAW*fr
 ,,

906 THE GRAVE.

» If some wicked individual has wittingly bought trees growing in

a sepulchral ground, he shall, if it be the sons or grandsons who
have fraudulently sold them to him , receive a punishment one degree
less severethan that imposed on the latter for such sale.
» Should other individuals have thus fraudulently sold the trees,
no account shall be taken of the number of the latter, nor of
the circumstance whether they have been already felled or not,
but the buyer shall, if he has committed the act for the first

time, be punished with one hundred blows with the long stick
and exposure in the cangue for one month. Should he have com-
mitted the crime twice, he shall receive the same number of blows
and be exposed in the cangue during three months if three times, ;

he shall come under the provisos of the supplementary article

against those who commit a theft for the third time, and be sub-
ject to one hundred blows with the long stick, followed by lifelong
transportation to a region three thousand miles distant. His accom-
plices shall be punished one degree less severely, and their punish-
ment be commuted by one degree more if the trees have not yet been
felled ; and if they have acted unwittingly, they shall go unpunished.
» He who has bought buildings , stone tablets , stones , bricks
tiles or wooden structures belonging to a grave ground, shall be
punished one degree less severely than the individual who has
fraudulently sold those things to him.
» The trees and other articles shall , in the first case , be confiscated
and, in the second case, be given back to the legal owners.

Third Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1814)

^tiAif> *fl *IL tit -W *ta » - 1B Ji n ,

&# - w #n « = ib ji . mmmmmtt^m*

± m & it m Wl x # = + # w ±
, , is n mm% .
 ,

LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF SEPULCHRAL TREES. 907

» He who fraudulently fells trees which grow on a grave belonging

to others , shall , if for the first time , be punished with one hundred
blows with the long stick and an exposure in the cangue for a
month, and on the second offence, with the same number of blows
and such an exposure during three months. Should the punishment
required for theft of things of the same value as the felled trees be
heavier than the said maximum of blows which is ever inflicted
the culprit shall , in accordance with the fundamental article , receive
the punishment required for theft of that amount of spoil , with an
increase of one degree. And should the culprit have committed the
crime three times, he shall be tried under the law against theft
committed three times and in proportion to the value of the stolen
,

goods, be sentenced either to transportation for life, or to strangu-

lation with postponement of the execution till the sentence has been
confirmed by the higher authorities.
» If some individuals have clubbed together and fraudulently felled
grave trees several times within the lapse of ten days , then , if they
have committed this crime six or more times and the number of
trees felled exceeds thirty, so as to cause their work to resemble

the enterprise of a band of thieves, it shall not be inquired into

whether they have rendered themselves guilty of any crime at a

former date, but they shall be sentenced to transportation for life,

according to the supplementary article against the brigandage of
banditti \ And if they have felled grave trees during several

days in succession, from three to six times, the number of trees

ranging from ten to thirty, then the same supplementary article shall
be applied with proportionate mitigations of punishment and mere ,

temporary banishment be pronounced. In each of the above cases

every convict shall be branded, as required by the law of theft.
»If the fraudulent felling of trees have taken place but once or
twice, then the case shall be treated as if it were a first offence,
and sentence be pronounced in accordance with the first rescripts

(contained in this article).

» Fraudulent sale of buildings , stone tablets , stones , bricks , tiles

1 This article, inserted in chapter 24 of the Code, § |^ '^£ ,

prescribes that

such convicts shall be sent into lifelong banishment to Yunnan, Kweicheu, Kwang-
tung, or Kwangsi.
908 THE GRAVE.

or wooden structures from a grave ground which belongs to others,

must be punished as ordinary theft in proportion to the value of
the things in question; but the perpetrators need not be branded.

Fourth Supplementary article.

(Dating in this shape from 1810)

>m «
mMJtWov*. -j—

# # ** & is * ^ftmt&&*km%mr- ,

i§2#fctA+=
%£A^»#H&£#PBo

»Sons or grandsons who have felled and sold for private ends
from one to five high and big trees standing arrayed in rows in
front of their grandfather's or father's sepulchral grounds, or detached
along the sides thereof, be castigated with one hundred
shall

blows with the long and be exposed in the cangue for one
stick
month. Should they have felled and sold from six to ten of such
trees, they shall receive the same number of blows and be placed
in the cangue for two months, and if they have cut down eleven
or more trees, up to twenty, one hundred blows with the long
stick shall be inflicted, together with banishment for three years.
If Bannermen are sentenced to such banishment, a cangue penalty
lasting three months in all shall be inflicted upon them by instalments.
,

» Should the theft of things of the same value as the trees felled
require a heavier punishment , then the above cases shall be punished
as theft, with an increase of one degree, and the sons or grandsons
accordingly undergo the heavier punishment.
»If twenty-one trees or more have been felled and sold, the
 ,

LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF MAUSOLEUM TREES. 909

culprits shall , if they are Bannermen be banished to Kirin and

,

be placed there in Government thraldom; and if they are civil

subjects, they shall be banished for life to a distant province.
»The bastinado must in the above cases not be inflicted severely
if the trees were planted sparsely along the sides of the grave, or
if they were not high and big.
»If the trees in question were rotten or withered and were
felled and sold for private ends without the authorities having been
apprised of the matter, eighty blows with the long stick shall be
inflicted , as in this case the law is not to be applied in its full

severity.
» Persons charged with guarding the grave, and such like persons
as also slaves, shall, if they have sold grave trees with thievish
intent, receive the same punishments as are prescribed in this article.
»When tiles or wooden
buildings, stone tablets, stones, bricks,
structures of a burial ground have been sold with thievish intent the ,

sons, grandsons or slaves who have done this deed shall be punished ,

for theft in proportion to the value of the spoil but with an increase ,

of one degree of punishment.

Fifth Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in this shape in 1845)

£0tejg#ft fid. #***«, Wl^^if

h 4p *n m >m m ¥m s $ tr mm k« ,% % # ,

»If people secretly slip into such parts of a mausoleum as lie

inside the red posts or the great avenue , and steal or beat the sacri-

ficial animals kept there, the chief offenders shall be exposed in

the cangue for two months in proximity to the spot where the deed
was committed , and thereafter be banished for life to the remotest

province where malarious diseases prevail. Their accomplices shall

be placed in the cangue for one month , receive one hundred blows
with the long stick and be banished for three years.

»They who, harbouring the intention to steal sacrificial animals

59
 $

910 THE GRAVE.

in a mausoleum, drop fire, thus causing shrubs and trees to catch

fire, shall be exposed in the cangue two months in proximity
for
to the place where the offence has been committed and after the ,

expiration of this time, be banished to Turkestan, where it shall

be decided into which localities they are to be distributed to live
in Government thraldom. Their accomplices shall be placed in the
cangue for one month, receive one hundred blows with the long
stick and be banished for three years. And if the fire has attacked
halls or buildings, walls or inclosures, the chief offenders shall be
condemned to strangulation , and be kept in jail to await confirmation
of their sentence by the higher authorities; and their accomplices
shall receive one hundred blows with the long stick and be banished
to a region three thousand miles distant.

Sixth Supplementary Article.

(Enacted in 1830)

I^sfi. + i^i^fijil^ii. + i

fc°e#0*Mti#a ftfis^ jffi fir fti iii

a#«#jwsbp.

MRA-ti«c
 ,

ON THEFT OF GINSENG FROM AN IMPERIAL MAUSOLEUM. 911

»If Bannermen, civil subjects or any one whosoever dig ginseng 1

with thievish intent within the red posts of a mausoleum , to the

weight of fiftymore, the chief offenders shall come under
taels or
the fundamental law which provides against stealing Imperial im-
plements assigned for the Great Imperial Sacrifices to Heaven 2 and ,

be beheaded accordingly, but the Imperial confirmation of the

sentence will first have to be obtained. Their accomplices shall be
relegated to Turkestan, and there be given as slaves to the soldiery.
The chief culprits shall be condemned to this latter punishment
if the unearthed ginseng weighs twenty or more taels, and their
accomplices in this case shall be castigated with one hundred blows
with the long stick and be banished for life to a region three
thousand miles distant. Should the weight be ten or more than
ten taels, the punishment for the chief offenders shall be lifelong
banishment in a malarious province, Yunnan, Kweicheu, Kwang-
viz.

tung or Kwangsi, and for the accomplices one hundred blows with
transportation to a distance of two thousand miles; and should it
be ten taels or less, the chief culprits shall be banished for life to

a country not far distant, and the accomplices be beaten with one
hundred blows and be banished for three years.
»If ginseng has been dug up without the red post, but within
the white ones, the punishments shall be as follows: for a —
weight of fifty taels or more , strangulation of the chief culprits
with imprisonment until their sentence has been confirmed by the
higher authorities, and lifelong banishment of the accomplices to a
province not far distant. For twenty taels or more, lifelong banish-
ment of the chief offenders to a malarious region, viz. Yunnan,
Kweicheu, Kwangtung or Kwangsi, and flagellation of the accom-
plices with one hundred blows, together with lifelong banish-
ment to a region three thousand miles distant. For ten taels or
more, the chief culprits shall be deported for life to a province

1 The well known root of a plant {Avalia qitinqucfolial), which is much valued
as a medecine and commands very high prices in China.
2 Comp. the first supplementary article.
 2 ,

9] THE GRAVE.

not far off, and for a weight of less than ten taels, they shall
receive one hundred blows with the long stick and be transported
for life to a country three thousand miles off; and for each of these

quantities the accomplices shall receive one hundred blows and be

banished for three years.
»And should the digging have taken place outside the white
and inside the blue posts, both the chief culprits and the accom-
plicesshall be differently punished in a way such as the supple-
mentary law which provides for those digging in the soil for ginseng
with a thievish intent demands.
»If no ginseng has been found by the offenders, the punish-
ments above specified in this article for cases in which it has been
obtained shall be inflicted with a mitigation of one degree.
,

» Those who have wittingly sold such ginseng shall be punished

one degree less severely than the persons who have secretly dug it
up; but they shall not be liable to punishment if they have sold
it without being aware of its origin.
»If in the above cases ginseng has been appropriated, the chief
culprits and the accomplices shall all be branded with the charac-
ters: » Theft of ginseng belonging to the Government"; but no
branding shall take place if no ginseng has been appropriated , nor
shall the persons who have sold it be branded. The ginseng and
things (that have served for the unearthing of it?) shall be confis-
cated by the Government. If Bannermen have committed the offence
they shall be deprived of their Bannermanship and be sentenced
according to the laws in force for civil subjects.

» Should petty officials or soldiers (charged with the guarding of

the mausoleum grounds) have wilfully connived at the offence for a
bribe, they shall be punished in the same degree as the offenders
proper, unless the penalty of death has to be inflicted upon these
latter. And if the quantity of ginseng is considerable , the punishment
required for theft of things of its value shall be calculated and , if it

is heavier than the punishments mentioned in this article , be inflicted

upon the culprits. Should the offenders proper incur decapitation, the
chief culprits among the bribed officials or soldiers shall be condemned
to strangulation, and be executed without confirmation of their
sentence by the higher authorities; but if the offenders have incurred
such strangulation, those officials and soldiers shall be sent to Tur-
kestan , there to be placed in different localities in Government thral-
dom. Those who have merely been remiss in maintaining the regula-
tions with respect to the guarding of the ground , shall , if they are
 LAWS FOR THE PROTECTION OF MAUSOLEUM TREES. 913

soldiers, receive one hundred blows with the long stick, and if

they are officials, they shall be delivered over to the Board to

which they belong, to be brought up for trial by it.

Seventh Supplementary Article.

(Dating from 1862)

mmz&* &&&&& &&%mmmmvi ft

Po##*t###e ##&&##£-£#
ft 5ft

-W #m , Sfe -1B Mo to £ W m B W W Ol # ft >

*«,
# ^ ^ m <« atgffira&^te&s** >

mm mm,
» Those who with a thievish intent have felled trees or hewn off

branches thereof in an Imperial mausoleum, within the walled-

in grounds, shall, if they have acted in the capacity of chief
cidprits, first be exposed for two months in the cangue in the

localitywhere the crime has been committed, and then be sent

into lifelong banishment in a near province. Should they have
done so in the grounds not surrounded by walls, but within the
red posts, they shall be punished as if they had done so within
the immured parts. If the offence have been committed outside the
red and within the white posts, the chief culprits shall receive one
hundred blows with the long stick and be banished for three years,
and if the crime has been perpetrated outside the white and within
the blue posts, they shall merely receive the hundred blows; but
in each of these two cases they shall be placed in the cangue for
one month. Finally, if they have committed the deed beyond the
blue posts but in the grounds reserved to the Government the chief
, ,

offenders shall receive one hundred blows with the long stick.

» Accomplices in all the above cases shall be sentenced to one degree

less punishment than that which is required for the chief culprits.
»If the offence have been committed outside the immured parts,
 ,

914 THE GRAVE.

and no white or blue posts were standing there, the case shall
be dealt with as if it had been committed in the grounds reserved

to the Government.
»If petty officials or soldiers attached to the place have willingly
connived at the deed for a bribe, or have secretly warned the per-
petrators, so that they could escape, they shall receive the same
punishment as the men arrested".

Burial of uncared-for Human Remains by the Authorities. Official

Assistance afforded to the Poor in burying their Dead.
If it be admitted that the Cheu li is a work actually dating
from the Cheu dynasty, we may infer from it that already in pre-
Christian times the Government of China was not indifferent about
its subjects being properly buried, and even went so far as to
charge itself with the duty of committing to the earth human
remains neglected by others. Indeed,
book contains certain this
rescripts concerning the burial places of the people and the official
control to be exercised over them rescripts which have been repro-
,

duced by us on page 830. Moreover, we read therein:

»The Officer whose duty it is to provide against carrion-insects,
» is charged with the removal of putrid human remains. Whenever
» a Great Sacrifice takes place in (the suburbs of) the capital he ,

» shall ordain that unclean matter be cleared away in the villages

» of the district and that those who have been punished with
,

» corporal mutilation, and people in penal servitude or wearing

» mourning dress are not to be admitted into the suburbs. He shall
,

» act in the same way when there is a great concentration of troops

» or a solemn reception of high visitors. When a corpse is found
» on the road he shall order it to be buried and boards to be
,

» fixed up inscribed with the date of the day and month the
, ;

» clothes and effects which were on the corpse he shall hang up

» at the dwelling of the local officer to be kept there for the
,

» relations. He is also charged with the maintenance of the ordi-

» nances which are in force in the capital for the treatment of
» human remains in a state of decay" l
.

^ r m mm-. Jim z-k%^& w M.m^m

i

m m % £ as $ % m n m m * m * m %*
i 1*1 .
 ;,

CARE FOR UNBURIED CORPSES IN ANCIENT CHINA. 915

The Cheu li being a project of a constitution which has always

been believed by nearly everybody to be a product of the times
of Wen, the founder of the Cheu dynasty, and this glorious ruler
in the golden days of yore having constantly been held up to
the nation as a model for all emperors and princes, it follows as
a matter of course that the care which, according to the Cheu li,

the Government during the reign of his family bestowed upon the
mortal remains of the people, has been greatly admired in later
times. During the Han dynasty traditions were current which re-

presented Wen as having on sundry occasions manifested exem-

human remains. In a work entitled Sin
plary benevolence towards
shu »The New Book", ascribed to one Kia I s who lived in the
1
or
second century B. C, we read:
»King Wen, taking a nap in the daytime, dreamed that a man
» climbed the walls of the city and exclaimed : 'lam the dry bones
» of the north-eastern corner. Bury me without delay, with the
!

» ceremonial appertaining to a king '

'
It shall be done ', answered
» Wen. On awaking from his sleep, he ordered his officials to resort

» and look about there and they actually found the bones
to the spot ,

» whereupon they were told by the king to bury them forthwith,

» as if they were those of a ruler. They are not owned by anybody', *

» said the officials so we request that they may be buried with

,
'

» such ceremonial as appertains to a Great officer of the fifth rank'.

» But the king retorted In my dream I have pledged my word
:
'

» how can I possibly retract it?' When the gentry and the people
» heard of what had happened they said Our king does not , :
*

» forsake dry bones of which he has merely dreamt how much ;

» the less will he forsake the living Upon which the subjects fully '

3
» entrusted themselves to their sovereign" .

^P Hi @ Zf M jft
ChaPter 37 >
"• 21 se 3-

* mm-
2
itt-

z,^^M^^B,mmAmmz,MB^m
 ! ,

916 THE GRAVE.

Another work of the Han dynasty, entitled Sin shu 1 or » A New

Series", which was written in the first century before our era by
Liu Hiang, whom our readers have heard of on page 433, relates:
» When king Wen of the family of Cheu built a terrace imbued
» with spiritual influence they found while digging the pond, ,

» some human bones. The officials informing the king of this he ,

» told them to bury them again, to which they objected, saying they
» were without an owner. Bat Wen said :
'
He who possesses the
» world owner of the world and he who possesses the whole realm
is ,

» is the owner of it so I myself am incontestably the owner ot

;

» these bones and why then need you look for their owner else-
,

» where?' Upon this he ordered them to clothe and coffin those

» bones and to re-bury them. The nation being apprised of what he
» had done unanimously exclaimed
, What an excellent man is •.
'

» our king Wen ! The blessings which he bestows extend even to

» dry bones ; how much the more shall they then extend to living
» man
These and similar traditions, together with Wen's putative con-
nection with the Cheu li , have doubtlessly had much influence in
causing the burial of uncared-for corpses to be regarded through all

dynasties as the business of Government. That the founder of the Han

dynasty ordered the warriors, who had died in arms, to be coffined,
carried home and buried at the expense of the Government, we
have stated already on page 845. Of Ngan 3
, an emperor of the
same family, we read: »In the second year of the period Yuen
»ch c
u (A. D. 108) he commissioned his officers charged with the

*1& « #* » # £ A ¥„ J* £ T # £ ±- Cha P tei 7 -

3? £JjJ, ~fc^ A -3& Chapter 5. According to a note in the Khienlung edition of

the Books of the Later Han Dynasty (ch. 6, 1. 18), this episode is recorded also in
the Annuary of Lii Puh-wei, mentioned on page 685.
3
3r
 ,

CARE FOR UNBURIE1) CORPSES DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. 917

» reception and entertainment of guests to collect and bury the ,

» remains of the strangers who had died in the Metropolis , and

» further to present sacrifices to all those who had no kinsfolk
» or whose coffins or vaults were decayed. For those who had only
» poor family relations , too poor to defray a decent burial , they
» were to give five-thousand coins a head" '. It is also recorded
2
that, when the emperor Chih occupied the throne in A. D. 146,
his consort gave orders for similar acts of charity, publishing a
decree, to this effect: »In times of yore king Wen buried dry bones,
» and the people entrusted themselves to his virtuous guidance.
3
» Now I commission delegates, to act according to this precedent" .

Like master, like man. Several mandarins of their own free will

have imitated the example of their imperial masters, stimulated, no

doubt, also by the hope that blessings of every kind would be
bestowed upon them by the poor forlorn souls benefitted by their
charity. Concerning Ts'ao Pao *, a high military commander at the
end of the first century of our era, we read: »ln more than a
» hundred places there
coffins which had not
existed stored-up ,

» been committed Pao visited these places in person

to the grave.
» to inquire into the reasons and the officials told him they were
,

» for the greater part the remains of persons who had died since
» the period Kien wu (A. D. 25 57) and could not be buried —
» because of their being entirely without offspring. This moved
» Pao to such commiseration that he purchased a plot of vacant
» ground and buried therein all those neglected corpses setting ,

c c 6
» out sacrificial articles to present to them" 6 Of Ch en Ch ung .
,

W& 3=} W> 0sk \ 3L -f'

Books 0l the Later Han D ynasty. ch -
5 >
i- 11 -

2
Jf .

of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. G, 1. 18.

4
W M. -

mn.m ?j -it m ,s n & *&,m m ^ m ± % m %

Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 65 10.
A£l JlfE -O " , 1.

6 B$ §£.
 ,

918 THE GRAVE.

in the first century of our era Governor of Kwang-han '

in the
c
present province of Sze-ch wen, we read: »Ere now, whenever it

» was cloudy or rainy wailings resounded to the south of the city-

,

» walls of Loh-hien wailings so loud that they could be heard in

,

» the magisterial mansion. This had been going on for several

c
» tens of years. When the wailings reached the ears of Ch ung he ,

» pondered over the cause , and ordered some of his underlings to

» go and find out what it was. They reported , on their return
» that during the troubles at the time when the dynasty was in a
» state of decline , many people had met with their death there-
» abouts, and their bones not having been buried, were still lying
c
» on the spot. Upon this, Ch uug was moved with compassion.
» He heaved a sigh of emotion and forthwith ordered the magis-
,

» trates of the district to collect those bones and to bury them.

2
» From that time the wailings ceased" .

This passage is of peculiar interest, because it introduces us to

a noteworthy conception which has through all ages been the main , ,

spring in the conduct of the Government with regard to unburied

human bones. It teaches us that those souls wailed and lamented
chiefly when the weather was rainy. This is very natural, as un-
sheltered human souls feel uncomfortable when the weather is bad,
just the same as unsheltered living men. And, as naturally, this
belief has engendered another, viz. that such souls try by all the
means in their power to protect themselves from such misery by
preventing the rain from falling, or by moving other invisible

powers to disperse the clouds on their behalf. In other words : if

people leave the dead unburied , drought ensues.

This is a superstition of very long standing. It is mentioned
3
work bearing the title
already in a oiKwan-tsze ,
» The Philosopher
Kwan", which is believed to contain the writings of the statesman
Kwan Chung referred to on page 660, who lived in the seventh

il b$ lit t^ntm ffii t* •w *#mm& . tt mn

Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 76 , 1. 9.
 ! ,:

DROUGHTS ABE CAUSED BY UNBURIED HUMAN BONES. 919

century before our era. »If during the vernal season dry bones and
» putrid human remains are not cleared away" so we read in this —
book —
» and withered trees are not felled and removed then the ,

» drought of the summer will be excessive" \ In the Li ki (ch. 20,

1. 43) occurs this rescript : » During the first month of spring dry
2
bones must be covered up and rotten human remains be buried" .

Droughts being more dreaded China than any other calamity,

in
because they often entail bad harvests dearth and famine we cannot
, ,

feel surprise at finding in the books many instances of dry bones

being buried by the authorities with a view of putting a stop to
the terrible scourge and conjuring down the rains. The Standard
History of the Han dynasty makes mention of a certain » Cheu
c c
» Ch ang whose cognomen was Poh-ch i
, , a man possessed of a very
» humane and compassionate character. When he was Governor of
» Honan , a drought prevailed in the summer of the second year of the
» period Yung ch u c
(A. D. 108). Prayers having been offered up
c
» in vain for a long time , Ch ang had the bones of over ten thou-
» sand strangers, who had died outside the city-walls of Loh-
»yang, picked up and buried, whereupon the rains came down in
» quantities quite adequate to the needs of the season so that the ,

» crops were very abundant that year" 3 In another work we read .

»In the fifth year of the period T ai hwo (A. D. 481), in the
c

» fourth month, the emperor (Hiao Wen) issued a decree, running

» as follows :
'
do not trickle down so that
The rains of the season ,

» the tender sprouts of spring hang heavily. Wherever human bones

» lie orders must be issued by the authorities to have them buried
,

» and none may be left uncovered in order that the spirits may ,

4
» become aware of such acts and the catastrophe be deprecated" .

^j» . Chapter 18, § 57.

i£
chapter
A HI,HI h£ vM M
%
1. 10.
» tf& 75 H $k •
Books of the Later Han D y nast y-

fli& <£ ffi ^ pf W$ W\ Books of the Wei D ynasty> cha P ter 7 > p art »
l- 17 -
 ;
:

920 THE GRAVE.

To quote a third instance, relating to Ho-lan Siang 1

, in the sixth
s
century governor of King-cheu , in the present province of Hupeh
»At that time, while very dry weather prevailed at the height of
» the summer season he made a personal tour of inspection through
,

» the country under his jurisdiction , to see whether misrule any-

» where prevailed and found that some people who were unearthing
,

» old graves had cruelly exposed the bones to the open air. Is '

!
» this a government by humane rulers he exclaimed to the pre- '

»fect, and ordered the men who were with him, to collect those
» bones and bury them. The next day copious rains fell, and the
» year yielded an abundant harvest. Up to that time people had
» taken pleasure in digging up many old graves in the department
» but from that moment there was an end to such practices" 3 .

c
During the T ang dynasty it was indeed an established rescript
of Government that bones should be buried when drought menaced
the crops with destruction. »When drought prevailed in the first

» month of summer or later then prayers for rain were offered

, ,

» up in the Metropolis, justice was done to those who were kept

»in custody unjustly, succour was given to the poor and distressed,
» and human bones and putrid remains were interred" \ It is cpaite
in keeping herewith to read that one of the principal monarchs of
that dynasty, viz. »Huen Tsung, in the second year of the period
»Khai yuen (A. D. 714) buried sun-burnt skeletons, because
» drought prevailed inside the Of Hi Tsung 8 too
Mountain Passes" 5
.

it is recorded that »in the third year of the Khien fu period

» (A. D. 876) he buried sun-burnt skeletons in the third month,

3
fM!/Lit, m^nm.m^, is$:#^ji

;§> ' Books of the Cheu Dynasty, chapter 20, 11. 4 and 5. Also the History of
*§bi
the Northern Part of the Realm, chapter 61, 1. 18.

Tang Dvnast y-
^L % t*5 §§ ^1 m 0ld Books of the ch -
24 >
'• 3 -

5
^^^7CZl^J^^ft^ ^^*^-
Dynasty, ch. 5, 1. 7.
%
Books of the Tang

6 -fiSt *£.
Ira 7JT
 ,

OFFICIAL CARE FOR UNBURIEI) HUMAN REMAINS. 921

» because of a prevailing drought" \ Still during the Ming dynasty

emperors followed the same line of conduct in times of famine. So
e.g. Shi Tsung
2
about whom we read: » In the thirty-second year
,

» of the period Kia tsing (A. D. 1553), in the ninth month, he

» asked Yen Sung: 'What are We to do, whereas so many of Our
» subjects are in want of food?' The reply was-. 'From the four
» points of the compass starving people are pouring down upon the
» Metropolis in search of food so that in an hour's time the prices
,

» of rice have risen considerably. I humbly propose that several

» ten-thousand stones of rice may be sold out of the government
» granaries at the usual price'. The emperor gave his consent, and
» added :We suppose that some of Our people must have died
'

» on the roads and that their remains exposed as they are to the
,

» burning heat, ought to be given a shelter somehow'. Giving his

» adhesion to a proposal which Sung made to him to this effect
» he ordered that in the streets within the Metropolis the Cen-
, ,

» sors for the five quarters should inquire whether such were the
»case, and bury any such remains, and that the same should be
» done outside the Metropolis by the provincial Governors and all
» the officers invested with administrative power" 3 .

In the foregoing pages only some few of the passages are given
which we have found in Chinese books, concerning emperors and
grandees who, since the rise of th^,Han dynasty, have ordered the
burial of the neglected bones of soldiers who had perished on the
battle-fields , or of victims of inundations , epidemics , famine , frost

or other scourges. Dozens of instances we have omitted for brevity's

sake. Seeing that such official acts of charity were of very frequent
occurrence during a long series of ages, it is not surprising that
the present reigning dynasty, which, like all the families of sovereigns

1
jj^^H^J^^H^it^flfc- The same w0lk '
ch '
9 '
'• 7 -

General Account ot the Ming period, quoted in the Ka kin t'v shu tsih citing, sect,

\ ^. , ch. 93.
922 THE GRAVE.

that have it on the throne, has faithfully modelled its

preceded
institutionson those of the past, still makes it incumbent upon
the staff of mandarins to provide within certain limits for the
burial of individuals whose kinsfolk are too poor to fulfil their
obligations in this respect. An official rescript, admitted among
the Collective Statutes, runs thus: » When anywhere in the pro-
» vinces dry bones owned by nobody are exposed to the inclemen-
» cies of the weather, the local authorities shall establish a burial
» ground for free use, and take such measures as shall lead to the
» collection of the remains and their being buried therein and ;

» they shall inform the Board of Rites of these their proceedings" '.

That the mandarins are, moreover, bound by an official rescript

to encourage the people to undertake such works of charity, has
been stated on page 866.
No doubt it is ascribable to such like duties being imposed upon
the mandarinate, that, since many years, there exists in Amoy, un-
der its control and patronage, an institution for providing the poor
with coffins gratuitously. It is administered in a similar way to

the private coffin distributing societies of which we have said a

few words on pp. 863 seq. The chief management is intrusted by the
3
local authorities to one or two so-called tdng-su or » managers of
the business", generally literary graduates, who have to present to
them every year an account of«the income and expenditure. The in-
come is derived chiefly from the rent of houses owned by the in-
stitution and further from interest on a small capital invested in
,

a mortgage. A coffin shop kept by a carpenter who has contracted

,

with the managers for the delivery of coffins, is connected with the
institution, and it is to this so-called » gratuitous store-house of
3
the authorities for the distribution of coffins" that the poor who
cannot afford to buy receptacles for their dead, have to apply.
The Memoirs concerning Amoy contain the following particulars
relating to the foundation and history of this institution :» In the
» twenty-fifth year of the period Kia khing (1820) an epidemic
» raged , which induced the Taotai I Siu , the Lieutenant Colonel
» of the Central Marine Battalion of the Banner Forces Yang Ki-

3
3) M ffi tit & JK-
 &

DISTRIBUTION OF COFFINS BY THE AUTHORITIES. 923

» hiun and the Maritime Sub-prefect of A raoy Hien Ch'ing to

, ,

» raise by subscription a sum of 4175 foreign dollars, by means

» of which they started without delay the work of distributing
» and burying the dead. In the ninth year of the period
coffins
»Tao kwang (1829) they ordered the managers Ling Han and
c
» Ling Yung-p ing to establish in the Quaystreet the gratuitous store-
house in question, and succeeding provincial Military Commanders-
» in-chief, Taotais and Maritime Sub-prefects have contributed money
» to keep up the distribution. In the spring of the twelfth year of
» the same period another terrible epidemic prevailed. Kwoh K'iiing,
» a member of the gentry, gave eight hundred dollars which he
» had inherited from his father Kwoh K iien
c
; his son Tsung-lien
» also contributed two hundred silver coins and , thanks to their
» 3236 dollars were put down on the subscription
initiative ,

» list. Between the fourth month of the eleventh year and the
» eighth month of the twelfth, 1056 coffins were given away to the
»poor, leaving a surplus of 1907 dollars, of which 1741 dollars
» were invested as capital in shops and houses at an interest ,

» of over 200 dollars annually" 1 In 1890 we were informed by

.

the then managers that about one hundred coffins were at that
time given away annually, at an average cost of 1^ to 2 dollars a
piece, and that the Taotai and the Maritime Sub-prefect both
regularly supported the institution by making over to it a great
part of the fines imposed in their tribunals.
Although we are unable to say whether such official charitable
institutions, financially supported by the people, exist in other
towns, there can hardly be a doubt that such is the case , as we have

f-nj + iia, mmmmmm., m,±%^m

m^ m m m m m% mmmmm, m&m **

^ 3 £ + * £ *h +-#ra^M + -#A^
 ,
,

924 THE GRAVE.

no reason to suppose that Amoy stands quite alone in this respect.

Still doubt is there that the authorities have in various parts
less

of the Empire especially in the neighbourhood of towns and cities

,

public cemeteries in which the poor are allowed to inter their dead
without any payment for the grave, and in which neglected remains
are buried by themselves in pious imitation of previous sovereigns
and in obedience to the Ordinances of the present reigning dynasty.
As to Amoy, the Memoirs
enumerate no less than six graveyards
'

which have been between 1797 and 1822 by the local ma-
laid out
gistrates, for the Formosan soldiers stored up in the Convent of the
2
Seaclams and never claimed by their relations and one for the ,

victims of the epidemic of 1820, which, as stated above, gave

rise to the official institution for distributing coffins. Moreover, the

Memoirs give the names of thirty places where public burial grounds
for the poor had been established by the authorities in still earlier
times; but no particulars about them are recorded in that work, as
its authors did not find any commemorative inscriptions in stone

there. A description of such cemeteries will be given in Chapter XV.

Official Care of the Graves of Emperors and of famous Men

of former Dynasties.
To provide the mortal remains of every individual, even of the
lowest birth , with a suitable resting place under the earth , having
been recognised in China, through all ages, as an important duty
of Government , this duty has naturally entailed the obligation of be-
stowing official care on the graves of sovereigns of former dynasties
and on those of their princes and ministers. Seeing that care of
neglected graves and bones is chiefly prompted by the hope that
the forlorn souls, thereby benefitted, will become propitious to

man and cease their revengeful resentment, it naturally follows

that such care is bestowed in the first place on the graves and
bones of persons who once wielded the highest power in the
State and, in virtue thereof, are now occupying the highest posi-
tions in the world of spirits, consequently the most dangerous
enemies of man, or his most powerful friends and protectors, ac-
cording to circumstances. Such illustrious dead may become espe-

\ Chapter 2, 11. 55 and 56.

2 Compare page 846.
 OFFICIAL PROTECTION OF ANCIENT GRAVES. 925

cially harmful or propitious to the reigning dynasty; for they

naturally keep their eyes jealously fixed upon the throne, that most
precious heirloom of which they themselves were once the happy
possessors.
The first sovereign mentioned in the books as having given
protection to the tombs of monarchs preceding him
was the founder ,

of the Han dynasty. On page 447 we have quoted from the Standard
History of his reign the statement, that he ordered families to be
appointed to act as guardians of the mausolea of some half dozen
potentates of former ages. Of the emperor Ming l
of the Wei
dynasty it is recorded that »in the second year of the period
c
»King ch u (A. D. 238) he ordained that ploughing, pasturing
» cattle and collecting fire-wood within a distance of one hundred
» p u on Kao Tsu and Kwang Wu
every side of the mausolea of
» (the founders respectively of the Early and the Later Han dynasty)
» should no longer be allowed to the people" 2 And Min of the Tsin
3
.

dynasty » ordained in the third year of his reign (A. D. 315) that
» in Yung-cheu human bones and putrid remains should be com-
» mitted to the earth , that the mausoleaand tombs located there
» should be repaired , and that people who violated them should
» be put to death , together with their relatives unto the third
4
» generation" .

When dynasty had lost the throne, the first emperor

the Tsin
of the House of Sung, which succeeded it, decreed in A. D. 420,
less than three months after his accession, »that rules should be

» laid down for the protection and defence of the mausolea of the
» emperors, empresses and highest princes of the dethroned family;
» further that graves of famous worthies
, deceased sages and ,

» men who had excelled under the foregoing dynasty , either in

» the display of virtue and purity of conduct , or in the quench-

»ing of rebellions and the protection of the people, shoidd,

» if they were not very ancient , all be watered and swept , and

i
BJJ.

Meraoirs of the Thl ce Kingdoms; Memoirs of Wei, chapter 3, 19.

' 1.

Wt $fc tP ffi-
3
^."'

* h # m m jh n t§ m $ » f- t& ft m >g ft % »
Books of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 5, 1. 13.
^fe~ELJ&-
60
 . ,

926 THE GRAVE.

» that the owners should draw up regulations on this head and

» submit them to the Throne" '. The same mausolea also became
c
objects of care to Ming 2
, an emperor of the Ts i dynasty, who
it is said , decreed in the second year of the period K i e n wu
(A. D. 495) » that the sepulchres of the emperors of the Tsin dynasty
should all be repaired and their garrisons be re-inforced" 3
.

During the Northern Wei dynasty, the emperor Hiao Wen 4 known ,

5
also by the name of Kao Tsu in 496 » decreed that it should not ,

» be allowed to collect fuel from any of the imperial mausolea of

» the dynasties of Han Wei and Tsin within a forbidden circuit of ,

» one hundred p u nor even to set foot upon them" 6 Twenty years
, .

later his grandson Hiao Ming 7 » ordained that it should be for-

,

» bidden to till the ground near any mausoleum of an ancient

» emperor within a distance of fifty p a on every side" 8 We read .

c
also that Shun-yii Liang
9
a high functionary under the Ch en ,

dynasty, was dismissed from his dignity of Imperial Chamberlain

for having sold trees growing in the mausolea of the Liang dynasty,
and that Siao Ki-khing 10 prince of Kiang-yin u was deprived of , ,

this high dignity because he had acted as an accomplice in the

12
matter .

1
mB^vkft&xmxmm'&ffi'iLmB.ft,
k, # $ * & & a suss ± * &« « n-
the Sung Dynasty, ch. 3
,

, 1. 5.
>
B °°ks °f

2 39

Ts'i
3
W i

Dynasty, ch. 6,
r«j
1
lill^Jto#3l,#'t3
1. 6.
i
*i- Books of the Southern

5
mM.-

jj!||. Books of the Wei Dynasty, ch. 7, part II, 1. 20.

the Northern Part of the Realm, ch. 4, 1. "12.

9
^T ft-

12 Books of the Ch'en Dynasty, ch. 11, 1. 4.

 ,

OFFICIAL PROTECTION OF ANCIENT GRAVES. 927

Instances of emperors taking to heart the fate of former occu-

pants of the throne by restoring their mausolea and enacting re-

scripts to provide against the violation of the same, are on record

in the Histories of subsequent dynasties. But we cannot give trans-
lations of all these passages, which would only weary the reader
by their endless repetition. Let us simply note that, apart from
the cases which may have escaped our attention such measures ,

are stated to have been taken in A. D. 606 by Yang the ' ,

c
second monarch of the House of Sui 2
; in the year 630 by T ai
Tsung ', the second emperor of the T'ang dynasty, who , more-
over, ordained that official sacrifices should be offered in spring
and autumn to all the sovereigns, statesmen and worthies whose
tombs had been repaired 4 by Hiien Tsung 5 of the same House
;

who issued an edict for that purpose in 745 6 But no monarch of .

any dynasty ever extended his solicitude over so many graves as

did T ai Tsu ', the founder of the Sung dynasty. Already in the
c

very same year in which he ascended the throne (A. D. 960), he

decreed that such imperial mausolea or tombs of historical persons
of bygone ages as had been left to the mercy of fuel gatherers and
the inclemencies of wind and rain, should be placed by the au-
thorities under the guardianship of families specially appointed for

the purpose, and be repaired in case of damage. Three years after-

wards this provisory decree was followed by another particularising
, ,

what was to be done. It stipulated that the graves of Yao and

Shun 8 and four other mythical potentates whom Chinese historians
are accustomed to place at the head of their chronology, the sepulchres
of Yu T ang
,
c
and Wu 9 the mausolea of the founder of the
, Wen ,

Early Han dynasty and of the founder of the Later Han dynasty,
c
and those of the two first emperors of the House of T ang should ,

henceforth be guarded by five families each and a bullock should be

sacrificed there every year in spring and autumn. The graves of four
sovereigns of the Shang dynasty, two of that of Cheu and two of

2 Books of the Sui Dynasty, ch. 3, 1. 8.

4 Old Books of the T'ang Dynasty, ch. 3, 1. 2; and the New Books, ch. 2, 1.8.

*££
6 Jih chi luh, ch. 15.

7
jstM-
8 About the alleged graves of these worthies , see page 418.
9 See page 666.
 ,

928 THE GRAVE.

that of Han, with those of the first emperors respectively of the

Houses of Wei, Tsin, Cheu and Sui, should be guarded by three
familiesand a bullock be sacrificed there only once a year; the
grave of Shi Hwang, four emperors of the Han dynasty, one of
c
that of Wei, four of that of T ang, etc. should be guarded by
two families and be sacrificed at once every three years. Thirty-
eight mausolea were to be kept in good condition by preventing
the people from gathering fuel thereon, and in the department of
Honan, people were entirely forbidden to till the adjacent soil.

Seventy-seven imperial sepulchres in

all were mentioned in this edict.

In which had been broken open

those the magistrates were to ,

place imperial robes and one suit of ordinary garments, which

ceremony was to be followed on the next day by a sacrifice, pre-
sented by the chief local authority. On the proposal of his ministers
the emperor prescribed that similar measures should be taken in
respect of the graves of a few dozens of statesmen and worthies of
sundry dynasties In 966 these rescripts were revised and promul-
*.

gated anew by the same monarch s and in 1004 by Chen Tsung 3 , ,

who added provisions to include the graves of » excellent notables,

dutiful husbands and chaste wives" '.

Neither did the Tatar family of Kin, who during the Sung
dynasty bore sway over the northern provinces of the Empire for
about one hundred and twenty years, show itself devoid of deference
c 5
for the graves of monarchs of previous Houses. T ai Tsung , the
second emperor, » decreed in the second year of his reign (A. D.
» 1124) that those who should dig up mausolea of the Liao
» dynasty with a thievish intent would incur the penalty of death" °,
,

and five years afterwards, »he forbade by official edict any medi-
» eating exorcists to collect vegetable products in the mausolea of
» the Liao dynasty, which were situate in the mountains of Lu" 7
c
(in Ch ing-king province). We find it stated also that, when the

1 History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 105, 11. 13 and 14.

2 Op. cit, chapter 2, 1. 4.

3 ft ^
4
W ± ti ^c fjf #§• °p- «*. ch - l05 '
'• u -

6 ^^M^'^B^^M^WM-
nasty, ch. 3, 1. 3.
mstor y of the Kin D y-
 ,

OFFICIAL PROTECTION OF ANCIENT GRAVES. 929

Kin Tatars invaded the territory of Liao » the orders issued effectively
,

» prevented any of the mausolea of this family, which were for the
» greater part located in the district of Lii-yang, from being violated" '.

The Mongol Yuen dynasty adopted quite an opposite line of con-

duct. It is the only family among the many which have ruled over

the Empire, that treated mausolea and tombs of former dynasties

with perfect indifference. This, however, will not surprise those
readers who remember that this dynasty did not even bury its

own dead in gorgeous sepulchres (comp. pp. 437 and 438). In the
Official Histories of its government we read that » one Yang-lah-leh-
» chiemployed by Kublai as Comptroller General of the Buddhist
,

Kiangnan dug up the mausolea of the House of

» priesthood in ,

»Sung, the family of Chao, in so far as those monuments were

» located in Ts^en-fang and Shao-hing (in modern Chehkiang) , as
» also the sepulchres of the high ministers of that dynasty, to the
» number hundred and one in all" 2 This enormity was
of one .

evidently not disapproved by his sovereign, for no mention is made

of this favourite of theThrone having been punished or reprimanded.
The founder of the Ming dynasty imitated the good example set
by so many of his predecessors on the throne. »In the fifteenth
»year of his reign (1382), in summer, he commissioned some emis-
»>saries to examine into the condition of the sepulchres of former

» potentates. Before that time when His Majesty was studying the ,

c
» History of the Sung Dynasty, he learned therefrom that T ai
» Tsu of that House had given orders for the repairing of the
» mausolea of emperors and rulers of former dynasties. He heaved
» a sigh of admiration and exclaimed What an excellent measure :
'

! c
» this was Then he sent the Han-lin Compiler Ts ai Yuen and other
'

» grandees to all the points of the compass , with orders to examine

» those sepulchres. Moreover , he ordered all the officers invested
» with administrative power in the provinces , conjointly to make en-

» quiries tombs in the countries under their control

about such
» and to draw up proposals and present them to the Throne if temple
» sacrifices were instituted for those places. In this way thirty-six
» mausolea were taken notice of. In the same year the Emperor ,

1
m it ^ m m m %> & it % m % *e »
<*•*•* ». l *

^ ^ J^
— .
"5" — .
GJr. History of the Yuen Dynasty, ch. 202, I. 5.
 ,;

930 THE GRAVE.

» deputed certain officers to inspect those imperial and royal tombs

» he forbade the gathering of fuel or the pasturing of cattle thereon
» appointed two persons to act as warders of each mausoleum and ,

» ordained that, once in every three years, p:iests and incense-sacri-

» ficers should be dispatched to visit the mausolea and officers be ,

» ordered to present sacrifices there"'.

The emperors of the present reigning dynasty have not swerved
from the path traced out by a long series of their predecessors, but
in the same way they have taken measures for the preservation of
c
the mausolea and graves of former generations. In the Ta Ts ing
hioui tien we read: »In regard to the mausolea of emperors and
» kings of bygone times and the graves of sages worthies and , ,

» persons who have displayed loyalty and ardour, the Governors-

» General and Governors of the provinces are to be instructed to
» order the magistrates of the districts concerned to take them
» under their protection and keep them in repair. At the end of
» each year they shall report on the matter (to the Board of Works),
» which , after having scrutinised the documents , shall submit pro-
2
» posals to the Throne" . Apart from this general rescript, many
emperors have issued edicts to insure its proper execution. Shi Tsung
in particular seems to have taken an interest in such works ot

restoration. In the seventh year of his reign (A. D. 1729) he issued

a decree which ran as follows:
» From ancient times, the emperors and kings have all rendered
» services to the nation. Hence, though the dynasties to which they
» belonged existed long ago , the spirit of respectful worship and
» exalted reverence may not be slackened and relaxed with regard

bB pH
and 19.
Hal! •» T^ ^5 13j ^ ^r£'
'""'' wen ! " en tunrJ khao, chapter 133, 1. 18

M . Chapter 76 , 1. 6.
 ,,

OFFICIAL PROTECTION OF ANCIENT GRAVES. 931

» to them. The spots where their mausolea are situated are the
» resting places and the supports of their souls and consequently ,

» ought be guarded and protected with special devotion. And as to

» the sages and worthies of bygone times, officers of repute and

» men who have displayed loyalty and ardour the sweet-smelling :

» examples set by them will serve as models for all times to come
» their true spirit will live for ever in the heavens and on this
» earth. So, their sacrificial buildings and grave grounds must like-
» wise be protected with respect and reverence , in order to expand
» the spirit of looking up to them.
» The Governor-General or Governor of every province is here-
» with instructed to order his subaltern officers to make energetic
» tours of inspection to the ancient mausolea located within the
» borders of their territory, and to the graves appointed to be sacri-
» ficed at ; they must take such places under their protection , exa-
» mine their state and condition and spare no efforts in having ,

» them kept clean and neat with the strictest reverence , in order
» that wide expansion be given to feelings of devotion. Should any
» of these places need repair , the said Governors must take the
» necessary steps to make use of the balance of the public funds
» of their provinces for the purpose , and they must delegate officials

» to execute the work.

» It has come to Our knowledge that the emperors and kings
» of successive dynasties have all issued decrees for the protection
» of the mausolea of bygone times but We have also discovered ;

» that those commands have never in point of fact been respectfully

» attended to. An edict issued by Our favour in the first year of
» the period Yung ching gave orders that, throughout the Empire,
» the mausolea of the Rulers of former dynasties should be repaired.
» But We also fear that there are officials who , following the
» routine of their daily business , are likely to consider that edict
» as a matter of ordinary importance. Hence , from this moment
» it is ordained that at the end of each year the local authorities
, ,

» concerned shall be instructed to report to the Governor-General or

» Governor of their province as to the assigned places that are to be
» looked after ; the said high authority shall then classify , those
» reports and up to the Board of Works which will
send them ,

» submit proposals to the Throne in a methodical and regular

» order. Should false reports be made the Governor and the local ,

» authorities concerned shall severally and individually be brought

» to justice and punished as soon as the fraud is discovered.
,
 ,;

932 THE GRAVE.

c
» The mausoleum T
ai Tsu of the House of Ming, located in
of
» Kiang-ning , was personally visited many times by Shing Tsu
» the Emperor Jen , on his journeys to the South , for the purpose
» of offering sacrifices there. The ceremonial observed on these
» occasions was grand and glorious. He instructed the Governor-
» General of Kiang-nan to order his officials to take that mausoleum
» seriously under their care and protection. And for the twelve
» mausolea of the same Ming dynasty, which are situated in the
c c
» district of Ch ang-p ing inspectors and mausoleum families were
,

» appointed since the present dynasty had ascended the Throne arable ;

» fields were given them they were ordered to strenuously keep

;

» those places in good condition to offer sacrifices there,and to ,

» prevent people from gathering fuel and wood. During the reign
» of Shing Tsu the Emperor Jen edicts were frequently promul-
, ,

» gated, prescribing that those orders should be strictly carried out.

» Now the Governor-General concerned is herewith instructed to
c c
» order the prefect of Ch ang-p ing and the Commander of the forces
» garrisoned in that district , as also some special deputies , to un-
» dertake tours of inspection to those mausolea from time to time
» he shall order that in the country under his rule those monu-
» ments be kept clean and in a good condition and should no ;

» families have been assigned for those mausoleum grounds in suf-

» ficient numbers, the said Governor-General is hereby directed to
» appoint more of them , after proper deliberation and consideration.
» With respect and southern mausolea of the Ming
to those northern
» dynasty, the provincial Governor-General or Governor concerned is
» also hereby instructed to send a report about their condition at
» the end of every year to the Board of Works that this Board ,

» may submit proposals with respect to them to the Throne in

» regular order. Enacted by Imperial command" l
.

1
g^^i^^^fi^s. m$tftj\mmm
 OFFICIAL CARE FOR ANCIENT GRAVES. 933

Kao Tsung \ Shi Tsung's son and successor , issued sundry

edicts to the same effect. They likewise extended to all the old

graves of which vestiges remained , even to those of sovereigns

of fabulous antiquity. In the first year of his reign (1736) he
prescribed , for instance , the special restoration of the sepulchre
2
of Yen or Shen Nung 3
the » Divine Husbandman" ever famous
,

among the Chinese as the inventor of agriculture, whose reign

4
chronologists place in the 28th. century before our era , and of

m^.%^mft@nzm^mm*gft&m,

zzmmftz wm m^Tt^^^^mmmMM
tt * i m j& m. n ^ m * % *r n # n m n n % „

mz^^n^m.mmmn^^.m^m^^
m & fr w ^ a m 11 t m * i # & m
m ic m.
#£R6££. IB It &. ^/xmil#^t^^ Jin

^ m « * in i: Kit ^ i& k* *«x ^ * s is: ft , ,

«jBjpB. ^ it tit*. H t M * # S «i i* i « iffl.

« $ toi i« n ^ i ¥• jh ^ *h a ^^ &&&

5§fc l£fc
ro Ti'id;/ fciuitt Ken teefc «i -^ ^j -^- i& j||j $|J , » Rules and Re-

scripts for a Proper Execution of the Collective Statutes of the Great Ts'ing Dy-
nasty", an exhaustive collection of State papers and Imperial edicts, published in the
17th. and 18th. century by the Government; chapter 137, 11. 32 seq.

1
m 717-

4 This grave is situated in Hunan province, in the department of Ch'ang-sha

 ,

934 THE GRAVE.

that of Shao Hao \ who swayed the sceptre in the 26th. century 2
.

Sixteen years afterwards was ordained by him that the temples

, it

and walls of the mausolea of the emperors T c ai Tsu 3 and She

Tsung 4
of the Kin dynasty, situated in the mountains of the district
5
of Fang-shan , southwest from Peking, should be rebuilt or restored 6
.

Only down to 1751 are the decrees of this monarch published in the
Ta Tiing hwui tien tseh li; but many of the same tendency have,
of course, been issued by succeeding Sons of Heaven, down to the
present day. It is nevertheless doubtful whether all these edicts put
together have effected anything more than simply the preservation of
these numerous burial places from entire destruction. Many of them
are no doubt worth seeing and some present matter for interesting
, , ,

descriptions which add to our knowledge of the boundless domain of

ancestor worship in this immense heathen kingdom.
That the Code of Laws of this dynasty contains severe provisos
against the violation of such sacred , national sepulchral-monuments
our readers have seen on page 899. Besides the Code has the following
article, copied almost verbally from the laws of the Ming dynasty 7 :

» The mausolea of emperors and kings of former dynasties, and

» the tombs of sages and worthies who lived in bygone times and ,

» of loyal ministers and fervent notables shall be protected and ,

» cared for by the local magistrates who shall not suffer fuel or ,

» brambles to be gathered upon the same, nor any ploughing or

» sowing , nor pasturing of cows , sheep or other cattle. Eighty
» blows with the long stick shall be administered to those who
8
» disobey this rescript" .

1 Af S . This grave is said to be located to the North East of the district

city of KMh-feu [||j Ja. in the department of Yen-cheu -£j* J>U Sdp in Shantung. ,

2 Ta Ts'ing hwui tien tseh li, ch. 137, 11. 33 seq. See also the large collection
of Imperial edicts issued during the present dynasty, entitled Shiny hiun |ffi gfjl ,

» Imperial Instructions"; section Edicts of Kao Tsung, ch. 245, 1. 1.

6 Memoirs of the Department of Shun-t'ien

See also the Ta Ts'ing hwui tien tseh li, ch. 137,
, j\M ^
1. 37.
jfij ^ >
cna P ter 26 :
•• 36 -

7 See the Ta Ming hwui tien, ch. 129, 1. 2.

 CHAPTER XII.

FONG-SHUI.

1. Introductory Notice.

We have several times had to refer in this work to a custom of

the Chinese of placing the graves in such a situation as they think

will bring the occupants thereof happiness and comfort, and at the
same time secure the prosperity of their ownselves, both in this world
and in the world to come. In connection herewith we have mentioned
certain theories, popularly styled Fung-shui' or Wind and Water.
We will now consider this custom in detail, and try to answer the
question: What is Fung-shui?
The answer is suggested by the word itself. Fung ^ means the
wind , and s h ui ^ the water from the clouds which the wind
distributes over the world; thus, the two words combined indicate
the climate, regulated as it is in China, in the first instance, by
the which bring dry or rainy weather, according as they
winds,
blow from the North in winter, or from the South or South-west
in summer. Fung-shui consequently denotes the atmospherical
influences , which bear absolute sway over the fate of man , as none
of the principal requirements of life can be produced without
favourable weather and rains. In a hyperbolical sense, however,
Fung-shui means a quasi-scientific system supposed to teach men ,

where and how to build graves, temples and dwellings, in order

that the dead, the gods and the living may be located therein ex-
clusively, or as far as possible , under the auspicious influences of
Nature.
This system is by no means a creation of modern times. It

originated in ancient ages, from the then prevailing conceptions,

easily traceable in the books, that the inhabitants of this world
all live under the absolute sway of the influences of heaven and
earth, and that every one desirous of insuring his own felicity

1
ja#.
936 THE GRAVE.

must live in perfect harmony with those influences. If such —

was the reasoning —
human acts disagree with the almighty Tao '

or »Path", the unalterable Coarse of Nature, conflicts will ensue,

in which man, being the weaker party, must inevitably give way

and become the sufferer. This reverential awe of the mysterious

influences of Nature is the fundamental principle of an ancient
religious system usually styled by foreigners Tao-ism. Popular
opinion in China, as well as the expounders of the Fung-shui
theories, are unanimous in considering Fung-shui to be almost as
ancient as China itself.

It follows from the above that building graves, houses, villages

and towns in accordance with the Fung-shui theories is looked upon
by the nation as an absolute necessity, as indispensable because it is
impossible to withdraw one's self from the sway of the powers of
Nature. No wonder then that Fung-shui holds the nation in its

grip and reigns supreme in the Empire, through its whole length
and breadth. It derives prestige and sanctity from antiquity, which

gave birth to the principal dogmas and conceptions upon which it

is based. The leading ideas being the same as those of Chinese
philosophy in general, it commands the sympathy of every one
as a system which embraces whatever combined human wisdom
and sagacity have , during a long series of ages , suggested as prac-
tically useful. It is considered in China the greatest benefactor of
mankind , though in reality, as we shall see anon , it is one of
their greatest scourges.
The hiao, the pious reverence which every Chinaman accords
to his deceased parents and nearest relations, naturally constrains
him to place their graves in such a situation that they may find
themselves under the same good influences of Nature which he
would desire to concentrate upon his own dwelling. In this way he
not only insures their rest and comfort, but also renders them well
disposed towards himself, arousing in them feelings of gratitude
which must necessarily bear fruits in the shape of various blessings
to be showered down upon the offspring. Besides, the heavens are
Nature's great source of life, for it is they who distribute warmth,

light and and life and vigour are naturally imparted to

rain;
those souls which dwell in graves placed under the full influence
of the heavens: then they are enabled to work vigorously as pro-
tectors of their offspring, and to distribute among them liberally
 ,
,

GENERAL REMARKS ON FUNG-SHUI. 937

that vitality which they themselves borrow from the heavens

thus promoting the birth of sons, the most coveted of all blessings
in China. This conviction is confirmed by the consideration that it

is not only the living who profit hereby, but also the souls them-
selves, a numerous progeny of sons ensuring to the dead sacrifices

and worship for many generations to come and, moreover, high

rank in the world of spirits, where those surrounded by a large clan
will be the bearers of power and influence, just as in this world.
Thus, as Dr. Edkins has judiciously remarked', » filial piety
which, in obedience to the lessons of ancient and modern mentors
of the nation, takes good care of the graves of parents and grand-
parents , has a material reward on the other hand the want of it
; ,

invites a retribution involving poverty, sickness , loss of descendants

degradation in the social scale". By Fung-shui the graves are turned
into mighty instruments of blessing or punishment, the spirits of

the ancestors, dwelling therein, being the divinities of the nation,

with whose protection and goodwill all social happiness is intimately
bound up. But souls do not dwell in graves only. They also reside
in tablets exposed for worship on the domestic altars and in temples ,

specially erected to shelter them. There, too, precisely for the same
reasons they ought to be made to live under the favourable influences
,

of Nature. Consequently, Fung-shui is firmly entwined with house-

building and the construction of ancestral temples. Tt plays an
important part even in the erection of altars and sanctuaries dedicated
to gods and saints of whatever kind or description.
Thus being an essential part of the Chinese Religion in its broadest

sense, Fung-shui demands a place among the subjects to be treated

of in this work. In the present volume we must, however, confine
ourselves to noting the part it plays in grave-building, and reserve
for an other volume most of what we have to say on its influence
in other branches of the Religious System.
Nature having never been studied in China in a scientific man-
ner, Fung-shui is not based on any sound ideas acquired by an
experimental and critical survey of the heavens and the earth.

Starting with the hazy notion that Nature is a living organism,

the breath of which pervades everything and produces the varied
conditions of heaven and earth, and with some dogmatic formu-
lae found in the ancient works and confided in as verdicts
to be
of the most profound human wisdom, Fung-shui is a mere chaos

1 The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, vol. IV, p. 275.

 ,

938 THE GRAVE.

of childish absurdities and refined mysticism, cemented together,

by sophistic reasonings, into a system, which is in reality a ridi-
culous caricature of science. But it is highly instructive from an
ethnographical point of view. The aberrations into which the human
mind may sink when untutored by practical observation it gropes
, ,

after a reasoned knowledge of Nature, are more clearly expounded

by it than by any other phenomenon in the life and history of nations.

It fully shows the dense cloud of ignorance which hovers over the
whole Chinese people; it exhibits in all its nakedness the low con-
dition of their mental culture, the fact that natural philosophy in
that part of the globe is a huge mount of learning without a single
trace of true knowledge in it.

Embracing, as it does, the whole extent of Chinese natural phi-

losophy, we have not space here to lay the Fung-shui system before
our readers in detail. Such a work would require many years of
painstaking study, and yet produce but meagre results; in fact, the
cobwebs of absurd ,
puerile speculation , built up by the system
are hardly w orthy
r
of serious study. All we can give our readers here
is a very brief outline , a rough sketch , chiefly drawn up from in-

formation received by us at Amoy from professional experts and

supported by evidence gleaned from the native literature.
Besides, to thoroughly understand what Fung-shui is, it is quite
unnecessary to scrutinize and unravel the farrago of absurdities which
constitute its details. Some knowledge of the main principles upon
which it is founded will suffice, if those principles be understood
in the sense in which the people and the professors of the art
understand and practically apply them. Fung-shui is, in point of
fact, a practical expounded in the books,
art. Its theories, as
are seldom taken notice of, even by the most distinguished profes-
sors among the initiated. Being a quasi science, it is practised as a
quasi science, that is to say, as charlatanism. Every member of the
learned class considers himself an adept in it, on the sole ground of
his having made some study of the Classics and of his understanding
the leading principles of the national philosophy. The people even
consider themselves morally obliged to possess some expertness in
Fung-shui matters, and the current adage runs: »No son of man
should be ignorant of matters relating to grounds and mountains,
nor of medical art" \ Indeed, how can a filial son properly observe

^AT^pT^^Ul.^pr^^
 ,

TERMS DENOTING THE FUNG-SHUI SYSTEM. 939

the tender care he owes to his parents, unless he be able to control

the professors who assign to them their graves, thus holding in
their hands the weal and woe of their souls, and the quack physi-
cians , who may harm nay , kill , his parents by administering wrong
medicines to them? It is no wonder then that even the least edu-
cated among the people show an astounding amount of knowledge
of Fung-shui. Women and children may be heard chattering and
talking about it with great authority; and when there is an alter-

cation about imaginary injuries done to the Fung-shui of a grave or

a house, old matrons are generally loudest in expressing a decided
opinion. •

Every Chinaman being more or less initiated in the secrets of

the system, a practical intercourse with the people is sufficient for

a foreigner to gain a tolerably clear idea of what it is and of the

part it plays in the several branches of religious life. Our exposition
will be found to deviate but little from that which was given,
twenty-two years ago , by Dr. Eitel , in a treatise entitled : Feng-shui
or Rudiments of Natural Science in China. Insignificant dif-
the
ferences which our readers may observe between the conclusions of
this distinguished Sinologist and our own, are to be ascribed chiefly

to the circumstance that his investigations were made in Canton

or Hongkong, and ours in the south-eastern part of the province
of Fuhkien.

2. Fung-shui as regulated by High Grounds and Watercourses.

In China , the people are not bound , either by law or custom , to

bury the dead in grave-yards. Every one has full liberty to inter

his dead wherever he chooses, provided he possesses the ground,

or holds it by some title acquired from the legal owner. The question
whether a spot be suitable for a burial ground is decided by the
Fung-shui theories.
Fung-shui, or Hong-sui according to the local pronunciation at

Amoy and in the surrounding districts, is denoted by some other

names. The principal amongst these is Khan-yii', pronounced
Kham-u in the Amoy
language, and specially used in literary style.
Khan means the canopy of heaven, and yii a cart or chariot, or,
metaphorically, the earth which contains and bears the human
940 THE GRAVE.

race; the term Khan-yii may accordingly be translated by: »the

system which occupies itself with heaven and earth". A third name
1
is Ti li (Am. Te li) »the natural influences that pervade the
,

earth". The experts or professors of the art, who make a liveli-

hood from searching out favourable spots for burying the dead and
building houses and temples, are called sien sheng 2 (Am. sien
3
si n9) or shi (Am. su), with the prefix Fung-shui, Khan-yii
or Ti li. Sien sheng signifies »an earlier born man", and may
be rendered by »an elder, a master, a professor"; shi means
» a leader , a master"; and both words are terms of respect denoting
men of learning, including teachers, soothsayers, quack-doctors, etc.
Foreigners are in the habit of calling the Fung-shui experts geoman-
cers, which is correct, provided the earth be also considered as a
depository of influences continuously poured down upon it by the
celestial sphere. Besides the six terms above , the professors are often
styled Yin Yang sien sheng 4
(Am. Im long sien sin '<) or Yin
Yang shi (Am. Im Jong su), » Masters of the Yin and Yang",
5

which two supreme powers of the Universe are respectively iden-

tified with Earth and Heaven, as our readers know.

The word Fung-shui indicates that the first thing to be attended

to in selecting a spot for a grave, house, temple, village or town,
is wind or fung. Noxious winds must as
air, far as possible
be prevented from striking a tomb or building at the back or
flank. Hence, a mountain slope flanked by two ridges forking out
from it, and affording a rather wide view in front, is deemed
to be good ground for burying and building, especially if those
ridges form a double fence, both visible from the grave or building.
Their utility is not in the least reduced by distance. Even when
so far off that they are hardly discernible, professors take them
into account as elements of the highest importance, for theoreti-
cally they screen oft the winds, and, in Fung-shui matters, theory
and speculation are everything.
Pernicious and life-destroying influences of the winds or the air
are denoted in the special Fung-shui nomenclature by the term
fung shah 6 (Am. hong soa/i), » noxious effects of the winds". There
exist various means to ward them off. Suppose it is feared they

will burst forth from some break in the mountains it is then ,

PI. XXIV.

Ma
a
M
a

a
"53

c3
 INFLUENCES OF THE WINDS. 941

deemed necessary to build the grave in such a way that this

opening cannot be seen from the spot where the corpse must lie,

or so that it is hidden from view by some mountain boulder , house

or other object. In many cases, the dangerous gap is artificially

rendered invisible by means of stones piled up at a correct distance

from the grave, in accordance with the indications given by Fung-
c
shui professors. Such so-called Fung-shui t ah' or »Fung-shui
pagodas" are very numerous in the mountainous provinces of the
South. As a rule they are so far from the spot they are supposed to
protect, that in reality they do not screen it from the wind at all,

thus proving the Fung-shui wisdom in evading dangers to be on a

level with that of the ostrich.
Gaps or breaks in the mountains being harmless to a grave if

they are invisible from the place where the corpse lies, it follows
that the danger may be avoided by burying the corpse sufficiently
deep. But this expedient is not very often resorted to, as, in most
cases, it would cause the dead to lose the protecting ridges and brows
of the mountains from view and thus annihilate their useful effects.
For, as Fung-shui combines logic with wisdom, it cannot but con-
clude that, whereas unseen dangers are no dangers, unseen pro-
tection is no protection.
As a matter of course a grave surrounded by mountains without
,

either gaps or deficiencies is hardly obtainable. Nor is it easy to

find a spot from which the person , who is buried there , can see a
surrounding range of hills. These difficulties are ingeniously overcome
by building around the tomb , at the back and the sides , a well
finished artificial ridge. This is a low embankment of earth (see Plate
XXIV), which at the same time serves to prevent the rain water,
flowingdown from the surrounding high ground from washing away ,

the tumulus. Our readers know that Chinese coffins are usually
high, bulky, and, among the well-to-do, considerably broader at
the head than at the foot (pp. 319 sqq.). When such a coffin

is in the proper way, viz. with the head up against the

buried
slope and in a shallow pit lest the dead should lose the brow of the
, ,

mountains out of sight, the tumulus thrown up over it naturally

obtains an ellipsoidal shape the broad side of which like that of
, ,

the coffin , lies highest. This tumulus again in its turn determines the
shape of the embankment. The latter embracing the three larger sides,

its form becomes necessarily that of a horse-shoe, or, oftener still , of

« &**£•
ci
 ,

942 THE GRAVE.

an £1, the ends being bent outward, in order that the noxious in-
fluences of the winds, on striking against the embankment, may glide
along it and be forced away from the grave to the right and
to roll
left. Many of these embankments are built of masonry, or of puddled
clay mixed with lime, and plastered over with white mortar, forming
low walls, one or two feet in height. Some few are of solid granite.
Several graves have a double fence, the one of solid masonry or
granite, and then a much broader one of earth, the latter being
always on the outside of the first (see Plate XXV). Both are called

at Amoy bong moa 1

which may be rendered » the piazza or side
, :

gallery of the grave", the term being an allusion to the verandahs

on the right and left of mansions and temples.
A bong moa never extends along the front. For, according to
theory, there is no necessity whatever to ward off any fung shah
from that side , as graves and buildings of every kind , though they
may in fact face any point of the compass, are supposed to be
turned towards the mild and blessed south , the cradle of warmth
light, life and productive summer rains. There are, furthermore,
stringent reasons forbidding the presence of sight-obstructing objects
in front of graves, which we shall pass in review on pp. 945 seq.
No attempt to attract the good influences of the winds unto
graves, houses or temples is, as far as we know, ever made.
Perhaps no expedients to effect this have been invented , as
they are totally superfluous, because of the prevailing notion that
good and beneficial influences naturally obtain their full scope
wherever counteracting or neutralizing evil influences are sufficiently

warded off.

The attempts of the Chinese to control the winds which strike

the graves of the dead the temples of the gods and the habitations
,

of living men,
by no means simply intended as a protection
are
of those beings from the inclemencies of the climate and its im-
mediate consequences, such as sickness and indisposition of all kinds.
The scope of the Fung-shui system extends much farther. The cli-

mate being ruled by the winds, the winds become the cause of
all things, good or evil, which Nature showers down upon this
earth. Hence, the grand art of controlling their influences is the
art of regulating the fortunes and happiness of mankind. Winds
blowing from the North and North East, as they generally do in
 ,

INFLUENCES OF THE WINDS AND RAINS. 943

China from October till February or March, freeze up the northern

provinces , and in the South scarcely send down a single drop of rain
thus destroying the vegetable kingdom and putting a stop to agricul-
tural pursuits. The southern or south-western winds which prevail
during the other half of the year, on the contrary, produce warmth
and growth, blessing the Empire with copious rains and abundant
crops. But, should these monsoons deviate from their regular course,
or become disturbed, calamities are sure to ensue. Dry winds in sum-
mer entail poor crops and dearth , dooming the people to starvation.
When typhoons rage, whole provinces in the South are deluged by
rains, which cause the streams and rivers to overflow and destroy
the crops in innumerable fields. No wonder, therefore, that the Chinese
people are deeply conscious of their dependence on the winds, and
feel the greatest reverence and sympathy for a system which promises
everybody protection against their baneful influences, ever holding
up before their eyes the irrefutable device: »When the winds
(fung) blow harmoniously and the rains (shui) come down re-
gularly, the Realm shall flourish and the people live in peace and
comfort" '. This tenet occurs in a very old book, viz. the Historical
Records, in the following words : » Jf the course (Tao) of the Universe
» be such that cold and heat do not come in due season , diseases
» will prevail ; and if it be such that winds and rains do not come
» at the proper time , there will be famine" 2
.

Winds in the very first instance commanding the influences of

Nature upon earth Fung-shui professors are perfectly correct in
,

considering them as the first and principal element of their system.

They do not, however, go so far as to attribute constant beneficial
influences to certain points of the compass, and pernicious influences
'to others. Even the cold and rigorous blasts from the North may
be salutary, the mildest southern zephyrs extremely dangerous, ac-
cording as they have been in contact with certain celestial or ter-

restrial influences. Every geomancer entertains private views on this

subject, which it is scarcely possible, and certainly quite useless,

to endeavour to unravel.
Nor do geomancers devote less of their attention to the chief results

of the favourable operation of the winds, viz. to rains and water,

indicated by the second syllable of the word Fung-shui. Water

2
hi, ch.
% *& Z M. M M 7 n$
24, I. 17.
HU £ m.m 7
, iff K"J H- s'»
944 THE GRAVE.

being an element indispensable to life, and especially necessary for

an agricultural people like the Chinese, neither living men in their
dwellings , nor disembodied souls in their graves and temples . nor
divinities in their sanctuaries, can ever be at ease or enjoy pros-
perity, unless its blessed influences be concentrated upon those
spots. These influences are called shui shen 1
(Am. isici sin):

» aquatic spiritual agencies".

Rivers and rivulets, brooks and gullets, lakes, tanks, ponds and
seas, being the bearers of the waters showered down from the
heavens, are all bearers of these shui shen. Even when per-
fectly dry, they are still regarded as such , Fung-shui philosophy
contenting itself with theories. The sources of the water-courses which
cross inhabited glens and valleys, and the mountains and mountain
ranges in which they take their rise, are specially held to control
human destiny, because they send down the precious fluid on
which agriculture depends. Their position is carefully considered
whenever a site for a grave, house or temple has to be selected.
Neither a wet nor a dry watercourse is allowed to run straight
onwards to a grave, a human dwelling or a sanctuary. Otherwise,
this building would become an obstacle in the way of the descending
aquatic influences, nay, a rude declaration on the part of the living
that they do not desire to have anything to do with these influences.
Without a doubt the insulted element would avenge itself by accu-
mulating evil on the spot, or, in any case, by flowing away to the
right and left without benefiting the place in the least. A good
Fung-shui may be obtained when the water flows down from the
right or left, either in front of the spot in question or at the back
of it, and then, passing along the front, finds its outlet in a

lateral direction. It is all-important, however, that the water, in

flowing away, should be invisible from the place where the corpse
lies, which the soul or the god is seated,
or from the tabernacle in
god would be able to see the beneficial aquatic
as, otherwise, the soul or

influences flowing away and thus derive no advantage from them.

As no water may flow down straight in front, it follows that
it is always dangerous if the prospect in front is screened by a
mountain slope which may send down water in that direction.
Besides, such a slope may obstruct in their free natural course
the aquatic influences coming down from the opposite side and
consequently, in the case of a grave, obstruct the free expansion

1
&W-
 OBJECTS OBSTRUCTING THE PROSPECT IN FRONT. 945

and development of the prosperity of the family to whom it

belongs, not them poor and miserable, but even

only rendering
causing them to die out. Hence it is an established principle of
geomancy that » Fung-shui which is cramped up too much" —
hong-sui hhah pik 1 as the Amoy Chinese say
, is bad Fung- — ,

shui, This does not mean that mountains in front are always
harmful. They may even exercise a salutary influence, if they are
located at a sufficient distance or answer to certain conditions;
and it is the professors who decide this by their wise calculations.
Bad effects may likewise be exercised upon a grave by walls,
houses or boulders obstructing the prospect in front. For this reason,
the walls surrounding the gardens and grounds of Furopean houses
in some of the Treaty Ports have not seldom a spot of open-worked
masonry, or a few small holes, made therein at the request of the
owner of some grave behind, for the purpose of preserving both his
prosperity and posterity from destruction. For the same reason,
in the province of Fuhkien trees or shrubs are hardly ever allowed
to grow in front of a grave. Every thing that happens to strike
root there is and geomancers with the remark-
ruthlessly destroyed , ,

able acutenessand wit which distinguish them, are constantly point-

ing out herbs and shrubs which are injurious. Trees growing at the
back or the sides of a grave are, however, generally considered
as beneficial, they having the same effect as a bung moa. Yet,
as grounds deemed suitable for burying are usually studded with
graves, such trees are rare, owing to the fact that they might exert
bad influences upon the graves of others. As a consequence, grave
grounds in the mountainous South are generally dreary wastes spar- ,

sely covered with grass and weeds and looking but little adapted

to serve thedead as an agreeable resting place, especially in sum-

mer, when they are burnt and scorched by the tropical heat. But
such considerations do not seem to occur to the minds of the
Chinese when the question is asked: where shall we bury our dead.
This fact is also to be ascribed to the doctrine that Fung-shui may not
be cramped in front of a grave , viz. that stone images of men and
animals have seldom, if ever, been erected there in recent times. We
have called attention to this point already on page 822. It proves that
objects nowadays considered harmful to a grave were not so regarded ,

in former times, and it illustrates the powerful hold Fung-shui

has upon the nation, since the highest classes have now given up

1
m^^ii-
946 THE GRAVE.

in obedience thereto a time-hallowed privilege which, being con-

ferred by the Sons of Heaven , shed the greatest lustre and distinction
on the memory of their dead.
Just as the seolian influences so those of the watery element can
,

be artificially controlled.' Should no natural water-course run past

a grave, house or temple, this deficiency is often remedied by
constructing a tank in front of it, to receive the water which flows
down from all sides when it rains ; this tank becomes a receptacle for
aquatic influences , whence they extend themselves beneficially over the
immediate surroundings. In the case of large mansions, palaces and
temples, the tank is situated in the centre of the court-yard which was
anciently painted partly or entirely red, and hence such tanks are
c
generally styled tan ch i', » vermilion court-yards". As a rule, they
are curved on one side; the opposite straight side runs parallel with
the front line of the grave or building, and the curved side is turned
away therefrom. Great temples and palaces have the largest and
deepest which are generally paved at the bottom and
, , lined on all
sides with square blocks of granite, marble or dolomite. Those in
two feet,
front of graves are small, hardly ever deeper than one or
and of plastered masonry, or of earth mixed with lime (comp. PI.
XXIV and XXV); in some few cases they are square, sometimes
circular.
The Eung-shui doctrines prescribe that the greatest attention
should be bestowed upon the opening through which the water
leaves such a tank , for , as our readers will easily understand , it

commands entirely the influences of the shui shen accumulated in

this latter. It may neither be too small, nor too large, or, in other
words, the water must not flow away either too slowly or too
quickly; the situation of the opening is also calculated with the
utmost nicety and must, at all events, be invisible from the site
where the corpse lies or, in the case of a temple, from the taber-
nacle occupied by the ancestral tablets or the images of the gods. It
makes no difference if such tanks stand dry. They do not lose

their efficacy any more than the brooks or gullets do.

thereby,
Those in front of graves are often made without any intention
of their being filled with water, the grave being thereby kept drier
and less exposed to the attacks of termites.
Grave tanks and grave brooks certainly do not date from recent

l ^
 PI. XXV.

<

S3

o
d
<<

3
o
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SO
 BROOKS AND TANKS IN THE FUNG-SHUI SYSTEM. 947

times. As stated on pp. 430 and 437, they are mentioned in Chinese
literature in connection with the mausolea of Hoh Lii and his
daughter, who lived in the fifth century before Christ, and also
in certain accounts of the burial of Shi Hwang and the imperial
mausolea of the Han dynasty. It may be surmised that the custom
of this family to place each of their sepulchres in an excavated plot
of ground (see page 405), is to be ascribed to a desire that water
might flow towards and be collected in a
it from many sides
tank or brook dug in its immediate vicinity. Ponds and moats
were also constructed near the grave of the magnate Chang Poh-
nga, who lived under the Han dynasty (see page 446). It is a
question whether their origin may not even be traced up to those
misty ages which we have spoken on page 376 when as a
of , ,

consequence of the custom of burying the dead in the houses in

which they had dwelled during their lifetime, burial grounds were
actual villages by the dead and, in imitation of real
occupied
villages, were protected by walls and, on the chief or front side,
by running water, —
uncivilized man generally having chosen the
banks of rivers for a dwelling place.
We may note here by the way that the curious custom men- ,

tioned on page 101, of coffining the dead at flood tide or while

some pails of sea water , taken at high tide , are standing in the same
apartment, likewise belongs to those practices which purport the
concentrating of aquatic influences in the graves. Nobody doubts
but this water , drawn at high tide , will fully work upon the corpse
while it is being encoffined, and its influences are thus, so to say,
enclosed in the coffin and afterwards deposited in the tomb.
Doubtlessly it is with the same object of imbuing corpses with
aquatic influences, that the Chinese of Amoy them, while
place
they are being conveyed to their last abode, under a cover em-
broidered with clouds and dragons, dragons having been in China,
since very ancient times, the emblems of fertilizing rains (see p. 181).

We may, furthermore, again refer to our statement made on page 2 3, 1

that it is considered a very auspicious omen when rain falls whilst

a grave pit is being filled up: indeed, Nature itself then showers down
its most beneficial influences , which cannot but yield precious fruits

of felicity to the offspring of the deceased man.

The foregoing pages sufficiently prove that mountains and hills, or,

more correctly speaking, the configurations of the earth, are an all-

important element in the Pung-shui system. Indeed, controlling, as
they do, the influences of the winds, they regulate the principal
948 THE GRAVE.

benefits of Nature, especially rain and water; besides it is from

the mountains that water-courses take their rise and carry the bene-
ficial influences ol the principal element of Nature far away on all

sides, through valleys and districts, even through entire provinces,

kingdoms and empires.
The configurations of the ground are important also in another
respect. They are bearers, depositories of the influences of the
heavens, and as such can work most beneficiently upon the fate
of man.
Our readers know already what these influences are, viz. the
so-called t
c
ien khi or »Celestial Breath",
' the energy of the Yang
or power of the Universe
highest specially identified (comp. ,

page 22) with Heaven, as it embraces Light and Warmth. It

shares the supreme sway in Nature with the » Terrestrial Breath"
t i khi-, or the energy of the principle Y i n which represents
Darkness and Cold and is identified with Earth (page 22). By the
co-operation of these two principles life is created; in other words:
Yang and Yin alternately bearing sway in Nature and blending
their influences together, are the causes of constant growth and

decay, of life and death, of the annual rotation of production

and destruction. Indeed, the Li ki (ch. 38, 1. 11) explicitly states:
» Everything which exists is engendered after Heaven and Earth
3
» have joined together" and (ch. 20 1. 37) » when in the first
, ,

» month of the vernal season the Celestial Breath descends and

» the Terrestrial Breath ascends ,Heaven and Earth unite har-
» moniously and the vegetable kingdom is disclosed and set in
» motion" 4 The Yi/t king also
. declares that: »When Heaven and
» Earth exert their influences all things are transformed and vivi-
,

»fied" 5 Lii Puh-wei in the third century before our era pronounced
.

the same opinion: »The first causes of production", he wrote, »are

Heaven and Earth'' 6
. And Chu Hi, the authoritative philosopher

1
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5
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^ ^^^ Zjr ^jj Lu-shi ch'un ts'iu, chapter I, § ^ £|r .

 CELESTIAL AND TERRESTRIAL BREATH. 949

who lived in the twelfth century, formally subscribed to these an-

cient doctrines, declaring that »the Two Breaths by uniting and
exciting each other produce and reproduce everything" '.
As a matter of course , in every part of the ground , in every

chain of mountains , in every bluff or rock , Nature has laid down a

certain quantity of Yin or Terrestrial Breath. But, according to

the above doctrines, it cannot exert any life-producing influences
unless it be same time imbued with some Yang or
at the
Celestial Breath. Geomancers alone are capable of deciding whether
this latter be represented in an adequate proportion, and whether
the ground has any value for building purposes and grave making.
They derive their conclusions from the outlines and forms of the
surroundings. Starting from the fact that the celestial sphere
has , since ancient times , been divided into four quarters , viz.

the Azure Dragon , the Red Bird , the White Tiger and the

Black Tortoise, identified respectively with the East, the South,

the West and the North (comp. page 317), their wise prede-
cessors have taught, during a long series of ages, that no part
of the soil can be fully impregnated with the beneficial influen-
ces of Heaven unless those four quarters operate upon it con-

jointly, that is to say, unless it be surrounded by mountains,

bluffs, boulders or buildings which can be identified with those

symbolic animals. Graves and edifices being, in theory, turned to
the South, they must have a Tiger on the right or theoretical
western side, a Dragon on the left, a Tortoise at the back, and a

Bird in front. All-important is the presence of a Tiger and a Dragon.

For, these animals represent all that is expressed by the word
Fung-shui, viz. both aeolian and aquatic influences, Confucius being
2
reputed to have said that » the winds follow the tiger" , and the
Dragon having, since times immemorable, in Chinese cosmological
mythology played the part of chief spirit of water and rain.

So, for instance, Arnoy is unanimously declared by all the wise

men of the town to be indebted for its prosperity to two knolls

c 3
flanking the and vulgarly styled H6-l ad
inner harbour, sua'1
ni or » Dragon-head Hill".
or » Tiger-head Hill" and Ling-tad soa

1 ZL M, $£ M VC zfe ^i '$1
" Ill,,st, :,ted'
Dissertation on the Great Ul-

timate Principle" H^ ^ |gj |^ . quoted in the Khanghi Dictionary, in verbo^.

2 JU, $t Jrl
See the Yih /, '" ;/
'
ebapt '
16, or sect ~%. it" ^
 ,

950 THE GRAVE.

This latter, which

is situated on the opposite shore, on the islet of

Kulangsu, is crowned with huge boulders poised in a fantastic

manner, upon which professors have had several blocks of granite
arranged for the purpose of helping the imagination to discover
the outlines of a dragon on the spot. The costs of these impro-
vements were borne by some well-to-do citizens, anxious to promote
their own prosperity and that of their fellow townsmen. Of the city
ot Canton »the favourable situation lies herein, that it is placed in
» the very angle formed by two chains of hills running in gentle
» curves towards the Bogue, where they almost meet, forming a
» complete horse shoe. The chain of hills known as the White Clouds
» represent the Dragon whilst the undulating ground on the other
,

» side of the White Tiger. The most favourable sites

river forms the
» in Canton are therefore on the ground near the North gates
» whence the Tiger and the Dragon run off to the right and left" \
2
Similarly, Peking is protected on the North-west by the Kin-slian
or Golden Hills , which represent the Tiger and ensure its prosperity,
together with that of the whole Empire and the reigning dynasty.
These hills contain the sources of a felicitous water-course called
Yuh-ho 3
or >>Jade river", which enters Peking on the North-west and
flows through the grounds at the back of the Imperial Palace , then
accumulates its beneficial influences in three large reservoirs or lakes
dug on the west side, and finally flows past the entire front of the
inner Palace, where it bears the name of The Golden Water (comp.
page 635). Its course therefore perfectly accords with the principles
which are valid for grave brooks and grave tanks (comp. page 944).
In thus making use of the configurations which render the re-
lative position and extent of the influences of the four Celestial
Animals favourable or unfavourable, there is room for countless
combinations. Every mountain, rock, bluff, house or tower may
form a good Animal, and at one spot serve for a Tiger and at
the same time as a Dragon, Bird or Tortoise for another spot,
the fancy and imaginative ingenuity of geomancers being allowed
free scope in all cases. With endless manipulations of their
compass, consisting of a small magnetic needle around which all

the elements that enter in their calculations are inscribed in con-

centric circles, these men deliberately point out whether the Tiger

1 Eitel , Feng-shui ,
page 23.
2 &• l_j_| , more generally called Wan-sheii shan ~&1 =& [Jj .

3 35^-
 THE CELESTIAL QUADRANTS OR ANIMALS. 951

and Dragon unite harmoniously, or, as they call it, » lie in a bow-
shaped line in mutual embrace" l
, or whether their forms are spoiled
or done away with by other conjunctions, finally deciding with
an air of profound wisdom and a flood of technical terms which
overawe their clients, whether the site to be fixed upon for burial
c 2
or building purposes forms »a perfect complex", ch ing kiih .

If so , the Pung-shui is good ,

provided it answers to certain other
requirements which we must still pass in review. Every son of man
who buries an ancestor in such a spot, or builds his house there,
shall be rich ,
prosperous and blessed with a numerous offspring
that shall not die out unto the last day. They shall rise high in the

social scale and gain glorious positions in the civil and military ser-
vice, for the Dragon symbolizes the Emperor and his beneficial civil
government, and the Tiger martial power and intrepidity. Sad to
say, however, the value of such predictions is generally somewhat
detracted from by the diversity of opinions prevailing among geo-
mancers, each of whom is imbued with professional jealousy and
cherishes the rather arrogant conviction that his own wisdom is always
necessary for the correction of the opinions pronounced by his colleagues.
Dragons and Tigers are by no means equally important in the Pung-
shui system. Professors are wont to say » Any spot is felicitous :

that has a Dragon and no Tiger; but a spot is not of a certainty

3
unfelicitous if it has only a Tiger and no Dragon" This pre- .

eminence of the Dragon is due in the first place to its heading

the list of the four Celestial Animals and to its being the emblem
of spring (see p. 317), which is the first of the seasons, and
further, to its identification with Water, the all-important element
without which all Pung-shui is null and void. Practically, Pung-
shui professors are accustomed to speak of a Dragon when refer-

ring in reality to a Dragon and Tiger; in short, the word Dragon

comprises the high grounds in general , and the water-streams which
have their sources therein or wind their way through them. Hence it
is that books on Pung-shui commonly commence with a bulky set

of dissertations, comprised under the heading: » Rules concerning

the Dragon" 4
, in reality dealing with the doctrines about the

1
n^-Ui^ie-
952 THE GRAVE.

situation and contours of mountains and hills and the direction of

water-courses. In these dissertations every imaginable combination
of hills and peaks
is amply discussed and illustrated by coarse wood-

cuts.Such combinations generally are indicated by special fancy

names, mostly derived from objects they bear a likeness to. These
names too are believed to exercise a mighty influence upon the
destiny of those who live under the Fung-shui of such configurations,
all of them being calculated to call up before the mind ideas
associated with either felicity or mishap.
The doctrine that the configuration of the ground is a sure index
to the presence of celestial influence, is better understood when
we bear in mind that objects, such as soul tablets and images,
which call up before the mind spirits or so-called shen, are gener-
ally by the Chinese to be inhabited by such spirits, and
believed
are consequently made for the dead and the gods in order that the
lattermay radiate their beneficial influences therefrom over mankind.
Such shen being composed of Yang (com p. page 110) or Celestial
Breath the Chinese have every reason to believe that the shen
,

of the four Animals or quarters of the sphere will settle in objects

such as hills , mountains or other configurations , which by their
shape and situation them up before the mind.
call
The active operation produced in the earth by the Celestial and
Terrestrial Breath properly intermixing, is denoted by the term
shan ling 1
» effective operation of high grounds"; we might call
,

it the living and active animus of a configuration. Each configuration

is a complex of mere lifeless forms when the two Breaths, confined
in it, are latent and inactive. Its Fung-shui in such cases is, as
geomancers express it , dead.
Like a current of vital power, the shan ling flows in every
direction through favourable sites, especially through ledges and
edges of hills which geomancers cleverly identify with the limbs of
Dragons, Tigers, Tortoises and Birds. Thanks to the wisdom and
experience of these men, it is possible to learn which limbs are
thoroughly imbued with shan ling and accordingly the most pre-
ferable for making graves or building houses on. Sloping ledges
are generally considered to be favourable spots in this respect:
indeed, even a child can understand that shan ling with a de-
scending motion must develop great vigour and energy, particularly
at the end of its downward course. Moreover , it accumulates wher-
 ,

THE ACTIVE ANIMUS OF CONFIGURATIONS. 953

ever in its downward course it meets with some eminence suffi-

cient to absorb and collect it, or to impede its course and prevent

its flowing away. Such ling m e h or » (s h a n-) ling

sites arc called '

pulses", where the animus lives and throbs as does the vital power
in the pulses of man. The ledges in question geomancers denote
» back-bones of the (shan-) ling".
2
by the term ling tsih :

A body imbued with vitality is generally a breathing body. Geo-

mancers, inverting this theorem, teach that formations of the ground
possess no shan ling unless they contain what is styled ling
khi\ »(shan-) ling breath". Again it is the configuration which
indicates the presence of the latter. It is found exclusively in undu-
lating grounds; hollow, flat or straight-lined formations do not respire,
and are therefore of little or no use for burying or building pur-
poses. In making graves, attention should also be paid to the fact
that hard rocky soil is breathless compact reddish loam on the
, ; ,

contrary is full of breath and life and consequently prevents a quick

decay of the coffin and the corpse , rendering the bones hard
white, and suitable for binding the soul for a long time to the
grave. Besides , white ants and other voracious insects do not harbour
in such loamy soil, which fact geomancers ascribe to the influence

of the breath. The breath can be active or latent, accumulated

or expanded, powerful or weak, floating on the surface or hidden

underneath , unalloyed or mixed with other substances , and the
astuteness of the professors must detect all these qualities. By va-

rious circumstances, which they alone know how to trace , the breath
may also partly or entirely vanish which is a proof that the oper-
,

ation of the shan ling has been put a stop to and the Fung-shui
of the spot is dying, or dead.
Even though a configuration be such as to leave no doubt as
to the presence of an abundant quantity of Yang and Yin, it is
not yet certain that these two Breaths produce shan ling and
would thus co-operate beneficially on the grave. They may be inert
and exercise no influence upon each other; however, this state
of latency cannot last long. In the end they must awake from their
torpor, as is the case in spring, when they fill the Universe with
vital energy and re-vivify the vegetable kingdom. Not seldom , at

burials, geomancers deem it necessary to arouse the two Breaths

from their lethargy, in order that the family may forthwith begin
to reap profit from the grave. To this end they proceed in the way
954 THE GRAVE.

described on page 209. It is plain enough to our readers that the

object of the strange demeanour of the professor while standing
on the fien-tik ling or »the spot in which the beneficial celestial
influence or breath is concentrated", is to actuate it there; subse-
quently, when he rushes down he
in the direction of the grave,

rouses it also in the » pulse" which connects the fien-tik hng with
the latter, thus bringing forth an energetic downward current and
accumulating a large store of s ha n ling over and around the corpse.
Since time immemorial, the four heavenly quadrants or Animals
1
have each been subdivided into seven constellations, called sin .

These twenty-eight groups, about which we shall have more to say

on pp. 971 sqq., are irregularly distributed over the sphere as it is

visible in China. and mountain-ranges being the embodiment

Hills
of the influences of the Four Animals, their several parts are
deemed to stand each under the influence of a sin. In this manner,
geomancy is ingeniously combined with astrology and the field of
speculation greatly widened. The siu being important elements in
astrological science, they contribute much to rendering Eung-shui
a black art so mysterious that it can only be practised with suc-
cess by the proficients who derive a livelihood from it.
Geomancers in their theories also give a place to other groups
of stars which they believe to correspond with certain parts of the
Earth and to determine the fate thereof. It is, in fact, constantly
on their lips as an axiom of their system that » the stars of the ,

Heavens above, and the configurations of this Earth beneath cor-

respond with each other" -. This dogma directly arises from the
great fundamental principle of both ancient and modern astrology,
viz. that every human affair has a star or asterism controlling it.

Practically, however , the combination of astrology with geomancy

plays a very inferior part ; so we need not dive into its vagaries.
Hills and mountains are also very powerful in their influence
upon the destiny of man if their outlines are such as to allow the
imagination to see in them felicitous or infelicitous omens. Eor
instance, if a hill bears on its top a boulder of large dimensions,
weighing heavily upon it , the fortunes of the people around may be
crushed down and poverty and misfortune for ever prevail among
them. If people, however, consider they recognize in its outlines
some animal portending good luck or misfortune, those who dwell
under the shade of its Eung-shui will enjoy that luck or suffer

ft- 2^M^^±T*iiS
 THE FIVE ELEMENTS. 955

from the misfortune. Thus the shape of a snake is calculated to

make them rich ,
provided there be near its head a rock or stone which
calls up before their minds the idea of its vomiting forth a pearl.
If one dwells on a mountain on the top of which there are three

small peaks side by side in a row, his sons and grandsons will
gain literary laurels by study and scholarship and be promoted to
high offices indeed students are accustomed to have upon their
; ,

writing table an instrument of stone or wood, cut in the shape of such

peaks, on which they rest the point of their writing brush to prevent
the ink from blotting the table. As such association of ideas with
the contours of mountains may be spun out endlessly, the field for

imaginative ingenuity is again widened , and both experts and adepts

of the geomantic art take good care to explore that field in every
sense and direction. Some books of georaancy give long lists of
objects which have disastrous or beneficial effects when detected in
the outlines of hills and mountains.

The Five Elements.

It may be supposed that in a system which purports to command
the influences of Nature, a place of importance is also allotted to

the elements out of which Nature is up and which play a

built

chief part in its organisation, viz. water, wood, metal, and

fire,

earth. No configuration is perfect unless these five elements work

in it harmoniously.
In the Shu king the five elements form the first topic in a treatise
entitled: »The Great Plan" 1
, a curious scheme of government,
intended as a guide to sovereigns in the discharge of their duties
towards themselves and their subjects. This fact proves that already
at. the dawn of history the conviction prevailed that the happiness
of the and even the life of the people, entirely depend
nation,
upon those elements and that mankind cannot exist without
their beneficial influence. Being produced like everything else in ,

the Universe, by the Yang and Yin, they are the natural agents
of this dual Breath operating favourably or unfavourably upon the
,

living and the dead. Is it not evident, for instance, that wherever
fire or heat, which is an emanation from the Yang, predominates,
disaster will ensue, unless it be properly counter-balanced by another

element, such as water, which is produced by Yin, the opposite

breath ? Is it not evident also that , if the element earth is overruled

* mm-
 ,,

956 THE GRAVE.

by water, or suffers from want of water, there is no fecundation,

no production of food and raiment? Crops are devastated in this
case, nay, the entire element wood may be destroyed and man-
kind thus be decimated by famine. Woe therefore to those who
disturb the harmony of the elements! It shall fare with him as
with the father of the illustrious founder of the Hia dynasty, of
whom the Great Plan states: » Formerly, Kwan, in damming up
» the inundating waters, disarranged the five elements. The Em-
» peror (of Heaven), aroused to anger, did not give him the nine
» divisions of the Great Plan in consequence of which the sundry ,

» relations of society were disturbed and he himself was kept im-

l
» prisoned till his death" .

No wonder then that the Chinese pay great attention to their

geomancers who, selecting sites for every house and grave, restrain
them from stupid acts a la Kwan , thus preserving them from
the wrath of Heaven both in life and death. How carefully do
these men inspect every rock and every stone, every inch of the
surface of the ground , to detect the element which predominates
in it ! A stony ground , barren rocks , and boulders not cemented
together by loam or clay in considerable quantities, embody the
element fire, as the capricious outlines remind us of notched flames
and the dryness of the stones and rocks is a proof of plutonic
propensities. A coffin, imbedded in such ground, would quickly
moulder and not long aflord a shelter to the corpse and the manes.
Likewise, any mountain, bluff or knoll rising up like a peak or
rather /\ /\ f\> represents the element fire. If
sharp pointed

the top be gently rounded metal predominates in it. If it f\ ,

rises up steep, bold and straight, running out into a rounded

or flat point I
\ , it is declared to represent the element wood
probably because its shape calls to mind the trunk of a tree.

Should the top form a plateau composed of soft clay or earth

/ \ , the element earth predominates in that mount ; but if the

plateau has an irregular surface, its contours reminding us of a
lake or river (^) <=C^J , it passes for an embodiment of the
watery element. Of course, any eminence may combine in itself

two or more ot these fundamental forms, and thus represent just

&itmmmfc, mmmift. *t*h&, *

1

&&mjim*mifci&m*M n & n
 ,

THE ELEMENTS PRODUCE AND DESTROY EACH OTHER. 957

so many elements. In truth , one professor as a rule sees fire where

another detects water or metal; but this is no drawback at all,

as they can thus perpetually confute each other's statements in the

interest of the public and of their own purse.
Now, with reference to any given locality it is all-important to
determine whether the elements represented by the configurations
of the ground form a harmonious conjunction. It would, for instance,
be highly detrimental if hills or boulders representing both fire and
wood were in close proximity to graves or houses , as this would
certainly render those houses liable to frequent conflagration. Human
settlements often suffer from murderous raids of robbers and rebels
if they are situated at the foot of a big hill representing metal , or
if the graves of the dead are laid out near such a spot. And so
forth. On the other hand, there are numerous beneficial combinations
of elements. Fire and water, for instance, when united in harmony
and in adequate proportions, further fecundation, and may therefore
render the fields productive and cause the inmates of a house , or the
offspring of a buried corpse, to give birth to anumerous progeny.
Bad elements also may produce good
and neutralize ne- ones
farious elements. This doctrine, which allows fancy and specula-
tion even a wider play, is based upon the wisdom of antiquity.
In the writings of Liu Ngan, who lived in the second century
before our era it is stated that » wood overpowers earth
, earth ,

» conquers water, water vanquishes fire, fire conquers metal, and

» metal overpowers wood" 1 Pan Ku, a celebrated scholar and .

historian of the second century, known especially as the compiler of

the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, wrote: »Wood (produces
» fire, fire produces earth (i. e. ashes), earth produces metals, metals

» produce water, and water produces wood (viz. vegetation). If

» fire heats metal the latter produces water (that is to say,

, it

» liquifies) ; hence water , destroying fire , operates inimically

» upon the very element which engenders it. Fire produces earth
» and earth impairs water nobody can frustrate such phenomena
;

» for the power which causes the five elements to impair each
,

» other is the natural propensities of Heaven and Earth. A large

» quantity prevails over a small quantity hence water vanquishes ;

» fire. Unsubstantiality prevails over substantiality ; so fire con-

» quers metal. Hardness prevails over softness ; hence metal con-

1
* # ± ±Bfc, , *$£*:, >KB£^ £J$*
Hung ink l;iai, ch. IV, 1. 8.
 ,,

958 THE GRAVE.

» quers wood. Density has the upper hand over incoherence there- ;

» fore wood overpowers earth. And solidity overrules insolidity ergo ;

» earth vanquishes water" '.

That such vagaries are much older than the age in which Liu
c
Ngan lived, is proved by the Tso c/i tcen in which we read that ,

a certain oneiromancer in explaining a dream, declared that »fire

,

2
vanquishes metal" They have stood their ground as wisdom of
.

the highest order down to the present day, and helped to swell
numerous philosophical works sources from which the Fung-shui —
professors of all ages have drawn at discretion. These men have also
invented the art of regulating the operation of the elements by im-
proving the natural configurations of the ground, and even carried
this art to a high stage of perfection. Hence it is that clever geo-
mancers at present find no difficulty in quenching , for instance
the evils emanating from a rock which represents fire, by having
a grave tank made of proper dimensions and calculated to an inch.
They can also cut off the point of a dangerous rock, and thus
convert fire into wood , metal , or any element they please , or turn
a brook in a favourable direction , in' order to quench the fire of
such a rock. Or, if a flat elevation disturbs the harmony of the
configuration, they merely have to place a convex or pointed pile
of stones on the top , as high and broad as they deem fit. With
the object of thus correcting the Fung-shui of cities, towns and
valleys, there have been erected towers or pagodas in large numbers
throughout the Empire, at the cost of much money and labour.
Thus may man's foresight and energy rule the influences of the
Universe ; and so he can turn his own destiny and fortunes , and
those of his offspring , into any channel he pleases.
The above philosophical nonsense about the elements and their
influences intimately connects the geomantic art with the celestial
sphere. For a long series of centuries it has , for occult reasons

%mn,i>kfrB>k&°ffiffim,i&>km&*MB
W >fc ik Puh hu fun9 '' cha P l -
IL §if7^
2
JC0^' Thirty-first Year of the Ruler Chao's Reign.
 ,

THB; GEOMANTIC COMPASS. 959

been customary among the Chinese to consider the five planets

as embodiments of the influences of the five elements and to

denote them by the names of these latter: Venus they call tbe
3
Star of Metal \ Jupiter that of Wood 2 Mercury that of Water , ,

Mars the Star of Fire 4 and Saturn the Star of Earth 5 Thus
, .

every part of the terrestrial surface, when identified with one or

more elements on account of its shape, under the influence of
is

the corresponding planets , and also under that of the constel-

lations through which those planets move.

The Geomancers Compass.

To solve the problems relating to the construction of dwellings
for the living, graves for the dead, temples for the ancestors and the
gods, geomancers have invented a curious instrument, in which the
principal matters and factors that play a part in their art are com-
bined for handy use. It is a circular piece of wood rounded down
, at

the bottom like a tea-saucer; the upper surface has, in the centre,
a round excavation containing a small magnetic needle, seldom
longer than one inch, which moves freely upon a pivot and is

kept in its place by a glass cover fixed in the rim of the exca-
vation. A straight line at the bottom of this needle-house gives the

direction from North to South. The surface of the instrument,

which is generally painted yellow and varnished, is inscribed with
several concentric circles , containing the sundry geomantic factors.
Small compasses have a smaller number of circles, larger ones have
a larger number and these latter enable the geomancers to take more
,

precise The average diameter is about two decimetres,

bearings.
but we have seen several both of a larger and a smaller size. In
many cases the reverse side is lackered black and bears a short
,

table giving the contents of the circles, as also the name of the
manufacturer of the instrument.
Such compasses are called 1 o king 6
,
or , in the Amoy dialect
16 ki'"J. This term, which signifies » reticular tissue", is probably
an allusion to the circular lines on the surface, which, being inter-

sected by other lines radiating from the centre, remind one of a

c 7
net. The concentric circles are called ts eug , » stories, or layers".
To convey a clear idea to our readers of the inscriptions of geo-
 ,,,

960 THE GRAVE.

mantic compasses and the relative position of the circles, we give

in Plate XXVI an unreduced picture of one of average size. The
centre in which the needle revolves is understood to represent the
c
T ai Kih J
or » Great Ultimate Principle" which, according to an-
cient philosophy, is the genitor of the so-called Liang I
2
or »Two
Regulating Powers", viz. the superior Breaths Yang and Yin
which, as our readers know, create the phenomena of Nature by
their The first or inmost circle contains eight charac-
co-operation.
ters, which indicate Heaven and Earth or the two principal agents

of the Universe, and six chief powers and elements which work in
this latter; all these powers are produced by the Two Regulators,
who, mutually extinguishing and giving way to each other, keep
at work a ceaseless process of revolution which produces the pheno-
mena of existence. They are:

Khien ]j*£, Heaven, the sky, the celestial sphere.

Tui ^, watery exhalations, vapours, clouds, etc.

Ui H$, fire, heat, the sun, light, lightning.

Chen J=|
thunder.

Sun 5i wind, and wood.

Khan J^ , water , rivers , lakes , seas , etc.

Ken J^ mountains.

Kliwun JrB^ Earth , terrestrial matter.

This system of cosmogony and natural philosophy, represented

by the compass, has been handed down from time immemorial.
It is the basis of a system of divination laid down in the Yih

king or Canon of Metamorphoses, and invented and expanded,

according to tradition, by the royal founders of the Cheu dynasty.
We read in the said Classic (chapter 14, 11. 16 and 17): » Hence
» there is in the system of the metamorphoses of Nature the Great
» Ultimate Principle , arid this produces the two Regulating Powers.
» These Powers produce the four Forms , which again produce the
» eight Trigrams. These Trigrams determine good and evil , and

» good and evil cause the great business of human life"

3
.

1
-k^- 2
MM-
£ a #. a #& t w t m £ * ,
Sect.
 ,

THE EIGHT TRIGRAMS. 961

To entirely understand this passage, it is necessary to know that,

in the Yih king, the principle Yang is represented by an un-
broken line , and Yin by a line broken in two ——
and that from these lines are deduced four diagrams representing
the four Forms, viz.

ZZZ^ called the Major Yang ^ |^, representing the sun, heat.

^Z ™ called the Major Yin ^ (^ , representing the moon , cold.

~ "" the Minor Yang^ |^-, or Yang under the Yin, corres-

ponding to the stars, daylight, etc.

_ _ the Minor Yin A? (^, or Yin kept under by the Yang,

corresponding to the planets, night, etc.

Placing each of these lineal figures under an unbroken and a

broken line, the eight trigrams are obtained, of which the above
extract speaks. They are called k wa '
by the Yih ling and repre-
sent the eight aforesaid powers and elements, showing the relative

quantities of Yang and Yin breath present in each of these:

Khien Tui Li Chen Sun Khan Ken Khwun

The principal k wa Khien and Khwun, or Heaven and Earth,

are
entirely composed of Yang lines and Yin lines, and therefore
styled » unalloyed Yang" and » unalloyed Yin"
2 3
.

Thus the geomantic compasses teach us that a prominent place is

given in the Fung-shui doctrines to the Yih king, the same ancient
book which the sages and learned men of all ages have held in
high veneration as a clue to the mysteries of Nature and as an
unfathomable lake of metaphysical wisdom explaining all the phe-
nomena of the Universe. On many compasses, the lineal figures
representing the kwa are inscribed around the needle, instead of
the characters that denote them. Being combined by the Yih king
with the seasons and the eight cardinal points, the kwa allow a
wide play to the imaginative ingenuity of geomancers. » All things
» endowed with life", that Classic says (chapter 17, 1. 7), »have their
» origin in Chen, as Chen corresponds to the East, They are
» in harmonious existence in Sun, because Sun corresponds with
» the East and the South. Li is brightness and renders all things

#• *m&- *mm-
962 THE GRAVE.

» visible to one another , and it is its k \v a which represents

» the South. Khwun is the Earth, from which all things en-
» dowed with life receive food. Tui corresponds to the middle of
» autumn. Khien is the kwa of the North-west. Khan is

» water and the kwa of the exact North and distress, unto
» which everything endowed with life reverts. Ken is the kwa
» of the North-east , in which living things terminate and also
1
» originate" .

Little shrewdness is required to understand this extract in

detail. The East is reasonably represented as the quarter in which
is rooted the life of everything, the great genitor of life being
born there every day. It is identified also quite correctly with the
kwa Chen, which represents thunder (see page 960); indeed, the
vernal season, identified with the East because it is, so to say,
the morning of the year, is particularly characterized in China by
heavy thunderstorms caused by the return of the southern monsoon.
The Li ki (chapter 21, 1. 11) says: »In the month of mid-spring,
» when day and night are of equal length , thunder utters its voice
2
» and it begins to lighten" . For just as plausible reasons, the
South, where the God of Light daily reaches the zenith of his
glorious course, is identified with brightness; the North, which he
never frequents, with death. Tui, declared to correspond to the
middle of autumn or the evening of the year, naturally belongs
to the West or the evening of the day, this corroborating the iden-
tification of the East with the middle of the spring and naturally
implying an identification of the South with midsummer, of due
North with mid-winter. Finally, in Ken, the kwa of the North-
east, everything which has life is stated to terminate and to
originate, the North being identified with death, and the East
with life.

% m m m#/ if # & ,m^r z #-& .** & %

itt-tji ,

& m * m IE it % z # m # # & m #> z m m

> , >

2
# M Z M B#45K®#$*S,#f;- ** M >
 .

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE TRIGRAMS. 963

All these data may be placed , in imitation of the Chinese ,

in the

following order:
N.

J*

>-4
^ Winter 4>

VJ
III III
w ^l!i •a

III III

<J V^
^"
=-=
Summer
^
-4
'

s.

This arrangement however is not used for Fung-shui purposes.

All the geomantic compasses we have seen bore the following

arrangement, said to be much older, having been devised by Fuh Hi',

a fabulous sovereign from whose reign the Chinese commence their
chronology. It is likewise based upon certain sayings of the Yin king:

N.

z*"n
•*!

s.

In this plan, Khien, which represents Heaven or the unalloyed

this being the chief seat
Yang, is logically placed at the South,
 ,

964 THE GRAVE.

of warmth and light and, therefore, the region in which Yang

is in the zenith of its power and influence. So, also, Khwun,
the unalloyed Yin, is placed at the North, where Yin reigns
supreme. Li, or fire and heat, is identified with the East, the region
where the sun rises; Khan with the West, because it represents
water and is thus the opposite of fire ; and so forth.

Not only do the eight kwa answer to the eight points of the
compass and the seasons of the year, but they symbolize also the
virtues and properties attributed to those points and the seasons.
Moreover, to each of them the Yi/i king '
ascribes a series of
qualities, such as the following:
Khien jjf£ corresponds to immobility and strength. It represents a
horse, the head, the heavenly sphere, a father, a prince, roundness,
jade, metal, cold, ice, red colours, a good horse, an old horse, a
thin horse, a piebald horse, fruit of trees, etc.
Khwun J-$ represents docility and, consequently, bovine cattle;

further, the belly, Mother-Earth, cloth, caldrons, parsimony, a heifer,

large carts, figures, a multitude, a handle, black colours, etc.
Chen S indicates motion. It represents a dragon, i.e. the animal
identified (seepage 317) with the spring or the East of which according
,

to the posterior arrangement , Chen is the k w a. It also indicates

the feet, an eldest son, thunder, dark -yellow colours, development,

high roads, decision and vehemence, bamboo, rushes, the best neighers
among horses, etc.
Sun |S means penetration and indicates a fowl, the thighs, an eldest

daughter, wood, wind, whiteness, length, height a forward motion ,

a backward motion, baldheadedness, a broad forehead, three hundred

per cent, gain in the market; and so forth.
Khan J^ signifies peril, a pig, the ears, a son who is neither the
eldest, nor the youngest, water, channels and streams, hidden things,
alternate straightness and crookedness, a bow, a wheel, anxiety,
distress of mind, pain in the ears, a blood-red colour; a horse with
an elegant spine , high spirits , drooping head thin hoofs or a shamb-
,

ling step ; finally it means the moon , this planet being identified
with the West, as the sun is with the East (comp. the next kwa);
thieves, strong trees, etc.
Li j|$: means beauty and brightness. It represents a pheasant, i. e.

the bird identified with the South (seep. 949), of which region Li is

1 In ch. 17, 11. 11 sqq., being the section §fr d=k -fife
 : ,,

THE TWENTY-FOUR, POINTS OF THE COMPASS. 965

the k wa according to the posterior arrangement. Further it means the

eyes , a daughter who is neither the eldest nor the youngest , the sun
lightning, cuirasses and helmets, spears and swords, a large-bellied
man, dryness, turtles, crabs, spiral univalves, mussels, tortoises, etc.

Ken ^. indicates stoppage a dog the hands , , , a youngest son ,

paths

and roads, small rocks, gates, fruits and cucumbers, porters or

eunuchs, finger rings, rats, birds with large bills, etc.

Tui ^ means pleasure, a sheep, the mouth, a youngest daughter,

spiritual mediums between men and the gods, the tongue, a con-
cubine, and so forth.
Like the whole contents of the Yi/i king, the above specu-
lations about the kwa and their attributes have, throughout all

ages , been looked upon by the wise men of the nation as the out-
come of the profoundest classical wisdom, and as such have been
greatly and dilated upon by [authors of renown. They
enlarged
consequently afford ample means to the Eung-shui professors to
define minutely the proprieties of all the spots situated near any
given place , and to derive therefrom sage conclusions as to the
desirability of constructing dwellings, temples or graves there. We
must now have recourse to the other circles of the compass, to
penetrate somewhat deeper into the computations of those men.
The third circle divides the compass in twenty-four points. S. E.,
S. W., N. W. and N. E. are designated respectively by the kwa

Sun ft, Khwun Jr$ Khien ]jf£ and Ken J^, which corres-
,

pond to these cardinal points according to the posterior plan of arrange-

ment the twenty remaining points are indicated by the characters of
;

the two cycles known as the Ten k a n and the Twelve Branches '

with which the reader was made acquainted on page 103

Kiah ^ is E.N. E. by E.

Mao Jtjp is East.

Yih Zi is E. S. E. by E.

Ch en JH
c
is E. S. E. by S.

Sun Jg is S.E.
Sze a is S.S.E. by E.

Ping fSj is S.S.E. by S.

Wu^ is South.
966 THE GRAVE.

Ting y is S. S. W. by S.

Wei 5(e is S. S. W. by W,
Khwun }$ is S. W.
Shen Ej3 is W. S. W. by S.

W "J£
are the Centre.
Ki B
Keng J| is W. S. W. by W
Yiu g is West.
Sin ^ sW.N. W.by W.
Suhjfc is W. N. W. by N.
Kh i e 11 s N. W.
Hai ^ s N. N. W. by W.
Jen -£ JB N. N. W. by N.

Tsze ^ s North.

Kwei 2$ s N. N. E. by N.

Ch'eu # .s N. N. E. by E.
Ken ^ is N. B.

Yin^ s E. N. E. by N.

Wu j| and Ki g, do not designate points proper of the com-

pass, but the centre, which corresponds to the element earth. The
Li ki says (ch. 23, 11. 14 and 15): »The centre is earth, and its

days are Wu
and Ki" '.
The above method of representing twenty points of the compass
by characters derived from the denary and the duodenary cycles, is
very old, as Liu Ngan uses it in enumerating the twenty directions
in which the tail of the Great Bear points during its apparent
yearly revolution round the pole \ It is used also in the Historical
Records, in the twenty-fifth chapter, which is devoted to natural
science for divining purposes , and which denotes the cycles as » the
3
Ten Mothers" and »the Twelve Children" 4
.

The second circle of the compass likewise contains characters

2
*
Hung
*± % ,
lieh kiai, ch. Ill,
&a
II. 7 seq.
Sect
n& IV.

3
+#• *+-^
 ,

THE TWENTY-POCR SEASONS. 967

drawn from those cycles, arranged in an order the leading idea of

which we cannot grasp. Some characters appear in it two or three
times. The fourth circle gives the characters of the denary cycle in
alternate succession, in twelve combinations of five; between every
two combinations a blank is left, two characters being skipped over.
With this circle the tenth corresponds, but the inscriptions on it

are shifted slightly to the right.

The fifth circle gives the five elements twelve times , in varied per-
mutations. It combines the influences of the elements or planets with
the points of the compass inscribed on the third and fourth circles.
The sixth and the eighth circles are identical with the third.
They do not however like this latter indicate the centre of each
, , ,

of the twenty-four points of the compass , but their extreme limits

thus insuring accuracy in taking bearings. For some occult reason,
each character in these circles is combined, through the next cycle,
with the characters ~~f ^
or j^j J^f borrowed from the denary cycle.
,

The eighth circle contains, moreover., the twenty-four subdivi-

sions of the year, and is therefore a calendar indicating the season
during which a house, temple or tomb, for which a» favourable
locality is assigned by the compass, ought to be built. According
to the national philosophy, these seasons are wrought by Yang
and Yin, the two » breaths" which through the course of every
year blend together in constantly varying proportions, Yang having
the upper hand in the hottest weather, and Yin in the coldest.
Hence they are logically called tsieh khi 1
, » breaths of the
2
divisions (of the year)", or simply khi ,
» breaths".
They are arranged on the circle in such a way that mid-spring
corresponds to due East, midsummer to due South, mid-autumn
to due West and mid-winter to due North
, this being as stated , ,

on page 962, in perfect accordance with the speculative philosophy

of the ancients. Also in the writings of the philosopher Kwan I-wu,
who lived in the seventh century before our era (see page 660), it
is stated that »the seasons appertaining respectively to the East,

» South, West and North are the spring, the summer, the autumn
»and the winter" 3
.

f g. 2
H .

mm-
 ,

968 THE GRAVE.

On a great many compasses the twenty-tour seasons occupy a

separate circle. They bear the following names:

Spring. Autumn.

jjl 5j|c Beginning of Spring. jjl ^ Beginning of Autumn.

\$ fe Rain Water. Jli t^ Limit of Heat.

HI ||J> Resurrection of hibernat- £jH White Dew.

ing Insects.
^ ^ Autumnal Equinox.
^ ft Vernal Equinox.
^ ^°^ Dew.
11-
/H Bfj Pure Brightness.
fH R& Descent of Hoar Frost.
§8" j3a Rains over the Grain.

Summer. Winter.

Beginning of Summer. jjl £?• Beginning of Winter.

4> Grain filling a little. yj> ^ Little Snow.

Grain in Ear. ^ !§^ Heavy Snow.
Summer Solstice.
^T M Winter Solstice.

* Slight Heat. yj> m Little Cold.

* Great Heat. -^ ^| Severe Cold.

The division of the year into the above seasons dates from early times.
A calendar of the Hia dynasty, still extant under the title of Ilia
l
siao ching , mentions the Resurrection of hibernating Insects under the
name Emergence of hibernating Insects % and also the Winter solstice.

In the writings of Kwan I-wu 3

the appellations Pure Brightness
Great Heat and Slight Heat are employed to denote certain periods
of the year; and the Kwoh yii* or » Discussions about the States",
a narrative kingdoms during the Cheu
of events in several feudal
dynasty, said to have been composed by the author of the Tso
elf wen , mentions the appellation Limit of Heat as having been
5
used by one Pan Wu-yii , who lived in the sixth century before
our era 6
. The section of the Li hi known as the Monthly Precepts

1
S'hJE-
3 Kwan-tsze, ch. Ill, § 8.

6 Chapter 17, being the first part of the » Narratives of Ch'u"

on •
 THE TWENTY-FOUR SEASONS. 9G9

contains the expressions Beginning of Spring, of Summer, Autumn,

and Winter; it also speaks ol »Rain Water beginning to fall in
» the month of mid-spring and ot the insects in their burrows
,

» then all coming into motion" and further says: » Slight Heat 1
,

» comes in the month of midsummer 2 White Dew descends in ,

3
» the first month of autumn and Hoar Frost begins to fall in ,

» the last month of this season" 4 All the above facts merely serve .

to prove that many of the twenty-four appellations of the seasons

were in vogue before the Han dynasty, but they do not give us
any certainty that they formed in those times a series like the one in
present use. Slight evidence that this series really was used during
the reign of the House of Cheu, we have in the fact that it is
given entire by the » Books of the Cheu dynasty obtained from
the tomb in Kih" (see p. 416), in the section entitled: » Explana-
tion of the Doctrines about the Seasons" \ But it is far from
certain whether this work is the product of the time expressed in
the title, and it may probably contain spurious references to mat-
ters of posterior date. It indicates the seasons by the same word
kh i by which they are at present known. Liu Ngan summing ,

up the principal phenomena proper to the successive periods of

fifteen days, which he calls tsieh, gives these twenty-four seasons

in nearly the same sequence in which they are placed nowadays 6 .

They are enumerated also in the section on chronology contained in

the Books of the Early Han Dynasty 7 and have probably had an ,

official status in China ever since, down to this day.

Returning to the geomantic compass after this historical digres-

sion, we see that the eleventh circle is divided into one hundred
and twenty compartments and consists of two lines of characters
of little interest. The inner line contains the same characters as
the seventh and the ninth circles, but they are shifted a little
into a different position, and the open spaces between them are
filled up with other characters of the denary cycle the outer ;
—
1
# M Z M ib * m H J$ If ffi %
ch 21 -
"
3 and "•

- # M Z M 4* # M Ch 22-
-
L 23 -

3
&%KZM a^^Ch. 23,1. 30.

4
^ & Z M W $£ ii&
Ch 2i- <
] - 30 -

6
' h#
Hung
M
ill
lieli
ChaPter 6
kiai, ch. Ill,
- §

II.
52
7
-

seq.
7 Chapter 21, II, II. 14 and 15.
 ,

970 THE GRAVE.

line divides the compass into twelve points, indicating these by

the characters of the duodenary cycle, each repeated four times
(compare this with the third circle). The next circle, the twelfth,
is more important. It is divided into sixty portions of unequal
sizes, inscribed with the names of the five elements in varied
sequence, so that each element recurs twelve times. This useful circle
enables the geomancer to judge by which element or planet any
spot whatsoever is influenced, and whether the adjoining places be
dominated by elements which might work either productively or
destructively upon it. Suppose, for instance, a certain spot indi-
cated by the compass as representing water, is shown by this

instrument to have the element earth at its side, its useful effects
may be greatly reduced , nay, rendered null and void , because earth
neutralizes water (see page 957). Should, however, metal lie close

by, the aquatic effects will be greatly invigorated, since metal

produces water. Thus clever geomancers are competent continually
to discover favourable and unfavourable conjunctions of all kinds
and descriptions, without torturing their brains about the question
as to whether a leading idea underlies the arrangement of the ele-
ments on this circle, or whether these latter are merely distributed
arbitrarily upon it.
The same circle is also very useful in another respect. Enabling,
as it does, geomancers to discover in the surroundings of a place
the elements by which they are influenced, it reveals to them
at the same time certain of the idiosyncrasies of those surround-
ings, viz. those which the books on philosophy, and the venerable
8//u king in particular, attribute to the elements themselves. This
Classic contains the following profoundly wise remarks : » Water
» may be described as moistening and descending , fire as blazing
» and ascending , wood as being crooked or straight , metal as flexible
» and changeable , while the virtue of earth is seen in sowing and
» reaping. That which moistens and descends produces a salt taste
» that which is crooked or straight produces sourness , that which
» is flexible and changeable an acrid taste , and sowing and reaping
» produces sweetness" \
The next two circles represent the division of the globe into 360

^ ft ¥ % T® ft , "tt-
The Great 1>li,n
' $? 15-
 THE TWENTY-EIGHT CONSTELLATIONS. 'J 71

degrees. Some of these, indicated by a red spot, are lucky; others,

indicated by a black cross, are unlucky; the rest, which are either
marked black or not marked at all may be both or neutral. Odd , ,

numbers mark the degrees of each of the twenty-eight s i u mentioned

on page 954 of which the names are inscribed on the last or outer-
,

most circle of the compass. This circle thus serves to determine under
the influence of which of these constellations any spot pointed out
by the compass To the right of the name of each siu
is placed.
there is a cipher, indicating how many degrees it embraces.
The part the twenty-eight constellations play in geomancy has
been already touched upon at page 954. The following is a list of
theirnames, indicating the season and the celestial quadrant or
Animal, to which each group of seven corresponds.

The Blue Dragon or Eastern Quadrant, corresponding

to the Spring.

1 K i oh ^ , consisting of Spica and some other stars of Virgo.

2 Khang ~~fc
, certain stars of Virgo.

3 T i
j£ , a, /3, y and i Librae.

4 F a ng jp| , some stars of Scorpio.

5 Sin ;\^», Antares, and a couple of stars of Scorpio.

6 Wei J||, some stars of Scorpio.

7 Ki ;i£, four stars in the hand of Sagittarius.

The Red Bird or Southern Quadrant, corresponding

to the Summer.

8 Teu iir , the principal stars of Ursa Major, and some of

Sagittarius.

9 Niu ^f- , stars of Capricorn and Sagittarius.

10 N ii
-J£ ,
part of the sign Aquarius.

11 Hu |H , 13 Aquarii and x of Equleus.

1:2 Wei ^, x Aquarii, and some stars of Pegasus.

13 Shi h !j§T, * and /3 Pegasi.

14 Pih |g , y Pegasi and a. Andromedse.

The White Tiger or Western Quadrant, corresponding

to the Autumn.

15 Khwei -^|, stars of Andromeda and Pisces.

10 Leu M-, the stars of the head of Aries.

972 THE GRAVE.

17 Wei ff ,
part of Musca Borealis.

18 Mao J|, the Pleiades.

19 Pih JJ|, the Hyades, and some stars of Taurus.

20 Tsze ^ , stars of the head of Orion.

21 Tsan ^, Betelgeux, Rigel, and the other principal stars of
Orion.

The Black Tortoise, or the Northern Quadrant, corresponding

to the Winter.

22 Tsing :J£, stars in the knees and feet of Gemini.

23 Kwei J^, some stars in Cancer.

24 Liu |ljp, certain stars in Hydra.

25 Sing J§L, stars in the heart of Hydra.

26 Chang ^, the stars of the second coil of Hydra.

27 Yih H|, a couple of dozen stars in Crater and the third

coil of Hydra.
28 Chen ^, certain stars in Corvus '.

These constellations very likely represent the most ancient division

of the Chinese sphere. Their origin lies hidden in the mist of ages.
Hii (11) and Mao (18) are named already in the very first section
of the Sim king, the so-called Canon of Yao, in connection with
some orders given by Yao, whose reign chronologists place in the
24th. century before our era, to his officers with regard to certain
astronomical observations to be made. Fang (4) is mentioned in
2
the same Classic as the place in which an eclipse of the sun
took place in the 22nd. century B. C. The Hia siao clang men-
tions Teu and Ts'an (21), the latter also in its remarks
(8)
about the third and fifth months of the year, and Mao (18) in
speaking of the fourth month. In the Sid king the appellations of

1 The stars corresponding to the above siu are only given approximately.
It would be idle to try to identify the latter precisely, for Chinese authors draw
them in a very slipshod way and, moreover, dillerently. This explains why the
by some authors, such as Mr. Reeves, for instance, in Morrison's
identifications given
Dictionary of the Chinese Language (part. II, vol. I, pp. 1065 sqq.), Schlegel in
his »Uranographie Chinoise" and Mayers in his Chinese Reader's Manual (page 356),
diller on many points.

2 In the section Ji* ^j£ .

 THE TWENTY-EIGHT CONSTELLATIONS. 973

nearly one fourth of the whole series occur, viz. Ki (7), Teu (8),
Niu (9), Mao (18), Pih
and Ts an (21) '. The Cheu li refers
(19)
c

to the series a couple of times stating that » the Observers have to

,

» attend to the duodenary cycle of years, months and hours, the

» denary cycle of days and the position of the twenty-eight aster-
» isms" s and that »the Destroyer of the Nests, who is charged to
,

» upset the nests of birds of bad omen must write upon a board the ,

» ten appellations of the days, the twelve appellations of the hours,

» months and years s and the twenty-eight names of the constel-
,

» lations then he must suspend this board over the nests and remove
;

» the latter" 4 In the section of the Li ki entitled the Monthly

.

Precepts s which is a record of the proceedings of the government

,

in every month of the year, nearly all the constellations are men-
tioned, it being there stated for each month in which of them
the sun and is, which of them then culminates at dusk and at
dawn two of them however are passed over in silence and two
; , ,

others are denoted by other names. In quite the same way they are
enumerated in the Lii-shi cffun-tsHu, in twelve paragraphs which
respectively open the first twelve chapters and bear a striking
resemblance to the aforesaid Monthly Precepts; they are mentioned
The Historical Records
again in the thirteenth chapter of that work.
call she, which term Sze-ma Kwang explains
them by the name of
as follows: »She has the meaning of 'to reside or stop some-
» where and s i u means an abode and both words express the
' ;

» idea of the sun the moon and the five planets in their revolutions
,

i Ki, Teu, Niu and Pih are mentioned in the section yk -EJ- , ode IX, and

Ki, moreover, in ode VI. Pih also occurs a second time, viz. in the section ^p
A -4-, ode VIII. Ts'an and Mao are spoken of in the sect. JH t& ,
ode X.

+ 0,rf^Aitt' Cha P ter 26 '

' 13 -

3 These two extracts show that, during the Cheu dynasty, the years, months
and hours were counted with the aid of the Branches, and the days with that of
the k a n.

+ M A M Z §& M % M ± *IW * Z Cha ^ 37, li-

39 seq.

63
974 THE GRAVE.

» residing alternately in the divisions of the sphere indicated as

» twenty-eight abodes" \
The use of the magnetic needle for geomantic observations sug-
gests that the Chinese are perfectly aware that an oblong piece
of iron, freely suspended, naturally points north and south. There
is, however, not the slightest indication that they possess any
knowledge of the variation of the compass, or that they are able
to make a distinction between the magnetic North and the exact
North.
The chief use of the geomantic compass is to find the line in
which , according to the almanac , a grave ought to be made , or
a house or temple built. Indeed, as has been stated on page 106,
in this most useful of all books it is every year decided between which
two points of the compass the lucky line for that year lies, and
which point is absolutely inauspicious. This circumstance not only
entails a postponement of many burials seeing it is not always pos- ,

sible to find a grave, answering to all the geomantic requirements,

in the lucky line of the year; but it regularly compels the owners
of houses and temples to postpone repairs or the rebuilding of the
same until a year in which the line wherein their properties
are situate is declared to be lucky. Many buildings for this

reason alone are allowed to fall to ruin for years, and it is no

rare thing to see whole streets simultaneously demolished and

+ A -X £ # ik
It is a well known
See chapter 25

tact that the

'
'• 4 -

Hindus, Parsis and Arabs also are in posses-

sion of a system of division of the heavens into twenty-eight parts. The
similar
Hindu divisions are styled nakshatra, » stars or asterisms", the Arab divisions ma-
nazil al-kamar, » lunar mansions, stations of the moon", which term bears a marked
resemblance to the Chinese appellations siu and she according to the above explanation
of Sze-ma Kwang. Elaborate dissertations on the coincidence between the Hindu and
Arab systems have been written by Sir William Jones in the Asiatic Researches for
1790, and by Colebrooke in the Asiatic Researches for 1807, -vol. IX (see also his
Essays, vol. II, page 321); but the identity of the Chinese system with the Hindu
and the Arab was first demonstrated and established by M. J. B. Biot, assisted by
his son, the translator of the Chen li (see p. 19), in a series of articles published
in the Journal des Savants for 1840. The conclusions arrived at by this eminent
scholar were, that this system of celestial division was invented by the Chinese and
borrowed from them by the Hindus and Arabs for purely astrological purposes. To
this day no considerations of importance have cancelled these views, and though
they have been vigorously combated by Weber, Max Miiller and other authorities
of renown yet it seems that most investigators of oriental astronomy silently sub-
,

scribe to them.
 REVERENTIAL AWE FOR THE GEOMANTIC COMPASS. 975

rebuilt in years auspicious to the direction in which they are

placed.
Chinese books make no mention of the inventor of the compass.
Without doubt, such combinations as we find on the compasses at
present, were used for geomantic purposes at an early date, the chief
of them being, indeed, simple representations of the pre-Christian
doctrines respecting the eight kwa and their relation to the seasons
and the points of the compass. It is very probable that ,
prior to
the invention of better writing material , those combinations were
written upon small boards, which, being improved in course of time ,

have become the well-finished compasses of the present day.

Taking into consideration that the geomancer's compass comprises
all the principles of Chinese physical science, and that the cha-

racters and cycles inscribed on it are supposed to exercise to a great

extent the same influences as do the powers they represent we cannot ,

wonder at its being regarded by the people with reverential awe.

Geomantic professors themselves are fully conscious that in mani- ,

pulating it, they concentrate the benefits of those powers upon any
spot which they select for a grave or building, viz., to recapitulate,

those of the two great Breaths of the Universe and the elements and
agencies represented by the kwa, those of the four, eight, twelve
and twenty -four points of the compass, the elements or planets,
the seasons and days of the year, the 360 degrees of the globe,
the twenty-eight stellar-divisions, etc.; all which renders the compass
to every Chinaman an invaluable compound wisdom
of supernatural
and one of themost useful instruments ever contrived by the
human brain. It borrows an odour of sanctity from antiquity, the
characters inscribed on it, their arrangement in cycles and the
peculiar position of the ciicles with regard to each another dating,
as we have shown, according to tradition, from the holy founders
of the Chen dynasty, nay, even from the age of the mythic Fuh
Hi. To the uninitiated, who know all the terms and cycles by
name, but comprehend next to nothing of the numerous bewildering
conjunctions that can be computed therefrom for any spot in par-

ticular, the compass becomes, in the hands of the professors, a

powerful magic box containing an inexhaustible source of predictions
which, promising money and bliss to every one, are sold at high
price, forming thus a steady source of revenue to the professors.
Even the most learned among the people, nay, the sceptics who
have not much faith in the system ,
generally receive the prophecies

of those experts with the same superstitious dread with which they
 ,

976 THE GRAVE.

regard Nature herself, notwithstanding the fact that those prophe-

cies are much more often disproved than realized by actual events.
Thus far the chief principles of the Fung-shui system only have
been passed in review. No useful purpose can be served by trying
to penetrate farther into itsvagaries and the mechanical play of
idle abstractions; but of numerous other matters which play a
part more
of or less importance in the practical application of its

doctrines and theories we must mention a few. In making a

still

grave, much importance is attached by the professors to the charac-

ters forming the horoscope of the person who is to be buried
therein. It has been stated already on page 103 how the twelve
Branches are combined with the denary cycle of kan into a cycle
which are used for counting, in a perpetual
of sixty binominal terms,
rotation , months days and hours thus furnishing for
the years , , ,

every individual a horoscope of seven or eight characters which

indicate the year, month, day and hour of his birth. These cha-
racters being firmly believed to determine his fate for ever,
no burial place can answer to the geomantic requirements if the
cyclical characters expressing the year of the birth of the occupant
stand in the compass on the lower end of the line which the
almanac has decreed as auspicious for the current year and in
which, of course, the coffin is to be placed. Suppose, for instance,
this line runs from south to north , so that the longitudinal axis of
the grave should fall within the segment defined on the compass by
the limits of the point -^ or the North , as indicated on the circles

VI and VIII. If then the dead man has been born in a year
denoted by a binomium in which the character -^ occurs, his
horoscope is deemed to collide with the good influences that flow
from south to north and to neutralize their benefits, and no bles-
sings can ever be expected from his grave if it is placed in this
direction. Hence must be shifted a little to the right or
its axis
left, without, however, going beyond the northern quadrant; and
if it is feared that the beneficial influences of the auspicious line
will in this way be lost , the burial must be postponed. The month
day and hour of the birth of the deceased may cause similar col-
lisions,though they are of a less dangerous nature, such dates
forming the less important parts of his horoscope. Conjunctions may
be found, in fact, which neutralize such dangers. But if it is not
possible to discover them, the family is constrained to adjourn the
burial until the almanac assigns another direction as peculiarly
auspicious.
 ,

DANGEROUS SHAPES OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 977

Another geomantic law of importance is, that no road, no row

of trees, nor any water-course may run in a straight line towards a
tomb. Straight lines ,
geomancers say, are like dangerous darts which
striking a grave in its core, may inflict a deadly wound. They
also show the way to the noxious influences which the peculiar
Fung-shui nomenclature denotes by the word shah (comp. page 940),
and besides as has been stated on page 953 they indicate that
, ,

the surrounding configurations are devoid of breath and vitality.

It is, indeed, not uncommon to hear people who make a pre-
tence tosome knowledge of Fung-shui matters, declare a grave to
be of no benefit to the descendants of the man or woman buried
therein, because it is, as they express it, » violated by the shah
of a path or a road" ', in other words , because a path has been
accidentally formed in the front or at the side by the feet of pas-
sers-by. It is to be ascribed to this superstition , that the avenue
to mausoleum of the founder of the Ming dynasty near Nan-
the
king, and that which leads to the sepulchres north from Peking
in which his successors are buried, describe a curve in the part
which is lined by stone images of men and animals.
In respect of towns, cities and villages, their own shape is

deemed a factor of great significance, a factor indeed which has

as much to do with their destiny as the contours and configur-
c
ations of the environs. Professors of geomancy in Ts iien-cheu-fu
are quite in earnest when they relate that, in times of yore, this
city, the contours of which strongly remind one of a carp, fre-

quently fell a prey to the depredations of the people of the neigh-

c
bouring town of Yung-ch un ~, because this is shaped like a fishing-

net. Fortunately, the ancestors of the present population about a

thousand years ago neutralized the evil by erecting in the centre
of the town two pagodas, which tower above it to the present
day, thus preventing the imaginary fishing apparatus of their un-
friendly neighbours from being hauled over their heads. There are
many towns in China which have come to grief because of their
3
ominous shape. It is related, for instance, in the Khi leh pHen ,

4
a small work written in the twelfth century by Chwang Ki-yii ,
c
that »the people of Ch u abstain from speaking of the head of
» a black tortoise ,
pretending that , when the capital of that depart-
978 THE GRAVE.

» incut, which was built in the shape of a tortoise, was once

» upon a time attacked some expert of the occult arts taught the
,

» assailers to bind the head of the animal in consequence of which ,

» the town was taken. Hence its people avoid that expression" '.
A natural outgrowth of the chief geomantic axiom that auspi-
cious influences concentrated upon a grave produce blessings which
the offspring reap, is the dogma, already put forward on page 57,
that things of good omen, when placed in a tomb, will cause
the blessings they express or symbolize, to fall to the share of the

descendants of the deceased. It is therefore a settled funeral custom

to place bottom of coffins and graves sundry things which
at the
express a numerous progeny and abundance of food and wealth,
such as iron nails hemp peas wheat millet paddy and coins (see
,
,
, ,
,

pp. 189 and 209), nay, even good wishes are sown therein with
the same object. So, also, the clothes and body ornaments of the
dead are deemed to work auspiciously on the fate of their offspring

if they symbolize blessings, and for this reason they generally do

so, as shown in our chapter on Grave Clothes. This same dogma
explains why the people are so partial to dressing their dead in
» longevity garments" and the robes of a mandarin, a long life
and official dignities being the things most coveted by the Chinese.
Again, this dogma accounts for the belief, mentioned on page 65,
that five suits of grave clothes, or any odd number thereof, may
work disastrously upon the principal family members of the dead
man who is sent to his last resting place so oddly embaled.
On the same line with these curious outgrowths of geomantic
illusion may
be placed the ancient custom, mentioned on pp. 813
and 819 sqq., of adorning the graves of emperors with stone images
of unicorns. As these animals portend the birth of excellent sover-
eigns (see page 824), their images may, through the graves upon
which they stand, work beneficiently upon the fortunes of the
nation, and, moreover, preserve the imperial line from dying out,
thus securing to the dynasty an everlasting possession of the
Throne.
Symbols being placed in and upon tombs in order to create the
realities which they call up before the mind, it is very natural

1
mAmMmm, ^nn^m,^, wn&.ft
t^
ch. 38,
% it VX §H ^ H"
1. 23.
mu > ffii 3$ . $t If £ • Seeihe KaixJ* ts
'

J khao >
PI. XXVII.

a
<D
O

33
05

O
E-i
 SYMBOLIC INSCRIPTIONS AND FIGURES ON GRAVES. 979

that many tombs bear inscriptions expressing felicity, such as the

characters jjjg
» happiness and prosperity", ^ »an official position
with a large income", and =§| » a long life" (see Plate XXVII),
that is same blessings which, as our readers know, are
to say the
sown inside the graves by means of the clothes in which the deceased
are dressed. Often also, animals symbolizing the same good things,
such as bats, stags and cranes (comp. pp. 53 and 55 57), and even —
unicorns, are carved on slabs of granite forming part of the tomb. Many
graves bear also the eight kwa, evidently in order that the influ-
ences of Nature , which they represent , may be concentrated upon
the spot; in Plate XXVII they are placed in a circle above the
tombstone. Probably for a similar reason, over two thousand years
c
ago , the sepulchre of the mighty potentate of Ts in was ,as Sze-ma
c
Ts ien tells us (see p. 400), adorned with stars and constellations
and with the configurations of the earth. We read also that the
grave of Li Sze-chao l
, a certain prince of imperial blood , » when
c
» broken open by robbers in the year k i-s z e of the Ching ung
t

» period (A. D. 1449), was found to contain a sepulchral chamber

» of chiseled stone and, moreover, representations of the sun, the
2
» moon , the stars and the Great Bear" . For the same purpose
of attracting the beneficial influence of the Universe unto the grave,
coffins were, during the Han dynasty and in subsequent ages,
painted a moon, constellations, and with the four
with a sun,
Celestial and the board representing the seven stars of
Animals;
the Great Bear, with which coffins have been furnished since
many centuries, is probably used for the same reason (see pp.
316 sqq.).

The Fung-shui doctrines being a mere web of speculative dreams

and idle abstractions, the product of a credulous faith in absurd
vagaries, we are not surprized to find that, in deciding whether a
spot will be a lucky burial place, much value is set on prognos-
tics of all kind. So, for instance, as we have stated on page 213,
if rain happens to fall while a coffin is being placed in the grave,
this is deemed a proof that the Fung-shui of that grave will
work beneficiently, Nature herself showing in this way that the
influences of an element which holds a place of the highest signi-

1
&mm-
980 THE GRAVE.

ficance in the system, operate upon the spot with vigor. The books
contain many legends illustrating this curious feature of the system.
Some of these are of rather ancient date. The Official Histories of
the sixth century, for instance, relate:
» Wu c
Ming-ch eh was a native of the district of Ts
c
in. His
» father, who bore the name
Shu, was a general in the right of
c
» division of the armies of the Liang dynasty. Ming-ch eh was still
» a lad when he lost him and yet he proved himself possessed,

» of filial devotion of the highest order. When an auspicious hour

» had been fixed for the burial a person of the surname I who , ,

» was a proficient in the art of discovering good burial sites by

c
» means of divination said to Ming-ch eh's elder brother
, On the :
'

» day on which you commit the corpse to the earth a man will
» pass by the burial place riding a white steed and hunting a
,

»stag; this portends a high and influential position for a filial

» youngest son '. There was indeed such a prognostic when the
c
» hour of burial arrived; and Ming-ch eh was Shu's youngest son" l .

It is unnecessary to say he attained to the highest dignities of

the State.
»In the period Siang fu (A. D. 1008—1017), a native of Lien-
» cheu (province of Kwangtung) called Liang Shi while divining , ,

» about a plot of ground in which to bury one of his parents,

» beheld on a certain mountain a man who was settled there and ,

» who told him that ten days before several tens of tortoises
, ,

» had carried thither a big tortoise on their backs and buried it

»in the mountain. Being of opinion that tortoises are animals of

» a spiritual nature Liang surmised , that the place where they
» had buried that beast might be a felicitous place, and therefore
» he climbed that mount with some of his people, in order to
» look for it. Perceiving something resembling a tumulus, they dug
» it up and discovered a dead tortoise. After having taken it to
,

» another spot and buried it there , Liang interred his parent in

JfjfJ ^ Jg /\\ -¥• -Hi

of the Southern Part of the
. Books of the Ch'en Dynasty, ch. 9, 1. 8 ; also the History

Realm, ch. 66, 1. 22.

 ,

GRAVE GROUNDS POINTED OUT BY MYSTERIOUS MEN. 981

» the pit dug by the tortoises and afterwards three sons were born ,

» unto him named Lih-i Lih-tseh and Lih-hien. The two last-
, , ,

» named took the degree of tsin-shi" and the three brothers 1

were all promoted to high official dignities.

According to various legends , lucky grave grounds have , more-
over, often been pointed out by unknown or mysterious individuals
to persons destined to become men of wealth and rank. We quote
a couple of instances thereof from the Standard Histories:
» When T ao Khan (a grandee of the highest ranks who lived A. D.
c

—
» 259 334) was still an obscure individual, he had to mourn for
» one of his parents. The time for burying the corpse drew near when ,

» some member of his family suddenly missed a cow; and ere they
c
» had discovered its whereabouts, T ao Khan met with an old
» man who said to him
, Near the knoll there in front of you
:
'
,

» I have seen a cow couched down in the mire if that spot be ;

» used for a sepulchre, it will produce a man invested with the

» highest official dignities And then pointing to another mountain,
1
.

» the old man said This is one degree inferior in quality it

:
'
;

» will produce for some generations a dignity to which an official

» income of two thousand stones of rice appertains'. Having
» spoken thus he vanished out of sight. Khan now went in
,

» search of the cow and having discovered it , he buried his ,

» parent on the spot. The other mountain pointed out to him he

» ceded to (Cheu) Fang, who, when his father died, buried him
» there and actually became governor of a province. After him

j& jfil. Pit pih fan 5j| i=& a£. » Additions to the Pencil Gossip", being a

supplement to a collection of miscellanies in 26 chapters, written by Ch'en Kwah

>?£ jj^j in the eleventh century and entitled Mung khi pih Can
^ j|| 4pr

=&, »Pencil Gossip of the Brook of my Dreams". This was a rivulet somewhere

in the south ot the province of Kiangsu, on the borders of which the author spent
the latter period of his life.
 :

982 THE GRAVE.

» three generations of his descendants ruled over Yih-cheu for more

» than forty-one years, as had been prophesied by that man"
1
.

— »In the first year of the period Ying lih (A. D. 951),
» Nii Li , rinding himself in the environs of the Ya-poh mountains
» on the day after his mother's decease , beheld a giant. Frightened
» to death , he took to his heels , but the giant stopped him , saying
»'Do not be afraid, for I am the spirit of the ground. Bury your
» mother here in this spot and you will soon appear at Court ,

» and become a man of high position'. Nii Li followed this advice,

» and was many times invested with the dignity of Chamberlain
» of the Stud" 2 .

3. The History of Fung-shui.

Our exposition of the Fung-shui system has shown that its

leading principles have their origin in remote antiquity. Its first

embryo, indeed, grew out of the worship of the dead, which

already in the mist of ages was the religion proper of the Chinese.
The deceased ancestors were then their principal patron divinities,
who influenced the fate and fortunes of their descendants in every
way. Every one propitiated them systematically, and from this
worship a tendency gradually arose of placing the dead in such
subterranean abodes as would afford rest, comfort and felicity to
their manes. And the answer to the question which grounds are :

best suited for burial places? was naturally sought in the forms

and characteristics of the surroundings.

#0f#> &-;£:£. i!H> M ®\ & - * $& \U ft

=3" -£. Books of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. 58, l. 18.

Jfrjj-

EA . tl II %. , U A It Z B ,to m a i& » ift ifc M

mntem^mmm&n,iKM.mz,%mMm
& pt| . History of the Liao Dynasty, ch. 79, 1. 3.
 ,

FUNG-SHUI IN ANCIENT CHINA. 983

That the elementary principles of the Fung-shui system were practi-

cally applied already under the dynasty of Cheu, cannot reasonably
be doubted, since we find that already in the fifth century before our
era grave-sites were improved by the hand of man by means of
artificial brooks and tanks. Instances of this are given in the excerpts
descriptive of the mausolea of king and his daughter, trans- Hoh Lii
lations of which have been inserted on pp. 396 and 419 of this work.
Another great step which the ancients took in the direction
of Fung-shui, was to connect the qualities of a grave with the
influences supposed to be exerted upon it by the celestial canopy
and the cardinal points thereof. This custom, too, can be traced back
to the time of Hoh Lii. On page 396 our readers will have noted
that the sepulchre of this potentate was called the Tiger's Hill,

a white tiger having settled on the summit on the third day

after it was finished. Doubtless this statement is an allusion to the
White Tiger of the sphere, the western quadrant, the influences
of which were supposed to have commenced operating upon the
royal remains soon after their entombment.
This view is by the author of the Records of the
supported
country of Wu (see page 296), who says that, » according to the
» Annals of Wu
and Yueh \ three days after the burial of the king
» the essence of the element metal assumed the shape of a white
» tiger and crouched down on the top of the grave" *. Now, in
the pre-Christian era, metal was identified by Chinese philosophers
with the West. Kwan-tsze wrote » The breath of the East is wind :

»and wind creates wood. The breath of the South is Yang,

» which creates fire. The Centre is earth. The breath of the West
» is Yin, which gives birth to metal ; and that of the North is

» cold , by which water is produced" 3

. Liu Ngan also stated that

»the East appertains to wood, the South to fire, the West to

» metal, and the North to water" 4

. These theories are easily ex-

1 We have not, however, been able to discover this statement in any of the

copies we possess of this work.

Y Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing, sect, f^ i^L, ch. 140.

;£ *|| ^ ^ $i, 3fc

Kwan-tsze, chapt. 14, § 40.

Hung lieh kiai, ch. 3, 1. 3.

 z ,
,

984 THE GRAVE.

plained. The vegetable kingdom, i. e. wood, revives in spring,

the season identified with the East; fire naturally appertains to the
South or the region of heat , and water its opposite element
,

to the opposite cardinal point; metal had thus to be assigned to the

West, no other place being left for it.

Distinct traces of attempts to place the dead in their graves

under proper influences of Nature, are also to be found in the
Li ki. This Classic states (ch. 1:2, 1. 34): »To bury the dead on the
» north and with their heads turned to the north was a custom
» generally observed during the three first dynasties" 1 In another .

section it says (chapter 30 , 1. 20) : » Thus the dead are placed with
» their heads to the north , but the living turn their faces to the
» south ; all this is done in imitation of primeval usage" \ According
to the Historical Records , the last sovereign of the Yin dynasty was
buried in the north of his capital (see page 283); and the Tso clfwen
likewise proves that we are not here dealing with a mere theoretical
practice : it mentions , for instance , that the ruler Chwang was buried
twice in the northern suburbs (page 841).
From these and other passages the Chinese generally draw the
conclusion that the houses of the living, as well as the graves of
the dead, in those ancient times used to face the south. This
peculiar method of building has been touched upon already on
page As stated on page 942, it is still maintained at the
16.
present day, though, in by far the most cases, only theoretically.
Of course it is not probable that this rule anciently extended to
buildings of minor importance and to the dwellings of the common
people. Perhaps it was then chiefly in force for palaces of rulers,
and mansions of grandees who assisted them in the administration
of the realm, it being noted in one of the appendices of the Yih
king (ch. 17, 1. 7): »The trigram Li represents light and renders
» all things visible to each other; it is also the trigram of the
» South. Sage rulers face the south when they give audience
» to all under the sky, and they turn themselves to that region
» of light in administering government" 3 This rescript has always
.

been observed to the letter by the emperors of succeeding dynasties

1
8 ft ft 3r tt "IT H ft 2 It i8 & -sect.^3 ii, i.

2
tH^f^lil^fli- Sect
IB M i.

3
m& % m m m #j % m & m % # m , , .
IB
i
A ft m m m ^ T m m se •/& .
sect -
ift ##•
 FUNG-SHUI IN ANCIENT CHINA. 985

including the now reigning House. Hence the Imperial Palace,

and all the principal buildings within its walls which serve for
audiences or other government business, face clue south; and this
is also the case with the Metropolis, in the centre of which the
Palace stands, its walls and gates exactly facing the four car-
dinal points.
From the fact that the ancient Chinese considered the South
to be the principal seat of the blessings of the Universe, their
country being regularly visited every year by the deadening influ-
ences of the rigorous North , and that they made the influences of
the South to bear upon the position and construction of princely
residences with the object of accumulating blessings upon the rulers
and their subjects, we must conclude that they had made consi-
derable advance in the direction of Fung-shui. We shall find this in-
ference confirmed, it we may place any trust in the Annals of the
States of Wu and Yueh; but this work is interspersed with too many
anecdotes and romantic tales to be worthy of unreserved credit, and,
moreover, it was not composed before the first century of the
Christian era. We read therein that »Hoh Lii said (to his minister
» Wu Tsze-su , see page 349) :
'
In what does the art of ensuring
» peace to princes and good rule to their people consist ? ' The an-
» swer was: 'He who wishes to ensure peace to the prince, to have
» the people ruled in a proper way, to make strong government
» prevail and to cause perfect rulers to bear sway from close by
,

» over those who live far off, he certainly ought to start by erecting
» city walls and moats by appointing military chiefs by filling
, ,

» the granaries and stores, and by properly attending to the arsen-

»als: in this the art in question consists'. 'This is all very well
» and good ', retorted Hoh Lii ;
'
but , though in building fortifi-
» cations , store-houses and arsenals we really take notice of what
» ought to be taken notice of with regard to the terrestrial influ-
»ences, must exist in the domain of the Celestial Breath
still there
» some factors of which we may avail ourselves to keep neigh-
bouring kingdoms in fear and awe; is it not so?' 'Yes', was —
» the reply. '1 charge you to put those factors into practice', said
» Hoh Lii.
» Tsze-sii now gave orders for the investigation of the ground and
» the examination of the water-courses, and, imitating the confi-
» gurations of Heaven and Earth he built a large , city, forty-seven

» miles in circumference. It had eight land-gates in imitation of

» the eight winds of Heaven, and just as many water-gates corres-

 ,,

986 THE GRAVE.

» ponding to the eight good qualities of the Earth. He also built

» a smaller city (inside the other) ten miles in circumference. It
,

» had three land-gates but that on the east (where light is born)
;

» was not opened in order that the lustre and glory of the (ini-
,

» mical) realm of Yueh might be exterminated. The Gate of Efful-

» gent Sunlight was built as a representator of the gate of the heavens
» and to admit the winds of the Gates that are shut upon the
» Effulgent Sunlight and they made also a Serpent Gate in imita-
;

» tion of the door of Earth. Desiring westward to defeat the king-

c
» dom of Ch u which was situate north-west from his Hoh Lii
, ,

» had the Gate of Effulgent Sunlight built, to admit the Breath

c
» of the heavens therefore they called it also the Gate to defeat Ch u.
;

» And as he desired to pacify eastward the kingdom of Yueh

» which was situated to the south-east he erected the Serpent
,

»Gate, in order to subdue this hostile country.

» Wu (Hoh Lii's realm) being situate in Ch en, which point of
c

» the compass corresponds to the Dragon, a pair of i-yao fishes with

» reversed fins were placed over the southern gate of the small city,
» to represent the horns of the Dragon. And Yueh being situate in
»Sze, a point of the compass corresponding to the Serpent, there
» was over the great south gate a wooden snake stretched towards ,

» the north and pushing its head into the gate, thus indicating
» that Yueh belonged to Wu" 1 .

##, te & mm j&^®&m m% >&3t±m > > ,

n$ m 3* ft m % m //£ ^ m ,m iw £ m m m m
, , .

=-j- jy.
-ift o

m^,^±m^mm^m,miM^zmm^^m
 :

THE BRANCHES COMBINED WITH THE TWELVE' ANIMALS. 987

This long extract requires explanation. The duodenary cycle of Bran-

ches, indicating the twelve points of the compass and used to denote
the years, months, days and hours, is combined for divining purposes
with the Twelve Animals mentioned on page 44 in the following way
,

Tsze
c
^f-
appertains to ^ the Rat.

Ch eu -J: » » 41 the Cow.

Yin
 ,,
;

988 THE GRAVE.

» influences of the Five Elements attack and impair each other

» and sanguiferous animals conquer and overpower each other how ;

» is this phenomenon to be explained ? The answer is The branch :

» Y i n corresponds to the element wood and its animal is the tiger

,

»Suh appertains to earth, and its animal is the dog; Ch c eu and

» Wei likewise appertain to earth, and their animals are the cow and
» the goat. Now, as wood overpowers earth it follows that dogs, cows
,

» and sheep are subdued by the tiger. H a i appertains to water, and its
» animal is the pig S z e corresponds to fire and its animal is the
, ,

» serpent; Tsze is identical with water, and its animal is the rat;
» and Wu appertains to fire, and its animal is the horse. Hence,
» whereas water conquers fire, pigs devour snakes and because fire is ;

» impaired by water, horses that devour a rat get a swelled belly on

» voiding excrements" This idle play with the Cycles and Elements
'.

will be partly explained when we notice what has been brought for-
ward on page 957 concerning the influences exerted by the Elements
upon each other and when we take into account that the Branches
,

denoting the cardinal points (see pp. 965 seq.), appertain to the
Elements because these are likewise identified with the cardinal
points (see p. 983). Thus the following combinations are obtained:

Yin ^
Mao Jjp [.appertain to the East and Wood.
Ch en fc
c

Sze 5
Wu ^p appertain to the South and Fire.

Wei 5te

Shen ^
Yiu ]2| appertain to the West and Metal.
Suh j£]

* £ ft z m # m w ,& k.z ^ # m m £ «** ,

tHIili' Cha P ter ni > § #j #•

 ,

THE ORIGIN OF THE DUODENARY CYCLE OF ANIMALS. 989

Hai ^
Tsze -J-
appertain to the North and Water.

Ch'eu #
That the combination of the Branches with the Animals was in
vogue in the beginning of the Christian era, is also proved by the
Shwoh wen the famous dictionary which dates from the first century,
,

for it says that »the character Sze represents the shape of a ser-
pent" l
. The native books show that the Twelve Animals have, since
the Han dynasty, played an important part in Chinese life as factors
in soothsaying and divination, as they were believed to exercise an
influence, according to the attributes ascribed to each, over the
years, days and hours denoted by the Branches to which they
respectively appertain. But this subject, which has been mentioned
on page 44, must not occupy any further space here.
The cycle of Animals is generally styled »the Twelve Animals" 8

and the combination of the two cycles: »the Dozens which appertain
3
to each other" . The origin of the cycle of Animals is shrouded
in mystery and is a puzzle for Chinese authors, no trace of it being
found in the Classics. Some have ascribed its use in China to the
influence of intercourse with other nations, because it is in vogue
among the Mongols, Coreans, Japanese, Siamese and other Asiatic
peoples. Schlegel has tried to demonstrate on astronomical grounds
that it must be of pure Chinese origin \
Returning now to our extract from the Annals of Wu and Yueh
we must give our readers some information about the eight Celestial
Winds and the winds emitted by the mystic Gates shut upon the
Effulgent Sunlight, in order that a better insight may be obtained
into Fung-shui in its earliest stages. Those eight winds are men-
tioned by Liu Ngan in the following words: »The Directing Wind
» comes forty-five days after the winter solstice (that is to say, about
» the beginning of spring); forty-five days afterwards (at mid-spring)
» the Wind of the Illumination of all Beings blows, and again just
» as many days later (in the beginning of summer) the Winds of
» Pure Brightness come, to be replaced by the Winds of Bright
» Sunlight after a like number of days {i.e. at midsummer). Again

4 Uranographie Chinoise, pp. 565 «/</.

64
990 THE GRAVE.

» forty-five days afterwards (in the beginning uf autumn) comes the

» Cool Breeze , and after mid-autumn)
another forty-five days (at

» the Wind of the Gates that are shut upon the Effulgent Sun-
» light. The Wind of Imperfection then arrives after forty-five days
» (in the beginning of winter), and again so many days having
» elapsed (at mid-winter), the Wind of Devoidness of Extensive
» Power begins to blow" '. From this excerpt we see that those
winds simply denote the influences of Nature which operate during
the eight seasons respectively, regulating the weather and the tem-
perature. As the seasons were connected with the points of the com-
pass (see pp. 962 seq.), the winds too were theoretically identified
therewith. We read in the Historical Records, in a chapter specially
devoted to natural science:
» The Wind of Imperfection occupies the North-west, thus
» presiding at the killing of life. The Wind of Devoidness of Ex-
pensive Power occupies the North. 'Devoidness of extensive power'
» means that (in the North) the Yang has sunk away, without the
» Y i n having so extensive and great an influence as to stand on a par
» with that of the Yang. The Directing Wind occupies the North-
» east and consequently has the upper hand in the first production
» of everything endowed with life. 'Directing' means to manage
» all living beings in such a wise that they are produced and,

» therefore this wind bears this appellation. The Wind of the Illu-
» mination of all Beings is settled in the East , and its name refers
» to the illumination of living nature which is entirely produced
» (when it blows). The Wind of Pure Brightness has its seat
» in the South-east, and it dominates over all living nature over
» which the winds blow. The Wind of Bright Sunlight abides in
» the South; this word 'bright' expresses the condition of the
» breath of the Yang at the zenith of its (annual) revolution.
» The Cool Breeze occupies the South-west. And the Wind of the
» Gates that are shut upon the Effulgent Sunlight is stationed
»in the West. The word 'effulgent' refers to the brightness and

^m^m.z-MM.m^-^m.B
kiai, ch. III.
HIS' H ><»9 lieh
 SEKKING BURIAL PLACES BY MEANS OF DIVINATION. 991

» glory (of the sun); 'to shut the gates' means to conceal; and
» the name of this wind alludes to the shutting up in the earth
» of living nature produced by the operation of the Yang" '.
Hoh Lii's attempt to establish his supremacy over the surrounding
kingdoms by building his city in such a wise that the influences
of the heavens and the earth were represented by it and conse-
quently operated upon it affords proof of the correctness of our
,

statement made on page 936 , that the rise of Fung-shui coin-

cides with that of Taoism, the philosophical-religious system which
taught people that man living as he does under the absolute
, , ,

sway of Nature , best ensures his felicity by adapting and conforming

himself to the influences of the Universe. The ancients even went
so far as to suffer the heavens themselves to decide about the location
of the graves and dwellings they intended to build. For this purpose
they availed themselves of the stalks of a certain plant, called
a
s h i Avhich they believed to be imbued with an extraordinary
,

supply of vital force or so-called shen, composed of Yang sub-

stance (comp. p. 110), and therefore more capable than anything
else of divulging the will and intentions of the heavens, the great
embodiment of the Yang. Those stalks were so manipulated as to
give the lineal figures or kwa, and these figures were subsequently
interpreted by the aid of sentences contained in the Till Icing and
other books of a similar character.
In its section on the funeral ceremonies for ordinary officers and
their nearest relatives , the / it contains a very lucid account of the
way in which this peculiar method of consulting Nature took place
when a grave had to be made. It literally runs as follows:
» Consultation of the divining stalks about an abode for a defunct.
» The Officer for the Grave Mounds having measured out a spot for

* Jg a Jg BS ft if4. . II1M^^> M

m b. jr £ m -% w i * m m & & mm m m
, .
m.

it m. n M jr s as n m m m. % m it m % f. & . , ,

2 W.
 ,

992 THE GRAVE.

» the purpose (in obedience to the rescripts relating to his office

» which are reproduced on page 421), a hole is dug at each of the

» four corners and the earth placed outside the spot; a hole is dug
» also in the middle and the earth put down on the southern side.
,

» The principal mourners having finished their wailing for the defunct
» in the morning , resort thither , and range themselves on the south
» side of that spot assigned by a tortoise-shell , with their faces to
» the north , without the mourning bands around their heads.
» A person who is to order the stalks to be consulted , stands
» on the right of the principal mourners. The diviner turns his face

» to the east ,
pulls off the upper part of the case which contains
» the stalks , and , holding both the case and stalks in his hands and
» turning his face to the south receives (by mouth of the afore- ,

» said person) the order to begin the work, which order runs as
» follows The distressed sons So-and-So for the sake of their father
:
'

» So-and-So wish to consult the stalks about his grave lest the site ,

» for his dark abode , which has been duly assigned by the figures
» of a tortoise shell , should entail troubles on any of them in
» future'. The diviner answers that he will obey the order, but he
» does not repeat the same.
» Now turning round to the right , so that he stands with his
» face to the north , he stretches out his finger to the centre of the
» grave and manipulates the stalks. A man for the k w a stands on
» his left. side. When the divination is finished ,
(this man writes

» out the k w a and) the diviner takes it to show it to the person

, ,

» who has ordered him to consult the stalks. This man receives
» the kwa, inspects it and gives it back to the diviner, who,
» turning his face eastward examines it with the aid of his ,

» assistants; then he comes forward, to say to the man who has

» ordered him
to divine and to the chief mourners We have , :
'

» examined and it portends that the project may be executed '.

it ,

» The chief mourners now put on their headbands and wail, but
» without stamping their feet. If the stalks declare that the plan
» must not be executed they are consulted with observance of the , ,

» above rules about some other spot which has been selected" '.
,

l
>M ^.mAmz,mmm^[^m,m^^^
m . wl m ^ ± A W ft > ft it it ffi > fc i
£±A22f.&*miS,:Ni±«,
Z, SfffiSffr, f&H, Mf«^l^»ff^>
 SEEKING BURIAI, PLACES BY MEANS OF DIVINATION. 993

This excerpt teaches us that the first indications about favourable

burial sites used to be obtained by the consultation of tortoise
shells. Tortoises , like the divining plant , being considered to be
pervaded throughout with shen substance, their shells were scorched
with hot instruments, for the purpose of deducing predictions
from the lines and spots thus rendered visible. The details of this
curious divining method we shall give in our Second Book. The
Chi'u li says : » On the decease of the sovereign , the Sub-Intend-
» ant of Religious Worship finds out by means of a tortoise-shell
» the place where the sepulchre is to be made and this he repeats ,

» when they begin to dig the pit" Such of our readers as under- '.

stand the written language of the Chinese will see that , in this passage,

the place assigned by a tortoise-shell as fit for a grave is denoted

by the same character which the I li uses in the above extract to
express the same thing, viz. ;)(<, which Chinese etymologists say is

a hieroglyphic representation of the lines and marks found on a

tortoise-shell. So, also, in the description of the functions of the
Officer for the Grave Mounds (see page 421) the Cheu li. denotes
burial sites by the term ;J|< Jj$, which means: » places (Jj$) ap-
pointed by the lines and- spots on a tortoise-shell". In many other
works of antiquity reference to what they generally style puh tsang
§$ » drawing prognostics about burial places from tortoise-shells",
Y>
,

is enough made to justify the conclusion that this practice was

often
then most commonly prevalent.
This method of the ancients of suffering the heavens themselves to
assign their graves through the medium of tortoises and shi stalks,

has been adopted by subsequent dynasties and incorporated into their

ceremonial institutions. The Khai yuen Ritual contains rescripts
on this head which, in the main, are the same as those of the / li;

but they declare that only for officers of the five highest degrees
a tortoise-shell may be consulted, viz. at the same time as the

stalks are being used. Moreover , they state that this double augura-

As

# « ;* ffo &# c ift M # ^ n& ELZ,MMm&, >

!% % ffi . # ^ & M # 1m M im ^ ^
Ch 2S -
"• 50 <«•

1
A- % i& 3E B bmft,1H%LJfi1m- Cha ? tev 19 >
L 23
994 THE GRAVE.

tion shall be followed by a' sacrifice God of Earth and they

to the ,

give detailed rules for this ceremony. That the dynasty which en-
acted those rescripts also practised them at the demise of emperors,
may be seen from the description of the ritual which was instituted
1
for the burial of Tai Tsung in A. D. 780 . The funeral rites pre-
scribed by the Ming dynasty for the use of the official classes
and laid down in the Ta Ming hwui Hen 2 do not, however, ,

make any reference to the ancient method of selecting graves.

The devotees of geomancy themselves are fully convinced that
their art has been practised from the earliest times on record in
literature.If asked for proofs in support of this belief, they
unanimously appeal to a certain passage occurring in one of the
Appendices of the Yih king (chapter 13, 1. 12), which says: »By
» looking up, in order to contemplate the heavenly bodies, and by
» looking down to examine into the natural influences of the earth,
» man may acquire a knowledge of the causes of darkness and
3
» light" . Yet this passage in itself is valueless for ascertaining the
antiquity of the system, even apart from the fact that the Appen-
dix containing it bears internal evidence of having been written
after the time of Confucius, though native scholars pretend that
it is a product of the sage's pen. Nor is the fact that the kwa,
cycles, constellations etc., which play a prominent part in the system,
have been used for chronologic, astrologic and horoscopic pur-
poses very early times, any argument for the antiquity of
since
Fung-shui, the established opinion of its adepts and professors not-
withstanding.
The
early traces of geomantic superstition assume sharper outlines
c
during the dynasties of Ts in and Han. It has been already remarked
that grave brooks and grave tanks were then indispensable appurten-
ances of royal sepulchres (p. 947); that Shi Hwang's mausoleum
was adorned with stars constellations and the configurations of the
,

Earth; that coffins used to be painted with heavenly luminaries and

figures of the four Celestial Animals (page 979), all which practices

1 Compare the » Record of the Ceremonies for the Yuen Mausoleum" -jt- [£&
HI Jfj£ , inserted in the T'ung lien of Tu Yiu, and reproduced in the Kti kin t'u

shu tsih ch'ing, sect. chapter 56.

;||| <j|| ,

2 Chapter 92, 1. 7.
 EARLY WORKS ON FCNG-SHUI. 995

had decidedly no other object than that of concentrating the

influences of the Universe around the dead. Besides, many other
data which mark the progress achieved by Fung shui during the
Han dynasty, '
are They teach us that
supplied by the books.
already in the second century before our era China possessed a
class of proficients in geomancy. The Historical Records mention '

such a category of persons under the name of K h a n-y ii kia 2

,

»the Khan-yii Class'' (comp. page 940), among sundry species of

diviners whom the emperor Hiao Wu 3
, who reigned from the year
140 86 B. C, one day consulted upon the question whether a
to

certain date was suitable for consummating marriage and from whom ,

he received entirely different answers. The books show furthermore

that, during the Han dynasty, there existed a Fung-shui literature.
The » Memoir on Skilful Writings" 4
in the Official History of that

epoch mentions , under the heading : » Authors on the Five Ele-

6
ments" , thirty-one titles of works of divination, one of which,
entitled The Golden K h a n-y ii Thesaurus in fourteen Chapters 6
: ,
,

leaves no room to doubt that it was devoted to geomancy. The

same Memoir sums up also six works of » Authors on the Rules
» concerning Forms who treated on a wide scale of the configur-
,

» ations in the nine subdivisions of the Empire and derived there-

» from the shape of cities and dwellings they also treated of ;

» the dimensions and numbers in the osseous system of man and

» the six domestic animals, and of the forms and capacity of
» vessels and implements thus fixing of everything the respective
,

» sound and breath , the value or non-value , the auspicious or in-

7
» auspicious operation" these six works one was probably
. Among
more geomancy than the others, being entitled:
specially devoted to
On the Configurations of Grounds for Mansions and Houses, in
8
twenty Chapters .

1 In an appendix to chapter 427, written by Ch'u Siao-sun 535 Af X& in the

first century B. C.

4 S§ ~*T J^ (
the 30th. chapter of the Books of the Early Han Dynasty.

§^±|^|. Books of the Early Han Dynasty, ch. 30, 11. 49.

8
g^*M^ + #
996 THE GRAVE.

That treatises on geomancy and divination were numerous

during the Early Han dynasty, is evinced by the following passage
relating to Wang King a high official of
', great renown for his

learning and attainments in hydraulics. »From the very first it had

» been his conviction that , although the six Classics all contain
» references to divination by means of tortoise-shells and stalks, so
» that every undertaking or proceeding was decided upon by the
» divining plant and the tortoise ,
yet all the books extant con-
tained erroneous and confused statements on this head, and the
» notions about the auspicious or inauspicious character of augu-
» ries subverted each other. Hence he compared and collocated the
» existing treatises of every author on the art of making calcula-
» tions as also the notions about the matters that were disallowed
,

» and to be avoided at grave-making and house-building the factors ,

» of geomancy, horoscopy etc.; and he compiled everything for so ,

» far as it was of any practical use into a work entitled The , :

2
» fifty Original Groundstones" .

Under, or perhaps shortly after the Han dynasty, there existed

3
a work , called : The Canon of Dwellings , which is generally consi-
dered to be the oldest exponent of Fung-shui extant as , still practised
at the present day. Its origin was ascribed to Hwang Ti \ » the
Yellow Emperor", a mythical sovereign of the 27th. century before our
era, for ever famous as the father of civilisation and the art of govern-
ment. We can scarcely suppose this ascription to have been an idle
attempt to give the book a saintly odour of antiquity. We think
it must be taken simplyas an indication that the doctrines laid
down book were based upon the pure unalloyed orthodox
in the ,

conceptions which had been in vogue from the dawn of civilisation

about the Universe and its influence upon the fate of man. A
small treatise under the same name still exists; but it is far
from certain whether it is not a production of more recent date 5
.

^ft" $fik ^ ~Mfej & S "Z^- Books of the Later Han Dynasty, chapter 106, 1.8.

3
%&• 4 ^^-
5 A reprint of it is inserted in the Kit kin fit slut tsih citing, sect. $5 |/|LT ,

ch. 651.
 I'UNG-SHUI DURING THE REIGN OV THE HAN DYNASTY. 997

It gives a great extension to geoiuantic speculation by distinguish-

ing between buildings in which either the Yang or the Yin
has the upper hand , and contains directions for planning out
both categories in such a wise that they insure a maximum of
glory and honour wealth prosperity and official dignities to the
,
,

inhabitants and their still unborn offspring for many generations.

It also dilates elaborately upon the laying out of graves, and
gives many useful hints as to the restoration and rebuilding of
dwellings of the living and the dead. It is said that from the Han
dynasty dates also a so-called Canon of Burials ', the authorship
2
of which is ascribed to a certain Master Blue Raven , whose real

name, if it were ever known, has fallen into oblivion. A few poor
fragments only have escaped the destroying hand of time and are
re-printed in the Ku kin Cu situ tsih clriny
3
; they may be con-
sulted with advantage by those who can more time
afford to waste
and labour upon a study of the development and growth of the
Fung-shui vagaries than we can.
The development of Fung-shui and its literature during the Han
dynasty naturally coincided with the revival of the studies of anti-
quity, which marked that epoch. Under imperial auspices, every
written relic which had escaped the incendiary caprice of Shi Hwang,
was eagerly collected, studied and expounded; the Classics were
cast in their present shape; and during the revival of a general
interest in literature, philosophers arose, who indulged in wild
speculations on Nature and its Tao or unalterable course, specula-
tions for which they found ample material in the Classics. Thus a
literature was created, abounding in cosmogonic vagaries, astrology
and alchemy, and ever supplying food for new speculation of the
same kind which being only guided by the traditional notions bor-
, ,

rowed from the ancients, was gradually consolidated into the Fung-
shui system in force at the present day, a system destined it would ,

seem, to crush China under its weight during the existence of its petri-

fied culture. As the fundamental ideas and practices of the system can
be traced back to very ancient times and their development is inti- ,

mately bound up with the enlargement of the scope of early specu-

lations on Nature, the history of Fung-shui becomes the history of
Chinese philosophy in general.

2 W Mi ~9ti ^fe
- Com P- l
ia - r ll,ir'i note 2 -

3 Section i§3jb |ftr , chant. G55.

 ,,;

998 THE GRAVE.

The part which Fung-shui superstition played in grave-building

during the Han dynasty is elucidatedby the two following epi-
sodes, said to have occurred respectively in the first and the second

century of our era. »When Yuen Ngan's father had died, his
» mother ordered him to seek for a place to bury him. On the
» road he met with three literary men, who asked him where he
» was going. He informed them of his purpose , whereupon they
» pointed out to him a certain spot , saying :
'
Bury him there
» that place must produce some generations of your family the
to
» highest office in the state'. At the same moment they vanished.
» Ngan felt interested in the prediction and forthwith he buried ,

» his father on the spot those men had discovered by augury. Sub-
sequently his offspring were overloaded with fame and glory for
» several generations" l
.

» When Wu Hiung was a lad , his family was so poor that , on

» the death of his mother he cast his eyes upon a plot of ground
,

» in which nobody made graves and there he selected a place ,

» to bury her. The burial he performed with so much haste

» without inquiring whether the hour or day were favourable,
» that the medicating spiritist mediums unanimously prophesied
» that it must entail the extermination of his clan. But Hiung took
» no notice and three generations of his family, viz.
of their talk ,

» himself, his son Yin and his grandson Kung, became Cominan-
» ders of the Palace Guard and signalized themselves as famous ,

2
» writers on legislation" .

From these episodes we learn that, in those times, geomancy

sharpened its wits more especially in the discovery of graves which
would insure to the offspring of the occupants promotion to high state-
offices. This cannot surprise us, since investment with official digni-
ties has always signified in China the same thing as wealth ,
power

%
cli. 75,
ffi
1.
A
5.
Z *& #t % t£ d: l& M Books of the Later Han Dynast y-

LH

of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 76, 1. 3.

 GRAVES PRODUCING GRANDEES AND EMPERORS. 999

honour and glory in this world and the next, in short, the perfect
realisation of every Chinaman's favourite dream. We lay stress on
this main feature of early geomancy, because it has characterized
Fung-shui throughout all ages, and is at this day its principal
feature still.

That graves could produce the highest offices to the descendants

of the persons buried therein, nay, even the imperial dignity, was
during the Han dynasty an orthodox article of faith , even among
the most learned. LiuHiang himself, whom we have introduced
to our readers on pp. 56 433 and 745 though one of the most
, ,

celebrated authors the Middle Kingdom has produced, a man,

moreover who occupied a foremost place among the scholars em-
,

ployed in the task of elucidating and expounding the ancient texts

and who held the highest offices of trust during several years —
this man believed in it as firmly as the most superstitious child
of his nation. This is evinced by a memorial he presented to the
Throne with the object of breaking the power and influence of
» a family Wang twenty-three members of which drove about in
,

» decorated cars with vermilion wheels ; a family counting its mem-

» bers wearing blue or red sable fur by numbers like unto swarms
» of locusts and standing arrayed around the Throne within the
,

1
» imperial like scales around a fish"
mansion Insinuating that .

many of them in spite of their high dignities indulged in bad

, ,

behaviour and nefarious acts, he wrote-.

» Under the Emperor Hiao Chao, a stone rose up of its own
c
» power on the hill Kwan on mount T ai, and the same thing
» occurred in Shang-lin with a willow that had fallen to the ground
» — and thereupon the throne was occupied by the emperor Hiao
» Siien 2 At present
. a post of Rottlera wood on the ancestral
,

c
» tombs of the family Wang located in the Ts i-nan country, produces
» branches and leaves the foliage it bears spreads out over the
;

» houses, and its roots extend underneath the ground. Nothing

» whatever not even the stone and the willow that rose of them-
,

*¥^l1L
chapter 30, 1. 29.
H ft #. !§#£>£ Books °r tlie Ear,
y
llan Dy^y-
2 According to Chapter 75 of tlie Books of the Early Han Dynasty, these mi-

racles,and a few more into the bargain, occurred in B.C. 78, and were interpreted
by wise men as portending the enthronement of an emperor of another branch of
the reigning family. Indeed, the next emperor, Hiao Siien, was not a descendant of
Hiao Chao, but his uncle's grandson.
 ,,

1000 THE GRAVE.

» selves , has ever given a clearer warning. But the significance of

» the two cases is by no means equally great. Indeed , the family
» Wang is not of so high a position as the family Liu (to which
» Your Majesty belongs) ; moreover , the miracle with respect to the
c
» last-named family merely predicted , through mount T ai , a paci-
» fication , while that (which has now occurred on the tombs) of the
» first named portends a lurking danger resembling a pile of eggs" '.

The tendency of this warning was clear enough : the zealous minister
insinuated that the wonderful graves were preparing the descendants
of the occupants for the imperial dignity. However, we do not
find it recorded whether the emperor turned a willing ear to this
hint to exterminate the whole family.
The third century of our era, signalized by the downfall of the
Han dynasty, is marked in the history of Fung-shui as having given
birth to the first prophet of geomancy who has ever remained
famous for his high attainments in this art , viz. Kwan Loh 2
, one
of the greatest astrologers, soothsayers and fortune-tellers Far Cathay
has ever produced. The marvellous acuteness this man possessed is

clearly instanced by the following event , recorded in his biography in

the Standard History of the dynasty under which he lived. » While
» travelling to the west with a division of the army, he passed
» by the foot of the sepulchre of Wu Khiu-kien. Reclining against
»a tree, he began to hum a verse in a Availing tone of voice,
» quite out of spirits. Being asked what the matter was, he said:
» The copse and
'
trees here grow luxuriantly, but those configura-
» tions necessary to secure a long existence to the offspring of the
» buried man are wanting. There will be no descendants to guard
» the eulogy engraven on the epitaph-stone , however flattering it is.

» The Black Warrior (i. e. the Black Tortoise) conceals his head
» the Azure Dragon has no feet the White Tiger holds the corpse ,

» in and the Vermilion Bird is wailing piteously the

its jaws, ;

» grave being placed under the protection of four imminent dangers

Op. et cap. cit., 1. 30.

 ,

THE GREAT GEOMANCER KWAN LOH. 1001

» it must surelj' entail the extermination of the clan and , this

» will happen within two years'. This prophecy was literally ful-

» filled" '.

Kwan Loh's fame, great though it is, is almost entirely eclipsed

by the halo surrounding the name of Kwoh Poh 2 This man who . ,

lived from 276 —

324 A. D., was a scholar of high attainments,
and his name as such is inseparably connected with some works of
antiquity which he annotated and commented upon. Not only is he
ranked among the highest authorities on antiquarian subjects , but
all the proficients, professors and adapts of Fung-shui look up to

him as the great patriarch of their art , nay even as their patron
divinity. He was at the same time a first-rate soothsayer, the art
of fortune-telling being, as our readers know, intimately connected
with geomancy and practised with the aid of much the same factors
and cycles. His biography in the Standard History of the dynasty
under which he lived recounts that » there lodged in Ho-tung (his
» native place) a gentleman of the same surname as his own who was ,

» very clever in drawing prognostics from tortoise shells and divining

» stalks ; he followed that person , learned from him the secrets of
» the art and having received from him a
,
'
Book on the Contents
» of the Blue Bag', in nine chapters, he thoroughly understood
» the arts relating to the Five Elements Astrology and Divination ,

» knowing how to expel calamities how to avert disasters and how , ,

» to bring complete succour in hopeless cases. Even King Fang 3

» and Kwan Loh did not excel him" '.

His geomantic skill savours of witchcraft, and the records repre-

limp, $£&%, ratjan, &#«&, ^®

Zl Mr
Memoirs
~3£ J?H
Wei.
M -^ „ ?£#R^W' Memoirs Three Kingdoms; ol tle

of ch. 29, 1. 24.

3 A famous man of letters in the first century B. C.

^ fib 'M. ifet

1! "" ks "' t,ie Tsin Dvnast y< chapter 72, I. 1.
 ,,

1002 THE GRAVE.

sent him in fact as a cunning magician. » Having lost his mother,

» he resigned his office , and with a tortoise shell sought out a
» burial place for her in Ki-yang. The spot being not farther from
» the borders of the water than some hundred paces there was , much
» gossip abroad about its being too near ; but Poll declared that
» the would soon become dry ground. Afterwards sand was
water
» flooded up over an area of several tens of miles from the grave
» and entirely converted into orchards and fields" 1 .

» When Poh had made a grave for a certain man the emperor ,

» disguised himself and went out to see it. Why have you buried '

» the corpse in the horn of the Dragon ? he asked the owner '

» of the grave; 'this must cause the destruction of your clan'.

»'Kwoh Poh has declared', the owner answered, 'that, whereas
» at this grave the ears of the Dragon are not visible it must ,

» cause a Son of Heaven to come here before three years have

» elapsed'. 'Shall it produce a Son of Heaven?' asked the emperor.
» It possesses the faculty of causing a Son of Heaven to come
'

» hither to ask questions', was the reply. The emperor stood struck
» with amazement" 2 The finesse of this geomantic tour de force
.

consists in this, that the Dragon is the emblem of the emperor,

so that if it has no ears the emperor hears nothing and is obliged
, , ,

to come out and ask for information.

» When Ch ing
c
the great-grandfather of (Chang) Yii
, had to ,

» bury his father Kwoh Poll drew prognostics about some spots
,

» and said If you bury him in this place you will live to be over
:
'
,

» a hundred years of age and attain one of the three highest official
» dignities, but you will then not have a numerous offspring. And
» if you inter him in that spot, your lifetime will only be half as
» long and your official career will be cut off on having attained
» the dignity of Director of a Court , but your issue be honoured
c
» and illustrious for a series of generations'. Ch ing performed the

31 S& +M , Hf ^^ •
°p- et caP- cit -> '• u -

2
mwnAm, ftnm&WLZ* mm±A, *r
MBmft,tik&tnm.±A&,mm^,tikm
# . % Ifc % "7-
m ^ * @ & Z -Op.
.
et loc. cit.
 THE FAMOUS GEOMANCER KWOH POH. L003

» burial in and thus he became Director of the

the weaker spot ,

» Court of Imperial Entertainment and died at the age of sixty-

»four; but his children and grandchildren had a glorious career" '.
It might be expected that a man of Kwoh Poh's skill would
first of all have selected for himself a grave so perfect as to raise

his offspring to the highest earthly glory. It is stated that » he

» never omitted to cut off and bury his nails and hair wherever
» he found an auspicious spot , in consequence of which graves of
» Kwoh Poh are to be found everywhere" 2
and yet his biographer
;

only makes mention of one of his sons who was called to an

3
official dignity, viz. that of prefect of Lin-ho , in the present province
of Kwangsi. It does not , however , appear that this plain fact has

ever, to the present day, shaken the national belief in the efficacy
of Fung-shui.
The biographer of Kwoh Poh relates that » his disciple Chao Tsai
» stole theBook of the Blue Bag and that it fell a prey to the flames ,

» before he could commence the study of it" 4 It must not there- .

fore be confounded with the work ascribed to Kwoh Poh which ,

is current at this day under the title of » Canon of the Blue Bag

and the Corners of the Seas, revealed by the mysterious Virgins

5
of the nine Celestial Spheres" . This title designates a treatise

on the heavens, which are indeed a sort of blue bag comprising

everything, and dealing, moreover, with the earth, girt at the
four points of the compass by oceans; it is, in short, a book on
natural philosophy, based upon revelations given in the good old
time by certain mystic beings about the evolution of the Universe

& # Ok M # > > ft Wt fa tit > ffo UiB: nm &KB .

History of the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 31, 1. 2.

~
p? . Tan iinot I sin a i hih, quoted in the Kn kin i'n shu tsih ch'ing, sect. J;jh -£Sr , ch.140.

^> Books of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. 72, 1. 1.

5 -h

already on page 105.

^^ ~Jt t|I 4fi' y^i -ft J&g . Tliese Virgins have been mentioned
 ' ,

]004 THE GRAVE.

from chaos or primary nothingness. Starting from the origin of the

Cosmos, it dilates upon the numerical proportions supposed to lie
at the basis of the laws of Nature and to be expressed by the
characters andwhich our readers are now acquainted.
cycles with
It places these concentric circles and combines these
formulas in ,

circles together in sundry ways, as is still done by geomancers

nowadays. It expatiates largely upon the k w a upon the influences ,

which the twenty-eight this earth and

stellar mansions exert on ,

upon all the other which we have passed in review, con-

factors

necting the influences of the five Elements or planets with the out-
ward forms of hills and mountains in the manner set forth by us
on page 956.
Kwoh Poh is also the reputed author of a treatise which , under
the title of The Book on Burial ', takes rank among the pro-
ducts of Fung-shui literature as a standard work. There are, how-
ever, good reasons for doubting whether it really is from his hand.
No work of that name is mentioned in his biography in the Books
of the Tsin Dynasty, although it gives the titles of three other
works he wrote, and of half a dozen books he commented upon
and annotated. Nor does the Catalogue of classical and other works,
2
contained in the Books of the Sui Dynasty , mention a Book on
Burial; nor is it certain that the treatise occurring in the Catalo-
c
gue in the two Official Histories of the House of T ang s
under the
title of » Book on Burial and Canon on the Pulses of the Earth
in one Chapter" '
is from Kwoh Poh's hand, as no author's name
is appended to it. For the first time the work in question appears
in the Catalogue of books in the History of the Sung Dynasty, under
the explicit title: »Kwoh Poh's Book on Burial, in one Chapter" 3
.

Probably this is the same treatise which is reprinted in the Ku

ch'ing, under the title of » Kwoh Poh's Canon of
c
kin l u sliu tsili

Burial, based on Antiquity"".

Without doubt we may consider the age in which Kwoh Poh
lived as the golden era of Fung-shui, as the epoch in which the
ascendency of its power reached its apogee and its vagaries struck

1
W? § •
2 cha P ters 32 — 35 -

3 Old Books, ch 47, 1. 46, and New Books, ch. 59, 1. 28.

5 fK 1% ^6 M — 7& Ch. 206, 1. 22.

6
IP *H "£ ^ ^ If Sect -
H $f cha ^- 665 -
 FUNG-SHUI since the tsin dynasty. 1005

ineradicable roots in all classes of society, involving them for good

and all in its intricate net of error and delusion. In point of tact

the Books of the Tsin Dynasty refer to Fung-shui matters far oftener
than the Annals of earlier times, and certainly just as often as those
of subsequent dynasties. The belief that even emperors and princes
could be produced by the selection of proper graves, then waxed
strong. We read for instance
, of the military grandee Yang
,

Hu ' , who lived in the second half of the third century: »The
» site of his grandfather's tomb was declared by a man who
» was clever in observing the properties of graves , to possess a
» breath which could produce emperors and kings, but the occu-
» pant would remain without issue if it were hacked into. Hu there-

» fore hacked into it whereupon the other on perceiving what he

, ,

» had done , said it would now still produce a Minister of State

» with a broken arm. Finally Hu fell from his horse and broke his
3
» arm ; and he became a minister, but begot no sons" .

From nothing does it appear that, since those times, the belief
in the efficacy of Fung-shui has ever been seriously shaken in China.

It has borne undisputed sway over the nation down to the present

day. Nevertheless there have existed some minds which, though

not disbelieving in the system , were far from placing implicit
confidence in all that the proficients and experts dished up for the
c
public as genuine geomancy. Yen Chi-t ui, for instance, wrote in
the sixth century » The art of utilizing the two Breaths of Nature
:

» having sprung up with Heaven and Earth themselves confidence ,

» must be placed in the indications of that art with respect to good

» luck and ill, weal and woe. But a long time has elapsed since the
» ancients lived. Therefore the writings on that art transmitted from ,

» one generation to another , are altogether the product of unsettled

» popular notions , and contain gossip of a vulgar and superficial

»kind; little therein is trustworthy, nonsense. much is pure

»Yet, by contravening the art in question, by deviating from it,
»or by refusing to utilize it, calamity might finally be incurred.
» Infelicitous results cannot be always eluded by attending to it

1
#M-

Dynasty, ch. 34, 1. 12.

65
 .

1006 THE GRAVE.

» with anxious carefulness or by entirely relying upon it; but ad-

» vantage is just as little to be secured by sticking to it with very
» great anxiety" '.

In the seventh century, the emperor T ai Tsung

c 2
of the Tang
dynasty appointed a commission of more than ten scholars, with
3
orders to sift , under the presidency of Lii Ts'ai , a famous man
of letters, the existing literature on divination and geomancy, and
to glean from it everything orthodox and of real practical value.
The result work in one hundred chapters,
of their labours was a
which was published by order of the emperor. They passed a sweeping
sentence on the then existing literature on the subjects in ques-
tion, flatly condemning all such selection of auspicious graves and
lucky times for burial as is not sanctioned by antecedents from anti-
quity. An ample account of the way in which those scholars acquited
themselves of their task is given in the two Standard Histories of
c
the T ang dynasty *.

This imperial effort to check the boundless expansion of un-

authentic geomantic theory and superstition was entirely without
effect, and the literature on the subject has continued to swell from
age to age. The Catalogue of literature in the Books of the Sui
Dynasty gives only some dozen titles of works and treatises; the
c
Catalogue in the Books of the T ang Dynasty contains a much
number
larger
5
and in that of the History of the House of Sung
,

we count over hundred c It is unnecessary to say that under

a .

every dynasty the books contain numerous names of geomancers

of renown, and sundry stories illustrating their capacities and mar-
vellous attainments.
These authors and experts generally based their theories upon
the so-called h i n g s h i 7 » influence or power of forms and out-
,

lines", that is to say, the influence and power of the Elements

1
j\>m^zm%%m^$L, ^tnmmx^
w @ x- %
tions , § 19.
i*] is , w ffi ^ >g, # m&& •
D ° mestic inst,uc -

4 Old Books, ch. 79, 11. 12 sqq.; New Books, ch. 107, 11. 4 sqq.
5 Old Books, ch. 47, and New Books, ch. 59.
6 Chapter 206. 7 3K Wh
 THE TWO SCHOOLS OF GEOMANCY. 1007

or planets indicated by the shapes of mountains and hills. In the

latter half of the ninth century, the most prominent figure in this
School of Forms was Yang Yun-sung x
, a native of Teu-cheu ~,

which is a part of the department of Yuh-lin \ in Kwangsi. He

is frequently mentioned by his other name Shuh-meu ", and com-
monly known as » the Master who saved mankind from poverty" 5
,

probably for the reason of his high attainments in finding graves that
never failed to render the offspring of the occupants wealthy and
fortunate. Under the reign of Hi Tsung 6 (874— 888) he held the
office of Imperial Geomancer, and was even invested with the high

dignity of Director of the Court of Imperial Entertainment 7 The .

latter period of his life he spent as a geomancer in Kiangsi pro-

vince, in the department of Kan-cheu 8 at that time called Khien- ,

cheu °. Both from his wide-spread fame and the works he wrote, he
has always been regarded as the great patriarch of the School of
Forms , Kan-cheu Method" I0 By him particu-
since denoted the .» .

larly stress was laid upon the shape of mountains and the direction

of water-courses, or, in other words, upon the influences of the

Dragon, (comp. p. U51), which imaginary animal plays a part in
his system under various names and aspects. Hence the titles of
three of his writings are: » Canon on the Means to set Dragons in
Motion" n » Book of thirty-six Dragons" I2 » Canon for the Approxim-
, ,

13
ation of Dragons" His treatise entitled » Method of the twelve
. :

14
Lines" still holds the rank of a standard work for tracing out
favourable spots in connection with the contours and configurations
of high grounds and mountains.
Yang Yun-sung had many disciples, most of whom wrote geo-
mantic works and treatises. The corypheus among them was Tseng
Wen-ch wen 15 who composed a » Treatise on the art of searching
c
,

16
for Dragons" » Queries and Answers about the two Breaths of
,

17 ,8
Nature" , etc.

1
*§£!#• a
ff*H- 3
^#^N-

15
-i^iS- i6
^fIIE- "l&i,irjL m %..
18 The above information is gleaned from the Ku kin I'u sh u tsih ch'ing, sect.

BtflB, ch. 079.

100S THE GRAVE.

Under the influence of the metaphysical speculations by which,

during the Sung dynasty, a notorious school, of which Chu Hi was
the principal leader, sought to elucidate on a broader scale than
had ever been done before the principles of creation and re-pro-
duction, and to expound the influence which the heavens are sup-
posed to exercise upon terrestrial affairs a second school of geo- ,

mancy arose, which more particularly laid stress upon the kwa,
the Branches and kan, the Constellations, etc., assigning a place
of minor importance to the configurations of the earth. It is

generally called the » Method of Man (i. e. Fuhkien)" ', the first

chief representative of it being Wang Kih 3

, also named Chao-khing 3

or Khung-chang 4
, a native of Kan-cheu , who spent the latter
5
period of his life in the north of Fuhkien , viz. in Sung-yuen ,

6 7
now called His » Canon of the Core or Centre" and
Sung-khi .

his » Disquisitions on the Queries and Answers" 8 were published by

his pupil Yeh Shuh-liang
The Fuhkien School is frequently
9
. styled
»the Houses-and-Dwellings Method" 10 It is more attached . to the
use of the compass than the Kan-cheu School, this latter using
that instrument only as a secondary aid, viz. to sound the influ-
ences of the country around after its forms and contours have been
pronounced to be favourable.
These two schools have shared the predominance in the Fung-
shui system down to the present day. So far as we know, no other
school of significance has risen up beside. It is hardly feasible to
define the present status and relative position of each, together
with their influence in the various parts of the Empire. Professors
of geomancy unanimously assert that there still exists a distinct
line of demarcation between the two schools, but that they are
in so far fused together that no good expert in either ever
neglects to practise the methods of the other school as well as his
own. In the mountainous southern provinces, the School of Forms
obviously predominates. Even in Fuhkien no geomancers are so
highly esteemed as those who pretend to exercise their vocation in
strict accordance with the Kiangsi method , and in every town of
that province there are houses with sign-boards to decoy patrons

8
m&mm-
 ,

THE PRESENT FUNG-SHUI LITERATURE. 1009

by stating that the inmate is an adept of that school, or has im-

proved his talents by the teaching of a genuine Kan-cheu profes-
sor. Many such accomplished experts are accustomed to introduce
and recommend themselves to the public by means of placards stuck
up in squares and at street-corners.
The Fung-shui literature is at present as rich as ever. Popular
expositions of the theory and its practical application are on sale in

every bookshop, mostly of considerable bulk, and illustrated with wood-

cuts. In general such products are subdivided into three main sec-
tions. The first deals with the » Rules concerning the Dragon" ', that
is to say (see page 951) the situation and configurations of moun-
tains and the direction of water-courses. This section often commences
with a on the doctrine, set forth by eminent expo-
dissertation
sitors of the systemthat the whole Empire has a Dragon which
,

rules the fortunes of all its inhabitants, to wit, the immeasurable

a
Kwun-lun , a range of mountains in the north-west, between
Tartary and Tibet, the » progenitor of all the mountains of the
world 3
and the centre of the Earth" 4 , in which the great rivers

that carry the beneficial influences of the Dragon to the south and
south-east, take their rise. Often also this section contains dissertations
illustrated with maps, on the Fung-shui of every province as a whole
such as the »Authors on the Rules concerning Forms" had already
written two thousand years ago (see page 995); further it generally
gives astronomical maps elucidating the relations between certain
parts of the canopy of heaven and their counterparts on earth
(comp. page 954).
The second section dilates Elements or Planets, and
on the five

the art of discovering their presence or influence in the forms of

hills, mountains and terrestrial objects. The third section is practically
the most important, being devoted to a technical application of the
doctrines expounded in the first and second sections ; that is to say, it
5
gives directions as to how a h ii e h , i. e. a favourable site for a grave
or building amidst good and bad surroundings of every sort and
description is to be found at any given place. Generally it is profusely
,

illustrated and gives illustrated instances of graves of great renown

,

for their good Fung-shui; besides, it contains systematic enumera-

tions of things that are detrimental or dangerous, and wise rules

 ,

1010 THE GRAVE.

established by professors and proficients of high repute. In many

books this section is subdivided into two parts, entitled » Rules
concerning Gravel or Sand (». e. the ground)" 1 and » Rules con-
,

2
cerning Water" , respectively teaching how to utilize for purposes of
all sorts every part of the configurations of mountains or hills and
lakes or water-courses.
It now remains for us to give some information about the Fung-
shui professors and the way in which they work among the people,
which will convey to our readers some idea as to the extent ot
the influence geomancy possesses over social life in China.

4. The Professors of Fung-shui. The Influence of Fung-shui

on Practical Life.

As 938 seq., every

stated on pp. member who,
of the educated class
by learning to read and write , has picked up a smattering ot
knowledge of the classical works and the principles of philosophy,
is in China, to some extent, a geomancer; nay, even men and
women with no literary education at all pretend to know much
if not all, about Fung-shui. But the true professor of this art, who
earns his living by it, is distinguished from those dilettanti by
many characteristics.
He assumes all the airs of the literati and the gentry, dresses,
as they do, in a long gown, wears a pair of large spectacles,
though not short-sighted, and awes his patrons into admiration
and respect by scarcely ever opening his mouth, except to utter a
few wise words, or a classic phrase borrowed from the books.
Others on the contrary establish and keep up their reputation by
loquaciousness, overawing everybody by speaking a mystifying, learned
jargon , and by apocalyptic utterances of which the ordinary Chinaman
understand next to nothing. Many professors are very dignified in
their habits, wear a grave and haughty look, and strut about like
peacocks among the ignoble fowl around them. About all their
movements there is an air of classic decorum ; and it is no wonder
therefore, that the masses regard the geornancers as fountains of
wisdom , marvels of learning , capable of fathoming all the mysteries
of heaven and earth.
Yet, truth to say, scarcely any of them have acquired their skill

#&• 2^.
 ;

PROFESSORS OF GEOMANCY. 1011

by profound and serious studies of the books written by the

sages and philosophers of the nation. A geomancer has, as a rule,
learnt read and to write at school; but, for the rest, he has
to
picked up almost all his wisdom by strolling about in the open
country for a few years at the heels of some professor who had adopted
him as his disciple, catching from his lips a large supply of empty
phrases about dragons tigers branches and other mysteries of the
, ,

compass. Though he has the name and outward appearance of a

literary man, yet he is, like Chinese scholars in general, quite
ignorant of his national history and literature, nor does he possess
the slightest knowledge of the history and literature of the art of
which he calls himself an expert. At best he may have consulted
one or two handbooks badly printed ; but he seldom looks into these
products a second time, rinding it easier to rely upon his own
inventiveness and eloquence, which both he himself and others are
readily enough inclined to regard as wisdom and innate genius.
But his ignorance casts no shadow upon his reputation. For, after
all , he knows more about the art than the bulk of the people
moreover, he is extremely smart in bewildering his employers
by bullying them , whenever he thinks fit , with a flood of tech-
nical and hazy utterances about tigers and dragons,
expressions
branches and kwa, elements, and spiritual influences of all sorts
and descriptions.
Clever Fung-shui professors are accustomed to resort to other
devices, in order to keep up the reputation of their calling and
that of their own persons. The names of the ancient sages and
sovereigns, revered by the whole nation as the holiest and most
perfect of creatures the Universe ever produced , are constantly on
their lips , especially those of the reputed inventors of the k wa
and the authors of the Yih king, viz. king Wen and the Prince ,

of Cheu, his son (see p. 691"); frequently also they appeal to the
illustrious Chu Hi, the father of modern philosophy and an ardent
votary of good, orthodox Fung-shui. Thus they ably contrive to
get themselves associated by the people with great and famous
names in history. They further enhance the general admiration of
their wisdom by concluding each flow of words from their lips
with this refrain: »Yet many other arguments could 1 adduce, were
they not too numerous to be summed up".
The people are perfectly aware that geomancers are not only
useful but also dangerous. Indeed these men can supply them with
, ,

graves and dwellings which establish the prosperity of whole families;

 1012 THE GRAVE.

but they have also the power of plunging families into woe and
misery by undoing and houses of good Pung-shui by
graves
their cunning artifices. The professors themselves take good care to
keep up this double reputation by steadily spreading tales and
anecdotes which illustrate their twofold power, and by which the
people are constantly reminded how advisible it is to cultivate their
friendship and to propitiate their good will in all circumstances
of life. They frequently relate that, once upon a time, there lived
a family, which was rendered very rich and prosperous by the in-
fluence of a grave by a geomancer of great
sought out for it

renown. He, on discovering this priceless spot, had become aware

that it would cost him his eyesight if anybody were buried in
it; and yet he had not hesitated to assign it to that family,
on condition they should lodge, clothe and feed him to the end
of his days, and give him a decent burial after his death. So he
lived with them ,
quite blind , but happy, and free from worldly
care, leading an enviable lite of leisure and idleness. One fine day
it came to pass that a kid belonging to the family fell into an open
privy and was suffocated. The Chinese are a thrifty people, and
even the wealthy classes are averse to throwing useful things away.
Hence the family, as none of them chose to eat of the kid,
resolved to cook it for the professor, who, being blind and not
aware of the circumstance, would certainly enjoy the savoury food.
This was done; but, unfortunately, a loquacious matron of the
family told him in secret how ignomiously the others had abused
his helpless condition. Our readers can guess the end of the story :
—
the mercy destroyed the good Fung-shui of the
professor without
grave by giving wrong advice regarding it, and so he brought the

family back to the same dire poverty from which he had extricated
it. We are not, however, told whether he recovered from his blind-

ness, after having thus avenged himself.

In spite of such professional tales, and numerous accounts about
graves that have rendered their owners prosperous for many gener-
ations in succession, accounts which, whether or not illustrated by
woodcut figures, are appended to many handbooks; — in spite,
also, of the fact that many a geomancer is so sharp and clever
as be able to make out at a glance from the moss or weather-
to
beaten spots on a grave stone whether the Fung-shui of the grave
is good or bad — yet there are many persons bold enough to
refuse implicit trust in all they say. Such sceptics are, perhaps,
more numerous now than they were in times gone by. To none
 : ,

THE PROFESSORS OP GEOMANCY. 1013

among them does it ever occur to doubt the perfectness of the

principles of the system , these forming the chief corner stone of
natural expounded by the holiest and wisest men.
philosophy as
But the bare fact that many who, in the hopes of buying a grave
that must render them rich and prosperous pour half their wealth ,

into the lap of the professors, and yet become poor, while others not ,

wealthy enough to employ a professor rise to wealth and distinction ,

acts as a great check upon the credulity ot the public. Among the
educated classes it is an open secret that the predictions of geoman-
cers are all guess-work, and that all they have to dispose of is a
little experience collected in the course of their practice. It is no
wonder then that, in Amoy, people often make fun of their geo-
mancers and deride them in the following quatrain
,

Te-li sien-sing koan soat hong,

Tsi lam , tsi pole , tsi se tong ;

San Hong dziok iu dng ho te,

Ho put sim lai (song ndi ong l
.

» Professors of geomancy are accustomed to telling nonsense,

»They point to the south, north, west and east;
» But if they can really find
, places in the mountains which pro-
»duce princely dignities,
»Why then do not they immediately bury their own elders there?"
A Fung-shui professor would be a nonentity among his colleagues
if he had not an amount of wise sophistry in store wherewith
to counteract the popular prejudice. We, geomancers, thus he
argues, can in reality thoroughly fathom, by profound study, the
secrets of the Ti li or natural influences pervading the earth
(see and thus we can discover means to lead human hap-
page 940) ,

piness any desired channel. But these influences are in every

into
respect dominated by those of the heavens viz. the T i e n 1 i
c 2
the , ,

earth being swayed by the supreme celestial powers embracing it. Hence
it is that our calculations must necessarily fail, unless backed by
two direct emanations from the heavens , which human power cannot
control , viz. the happy destiny of the individual who invokes our

1
^S^c^ll
 ,,

1014 THE GRAVE.

services , and , secondly, the factor which , through the hand of

heaven , bestows such a destiny upon him , to wit , a virtuous char-
acter, manifesting itself by meritorious deeds. Is it not set forth
as a golden principle by all the authors of geomancy : » Nobody
should neglect to cultivate secret virtues, the accumulation of
virtuous deeds being the only firm base for all searching after

felicitous grounds" ?
l
Should a man without virtue acquire the
most propitious graves for his dead, and the best possible dwel-
lings for himself, their Fung-shui can profit him nothing, seeing
it is doomed to impotence and inactivity because of the refusal of
c
the T ien li to co-operate in making him happy. From which we
see that Fung-shui is not a creator ot happiness, but merely the
indispensable medium through which a happy fate, held in store
by the heavens, is forwarded to its destination.
Of course it seldom occurs to anybody to investigate his own
merits and inner qualifications before squandering away his posses-
sions in search of spots for building or grave making. What man
in this world ever entertains the least doubt of his own excellence?
Who would presume to anticipate, even by a humble investigation
of his own demerits and un worthiness, the decrees of the high
heavens in respect to his destiny? Not until the working of a
grave or dwelling has been watched for some time can it be
decided whether the virtues , required to make it yield profit

are present or absent in the persons concerned. These theories, the

logic of which no Chinaman ever contradicts , has the advantage ot
discharging the professor from all blame in case places selected by
him bring no blessings. He can , moreover , make use of them to
explain the fact that children sometimes rise to wealth and dis-

tinction who have buried their parents, for want of money to pay
a professor, in a site decried as valueless from a geomantic point
of view, or even in a bad spot from which others, by the advice of
clever experts, have removed their dead. In such a case it is the
c
T ien who, moved by the virtues of the persons in question,
li

which they themselves were probably unconscious of possessing

virtues
have compelled the Ti li to set to work in their favour with all
their energy. Even the doctrine of the transmigration of souls is here
brought to bear as events such as the above are often declared to be
,

rewards for deeds performed in some previous incarnation. But most

generally they are ascribed to long forgotten merits of some an-
 THE PROFESSORS OF GEOMANCY. 1015

cestor, it being a settled doctrine that good acts are not seldom
requited in the offspring of the individual who performed them,
just as his crimes and sins must be atoned for by them.
From the above our readers will perceive that the Fung-shui
doctrines , when handled with dexterity and eloquence can , ex-
plain all the phenomena of human life and fate. Thanks to the
c
sage and useful theory of the supremacy exerted by the T ien li
over the Ti li, no smart professor can ever be brought to bay.
When asked why he did not bury his own relations in the excellent
graves he boasts of having found for others, he is humble enough
to confess that they would be of no avail to him , his virtues being
so few and insignificant , his natural fate consequently so bad and ,

his chance of prosperity in this world so small ; neither have his

ancestors laid up a store of merits large enough to enable him to

reap the profits of his geomantic attainments himself. This shows

that geomancers can also assume the airs of humility, when it serves
their Again, when asked how it is that former generations
turn.
have not used up all the good grounds, they having produced
so many myriads of perfect and virtuous men, the answer is:
c
»The T ien li do not nowadays reward the virtuous any less

than they did in bygone times. As in days of yore, they imbue

on their behalf sundry parts of the earth with benignant influ-
ences, thus continuously creating anew favourable sites for building
and burying purposes. It often occurs that entire valleys, quite
devoid of good geomantic influence are converted into inex- ,

c
haustible mines of Fung-shui by the T ien li, when an altera-
tion in the windings of a waterstream is made by a shower of
rain , by a small earth-slip or the downfall of a rock through
or ,

the action of the wind and rain. How then can there ever be a
question of the exhaustion of the supply of burial sites?" — In the
neighbourhood of every and every town there are in fact
village
numerous unknown spots, the favourite dreams of the inhabitants,
which promise an income of ten thousand gold coins and promotion ,

to the very highest literary degree into the bargain, to whomsoever

buries his father or mother there. But no professor , even were he the
incarnation of Kwan Loh or Kwoh Poh, can detect those grounds,
unless set to work by such men of virtue as are appointed by the
c
T ien li for the enjoyment of so much bliss. Is it then to be
wondered at that every man with common sense on the death of
his parents applies to the best professor his purse can afford, in the
hope that he may be among the number of the elect?
 : ,
,

1016 THE GRAVE.

By so much verisimilar reasoning the popular scepticism in regard

to Fung-shui and its professors is not lulled to sleep. It is en-
couraged by many of the best authors and even by the government.
,

Hardly a sixty years ago, Wu Yung-kwang, the high statesman

introduced to our readers on page 753, wrote: » Its poison (viz. of
» Kwoh Poh's Book of the Blue Bag, see p. 1003) subsequently
c c
» deluged the whole Empire. T ai Tsung of the T ang dynasty
c
» ordered Lii Ts ai to publish a treatise in which geomancy was
» subjected to profound criticism (comp. page 1006), but even this
» measure could not check its influence. Sons and grandsons
» misled by the talk about felicity and mishap , invited the grave
» professors to search after propitious grounds , and these men
» then set themselves to work hacking and hewing into the pulses ,

» of the earth, reasoning about forefronts and backs, and selecting

» auspicious years months days and hours. The poor could not
, ,

» afford to select any grounds at all ; the rich selected them with
» too much and the result was that grandfathers and
precision ;

» fathers were cruelly left body and soul unburied under the open
» sky. There were men who performed no burial during their whole
» lives nay, some people even neglected interring their dead for
;

» many generations in succession" '.

In the » Memoirs concerning Amoy" we read
» The poor among the inhabitants of Amoy Island are accustomed
» to bury their dead after ten or fourteen days because their ,

» dwellings are narrow and small. The well-to-do class however ,

» have frequently an open ear for the adepts of the Blue-Raven

» School 2 and all of them
, the wise as well as the stupid are , ,

mn zm mm m * m ^ ** # ^ m m t£ % m %
Wu hioh luh , ch. 19, 11. 8 seq.
2 According to tradition, there lived under the Ts'in dynasty and in the be-
ginning of the reign of the House of Han, a sage whose name is unknown, but
who is generally styled : The Philosopher Blue Raven pi jf=L -3E* . He is the re-

puted author of a geomantic treatise, entitled: The Blue Raven Canon pq fijk tf$^ ;

and as he is the oldest known author on Fung-shui matters, geomancy is sometimes

called: The School oi the Blue Raven pq & i£?- Perhaps he is a mythical
 THE PROFESSORS OF GEOMANCY. 1017

» deluded and by these latter placing full confidence

led astray ,

>> in whatever theyThese men are vulgarly called Geomancers.

say.
» The greatest confidence is placed in their indications and selec-
tions, and, moreover, much importance is attached to auspicious
» years , months , days and hours and as sundry branches of a
;

» family usually live in discord, and each puts its trust in its
» own professor , the one professor always vindicating whatever
» the other rejects , it frequently comes to pass that encoffined
» corpses are stored away and remain unburied, Though beginning
» with a mere desire to acquire auspicious burial sites , the end
» is that the interment is for many days postponed , during which
» the family is gradually ruined" \
by reason of its constantly preventing timely burial, a
Likewise
very severe judgment is pronounced on Fung-shui and its profes-
sors by the present Code of Laws. Our readers may see this in
two extracts given on page 133. That the high authorities for the
same reason sometimes caution their subjects officially against the
cobwebs of delusion, is shown by the proclamation reproduced on
page 134, wherewith the Tao T ai at Amoy in 1882 interdicted
c

any further postponement of burials within his jurisdiction.

In spite of popular suspicion and official denunciation, parties of
men, headed by a geomancer, may be seen every day in the open
country, strolling about in search of favourable sites for burying
the dead. The geomancer is scarcely ever allowed to do this work
alone. For, as our readers know, every right principled man is

pretty familiar with Fung-shui matters, as filial duty prescribes

that for the sake of his parents he should be able to control
the professor in his choice (see pp. 938 seq.). If the family be
wealthy, such strolls are made several times ; for , searching out a
grave which must secure the welfare and fortunes of a whole family
for many generations is certainly not a task to be performed in

personage, and his book, which seems to be still extant, a spurious production of
much later times. On page 997 we have stated that the authorship of the Canon
of Burials is ascribed to him.

1
JUSAJt^t+B^anti, initio
x # i$ - m m m # & * # f± ft m ^ m m m , , ,
 ,

1018 THE GRAVE.

a day, unless the family be too poor to pay the professor high
wages. All the expenses entailed by such excursions have of course
to be defrayed by the family. They must also procure palankeens
and bearers for the professor and themselves, as walking is vulgar
work unbecoming people of distinction who possess the means
,

of avoiding bodily fatigue.

While wise discussions are being held on the contours of the
country, and the hands are continuously moved up and down and in
all the directions of the compass, the party keep themselves under
the shade of umbrellas of paper or silk ; for around most towns
scarcely a tree or shrub affords a shelter against the scorching sun
all vegetation having in course of time been radically destroyed under
the direction of geomancers. Now and then the professor brings forth
his compass from a linen bag hanging from his shoulder, and
lying full length or creeping on the ground he takes the bearings
, ,

by placing over his instrument a so-called hun-kim soa nl » thread for ,

subtle measurement", which is a red cord, from each end of which

dangles a copper coin to keep it stretched. His judgment with
reference to every given spot he pronounces in a learned jargon ; and
though his decisions may sometimes be objected to by those who
accompany him, yet they are, as a rule, received with respectful
awe and superstitious dread.
At length , after the professor has pocketed many bountiful remu-
nerations for his pains , a spot is discovered upon which good geo-
mantic influences are concentrated to any extent, and which accord-
ingly promises to realize the boldest wishes of the family. Many
days are now lost in bargaining, through an agent or broker, with
the owner of the ground. But in the end this man is prevailed
upon to accept a small sum of earnest money, in exchange for

which he allows the family to make an experiment as to the

properties of the soil , and binds himself not to sell it to any-

body else until they have declined the purchase. Without delay
a small quantity of pig's bones are bought at the butcher's,
and interred on the spot in a small box of wood or earthen jar.
After about a year , the family exhume and examine them. If they
come forth hard, dry and white, the soil is approved of, as showing
that it possesses sufficient preservative power to keep the osseous
remains of the dead in a good condition for a very long time to come

1
#£!H-
 ,

THE FONG-SHOI PROFESSORS. 1019

and , consequently, to attach manes for good to the spot. A

his
shorter experiment is to bury some duck's eggs and afterwards

examine them , to see whether they dry up or rot away. Pieces

of charcoal are also used, for, being hygroscopic, they soon tell

whether the spot is dry enough to serve for burying purposes.

1
In Amoy, these proceedings are called im khua" , » hiding expe-
riments", or fcim Ic'oa"', » sounding experiments". Should the soil

be found to be bad, some cases, resolved to improve it

it is, in
by digging away the earth around the place where the coffin must
lie, and supplying the void with earth of a better quality.

It is by no means rare that a family, after having made the

experiments, consult a second professor, in order to verify the

decisions of the first. In nine cases out of ten , this new marvel of
wisdom with a flow of astute critical remarks contradicts everything
his colleague has done, for, though Fung-shui professors are digni-
fied in their demeanour, they are subject to the influences of pro-
fessional jealousy just like the rest of mankind, and constitute by
no means a mutual-admiration society. The new adviser of the
family is not long in discovering, for instance, that there is a
dangerous bed of stones or solid rock under the soil , through
which it will be impossible for the Terrestrial Breath to break its

way and reach the corpse some ; diggers are set to work immediately
and no sooner do they find a couple of stones than .... everything
has to be done over again from the beginning. The earnest money
is lost; the outlays for the numerous excursions into the mountains

have been made in vain nor can either the payments made to
;

the professor, or the advances he has obtained, be recovered. Even

the expenses the family made to propitiate the dangerous man with
dinner parties, now become a dead loss; indeed, they still bounte-
ously regaled him many a time, for fear he should counteract
their whole future destiny by putting them off with a grave entirely
valueless from the geomantic point of view.
Now the new marvel in turn puts the family to expense. He
borrows money of them whenever an opportunity presents itself,
claims payment for every trifle of work he does and is most likely ,

to intrigue with the proprietor of each plot of ground he declares

to answer the purposes of the family ; for why should he despise
his honest share in the purchase-money which he enables this man
to squeeze out of the family? In short, there is probably not much
1020 THE GRAVE.

exaggeration in the assertion of the Chinese themselves that many

well-to-do families, unable to restrain their passion for Fung-shui,
are either ruined , or brought to the brink of poverty by geomancers.
Pending the acquisition of an auspicious grave, the deceased
parent remains unburied , somewhere in a
either in the house , or
shed or temple. Although, as our readers know (see pp. 132 sqq.),
public opinion decries long postponement of burial as the height
of unfilialness and both law and government threaten it with
,

severe punishment yet these three mighty factors combined stand

,

powerless in the matter, and regularly every year thousands of

dead are deprived of a timely burial because of the exigencies of
Fung-shui. Up to a certain point this phenomenon may be explained
from the circumstance that postponement of burial was a legal
custom in ancient China, based on the then prevailing ideas of a
resurrection \ so that the Chinese cannot but regard it as per-
fectly defensible on the grounds of orthodoxy and fashion. It may
be also explained from the fact that the ancients used to depose
the dead for some time in their dwellings before conveying them
to their last resting place, and that this custom has been trans-

mitted to posterity by so venerable a book as the I li , and sanc-

tioned by many dynasties as a legal rite of the state religion (see

pp. 363 sqq.).

Cases of long postponement of burial have undoubtedly been

numerous in China ever since Fung-shui bore sway there. Many
have been entailed by the acknowledged necessity of selecting
auspicious dates which custom, as our readers know,
for burials,

is most closely connected with the Fung-shui doctrines. We read,

for instance , of Ho Siiin
2
, a statesman who lived in the third
and the beginning of the »when he was
fourth century, that
» finally invested with the governorship of Wu-khang (a part of

» modern Chehkiang), it was very usual among the people to bury

» their dead at great expense, and there were also those who,
» entertaining a superstitious dread of years and months in which
» certain things ought not to be done stored up their dead not , ,

» committing them to the earth. These practices were forbidden by

»Ho Siiin once and for ever" 3 With the object, probably, of put- .

1 See our special chapter on this subject on pp. 263 sqq.

2
HUi-

M .'Hr^I^^il^otlf'ilf^ M. Books of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. 68, 1.1 5.

 . «

POSTPONEMENT OF THE BURIAL OF PARENTS. 1021

ting a check to the evil in question, several dynasties have formally

excluded from the state-service those of their subjects who post-
poned the burial of their parents. It is stated that » under the
» Wei dynasty and the House of Tsin the only reason for ex- ,

» eluding a man from an official post was the fact of the corpse
» of his grandfather or father being kept uncoffined or unburied" '.
c
This rule prevailed also during the T ang dynasty, for we read in
the biography of Yen-chen-khing i
, who lived in the eighth century:
When he held a high post in the country of Ho-tung, » there was
» living there one Ching Yen-tsu who after his mother's death had,

» left her corpse unburied for twenty-nine years within the walls
-*of a Buddhist monastery. Chen-khing reported the case to the
» Throne with this result that the said man and his brothers were
,

» not registered among the office-bearers for thirty years , and the
» whole empire was alarmed and moved" Still later, in 952,
3
.

during the short-lived Cheu dynasty, the emperor T ai Tsu 4 issued

c

a decree, stating that » henceforth, in each case of a paternal grand-

» parent or parent not having been committed to the earth after his
» demise the elders of the family at the head of which he had
,

» stood during his life should not be entitled to solicit for official
,

» dignity, nor would the officers already sprung from that family be
» granted any promotion or transference to another post ; but these
» rescripts did not apply to the inferior or junior relations , nor to
5
» the members of the family still lower in rank" .

Sze-ma Kwang, the famous statesman and ethical philosopher

whose acquaintance our readers have already made elsewhere in this
work (page 238), stands foremost in the ranks of those who during ,

the Sung dynasty, turned their sharp pen against Fung-shui, be-

* nw
Dynasty, eh. 110,
p£
I.
m# % & m %m 7>«t w
8.
B °° ks °f the Tsin

2
jm jIl $lp

3
k i & m % # # - + % # n ft £ a *&,
.

the T'ang Dynasty, ch. 128, 1. 8; also the New Books, ch. 153, 1. 8.

s£ > fa
Dynasties, ch. 112,
i ^ #7 # T ^ 7 #
I. 10.
ltb RR- 0ld Histoi
y of the Five

66
 :

1022 THE GRAVE.

cause it so many of the dead of a decent and timely

deprived
burial. In A. U. 1084 he wrote: »The people nowadays do not bury
» the dead more luxuriously than they did anciently, but the im-
» portance attached to the prohibitions created by the Yin-and-Yang
» system has become much greater The treatises on burial now in !

» circulation investigate the influences of the forms of mountains and

» water-courses rocks and fields they examine the Branches and
, ;

» kan which indicate the years, months, days and hours, considering
» the low or high rank of the offspring in the social scale , their

» wealth and poverty, late or early death, intelligence or stupidity

» be entirely bound up with those factors, so that burials can-
to

» not be performed unless in such-and-such grounds and at such-

» and-such times. The whole nation is bewildered by these theories
» and places belief therein , in consequence of which it frequently occurs
» that those who lose their parents postpone their burial for a con-
» siderable time. If asked the reasons why they do so , they say
» Year and month are not yet propitious ', or
' We have not yet :
'

» found a felicitous plot of ground or Some of our family reside

', :
'

» far from here in the service of the State and have not yet found
» an opportunity to come home', or: 'We are so poor that we
» are not yet able to procure the requirements for the burial'.
» These are the causes of there being people who do not perform one
» single burial during their whole lives , nay, during many generations
» in succession , which encoffined corpses are aban-
in consequence of
» doned and lost sight of, so that it becomes unknown where they
» are. Oh how is it possible that such things do not make a man
!

» sigh and lament from the bottom of his heart! '.

» With a view to the life to come , a man sets great value upon
» having posterity, that they may properly bury his remains. But
» if his offspring act in the above way, a man is worse off than

4>ZBWKW\b mUZ^W^MM B # Z ill

£is muz ^ % nmm'M m 9k<M &% m m n ,

ii ## ft a m * bm z m ,m m * m m,x h .
 ,

SZe-MA KWANo's CRITICISMS OF FUNG-SHUI. 1023

» if he died on the road without leaving any son or grandson , for

» then some benevolent creature , on beholding him , would throw
» something over his remains to hide them from view 1
.

» According to the ceremonial rules enacted by the ancient sover-

» eigns , the period within which their burial must take place did not
» exceed seven months and the present dynasty has or-
(see p. 264),
» dained that every one, from the Imperial princes downwards, shall
» be interred ere three mouths have elapsed. Those rules also demand
» that the children shall not make any change in their mourning
» dress before the burial , that they must eat gruel and live in sheds
» built against the wall , for grief that their parents are homeless
» and that they shall gradually diminish their mourning after

» the interment. But people nowadays turn a deaf ear to these rules
» and openly transgress the rescripts. They put off their mourning
» dress ere the burial is over, occupy oificial posts in any part of
» the realm, eat rice, dress in ornamented garments, drink spirits
9
» and make music. Can their hearts be at ease when they do so ?
» The social standingof any man his wealth and the length of
,

» his depend on the heavens, and his mental development on

life

» himself; but these matters stand in no connection whatever with

» burials , nor are they pre-influenced thereby. If nevertheless every-
» body follows the advice of burial professors , mankind must come
» to suffer under a concurrence of events entailing grief and misery.
» And how is it to be borne that people do not refrain from
» cruelly exposing their parents to wind and weather, merely for
» the purpose of establishing their own wealth and fortunes ? »
» Formerly, when my own forefathers were buried, my family

ffim,&nz^^ffiM&,mmm'4.m^w%
 ,

1024 THE GRAVE.

» were too poor to procure proper vaults and coffins , and they did
» not use these until one of them was raised to the dignity of
» Generalissimo. Not the slightest quantity of gold , silver ,
pearls
» or jade was ever placed in their graves. When the Generalissimo
» was to be buried, my clansmen unanimously said: 'A burial is
» an occurrence of great significance in a family may we therefore ;

» abstain from consulting geomancy? Certainly not!' My elder

» brother Poh-khang was compelled to comply with their desires
» and said I assent to advising with geomancy
:
'
but where shall ;

» we find a good burial professor to consult ? Upon which a '

» clansman replied: 'In the one Chang,

village close by there lives

»a clever employed by everybody in several districts'.

professor,
» My brother called this man and promised him twenty thousand
» copper coins. On hearing him mention such a sum the geomancer ,

» was greatly delighted, for he was a simple rustic, and the geo-
» mancers being at that time looked down upon by the people as
» mere rustics he had never received more than a thousand coppers
,

» for a burial. Still my brother said :

'
T will entrust you with the
» burial on condition that you follow my instructions ; otherwise I
» shallemploy another professor'. 'I will do nothing else but what
» you order me', was the reply. 1
» My brother himself now selected such a burial place as pleased
» himself best , fixed the month
year day and hour of the inter-
,
,

» ment, the depth and dimensions of the grave, and the road along
» which the procession should pass making everything agree in the
,

ins M Mo
^%^mmzm&mm^,*&&mm,n

im z fa ^ , m t m it m *r £ £% & mmm
>

mz,)t75gm£,mMm^n<m£.mji&M
nmm^mA.m^n^m^m.mziKM-.yt
 ,
;
!

sze-MA kwang's criticisms of fung-shui. 1025

» best way with the circumstances. He then ordered Mr. Chang to

» control his work with the help of his books of burial and the ,

» man declared everything to be highly felicitous. Which being ,

» communicated to the clansmen, filled them all with delight, none

» of them raising objections or expressing any other opinion '.

» (In spite of all this) my brother is now seventy-nine years

,

» old and his official career has raised him up to the dignity of
,

» Minister of State. And 1 am now sixty-six and, though unworthy

» of the honour I am invested with the dignity of minister in
,

» immediate attendance upon the Emperor; moreover, twenty three

» clansmen of mine are office-bearers. And now behold how people
» who carefully employ the books of burial, are unable to surpass
» my family Two years ago my wife died. No sooner was her
!

» coffin made than we placed her in it ; no sooner were the

» preparatives finished than we carried her away ; no sooner was
» her grave dug than we buried her , nor did we waste a single
» word in consulting an expert in Fung-shui matters. And yet
» nothing infelicitous has up to the present befallen me unless by ,

» other palpable causes. Geomancers have founded false systems with

» which they delude the multitude ; they cause woe and misery
» to prevail for many generations in families which are visited by
» death. But still worse, the proposal lately made by me to the

» Throne in my capacity of a Censor , to the effect that the books of

» burial in Empire should be forbidden has not been agreed
the ,

» with by any of those who hold power under the government

» This disquisition is made by me in the hopes that sons and ,

» grandsons may in future bury their dead at the proper time. If

» they wish to learn that the requisites for burial need not be
» costly, let them consider what has found place with my forefathers
» and if they desire a proof that the books of burial deserve no
2
» belief , show them what has occurred in my family!"

^1H#$> £^2$ft^r. + ^fHA= HA

 ,,,

2026 THE GRAVE.

In another piece from his hand, Sze-ma Kwang laments over the
same subject in a somewhat different key. »The people, placing
» trust in the gossip of burial professors , are wont to seek for good
» influences from the forms and contours of mountains and water-
» courses even after they have selected felicitous years months ,

» days and hours for the burial considering the wealth and social
,

» position of their sons and grandsons, their mental faculties and

» the length of their lives to depend thereon in all respects. But
» there prevails so much diversity of opinion among those proficients
» and they confuse matters by their quarrelsome discussions to such
» an extent that no decision can be arrived at with regard to a
,

» date for the burial so that some people do not bury any of their
,

» dead during their whole lives nay, during several generations.

,

» It also occurs that the offspring do not bury their dead because
» a decadence of their fortunes causes them to forget or lose sight of
» the place where they have cast away the remains. Supposing for a
» moment that burials could virtually render man happy and pros-
» perous would it even then be tolerable that sons and grandsons
,

» should cruelly leave the decaying remains of their nearest relations

» exposed to the open sky, with the object of reaping profit for

» themselves? Such acts are the worst sins against the rites, the
» worst violations of human duty that can be.
» The sorrowful resentment a bereaved filial son bears in his

» heart profound , and his grief extends far. Hence he fears

is

» that ,he does not bury the remains deep enough others will
if ,

» exhume them , and that if he places them too deep in the ground
,

» they will become wet and moulder away quickly. Consequently,

» he certainly searches out a place where the earth lies thick and
» the water is deep beneath the ground and there he buries the ,

» corpse; in this respect he must certainly select a proper place" '.

z -T- % m >& b hi m *n m & z r- # % m # fi »

^^Hflflr^iiLlit^ flUff"^- K"

'

ki " f" sh " tsih ch iH,j' sect -

ch. 97.
|gg f§ ,

w&^mmz m.Wcm^M b^xw\u^

 POSTPONEMENT OF BURIAL PUNISHED BY GOVERNMENT. 1027

When Sze-ma Kwang thus tried his wits upon improving the
customs of the nation at a time when the ascendency of his au-
thority and influence had reached its height, the ruling Son of Heaven
was endeavouring to put a stop to the postponement of burials
by sterner measures. »In the fifth year of the period Yuen fung
» (1082) he decreed that those who did not bury their dead relations
» without postponement, should be banished for two years, and
» that those who retained such men in official employ should
» incur punishment" 1
. About the same time, thus the Histories of
that time recount, one Wang Tsze-shao 2
, a functionary in Hu-
nan of very high position » was denounced by the censor Chang
,

» Shang-ying for not having buried his parents, and he was dis-
» missed from his office on account thereof" 3 A few years later, .

c
» Liu Ping, who, while in charge of the government of Ch en-
» cheu had with his younger brother Hwan been raised to the
,

» dignity of Minister in immediate attendance on the Throne, was

» deprived of this dignity as a punishment for not having buried his
» deceased parents, and dismissed from his prefectship" *.

The Ming dynasty likewise decreed that punishments should be

upon those who rendered themselves
inflicted guilty of such exe-
crable deeds. ->In the fifth year of the period Hung wu (A. D.
» 1372) it was decreed by the emperor that, whereas there were

*$ # * B % t£ * B-& f $hn& ,^ ^ Ji#f m

,

m^m^o iE®mBm&mmm> %^%^-^

c
m # tz & & m $ m» ?& m m % x mm n »

m m m m *5 tt & * ± j? * n z *u m m zw b
Pf
Jfi ^ K Jf> ^JJ, ^, " kin tx shu hih ch'ing, sect.
|||
;
ch. 92 and 63.

i7tmfr^m^mMB%fe^%,m\fifff3
^£ §f Z Hist0 O' ot '
tlie Sun S Dynasty, ch. 124, 1. 15.

:!
$P £ 5i $f ^ Wi ^ 7 B 3t #
Dynasty, ch. 329, I. 18.
» J&- Hist01 >' of ti,e Sun s

i£ M ^ H UK- ,
The same work '
ch -
35C >
' 8 -
1028 THE GRAVE.

» often people who , led astray by Fung-shui , 'left encoffined corpses

» unburied for more than a year not setting them at rest in a ,

» grave the ministers in the departments of the central government

,

» should meet in council and draw up a law against this evil; this
» law should be everywhere promulgated and properly observed,
» and punishments be pronounced against those who should pre-
» sume to violate it" '. This decree was duly obeyed, for we find
an article in the Code of the Ming dynasty, threatening with
eighty blows with the long stick those who, led astray by Fung-
shui, kept a corpse unburied for longer than a year \ It is

worded exactly like that of the present Code of Laws, which we

have cited on page 133, so that the now reigning dynasty has
simply copied it. As we have stated on the same page, it has little
practical effect on the evil, as written laws in China are generally
a dead letter, unless it suits the mandarins to put them in force
for the maintenance of their authority and that of their Imperial
master.
Much time is lost in seeking a grave especially when the dead
man leaves many chddren. Our readers know from pp. 964 seq.
that six of the kwa are identified by the Ti/i king both with six
points of the compass and with sons and daughters. Consequently,
the fortunes of all the members of a family cannot be insured
by the grave of their father or mother unless the forms and con-
tours of the surroundings are perfect on six sides thereof; and as
such a perfect sepulchre is hardly ever to be acquired , even by
the ablest professors, it follows that some of the children are
excluded from the benefits yielded by the grave. It is unnecessary
to say this gives rise to domestic discord, especially when the
children thereby prejudiced are the offspring of a jealous second wife
or of concubines, for these women instigate the dear fruits of their
loins not to stoop to such wrong, but rather to oppose it vigorously
to the end. Happily, family quarrels arising from such Fung-
shui questions are moderated to some extent by the fact that the
interests of the daughters are little attended to, they being destined
to enter another clan by marriage, after which their own fate

gjjjj
Ifjl. History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 60, 1. 22. See also cli. 2, 1. 9.

2 See the Ta Ming hwui tien, chapter 129, 1. 9.

 :

GRAVES DO NOT PROFIT ALL THE CHILDREN. 1029

and that of their children will be entirely bound up with the

graves of their parents-in-law.
The theory that a grave can seldom send forth blessings to all
the sons equally, one of the grandest inventions of geomantic
is

sages. It safeguards their system from some of the most dangerous

attacks of scepticists, as it imposes immediate silence upon all those

who might ask : » Showers of blessings descend upon my brother's

house because, as the professors say, the position of our father's
grave is extremely felicitous; why then am I, though likewise
his son, overwhelmed by poverty and misfortune?" Remarks of this
sort are readily disarmed also by the following argument: »That
the one brother is poor and the other is rich , is simply a conse-
quence of the latter's neglecting to give the former his fair share
in the profits the grave produces him. To share those profits

with his brother is his moral duty; but instead of fulfilling his

duty, he keeps everything for himself, even at the risk of ruining

his own fortunes , for he is thus stupidly amassing a store of demerit
c
by which the indignation of the T ien li will be aroused in the
end. They will inevitably punish him by withdrawing their pro-
tecting hands from the grave, and so cause its Fung-shui to flow
away, which will render him poorer than he ever was before".
The doctrine that a grave may yield great profits to one member
of a family without advantaging the others, is by no means a
modern invention. Already in the histories of the emperor Wu of '

the Liang dynasty we read

» When the lady Ting the emperor's concubine of the first
,

» rank had breathed her last the heir-apparent (her son) had dele-
, ,

» gated some men to find a propitious place to bury her in. When
» they were about to cut away the plants and shrubs from that
» spot some individual who had a plot of ground for sale tried to
,

» sell it through the medium of the eunuch Yu San-fu promising ,

» him one million if he managed to get three millions for it.

» San-fu secretly applied to the emperor telling him that the ,

» ground the heir-apparent had secured could by no means ensure

» the imperial same degree
felicity to the as the plot he himself
» had now found. The emperor who, being in the last years of his
» life , entertained sundry superstitious fears ,
gave him orders to
» purchase it.

» After the corpse had been buried in it , a Taoist priest , versed

1 j£ «^j* A. D. 502—549.
 ^

1030 THE GRAVE.

» in the discovery of felicitous graves , declared :

'
This grave shall
» not profit the heir-apparent , but the sphere of its good influences
» may perhaps be widened by certain repressive measures". So he
» made a goose of wax and with some other things buried it
, at
» the side of the grave, at the point of the compass corresponding
» to the eldest son.
» At that time there were two Palace Inspectors , Pao Moh-chi
» and Wei Ya, formerly in high favour with the heir-apparent. Moh-
» chi having espied what had happened he apprized Ya of it and
, ,

» privately told the emperor that this latter was the man who
» had thus suppressed the felicity of the spot on behalf of the heir-
» apparent. On this , the emperor secretly dispatched somebody to dig
» up the earth and see whether the affair was real , and the goose and
» the other things were actually found. Much frightened , the em-
» peror would have the matter thoroughly investigated ; but Sii Mien
» firmly withheld him from any such measures, and the priest alone
» was put to death. To the heir-apparent the business was a cause
» of deep remorse to the end of his days , and the consequences
l
» were that his offspring never occupied the throne" .

We read also in the biography of a certain Wen Ta-ya 2

, a
high statesmau and the corypheus of filial conduct and fraternal
devotion who lived in the first part of the seventh century: » When
» he transferred the remains of his grandfather to another grave,
» a diviner who calculated the properties of the spot said: 'It

& *r *¥ &, % mm # m #j mm^i m-T^L.

m^mzm^^mnm^^-^^^m^i^^m
i$Mmm&lt, t$m^BM;±o &g± ?&m :

\& tffc iU£ 'I'lE » $t ^ fflffil -^ AL- Hist0, y ofthe Southern Part of the Realm,
ch. 53 , 11. 6 seq.
2
&*&.
 ,

GRAVES MADE DURING LIFE. 1031

» will be felicitous for your younger brother , but of no advantage

» to yourself; what do you intend to do?' 'Should your prophecy
» be realised', was the reply, '1 will enter the ground with a smile
» on my lips'. After that year had elapsed, he died" 1
.

From what has been adduced in the foregoing pages it is sufficiently

manifest that the possession of sons and money is not an unmitigated
blessing, for the consequences may be fatal to a Chinaman after his
death. Indeed, if each son is anxious to secure through his father's
grave his own fortunes in particular, and money enough has been
left them to provide what they believe to be a perfect Fung-shui, dis-
cord arises, whereby the burial of the old man is postponed for months
and years, to the prejudice of his manes. No wonder therefore that
many a well-to-do father, if blessed with numerous sons, endeavours
to elude this calamity by having his grave made during his life-

time, with the observation of all the rules of geomantic science.

This custom may be placed on a level with that of procuring,
during life, one's own grave clothes and coffin. It saves many a poor
soul from the gloomy fate of hovering about in the other world as a
homeless paria, an outcast without a shelter into which it can retire
from the evils and nuisances of the spirit world. Moreover, it is

considered very grand in this present life to possess one's own grave
especially if it has been built by the care of the sons under the guise
of filial devotion.
A grave made during the life of the person who is to occupy it , is

called in Amoy a siil hik 1

, » longevity region". This term owes its

origin to the same idea as » longevity garments" and » longevity

boards or longevity wood ", which are terms respectively denoting
grave clothes and coffinsmade before death (see pp. 61 and 323).
To prepare one's own grave during life is a custom of very an-
cient date. The emperor Shi Hwang started the works for his mau-
soleum shortly after his accession to the throne (see page 399), and
the same line of conduct was followed by the sovereigns of the
Han dynasty (page 423), for which reason their sepulchres are often
3
denoted in the annals of their reign as » longevity mausolea" .

7j£. New Books of the Tang Dynasty, ch. 91 , 1. 1. Also the Old Books of that

House, ch. 61 , 1 1.

2
mm- 3
m
 ,

1032 THE GRAVE.

That the custom was then in vogue among the official class also,
is proved by the Histories of that epoch, which relate that the
grandee »Heu Lan, having on the death of his mother in the
» second year of the period Kien ning (A. D. 169) returned
» home and there built a large sepulchre the Judge of the Circuit ,

» Chang Kien impeached him in a memorial addressed to the Throne

,

» of having prepared for himself a longevity sepulchre with a vault

» of stone , a gate with two entrances and high side buildings 01
,

»a hundred feet" l
. And of the minister Chao Khi s we read: »In
» the sixth year of the period Kien ngan (A. D. 201) he died,
:l

» having previously built a longevity tomb for himself" . Also

after the Han dynasty instances of this same custom are regularly
recorded. So, for instance, at a time corresponding to about the
c
year 480 after the Christian era a high office-bearer, named » Ch en
,

Tien-fuh ordered his family to build a longevity tomb for him" *.

Never have geomancers such a grand opportunity of showing

off their ability and astuteness as when a sift Ink is being made.
There is then plenty of time for the family to consult any number
of them and to admire that display of profound learning wherewith
each of them can what the other has projected and exe-
frustrate
cuted. Of is chosen who manifests more
course in the end the one
erudition than all the others by uttering ambiguous nonsense and
at the same time shows a good deal of deference to the views
expressed by the male and female members of the family, who,
indeed, feel sure they know all about the art. An experiment with
pig's bones having produced good results, the grave is finished

under the auspices of that wisest of the wise, the tumulus made,
and an inscribed grave stone erected in front of it. If the mater-

familias be still alive, a sepulchre is in general at the same

time made for her on the right hand side, the left appertaining to
her husband, as it is considered the place of honour, both in life

and death.

the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 108, 1. 14.

*m%^<¥#,3t&^mM The same work '

ch - 94 ' '• ia

4 Hist0, 'y of the South of the Realm,

l^l^Sni'^IStAfiM^IIIP
ch. 22, I. 17.
 ;

GRAVES MADE DURING LIFE. 1033

When the grave is ready, it is necessary to prevent it from

emitting influences of untimely death over its future occupant. To
this end , a piece of red paper is pasted over his name which is

carved in the grave stone. This sheet need not be replaced by a

new one after time and rain have destroyed it, the influences of the
grave, geomancers say, having by that time blended harmoniously
with those of the Universe and, so to say, become one with
it, thereby losing their dangerous character. Now the old man
feels perfectly and greatly enjoys the happy prospect of
at ease,
being committed earth with promptitude after his death.
to the
The sons too cheerfully await the future and the wealth and for-
tune it is sure to bring them. Still, in many cases, everything
goes wrong. Unrelenting, insidious death may strike the old man
in a year when the line in which his grave is made is not felici-
tous, thus enforcing a long delay of the burial; or — and this is

much worse — the professor under whose auspices and directions

the grave has been made, may in the mean time have departed
this life or removed to another part of the country, and his col-
league, whom the family intrust with the burial, will tell them
the Fung-shui is not worth a brass farthing. Struck with constern-
ation , the men sive vent to their sorrowful resentment in hot dis-
cussions , the women by loud vociferations and utterances of wrath
but as this does not remedy the evil , the coffin is kept at home
and another burial site sought for. The sm Mk , so dearly paid
for, is sold to others, or employed to bury a slave or unmarried
daughter in, or a person who has no offspring desirous of deriving
profit from his earthly resting place.

Of course not every such an unlucky business;

siu hik turns out

otherwise people would long ago have given up making them.

Fung-shui often preventing people from burying their parents
with suitable becomes a great nuisance especially
promptitude, it

to those who cannot afford to buy coffins good and substantial

enough to permit of their keeping them in the house without
suffering from the nauseous smell. In the island of Amoy,
such families, as also those who, desirous of escaping the blame
of unfilialness , will not adjourn burials, but neither wish to

give up their chances of deriving profit from the graves through

the intermedium of Fung-shui, often have recourse to a provisory
interment, which they call fao tdi or fao tsdng*, »a stealthy or x

2
^iiiM- finil
1034 THE GRAVE.

clandestine burial". Under escort of a plain funeral cortege, they

take the coffin into the mountains or into the open country, depose
it somewhere on [the ground and cover it with earth, without
having the properties of the spot examined by a Fung-shui expert;
neither do they erect a grave stone, thereby indicating that the
coffin is not there in a definite grave, but is to be removed
afterwards to a resting place under propitious geomantic influences.
Now it may occur that, ere the new grave is found, the family
begins to prosper. Such unexpected bliss can, of course, only be
ascribed to the good Fung-shui of the provisory grave. They
laugh in their sleeve because the great lot in the lottery of life

has become theirs by pure accident or undreamt-of merits of their

own or their ancestors; and now they are certain not to transfer
the corpse, nor do they convert the spot into a sepulchre worthy ot
the dead man, for fear the Fung-shui, sensitive as it is, might be

splintered asunder by a false blow with a hoe, or be dispelled for

ever by one single brick applied in the wrong place. Thus the dead
man is forced to live, like a pauper, in a miserable dwelling, un-
worthy of his rank and station. But this causes no qualms of con-
science , for the blessings he bestows upon his family are strong proofs

that he feels himself perfectly happy and comfortable where he is.

Though the poorer classes cannot, of course, afford great outlays

for their dead, yet they seldom neglect consulting a Fung-shui
expert when they have to bury their father or mother. This
man does not take long to find a suitable site when he knows
there is not much money to be made out of his patrons; and he has
quite a stock of second-rate plots in store for them , which he con-
stantly increases when in search of good burial places for the rich.

The poor know very well that they can hope to buy but little
Fung-shui for the small sums they are able to pay. Hence they
are moderate in their demands, merely seeking graves that are
screened from the worst aeolian influences and located on a slope
which is not unfavourably situated; and they employ a professor
specially to insure the placing of the coffin in the grave in the

felicitous line of the current year.

As hinted above , the Fung-shui of even the best grave or dwelling

is consideredto be a fragile combination of imaginary influences
fitting and acting upon each other like the different parts of
into
a machine the slightest defect in which may bring the whole
,

to a standstill. It is no small boon to the professors that such

ideas prevail. Indeed, Fung-shui being of such a delicate nature,
 FDNG-SHUI CAN BE WOUNDED AND KILLED. 1035

no man however economical or avaricious he be is bold enough to

, ,

dispense with the guidance of an expert; and this ensures them

an everflowing source of income. Besides, Fung-shui being so easily
disturbed, professors have always a ready excuse at hand if their
prophecies are not realized : — the Fung-shui they say, was perfect
at the outset,but it has been » wounded" by some accident, or by
some malicious act of a bad neighbour.
Such wounds may be inflicted by a mere trifle. A stone carelessly
thrown away, or set up somewhere in the neighbourhood by a
person wishing to improve the Fung-shui of a grave of his; the
erection of a stone boundary mark; the building of a hut or shed
at some distance from the grave or on a visible mountain brow;
in short, anything may prove fatal. But nothing is so perilous for
a grave as the construction of another grave in the adjacent grounds.
In general it who discovers the impending danger.
is the professor
He does not delay for a moment to open the eyes of the family to
the sorrowful fact that the new grave will intercept the influences
of a water-course or that being made higher up just in the pulse
, ,
,

through which the beneficial influences of the tail or leg of the

Tiger or Dragon hitherto used to flow, it »cuts off their effective

operation": chan ling 1

. At the same time he convinces the family
that only prompt and severe measures can heal the wound and ,

that , if these be not at once taken the beneficient Animal will

,

bleed to death and the Fung-shui be for ever destroyed.

Therefore everybody work immediately. Negotiations are
sets to
opened with the owners of the murderous grave but without ,

any good result as they zealously stick to their good right of re-
,

taining a spot obtained at the cost of much science and money.

Geomantic measures satisfactory for both parties are hardly possible,
for what is good for the one grave is generally pernicious to the
other, and the learned combinations of factors to which both
must answer almost inevitably collide. Hard coin may perhaps
lead to a better result. But the suffering party as a rule rebounds
from demands of the other, who is certain to demand
the high
an excessive sum, especially if any of them are graduates or rich
and influential men who, being on good terms with the local
mandarins, feel sure of gaining their cause if the offended party
should invoke the intervention of these latter to redress the wrong.
In such cases nothing remains for the family but to beat a humble

* mm-
1036 THE GRAVE.

retreat. Making a virtue of necessity, they gulp down the wrong

and let things remain as they were, resolving, however, to remove
their grave as soon as any decadence in their fortunes reminds

them they cannot expect any more blessings from the wounded
Fung-shui.
But, should the two parties possess an equal, or nearly equal,
amount of social influence, or have no influence at all, a com-
plaint is soon lodged with the chief local magistrate. Our readers
might doubtless suppose that this worthy will simply dismiss the
case, written lawand the Government, as we have stated on page
1017, having denounced modern Fung-shui in contemptuous terms
as a farrago of nonsense, and its professors as a set of deluders.
However, in respect of geomancy, theory and practice in China are
two different things, for should a mandarin refuse to hear such
cases, his secretaries, constables, policemen and other hangers-on
would be deprived of many a nice opportunity of making money in
an easy way. These underlings by leaving the accusation unattended
to after it has been entered, compell the plaintiff, who is anxious
to save his Fung-shui from impendent death by loss of blood, to
bribe them to make haste; but however hard this may render his
lot, that of the defendant is still harder. If he has any money to
lose, he lives in constant fear of being taken into custody, for the
common people, though ever so innocent, are always liable to im-
mediate imprisonment if an accusation has been lodged against
them with the authorities. And as the Yamen officials take good
care to remind the defendant of this danger, he fees them liberally,

and them over and over again. And yet all these fees are not
fees

always sufficient to secure him from a terrible dungeon, a very

hell of cold, filth, starvation and torment.

Not until they have wrung the last penny out of their victims
do these underlings arouse the magistrate from his lethargy. He is

then carried in state to the graves in his official palankeen , escorted

by his usual attendance of soldiers, retainers, and lictors. Arrived

at the spot, maps of the locality, put in by the plaintiff, are
unrolled and collated with the deeds of sale of the property; with
a dignified air the mandarin surveys the country, and mostly he is
in a few moments convinced that his subordinates were quite justi-
fied in persuading him that the party which paid them best is in

the right. Otherwise judgment is usually given in favour of the

plaintiff; but many mandarins obstinately refuse to do thiswhen
the distance between the two graves exceeds a certain number of
 , : ,

FUNG-SHU1 QUESTIONS DECIDED BY THE AUTHORITIES. 1037

paces beyond which they believe no serious damage to the Fuug-

shui of a grave is possible. Still, most of the magistrates are im-
bued with too much respect for the noble geomantic art to decide
grave questions in such an off-hand easy way.
Such a »Fung-shui inspection" or Tcham hong-sui as the Amoy
1
,

Chinese call it has of course to be defrayed by the party on whose

,

behall it is made. A good sum is squeezed out of them for the men
who have accompanied the magistrate and carried his sedan-chair.
Furthermore, the same party have to offer refreshments and de-
licacies to the great man while making his inspection , and to
spread a piece of red cloth over the top of his palankeen , in order
to protect him from noxious influences , which cloth is retained (comp.
pp. 97 and 219). Last, but not least, they must send him a sum of
money, together with a selection of costly presents, lest their ship
should be wrecked in sight of the harbour by the mandarin ulti-
, ,

mately changing his mind in favour of the other party.

It follows from the above that poor people, the Fung-shui of
whose graves has been disturbed, have to gulp down the wrong
in silence. The Amoy Chinese are quite right when they say
Ge-mhg pat dzl k/icii
Bo tsin m scli Mi 2 ,

which means: •» Mandarins' offices stand open quite as wide as the

character /\ (eight); but those who have no money need not enter".
The abuse of litigation by petty officials for money-extorting
purposes is very common in China, and is systematically tolerated
in all cases, both criminal and civil. We say systematically; for,
whereas the Government, as our readers know (see page 541), acts
on the principle that each individual or family should have their
affairs regulated by their own clan and not trouble the higher
authorities with them those who. are imprudent enough to call for
,

interference may expect to suffer, and chiefly in their pockets. This

method is very practical in the moral education of the people,
teaching them to be mild and forbearing, and to avoid litigation.
Mandarins are sometimes honest enough to issue proclamations in
which those evils entailed by litigation are depicted in striking colours
thus openly confessing that extortions by police-officers and clerks
are as a matter of course inseparably connected with lawsuits.

1
mmfc-
67
1038 THE GRAVE.

Much and contention about graves is created by the foul

strife

intriguesand frauds of certain brokers who derive a livelihood ,

from assisting people in acquiring suitable grave grounds. These

men possess, or are deemed to possess, a thorough knowledge of
the localities where eligible burial sites can be had , and they
know better than anybody else who the owners are , and the con-
ditions on which they are inclined to sell. At Amoy, the people
l
denote them by the not very flattering terms of soa'"-hci ,

1
» mountain spectres", and soa n ka-tsodh , » mountain cockroaches",
in allusion to their haunting graves like ghosts, and rummaging
every spot and recess in the open country like cockroaches in a

house. When such a §rave broker is applied to by a client, the

latter is taken out. to see the merchandize; and the broker's chief
business is to ask the highest possible price and to prevail upon
the owners to sell cheap ,
quietly pocketing the difference. As is the
custom with brokers generally in China, the mountain cockroach
settles the transaction without allowing the buyer and vendor
to see each other, or even to know each other's name. For the
sake of his own purse he lives on very friendly terms with all the
Fung-shui professors in the district, these worthies being able to
assist him greatly in the sale of any grounds by declaring for a fee
that the geomantic influences under which they are situated are
good, nay, exquisite.
The cockroaches are generally represented by the people as a reck-
less set , little less means for making money
delicate in their choice of
than thieves and robbers. It is chiefly they who commit frauds like
those which are provided for in the fourth and fifth supplementary
articles of the Law on Burial (pp. 878 sqg.). They seek their victims

especially among those who have not money or influence enough to

gain the ear of the magistrates, should they apply to them for a
redress of grievances. One of their most common tricks is the fol-

lowing. Within the borders of a grave of such a family the broker

stealthily makes a grave mound scarcely visible. When the family
perceive it, they dare not remove it, for fear the wicked un-
known who has made it should be cruel enough to denounce
them as grave robbers and thus bring upon them all the woes
which an accusation, whether false or not, generally entails. The
family having now given proof of its lack of power and influence by

[il&- 2 jlj o O-
 MALVERSATIONS OF FUNG-SHUI BROKERS. 1039

not reporting the matter to the authorities, after a couple of years

the broker sells the mock grave to a third party, telling them that
it is his legal property, from which he has for some reason or other
removed the bones. Up to this point all goes well. But no sooner
do the purchasers proceed to burying their dead , than the real
owners sally forth to interfere. A scene ensues such as we have
described on page 128; quarrels, contentions and litigation follow.
In most cases, however, both parties have the good sense not to
commence a suit, and the legal owners are prevailed upon to give
up their claim to the disputed ground for a small sum paid to
them by the broker, who, of course, is most interested in hushing
the matter up as quickly as possible.
With a view to check practices of this sort, pious people, an-
xious to keep the moral condition of their countrymen up to the
highest possible level, sometimes erect slabs or small columns of
granite in the grounds where people are wont to bury their dead,
engraven with this inscription: »If thou desirest to find the beneficial
influences of the earth (Ti li), then first gain those of the heavens
c
(T ien li)" ', which can only be done by the cultivation of virtues
(p. 1013).
In many other ways mountain-cockroaches cause serious grave
questions to arise. Such worthies , not considering it beneath their
dignity to misappropriate other people's grave grounds and sell

them, can, of course, have no qualms of conscience about selling

grounds which when converted into graves entirely disturb the
, ,

Fung-shui of other sepulchres. Neither will they shrink from mis-

leading the buyers so as to cause them to build their omega-shaped
fence over the grave of another thus inflicting a mortal blow ,

upon the Fung-shui of such a grave, or a dagger stroke which

causes an incurable wound. This stirs up the indignation of the
owners to the highest pitch. If they have not money or influence
enough to place the matter in the hands of the magistrates, and
their remonstrances and threats remain without effect, they cool
their anger under the cover of night by knocking to pieces the
inscribed stone of the grave belonging to the encroachers, which
stone is considered the place in which the geomantic influences are
chiefly concentrated, and, moreover, the seat of the manes of the
occupant of the grave. The next night they find their own grave

t<*&^,%^%
1040 THE GRAVE.

treated in a like manner, the tumulus damaged with hoes and

spades, nay, the coffin opened and the corpse mutilated; and

now everything is ripe for a feud each party, backed by their

,

clan, thirsting for revenge. In the country, such feuds generally

more graves, open fights, destruction
entail the desecration of several
of crops and incendiarism. Men women and children are waylaid ,

and entrapped captured and maltreated or held as hostages either

, , ,

to be redeemed for money or exchanged; in short, civil war, which

is always smouldering in China, breaks out in the locality with
all its disastrous consequences.
When matters have reached such a pitch , the mandarins
sometimes resort to rigorous measures. Soldiers are quartered in
both villages and soon restore order by extorting money and food
from the inhabitants so mercilessly that within a few weeks
not a bushel of rice, nor a handful of coppers is to be found
in either of the villages. While everything of value is thus being
eaten up , carried off or gambled away by the peacemakers the ,

magistrate paternally corrects those who have taken an active part

in the desecration of the graves , by making a liberal use of sticks
both long and short, punishing some, if he deems it fit, with the
utmost rigour of the Burial Law.
Social life not having undergone any radical change in China
since culture was established there, we have no reason to suppose
that conflicts about graves necessitating the interference of the
authorities are exclusively peculiar to modern times. The passage in
the Cheu li , which we have reproduced on page S30 ,
gives evidence
that already in the pre-Christian epoch certain Great officers were
appointed to attend to litigations of this kind and to settle

them by a judicial decision. That they have sometimes assumed

enormous proportions is proved by the History of the Sung Dynasty,
according to which , in the thirteenth century, one » Lii Hang in
» the capacity of prefect of Wu-cheu managed to by judicial settle

» dicision a suit which had been pending about some fields for
» forty-two years between Mr. Chu and a certain Chang and also ,

» a contention about graves which had lasted twenty-nine years

» between two gentlemen of the surnames of Wu and Wang" 1 .

Hostilities between clans or villages not seldom arise from a

1
gt/Lffi*]i£jH##3i&i*fflpg+*r-^
 CONTENTIONS ARISING FROM FUNG-SHUI OUESTIONS. 1041

disarrangement of the Fung-shui of an extensive tract of country. A

slight alteration jmade in the course of a brook for agricultural or
other purposes; the modification of the brow of a hill or the out-
lines of a rock by the erection of a house or shed in short any little
; ,

trifle may seriously disturb the Fung-shui of villages or valleys, which

is usually by a decadence of their prosperity, bad crops,
evinced
calamities etc. Attacks upon the Fung-shui of a landscape are often
made for malignant purposes. There are instances on record of the
whole male population of a village having worked hard for several
days to destroy the felicity of a hated neighbour by digging away
a knoll, levelling down an eminence, or amputating a limb from
a Dragon or Tiger.
Quarrels and litigation arising from Fung-shui questions are of
daily occurrence in towns. The repairing of a house, the building
of a wall or dwelling, especially it it overtops its surroundings, the
planting of a pole or cutting down of a tree, in short, any change
in the ordinary position of objects may disturb the Fung-shui of
the houses and temples in the vicinity and of the whole quarter,
and cause the people to be visited by disasters, misery and death.
Should any one suddenly fall ill or die, his kindred are immedi-
ately ready to impute the cause to somebody who has ventured to
make a change in the established order of things, or has made an
improvement in his own property, which he had a perfect right to
do. Instances are by no means rare of their having stormed his
house, demolished his furniture, assailed his person; sometimes they
place the corpse in his bed, with the object of extorting money
and avenging themselves by introducing the influences of death into
his house (comp. pp. 840 sqq.). No wonder Chinamen do not repair

their houses until they are ready to fall and become uninhabitable.
Fortunately much animosity and contention is prevented from
the circumstance that Fung-shui, when disturbed, can be restored
in various ways. Professors if consulted in time
, are generally able ,

to suggest some remedy. When a dwelling house is endangered,

they usually order the erection of certain fences capable of keeping
oft or absorbing the shah which are, they think, encroaching upon

the good geomantic influences. Among such fences , slabs of granite

»This stone dares bear them"

1

inscribed with the sentence: ,

are

considered the best, if placed at a proper spot on the premises,

1042 THE GRAVE.

or inserted in the outer-wall. Very efficacious are also broad boards

with the eight kwa, painted around the figure ( gt which is

the common representation of the Yang and the Yin constituting

unitedly the T c
ai Kih or first creative power in the Universe
(see page 960); such a board should be placed like a screen in
the pathway leading up to the house. Other devices are, to place
in front of the house, or on the top of the roof, dragons or lion-
like animals of stone or burnt clay; or to nail clown over the main
entrance, or at each corner on the outside of the house, a square
board with a tiger or a tiger's head daubed thereon. But this

is leading us into the domain of amulets and talismans, which will

be treated of in our Second Book.

In a paper read in 1867 at the Missionary Quarterly Meeting
in Shanghai, the Rev. Mr. Yates relates the following interesting
instance of the correction of the Fung-shui of a mansion. » During
» the time the rebels occupied the city of Shanghai , the Yamen of

» the district magistrate was destroyed. A short time previous to

» this a magistrate had died , and his death was attributed by the
» Fung-shui professor to my church tower which was due North ,

» of the Yamen. It must be borne in mind that the influence of

» Fung-shui, when undisturbed, proceeds in a line due North and
» South. When the rebels left the city, and the local authorities
» were about to resume their old positions they sent to me a ,

» deputation to consult in regard to pulling down my church tower,

» stating as a reason that had been the cause of one magistrate's
it

» death and consequently no one was willing to serve while thus

,

» exposed. My proposition to discuss the matter with the mandarins

» was declined. Application was then made to high authorities for
» the privilege of moving the Yamen to some other part of the city.
» This was not granted. Finding it must be rebuilt on the exposed
» lot , they called many Fung-shui professors and priests to devise
» some means of counteracting the evil to which the place was
» exposed. All, at first view, pronounced the position bad.
» After a few days consultation and feasting, one astute fellow
» was able to exclaim, in language equivalent to 'eureka, eureka':
» Nothing could be more simple build the Yamen on the old
' ;

» plot but do not place it due North and South. Thus as the
, ,

» murderous spirit proceeds due South, when it passes the corner

» of the wall its course will diverge from the end wall
, and no ,
 ,

RECTIFICATION OF DISTURBED FUNG-SHUI. 1043

» evil influence can possibly follow'. The suggestion was adopted

» and the Yamen stands to this day in that position. No magistrate
» has died there since the Fung-shui was corrected".
Also when the Fung-shui of a village, town or valley has been
disturbed, there are many means of remedying the evil. We have
stated already on page 95S how the calamitous contours of rocks,
mountains or plains may be rectified by skilful manipulations, and
turned into instruments of blessing. If an elevation is not high
enough, it can be made higher; a calamitous water-course may be
given a favourable turn ;
groves may be planted at the back or on
the sides of villages and towns as fenders; tanks and ponds may
be dug to counteract obnoxious breaths by the aquatic influences
of which they are the depositories (pp. 946 and 95^); pagodas may
be erected for the same purpose, or piles of stone be made to
represent such structures (pp. 941 and 958). Temples for the wor-
ship of mighty tutelary divinities and even large Buddhist convents
generally owe their existence to a desire of the people to confirm the
Fung-shui of the environs. The particulars on this head we reserve,
however, for other parts of this work, wherein such sanctuaries
will be described.
Curious incidents illustrating the ways in which the Chinese en-
deavour to rectify the Fung-shui of towns or large tracts of country,
have been recorded by European residents. Especially instructive are
the following , which were communicated by Mr. Yates at the above-
mentioned Missionary Conference:
» Local rebellions and other public calamities are often attributed
» to some object that has destroyed the good Fung-shui , and allowed
» the murderous spirit (shah) to enter. Take the case of Shanghai.
» A few years ago, when the rebels left the city, the Fung-shui
» professors were employed to discover the cause of the disturbance
» in Fung-shui, and consequently the cause of the local rebellion.
» Their attention was directed to a large new temple within the
» north gate, called the Kwang-Foh sze '. They found on en-
» quiry that the Kwangtung and Fuhkien men were mainly instru-
» mental in rebuilding the temple, and the largest donor was the
» keeper of a house of ill-fame. As such men are called in common
2
» parlance a tortoise , they made strict examination to see if the

which means Temple of Kwang(tung) and Fuh(kien).

1
pi jfjg :2jp , :

2 Viz. » black tortoise" ,fe Sfl .

1044 THE GRAVE.

» temple and plot of ground had any resemblance to that disreput-

» able animal. To the astonishment of all , it was found to be a
» perfect representation of a tortoise travelling South. It was bounded
» on the four sides by a street and water , with a stone bridge at
» the four corners , representing the four feet of a tortoise. There
» was a stone bridge just in front of the temple door representing ,

» his head, and two wells at the door, representing the animal's
»eyes, and a large tree in the rear, representing his tail turned
» up while the temple
, itself represented the body of the odious
» thing. If any thing was wanting to confirm them in their suspi-
» cions that that temple, from its resemblance to the tortoise, was
» the cause of the local rebellion, its name Kwang-Foh sze
» was quite sufficient to removeall doubts for the city was taken ;

» by Kwangtung and Fuhkien men who entered at the North ,

»gate, just in the rear of the temple. Now as Kwang-Foh szS

» was found to be bad Fung-shui , something must be done to
» correct it. They dare not order it to be pulled down , for it was
» occupied by the gods. The Fung-shui
had no difficulty professors
» in finding a remedy, both simple and effectual. They decided
» that to change the name of the temple and put out the eyes of
» the animal would be quite sufficient to render him incapable of
» doing injury. The order was given
further and the wells were ,

» filled and the name of the temple changed to The first Moun-
up ,

tain of the City on the river Hu '.

» Again about twelve months ago
, the merchants within the ,

» city of Shanghai became alarmed at the great falling off of busi-

ly ness within the walls. The Fung-shui experts were consulted to
» ascertain the cause. The cause was soon discovered. As the Little
» North gate was simply a hole in the wall, without the ordinary
» fender and side entrance , the good influences from the South
» passed without obstruction into the foreign community, while the
» evil from the North flowed into the city. The order was given
» to build the circular wall with a side entrance which we all
,

» know was done without any apparent reason , as there was no

» danger of an attack from that quarter it being well defended ,

» by the foreign settlements. Unfortunately for the credit of Pung-

»shui, trade has not revived within the city.

yjfS Jjjj 'afe — Ml . The Hn is a branch which flows into the H\vang-pu

=|f ym at Shanghai.
 ,

A CITY WITH A DANGEROUS FUNG-SHUI. 1045

» Kii-yung 1
Nanking, has a history in connection
, a city near
» with Fung-shui, well known in the Northern and Central Pro-
» vinces. Early in the Ming dynasty, a Fung-shui professor discov-
» ered that that city would produce an emperor, and that all its
» population would be mandarins. The Emperor alarmed at the ,

» prospect of being superseded by an appointment of this kind

» took steps to have the Fung-shui of that city corrected. It was
» decreed that the North gate, at which the evil spirit enteied,

» should be built up solid , and remain so , and that the people

» should devote themselves to other than literary pursuits. It is a

» well known fact that Fung-shui has kept the North gate of Kii-
» yung closed for a period of over four hundred years. The people
» were ordered to choose one of three callings a barber a corn — ,

» cutter or a bamboo root shaver each of which necessitated the ,

» use of sharp edged instruments. It is supposed that the shah

» spirit never comes near one who uses sharp edged instruments.
» In confirmation of the fact that such an order was issued , and
» that it was obeyed we have ocular demonstration even at
, this

» day, seven tenths of the dressers of the dried bamboo shoots , an

» equally large proportion of the corn cutters in connection with
» the various bathing establishments, and the same proportion of
» the barbers of many cities in the Central
this city and of the
» Provinces are known to be Kii-yung men. The monopoly of these
» trades is readily conceded to them since it is known to be decreed ,

>> that they should get their rice in this way.

»As every mandarin has the right to erect the official pole in
» front of his house , these people claimed it , and it was conceded
» in part. Each travelling barber was allowed to erect his official

» staff on his box. Any one who will notice a travelling barber
» going about the streets with his chest of drawers slung on either
» end of a stick on his shoulder will observe a rod , in front pro-

jecting above the stick on his shoulder. This is his official pole,

» guaranteed to him
by the decrees of Fung-shui.
for all time
» Thus by closing the North gate and dispersing the male popu-
,

»lation, Kii-yung has been prevented from producing an emperor,

» and the Empire has been saved".
It seems to us, however, that the above tale about the peculiar

vocations of the Kii-yung people savours too much of legend to

deserve implicit belief. We have never found anything about this

1
®&
 : ,

104(5 THE GRAVE.

subject in Chinese books, and the custom of the street barbers of

carrying an official pole in miniature on their wash-stand is often

1
explained by the Chinese in quite another way .

In work on The Folk-lore of China 2 Dennys reports the

his ,

following incident taken from a Shanghai newspaper

,

»The general excitement caused in Hang-cheu, in common, ap-

» parently, with the rest of the province was some weeks ago ,

» intensifiedby a development of the well known superstition of

» Fung-shui. A number of people having died in a certain part
» of the town enquiries began to be made as to the cause of a
,

» mortality somewhat specially localised. But instead of looking to

» the physical conditions and environments of the district, the good
» folks of Hang-cheu called in the learning of the geomancers to
» explain the cause of the evil influence. These worthies were not
» long in pointing to a range of buildings belonging to one of the
» American missions that stood on a hill overlooking the district
,

» where the abnormal mortality had prevailed. These buildings,

» though not high in themselves, were yet elevated by their site
» above all the surrounding buildings and thus they interrupted ,

» the benign influences of the Fung-shui. The question then came

» to be, how the evil was to be remedied. The traditional mode
» of procedure would have been to organise a mob , raise a disturb-

» ance , and during its continuance contrive to pull down or burn

» the obnoxious premises. But , on the one hand ,
past experience
» of foreigners has convinced the authorities that this way of dealing
» with foreign property is sure to entail serious consequences;
» while, on the other, the satisfactory results of diplomatic action as
» illustrated at Peking has gradually inclined them to the suaviter-in-
» modo policy. Accordingly a number of the gentry were commis-
» sioned to proceed to Ningpo and put themselves in communication
» with the United States Consul on the subject. Arrived in Ningpo
» they drew up a petition to that gentleman setting forth the fears ,

» and anxieties which were excited among the common people of

» Hang-cheu by the disturbance of the Fung-shui occasioned by the
» mission premises in question and setting forth the willingness of
,

» the authorities to grant them a site and erect buildings on some

» other site to be agreed on between them and the missionaries
» or to pay the missionaries a money equivalent for the surrender

1 See >>Les Fetes annuellement celebrees a Emoui", in the t Annates du Musee

Guimet", vol. XI, page 171.
2 Page IK..
 A b'UNG-SHUI CAN BE WOUNDED AND MURDERED. 1047

».of their property. The missionaries, on being communicated with

» by Dr. Lord , signified their preference of the proposal to grant
» them an equally eligible site and erect suitable buildings else-
» where, in exchange for their existing property, and this arrange-
» ment is now in course of being carried out. No better instance
» of the difficulties which Fung-shui presents to foreign missionary
» and commercial enterprise could be adduced".
After this digression to return to the Fung-shui of the resting
places of the dead :
— a wound on a grave does not neces-
inflicted

sarily entail the death of its Fung-shui. That of some graves is so

vigorous that it can sustain many an injury without being seriously
damaged, nay, even the of a Dragon's or Tiger's
amputation
limb. Of others, on the contrary, the Fung-shui is so frail that the
slightest wound is sure to affect its working and bring the whole
machine to a standstill. Only professional experts are capable of
ascertaining whether the wound is dangerous, and whether a cure
is possible. They aver that, as in the case of the human body,
the gravity of the injury chiefly depends upon the part affected.
The stone, for instance, on which the grave inscription is carved,
and the tumulus, are especially vulnerable, they being, as stated
before, the chief seat of the manes of the occupant of the grave.
Whether a wound is mortal is inferred from its consequences.
Should the family be visited by sickness, mortality or a decline in
business , or sustain any considerable pecuniary losses , then , after

long consultation with one or more learned professors, the death

of the Fung-shui is taken for granted. It is then of no use to remove
the object which has caused the wound, or to repair the violated
tumulus, or to erect a new grave stone in the place of the one
that has been knocked to pieces. Indeed, so people argue, neither
the extraction of the dagger from the body of a murdered man, nor
the patching up of his wounds, can ever restore him to life.

When enough evil has befallen the family to convince them

that the wound, inflicted on their grave, is mortal, they generally
arrive at the conclusion that the best thing they can do is to

ask their professor to look out for another grave, and re-bury the
corpse. It not seldom occurs that a professor, eager for business
and gain, makes a family believe that one of their graves has
entirely lost its good Fung-shui, the corpse having fallen a prey
to termites, the skeleton being turned upside down, or the bones
lying out of order or topsy turvy in the coffin ; he tells them it is

their duty to break the grave up and give the soul a better resting
1048 THE GRAVE.

place elsewhere. Still all his logic is powerless so long as the

fortunes of the family take no unfavourable turn , for this is the
most decisive proof that everything is all right with the Fung-shui.
But no sooner does a disaster occur, than the professor's argument
gains attention more mishaps
; and a few suffice to make the
family surrender themselves bound hand and foot into his power.
When the grave is opened fortunately for the credit of the Fung-,

shui and the professor, the correctness of the latter 's statement is
often verified by facts. In truth it is a very common occurence in
China for termites to built their nests in coffins, or for foxes, rats
or other beasts to nestle therein; besides, the stick of a mountain
cockroach or of the professor himself can secretly disarrange the
bones so as to insure the triumph of the latter. And even if every-
thing in the grave should be in the best condition, and the bones
dry and hard, and the coffin but little affected by decay, the pro-
fessor has plenty of arguments to prove that the Fung-shui was
thoroughly bad.

It is not necessary to dilate further on Fung-shui and its

influence upon social life. The above pages will suffice to show

what it really is : — the product of egotism under the guise of filial

piety; a sure criterion that this highest among the national vir-
tues of the Chinese, so often extolled to the skies by European
authors, is much less sincere than is generally supposed; that it is

not spontaneous, but calculating; not generous, but thoroughly

selfish. Fung-shui is fetichism applied to the dead and their cor-
poreal remains. It is a hybrid monster, born of the union of
filial devotion in its vilest form with blind gropings after natural
science. At the outset a benumbed viper, it has, carefully fostered
by the nation, developed into a horrid hydra suffocating the whole
Empire in its coils and deluging it with its venom throughout its
length and breadth.
In fact , as we have stated , wielding its cruel scourge with
vigour, it disturbs social peace and order, sowing endless discord
among families, and giving rise to quarrels,
clans and villages,
litigation contention
, incendiarism and bloodshed. It causes the
,

ruin of many families, wasting their fortunes under the pretext

of creating fortunes. It constrains the people to keep their dead
unburied for months, nay years, in spite of epidemics and contagious
diseases, and to exhume them before the process of decay has done its

work, thus increasing mortality. But further, Fung-shui interferes

 FDNG-SHUI IS AN OBSTACLE TO INDUSTRY AND ENTERPRISE. 1049

with industry and commercial enterprise, as being the ground for

refusing many improvements which would be of the greatest ad-
vantage to the people. The cutting of a new road or canal , the
construction of a new bridge, almost always entails the amputa-
tion of a limb of some Celestial Animal , intercepts good ,'aquatic

some way or
influences or affects the calculations of geomancers in
other, causing entire and towns to rise up clans, wards, villages

as one man against the reckless individual whose enterprising spirit

presumes to bring misfortune upon them all. » When", says Dr.
Eitel ', » it was proposed few telegraph poles when the to erect a ,

» construction of a was urged upon the Chinese Govern-

railway
»ment, when a mere tramway was suggested to utilize the coal-
» mines of the interior, Chinese officials would invariably make a
» polite bow and declare the thing impossible on account of Fung-
» shui. When thirty years ago the leading merchants of the
, ,

» Colony Hongkong endeavoured to place the business part of

of
» the town in the so-called Happy Valley, and to make that part
» of the island the centre of the whole town , they ignominiously
» failed on account of Fung-shui. When the Hongkong Govern-
» ment cut a road now known as the Gap , , to the Happy Valley,
» the Chinese community was thrown into a state of abject terror
» and fright on account of the disturbance which this amputation
,

» of the Dragon's limbs would cause to the Fung-shui of Hong-

»kong; and when many of the engineers, employed at the cutting,
» died of Hongkong fever and the foreign houses already built in ,

» the Happy Valley had to be deserted on account of malaria the ,

» Chinese triumphantly declared, it was an act of retributory justice

» on the part of Fung-shui. When Senhor Amaral, the Governor of
» Macao , who combined with a great passion for constructing roads
» an unlimited contempt for Fung-shui, interfered with the situation
» and aspects of Chinese tombs he was waylaid by Chinese his
, ,

» head cut off 2

, and the Chinese called this dastardly deed the
» revenge of Fung-shui".
As a matter of fact, all the books of georaancy re-echo the doc-
c c
trine of Ch ing I-ch vven, the philosopher mentioned on page 715,
that , in selecting graves , » one must not be remiss in avoiding the
» five following evils : Care must be taken lest some day or other

» roads are made there , or city walls canals or ponds

, or lest ;

1 Feng-shui, pp. 1 seq

2 Comp. page 335.
 ,
;

1050 THE GRAVE.

» people of rank and influence appropriate the place to themselves,

» or agriculture be exercised thereupon" As a consequence hereof, 1
.

Fung-shui causes an immense waste of labour in China, for as it

prevents most parts of the Empire the construction of good

in
canals and roads, ships, beasts of burden or carts can only be
employed in limited numbers, which necessitates a great use of
the human shoulder for the transport of persons and merchandise
along paths scarcely passable. Nor is it rare to see hundreds of
ships and vessels taking a wide roundabout and difficult circuit,

simply because Fung-shui has forbidden a bridge to be built high

enough to allow of their passing underneath.
The question will be asked, how is it possible that so large a
portion of the human race, though imbued since its childhood
with sacred awe for the mysteries of the Universe, has grown up
to manhood and hoary old age without arriving at even an ele-

mentary knowledge of the true laws of Nature? How is it the

Chinese never builtup anything better than a speculative system
based upon ancient formulae and mystic diagrams, and amount-
ing to little more than a mechanical play of idle abstractions,
a system so unscientific, so puerile, that it can only move us to
a smile?
The answer must in the first place be sought in the educational
system of the nation. grounded upon an
This has always been
unbounded reverence for everything which could claim an ancient
origin. Whatever the ancients thought taught and wrought always ,

was in everybody's eyes the highest truth sacred and inviolable ,

beyond it no other truth ever existed. Thus the classical books

transmitting the ideas and actions of the ancients to posterity,

naturally became the exclusive starting point of instruction, both

public and private. And the Government being recruited regularly ,

and systematically, from the classes thus educated, it never could

do otherwise than disparage, nay, formally forbid any doctrines and
studies arising from other principles; on the other hand, it never
occurred any one among the people to pursue another line of
to
study, because only the old method opened up any prospect of
being admitted into the ranks of the ruling party, which is the
highest ambition of every true Chinaman.

1
^m^pr^ii^fi ^^^m^^nm*
Rituals, c.li . VI.
 ,

NO TRUE NATURAL SCIENCE EXISTS IN CHINA. 1051

So nobody in China, has ever thought of studying Nature in that

independent matter-of-fact way which alone can reveal to man the
secrets of the Universe; nor have the Chinese tried to make instru-

ments to aid them in the contemplation of the canopy of heaven

the study of the atmosphere, the laws of gravity and hydrostatics.
Instead thereof, they have blunted their wits upon conjectural the-
ories, evolving an entire system of natural science from their reli-

gious superstitions with respect to the dead in connection with a

few rough guesses at Nature occurring in the Classics; the product

being a monstrous medley of religion superstition ignorance and , ,

philosophy, more strange than was ever hatched by the human brain.
It seems never to have occurred to any one, not even to the wisest
of the wise, that methodical, independent research might be a
better groundwork for big books than the ignorance of the ancients.
Chinese by spinning out the dogmatic formulae of ancient
sages,
tradition to an infinite length have succeeded in proving that
,

oceans of wisdom lie hidden in those formula?. Thus the position

of the ancients has been strengthened, so as to render it impregn-
able, but in the mountains of reasonings not a single grain of
common sense is to be found and though these sages have obtained
;

places of worship for themselves in the Government temples dedicated

to Confucius and the great disciples of his school of learning , thus
gaining the highest laurels ever conferred in their country on the
human intellect, not one of them has ever enriched the Empire
with the simplest rudiment of real, useful knowledge.
Even at present the educational system of China is based , as
firmly as ever, upon the principle that the Classics are the sole
depositories of truescience; and everything which is not built
upon the principles laid down therein , is ignored , or stigmatized

as heterodox. AndGovernment is in the hands of the learned

the
class, as it Hence Fung-shui is still in the apogee
has always been.
of its power, bearing sway in the mansions of emperors and
princes just as in the cabins of the poor. The palace-grounds in the
Metropolis and the gorgeous mausolea of the Imperial Family as

well as the graves of the lowest class are laid out in accordance
with its rescripts. That Fung-shui has a legal status we have seen
from the fact that the authorities entertain the claim and give
judgment when complaints about the disturbance of the Fung-shui
are placed before them.
Fung-shui has even a political status. » When a rebellion breaks
» out in any one of the eighteen provinces , the first step taken by
1052 THE GRAVE.

» the Government is not to raise troops, but invariably to dispatch

» messengers instructed to find out the ancestral tombs of the several
» leaders of the rebellion to open the tombs scatter their contents
, ,

» to the winds and desecrate the graves in every possible way. For
» this is supposed to be the surest means of injuring the prospects
» and marring the possible success of the rebels" l
. The books make
mention of emperors having , no doubt for similar reasons , destroyed
the graves of the dynasties they had dethroned. Chwang Tsung,
for instance, the first sovereign of the short-lived posterior T'ang
dynasty, » having destroyed the House of Liang, desired to dig up
c
» the grave of T ai Tsu ,
(the founder) of that House , and to hack
c
» up and mutilate the corpse. But (Chang) Ts iien-i gave
his coffin
» it as his opinion that though that family had been in overt
,

» enmity (with the present emperor), enough retributive justice had

» been done it by its slaughter and destruction and that the ,

» cutting-up of a coffin and the mutilation of the corpse was not

» a sublime measure for a sovereign to take as a warning example
» to the world. Chwang Tsung opined he was right, and merely
» demolished the gate of the tomb" 2 There is little doubt that it .

was not merely rapacity which inspired insurgents to destroy, in

the course of centuries, so many imperial tombs, but also a desire
to weaken the Throne by depriving it of the indispensable protection
of its ancestors. Already in Chapter V we have drawn the attention
of our readers to this point (p. 441) and, moreover, stated (see pp.
427 sqq. and p. 4*36) that, to minimize such dangers, walled cities
have, since the Han dynasty, been built in the neighbourhood
of the imperial mausolea, and the latter are walled and garrisoned
down Should European armies have for a second
to the present day.
time to march on Peking, it will be worth while trying whether
the campaign cannot be shortened and loss of life spared by a
military occupation of the burial grounds of the Imperial Family.
Indeed, should the Court receive the ultimatum that these tombs
will be successively destroyed by barbarian explosives, its belief in

Fung-shui will without a doubt force it to submit implicitly to

the foreign demands.

1 Eitel, op. cit., page 80.

2
« mmn^ & m ^-x m.M . , frit mp . m~\

$& \ m i 3^ m ffij b Histor y of the Five Dy nasties i

ch -
45 >
'• 3 -
 ,

GREAT GEOMANTIC SKILL ASCRIBED TO FOREIGNERS. 1053

By thus making use of the Fung-shui doctrines to harm their ene-

mies, the foreign powers would merely be wielding the same weapon
which Chinese statesmen have so frequently and cunningly used against
them in times of peace. » When land had to be ceded to the hated
» foreigner along the coast of China , as a so-called foreign conces-
» sion the Chinese Government invariably selected ground condemned
,

» by the best experts in Fung-shui as combining a deadly breath

» with all those indications of the compass which imply dire ca-
» lamity to all who settle upon it , even to their children's children.
» If the spot had not had to be ceded by treaty, it would have been

» pointed out to the unsuspecting foreigner as the only one open

» for sale and anyhow the ignorant barbarian sceptic would be made
,

» the supposed dupe and laughing-stock of the astute Chinaman.

» Witness, for instance, the views held by intelligent Chinese in
» regard to the island of Sha-meen, the foreign concession of Canton.
» It was originally a mud fiat in the Canton river in the very worst
» position known to Fung-shui. It was conceded to the imperious
» demands of the foreign powers as the best available place of

» residence for foreigners and when it was found that the Canton
;

» trade, once so important, would not revive, would not nourish

» there in spite of all the efforts of its supporters
,
when it was —
» discovered that every house built on Sha-meen was overrun with
» white ants as soon as built boldly defying coal tar carbolic acid
, ,

» and all other foreign appliances — when it was noticed that the
» English Consul, though a special was built for him
residence
» there ,
preferred to live two miles under the protecting shadow
off

» of a Pagoda , — this was a clear triumph of Fung-shui and of

» Chinese statesmanship" '.

Afterwards, when the barbarians had been settled long enough

in the several ports for the Chinese to witness the rise of flourishing
mercantile houses, surrounded by buildings and villas which must
appear to them to be palaces when compared with their own
huts and houses, then a decided change in their ideas as to the
stupidity of foreigners in Fung-shui matters came about. Did not
the fact that there were never any paupers to be found among them
and that most of them became rich enough to pay to their humblest
clerks salaries which, if earned by a Chinaman, would stamp
him as a man of wealth , sufficiently prove that they knew all about
that noble art? In Amoy many professors have not words enough

1 Eitel, op. ait., pp. 80—81.

68
 ,

1054 THE GRAVE.

wherewith to extol the Fung-shui of the foreign houses in the island

of Kulangsu. Nearly all of them they say, are placed under the ,

protection of excellent Tigers and

Dragons, and the gardens too
are laid out in a way which native experts could hardly improve
upon the groves and trees serving as perfect fenders against ob-
,

noxious shah. The Fung-shui of those dwellings is so solid that

the inmates need no such cabalistic amulets and talismans as the
natives are forced to affix to their own walls and to wear about
their bodies in considerable numbers; they may even regularly
clean their houses without fear, whilst the cleansing of a Chinese
c
dwelling would inevitably expulse therefrom the ts ai khi '

or » wealth-producing breath", and so cause the ruin of the in-

2
mates though not least it is the good Fung-shui of their
. Last , ,

buildings which exempts foreigners from the trouble of selecting

auspicious days and hours for their enterprises. They never consult
a day professor, nor cast a look into an almanac, and yet,
even in the hottest summer months when hosts of obnoxious
spirits and dangerous breaths innumerable decimate the natives
by cholera and other diseases, they look hale and healthy; and
though they recklessly spoil the Fung-shui of many Chinese graves
by erecting buildings for trading purposes, dwellings and amuse-
ments, they are wonderfully exempt from the disasters sent down
by the irritate spirits. How is it then to be believed that foreigners
do not know more about Fung-shui than they are willing to tell?
However firmly the foreigners maintain that they are quite
ignorant of the art and only characterize it as ridiculous , the Chinese
are astute enough to understand that they do so simply to
rid themselves of importune questioners anxious to ferret out their
valuable secrets. If they know nothing of Fung-shui , it is asked
why do they lay out the graves of all their dead in one plot in
Kulangsu, a plot carefully selected on the slope of that marvel-
lous Dragon-head Hill (p. 949) which commands the Fung-shui
of the whole island, the town and the harbour? Why do they
place the graves there in uniform straight lines, and surround

1
$M-
2 As a matter of fact the Chinese of Arnoy assimilate the filth in their houses
with their family fortunes. This no doubt is the explanation of their well known
sordidness, in which they are surpassed by no people on earth. In subsequent parts
of this work we shall have to mention curious customs and habits illustrating this
assimilation.
 THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ERADICATING FUNG-SHUI. 1055

them with trees and bamboo groves? Why have they, just in the
centre of that ground, a queer tower-like building exhibiting lines
and contours both mysterious and marvellous? Why have they walled
that cemetery on three sides, thus screening it at the back and
the sides from obnoxious shah and
open the frontside leaving
with the iron railing, exactly as if it were a good Chinese grave?
Why have they laid it out in such a wise that at the back there
are gently shelving terraces, and in front a large pond in which
water-courses converge from the four chief bluffs of the island , every-
thing in strict accordance with Fung-shui? In short, they ask, how
can foreigners pretend to know nothing of Fung-shui, when we
ourselves see how anxious they are to accumulate their dead in that
mysterious, narrow plot which combines everything required for a
perfect Fung-shui, thus giving us the clearest evidence that they
regard it as the chief palladium of their fortunes?
Fung-shui being most deeply rooted in the minds of the people
and firmly entwined with their religious system, in so far as this
consists in the worship of ancestors, divinities and saints as exer-
cised at graves, and in temples, we cannot ex-
domestic altars
pect that it will be eradicated as long as the people remain so
totally ignorant of the exact sciences as they have done up to the
present. The only power capable of overthrowing it, or weakening
its all-pervading influence, is sound natural science. Seeing, how-

ever, that neither the ruling classes, nor the people have ever
manifested the slightest inclination to make a study of Nature
by an experimental and critical survey of its laws, and that a
national stagnation has kept their mental culture down at such
a low level, it seems hopeless to expect that sound views of
natural science will ever be acquired by the Chinese on their own
initiative. Perhaps the foreigners may be able to shed some rays
of the light of their science upon the Middle Kingdom. But
where are the men to be found, willing and able to take upon
themselvesthe Herculean task of educating such a nation , and
capable of and popular explanations of the laws of
writing clear

Nature in that idiomatic, attractive Chinese style which alone

finds favour in the eyes of the educated? And even were such
men to be found, their attempts would most likely suffer ship-

wreck from the national ignorance of the written language, for,

owing to the fact that this language is extremely difficult to

learn, only very few men in every hundred or, more correctly
speaking, in every thousand, are able to understand a book. And
1056 THE GRAVE.

thus , even though it were granted that the Chinese race is not stamped
for ever with the total incapacity to rise to a higher level of mental
culture, a and re-organisation of its religion,
complete overthrow
philosophy, literature, customs and social forms would be required
to uproot Fung-shui. In other words: Fung-shui will bear the
supreme sway in China as long as China is China, and the Chinese
are Chinese.
 CHAPTER XIII.

ON THE CUSTOM OF RE-BURYING BODIES IN OTHER GRAVES.

URN BURIALS.

In the preceding chapter we have cursorily acquainted the reader

with the custom of transferring, in certain cases, buried corpses
to other graves, stating that this is frequently done when a family
sees its fortunes ebbing away in consequence of the supposed dis-
appearance of the Fung-shui of a parent's or grandparent's grave,
or because a deadly blow may have been inflicted on that Fung-
shui. We have now to consider this matter in detail, and to deal
with some other cases in which re-burial takes place.
When the Fung-shui of a grave is believed to be detrimental to
the fortunes of the family, the exhumation is seldom long delayed,
and is even done before a new grave has been found. The reasoning
is, that an ancestor lying in a grave beyond the reach of the good
influences of Nature is entirely at the mercy of evil, as then the
evil is neither counteracted, nor destroyed by anything whatever. No
doubt then his wrath will descend upon his posterity, unless he be
forthwith delivered by them from his painful position. To dwell in
a bad grave is but one degree worse than not to be buried at all.

As a matter of course, a long time must elapse before it can be

held to be convincingly proved that the Fung-shui of a grave is

bad, inactive or dead. Hence it seldom occurs that a corpse is dis-

interred before it has become a skeleton and the coffin is too decayed

to be used for the second grave.

Disinterment being once resolved upon , an auspicious day is

selected for the work, on pp. 103 sqq. When

for reasons explained

this day arrives, some grave-diggers, under the guidance of a few

members of the family and the Fung-shui professor of its choice,
open the grave and then the coffin; they take the bones out of it,
commencing and arrange them in their natural order upon
at the feet,
a large tray of wicker work such as is in general use in China for
,

winnowing rice by throwing it up in the wind. The hair and the

cue are thrown away, being considered useless as no substance of the ,
 ;,

1058 THK GRAVE.

soul of the deceased dwells therein. During these proceedings,

an open umbrella belonging to the family stands at the head of
the pit on behalf of the soul, should it desire to take shelter
underneath; and when the workmen have finished their task,
they may take it for themselves as a perquisite. Finally all the
bones are placed in their natural order in a high, large-mouthed
earthenware jar, the skull, which comes last, being first wrap-
ped up in paper daubed with the rough outlines of a mouth nose ,

and eyes. For the better preservation of the bones the jar is ,

not unfrequently filled up with bits of charcoal and closed with

an earthen pan, this pan being fastened into the mouth by means
of lime.
Should the bones, when disinterred, be solid and hard, and
none of them missing , and the grave , moreover , bear no vestiges of
termites , the family generally come
Fung- to the conclusion that the
shui by no means so bad as they have been led to believe from
is

the professor's description. Pained at the idea of having to give up

a grave so dearly bought they bury the jar in the same spot if
, ,

they can succeed in persuading the professor into their opinion

selecting for the purpose a felicitous day and hour with the usual
Chinese foresight. But in by far the most cases another grave is

sought for, and the old ground sold. This sale does not necessarily
cause a pecuniary loss, for, as the geomantic doctrines affirm that
a Fung-shui, though disadvantageous to one, may be extremely
beneficial to another, often eager buyers are easily found.
The well-to-do generally having high demands in respect of
graves, a new burial place for the remains of a disinterred corpse
is , as a rule , not so soon found. Pending its acquisition , the jar
is stowed away somewhere in a locality to which some Fung-shui
is supposed to cleave, as under an overhanging rock, or in a
e. g.
grotto or cavern , of which there are many between the huge boulders
of granite and stud the valleys in the sea-
which crown the hills

coast districts. Dilapidated granite tombs of solid construction are

very often used for the purpose, as also sheds or cottages in which
encoffined corpses are preserved for burial (see pp. 127 sqq.), and
the small buildings erected by benevolent men as conservatories of
soul tablets of dead people who have no offspring to attend to
their worship (Plate XXVIII). Sometimes the urns are deposited
in the Buddhist mountain temples mentioned on page 12S, which
admit encoffined corpses within their precincts for safe keeping
but this way is only open for the well-to-do, as the priests require
 PI. XXVIII.

Public Repository for Soul Tablets, containing Bone Urns.

 ,

RE-BURIAL OF BONES IN URNS AND COFFINS. 1059

payment therefor. The disinterred bones are never taken home,

prejudice forbidding this, as explained on page 840.
On patting the urn away, one of the kinsmen, taking a couple
of burning incense-sticks between his fingers, makes a slight bow
towards it, and beseeches the soul to content itself for a time
with this mean abode, as, indeed, the family will not be long in
finding for it a new grave of excellent quality. » Potted Chinese",
as foreigners have ludicrously called these urns, are pretty safe
everywhere. To a great extent this is owing to their worthlessness
they being of very plain make, unglazed, without ornamentation, and
therefore hardly worth stealing. But, still more, the aversion felt by
all classes to any unfriendly collisions with disembodied spirits,
protects them from sacrilegious hands. Nevertheless it is advisable
not to place charcoal inside the urns. For it is a fact that the Flowery
Kingdom harbours many who, poor as Job, will
reckless individuals
not shrink from the dangerous work of emptying them of combustible
matter and sell it for a few coppers; but even such low characters
will carefully avoid cooking their own food over it, for the same

reason which deters everybody from using old coffin boards for
such a purpose (see p. 329).
A new grave having been found , the family usually leave it

to the Fung-shui professor to decide whether the urn with the bones
shall be buried in it, or whether a coffin be necessary. Our readers
will remember that geomancers attach great importance to the five
elements and their influence upon the resting places of the dead. So,
urns used for bones happening to be styled in Amoy and the surround-
x
ing districts kirn tang , »urns of metal", though none but urns of
earthenware are in vogue at present, these men, if they possess
talentsand wit, use them to increase the metallic influences on the
grave. Should they find that metal is not present in the sur-
rounding hills and rocks in a sufficient quantity to counterbalance
or neutralize the dangerous presence of the element fire, which
conquers and subdues metal (see page 957), they advise urn-burial.
But if there be a superabundance of metallic power in the environs,
so that the element wood, which is conquered by metal, becomes
insufficient to counterbalance it, they it by burying
strengthen
the bones in a coffin. This they also do in the event of there
being too much of earth in the neighbourhood, this element being
subdued by wood.
 ,

1060 THE GRAVE.

used for second burials are generally much smaller than

Coffins
ordinary coffins, and little better than mere wooden boxes. The Chi-
l
nese of Amoy call them sido bok , » small coffins". In the written
language they are denoted by the characters j||| s u i , and ^ t uh
which, as far as we know, occur in this meaning for the first

time in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty. It is stated therein

that the emperor Kao Tsu in 199 B. C. ordered the remains of
the warriors, who had died in the armies, to be sent back to
their native places in such sui (see page 845), and that »the
» emperor Ch
c
ing in the fourth year of the period Ho p ing
c

» (25 B. C.) dispatched eleven functionaries, viz. Kia, who was

» the Chief of his Court of Entertainment , and some other Doctors
» of that court , with orders to him about the con-
report to
» dition of the countries along Hwangho. There they were
the
» to distribute assistance amongst those who had been ruined by
» the inundations , or reduced to such misery that they could no
» longer support and the several governments were
themselves,
» ordered to grant sui and t u h for the burial of those who
» had been swept away by the waters and whose own relations
2
» could not afford to inter them" Yen Shi-ku commenting .

upon this passage explicitly declares that » those s u i and t u h

,

3
were small coffins" .

On placing the exhumed remains in a » small coffin", the

skull is not seldom patched up with a kind of flit made of cotton
and and daubed with a rough outline of eyes nose and
silk fibres , ,

mouth a piece of paper is wrapped round every bone the verte-

; ;

bras of the spine are strung on a cord or a piece of rattan, and

the whole skeleton, reduced to the size of that of a child, is ar-
ranged inside one or more suits of clothes which scarcely differ from
ordinary grave suits, except in size, and which are of silk among
the well-to-do. The same things are put into the coffin as at ordinary
burials. But second burials in coffins are tolerably rare people almost ,

1
/Jn ^C • Coffins for burying young children are also called boh , with the
diminutive affix a: see page 330.
2
rt * m fra ^ rn.it i* a *if ± mm +-
IH^H H Jjg Chapter 10, 1. 6.
 ,

RE-BURIAL OF BONES IN URNS AND COFFINS. 1061

always preferring to use the cheaper urns, if geornancy does not

object.
Re-interments always take place on an auspicious day and hour.
Some of the near relations are present, who never neglect to

offer incense and a few dishes of eatables to the spirit, without,

however, over-much ceremonial. They are dressed on these occa-
sions with a few badges of slight mourning, in obedience to

the rescript of the i" li reproduced on page 532 , that the mourning
of the lowest degree is to be worn when an interment is being
repeated.
In this manner human bones are disinterred and re-interred sever-
al times in succession by families seriously afflicted by the Fung-
shui craze. But minds of a commoner order generally lose their
interest in the remains of their ancestors when a few generations
have passed away; and thousands and thousands of buried and re-

buried corpses, and numberless urned skeletons unburied ,

go the same
way as the millions among the poor for the Fung-shui of whose
graves little or no outlay is made-, in a short time they obey
the unalterable law of Nature, »To dust shalt thou return". There
are very few families who can boast of the possession of an old grave
which has escaped oblivion and slow destruction by reason of the
constant repairs made on account of its being believed to be the
main support of their wealth and fortunes.
Re-burials sometimes take place in the case of persons who,
having died and been buried at a considerable distance from their
native place, are conveyed home for reasons set forth in Chapter X
(pp. 833 sqq.). As a rule, the family in such cases postpones the
disinterment until time has mouldered the corpse into a skeleton,
for then the bones can easily be sent home in a box or parcel, at
little expense. Numerous sets of bones are so dealt with every year
and Custom-house officers in the Treaty Ports have told me they
have had to examine travelling boxes of repatriating emigrants partly
filled with such curious luggage. Those people abroad who cannot

afford to send the corpses of their relations home in coffins, not

unfrequently bury them first, using bad coffins for the purpose of
accelerating the process of decomposition, and then send home the
bones. It is almost superfluous to state that, in many cases, the
principal reason for sending home human bones or encoffined corpses
for a second burial, is a desire to render them instruments of bles-
sing by interring them in ground located under favourable geomantic
influences.
 ,

1062 THE GRAVE.

Among may
be ranked the cases mentioned on pp. 1033
re-burials
seq., in which corpses for which no good graves have been found
and which cannot be kept at home because of the bad quality of
the coffins, are provisorily buried in a slipshod manner, and after-
wards definitively entombed in a proper grave under good celestial
and terrestrial influences. We may finally class among re-burial the
practice of depraved characters who, with the intention of selling
the grave grounds of their relations merely for the sake of gain,
disinter the remains and re-bury them in a cheaper place, or
put them in an urn and deposit them somewhere in the mountains
or under the open sky. The reader need not be told that such
a proceeding is unanimously decried as a hideous crime, the height
of depravity. Sons or grandsons who render themselves guilty thereof
are threatened by the laws of the Empire with slow death by the
knives, as the article quoted on page 887 shows.

It now remains for us to review the several forms of re-burial of

the dead in their historical aspect.
Re-burials have been in vogue in China since very ancient times.
In its record of events for the year 721 before our era, the Tso
c/fwen states: »In winter, in the tenth month, the ruler Hwni
» (of Lu) was re-buried in another grave. When he died the state of ,

» Sung was in arms (against Lu) and the crown-prince was young
» so that then some omissions were made in the burial rites. Hence
» they now buried him in another grave" '. The ruler Chwang also
was according to the same chronicle taken by his people out of the
, ,

grave in which his murderer had buried him with little ceremony,
and transferred to another; but this case we have placed before
our readers on page 841. That a repetition of burial was of common
occurrence in pre-Christian times may be inferred from the fact that
the / li formally prescribes the dress to be worn by those who attends
such ceremonies (see page 532).
The historical books of every dynasty so frequently make mention
of emperors imperial consorts princes dignitaries and commoners
,
,
,

whose interment was repeated for sundry reasons, that it seems a

matter beyond dispute that re-burials under a variety of circum-
stances have always held a place among the established customs of

^\$$fck^\M^AkMi&$$ First y ear of the rei s n of the Ruler Yin -

 RE-BURIAL OF THE DEAD IN ANCIENT CHINA. 1063

the This is not only ascribable to the fact that they were
nation.
practised, and thereby sanctioned, by the ancients, but also to
the circumstance that Fung-shui, ever exercising an omnipotent
influence over the nation, constantly necessitated them. That the
dead were also removed to other graves in order to enable them
to consummate marriages has been stated in a former part of this
,

work (pp. 802 nqq.). Moreover, the custom has been encouraged
throughout all ages for various other reasons, and this can be best-
illustrated by a few citations from the booKs.
»In the ninth month of the ninth year of his reign (A. D. 97)
» (the emperor Hwo) bestowed posthumous honours upon his defunct
» imperial mother, (his father's) secondary consort of the surname
» Liang by raising her to the dignity of empress-dowager. He
,

» then in the next month

, awarded a second burial to this em-
,

» press Kung Hwai of the surname Liang, placing her remains in

» the western mausoleum" '. According to one of the principal—
encyclopedias possessed by the Chinese the folio wing episode relating ,

c
to Yii T an
2
one of the highest grandees of the Empire in the
,

third century, occurs in the » Domestic Records of the Family Yii" 3 .

» His mother the Grand lady, died in the department of I-tu. When
,

» in the fifty-ninth year of his age , he transferred her remains to a

» temporary grave , in order to repair her burial crypt , but the coffin

» stopped on its way and would not advance. All the attendants
» suggested that it were better not to remove it from the spot,
» because, in funeral matters, the proper thing is to advance steadily
» and not to make any retrogressive movement (see page 32). But
c
» T an remembered that in ancient days , when king Wen (the founder
» of the Cheu dynasty) had buried Wang Ki, an inundation destroyed
» the grave , washing the
coffin out of the vault and that the king ,

» thereupon erected a shed took the coffin and buried it on the third
, ,

» day, when all the ministers were assembled on the spot \ This pre-

%^ %nm%~\&w.M.WLmft a^m^e,
1

^ + ^^clil^lBf ffil'
Dynasty, chapter 4, 1. 12.
Books of the Later Han

4 This incident is chronicled in the Records of tlie Contending States (see page 730).
This work relates that, when king Hwui ji? of the state of Wei |5H was buried,

one of his magnates, Hwui-kung S3. ^V or Hwui-tszt- III -+- ,

prevailed upon the

crown-prince to defer the burial because heavy snow obstructed the roads, saying:
» Anciently, when Wang Ki-lih was buried in the tail of the mounts of Ts'u,
 ,,;

1064 THE GRAVE.

» cedent serving as a rescript bequeathed to posterity by an august

» and holy sovereign , and , moreover , duly recorded in the books
c
» T an transported the encoffined corpse to a tent , stored it up
» there temporarily, and ordered the sons and grandsons to give
» vent to their mournful feelings every morning and every evening
» at that spot. The clansmen, too, resorted to this tent, in imitation
» of what had taken place in the shed (of Wang Ki). The son of
>> Heaven presented the Grand lady with a pleasure carriage ; his
» ceremonial ushers escorted the funeral procession ; and with a
» brilliant and complete manifestation of ceremony she was re-placed
l
» in her old tomb by the side of her husband" .

— »ln the sixth year of the period Yung kia (A. D. 312) Wei
» Kiai died in the twenty-seventh year of his age and was buried,

»in Nan-ch ang. In the period Hi en hwo

c
(A. D. 326 334) they —
» placed him in another grave in Kiang-ning and on this occasion ,

» the minister Wang Tao said: 'It is evident that this Imperial Horse-
» washer should be transferred to another grave ; indeed , this great
» man was an whose fame had spread abroad on the wings
officer

» of the wind and to whom the whole nation between the four
,

» seas looked up with admiration. It is but just that the slight

» streaming water wore away his grave and laid bare the frontside of the coffin.

»The king then showed how mild his character was: 'Oh', he said, 'the rulers of
« yore decidedly desire me to care for my ministers and my people in like manner

»may I allow that stream of water to lay him bare!' So he removed the coffin
i>from the grave and made a shed for it for the presentation of the morning sacrifices,
»and all the people resorted thither to pay homage. On the third day he re-buried
,>the corpse'. ^ £ ^ ^ ^ ft ig ^ £ £, #* #ggS

W#Ij Jl £ H > rf5#H^ ohaP ter 23 '

•• 3 -

&m%,^mm&*nMHt>z^ZB3.^m&
mu&z,ffi& n=iit m _t m z m ^ $ # m m .

mm.ft&mmzm&.^irMijzjiAmm^-,
ter 181 , 1. 12.
PI ^ Yuen kien lei Iian, chap-
 CURIOUS FUNERAL CUSTOMS OF THE MAN TRIBES. 1065

» sacrifices (that have hitherto been offered to him) should thus be

» improved, and his former good acts thereby be properly honoured'" '.

In the biography of Sie Hwui-lien ~ it is related that »in the

» seventh year of the period Yuen kia (A. D. 430), when he was
c c
» Minister of Revenues , I-khang , the king of P eng-ch ing , on re-
*> pairing the eastern wall of the chief city of his department , dis-
» covered in the moat a grave of ancient date. He had the contents
» transferred to another grave, and ordered Hwui-lien to compose
3
» an offertory for this ceremony" . But far more important for the
knowledge of China's ancient burial customs than the above quo-
tationsis what the Standard History of the early part of the seventh
,

century tells us of the prevalence of methodical bone-burial in small

coffins, and of grotto-burial , in the countries now forming the province
ofHupeh and the northern parts of Kiangsi province, and inhabited
by tribes known at that time by the name of Man \ »As to their
» customs at death and funerals, they understand how to cry, lament,
» howl and weep though they do not untie their hair nor bare their
, ,

» breast or stamp their feet. Immediately after the demise they take
» the corpse to the central apartment of the house , not leaving it

>>in the room. The dressing and coffining finished, they convey the
» body into the mountains and at the latest after thirteen years
,

» place the remains in another coffin of smaller dimensions on an ,

» auspicious day previously selected. This they call 'gathering the

» bones'. It is deemed necessary that this work should be done
» by the sons-in-law, who are charged with it because the Man
» regard their sons-in-law as men of importance. Those who gather
» bones remove the fleshy parts , collecting the bones only, the larger
» ones being retained , while those of small size are thrown away.

1
3<Il^#[1t#]^i# 4£- + 'fc^;&3fi.

E/k -Hi -fi? . Books of the Tsin Dynasty, chapter 36, 1. 14.

2
H Jjg *|g
.

of the Southern part of the Realm, chapter 19, 1. 17. See also the Books of the
Sung Dynasty, chapter 53, 1. 18.

4 $M.
 ,
,

10G6 THE GRAVE.

»And in the evening before the burial, the sons-in-law of the

» family, not seldom more than thirty in number, assemble in the
» dwelling of the chief of the clan. They wear hats of empty blades
» of which bear the name of grass plumes, and every one
corn,
» carries a bamboo stick over a c h a n g of ten feet long on which ,

» are twigs and leaves down to over three or four feet from the
» top. From thence they march in files, those ahead bearing metro-
» nomes to mark the cadence of their songs and exclamations
» some of which consist of regular verses. Tradition avers that
» Pan-hu (a mythic ancestor of the Man) was placed in a tree
» immediately on his death , and then pricked out therefrom with
» poles of bamboo and wood ; and this practice having been imitated
» down to the present day, it has become an established custom.
» Those who abstain from joining in the matter call it '
pricking
» the Northern Bushel' (the Greater Bear constellation).
» When the burial is ended, they set out a sacrifice, after which
» the near and remote relations howl conjointly. Then they are
» joined by the other members of the family, and all indulge in a
» merry drinking party, afterwards going home , neither to sacrifice
» nor howl any more.
»The people living on the left (i. e. eastward) do not resemble
» them. They wear no deep mourning and do not call back the ,

» souls of the dead. No sooner is the last breath drawn than they ,

>» place the body in a shed and then the young neighbours each
, ,

» holding a bow and arrows, walk around it singing and marking , ,

» the cadence by striking the arrows against the bows. The words
» of those songs refer to the joyful events of human life until death
>> makes an end of it. This custom may be compared to the present
» singing of the men who draw a catafalque (see p. 189). After having
» sung several tens of verses , they dress and shroud the corpse
» encoffin it, and take it into the mountains, depositing it in a shed
» built for it apart ; but some bury it beside their village. Then
» waiting till some twenty or thirty cases of death have taken place
*
» they bury all the corpses at the same time in grottos in the rocks"

*^;
vx += #%m% i

ft fl* £\ HI * fl* *
 .

RE-BURIAL LEGALIZED BY SEVERAL DYNASTIES. 1067

The ancients having sanctioned re-burials by performing them

themselves, the ethical and political leaders of the nation have gener-
ally shown themselves well-disposed thereto, provided that they are
properly justified by the circumstances. Commenting upon the rescript
of the 1 li that the mourning dress of the fifth degree should be
c
worn at such burials (see page 532), Ching Khang-ch ing wrote
in the second century: »This rescript refers to cases in which the
» grave has caved in, or somehow or other fallen to ruin, so that
» the coffin with the corpse is in danger of being destroyed or
» lost" '. Reasons such as those based on Fung-shui speculations were
evidently excluded without reserve by this authority. The emperors of
c
the T ang dynasty legalized re-burials by laying down in the Ritual
of the Kha i y u e n period elaborate rescripts as to how the rela-
tions, after having opened the grave, should dress the corpse on a
couch in a tent of white linen pitched near the grave, how they
should dress its hair, wailingly lean upon it, re-coffin it and sacri-

fice to the soul, and finally re-inter it with the usual funeral cere-
monies. The Ming dynasty enacted similar rules, both for the
official class and the people giving them a place among its Collective
,

2
Statutes . Both dynasties prescribing that the preparation of the

SAS
= m r m m f # m s n n # # % m n m ,m . ,

fi * II Z M it 4

%±Amx^m.mum,^iM$>*teMW-M t

^zwm.mwL+mx&t£mtti,%ft\uw>%\)
m)
g| ;g |jf . Books of the Sui Dynasty, chapter 31 , 1. 23.

lung edition of the J li, chapter 25, 1. 44.

2 In chapter 92, 11. 19 seq., and ch. 93, 1. 13.
 ,;
,

1068 THE GRAVE.

remains for the second grave ought to take place in a tent near
the old sepulchre, they were apparently partisans of the doctrine
that dead bodies should not be taken into the dwellings of the living.
Though authorizing the exhuming and re-burying of the dead
the Sung dynasty and that of Ming placed their subjects under some
restrictions on this head. Indeed Ching , the Ritual enacted in the
hwo period (1111 and the Collective — 1117)
Statutes of the House
of Ming both ordained that » whenever a re-burial was to take ,

» place the why and wherefore should be made known to the ma-
,

» gistracy, who should not issue a permit before having examined the
» matter and found it to be correct \ The reigning dynasty has like-

» wise passed a law, viz. in the twelfth year of the period Yung
»ching (1734), stating that the people are at full liberty to trans-
» place a buried coffin to another grave with observance of the
» proper ceremonial but apart from this if they place belief in
; , ,

» geomancers' gossip and therefore re-bury a corpse without valid

» reasons , the local authorities shall track out such geomancers
» and neither abstain from prosecuting the matter , nor deal with
2
» it leniently" .

This point of view of modern legislation is also that of modern

authors generally. Hwang Tsung-hi 3
, for instance, wrote: » If it be
» asked :
'
Suppose the ground is not felicitous , is it then permitted to
» take the corpse out of it
? '
— then the answer is :
'
Everybody knows
» how horrid a torment it is to be quartered alive ;
— if the bones
» of an interred corpse be picked up when the coffin is decaying
» and the bones lie apart from each other and are then deposited ,

» in a small coffin , this causes little less torment than such quarter-

<§ ~5*. See the Tuh li t'ung khao g|| m® j® » Thorough Examination
^ ,

of my Studies of the Rites", an elaborate historical exposition of mourning and

funeral rites in all their details, published in 1996 by Sii Khien-hioh £j£ §£ ifiS*

ch. 100, I. 7. And the Ta Ming hwui tien, ch. 92, I. 19.

jit Wt ' ^" **°* luh, chapter 19, 1. 17. See also the last clause of the second
fundamental article of the Law on the Opening of Graves, translated on page 870
of this Volume.

3 ^m^m
 ,
;

RE-BURIAL DISAPPROVED BY SOME AUTHORS. 1069

» ing. It is not then better for a corpse to enjoy rest in the

» ground where it is and to be spared the cruel suffering of
,

» mutilation ? The conclusion is that, even when the ground is

» infelicitous, the dead must not be transplaced" 1 Yang Hwui-kih 2 .

wrote down his opinion in the following words: »The means by

» which the ancients searched out burial places consisted in divina-
» tion by tortoises and stalks. But their posterity, led astray by the
» geomantic doctrines, search for dragons, point out favorable hueh
» (see page 1009) and select auspicious days and hours, not minding
» whether the coffin be stored away unburied for years and years
» but merely entertaining fears to remain poor and of low position.
» "Whenever any descendants who have no glorious career have
» some slight discomfiture after a burial , they arbitrarily ascribe
» it to the operation of the spot where the grave is located , and
» transfer the corpse , not merely once , but often several times.
» The bodies of their parents thus being deprived of rest how is ,

» it possible that the children should feel quiet ? The doctrines of

» the sage and wise merely preach accumulation of virtue and
» merit; if a man's virtues and merits are not amassed, he shall
» be unhappy even in spite of felicitous grounds but if he has
, ;

» a stock of virtues and merits no soil or ground whatever can ,

» have any influence upon his lot. Wantonly transferring a corpse

» into another grave because faith is placed in gossip about things
» which nobody can know, is just as foolish as seeking food by
» abandoning the fields that are necessary to produce it. I have
» seen numbers and numbers of people who frequently re-buried
» their dead and were nevertheless just as often disappointed; and
» never did I see anybody grow richer by a re-burial or rise higher ,

» in the social scale.

»It might be asked, is it then never allowable to re-bury a corpse

» in another grave? — Oh no; it is quite proper to do so in the
» case of a stranger who has to be forwarded to his native place
» or when a grave has to be prevented from caving in or being

=kx^z, a±zu, mtt-wwi* t^ffiji^^

m^^^miA3:MMto£Ktic±,%WiUz
2 mm^ 69
1070 THE GRAVE.

» submerged by water ; or if it is observed that there is water in

» it , or white ants. In all these cases the matter tends to benefit
» the dead , and not another ; and according to the great leading
» principles it is of the utmost importance to take good care of
» the dead" '.

Chinese works show that in different epochs it has been cus-

tomary in parts Empire to enhance, at re-burials,
various of the
the power of the bones by washing them. In the fifth
felicitating
century of our era this custom prevailed in Heng-yang 3 a part ,

of the present province of Hunan, as the biography of Ku Hien-

3
chi , a grandee living at that time , teaches us. » It was a local
» custom there among the mountaineers when any one among ,

» them fell ill forthwith to say It is our deceased parents who

, :
'

» visit us with misfortune'. They then conjointly set to work to

» open the graves broke the coffins open and washed the withered
, ,

» bones with water. They called this 'averting calamity'. In a lucid

» proclamation Ku Hien-chi expostulated with them , saying that
» matters of life and death, being of a nature entirely different, could
» not from each other and the result was that the custom
arise ;

» was modified" \ In a note inserted in the Jih c/d luh by Hwang

1
*A hii^I^lIl.lfl^W
zm.mmm^mB^m.^m^mm^.mM

sai^saiii^fKii«ffi5^ Wu
chapter 19, 1. 16.
hioh !i '">

3
mmz-
4
±«ima#^ m*fcA&m. wmm.si
 EXHUMING AND WASHING OF HUMAN BONES. 1071

c
Jii-ch in°r J
the following statement occurs : » Of late there still lived

» in the entire country of Kwang-sin , in Kiangsi province ,

people
» who observe a custom which they call 'burial of washed bones'.
» Two or three years after the interment they open the coffins

» without any palpable reasons, wash the bones till they are clean,
» place those of each corpse separately in an earthen jar and bury ,

» the latter in the ground. One consequence of this custom is that

» people in quarrelling for felicitous grounds
, not seldom render ,

» themselves guilty of the theft of human bones which if dis- , ,

2
» covered, gives rise to litigation" .

This extract is evidence that re-burials connected with a washing

of the osseous remains still prevailed in China scarcely two centuries
ago. Hence it is not improbable that it exists there to the present

day. This supposition is supported by the fact that the Code of

Laws contains an article prohibiting it, viz. the one of which we

have given the text with translation on page 882. Like most of
the supplementary articles of the Law on Burial, it was probably
enacted in the present century. It suggests that human bones are
sometimes exhumed for the special object of drawing prognostics
from them. To our great regret we have not been able to glean
any particulars on this head, either from actual Chinese life, or
from the native literature.

S|l M. Jfi ^g dj % Jjg^

History of the South of the Realm, chapter 35.

f& ^ j|£. Books of the Liang Dynasty, chapter 52,
1. 15.
1.2.

Chapter 15, 1. 24.

 ,

CHAPTER XIV.

DESCRIPTION OF TOMBS AND MAUSOLEA.

Such a work which purports to give an account

as the present,
of the principal subjects, customs and practices connected with the
resting places of the dead in China certainly ought above all things
,

to contain particulars about the shape and construction of graves

and tombs, from the smallest and meanest built for the lower classes
up to the large , nay, gigantic mausolea which protect the bodies and
souls of magnates, nobles and emperors. Though the details collected
together by us subject and laid down in this chapter
on this

are numerous, yet they do not embrace the entire Middle King-
dom, our peregrinations having extended over six provinces only.
But we hope to make clear in the following pages all the prin-
cipal features of grave building, especially those which come out
in a comparison of the tombs and graves in Fuhkien and the ad-
jacent mountainous regions with those in the central and north-
western provinces of the Empire.
Unfortunately we can but seldom lead our readers into an archaeo-
logical field. For, no important graves older than the fourteenth
century have been found by us in such a state of preservation as to
allow of any reproduction of their original shape and structure
(comp. page 441); besides, though the Chinese books refer often
enough to ancient and tnediteval sepulchres of significance, we can
find no regular descriptions sufficient to form a general picture of them
of any value and interest. Our readers will therefore have to content
themselves with descriptions of tombs and mausolea built during
c
the reign of the present House ofTs ing and the dynasty of Ming;
but we shall often intersperse these descriptions with information
drawn from works of older date when such can be of service in
tracing the antiquity and history of matters connected with graves.

1. Concerning Graves of the Common People, the Nobility

and the Mandarinate.

The character nowadays more commonly used than any other

to denote a grave, is 3|L mo. It is found with this meaning
 .

ANCIENT AND MODERN NAMES FOR GRAVES. 1073

already in the S/tu king, in the account of the achievements of the

founder of the Cheu dynasty'. It occurs also in the S/d king 2
,

but a more regular use of it is made specially in the Li hi, the

Cheu li, and other ancient books. Another denomination now of very
common use is J||, fen. This likewise occurs very often in the
literature of pre-Christian times, though almost exclusively in the
sense of an eminence or mound, and in that of height and size;
hence, no doubt, the signification of » grave" has been attached
to it at a later period and its first use with this meaning was
,

restricted to graves with a tumulus. The Li hi confirms this,

by stating in a passage quoted by us on page 664, that » an-
ciently mo were made, but no fen"
3
that is to say, graves, but ,

no graves with tumuli.

Mostly, however, the ancient books denote graves and sepulchres
c
by the character ^, ch ung. Mediaeval and modern authors, too,
make a very extensive use of it, but they often place the radical

J^, » earth", at its side (t|c), to bring out its meaning more
sharply. We have stated already on page 442 that this word origin-
ally signified an eminence, and that it consequently denotes,
correctly speaking, a tumulus. On
same page we have given
the
four other terms of ancient origin, denoting both a height and a
grave. Still we must add to the list the character cjj| , ying , the
use of which on an extensive scale seems to date from the Han
dynasty. In the literature of that time, and also in that of all
subsequent epochs , it occurs chiefly in the sense of a tomb of con-
siderable superficies, or a grave with its circumjacent grounds and
appurtenant buildings, or a family grave-ground, a mausoleum. Some-
times we find as a synonym the expression ^J-^, fung mo,
» grave-ground in which a tumulus or some tumuli are raised".
Characters, now somewhat antiquated and obsolete, are: ^, fan,
which occurs we believe
, , for the first time in the works of Men-
cius, viz. in the excerpt given by us on page 385; and Jj|, lang,
c
^1?' vu
an d ^R> ts ai, mentioned in a small vocabulary entitled
>

» Local Terms"' and composed by Yang Hiung

5
1
an ethical phi- ,

losopher and statesman who died in A. D. 18.

Besides, there exist sundry expressions for graves, which are
merely periphrases. So e. g. hwang ts
c
uen jjjp -J|| or » yellow

1 Section
jj£ jfo 2 The Odes of Ch'en , section ]g f^ .

3
-£iklltfii^^- 4
^f Chapter 1 3. 5
ffi £g .
 ,

1074 THE GRAVE.

watersprings", alluding to the groundwater filtering through the

red-yellowish clay of which the subsoil is composed in many parts
of China; tseh ||| yii ^ or » dwelling in the terrestrial vehicle"
(comp. and many
p. 939) , others, which it would be useless to sum
up. The term kia ch ing c
^ j${ , » nice city" or » city of excellence",
with which our readers have been made acquainted on pp. 148 and
223 , is traceable in the books at least as far back as the second
century B. C, for we have therein the following tale, relating to
a high magnate of the Han dynasty : » On the death of the ruler
c
» of T eng, who lived during the reign of the House of Han,
» they searched out a burial place for him outside the gate of the
» eastern capital. When the high nobles and princes escorted the
» corpse to the grave , the team of four horses would not advance
» but bent down
the ground and neighed piteously. Their
to
» prancing hoofs coming down upon the ground, uncovered a ,

» stone bearing the following inscription

, If this nice city be :
'

» covered with flourishing bushes it shall behold the bright sun- ,

» shine still after three thousand years. O Ruler of T eng settle

c
,

» in this home!' They thereupon buried him in this spot" l .

In Amoy and the surrounding districts a grave is styled bung or

bo, which words are the local pronunciation of the above-mentioned
character j||. Also the word /um, representing the character ;tf|,

is there in vogue, but almost always in combination with bong or bo,

viz. as hi'in bung or liun bo, » grave with a tumulus". But, owing
to sway of the Fung-shui theories, these terms are at Amoy
the
almost totally supplanted by the word hong-suiwhich as our readers , ,

know, is there the local form of the word Fung-shui the beneficial ;

influences of Nature, which every one is sure to concentrate upon

his graves, are thus used to denote the graves themselves. This
fact, though insignificant at first sight, is yet of some interest, as
showing that the people are wont to connect Fung-shui so inse-
parably with their burial places, that a grave without some
Fung-shui is to them a thing unimaginable. In connection here-

1
mm^m, * n 3tc 15 pi #h ^mmm, m%

^ .
/'"/< imji ehi, ch. 7. The ruler of T'eng is especially known in history under
the name of Hia-heu Ying jM &Z SB; see his biography in the Historical Records,

ch. 59, 11. 9 sfjq., and the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, ch. 41, II. 7 sqq.
 GRAVES OF CHILDLESS PEOPLE AND CHILDREN. 1075

with it cannot excite surprise that our proverb: » All his geese are
swans", has a standard equivalent in the Amoy common parlance,
running thus: Pat king | hong-sui khah Tn ho 1 » Other people's graves
:

never have a Fung-shui like that of our own".

Nevertheless ,
graves in the selection of which no Fung-shui calcu-
lations have had part or lot, exist in considerable numbers. They
are those of forlorn people without offspring, on whose last resting

places nobody's fate depends, and whom benevolent men, anxious

to collect a store of merit, have committed to the earth in urns
or poor coffins, without much ceremony. Neither do the Fung-
shui theories exist for the graves of young children. Their corpses
are placed in a jar or a poor wooden box (see page 330), which
a workman unceremoniously carries on his shoulder , or in some
other way, to the open country, together with a hoe to dig the
grave pit. No relations escort him on his way. At best the sor-
rowing mother sees him out into the street, giving vent to her
grief by piteous wailing, and loudly protesting against her child's
leaving her. The corpse is buried anywhere at a depth of a few
inches, and the rest of the earth heaped up over it. Within a
short time the dust returns to dust, or, as is very often the case,
the remains are devoured by dogs and crows. No property in the
ground is secured, nor is any attention paid to the spot afterwards.
Many babies are not buried at all, the urn or box being merely
set aside in the open country, where it likewise soon falls a prey
to birds and starving dogs.
Some care is, however, bestowed upon the graves of children
approaching the age of puberty, especially if they belong to the
male sex. Indeed, their bones being solid enough to long withstand
decomposition , they may be advantageously made use of for drawing
down blessings on the nearest relations through the medium of
Fung-shui; and it is therefore worth the trouble and expense of
burying them with a ceremonial approximating to that for adults , in
grounds the ownership of which has been duly acquired, and in
graves commensurate with the wealth of the family. The case is
nearly always treated in this way when it concerns an only son
on the verge of manhood, his parents being then constrained by
the laws of social life to adopt a son for him for the perpetuation
of his line of descent and the worship of his ancestors, and

mxzm.fcm'Xft-
 ' : ;

1076 THE GRAVE.

consequently, a grave being wanted for the said Continuator as a

palladium of his own fortunes and those of his offspring.
Already when Confucius lived , it was customary to bury non-
adults in a slipshod way. There is evidence of this in the interesting
passage ofwhich we have translated on page 240;
the Li ki,

moreover, the same Classic narrates the following incident from the
life of the Sage (chapter 27, 1. 40)
»Tseng-tsze asked: 'Children dying between eight and twelve
» are buried in the fields by imbedding them in earth on all sides

» and if the relations follow thither behind the contrivance which

» serves the purpose of a carriage they do so because the burial ,

» place is near. But now, if the grave is at a distance how should ,

» the burial be performed ?

» Confucius said -.
I have heard Lao Tan say :
'
Formerly (viz. in the
» twelfth century B. C.l, the recorder Yih had a son who died thus
» prematurely, and the grave was distant. Chao said to The ruler of
» him: Why not encofnn and dress him in your palace?' The recorder
'

» answered: 'May I presume to do so?' The ruler of Chao spoke

» about it to the prince of Cheu (see page 691), who said: 'Why
» not ? ' —
and the recorder did so. The custom of using coffins for
» boys who have died between eight and twelve and placing them
» therein after having dressed them, dates from the recorder Yih" 1
.

The right to use a ground for a grave is generally acquired by

purchase; that is to say, for a certain sum the proprietor, who may
be either a person, or a family, clan or village, cedes the ownership
of it to another man and his offspring, or to some family with their
descendants, either for ever, or for so long a time as the ground is

used for the purpose for which it is ceded. This latter condition being
stipulated in almost every case, or silently understood , time as a rule
cancels the transaction after some generations, when the grave sinks
into oblivion or is swept out of existence for want of repair. As proof

?l ? h # m m%m , ,nr * a f* *r ? m n ,
 ,,

CONTRACTS FOR THE BARGAIN OF GRAVE-GROUNDS. 1077

of the cession , the bargainors hand to the bargainees a written deed

%
called at Amoy soa" koan \ »a deed for land", or hong-sui khoe ,

»a deed for a grave". The wording of such a document is as simple

as the transaction itself, formality and circumlocution being dispensed
with as superfluous, as the universal respect for the dead, and the
laws protecting their abodes deemed to be sufficiently efficacious
, are
in safeguarding against any attempt of bad characters to swindle the
legal holders out of their property. Here is the text with translation
of a soa" koan, the original of which is in our possession:

\u m m m w m m & fa
ft
± ^> ft m m, m % m \h m
m $ m wl ft *t # z # jffl.

m m, m k \u m, £, \u
~x
+ #. ^ « B? tt Si ^
n m *r m # M # ^,

g 5, m m # m m
Ho m «. a ii n *
1 W # K i tt
In 111 ^ ^ ^ UJ> ffi

ft, ^ *# ^ It >ia

I ^ i i i& i
& « #f m a #
» The family Ching , owners of a tract of high ground inherited
» from their ancestors , which is situated on the hill known as the
» Lion of Ten Thousand Rocks and extends up-hill as ,far as the
» Waterpeak and other places have already ceded by contract,

» parts of this ground to the villagers and other people far off and
» near ,to be used for graves and whereas there has now
; —
1 MJ H!|
. Koan Uk\ is, we think, an abbreviated form of the terra @|| Rff

which means a seal and, consequently, a sealed document. 2 Jjjjl jk ^3.

 , ,;,

1078 THE GRAVE.

» appeared before them one Yun-kuh who has to bury the Wu ,

» remains of his parents, they cede to him in those parts of that

» hill on which there are no restrictions and which are situated
» beyond the limits of their own graves ,
ground for one grave
» which he has himself selected , viz. on the borders of the brook
» which flows at the back of the head of the Lion. But they
» herewith issue orders that withhe shall not come in contact
» other graves, nor inflict » wounds" on the same; neither shall he
» cut out or upset any stones and so injure the dragon of the hill
,

» nor shall he for the sake of private gains and profits do any
» damage to the Rottlera trees. But he must keep the excellent
» qualities of the spot in a state of twofold perfection.
» This soan koan is handed to him as a certificate.
» Given in the tenth year of the period Kia khing (1805),
» on the twelfth day of the third month.
» The family Ching , Owners of the ground
(square red seal stamp).

In times long ago , before paper was invented

or at any rate , ,

before paper was in and bonds of all sorts

universal use, deeds
were, in China, carved on small boards of wood, which we find
denoted in the native books by the character ^, khiien. This
word occurs already with this meaning in the Shwoh wen, so that
it is certain that bonds on wood were in vogue in pre-Christian times.
Of course it is not dubitable that, in ancient times, bargains for
grave grounds were written in China on wood just the same ,
as other
transactions. In any case we have documentary evidence of this
having there been customary still in the fourteenth century, although
we are pretty sure, paper was then manufactured on a large scale
and was in general use ; but old usages are very tenacious of existence.
We read in the Kwei sin tsah shi/t , a work composed at the begin-
ning of the fourteenth century (see page 399):
» Nowadays when people make a grave they do not neglect
, ,

» the making up of a written bargain for the ground and they ;

» make it, of Rottlera wood upon which they write in red char- ,

» acters that such-and-such a plot has been bought for a sum of

» 99,999 coins , etc. etc. This is a custom prescribed by village-
» priests, and consequently extremely ridiculous. In the Continuation
» which Yuen I-shan wrote to the 1 kien chi \ we find it stated

1 The J kien chi |£ j§!^

J? i s a large work in 420 chapters , composed in

the twelfth century by Hung Mai yifc jM .

 ,,

CONTRACTS FOR THE PURCHASE OF GRAVE-GROUNDS. 1079

» that some people in the country of Khiih-yang (province of Peh-

c
» chihli), when digging up a grave on the Ts ing-yang embankment
c
» in Yen-ch wen found therein an iron contract
, on which was ,

c c
» engraved in gilt characters :
'
Wang Ch u-ts un , a loyal officer
» buried at the cost of the Emperor a donation of 99,999 strings ;

» of coins and 999 coins has been made for the purpose'. This
c
» burial having taken place under Ngai Tsung of the T ang dynasty
» (904 —
90S) 1 the custom in question is of ancient date" 2
, .

We are not able to give the reasons for this queer practice of
stating in such certificates the amount of the money in a sum
exclusively composed of the cipher nine, not having found any
explanation thereof in Chinese books. The wording of the above
extract , however , intimates that this practice was far from universal
as gives it as a mere curiosity, ludicrous in the eyes
the author
of the many. The conservative spirit of the Chinese with respect
to everything connected with the treatment of the dead, renders
it probable that it exists even now somewhere or other in the
Empire; but we have never during our stay in China heard the
people speak of it. A s to the custom , also mentioned in the above
quotation, of placing in the graves bargains engraved in metal,
no doubt this must have been of rather common occurrence, as
the Sung dynasty considered it important enough to sanction it
Indeed among its statutory rescripts concerning the funeral
officially. ,

among the mandarinate we read: » There shall be used, besides

» a stone bearing a record of the life of the deceased , one stone
» on which the deed is engraved , and one copy of this latter
3
» in iron" .

1 Wang Ch'u-ts'un died in A. D. 895; see the Old Books of the T'ang Dynasty,
ch. 182, 1. 6.

5- . a n m m. % ,*n iit *n $ nr #t o n 7c & oj m m

ltfc ^ E& A ^c A 3f£ " / '"' '" shu lsih '''"" h sect -
ify P|>
ch -
14 °-

3
io^^^ll^^^- ffistor y of the Sung D y nast y> ch 124 -
>
lu -
 ,

1080 THE GRAVE.

The essential part of every grave in Amoy and the country

around is a tumulus smoothly rounded on the top, a little longer
and broader than the coffin which is buried under it. Graves
without a mound are extremely rare, though the tumuli of those
of the poor are often so low as to be barely distinguishable from
the surroundings. In many cases, the coffin is buried at a con-
siderable depth. Much oftener, however, it is scarcely below the
level of the soil around , nay ,
partly or entirely above it , having
only the tumulus to cover it from view; and this method reminds

us of the way in which, anciently, encoffined corpses were stored

away under a layer of clay in the house (pp. 363 — 365). But such
shallow burials, or, as they are called in the books, » burials by
heaping up the earth (around the coffin)" ', stand in no connection
whatever with those house-burials of bygone days. They are simply
enforced upon the people by geomancy, enlightened prophets of
this art having, many centuries ago, revealed the remarkable
physical fact that in many parts
of eastern Puhkien, and in the
c
departments of Chang-cheu and Ts uen-cheu in particular, the Ter-
restrial Breath (see page 948) »is floating on or near the surface".
Shallow burials have also the advantage of protecting the coffin
from the water of the sub-soil. Moreover, they are frequently
ordered by geomancers because, according to their theories, the
outlines of the mountains and other configurations only are of value
for a grave if they can be seen from the spot where the corpse is

placed.
At almost every burial, it is the Fung-shui professor who deter-
mines the dejuth of the grave. He fixes also the direction of its
longitudinal axis in connexion with the decrees of the almanac and
the bearings he takes (comp. page 974), and regulates the con-
struction and finishing of the tomb in all its details, geomantic
art having in the course of years brought its theories to bear upon
every integral part of the dwellings of the dead.
On page 213 we have stated that coffins in the grave are gener-
ally covered with oiled paper, straw, matting or such-like material,
and thereupon imbedded in a layer of earth mixed with lime,
which becoming hard and solid forms a vault which keeps out
, ,

rainwater, and protects the coffin from being crushed in, when the
wood moulders. No solid substratum is placed underneath the coffin

*#±
 THE USE OF LIME FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF GRAVES. 1081

for no salutary effects can be expected from a grave unless the

Terrestrial Breath have access to the coffin and can freely exert
its influence upon the corpse. The earth of the tumulus, too, is

often mixed with lime, particularly if the grave pit is shallow.

In many families the conviction prevails that it is the duty of
the married daughters to pay the cost of the lime which is required
for their parents' graves. Indeed, they having to mourn for their
father and mother in the second degree (see page 552 no. 13), , it

is naturally becoming in them to provide the second covering in

the the first one, viz. the coffin, having to be bought by
grave,
the and the other mourners in the first degree. The same
sons
considerations render it incumbent upon the married daughters
to give the second layer of grave clothes , as we have stated on
page 63.
The books teach us that lime was used for the construction of
graves already many centuries before the Christian era. In a passage
quoted by us on page 725 , the Tso chSoen relates that lime pre-
pared from sea-clams was used at the burial of Wen, a ruler of
Sung, who died 587 B. C. and in ; it is interesting to read, in
connection herewith, in the Cheu li: »The Officer for the Sea-
» clams has the direction of the gathering of bivalvular animals and
» clams , and thus to provide in the need for clams for closing

» burial pits" In mediaeval ages, employing lime for graves must

'.

have been very common, otherwise it could hardly have occurred

to Chu Hi to make a formal rescript rendering the use of it

almost obligatory. We read indeed in his Rituals for Family Life:

» Make a partition wall (of boards around the coffin in the grave)
» for the lime , then put a (wooden) cover into the pit , and fill up
» the space around with lime finally filling the pit , by means of
» earth" 2 Commentators, expounding this passage, say that a layer
.

of charcoal dust must be placed at the bottom of the pit, and,

over it, a thick layer of lime mixed with sand and clay, and that
a similar double protection against termites, moisture, roots of trees
and robbers is to be made around and over the coffin by the help
of wooden boards. But these directions are far from being obeyed
to the letter by the Fuhkienese of the present day.
We believe it is no exaggeration to say, that at least nine graves

1
^H^ ifc 2 #J # #J B ±h H ^ £ J|. ,
Ch. 16, 1. 38.

2
JmFcr!,ft#I^WJ#K,^*±- Cha P ter G -
 ! ,,

1082 THE GRAVE.

out of ten merely consist of a tumulus, at best with a quadrilateral

tablet of granite, engraved with characters, standing perpendicular
at the shortest side or foot end. By far the majority of the people

are indeed too poor to do more for their dead ; and many of the
well-to-do use no better graves when the exigencies of Fung-shui compel
them to follow the » stealthy" method of burial, of which we have
spoken on page 1033. At many graves of this simple description
the said inscribed grave stone is fixed into a small wall, which, -as

a rule, is a little lower and slopes down by a curved line on both

sides, as may be seen from those represented in the back ground
on Plate XXIV, inserted at page 941. Generally, this wall is a
compound of sand and clay, well mixed with lime, battered into
a solid mass and plastered over with white mortar. In a few cases
it is of white-plastered masonry.
Only the graves of the better class have an omega-shaped ridge
of earth, the raison cfetre of which we have explained on page 942.
Indeed , such a bong moa embraces an area of ground which is- much
larger than the small plot required for a tumulus alone, conse-
quently demanding an outlay which the poor cannot afford. On page
942 we have some graves have a double bank, one
also stated that

of granite and one of earth on the outside. This latter,

or brick,
if it is large and broad, is often called bong cliiu
x
»the grave- ,

arms", because it extends along both sides like the arms hang
down along the human body. Now, whereas man is utterly help-
less if he loses the free use of those limbs , it is extremely disastrous
to a grave should its arms be » wounded" (comp. page 1035). Like
a fortress with dilapidated defences, its Fung-shui must infallibly

succumb to any attack of the obnoxious powers, always lurking

about to destroy good influences.
Grave banks being especially common in the southern provinces
of China, they are a distinctive feature also of Chinese graves in
the Straits Settlements the Malay Archipelago and other transmarine
, ,

colonies in which natives of those provinces have settled. Some

explanations given of their meaning by European authors, may be
set aside and ludicrous. Some writers have discovered
as fanciful
that they are downright representations of the legs of Mother Earth
from whose womb man is born, and into whose womb he returns
at death

^
 ,

GRAVE EMBANKMENTS AND TUMULI. 1083

The common name for a tumulus is at Amoy long tui 1 , ,

,

» grave heap" or » grave mound". The shape is often ellipsoidal,

which must be ascribed to the form of the coffin buried underneath
(comp. page 941). When girt by a bong moa, the tumulus is

generally low and reminds us of the shape of a tortoise, whence

it is popularly styled bong ku~, » grave tortoise". Some say that
tortoises are often thus imitated on purpose, because they are, as
we have stated on page 56, a popular emblem of longevity; the
capacity of reaching a high age is thus concentrated upon the grave
and passes from it to the offspring of its occupant. It is not im-
probable that we here have to do also with an attempt at placing
the grave under the influence of the Celestial Tortoise, the spirit of
the northern quadrant of the heavens; indeed, the tumulus is, in
theory, the northern part of the grave, and an ancient rescript

requires the dead to be buried in the northern suburbs and with

their heads to the north (see page 984). We have seen many graves
the tumulus of which was entirely besmeared with plaster in light
and dark colours imitating the lines and figures ot a tortoise shell.
It is a custom of rather common prevalence to plaster grave-

mounds over their whole surface with white mortar. They are then
3
called at Amoy »lime graves", in contra-distinction to
he bong ,

the fo bong" or » graves of earth", which are turf-clad. Some he

bong are round and low, especially when they cover urns or small
coffins with bones that have been exhumed and re-buried for reasons
expounded in Chapter XIII.
Complete tombs such as the moneyed class in Amoy are accustomed
,

to build for their dead relations are in general laid out on the same
,

plan as the dwellings of the living. In the first Volume of this work
we have, opposite page 10, inserted a Plate showing how, in accord- ,

ance with the opinion of Chinese authors generally and Chu Hi

in particular
5
mansions used to be built in ancient China. Most
,

palaces, dwellings of the rich, and temples of the gods are similarly
planned at the present day, and it can therefore hardly be doubted
that they have also been planned so during the whole series of

centuries which separate ancient from modern China. If the reader

bears in mind the outlines of that plan, he will understand the

construction of Chinese tombs in every detail. Plates XXIV, XXV

5 See his » Explanation of Mansions " ;jup ^jE** , reprinted at the head of the

Imperial Khien lung edition of the J li.

1084 THE GRAVE.

and XXIX, which represent complete tombs of the simplest kind,

may help him in this matter.
The chief part of the grave, viz. the tumulus covering the coffin,
corresponds to the back chamber of the house in which anciently, , ,

its inmates and were

breathed their washed and prepared for
last

the grave. In front of the tumulus, separated therefrom by a wall

in which the grave stone is fixed, we have the bong thg
1
or » grave
hall", corresponding to the » hall of houses and temples. As we
have stated on page 5 , such a house hall contains an altar bearing
the soul tablets of the ancestors, which is erected against the wall
opposite the door; — in a similar situation there is an altar in
the hall of the grave, which does duty at sacrifices to the soul
2
of the buried man. It is the so-called bong toh or » grave table":

a square slab of granite , either placed on the ground , or upon

a massive table-shaped pile of masonry ; sometimes it is entirely

of granite, and carved in front with characters or emblematic

figures, such as we have mentioned on page 979. As this altar

is affixed to the wall of the grave stone, it apparently bears

the latter; which renders its resemblance to a house-altar as close
as possible, stone being, as we shall see anon, deemed
the said
to be, wooden
like soul tablets at home, a seat for the
the
manes. Let us here add that in temples dedicated to the worship
of the dead or to gods and saints of any sort
, the altar with ,

the tablets or images stands in quite a similar position in the

main hall.
That grave altars can be traced back by the Chinese to the
dawn of their history, we have had occasion to explain on
page 385.
'
The next integral part of a complete tomb is a bong tid'v

or » grave court", corresponding to the paved tid"9 or court-yard

of houses and temples. Just the same as this latter, it is a de-
pression in front of the »hall". Straight before it we have the
c
tan ti (tan ch i), the important receptacle which, whether it be
empty or filled, is expected to bless the grave with a rich shower
of aquatic Having on page 946 expatiated on the part
influences.
such tanks play in grave building, and there stated that they are
constructed also before large mansions and temples, we may now
pass them over in silence.
Even the earthen bank or omega-shaped fender has its counter-
 PI. XXIX.

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 THE SEVERAL PARTS COMPOSING A TOMB. 1085

part in mansions and temples. It corresponds with the walls immuring

the emplacement and forming on either side a row of apartments
with a verandah , or a covered piazza without apartments , called
wu 1
or lang wu 2
;
— indeed, the term bong moa virtually means
the piazza or side gallery of a grave (see page 942). Thus much
for complete tombs of the simplest construction. Though moulded
on the same plan, yet they are, as our illustrations show, by no
means all alike in shape. A great many, e. g. that represented in
Plate XXIX, have no tank, some gully in the vicinity rendering
it superfluous; others have no court, the whole space in front
being occupied by the tank. Almost always, everything, including
the floors of the hall , court-yard and tank , is of a mixture of clay,
sand and lime, battered into a solid mass, over which comes a
coating of white plaster. But in course of time this coating tarnishes,
giving the tomb a dirty and ruined appearance, unless it be kept in
constant repair. Hence some people prefer mixing the plaster with
blue-greyish colouring material.
Tombs such as described above are often very large when they
inclose the remains of a high mandarin, or a person with a high
titulary We have seen many occupying an area twenty and
rank.
more times as large as the graves represented in our illustrations,
and affording room for the building of a dozen good-sized European
houses. Some of these big sepulchral monuments have one or two
flights of steps leading from the tank up to the grave court, and
other flights connecting the grave court with the hall, if this latter

be a few feet higher. Some large tombs also have, let into the
3
floor in front of the altar, a pai tsioh or » stone for reverences",
which is a square slab of granite, serving, as the name indicates,
for the relations to make prostrations upon when they worship the
buried man. Such a stone is to be found also in front of the
altar many a temple and many a dwelling house. Several large
in
graves have a low wall, girding the entire front beyond the tank
(comp. Plate XXVII), with an opening for an entrance, which is
called bong mng", »the grave gate". Our readers forthwith recognize
in it the gate erected in front of the court-yard of temples or man-
sions, both in modern and in ancient times (comp. Plate I, at p. 16).
We have seen some tombs with a second wall of the same con-
struction , this being likewise in conformity with the custom ancient ,

1
m- 2
HE- 3 ^5-
70
 ,,,

1086 THE GRAVE.

and modem , of having a double enclosure in front of large houses

and religious buildings.
Families rich enough to afford sepulchres of such dimension , in

general possess also the means to build them of a material more

durable than a compound of earth and lime. For the better pro-
tection of the coffin they have a vault of brick constructed over it,
or have it covered with slabs of granite resting on other slabs with
which the pit is lined; and so the grave is for ever prevented from
caving in, and tolerably safe from robbery. The outward parts of
the tomb they make , either partly or entirely, of granite and brick
nearly always plastering the brickwork , but never the granite. In
many only the low pillars in the corners of the tomb are of
cases ,

granite and chiseled out at the top into a lion a flame a lotus flower
, , ,

or some other ornament (comp. Plate XXIX). But it would be incor-

rect to pretend that granite plays any great part in modern grave
building. Nearly all the granite graves now extant in Fuhkien pro-
vince were built under the Ming dynasty. This fact suggests a
considerable decadence in grave building ; and this decadence must
we believe , be ascribed to a general decrease of wealth there being ,

no reasons to suppose that piety for the dead is on the wane, or

that the art of stonecutting has declined , the Chinese everywhere
being still capable of producing excellent things in this branch of
workmanship.
Such old tombs of granite are tolerably numerous in the environs
of Amoy. Many are in good condition but a much greater number ;

are badly dilapidated , because the offspring has died out or having ,

become impoverished , takes no more interest in them leaving them a

,

prey to any one who wants good pieces of stone for building or other
purposes. It is certain that they will soon share the fate of the many
thousands which have been swept out of existence. Hence we insert
in these pages pictures of some of the best specimens we have seen
directing the attention of our readers specially to that represented in
Plate XXVII, opposite page 979, which, being hidden in a mountain
recess in the island of A.moy, far from human ken, has remained
intact and is undoubtedly one of the finest to be found in Fuhkien.
Its grave stone says that it was built in 1587.
We need not dwell long on those ancient monuments ; for , as
our readers will see at a glance, they are planned like the modern
graves.But attention must be drawn to the fact that straight lines
are more prevalent in them than in the modern tombs, and that
the walls are generally higher than those of the latter. The walls
Pi. XXX.

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TOMBS BUILT UNDER THE MING DYNASTY. 1087

on the right and left of the grave hall and the grave court are
covered with blocks of stone carved into the shape of roofs ; which
again shows that tombs and human dwellings are closely connected
for during the Ming dynasty itwas, as at present, an established
custom to place tiled roofs upon the walls surrounding the era-
placement of palaces and buildings of importance. The said blocks
not unfrequently bear on their front a squatted lion or a lion's

head in stone; and such figures are sometimes to be seen also in

front of the tomb where they flank the ground on both sides like
,

a pair of sentinels (see Plate XXXI).

A special feature of many tombs dating from the Ming dynasty
is a square sheltering structure of granite, raised on pillars over the
grave stone and covering, in many cases, the altar, or even the
entire grave hall (PL XXX). This structure is another tie connecting
tombs with houses and temples, not to say that it renders their
resemblance almost perfect. Its roof is generally double which ,

is likewise the case with the roofs of several edifices of any archi-
tectural pretensions. In many cases, the grave stone it shelters is

not fixed in the back wall of the grave hall, but stands insulated
in a square pedestal of granite , in the same way as the large tablets
of stone represented in Plate XXXVI at page 1141; and like soul

tablets of wood are usually implanted in wooden blocks.

These so-called bong am 1
or » grave sheds" we have never seen
on tombs constructed during the present reigning dynasty. It can
hardly be questioned that they were in vogue in times prior to the
rule of the House of Ming they being in point of fact small grave
,

temples, and grave temples being, as we have shown on page 388,

traceable in Chinese books up to pre-Christian times. We may finally
conjecture that the method of building the graves so exactly on
the plan of dwellings, is to be directly connected with the ancient
Chinese house-burial ,which we have spoken
of in a former chapter

(pp. 363 sqq.). Even though we search in vain for written evidence

that might support this suggestion ,

yet we think that probability
forbids us to flatly reject it as untenable.
That many graves of the Ming dynasty, if the occupant was a
member of the mandarinate or the nobility, have stone images of
men and animals in front of them or animals alone has been , ,

stated already in our dissertation devoted to those grave decorations

 ,

1088 THE GRAVE.

(p. 816). We have therein mentioned also that such figures are
hardly ever to be found on tombs of the present dynasty (p. 822),
and in our chapter on Fung-shui given one of the chief reasons
thereof (page 945). Another reason we may add here, viz. the
decadence of the national wealth and prosperity, which, as we have
stated , may also account for the fact that solid , natural stone
is now hardly ever used on a large scale for the construction of
tombs.
Just as the tombs built under the present dynasty (see page 979),
those from the reign of the House of Ming are sometimes
dating
decorated with the eight k w a and characters or emblematic figures
,

expressing felicity (see PI. XXVII, facing p. 979). They also have,
in many instances, two stone pillars, flanking the space in front
(see PI. XXXI). From the table given on page 452 our readers
have seen that the Ming dynasty only entitled noblemen and
servants of the crown to have them on their graves. The House
now on the throne having inherited this institution from that
dynasty almost unaltered, as the extract given by us on pp. 821
and 822 shows, such pillars also are often seen on modern graves
of considerable size, even if the occupants are mere commoners
with a titular official rank obtained by purchase. In the official

regulations of both dynasties they are called wang chu 1

, » pillars
to look at". This appellation betrays their object: they are to serve
the soul as beacons, by means of which it may find its way back
again to its resting place when it has wandered from the tomb.
To make them answer this purpose the better, the top is pointed
in imitation of a flame , an imaginary light being thus emitted
which has, moreover, this advantage of intensifying the vitality of
the soul. Accordingly, the part the pillars perform at the tomb is

the same as that of candles or lamps burning near a death-bed

(comp. pp. 21 sqq.). In Amoy they are usually called tsioh tsik s
,

» stone torches", even if, as if often the case, they bear no flame at
the top, but a decorative lion.
It is not unreasonable to connect these stone grave-lights with
the stone torch-bearers which , according to an ancient book quoted
by us on page 811, stood in the crypt of a king in the seventh
century before our era and, no doubt, were at that time placed
in many graves of people of distinction. At any rate, they are

m
 PI. XXXI.

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 STONE PILLARS IN THE FRONT OF GRAVES. 1089

traceable to We find them mentioned in an old

very early times.
description mausoleum of the Han period which we have
of a ,

translated on pp. 445 —

446, and this corroborates the statement
of Wang Jui that their use dates from the Ts in dynasty and that
c

of Han (see p. 825). In writings of later times they are mentioned

regularly; as e. g. in the description of a mausoleum of the fifth

century, which we have translated on pp. 440 — 441 , and in an

annotation touching the sepulchre of Chao Siu, who lived in the
sixth century (p. 814), besides sundry other passages which it is

superfluous to quote. But it must be observed that their erection

was officially subject to rules in the sixth century of our era which ,

is evinced by the excerpt, quoted by us on page 814 from the

Books of the Sui Dynasty. In mediaeval times they decidedly
occupied a place among the ornamentations of imperial tombs, for,
c
as we have shown on page 815, the emperor T ai Tsu ordained in
his testamentary dispositions that the pillars to be erected on his
tomb should be and not of stone. Public functionaries
of brick ,

were officially them on their graves under the

allowed to have
Sung dynasty, the government regulations respecting the burial of
such worthies then prescribing that »one pair of stone sheep, one
» pair of tigers and one pair of wang chu should be placed
» on their graves ; but the officers of the first , second or third
» degree might add two stone images of men " \ And we shall see
later on that they are also to be found in the mausolea of the
emperors of the Ming dynasty and in those of the present reigning
House.
Large sepulchres are generally surrounded by a tract of private
land of sufficient extent to prevent others from building graves close
by and spoiling the Fung-shui. The boundaries of these adjacent
grounds are marked by small slabs of granite, planted upright in
the soil and engraved with characters indicating the name of
c
the owners, such as |^ J^l, » boundary of (the family) Ch en", or
the like. Should there happen to be rocks or boulders On the con-
fines, the inscription is as a rule carved thereon. The adjacent grounds
are generally styled mo yin 2
, »the grave shade", in allusion
to the so-called » shade trees"
3
which ought to grow therein. But

^ A . History of the Sung Dynasty, chapter 124, 1. 14.

 ,

1090 THE GRAVE.

in spite of the fact that, having trees on the tombs, represents a

time-honoured custom which can be traced back to the dawn of

Chinese history; in spite of the circumstance that the planting and

keeping of grave trees has always ranked among the cardinal duties
of virtuous wives and children , as we have demonstrated else-
where (pp. 460 sqq.), they are nowadays rare in the south of the
Empire, and seldom seen there even on graves of the largest sort.
In main, as we have stated before (p. 945), this is owing to
the
Fung-shui which condemning the presence of trees in the front
, ,

of graves, only allows of their being planted thereon if there are

no other tombs behind. Besides, only a few tombs have adjacent
grounds so large that trees may grow therein without the roots
sapping masonry and destroying the corpse. Most professors
the
set very little value on the trees as fenders, for, unless they be

planted in considerable numbers, so as to form a foliage of great

density, they can scarcely prevent the obnoxious effects of the at-

mosphere from penetrating to the tumulus and the grave stone.

In many cases, grave trees are planted on account of geomantic

speculation about the elements when calculations have made out that
,

an increase of Wood is urgently demanded by the configurations

around. Here and there the traveller comes across a grave built
under the Ming dynasty, which, owing to the care of descendants
who regard it as the palladium of their prosperity, is shielded on
both sides of the avenue of animals and at the back by copses and
underwood of a considerable extent. But such mausolea are rare
and we have not seen half a dozen in the course of so many
years. It struck our attention that graves planted with trees are
more numerous in the northern half of Fuhkien than in the southern
parts of that province.
Apart from the above reasons, it is not improbable that the
total absence of trees from the graves of the common people is a
survival of ancient times , when , according to the extracts from
the C/ieu ti and the Li ki ,
quoted on page 461, sepulchral trees

were planted exclusively on the tombs of the higher classes. It is,

however, doubtful whether those extracts are to be relied upon
implicitly, they being contradicted by the Po/t hu Fung i, a book
which is generally believed to date from the first century of our
era.»The grave mound of a Son of Heaven", it says, »was three
»jen high, and pines were planted about it. That of a feudal
» ruler was half as high , and the trees planted about it were
» cypresses. The height of the tumulus of a Great officer was
 PI. XXXII.

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 SEPULCHRAL TREES. 1091

» eight feet, and Lwan

trees were planted about it. That of an
» ordinary was four feet and planted with Sophora
office-bearer
» trees. Non-official persons had no grave mounds and the trees ,

» planted about their tombs were willows" But, whatever the 1

.

truth may be, it appears certain that the ancient Chinese planted
trees chiefly about the remains of people of distinction, simply
because the graves of the latter covered more ground than those
of the vulgar and also because customary law
, — as we learn from
the extract from the Chen li just now referred to — prescribed that
their number must be proportionate to the rank of the dead.
Though the present inhabitants of south-eastern China hardly ever
plant sepulchral trees, yet they regard them with much awe and
respect. The conviction that they screen the soul, which rests under
their shade , from noxious influences and avert decay from the
coffin and the remains, is still as vividly alive as ever; nor has
the belief in a mystic relation between those trees and the soul
they continuously infuse new vitality into, in the least waned.
To hew them down is considered a heinous crime for which the
Laws of the Empire inflict heavy punishments, as we have shown
on pp. 902 sqq. And in Amoy, the expression boc bong-cltiv ~,
»to sell grave trees", is frequently on the lips of the people as
a metaphor denoting the height of filial ingratitude. The con-
science of the nation is incessantly roused to respect for grave
trees by the Li hi, which declares that »no worthy man hews down
any trees of his grave mounds when he has to build a mansion
or dwelling" 3
; moreover, many centuries before our era, the Shi
king pronounced an anathema against the destroying of such trees,
in these terms: »At the gate of the tomb there stood jujube trees,
» and they were cut away with an axe that man was not virtuous. :

» The people of the kingdom knew he would do it and never- ,

theless they did not stop him" 4

.

In describing in our First Volume the rites of burial, we have

1
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*itAR,mMm<,±mR>mBM.BAmm,
mWWiW -Chapter IV, §
H||.
2
H :|| jjgj.
3 See page 401.

9$ tfij ^S •
The 0des of ch en
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 ,,

1092 THE GRAVE.

made mention of an altar, built at many tombs, for presenting

sacrifices to the local divinity of the Soil (see page 219), in order
to propitiate its favours on behalf of the body and the soul entrusted
to its care. Such an altar is hardly ever wanting at tombs the
construction of which has required considerable expenditure, but it

is also to be found near many which consist of nothing but a

tumulus with a grave stone. In most cases it is built on the
left hand side of the occupant of the grave this deity being higher ,

in rank than he, and etiquette requiring that persons of lower

rank should keep on the right of those in a higher position. Hence,
also, Chao Ki-ming has prescribed that, in family burial grounds,
the altar erected for all the graves in common shall be on the
North-east page 833) (see
it being , of all the there on the left

principal dead who lie with their heads to the North. The rule is
not, however, without exceptions, many altars being on the right
side, or to the north-west, south-west or south-east, for, as the
god of the Soil is considered to dominate the Fung-shui of graves
nothing is deemed so important by the professors as to place its
seat under a confluence of exquisite geomantic influences.
The altar (see PL XXXIII) consists of a rectangular slab of granite,
seldom higher than one or two feet, fixed perpendicularly in the
ground. On the front of this slab are carved the characters Jgf J^
» Ruler of the Earth"; »God or Spirit of the Earth";
iff,
|H, » Active Animus of the Ground"
l
jjj ; jjjg
jj|t jjiljj, » Spirit of
the some other appellation denoting the
Felicitating Agencies", or
divinity for the worship of
it is erected whom
and whose spirit ,

being identified with the stone by means of the inscription, is

believed to lodge therein. In some cases, this divine soul tablet is,
like a grave stone, fixed in a small wall of masonry, reared against
a mound of earth which is sometimes covered with white
little

sometimes not, the whole resembling a grave in miniature.

plaster,
Not seldom this resemblance is enhanced by a square slab of gra-
nite lying at the foot of the inscription, forming a small sacrificial
table which calls up before the mind the » table" of a grave.
Nothing has as yet been said in this chapter about sepulchres built
before the Ming dynasty ; and the reason hereof is that we have never
seen any in a sufficient state of preservation to serve as models for
a general description. Of those we have come across, hardly anything

1 This name shows that the god is identified with the shan ling of georaan-
cers, of which we have spoken on page 952.
 PI. XXXIII.

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ON OLD GRAVES, AND CAVE-BURIAL. 1093

was left tumulus with a grave stone; and even these poor
but a
remains would long have disappeared had not the owners been ,

accustomed for generations to regard them as the bulwarks of their

wealth and fortunes, sacrificing regularly to the manes supposed to
dwell therein, even after thelast atoms of the corpse and the coffin

had mixed for good with earthly dust. We have never seen such
an ancestral grave converted into a funeral monument worthy of
the powerful family-god inhabiting it. Apparently, the owners had
steadfastly refrained from building and digging on the spot, for
fear that such a procedure might disturb the Fung-shui and destroy ,

their fortunes. Families who possess such a » grave of a first

ancestor" 1
are generally very proud of it, as it ensures them a
reputation for being of ancient descent , and consequently of indis-

putable respectability.
This description tombs and graves being drawn from those
of
in the province of Fuhkien our readers must not consider it as
,

applicable to the whole Empire. No doubt, every province and

region has its peculiarities in point of grave-building, which it
is unfeasible for us to particularize, but which may be illustrated
by the following short notes from our diary. Almost everywhere
in Fuhkien, when brooks or rivulets are close by, the tombs are
built of big gravel cemented together with lime, this material
combining solidity with cheapness and being within reach of every
one, even of the poor. — In the regions watered by the Min and
its a sort of cave-burial is
tributaries, practised, the dead being
often put away in mural steeps of red-yellowish loam, formed by
brooks or rivers that have washed their way through the soil. The
cave is made at the foot of such a steep , the coffin is slid into it

head foremost, and the opening is closed with gravel, in front of

which comes the grave stone, or such structures in masonry or stone
as have been described in the foregoing pages. We saw a curious
s
instance of cave-burial at Ho-kheu town with considerable traffic
, a
3
in the district of Yen-shan in Kiangsi and a resort of river craft
,

of every description. Amid a cluster of barren rocks of red sandstone

on the bank opposite that place, there was mural boulder
in a
rising vertically aloft, a queer grotto, at about a score metres from
the ground , consisting of an accumulation of small shafts ,
probably
formed by water which had filtered through the stone and worn
it out (see PI. XXXIV). Some of the lowermost shafts had been cut
 ,

1094 THE GRAVE.

away and a coffin been inserted in the spot, the mouldering foot-

end of which was entirely visible when we visited the place,

because the masonry, behind which it was originally hidden, was
dilapidated and crumbled away. Holes chiseled in the rock under-
neath this grotto showed that a scaffolding had been used to place
the coffin in that eagle's nest.
Not everywhere in the Empire are grave mounds shaped alike.

In the north-western districts of Fuhkien the conical form /\ is

the most common, and in Kiangsi province and the environs of

Nanking we have seen such tumuli over three metres in height.
On tombs of this description we hardly ever saw any constructions
in stone or brick, nor a protecting bank of earth. In Shantung,
too, conical tumuli are common. Many graves in this province
have a vertical grave stone standing detached in front, and, more-
over, a table, which is a square slab lying on the ground
grave
or two or four legs of stone, and either placed against
resting on
the grave stone, or a few feet off. Sometimes it bears an incense
burner of stone flanked by a pair of candle sticks and flower vases
,

of the same material. In other cases, these objects are placed on the
ground in front of the table; in others again there is nothing but
a censer. All these implements being massive, they are unfit for
use, and merely serve for decoration and to keep alive the idea
of perpetual sacrifices offered to the soul in the grave. Such tumuli
grave stones and appertaining decorations greatly vary in dimension
according to the wealth of the families to whom the graves belong.
We have seen grave stones over two metres in height and mounds of
four , though the average height of the latter does not exceed one metre.
Apart from the conical shape, large numbers of grave mounds
in the central and northern provinces are semi-globular f~\ , or

resemble standing cylinders vaulted at the top These latter

f^ .

numerous sepulchres and mausolea

are a characteristic feature in the
which stud the plains around Peking, harbouring the bodies and
souls of noblemen and mandarins who spent their lives in the
service of the Boards, Courts and Offices grouped around the Son
of Heaven for the maintenance of his glory and supreme authority
throughout the Empire and its boundless dependencies. In general,
these tumuli are entirely turf-clad. Many are plastered with lime;
others are girt with grey bricks, either up to the top, or to a
certain distance from the ground , to prevent the earth from slipping
away. In some cases, a slab is fixed in the frontside, carved so as
to represent a closed door, which is a survival, perhaps, of ancient
 PI. XXXIV.

A Mural Cave used as a Grave.

 SEPULCHRES OF NOBLEMEN AND MANDARINS. 1095

times, when the dwellings of the living were used to bury the
dead in ; but we have spoken hereof already on page 374.
The sepulchres of those Pekingese grandees are specially deserving
of a description because they differ greatly from the graves in the
South , of which we have tried to convey an idea in these pages.
They though the area of the ground they occupy
are remarkably simple,
is considerable. There are no structures of brick or stone about the

tumulus, but it stands insolated in an unpaved plot, mostly with

a few mounds of smaller size on the right and left, which cover
the remains of the wife and the principal descendants. A
bank of earth
runs in a straight line behind this row of tumuli, protecting them
from obnoxious shah. With two similar banks, respectively on the
right and left, it forms a walled square, open in front; in many
cases the bank runs in a curved line, embracing the spot like a
bung moa and gradually diminishing in height at the ends. These
banks vary much in size. Many are scarcely one metre high, but
we have seen others of over five metres.
So, when such ying (see page 1073) contain more than one corpse
and one tumulus, they are in reality family graves. The principal
feature by which they are distinguished from the graves in the
South, is that they are richly clad with trees. It is, indeed, by
means of trees that geomancers usually try to remedy the evil

of the absence of mountains, hills or rocks, which elsewhere

protect the graves from evil influences. A shady copse of pines and
cypresses, planted in parallel rows, forms a dense protection at the
back of the tumuli and at the flanks. Lines of oaks and other
trees gird this copse on the outside, enhancing its protective capa-
cities. In front, too, there is a rectangular arbor of pine and cy-
press trees and, in many cases, a second copse of similar shape,
the mausoleum thus having the aspect of a quadrilateral park par- ,

ticularly beautiful, if it is old enough to contain trees of stately

size. The row of tumuli, concealed in a somber grove of ever-
greens, gives the spot a druidical aspect, this illusion being often
enhanced by grave stones, a stone table with sacrificial implements,
standing detached in the midst of the open plot in front of the
tumuli , and one or more large tablets of stone displaying the names
and titles of the buried persons, reared on the spot on stone
pedestals, or on the backs of huge tortoises of the same material.
A catch drain extends along the four sides of the park, to keep
it dry. Beyond , in the fields , small landmarks of stone denote
the extreme limits, and at the same time those of the adjacent
 ,

1096 THE GRAVE.

grounds set apart for the sustenance of the families who act as
keepers of the sepulchre in the numbers fixed by the institutions of
the State. They regularly till these grounds, dwelling thereon in
mean huts which contrast strikingly with the splendour of the
adjacent park of death.
These numerous grave parks of evergreens agreeably break the
monotony of the Peking plains, especially in winter and early
spring, when they resemble countless oases in a boundless, dreary
desert. Their attractiveness is enhanced by stately pines with milk-
white bark, which are a peculiar feature of the landscape in this
part of the world. But many ying mere types of neglect and
are
ruin. They can lose their geomantic value for a hundred reasons
and the owners consequently feel no more interest in keeping them
in good condition ; or the proprietors may be reduced to poverty
and sell the ground, this not being forbidden by law if it does
not entail the destruction of the graves (see p. 896); or they may die
out, nobody preventing the keepers and the farmers in the environs
from gradually felling the trees and converting the grounds into fields

for themselves. In China, too, the dead among the great of this
earth and the most gorgeous monuments erected in their honour
are finally engulfed in the abyss of oblivion. Thus it is that many
tumuli stand alone and desolate in the midst of cultivated fields,
surrounded only by a small open grass-plot, nothing testifying to
the former grandeur of the spot except the large tablets of stone
and the debris of the grave altar.

Among such sepulchral parks there are many the central part of
which, containing the tumuli, the grave stones, the altar, the stone
tablets and a part of the trees , is surrounded by open-worked walls
of brick , that take the place of the earthen banks. These walls
generally run in straight lines along the front and the sides , or along
the front only, and in a curve along the back. Sometimes the wall
in front has an opening in the middle, doing duty as an entrance.
In point of size and grandeur these sepulchres stand next to the
most gorgeous mausolea ever erected for the subjects of the Sons of
Heaven, viz. those of princes of Imperial lineage, the description
of which we defer to the third section of this chapter. We must
now speak of the official rescripts regulating the dimensions and
ornamentation of graves.
It is hardly necessary to call to mind the characteristic feature
of the Chinese nation, traceable throughout all ages of which we
have any knowledge from its books, of burying the dead in graves
 ;

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS CONCERNING GRAVES. 1097

varying in size according to their social position, and of placing

them under tumuli of a height likewise fixed by their dignity and
rank. We have devoted many pages to this subject in Chapter V,
and also shown therein that already in pre-Christian times and at any ,

rate since the Han dynasty (pp. 420 and 449), laws and rescripts
have been enacted by the Government, fixing those dimensions.
The dynasty now on the throne, sticking faithfully to its cardinal
device that the institutions of the ancients may not be swerved
from , has likewise enacted regulations to this same effect. In the
Ta TsHng fung li we read:
» For officers of the first rank , the grave ground may have a size
» of ninety pu, measuring from the centre of the grave to the four
» sides, and the tumulus may be one chang six feet (ch c ih) high.
» For the second rank these dimensions are eighty p u and one
,

» c h a n g four feet for the third seventy p u and one chang

; ,

» two feet; for the fourth, sixty pu and one chang; for the fifth,
» fifty and eight feet. For the sixth and seventh rank the
pu ,

» ground may measure respectively forty p u and twenty p u and ,

» the tumulus may be six feet high. The ground shall be walled in.
» For nobles of the three highest ranks (Kung, Heu and Poh),
» this wall is forty chang in circumference, and four families are
» appointed as grave keepers. For officers of thefirst and second

»rank, the wall is thirty-five chang and the number of families

» two ; for officers of the fifth rank and higher , the wall is thirty
» c h a n g and one family is settled on the ground to guard it

» and for those of the sixth rank and lower , the wall may be
» twelve chang and the grave keepers two in number 1
. Mem-

Jj&L _^ A . Chapter 52, I. 11. Of the above ciphers, those relating to the length

of the wall and the grave keepers are drawn from the Ta Ts'ing hwui lien, ch. 76,

11. 5 and 6 , from the Ta Ts'ing hwui lien shi li , ~ir ^gr ^fo" J8l j|£ -ffijj

i Ordinances for a proper Execution of the Matters prescribed in the Ta Ts'ing hwui
tien", the largest official compilation of State-papers and Imperial Ordinances that
1098 THE GRAVE.

» bers of the gentry have a sepulchral ground of twenty pu to

» each side, and a tumulus of six feet; the wall around their graves
» measures twelve c h a n g and two persons are established on the
,

» spot as keepers
1
. And for the common people, the ground may
» be nine p u tumulus four
, the feet and the wall enclosing it
,

» on the four sides eight c h a n g ; and two persons may act as

» grave keepers" \
To give the reader a clear view of these ciphers we arrange them
in a tabular form ,
giving the height of the tumulus in Chinese
c
ch ih or feet, of which ten make a chang:

Distance from
Height
Number of families
Length
the centre of or persons charged
of the of the
the ground to with the care of
tumulus. wall.
its sides. the grave.

Nobles of the first, second

 8

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS CONCERNING GRAVES. 1099

c
vember 1858, it was stipulated that one ch ih should be held to
be equal to 14,1 inches English, which would give 0,358 metre
c
French. There some doubt however, whether the ch ih referred
is

to in the dynastic Ordinances and Laws has this length. Williamson

says that, according to the Board of Works, it measures 13'1
c
—
inches'. The official ch ih differed considerably under various dy-
nasties. The pu does not seem to be commensurate with the
c
ch ih, and measures about 66 English inches or 1,675 metre 2 If .

these ciphers be anyway correct, the length of grave walls, sup-

posing the ground they enclose to be a regular square, is, in the
case of a mandarin of the highest rank, about 31 metres on all
sides, and the length and breadth of the whole ground about 300,
while for mandarins of the lowest class and members of the gentry
these ciphers are about 11 and 67 metres.
These regulations are not laid down to force the nation to
make the graves of noblemen and officers of the size and height
stated; but they give the maxima which may not be exceeded.
Our readers have seen that only a small number of those sepul-
chres, in the South scarcely any, are walled in. Neither is it

obligatory to erect the stone figures which, according to the ordinance

translated on page 821, may be placed on the graves of distinguished
nobles and public functionaries; and our readers know they have
hardly ever been placed on a tomb during the reign of this dynasty
(p.-108S). But the prerogative, likewise warranted by the institutions
of the State of having in those grounds a large stone tablet, inscribed
,

with the name and titles of the deceased and , occasionally , with
some particulars about his career, is seldom neglected. We shall
deal with this subject in the next section of this Chapter.
On page 412 we have made mention
of a custom of China's
ancient rulers of upon deceased statesmen presents in
bestowing
the shape of burial requisites and money, in order to enable their
family to commit them to their graves in a way worthy of their
merits and career. Numerous passages in the books show that
emperors of later ages have not given up this custom ; and they
have finally come to consider such solicitude for the burial of their
servants not a mere bounty, but a stringent duty towards a class
of men whose lives have been devoted to supporting their sovereigns
in supreme power and maintaining them on the throne. During

1 Journeys in North China, I, xix.

2 Chinese Repository, X, p. 651; Journal of the North China Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society, XX p. 93, and XXIV p. 95.
 ,,

1100 THE GRAVE.

the Ming dynasty, the graves of civil officers were still built at the
expense of the State ; indeed , a certain sum , varying according to
the rank of the deceased and the number of years he had spent in
state service, was awarded for that purpose from the treasury, and
a number of workmen were placed at the disposal of the
certain
family. »In the beginning of the period Kia tsing (A. D.
1522)", thus we read, »the outlays were fixed which were to be
» made for the sepulchres of civilians. For those of the first rank
» the sum was estimated at 300 taels of silver and the number of ,

» workmen at 200 each man at the rate of one tael also in the case
, ,

» of officers of lower rank. For the second rank , those ciphers were
» fixed at 250 and 150, and for the third rank, at 200 and 100.
» In addition it was stipulated
, that for officers of the fourth or
» fifth rank to whom a burial was granted defrayed by favours of
, ,

» the Emperor, the silver should and the number amount to 80 taels,

» of workmen to 30. And in the sixth year of the same period

» it was, in accordance with a proposal made to the Throne,
» decided that for officials of the three highest ranks who had not
» spent a whole lifetime in the service of the State only half the ,

» amount of taels and half the number of workmen should be

» granted and that when a grave was opened (to place the wife
, ,

» of the occupant therein), only 50 workmen would be granted

» equally for every rank and grade" 1
. The same House also laid
2
down in its Collective Statutes a long rescript regulating the gifts
to be made in cases of death of military officers, in the shape of
bricks and lime for the tomb, a wooden vault, stones inscribed
with a eulogic biography, workmen to be assigned from among the
prisoners , objects for the Netherworld , embroidered needle-work
horse-harnesses and saddles ; the character and quantity of these gifts
depending on the rank of the man upon whom they were bestowed.

*HI® A + S8. *EH + «.;fc^«i-ifi.-

ch'ing, sect. J;jh ($?. . ch. 133.

2 Ta Ming hwui tien , ch. 162, 11. 16 sqq.

 ,

INSCRIPTIONS UPON AND IN THE TOMBS. 1101

The Ts'ing dynasty likewise adopted the principle that the sepul-
chres of nobles and public functionaries should be built at *he cost
of the Government. »In the eighteenth year of the period Shun
»chi (A. D. 1661) a proposal, properly discussed, was approved,
» according to which the allowance , to be paid for the building of
» the grave ,amount to 650 taels for a noble of the first
should
» rank , and 600 and 550 respectively for a noble of the second
to
» or the third rank. For an officer of the first rank 500 taels were
» to be paid for one of the second rank 400
; for the third and ;

» fourth, 300 and 200 taels respectively; and for the fifth, sixth
» and seventh rank 100. For each of these ranks the money was
» merely to be paid out to the family, with orders for them to
» make the grave themselves" '.

2. Inscriptions placed upon and in the Tombs.

Grave Stones.
Like other nations that have made progress in the noble art of
writing, the Chinese attach much importance to decorating their
tombs with inscriptions. Characters intended to attract felicity to
the buried person and emit it through him to his offspring, are
frequent on graves of considerable dimensions and solid construction
as we have tomb, except
stated elsewhere (page 979). Besides, every
those of the poorest, who cannot afiord such expenditure, and those
of infants and neglected individuals who have no one to care for
them, has a granite slab at the foot of the tumulus, on which
are carved some characters, sometimes painted red, or partly red
and partly green, which mention the man or woman buried behind
it. We have spoken of such stones on pp. 1052 and 10S4; but we

must still give our readers some details respecting them to clearly ,

explain the important position they hold at graves.

In Amoy and the surrounding districts they are generally
denominated bong pat 3 , » grave tablets". Serving to point out who

p°p ^ — W M W la . 11 , <r> 3£ g ig- Ta Ts'ing I i tier, tseh

li, ch. 137, 11. 29 seq., and Ta Ts'intj hwui lien shi li , ch. 714, 1. 7.

71
1102 THE GRAVE.

is buried behind , and to whom the grave belongs , they always

bear the family name of the occupant. Most poor people can
only afford to have a stone of very small dimension, hardly one
foot high, bearing nothing but the family name, followed by the
character /fe* or ^ , which respectively correspond with our Mr. and
Mrs. On large , substantial grave stones of good , solid tombs dating
from the Ming dynasty, we have also found inscriptions of like

simplicity.
Graves which are well cared for, and the owners of which can
afford the expense, mostly have a stone about two feet in height
or a little higher , bearing an inscription that more precisely
identifies the occupant and consists in one column of characters
running perpendicularly down the middle of the stone. Here are
a few specimens taken from reality
, :
—
For a commoner of the middle or lower classes:

» Excellent City of our illustrious deceased

c
father, Mr. Ch en, who lived during the Ts'ing
dynasty" or ;
—
c
» Grave of Mr. T ien-siang,
of the surname Lin, who lived
c
during the Ts ing dynasty". The
two characters in the top cor-
ners indicate his birth-place or
the home of his parents and
ancestors, viz. Ngan-khi.

The two following inscriptions are for women of the middle or

lower classes:

» Grave of our deceased mother,

Mrs. Li, maiden name Lin".
In the top corners: »The city
c
of Ts'iien", i. e. Ts iien-cheu-
fu, her birth-place or ancestral
home.
 ,:

GRAVE STONE INSCRIPTIONS. 1103

» Grave of our illustrious deceased mother,

Mrs. Ching-lieh of the family Lin, maiden
c
name Hwang, who lived during the Ts ing
dynasty".

Inscription on the grave stone of a dignitary, invested by the

Emperor with a title of honour:

»Mausoleum of Mr. I, whose personal name,

which may not be pronounced was Wen-yii ,

on whom the honorary title of the third

degree was conferred after his death". In
'

the columns on the right and left we read

c
»In the year yih-ch eu of the period
T cung chi (1865), in the (seventh) month
in which the reed is in seed, the filial sons
Teh-siu and Teh-yao have conjointly erected
this stone".
It is an established rule that grave
stones of civil and military dignitaries in
actual service, and those of persons with
a titulary official rank obtained for merit
or by purchase, should display in a few
characters their official quality, and the
grave stones of then' consorts , in an abridged form , the cor-
responding titles of honour which, in accordance with the insti-

tutions of the State (see page 767), were awarded to these women
on their husband's promotion. Low ranks being cheap, they are

1 Comp. page 767.

1104 THE GRAVE.

purchased in very great numbers. Consequently, the title jii-jen ',

which pertains to the wives of title-bearers of the three lowest

degrees, occurs oftener on grave stones for women than any other,
and the more so because the people are accustomed to place it
on the graves of women upon whom no rank was ever conferred.
This custom of rendering the graves an exhibition of ranks and
titles has led to a great variation in the inscriptions on the graves
of the better class, with which the soil ot the Empire literally

teems. It is unnecessary to say that many a grave stone, if placed

on a tomb of considerable dimensions, is several feet high.
Grave stones which mention both the date of erection and the
names of the children by whose care they were reared, are, com-
paratively speaking, rare. More numerous are those which only
state , on the right side of the central column , that » The filial

sons So-and-So have erected it". The birth-place or ancestral home

of the deceased is hardly ever cut in the stone, when the grave
is situated within the locality or close by.
On page 1084 attention was directed to the fact that the grave
stone, owing to the position in which it is placed on the altar
of the an actual pendant or counterpart of the wooden
grave, is

soul tablet of the buried man, which is exposed for worship on

the altar in his home. Another important point of affinity between
the two objects is, that the inscriptions they bear are almost
similar. Our readers can make this out for themselves
by referring
to our description of soul tablets, inserted in the Second Book of
this work. On account of the inscriptions, both the grave stone
and the tablet are, according to the popular belief, inhabited by
the manes of the defunct for whom they are erected. It is, in fact,
the inscription which, describing the deceased, identifies him with
his grave stone and his soul tablet, rendering either of them an
alter ego of him, an artificial body to which his frail, vapoury soul
may cling as to a firm support that shall prevent dissolution. Conse-
quently, the part that grave stones play in the Religious Worship
of the Dead is also analogous to that of the temporary soul tablets
described on pp. 70 seq.
Being an embodiment of the manes of the buried man, his
grave stone is deemed to exert a greater influence upon the weal
and woe of his family than any other part of his grave. Hence it

is by no means a matter of indifference how many characters it

 ARITHMANCY APPLIED TO GRAVE INSCRIPTIONS. 1105

bears. Existence, the Chinese say, is a concatenation of birth ^jr,

old age ^, disease ^j, death ^E, an<^ misery ^ , and only the
first and second of these five points bear a felicitous character;

procreation male offspring and longevity ranking

of a numerous
among the greatest blessings ever bestowed on man in the King-
dom of the Midst. Consequently, the grave will confer these bles-
sings upon its owners, if the inscription contains either one or two
characters; should it consist of three, four or five, the family will
be visited with sickness, death or woe. Six characters again bring
childbirth, seven longevity, and so forth; in short, the number
ought certainly to be fixed at one or two, six or seven, eleven or
twelve, sixteen or seventeen. In most cases, the same rule is

observed with regard to the columns on the right and left, if there
be any. But many aver that they do not influence the felicitating
qualities of the grave, as only the central column represents the
buried man.
This wise arithmancy explains why so many grave stones of the
poor bear only two characters, though there may be room thereon
for three, four or five. It also causes the grave inscriptions in

general to be more varied in tenor than would be the case if it

did not prevail; requiring, for instance, in some cases the placing
of the name of the reigning dynasty at the top of the column.
It may also happen that , in order to obtain the requisite number
of characters, the birth-place, otherwise generally carved in the top
corners, has to be placed in the column; or that, as in the second
grave inscription, given on page 1103, the character g^, i. e. »the
personal name which may not be pronounced", must be shifted

a little to the left , so that it forms no essential part of the column.

Again, the number of characters may have to be restricted by
simply writing ^ or #fc, » deceased father or mother", instead of

|H ^ or fpl#lt, » illustrious defunct father or mother"; or by

omitting the private name of the dead person. On the other hand , the
characters may have to be increased by inserting the genitive particle

^ above the word I||l, » grave", or by replacing this latter word

by a synonymous term composed of two characters; etc. etc.

It may now reasonably be asked how this popular quinary

division of the human fate has come into existence? None of

the Chinese to whom we have applied for information, were

able to answer the question. Feeling that this division had a Bud-
dhistic ring about it, we have sought for a solution in the writings
 ,,

1106 THE GRAVE.

of that Church, and succeeded in tracing it to the Sutra of the

Lotus of the True Law Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, a well
1
,

known Classic occupying a preponderant place among the sacred

canons of Shakyamuni's Church in China, which, according to
tradition, was translated by, or under the auspices of Kuinaradjiva,
a famous apostle who came to China at the end of the fourth
century. We read in the third section of that book, that the Buddha on
a certain occasion said to Shariputra , his disciple : » In this triple

» world , which is like a decayed old house on fire , I make my

» appearance , in order to carry to perfection all the living beings
» subject to birth , old age , disease , death , sorrow, wailing , misery,
» grief, the dark enveloping cloud of ignorance and the fire of the
» three poisons , in order to convert them and make them reach
» the state of perfect intelligence (anuttara sanjak sambodhi). I then
» behold how all the living beings are burned by birth , old age
» disease, death, sorrow, wailing, misery and grief, and how for

» the sake of the five lusts , wealth and fortune they suffer various
» sorts of pains
» Shariputra, I the Tathagata still reflect thus: If I
» display supernatural power and power of wisdom, without availing
» myself of devices so that the living beings praise the intelligence
,

» power and intrepidity of the Tathagata those beings will not ,

» attain to the state of perfection. Why is this so? Because they

» are not yet freed from birth old age , , disease , death , sorrow,
3 ".
» wailing, misery, and grief. . .

Though birth and old age appear in this sermon at the head
of the miseries of life, in perfect keeping with the peculiar
ideas of Buddhism about existence, the Chinese consider them,
 "

GRAVE STONES UNDER THE MING DYNASTY. 1107

as we have seen , as great blessings. Already during the Ming

dynasty the quinary division of the fate of man was made to bear
upon the composition of grave stone inscriptions, as the following
one, copied from a slab nearly two metres in height, proves:
» Mausoleum of Mr. Hwo Kiane-fu , to
whom the title, of Inspecting Censor was
awarded during the Imperial Ming dynasty;
and of Mrs. Liu, bearing the posthumous
name Twan-tsing, on whom the title of
Grand jii-jen was conferred after her de-
mise". —
Those of our readers who under-
stand the Chinese written language will see
at a glance that the two characters at the
top , meaning » Imperial Ming dynasty
virtuallyform a part of the two outer
columns, each of these consequently con-
sisting of seven characters, or the number corresponding with old
age. But they are also combinable with the two inner columns,
the characters of which thus number six, and consequently ensure
childbirth, or seven, if combined with the character » mausoleum"
at the bottom.
Likewise , the inscription on the tomb represented by Plate XXVII
(opposite page 979), bears evidence of having been composed with
observance of the same rules. It runs as follows : » Longevity region
of Mr. Wu c
from Ch ing-nan, and of Mrs. Hwang, who lived under
the ImperialMing dynasty. This stone was erected
in the year ting-hai of the period Wan lih,
on an auspicious morning in the first month of
the vernal season".
Both these instances teach us that, during the
Ming dynasty, it was customary to give a married
couple, when buried in the same grave, one
grave stone in common. This custom still exists
at the present day. On such a stone, the in-

scription for the wife forms a separate column

of characters, invariably placed to the right of
her husband's column because, as our readers
know, the right is the less honourable side, and
the wife is buried on the right of her husband.
Many a grave covering the remains of a married couple has two
separate stones, and sometimes even two tumuli. Such graves are
 ,

1108 THE GRAVE.

called at Amoy siang hhong l

,
» double grave-pits ". Relatively
speaking, they are rare in Fuhkien, professors of Fung-shui there
finding it difficult to discover spots the geouiantic propensities of
which agree with two different horoscopes; besides they entertain
serious fears that , when a grave is opened to receive a second corpse
the manes already settled therein may be disturbed, and the Fung-
sbui » wounded" or » killed". Still rarer, therefore, are graves in
which a husband with his wife and one or more concubines.
rests

The importance of the grave stone as an embodiment of the

soul is openly avowed by the Fung-shui doctrines. No less than
the corpse, the principal seat of the manes, ought that stone to
be a focus in which the good celestial and terrestrial influences
converge; and from it, consequently, the geomantic bearings are
chiefly taken. If it is damaged or broken , the Fung-shui itself is

maimed, and doomed to inactivity; for how can a human soul pos-
sibly display any energy on behalf of its offspring if the body which ,

it inhabits be seriously impaired? Hence it is that, to destroy their

grave stones, is the worst blow an enemy can inflict on a family
whose fortunes he desires to ruin (see page 1039). On the other
hand likewise on account of their being inhabited by the soul such
, ,

stones can be made use of with great advantage for the improve-
ment of the Fung-shui of graves. The professors, indeed, frequently
have recourse to them to rectify the influences of the Five Ele-
ments or Planets. Should one or other element be insufficiently
represented in the configurations surrounding a grave, they simply
give the top of the stone the shape of that element , in accord-
ance with the theory about forms, of which we have spoken on
page 956 ; or they make it represent an element which , according
to ancient philosophic speculation , has the capacity of producing the
missing one (see page 957). And if, on the contrary, a certain
element prevails too much in the configurations around , the stone
is given the form of an element that destroys it. Such transfor-
mations of the grave stone have a mighty effect, the chief working
power of the grave, viz. the soul assimilated with the stone,
being immediately affected. Very often, also, the wall in which
the stone is fixed is given a planetary form, and two elements
combined are thus set to work for the rectification of the Fung-shui
of the spot. In connection with these geomantic artifices, the di-
 ;

BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED IN THE TOMBS. 1109

mensions of grave stones are generally determined to an inch,

after a most careful calculation, by the professors.

Eulogistic Biographies in Stone, buried in the Tombs.

Grave inscriptions of quite another kind , but of no less importance
than those described above, are the so-called mo chi-ming 1

(Am. bong tsl-bing) , » sepulchral biographies with inscriptions ".

They are engraved on rectangular slabs of smooth slate stone of

equal size, often measuring about thirty centimetres by twenty,

and two centimetres thick, and consist of a chi or » biography",
that is to say, a summary of the chief events in the life of the
deceased, and a ming or » inscription ", which is a eulogy of his
good qualities and excellence, in grandiloquent, flowery language,
such as Chinese literati consider to be the height of elegance in
The characters are of the same type as that of the best printed
style.

books,and daubed over with red paint, or gilded. A mo chi-

ming generally covers more than one slab, sometimes four, five,
or even more; the inscription is regularly continued from one slab
to the next, covering both sides, so that, when placed upon each
other in regular sequence, the slabs form an unbound book, in
stone, of a few leaves. This resemblance to a book is by no means
accidental; it is intentional. Like the title-page of many good
books, the first side of the first slab bears the title of the biogra-
phy, or the so-called » cover" 2
, in tall characters of the chwen
3
writing , which is supposed to have been in vogue during the Cheu
dynasty and a knowledge of which is now considered a proof of
high literary attainments.
The stone book is placed in the grave of the person whose life

is described therein. As we have stated on pp. 166 and 213 , it

should, in theory, be conveyed thither in the funeral procession

by a special vehicle, and it is buried between the coffin and
the grave stone; in some cases, however, it is placed at the head
of the coffin. Before sending it to the grave, the relations have
a number of fac-simile copies made from it on paper, in the fol-

lowing way: — a wet sheet of white paper is laid out over

the surface of the slabs, pressed down into the characters with
a soft dab of wet linen , and rubbed over with black ink
after removal from the stone, the sheet bears the characters in
white on a black ground. It is then folded up so as to resemble
1110 THE GRAVE.

a thin Chinese book with double leaves, as may be seen from

Plate XXXV, which is the exact reproduction of a specimen.
Such fac-similes are made for anddistribution among relatives
friends, for the propagation of thefame of the deceased. Generally
they are also sold in the book-shops as models of style and hand-
writing, being much sought after by students and schoolboys;
indeed , sepulchral biographies are always composed by local scholars
of high repute, and written out by renowned caligraphists ; and
the carving in the stone is likewise entrusted to the ablest hands
to be found.
The employing of men of prominent scholarship and capacity
requires a considerable outlay in presents and pecuniary remu-
neration. Hence only people of wealth and distinction are able to
have sepulchral biographies composed. The poor have to content
themselves with tiles or flat bricks, on which they write in ink a
few dates of the events in the life of the deceased, covering the
same with a coating of transparent varnish, to prevent them from
being effaced by the moisture from the grave.
The great care bestowed by the Chinese on these necrologies
in stone, indicates their belief in their importance to the dead.
In fact, the reputation of their ancestors is dear to all, and
devotion demands that the living should establish the fame thereoi
both in the realm of Death and in this world. Hence they place in
their tombs an indelible record of their commendable and glorious
feats, at the same time blazing abroad their fame by liberal
distribution of copies on paper. By thus giving vent to their filial

feelings they also greatly benefit themselves, for the ancestors

cannot do otherwise than reward them therefor by showering
down blessings. These blessings may be shared by the composer
of thedocument and the caligraphist who have done their ,

work well. Hence, to direct the attention of the dead to their

so
persons they take good care to place their names on the stone with
, ,

all their official titles, their boast and glory, either at the head

of the » biography", or at the end of the » inscription". This adds

much to the reputation of the family of the deceased, showing
both in this world and the next how distinguished its members
are, who count such noble men of rank among their kinsfolk,
friends or accpaaintance.
The people generally consider one of the great advantages con-
nected with the placing of stone biographies in the graves, to
consist in their identifying the buried corpses for ever, even after
.JAV'.<

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PL XXXV.

la
ttflMJ
'..*. iaeai
 ;
,

BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED IN THE TOMBS. 1111

all the outward parts of the graves have fallen a prey to the
ravages of time and totally disappeared. They aver, indeed, that
the slabs are often used as evidence in cases ot litigation. To
convey to our readers some idea of the contents of such stone
documents , we now insert a literal translation of the one represented
by Plate XXXV, which commemorates an Amoy gentleman with
titulary official rank.

» Sepulchral Biography with Inscription for Mr. Yang, Intendant

c
» Expectant of a Circuit (Tao-t ai), promoted three degrees, on
» whom the Imperial IVing dynasty has conferred the title of honour
» of the second rank.
» His unlearned family friend and younger brother Chwang Chi- '

»khien, Literary Graduate of the highest rank (tsin-shi) in actual

» service of the State, on whom the title of honour of the fourth
» rank has been conferred and who wears peacock plumes as a
» reward for military merit Intendant of a Circuit for the pro-
;

c
»vince of Sze-ch wen, appointed for actual employ; formerly Second
» Class Secretary of the Board of War and inscribed as a Censor
» appointed by the Emperor as Superintendent of the Imperial
» Despatch Office (regulating the transmission of the correspond-
» ence from the provinces), as Proctor of the Military Gates and of
» the Office for the rules and regulations issued by the Board of War
» promoted three degrees, and subsequently raised one degree higher, —
» reveres (the deceased) by knocking his head against the ground
» and has selected these characters (i. e. composed this document).
» His unlearned younger brother Sie K ien-heng
c
, Literary Gra-
» duate of the highest rank in actual service of the State , on whom
» the honorary title of the fourth rank has been conferred ; Assistant
» Secretary in the Board of Punishments for employ in Eung-
c
» t ien (Mukden) on duty in the Council for the General
; officer

» Management autumnal revisions of sentences and in the

of the
» Great Council of State Assistant Director of the Military Record
;

» Office who has sat in the Committee of Examiners for the

;

» highest literary degree in the Metropolis in the year k e n g-s u h

» promoted three degrees, and subsequently raised one degree more, —
» worships the deceased by knocking his head against the ground,
» and has written this document in red upon the stone, and prepared
» also the archaic characters for the cover.

1 In daily intercourse, friends are accustomed to style each other brothers.

 ,:

1112 THE GRAVE.

» Among
the many inhabitants of the Island of the Herons
» (Aruoy) Mr. Yang Sien-tan displayed more wisdom and sagacity
,

» than any in managing his business with an able hand and in ,

» earning his livelihood with skill. Long ago the fame of his name
» reached my ears but even to this day I have not fathomed the
,

» whole extent of it.

» In the year wu-wu had set my ink-stone in the Yuh p ing
c
I
» college ', when one Mr. Yang Kiai-mei sent me his servant
» Yang Khin-wen to ask me whether I would like to learn from
,

» him a calling. I asked him about his family and descent , and
» learned that he was a son of Yang Sien-tan and that Yang Kiai- ,

» mei was a scholar of good principles that his father understood ;

» the art of fostering friendship had headed the business as a wise ,

» man for a long time and possessed all the ways and demeanour
,

» of a scholar. On his death his son out of veneration for his , ,

» father's character knocked his head before me on the ground and

,

» melting with tears , entreated me to make a stone inscription that

» might be placed in the grave. It was not until then that I learned
» many more details about his father's actions and conduct which ,

» I have collected and placed on record.

» His personal name , which may not be pronounced , was Tsi-
c
» ch c wen , his cognomen Ch ang-t wan c
, and his appellation Sien-tan.
c
» His ancestry lived in the village of T ing-chen , situated to the
c
» south of the capital of the department; his father, T ien-hi, and his
» mother , Chwang were , the first among them that removed to Amoy.
» T c
ien-hi begot seven sons, all of whom were outlived by this

» Gentleman and his younger brother Yen-siu. He was the third of

» them. When still young, his and parts were unlike
cleverness
» those of ordinary children , for he could recite the Classics by
» heart when he had merely perused them once. Owing to the
» extreme poverty of his family, he could not pursue the (literary)
» profession therefore he followed his father's calling of retailer.
;

» At the age of fifteen he lost his father. This increased his poverty
» and troubles. The old sire Heu Poh-yuen , his father's equal in
» years had then returned from Luzon and to comfort him said
, ,

» Shall you, who were so surprisingly clever when a child be poor

'
,

» and of no account when grown up ? He took the lad with him '

» and , on arriving at Manilla , made him an assistant in his busi-

» ness , telling the customers of his house to follow his directions.

In order to write essays to compete for rewards; see page 753.

 BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED IN THE TOMBS. 1113

» The young man proved honest, prudent and careful. Within a

» few years he thoroughly understood the spoken language of Ma-
» nilla and the foreign writing , and was acquainted with all the
» mercantile connections among the natives. In the ten and odd
» years during which he assisted Heu , the latter treated him with
» great generosity; then he started a business for himself, and from
» that moment dates the prosperity of his family.
» He was then thirty years of age, but still unmarried. Without
» delay he money to his old home to enable
sent his brothers to
» marry ; and when asked why he did so he said , :
'
I want them
» to have families as soon as possible, in order that the worship
» of our ancestors may be reverently transmitted to their descend-
» ants'. Afterwards he returned home, and bought fields for his

» clan , destining the proceeds to defray the costs of the ancestral

» sacrifices ; and all the members of the clan in the village who
» appreciated sense of duty, praised him for it with all their hearts.

» In the year ting-sze a great dearth of food prevailed in

» Amoy. In Formosa , too , the corn harvest was bad ;
prices ran
» higher and higher every day, and when the people began to cry
» for help , Lin Khii a member of the gentry, on returning from
,

» Peking, forthwith took the initiative in erecting a storehouse, in

» order to keep up the ordinary trade prices of the rice. But the
» evil consisted in this , that no rice was imported from elsewhere.
» Therefore , the Gentleman told the foreign merchants to dispatch
» their ocean-going vessels with orders to purchase rice in other
» countries. Formerly, when peace was restored in Amoy, many
» ruffians found refuge in barbarous countries , whence they did
» not desist from falsely spreading bad news every day, the people
» being thus kept in a state of alarm. The Gentleman there-
» fore gave the following advice: 'The people at home being
» reduced to extremities because of the prevailing dearth it is ,

» ten thousand to one that the scoundrels abroad will rise again.
» This is really a lurking danger; and so we must not neglect
» to bring about a coalition among the foreigners (in this port),
» in order that they may protect the sea-coasts on our behalf.
» He arranged this matter with great forwardness. Convoking the
c c
» foreign merchants to a meeting in the Southern P u-t o Monastery,
» he explained to them the dangers of the situation suggesting to ,

» them that if they would all warn the people in their service and
, ,

» if they would call some men-of-war into the port to guard against
» disastrous events from without those abroad would be kept in ,
 T ,
,

1114 THE GRAVE.

» their usual respectful submission. The minds being thus reverently

» united by him in concord , the great dearth of rice , though at-
taining to the proportions of a famine, did not do any harm. It
» was in this way that this Gentleman worked and strove; it shows
» us what an extraordinary man he was.
» In the year wu-wu, Shang-yiu was infested by rebels. The
» Prefect of the department daily devised military measures against
» them but no more contributions for keeping a soldiery on foot
,

» came in from the people. Hence this Gentleman subscribed a sum

» at the head of a list and for thus impelling the people to
;

» subscribe also he was nominated for an official rank and endowed

, ,

» with the dignity of Intendant Expectant of a Circuit with a

» promotion of three degrees. Besides, the title of honour of the
» second rank was conferred upon him and the same distinction ,

» was granted to his deceased progenitors of three generations.

» Though the talents and wisdom of this Gentleman surpassed
» those of others, he never forced his opinion into the foreground.
» Whether his house took the lead in financial matters when
» authority was paralyzed or whether he attended to any business of
,

» his own his doings all the same bore the marks of cool simpli-
, , ,

» city and artlessness. All he did was the fruit of spontaneous

» inspiration from his character. The tasteful beauties of poetry and
» prose he had thoroughly mastered he had conformed himself to ;

» the demeanour of scholars and superior men and men of this ;

» order deserve to be commemorated in stone. He was born in the

» period Kia khing, in the year sin-yiu (1801), on the £9th. of
» the sixth month in the third hour and he died in the H i e n
, ;

» fung period, in the year ki-wei (1859), on the 16th. of the twelfth
» month, in the second hour, at the age of fifty-nine. In Manilla
» he married a woman of the surname Ts c ai and in Amoy one ,

» of the surname Lin besides he had a concubine of the sur-

;

c
» name Ch en. They bore eight sons to him; the eldest, the
» third, the fifth and the seventh, respectively named Lung-wen,
» Teh-wen Yang-wen and Hwan-wen were born of Mrs. Lin
, ,

» and Teh-wen was given in adoption to the eldest line of the

» family e.
(«'. to his oldest paternal uncle). The second son
» the sixth and the eighth named Khin-wen Fung-wen and
, ,

c c
» ung-wen were all born of Mrs. Ts ai
, the fourth Fang- ; ,

» wen , was born of the concubine and transferred to the ,

» seventh line of the family as an adopted child. His daughters

c
» were six in number viz. four by Mrs. Ts ai and two by the
, ,
 , : , ,

BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED IN THE TOMBS. 1115

c
Sung-hwun are sons
» secondary wife. His grandsons Ts ing-hwo and
c
» of Lung-wen and P ing-hwang and Chih-hwai are sons of Khin-
,

» wen '. In the year keng-shen of the Ilien fung period, on

» the 15th. of the eleventh month, he was buried in the village
» of Ngan-teu in the grounds of mount Hu-tsing
, where his ,

» grave is situated between the line from E. S. E. by E. to

» W. N. W. by W., and that from E. S. E. by S. to W. N. W. by N.,

» under the influence of Metal.
» The Inscription reads as follows :
'
The possession of sufficient
» wisdom was granted to hitn , as also expertness in striving to
» cultivate his mental faculties. From a forlorn child he became
»a merchant, and yet, what flaw was there in his conduct as a
» scholar ? Towards uncivilized barbarians he observed loyalty, faith
» honesty and respect. When rebels appeared he was able to ,

» collect money, and to dispose of it in the locality harrassed by

» them. Thus the unbroken line of his descendants will possess
,

» a groundwork , upon which they may erect virtue and merit'.

» Engraved in stone by the joint care of:
» the Lung-wen
sons : , Khin-wen , Yang-wen , Fung-wen , Hwan-
c
» wen and T ung-wen
» the sons given in adoption Teh- wen and Fang- wen :

» the grandsons: P ing-hwang, Tsc ing-hwo, Chih-hwai and Sung-hwun".

c

The maternal rights, considered from the standing-point of the

children, being not inferior to the paternal power (see p. 550),
bound
children are in duty to endow their mother with a mo chi-
ming, when her husband is entitled to such a distinction. The
following is the translation of the mo chi-ming of the widow
c
of a Provincial Governor , herself a native of T ung-ngan , the district
in which Amoy is situated

» Sepulchral Biography with Inscription of Dame Su Mu whose ,

» own surname is Kao on whom the title of Lady of the First Degree
,

c
» has been conferred by the Imperial Ts ing dynasty.
» In the winter of the year sin-wei of the period T c ung chi
» (1871), Shui-shu, the learned grandson of the grandee Su Ngao-
» shih came from the Metropolis where he had been invested , at a
, ,

1 The names of the daughters are not mentioned, because they are lost to the
family, either having become, or being expected to become, members of other
clans by their marriage. For the same reason no mention is made of their children.
 ;,
.

1116 THE GRAVE.

c
» personal audience Emperor, as Tao-t ai of Wu-lin.
with the
» Having had intercourse with him during my whole life T called ,

» on him four days afterwards to see how he was and to converse ,

» with him and so I was sincerely attached to him as to a teacher

;

» from whom knowledge is derived. The Lady Mu surnamed ,

» Kao was at that time hale and hearty, which was a great
,

» consolation but not long afterwards suddenly came the announ-

;

» cement of her death. This made me a sorrow-stricken man for

» a long time. In
the draft of an
this spring , Shui-shu wrote
»
'
Inscription ' and asked me to write
for the Realm of Darkness,
» it out in an elegant style. I have no literary attainments
»but, remembering what I had learned from him as my teacher
» when I had to undergo the examination for the lowest literary
» degree it would have been unfair on my part to decline any
,

» request of his. So I have composed the document , carefully

» following his draught.
» The family name of the Lady is Kao. She was a daughter of
c
» (Kao) Ch ao-jen, a graduate of the lowest degree in T ung-ngan,
c

» and the wife of Mr. (Su) Ngao-shih late Governor General of the ,

» province of Sze-ch'wen endowed by the Emperor with the ho-

,

» norary title of the first degree. She married him when she was
» twenty-one years old. Her husband was at that time a man of
» small means. While he was studying the Ski Icing and the Sku king
» with unremitting zeal, she rendered his task easy for him by drawing
» water, pounding rice, and working the spinning-wheel and the
» loom with her own hands, whereby she gained a reputation similar
» to that of Pao Shao-kiiin 1 and Meng Teh-yao 2 When her hus- .

» band held with her the series of posts for which he was selected
» the ladies living outside her mansion followed her as her servants
» year after year; and still she continued to be capable of per-

1 Shao-kiiin , surnamed Hwan ykg , was the wife of one Pao Siien -jftnl
*]|f
They lived in great conjugal harmony at the beginning of our era. Though her own
family was wealthy and distinguished, and her husband poor, she cheerfully per-
formed the duties of awoman of humble position, and became famous all around for
her exemplary conduct. Her history is narrated in the Books of the Later Han
Dynasty, ch. "114, 1. 1.

2 Also named Meng Kwang 3j" -^ . She was an ugly, corpulent woman of great
bodily strength, married to one Liang Hung &X Ms, a scholar of high attainments,

with whom she spent a solitary tilling the ground, spinning

life in the mountains,
and weaving, and showing great devotion to her husband. They lived in the first
century of our era. Their history is likewise given in the Books of the Later Han*
Dynasty, ch. 113 11. 8 sqq. ,
 BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED IN THE TOMBS. 1117

» sonally same spirit of economy and frugality

displaying the
» as was manifested by her husband in wearing (simple) lambskin
» garments and rarely did she depend on the helping hand of her
,

» slave women and domestics in cleaning and washing. The verses of

» the South , entitled :
'
the Dolichos plants spreading themselves out
s
» over the Ground luxuriantly ' ', might be chanted in praise of her .

» Her husband early lost his father and mother. The Lady had
» taken good care of them whenever they were in bad health. The
» Grandlady Han-chwang her mother-in-law, having been buried
,

» in Ka-ho-li (Amoy island) she removed the corpse because ,

» termites were eating the grave away, and deposited it in the

» Goa-tiing ward, in the town of Amoy. During the turmoil
» caused by the insurgents in the third year of the period Hien
»fung (1858), when her husband had already departed this life,

» the people became panic-striken ; but this Lady thought of the

» dead , and ,
just in time , she crossed the sea in a boat under the
» cover of night at the head of her sons ,
grandsons and clans-
» men , and conveyed the encofhned corpse to her native place so ,

» that , the rebels took Amoy and some lawless bands searched
when
» for the place where the coffin had been they found nothing at ,

1These verses, forming the second ode of the Shi king, are in celebration of
a womanmanifesting great industry in weaving and washing her clothes with her
own hands. The Chinese think they were composed in honour of the consort of
Wen the founder of the Chen dynasty.
,

to 6iB.#^*Afll®,!tS,*gfefiBI*lil'#
K %mm%yiZ.4> t-U) -31- <M>
If ^
«
a Jiffi

&£
u B(R # , §& m pf

2&*if&m f-tkw&.ftmMM2m'%fo&< s

72
 ,

1118 THE GRAVE.

» all. Herefore the people extolled her hiao, and the circle ol her
» acquaintances greatly increased.
c
» Still in that same year kwei-ch eu of the Hien fung
» period (1853) the rebels fled. But in the year kiah-tsze of
» the period T ung chi (1864), the long-haired insurgents attacked
c

» Chang-cheu and conquered it. There was then an urgent need

» of infantry and cavalry, and the victuals for the military were
» exhausted. Hence this Lady frequently ordered '
her sons and
» grandsons to open their purses in order to supply the troops
,

» with food, and to subscribe money for the enlistment of soldiers,

» thereby to show their gratitude to the Empire. When order was
» restored , and the magistracy, with the sublime purpose of pro-
» moting the cultivation of literature ,
proposed to erect college
c
» buildings with an Examination-hall at T ung-ngan , she again
» ordered ' Shui-shu to contribute money and thus to set an
» example as a leader and guide to the people. Such was her dis-

» interestedness when her own person was concerned and her

, zeal

» in promoting the public good.

» Strictness and severity were the chief features of her character
» though indulgence formed the nucleus of her mind. In the sum-
» mer of the year ki-sze, Shui-shu fell a prey to calumny and
» slander in consequence of a feud. This caused a good deal of
» animosity among those who heard of the matter but the Lady ;

» admonished the parties to end the quarrel by showing forbearance

» and lenity and constrained them to devise prompt measures
,

» to prevent litigation; and everybody submitted to her will with

» a sigh. Whenever in the twenty years which elapsed after the
» demise of Mr. Ngao-shih a quarrel arose in the clan it was ,

» always made up immediately, if the Lady spoke a few words in

» the matter.
» In recent years she had grown very old ; but her high age did
» not cause her to manage matters , as delicate and tender as fine silk

» stuffs , without due attention. She still occasionally charged herself

» with the difficult work of exhorting her sons and grandsons to

» beware of carelessness and remissness. Ah , female apartments

1 The use of the character gj& here in the text clearly implies that a widow
is entitled to dispose of the possessions of her children and grandchildren for it ,

really means »to ordain, to command". Compare what we have stated on page 619
about the maxim, that neither sons, nor grandsons can possess any private property
while their parents or paternal grandparents are still alive.
 BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED JN THE TOMBS. 1119

» should verily be modelled after this Lady's virtuous conduct '.

» She was born in the year j e n-y i n of the period Kh i e n lung

» (1782), in the first hour of the ISth. of the seventh month, and
c
» she died in the year sin-wei of the period T ung chi (1871),
» in the ninth hour of the 27th. of the ninth month, having en-
» joyed a life of ninety years. She has had six sons. The eldest Shi- ,

»ying, and the next, named Shi-chun, Prefects of Independent

» Districts, were born of her. Then follow Shi-yuh and Shi-lien,
c
» both literary graduates of the lowest degree (siu-ts ai), Shi-fang,
» Examiner of the Salt Department, and Hai-hwui, who died an
» untimely death in his youth ; all of them were born of concu-
» bines. Her daughters are five in number. She has nine grand-
» sons in the male line , viz. Shui-shu , who has gained the title

» of yiu-kung in the year jen-tsze of the Hi en f ung period,

l

» and is a Brevet Intendant of a Circuit and Substitute Prefect of

» a Department in the province of Chehkiang Shui-lin literary ; ,

a && m.a a m %,m m^mmMg-^mm ,

Am, i&mwm.mz&mvk^ + ^mm^ii

#^*>#*A®twi&:fc#.
#*?« && . p.i^, ^AWfiM »SMffim
m 1& 5k =

2 Granted to some siu-ts'ai lor meritorious achievements at the examinations

for the second degree (kii-jen), at which they have failed to pass.
 , : ; ,

1120 THE GRAVE.

» graduate of the lowest degree salaried from the Treasury of the ,

c c c
» department; Shui-yun, Ts ing-tsim Ts ing-fen, Ts ing-fang IVing- , ,

c
»hwa, Ts ing-fuh and Ts ing-kieh, all of whom equally pursue the
c

» career of a scholar. She has ten granddaughters in the male line. '

» Further she has six great-grandsons in the male line, viz. the college
» student Kw ei-yih, c c
and Ken-p an, Ken-shu, Tsu-ngai, Tsu-yin and
» Tsu-sheu , who all spend their youth in study ; finally, she has six
» great-granddaughters '. She was buried in the village of Siang-fung
c
"in Ma-hiang, in the twelfth year of the period T ung chi (1873),
c
» on the 26th. of the first month , at the foot of the hill Fu-ts o
» where her hiieh (seepage 1009) is situated between the line from
» S. S. E. by S. to N. N. W. by N., and that from South to North.
» The Inscription reads
s 3
» 'The pictured robe became her well ; the fame of her virtues
4
» accrued silently ;
peerless were her great frugality and her ample
» laboriousness.
» The high sense of duty, which she displayed from morn till

» eve , was perfected at an early date

» It may stand as an example to the cap-wearing sex for a
» thousand years
» And spread abroad a sweet-sounding fame which will last as

» long as this stone'.

» Her disciple Ku Wen-pin , Literary Graduate of the highest
» rank in actual service of the State , titulary Lieutenant Governor
» of a Province, and Intendant of the Circuit comprising the depart-
c
» ments of Ning-p o
c
, Shao-hing and T ai-cheu in the province of
» Chehkiang with powers of control over the naval and military
,

» forces worships her by knocking his head against the ground and
, ,

» has selected these characters.

c
» Chang Shi-ch ang , her brother's unlearned son 5
for years
» Literary Graduate of the highest rank in actual service of the
» State, Provincial Commander-in-Chief of the military forces,
» Director of Studies for the province of Ngan-hwui , and Reader in
» the H a n-1 i n College , worships her by knocking his head against
» the ground , and has written it out in red (upon the stones).

1 Comp. the foot-note on page 11 15.

2 The embroidered dress which the consorts of mandarins are entitled to wear.
3 This passage is drawn from the Shi king, Odes of Yung mi |ji , 3.

4 Likewise borrowed from the Shi king, sect. ~j\^ HJ£ , Decade of king Wen, 7.

!">
This man thus humbly styles himself in the capacity of a younger friend, allied
to the defunct's family by ties of intimacy.
 BIOGRAPHIES IN STONE, BURIED IN THE TOMBS. 1121

» Clieu Lan , her brother's unlearned son for years , Literary

» Graduate of the highest rank in actual service of the State, late
» Provincial Commander-in-Chief of the military forces, Director
» of Studies for the provinces of Shensi and Kansuh , Second Class
» Compiler of the H a n-1 i n College , worships her by knocking his
» head against the ground and has prepared the ancient characters
» for the cover.
» Graven in the stone by Yiu Wen-chai" '.

The above translations shows that even careers of little signi-

ficance, or of no significance at all, may be commemorated in stone
in China, if the person concerned has held an official position, and
his family has money enough to defray the costs. Consequently, a
great many mo chi-ming are devoid of interest for foreign students;
but it can hardly be denied that some of them may be useful in

? *„£ ± 9t& ± m ,m It It JH ft *N ,W * A tbo

n^Mimm^mmftm, ^mnmm^.mm,
m *& m % m % m m nt ai m & ^ m m m
, , . , ,

^ &*m& m#*m %m%m mp ®

, . .

? * $ m m *r a m ^ m ,m # m *r wt %
. rti .
1122 THE GRAVE.

tracing out important matters of Chinese society and family life.

It would therefore be very satisfactory if some Sinologist would make

a choice selection of such documents , and edit them after careful ,

sifting, with correct translations and explanatory notes.

Placing eulogistic biographies, engraved in stone, in the graves

of the dead is by no means a custom of modern times. The com-
mon opinion in China, apparently well founded and supported by
documentary evidence, is that it dates from high antiquity, being
based upon a usage frequently mentioned in the Classics
, ot ,

making eulogies to glorify the dead.

Originally, homage seems to have been done in this wise ex-
clusively to office bearers of considerable rank. We read, indeed, in
the Li hi (ch. 9, 1. 35): » When Chwang of the king-
the Ruler
» dom of Lu fought a battle against the men of Sung at Shing-
»khiu, Hien Pen-fu drove, and Puh-kwoh was the man on his
» right. The horse took fright , the rope broke , and the Ruler fell

» down. Hien Pen-fu said: 'On no other day did the ropes break;
» that such a disaster occurs to-day is owing tomy want of courage'.
» Forthwith he was killed (by the king?). When the groom was
» bathing the horse a random arrow was found sticking in the
,

» flesh under the flank on which the Ruler said It was not his
, :
'

» fault', and he forthwith honoured him with a eulogy. The practice

» of making eulogies for lower officials dates from this time" '.

This passage teaches us that the custom in question was in vogue

as early as the seventh century before our era; the battle of Shing-
c 2
khiu being fought, according to the Clfun ls iu , in 683 B. C.
This is confirmed by the circumstance that funeral eulogies are,
as we shallsee on page 1124, mentioned more than once in the
Cheu li, which ancient constitution dates according to the prevailing ,

Chinese belief, from the thirteenth century before our era.

In all the works composed during the reign of the Cheu dynasty,
funeral eulogies are denoted by the character |^, nowadays pro-

*
1 &^2^AaT m&*mn$tto* hmn

e ft ,& & ,w £ m & m m z>± z ^ 1* m iit a*

•^ . Section
|g ^ , I, 1.

2 The tenth Year of the Ruler Chwang's Reign.

 ,
!

FUNERAL EULOGIES IN ANCIENT CHINA. 1123

nounced 1 e i. Like the m i n g or eulogies proper, on the present in o

,

chi-ming, they were composed of a few lines only; and their

commendatory character apparently consisted in that they expres-
sed the profound grief,
by the survivors, because of the de- felt

parture of the defunct. They were in fact short elegiac encomiums , ,

eulogistic death-dirges. This may be seen from the lei made on

the death of Confucius : » On the death of Khung-khiu , which
» occurred in the fourth month, in summer, the Ruler (Ngai ofLu)
» eulogised him in the following words: 'Compassionate Heaven
» vouchsafes me no comfort and has not me left that unique old
» man to support and shield me , the One Man , while I am on
» the throne. Quite dispirited do I feel , and in great distress. Alas
» woe is me ! Oh , Father Ni ! there is no one now to guide my
» conduct'" '. In the Li ki (ch. 11, 1. 52) this eulogy is given some-
what differently: » Heaven has not left me that old man; there is

no one now to prop my throne. Alas! woe is me! Oh, Father Ni!" 2

The homage, paid to the dead by such panegyrics, chiefly con-

sisting of expressions of grief, it necessarily follows that their value
for the dead kept regular pace with the position of the men who
composed them. Deceased man could indeed not be better , ,

honoured than by profound regret being openly expressed because ,

of his departure, by men of much higher rank. It is therefore

natural to read in the Li ki (ch. 27, 1. 18): »A man in a low posi-
» tion makes no eulogy for another in a higher nor does a younger ,

» man compose it for an elder of his family this is the rule. —

» In the case of a Son of Heaven Heaven alone can be applied to ,

» for his eulogy. It is even against the ceremonial institutions for

» feudal Princes to eulogize each other" 3
— it appertaining to the
Son of Heaven , the only man above them , to do so. Our readers have
seen that , even to this day, this rescript is followed in respect of the

5* qj£ iSi "5c ^ § "^& ' Tsoch'wen, the sixteenth Year of the Ruler Ngai's
Reign. See also the Historical Records, ch. 47, 1. 27.

2
% t> m # % % m t- & > i. m^ , ic m & #•>

Sect.
j|jg ^ , 1 , 3.

m ^ mn ,® ^ mm ,m^ m % ^ m ^ ^ i*
3
a

Zc m & m # IB & 1 59' " ffi

Sect - -7-
 ;
,

1124 THE GRAVE.

mo chi-ming, inasmuchas they are composed and written almost

exclusively by mandarins and graduates. It does occur, in point of
fact, that people of humble position make them; but in such cases
the names and titles of officers and liteiati are, with their consent,
paraded on the stone , as if they were really the composers and writers.
It is quite natural that the funereal eulogies in ancient China should
have played a part, whenever and wherever it was deemed proper to
do homage to the deceased; as e. g. when prayers were chanted or
recited at his burial, and at the sacrifices presented to his soul on
that occasion. In the Cheu li we read : » The Great Invoker makes six
» sorts of formularies by which intercourse may be kept up with
» the beings above and below e. of Heaven and Earth) with
(*'. ,

» the near and remote ancestors, and the spirits afar off and close by
» the sixth sort comprises the funeral eulogies '. The Great Annalist
» recites the eulogy at Great Funerals on the day when the corpse
» is sent away" 2 — that is to say, as the extracts, quoted on pp.
151 —
152 from the / li and the Li ki , show, at the farewell
sacrifice presented to the deceased before sending him to his last
resting-place; — »and at the funeral of a Feudal lord or a Great
» officer , a Sub- Annalist delivers the posthumous name and recites
» the eulogy " 3
. The eulogies thus evidently being allocutions formally
recited, in mournful terms, at the moment when the dead were sent
to the tomb, we may style them » mourning addresses" or » funeral
addresses".
At Imperial funerals during the Han dynasty they also served this
purpose. They were called at that time » elegiac bamboo slips" 4 being ,

no doubt, scratched or written on bamboo, the usual writing material

in those times. The Imperial remains being placed on the bier or
hearse, thus we read in the Record of Rituals contained in the Standard
History of the Han dynasty, »the Great Annalist, holding the elegiac
» bamboo slip on the palms of his hands ,
places himself behind
» the The Grandmaster of the Sacrifices kneels down, ex-
hearse.
» claiming: 'Come forward!' The Emperor obeys this order; the
» Commander of the Army reads off the bamboo slip engraved ,

Chapter 25, 1. 5.

2
-ktii-k^^Z mU- Cha P ter 26 - '• 9 -

3
>* j& m a * z % m m m u- cha P ter 26 <
> i3 -

4
Mik-
 ELEGIAC PANEGYRICS, ADDRESSED TO THE DEAD. 1125

» with the posthumous name and places it in a metal box which

, ,

» the Emperor inspects , and which is then put away in the ancestral
» temple. Now the Great Annalist , carrying the elegiac slip in a basket
» of rushes on the palms of his hands, repairs to the grave hill; the
>> Grandmaster of the Sacrifices kneels down, and exclaims: 'Wail!',
» and the Minister for the State Ceremonial having repeated this
» order , the fifteen musical instruments stop , those present pour
» forth their waitings , and the Grandmaster of Sacrifices performs
» the sacrifice of sending the deceased away. All these performances
» are gone through in accordance with the rites ; and the orders to
» wail and to stop wailiug are likewise given with observance of
» the ceremonial rules" '.

And on the same day, when the cortege of death had arrived at the
entrance to the crypt, »the Great Invoker brought forward must,
» and offered it (to the defunct) with observance of the ritual rescripts.
» The Minister of the Revenues, falling upon his knees, says: 'Great
» funeral car , be pleased to stand still '; and the Great Annalist reads
» the elegiac slip from the south side of the bier , turning himself
» to the north, during which ceremony those in charge of the
» obsecpjies stand arrayed behind him. Having thus lamented the
» dead , he howls. Now the Grandmaster of the Sacrifices kneels
»down, exclaiming: 'Wail!' — the Minister for the State Cere-
» inonial repeats this order , and all those present obey it in accord-
» ance with the customary rituals. Then kneeling down , the Minister
» of the Revenues says: 'I request Your Majesty to descend from
» Your seat', upon which the military officials of the Eastern Park
» take the coffin down from the bier. The same Minister having
» exclaimed, in a kneeling attitude: 'Please to descend into the
» crypt', every one escorts the military officials with the bier into
» the crypt , the Minister of the Revenues and the Great Annalist
» carrying respectively the slip with the posthumous name and the
» one with the elegy" 2
— to deposit them in the grave for ever.

:fc It W It 51 ^ £ H M ^ ^ £K , , ii ^ lie ;fc jfc

+ i m # ih ^ ± % n m n % m m m % it . , >

5Q $P 1s Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 16, 11. 4 — 5.

3
±mmm, mt^rn. nttmn, *w,m&,±
 ,

1126 THE GRAVE.

As was the case in times more remote, when, as the above

extracts from the C/ieu li teach us , funeral eulogies were awarded to
Feudal lords and Great officers, they were, during the Han dynasty,
awarded to the highest nobility. » In the second year of the period
» Chung yuen B. C.)", thus it is stated, »the Emperor
(148
» (King) ordained that on the demise of an Imperial Prince of the
,

» highest rank , or on that of an Imperial Prince of lower rank

» recently invested with a fief and departed already to his princi-
» pality, the Minister for the State Ceremonial should offer to the
» Throne the bamboo slips , inscribed respectively with the posthum-
» ous name and the eulogy ; further , on the demise of some
» other Imperial Prince of lower rank , or of the highest Minister '

» of a Prince of the highest rank, if he had resigned his functions

» not long before, the Minister charged with the entertainment of
» Imperial guests should offer to the Emperor the slip with the
2
» posthumous name and that with the eulogy" .

That funeral eulogies, mourning addresses, elegiac panegyrics,

eulogistic elegies, or whatever our readers may like to call the
lei, played an important part among the people during the Han
dynasty, is clearly suggested by the fact that the histories of the
time make mention of some men of letters who composed a great
many of them. Of one Su Shun who lived in the first and second
3
,

century of our era, we are told that »his poetic disquisitions,

» eulogic and elegiac writings and miscellanies formed together
» sixteen sections. Among the many men of letters who lived at
c
» that time in San-fu (see page 424) Ts ao Chung of Fu-
, one
» fung , also named Poh-shi ,
possessed talent and scholarly attain-

Op. et loc. cit.

1 T'ai-f'u ~^T -pll , the principal among the Three Rung ^^ ^. or high
Ministers of State.

~~h* %~f ^S 3§ ^Mfe iS • Books of the Early Han Dynasty, chapter 5, 1, 5.

3
mm-
 ,

OFFERTORIES AT BDRIAL. 1127

» ments, and composed a disquisition on eulogies, in four sections" '.

2
And of Chang Siring it is stated that » his poetic eulogies and
laudatory epigraphs for stone tablets comprised sixty sections" 3
.

Nor did the lei fall into disuse in subsequent ages. It is recorded,
c
for instance , of one Khih Ch ao 4
, who lived in the fourth century,
that »on the day of his demise, men of all ranks and conditions grasped
» their writing-brushes and more than forty , persons each composed a
» eulogy for him: such was the general esteem he was held in" 5 .

c c
» And Ho Ch ing-sui, a native of Ch i-cheu, who had cured his sick
» father by giving him some flesh to eat which he had cut from his ,

» own thigh on the old man's death prostrated himself on the grave
,

» wailed and stamped his feet without regard to numbers and died
, ,

c
» from emaciation. He was called the filial son of Ts ing-yang and ,

« scholars wrote for him a very great number of eulogies" 6 .

In books of later times, elegies commonly appear under the name

7
of » sacrificial writings" , i. e. offertories addressed to the dead
during the celebration of the funeral. That this term, in point of
fact, already denoted an elegy during the Liang dynasty, is proved
by the following extract: »When Sii Fei died while holding the
» office of prefect of Tsin-ngan , his corpse was sent back to the
» Metropolis (the present Nanking) , and his consort then made
» a sacrificial writing in terms very sad and mournful. Mien (his

» father) first intended to make the elegy for him ; but when
» he had seen that sacrificial writing , he laid his writing-brush

of the Later Han Dynasty, chapt. 110, first section, 11. 14 seq.

^
section,
^ 1.
I3t Wfc
1.
$f ^^ J"L s> ~f" IS Tlle same work '
c)l -
HO' seco "d

* mm-
Jj M ffi ^ H #R ltfc
Books of the Tsin D y nast y- ch - 67 -
L 2-

M^I##^^±^^i^@^
ch. 195, 1. 14.
New Books ° r t,ie
'
T an s D > nast y-

7
^£-
 ,
;

1128 THE GRAVE.

1
» aside" . Ever since, sacrificial writings are very frequently mentioned
in the books, and to this day they are generally used at the funerals
of people of distinction. Original specimens have been placed before
our readers on pp. 147 and 225. Just like the lei of the ancients,
they bear the two-fold character of elegy and eulogy, and are recited
at thefuneral; and the fact that they are thereupon burned (see

pp. 149 and 22G) also connects them with the lei. Indeed, these
latter were, during the Han dynasty, placed in the grave (see pages

1125 and 1131), and, as we have demonstrated on pp. 711 sqq.,

the ancient custom of burying articles with the dead gradually
gave place in later times to offering them up to the manes by con-
verting them into flames and smoke.
Also the songs which, as we have suggested on page 189, were
chanted in ancient China by the gagged drawers of the hearse,
were , according to the opinion of native scholars , nothing else
but elegiac eulogies, and, as such, most closely allied to the lei.
The Record of Rites of the Han dynasty 2
states that , during the
reign of this House, there were in the funeral cortege of an Emperor
no less than three hundred so-called wan ^ or »car drawers", in
six rows of fifty each , who dragged the cumbersome hearse by
means of six thick ropes of white silk , thirty c li a n g long. All
these men and
, accompanying them had gags
also the officials ,

in their to reduce their chanting to a monotonous hum

mouths
besides there were six files of ten singing men
, and each file was ,

preceded by eight military officers, carrying clappers. In the third

century, while the Tsin dynasty occupied the throne, it was, as we
have shown on page 188 by a long extract from the Official History
of that epoch, called into question by high servants of the State,
whether such singing at the bier-ropes should on archeologic grounds ,

be allotted a place among the ritual institutions of the Government,

and it was decided to maintain it. No doubt it is to a great ex-
tent owing to this Imperial decision that it has kept its place in
the institutions of later dynasties. In the Record of the Rites for
the Yuen Mausoleum (see page 994) it was prescribed that, at
Imperial funerals, » there should be two divisions of men chanting
» while drawing the funeral car, and that each division should

&w$w£3B#> iiMi, mn^ic, m

1

@ m m n # » % m £ m & ik * ** m m m
of the Liang Dynasty, ch. 33
.
, 1. 16.
•
b °° us

2 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 16 , 1. 5.

 ,

SINGING HEARSE DRAWERS. 1129

» consist of sixty-four men, in files of eight" '; but the Rituals of

the period Khai yuen do not mention them in the section devoted
to the burial of officers and commoners. The Sung dynasty allotted
» thirty-six pulling chanters , in six files , to officers of the first

» second or third rank; sixteen, in four files, to those of the fourth;

» eight to the fifth or sixth , and six to the seventh or eighth
» degree" 9
. And during the reign of the House of Ming, the Col-
lective Statutes prescribed that there should be » pulling chanters" 3
in the funeral train of officers of the several degrees; but they
did not mention such men in their funeral rescripts for the com-
mon people.
As to the present reigning dynasty, neither its Collective Statutes,
nor its T'ung li, make mention of funeral chanters. From this we
must infer that, as such men are not explicitly mentioned in the
Classics, this dynasty has deemed it incorrect to sanction their
presence in funeral corteges. In the numerous burial trains that have
passed under our eyes, we never saw any chanters, though many
of those corteges were for men and women of high social position
and official rank. Yet the ancient custom observed during so
, ,

many centuries, survives in another form. In Fuhkien and some

parts of Kwangtung, the elegiac eulogies, instead of being sung
at the way to the grave, are carried aloft in the
coffin on the
funeral train, each of them being inscribed on a large sheet
of coloured cloth or silk hanging down from a horizontal lath ,

which is fixed to the top of a pole. We have spoken of these

banners already on page 199. They are specially used when the
great Buddhist mass for the repose of the soul has been cele-
brated ; for, this ceremony being specially devoted to enriching
the deceased with sacrificial offerings , all friends , kinsmen and
admirers avail themselves of it to do homage to his soul by presenting
eulogic banners, besides eatables, mock money etc. Sometimes a
pair of banners are offered, each inscribed with one line of a

1
&Wl — M > # ^ + P9 A A A % M- K ,
" Hn ''" sM
isih ch'ing, sect, inffi
-|3| , cliapt. 50.

Kff + AA, i&^rFp^fcAA, -biS&Arf&tt

|0£ -fc A • History of the Sung Dynasty, cli. 124, I. 13.

ft *; ch. 92, 1. 8.
 ,

1130 THE GRAVE.

distich. Previous to the burial , they are suspended from the walls of
the house hall, where the mass is celebrated. We have seen specimens
in yellow, black , blue , white and green but never in red or reddish
,

colours , the use of red things being , as our readers know, carefully
avoided in mourning. Their dimensions do not seem to be subject
to any rules, but are seldom more than one metre by two. The
inscriptions are either painted on the cloth, or stitched on to it.

To convey an idea of the arrangement of the characters, we here

give a specimen:
» Reverently do we act as hearse
drawers to Li Yung-mei, married into
the Lai family, who has mounted the
car, to depart like a Sien '. Bestriding
s
the Crane , she returns to the West 3
.

c
Shao-hiun and Ch un-yung, her hus-
band's unlearned younger brothers
togetherworship her with their heads
on the ground".
These eulogic funeral banners most
clearly demonstrate their origin by the
names they bear. In literary style they
are generally called wan !Jft§ , » car
drawers", the same word which, as we have stated on page 1128,
during the Han men who drew the Imperial
dynasty denoted the
funeral car to and which has ever since denoted
the mausoleum ,

them in the dynastic books of rites and in the general literature.

Often also the banners are called chub f|jj| a word which denotes ,

the axle of a vehicle , or the axle-arms ; that is to say, the in-

strument by means of which a funeral car is pulled forward. A
third name, also in frequent use, is a combination of the two
above words into the binomium wan-chuh. As to the inscriptions
on these banners , the standard expression by which they are denoted
at present, is wan ko^^f, » car-drawers' chants", the same
term, indeed, which is used in the Books of the Tsin dynasty —
viz. in the extract which has been given, with a translation, on pp.
188 — 189 of this work —
and afterwards in the literature of all ages,
to denote the songs of the hearse drawers. In literary style, those

1 An immortal being see page 54. :

2 The bird of immortality, see page 57. Compare also page 220.
3 Paradise, see page -124.
 ,

EULOGIES BURIED IN THE TOMBS. L131

inscriptions arc , moreover , called wan s h i

l
or wan t s z
c
e 2
, » car-
drawers verses", and tsiwan or tsi chuh', » sacrificial car-
3

drawers or sacrificial car-axles". We must still observe that it is very

usual to find in the books the character ^ interchanged with ^,
which latter is a homonym for the first , or we might say a synonym
having the meaning of to pull or to draw in the general sense.
After this digression we must again fix our attention on the
eulogic biographies in stone, placed in the graves. They, too, are
representative of a form which the lei of the ancients have as-
sumed in the course of ages.
It has been seen on page 1125 that, at Imperial burials during
the Han dynasty, the elegiac eulogy, inscribed on bamboo, was
deposited in the crypt. Liu Chao 5
, who lived during the Liang
dynasty, informs us in the commentary he wrote to the Books of
the Later Han Dynasty, that » under House
the reign of the of
» Tsin , there was found at the foot of mount Sung-kao a slip of
» bamboo, two columns of frog-shaped characters.
inscribed with
» They passed from hand to hand in that table-land and beyond
»it, people showing them to each other; but nobody could uncler-
» stand them, until Chang Hwa, Superintendent of Works, con-
» suited the learned scholar Shuh Cheh , who declared he had to do
» with the slip that had been placed in the Hien-tsieh Mausoleum
» of the Emperor Ming (who died in A. D. 75). On further in-
6
» vestigation this was found to be correct in point of fact" .

It was also during the Han dynasty, that there lived a man
who, as recorded in the Standard Histories, had an engraved stone
put into his grave, which strongly calls to mind the present mo
chi-ming. In the fifth century of our era, the grandee » Chang
» Yung , on
open an old grave found near lake Hiien-wu
laying
» discovered upon
a copper peck with a handle. Enquiries
it

» being made about this object among the scholars at Court by

»Wen, the Emperor, Ho Ching-tfien said: 'This is a peck of

l 2
w*>n-
4 Mf rfl . 5

° w ® *r a n ^ oi t # fi - # ± m m n flf .

^ t^ Jfv $% ||- Books of the Lllter Han D y nast y' ch - 16 >

• 5 -
 ,

1132 THE GRAVE.

» authority ', conferred upon a buried man just after his death.
» During the reign of Wang Mang (see p. 314), the three highest
» ministers were all endowed with such pecks by him on their
'

» death one being placed upon their tomb and one inside 2 At
, , .

» that time the one among his three highest dignitaries who
,

» resided in the country on the left banks of the Great River , was
» Chen Han , Grand Minister of the Revenues we have ; certainly
» to do with the grave of this man'. Unawares Chang Yung laid
» open another grave. A peck was found inside it, and, moreover,
» a stone on which was graven that it was the tomb of Chen Han
,

» Grand Minister of the Revenues" 3

.

From the legend concerning Eei-lien, inserted on page 283,

as also from that relating to Ling of Wei, of which we have made
mention on page 289, our readers may see that the literature of
China contains references to inscriptions placed inside graves in very
remote times. But, even though both those myths denote those inscrip-
tions by the same character ^m i n g which has been used ,
probably
from the beginning, as a specific term for the eulogies that form

1 See the foot-note on page 1126.

2 In the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, in the chapters devoted to Wang
Mang and his career, we read (ch. 99, third section, 1. 2): »In the eighth month
» of that year (A. D. 17) he went personally to the altar in the southern sub-
»urb, and there cast 'pecks of authority'. These pecks were of copper, weighing
» five stones; they resembled the Northern Peck (the Greater Bear constellation) in
» shape, and were two feet five inches long. It was his intention to make them
"subservient to the subduing of (mutinous) military power" -& ^fe i\ Ej

%-tt^,M^Kfr^/l$kMmffi$l & The Northern Peck

or Bushel being considered in ancient China the chief ruling power of the Uni-
verse (see p. 317), it certainly was not unnatural for Wang Mang to place badges
of its shape in the hands of his three highest ministers. It is deserving of attention
that, quite near that constellation, there are three stars which anciently bore the
name of
^^ 4^ > » the Three Prime Ministers": — see the Historical Records,

ch. 27, 1. 1.

m m # m & *e m m # m, m ± # - m 4 ,m
t^ =
3

£ # J# s£ 1$ ± fa #^ B t 4 s , [ ] > lfc «
^ 3|L • History of the Southern Part of the Realm, chapter 33, I. 25.
 "

THE OLDEST SEPULCHRAL BIOGRAPHIES. 1133

part of the mo c h i-rn i n g nowadays ,

yet we have no reason
to take for granted that they represent the ancient form of the
latter, their tenor, as given by those myths, neither bearing the
character of a eulogy, nor of a necrology or biographical notice.
Trustworthy references to eulogistic biographies in stone, buried
in the tombs, do not appear in the national literature before the
c
fifth century. Of P
\ consort of the heir-apparent of the first
ei
c
Emperor of the Southern Ts i dynasty, we read » In the second :

»year of the period Kien yuen (A. D. 480) she died. At that
» time the plan of making for her a biography (c h i) in stone
,

» being subject to discussion ,

(the minister) Wang Kien made
» the following statement Biographies in stone do not owe their
:
'

» existence to the (ancient) ritual institutions and did not come ,

» into vogue until the Sung dynasty in the period Yuen k i a ,

»(424 — 454), when Yen Yen-chi made one for Wang Khiu. The
» (Imperial) clan has not used hitherto any engraved bamboo slips

» (for the tombs), and must now act in conformity with the
» same line of conduct. Of old its members have conjointly

» observed the customs of their ancestors and if now an extra ;

» usage be observed for this secondary consort the rules of conduct ,

» that have hitherto been constantly practised will be renounced. ,

» Anyhow, an elegiac bamboo slip is used for her we must

as ,

» not crack our brains about a biography in stone '. The advice
» was followed 2 This extract is important for us also in this
.

respect, that demonstrates that, in those times, there lived men

it

who really considered the ancient bamboo elegies to be intrinsically

modern biographies in stone.
identical with the then
That the placing of biographies in stone in graves really was
in vogue in the fifth century, is confirmed by another passage
in the Standard History of that period, which states explicitly,
the seventh son of the Emperor Wen
4
that when Hung 3 ,
of the

2
m 7c — *$ b Mo® m m ± % m*$. ft b * u »

mmmm.no Wc^&m. *mz&*

the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 11, 1. 14.
fc^.**-**

73
1134 THE GRAVE.

Sung dynasty, had died at an early age in A. D. 45S , » the Em-

»peror, being very much afflicted at his loss, himself made a mo
»chi-ming for him" 1
. In the next century they were evidently
used on an extensive scale, being mentioned several times in the
histories of that epoch. So , for instance , on the death of the magnate
c
Ch u Siang 2
of the Liang dynasty, in the third year of the period
c
Ta t ung (529), » his brother Sie-kii composed his sepulchral in-
» scription (mo m i n g) , of which the following is a digest :
'
A
» man , whose glorious rule cast off so many flowers and seeds
» that the size of mount Sung 3
is insufficient to estimate their
» quantity by ; a man , from whose fame under the moon the pure
» harpsichord tunes arise — with such a man , this one may,
» according to those who bear him on their lips , be freely com-
4 c
» pared'" . The Books of the Northern Ts i Dynasty mention one
c
P ei Tseu-chi 6
, a scholar of great wit and learning, who, » when the
» several inmates of the house of Yang Yin were transferred into
» other graves was intrusted with reverently making more than ten
,

B
» sepulchral biographies (mo chi)" . Finally quoting the Books of
c
the Ch en Dynasty : » In the third year of the period Ch i n g-
»ming (A. D. 589), Lu Kwang-tah lawfully submitted himself
» to the House of Sui, and thereupon fell ill for grief, because
» the dynasty, to which he had belonged was overthrown. There was ,

» no cure for his illness which in the end brought him to the ,

» grave a victim to his ardent loyalty. He was then fifty-nine

,

» years of age. Kiang Tsung, President of a Board, placed his

» hands upon the coffin and howled with great emotion then he ;

» asked for a writing-brush and wrote a verse upon the head of ,

» the coffin which ran as follows Though his bitter grief be

, :
'

» hidden in an embracement of water-springs in the yellow clay,

1. 6.
1
±% '!£ W , i
See also the History of the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 14,
^MU% Boolis of the Sun s D >' nast v di
1.
-

17.
' -
n <

3 Situated in the province of Honan. It is reputed among the Chinese to be the

highest mountain summit in the Empire.

Books of the Liang Dynasty, ch. 41 , 1. 5.

of the Northern Ts'i Dynasty, ch. 35, 1. 2.

 SEPULCHRAL BIOGRAPHIES DURING THE T C ANG DYNASTY. 1135

» yet his fame shall be spread abroad under the bright sunlight.
» This deplored worthy died in consequence of the loyalty that af-

» fected his soul; he was not a being indifferent to favours'. Tsung

» also made the sepulchral inscription (mo ming) for Kwang-tah " '.

The Kwei sin tsah sink , a work of the fourteenth century (see

p. 399), contains the following notice concerning the sepulchral

biographies in use before the T angc
dynasty, which shows that they
closely resembled those in vogue at present » According to Chao
—
:

»Sung-siieh" —
a scholar who lived from A. D. 1254 to 1322
» there are in the North many old graves which date from before
» the T ang dynasty, and so-called sepulchral biographies (mo chi)
c

» are generally placed inside the same. They are square the front ;

» side bears the 'cover', which is broad below and narrows at the
» top , and is inscribed as follows :
'
Sepulchral Biography of So-and-
»So, such-and-such an under the dynasty So-and-So';
office-bearer
» it is the so-called 'inscribed cover'. The two parts, viz. the cover
»and the 'bottom', are fastened together by iron bindings" 2 In .

more recent times, the mo chi-ming have uninterruptedly played

their part as indispensable appurtenances to graves. Among its rules

for the burial of officers of every rank and of the common people,
the code of Rituals of the Khai yuen period explicitly stated that
the » biography in stone" 3
should be conveyed to the grave in a
vehicle in the funeral procession, and that »the inscribed banner
» (comp. pp. 212—213) and the biographical stone should be placed
» within the opening of the pit" 1 The. funeral regulations, enacted .

i
mm~^^ mm^n Am, s*ift#$m

^oHX M !! M 3S i§- ChaP ter 31 >

'• i%

t£ $ m ^ At jj % m w m * m
2°
. > #f nmm%

Wi M JhI £ K" kin '" *h " tsih

'
eh in 9' sect '
tty Pi'
ch -
140 '
and sect

^ ^, ch. 178.
 ,

1136 THE GRAVE.

by the Sung dynasty, likewise dictated the use of stones bearing

a record of the life of the deceased (see page 1079) and Chu ,

Hi prescribed them in his Rituals for Family Life. The rescripts

given by this philosopher as what those biographies ought to
to
contain, are interesting, as they show that for many ages, during
which work has been the common vademecum of the nation,
his
they were composed in much the same way as at the present day.
» Two slabs shall be used. The one, forming the 'cover', shall bear
» this inscription: 'Grave of Mr. So-and-So, who lived under this
» or that dynasty, and was invested with such-and-such an office ';
» if the dead man was no office-bearer it shall bear his cogno- ,

» men. On the other slab, which forms the 'bottom', his official
» dignity shall be engraved, with his family name, his personal
» name that may not be pronounced , his cognomen , his depart-
» ment and district , the name and office of his father , the surname
» and honorary title of his mother further the year month and ; ,

» day of his birth the official posts he has successively been trans-
;

» ferred to the year

; month and day of his demise the village
, ;

» or ward where the burial takes place his age the name of his ; ;

» wife and that of her father further the offices held by his sons
;

» and the offices and names of the men with whom his daughters
» are married. On the day of the interment, the inscribed sides
» of the two slabs must be placed upon each other and the ,

» slabs be fastened together with bindings of iron. Thus they shall

» be placed in the fore-part of the grave-pit , at only three or four
» feet from the surface of the soil ; for if the undulations of
» the ground should afterwards have assumed other aspects the ,

» grave may be disturbed by mistake in which case these ,

» stones, being first caught sight of, will render the intruders
» acquainted with the names , and induce them to cover up the
» grave again" '.
 ,

RESCRIPTS OF THE MING DYNASTY. 1137

The Ming dynasty enacted rescripts scarcely differing from the

above. In the fifth year of the period Hung wu (1372) the
first monarch of this family decreed as follows: »Two flat bio-
» graphical stones shall be used for all the mandarins of whatever
» degree. The one , forming the cover , shall be inscribed with the
» words :
'
Grave of the mandarin So-and-So '
; the other , forming
» the bottom , shall bear the family name , the name and the
» residence of the deceased ; up to the
his ancestors third genera-
» tion ; the year of his birth ; the month and 'day of his death and
» burial ; his sons and grandsons ; the location of his grave. In the
» case of a married woman , the stone shall bear the title conferred
» upon her in accordance with the rank of her husband, sons or
» grandsons (comp. page 767). The two faces of the stones shall
» be placed against each other , fastened together with bindings of
»iron, and buried in the grave" 1
. From a summary, which the
History of the Ming Dynasty gives of the rescripts that were in
force during that epoch for the burial of members of the gentry, we
learn that also for these persons » biographical stones were to be carved
» which were to be placed in the grave at the interment , together
» with the soul banner " 2
. Finally, the edict of the fifth year of the
period Hung wu directed that the common people, too, should
use » biographical stones in two slabs , made in accordance with
3
the rules in force for mandarins" . Also in the Collective Statutes
of the Ming Dynasty »the carving of a biographical stone" 4
is

mentioned among the necessary preparations for the burial of

5
officers and » the placing of such a stone
, in the grave " among
the burial rites for commoners.

gij A ^T ft £ *fe ^ # 1 hI S tS Z . ifc «» K »

cha i )tei 6 -
-

n B ^^H.P^Ji A HUB! *!!*##*£„-

^ffil^ilifi*^:!!'^- Hist01 ° the Min ? D y nast y. <*• 60, 15. 'y r l.

* MUX >m M&l&mZ ftffi ^. Chapter 60. 1.20.

4
MU^B Ch-92.1-8-

5 "P^^-Ch. 93, 1. 8.
 ,

1138 THE GRAVE.

The dynasty now on the Throne has made quite similar rescripts.
In the Ta Tsing Cung li we read that, on the death of Princes
of Imperial lineage of whose titles we have given a list on page
453 , after the coffin is placed in the grave, » the biographical stones
1
shall be concealed in it" ; further, in the case of a mandarin of
whatever rank, »two stones shall be used for carving the sepulchral
» biography, the one inscribed like the stone tablet outside the grave
» (see pp. 1147 seq.), and the other stating minutely the surname of
» the deceased his personal name that may not be pronounced
,

» his posthumous name, his cognomen; his district, town, village

» and dwelling place the offices he has held and the posts to ; ,

» which he has been successively transferred; further the year,

» month, day and hour of his birth and death; the situation of his
» burial-place and the points of the compass denoting the direction
,

» in which it lies and the sons and daughters he has left. The
;

» stones must be fastened together by means of iron bindings in ,

2
» such a way that the characters are turned inside" . Also for the
3
shi , that is to say, the officers of the eighth and ninth degree and
the gentry, »a sepulchral biography shall be carved, answering to
» the rules to be found among the rescripts for the funeral of man-
»darins" 4 and for the common people » there shall be a biography,
;

but no stone tablet " 5 .

Knowing now that the eulogic biographies, placed in the tombs

of the dead have been evolved from a sacred institution of the
,

ancients; knowing also that they have been a matter of concern

to the State for over a thousand years, rescripts relative to their
use having been laid down in the codices of rites of four of the
great dynasties that have ruled the Empire since the seventh cen-
tury — we may be sure the present Chinese, too, consider them of the
highest importance in the disposal of their dead. It is remarkable
that none of these four dynasties has allotted to such biographies a
eulogistic character ; indeed , their official rescripts designate them

S±
PjOi ;g
fc . Chapter 51 , 1. 7.

2
M^Un^B^, — # #R *«>-!¥ IE #fef$l&
Chapt. 52, I. 11.

3 ± 4
^J^g£,j£jl^ M^fi ch 52 >
120 -

5
^t£> flH*g.Ch.52,1.24.
 .

OLD SEPULCHRAL BIOGRAPHIES. 1139

by the terms » stone biographies, biographical stones, or sepulchral

biographies" l and never by the word ruing, which as our readers
, ,

will remember, denotes the eulogies proper, at present engraved on

the stones after the biography. Perhaps this fact is to be ascribed
to the circumstance that the most ancient records which speak of
the placing of lei in the tombs, viz. the Books of the Han Dy-
nasty, only mention in this connection the Imperial graves, so that
the sovereigns of later times have refrained from depreciating this
distinction, appertaining to the ancient ancestors of the Throne alone,
by officially allowing it also to mere officials and commoners. Never-
theless, as we have seen, the whole nation has always made the stone
biographies serve the purpose of panegyrizing the dead; but this is

probably to be attributed to the connivance of the Government.

Chinese authors have preserved in their writings many sepulchral
biographies of bygone ages. Some documents are from the
of these
hand of Chu Hi the idol , of modern scholars and therefore looked ,

upon with special admiration. Some of earlier date also have found
their way into the books ; but it is doubtful whether they are all cor-

irectly represented as having been placed inside the graves : — many,

ndeed, may have been exhibited upon the tombs, on large stone
tablets to which we shall presently devote a few pages. None of
,

the sepulchral biographies of those earlier ages which we have come ,

across in the books , consisted of both a c h i and a m i n g. But there

exists unmistakable evidence that some of that kind were composed
when Chu Hi lived. For we are told in the Yung-chai wu pih ~,

the fifth or last collection of a series of miscellanies published by

Hung Mai 3 who lived from 11:33 to 1203 contemporaneously with
,

Chu Hi, that in 1197 a stone slab was discovered in the ground,
c
engraved with a notice of the life of one Ts ao Yin 4
, the son of a
court-official under the first Emperor of the Tang dynasty, which
notice was followed by a m i ng , reading : » He lived in accordance
» with the principles of Heaven , and he died in conformity with
» the same ;
— he having thus thoroughly identified himself with
» those principles, why shall we waste any words to mournfully
5
» call back his soul?" . The truth of this tale is subject to

1
fl tM»i wn'tl fliHPto' * ^f)» ^ JL ^ •

3 See the note on page 1078. 4 "||f

|g|

Kh i. in i a slni tsih ch'ing, sect, "a/" f?B* , ch. 178.

 ,

1140 THE GRAVE.

doubt quite a similar discovery being recorded by the T an c/iwen \

c

though with a change of names and date; but it is evident

that it would not have occurred to the mind of Hung Mai to
write such a tale, unless sepulchral biographies followed by a
ming did exist in his time. Still we recollect, as stated on page
1134, that an Emperor of the sixth century is said by the books
of history to have composed for his own son a chi followed by
a ming.
After all, it can hardly escape the reader's notice that the mo
chi-ming are allied to the grave stones. Indeed, they contain the
same facts as these latter, though in a more elaborate form, and
with the addition of many particulars. In some parts of China the
similitude is very obvious, for instance in the province of Kiangsi,
c
in the regions around P o-yang lake. There we have seen many
grave stones of the same slate stone of which the mo chi-ming
are made , and displaying , in addition to the ordinary inscription
in small-sized characters, the dates of the birth and death of the
defunct, and the chief particulars concerning his offspring, his age
and the situation of his grave. Of course , these biographical grave
stones, as we may call them, are of considerable size, so many
characters being engraved on them. We have seen many the tops
of which we could scarcely reach with our hands.

Large Sepulchral Tablets of Stone.

We now come to a third category of sepulchral epigraphs, to
2
wit , the so-called p e i or pi ,
rectangular slabs of granite , dolo-
mite, marble or other natural stone, high and broad, standing
apart, in an upright position, close by the tombs of actual or
and those of their wives, either exactly in the
titular office-bearers
middle of the open ground in front, or a little to the right or
left. They display in big characters the names and dignities of the

occupant of the grave, or of the occupants, if husband and wife

are buried together.
If raisedan officer of one of the three highest ranks, such
for
a tablet stands on the back of a huge tortoise of stone (see Fig. 25),
called »a tortoise pedestal" 3
; in all other cases it is fixed in a so-
called » square pedestal " ', which is a monolith the four sides of which
,

1
pjfc tit
See °P- ct loc -
c!L 2
^ •
PI. XXXVI.

Sepulchral Tablet of Stone with a square Pedestal.

 THE HORNLESS DRAGON. 1J41

gently taper towards the top (see Plate XXXVI). The tablet is
x
generally a single piece of stone, and consists of the »>body" ,

Kg. 25.

Stone Tablet on the Back of a Tortoise

which bears the inscription, and a border crowning it, called the
»head" 2 or » cover" 3 which is ornamented on the front side with
,

some ancient mythological animal or other figure, carved in the

stone in mezzo or basso relievo. Of these animals we mention, in
the first place, the li *, a beast referred to already in the Lil-shi
c c
(s un-t$ iu, the Rung lieh kiai and other ancient works, and of which
the 8/uooh wen says : » It resembles a dragon , but has a yellow

% 4 4£-
 ,

1142 THE GRAVE.

colour; some say that a hornless dragon is called a li" '. In sub-
sequent ages, Chinese authors, especially those of a poetic turn of
mind, often refer to this monster, nobody in the Middle Kingdom
ever having doubted its real existence since the ancients wrote
about it. The Ku kin fu shu tsih cli vmj 2
gives the annexed
picture of it:

Kg. 37
Further , the
border of many a pei is

decorated with a ki-lin or

unicorn, a monster with
which our readers are al-

ready acquainted (pp. 819,

822 sqq.). Finally, some bear
c c
a t ien-luh 3 and a p ih-
si e * ,two mythical ani-
mals about the real charac-
ter of which the Chinese
seem to know very little.
c
The t ien-luh or » celestial

good fortune" we have not

been able to trace back any
further than the standard
chronicles of the reign of
the Emperor Ling of the
Han dynasty . » In the third
c
»year of the Chung-p ing
» period (A. D. 186) they
» repaired the Jade Hall
A L i or Hornless Dragon
» Palace, and cast some
c
t i u h and frogs " 5 An additional note, drawn from a com-
e n-1 .

mentary written under the T c ang dynasty, says: »The t c ien-luh is

»a quadruped. The said t c ien-luh and frogs vomitted forth water
» outside the P'ing gate. At present there exists in Teng-cheu, in
» the north of the district of Nan-yang , a pei for one Tsung Tsze

1
# lit

2 Section

Books of the
Later Han Dynasty, ch. 8, I. 13.
 ,,,

C C
THE T IEN-LUH AND THE P I H-S I E. 1143

» and at the side of it stands a couple of stone animals , on the

c
» thighs of which characters are graven, viz. t ien-luh on the
c
»one, and p ih-sie on the other; this proves that both these
c
» terms denote quadrupeds. The House of Han possessed a t ien-
»luh corridor, which name was derived from the animal" l
.

In early works , the word 1 1 e n-1 uh is sometimes written ^ JFjig

» celestial stag". It is uncertain whether we have here to do with

a simple play upon sounds , jjj||
and Jfj|j both being pronounced 1 uh >

or whether » celestial stag" is the correct name and the animal

originally denoted a kind of stag, seldom seen, and consequently
involved by the people in a cloudy myth. In a » Memoir on the
Vehicles and Dresses " 2
used under the reign of the House of Han
which was compiled by Liu Chao, who lived during the Liang
dynasty and of whom our readers have already heard on page 1131,
we read that the Empresses, when they visited the temples of their
ancestors , wore pendants in the shape of bears , tigers , heavenly stags
c 3
and p ih-sie from their head-gear . This statement, just as the pas-
c
sage above-cited from the T ang commentary on the Books of the
Later Han Dynasty, shows that, in the first centuries of our era,
c
the ien-luh and p c ih-sie were generally coupled together in the
t

ideas of the nation; and this explains why we find them nowadays
conjoined on the crowning borders of the pei.
c
As to the p ih-sie, from the name itself it is evident that
this animal is a fabulous one. In fact, the word means: » some-
thing that wards off evil influences, a charm". Without doubt it

was in the capacity of a charm that, as the above-quoted Memoir

on the Vehicles and Dresses states, »the Imperial Princesses, the
» Princes endowed with a fief, and all those of still higher rank
» were accustomed to wear a buckle to their sash in the shape
c
» of a golden head of a p ih-sie, adorned with white pearls" 4 .

We think that it was likewise on account of the evil-dispelling

1
% m m m % f* mm & & ** ¥ pi *k 4 m jh

2 M f]j| ^. 3 Books of the Later Han Dynasty, ch. 40, I. 13.

J^[g^. Op. et cap. ait., 1. 14.

 m n

] 144 THE GRAVE.

attributes of the animal, that stone images of it were often placed

upon the tombs. We read, for instance, in the Water Classic Com-
mentary: » South of the river Chi (in the present province of
» Honan) is the grave of Cheu Pao a minister in constant attend- ,

» ance on the Throne who lived during the Han dynasty. In

,

» front of that grave is a pei ; the grave stands against the

» city of Kang , and it has four gates , at which stand a couple
» of quadrupeds in stone. The tumulus has slipped away, the tomb
» is in ruins and the p e i and the animals are lost or have
, ,

» been removed. People there have dug out an animal, quite

» complete and undamaged which was very high in stature the
, ,

» head being almost over one c h a n g from the ground it was very ;

» elaborately finished , and on the left shoulder were carved the

» characters p ih-sie.
c
A
decorative gate stands out over the moat,
» and the stone bridge across this moat has hitherto escaped de-
» struction. The inscription on the pei reads, 'Six Emperors and
» four Empresses have consulted this man and asked his advice';
» indeed he held office from the reign of the Emperor Ngan and
, ,

» died under the Empress Hwan, (who reigned in the first half
» of the second century). At that time , the eunuchs exercised
» arbitrary authority, and the five highest nobles oppressed the
» nation they fleeced public and private persons
; in order to ,

» serve their own interests both in life and death. Hence the
» tumulus raised over his remains exalts the virtuous man and ,

» the pei extols his merits. Indeed, if not to such servants, to

» whom else should we open the prospect of being commemorated
» in stone for a thousand springs to come ? It would be preferable
1
» to suffer everybody to rot away quickly" .

A c
proof that p ih-sie of stone were erected on mausolea in the

1
m* m m + ## -xm n& m> r< mm >

-^ %3 )S t^ Cha P tel- 31 >

I- 5-
 ,,

THE Tc I E N-L U H AND THE P

C
I H-S IE. 1 145

sixth century, is afforded by the following passage in the Books of

the Sui Dynasty: » In the twelfth year of the period Ta t'ung
c
» of theLiang dynasty (A. D. 546), in the first month, two p ih-
»sie were sent to the Kien mausoleum. The two-horned one,
» which was to be placed on the left side, duly arrived on the
» spot ; which was to stand on the
but the other with one horn ,

» right became unsteady on the car when they were about to move
,

» it forward, and jumped three times, so that both shafts broke

» and the car had to be replaced by another. And again ere the ,

» latter arrived within two miles of the mausoleum the beast skip- ,

» ped three times and the men surrounding the car took to their
,

» heels in great alarm at every motion it made. At three or four

,

» feet from the place of destination , the wheels of the car sank into
c
» the ground to a depth of three inches" That during the T ang '.

c
dynasty there still stood a p ih-sie on a grave in Nan-yang, in
c
company with a t ien-luh, is, as we have seen on page 1143,
explicitly stated in a commentary on the Books of the Later Han
Dynasty; moreover, another author of that period, viz. Wang Jui
c
(see p. 825), says: Ts in and Han there
» Since the dynasties of
» have been erected in front of the mausolea of Emperors and
,

c
» Princes, stone unicorns, stone elephants and p ih-sie, stone horses
» and other images and before those of mandarins stone tigers
; ,

» sheep men pillars and the like all serving to decorate the grave-
,
,
, ,

» mound like a body-guard arrayed in front of the living" 2 We .

c c
cannot say whether p ih-sie or t ien-luh have been erected on
tombs in more recent ages, as we find no statements to this effect
in native books. Perhaps they have gradually become obsolete, their
figures being thenceforth carved in the crowning borders of the p e i
as is the case at present.

Mill, *r *§ #*# si, t$i$.±m* mm

#-J8lW#lBJAg*2&§o**h=|5|R#f&l@
AiH \f"
Cha i ,ter 22 >
•• 28 -

)/X fyl $B £fc Tan V^ "HI '$$• See tlie Cll ' l> ,M,t ts: ^ lw!l '
quoted in the
tftj

Ku kin fit shu tsih ch'ing, sect. +A ££!., ch. 140.

 ,

1146 THE GRAVE.

c
It is, we
think, doubtful whether the p ih-sie plays a part in the
ornamentation of sepulchral tablets for any other reason than the power
of its name which , , as we have seen means » to charm evil influences
, :

away". It is because of this name, that its image insures absence of

dangers and misfortunes from the individual whose names and titles

are carved in the »body" of the tablet; and from him the enviable
situation thus created passes over to his living offspring, through
c
the intermediacy of the grave. Nor can it be doubted that the t ien-
luh, when carved in a tablet, serves to bring down blessing on the
buried man and his offspring for analogous reasons. We have seen
c
indeed that t ien-luh means: » celestial good fortune". But it also
signifies : » blessing or favour bestowed by the Emperor", or » Imperial
salary derived from an official position", and, as our readers know,
nothing is so much coveted by the Chinese as posts under the Govern-
c
ment for themselves and their offspring. Should the name t ien-luh
mean » celestial stag", similar blessings are thereby insured, for, as
we have demonstrated on page 56, the stag represents them because
of its name, and is, moreover, an emblem of delight and enjoyment.
As to the ki-lin, this animal foreboding the appearance of perfect
rulers (see page 824), its presence on a pei promises the investment
of official dignities to virtuous descendants, as long as their fate
is upon the tomb. A hornless dragon showers down upon
based
the man and his offspring all the blessings which dragons
buried
generally pour forth upon graves in their capacity of chief bearers
of the beneficial influences of the Universe (pp. 949 sqq.). Finally,
the stone tortoise which bears the pei, ensures a long life to all
,

and perpetuates the existence of the family, tortoises symbolizing

vital power and longevity (see page 56).

Not all the sepulchral tablets are decorated with animals. If

raised on the tombs of officers of the six lowest ranks, they have
merely a so-called » round head" 1 that is to say, a crowning ,

border which is rounded at the top. In the country around Peking,

where the tablets are especially numerous because this city teemed
of old with nobles and dignitaries of every class and rank such ,

» round heads" are shaped as something like a lily or a lotus,

and very thick and heavy, bulging out considerably in front.
Elsewhere they are shaped as represented in Plate XXXVI.
Tablets of this description have, as a rule, a » square pedestal".
Though they are often called pei, their correct name is kieh 2
,
 : ,,
;

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS CONCERNING SEPULCHRAL TABLETS. L 147

by which they are generally denoted in the books of every age.

The pei and kieh upon the tombs, as well as their
erection of
construction dimensions and ornamentation
, are defined by the ,

present reigning dynasty in minute rules, couched in the Ta Tsing

Fung li in the following terms
»The carved pei at the entrance of the tomb shall bear this

» inscription :
'
Tomb of Mr. So-and-So , invested with such-and-such
» an office'. If for a woman , the inscription shall read :
'
Mrs. So-
» and-So on whom such-and-such a title of honour has been con-
,

» ferred. And if husband and wife are buried in the same grave,
» the two inscriptions must be engraved on one common pei.
» For nobles of the first second or third rank the body of the
, ,

» p e i shall be nine feet high and three feet six inches broad the head
, ;

» shall be decorated with a hornless dragon , the pedestal shall have

» the shape of a tortoise and the height of these two parts shall be
,

» respectively three feet two inches, and three feet eight. For man-
» darins of the first degree the body shall be eight feet five inches
,

» by three feet four the head and the pedestal shall be as above
;

» but their height respectively three feet and three feet six. For ,

» mandarins of the second degree, the height of the body is eight

» feet and the breadth three feet two inches the head is decorated
, ;

» with a unicorn the pedestal has the shape of a tortoise and the
, ,

» height of both these parts is respectively two feet eight and three ,

» feet four. For mandarins of the third rank the body is seven feet ,

c
» five, by a breadth of three feet; the head is decorated with a t ien-
c
» luh and a p ih-sie, and two feet eight inches high, and the pedestal
» has the shape of a tortoise, three feet two inches high. And for
» mandarins of the fourth rank down to the seventh the height of ,

» the body shall , reckoning from the third rank , be reduced by

» five and the breadth by two inches
inches for each lower rank ,

» the head shall be round the pedestal square and the height of
, ,

» both these parts be gradually reduced by two inches for each

» rank lower , likewise reckoning from the third rank ' . For officials

&R %'&BMMmZ
f^=R-t, I^^H^A-to -p°p^^^A
 :

1148 THE GRAVE.

» of the two lowest ranks and members of the Gentry, there shall
» be, at the entrance to the grave, a k i e h of stone with a round head
» and a square pedestal, and it shall bear this inscription: 'Grave of
» So-and-So , invested with such-and-such an office ', or , if no office

» was held: 'Grave of So-and-So, member of the Gentry'. And for

» the principal wife it shall read: 'Mrs. So-and-So, upon whom
» such-and-such an honorary title has been bestowed', or, if she
» possessed no title, simply: 'Mrs. So-and-So'" 1 .

An easy review of these rescripts is obtained if we arrange them

in a tabular form, giving the dimensions in Chinese inches, of
which there are ten to the foot
 , ,
:

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS CONCERNING SEPULCHRAL TABLETS. 1149

succeeded on the Throne. We read in the Official History of this House

» At the beginning of the reign of the Ming dynasty a rescript existed
» in virtue of which the Throne was to be requested , on the demise
» of a high Minister, either civil or military, to command the offi-

» cers of its Han-lin College to prepare an epigraph, and to erect

»a pei on theRoad of the Soul (the avenue to the tomb). Under

c
» T ai Tsu (the first Emperor) , such an inscription was produced
» by the Emperor's own writing-brush in one case viz. that of Sii ,

»Tah, Prince of Chung-shan. That same regulation determined also

» since the third year of the period Hung wu (1370), that for any
» rank higher than the fifth, a pei with a tortoise-shaped pedestal
» should be used , with a head or crowning border decorated with a
» hornless dragon , and for the lower ranks a k i e h with a square
,

» pedestal and a rounded head. In the fifth year, these regulations were
» set forth in more minute detail. For officers of merit, endowed with
» the title of Prince after their death , the head of the tablet was to
» be decorated with a hornless dragon and to be 32 inches high the ;

» body was to be 90 inches by 36 , and the tortoise-shaped pedestal

» 38 inches. For mandarins of the first rank the head was to be ,

» decorated in like manner for those of the second rank the head
; ,

» should bear a unicorn and a phenix for those of the third a , ,

a p ih-sie; and for those of the fourth rank down

c c
»t ien-luh and
» to the seventh , the pedestal should be square. The size of the
» head was to be reduced by two inches for each rank lower
» reckoning from the meritorious officers endowed with the posthum-
»ous title of Prince, to the minimum height of 18 inches; the
» body was to be reduced five inches in height and two in breadth
»for each rank, coming down to 55 by 22, and the gradual reduc-
» tion of the height of the pedestal to proceed by two inches the ,

» minimum height being 24 inches" '. Rescripts to exactly the

1
Hj^^^AE^^,^Jip!^±^^#WM

£ n 3E Mf£ m H R - + ,# # Jtf % KM H R *

74
1150 THE GRA.VE.

same effect are to be found in the Collective Statutes of the Ming

l
dynasty .

We must still note that, according to the institutions of the

now reigning dynasty, on the death of every nobleman belonging
to one of the three highest ranks, and of every mandarin of the
first degree, the inscription for the grave tablet is composed by the
Imperial Chancery (Nei-koh) or the Han-lin College, in case a
posthumous name be conferred upon the deceased by the Emperor 2 .

We need hardly say that this honour, just as all others bestowed
either by the Son of Heaven or his chief departments of central,

administration , is considered by the whole nation to shed a

brilliant halo of glory around the memory of the deceased and
around his family.
The pei and kieh being generally reared in front of the
tombs, they often stand on the spot where the path leading to
the grave branches off from the nearest public road. In the
c
island of Amoy
and other parts of the Ts iien-cheu department,
3
the said path is called bung to » grave road", and the tablet ,

is also denoted by this word on account of its indicating the

place where the paths begins; and it is very common to see
there this word carved in the stone, as a part of the epigraph.
This for instance is the case with the kieh represented in Plate
XXXVI (facing page 1141); its inscription reads: »Road to the
grave Mr. Lin Kiun-hwui
of on whom after his death the , , ,

c
Imperial Ts ing dynasty conferred the honorary title of General
of the Hwai-yuen region; and of Mrs. Wang Tsze-king, buried
c
at his side, on whom the Imperial Ts ing dynasty bestowed,
during her life, the female honorary title of the third degree".
The words » Imperial Ts'ing dynasty" are placed on the crowning
border. This is owing to the consideration, that respect requires the
name of the family of the reigning monarch to be raised high
above the rest of the epigraph; moreover, the superstitious calculation
based upon the quinary division of the human fate (see page 1105),
has evidently required the removal of a couple of characters from

it > ^cl^Il ^ M — KPJ^it- Chapter 60, II. -16 and 17.

1 Chapter 162, 11. 21 seq.
2 Ta Ts'ing hwui tien, ch. 54, 1.18, and ch 84, 1. 3. See also the Ta Ts'ing
t'ung li, ch. 52, 1. 9.
PI. XXXVII.

Tablet House of a Tomb.

 TABLET-HOUSES. 1151

the body of the tablet, in order to make each column consist of

twelve, the number ensuring old age. The same Plate also shows,
that stone tablets are sometimes decorated on the front with margins
of carved figures reminding us of a wreath of twigs and leaves,
and that it is not unusual to adorn the pedestal of a kieh with
some mystic animal '.

In some mausolea on the Peking plains, the pei is sheltered

underneath a pavilion. But the right of having the tombs thus
decorated is, as we shall see on page 1176, a prerogative of Imperial
Princes of the two highest ranks, granted them by the written in-
stitutions of the State. Consequently, such tablet-houses are very rare
in the provinces. Of the only specimen to be found in the environs
of Amoy, Plate XXXVII is a picture. It is entirely of granite.
The style of honorary gates is here repeated, as may be seen at
a glance from the pictures we have given of these monuments
in the Second Volume. The inscription on the tablet shows, that it
was built for a married couple bearing no higher title of honour
than that of the fourth rank. Hence we must infer that a licence
to erect it was for some reason or other granted by special favour,
or that pavilions of such small dimension and plain construction
once were, or still are, connived at by the powers that be. The
structure bears some inscriptions. On a tablet upheld by a dragon,
placed underneath the highest roof, we read: » Glory conferred by
3
Imperial favour" , and on the lintel, under the lower roof: » Im-
perial favours he has received over and over again"
3
. A distich,
placed on the two posts in front, reads:
»If an office-bearer, while maintaining respect (for the authorities)
with a firm hand, performs from the very beginning actions which
proceed from exemplary virtue,
» His variegated pheasant feathers (symbol of official dignity) shall
emit streams of perfumes, and he will for ever carry about him
4
the certificates of investment with dignities by the Emperor's grace" .

1 The small tablet, standing on the right side of the pei represented in that
Plate, has no connection with the grave. It merely bears an edict, issued by the
local authorities of Amoy in 1878, exhorting the people against fraudulently encroaching
on the graves of others.
2
J§H $k Compare page 784. 3 ^ f| 4 Rtf •

S N
 ,

1152 THE GRAVE.

We have now and history of the sepulchral tablets.

to give the origin
The fact that, Ming
dynasty, the pei and kieh were
during the
things of great solicitude they being subject to minute official rules
,

leads us to believe, they were in that epoch deemed to date from

ancient times, and to deserve, on this account, a place among the
institutions of the State, side by side with whatever was of an-
cient origin. They are, in truth, as old as the Han dynasty, and
traced by Chinese authors as far back as the reign of the House
of Cheu.
In the Li Jci (ch. 13, 1. 34) we read:
» At the death of the mother of Ki Khang-tsze Kung-shu Joh ,

» was still young. When the body was dressed Pan (i. e. Kung- ,

» shu Joh) asked leave to inter the corpse by means of a niechan-

» ical contrivance, and they were about to accede, when Kung-
» kien Kia said It may not be done. According to the early
:
'

» practice in the state of Lu the ruling House uses for this pur-
,

» pose great pei', and the three (principal) families use wooden
'

» posts arranged in a square. Pan you have in the case of other

,
,

» people's mothers made trial of your skill should you not do so ;

» also in the case of your own mother ? Would that distress you ?
»Bah!' They did not allow him to carry out his plan" 1 .

On another page, the same Classic states (ch. 58, 1. 44): »In
» burying the Ruler of a State they use four coffin ropes and
,

» two pei; in burying a Great officer two ropes and two pei, ,*

» and in burying an ordinary officer, two ropes and no p e i " s It .

appears from these two extracts, that is was customary during

the Cheu dynasty to lower princes and magnates into their graves
by means of posts, called pei, planted at the edge of the pit. In
c
the second century of our era, the famous Ching Khang-ch ing
wrote: »The 'great pei' were cut out of large trunks of trees, and
» shaped like the pei (tablets) of stone. They were implanted at

^m ?2-%tt*&m&j}'bo$LMffiVim#,
1 :

ftft2*&mnB^if.*®G®&mm B:ft* ,

= m mm ^ m, m w a z # w ** m m # # #
a ,

£#Ki^*¥.JW^£¥>ii£o3B*#- Section
«
^ , n, 2.

$ - # M *$ Section
M A: IB- "•
 ,

THE ORIGIN OF THE SEPULCHRAL TABLETS. 1153

» the four comers of the vault, viz. in front and behind. A notch
» made in them, served as a pulley, the coffin-ropes being slung
1
» around it while lowering the coffin" . Perhaps, this statement
that the great pei were of wood, is not correct, the character

$(1, representing this word, having in the Li Jci the prefix J£j,
which decidedly means stone.
It is from these wooden or stone posts that Chinese authors un-

animously derive the origin of the synonymous stone tablets which ,

are reared on the sepidchres of noblemen and mandarins down to

this day. In the Shi/t ming (see page 267), a vocabulary ascribed
s
to who
Liu Hi , is supposed to have lived towards the end of the
Han dynasty, we read:
» Pei (tablets) are things which began to be erected in the
» time of Wang Mang" — that is to say, at the opening of our
era (see page 314). » Pulleys were made to them, and the ropes
» slung over the same and in that way the coffin was lowered. ;

» Ministers wishing to record the merits and praiseworthy feats

,

» of their deceased princes and sons those of their fathers in- , ,

» scribed them upon those pei; and this was imitated by the
» people in later times. The name pei is also given to the tablets
» set up without valid reasons in conspicuous places where roads
» and streets begin , in order to secure a fame and reputation for
3
» scholarship" .

This categorical statement touching the origin of the sepulchral

c
tablets is subscribed to by authors of subsequent times. Li Ch oh 4
,

for example, wrote in the ninth century: »Of old there was a
» round hole in every tablet. For, whereas the word pei repre-
5
» sents grief , the pei were originally placed in burial grounds

mZo ^4» fflHtoMM-.T^MiM^^™

of the Li hi, ch. 13, 11. 34 seq.
lung edition

jasirt m= ^^mmn^cz^m^m^±^^
Wt , II Z^& Cha P ter 3 - § ^ !§•
5 Here we have a case of paronomasia or playing upon sound, |[)t, which
means grief, being likewise pronounced pei.
1154 THE GRAVE.

» four to every grave at the interment ropes ; were made to run

» through the holes and thus the coffin was
, lowered. Such , in
» ancient times was the way to place coffins
, in the grave by
» suspending them from ropes. The Li hi says that royal families
» used 'great pei', and the three principal families wooden posts
» arranged in a square (see above). The people imitated this, and
» also wrote the merits of the deceased thereon; thus stone tablets,
» serving, as they do, as marks of distinction, have come into existence.
» Some tens of years ago those who set up such tablets in com-
,

» memoration of virtuous magistrates , were still in the habit of

» making a round hole therein, entirely unaware of the origin of
» the custom but thereafter some men have become conscious of
;

1
» it , and have since given up the custom " . In the eleventh cen-
» tury, another author, »Sun Ho, wrote: 'Erenow, while abiding
» in the Ying region , I have seen old stone tablets of the Siiin and
c
» Ch en all of which had a hole in the top that looked
families ,

» as had been made for a rope to run through it. I asked

if it

» Chang Kwan, the Recorder of the Emperor's acts and doings,

» what he thought of the matter and he said The Han dynasty; :
'

» did not stand far off from antiquity, so that the shape of the 'great
»pei' was retained during its reign'" 2
.

That the sepulchral pei were at an early date made subservient

to the purpose of glorifying the dead by carving upon them their
commemorative acts and capacities, is placed beyond doubt by the
Water Classic Commentary, which states in the passage, translated
by us on page 1144, that there was a pei in the mausoleum of
Cheu Pao, who lived in the beginning of the reign of the Han
dynasty, which pei blazened abroad that no less than six emperors

-M^WM, 8 $ «§ # £ T tiN &•&&%. 3ff J«

Mil, ^mm^nm. m + ^M^mm&n

Shangshu ku shi/i fpff =ft |fciC£ lir ,
quoted in the Ku kin t'u shu tsih cliing, sect.

-^ ^, ch. 167.

%Hmnz% M®te%mmwL,WLH,M£^
^IJilllf^li' Kai v* tfww h ao
'

<
ch -
32 >
' 9 -
 SEPULCHRAL TABLETS IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF OUR ERA. 1155

and four empresses had frequently consulted him about state affairs.
It almost superfluous to say that the inscriptions on such mo-
is

numents were closely connected with the same ancient lei that
gave birth to the stone eulogic biographies buried in the tombs,
to which we have already devoted our attention.
In the first centuries of our era, the erecting of stone pei on the
graves of the great of this earth seems to have generally prevailed,
being referred to books of those times. Apart
very often in the
from the sepulchre of Cheu Pao, just mentioned, the Water Classic
Commentary states in the passages translated by us on page 446,
that there were three such monuments in the mausoleum of Chang
c
Poh-ya, and a like number in that ol Yin Kien '. Ts ui Shih, a grandee
of whom we have spoken on page £37, is stated »to have sold his
» fields and his dwelling on his father's death , in order to build
» him a sepulchre and to erect there a
and when pei in his praise;
» he fell sick himself and died in the period Kien ning (A. D.
» 168 —
171), Yuen Wei, Minister of the State Ceremonial, set up
»& pei to commend his virtues" 2 According to an episode from .

the life uf the geomancer Kwan Loh recounted by us on page ,

1000, a pei inscribed with a beautiful eulogy stood on the grave

of Wu-khiu Kien, a military commander of great repute in the
third century. And Liu Hieh \ a statesman who lived two centuries
later , declared explicitly in his writings still extant : » Since the
» Later Han dynasty, the pei and k i e h have made their appearance
» in numbers like unto the clouds and are cut by gravers of ,

» talent" 4 We often read also of tablets erected in palaces, temples,

.

streets and public places of every kind but they need not engage ;

our attention at present.

Also during the Tsin dynasty the erection of honorific tablets
upon graves held a prominent place among the funeral customs of
the nation. The Standard Histories of the time relate e. g. of Lull

1 We here apologize for a printer's error in the second line from the bottom
of page 446, in which we should read » tablets", not » pillars".

^J 2£ , ^ "ft! H % $| ^ 1$ £g f§- Books of the Later Han Dynasty,

ch. 82, 1. 20.

4
g#i|jy^^^#^G,^^J9fiT- Wen sin tiao lung
 ,.

H5G THE GRAVE.

Yun an officer in the fourth century, that » whereas he had only

', ,

» two daughters and no sons the funeral rites were performed for
,

» him by his disciples and former subalterns who buried him in ,

» Tslng-ho repairing his tomb, they erected a pei upon it, and
;

» sacrificed on the spot in the four seasons" \ Of Hi Shao a dignitary 3

,

of high position the same work states » When Yueh Prince of

, : ,

» Tung-hai (see page 849) marched through Yung-yang after having ,

c
» reduced the Hii-ch ang region to subjection he passed his grave ,

» wailed for him with a great display of grief, and erected on it

»a pei of carved stone" 1 It seems that the use of the word.

kieh as a name for certain stone tablets dates from the reign of
the same family, the historical books of that time being the first
inwhich the term occurs in this sense. We read, for example, that
when Li Hing 5 a literary man of great renown » resided in the
, ,

» prefecture administered by Liu Hung, this dignitary, wishing

Chu-koh K ung-ming
c 7
» to raise kieh to ° and Yang Shuh-tsze ,

» told him to prepare the inscriptions for the same" 8

.

But the character kieh is considerably older, older, perhaps, than

9
the character pei, for it occurs already in the » Tribute of Yii " ,

a section of the Shu Icing relating to the semi-mythical founder of

the Hia dynasty. This document, one of the oldest the Chinese
:o
possess , mentions , under the name of Kieh-shih , a mountain or
hill probably located near the mouth of the Hwang-ho, which at
that time emptied itself somewhere in the gulph of Peh-chihli '
'

1 |^^.

±V$., Pgi^^^-Ch.54, 1. 20.

5
6
^ J|.
A famous and general of the third century, to whose skill and
politician
sagacity the founder of the Shuh dynasty owed much of his success.
7 A statesman and military commander, who had played a prominent part in
establishing the Tsin dynasty upon the throne.

&$L%%Z £ Chapter 88, 1.4.

11 Von Richthofen, China, I, pp. 308 seq.

 :

TERMS DENOTING THE SEPULCHRAL TABLETS. 1157

Though name may be entirely

the real meaning of this geographical
differentfrom the signification of the characters by which it is
denoted, these latter suggest that it meant a rock or bluff (shih)
bearing a kieh that may have been a post, column or other
object in stone serving as a landmark to navigators, or some-
thing else; and Chinese authors do not seem averse from regarding
it in this sense, for the author of the Shwoh wen wrote: »Kieh
» means a stone erected for some special purpose. At the Eastern
» Sea there is a mountain, called the Kieh-shih" '.

Sir Shi-tseng, an author mentioned on page 611 who lived during ,

the Ming dynasty, says: » During the Tsin dynasty and that of Sung,
» the sepulchral p e i began to be called '
p e i of the Road of the
» Spirit', because the geomancers at that time were wont to consider
» the east and south side of tombs as a road used by the soul,
2
» and the tablets were placed in that part of the grounds" In .

point of fact we repeatedly come across this term in the books of

succeeding ages. Sometimes also, the tablets are thereinnamed yen
3
pei yen-tao pei 4 » tablets of the road leading to the grave",
or ,

and sui pei 5 » grave-tunnel tablets", which terms require no

,

explanation after what we have said on page 425 concerning the

meaning of the words yen, yen-tao and sui.
Geomantic wisdom being in its apogee during the dynasty of
Tsin (see pp. 1004 sqq.), it cannot cause any surprise that the pro-
fessors of Fung-shui then included also the large sepulchral tablets
among the factors on which they built up speculations about
the properties of graves. We read indeed in the biography of
Kwoh Poh , the great coryphaeus among geomancers of all ages
» In that year, Yii Yih died, and Ping, his son, told Kwoh Poh
» to consult the divining stalks on the fate of his posterity. When
» the k w a was made Kwoh Poh said All your sons must
, :
'

» become men of position and they shall enjoy prosperity; but if the
,

» p e i produces metal , it forebodes events that are disquieting for

in the Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing, sect. ~aT £3; , ch. 177.

sis**. *%&&-
1158 THE GRAVE.

» the family Yii\ Afterwards, when Yun, the son of Ping, was
» Governor of Kwang-cheu the p e i produced metal whereupon
, ,

» he was slain by Hwan Wen" 1 Let it be remembered that .

speculations of this sort are not out of fashion at present, various

metallic propensities being, as we have seen on page 1108,
attributed by geomancy to the grave stones, in connection with
their shape.
In the Books of the Han Dynasty no mention is made, so far
as we know, of any steps taken by the Government to regulate
officially the erection of sepulchral tablets. But in the epoch imme-
diately following the downfall of that House, rescripts to this effect
seem to have been enacted, and maintained with a firm hand.
» Since the Han dynasty, the dead all over the Empire have
» been sent to their graves with extravagant prodigality ", thus we
read in the Books of the Sung Dynasty. » Stone buildings, stone
» animals, eulogic inscriptions carved in tablets, and other nionu-
» ments were made for them on a large scale. Hence in the tenth ,

»year of the period Kien ngan (A. D. 205), the Emperor Wu

c
» of the Wei dynasty (Ts ao Ts'ao), taking into consideration that
» the resources of the Empire were being exhausted , issued an
» order to the effect that it should no longer be allowed to bury
» the dead at great expense , and interdicted the erection of
» stone tablets. Under the
reign of Kao-kwei-hiang-kung (of the
» same dynasty), in the second year of the period Kan lu (A. D.
c
» 257), the Generalissimo Lun, Prince of T ai-yuen, died, and his
» elder brother Tsun composed an essay for the glorification of his
» virtues , wishing to put on record the fame he had left behind.
» But , apprehending that the statute regulations, enacted for Princes,
» did not authorise him to engrave an eulogic essay in stone , he
» composed a simple description of the dead man's career, and had
» it engraved somewhere on the northern side of the tomb. This
» event suggests that the said prohibition respecting stone tablets
» was at that time seriously maintained.
» Afterwards, a period of relaxation set in. But under the Tsin
» dynasty, the Emperor Wu issued the following decree, in the fourth

Jtjjj? . Books of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. 72, 11. 12 seq.

 ,

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS CONCERNING SEPULCHRAL TABLETS. 1159

»year of the period Hi en ning (A. D. 278): 'Those stone

» animals and those marks of distinction in the shape of stone
,

» tablets serve for underhand glorification and to exalt feats of no

» essential merit; besides, they are more injurious to the people
» than anything else because they impoverish it therefore they ;

» shall be entirely forbidden, and those who presume to transgress

» this prohibition shall receive orders to demolisli those things,
» even in case a pardon be granted them'. — Under the reign
»of Yuen, some officers reported in the first year of the period
»T c
ai hing (A. D. 318) that a former Cavalry Commander and
» Archivist, intending to bury Ku Yung, his ancient chief, whose
» favours he had enjoyed had asked leave to erect a tablet to
,

» him and a licence was granted him by special Imperial edict.

;

» After this the prohibition in question gradually fell into disuse

» again so that Ministers Chief officers and others all erected such
, ,

» monuments of their own accord and this lasted until the period
;

—
» I hi (405 419), when the Minister P ei Sung-chi, President of
c

» the Board of Rites proposed that the prohibition should be again

,

» enacted. From that time it has remained in force to this day" '.
c
In fact, on opening the biography of P ei Sung-chi in the
Standard Histories, we read: » Considering that the then custom
» of erecting honorific tablets without official authorisation rested on ,

»a wrong principle, he presented a manifest to the Throne, in

» which he expounded his views giving it as his opinion that
,

&&nx%fc±Mmty®wmi%w*M®z
X^Miio^^M^- Chu i ,ter 15 > "• 30 se«-
 1160 THE GRAVE.

» whoever desired to rear such a tablet , ought to minutely inform

» the Throne thereof; which should then grant a licence, after
» the Councillors of the Court had given their approval. In this
» wise would be possible to check those cases of glorification
, it

» which were based on doubtful grounds. From that time such a ,

» measure was everywhere enforced" Still after the House, under

1

c
which P ei Sung-chi lived, was destroyed, tablets were not allowed
to be erected, even on the graves of men of the highest rank,
except with the Imperial sanction. It is stated, for example , of Siu 2
,
c
Prince of Ngan-ch ing-khang 3
, seventh son of the father of the Em-
peror Wu
Liang dynasty, and a man who had held the highest
of the
dignities »Hia-heu Tan and others, his former sub-
of the State:
»alterns, requested the Emperor's leave to erect a pei on his
» grave which request was granted by Imperial edict" \ And
,

of Sii Mien, the grandee mentioned on page 1127, a favourite of

the same Son of Heaven and likewise invested with high dignities,
we read that, on a request being presented to the same effect,
» a decree was issued by the Throne , allowing the erection of a
pei on his tomb" 5 It is also recorded that, again under the same
.

c
Emperor, viz. »in the sixth year of the period T ien kien (507),
» the rescripts bearing upon burial were officially expounded in
» this sense that neither stone images of men or animals nor
, ,

» p e i were to be erected on ordinary graves and that only pillars

, ,

» of stone might be placed thereon as also a tablet bearing the ,

» name of the defunct" 6 .

The Sui dynasty was, so far as we can make it out by means of

the books, the first to allow the entire class of mandarins to erect
tablets upon their tombs. Its first monarch stipulated, in
of stone
the same year in which he began to reign, that »to his officers
» in the Metropolis belonging to the three highest ranks and buried

±n%&m&w±, %®mwmmiknz a je*

pT
of the
$ W M M Wl M & M Wo ij S
Realm, ch. 33, 1. 18. See also the
If- §r-
Books of the Sung Dynasty,
Hist0 '-y of the South

ch. 46, 1. 9.

4
i&MW&M¥f^z±M $-,ti8a tM-
Dynasty, ch. 22, 1. 7.
: !

See also the History of the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 52,
Books of theLian s
1. 4.

5
iPI^ISlrfjuL^^li^' Books of the Liang D y nast y> ch - 25 '

1. 14. See also the History of the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 60, 1. 20.
6 See page 814.
 ,

THE DISTINCTION MADE BETWEEN PEI AND KIEH. 1161

» at seven or more miles from the city-walls a p e i with a hornless ,

» dragon at the top, and a tortoise as a pedestal, might be erected,

» but it should not rise more than nine feet above the pedestal.
» To officers of the seventh rank up (to the third), a kieh four
» feet high might be raised, with a top resembling that of a sceptre,

» and with a square pedestal and for persons who though not bearers
; ,

» of official dignities , had obtained a reputation for perfection in

» modest solitude or and pure filial devotion and sense
, for simple
» of duty, a permit to erect a k i e h might be asked of the Throne
» and could be granted by it" '. Here we have, I believe the oldest ,

printed reference to stone tablets with a tortoise as a pedestal and

a hornless dragon on the crowning border, and the first passage
also, in which such tablets are officially distinguished, by the name
of pei , from the kieh with a simple square pedestal.
This distinction between
the two sorts has evidently been
maintained ever since, and both the pei and kieh constantly
made in the same shape, and similarly ornamented, as at present.
We read e. g., that in an inscription which Liu Yii-sih 2 a poet ,

who lived between the dates 772 and 842 wrote for the tablet of ,

the grandee Hi Chih 3 this passage occurred » This crowning

, :

» border, adorned with a hornless dragon, and this pedestal, shaped

» like a tortoise, record the radiant glory of his virtues" *. Sii Shi-

tseng states » during the reign of the T cang

categorically, that
» dynasty the kieh had a square pedestal and a round head, and
» were erected for officers of the fifth rank and those of lower
» degree" 5 and finally we read that the following distich was
;

graven in the kieh of one Yao Sui e , a grandee of significance during

the Yuen dynasty is its pedestal
: » Square
and sculptured its ,

» crowning border; the place where the kieh stands in the paved

R£tJ7&,%mifaM:^^m%m%,mmw,
^S l^ jll ^l • Books of the Sui Dynasty, ch. 8, ]. 7.

2
flJr%^- 3
^rf-
4
$fe H #c f§ M H IE-
if Pei wcn y >in f"' cha P ter 7 -
n >
' 149 -

5
B *g M % & IB "t £ , tfp M T W /8 Z We» « »"»^
pien ,
quoted in the Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing, sect. ~*T ^^ , ch. 177.

6
mm-
1162 THE GRAVE.

» avenue to the tomb shall not decay, even when a thousand sacrifices
» have been offered to this soul " \ That the Ming dynasty sharply
distinguished the two kinds from each other, is evinced by its
ordinances reproduced on page 1149; and the present reigning dy-
nasty, which , as we have stated , maintained those ordinances without
making hardly any modification therein, does the same.
Ordinances of the same tendency having been enacted by suc- ,

cessive dynasties, almost from the very dawn of the custom of

erecting such tablets, it is evident enough that the nation and its
Rulers have always regarded these monuments as objects of the
highest importance for the worship of the dead. Nowadays, the
Government certainly does not regard them from a less serious
point of view, even going so far as to defray, in the case of
certain noblesand public servants, the expenses connected with
their erection , apart from the allowances which
as stated on page ,

1101, it grants for the construction of their graves. »In the second
»year of the period Khang hi (1663) it was stipulated that, in
» the case of officials to whom a posthumous name was granted (by
» the Emperor) the Board of Works should depute an officer to
,

» erect the tablet. And in the fourteenth year of the same period a
» proposal was sanctioned according to which 400 taels should be paid
,

» for that of a nobleman of one of the three highest ranks for an officer ;

» of the first rank the same sum as for an Imperial Prince of the
,

» ninth order (viz. 350 taels); for an officer of the second rank, as
» much as for a Prince of the tenth rank (300 taels) and for an ;

» officer of the third rank, 250 taels. As for the building of graves
» and the erection of tablets : in case officers of the first or second
» rank become ill the Board of Rites shall make a pro-
and die ,

» posal to the Throne and if only half the ordinary allowance be

;

» granted for the burial no payment shall be made for the tablet.
,

» And if an officer of the third rank or lower dies in the service , ,

» of Government the Board of Rites shall take the initiative in

,

2
» presenting a proposal to the Throne" .

wen yun
^jj%&^M%t,m%ft-m^mmF5
fit, ch. 7, II, 1. 150.
pei

mmmw.m, r.&t%mmwmm, haw-

w i +m -mm±n --& % m& n^m o , >
 —

TABLETS ENGRAVED WITH A BIOGRAPHY. 1163

We must now direct attention to the fact, that a small number

of these sepulchral tablets also contain an account of the life of the
deceased , and for this reason are closely allied with the mo chi-
ming. This account is mostly graven on the reverse of the stone.
It seems that such biographical tablets did not come into vogue
before the sixth century, and that the pei and kieh, previously
erected, only displayed the names and titles, either with or without
an eulogy; for we have in the national histories the following state-
c
ment concerning P ei Tsze-ye ', a Minister who died in A. D. 528:
» When he was buried the Prince of Siang-tung made a mo c h i-
,

»ming for him, and placed it in his grave; besides, a sepul-

» chral biography (mo chi) was erected by the Prince of Shao-ling
» on the path leading to the tomb. Prom this time dates the custom
2
» of placing biographies in such avenues" . In connection with
this passage it may be remarked that , in the early references to the
tablets, the epigraphs carved thereon are often called ming or
lei, but never chi, and that the rescripts of the present dynasty,
quoted on pp. 1147 seq., explicitly declare that the tablets shall only
bear the names and official dignities of the dead to whom they
are erected. Hence it seems probable, that the scanty biographies
preserved in the books as copies from sepulchral tablets of bygone
ages, are exceptions, and have appeared on the graves by special
Imperial licence.
The pei and kieh the inscriptions on which are commemorative
of the celebrity of the dead, are, from the very first, often denoted
in the books by the name mo
piao 3 » sepulchral marks of dis- ,

tinction". We read, indeed, of Yen Tub, a dignitary of whom

we have spoken on page 639 who lived in the second century ,

of our era: » When he had arrived in the country the adminis-

» tration of which was entrusted to him , he erected an eulogic
» inscription (ming) as a mark of distinction to the grave of

m, *n ib & # Pin mm tic = ,&#tbij*£*

^f" /III ^
in tT IeI Ira Ta Ts in(J hwui
Ta Ts'iiig hwui tien shi li, ch. 714, II. 6 8.
•
'
tien tseh li i ch - 137 >
'• 31 >
and

of the Southern Part of the Realm, ch. 33, 1. 23.

3 ^ ^g.
1164 THE GRAVE.

» Kung Sui, and presented a sacrifice on the spot" 1

. That the
mo piao did not, however, actually form a distinct species of
tablets, we may admit on the authority of Sii Shi-tseng. »The
»mo piao", he says, » began to be erected during the Eastern
» (Later) Han dynasty, when the Emperor Ngan raised such a
» monument, in the first year of the period Yuen ch u (A. D.
c

» 114), to King Kiiin, an officer charged with the reception and

» entertainment of the guests of the Court. Those tablets bore cha-
» racters of the same shape as those on the p e i and k i e h they ;

» might be made for office-bearers and non-official persons indis-

» criminately and were not, like the pei and kieh, subject to
,

» rescripts concerning grade and rank. Being erected on the Road

» of- the Spirit, they were also called: 'marks of distinction on Spirit-
2
» roads'" . Another name for such tablets, likewise of rather frequent
3
use in the books , is pei piao : » stone tablets serving as marks
of distinction".
In conclusion, we note that the stone tablets, erected on the
tombs, are mentioned in the books of every period by two terms
alluding to their origin, viz. » great pei" 4 and » marks of distinction ,

in the shape of wooden posts" 5 Both these terms are derived from
.

the extract of the Li hi, which we have given on page 1152. Even
the T'ung li of the present dynasty denotes the tablets erected for
the principal members of the Imperial Family (see page 1174) by
the name of » great pei".

3. The Mausolea of Princes of Imperial Lineage.

Thus far our description of tombs and sepulchral parks has not
touched upon the sepulchres of the highest order in China, viz.

the mausolea built for members of the Imperial House. A few

1
PJ
Dynasty, ch. 94,
W > Wi
1. 4.
H M Z H % ^ jM- JJL ,
Books of the Later Han

m m m £ * ia m n *s m ,*r w m w m w m #
. ,

3S| jjjtjj ?y* 3j£ . Wen t'i ming pien ,

quoted in the Ku kin (u shu tsih ch'ing,

sect, jjr ^, ch. 177.

3 W ft 4
H?£- 5
n it-
 ,

ON MAUSOLEA FOR PRINCES OE THE HFGHEST RANK. 1165

pages we shall now devote to this subject, and show therein that
such monuments, even the largest and most gorgeous, are very
similar to the sepulchres of the people and of the mandarinate, be-
cause they, too, are laid out on the same plan as the dwellings of
the living.
The Princes of Imperial lineage are divided into twelve classes
the titles of which are given on page 453 of this work. These
classes correspond with twelve generations in the male line ot

descent. Their mausolea are spread over the vast plains around the
Metropolis , which bound those plains to the west
and over the hills

and north. Some are situate elsewhere in the Empire, but not in
any great numbers, as the general custom of conveying the dead
back to the place where their ancestors lived and their cradle stood
is observed with special strictness in respect to the members of the
Imperial Family.
Among those mausolea, the largest and grandest are, of course,
those of Imperial sons , Princes of the first or highest rank entitled ,

Ts in wang
c 1
, » Princes or Kings of the nearest Generation, or
of the nearest Blood". They cover many acres of ground. A vast
quadrilateral plot of about two acres in size, surrounded on the
four sides by a thick, solid wall, forms the main part, the so-called
fen yuen 2
or » grave enclosure". The wall, called wei ts
c
iang 3
,

» inclosing wall", is, in many cases, over four metres high. It con-
sists of hard greyish bricks of considerable size. Over its whole
length it is covered with a narrow span-roof with glazed tiles of a
beautiful green colour, glistening and glaring in the rays of the sun.
An idea of the shape of such wall-roofs is conveyed by Plate XLVI
facing page 1217, where the reader can see them to the right and
left of the gate. As is the case with the roofs of large temples
and palaces generally, a layer of tiles or a ridge of limestone
runs over and on both facades the eaves rest on thick
the top,
wall-plates of white limestone or painted wood. The tiles are of
coarse porcelain, very solid and ponderous, and of the same
kind and make as the tiles which cover many buildings within
the vast Imperial Altar-grounds in the suburbs of the Metropolis
and many temples likewise connected with the State religion,
located within its walls. They are slightly curved, and arranged
in rows, the intervals between which are covered with reversed
semi-tubular tiles, so that the roof looks like a file of parallel

•
us- *mu *mm-
75
1166 THE GRAVE.

tubes stretched between the ridge and the eaves. The lowermost
tile in every row ends in a rounded border, adorned with bossy
ornamental figures, these borders together forming a beautiful
scalloped edge along the eaves. The reader will better understand
such tiling work , if he glance at the roof of the sacrificial furnace
represented in Plate XXXIX, opposite page 1170, the dilapidated
condition of which shows the construction with special clearness.
Access to the inclosure is gained through a broad roofed gate,
called ta men 1
: » great gate, or main gate", exactly in the middle
of the side which , either actually or in theory, faces the South. It
is of the same type as the chief entrance to large mansions and
public edifices. It stands on a raised rectangular substructure of
thick slabs of marble or dolomite of considerable length , which
greatly aids in bringing out its stately appearance. Both in front
and at the back, this stylobate has steps for ascent, protected some-
times by elaborately wrought balustrades of limestone or marble.
The gate has three openings, closed by folding-doors of wood, and deco-
rated with paint of many colours. The high span-roof is supported
by wooden pillars, and covered with green glazed tiles, similar
to those which adorn the walls of the enclosure. The eaves, which
project considerably, rest on each side of the gate upon a long row
of supports (see Fig. 38) , each of which is a structure of wooden

Fig. 38.

Specimen of a Roof resting on a Bracket Frieze.

brackets or cantilevers ,
piled upon another in the following manner :
—
a bracket resting crosswise on the wall-plate and projecting from it,
carries some other brackets placed crosswise over the first one near
, ,

to its end and the others more backward; over these brackets three
others are placed crosswise, jutting out further than the first, and

1
*P1-
 ON MA.USOLEA FOR PRINCES OF THE HIGHEST RANK. 1167

they again support brackets longer than the second and likewise
fastened at right angles over them, one lying near to the end;
and so on , till the eaves are reached , increased breadth on the
top being thus given for the support of the roof. This compli-
cated timber construction most ornamental portion of the
is the
roof; it is painted in red and other gaudy colours, and the ends

of the brackets are adorned with handsome carvings. It produces

a massive and at the same time elegant and forms a
effect ,

marked feature of Chinese architecture all over the Empire, all

buildings with any pretensions to beauty being adorned with such

a peculiar frieze
Passing through the gate, the visitor finds himself immediately
1
in the t'ing or court-yard, on the opposite side of which he
perceives an insulated edifice, called the hiang t
c
ang s
or hiang
tien 3
: the » sacrificial hall" (Consult Fig. 39). A road paved with
slabs marble or stone runs in a straight line from the gate to
of
that temple. Over a small arched bridge of marble, with handsome
balustrades, it leads across a Fung-shui tank lined with rectangular
blocks of stone, which is situated in the middle of the court. Two
lion-like monsters in stone, squatted down on pedestals, watch
over this bridge on either side, their jaws being turned towards
the gate, as if to drive away all spirits that might, attempt to
approach the temple or the tumuli with mischievous intent. Pines,
cypresses and other trees are planted on the right and left of the
court-yard, and enhance the impressive aspect of this abode of death.
The temple is of wood, and rectangular in form. Its fore-
front, which faces the court-yard, is considerably longer than its
side walls, in some cases almost twice as long, and contains the
main entrance exactly in the middle, which is straight opposite
the bridge. When seen in front, the temple bears a great resem-
blance to gate", being built in quite the same style,
the » great
and likewise standing on a rectangular platform of stone with an
ascent of steps in front and at the back; sometimes it is just as
broad as the gate, in other cases it is considerably broader. The
green-tiled roof, supported by wooden pillars arrayed within the
building, and by wooden pilasters set within the walls, towers out
considerably above the gate. On every side, the eaves rest on a
bracket construction precisely resembling that of the gate. On en-
tering through the main door, the visitor faces an altar which bears

#- M W HL 0I •
#* KX
1L68 THE GRAVE.

the soul tablets of the persons buried in the grounds. These tablets
are arranged in the same order as the tumuli. An oblong table, standing
in front of the altar, bears a set of sacrificial implements, viz. an
incense burner, flanked by two candle supporters and two flower
vases. There is hardly any
furniture worth mentioning
in the hall.
The court-yard is bound-
ed, behind the temple, by
a gate, constructed just
in the middle of a roofed
transversal wall running to
the right and left as far as
the one which surrounds
the whole area. This struct-
ure is called 1 i u-li h wa
men 1
» gate with glazed
,

ornaments", because of the

blue tiles that cover the
roof, and the variegated

Wall figures in glazed porcelain

Main Gate
with which, in some cases,
certain parts of its walls are

Tabl£tUouse
incrusted. Mostly, however,
much
l \l !!,U
^^ Drufye
Cznal
it has a
than the main gate
plainer aspect
, having
only one opening, just in
Sketch Plan of the Mausoleum of an Imperial Prince.
the middle; generally also
it is not raised on a platform or terrace, only a broad ledge of
stone slabs running along the frontispiece and the rear wall.
A path ,
paved with slabs of stone leads through this gate to the
,

hindmost part of the mausoleum in the back ground of which we

,

perceive the tumulus of the magnate, flanked by those of his consort

and principal descendants. This part of the enclosure we need not
now describe, as it corresponds to the analogous part of the grave
parks of and mandarins, of which a description has been
nobles
given on page 1095. Sepulchral trees grow luxuriantly to the right
and left. The wall at the back of the tumuli is generally slightly
curved.

1
%L J& ft T\
PI. XXXVIII.

Tablet House of the Mausoleum of an Imperial Prince.

 ,

TABLET-HOUSES IN THE MAl'SOLEA FOR PRINCES. 1169

Now retracing oui steps, to take a view of the adjacent parts

outside the wall, our attention is attracted to a square, pavilion-
like building, raised straight in front of the main gate. It is the
c
pei t ing' or » tablet-pavilion", built on a low terrace of brick or
solid stone, that has an ascent of a few steps on all sides. The
red-plastered brick walls, about six metres long, have each an
arched entrance just in the middle, without doors, but sometimes
closed by a wooden railing; in many tablet-houses these entrances
are formed by a couple of wooden pillars, placed on either side
like door-posts , and serving at the same time as supports for the
roof (see PI. XXXVIII). The walls have a massive base of big slabs of
limestone , and bear on the top carved plates of limestone on which the ,

roof rests. This latter is generally double, and the eaves project boldly
on all sides. In it the principal attraction of the building is concen-
trated; indeed, the blue, glazed tiles contrast charmingly with the
double wooden architrave, elegantly ornamented with arabesques in
paint of variegated colours, and with the bright red of the super-
incumbent bracket frieze. The marble tablet is visible through all

the four entrances, being placed exactly in the centre of the build-
ing. It is a large monolith , inscribed with a few characters that
state the name and title of the magnate buried in the mausoleum,
as , for instance : » Mien Hien , Banner Prince of Shui and Hwai
2
of the nearest Imperial kin" . The tortoise, on the back of which
the tablet stands, is likewise cut out of one single piece of limestone
and of large dimensions. We have seen such stone monsters meas-
uring fully four metres from snout to tail.

The grounds, in the midst of which the tablet-house displays its

glistering roofs, constitute a vast fore-yard, planted on all sides with

stately evergreens.This yard abuts in front upon an artificial tank
or moat, built of stone blocks, and passable by means of a stone
bridge which lies exactly in the same line with the tablet-house,
the main gate, and the temple. A couple of lions, squatted on
their hams, flank this bridge. In some instances, the fore-yard is
surrounded by a low wall of simple construction. A large tract, clad

2
present
5fa
a
m 5fiS 1i HI ££ Or
Manchu term meaning a banner, and denoting one of the four divisions
The characters ^ £1 ,
h W o-shih, re-

of ttie army or the State. Mien Hien was the fourth son of the Emperor Jen Tsung
~
f~! -^ . who reigned till 1820. His mausoleum is situate half a day's journey west

from Peking.
1170 THE GRAVE.

with cypresses ,
pines and oaks , the extension of which is not limited
by any dynastic laws or rescripts , encloses the mausoleum on all sides.

The royal funeral parks of evergreens, amidst which bright,

green-glazed roofs charmingly sparkle in the rays of the sun, do
not always answer in every respect to the above sketch. The
tablet-house, for example, often stands inside the main gate, and
is sometimes adorned with elegantly cawed balustrades, extending
along the borders of the platform and the four flights of steps. In
the between the main gate and the temple may be
court-yard
seen, moreover, two plain, one-storied buildings ot wood, one on
either side, the meanness of which, when contrasted with the gate
and the temple, proves that they were not strictly erected for the
glory of the manes. They serve for the accommodation of the kins-
folk when they visit the place to worship and sacrifice, and are
c
styled, respectively, fan fang » eating-room", and ch a fang 2
1
: :

» apartment to take tea in".

In the same court-yard stands, in many cases, on the left of
3
the temple, a rectangular liao lu ,
i.e. »an incineration furnace",
intended for the burning of silk stuffs and paper mock money which
are presented in the temple on sacrificial days; these articles are
thrown into it through an arched opening in the front. The solid
stone basement and the walls of this structure are, either partly or
entirely, incrusted with bricks and plates of glazed porcelain displaying ,

bossy figures of sundry colours, among which green preponderates.

The roof resembles that of the temple and the main gate, being
covered with tiles of the same form , colour and dimensions , and
even the bracket construction being repeated in porcelain. An adequate
idea of such furnaces may be obtained by the reader from Plate
XXXIX, though they are by no means always so large and beau-
The maximum height averages between three and four metres.
tiful.

Some mausolea of Princes have a couple of stone pillars in front.

But at no one have we seen any men or animals in stone, the
bridge lions excepted. The clay huts of the warders are in the
outer grounds, near a small door contrived in the wall, which they
are not easily persuaded to open to foreign tourists. The main gate
always remains closed, except when the family visits the place to
worship and to sacrifice.

At first would appear that these gorgeous sepulchres of

sight it

Imperial Princes of the nearest kin differ toto ccelo from the graves
 PI. XXX IX.

Sacrificial Furnace
c
in the Mausoleum of the Emperor Ch ing Tsu of the Ming Dynasty.
 ,

MAUSOLEA FOR PRINCES OP INFERIOR RANK. 1171

in the South , described in the first section of this chapter. A little

attention, however, suffices to convince us that just the contrary

is the case, both categories being laid out on the plan of large
mansions, and temples. Our readers may easily ascertain
palaces
this by perusing what is written on pp. 1083 sqq. A comparison
shows that, but for the tumuli and the tablet-house, a Prince's
mausoleum resembles a mansion or a temple almost to perfection
inasmuch as the sacrificial hall corresponds, both in location and
destination, to the chief building of a dwelling-house or of an
ancestral temple , such a building being likewise furnished with
an altar and soul tablets.

Being now acquainted with the mausolea of the highest Imperial

nobility of the present day, the reader will be much better able
to understand the ancient native descriptions of some mausolea of
grandees of the Han dynasty, of which we have given translations
on pp. 445 seq. Indeed, these descriptions show that those ancient
burial-places must have resembled the present mausolea in almost
every essential point. Consequently, Chinese monarchs, in building
graves for the members of their family have not greatly swerved
from the path traced out by their ancestors; and if any novelties
have been introduced, they only affect matters of secondary im-
portance. According to the same descriptions , the erection of temples
on the graves of high grandees was in vogue at the beginning of
our era. But that their origin must be sought for in pre-Christian
times, has been stated already on page 388.
The mausolea of Princes of lower rank are generally not so large
and beautiful as those of Princes of the first rank. The Govern-
ment has, indeed, enacted a sliding-scale for their dimensions and
adornment. Those of Princes of the four lowest degrees have no
temple and, in many cases, no walls, being in consequence hardly
distinguishable from those of nobles and mandarins between which
they lie scattered about , from the one
so that a regular transition
category to the other is by no means all kept
traceable. They are
in equally good and constant repair. We have seen many, the temple,
gate and walls of which were but heaps of desolate ruins overgrown ,

with weeds and entirely bare of trees.

A part of the dynastic ordinances touching the mausolea of Im-
perial Princes and Princesses was given in a tabular form on page 453
of this work. We give them now in their entirety, arranging them
again in a table, to afford an easy survey:
1172 THE GRAVE.
 . ,,
,

OFFICIAL RESCRIPTS REGARDING THE MAUSOLEA OF PRINCES. 1173

of the reign of Shi Tsu \ the first Emperor of this dynasty, that
is to say, in 1644. The Ta Tsing hwui lien - and the Rules and
3
Regulations of the Board of Rites ,
prescribe that the gate » shall
4
be covered with green glazed tiles" in the case of Princes of the
5
first or second degree , and with ordinary tubular tiles for the

lower ranks; further, that the mausolea of Princes of the eleventh

or twelfth order shall have a wall of thirty chang. All the above

rescripts , except those affecting the tea-roorn and the eating-room

6
are also to be found in the and almost all of
Ta Tiing fung li ,

them occur in a » Supplementary Revised Edition of the Ta Tsing

1
hwui tien" ,
published in 1818.
Sovereigns who, as we have stated on page 1101, have the graves
of their Ministers and officers built at their expense , may reasonably
be expected to charge themselves with the costs of the mausolea of
their own kindred too. We read, indeed, in the collections of dynastic
ordinances: »As to the allowances to be paid in behalf of works
» connected with the construction of graves :
— in the tenth year of
» the period Shun chi (1653) a proposal, presented to the Throne,
» was sanctioned , accordin°- to which 5000 taels of silver should be
» granted for a Prince of the first rank , 4000 for his eldest son by
» the principal consort , 3000 for a Prince of the second order , 2000
» and 1000 respectively for Princes of the third and fourth order
» and 500 for a Prince of the fifth , sixth , seventh or eighth rank.
»And in the fourteenth year of the period Khang hi (1675)
»a proposal, duly deliberated upon, was approved, according to

» which the same subsidy as for an officer of the first rank should
» be granted for a Prince of the ninth order and for a Prince of ,

» the tenth order the same as for an officer of the second rank
3
—
1 2 Cha P ter 76 '• 5 -

tit jfli.- '

3 Chapter 163, 1. 6. 4 g J^ ffi jfc Jj|j

5 6 Cha P ter 5i 5
Wi 3& • '
'• -

7 Shuh siu Tu Ts'ing hwui tien,^ f^ 4& J&

JjjJ|
-fc
Ch. 48, 1. 9.

8
m m x ft m »
•/& + ^ s $ m i #& s 5. ^ m

T. Ts. h. I. tseh li, ch. 137, II. 29 seq. See also the T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 714,

11. C seq.
 :

1174 THE GRAVE.

that is to say, 500 and 400 taels (see page 1101). »But in the fortieth

» year of the period Khien lung (1775) a proposal was approved

» and sanctioned, after due deliberation, to the effect that, hence-
» forth , making the grave of a Prince of the fifth
the subsidy for
» or sixth order should amount to 500 taels, and for making that
» of a Prince of the seventh or eight rank to 300 taels and that the
, ,

» stipulations regarding such allowances for Princes from the ninth

» order downwards were abolished" '.
But the dynastic rescripts are especially elaborate in regard to
the stone tablets. This will appear only rational after what we have
stated in the second section of this chapter about the great signi-
ficance these monuments have always possessed in the eyes of the
nation. The following table contains a digest of those rescripts , as
we find them in the three principal compilations of ordinances *

Height and Shape of the

Ornamentation of the Year in which
breadth of pedestal and
,
crowning border, and its these regulations
the body, in its height in
height in Chinese inches. were enacted.
Chinese inches. Chinese inches.

nee of the lrst.

 THE STONE TABLETS IN THE MADSOLEA FOR PRINCES. 1175

c
» ornamented with a t'ien-luh and a p ih-sie, and the pedestal
» shall have the shape of a tortoise; the tablet of a Prince of the 12th.
» order shall have a round head and a square pedestal" And the '

Ta Taking fung li states: »The dimensions shall be the same as

» those fixed for the class of mandarins to whom those Princes are
2
» similar in rank"' , that is to say, the same as those of the tablets

for mandarins of the 3rd. and 4th. degree, as given in the table on
page 1148. If we compare this table with the one we have just
placed before our readers, we perceive at a glance that the Princes
of the 9th. and 10th. order, as regards the sepulchral tablets, are

placed on the same line with mandarins of the lrst. and 2nd. rank.
This assimilation of the four lowest classes of Princes with the four
highest classes of mandarins is also carried out in respect to the

length of the enclosures of their sepulchres, as shown by the data

given on pp. 1098 and 1172 seq.
The great importance, attached to the grave tablets in general,
sufficiently accounts for the reason why the dynastic Ordinances
prescribe the paying out from the Treasuries of subventions for their
erection in the mausolea of Princes, and why these subventions are
exceedingly high as compared with the sums granted for their graves
(see page 1173). »As to the allowances for such tablets, in the
» tenth year of the period Shun chi (1653), it was proposed to
» the Emperor and sanctioned by him that for a Prince of the first ,

» order 3000 taels of silver should be paid, 2500 taels for the
» eldest son of such a Prince born of the principal consort, and 2000
»for other Princes of the secoud order; 1000 and 700 taels re-
» spectively for Princes of the third and fourth order and 450 for ,

» a Prince of the fifth , sixth , seventh or eighth rank. In the four-

» teenth year of the period Khang hi (1675) a project to the following
» effect was approved , viz. that for Princes of the ninth and tenth
3
» order the allowance should be 350 and 300 taels respectively .

-tj j£fc. Chapter 76, 1. 5. See also the Supplementary Revised Edition of the
Te|-
same work, ch. 48, 1. 10.

2^@$H#?iB*iS&- Cha P ter 51

>
' 6 -
1176 THE GRAVE.

» But in the fortieth year of the Khien lung period (1775)

» these subsidies were fixed at 450 taels for a Prince of the fifth

» or sixth order, and at 250 for a Prince of the seventh or eighth,

» while the stipulations existing on this head for Princes of the

» four lowest ranks were abrogated" '.

In most mausolea of Imperial Princes, the stone tablet stands

unsheltered in the open air, it being a fundamental rescript, laid

down in the Collective Statutes of the dynasty, that »a tablet-

» house may be erected only for a Prince of the second or of a higher

» degree" 8
. Generally, the inscription for the tablet of a Prince of one
of the eight highest orders is , like that for a high nobleman or a man-
darin of the first degree (see p. 1150), composed by the Han-
3
1 i n College .

mausolea for Princesses must be rare, it being, as our

Special
readers know, an old established custom to bury women by the
side of their husbands. It must further be noted that not every ,

son and daughter of an Emperor repose in a mausoleum built in

accordance with the general statutory rules. Occasionally, special

ordinances have been issued for their sepulchres by the Throne,
fixingthe dimensions of the temple, the gates, the furnace and
the apartments for the warders, and regulating some other points

on which the statutory rules are silent. The length of the wall
of the enclosure was in nearly all these special cases fixed below
the standard maximum length of a hundred chang; but a
length of 130 chang was prescribed for the wall of the mau-
soleum in which Twan Hwui 4
, heir-apparent of Kao Tsung, was
5
buried in 1742 , so that this sepulchre belongs to the largest

T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 137, 1. 31; also the T. Ts. h. t. shi li . ch. 714, 1. 8.

< %t Ft n + *? m m m m & m h & & i a a ,

^ M ¥ M T la fl Z $J i§ it
1. 8.
ffl
Comp. also the T. Ts. hwui Hen, ch. 53, 11.
T -
Ts -
h -

11 sqq., the Regulations for the

L shi K '
ch - 714 '

Board of Rites, ch. 163, 1. 5, and the T. Is. t'ung li, ch. 51, 1. 5.

'
2

3
'If ffl
Ta Ts'ing
3: J#
hwui
±#M^
tien, ch. 53, 11.
#•• r" 7V "" hwwi tim
11 — 15.
/

See also the Ta Ts'ing t'ung

'
ch -
70 '
' 5 '

li>

ch. 51, 1. 5.

4
i^H-
5 See the T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 349, 1. 21, and the T. Ts. h. t.tseh li, ch. 80,

1. 41. This beautiful cenotaph is situate in the north-eastern part ot Shun-t'ien, viz.
 THE IMPERIAL TOMBS OF THE MING DYNASTY. 1177

that have been built during the present dynasty for any Prince or
Princess '.

4. The Imperial Cemeteries of the Ming Dynasty.

From the mausolea of Imperial Princes, the highest magnates in

the Empire , we naturally pass to those of the Sons of Heaven the ,

only sepulchral monuments surpassing them in size and grandeur.

Apart from those of the Ts'ing dynasty, now on the throne,
which, as being the dwelling-places of Imperial ancestors on the
assistance and favours of whom the weal and woe of the Crown
and the Realm depend , are , of course , kept in good repair
with pious solicitude, only those of the House of Ming, which was
dethroned by that of Ts'ing in 1G44, can bear a description, being
still in such a condition as enables us to obtain an adequate idea
of their original shape and magnificence. All those of earlier times

have either been swept out of existence, or reduced to a mere

shadow what they once were, only some parts of them being
of
patched up by the present Government in conformance with the ,

example set by previous dynasties. The bare fact that only those
Ming tombs have outlived time so well, fully entitles them to an
elaborate description in this work.
But still they claim description for other reasons. The greatest
conservatism in matters of religion, ceremonies and rites having
dominated the Chinese race through all ages, we are justified in
our belief that those sepulchres were built on the same plan which
had been transmitted to one another by successive dynasties as a
heirloom from up before our eyes
the ancients , so that they hold
a clear image tombs of every epoch, beginning
of the Imperial
c
with that of Ts in and Han. This fact, to which we have already
drawn attention on page 441 stamps them as monuments the ,

historical and archceologic value of which it is hardly possible to

overrate. The dynasty now reigning having taken them as a proto-

in mount Chu-hwa y^ St |L| . in the department of Ki-cheu |j|j* >J>|>|

, thirty

Chinese miles east of its chief city; see the Memoirs concerning the Department
of Shun-t'ien, ch. 26, 1. 42
1 These ordinances are laid down in ch. 714 of the T. Ts. h. t. shi li, 11. 4seq.,

and in ch. 137 of the T. Ts. h. 1. tseh li, 11. 11—14.

 ,

1178 THE GRAVE.

type of her own mausolea, which are inaccessible to foreigners and

in consequence very insufficiently described, the Ming tombs are a
valuable means to gain a good idea of the shape and construction
of the same. Descriptions are, moreover, urgent. Indeed, their pre-
servation merely depends on the whims of the present Government,
established , as the whole world knows , on a worm-eaten , tottering
throne. Their decay and ultimate ruin in consequence of Imperial
indifferentism , stinginess or financial troubles , is a constantly lurking
danger. Besides, seditions, or political considerations based on the
Fung-shui theories, may at any moment entail their demolition, or,

at any rate, reduce them to such a condition as shall for ever

render it impossible to describe them properly.
c
T. ai the founder of the Ming dynasty, was buried without
Tsu ',

the walls ofNanking, which city was, during his reign, the resi-
dence of the Court and the Metropolis of the Empire. His mau-
soleum cannot be of any service as a model for description, being
entirely in ruins , except the avenue of stone figures , of which we
have given a short account on page 821. As such a model we
c
must take the mausoleum of Ch ing Tsu 9 the third monarch ,

who, having removed his seat to Peking, was buried almost due
c c
north from this city, in the department of Ch ang-p ing
3
His burial- .

place there became the centre of a vast family cemetery, in which,

in the course of more than two centuries, twelve other Emperors,
all direct descendants from him in the male line, were consigned
to eternal rest in separate cenotaphs, built in the same style, but
in smaller dimensions and with less gorgeousness ; besides , a much
greater number of Empresses, Imperial Concubines and Princes were
interred there.
For the second Emperor of that dynasty, known in history by the
name of Hwui 4 no mausoleum has ever been built. He was a
,

grandson of T ai Tsu and the son of the Heir Apparent I Wen

c 5
,

6
who died in 1392 , six years before he could be called to the
throne by Four years after Hwui had ascended
his father's death.
the throne in obedience to his appointment by his grandfather, his
fourth paternal uncle, who was enfeoffed with the principality of

6 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 3, 1. 10, and ch. 115, 1. 4.

 ,

THE SECOND EMPEROR OP THE MING DYNASTY. 1179

Yen '
in the present province of Peh-chihli, raised the banner of
revolt, and boldly marched on Nanking. » This Metropolis", says
the historian, » fell into his hands; a conflagration broke out in the
» Palace, and it the Emperor perished. The King
is unknown how
» of Yen some court-servants to recover the remains of
delegated
» the Emperor and his Consort from the fire, and he buried them
» eight days afterwards; but some say that the monarch effected
» his escape underground passage. In the fifth year
through an
» of the period Ching t'ung (1440), a Buddhist priest travelled
» from the province of Yun-nan to that of Kwangsi and there ,

» gave out to be the Emperor of the Kien wen period (i. e.

c
» Hwui). Ch en Ying ,
prefect of the department of Sze-ngen
» apprised the Court thereof; he was put to trial, and turned out to
» be one Yang Hing-siang from Kiiin-cheu, a man over ninety years
» old. He was sent to jail for further examination and died in ,

» the fourth month of that year. Twelve priests who had been his
» accessories in the plot , were banished to Liao-tung. Since that time
» there have been traditions rife among the people in Tien (Yun-

»nan), in Khien (Kwei-cheu), and in Pa and Shuh (Sze-chSven)

» as to the time when that Emperor is supposed to have lived there
» as a priest. —
In the periods Ching teh (1506 1521), Wan —
»lih (1573—1620) and Ch ung ching 1628—1644) it was
c

» requested by high officers that titles of honour should be confer-

» red upon the descendants of that Emperor, and that a posthumous
» name might be bestowed on him to call him by in the ancestral
» temple ; but those proposals , though they were all forwarded to
2
» the Boards for discussion, were never carried into execution" .

The Su/i wen Men fung khao , recounts the same particulars

1
jf&-

i m m ® * % & & * %& m &

, , . *& £m*

^^toiJil^-fT^Si.^llW
Dynasty, chapter 4, 1. 8.
Histo, y of the Ming
1 ISO THE GRAVE.

concerning the said priest with slight variations in the details, and
says he declared he was prompted by no other desire in divulging
his origin at so high an age, than that his remains might find a last
resting-place in the soil in which his family was buried. » On his
» arrival in Peking", that work adds, »a meal was placed before
» the priest even ere the Court had made out who he was. The
» eunuch Wu Liang , who was a servant in the Court already in the
»Kien wen period, was then ordered to have a look at the old
» Buddhist. On seeing him, he said immediately: 'He is not the
» Emperor'; upon which the priest retorted: 'When I cast slices of
» meat upon the ground in the Imperial side building you crouched ,

» over the ground and ate them up why do you now presume to ;

» say that I am not the Emperor ? I hear that Yang Shi-khi still
» lives; may he come out and see whether he recognizes me?' Wu
» Liang feigned not to know that such things had happened. Report
» was made of what had come to pass whereupon there came an ,

» order to immediately consign the old Buddhist somewhere in the

» Western Palace. When he ended his davs, he was buried in the
» Western Hills and no mound was made on his grave nor were
; ,

» any trees planted thereabouts" '.

Whatever may have been the final fate of Hwui, there existed reasons
c
enough for Ch ing Tsu and his successors to deprive him for good
of the honour of being buried in an Imperial mausoleum. First of
all, filial piety and the laws of ancestor-worship never prescribed

that an uncle should bury his nephew with the same honours as
everyone has to bestow upon his own father. And subsequent
Emperors never regarded Hwui as a lawful heir to the throne,
as their stubborn refusal, mentioned above, to grant titles of
nobility to his descendants, proves. In this respect Ch'ing Tsu had
set the example even going so far as to disavow the name of
,

Kien wen 2 which Hwui had adopted to designate his reign.

,

^ ^J- ^ j^j. Chapter 133, 1. 12.

2 *g| -£.
 REMOVAL OF THE COURT TO PEKING. 1181

We read indeed, that already the month after that in which

in

he had dethroned this unfortunate monarch, » he decreed that the

» current year should be chronicled as the thirty-fifth of the period

»Hung w u and , the next should be styled the first of the period
»Yung loh" 1
.

c
In the fourth year of his reign (1406) Ch ing Tsu took the first

steps for the removal of the Court to Peking, the capital of his
former principality, » delegating some of his high mandarins to Sze-
» ch c wen , Hukwang , Kiangsi , Chehkiang and Shansi there , to collect

» timber for the construction of palaces in that city"

2
. And when,
three years afterwards , in the third month , the transfer had become
a fact by his own arrival in Peking 3
, one of the very first mat-
ters he attended to already in the fifth month of that year, was
» to measure out a place for his mausoleum in the Yellow Clay
» Hills in the district of Ch ang-p c c
ing , and to bestow upon those
» hills the name of Tien-sheu Shan: 'Hills of Imperial Longevity'"*.
He was prompted to such speed by the circumstance that his consort
Jen Hiao 5
, the mother of the Heir Apparent , had departed this life

in 1407 6
and was still unburied, she having to be placed in his own
tomb , in accordance with ancient Imperial usage. » Pour years after-

» wards the mausoleum was finished , and they buried the Empress
» in it" 7 one month after the arrival of her encoffined remains from
,

-jQ 4£ • History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 5 , 1. 7.

ijjjr *)j^ I I [J5 . The same work, ch. 6, 1. 5.

3 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 6, I. 7. It lasted, however, till "1421 before

the transfer of the capital was officially regarded as an accomplished fact. The
official history ol the dynasty states: » The Emperor decreed in the ninth month of
» the eighteenth year of his reign that, beginning from the following year, the
» capital of the Empire should become the Southern Metropolis (Nanking), and Pe-
..king the Metropolis proper" -^A^^L^Iigg |#^M^
^^M » it M % M 85 •
c,ia ' 5ter 7
'
! 6; eomp ' also ch -
40 <
'• 3 -

Wk Ta Mini/ hwui lien, ch. 83, I. a, and History of the Ming Dynasty,
|_|_f

ch. G, I. 8.

5 fr#.
6 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 0, 1. 6, and ch. 113, 1. 8.

7 % ra ^ rts mk w am i ,
•

"' <"•< ch -
i3
'
'•

76
8-
 ,

1182 THE GRAVE.

x
Nanking . She was accordingly the first personage buried in the
c c
Ch ang-p ing Cemetery. Nearly a dozen years were to elapse before
her husband's corpse and manes joined her there.
It pithily characterizes the boundless sway Fung-shui exercises
over the Chinese nation , that even this Imperial burial ground
2
was selected under the guidance of geomantic experts. Yeh Shing ,

an and statesman of extraordinary mental abilities, who

author
lived from 1419 to 1474, relates in one of his works: » Wang
» Hien a native of Ning-yang (a department of Yen-cheu 3 in the
, ,

» province of Shantung) , made acquaintance in his youth with an

» extraordinary individual, whose assistant he became and who,
» when he became an officer of the third degree, gave him the
» Book of the Blue Bag*. The occult arts of this work he there-
» upon studied thoroughly, and when in the seventh year of the ,

» period Yung loh (1409), the Emperor Ch ing Tsu had the
c

» tortoise-shell consulted with respect to his longevity mausoleum

» the officers singled out a felicitous ground , eighteen miles north-
c c
» east of Ch ang-p ing , conformably to the suitable indications of
» Wang The old name of that locality was Tung Cha-tsze
Hien.
» Shan (' Eastern Mounts where seeds are pressed ?); but the name '

» of Imperial Longevity Mounts was conferred on it when the

» mausoleum was finished. Wang Hien afterwards filled several
» offices , and even attained to the dignity of prefect of the
c 5
» department of Shun-t ien (in which Peking lies) " .

Tsiao Hung 6
, another distinguished scholar and official, who

1 See leaf 3 of the Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shuiki S 2E Mj -Jt( gjl : » Description

of the Mountains and Waters in Ch'ang-p'ing", an elaborate geographical and ar-

chaeological sketch, written about the beginning of the reign of the present dynasty

by Ku Yen-wu jg| -j£ jjf (1613 — 1682), the learned author to whom we are

indebted also for the interesting Jih chi luh, so often quoted by us in this work.
We shall frequently have to cite from that useful little book in the following pages.

*M&-
4Comp. 1001 and 1003.
3 03JH-
pp.

5
W & AI W & m M A # Z f t H & n . ,
75r

"^3". Shui lung jilt hi -fc jif I

|
=3 ,
quoted in Tuh li t'ung khao, ch.93, 1.9.

6
m ak
 ,

IMPERIAL BURIAL GROUNDS SELECTED BY GEOMANOERS. 1183

lived between 1541 and 1620, states that the selection of those
grounds was the work of an adept of the Kiangsi school of geomancy.
» In the seventh year of the period loh", he writes, »the Yung
c
» Empress Jen Hiao Ch ing Tsu selected a
not yet being buried ,

» place for his longevity mausoleum. During a long time no felicit-

» ous ground was discovered whereupon Chao Kung President , ,

» of the Board of Rites, took Liao Kiiin-khing, a professor of

c c
» Kiangsi province to the district of Ch ang-p ing
, where they ,

» ransacked the mountains all around and discovered that the Yel-
» low Clay Hills, in the east of the district, were suitable for the

» purpose. Without delay the Emperor travelled to the spot to view it.

» He the name of Imperial Longevity Hills upon it,

conferred
» ordered Wang Tung, a nobleman of the third rank for military
» virtue, to superintend the workmen and conferred an official 1

» dignity on Liao Kiiin-khing " 2

.

Our readers might readily be tempted to believe that the mountain

range was thus dubbed by CVing Tsu with the object of increasing
by the power of the name its capacity to bestow, through the graves
,

to be laid out at its foot, longevity upon his line of descendants

and to thus perpetuate the dynasty. But his intention did not extend

so far. » The name Mounts of Imperial Longevity", says Sii Hioh-mu 3

,

c
» dates from Ch ing Tsu. When he sojourned in that locality, he held
» a drinking-bout ; and as the day happened to be his birthday, so that
» all his ministers offered him
good wishes for the prolongation
their
» of his life, those mounts were thus named by him. The fiction, cur-
» rent nowadays , that that appellation was given to those hills because
4
» they were to serve for the burial of Imperial corpses, is erroneous" .

•1 This statement occurs also in the biography of this grandee ,

given by the
History of the Ming Dynasty in chapter 154: I. 21.

* # t m m m fa # m ai m u n m ± m & m
,

Hien ching luh jtjj $& quoted in the Tuh li t'ung khao, ch. 93, I. 9. Most
f|£ ,

of the above information is also recorded in the Ming t'ung ki : see the Ku kin t'u

shu tsih ch'ing, section jjjjj§

'jM , ch. 66. Comp. also the Suh wen hien t'ung khao,

ch. 133, 1. 15.

^fciii^ftfttfjffl.M^stfiiftifcifcjg,
 p

1184 THE GRAVR.

» Up to that time , the mausoleum-grounds had been an estate of

» the family Khang. A mound of earth covering the grave of one

» Khang Lao , who lived before the reign of the dynasty, was
» located at a hundred and odd pu east of the Ch'ang ling
c
» (Ch ing Tsu's mausoleum). When the Emperor Wen c
(Ch ing Tsu)
» selected this tomb he
ground by divination , there to make his ,

» said: 'To ensure the rest of the dead is a common feeling of man-
»kind', and ordered that this grave should not be removed" '.

As stated on page 1177, the mausolea of the Ming dynasty owe

their preservation exclusively to the care of the now reigning
c
House of Ts ing. It has, since the conquest of the Empire, in-

cluded them among the numerous sepulchres of Rulers, states-

men , sages and other paragons of the nation which it raised to ,

the rank of objects of attention for the State , respect forbidding

their being left a prey to ruin and obliteration. The very first Em-
2
peror, Shi Tsu , already on his accession to the throne in 1644
» ordained and mausoleum-families should be
that an Inspector
c
» appointed for the twelve tombs of the Ming dynasty in the Ch ang-
c
» ing department and that an end should there be made of
,

» the gathering of fuel and the pasturing of cattle" 3 Three years .

later he issued another edict, stating therein that, on his visit

to the tombs, he had noticed that the edifices and walls were in a
deplorable state of dilapidation and great havoc had been made among
the trees for which reason he ordered the Board of Works to under-
;

take their thorough repair, and that the gathering of wood should
for ever be forbidden , that the number of families for the guarding
of those monuments should be increased , and that the magistracy
c c
of Ch ang-p ing should carefully see to their being kept in a proper

p/mi

% m % m fl #f ft ^ % $ * # & Shi miao shih i

uoted in t,,e Tuh li ''""9 fc^O) ch 93 ' 12

ttt JlH We f*& H^' c
l - '
-

Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui hi, 1. 14.

2
i«r nta-
3
« ^ tc^ ^ i 2p *h m ft + - mm ft &m
P * t£ It tH 4£' la Tsing hVMi tien tseh K '
ch- 137 '
L 32-
 THE MING TOMBS PROTECTED BY THE Ts'lNG DYNASTY. 1185

1
condition The Shing hiun contains a decree of the same contents
.

and wording published in the sixteenth year of Shi Tsu's reign 2

, .

Shing Tsu \ the next Emperor, in the fourteenth year of his

reign (1675) ordered the Board of Rites, by special edict, not to be
remiss in having the mausolea carefully ' looked after. That his
successor, Shi Tsung, likewise took their preservation seriously to
heart, the reader may see from the decree issued by him in 1729,
of which we have given the translation elsewhere (see page 932). Edicts
in pursuit of the same object were promulgated in 1786 and 1787
5
by Kao Tsung ; and succeeding Emperors , down to this day, have
followed the example.
Perhaps the question rises on the lips of our readers: Were not
such measures for the preservation of those sepulchres very dan-
gerous to the dynasty that took them , as , indeed geomancy teaches
that graves create and promote the fortunes of the descendants of
those who lie buried therein? Did not that dynasty entertain a fear
that they might endanger its throne by causing obscure descendants
of the House to foment rebellions, and that seditious
former
attempts at re-establishing the Ming family might be crowned with
ultimate success by the powerful help of those tombs?
The answer is, that the Manchu conquerors could not but feel
convinced that the Fung-shui of those sepulchres was incurably
maimed, nay, killed for ever, by the destruction of a considerable
number of buildings and trees within their precincts. Besides, the
very dethronement of the Ming dynasty had proved to them either
that the geomantic operation of its chief cemetery was entirely
gone or at any rate that no spiritual power of significance issued
, , ,

therefrom anymore. It was, no doubt, because of these considera-

tions that in 1699, during a temporary stay in Nanking, Shing
Tsu did not refrain from ordering the descendants of the extinct
family to be traced that he might appoint one of them as chief
,

sacrificer at its tombs and invest him with an official dignity °.

Tn 1724 he endowed the man elect, a certain Chu Chi-lien 7 with ,

1 Memoirs concerning the Department of Shun-t'ien, ch. 26, 1. 27.

2 Among the Edicts of Shi Tsu, ch. 4, 1. 3.

3
MM-
4 Memoirs concerning Shun-t'ien, foe. tit.

5 J3j ^i . See the same work , ch. 26, 1. 28.

6 See his edict to this effect in the Shing hum, ch. 56, 1. 2.

1
^Zr;i-
 ,

1186 TEH GRAVE.

the hereditary rank of Heu of the first rank ' ; and his descendants
s
still live in Peking at the present day .

Before the dethronement of the dynasty the Emperors of which

c c
lie buried therein, the Ming tombs in Ch ang-p ing undoubtedly
formed one of the largest and most gorgeous royal cemeteries ever
laid out by the hand of man. They yield the palm to the Egyptian
pyramids in point of bulk, but certainly not in that of style and
grandeur. The several palatial buildings, erected within their pre-
cincts, are highly interesting for our knowledge of the architectural
attainments of the Chinese more than five hundred years ago. No

wonder that they have formed one of the great attractions for
travellersand globe-trotters of every nationality, ever since European
cannon and diplomacy made the country generally accessible. For-
eign tourists mostly visit them on their excursion to the Great
Wall where it is nearest to Peking and easiest to reach viz. at the ,

Nan-khao Pass, the tombs being situate only a few miles north-
east of the southern extremity of this defile. Having there passed
the night in Nan-khao 3 the visitor may reach
the village of ,

c
them in a few hours, and put up for the next night at Ch ang-
c

p ing, a small' walled town due south of the cemetery, forming

the capital of the department of the same name which embraces
within its confines the whole valley containing the tombs.
Those Ming tombs having so often been visited they have also been ,

often described in books, periodicals and magazines. Unfortunately,

these descriptions are generally the fruits of hasty visits, some even
of no visits at all, and, consequently, extremely defective, super-
ficialand inaccurate. None of them convey a clear and accurate idea
of the appearance of the Cemetery and its various details, but merely
give, in a very few pages, a bare enumeration of some of the
c
principal buildings and structures belonging to the Ch ang ling,
the mausoleum of Chlng Tsu, the oldest and largest of all. But,

1 — ^£ /f||
. See the Memoirs concerning the Department of Shun-t'ien, ch. 26,
1. 29.
2 Dr. Edkins states, that the present reigning dynasty has erected geomantic
walls north-west of Peking, in the Kin-shan. viz. in the hill sides facing north-
north-east, on the way to Heh-lung T'an S jaff ^m. n om the Metropolis, thinking
'

thereby to check the pernicious influences from the power that watches over the
last resting-place of the Ming. See The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal
IV, p. 292.

3
$f P
 ,

SUNDRY DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MING TOMBS. 1187

what is worse, even those short accounts teem with misstatements,

arising from the double fact that the authors have not seriously
tried to find out the meaning and raison d^etre of the various parts
of the mausolea, and that their personal observations in loco have
not been guided by what the Chinese books have to say of those
monuments. Never, moreover, has any attempt been made at con-
structing an image of the Cemetery in its original shape by making
use of data afforded by native authors. In short all those descrip- ,

tions have the purest flavour of dilettantism about them; they

are without any real use for science and, for the most part,
even of little value to the general reader '. So it cannot be said
that we do work in giving in these pages a more
superfluous
elaborate account of the tombs than has hitherto been published
an account which, we trust, may be useful as a guide to whom-
soever might undertake a further study of those invaluable relics

ere the destructive hand of men or vicissitudinous time reduce them

to ruins , or sweep them out of existence.
The thirteen Imperial mausolea lie in a wide valley, bounded on
the north , the west and the east by a range of hills and accessible
,

on the south through four passes or defiles, separated from each

other by clusters of hillocks of slight elevation. Under the Ming
dynasty the official approach to the tombs was the road leading

1 The account of M. W. Lockhart in his » Notes on Peking and its Neighbour-

hood", which were published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for
1866, vol. 36, pp. 150 and 151, and that of William Simpson in a paper on »the
Architecture of China", inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British
Architects for 1873, pp. 36 — 38, are, no doubt, among the best that have been
written; but they are extremely concise and contain many misstatements. The sketch
given by Dr. Edkins in Williamson's Journeys in North China, vol. II, pp.386 389, —
is a little more elaborate; but, confused and hazy as it is, and even somewhat fan-
tastic in many points , no good notion of the cemetery in general , nor of the thirteen
mausolea in particular, can be formed from it, unless the reader has been himself
on the spot. The notes inserted by Dr. Bretschneider in his valuable essay on
»Die Pekinger Ebene und das benachbarte Gebirgsland " (see »PetermannsMittheilun-
gen" of 1876, Erganzungsheft n°. 46) are too short and insignificant to be called a
description. More details are contained in a paper of M. Camille Imbault-Huart,
entitled: »Les Tombeaux des Ming pres de Peking", published in the nT'ung-pao"
for 1893, vol. IV, pp. 391 —
400, and illustrated with three zincographical reproduc-
tions of photographs. It is to be deplored, however, that this author has substracted
much from the value of his paper by wildly mixing up his personal annotations
in situ Ku Yen-wu's Ch'ang-p'ing shan-
with extracts, often mistranslated, from
shui hi. —
Such second-hand accounts of the mausolea as occur in semi-scientific
periodicals like the » Globus" and the »Tour du Monde", are too insignificant to
deserve attention, and therefore left unnoticed here.
 .

1188 THE GRAVE.

c c
from Ch ang-p ing city, in a somewhat north-western direction,

through the second defile from the west, which is very broad and
was marked by several buildings and structures, most of which are
still extant at the present moment. It is along this route that we
shall conduct the reader on a visit to this imposing vale of death.
This vale has the mausolea in the northern back ground where they ,

lie scattered over the spurs of the T ien-sheu Mounts

c
and the hills

on the right and left of this chain.

commencing our description, it will be useful to insert
Before
a list, containing the names of the mausolea, those of the Em-
perors and Empresses buried therein, and such chronological items
as the reader may want as guides to the historical statements
gleaned from Chinese authors, with which our description is inter-

spersed. It has been carefully compiled by us from original Chinese

information , collected in the main from the biographies of Em-
perors and Empresses which are contained in the official History

of the House of Ming.

Names of the Temple Names Title and Dura- Imperial Consorts buried

Mausolea. of the Emperors. tion of Reign. in the Mausolea.

A . C h'a n g ling T'ai Tsung Yung loh 1425 Jen Hiao r^ "2$.- Em_
press, mother of Jen Tsung.
Married Ch'ing Tsu before
or, since 1538, \
-1403—1424.
his accession. Died in 1407,
Ch'ing Tsu
and was buried in the
f&m.- Ch'ang ling in 1413.

2. Hien ling Jen Tsung Hung hi 1425 Ch'ing Hiao =H/ re- Eni-

mm fc
eldest son of 1425.
press ,
mother
Tsung. Married Jen Tsung
of Suen

before his accession, and

Ching Tsu.
was buried in the Hien
ling on her death in 1 442

3. King ling Siien Tsung Siien teh 1435 Hiao

tive
Kung ^^
mother of Ying Tsung.
. Puta-

M- 7TC'
eldest son of 1426— "1435. Was raised to the dignity
of Empress in 1428, and
Jen Tsung.
buried in the King ling
on her death in 1462.
 ..

LIST OF THE THIRTEEN MING TOMBS. 1189

Names of the Temple Names Title and Dura- Imperial Consorts buried

Mausolea of the Emperors, tion of Reign. in the Mausolea.

4. Y ii 1 i n 2 Ying Tsung Ch ing t'ung 1464 Hiao Chwang ij& l|£

Was raised to the dignity

eldest son of 1436— -1449, of Empress in 1442, and

Suen Tsung. and buried in the Yii ling on

Tien shun her death in 1468.

XM
1457—1464
Hiao SuhjS*: Jltj.Concu-
bine,mother of Hien Tsung.
Was buried in the Yu
ling on her death in 1 504.

5 Men ling Hien Tsung Ching hwa 1487 Hiao Ching

^ j§ . Em-

m or
1488
press during the whole of
her consort's reign. Died
eldest son of 1465—1487.
Ying Tsung. and was buried in 1518.

Hiao Muh -j*& 3® . Con-

cubine, mother of Hiao
Tsung. Died in 1475, and
was transferred into the
Meu ling in 1 488 , on
her son's accession to the
throne.

Hiao Hwui^: IK Con-

cubine, grandmother of
Shi Tsung. Died in 1522,
the year after her grand-
son's assuming the reins
of government, and was
transferred in the next
year into the Meu ling.

6. T'ai ling Hiao Tsung Hung chi 1505 Hiao Khang ^ J^

mm third son of 1488—1505.
Empress, mother of Wu
Tsung. Married HiaoTsung
before his accession, died
Hien Tsung.
in 1541, and was buried
in this mausoleum in the

same year.

7.

M
Kh ang ling Wu Tsung

eldest son of
Hiao Tsung.
Ching teh
IEf§
15U6— 1521.
1521 Hiao Tsing
press. Was
^
mausoleum on her death
in 1535.
jj|}

buried in this
. Em-
 ! ,

1190 THE GRAVE.

Names of the Temple Names Title and Dura- Cm C5

Imperial Consorts buried
° "Z
. 3
Mausolea of the Emperors. tion of Reign. 3m in the Mausolea.

8. Yung 1 i n Shi Tsung Kia tsing 1567 Hiao Kieh -^k :£R • Em-
III tti
*N to: tj^ press from her consort's
grandson of 1522—1566. accession till her death

Hien Tsung. in 1528. Was transferred

Wn Tsung, from her grave into the

who had no Yung ling in 1567.

male issue
bequeathed
Hiao Lien ^ 1S\\ . Em-
press from 1534 till her
the throne death in 1547.
to him.
Hiao Khoh 3£ ijig. .Con-

cubine mother of Muh

,

Tsung. Died in 1554, and

was transferred from her
grave in the Kin-shan into
this mausoleum on her
son's accession.

9. Chao ling Muh Tsung Lung kh ng

i 1572 Hiao I
^ ^. Chief con-

mm third son of 1567—1572.

sort.
Muh
Died in 1558, before
Tsung's accession,

Shi Tsung.
was buried in the Kin-
shan and transferred into
,

this mausoleum in 1572,

when Shen Tsung had
mounted the throne.
Hiao Ngan -$& $r -Second
chief consort ; married Muh
Tsung in 1558,becarae Em-
press by his accession , and
was buried in the Chao
li ng on her death in 1596.

Hiao Ting ^£ ^j? Con- .

cubine, mother of Shen

Tsung. Was buried in the
Chao 1 i n g on her death
in 1614.

10. Ting ling Shen Tsung Wan lih 1620 Hiao Twan ^^ . Was
itm raised
Empress
to the dignity of
in 1578, and
third son of 1573—1620.
Muh Tsung.
buried in the Ting ling
on her death in 1620.
Hiao Tsing i& Jj| Con- .
 LIST OF THE THIRTEEN MING TOMBS. 1191

Names of the I
Temple Names [
Title and Dura- Imperial Consorts buried

Mausoleum, of the Emperors, tion of Reign. in the Mausolea.

cubine, mother of Kwang

Tsung. Was buried some-
where in the T'ien-sheu
Mountains on her death in
1612, and transferred into
the Ting ling in 1620,
on her son's accession.

11. K h i n g ling Kwang Tsung T'a i ch'ang 1621 Hiao Yuen ^ j£ . Chief

*
eldest son of
m% 16-20.
consort. Died in 1613,
was transferred into
and
this
mausoleum in 1621 by
Shen Tsung. Reigned only a
Hi Tsung.
month.
Hiao
cubine
Hwo
,
^ ^Q
mother of
. Con-
Hi
Tsung. Died in 1619, and
was buried in the K h n g i

ling by Hi Tsung, on his

accession.

Hiao Shun ^T $}jj

.
Con-
cubine, mother of Chwang
Lieh. On her death, in

1610, she was buried in

the Western Mountains,
and transferred into the
K h n g ling by her son
i
,

on his assuming the reins

of government.

12. Teh ling Hi Tsung T'ien khi 1628 I Ngan #.£ $r Was rais-
mm eldest son of 1621—1627.
ed to the dignity of
press in 1621. Strangled
Em-

Kwang Tsung. herself in 1644, at the

capture of Peking by the
insurgent leader Li Tsze-
ch'ing 5$* [=rj fifr; was
buried in the same year in
the Teh ling by the care
of the Manchu Sovereign,
on his expulsion of the in-
surgents from the capital.

13. Sze ling Chwang Lieh Chung ching 1644 Min Ric . Empress. At the

fifth
/i

son of
MM
1628—1644.
capture
mitted
of Peking
suicide, together
com-

Kwang Tsung. with the Emperor.

1192 THE GRAVE.

The reasons why the sovereigns of the Ming dynasty gave their

mausolea the above names, are unknown to us, the native books
consulted by us containing no information on this head. Hence we
do not venture at an attempt to render those names into English.
The only thing we can ascertain is that all of them have been borne ,

by sundry Imperial sepulchres of former dynasties. Perhaps we must

infer from this monarchs of the House of
fact that the Ming, in
fixing names tombs, were guided by the well-known spirit
for their

of imitation of ancestral acts, which has characterized the Chinese

race in every epoch and under every dynasty. The following is a
list of synonymous mausolea of older date, with the names sub-
joined of some Emperors who were buried therein. Other names of
sovereigns might be added ; but we think it is mere loss of time
to ransack the Standard Histories for more —
Ch ang
c
ling. Kao Tsu, the founder of the Han dynasty, f 195.
B. C. (cornp. page 423). Hiao Wen i
of the Wei dynasty,
t A. D. 499.
c
Hi en ling. Kao Tsu 2
, the founder of the T ang dynasty, f 626.
King ling. Siien Wu 3
of the Wei dynasty, f 515. Hien Tsung 4
c
of the T ang dynasty, f 820.
5
Yii ling. Hien Tsung Kin dynasty, f 1185.
of the
Meu ling. Wu of the Han dynasty, f 87 B.C. (comp. page 424).
c
T c ai ling. Hiien Tsung 6 of the T ang dynasty, f 761.
Khang ling. P ing 7 of the Han dynasty, f A. D. 6, and Shang 8
c

of the same House, f A. D. 106.

Yung ling. Shi Tsu 9 of the Kin dynasty, f 1090.
c
Chao ling. T ai Tsung ,0 the second Emperor of the T ang
c
,

dynasty, f 649.
Ting ling. Hiao Ming " of the Wei dynasty, f 528. Chung
Tsung' of the T ang dynasty, f 710.
2 c

Khing ling. Shi Tsung of the later Cheu dynasty, f 13

059.
Teh ling. Siien Tsung of the Kin dynasty, f 1223. 14

15
Sze ling. Hi Tsung of the Kin dynasty, f 1149.

1
#£• 2
i^fl- 3
m.$,
4
M^ 5
H^ 6 S tt:

« tit ^?. "B^- «js^

 I

PI. XL.

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Ph

CD

4->
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cd
G3
CD
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I—
+^>
cd
f-l
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CD
R
CD
Pi
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(73

ft

•'V" L' "V '

 THE UU1NQUEPARTITE DECORATIVE GATE. 1193
c
On leaving the northern gate of Ch ang-p c
ing city, an unpaved
road, extremely muddy in rainy weather, but covered with dust in
the dry season , takes us over a flat country, gently rising , the
monotonous, dreary aspect of which is broken by nothing whatever
that attracts attention. The inquisitive eye instinctively turns to
the north , continually expecting to descry the first stages of the
Imperial Cemetery; but the rising of the ground, though hardly
discernible, intercepts every prospect on that side. Our impatience
is not, however, put to a trial. In about half an hour the first

monument on the road leading to the Ch ang ling

c
fascinates
the eye. It is a large, five-span decorative gateway, standing out
stately against the blue sky, right in front of us, where the horizon
is bounded by a rise in the ground.
This gate (see PL XL) is entirely of solid natural stone. It

rests upon six square pillars, placed in a straight line and con-
nected at the tops by lintels or architraves resting on stone corbels
that jut out from the flanks of the pillars, five passages or portals
being thus formed of different height. The middlemost portal is the
highest ; those on the right and left of it are just so much lower as
the thickness of the lintel , and the two outmost portals again are
lower than the latter in the same proportion. Over each lintel is a

frieze , over which is placed a second lintel , bearing a roof. All those
lintels, as also the tops of the pillars, are uniformly sculptured with
lineal basso-relievo figures; the five friezes, being exclusively intended
for decoration , are graven with seven square figures in bold mezzo-
relievo,and give great prominence to the ornamentation of the
monument. Every pillar, every lintel, every frieze is a monolith.
Each portal is covered with a roof, the shape of which, including
the underlying bracket construction , answers to the description we
have given on pp. 1166 seq. of the roofs of mausoleum buildings
in general. But, on closer inspection, we see that each roof, apart
from a ridge of stone placed over the top , is one monolithic
mass of the same white, marble-like stone of which almost the
whole monument is composed. Elevation is given to each roof by
another frieze, likewise enriched with mezzo-relievo ornaments of
sculpture and framed in stone; and as these friezes are shorter than
the width of the spans over which they stand, room is left by

them for smaller roofs with bracket construction to crown the

pillars.

The square pedestals of the pillars are very attractive for the fine
bossy sculpture with which they are adorned. They are the only
1194 THE GRAVE.

parts of which are not of white, marble-like limestone;

the gate
they are of a deep-blue kind of stone, nicely polished, and very
hard and durable, the sculpture bearing no trace of decay or
of the operation They measure 15 decimetres
of the atmosphere.
in breadth on all sides. Those supporting the two outermost
,

pillars are sculptured on each of the four faces with two lion-like

animals, ramping and playing with a ball; the four other pedestals
display, on every face an Imperial Dragon soaring in the midst of
, ,

the usual emblems accompanying this divine distributor of fructi-

fying rains, namely clouds and stars. Each pedestal has a cornice
carved with figures that represent a lotus flower and bearing on either ,

facade of the monument a quadruped couchant on all fours which, ,

faces the central portal. Of these twelve animals, those resting on

the two innermost pedestals appear to represent unicorns the others ;

are lion-like beasts with collars around their necks, from which
hangs a globular instrument like a rattle-bell.
The two facades of the gate are exactly alike in shape and orna-
mentation , as is , in fact , the case with honorary gates in general
(see page 779). As there is no inscription on the monument, it

was not , we think , erected for the glorification of the Imperial

occupants of the mausolea ; indeed , we have demonstrated elsewhere
(pp. 786 — 788), that the
c

p ai-fang or p ai-leu often bear the

c

character of decorative monuments. There may, however, have

formerly been some laudatory inscription painted over the central
portal, on the highest frieze, this latter being perfectly smooth in
the middle '.

Though the architectural style of this quinquepartite gate is not

likely to suit our European taste, it never fails to make an impression
on the visitor because of its size and stateliness. Its entire length
is only a few inches under thirty-four metres, which conveys a suffi-

cient idea of the bulk and weight enormous blocks of which

of the
it is composed. Its solidity is above suspicion. Indeed, though
s
it was erected in 1540, during the reign of Shi Tsung , it is

perfectly intact; the blocks are not in the least worn out of joint,

1 Of a .similar gate, decorating the tomb of Confucius, we have given a picture

on page 788, which our readers may place side by side with Plate XL for comparison.
2 See the Yen-tu yiu Ian clii jj^fc ^K vfe ^B ^=t » Account of what I saw
on an Excursion to the Capital of Yen (Peking)", by Sun Kwoh-mi .JJ& jkk . This
1|||
work contains a short account of a visit paid to the Ming tombs before the dethro-
nement of the dynasty, which is reprinted in the Tub. li t'ung khao, ch. 93,
1. 12.
 ,

THE GREAT RED GATE. 1195

nor have they visibly suffered from atmospherical influences. That

the fine, white dolomite is not even browned by the weather,
suggests that it has been kept during many ages under a layer
of paint, some faint traces of which are still discernible in the
ornamental sculpture. The latter was probably decked out in gaudy
colours, this being (see page 787) still nowadays the case with

similar monuments at the entrance to some Imperial Altars and

government buildings in Peking.
The ground underneath the monument is carefully paved with

large rectangular slabs of white limestone, forming a broad plat-

form with a slanting ascent of blocks on both sides. The square
scalloped plinths of the pedestals of the pillars rise a few inches
above the level of the platform , and are the tops of foundation-
stones, sunk in the earth, no doubt, to a considerable depth.
Probably there has been a time when the platform was larger than
it is now, many slabs having, as people aver, been carried away
from mausolea under the now reigning dynasty for the con-
the
struction of sundry Imperial edifices in and about the Metropolis.
Beyond this monumental entrance to the outer avenue of the
mausolea, the plain slopes almost imperceptibly, so that the plat-
form commands a wide prospect to the north , allowing us to catch
c
a first glimpse of the T ien-sheu Mounts,
dimly portrayed against
the horizon. The
mausoleum-parks
several along the foot of this
chain may be kenned from here as sundry black spots upon a
yellowish background of barren treeless slopes. ,

c c
In his Description of the Mountains and Waters in Ch ang-p ing
Ku Yen-wu states that » to the north of the gate there was a triple
bridge of stone" 1
. No vestiges of this structure now remain, but
the gully still exists over which it was built. Having waded through
it, an unpaved path, either dusty or muddy according to the state
of the weather, takes us through a flat country, well cultivated
in summer, but offering a dreary, desert-like aspect during the
dry winter season. Hardly a single tree now breaks its monotony;
but when Sun Kwoh-mi visited it, there stood, says he, »two
» stately pines south of the bridge ; towards the north the eye
» descried the flowing brook , and several pines and cypresses
» planted in six rows on either side so that the visitor having , ,

» passed through the decorative gate walked in the shade of pine ,

» trees for more than three miles , until he reached the Red

Xtt;fl5liH£.Leaf3.
 ,,

1 196 THE GRAVE.

»Gate" 1
. This building forms the entrance proper to the Cemetery,
and is about one kilometre distant from the decorative gate. It is a
rectangular structure of massive masonry, thirty-seven metres long and
eleven metres broad ,
pierced by three arched , tunnel-like passages
and placed upon a platform of large rectangular blocks of limestone.
The span-roof is covered with yellow glazed tiles, just as the gates
and edifices within the Palace-grounds in Peking, and many Imperial
buildings inside and outside this city. Stone sockets or hinges,
inserted in the masonry, indicate that each passage used to be
closed inside, not far from the back outlet, by means of folding-
doors, of which now no trace is left. The central passage moreis

spacious than those on the right and left, being five metres and
three tenths in width.
In a short summary given in the History of the Ming Dynasty
2
of the several parts of this Imperial Cemetery , this gate is called
Hung men 3
: »The Red Gate". By this name it is also denoted,
both officially and popularly, at the present moment. It is , in fact
covered on every side with a coating of red plaster, and red
is the colour predominating in the bracket construction that sup-
ports the eaves 4
. Ou either flank , a low wall covered with yel-
low tiles is connected with this gate. These walls are now only
a few metres in length; but they may once have extended much
farther , or , maybe , they had a prolongation in the shape of palis-
ades, the closable Red Gate evidencing that the Cemetery was in-
accessible on this side. It may even be supposed that such fences

extended as far as the hillocks that flank the defile in the midst of
which the Red Gate stands; but no vestiges testifying to the cor-
rectness of this suggestion were discernible to the view.
As the Red Gate marked the boundary of the sacred grounds,
deference for the Imperial manes obliged all servants of the Crown
to dismount before entering it. To remind them of this duty, two
stone tablets stood in fiont of it, a few paces off, with this

inscription: » Public functionaries and other persons, dismount

i
mm r. m® , it m m &*& *§ £ £ n & * n,
'2 Chapter 60, 11. 6 seq.
3
£tP1-
4 We have considered it unnecessary to insert an illustration of the Red Gate, as
Plate XLVI. facing page 1217, represents a gate of nearly the same shape, standing
within the mausoleum of Ch'ing Tsu.
 . ,

TABLETS DISPLAYING AN ORDER TO DISMOUNT. 1197

here" 1
. These tablets are still in a perfect condition, but the
present dynasty has, perhaps, them from time
restored to time.
It is a general custom for the Government to place such inscrip-
tions at temples and altars dedicated to the worship of State
divinities , a custom apparently based upon an ancient maxim , laid
down in the Li Jci (ch. 13, 1. 40) in these words: »Tsze-lu (a
» disciple of Confucius) said: 'I have heard that, in passing by a
» grave, a man should make bows, and in passing by a place
» of sacrifice, he should dismount" 2 During the Ming dynasty it .

was strictly forbidden to pass by or through the Red Gate with-

out obeying the command expressed on the tablets, for »in the
» twenty-sixth year of the period Hung wu (A. D. 1393) it
» was ordained that those passing by the mausolea in carts or on
,

» horseback as also the officers and subjects charged with the care
,

» of the mausolea who might intend to enter the same, must alight
» before within a hundred pu, and that transgressors of this ordi-
3
» nance should The Ts'ing
be sentenced for great irreverence" .

dynasty has, with respect to its own Imperial tombs, the same law
in its Code in precisely the same wording, with the addition that
the punishment shall be one hundred blows with the long stick '.
The scanning eye scarcely discerns any human dwellings in these
dreary, sparsely populated plains. A few mean huts on the right
and left of the road north of the Red Gate form the only
hamlet visible, as far as the eye can reach. Perhaps its inhabitants
are the descendants of the families which were once appointed by
Imperial command to live on the spot as gate-keepers and mauso-
leum-warders, and who have ever since earned their livelihood by
tilling such parts of the adjacent land , outside or inside the gate
as were singled out for their support.
From the above-mentioned summary which the History of the
Ming Dynasty gives of the structures contained in the Cemetery, we

* ^ $& h ,^ m z ik ,® m m ^ >® m m t secti -

toj 3 j[ 2.

A m # W # *h ~F -i ,m % , \>X iK % $& m 2" »* *"*

tien, cli. 83, 1. 8. See also the History of tlie Ming Dynasty, ch. 60, 1. 3, and the
Suh urn Ida tioig khao, ch. 133, 1. 19.

4 Ta Ts'ing luh li, ch. 23, §

^ [gj f^ j$ ^
77
 ,

H9S THE GRAVE.

learn that, » there was within the Red

on behalf of its visitors

» Gate a shi-chih tien or 'Hall temporarily entered', which was

» a place for their carts and horses at the same time serving ,

» as a convenience for changing dress"

1
»On reaching the Red .

»Gate", says Sun Kwoh-mi, »the visitor alights, and on entering

» it on foot he has on his left a building for brushing away
,

» the dust (from the clothes of the visitors) ; it stands within

» an immured enclosure, and consists of a two-storied main hall

» and several apartments containing over sixty pillars. It is here

» that the Emperors who visit the mausolea change their dress.

»Hwui trees are planted on both sides. There are also two halls

» with a back chamber , surrounded by a set of chambers con-

» taining more than five hundred compartments between the pil-
»lars" Of none of these edifices does now a trace remain; and
:!
.

we surmise that they were effaced already at the commencement

of the reign of the present dynasty, as Ku Yen-wu does not
mention them.
The unpaved avenue now takes us for about half a kilometre
over level ground, in the same straight direction, to a colossal
tablet-house with a double, yellow-tiled root, resting on a wooden
bracket frieze and jutting out considerably beyond the walls
(see PI. 1890, on our last excursion to the Cemetery,
XLI). In
it had suffered much from wind and weather, and the timber was

in an advanced state of decay many rows of tiles were dislocated

;

and most of the ornamental figures rising above the gable corners
and the upper stone ridge had tumbled down. The building is
square, and measures twenty-six metres on each side; its four
facades are exactly similar. It stands on a low platform of white
limestone, and has a massive basement of red-veined marble or dolo-
mite, which, wherever visible, that is to say, on the four facades
and in the tunnel-like passages which run crosswise through the
building, shows, like the pedestal of a column, a plinth-like base,
a die and a cornice. The walls are of large-sized bricks and covered
with red plaster, which has, however, in many places scaled off

* ^ b# w m s% * n m & z #f
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'
l 7 -

m *r pi t -i # a pi ft ± % m m m m m
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 PI. XLI.

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1200 THE GRAVE.

» the stone images of men , horses etc. at the east and west of
» the Imperial avenue. In the tenth month, on the day ki-yiu,
c
» was erected also the tablet at the C h a n g ling for the comme-
» moration of the divine feats and sage virtues of the occupant.
» At that time twenty-three years had elapsed since the Empress
c
» Jen Hiao was buried and eleven since the interment of T ai
,

» Tsung the Emperor Wen but it was erected so late because no

, ;

» ruthless use was made of the labour of the people" Without '.

placing any trust in this pathetic vaunt of the generosity of those

despots in respect to the statute labour imposed upon their people,
we learn from this passage, that even their unlimited command
of the bodies and lives of everybody under the sky could not
save them from a dearth of manual labour in that sparsely popu-
lated region.
Under the heading: » Thirty elegiac rhymes touching the Ming
3
tombs " , the reverse of the tablet displays a series of poems
which, according to an inscription placed at the end, are of
recent date, viz., the fiftieth year of the Khien lung period
(1785). Several of the mausolea, if not all, are therein alluded to.
We are inclined to believe these verses to be by Kao Tsung's
own hand, whose long and brilliant reign embraced that epoch;
indeed, like two predecessors, Shing Tsu and Shi Tsung, he
his
was a man of high attainments in the poetic art, and produced
large collections of verses and rhymes highly esteemed by the
c
literati. The presence of those poems on Ch ing Tsu's grave-tablet

is especially worthy of notice, as it strongly characterizes the spirit

of reverence entertained by the Emperors of the present reigning

dynasty for the manes of the family dethroned by them.
The Ming dynasty is not the first to offer an instance of grave-
tablets commemorative of »the divine feats and sage virtues" of an
emperor. We read in the History of the Liao Dynasty, that a
certain statesman and scholar Li Hwan 3
lost the favour of his

Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui hi, leaf 4.

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 THE COLUMNS AROUND THE TABLET-HOUSE. 1201

sovereign and was relegated by him to a monastery and after ;

he had endured there hardship and misery for six years » it hap- ,

» pened that the Emperor wished to raise a tablet in commemora-

» tion of the feats and virtues of T ai Tsung (937 946) and one
c
— ,

» Kao Hiun memorialized the Throne stating that none but Li ,

» Hwan was competent to hold the writing-brush for such a pur-

» pose. The Emperor decreed that this proposal should be executed " '.
It is also recorded in the History of the Kin Dynasty that Han
Fang 2
, a learned statesman of high repute, in the twelfth century
» composed the tablet commemorating the sage virtues and divine
c
» feats of T ai
Tsu, and that this product of his hand was highly
» commended at the time" 3 . These two instances almost warrant
the assumption that such peculiar tablets also ornamented the
mausolea of other Imperial families, and the more so, as it is a fact
sufficiently evidenced in the second section of the present chapter,
that commemorative tablets have ranked in China among the
most important sepulchral monuments ever since the beginning of
our era.

As Ch'ing Tsu's sepulchral tablet bears an account of his feats

and virtues, and thus embodies his Imperial life and career, it
is no wonder that its erecters should have respectfully surrounded
it with the emblems of the Imperial dignity, that is to say, with
images of the god of clouds and rains, who, by fructifying fields

and grounds, blesses mankind with food and raiment in profusion.

There stand , indeed , four insulated lofty columns in the prolonga-
tion of the diagonals of the tablet-house , at equal distances from its

corners (see PI. XL1I), and the shaft of each is sculptured with a
gigantic dragon, coiling itself around it as if climbing the skies.
These monuments, similar in shape and dimensions, are octangular
monoliths of white marble. During the Ming dynasty they were
c
officially known as king-t ien chu 4
,
»columns bearing the sky";
indeed, their height being considerable, they appear to be holding
the dome of heaven over the Imperial tablet-house. Contemplating
one of those columns more attentively, we find that it has a

flf fpF ^ =g . gg ^£ . Chapter 103, 1. 0.

1202 THE GRAVE.

broad octangular pedestal , composed of

and base a die a plinth ,

and a cornice. The upper border of the plinth and the lower
border of the cornice being worked all around into a row of
leaves, the pedestal is evidently moulded upon the lotus-throne
of the Buddhas, indicating Buddhist influence in architecture. Its
eight facades are sculptured with small dragons soaring in the
midst of clouds , and clouds are also carved on the shaft , wherever
it is not covered by the dragon. The column is crowned by a
capital which consists of two horizontal stone disks , of a diameter
larger than that of the shaft ; and upon this capital is superposed
a dragon-like animal, squatting on its hindUnder the capital
legs.

we behold two flat pieces of stone, perforated, and enriched with

carved figures of straight and curved lines ; they stand out to the
right and left like a pair of wings, the broadest of which points

towards the tablet-house. They represent, we think, the imaginary

clouds produced by the dragon on the shaft,
The marble decorative gate, the Red Gate and the tablet-house
exactly face the same southern direction , and the central openings
in all these structures are placed precisely in the same straight line
along which is traced the avenue across which they stand. The open-
ings in the tablet-house not being destined to serve for passages,
the avenue forks out in front of it and , running along the two flank
facades, re-unites at the back of the edifice, to form there what the
History of the Ming Dynasty designates by the name of T s u n g
shen-tao 1
,
»the Spirit's Road for the Mausolea in Common". As
we have on page 1157, the author Sii Shi-tseng states that
seen
the term » Spirit's Road" was already in use in the fourth century
of our era; but it is to be traced to a much older time. We read,
namely, in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty that, when the
c 2
nobleman Ki Sin-ch ing »was found guilty of an offence in the
» fifth year of the period Yuen sheu (118 B. C), the Minister
»Tsung, Grand Master of Sacrifices, adjudged his Spirit's Road to

» be forfeited, and degraded him rank of an inferior official" 3

to the .

And of the famous Minister Hwoh Kwang, of whom our readers have
heard before (pp. 409 seq) it is recorded in the same work that
, ,

his consort » erected a gate with three exits (on his grave), and there

Chapter 16, 1. 57.

 ,

THE ROAD OF THE MANES. 1203

made a Spirit's Road " '. Another term denoting such avenues is

s hen which has exactly the same meaning.

lu 2
,

The Road of the Spirit is one of the most interesting features

of the Ming Cemetery. At the tablet-house the inquisitive visitor
perceives in the distance two long parallel rows of figures of animals
and men the hindmost of which are so far off that their forms
,

are hardly discernible by the naked eye; a little further on a dead

wall with three openings (see PI. XL1II) closes this curious alley.
First we pass, at three hundred and fifty paces from the tablet-
house, between two hexagonal columns of white stone, which flank
the road they are perfectly similar in shape and size and each is raised
; ,

on a sexangular pedestal adorned with a cornice. The monolithic

shafts taper slightly upwards, and are crowned with a summit,
the profile of which is represented by the annexed figure. These
summits are, we think, intended to represent a
flame; for, as our readers know (see page 1088), the
object of these grave-columns is probably no other
than to light the disembodied soul along its path
and to intensify its vitality. The History of the
calls them wang chu
4
Ming Dynasty 3
, » columns
to look at". They stand in the same lines as the

animals, so that they may be said to form the southern terminus

of the avenue of images.

Avenues
^E H ft II H to tombs
,

are
)ll$ ^-
sometimes denoted
Chapter 68,
in
1.

the
14.

books by the characters

Ifp or 4X- ts'ien. In the beginning of our era, the)' merely signified, as the Shwoh
wen teaches us, »a road lying from south to north" K& |5J Jf' "JS IfF-; and
that many authors use it in the first-named sense, seems to be owing to an
episode recounted in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty in the following words:
» When Ts'ao, the Governor of the Metropolis in the reign of the Emperor Wu
—
»(140 87 B. C), was buried near the Meu mausoleum, the people called the
»road leading towards it: the Ts'ien of the Metropolis. Yuen Sheh, coveting a
» similar honour (for his father), purchased a plot of ground (near the grave of

» the latter), constructed a road in it and erected a sign-board on the spot inscribed
, ,

»with the words: 'Ts'ien of Nan-yang' (i. e. the country of which his father had
»been Governor). But the people would not give way, and simply called that road
.the Ts'ien of Sir Yuen":
*J] $, ft 1% RhF ~1l R B ft \% ,

± m m b m m ff a ^ # #
92, 1. 14.
, . , 11 z m & ff ^ c, tei

2 jjj$ g§. 3 Chapter 60, 1. 6. 4 g| ^ .

1204 THE GRAVE.

A description of this avenue, illustrated by Plates XIII, XX

and XXI, has been given in the Second Volume of this work
(pp. 818 —
820). Plate XIII, facing page 452, affords a general
survey of its as viewed from the crouching unicorns.
southern part ,

At avenue diverges from the straight line in which

this point the

the decorative marble gate the Red Gate and the tablet-house ,

lie, and it trends slightly eastward, probably on account of

the principle that straight lines may exercise a nefarious influence
upon the abodes of thedead (comp. page 977). The total length
of the avenue , measured from the tablet-house to the above-
mentioned wall with three openings that bounds it on the north,
exceeds eleven hundred metres. According to Ku Yen-wu , the
erection of the stone images was begun in 1435 (see page 1200).
The same author says: »The Road of the Spirit remained un-
» paved , until Shi Tsung , on visiting the mausolea in the fifteenth
»year of the period Kia tsing (A. D. 1536), gave orders for it
» to be done Now the pavement has partly fallen into decay" 2
'.
.

This being written more than two hundred years ago, we cannot
feel surprised at seeing that , at present , not a single stone of the
pavement is and nothing but some stray debris
in its original place
give evidence of its former existence. The prescriptive rules on the
subject of the Imperial tombs, as we have found them in a copy
of a curious edition of the Ta Ming hwui tien preserved in the
library at the British Museum, state that the human images at the
northern end of the Road of the Spirit represent »two pairs of

» generals , with a sword at their girdle , holding a bludgeon in

» their hand and wearing a helmet and a coat-of-mail two pairs
, ;

» of civil officers attired with gown and cap as prescribed for Im-

» perial audiences and two pairs of military officers similarly

;

» dressed " 3
.

1 This Emperor paid the mausolea no less than three visits in the course of
that year. No doubt they chiefly affected his own sepulchre, for the construction
of which he had given orders in the fourth month of the very same year: see the
History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 17, 1. 11. It was laid out on a very grand scale,
and our readers will see on page 1232 that it was second only to that of
Ch'ing Tsu in size and beauty.

t Se *§&• Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui hi, 4.

1
1.
•TH

$J ^ M M W< — if- Cha P tei 203 '

-
 i

PI. XLIII.

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 THE DRAGON-AND-PHENIX GATE. 1205

At about ninety paces from the last pair of images, the Road
of the Spirit abuts on a dead wall with three openings, depicted in
Plate XLIII. It is of very large bricks and covered with red plaster
which has scaled off for a great deal , and was originally roofed with
yellow tiles, as some bits, scattered over the ground on both sides,
unmistakably indicate. The basement, considerably thicker than the
wall itself, is covered on the top, both on the front and the back of
the wall, with smoothed slabs of white stone. The three openings
are exactly alike in shape and dimensions, and constructed as follows.
Two square pillars of white stone are fixed in the wall like a couple
of door-posts, and rise above it considerably. They are connected by
a square cross-beam of stone, the extremities of which are firmly
fitted into square holes ,
pierced through the pillars a little way from
the top. On this cross-beam stands, just in the middle, a lotus-
shaped socle, supporting an oval piece of stone pointed at the top
and carved all over with florid ornaments apparently representing
a peach, the symbol of longevity (see page 56). As hinges, still

extant, show, the passages used originally to be closed by folding-

doors. Hence there is in each of them a door-case of stone
with a sill of the same material; the lintel of this door-case
bears an architrave, the space between which and the aforemen-
tioned cross-beam is filled up by a frieze, carved with linear
figures. All the parts thus passed in review are solid pieces of lime-
stone. The same as the four columns that flank the tablet-house,
the six gate-posts all bear , close to the top , a pair of stone clouds
pointing to the right and left like wings ; moreover , the top of each
post is covered with a square block of stone, sculptured with clouds,
and crowned with a dragon cowering on a socle which exactly
resembles those bearing the stone peaches ; each pair of these monsters
face the passage over which they are placed. Finally, each pillar is
strengthened at the base, on both sides, by a square stone counter-
fort , resembling the pedestal of a column , as it is composed of a
plinth or base, a die and a cornice. It bears an upright slab of
white stone, which has the shape of a right-angled triangle; the
vertical side of this slab is let into the pillar, and the hypotenuse is

cut out with undulations, some of which form parts of volutions

graven in the two flat sides of this stone.
This curious triple gate is called Ling-sing men 1
, »Linteled
Star Gate", probably because the passages, not being roofed,
 g

1206 THE GRAVE.

stand open to the starred sky. The History of the Ming Dynasty
does not mention it in its enumeration of the structures in the
avenue; but from Ku Yen-wu we learn that it positively existed
in his time, and that »it was then popularly styled Lung-fun
men: Dragon-and-Phenix Gate" 1
. Specimens in the same style
and shape, either single or triple, are a common feature of almost
all the Altar-grounds of Peking connected with the Religion of the
State, as those for the worship of Heaven, Earth, the Sun, the
Moon, the Gods of Land and Grain, etc. They generally stand
to the four points of the compass , being parts of the single or double
enclosures immediately surrounding the Altar.
Before the dethronement of the House of Ming, the Road of the
Spirit cannot have failed to make a deep impression on the mind
of visitors, it being then flanked by stately evergreens, quite a forest
of which covered also the circumjacent grounds to their farthest limits.
The tablet-house with the four columns probably stood in a vast , open
square or yard in the midst of that park , offering a comfortable halting-
place to the Sons of Heaven and the Magnates of the Empire when
visiting the tombs; indeed, Ku Yen-wu wrote! » There has been a
2
travelling-mansion on the east side, but it has now disappeared" .

At present, of that vast forest not a trace remains, and during the
cold season there hardly anything for the eye to rest on in any
is

direction , and sky, and a chain of barren hills in the distance.

save land
It is then but one dreary extensive plain in which not a blade of living ,

grass is to be seen. But in summer it is covered with an immense

expanse of food plants , such as wheat , barley and tall millet , as also
sorghum growing and rider is lost to sight in
so high that a horse
the midst of it, work every year quite up to
the plough doing its

the heels of the stone animals and men.

The destruction of those forests was effected already at an early
date ; indeed , Ku Yen-wu wrote in the beginning of the reign of
the present dynasty » Several hundred thousands of azure pines and
:

» green cypresses , that studded the inner grounds beyond the great
» Red Gate in numbers which even imagination cannot grasp have ,

» now disappeared, being felled to the last"

3
. So they shared the

1 ^ ig ^| M p^ . Ch'anrj-p'ing shan-shui ki, 1. 3.

2
% M M ff & 4 1: ,
-°p- et loc - cit

A.
Gh'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, 4.
im \jL HS ^C ' 1.
 ,,

MEASURES FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE GRAVE TREES. 1207

fate of the sepulchral trees of former Imperial families, about which the
statesman Teng Jun-fu '
stated in the eleventh century, in a memorial
addressed to the Throne: »Our ministers, utilitarians as they are, have
» proposed that the people ought to be granted their wish to hunt in
» the mausolea of the Emperors and Princes of the former dynasties
» and to employ those grounds for agricultural pursuits; and our
» Minister of Agriculture has attached his approval thereto. As a con-
» sequence the mausolea of the Tang dynasty are now totally stripped
,

» of vegetation and the stately trees in the mausoleum of Chao of

,

» the family of Liu e. Kao Tsu of the short-lived Han dynasty,

(«'.

» who died in 947) have been felled to the last" 2 .

The avidity with which the people seized upon the trees of the
Ming tombs for timber and fuel —
two articles ever precious in those
woodless regions —
as soon as the downfall of the House of Ming gave
them a chance to do so unpunished, accounts for the rigid measures
which this dynasty took for their protection during its rule. »In the
c
» second year of the period Ching t ung (1437) the Court of
» Censors was informed by the Throne , that those who might presume
» to cut or fell trees in the mausolea grounds of the T ien-sheu
c

» Mountains and in those of the ancestors of the reigning House

» should be subjected to heavy punishments , and their families
» should be relegated to a distant region for perpetual banishment.
•» Placards should be forthwith issued to forbid such crimes ; the
» officers of the Guards with Embroidered Uniforms should make

» tours of inspection over the grounds and officers of the Board of ;

» Works in concert with those of the Board of Astronomy, should

,

» set out land-marks all around only outside which the people ,

» might collect fuel" 3 Among the penal laws of the Ming dynasty
.

1
mmis-
mnm»sz,mzmmmtikm}L%, &mmm
?JC fft <\% M j§. History of the Sung Dynasty, ch. 343, 1. 7.

% §£ ^ it UJ
ch. 83, 1. 9.
JJL ^ ^
, #f» It 3C
See also the History of the Ming Dynast3%
^ ft •
Ta
ch.
M™9
60, 1.
hwui Hen,
3, and the
Suh wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 133, 1. 20.
1208 THE GRAVE.

we find an article, running as follows: » Those who steal trees that

» grow in the Imperial mausolea shall altogether be punished with

,

» one hundred blows with the long stick and banishment for three
» years. And if trees are stolen that grow in a sepulchral ground
» belonging to others , the perpetrators shall receive eighty blows with
» the long stick. Should the theft of things of the same value as the
» stolen trees have to be punished more severely (according to law),
» the punishment that is prescribed for the theft of such an amount
» of spoil shall be inflicted, with an increase of one degree" 1 That .

this article is still in force at the present day for the mausolea of
c
the Ts ing dynasty, that House having adopted it verbatim in her Code
of Laws, our readers may see on page 902.
The Road of the Spirit runs between the two clusters of bluffs
which, as we have stated on page 1196, flank the tract of flat ground
that forms a broad natural entrance into the valley in the back ground
of which the mausolea are built. Thus, this entrance was properly
guarded by stone men and animals, and barred on the southern
extremity by the Red Gate, and on the north by the Linteled Star
Gate. Beyond this latter, the treeless plains, gently sloping up,
afford an unobstructed view on the row of mausolea scattered along
the foot of the mountain-chain, and the yellow glittering roofs of

the walls and edifices are now perfectly discernible amidst dark
green trees. Not all the thirteen grave parks are visible, a few
being hidden from view by others.
A march of more than half an hour is still to be made before
c
we reach the Ch ang ling, the mausoleum, and the most
oldest
gorgeous of all. The path , strewn there and then with the debris
of a pavement of large stone slabs, leads us over the stray remains
of marble bridges, through three brooks coming from the west
and north which converge further on to form a tributary of a
, ,

2
rivulet called Sha-ho or Sand River, which discharges itself into
the Pei-ho in close proximity to T'ung-cheu
3
, a walled borough at
half a day's travelling distance eastward from Peking. Those bridges
have been totally destroyed, evidently by rain floods. The ruins
show that the piers and arches were of large rectangular blocks of

1
ii&anfttM^^-tkt-w&H^, ^^
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 m ,,

BRIDGES AND HALTING-PLACES. 1209

white stone, and that the superstructure was flanked by finely wrought
balustrades of the same material. Ku Yen-wu says: »One mile and
» a half north of the Linteled Star Gate there is a slope westward ,

» from which a little towards the south stood the old travelling-
, ,
'

» mansion', of which the enclosure of earth still remains. A mile

1
» to the north of that slope there , and is a five-span stone bridge
» two hundred paces onward we have the principal stone bridge,
» which has seven spans. Somewhat more than one mile distant
» therefrom , to the north-east , stood the '
new travelling-mansion',
» which had a hall for emotional reflections
'
but this edifice '
;

» has now disappeared and the sheds for the Board of Works
,

» as well as the head office for the Inspectorates of the mausolea

» which stood south-east of the mansion have shared the same ,

» fate. Beyond the chief stone bridge, two miles due north there-
» from there is another fivefold bridge; and proceeding two
,

» miles further we arrive at the gate which gives access to the

,

» temple of the Ch c ang ling 2 On the right (or west) side of .

» this gate stood a hall where the ceremonial dresses were made
» ready, being a building with five divisions, facing the east and
» surrounded by a wall. South of this wall stood five marble troughs
» of an oblong square shape, called 'sparrow troughs', because
3
» water was put into them to drench the sparrows" .

If we have succeeded in giving the reader a right idea of the

mausolea laid out under the present reigning dynasty for Princes
of the nearest Imperial kin (pp. 1165 sqq.), he will not find it

1 This expression does not mean that the bridge was built over six pillars placed
in a single row, but that it consisted of five arches, placed abreast. Each of these
arches was probably flanked by balustrades, this being generally the case with bridges
of the kind still extant nowadays.

-2-4?% X — MMJIfmixH- Ch'ang p'ing shan-shui ki, leaf 4.

3
m n £ m *r & u& « ^ ra « . jr a . *r m a.
t& The same work, 1. 12.
 : .

1210 THE GRAVE.

difficult to acquire also an adequate idea of that magnificent Ch'ang

ling. Indeed, it is almost identical with these mausolea in plan,
consisting of a rectangular space, walled in on the four sides and

Fig. 40.

Stone r=rjA&£Lr

T<ipk*&>usc
m
i] _

I
6a& Tc'rrjte \

75 50 75 iOO 115 JSO 17s 200 225 sso Meiers

Sketch Plan of the Mausoleum of Ch'ing Tsu of the Ming Dynasty.

divided by a transversal wall into two courts, the foremost of which

containsa temple in a detached situation. The other court abuts
on a round wall, encircling a much larger plot which contains the
tumulus (comp. Fig. 40).
 THE MAIN GATE, AND THE TEMPLE GATE. 1211

The approach to the mausoleum ,

paved for a considerable distance

with slabs of stone, leads the visitor straight on to a triple main

gate, built exactly in the middle of the roofed wall which forms
the front of the enclosed area. This gate has a single span-roof,
covered with yellow tiles, bearing on the top a ridge of white lime-
stone and closely resembling the roof that covers the walls over their
entire length, but exceeding it considerably in breadth and height.
The three gateways are closed by wooden folding-doors. A square
platform, very long and broad, extends in front of the gate; this
platform is built up of rectangular slabs , and ascended at the front-
side by a broad incline of the same material. On the right and
left, several dozen majestic cypress trees vividly call to mind the
antiquity of the mausoleum , many of them unmistakably being
remnants of the forests which once covered the whole Cemetery.
Some mean huts of clay here form a hamlet, inhabited by the
families which, as is expressed in the Imperial edict translated else-
where in this volume (p. 932), »are charged with strictly keeping
the place in good condition, with offering sacrifices there, and pre-
venting people from gathering fuel and timber, and to whom fields

are assigned for their sustenance". The brickwork of the gate and
that of all the walls immuring the two courts is pargeted on both
the outer and the inner facade with red plaster, and it rests

everywhere on a high base of rectangular blocks of limestone.

The breadth of the courts is a little over one hundred and
thirty metres. The main gate opens upon a yard more than
forty metres deep bounded on the opposite side by another
,

triple gate of stately appearance. This is the Ling-ngen men 1

»Gate and Favours", thus styled because the bles-

of Blessings
sings and favours, sent forth from the temple behind this gate
by the manes of the occupants of the mausoleum were expected ,

to find their way through it straight unto their heirs to the throne.
A wooden tablet affixed under the eaves, over the middlemost
passage, is inscribed with the three characters which represent that
name. The sculptured frame of this tablet juts out considerably on
either side and over the top and represents a dragon, intimating
that it is from an Emperor the blessings and favours emanate which
the inscription alludes to. The Ling-yen men has a single roof,
covered with tiles of the Imperial yellow colour. It is placed upon
a rectangular platform of white stone with three flights of steps

1
MH PI •
 ,

1212 THE GRAVE.

foi ascent, lying abreast of each other and also of marble-like stone.

The middlemost flight is the broadest; it has steps on both sides,

separated by an inclined plane, which is a large monolith of marble
sculptured with several Imperial dragons in the midst of clouds.
This curious ornamentation, by PI. XLIV, intimates,
illustrated
we think that only the Sons of Heaven are entitled to use this
,

flight. The two other flights are evidently for the grandees fol-

lowing in the retinue of their Imperial master. The three flights

have all finely wrought marble balustrades of the same form
and style as those which are found at most Imperial buildings
and Altars erected under the Ming dynasty and the present
reigning House; Plate XLIV may convey an adequate idea of
their shape and beauty. Similar balustrades extend around the
whole platform on which the gate is built, and also along the
three stone ascents that are placed , in a corresponding position
on the side that faces the temple and which have the same shape
as those in front.
But, before descending by these steps into the open space which
separates the gate from the temple, let us cast a backward glance
into the court we have just crossed. On both sides it is planted
with evergreens and other trees, among which we observe a few of
considerable size. Our attention is attracted to the east side by a beau-
tiful tablet-house , covered with a double yellow-tiled roof. It contains

an upright marble tablet, reposing on the back of a marble tor-

toise and bearing, both in the Chinese and the Manchu character,
an of the first Emperor of the present dynasty, relating to
edict
repairs to be made in the mausoleum and to some repressive ,

measures to take against any injury to the trees. Though this

edict is dated the sixteenth year of the period Shun chi (1659),
yet the tablet-house may already have existed under the Ming
dynasty, as Ku Yen-wu » Within the (main)
makes mention of it.

»gate", says he, » stands a 'kitchen for the manes' on the east,
» and a 'store-house for the manes' on the west; both buildings con-
» sist of five compartments. In front of the kitchen stands a tablet-
» house, facing the south, inside which is a stone tablet, the
» crowning border of which is carved with a dragon and which has
»a pedestal in the shape of a tortoise, but bears no inscription" '.

1
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shan-shui hi, leaf
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 PI. XLIV.

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1214 THE GRAVE.

»Ch ang c
ling and all the Imperial mausolea built after it, as
» also a garrison, and an Office for Sacrificial Services" '.

Passing through the Gate of Blessing and Favours, we im-

mediately behold, straight in front, the whole frontispiece of an
enormous rectangular temple , the most imposing feature of the
whole Cemetery. It is built on a rectangular terraced platform
of white stone,of three stages which diminish in di-
consisting
mensions by two
and a half on each side. Each stage
metres
or terrace exactly resembles the platform of the Gate of Blessing
and Favours being protected by balustrades of the same shape
,

and ascended, both in front and at the back of the edifice, by

three flights of steps placed abreast, the middlemost of which
has an inclined plane of stone , sculptured with dragons in its ,

centre. There are five steps in the flights of the two highest
terraces, and eight in those of the lowest. To carry off the rain-
water, which flows freely from the eaves of the temple, stone
gargoyles representing monstrous heads of animals are contrived
all around each stage , one gargoyle j utting out at the foot of each
baluster.
The temple covers the whole upper surface of this platform
save a narrow passage between its walls and the balustrades , and
a broad space before almost the whole frontispiece, the platform
having there a rectangular projecture of about a dozen metres,
which brings forward the triple tiers of steps, and much en-
hances the stateliness of the whole structure. The picture in Plate
XXII, which we have placed as frontispiece at the head of this

Volume, will scarcely convey an adequate idea of the grandeur of

and largest specimen of Chinese architecture the elaborately
this finest ,

wrought balustrades of beautiful marble being too small in the picture

to produce an effect, and the red colour of the walls and the

bright yellow of the roofs being lost.

The length of the temple exceeds that of the transept of West-

minster Abbey, being over sixty-eight metres. It is somewhat more
than thirty and consequently has about half the
metres deep,
length and breadthcathedral. The double yellow-
of Cologne
tiled roof is carried out several feet from the walls, and is crowned

with a marble ridge bearing a voluted ornament at each end

1
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S W]
hwui
^j? ^k - History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 60, 1. 4; see also the Ta Ming
tien, ch. 83, 1. 3.
PL XLV.

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THE TEMPLE OF CH ING TSU's MAUSOLEUM. 1215

it is of the same shape as the roof of the great tablet-house at

the avenue of animals, and the eaves rest upon a similar timber
construction ,
placed on architraves. The three entrances in the fronti-
spiece of the temple correspond with the three nights of steps
and each can be closed with a wooden folding-door; over the
principal entrance, which is exactly in the middle of the frontispiece,
a wooden tablet is affixed under the eaves of the upper roof,
bearing the inscription Ling-ngen tien 1
,
» Temple of Blessing
and Favours". Like the tablet suspended over the Ling-ngen
men, it has a frame representing a dragon. Let it be noted in
passing, that this name of the temple and of the gate dates from
1538, it being recorded that »in the seventeenth year of the period
»Kia tsing the appellation Mausoleum Temple was changed for

» that of Ling-ngen tien, and the gate was styled Ling-ngen

»men" 2
. The frontispiece for the rest consists of a series of wooden
lattice-windows, ungiazed, but pasted over the inside with white
paper, so that, when the doors are closed, only a very dim light
can penetrate into the edifice.

As is the case with the main gate, the Gate of Blessing and
Favours, and the walls surrounding the courts, red is the conspi-
cuous colour of the temple. Its side walls and the back one are of
red-plastered brickwork , and have a strong basement of white stone
of considerable height, On entering the edifice, we behold twenty-
four bulky round shape, supporting the upper
wooden pillars of a

roof (see PL XLV) all cut out of one trunk, and averaging three
,

metres and seventeen centimetres in girth. They are placed in

three straight rows parallel with the long sides of the temple.
At either end of each row another wooden pillar of smaller dia-

meter is inserted in the side wall like a pilaster and serves as a

support for the lowermost roof. A fourth row of ten round pillars

supporting this roof forms, so to say, the framework in which

the cases of the doors and windows of the frontispiece are fixed
and they are visible on the outside of the latter. Consequently we
count inside the hall forty pillars in all.

The construction of the timber frame of the roof we cannot

describe, it being entirely hidden from view by a wooden ceiling
of small square panels, each painted with a circular figure in

1 jT|& jij gg _

History of the Ming Dynasty, cli. 00, 1. 5.

 L216 THE GRAVE.

variegated colours. This ceiling rests upon tie-beams running cross-

wise over the pillars and fixed in notches cut in the tops of the
latter. In the middle of the back wall of the temple is a plain
square exit, screened from view inside the hall by an extra brick
wall plastered red, raised upon a base of white stone, and crowned
with an ornamented cornice of timber reaching as high as the
ceiling. This wall was perhaps intended to prevent nefarious in-

fluences, coming from the north, from entering the temple. It

extends tolerably far on both sides, thus forming along the back
wall , with which it runs parallel , a narrow passage ; open at
both ends. The floor of the hall is paved with large square slabs
of white stone. The pillars rest on big groundstones, the tops of
which , chiseled out in the shape of circular plinths ,
just peep out
from the floor, the wood being thus perfectly preserved from the
damp of the soil.

The Imperial manes are represented in the temple by a wooden

c
tablet of simple make bearing the inscription » Ch ing Tsu of the
, :

Ming Dynasty, the Emperor Wen" It is placed under a square

1
.

dais of carved wood, which forms the roof of a so-called nwan

s
koh or » warm porch ", i. e. a shrine or tabernacle , open in
front with a wooden ascent of a few steps with balustrades.
This shrine is now red , but may originally have been decked
out with the Imperial yellow colour. It stands in the middle of
the hall , towards the back' wall , straight opposite the central
entrance; the space between the pillars there is somewhat larger
than in any other part of the edifice , and the ceiling a little higher.
A red square railing of wood surrounds the shrine. In front of this
railing, just in the centre of themiddlemost row of pillars, stands
a large sacrificialwooden table bearing an incense burner flanked ,

by two flower vases and candle supports, all likewise of wood. For
the rest there is in the hall no furniture of any kind.
According to Ku Yeu-wu, »the four central pillars (in front of
» the shrine) were decorated with gold lotus flowers and all the ,

» others were lacquered red" 3

. Time has now effaced the last

traces of paint, but they look as sound as if they were a few score
years Edkins says, they were brought from the Yunnan and
old.

Birmah teak forests, and according to Lockhart they are all of teak-

1
Wf&m.xM.ft- *mm-
3
4«(5j^f[iJ^^r^,^-^^^ Ch'ang-ping shanshui ki,

leaf 4.
 XL VI
I

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THE SACRIFICIAL FURNACES, AND THE L I N G-T S I N GATE. 1217

wood brought from Pegu through Yunnan

and thence overland
, ,

to Peking; but these authors do not adduce any grounds for this
assertion. Bretschneider suggests they may be of the so-called nan-
muh 1
, a durable, undecaying variety of the Laurus ,
growing in
the southern provinces; and indeed we have seen on page 1181
c
that Ch
Tsu commissioned some high officers to collect timber
ing
c
in Sze-ch wen Hukwang Kiangsi Chehkiang and Shansi. But
, , ,

certain indications with respect to the origin of those columns are

totally wanting.
The temple having from the beginning served for the presenta-
tion of sacrifices to the Imperial manes, there are in the court
between it and the Gate of Blessing and Favours, two furnaces,
one on either side, for converting into smoke and ashes the silk
and mock money offered. They are of yellow glazed porcelain, and
roofed with yellow glazed tiles. Inside there is no grate, the articles

being simply burned on the stone floor, which is on a level with

the sill Both structures are exactly
of the arched opening in front.
of the same shape and dimensions, nor do their ornamentation and
colours differ in the least. One of them is represented in Plate XXXIX,
opposite page 1170; we also refer the reader to the description
given in that page of such fire-places in general. The said Plate
c
will show that those of the Ch ang ling are very elegant pieces of
workmanship, from the Chinese point of view of course. The court
in which they stand measures about sixty metres between the plat-

form of the temple and that of the gate, and is planted on both
sides with pines and cypresses. A broad stone path connects the
middlemost ascents of the two platforms and is exactly of the same
width, and its centre is laid with cross flags that are just as long
as the breadth of the slopes carved with dragons.
Leaving the temple by the above-mentioned outlet in the back
wall a path similarly paved
, twenty-five paces in length leads , ,

us to a broad yellow-tiled gate bounding the temple-court on the

north (see PI. XLVI). This building has three tunnel-like passages,
five metres and six tenths deep , which correspond in situation with
the three tiers of steps in the rear of the temple platform ; its walls
are plastered red , and its basement is of white stone. A transverse
red wall, covered with yellow tiles, is connected with the gate
on either side, and extends as far as the wall which surrounds the
mausoleum, the temple-court thus being entirely separated from the

1 *&*•
 ,

1218 THE GRAVE.

c
second great court. This gate is »Gate
called Ling-ts in men 1
,

c
of the Ts Mausoleum".
in of the To understand this term, we
c
must remember that the word ts in anciently denoted the apart-
ment in a house situated behind the main hall (comp. Plate I
opposite page 16), and that this »back chamber" performed as —
many passages cited by us from the Li ki and the / li have shown
— a most important part in the rites and ceremonies connected with
the disposal of the dead. Remembering further that graves are planned
like human dwellings, and that a mausoleum-temple with its Imperial
soul tablets corresponds in consequence with the main hall at home
in which the family tablets are worshipped, it is self-evident how
c
the name ts in has come to be applied to the court behind the
temple, to which the gate in question gives access.
The aspect of this court is impressive. It is planted with stately
evergreens and other trees, the gnarled trunks of many of which
bear evidence of great age. A solemn silence reigns in these sacred
precincts of death, and nothing is heard but the chirping voice of
some solitaryand the whispering of the wind through the
bird
foliage. The court is about eighty-five metres deep. Emerging from
c
the Ling-ts in men, the eye is attracted to a decorative gate
about twenty metres off, across the marble-paved path which leads
straight on to the tomb. It is in thoroughly ruinous condition, the
roofs having entirely disappeared , hardly anything remaining of it but
two square marble pillars, connected by two horizontal cross-pieces
of wood, which formerly bore the roof. In another mausoleum we
found such a monument perfectly preserved and we place a picture ,

of it before our readers in PI. XLVII. The two pillars bear each
on the top a scaled quadruped resembling a unicorn, and, as
is the case with the Lmteled Star Gate, they are strengthened
at their by means of voluted counterforts of stone. The two
base
cross-pieces, between which a frieze is inserted, are of wood and
painted with figures in various colours; the triple, yellow-tiled roof,
suspended over them between the pillars, resembles in shape the
roofs of the other buildings and gates in the Cemetery, and the
wooden bracket construction recurs thrice in it. The tiles on the
lowest eaves are considerably larger than those of the other two
roofs. There being no transverse fence whatever on the right or
left of this beautiful gate, the visitor is tempted to conclude that
it has served for decorative purposes only. But, considering that

1
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 PI. XL VII.

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THE SOUL TOWER WITH THE GRAVE-STONE. 1219

the passage between the two pillars is closed by a folding-door flanked

by two wooden panels, it is more probable that the gate was also
intended to intercept obnoxious influences moving towards the se-
pulchre. Indeed , the stone path that passes through it , leads straight
on to the mouth of the tunnel forming the only entrance into the
crypt and it will not have slipped from the memory of our readers
,

that it is an established geomantic principle that roads running in

a straight line towards a tomb may exercise very nefarious effects on it.

Beyond this gate we for the first time obtain a full view of the
curious tower-like building , the yellow-tiled double roof of which
standing out above all the other buildings and the surrounding
foliage, we had frequently caught a glimpse of, while approaching
the mausoleum (PI. XLVIII). It is the so-called Ming leu 1
or
»Soul Tower", erected on the top of an unplastered terrace of
bricks, built before the gigantic tumulus under which the Imperial
remains repose and entirely hiding
it from view. This terrace is
exactly square and slightly tapers upwards; on the top it measures
thirty-one metres on every side. It has a base of white blocks,
precisely resembling that of the tablet-house which stands at the
beginning of the avenue of stone images; the top, which is about
fourteen metres from the ground , has along the front and the
c 2
flanks a crenelated parapet or ch ing tieh , composed of bricks
measuring half a metre in length. In the centre of the top stands
the Tower: a square, red plastered building sheltering the grave-
stone. It may be described as a massive piece of masonry, reared
on a marble platform , and pierced at right angles by two arched
tunnels, in the intersection of which the grave-stone is raised,
thus resembling in nearly every respect the tablet-house afore-
mentioned; but it is considerably smaller, being only eighteen metres
long and broad. A wooden board, inscribed with two characters
c
expressing the word Ch ang ling, was formerly suspended to the
frontispiece , under the eaves of the higher roof
3
, and has now dis-
appeared ; but in many of the other mausolea a corresponding
object is still to be seen in the corresponding place.
The grave-stone is an enormous vertical monolith of fine marble
not less than ninety-four centimetres thick, one hundred and sixty-
two centimetres broad, and rising high into a vaulted cupola made
The front which precisely faces the southern direction
in the ceiling. ,

3
mm-
Clt 'amj-p "nnj slwn-sltui In, 1. 5.
*mm-
 ;

] 220 THE GRAVE.

in which the temple and the several gates lie, bears, exactly in the
middle, a perpendicular column of seven large characters deeply cut ,

c
in the stone, meaning: » Grave Hill of Ch eng Tsu, the Emperor
Wen" '; dragons are sculptured in the two vertical margins, and the
crowning border displays, in so-called chwen writing 2
, the inscrip-
tion: »The Great Ming Dynasty" 3
, encircled with the windings of a
dragon carved in the marble. The » square pedestal", eleven and a
half decimetres high, is likewise of marble, but quite smooth and
unornamented, and without any inscription. Ku Yen-wu says, that
» the characters were filled with gildings and the tablet was adorned
4
with red paint" ; and stains of this colour are, in fact, still visible
on it ,
giving the stone at first sight the aspect of red-veined marble.
The most interesting part of the terrace on which the Soul Tower
stands, a part riveting more than anything the curiosity of the
5
visitor , is the yung t ao or » earthed road ", a vaulted tunnel
through which the Imperial remains were introduced into the crypt.
It is pierced straight through the terrace, exactly coinciding with

the longitudinal axis of the mausoleum. It is three metres thirty-

five centimetres wide, and the mouth is arched with large pieces
of limestone, behind which some debris of a wooden folding-door
still hang in socket-like hinges of white stone. In front of the
mouth we see, at about thirty paces off, an altar, standing quite
open to the sky in the middle of the court, straight across the
marble paved path, on a broad floor of marble which is partly
in good preservation. It is an oblong table of white stone, measur-
ing six metres and six tenths by one metre eighty-three centimetres
it is worked
around in the same style as the pedestals of the
all

» sky-bearing " columns that stand around the great tablet-house,

namely, with a plinth and base a die and a cornice and the base , ;

and cornice are likewise carved with a row of leaves, in imitation

of a lotus flower. This altar bears five large sacrificial implements
of stone , all rudely worked , arrayed in a single row at regular
distances from each other, to wit: an incense urn, flanked by two
candle supports and two flower pots. There being, as we have

2 g& sb . The most ancient style of writing, used almost exclusively in orna-

mental inscriptions and in seals.

3
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4
MfekM^^^ffl^flfc Ch'ang-ping shan-shui hi, 1. 5.
 I'

P]. XLVIII.

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 THE GRAVE-HILL OF CH^NG TSU. 1221

seen, a temple in the mausoleum-grounds, appointed for sacrificing

to the Imperial manes and thus rendering this altar superfluous from
a practical point of view, we think the latter is merely indebted for
its existence to religious conservatism, grave-altars having, as we
have demonstrated in the Second Volume (page 385), played an
important part in the ancient Religion of the Dead. The implements
it bears are, indeed, unfit for use, being missive monoliths.
On entering the tunnel, we perceive it is entirely lined and
paved with naked grey bricks and rises at a gentle incline. Our
steps resound mysteriously in the dim background, which, as our
eyes become accommodated to the darkness, turns out to be a brick
wall totally closing the tunnel, and marring our hopes of making
our way to the crypt. Formerly there was, according to Ku Yen-
wu, »a yellow glazed screen in the tunnel" 1 but we saw no trace ,

of it. This cave-like passage called up thoughts of ancient China,

reminiscences of the mystic tombs of the monarchs before and
during the Han dynasty, which likewise had an underground passage
giving access into the crypt (see page 425).
At its bricked-up extremity the tunnel branches off at right
angles on either hand , forming two other tunnels of quite the same
construction, one metre and seventy-five centimetres wide by two
metres and a half in height, which lead at a sharp incline up to
the crenelated top of the terrace. On emerging from these passa-
ges , we find ourselves nearly on a level with the top of the grave
hill, and perceive eminence consists of a high
at a glance that this
wall of grey bricks, crowned with a crenelated parapet of the same
material and encircling a vast -area entirely filled with earth which
,

lies against the wall as high as the foot of the parapet, rising from
thence towards the centre, so as to form a top with gentle slopes entirely
clad with and other young trees. The tumulus wall
little cypresses
starts at right angles from both flanks of the terrace at about four
metres from the back of this latter and the crenelles crowning both
,

structures form together anunbroken, uniform row, being all of the

same shape and dimensions. At the two points where the wall starts
from the terrace, it slopes down immediately at a considerable
declination, about four metres and a half in all; subsequently it

describes an irregular circle nearly twelve hundred paces long, or

almost a kilometre, so that the diameter of the tumulus is much
longer than twice the breadth of the two large courts in front.

%M,fa%M^.i%& — &- °p- "'•' ' 4

1222 THE GRAVE.

When seen from the outside , the crenelated , unplastered wall

resembles in every respect a Chinese fortress , and the Soul Tower
the gate of such a structure; indeed, city walls in China, too,
are generally of large greyish bricks and have crenelated parapets
of that material as also gates upon which roofed edifices tower.
,

Under the Ming Dynasty the tumulus wall of an Emperor was

called Pao ch'ing »City of the Precious Relics". We may here
1
,

call to mind that already during the Han dynasty the Imperial
,

mausolea bore the character of strongholds, being formally intended

for an armed defence of the sacred remains from sacrilegious attacks

(see pp. 427 sqq.).

Making our way along the parapet of the tumulus wall through
thorny brambles and impeding shrubs, we perceive that this wall
in reality consists of two parallel concentric walls, two metres
distant from each other, the outer one of which bears the parapet.
No dilapidated or impaired spots could we discover, that might
enable us to ascertain whether the space between those walls con-
sists of masonry, or whether it is merely filled with earth. Only the
top of the inner wall peeps out all around from the tumulus, show-
ing that it is as thick as the length of the bricks of which it is

composed , viz. five decimetres. The earth of the tumulus lies thick
against the back of the terrace of the Soul Tower, there covering,
perhaps, an underground passage connecting the tunnel with the
crypt. But maybe there is no such passage at all, and the earth
may have been placed there subsequent to the burial of the Im-
perial corpse and the bricking-up of the tunnel. This suggestion
is raised fact that in the King ling, the mausoleum
by the
of Siien Tsung, the mound stands quite detached from its wall and
the Soul Tower, and the tunnel is bricked up in quite the same

way as it is in the Ch ang

c
ling, without any earth covering its
outlet, Nor has the crypt of that mound a visible entrance, so that
there can be no doubt that the opening affording access to it was
blocked up with earth after the burial.
c
Ch ing Tsu's tumulus standing on a low spur of the Tien-
sheu chain , in undulating ground , it is uncertain whether it has

been entirely raised by human labour. Perhaps it is a natural emi-

nence modified more or less by the hand of man but no state-
,
;

ments whatever on this head have we found in the books. Nor

is it certain whether the Imperial couple, buried underneath,

1
mm-
 INSPECTORATES OF MAUSOLEA. 1223

occupy one crypt. Nor can we say anything about the shape of
their underground dwelling-place, nor of its construction, depth,
and dimensions. The names commonly given in the books to Im-
perial crypts are: hiien kung ': » obscure dwellings", hiien
» obscure halls", t i kung
3 c
t ang
c 2
: » underground dwellings", :

k w a n g-t a n g
c
» grave-pit halls ", 4
etc.:

c
Herewith we may finish our description of Ch ing Tsu's enorm-
ous and stately tomb. The only point we still have to touch on,
is that formerly there stood somewhere in front of it a build-

ing, or set of buildings, for an Inspectorate created during the

reign of Wu Tsung, and officially styled: Inspectorate for the
Dwellings of the Manes (see page 1213). »For each of the twelve
»mausolea", says Ku Yen-wu, » there was such an Inspectorate,
» established at its foot, either on the right or the had
left. It

» two gates , the one in front of the other , followed by a main

» hall and apartments occupied by officers connected with the

» interior parts of the mausoleum. At the Yung ling, the Chao

»ling, the Ting ling and the Khing ling, the number of
» divisions in those buildings amounted to more than three hun-
» dred. A Captain was appointed for the interior of each rnauso-
» leum as Inspector-in-chief, as also a Seal-keeper of the Inspec-
torate, and twelve Inspectors"
5
. Prom the extract given on
page 1209, seems that the several inspectorates had a common
it

head-office somewhere in front of the Ch ang ling. Besides,

c

» every mausoleum had an audience chamber at its foot, either on

6
» the right or the left" .

c
No doubt there was
was a time when the Ch ang ling
surrounded by quite a park, some stately trees, now growing
outside the walls of the courts and around the walled tumulus,
evidencing it. It is even almost certain that the whole Cemetery
once formed a vast forest, big trees being also to be seen around
many of the other mausolea. At present, the valley is under cul-

1
£g\ 2 £g. 3 *fc^\ 4 ^^.

— '.
A . Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui fct, I. 12.

6
# ^f §U M £ H T > > i£ £ . <£ £ °^ e< loc - cit
1224 THE GRAVE.

tivation in many places, and huts of country people lie scattered

or in small groups amidst the mausolea. The relative situation of
the latter may be seen from the following sketch , in which we
give, however, the distances quite approximately, as we could not
make any regular measurements on the spot.

Fig. 41.

s*
x^> a Tien- sheiz Mounts
,sV^
C\tt^ c
Lao-Tsiuri-t ang Pass

%,

Sze ling

Si-shanPass
-with the
small Red Gate ^S-duaiBtss
TotheAveruu
iplAfiimals

Approximate Sketch of the Situation of the Ming Tombs and their Spirit's Roads.

The thirteen mausolea cover an area more than an hour's walk

from east to west. From their distribution over the valley we
see at a glance that they form no cemetery laid out in strict
accordance with the old orthodox rules of the C/ieu li, which we
have translated on page 421 , as they are not arranged in the order
of family descent. No doubt we must ascribe this fact to the circum-
stance that for every Emperor the Fung-shui doctrines have required
a burial-place located in the midst of configurations of hills and
brooks specially congruent with his horoscope. It is, probably,
also for this reason, that not all the mausolea are on the southern
exposure. The Khang
ling, having the protecting mountains on
the almost faces due east; the Ting ling and the Chao
west,
ling have a south-eastern aspect, the King ling and the Yung
 ;

THE MOUNTAINS IN THE REAR OF THE CEMETERY. 1225

ling a south-western, the Teh ling a western. The hills in the rear
c
of the mausolea, though collectively styled the T ien-sheu Mounts,
are distinguished by sundry names. The c
Ch ang ling, the Hi en
ling, the Kh i n g ling and the King ling are considered to be
c
placed in the T ien-sheu Mounts proper; the Yii ling reclines against
the Shih-men Shan ' or » Stone Gate Mount"; the Meu ling against
the Tsii-pao Shan 2
or » Mountain Accumulated Valuables"; the of
c
T ai ling against the Pih-kia Shan or » Pencil Stand Mount", which
3

is thus called because of its shape and also bears the name of Shi-kia

Shan', » Mount of the Shi family". The Khang ling has in

its rear the Kin-ling Shan
5
or » Mount of the Gold Range"; the
Yung ling the Shih-pah-tao Ling 6 or » Range with Eighteen
c
Roads which name was changed officially into Yang-ts ui Ling 7
, ,

» Range of the Southern Kingfisher (?) " in 1536, when orders had
been issued for building this mausoleum. The Chao ling and the
Ting ling respectively stand against the Ta-yuh Shan 8 and the
Siao-yuh Shan 9
, or » Great Valley Mount and Small Valley Mount "
the Teh ling against the T an-tsze Yuh "' or » Valley of the Tan
c

c 11
Trees", and the Sze ling against the Kin-p ing Shan or » De-
12
corated Screen Hills" .

Each mausoleum had its own special Spirit's Road branching ,

the great one leading to the Ch ang

c
off either directly from

ling, or from that of the mausoleum nearest it as is pointed out ,

approximately by lines in Fig. 41. Most of those roads have now

entirely disappeared, the farmers having obliterated them in tilling
the ground, and some have become narrow foot-paths. Almost every
mausoleum has also a special tablet-house, resembling that which
stands south of the stone images, but of much smaller dimensions,
being hardly larger than those now to be seen in front of the

mausolea of Imperial Princes (see p. 1169). It stands straight in

front of the main gate, at a short distance from it, and has a
double yellow-tiled roof. In most cases, if not in all, the tablet

'^HUj- 2
HWUJ- 3
M0i-

12 See the Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, 11. 4 sqq.; the Memoirs concerning the De-
partment of Shun-t'ien, oh. 26, II. 24—26, and the Ku kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing,
sect. ch. 11.
|1| J|| ,
1-2213 THE GRAVE.

of fine white stone does not bear any characters and is supported
by a tortoise and adorned with a crowning border on which dragons
are engraved. In a few instances, the tablet stands under the open
sky, the building once sheltering it having disappeared in conse-
quence of vandalism or want of care, or because no such building
has ever existed.
Apart from the Sze ling, of which we will speak later on,
the smallest and plainest of all the mausolea is the Hi en ling.
The monarch buried in it occupied the throne for no more than
nine months. It is recorded, that »it was being built when (his
» son) Siien Tsung mounted the throne and that this new monarch ,

» then desired to observe economy in regard to it , in obedience

» to his father's last will. He consulted Kien I and Hia Yuen-kih
» on this and both these men praised him enthusiastically
point ,

» for it, saying: 'This plan of Your Majesty is sublime and lofty;
» it is a product of filial piety of the highest order, which will
» bear fruit during ten thousand generations'. The Emperor him-
» self plan of the mausoleum
designed the it was finished in ;

and did not come up to the Ch ang ling in

c
» three months,
» beauty. Succeeding Emperors followed his example and took that
» mausoleum as a model;' but when Shi Tsung made the Yung
»ling, extravagant prodigality again began to be indulged in to
»a much greater extent" 1
. This passage may account for the fact
that the court between the temple and the Soul Tower of the
H i e n ling is not levelled down , but still contains a broad elevated
piece of ground , so that the pathway connecting those two buildings
trends westward.
The King ling, the sepulchre of Siien Tsung, though larger
than the Hi en ling, likewise ranks among the smaller mausolea.
As we have noted on page 1222, the grave-hill stands quite
detached from the wall that surrounds it and does not cover the
,

bricked-up outlet of the tunnel ; which may perhaps be ascribed

to the circumstance that it was never raised to the height originally

& si t> ik m m s # is * m a % n . . it tit ^m

^ M ^^#
ill
some short notices on this
:zr-
matter
History of the

in ch.
Ming D > nast >' ch 149
58 of the same work,
-

I. 8.
'
' 2 See also
-
 ,

THK KtNli LING- AND THE TU LING. 1 T-2

"2 7

designed. The tunnel arouses curiosity for being bricked up not only
at the outlet, but also inside, somewhere in the middle, behind
a wooden folding-door that turns there in large stone hinges fixed
in the walls. We cannot explain the reason why it is thus doubly
barred , the mysteriousness of the matter being enhanced by the
fact that access to the hill is quite free on either side of the Soul
Tower, through a small gate contrived there in the tumulus wall.
We venture to suggest that the tunnel may conceal between those
partitions the implements and articles which custom required to

be buried with the Imperial corpse, or even the bodies of some

of those who were assigned to accompany the Imperial manes into
the other life.

The Yii ling is interesting as being the first mausoleum in

which more than one empress were buried. » Ying Tsung's Em-
» press, Hiao Chwang", thus it is chronicled, »bore the family-
c
» name of Ts ien, and was a native of Hai-cheu; she was raised to

» the dignity of empress in the seventh year of the period C h i ng

»tc ung (A. D. 1442). The Emperor regretting that her clan was

» poor and obscure, wished to ennoble its members; but she

» humbly and respectfully declined this honour, so that her family,
» by exception, received no letters-patent of nobility. When Ying Tsung
» was engaged in warfare in the north of the Empire she sacri- ,

» ficed all the treasures of the Central Palace to redeem him and so
» to help him to come back during the night she invoked Heaven
;

» wailing and weeping; when

tired, she slept on the ground, so
» that she injured and by her wailing and weeping she
a thigh ;

» impaired the sight of one of her eyes. And when Ying Tsung
» (had returned and) resided in the Southern Palace (as dethroned
,

» sovereign, comp. page 1233), so that she could not exercise any
» functions as an empress, it was she who remained the Emperor's
» consolation in the wrong done to him.
» She had no sons; but the first-rank Concubine of the family
» name of Cheu had a son , who was appointed Heir A pparent.
» When Ying Tsung's death was imminent, he made a testamentary
» disposition to this effect :
'
The Empress Tslen shall lie with me
» in the same grave for more than a thousand autumns and ten
» thousand years'. On Hien Tsung's accession, honorary titles to be
» bestowed on the two Imperial widows were submitted to him , and
» he sent them to the Court Councillors for consideration , the result
» of which was that both women were allotted an equal rank and
» dignity, and endowed with the title of empress. When the Yii ling
 ,

1228 THE GRAVE.

» was being made, (the Grand Secretaries) Li Hien and P'eng Shi
» proposed that a treble crypt should be constructed therein , and
» their suggestion was referred to the Court Councillors for discus-
» sion. But as (the eunuch) Hia Shi advised that this should not
» be done the matter was dropped and remained undecided. In
,

» the fourth year of the period Ch ing hwa

c
(A. D. 146S), in the
c
» sixth month the Empress Dowager Ts ien departed this life. The
,

» Empress Dowager Cheu was not disposed to have her buried

c
» in the same grave with the Emperor but P eng Shi urgently ;

» insisted on her being buried in the Yii ling beside the Em-
» peror on his left and on the vacant dextral place being reserved
, ,

» for the Empress Dowager Cheu. Now memorials contesting the

» correctness of such a measure being presented to the Throne by
» the High Ministers and sent by the Emperor to the Court
,

» Councillors as before , with orders to deliberate on them , ninety-

» nine Councillors were convoked by Li Ping , President of the
» Board and Yao Khvvei, President of the Board of
of Civil Office,
c
» Rites and all unanimously supported the request of P eng Shi.
,

» The next day, however, the Chief Supervisor of Instruction

c
» Ko Ts ien the Supervising Censor Wei Yuen and others me-
,

» morialized the Throne on the subject; and, one day after theirs,
» the memorial of Yao Khwei and the others was presented to the
» Emperor. These documents were likewise discussed, but in the mean
» time the Emperor declared that he would issue orders to select else-
» where a burial ground for the deceased Empress Dowager. Now the
» office-bearers conjointly prostrated themselves outside the Wen-hwa
» Gate and wailed ; they were ordered by the Emperor to retire
» but they knocked their heads against the ground , declaring that
» they dared not go unless the Emperor took another decision. They
» had to wait from the sixth hour till the ninth (about 10 A. M. —
»4 was granted; they then retired
P. M.) ere their request , exclaira-

» ing :
'
May Your ten thousand years !' These matters
Majesty live
c l
» are treated also in the Traditions about P eng Shi and Yao khwei .

» In the seventh month of the same year the Emperor confer-

» red on the deceased Empress Dowager the posthumous title
» of Hiao Chwang , and in the ninth month she was deposited
»in the Yii ling, at the side of her pre-deceased consort. A
» separate underground passage had been made for the purpose

1 Viz. in chapter 176 of the History of the Ming Dynasty, 11. 12 seq., and
chapter 177, 1. 17.
 ;

THE Y i'l LING. 1

-
2 2'J

» at some chang distance from Ying Tsung's crypt and it was now
» blocked up with earth inside, so that only the passage giving
» access to the vacant dextral resting-place reserved for the Empress
» Dowager Cheu remained accessible.
» The Empress Dowager Cheu breathed her last in the seven-
teenth Hung chi period (A. D. 1504). Hiao Tsung
year of the
» then took a map of the Yii ling from an Imperial side hall,
» and showed it to the Grand Secretaries Liu Kien Sie Ts'ien and ,

» Li Tung-yang, saying: 'There are two sorts of underground pas-

» sages in the mcund they being either blocked up with earth or
, ,

» accessible. Both kinds have at different times been constructed under

» former dynasties by the officers of the Court ; but this cannot
» be quite consistent with the proper rules. The Astrologer-in-
» Chief states that the open passage exerts a nefarious influence
» from upon the crypt of the defunct Emperor and he
above ,

» apprehends that it agitates the pulses of the Earth. But Ourself

» have , in a personal interview with him refuted this assertion,

» indeed, if the passage is closed, the influences of Heaven and

» Earth are shut out, while, if it is open, the winds can freely
» circulate through the mound'. Liu Kien and the others enthusi-
» astically these words .... Though the Emperor thus
praised
» wished underground passage (for the Empress Dowager
that the
» Cheu) should remain accessible he desisted because of the opposi-
,

tion of the geomancers" '.

1
£^#£M£«rt#JHA, SESfe-fc^ifcfc

m^B,mM.B^m-mmn^mnm,m^±,
±m^mm,T^&^m^m^^.MtfamB^

79
1230 THE GRAVE.

The statement, contained in this long extract, that for the three

corpses deposited in the Y ii ling separate underground passages

were made, is a strong indication that there are also in some
other mausolea two tunnels, or even more. But by no means dare
we take this for granted. The considerations raised by the Im-
perial geomancers of that time against the construction of acces-
sible entrances, are likewise worthy of attention, as they seem to
solve the question why in some mausolea the tunnel is bricked
up, or, as in the case of the King ling (see p. 1226), has no
continuation behind the Soul Tower. They even explain why some
mausolea have no tunnel at all. This is the case, for instance, with
the Yungling, the gorgeous sepulchre of Shi Tsung, of which
we shall say a few words on page 1232.
But the above excerpt is especially important as a contribution
to our knowledge of Imperial family custom in point of burial.
It shows that, at that time, it was a dynastic tradition that the

honour of being buried in the same grave-mound with a Son of

Heaven might not be withheld from any Consort who had borne
him a successor to the Throne indeed according to the laws of ; ,

m & m ± m ft m im m . » 4> i m m m m m ^ ,n

-4^ Ji j£ [Ji*. *§j ijg

% % m. % % , pt it # ^ it % m e m ^ nt *
. ft ,

^ is m % m. f
o , m. m ± % % m £ & m *u m
-f- , .

History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 113, 11. 13 sqq.

 THE MEU LING. 123]

filial respect and devotion , a son had to honour both his parents
in an equal manner in committing their mortal remains to the
earth. But, as we have stated on page 444, it had been customary
during previous dynasties to accord also the same prerogative to
Empresses proper, even though they had not given birth to a Heir
Apparent. Hence, no doubt, Empress it is, that in the case of the
Hiao Chwang the servants of the Crown felt it so incumbent upon
them to join in a stubborn opposition against any refusal of the
last will of her own Imperial spouse being executed in regard to

her. on pp. 1189 sqq. shows, it was, for enjoying the

As the list

privilege no pre-requisite that Chief Consorts, or Con-

in question,
cubines who had given birth to a successor to the throne, should
have lived during the reign of their husband. Hiao I, in fact, the
Chief Consort of Muh
Tsung while he was Heir Apparent died ,

before his accession and the Chief Consort and the two Concubines
;

buried in the Khing ling had likewise died when their husband
was called to the throne. The biographies of these women 1 teach us
that Hiao 1 was invested with the posthumous title of empress on her
husband's accession and that Hiao Yuen received the same title from
,

Hi Tsung when he assumed the Government. In connection with those

customs it may be remarked, that every Concubine who gave birth
to an Emperor was, on the accession of the latter, endowed by
him with the title of empress, whether she was still in life or
2
not , so that , considered from the Chinese point of view, all the
women interred in the mausolea are in reality Empresses.
The Meu
ling deserves special attention on account of its being
also the tomb of Hiao Hwui, the ancestress of the collateral line of
sovereigns who, commencing with Shi Tsung, have occupied the
throne during the latter half of the sway of the Ming dynasty. Down
to the period of Wu Tsung no difficulty in regard to the succession
had presented itself in the Imperial line, every monarch having
left a son to succeed him. Wu Tsung, however, was without
male issue, and therefore deemed it proper to bequeathe the throne
to the nearest heir according to national ideas, viz. the eldest son
of his father's younger that time was hardly
brother, who at
fourteen years old. Thewas Yiu Yuen 3 King of
father of this lad ,

Hing ', fourth son of the Emperor Hien Tsung by the Concubine

1 Contained in chapter 114 of tlie History of the Ming Dynasty.

2 See the biographies of those women in ch. H3
and 114 of the History of the
Ming Dynasty.
1:232 THE GRAVE.

Hiao Hwui; his fief, Hing, was situated in the province ofHupeh,
and he died there in 1519, two years before his son was called
to the throne '
. Already in the very year of his accession , the
latter, in imitation of what had been done by the founder of the
reigning House and those of former dynasties conferred upon his late ,

father and still living mother the titles of emperor and empress, at
the same time raising his grandmother Hiao Hwui to the dignity of
empress-dowager 2
; and on the death of this woman, which occurred

in the next year (1522), »he manifested a desire to transfer her

» bones to the Meu ling. The Grand Secretary Yang Ting-hwo,
» in concert with others , declared that works should not so often
» be mausoleum the manes being
undertaken at his grandfather's ,

» thereby frightened and disturbed. But the Emperor did not follow
3
» their advice" .

The mausoleum ling, surpasses all

of Shi Tsung, the Yung
c
the other mausolea, except the ling, in size and magni- Ch ang
ficence. Its construction took many years, and it is recorded that
already thirty years before his death, namely »in the fifteenth of
4
his reign (1536), the Emperor gave orders for its erection" In .

the official annals of his time are chronicled many visits paid by
him to the burial-valley with the object of inspecting in person
the progress of the works. We found this mausoleum especially

worth visiting because the woodwork and paint were in better

c
preservation and repair than in the Ch ang ling. For the rest

it is, like the other tombs, almost in every respect a copy of it

on a reduced scale. The temple in the first place is much smaller

than that of the Ch ang c
ling, but the terrace on which it stands
projects much further in front. There is no trace of a tunnel to be

seen at the Soul Tower and access to the top of the terrace of this,

building is gained by means of a broad sloping footway of bricks,

constructed against its two flanks. The tumulus does not entirely
come up to that of the Ch ang ling in size, its diameter being
c

about one fifth shorter, but it exceeds it in elaboration and finish.

Indeed , the two concentric walls that encompass it , the space between
c
which is, like at the Ch ang ling, entirely filled up with earth,

1 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 17, 1. 1, and ch. 115, 1. 5.

2 Op. cit., ch. 17, 1. 2.

tfj|j:#liil.7ll i'- «*• ch -

«3 -
'• 21 -

4^if-fi4£gg!iti!fl|. op- <* ch. 17, i. ii.

 THE YUNG LING AND THE KHING I.ING. 1233

are not less than five metres distant from each other and the cre-
nelated parapet that crowns the outer wall is of white limestone,

in large-sized slabs. The earth of the tumulus lies against the in-
most wall as high as the top of the latter, and against the terrace
of the Soul Tower only a little lower. The rounded top of the tumulus
is heightened by a small mound of a truncated conical shape,
placed there, perhaps, for some mysterious geomantic reason.
The Khing ling, containing the remains of Kwang Tsung, is also
of some interest, having been built upon the substructures of another
mausoleum laid some hundred and seventy years before. As Kwang
,

Tsung died exactly one month after his accession, he had not, like
his predecessors, an opportunity to build, or partly build, a mau-
soleum for himself during his lifetime. We read in a local work
on the country north-east and east of the Imperial Cemetery:
»A mausoleum had formerly been made in the King
longevity
» t
c
Ying Tsung deposed King, the Emperor (for whom
ai period; but
» it was destined) and buried him at the foot of the Western
,

» Mountains, so that this mausoleum remained vacant. When Kwang

» Tsung died, no special burial-ground could be selected, because death
» snatched him away so early and unexpectedly. Hence they converted
» the said tomb into a mausoleum for him" \ That Emperor King
does not appear in our list given on pp. 1188 sqq., because, although
he held the reins of government for several years, his remains do not
rest in the Imperial Cemetery. He was a younger brother of Ying

Tsung and bore the title of King of Ch'ing 2 In 1449 when Ying
, . ,

Tsung had personally taken the lead of a campaign in the north of

a powerful Mongol chief, HiaoKung, the
3 c
Shansi against Wa-ts ze ,

then Empress Dowager, charged him with the administration of the

Empire; and in the next month he assumed the Imperial dignity,
c
exercising supreme authority under the title of reign King t ai
4

till the beginning of 1457, when he had to restore the crown to

the rightful owner, who had already returned from Mongol cap-
tivity after scarcely a year's absence (compare page 1227). He died

1
3t%%m*mi$m%^%iM&M:M. fc,m i

it U *& 75r It! lit & W- A7""-<'"»" *i"ochiJ$ J$ /b M^ Sma11

Memoirs concerning Khin-ch'ing", written by Li Tin-tufa 35 ^1 ^f| ;
quoted in the

Tuli li t'ung khao, ch. 93, 1. 27.

2
/SP3E- *%M- *%%
1234 THE GRAVE.

a few days after his abdication. About a year before, he had a

mausoleum laid out for himself; but Ying Tsung ordered it to be
demolished, and gave him a burial as a Prince of the highest
order in the Western Mountains. In 1475, however, it was decreed
by Ying Tsung's successor that he should thenceforth be recognized
as a lawful Son of Heaven,. and that his sepulchre should be con-
sidered and sacrificed at as an Imperial mausoleum \ We are not
,
,

able to tell whether it is in ruins, or kept in repair by the present

dynasty.
It still remains for us to say a few words about the sepulchre
of the Emperor of the Ming dynasty, the ill-fated Chwang
last
c 2
Lieh, who, when the insurgent leader Li Tsze-ch ing conquered
Peking in 1644, strangled or hanged himself on the so-called Coal
Hill in the pleasure grounds behind the Palace. The previous day,
3
at his command, his Consort had launched herself into eternity .

c c
» The insurgents conveyed their coffins to Ch ang-p ing the inha- ,

» bitants of which place opened the grave of the first-rank Concubine

» of the surname of Tien and buried them in it. Thus ended the ,

» Ming dynasty" The remains of that Concubine had been there

4
.

for about one year and a half 5 .

Ku Yen-wu dilates on the burial of this Imperial couple in

the following terms » While the late Emperor wielded the
:

» sceptre over this wide world no place for his mausoleum was ,

» assigned by divination. So, when the insurgents had conveyed

» the coffins with his remains and those of the Empress of the
c c
» surname of Cheu to Ch ang-p ing the gentry in that department ,

» placed themselves at the head of subscribers and entombed ,

» them in the sepulchre of the Concubine T'ien. Removing her

» to the right side, they laid down the Emperor in the middle and
» the Empress on his left using the outer coffin of the Concubine ,

» to place the Emperor in. They then cut rushes and millet stalks,
» and placed these over the coffins. Afterwards a tablet-house was
» erected on the spot. Both in front and behind is a gate with
» three entrances , and further we find there a temple with three

1 The above particulars are gleaned from chapter 11 of the History of the Ming
Dynasty.
2
^ ||} jfc.
3 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 114, 1. 18.

J# H
5 Op.
'#J
cit.,
Tj
ch.
•

114,
°iJ -

I.
cit ->

19.
ch -
24 >"
'• 11 -
 ,,

THE BURIAL OF THE EMPEROR CHWANO LIEU. 1235

» divisions, without any nights of The two side-buildings steps.

» each consist of three divisions. The mausoleum though walled in ,

» is built on. a straitened and small scale, and its dimensions do

» not come up to those of the Eastern Pit or the Western (see
» pp. 1240 seq.). Outside the main gate we find, on the right, the
» grave of the eunuch Wang Ch'ing-ngen Inspector of Rites, who, ,

» having followed the Emperor into death was buried in his imme- ,

» diate vicinity" 1
. This grandee bravely joined in the defence of
c
Peking against Li Tsze-ch ing, and strangled himself as soon as he
knew his monarch had committed suicide. »The now reigning
» dynasty erected a sacrificial temple to him and a stone tablet
» in order to signalize his loyalty. He lies buried beside the mau-
9
» soleum of his deceased master" .

The Jih hia liu wen 3

, a valuable thesaurus of historical and
archaeological data concerning Peking and the department of
c
Shun-t ien, compiled by Chu I-tsun 4
at the close of the seven-
teenth century from a very large number of sources, gives some
further particulars on the burial of Chwang Lieh, borrowed from
c c
a work entitled Suh sung luh
5
, written by one T an Kih-ts ung 6
.

» When the petty official (in charge of the T ien-sheu Mounts) in

c

» co-operation with the public-spirited graduate Sun Hwan-chi, the

» members of the gentry Liu Jii-p oh, Wang Ching-hing and others,
c

» ten in number, had subscribed three hundred and forty thousand

» coins they hired workmen in order to open and close the under-
, ,

» ground passage in the grave. It was thirteen chang and five feet

^fil*ift0* b ill ft . MJ^Affl

%±,MmMZ ft $ * ft * if mm^&zMn

njfrt
-

-E . Chang-ping shan-shui fct, II. 10 seq.

the Ming Dynasty, ch. 305, I. 33.

D
mm- 6
§i^*g.
 ,,

123G THE GRAVE.

»long, one chang wide, and three chang five feet deep. Under
» their control the men worked (the earth) four days and nights
» and it was not until the second hour after midnight of the fourth
» day of the month that they caught a glimpse of the stone door
» of the crypt. With levers, iron pins and keys they forced open
» this stone door of the first compartment and thus gained access ,

» into an incense temple with three divisions in which some ,

» sacrificial implements were arranged. In the middle stood a stone

» incense table, with pieces of five-coloured silk stuffs arranged
» on both objects and dresses such as Palace Dames in at-
sides ;

tendance on Emperor are wont to use during life, were placed

the
» in large red boxes, and in the middle hung two perpetual lamps
» [litt. of ten thousand years). In the eastern compartment of this
» temple stood a sleeping-couch of stone on which was spread a ,

» carpet of trimmed velvet, covered with a pile of blankets, mattres-

»ses, pillows stitched with dragons, and other things of this descrip-
tion. They now opened the stone door of the second apartment,
» and entered a large hall of nine compartments, which contained
»a stone couch of the same length as the preceding, one fool five
» inches high and one chang broad, upon which the outer and
» the inner coffin of the Imperial Concubine rested.
» On the fourth day of the month the animated remains of the
» Emperor arrived shortly after the second hour in the after-
late
.onoon, and were put up in a sacrificial shed. A pig, a goat,
» paper documents of gold and silver and sacrificial articles were
» set out there, and the multitude, crowded together, poured forth
» lamentations offering sacrifices and libations. At the burial the
, ,

» (abovesaid) petty official personally took the lead of the work-

c
»men, and entered the crypt; they shifted the Concubine T ien to

» the right side of the couch ,

placed the Empress Cheu on the
» left of it , and then respectfully gave the coffin of the late Em-
c
» peror of the u n g c h i n g period the place in the middle. The
Ch
» Concubine 'Fien having been buried at a time in which no
» troubles prevailed an outer coffin had been provided for her
,

» as well as an inner coffin. An officer with the title of Super-

» intendant of Funerals and the petty official, seeing that their late
» Master had only an inner coffin and no outer coffin , removed
» the Concubine out of hers, and incense used it for him. An
» table with sacrificial implements was then placed in front of each
» coffin ; the petty official with his own hands lighted the per-
»> petual lamp; the two stone doors were shut, and the place im-
 % ,

THE BURIAL OF THE EMPEROR CHWANG LIEK. \23l

» mediately covered with earth. The ground was then level, no

» tumulus having been raised. On the sixth day, the men who
» had taken the initiative in raising subscriptions for the burial,
» as also the village elders and others, offered a sacrifice, on which
» occasion their wailing and weeping shook the firmament; and
» they continued in thisway longer than the customary time.
» The petty official now despatched some of his men to
the people
» of the country about the neighbouring pass in the Western
» Mountains to tell them to levy a hundred men and send them
,

» with baskets to carry earth. When the tumulus was ready, the
» petty official and (the afore-mentioned) Sun Fan-chi, a literary
» graduate of the lowest rank , subscribed five taels more purchased ,

» bricks , and raised a wall around the tumulus , more than five feet
c
» high. The Ts ing dynasty, having happily established itself on the
» throne gave special orders to its Board of Works to restore
,

» the incense temple with three divisions in the mausoleum of the

» lateEmperor who reigned during the Ch'ung ching period,
» and to entirely surround the place with walls and thus it saved ;

» the deceased Ruler of the Great Ming dynasty from being lost in

» the vast plains , causing him and his Consort to enjoy, for many
come bloody sacrificial food in the distant regions
» generations to ,

» unto which they had departed" 1 .

m m m # m z ± $h % m s m m &# i #
1

n # + a#=bi m h w m -t^ri a m m g m *

«r $£& m m it m * pi a ft > # m. = m m m .

n.*^«#^»ffi*^js:a*A«8,#«irA^
m r.^ m zi&m z m w- m .mmmmm, ±
,

a n mm & m ft %m~mzr\Aft>&&-k .

m% 5 * M £n # j£ ft - R s. ^ ,m - iz
ffl , ,

m m $ # # & ± m ^ in f? ^ ^ in it , . ft

» ¥ & « gq& ft 1^ ® JC ^ II T ^,i«

Ift , ,
 .
,

1238 THE GRAVE.

It will hardly be necessary to direct the attention of our readers

to the interesting information this extract gives about the construc-
tionand furniture of the crypt of that tomb. If it is trustworthy —
and we have no reasons to doubt it
c
it fills a blank we had —
to leave in our description of the Ch ang ling and the other
mausolea; for we may well suppose that the crypts of the same
also answer to the above description , these mausolea closely resem-
bling the Sze ling in all other respects, as we shall presently

show. A short description of this mausoleum is of some import-

ance also, because it teaches us everything that can now be learned
about the tombs which the Ming family used to construct for the
Imperial Consorts of inferior rank; indeed, it is the only one of
this class of sepulchres that, has survived time in a good condition
the present reigning dynasty having kept it in constant repair,
together with the other twelve mausolea.
It is situated in the south-western part of the valley, and is the
first that the traveller reaches who comes from the Nan-khao Pass.
Like the twelve Imperial mausolea proper, it consists of a tumulus
within a round crenelated wall on the front side of which there is a
Soul Tower with a square immured court before it, followed by another
court containing a Temple of Blessing and Favours and a gate
bearing the same name, straight in front of which we have
finally

a The dimensions of these

tablet-house. squares and edifices are

small, even very small when compared with the other mausolea.

B5 ffi 2 = tg £
. tf# i* # $ £ S& >^J& ttffi^
»n * « sft fe , m m - m % h n m ir ® tt ± ,

%$a,& & ft um& &&=?&!& ch8 P ter 34 <

" 26 "*
 ,

SHORT DESCRIPTION OP THE SZE 1,1 NG. 1239

The tumulus is a circular mound of earth, hardly forty metres in

circuit and four metres high, girt all around with a wall about
one metre high and made of grey bricks which are half a metre
in length ; its top ,
gently rounded , is planted with a few small
pine trees. It stands insulated within the unplastered crenelated
wall , which is some twelve metres distant from it all around
and about three metres high, one brick's length thick and also
of grey bricks of half a metre. The crenelated terrace of the Soul
Tower is just as high as the crenelated wall. No tunnel runs through
this terrace, and access to its top is gained by two brick-paved
sloping footways constructed at its back, along which they run up
from the right and The double-roofed house for the grave-stone
left.
c
exactly resembles that of theCh ang ling, but it measures only
eight metres and nine decimetres on each side. The grave-stone of
white marble is one metre sixteen centimetres broad , and stands on a
» square pedestal" of the same material, about one metre high and
adorned with bossy sculptures, viz. dragons on the front, unicorns
on the back, and lion-like monsters on the two sides. The front of
the tablet and its crowning border are carved with dragons and
c
characters, in the same wise as in the Ch ang ling (comp. p.

1220), and the inscription reads thus: » Grave Hill of Chwang Lieh,
the Emperor Min, of the Great Ming Dynasty" 1
. Chwang Lieh
and Min are his posthumous names, bestowed by the first sovereign
c
of the Ts ing dynasty. » In the sixteenth year of the period Shun
»chi", thus we read, »in the eleventh month, this monarch issued
» an edict of the following tenor to the Board of Rites : The Em-
c
» peror who reigned in the Ch ung ching period of the Ming dy-
» nasty applied himself during seventeen years to governing the
» Empire with energy and skill, thereupon sacrificing his life to the
» Spirits of the Land and Grain, when his House was so unhappy
» as to be destroyed by rebellion. Upon examination it has been
» found that he had no considerable shortcomings during his life. A
» pitiable fate having come down upon him so suddenly, he really
» deserves and therefore We ought to confer on him
compassion;
» posthumous which may clearly bring out how his
appellations
» conduct really was, viz. Chwang Lieh, and Min Hwang-ti"
2
,

i. e. » Stern and energetic", and »the Corapassionable Emperor".

l
1240 THE GRAVE.

The round area containing the tumulus communicates with the

square court in front of the Soul Tower by means of two small
doors, contrived in the tumulus wall on either side of the terrace
that bears the tower. This court, which is no more than sixty

paces deep, is planted with pines and has, straight in front of

the Soul Tower, an altar of solid stone, bearing the ordinary

five massive sacrificial stone implements. Then follows the second
court of about the same size, which contains the temple. This edifice
c
resembles the temple of the Ch ang ling so closely, that we might
call it a copy of it in miniature. But the low square platform of
solid stone on which it is raised has neither balustrades, nor any
flights of steps. The triple Ling-ngen Gate stands on a similar
platform. Finally we have, straight opposite the middle entrance
of this gate, some fifteen paces off, the tablet-house. It has an
entrance only in the front facade and in the back, and contains a
tablet with no other inscription but: »Erected by Imperial Com-
mand" ', placed on the crowning border.
Before the House of Ming had lost the throne, some more
sepulchres of this description and of small dimensions were
disseminated among the Imperial mausolea, every monarch having
kept in his seraglio a choice set of consorts of sundry ranks, the
remains of several of whom were accorded a last resting-place in

the Imperial Cemetery. But those who sacrificed their lives on the
death him into the Realm of Shades, that
of their lord to follow
is to say, before Ying Tsung had put an end to the practice (see

pp. 733 seq.), do not seem to have had separate mausolea. Indeed,
Ku Yen-wu writes:
» The rescript that the Dames of the Palace were to be buried
» along with the Emperor, was not abrogated until Ying Tsung's
c
» reign ; hence it is that the Ch
ling has two Pits one
ang ,

» eastward and the other westward from it. The Eastern Pit is
» located south-east of the Teh ling and south of the Cake
» Mount , and faces the west ; the other stands north-west of the

of Slii Tsu, chapter 4, 1. 3.

 THE SEPULCHRES OF THE IMPERIAL CONCUBINES. 1241

»Ting ling and has an eastern exposure. Each has two triple

» gates placed behind each other , as also a temple consisting of

» three divisions which has two side buildings containing three
,

» divisions and a green-tiled wall surrounds the emplacement. The

;

» Collective Statutes inform us that the sixteen Concubines for the

c
» C h a n g ling were buried along with the Emperor, but they
» do not give their respective ranks or titles. Those sepulchres were
» called Pits because they had no subterraneous passages, the graves
» being straight down in the ground" On page 1235 the reader '.

has seen that, according to the same author, these two mau-
solea were of larger dimensions than the Concubine's sepulchre
in which the remains of the last monarch of the dynasty were
laid to rest.
» As to and the King ling", thus we read
the Hien ling
in the wen Men
Suh fung Mao, »of the seven and eight Con-
» cubines of the monarchs buried therein three and one were ,

» respectively interred in the Kin-shan and the others all along ,

» with their master 8 And as to the Emperors buried in the Yii

.

»ling and the mausolea built after it, their Concubines no more
» followed them in death , because Hien Tsung put an end to
» burying the living with the dead , on account of (his father's)
3
» testamentary behests" . » Ying Tsung having put a stop to the
» immolation of Palace Dames", thus Ku Yen-wu says, »the sepul-
» chres of the Concubines were from that time denoted by special
» names. Some have been built within the Imperial Cemetery,
» others in the mountains elsewhere. Within the Imperial burial-

» ground we have that of Hien Tsung's first-rank Concubine of

» the surname of Wan it is situate in the Su Hills which lie more
; ,

~ # m # &mmMm mm\h z& ®

, m , , $\ ,

# # & m n # m & s f\ pi h i: m = w , ft . > , ,

s & , §fe * & g b # # & * i&i: ra i: T,

. *fc i!
^* ip fS • Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui hi , 1. 10,

2 The same statement occurs in the Ta Minr/ hwui tien, ch. 83, 1. 5.

» mm-bi& = m4t\u,&&ftm *%m Atto-

rn& ft, &#®m.&mM&it&mftm%yim
^ M. fw H JH B & u •
C1,a '
,tei 133 >
'• -
 ,

1242 THE GRAVE.

» than two miles south of the Pond of the Nine Dragons to the ,

» left of the C h a o ling; it is built like the two Pits and faces ,

c
» the east. Still further southward, in Mount Yin-ts ien ', is a
» grave containing the remains of Shen Tsung's Concubines viz. ,

» one of the first rank bearing the surname of Ching, and four
» others two of whom bore the surname of Li and two those of
, ,

» Liu and Cheu; it was likewise of the same construction as the

» two Pits and faced the south , but it is now in ruins. Proceeding
» again in a southern direction , we have in the O-'rh Valley the
» graves of four Concubines and two Heirs Apparent two Concubines ;

» of the surnames of Yen and Wang lie there in the middle with ,

» the Concubine Ma
and the Heir Apparent Ngai Chung
on their left

» farther off on the same side, while their right hand side is occu-
» pied in a corresponding manner by the Concubine Yang and the
» Heir Apparent Chwang King. They were Concubines and Heir-sons
2
» to Shi Tsung Further southward still we have the mausoleum ot
.

» Tao built like the two Pits and on the south-eastern exposure.
,

c
» The Empress Hiao Kieh of the surname of Ch en was interred here
» when she still bore the posthumous name of Tao Ling but on ,

» the death of (her consort") Shi Tsung she was reburied in the
»Yung ling (comp. p. 1190), and her first sepulchre still exists. In
» close vicinity to it we find the tomb of three Concubines bearing
c
» the surnames of Ch en, Wen and Lu, and the spot continues to
» be called the mausoleum of Tao (Ling). Inspectors of the Dwel-
lings of the Manes were appointed for those sepulchres" 3 .

1 This is the hill nearest to the great Red Gate , on the west. The name is also

written ^R ^S , Yin-ts'uen. See the Memoirs concerning the Department of Shun-

t'ien, ch. 20, 1. 16.

2 According to the Historyof the Ming Dynasty (ch. 120, 1. 2), Ngai Chung
was the eldest son of Shi Tsung and his Concubine Yen he died when only two ;

months old. Chwang King, Shi Tsung's second son, had the Concubine Wang for his
mother, and died on reaching the age of virility. On his death, »the Emperor
ordered that, a mausoleum should be built for him and Ngai Chung together":

m\uzft, it « ii ui it&miuft^mftwm .

z ±ji m\h±$jft^M.m%M\u, %nnM

\u ,m m n m is - ^ m m w m z m ,m % fa &
 SEPULCHRES IN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN MOUNTAINS. 1343

With the aid of the sketch given on page 1224, we may see
from this extract that the Imperial Cemetery extended considerably
to the south-west. Probably it was not quite unintentional that
so many consorts were buried on that side, the Chinese social
laws of etiquette prescribing that women , being naturally inferior
in rank to their husbands, have their places on the right side of the
latter, or the theoretical west. There were nevertheless a few graves
on the opposite side of the valley, that is to say, in or near the
Tung-shan l i.e. »the Mountains on the East". » Eastward from the
,

» Tung-shan Pass", says Ku Yen-wu, »we have the sepulchre of

» Ying Tsung's Concubine of the sixth rank bearing the surname
» of Liu, and eight miles further eastward, in Mount Mien those of ,

c
» Chwang Hien King of Khi and Hwai King of T ing sons of
, , , ,

» Jen Tsung. In general", he adds, »the outer walls of the Im-

» perial mausolea and the sepulchres of the Concubines , Crown
» Princes and Princes , as also those of the temples that are objects
» of Imperial care, are pargeted red"
2
. We need hardly tell our
readers that the » Eastern and Western Mountains" were important
factors of the Fung-shui of the Imperial Cemetery, forming, as they
did, a protecting Dragon and Tiger which sent down an abundance
of aquatic influences, accumulated, to the advantage of the mausolea,
in numerous brooks and gullies.
While the Ming dynasty held the reins of government, the
sepulchral valley was encompassed by a cordon of closures, placed
in the principal passes and denies affording access to it. » There
»are ten such passes in the mountains around", says Ku Yen-wu.
» Starting from the great Red Gate, we have, three miles

Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui hi, 1. 10.

a m m \u m m[t£\ iiiii^i.t^f^
/l m r m m * ? m i z m % ± Mm is £ *f »
 ,

1211 THE GRAVE.

» eastward , the Pass of the Central Mountains '

(Chung-shan Kheu),
» and six miles on in a north-eastern direction the Pass
further
2
» of the Eastern Mounts (Tung-shan Kheu) which is eight miles ,

» from the east gate of the chief city of the department. A three-
» storied building stood there on the south , and another on the north ,

» further there was a park of pine trees measuring several miles on

» each side , in which only pines and Kwe i trees grew, but which has
» now disappeared. Proceeding from this pass to the north in a
» westerly direction, we have, ten miles off, the Pass of the Temple
c
» of Lao-kiiin (Lao-kitin-t ang Kheu) situated two miles northward,

» from the King ling; above it is a temple for the worship of

» Lao-kiiin (Lao-tsze), which has three divisions. Then follows, fifteen

» miles westward, the Hien-chwang Pass, north of situated five miles

c
» the T ai ling; and again three miles further on to the west we have
» the Hwui Mountain-pass guarded by a military Captain then pro-
,
;

ceeding twelve miles in a south-westerly course, we arrive at the

» Pass of the Pin Rock (Chui-shih Kheu), which lies north-eastward

» from the Khang
ling, two miles off. These three passes were
» severally protected by a wall and had a sluice-gate (?) it was ;

» through them that the troops made their way who captured
c c
» Ch ang-p ing in the ninth year of the C h u n g c h i n g period (1636).
c

» Another twelve miles take us southward from the last-named pass

» to that of the Geese (Yen-tsze Kheu), which is situate three miles
» north-westward from the Khang ling; thereupon we have, three
» miles farther to the south-west, the Teh-shing Pass, which lies four
» miles from the Pond of the Nine Dragons and has a wall and
more in a south-eastern direction
» a sluice. Proceeding ten miles
» we Western Mountains (Si-shan Kheu),
arrive at the Pass of the
» which is two miles southward from the Tao mausoleum (see
» page 1242) and contains the small Red Gate, eight miles distant
» from the west gate of the chief city of the department. Finally we
» have, two miles east of this pass, the Cha-tsze Pass (comp. page 1182),
» situated from the great Red Gate. All these defiles
three miles
» were walled. In the rear of the mausolea there is also a passage

1 Thus because it lies between the hills which, as we have stated on

styled,
page 1187, are found on the south of the valley, between the Eastern and Western
Mounts.
2 See the sketch on page 1224. Through that Tung-shan Pass, a rivulet, formed
by the confluence of nearly all the brooks that cross the burial-valley, finds its way,
to discharge south-east of Ch'ang-plng city, in the Sha-ho
finally itself,
fy ^fjj"

or oSand River", a tributary of the Pei-ho.

 ,

GARRISONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE CEMETERY. 1245

» to the Hwang-hwa fort ', which is forty miles away from the
» Pass of the Lao-kiiin Temple. It was ordained in the sixteenth
»year of the Kia tsing period (1537), in the third month, to block
» up the passes in the roads leading from the eastern and western
c
» parts of the T ien-sheu Mounts to the Hwang-hwa fortress " -.
As the divisions of the military detached for the guarding of
c c
those numerous passes had their headquarters in Ch ang-p ing , this

city naturally derived a considerable significance from its vicinity

to the sepulchral valley. »The
town of the department", chief
says Ku Yen-wu » was anciently called Yung-ngan city. In the
,

»Ching t ung period (1436 1449) guards for the Ch ang ling,
c
— c

» the H i e n ling and the King ling were stationed in the Pass
» of the Central Mountains and in those of the Eastern and the
» Western Mounts, as also over the country under military occupation
» to the east and west in order to defend the mausolea and
,

» to protect the soil and the trees from damage. In the next
»year and in the first of the King t ai period (1450), a fortress c

» was built on a spot eight miles east of the then chief city of
c c
» the Ch ang-p ing district a military garrison was placed therein
;

1 On Chinese maps this walled place is placed almost due north of the valley,
not far southward from the Great Wall.

Ujji +
p„ ii*£m3icHmEJ*t]j p,x
Jfc:|fc;kffiBJ|tlllP,ffiJHJitF1Affl.*rit?$Mfc

©fta*, xm + r.mmmw.ft.mmvsft
=iaffii = iHiip,ffiii.iiji!ii!gi^
&,##H.X3tB? + mBBSUlP,S&t£l£i8-
M ,M * *r PI SB *H BSPlAM.^Ufc-MH*!?-
,

^^^#li|^ffiil^^^l^P- Ch'ang-pHngshan-shuiki,
11. 12 seq.

80
 ;

1246 THE GRAVE.

» and the name of Yung-ngan (Eternal Peace) given to it and ;

» in same period the garrisons of the whole

the third year of the
c
» Ch ang-p ing district were transferred thither. The eastern and the
c

» western gate of the present city, as also the great bridge and the
» old south gate within its walls, are remains of that Yung-ngan.
» In course of time , the guards for the mausolea being regularly
» increased , another wall was built south of the city and connected
» with and so the present south gate came into existence.
its walls ,

» The bricks and stones of the southern facade of the old walls
» were then removed and (the old city and the new quarter)
,

» thus being united , the place acquired a circumference of ten

» miles and twenty-four p u. The Prefect continued to dwell inside
» the old walls, on the west side of the main street" '.
The old chief city of the district sank after this to the rank of a
mere borough or village. It had lost all significance already at the
downfall of the Ming dynasty, for Ku Yen-wu writes, that »its
s
inhabitants then consisted of not quite a hundred households" . It

still exists at the present day. The Memoirs relating to the Depart-
c
ment of Shun-t ien, which were printed between 1884 and 1886,
state that » eight miles to the west of the chief city stands a
3
village , called Kiu-hien ", i. e. the Old District's Capital .

» At first the country formed a district (hi en) of the department

c
» of Shun-t ien. But Lin Han President of the Board of Civil ,

» Office at Nanking, proposed in the first year of the Ching teh

» period (1506) that officers of sundry ranks should be delegated
» by the reigning monarch to the three capital sacrifices annually
» offered in the mausolea , in order to take part in the celebration

Op. cit., 1. 2.

3 ^ /\ M H J|$ $15
Cha i )ter 28 >
'• 25 -
 ,;

GARRISONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE MAUSOLEA. 1247

» moreover, an Imperial son-in-law was sent thither on the anni-

» versary of Emperor and Empress as
the death of every , also at
» the end and the beginning of each year 1 The people . of the
» district being so poor that the purveyance of those visitors caused
» them much trouble and misery, requested that their district

» might be elevated to the rank of a department (cheu) and

» united under one administration with the districts of Mih-yun
» Shun-i and Hwai-jiu (situated eastward from it), in order that these
» countries might assist them in bearing those exertions and personal
» services, and all those who had to contribute their proportionate
» share to the forced statute labour , the feeding of the horses
» etc., might be delivered from excessive burdens. This request was
» acceded to ; but not long afterwards the country was again de-
» graded to its former rank. In the eighth year of the aforesaid
» period the Prefect Chang Hwai memorialised the Throne anew
» in the same sense, in consequence of which the district was
» definitively made a department (cheu) and united with the districts
» of Mih-yun, Shun-i and Hwai-jiu, to stand together with them
c
2
» under the jurisdiction of the Prefect of Shun-t ien" .

It is almost superfluous to say, that each mausoleum in parti-

cular was garrisoned. »The eleven mausolea", says Ku Yen-wu,

» each had a garrison ; those garrisons had authority over the five
» thousand families settled all around and inside the Cemetery,
» and the chiefs under the command of whom those soldiers

» protected and defended the mausolea, had their headquarters

» within the chief city of the department. In the twenty-ninth
» year of the Kia tsing period (A. D. 1550) the stronghold of
» Yung-ngan was garrisoned with four thousand men and that ,

» of Kung-hwa (south-east of Ch'ang-p^ng) with three thousand

1 This regulation is mentioned in the History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 60, 1.4.

it 0-g.MiiiE h mm m m m m m * & .

Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, 11. 2 seq.

JlK ~fc ifJ
 n .

1248 THE GRAVE.

» when these troops had nothing else to do , they were trained in

» the drill-ground of the chief city of the department, but when-
» ever there was something alarming abroad , they hastened to all

» the passes and exits of the valley, to obstruct and defend them" \
It was, no doubt, the mausoleum serfs
thousands of families of
mentioned in this extract, the whip of
that carried out, under
the soldiery, the works connected with the erection and repairs
of those numerous cenotaphs, in conformity with the Chinese
principle that everything existing under the sky, including the
bodies and labour of his subjects, is the property of the Son of
Heaven. That the Imperial sepulchres have in general come into
existence under the same regimen from early pre-Christian times,
and that this regimen has not seldom been enforced with ferocious
vigour entailing the loss of countless lives ; also , that strong military
garrisons have been laid in the mausolea since the reign of the
House of Han , and walled cities and strongholds founded for their

protection — are all matters we have already dilated upon in

Chapter V (pp. 427—436).

Monarchs who had the burial-places of their ancestors thus
carefully guarded against intrusion, may freely be supposed to
have had heavy punishments in store for those who presumed to
enter them without a valid official permit. » Those who arbitrarily
» enter the gate of the Imperial ancestral temple , or that of the
» grounds of a mausoleum", thus we read in the Code of the Ming
8
dynasty, » shall receive a hundred blows with the long stick" .

»Nor might the foot of the hills girding the mausolea be trodden
» for the purpose of felling timber making kilns or pits for baking
,

» bricks and pots, or building graves" 3 That rigorous laws and .

rescripts also existed then for the protection of the trees in the Im-
perial cemeteries, we have already shown on pp. 1207 seq.

±^^w±wmmm, %:&%%& n *
ft
I^^ + A^^ilf Ait ifc##, H^A±
2

Ming hwui
/l ma±mlien, ch. "138, 1.
pi
1.
# iii m&# n *#-w r«

History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 72, 1. 29.

 ,,

THE ORCHARDS. — THE TRANSPORT OF STONE BLOCKS. 1249

Chinese authors make mention of a dozen orchards ', one for

each mausoleum , distributed for the most part over the country
outside cordon of passes or near the great Red Gate, or even
the
c c
close to the gates of Ch ang-p ing city ". Though we are told nothing
about their destination, we cannot doubt that they served for the
production of the fruit required for the sacrifices to the Imperial
manes at the celebration of their several days of worship. They
will , we think , have disappeared by this time , or fallen into the
hands of people living in the vicinity.
To the invaluable treatise of Ku Yen-wu we are also indebted
for our knowledge of the place of origin of the marble or dolomite,
such enormous quantities of which entered into the construction of
the mausolea. »The white stone and the black mortar used for
» the mausolea and other important works, were", he says, » all
3
» got from the north-western mountains of Shun i" , that is to
c c
say, the district on which the Ch ang-p ing region abuts on the
east. If we add the quarrying work to the difficult transport of

countless unwieldy blocks to so far a distance, over bad roads and

hilly ground, the burdens laid upon the people in behalf of the
mausolea must really have been immeasurable. It would be
interesting to know the means by which the largest blocks, as
those for the effigies of the elephants and camels, were conveyed to
the spot at which they were placed in position and hewn into
shape. Unfortunately, Chinese books leave us in the dark here,
but it is highly probable that it was done in much the same
way as at present; hence it may be useful to reprint here what
two foreign residents have written about the matter. Mr. Rennie, Staff
Surgeon to the British Legation in Peking after the war of 1860
wrote: »At the commencement of February 1862 I received a
» letter from Peking giving me an account of a large block of
» white marble weighing sixty (?) tons which was at that time
, ,

» in course of passing through Peking on a large six- wheeled truck

» drawn by six hundred horses and mules. This mass of marble
» came from one of the quarries about sixty miles from Peking
» and was on its way to the Eastern Tombs , there to be cut into

<

2 The
%m location of all of them is given in the Suh sung luh, and reprinted from
this work in the Jili hia kiu wen, eh. 34, 1. 31.

BB Ll| • Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, ch. 2, 1. 3.

 ,,

1250 THE GRAVE.

» an elephant to form one of the decorations of the mausoleum of

» the late Emperor Hien Fung (Wen Tsung). Its dimensions were
» fifteen feet long , twelve feet thick , and twelve feet broad. The
» horses and mules were harnessed to two immense hawsers run- ,

» ning parallel with one another from the truck ; the length of each
» of them being nearly mile. On the block was
a quarter of a
» hoisted the Imperial flag and on the truck a mandarin and some ,

» attendants were seated. One of the latter had a gong, which he

» sounded after each halt, when all was ready to start. Other gongs
» were then sounded along the line and at a given signal the ,

» carters simultaneously cracked their whips, and off started the

» horses with their unwieldy load. The line was led by a man
» bearing a large flag and all orders were given by signals made
,

» with flags. Several other large blocks of marble have already gone
» to the Eastern Tombs for the same object as the one in question
» and others are to follow. The sums of money must be enormous
» which are expended in connection with the decease of an emperor
» of China" l
.

And Mr. Mayers says: »The limestone quarries of the Fang-

2
» shan district situated about fifty miles (westward) from Peking
,

» furnish the blocks which are carved into the shapes traditionally
» consecrated to the guardianship of the tombs and for the com- ;

» pletion of the mausoleum of Hien Pung it was necessary to trans-

» port masses of stone , estimated as weighing no less than six tons
» each , to a distance of about ninety miles eastward from Peking
» or about one hundred and forty The huge square
miles in all.

» blocks are so quarried out as to when finally

be allowed ,

» detached , to sink to rest upon two longitudinal beams which ,

» are subsequently raised to a sufficient extent to allow two sets of

» wheels consisting of solid blocks of wood roughly hewn into a
, ,

» circular shape, to be placed beneath them and connected by

» axles. To these axles are attached two enormous parallel hawsers,
» hanging but a few inches above the ground and extending for ,

» many yards in front of the truck. On either side of the hawsers

» there are fastened , at short distances apart , transverse lengths of
» drag-rope to each of which a pony, mule or donkey is harnes-
,

» sed and by these means some hundred or hundred and fifty

,

» animals may be brought to bear on the task of conveying the

1 Peking and the Pekingese, vol. II, ch. IX, pp. 256 seq.

2
m\um-
 THE HIGH ROAD BETWEEN PEKING AND Ch'aNG-p'iNG. 1251

» monolithic mass to its final destination. Special roads are prepared,

» when necessary, to facilitate the removal" '.

The numerous visits for the purpose of sacrificing and for other
ends, regularly paid every year to the Imperial tombs by the
highest grandees and dignitaries, and even by Emperors and Em-
presses in their own persons, naturally caused the high-road leading
c c
from Peking to Ch ang-p ing to be kept in a better condition than
Chinese roads generally are, and some good bridges to be made
in it. At the point where it
c
crossed the Ts ing-ho
2
—
•
a rivulet
coming from the Kin-shan and flowing almost due eastward, till
it discharges itself into the Sha-ho which has its sources in the
burial-valley (see page 1208) — there stood in the time of Ku
Yen-wu »a stone bridge across the stream which was built in
,

the Yung lohProbably it

period"
3
. was not far from the
present borough of Ts'ing-ho, where we now find a stone bridge
c
of which the Memoirs relating to the Department of Shun-t ien
c
say: »The Broad Ferry Bridge spans the Ts ing-ho twenty miles
» northward from the Metropolis. Formerly there was also a IVing-
» ho Bridge there, constructed in the Yung loh period" '. Further
c
on to the north, about halfway between Ts'ing-ho and Ch ang-
c

p ing, the road ran past Kung-hwa

5
now generally called Sha-ho ,

city
6
which, as we have learned on page 1247 from Ku Yen-
,

wu, was a stronghold with a large garrison when the Ming

dynasty was in possession of the throne. The road here passed
across the two principal sources of the Sha-ho, which come re-
spectively from the northern slopes of the Kin-shan and from
the Nan-khao Pass to meet not far and eastward from Kung-hwa.
,

Two beautiful bridges, which still exist at present, were placed

in the road over these rivulets during the Ming dynasty; the
7
southern one was then called the Quiet Ferry Bridge , and the
8
other the Bridge of the Ancestry of the Dynasty . » Orders for
» their construction were given in the thirteenth year of the Ching
1 Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XII, p. 5.

2
mm-
3 ^ ^ #§ $f l£ _£. , ;T<|t ^^- Ch'ang-ping shan-shui ki,\A.

@ , XK#4f 3t-Ch. 47, 1. 1.

 ,,,

1252 THE GRAVE.

»t ung
c
period (1448) to Wang Yung-sheu, junior Vice-President
» ot the Board of Works" 1
. » And the Quiet Ferry Bridge was
» restored in the twentieth year of the Kia tsing period (1541)" 2
.

The point where the high-road crosses the Sha-ho being about
a day's journey from Peking, the Emperors of the Ming dynasty
had a mansion there as a halting-place on visiting the tombs. Ku
Yen-wu says: » At first, when the Imperial retinue of horses and
» carts journeyed (through the Nan-khao Pass) to the northern depend-
» encies , or visited the mausolea , it halted as a rule at the Sha-ho.
» The substructures of a travelling-mansion of the Emperor Wen
c
» (Ch ing Tsu) are still extant there , but the building has been
» destroyed by a flood in the Ching t
c
ung period. When the
» Emperor halted at the Sha-ho in the third month of the six-
teenth year of the Kia tsing period (1537), Yen Sung, the
» President the Board of Rites pleaded that
of ,
, when this road
» was by the Imperial retinue for visiting the tombs the
used ,

» way southward and northward from the spot was equally long,
» and that the situation of Kii-yung 3 and Poh-yang close to
» the north-eastern frontiers enhanced its importance as a point
» of defence; for which reasons travelling- mansion ought to
the
» be rebuilt , fortifications thrown up around the place
to be
» and officers to be appointed for its defence. This proposal was
» executed , and in the fifth month of the seventeenth year a
» beginning made with the erection of a travelling-mansion eastward
» from Sha-ho village. The place was walled in the first month
» of the nineteenth year, and received the name of Kung-hwa.
» It measured two miles from south to north and two from ,

» east to west and it had four gates the southern one of which
, ,

» called: 'the Gate reverently bowing to the Metropolis', was

» moulded on the south gate of the Palace. The travelling-mansion
» stood inside the city. At first this latter was placed under the care
» of an officer of great merit, say a General; but in the twenty-

Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, 1. 1.

^ 3C" t& 1ftj j» *

ifll — »
~f" ^f ®^ ffl^ • Memoirs relating to Shun-t'ien

ch. 47, 1. 14.

3 A well-known defence midway Pass with an interesting
in the Nan-khao ,

arched gate sculptured with figures in and bearing inscriptions in half a dozen
relief
languages. Beautiful reproductions of those ornamentations and inscriptions have
recently been published by Prince Roland Bonaparte, under the title: » Documents
de l'Epoque Mongole des 13 e et 14 e Siecles".
 .
;

THE CEMETERY IN THE KIN-SHAN. 1253

» eighth year he was replaced by a Colonel , and still later on only

» a Captain was appointed to the post. There were five hundred
» buildings in the place , serving as headquarters for the several
» subdivisions of the garrison , as also as resting-places and barracks
» but they are now in ruins , and only the travelling-mansion still

» exists" \

The Cemetery in the Kin-shan.

We must now leave the chief burial-ground of the Ming family
and turn our attention to other cemeteries of the same House one ,

of which was situated in the same department, and three in divers

parts of the Empire.
The first-named we might call a cemetery accessory to that of
c
Ch c ang-p ing as the tombs of sundry Princes and Princesses of Im-
,

perial lineage and of some Imperial Consorts were placed in it. It

was situate within the boundaries of the present district of Yuen-
c 2 3
p ing , in the Kin-shan or Kin Mounts, so frequently referred to in
these pages. These mountains form the extreme north-eastern spur
of the so-called Si-shan 4 or » Western Mounts", which, as their
name indicates, extend along the Peking plains on the west side,
c
and abut in the north on the T ien-sheu Range, near the Pass of
the Western Mountains or the small Red Gate mentioned on
page 1244. The Kin-shan lie to the north-west of the capital, at
hardly half a day's journey from it , and almost clue south of the town
c c
of Ch ang-p ing , from which it may be easily reached in a day.

z^^u^^m^, &%m &¥&&& it ik

Z, -t ~b £Z 3L M ibttty M J£ ZMmffg + *, ,

m » pi w * f& ® M u #r ^ pi . . ft sr &mz*

j^ 4$: %-r ^2* ^jfe . Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui hi, 1. 2. Compare also the account

of the same particulars, given by the Jilt hia hiu men, ch. 33, 1 8.
1254 THE GRAVE.

Some well-known features of it are the Imperial pleasure-grounds

2 3 c
Yuen-ming Yuen ', Hiang-shan , Wan-sheu Shan and Yuh-ts uen
Shan 4
, situated at its foot to the south and south-east.
The Emperor King is the principal among the members of the
Ming family who were buried there. We have seen on pp. 1233 seq.

that he occupied the throne for some years in lieu of his elder
brother Ying Tsung, and that, on being dethroned by the latter, he was
degraded to the rank of Prince and refused a burial in the great
Imperial Cemetery. His mausoleum was laid out in the so-called

Kin-shan Kheu 6
or »Kin-shan Passage", a defile leading from the
plains in a north-western direction, right across the Kin-shan, to
c
its northern slopes, where we find the Heh-lung T an° or » Black
Dragon Pond", a well-known Buddhist temple frequented much
by foreign tourists. According to Ku Yen-wu, »it had three gates,
» each with three passages as also a temple with five divisions, a wall
,

» surrounding the ground, and a tablet-house within the gate" 7 .

Ching Hwui 8 King's repudiated Consort, who, as we have related

,

on page 734, had a narrow escape from being immolated at his

death as a sacrifice to his manes was buried by his side on her
,

demise in 1506 9 and, no doubt, those of his Concubines who

,

followed him in death (see page 733) were likewise buried in his
mausoleum or in its vicinity
The Yi/i fung cM 10 or » Memoirs concerning the whole Empire",
an exhaustive work on the geography of China published under
Imperial patronage about a century and a half ago, quotes the
following passage from the Clfang-ngan khoh hioa
u a work by
,

c 12
the hand of Tsiang Yih-k wei » In the depressed area in front :

» of that mausoleum are planted several white aspen trees and

»Ch c u trees (Ailantus Glandulosa). The Princes and Princesses
» of Imperial lineage who died before puberty, were also generally
» buried at the Kin-shan grounds forming one tract
Passage , in
» with those of the mausoleum of the Emperor King and the ;

» Imperial Concubines likewise were for a great part buried

*as^ui- 5
&ujp- &
mmn-
Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, 1. 11.

8 ^ jfC. 9 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 113, 1. 17.

 ,

THE CEMETERY IN THE KIN-SHAN. 1255

1 %
» there" . It is, in fact, stated in the Suh wen Men fung khao
that three of Jen Tsung's Concubines were buried in the Kin-shan
as also one of Siien Tsung, seventeen of Ying Tsung, thirteen of
Hien Tsung, two of Wu Tsung, one of Shi Tsung's father, fifty-

one of Shi Tsung, and all those of Muh Tsung. »At first", this

work adds, »each Concubine had a sepulchre to herself, and the

» thirteen Concubines of Hien Tsung were the first for whom one
» sepulchre was made in common. In the thirteenth year 3 of the
»Kia tsing period (A. D. 1534) it was deemed proper that,
» as the number of harem dames (shi-fu and yii-ts c i) was based on
» the cipher nine in accordance with the example of the ancients *,
» one sepulchre with one sacrificial temple for them all should be
» made for every nine Concubines. Thereupon they built in the
» Kin-shan five graves in advance each for nine dames who were , ,

5
» successively buried therein" .

According to the History of the Ming Dynasty there was also

an Empress buried in the Kin-shan viz. Kung Jang 6 who mar- , , ,

ried to Siien Tsung in 1417, was repudiated by him three

7
years after he had assumed the government . Likewise the divorced
,

j^l itk • Memoirs relating to the Department of Shun-t'ien , ch. 26 , 1. 6.

2 Chapter 133, 1. 14.

3 The text has »in the thirtieth"; but this is presumably a printer's error, it

being stated in the History of the Ming Dynasty (ch. 59, 1. 11) that the event in
question took place in the thirteenth year.
4 According to the History of the Ming Dynasty (ch. 114, 1. 4), this bad been
so since 1531 , when the Grand-Secretary Chang Fu-king EM *£l jSJ , deploring

that the Emperor had not yet begotten a son, directed his attention to the fact,
recorded in the Li hi (ch. 74, 1. 35), that »the Son of Heaven and his Consort an-
» ciently used to divide the harem into six halls and to appoint three dames called
»fu-jen, nine dames styled pin, twenty-seven shi-fu, and eightv-one ytl-ts'i":

#§ , A +* — W H Section
# ti •

\/i "2ft 3fe "HI .

Loc. cit.

7 Ch. 113, 1. 10. Comp. also the Ta Ming hwui tien, ch. 83, 1. 4.
1256 THE GRAVE.

spouse of Hien Tsung, a woman of the surname of Wu ', who was

his chief Consort on his accession , is stated to have been buried
s
in those grounds . All those sepulchres were distributed over a
vast tract, extending northward as far as the grounds watered by
the Sha-ho. According to Ku Yen-wu, » more than a hundred
» mausolea of Concubines, Heirs Apparent, Princes and Princesses
3
» buried in the Western Mountains were scattered over the region
» extending from the Sha-ho thirty miles to the south down to ,

» the place where the defile of the Red Rocks (Hung-shih Kheu)
» gave access into the hills and those sepulchres were so close
;

4
» together, that from each the next could be seen" It is doubtful .

whether there are any still extant in such a good state of preserva-
tion as to attract attention. Chinese guides conducting the foreigner
through those hills do not seem to deem it worth while to direct
his steps monuments; and even Dr. Bretschneider seems
to these
to have remained unaware of their existence while making geo-
graphical peregrinations in those parts, no mention being made of
them in his exhaustive essay on »Die Pekinger Ebene und das
benachbarte Gebirgsland".

The Nanking Mausoleum.

This sepulchre, of which we have spoken on pp. 821 and 1178,
c
contains T ai Tsu the first Emperor of the Ming
the remains of
5
,

dynasty. Having wrung the Empire by force of arms from the

Mongol family of Yuen, this monarch was enthroned at Nanking
in 1368, and bore sway there under the title of reign Hung wu 6
till his death in 1398, in which year he was buried at a few miles

from the town, at the foot of the Chung-shan 7 or » Bell Mounts".

The Chung-shan is a treeless range of hills to the north-east of
Nanking, forming the Blue Dragon of the Eung-shui of the city.
Nothing is known with certainty about the origin of its name,
but tradition asserts, that in the first year of the Yung kia

2
%
Tuh li t'ung khao, eh. 93, 1. 22.
3 A list them, coming down till the end of the 15th. century,
of seventeen of
is given in the Ta Ming hwui tien ch. 83 1. 6. , ,

&M fffi it = + M &I ^ P A LJJ H^MM Wangling

shan-shui hi, 1. 41.
 ,

ANCIENT AND MODERN NAMES OF THE CHDNG-SHAN. 1257

period of the Tsin dynasty (A. D. 307) a bell descended there from
the sky, and on being recovered from a brook, was found to bear
an inscription showing it to be a musical instrument made during
c
the reign of the House of Ts in. The range is still known by
other names. One of the oldest among these is Kin-ling Shan l
.

» Golden Hill Mounts", or, in an abbreviated form, Kin-shan 2

:

» Golden Mountains"; it was derived from the name Kin-ling,

which Nanking bore in pre-Christian times. Further we have
3
Tsiang-shan : » Mounts of Tsiang", from one Tsiang Tsze-wen 4
,

Governor of Nanking at the close of the Han dynasty, who having

,

perished in an engagement against an army of insurgents, was

an object of extensive worship in the locality during the course of
many The chain is also often styled Tsze-kin Shan 5
centuries. :

» Purplish Golden Mounts", which name according to tradition was , ,

given to it after the Emperor Yuen 6 of the Tsin dynasty, who

etablished the Imperial Court at Nanking in the fourth century of
our era, had seen it in a reddish haze; and even nowadays it is
notorious, both among the Chinese and the foreign residents in
the town, for its multifarious change of colours, especially observ-
able on bright and sunny days. Finally, in 1531, the chain received
from Shi Tsung of the Ming dynasty the name of Shen-lieh Shan 7
:

» Mounts burning by Spiritual Operation" this monarch intending 8

,

we think, to invigorate by the power of that name the beneficial

geomantic influences which he expected the hills to pour out over
c
T ai Tsu's grave , to be converted there into blessings for the progeny
of this Emperor.
During the Ming dynasty, and ever since, T ai Tsu's mausoleum c

was styled the Hiao ling 9 We dare not pronounce any sug- .

gestion as to the origin of this name, the Chinese books being

silent on the point. Hiao ling means » Mausoleum of Filial Piety ",
:

but this does not explain the secret ; nor is the veil lifted by the cir-

cumstance that the same name was borne many centuries before
by the mausoleum of Wu 10
of the Cheu dynasty, who died in
A. D. 578 ".
c c
Like the Imperial mausolea in the Ch ang-p ing department, the

1
&m\u- s^ijj. 3||iJ4-

8 History of the Ming D)'nasty. ch. 60, 1. 4.

11 Books of the Cheu Dynasty, ch. 6, 1. 17.

1258 THE GRAVE.

Hiao ling was taken under

by the present official protection
reigning dynasty. In an edict which Shing Tsu sent in 1684 to the
Governor-General of Kiangnan and Kiangsi, we read: »In regard
c
» to the mausoleum of T ai Tsu of the Ming dynasty, situated at
» the foot of the Chung-shan belonging to Kiang-ning, an Imperial
» rescript has hitherto been in force , ordaining that the magistracy
» shall offer there a sacrifice every spring and every autumn , and
» strictly forbid the gathering of fuel , as also that they shall ap-

» point families to guard the mausoleum and to go their rounds

» there in the morning and in the evening, to see that everything
» is in order. But this rescript being of ancient date , it is exe-
» cuted in all its parts with remissness. On the tour of inspection
» We are now making through the Kiang-ning region , We have
» personally visited the spot to worship and to offer libations to
» the manes, and have seen the walls in ruins, the trees withered
» and destroyed , all because ignorant people had not obeyed the
» restraining rescripts. By ruthlessly treading down everything and
» continually moving up and down the grounds they have seriously ,

» transgressed the laws. From this moment you yourself as Go- ,

» vernor-General and all the local Authorities must make frequent,

» tours of inspection to that place and use all your powers to cause
» the keepers to take assiduous care of it , lest the Bannermen and
» the people of the neighbourhood persist in treading down and
» destroying it, as they have hitherto done" '.

Thus the State papers themselves teach us that the now reigning
dynasty took measures for the protection of the Hiao ling
already at an early date, without, however, being thereby able to
prevent its being in a most lamentable condition hardly forty years
after it had enthroned itself at Peking. Manchu soldiery, pursuing
the conquest of the provinces ,
probably laid violating hands upon

1
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an4 m -t jf /x $ ia m n n ,& *i a « *a # *
m m % \% % w & a % % m % m & & m # ^
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S D5 isOi Wi £H- Sl,l " g y """' Edicts of Shing Tsu '

ch - 56, ' *•
 c
PROTECTION OF THE HIAO LING BY THE TS INO DYNASTY. 1259

it its Fung-shui
with the object of destroying and thereby breaking ,

the resistance champions in the cause of a family for

of the last

the weal and fortunes of which it had been a palladium for more
than two centuries. And the people no longer restrained by that ,

family, did more, gradually demolishing the mausoleum for fuel,

or timber, bricks and stone for their own building-purposes. Shing
Tsu allowed stillmany years to elapse before he took steps to
restore this monument of death to somewhat of its former glory.
»In the thirty-eighth year of the Khang hi period (1699)", thus
we read , » permission was granted to delegate a local assistant-
» magistrate of Kiang-ning to the Hiao ling of the Ming dynasty,
» in order to specially direct the repairs of its ruinous parts" l
But .

those measures did not, of course, restore to the mausoleum its

pristine grandeur. Nor may we expect that such a result was
attained by the edict issued in 1729 by Shing Tsu's successor,
which we have translated in its entirety on pp. 930 sqq. In China
Imperial orders are often a dead letter or very laxly obeyed,
especially if they tend to drain the treasuries of provincial Viceroys
and other mandarins; moreover, all those edicts were certainly not
intended to entail a thorough restoration. In 1744 again some repairs
were ordered. » In the ninth year of the Khien lung period per-
» mission was granted to delegate officials to make estimates of
» the expenditure that would be required for the mausoleum of
c
» T ai Tsu of the Ming dynasty, to wit , for the ruined parts of
» the Halberds' Gate («'. e. the temple gate) , the walls of the en-
» closed area, the audience-chamber, the side buildings, the tu-
» mulus wall etc., with orders that the rebuilding and restoration
2
» should be started with funds drawn from the Provincial Treasury" .

It may be surmised that, since that time, the Hiao ling has
been in a passable state of repair , as well as the mausolea in
c c c c
Ch ang-p ing. The great T ai-p ing insurrection was its doom.
In an edict which the late Emperor Muh Tsung issued in 1864

ik.
— A ^ ^ f^ 3S rK T
W. Hr £tl- "
'
Ts in9 hwili tlen Ueh li ' ch 137,
-

1. 32; Ta Ts'ing hwui tien shi li, ch. 715, 1. 6.

2
%t m % ^ m m ?x ^ m ± m mm m, f*\ mmm
^^
Ta Ts'ing
j|| fa
hwui
^ JH
tien shi
jgL |j^.
li, ch. 715,
Ta
1.
Ts'ing

9.
hwui tien tseh li, ch. 137, 1. 35;
 ^

1260 THE GRAVE.

to Chancery (Nei kok), we read: »In the third year of the

his
»Hien fung period (A. U. 1S53) the rebels took Kiangning
» (Nanking) by surprise, on which occasion , according to a report of
» Tseng and
Kii Hiang Ying, the temple of the Ming
sacrificial

» mausoleum was burned. Ere now, when the blazing fire of the
» insurrection was harassing the country with its violence, and suc-
» cess was not on Our side, We earnestly bore the regular temple-
» sacrifices of the seasons in Our mind, and felt very tristful on
» account of the mausolea of the former dynasty. Now the Red
» Banner Army reports that it has defeated the rebels and ex-
» tirpated them so that the city and the country around are
,

» thoroughly pacified ; but the remains of the temple after the

» ravages and acts of incendiarism of the soldiery resemble a mass
» of rubbish , even so that the place cannot serve for the pre-
» sentation of sacrifices if no restoration is undertaken. In accord-
c
» ance with the extraordinary rites , Tseng Kwoh-ts iien is com-
» missioned , to provisorily resort to the H i a o ling of T ai Tsu of
c

» the Ming dynasty and sacrifice there ; and Tseng Kwoh-fan is

» delegated to investigate , on one hand , the aspect of the places
» to be repaired and restored , and to speedily report to Us as to
» the same ; on the other hand , he must order the local Officials
» to project measures to be taken for the said repairs and do their
,

» best to rebuild everything complete, strong, and well-finished" 1 .

This specious edict simply effected nothing. When we visited

the mausoleum1886 we found it in a most desolate dilapidated

in ,

condition. Leaving Nanking through the eastern city-gate, the high-

road leads past an upright stone tablet, engraved with the three
characters which express the official name of the mountains : Shen-
lieh Shan. It is here that the approach to the mausoleum forks off

1
mm^^mmmmuw^ ^mm&mmw

sun *£*/&, *fo^&mmmm< as aa 1* «a ^ ae

m m # ft w * # it 14 £ £ *r js ft # % z & jffl. >

itfi^it^jl^fi^^^IS!!^- Sliin » /ii ""' Edicts of

Muli Tsung, ch. 37, 1. 2.
 :,

DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS OF THE HIAO LING. 1261

to the left. Quite close by there is a pair of stone posts , connected

at the top by a stone lintel, carved with six characters which read
» Officers of whatever class or rank, dismount!"'. At the same
time the eye beholds a stone tablet on a gradient pedestal of the
same material; it displays an ordinance of the year 1641, forbidding
all quarrying in the mausoleum grounds, the felling of trees,

etc. and also threatening with punishment all those who might
,

presume to approach the spot without alighting when a hundred

paces off, to reverently pass by afoot.
From this point we see at about ten minutes' walk the remains
, ,

of a triple gate of brick: the counterpart of the great Red Gate

c c
of the Ch ang-p ing mausolea. Its walls no longer bear any vestiges ot
plaster or ornamentation, nor of a roof, but chips of yellow tiles

may be picked up round about in the level fields. Through this

gate we come in a few minutes to the ruins of the great tablet-

house, likewise showing nothing but naked brick walls, the roofs
having entirely disappeared, and the huge tortoise which bears the
c
large monolith commemorating T ai Tsu's » divine feats and sage
virtues" being thus exposed to the open sky above. This building
once doubtless bore a great resemblance to its counterpart in the
c c
Ch ang-p ing Cemetery, its walls having on the four sides similar
tunnel-like aperturesnot less than eight metres in depth.
,

At approach makes a rectangular trend to the left

this point the

having to avoid an elevation of the ground which hitherto kept the ,

mausoleum hidden from our view. Wading a brook, once, no doubt

spanned by a which there are now no remains,
stone bridge of
we soon reach the avenue of stone images, which is the only part
of this cemetery that has preserved its original aspect undefaced.
We have described it on page S21. The double row of animals is
separated from the stone men by a pair of stone columns forming
the counterpart of those at the beginning of the avenue of animals
in the northern Cemetery (page 1203). At the point where these

columns stand, the avenue makes a strong trend to the right,

winding around the above-mentioned elevation and immediately un- ,

veiling the mausoleum in the distance. The avenue probably once

abutted on a triple gate resembling the Linteled Star Gate of
the northern tombs, six stone plinths, placed in a straight line

across it, showing that the same number of gate-posts must have
stood here.

81
 ,
,

1262 THE GRAVE.

Only a few hundred paces now separate us from the mausoleum

a distance certainly very small when compared with that which
cc
lies in the Ch ang-p ing Cemetery between the Linteled Star Gate

and the Ch ang

c
ling. Having crossed some arched stone bridges
lying abreast, we soon perceive that the mausoleum consists of
three successive enclosed squares of different breadths, the original
walls of which have disappeared and been replaced by mean walls
of debris and rubbish neither roofed , nor plastered. Those of the
,

foremost square are only a few feet high as if erected for no other ,

purpose than to indicate the site of the original walls. No doubt

this square once communicated with the open area before it by means
of a gate; but no trace of such a building is now to be seen.
From this square we enter the second and largest court through
the poor roofless remains of a portal patched up with rubbish
,
,

which no longer conveys an idea of its original aspect. Here we

find, forty paces onward, the large platform of solid stone which
formerly bore the gate of the temple; but even the last traces of this
gate are now obliterated. The ascents, and some remains of balus-
trades point out that this terrace once closely resembled that of the
c
temple gate in the Ch ang ling. Upon it we find a stone tortoise
bearing an upright stone, tablet with this inscription : » His reign
c
was as glorious as that of the dynasties of T ang and Sung" '.
It was placed there by order of Shing Tsu of the now reigning
c
House, who wished to give the highest possible praise to T ai Tsu's
memory by blazing abroad his fame at his tomb. On either side
of this eulogic monument we see the remains of two stone tablets
fixed in pedestals carved with dragons in relievo; but they are very
mutilous, and the inscriptions are hardly legible. Behind this row
of tablets, two similar monuments of smaller dimensions stand
abreast, but only one of them is in a good condition, having pro-
bably been renewed in recent times. It records that Shing Tsu in
the thirty-eighth year of his reign (1699) visited Nanking while
carrying relief to the country of Ngan-hwui, which was harassed
by tremendous and that he ordered his Ministers to offer
floods ,

a sacrifice in the Hiao ling, deeming it superfluous this time

to perform the ceremony personally as he had done so already
,

on two previous occasions. Besides, the inscription goes on to say,

he prescribed that some new repairs should be done. We opine
that the other five tablets were erected in commemoration of similar
 DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS OP THE HIAO LING. 1263

Imperial visits, Nanking six times. On

Shing Tsu having been at
the first and the second occasion, viz. in 1684 and 1689, he oflered
a libation in the mausoleum in his own person 1 in 1703 he ;

despatched a Grand-Secretary from the town with orders to sacrifice ,

in the mausoleum as his proxy; two years afterwards he was there

himself, and in 1707 he went up as far as the temple 2 .

Behind the platform of the temple gate, at some sixty paces' distance,
we find a stone terrace of three stages, formerly bearing the temple.
In the broad ascents in front and at the back we count twenty
steps , flanked by nicely wrought balustrades ; the middlemost ascent
has in the middle an inclined monolithic plane sculptured with dragons,
c
as in the Ch ang
ling. But the terrace is inferior in dimensions
to that of thismausoleum hardly measuring forty metres in length
,

on the top. The stone plinths once supporting the wooden pillars of
the temple are still to be seen upon it; but for the rest there are no
remains whatever of this edifice , except chips of bricks and ponderous
yellow tiles, lying thick all around. Square granite substructures on
either side, in front of the terrace, mark the spots where two sacrificial
furnaces once emitted clouds of smoke from the silks and paper money
sent up to the manes of the deceased monarch.
The square containing the two platforms is nearly two times and
a half as broad as the next one, into which we enter through the
roofless ruins of a gate situated at a short distance behind the
temple terrace. The three tunnel-like openings of this gate, which
c
strongly remind us of the Ling-ts in c
men of the Ch ang ling,
still exist. This third square measures circa sixty metres in breadth,
being consequently much narrower than c
the ts in of the Ch ang c

ling, to which it corresponds; but more than twice as deep,

it is

the distance from its gate to the Soul Tower being about two
hundred metres. No stone altar is to be found in it. In front of
the Soul Tower is an arched stone bridge , about twenty-five metres
broad and nearly fifty long. Its balustrades have disappeared, except

1 See the Ch'i poh ngeu Van yijl ^V /{E g^, a work completed in 1691 by

Wang Shi-ching T -^ jftS; apud ch. 45, 1. 7, of the Lih tai ling-ts'in khao,

"Inquiries about the Mausolea ot Successive Dynasties", an

/§ ffii. RS 7r^" -^i"'

elaborate collection of jottings on the sepulchres of Chinese monarchs of every age,

gleaned from all sorts of works; it is by the hand of one Chu Khung-yang ^ 'jf\J y^j
and came out at Shanghai about half a century ago.
2 Tung hvoa luh, jif ±i* £%, an historical account of the reign of the present

dynasty down to A. D. 1735; ch. 13, 15, 19 and 20.

1264 THE GRAVE.

a small portion just sufficing to show how nicely carved and elaborately
wrought they were. The channel underneath the bridge traverses
this square at right angles, and is entirely lined with large rect-

angular stone blocks ; doubtless it was intended from the beginning

to ensure to the grave and to the Imperial progeny a rich supply
of blissful aquatic influences.
The Soul Tower (see PI. XL1X) differs from the corresponding
c c
buildings in the Ch ang-p ing Cemetery especially in this, that the
terrace on which it stands is not of bricks , but of large rectangular
blocks of solid stone. Moreover , the terrace is not square, measuring
about sixty metres along the front and the back and somewhat over ,

thirty-two on the flanks; consequently it covers twice as much ground

as that of the Ch ang c
ling. Nearly the same proportion between
length and breadth exists for the tower which measures about forty- ,

six by
metres twenty-six, thus being likewise more than twice as
c
large as that of the C h a n g 1 i n g. The bricks of which it is made
are more than four decimetres long its walls are over three metres ;

thick. The roofs are now

The projecting eaves once
entirely gone.

rested all around the building upon wooden columns, stone plinths,
evidently having served to bear the latter , being still to be seen

on the borders of the high stone ledge on which the tower stands.
There is one vaulted opening in the back of this edifice, and one
in every flank but the front facade has three such entrances which
, ,

c c
is the case with none of the Soul Towers in the Ch ang-p ing Cemetery.
The pargeting has entirely disappeared, and so has the grave-stone,

it probably lying piecemeal within the tower under the debris of

the roof, overgrown with grass and weeds, out of which startled

pheasants flutter up lazily at the approach of visitors. Of the parapet

of the terrace even the last traces have now vanished.
Access to the top of the terrace is gained by a broad brick-paved
sloping footway, constructed against its two flanks, as in the Yung
c
ling in the Ch ang-p ing Cemetery (see p. 1232). The tunnel runs
c

upward with a considerable gradient and its outlet is quite open at

the back of the terrace, immediately behind which, like in the

King ling (p. 1226), lies the green foot of the tumulus. This latter

is surrounded by a wall of large-sized grey bricks, originally crowned

with a crenelated parapet of blocks of solid stone, as some portions
still extant show ; up against the Chung-
in the rear this wall slopes
shan ,
which the tumulus was raised. The tumulus
just at the foot of
resembles a truncated cone of an irregular shape, measuring circa
sixty paces across on the top. It is covered all over with brambles
 PI. XLIX.

W
£.
3'
w

B
CD
1

o
c
t-3
o
CD

CO*
 ,

THE HISTORY OF THE H1AO LING. 1265

and small which do not, however, grow so dense as to prevent

trees,
the visitor in the least from moving up and down it in any direction.
As the top of this gigantic tumulus stands out high above the
roofless remains of the Soul Tower , it affords a wide bird's-eye view
over the walled enclosures and the vast plain beyond, now treeless,
c c
but undoubtedly , like the Ch ang-p ing Cemetery once planted ,

with countless sepulchral trees. A few mean cabins inside the enclo-

sures indicate that the Government has not entirely withdrawn its

protection from this ruined cenotaph, for they are inhabited by

warders officially appointed to look after it. For the rest the eye
hardly descries any human dwellings, the population having been
exterminated by the terrible scourge of war which passed over it
c c
in 1853, when the T ai-p ing insurgents captured Nanking, and
again in 1S64, when they had to surrender the city to the Im-
perial armies.
c
T ai Tsu's mortal remains were solemnly entombed here in the
intercalary month following on the fifth month of the year 1398
only six days after his demise \ The tumulus had been made
c
already many years before , for we read that his consort Hiao Ts ze 2
,

the ancestress of the whole dynasty, was buried in the Hiao ling
3
in 1382, forty-five days after her death . It is further stated in
the Official Annals, that the temple was finished in 1383 and
solemnly inaugurated with a sacrifice, presented within its walls by
the Heir-Apparent and his train of Imperial Princes *. Concerning
the completion of the avenue we do not find any data recorded. But
we think it existed previous to the removal of the Court to Peking,
its grandeur and the great size of the stone images warranting the
surmise that it was not originally intended to serve for a single
mausoleum, but rather for a whole Imperial graveyard which was
then expected to arise there in the course of centuries, as has in
c c
reality become the case in the Ch ang-p ing region.
During the reign of the Ming dynasty, the Hiao ling was
officially ranked among its most important places of worship and

sacrifice. » An Inspectorate for the Dwelling of the Manes shall

» be established there", thus say the Statute Ordinances of that

House, »as also a special garrison, and an Office for Sacrificial

"1 Historv of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 3, I. 15, and ch. -4, 1. 1.

T^ /Hi*
3 History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 3, 11. 1 seq., and ch. 113, 1. 6.

4 Op. ait., ch. 60, 1. 2.

1266 THE GRAVE.

» Services Every year incense shall be ofiered in it on New Year's

l
.

» Day, in the first month of winter, and on -the anniversaries of the

» Emperor's death and birth further, a sacrifice shall be presented on
;

» the spot in the season of Pure Brightness (see p. 968), on the fif-

» teenth of the seventh month , and at the winter solstice ; and on

» these occasions a former High Minister of zeal and merit shall

» be specially ordered to perform the ceremonies, attended by a

» retinue of and military officers from every Y a m e n in Nan-
civil

» king. Whenever an Imperial Prince of the first rank travels to

» his principality, he shall on passing Nanking pay his respects
,
,

» in the mausoleum and the same shall be done by every office-

,

» bearer who enters that city on duty and such grandees shall ;

» also take leave there on departing from the city. And whenever
» anything of importance comes to pass in the Imperial Family, a
» Minister shall be delegated to announce it to the Manes, with pre-
c
» sentation of a sacrifice"
2
These rescripts were made by T ai Tsu's
.

3
successor , immediately after his accession .

In or near the Chung-shan were also buried the remains of many

Imperial Consorts of lower rank. But it is nowadays hardly possible
to trace the vestiges of their sepulchres. Nor can we make out
in how many tombs they were buried, either within the precincts
c
of T ai Tsu's mausoleum, or outside the same, as we know no
author providing us on this head with such precious details as Ku
Yen-wu gives about the Cemetery in Ch'ang-p'ing. The Statute Or-
dinances of the Ming dynasty put us off with the hazy statement,
that »the secondary Consorts were all buried together with the
» Emperor, and only two of them were interred on the east and
» west of his mausoleum " 4 A passage quoted by us on page 733
.

1 The same measures were, as we have seen on pp. 1213 seq. , taken with
regard to the northern mausolea, but at a later date.

A^ K'J
3 History of the
M iK E ^ «•
Ming Dynasty,
Ta Ming hwui
ch. 58, 1.
tten ' ch

2, and ch. 60,

- 83
1.
'
' 2
3.
-

hwui tien, ch. 83, 1. 5.

 ,

SEPULCHERS of imperial concubines and princes. 1267

from the official was followed

dynastic history, says that T ai Tsu
c

in death by numerous Dames of his harem and according to the ;

Sit/i wen Men Fung khao, the number of Concubines thus immo-
lated amounted to thirty-eight out of forty (see page 734). To
these particulars we may add a few afforded by Mao Khi-ling
1
a ,

contemporary of Ku Yen-wu, who recounts in a series of memoirs

relating to the Ming family, which he published under the title of
T^ung slri shlli i M or » Record of neglected Matters concerning
2

the Imperial History": » Forty-six Concubines were entombed with

» T ai Tsu in the Hiao ling, but there were only some ten Palace
c

» Dames among them who had sacrificed their lives. In the seventh
» month of the thirty-first year of the Hung w u period e. two («'.

c
» months after T ai Tsu's death), the Emperor who reigned during
» the Kien wen period (see p. 1179) promoted Chang Hwang,
» Li Heng etc., and a hundred mounted sword-bearing Chamber-
» lains selected from the Life-guards with Embroidered Uniforms,
» to the dignity of Chiliarchs and Centurions in situ, making these
» offices hereditary in their families. These men were all fathers and
» brothers of the Dames of the Western Palace who had immolated
c
» themselves at T ai Tsu's burial hence people at the time called
;

3
» them the Relations of the Imperial Ladies of the Court" .

Not far from the great mausoleum on the left or eastern side ,

some rubbish is pointed out as indicating the place where once

stood the beautiful cenotaph of
c
T ai Tsu's eldest son, the Heir-
c
Apparent Piao born of the Empress Hiao Tsz e. He died in 1392
*,

during the reign of his father the dignity of Crown-Prince thereby

,

devolving upon the son Hwui (see p. 1178). Piao is known in

historyby the posthumous name of I Wen 5 and also as the Emperor ,

Hiao Khang 6 which high title was conferred on him together

, ,

with the honorary temple-name of Hing Tsung

7
by Hwui a few , ,

#f^w^&wwtfi:Si.iaiiAWB5B#PEr
1268 THE GRAVE.

months after his accession \ But he was divested of this dignity

c
by Ch ing Tsu, in the year after this magnate had dethroned
Hwui to himself assume the Imperial dignity. Indeed, as this con-
querer refused to recognize Hwui as lawful Son of Heaven (see
p. 1180), it was quite reasonable that he should divest the father
of a title obtained in virtue of the Imperial dignity of his son.

The Tombs of the Ancestors of the Ming Dynasty.

In the province of Ngan-hwui, which extends along the western
frontiers of that of Kiangsu, of which Nanking is the capital, two
cemeteries exist, containing the remains of the four immediate
ancestors of the founder of the Ming dynasty. »When this monarch
» had offered a sacrifice to Heaven and Earth in the southern suburbs
» on day y i h-h a i of the first month of the first year of the
the
» Hung wu period, he ascended the Imperial throne, and decided
» that the designation of the owners of the World should be Ming,
» and that the epoch of his reign should be styled Hung w u.
» He bestowed honours on his deceased great-great-grandfather by
» conferring on him the title of Emperor Yuen with the temple- ,

» name Teh Tsu of ; to his defunct great-grandfather he gave the

» titleEmperor Heng and the temple-name of I Tsu; to his late
of
» grandfather the title of Emperor Yu and the temple-name of Hi
» Tsu and to his late father the title of Emperor Shun and the
;

» temple-name of Jen Tsu. Their spouses were all raised by him

c
» to the dignity of Empresses" 2
. T ai Tsu's first act of sovereignty
thus being to elevate his immediate ancestors to a rank equal to his
own, in obedience to the laws of filial piety and in imitation of
what the founders of former dynasties had done it was only reason- ,

able for him also to convert their graves into sepulchres worthy
of their high titulary position; and he was not backward in
doing so.

The graves of his three first-named ancestors were located in

1 See the History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 4, 1. 2, and ch. 115, 1. 4.

2
m n 7c ^ m ie n z, t> m%mnmm , wm.

# b ^ m ft m §t n m. ,<$ m. # . ti m* m^ ,

fc Hist0I 'y of the Min s D y nasty> ch 2, 1. 1.

VJU iffi o #fc If JlL Jet -
 : ,

THE TOMB OP t'aI TSc's GRANDFATHER. 1269

Sze-cheu ', a department north-west of Nanking, forming a part of the

province of Ngan-hwui. From its chief city, which may be reached
from Nanking in about four days, thirty Chinese miles northward
take us to the spot. According to tradition , it was its exquisite
Fun g-s h u i that enabled the Chu 2
family, that lived there , to be-
come the cradle of an Imperial family of so much glory and
renown. We read on this head
»The grandfather of the dynasty originally dwelled in Kii-yung
» near Nanking, to the south-west; comp. p. 1045), in the
(a district

» village of Tung-teh in the street inhabited by the Chu family.

,

» He lived in the last years of the reign of the Sung dynasty

» and in the first years of that of the House of Yuen. In the Chi
»yuen period (12G4 — 1295, under Kublai) he migrated with his
» kinsfolk across the ( Yang-tsze) river , under the pressure of the
» troubles prevailing at the time ; he arrived in Sze-cheu ,
perceived
» that the climate was pure and the soil fat , and settled there for
» good. Eighteen years afterwards , he once upon a day laid him-
» self down to rest upon a mound
at the back of his house ,

v belonging to the Yang family, when two professors of Taoism

» happened to pass by the foot of the mound. One of them
» pointing towards the spot where he was lying said If any one , :
'

» be buried there, the spot will certainly produce an emperor'.

» And upon his disciple asking him the why and wherefore he ,

» went on to say If you put the matter to the test by means of

:
'

»a dry branch, you will see it produce leaves'. They told Hi Tsu
» to rise who purposely feigned to be dozing. The Taoist now
,

» stuck a dry branch into the ground and went on. ,

»Ten days afterwards, at early dawn, Hi Tsu repaired to the

» spot to see whether anything had happened, and found the
» branch in leaf. He pulled it out of the ground and replaced it
» by a dry branch. When the Taoists came back, they felt astonished,
» and on perceiving Hi Tsu who stood close by, they pointed at
,

»him, saying: 'No doubt this man has changed our stick for
» another'. Then they said to him: 'If you are buried here on
» your felicitous departure from this life there shall be a Son ,

» of Heaven born among your descendants'; and they suddenly

» vanished. Thus Hi Tsu came to be buried on this spot at his
» death which occurred in the second year of the Chi h w o period
,

» of the Yuen dynasty (A. D. 1329). When they began to throw

 .,

1270 THE GRAVR.

» earth upon his grave , it spontaneously fashioned itself into a

» tumulus" '.

c
T ai
Tsu's father transferred his dwelling-place to the department
of Fung-yang ~, which borders on Szg-cheu to the south. Afterwards
he was buried not far from the chief city of that department;
and it was probably for this reason that Tai Tsu resolved on
establishing there the capital of his newly acquired Empire, and
began to give execution to the plan. » In the ninth month of the
» second year of his reign", so we read, »he commenced building
» the walls of a Central Metropolis westward from the old chief city
» of that department ; these walls were finished in the twelfth month
» of the following year , and measured fifty miles and 443 p u in
» circumference. In the centre an Imperial City (for the Palaces)
» was made, nine miles and thirty p u in circuit and with a gate ,

3
» called the Southern, exactly on the southern exposure" Though .

this new Metropolis never served the Court for a residence,

yet, as we shall see on page 1275, was carefully maintained,
it

probably because excellent accommodation was furnished by it

for the troops appointed for the protection of Jen Tsu's grave,

««Jlfi:i&$i<l#iiffi»#:£#A. £3c^tg

*r ® m =^&± a . =n & «b # m ft m w , ^f

^ "PI 7?J ^M" ~f* Iffl S Jfjt -^t '

Ch' un m ^ n 9 tnung yu luh, quoted in

the Ku kin t'u shu tsih eh'ing , sect, jjjffi -tA ,

ch. G5.

JH^LJ&H+^jE^JP^B^P*!- Hist0, y of the Ming Dynasty,

ch. 40, 1. 24.
 ,

THE MAUSOLEUM OF TC AI TSU's FATHER. 1271

which was situated twelve Chinese miles south-westward from it x .

» When the works at the Central Metropolis and the Imperial

» mausoleum had commenced, the limits had been measured out and
» the walls were to be built, the authorities memorialized the Throne
» to the effect that the vicinal graves of the people ought to be
» removed from the grounds. But the Emperor said :
'
They are all
» graves of former neighbours belonging to Our family they need ;

» not be removed '.

And when the mausoleum was finished a board ,

» with gilded characters was suspended at each of the four gates

» displaying this inscription :
'
If there are within this mausoleum
» ground any graves of former generations of the people , the
» people shall be allowed to go in and out to sacrifice and sweep
» on the spot in spring and autumn; no obstacles shall be placed
» in their way '" 2 .

The solicitude of the founder of the Ming dynasty for the tombs
of his ancestors is characterized by the following passages, which
we find among the Statute Ordinances of that House: »The mau-
» solemn of Hi Tsu , situated in Sze-cheu in the present department
c
» of Fung-yang, north of Pin-ch ing, was endowed in the first

» year of the Hung w u period with the honorary designation

» of Tsu ling (i. e. the 'Mausoleum of the Grandfather'). An
» Office for was established at Sze-cheu , and
Sacrificial Services
» an officer for presenting sacrifices appointed who had also to ,

» sacrifice at the mausolea of Teh Tsu and I Tsu. Two hundred

» and ninety-three mausoleum families were assigned to water and
» sweep those grounds. Every year on New Year's Day, in the season
» of Pure Brightness, on the 15th. of the seventh month, at the
» winter solstice and at the new moon and the full moon of every
,

» month the dignitaries in the aforesaid office are to offer sacrifices

,

» there and to perform ceremonies " 3 .

1 See the Yih t'untj chi of the Ming Dynasty, HH — |&S Jg j

quoted in the

Tuh li t'ung khao , ch. 93, 1. 2.

^Ifc^ffllKHi A,||' Lih '"< Ung-ts'in khao, ch.45, 1.16.

1272 THE GRAVE.

»And mausoleum of Jen Tsu, situate at the Central Metro-

the
» polis in the department of Fung-yang close to the village of ,

»T ai-p ing, was endowed in the same year of the Hung wu period
c c

» with the honorary name of Hwang ling (i. e. the Imperial

» Mausoleum). A special guard was appointed for it, together with
» an Office for Sacrificial Services, composed of a chief officer for pre-
» sen ting sacrifices and three subaltern sacrificial officers , all of whom
» were former State servants of great zeal, possessing an hereditary degree
» of nobility. The mausoleum families were 3842 in number; they had
» to provide for suitable halting-places and lodgings (for the visitors
» and their corteges), and to water and to sweep the grounds.
» Twenty-four Masters of the Ceremonies were appointed at the Court
» to act as directors when sacrifices were offered. The annual cere-

» monies on New Year's Day, in the season of Pure Brightness on ,

» the 15th. of the seventh month, at the beginning of winter and

» at the winter solstice , were to be performed by the functionaries
>> of the Office for Sacrificial Services , and the ceremonies at new
» moon and full moon by the officers stationed in the Central
» Metropolis. Since the first year of the Hung chi period (1488)
» an officer of the Court has been delegated with orders from the ,

» Emperor to supervise the measures taken for the preservation of

» the mausoleum. In general, when officers on duty travel past it,

» they are bound to visit it and render homage" '.

Prom the above rescripts relating to the grave of Hi Tsu

it seems to follow, that it was situated close to those of Teh
Tsu and I Tsu, and that the latter were merely considered as

mmmmm^^m* fimF-'B & + = ?&&

4| llf -flt £5 Iff SB. Ta Ming hwui ticn, ch. 83, 1. 1.

cit
^Ulfli- °p- et loc -
 ,

THE TSU LING AND THE HWANG LING. 1273

accessory to it. It deserves attention that the number of families

appointed for the protection of this burial-ground only amounted
to about a twelfth of those appointed for the Hwang ling, and
that , unlike this latter , it was not garrisoned , as also that the
officer appointed to sacrifice at it was not assisted by three
subaltern officers; all which facts clearly show that it occupied a
much lower position than the Hwang ling among the objects
the dynasty deemed worthy of its attention. »The temple of the
»Tsu ling", we further read, »was erected in the fourth year of
» the Hung wu period (1371). It was modelled after the temples
» of the dynasties of Tang and Sung, inasmuch as (the three
» ancestors) had one common main hall in it and each a special ,

» compartment to himself. The front hall and the back hall of

» this edifice each contained fifteen pillars two of which formed an ,

» extra compartment on the eastern as well as on the western side.

>% This arrangement had been proposed by Suh, the Prince ofTsin.
» The compartment for the worship of the soul tablet of Teh Tsu,
» at the same time destined for the general family sacrifices was ,

» between the three central pillars I Tsu was worshipped at the ;

» eastern pillar, and Hi Tsu at the western. In the nineteenth year

» of his reign the same Emperor ordered the Heir-Apparent to

» travel to Sze-cheu and there take in hand the restoration of the
,

»Tsu ling, as also to bury crowns and costumes on the spot in

» behalf of the three Imperial Ancestors and their chief Consorts" '.

This statement that the three Ancestors had one temple in common
implies, we think, that their remains rested in one mausoleum.
And in reference to the Hwang c
ling we read: »T ai Tsu, on
» visiting Hao-cheu (i. e. Fung-yang), resolved to transfer the remains
» of his father (to the Chung-shan) ; but this plan was not carried
» out. He heightened the tumulus with earth and ordered the
» people living of old around the mausoleum viz. the families , ,

» named Wang Wen Liu Ying etc., twenty in

, , all to watch over it.
, ,

M.jt
of the
t ft m jh # m 11 m m = a % b m &-*^y
Ming Dynasty, ch. 58, 1. 1.
1274 THE GRAVE.

» Tn the second year of the Hung w u period he conferred on it

» the honorific name of Y i n g ling, which he afterwards changed
» to that of Hwang ling" '. This mausoleum was a real family
cemetery. For close to it there were also five sepulchres with the
c
remains of Jen Tsu's brothers, to whom T ai Tsu had granted the
title of Imperial Prince (Wang) at the commencement of his reign;
and three of them were interred there with their consorts. The
manes of all were worshipped regularly by officers appointed to that
end ". We but cursorily note that another cemetery, containing the
c
remains of ten personages elevated to the rank of Prince on T ai
Tsu's accession and of four of their spouses was situated twenty-
, ,

five Chinese miles north of Fung-yang in the so-called White Pa-

goda Grounds 3 An Office for Sacrificial Services was also instituted

.

for this burial-ground and families were appointed to guard it 4

, .

As long as the Ming dynasty was in possession of the throne and

the realm,its two oldest cemeteries were just as much objects of its

unwearied care as the mausolea of the Emperors who had actu-

ally reigned being all the same regarded as corner-stones of the
,

Fung-shui and fortunes of the Crown. We read of repairs ordered

by different Sons of Heaven of solemn sacrifices personally pre-
;

sented by them at the Hwang ling when passing by on their

frequent journeys between Peking and Nanking; of edicts ordering
rigorous measures to be taken against violation of those sacred grounds.
So, for example, »it was ordained in the fifteenth year of the
»Ch ing hwa
c
period (A. D. 1479) with respect to the forbidden
» hills and grounds of the Hwang
ling, the Imperial City, and
» the Tsu ling and military appointed
in Sze-cheu: The civilians

» to go their rounds there shall apply themselves with zeal and

» care to the work of inspecting and watching and nobody shall ;

» be allowed to fell any trees there or to fetch away soil or ,

» stones , or to erect kilns for pottery or bricks , or to burn the

» vegetation on the hills. As to those who render themselves

2 Tn Ming hvoui tien, ch, 83, 1. 7; History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 59, 1.15;
Suh wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 133, 1. 11.

4 Tn Ming hwui tien, ch. 83, II. t'> seq.\ History of the Ming Dynasty, loc. cil.:
and Suh wen hien t'ung khao, loc. cit.
 .

NAMES GIVEN TO THE ANCESTRAL BURIAL-GROUNDS. 1275

» guilty of ploughing or sowing outside or inside the Imperial City,

» or pasture cattle there, or spoil or deface anything, the chief
» culprits shall be put to death , and all their kinsfolk sent to a
» remote region for perpetual banishment. And it those who have
» to examine such cases accept money or presents or if the grounds ;

» are not diligently and cautiously guarded and inspected or if ;

» the military captains, overseers, etc., eager for bribes, are remiss
» in restraining the people by severity, so that the lower classes
» freely do harm there and are not kept within bounds , they shall
» each and all meet with condign punishment" We learn from
1

this edict, that the Central Metropolis and the enclosed Palace-
grounds within it, had not ceased to be objects of official concern
one hundred and ten years after they were built, and that they
were then so sparsely populated, that even in those Palace-grounds
the soil was in perpetual dauger of being converted into fields and
meadows. Provisions being made for it and for the neighbouring
mausoleum in one and the tame edict, it is clear that both were
officially considered to be inseparably connected.
In 1531, when Shi Tsung gave a new, high-sounding name to
the Chung-shan (see page 1257), he decreed at the same time that
the grounds about the Tsu ling should thenceforth be styled
Ki-yun Shan 2 » Mounts forming the Base of the Destiny (of the
,

dynasty)", as also that those about the Hwang ling should bear
the name of Yih-shing Shan 3
, » Mountains creating a Glorious Im-
perially *. The rebellions which harassed the reign of the last
'

monarch of the Ming dynasty, finally entailing his suicide and the
downfall of his House, also struck the first blows at his ancestral
tombs, for we read, that »in the eighth year of the Ch'ung

#^#&' ^mt Mmmm^mmm^, urn

T A & & ft W ^ hI it y& % — fl S P M™9 hwm
Hen, ch. 83, 1. 9.
,
- T-

2
S M\h
4 History of the Ming Dynasty,
3 m. ag ^
ch. GO, 1. 4.
1276 THE GRAVE.
c
»ching period Chang Hien-ch ung captured Fung-yang, and set
» fire to the Soul Tower and the temple of the Hwang ling" 1
.

It is hardly imaginable that in those days, precarious as they

were, the other Imperial ancestral tombs in that region should have
remained undamaged internal peace returning no more in the nine
,

years which still elapsed before the Ming dynasty was finally de-
c
throned. And the House of Ts ing does not seem to have much
troubled itself about the restoration of those monuments, not a
word about measures in this sense being found by us in any col-

lection of Imperial Ordinances issued during its reign. We cannot

say whether any remains or ruins of those mausolea are still ex-
tant, as the part of the Empire in which they would lie has not
been explored by us. The absence of a description from these pages
cannot, however, be a great drawback, as it would undoubtedly
give hardly anything to read but an abridged repetition of our
c c
accounts of the Ming tombs in Ch ang-p ing and near Nanking.

The Mausoleum of the Titulary Emperor Hien.

Under the Ming dynasty, enfeoffed Imperial Princes were, it seems,
often buried in their feudal kingdoms. This was also the case with
Yiu Yuen 2
,
younger brother of the Emperor Hiao Tsung. Appointed
14S7 feudal Ruler (Wang) of the country of Hing
3
in in the pro- ,

vince of Hupeh, he died in 1519 and was buried in the hills

4
north of Ngan-luh , the chief city of his fief, extant to this day
on the left banks of the river Han 5
as chief city of a department
of the same name. Two years afterwards , the son of this magnate
inherited the Imperial throne from Wu Tsung, Hiao Tsung's son,
who died without male issue (see p. 1231); he is known in history

by the temple-name of Shi Tsung. As one of his first measures , he

conferred the posthumous title of Emperor upon his father, who
was thenceforth styled Emperor Hien of Hing c the honorary name
: ,

of Hien having been bestowed on him at his death by the then

Tsung » elevated his father's sepulchral park
reigning sovereign. Shi
» to the rank of a ling, appointed inspectors and guards for it
»from among the members of the Imperial clan, in accordance

ch. 23, 1. 10.

*nbU- 3
&I- 4
^l^-
5
H- Q
mm^-
 ,

THE MAUSOLEUM Of SHI TSUNG's PARENTS. 1277

» with the prevailing custom and instituted an Ottice for Sacrificial ,

c
» Services Ts ien TszS-hiun memorialized that the remains
for it.
c
» of the Emperor Hien ought to be transferred to the T ien-sheu
» Mounts and buried there. But Sill Shu, President of the Board
c
» of Rites demonstrated that the Emperor Kao (T ai Tsu) had
,

not been transferred to the Tsu ling, nor T ai Tsung (Chlng

c
»
» Tsu) to the H i ao ling, so that circumspection was advisable. As
» Chao Hwang , the President of the Board of Works , also
» advised against the measure , the Emperor desisted from it , and
» conferred upon the mausoleum the honorary name of Hien
»ling" 1
. This name had
borne by the sepulchres of also been
Kao Tsu 2 and Shi Tsung 3 of the House of
of the Tsin dynasty,
Liao, who died respectively in A. D. 943 and 950 '. »In the
» seventh year of his reign Shi Tsung himself prepared an in- ,

scription for a stone tablet in the Hien ling; (in the tenth
» year) he conferred the name of Shun-teh Shan Mounts of Pure :
'

» Virtues or Benefits', upon the Sung-lin Shan or 'Pine Forest

»> Mounts' (in which the mausoleum was situate), changing also
c c
» the name of the Ngan-luh department into that of Ch ing-t ien
5
»i. e. 'Inheritance of Imperial Dignity'" .

Simultaneously with his deceased father, Shi Tsung conferred

the Imperial dignity upon his still living mother, who bore the
surname of Tsiang 6
. »In the twelfth month of the seventeenth year
» of the K i a t s i n g period ", thus we read further, » she died, and the
» Emperor then ordained that the Boards of Rites and Works should
» re-inter the remains of the Emperor Hien in the Great Valley
» grounds (forming a part of the Ch cang-p ing Cemetery, c
see p. 1225).

of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 115, 1. 6.

4 History of the Five Dynasties, ch. 9, 1. 2, and History of the Liao Dynasty,
ch. 5, 1. 3.

f^ ^H
ch. 59,
jwl $ 5^ fft
Hist01 'y of the Ming Dynasty) cn -
H5 >
'• 6 -
See als0
1.10; ch. 60, 1. 4; ch. 17, 1. 8.

6
M-
82
 ,

1278 THE GRAVE.

» He ordered Kwoh Hiun , King of the principality of Yih , to

» superintend measures to be taken in regard to a mausoleum
the
» for his Imperial mother; but when he had himself travelled to
» the Great Valley and seen the spot , he ordered measures to be
» contrived for the conveyance of the Empress-Dowager to the
» south , for burial there at the side of her consort. Now Yen
»Sung, President of the Board of Rites, demonstrated in concert
» with others that, setting out in the morning, the Great Valley
» might be reached the same evening , but that the H i e n ling
c c
» was so far away in Ch ing-t ien , that the Emperor (if his parents
» were buried in this mausoleum) would think with uneasiness of
» them all the year round ; therefore , they said , itwould be better
» to follow the course resolved upon at first. The Emperor there-
c
» upon said: 'Indeed, Ch ing Tsu must have often asked himself
» why his grandfather was buried in the south, in the Hiao
»ling'. So he did not yet give execution to his plan, but ordered
» Chao Tsun to set out and open his father's crypt to examine it.
» This officer returned the following year, reporting the Hi en
» 1 i n g to be no felicitous sepulchre. The Emperor thereupon resolved
» to travel to the south himself; his chief ministers Hii Tsan etc.
» dissuaded him from doing so, but their advice was not heeded;
c
» and when Wang T ing-siang , the Censor for the left part of the
» Metropolis, joined his remonstrances to theirs, he retorted: 'I
» do not go for idle reasons, but for my mother's sake'. The
» Censor Lii Jan , the Supervising Censor of the Boards Tseng
c
» T ing , the Censor Liu Hien , the Board Secretary Yoh Lun, etc.

» likewise consecutively addressed protests to the Throne. But the

» Emperor turned a deaf ear to them , and in the third month
» he arrived at Ch c
ing-t ien
c
, where he visited the Hien ling and
» had a new crypt made , declaring he destined it for the burial

» of the Empress by the side of her spouse.

» On the way back he passed Khing-tu. Here the Censor Sie
» Siao-nan directed his attention to the grave of the mother of Yao
» and requested him to offer a sacrifice at it, rescripts about it being
» laid down among the official ordinances concerning the sacrifices
» of the State. The Emperor then spoke : 'As the parents of the
» Emperor Yao are buried in separate sepulchres, it is clear that
» burying husband and wife in the same grave was not customary
» in ancient times'. Forthwith he bowed to Siao-nan in token of
» respect , and was prevailed upon by the Senior Director of the
» Supervisorate of the studies of the Heir-Apparent, a Han-lin
 THE MAUSOLEUM OF THE PARENTS OF SHI TSUNG. 1279

» graduate of the third degree , to bury his mother in the Great

» Valley grounds. But when he visited the Ch ang ling
c
in the
» fourth month , he declared to Yen Sung that the Great Valley
c
» was not so good as the Shun-teh Mounts; and he ordered Ts ui
» Yuen to convey the coffin to the south , where it was entombed
» in the Hien ling, at the side of her Imperial Consort, in the
» seventh month" '.

As a matter of course , the mausoleum of this titulary Imperial

couple was administered, guarded and sacrificed at on the same footing
as the other burial-places of the Ming family, and similar offices

were instituted for the proper execution of the rescripts issued with
respect to it by the Throne. »It was finished in the second month
2
of the twentieth year of Shi Taring's reign" , that is to say, nine-
teen months after the burial of his mother. Among the edicts pro-
mulgated by the now reigning dynasty, we have never found any,
prescribing measures for the preservation of this cenotaph. Neverthe-

l M
5SS
**
1
*t ** a ^ \u . mmm &mm&mn \um
B5ifiB3Rffi#jK##w, -A^^mB?^., mm
h % m b.^ & M.m.^ n
, mm ^m M it ,m &

§§ f^ History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. 115, 1. 8.

2 ZL-f-^^n^HHtj^;- Op. at., ch. 17, 1. 14.

12S0 THE GRAVE.

less seems preposterous to conclude herefrom, that the Central

it

Government and the Authorities of the region in which it lies

have always left it to its own fate, for it still exists at the present

day, though in a ruinous condition. We learn this from a short

description of thistomb, which M. Michaelis gives in his account of
a journey he in 1879-— 81 through central and western China '.
made
This description, illustrated by a sketch-plan of which Fig. 42 is a
reproduction, shows that this sepulchral monument, though not
differing essentially in plan from the other mausolea of the Ming
dynasty, possesses "some features which render it w orth while repro-
r

ducing here what its author mentions of it.

The avenue inclusively, it is situate within a vast, walled area

of almost two kilometres by one, to a great extent converted
into rice-fields. The foremost half of this enclosure is nearly
square, with rounded corners; the hindmost half, which contains
the tumuli , is rounded off at the back. The brick wall approximates
to six metres in height, and is roofed with yellow and blue glazed
tiles. In the which faces the south is
middle of the front wall , ,

a large brick gate, on a basement of sandstone, hard and

built
solid, and with three passages, eight metres deep. Behind it, a
path, partly paved with slabs of stone, leads across a triple stone
bridge with balustrades of the same material to an insulated gate,
which we do not doubt is the counterpart of the Red Gate of the
c c
Ch ang-p ing Cemetery; close by it stands a hamlet, where, we
think, the descendants dwell of the families that were appointed
in times long past to guard the grounds. Moving onward in a lineal

direction, we again cross a triple bridge, then arriving at a tablet-

house measuring eighteen metres on every side and entirely of
stone blocks. It has in every facade a lofty, arched entrance, over
which are affixed slabs of stone sculptured with curling dragons;
the roof is destroyed, and the tablet has fallen to the ground.

Behind the tablet-house is another triple bridge, giving access

to an avenue lined with full-sized clumsy stone images of animals ,

and men. It is almost two hundred metres long. First we have a

paii of octagonal pillars covered with sculpture then follow two lions,
-
;

two tigers, two camels, two pairs of unicorns and two horses, all
couching, and finally two standing horses, two pairs of military
officers, and two pairs of civilians. The avenue terminates at a gate

1 »Von Hankau nach Su-tschou", published in » Petermanns Mitteilungen " for

1888, Erganzungsheft n°. 91, page 9.

 DESCRIPTION OF THE REMAINS OF THE HI EN LING. 1281

of stone blocks, corresponding , we think , to the Linteled Star Gate

c c
of the Ch ang-p ing Cemetery; behind it lies again a triple bridge

Fig. 42.

Sketch Plan of the Mausoleum of Shi Tsung's Parents.

of stone. The four" bridges span short transverse canals, which

terminate on either side in a ditch running parallel with the
avenue, so that this latter is entirely surrounded hy a moat, doing
service, we believe, as a repository for good aquatic influences.
1282 THE GRAVE.

About 250 metres onward we pass a triple bridge, beyond which

we behold a round pond lined with blocks of stone, which, we sup-
pose , is intended to insure the felicity of the temple and the tumuli
that are situated farther on. The diameter of this pond is about
thirty metres. Having passed through a triple gate raised on a
platform of stone, we enter a walled court paved with slabs,
and perceive in the background a platform which formerly bore a
temple, now almost entirely destroyed. A transverse wall with a
gate in the middle separates this court from a second yard bounded,

in the rear by a square Soul Tower. In front of this edifice stands

a stone altar, before which we see a tripod and two columns of
the same material. The terrace of the Soul Tower communicates
with a circular area, surrounded by a wall three metres thick,
in the centre of which stands a round tumulus nine metres in ,

height. This enclosure is followed by another of similar form which ,

likewise contains a round tumulus in the middle; and both are

connected by a raised open passage, nine metres wide, formed by
two parallel walls and entered at either extremity by means of a
flight of steps. We suppose the frontmost mound contains the remains
of the Emperor, and that in the rear those of his spouse. These
sepulchres alone are in a good condition, but everything else is in

a state of neglect.

5. The Burial-Grounds of the Present Reigning Dynasty.

a. The two Cemeteries in Peh-chihli Province.

c
The Manchu founder Ts ing dynasty, who mounted the
of the
throne of China on the conquest of Peking by his armies in 1644,
and most of his successors down to the present day, are, together
with their chief Consorts and Concubines, buried in a valley or
l
a series of vales in Tsun-hwa , one of the departments of the
,

province of Peh-chihli abutting to the west on the department of

c
Shun-t ien in which Peking lies. Officially and popularly those
,

tombs are designated by the name of Tung ling 2 »the Eastern :

Mausolea", on account of their situation eastward from Peking.

c
They stand against a broad 'chain of hills, called the Ch ang-shui
Shan or » Hills of Radiant
:!
Felicity ", over which the Great Wall
runs from east to west, forming the northern boundary of the
 THE EASTERN MAUSOLEA OF THE PRESENT DYNASTY. 1283

Cemetery. The walled chief city of the department of Tsun-hwa is

situated at about a day's journey eastward from the mausolea;
and the Hiao
ling, the central mausoleum and the oldest, is

officially stated to be at 240 Chinese miles from Peking \

In this Eastern Cemetery we have the following mausolea of

Emperors and Empresses: —

Temple Names
Title and
Names of the of the Emperors, Temple Names of the
and Years in Duration of
Mausolea. which they were Empresses.
Reign.
buried.

C h a o-s i ling Hiao Chwang ^& yj 1687 1725

mother of Shi Tsu.

Hiao line Shi Tsu Shun chi Hiao Hien j& l§fe 1660
1663
t£ift
first Emperor
m
1644—1661.
-% Hiao Khang
^ J|f 1663'

1663.
H i a o-t u n g ling Hiao Hwui ^ ]§) 1717 1718
Empress of Shi Tsu.

Shing Tsu Khang hi Hiao Ching ^ 3$ 1674

& MB.
second Emperor
mm
1662—1722.
Hiao Chao ^f; 1678
1681

1723. Hiao I j& 1689 1689

Hiao Kung ^t ^ 1723 1723

Yu" ling Kao Tsung Khien|lung Hiao Hien ;fp: 1? 1748 1752

mm t*t ^ Hiao I
^ HI 1766 1775
fourth Emperor 1736—1795.
1799.

Wen
^^
Tsung Hi en fung Hiao Teh
#H 1865

seventh Emperor 1851—1861.

1865.
Ting-tu Hiao Ching i%t ji issi 1888
Empress of Wen Tsung,

H wui ling Muh Tsung Tung chi Hiao Cheh ^ #r 1875

eighth Emperor 1862—1875.

1 Ta Ts'ing hwui hen, ch. 76, 1. 1.

 ,;

1284 THE GRAVE.

As to the situation of these rnausolea with respect to each other

we read, that » the Hiao ling lies in the middle, the Chao-
»si ling south-east, and the Hiao-tung ling east of it; and
» that the King ling is situated eastward from the Hiao-tung
»ling, and the mausoleum of the Empress Hiao Hien (the Yii
» 1 i n g) westward from the Hiao ling" 1
.

c
The same Ts ing dynasty which, as our readers will remember
from our chapter on F u n g-s h u i deems it its duty to earnestly ,

caution its subjects against the dangerous delusions of this system

nevertheless had the selection of its own principal cemetery entirely
commanded by geomantic considerations. In the hills surrounding
it, its eagle-eyed experts discerned a compound of qualities, able
to ensure to the dynasty an everlasting possession of the throne,
and eternal peace and prosperity to the nation. »On the four sides ",
thus we read, »the place is enclosed by hills rising range upon
» range producing a prosperity based on nature which may sup-
,
,

c
» port us for ten thousand years to come. Originally the Ch ang-
c
» shui Shan bore the name of Fung-t ai Ling: » Chain of the
c
» Terrace of Abundance", and of Fung-t ai Shan: » Mounts of
» the Phenix Terrace". Their pulses (comp. page 953) come
c
» forth from the T ai-hing Mounts (which extend between Peb-
» chihli and Shansi); their double chains and accumulated peaks
» represent a phenix soaring in the sky (i. e. the Bird of the
» Southern Quadrant), and the sinuations of a dragon. The undulat-
» ing tops are several hundreds of jen in height. In front arise the
» peaks of the Planet of Metal (Venus) ; in the rear , the site is

» encompassed by the lofty hills of the chains which form the

» watershed. On the left we have the Nien-yii Pass and the Ma-lan
» Valley; on Kwan-fien Vale and the Hwang-hwa
the right the
» Hills. Thus the Imperial Clan is embraced on every side by a

» thousand peaks and ten thousand water streams two rivers ;

» from the watershed closely wind along it on the right and left
» respectively, and meet in the Dragon and Tiger Valley. The glory
» and prosperity (which the site thus ensures) are firm and solid
» it is a propitious ground which shall confer felicity on this Dy-

» nasty for myriads of years " a

.

'

Ta Ts ing hwui
lii.^WllLBii^leiS^ii^ffi' tien > ch 76 -
-

11.1 seq. See also »the Rules and Regulations for the Board of Rites", ch. "143, 11. 3 seq.
 THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESSES BURIED IN THE HIAO LING. 1235

The first time burials took place in this valley was in the sixth
Chinese month of the year 1663. Shing Tsu then deposited the
remains of his father Shi Tsu in the crypt of the Hiao ling,
together with those of two Consorts of the latter, Hiao Hien, viz.

Concubine of the first rank, endowed with the title of empress

on her death which had occurred three years before and Hiao
, ;

Khang, a Concubine of the third rank, who, on account of her

having given birth to Shing Tsu, was endowed by the latter, on
his accession, with the rank of empress, and might still enjoy this
titulary dignity for a few months In the very same year Shing Tsu 1
. ,

changed the name of Phenix Terrace Mounts, which, as we have

seen, had hitherto been borne by the hills around the valley, for that
of Hills of Radiant Felicity
2
which has remained the official name
,

up to the present day. No beginning seems to have been made with

the building of the Hiao ling during the reign of Shi Tsu himself;
1661 in which he died his
for it is explicitly stated that in the year , ,

successor » issued orders to erect a sacrificial temple and an under-

» ground crypt for Shi Tsu the Emperor Chang and to carefully , ,

» appoint for the purpose persons well-versed in geomancy. When

» the day (of the sepulture) had arrived Shi Tsu's coffin was ,

» reverently placed just on the middle of the couch of stone erected

» in the crypt ; that of the Empress Hiao Khang was put down on
3
» his left, and that of the other Empress on his right" .

'

Wen umj khao of the

W\$\>^M^.MfSi<¥Mj&K\&*& hien l

present Dynasty, ||§ j|R ~aT rSji

jg|
%r the third continuation of the great work ,

of Ma Twan-lin, published under Imperial patronage and treating exclusively of the

now reigning House Chapter 150, I. 2, and ch. 154, 1. 4.

4 Ta Ts'ing hwui Hen shi li, ch. 346, 1. 6. Ta Ts'ing hwui Hen tseh li, ch.

80, 1. 6. Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 244, 1. 8, ch. 240, 1. 35, and ch. 451, 1. 2.

2 T. Ts. h. t. shi li and T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, lac. cit. Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 151, 1. 4.

Sfi*ft3ffiA#-JgB#$tfi:iifl.*mifrSft#ia:

nv " hkn Cuag khm

^JlJsftfe^clx^^- '
ch
'
151
'
1L i seq -
 ,

J 286 THE GRAVE.

Hiao Hwui, Shi Tsu's Empress proper, who was his Concubine
up to 1655, survived him until 1717 '. A special mausoleum was
built for her to the east ot her husband's, and she was buried
this is the H i a o-t u n g ling: » the
s
therein in the next year ;

Mausoleum on the east of the Hiao ling". The reason of her not
being entombed in the Hiao ling was that the Imperial family
considered it highly improper and irreverent to disturb the peace
of an ancestor by opening his crypt subsequent to his remains
having been placed therein, fearing, moreover, that so reckless an
act might disturb the fortunes of the unfilial descendants who com-
mitted it. » The custom of burying Emperors with their Empresses

»in the same grave", thus we read, »has been observed in a

» perfect and well-accomplished way from the beginning (of this dy-
c
» nasty). Yen Shen-sze a Minister of the T ang dynasty, has de-
,

» monstrated that , when one of higher position is buried before

» nobody inferior in rank may enter his grave ; moreover , the
» professors of the geomantic art entertain an aversion to having
» superiors disturbed in their rest by inferiors , so that the question
» whether an Empress were to be entombed at the side of her
» spouse has, in strict accordance with the rules of propriety, been
» made to depend, in every case in particular, on the time (of her
» demise). The burying of Emperors with their Empresses in the
» same tomb being practised in respect to the mausolea of our pre-
» sent dynasty according to this ancient method it follows that the ,

C h a o-s i ling, the H i a o-t u n g ling and the T a i-t u n g ling

c
»
» owe their origin to a respectful adherence to the rescripts of for-
» mer times. This example (set by the dynasty) of letting the an-
» cients regulate the behaviour of the moderns , is worthy of being
3
» imitated during ten thousand generations to come" .

Many extra mausolea having thus been built by this dynasty

for Empresses on account of a theory of Yen Shen-sze, we are tempted

1 Wen hien twig khao, ch. 240, 11. 23 seq.

2 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, 1. 25; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 22.

oi (i %*£mz urn , bb m as m # m m ^m m
-jll . Wen liien t'ung khao, ch. 150, 11. 2 seq
 AN EMPEROR'S CRYPT MAY NO MORE BE OPENED. 1287

to open the histories of his time, to see what they have to tell
us of the man. He was a grandee especially renowned as an astro-
loger and soothsayer, and of high repute at Court during the reign
of the Empress VVu \ When that extraordinary female potentate
had wielded supreme power for twenty-two years after the death of
2
her consort the Emperor Kao Tsung
, to then breathe her last in ,

A. D. 705 , Yen Shen-sze vigorously protested against the plan , then

conceived by the Court, and afterwards executed, of burying her
in the K h i e n ling the mausoleum of Kao Tsung. The memorial he
3
,

presented to this effect to the Throne, is interesting for attesting,

that the theory as to the dependence of the fortunes of a dynasty
on the graves of its ancestors then commanded the highest influence
at the Court. » Carefully consulting the laws of burial contained
» in the records of the Chamber of Astrology", thus he wrote, »I
» find it stated that when somebody of a higher position is buried
,

» first inferiors in rank may not be entombed in his grave , nor

,

» may opened and entered after that. And yet though

his grave be ,

c
» the late Empress-Dowager Tseh T ien is inferior in rank to the
» Great Celestial Emperor (Kao Tsung), they intend to open the
» K h i e n ling and bury her at his side so that the inferior one ,

» will disturb the repose of the superior. Such an act being incon-
» sistent with the classical rule I fear it will not promote peace
,

» and quiet. Your Majesty's servant has also been informed that
»the entrance to the crypt of the Khien ling is barricaded with
» stones , the seams and joints between which are filled up with

» molten iron , in order that the contents of the tomb may the
» better be secured. Consequently, it will not be possible to open
» the tumulus without hacking and chiseling and as it lies in the ;

» nature of the human manes that the body to which they belong
» likes nothing so much as obscure retirement, we must really fear

» that they will be greatly startled and annoyed if men are sent
» to the spot to perform such work. And even though another
» closable passage be made in the tumulus to penetrate into the
» crypt, the seat which was assigned to the soul (coffin) at the
» entombment will have to be changed (to make room for the coffin
» of the Empress) and such a displacement must cause still greater
,

» evil. After the building of the Khien ling was begun, the
» Empire was harrassed by continuous troubles, which did not cease
c
» until the Empress-Dowager Tseh T ien had exercised supreme

l£B- IrJ >T?

 ,

1288 THE GRAVE.

» sovereignty during twenty years. I now humbly express my fears

» that they will arise again , if any works are undertaken at that
» mausoleum.
» It is written in the Classical Book of Rites (the Li hi) that
» it is not an ancient institution to bury a husband with his wife
» in same grave (comp. page 262). There exist, accordingly,
the
» no sufficient grounds to perform such burials and shall we then ;

» revive them just in a time like the present, which is so turbulent?

» I have read that during the Han dynasty an Emperor was seldom
» buried same mausoleum with an Empress and that the
in the ,

» custom to do so did not arise until the dynasties of Wei and Tsin
» had dethroned that House. Hence it is, I believe, that the two
» Houses of Han reigned during many years more than four ,

» hundred in number while neither the dynasty of Wei nor that

, ,

» of Tsin enjoyed a long existence. Only those who afford peace

,

» and rest to their mausolea and tombs can be sure to be endowed

» with supremacy over this earth as their posterity may fully rely ,

» on such graves as sources of spiritual power on the other hand ;

» those who do not insure the repose of their graves will not easily
» long enjoy the possession of an offspring. Humbly prostrating
» myself, I hope that the ancient example set by the Han dynasty
» be followed , and the weak , baseless institution of the Houses ol
» Wei and Tsin be deviated from ; that another plot of felicitous
» ground be selected ling, and an extra
close to the Kh i en
» mausoleum be erected there with observance of the acknowledged
» rules for the acquirement of graves imbued with life-producing
» influences. By doing so, the custom of burying wives in the suit
» of their husbands will be followed properly and the original ,

» heirloom of the dynasty (the Realm) at the same time afforded a

» perfect stability.

» Whereas the operative breath contained in hills and water-

» courses corresponds with the stars and constellations above , the
» manes (s h e n which return , to heaven after death) will be
» restful if the burial takes place in the right spot , and , as a
» consequence , the offspring shall flourish. But if the burial be
» performed without observance of this proper principle , the manes
» shall become dangerous , and their posterity incur adversity. It
» is therefore that such standard works on burial as are drawn
» up in accordance with the rules laid down by the sages of former
» times , are intended to induce us to follow the course of ensuring
» the rest of the dead , thus to cause their souls to render us
 AN EMPEROR S CRYPT MAY NO MORE BE OPENED. 1289

» grand and prosperous'.... This memorial was not delivered to

» the Throne " l .

The Emperor once entombed may no more be

doctrine that an , ,

and his widow must in consequence be buried

disturbed in his rest ,

in an extra mausoleum of her own, has laid heavy charges upon

the Imperial Court, the erection and constant repairs of so many
special cenotaphs requiring enormous expense in money and labour.
No special names were conferred on any of these sepulchres. Each
of them is officially denoted by the name of the mausoleum of the
Emperor to whom the occupant was married, with the insertion
of the word tung: »east", or si: »west' according to whether
it is located to the left or the right of it.

mass*. 4&mmMmm&*BMWW2

4>n#ffis*2fc*. %mi®m%tmzmmm

m^fomm&.nwznmg^m-femMffi
m^mmm. ^m^m^z^^^mwzm
m>i*&m2ftmm%*b,J9L&MZ8;m&-
m.Wc&®mzm,xi&®*zmo

M e zmm&m&.AZM.M&*tt%zm&m
.

See also the

^^7H'
New
0ld Books of the
Books of the same House, ch.
Tan s D y nast yi
204, 1. 10.
ch - 191 1
"• 15 sai-
 ;

1290 THE GRAVE.

Shing Tsu commenced the erection of his own mausoleum on

c
the death of hisfirst spouse, the Empress Hiao Ch ing '. In 1676,

two years after her demise the works at the crypt were begun ,

it was finished in 1681, and in the third month of this year the
Empress was buried in it, simultaneously with Hiao Chao, Shing
Tsu's second wife, who in the meantime had also shuffled off her
mortal coil 2 Up to that date the two coffins were stored away
. ,

in a mansion assigned for the purpose at Kung-hwa 3 a place on ,

the banks of the Sha-ho, which, as our readers have seen on page
1247, was a military bulwark for the defence of the Imperial graves
during the Ming dynasty. In 1689, Hiao I, the the coffin of
Emperor's third and last spouse, was deposited in the same earthly
4
resting-place and thirty-four years more elapsed before he himself
,

joined them all in their grave. »In the second month of the first
»year of the Yung ching period (1723) the Grand-Secretaries
» had reverently taken a decision in reference to some names fit
» to be given to Shing Tsu's mausoleum and they presented them ,

» to (his successor) Shi Tsung, the Emperor Hien. Overwhelmed

» with grief, this monarch pricked his finger, and singled out the
» two characters King ling by drawing a circlet of blood around
» them 5 In the fourth month, Shing Tsu's encoffined remains
.

» arrived at the King ling and were temporarily deposited there

» in the sacrificial temple in the eighth month the coffin of the ;

» Empress Hiao Kung also arrived there and was likewise placed
» in that edifice and in the ninth month both coffins were put
;

» to rest upon the couch of the Precious Relics. The gilt coffin of
» King Min Concubine of the first rank was entombed there at
, ,

» the same time the stone gate of the crypt being thereupon
,

» closed" 6 Hiao Kung was a third-rank Concubine of Shing Tsu,

.

1 During the reign of Shing Tsu her temple-name was Jen Hiao 4^ -$& ,

which his successor changed for that of Hiao Ch'ing in the first year of his reign.
See Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 241, 1. 11, and ch. 151, U. 11 seq.
2 Op. cit., ch. 151 ,11. 11 seq
3 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, 1. 18; and T. Ts. h. t. tseh li , ch. 80, 1. 18.
4 T. Ts. li. t. shi li, ch. 346, 1. 22; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 21; Wen
hien t'ung khao, ch. 151, 1. 12.

"7e " '" ew tun 9 khao, ch. 151, 13.

JjT Us? PR -~f" 1.
 " ,

THE KING LING AND THE C H A O-S I LING. 1291

and the mother of his successor. Slung Tsu never elevated her to
the dignity of empress ; but her son , in obedience to the demands
of filial respect , did so on her death , which occurred in the fifth

month of the first year of his reign 1

. Indeed, he could hardly
title from her since she had, after his accession, been
withold this
the supreme owner of the Empire for a time in virtue of her
motherhood the possessions of a child being as our readers know
, ,

(see p. 619), the property of its parents.

A next matter of Shi Tsung's filial solicitude was the burial of his
great-grandmother Hiao Chwang, the mother of the first Emperor
of the dynasty. She had already died in 1687, after having survived
c
her husband T ai Tsung 9
for about forty-four years. The then reigning
monarch, her grandson Shing Tsu, would no doubt have entombed
her at the Chao ling 3
, a gorgeous mausoleum erected many years
before for her husband in the vicinity of Mukden, the capital of
Manchuria, by Shi Tsu's pious care, had not she forbidden it in
"
her dying dispositions. »ln the twenty-sixth year of his reign
thus it is chronicled, » Shing Tsu, the Emperor Jen, issued a
» decree of the following contents to his Grand-Secretaries , the
» Comptrollers of the Imperial Household Department, etc. : When
» the Grand Empress-Dowager Grandmother was sick and about to
» depart this life, she ordered Us: 'The coffin of T c ai Tsung, the
» Emperor Wen , having been put to rest already a long time ago
» it may not be disturbed in my behalf with levity. More-
»over, I feel such an and attachment to your Imperial father
» yourself, that I cannot bear the idea of going far away. Try
» therefore to find an auspicious plot close to the Hiao ling,
» and bury me there then my mind will not feel sad' This
, .

» order being given Us with such impressive emphasis how can ,

» We presume to disobey it
4
» Thus strictly submitting to
.

H
T. Ts.
% Hfc f¥) jfe
h. t. shi li,
If ^B PI
ch. 346, 11. 28
op
seq.
- et cat>- ci '-' "• 14 '
15 and i8 - See a,s0 the

1 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 240, 1. 40.

m b ± m ^ js % a m # m m & ,* m * m * n
,
 ,

1292 THE GRAVE.

» the will of the deceased, Shing Tsu had a sacrificial temple built
» in the very same year with a hall in the rear , south-east of the
»Hiao c
ling in the Ch ang-shui Mounts; and on the 19th. of the
» fourth month of the next year he transferred the coffin of the
» Grand Empress-Dowager to the said hall giving it the name of ,

» Hall for the temporary Deposit of the Remains" It was not,

1
.

however, till 1725, the third year of the reign of his successor
Shi Tsung, that a beginning was made with the erection of the
2
mausoleum proper ; and » in the twelfth month of that year , on
» the tenth day, the coffin was respectfully removed from the place
» where it stood , and entombed in the underground dwelling of
» the City of the Precious Relics of the Chao-si ling" 3
. This
name, which means: »the Mausoleum to the west of the Chao
ling", was given to this tomb because the Chao 1 i n g containing ,

the remains of Hiao Chwang's Consort was situated eastward from ,

it, though at many days' distance 4 .

For geomantic reasons, Shi Tsung himself was buried in quite

MU^%
450 1 29.
. If If 9£ # fc fa tfc m Wen hien fun c khao ch <
-

^S
80, 1.
W & ^ Mx-
20. Compare also the
T -
Ts -

Wen
lu L shi K '

hien t'ung khao, ch. 150,

ch ' 34G '
'• 22; r '
Ts

11.
~

29
hm

seq.
L tseh ^i, ch-

2 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 150, 1. 34.

H 5$ 6§ lit H 3$ *& '$£ •

T -
Ts - h - u shi /('> ch - 346 '
L 31; T -
Ts - h - u

tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 29.

4 Mr. Bourne writes in a short account of the Eastern Cemetery, which he pub-
lished in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 1883, -vol. V, pp.

23 sqq. » The following is given as the reason why Hiao Chwang was not buried
:

»at Mukden with her Royal Consort T'ai Tsung. They say that when her coffin
»had been carried as far as the Great Wall, it was found impossible to carry it
» further in the direction of Manchuria. No matter how many men were ordered to

» carry it, move the coffin would not. The Emperor Shi Tsung accordingly came to

»the conclusion that his late great-grandmother had a strong objection to being buried
»in the north, and he caused the Chao-si ling to be constructed". The reader
now knows that this tale must be relegated to the domain of fable. It is , in truth

an old story in China that coffins sometimes refuse to move. An instance out of the
third century of our era will be found on page 1063.
 ;

FOUNDATION OF THE WESTERN CEMETERY. L293

another part of Peh-chihli, namely in the hills along the south of

the Great Wall in the department of Yih ', which is situate to
the south-west of Peking, beyond the borders of the department
of Shun-t ien.
c
We read: »In the seventh year of his reign (A. D.
» 1729) Tsung forwarded an edict of the following contents
Shi
»to the Grand-Secretaries and other Ministers: 'Originally we —
>> intended to have assigned for Us by auguration a spot felicitous
» for the future (of Our House), close to the Hiao ling and the
»King ling. The professors of geomancy, however, opine that
» there is no longer any ground there fit for building upon and ;

» they have searched out a felicitous ground in the Mounts of the

» Nine Phenixes and the Morning Light duly informing Us thereof. ,

» We thought that this spot, as being close to the Hiao ling

» and the King ling, well suited Our aforesaid plan. But officers
» and architects profoundly versed in geomancy have surveyed it
» anew, and found that, in spite of the excellence of its general
» outlines, the spots where the influences of the surrounding con-
» figurations concentrate are by no means perfect in all their parts
» besides, the earth of the hiieh (comp. p. 1009) has been found
» to mixed up with so much gravel and stone as to really be
be
» of no use. The Prince of I and the Governor-General (of Fuh-
,

» kien) Kao Khi-choh now report that they have made other sur-
,

» veys and discovered a place capable of insuring felicity for ten

c c
» thousand years, namely the valley of T ai-p ing, situated in the
»
c
T ai-ning Mounts, within the frontiers of the department of Yih.
» They state that in fact it is a locality into which the heavens and
» the earth have concentrated the best of their influences, a place
» where the Yin and the Yang blend harmoniously together; the
» h ii e h formed by the Dragons have a soil and waters which
» harbour everything that is excellent; the auspicious operation of the
» natural breaths contained in the configurations there is perfect in
» every sense; etc. We have read their report; and the particulars
» it gives about the water-courses at the foot of those mounts
» clearly prove that the place in question really is a felicitous ground
» of first-rate order; but Our heart feels dissatisfied with its being so
» many hundreds of miles distant from the Hiao ling and the
»King ling. Moreover, there may be something in the matter
» which renders it inconsistent with the customs and institutions of
» the sovereigns of the past, or with the standard Ritual ; and there-

£
S3
1294 THE GRAVE.

» fore We ordain Our Grand-Secretaries and nine Directors of the

» Courts to carefully examine this point and hold a meeting for
» the discussion of it, and to report to Us their conclusions'.

» The Grand-Secretaries and the said Ministers deliberated on

» the matter on the day w u-w u of the same month , and reported
» as follows: 'If we carefully consult the Genealogical Register of
» Emperors and Princes (see p. 434), the General History l and
» the Wen Hen fung k/iao we find that the sovereigns of suc-
,

» cessive dynasties have' sometimes had their sepulchres in grounds

» situated more than a thousand miles off, and hardly ever nearer
» than two hundred or three hundred miles. The question whether
» the pulses of the earth will produce felicity depends on the fe-

» licity-producing factors and ciphers that dominate the natural

» destiny of the person concerned (comp. page 1013); and fa-

» vourable spiritual operation is not, of course, monopolized by

» one single place among the many good grounds , thousands or
» hundreds of miles in extent, that comprise felicity. The spot in
c c
» question in the T ai-p ing Valley at the Mounts Tai-ning, which
» promises felicity for ten thousand years, is, indeed, at several
» hundreds of miles from the Hiao ling and the King ling;
» but the department of Yih and that ofTsun-hwa are close to
c
» the Metropolis and really not far off. The T ai-ning Mounts are
» bold and lofty , and their peaks emit pulses the origin of which
c
» lies in Kwan-ch en Mounts (in
the the north of Shansi) and in
» the Hing Mounts (in the south-west of Pehchihli, on the Shansi
» frontiers); the spothundred water-streams and
is girdled by a ,

» the water-shed with the river Kii-ma-hu forms its boundary

» (on the north). If we observe the spots where those sur-

» rounding configurations concentrate their influences, we come

» to the conclusion that we have here to do with the very best
» of shelters in a sublime tract of ground ; and if we examine
» such sections of the standard works as refer to the subject, we
» find that the matter is perfectly consistent with what the three
» dynasties of antiquity have done. Hence we humbly pray Your
» Majesty to give execution to it with reverence and care and
» in keeping with the established institutions , in order that the

» pure , unalloyed felicity naturally hoarded up on the spot may

1 T'ung chi
j^ ^ , an extensive history of China by the hand of Ching
Sung dynasty, now enlarged with a supplement composed
Ts'iao ||R i>ft of the

in compliance with an Imperial edict in "1769.

 THE FOUNDATION OF THE WESTERN CEMETERY. 1295

» for ten thousand years send forth streams of perfect happiness

» over (an Imperial pedigree with) numerous leaves'.
» Thereupon the following Imperial resolution was received: 'The
» Grand-Secretaries and the nine Directors having presented to Us
» a circumstantial report based on the Books of History and the
» Standard Rituals, Our mind is now quiet and at ease. Funds
» shall be furnished by the Palace Treasury for all the materials the

» works require ; the outlines and dimensions shall be projected on

» an and plain base, and such things as stone images
economical
» which require an excessive amount of stone-cutting and greatly
etc.,

» exhaust the strength of the people, need not be made. The Boards
» concerned are charged with the execution of these orders" \

1
^^vtmmi<^±m&^ i^*it^f
^v
n

In ill %* m
m £<m $ * m # s m mftm
$ ui * *p *8 n # M
n^ # £ j# , UR&fcM^'X'fc*
^mn^mMnm \hM*&&m&
wffl&±.$zm,fetk%m%mw4£&~B&

/Vi £&# ft^^mmzmm&^mM.,

nil

B5*^^w;n^*«#i^i n •# $ # m g m .

%WtmiKWLzmm,mz km%&~ftifnm i
)
i
 ,

1296 THE GRAVE.

In the Wen Men fung k/iao the qualities of this new Cemetery
are extolled in the following words: — »The pulses of the hills
» around are so fructifying and their vigour is so productive , that
c
» they can stand every comparison with the Ch ang-shui Mounts '.

» Their influences proceed from the Mountains (see page

c
T ai-hing
» 12S4); their statelyand high; the best of their
peaks rise lofty

» pulses are full of vigour and productiveness. High chains and

» lofty mountains in the distance encompass the spot; peaks filled

» with effective operation (shan ling, see p. 952), and hillocks of

» an azure hue like the kingfisher's feathers gird it on the inside.
» The Poh-kien river winds along the fore-part receiving water from ,

c
» the river Ts ing, the Kheu , the Sha and the Tsze; the Kii-ma
» stream flows along the spot in the rear , and the rivers Hu-lang
» Liu-li and Ta-yii discharge their waters into it
2
. We believe it
3
» to be a felicitous ground laid down there by heaven itself" .

This new burial-place being situate westward from Peking, it

xifgn,
Men
m&A%, x&mm. m&^&ft-
t'ung khao, ch. 152, 11. '1 sqq.
wen

2
M J? 1\ H M % H
Consulting the
3fl0 Brl ^f Wm him t'ung khao, chAW, %
maps, we see in tact, that the Poh-kien is formed south-
l.

west of the Cemetery, by the confluence of the rivulets Ts'ing, Kheu, Sha and
Tsze, which come from the north-west and the west; subsequently it streams in a
north-eastern direction along the fore-part of the Cemetery, remaining, however, at
more than a day's journey from it upon which it receives the waters of the Kti-
,

ma or Ku-ma-hu. This stream has its sources likewise in the west of the province.
Cutting its way through the mountains at the back of the Cemetery, it flows there
over a long distance close to the Great Wall, to assume a southern course north-
east Cemetery, and subsequently receiving the waters of the Hu-lang, the
of the
Liu-liand the Ta-yii. After its confluence with the Poh-kien this stream proceeds ,

eastward, and discharges itself near T'ien-tsin into the Pei-ho.

M-i

#e m . as mm® m m * # z , # m & m ® ft *
Wen Men t'ung khao, ch. 152, 1. 1.
 THE WESTERN MAUSOLEA OF THE PRESENT DYNASTY. 1297

was naturally Si ling: » the Western Mausolea", in contra-

called
distinction to the Eastern. The Tai ling, Shi Tsung's tomb, the
first that was built in it is officially stated to be 2S0 Chinese miles
,

from Peking 1

, two burial-valleys are almost equally distant

so that the
from Here follows a tabular survey of the tombs of Em-
this city.
perors and Empresses to be found in the Western Cemetery :
—
Temple Names —
Title and
Names of the oithe Emperors Temple Names of the
and Years in Duration of
Mausolea. which they were Empresses.
Reign.
buried.
1298 THE GRAVE.

» and in the next year the coffin was transported for burial to the

» underground crypt of the City of the Precious Relics"

1

. Up to

that day, it stood for more than four months in the temple of
the mausoleum 2
»The Empress Hiao King was entombed at his
.

» side on the same day, and the first-rank Concubine Tun Suh
3
» followed them into that grave" The former had pre-deceased .

her Consort in 1731, and the latter, the daughter of a Governor

4
of the province of Hukwang, had died in 1725 After the death .

of Hiao King, Shi Tsung raised no other woman to the dignity

of Empress, the principal place in his seraglio being consequently
occupied thenceforth by his secondary Consort Hi
5
the mother ,

of the Heir- Apparent. At the latter's succession in 1735 this woman

became the legitimate owner of the crown by virtue of her maternal
rights, so that the new monarch conferred on her the title of
Empress and had a mausoleum built for her north-east of
special
that of her late husband. Thus the Tai-tung ling came into
6
existence, in which she was deposited for eternal rest in 1777 ,

7
a few months after she had departed this life at the age of

eighty-six.
The under the reign of Shi Tsung, in that no
difficulty, felt

eligible spots for burying Imperial remains were to be found in

the Eastern Cemetery, did not, it seems, bother the Court in the
case of his successor Kao Tsung, who had his own mausoleum
constructed in those grounds. The demise of his first spouse Hiao
Hien, which occurred in 1748 s
, apparently prompted the measures
for its erection, for we read that four years after this event her
remains were buried in it, together with those of two Concubines
of the first rank, viz. Hwui Hien 9
, who had departed this life in

• r. # %^ tit mm M # £ *fr H* IP 3* ^ *M
g*. T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 347, 1. 2; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li , ch. 80, 1. 33.

2 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 152, 1. 7.

h. t. shi li, ch. 347, 1. 2; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 33. See also the Wen
hien t'ung khao, ch. 152, 1. 14.
4 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 241, 11. 29 and 32.
5 It-
6 T. .Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 347, 1. 23; Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 152, 11.35 sqq.
7 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 240, 1. 48.
8 Op. cit., ch. 241, 1. 32.

9 Jin ^ . She was the mother of the Heir-Apparent Twan Hwui . mentioned

on page 1176, who died shortly after his father had assumed the reins of government.
 THE YU LING AND THE C H°A N G LING. 1299

1745, and Cheh Min ', who had died between 1749 and 1752 2 .

3
Still another Concubine, Shuh Kia raised, just as Cheh Min, to ,

the first rank after her death, was entombed in this mausoleum in
1757 '; and the Emperor's second Chief Consort Hiao I, mother of
his successor, was deposited in it in 1775"', about nine years after

her death
6
. It was endowed with the name of Yii ling in the

spring of the fourth year after the accession of the next Emperor
7
(1799), six months before Kao Tsung was buried in it . This latter
not having appointed another Chief Consort after Hiao l's death, no
Empress survived him for whom a special mausoleum had to be

built to the east or west of his.

Jen Tsung, Kao Tsung's son and successor, had his mauso-
leum made in the Western Cemetery. In 1803, eight years after
his accession and seventeen before his death it was finished in so ,

far that it was fit to receive the remains of his Chief Consort
Hiao Shuh 8 the mother of the Heir-Apparent. This is the last
,

Imperial burial mentioned in the great collections of ordinances and

decrees from which we have drawn the above particulars. Hence we
,

are unable to bring our summary up to date with a like amount

of detail. Eor some further data regarding the burials of Emperors
and Empresses in the present century, we must refer to the tables

inserted in pages 1283 and 1297, which are finished with the
aid of the great collection of edicts published under the title of

Shing /nun (see page 934), and some other modern documents.
We may add here that Wen Tsung, having died in August 1861
in the to which he had fled in the autumn of the
town of Jehol ,

previous during the campaign of the allied forces of England

year
c
and France against Peking, left two Empresses, Ts ze Ngan 9 and
Ts ze Hi ,0 the latter of whom was the mother of the Heir-Ap-
c
,

parent and, we believe, a secondary Consort invested with the

2 T. Ts. h. t. ski li, ch. 347, 1. 16; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 46; Wen
him t'ung khao, ch. 152, 1. 48, and ch. 241, 1. 37.

3
4
MM-
T. Ts. h. I. shi U, ch. 347, 1. 19; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li ,
ch. 80, 1. 50; Wen
hien t'ung khao. ch. 152, 1. 49.
5 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 347, 1. 22.
6 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 241 , 1. 35.
7 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 348, 11. 3 seq.
8 Op. eit., ch. 348, 1. 17.

9 M $r. 10 ^#S.
1300 THE GRAVE.

titulary dignity of Empress after Wen Tsung's death. These women,

in virtue of their maternal power, carried on the supreme govern-
ment with great vigour and determination during the whole of
c
Muh Tsung's ze Ngan received the temple-name of Hiao
reign. Ts
Clung on her death in 1881 and was buried in 1888 in a mau-
,

soleum erected specially for her to the east of Wen Ts ung's.

c

According to Mr. Bourne, there is in the Eastern Cemetery,

north-west of Shi Tsu's tomb, on the banks of the stream run-
ning in front of it, the site of a mausoleum
that was built by the
Emperor Siien Tsungand afterwards destroyed by him
for himself,

under curious circumstances. »This tomb", he writes (page 30),

» was prepared before the death of the Emperor. By the direction
» of a Grand-Secretary, named Ying Hwo , the elaborate and costly
» drainage arrangements, which formed a part of the plan, were
» omitted, by which Ying Hwo is said to have made 100,000 taels
» or £ 30,000. The Empress died first , and was buried in the
» tomb , but the stone door was not finally closed until the Emperor
» joined her. On one of his visits to sacrifice at the tombs, he
» expressed a wish to see his own future resting-place. On his
» ordering the stone door to be opened that he might enter the ,

» tumulus itself, he was horrified to see that there were some feet
» of water in the chamber —
enough to reach the level of the
» stone bed on which the coffin lay. Ying was banished, and Hwo
» his possessions forfeited. The Emperor decreed
that a new mau-
» soleum should be constructed at the western tombs, 180 miles
» off. The building was levelled to the ground; some of the rnateri-

» als were removed to the new site but the greater part were ,

» left ,and we noticed pieces of chastely carved stone that formerly ,

» belonged to this tomb,

thrown together to form ex-
carelessly
» tempore bridges. There are not wanting believers in F u n g-s h u i
» who attribute the misfortunes of the present dynasty, even the
» untimely death of the late Emperor, to this untoward incident,
» and the mistake made in changing the site of this tomb".
These lines, which bear evidence in themselves of owing their
existence to mere hearsay, arouse our curiosity after some reliable
authentic information. Unhappily, the collections of State papers
which have hitherto guided us, do not bring us down to the reign
of Siien Tsung, and no documents shedding official light on this
incident are at our disposal, save three Imperial edicts issued in
1828, which the compilers of the Shiny Hun '
have deemed inter-

1 See the Edicts of Siien Tsung, ch. 1 , J. 3.

 SilEN TSl'NG's first mausoleum. 1301

esting enough to publish. But these edicts by no means give a

clear and coherent account of the matter. Therefore, to lose as little
as possible of what they teach us, we will reproduce them in their
entirety, begging the reader himself to correct some misstatements
which they show must occur in Mr. Bourne's above account.
»On the day keng-wu of the tenth month the Emperor sent the
» following edict to the Chancery (Nei koh) Yih Shao cum suis, : —
» joined in committee, have rigorously examined the careless way
» in which Ying Hwo and others have directed the works in Our
» Felicitous Ground; they have judged the deeds of every one of them
» in particular, and made complete minutes of the matter. Ying Hwo
» (thus they state) being charged with the entire execution of the
» principal works in that Felicitous Ground in the Pao-hwa Valley,
» it was, of course, his duty carefully to render himself acquainted

» with everything relating thereto. Had he done so , he would have

» perfectly known and consequences of the filtering of
the causes
» water through the stones that shore up the crypt, and by no means
» would it then have occurred to Siang T"ung to continuously advise
» Tai Kwun-yuen to cover the place with earth. When he feared
» that the Dragon-beard drain might cause the Terrestrial Breath
» to flow away, he reported to Us that he had discontinued the
» works, and he proposed to place heaps of stones at the side of
» the tunnel-gate, thus to repair the leakage. He also gave orders
» to discontinue, inside, the pargeting of the stone walls and the
» execution of other stone work , and the filling of the joints
» between the stones with mere resin of pine and white
trees
» wax mixed with the grindings of stone. But Niu Kwun was
» ordered by Us to accelerate the execution of the works , in
» order that they might be finished at the appointed time; and
>> Ying Hwo thereupon entrusted the above important works to
» that man alone , thus becoming the cause of their being for the
» most part slovenly performed and of the ultimate submersion of
» the crypt.
»The investigations made by Yih Shao c. s. having afforded clear and
» positive evidence against him, Ying Hwo is , in accordance with the
» established laws , condemned to decapitation , to be preceded by im-
» prisonment until the ratification of his sentence. But the crimes of
» which he is guilty deserve indulgence, and the fact that he has held

» the dignity of President of a Board and that of Assistant-Secretary

» of Our Chancery, as also that he has not in this matter embezzled
» any moneys for himself, allows of loosening one thread (of the
 ,

1302 THE GRAVE.

» net in which he is caught). Besides, the works at the Felicitous

» Grounds being private business of the One Man We refuse Us , ,

» to take the High Ministers on account of their having

life of
» mismanaged them. Not having placed him in the hands of the
» law, We accordingly need not keep him in jail any longer but ,

» banish him to Tsitsihar by way of favour there to be placed ,

» in rigorous Government thraldom; thus We manifest Our —

» clemency placed above the law. As he is not yet recovered from
» his illness, his sons Khwei-chao and Khwei-yao, who, having
» given doubtful proofs of respectful attachment to Our interests
» were already sent to Statute labour stations to do hard work
» and are to accompany him in his exile, shall travel on to Tsi-
» tsihar before him. His grandsons Yin-sheng and Sih-chi, the
» latter of whom is an Expectant Second-Class Secretary to a
» Board , are divested of their dignities. And Niu Kwun , the
» man charged with the superintendence , who has always distri-

» buted over the works the inspectors sojourning on the spot to

» control the same, so that his duties were of higher import
» than those incumbent on any other inspectorate or super-
» intendence — this man , although the examination has not
» proved him guilty of abstraction and misappropriation of funds,
» is a depraved character to whom no inspection can be safely
» entrusted. He is banished to Hi, there to expiate his crimes by
» hard labour.
» The Superintendents Poll Sheu and Yen Feng, already dismissed
» from their functions have not been found guilty of abstraction
,

» or peculation, but they, too, are bad characters. They had agreed
» in their labour contracts that the works should be finished in
» seven years, and We do not know whether they satisfactorily per-
>; formed their duty at first;but when the term was nearly ended,
» they stumbled , and gave orders to the artificers to patch up
» everything in a slipshod way. Both shall be sent to Orimutchi,
» there to expiate The dismissed
their crimes by hard labour. —
» Intendents Ting Shen Ch ang Shan and Ma Yen-pu had nothing
c
,

» else to do than to control the works, and yet, what control did
» they exercise on seeing with their own eyes that everything was
» slovenly done? They are all banished to the military frontier-
» posts, there to expiate their delinquency by hard labour. —
» And the dismissed Superintendent Khing Yuh , who entered
» upon his functions on the spot after the several buildings were
» raised, is absolved from banishment to the military frontier- posts,
 SUEN TSUNG S FIRST MAUSOLEUM. 1303
1
» but shall be set to hard labour at a Statute labour station" .

Tai Kwun-yuen, too, was severely struck by the Imperial hand.

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1301 THE GRAVE.

In an edict, sent to his Chancery in the next month, the Son of

Heaven wrote: »Yih Shao c. s. report that, joined in committee,
» they have rigorously investigated what way Tai Kwun-yuen
in

»has, in concert with the geomancers, surveyed the Pao-hvva

» Valley, and that they have made complete minutes of the
» matter. They state that though Tai Kwun-yuen had to be
,

» doubly precise and accurate in surveying the site of the Base

» of Our Felicity, he did not carefully sound and survey before-
» hand the place through the stones. More-
where water oozes
»over, when he had convinced himself with his own eyes that
» there was water filtering through the stones lining the crypt in
» the excavated spot, and that Siang Tung covered it up with
» earth he did not send Us a true report of these two matters.
,

» It was already found out formerly, that in matters treated by

» him in his letters sent to the Throne , many points of import-
» ance were purposely added or omitted ; so , after what the in-

» vestigations of Yih Shao c. s. have now brought to light about

»him, the laws demand his decapitation, preceded by imprison-
.•> ment until the ratification of his sentence. But his delinquency

» deserves a mitigation of punishment. If We banish him to the

» frontier-posts , We punish him lightly and with clemency; and
» still We will take into consideration that the works have not
» passed in their entirety under his hands , and that he is already
» an old man over eighty. Therefore, instead of inflicting punish-
vment, We will bestow favours on him. We T
absolve him from
» the penalty of death, absolve him also from exile, and drive
» him to his native place thus bestowing on him , clemency
» placed above the law. His son Tai Shi-hiang is divested of the
» dignity of Second-Class Secretary of a Board , and his grandsons
» Tai Kia-siu, Tai Kia-hwui and Tai Kia-teh of their respective
» dignities of Prefect of a district, Receiver of the Salt Depart-
» ment , and Literary Graduate of the second degree , to stand as

» warning instances of the fact that neglect of duty does not remain
» unpunished" '.
 ,,

SUEN TSUNG S FIRST MAUSOLEUM. 1305

Even now the matter was not ended. In the next month there
again arrived an Imperial edict at the Chancery, of the following
contents: »The surveying of the configurations of the
mountains
» at the Pao-hwa Valley having at the outset been the work of Tai
»Kwun-yuen, Muh-khoh-teng-ngoh and O-khoh-tang-o, the posses-
sions and confiscated, and the
of the first-named have been traced
» two others condemned to pay a certain amount of taels, as a warning
» example that neglect of duty incurs punishment. But We will
» take into consideration that, though those three men have together
» resorted to the valley and selected the spot in question, yet a
» distinction ought to be made between them according to whether
» they have had a hand in the execution of the works , or not.
» Tai Kwun-yuen was present at them for nearly three years
» never word about the oozing of water through the
reporting a
c
» stones until Siang T ung had to cover up the leakage with
,

» earth therefore his possessions have been (justly) traced and

;

» sequestrated and he himself brought up for trial. O-khoh-tang-o

,

» attended the works for more than half a year likewise without ,

» reporting anything true about the matter; and for this misbe-
» haviour he fully deserves the fine which has been imposed on
» him. But Muh-khoh-teng-ngoh merely accompanied them on
» their surveying excursion and administered no works at all and
, ;

» some discrimination must therefore be made in regard of him.

» The fine of 30,000 taels of silver that has been imposed on him
» We abate by 20,000 taels and he is ordered to pay the remainder
,

» at the term appointed. Thus do We show that, by imposing

» fines proportionate to the crimes committed We seek our force ,

» in a resolute will to be just and equitable" '.

mnMmmmmm

m ® m m *« uj •MMO^TC ©-*.*£
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130(5 THE GRAVE.

A description of the two Imperial Cemeteries, based on personal

observation it is quite impossible to give. For they are jealously
,

guarded against intrusion by Chinese soldiery and Manchu Ban-

nermen and no foreigner can penetrate into these mysterious
,

grounds without risking his body, or even his life. Natives also
are carefully excluded , and the Code of Laws prescribes : » Who-
» soever enters , without valid reasons or authorization , the gates of
» the area containing the mausolea, shall receive one hundred blows
» with the long stick. And if any one goes no farther than a
»gate, without passing the limit fixed by it, the above punish-
» ment shall be lessened one degree. Should the officers of the guard
» have wilfully tolerated the intrusion , they shall be punished in
» the same way as the trespassers ; and should the intrusion be
» attributable to their mere lack of vigilance, they shall be chastised
1
» three degrees less severely than the offenders" .

Nevertheless, there does exist a way of acquiring a rather

good idea of the appearance of those grounds. An acquaintance
c c
with the Cemetery of the Ming dynasty in Ch ang-p ing suffices
for the purpose, as every mausoleum situated therein resembles
the Eastern and Western Tombs in all the main features. We
know this for certain from the general rules for their construction,
c
which the Ts ing dynasty itself has laid down in its fundamental

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 : ,

FUNDAMENTAL RESCRIPTS FOR EVERY MAUSOLEUM. 1307

constitution , rules which , as the Board of Works has had to

slavishly conform to them in every case , have caused all those
mausolea to closely resemble one another in shape. They read ver-
bally as follows
» Rules for every Imperial mausoleum. — The crypt to be formed
» of lining-stones , and yellow clay to be piled up over it ; a » city
» or wall for the Precious Relics" (Pao ch'ing, see p. 1222) to
» be built all around, and a » square fortress" (i. e. a terrace bearing
»a »Soul tower", comp. p. 1219), crowned with a » lofty turret",
» to be erected in front. To this turret the name of the mausoleum
» shall be affixed , and within it a tablet shall be placed ,
graven with
» the Emperor's temple-name. At the foot of the steps of the » square
» fortress" shall stand a sacrificial table, bearing one censer, two
» candle sticks and two flower vases of stone (see p. 1220); and in
» front of that altar must come a gate resting on two stone ,

» pillars and with lintels of a red colour (p. 1218). Still further
» frontward shall stand a triple » gate with glazed ornaments ",
» forming the gate of the ts'in of the mausoleum (pp. 116S and
» 1218), followed in the same direction by a » temple of prosperity
» and favours". This temple shall have a double roof and consist
» of live compartments formed by the pillars; a »warm porch"
» (p. 1216) and a resting-chamber (for the soul tablets) shall be
» placed in the middle of it, as is the case with thefncestral temple
» of the Imperial Family. The side-buildings on the east and west
» shall consist of five compartments each. A furnace for the burning
» of sacrificial articles shall stand here on the right and left (comp.
» p. 1217), and in front there shall be a »gate of prosperity and
» favours" (p. 1211), consisting of five divisions formed by the
» pillars and having three passages. The emplacement shall be
,

» surrounded with a red wall, and outside the gate, on either side,
»a side-building shall stand, consisting of five compartments, as
» also a guard-house of three compartments for the officials and
» military charged with protecting the mausoleum.
» And in front of the gate must stand a stone tablet for the
» Spirit's road (comp. p. 1225), entirely covered with the Empe-
» posthumous name and temple-name graven in the stone,
ror's
» and sheltered under a pavilion. Both the tablet and pavilion
» must be decked with the five colours and adorned with gildings. ,

» In front of this tablet-house a triple stone bridge shall be built

» with a stone slab on either side announcing that all comers ,

» must dismount at this spot; further there shall be there a pavilion

I 308 THE GRAVE.

»for the slaughter of sacrificial victims, a kitchen for the Soul,

»a store-house for the Soul (pp. 1212 seq.), and a pavilion with
» a well , all decorated with variegated colours.
» In the Spirit's road south of the bridge there shall be a
» » dragon-and-phenix gate" (p. 1206), standing exactly in the middle
» of the grounds, with a guard-house, consisting of three compart-
wments, in front of it on either side; and further a file of stone
» images , arrayed on the left and right , viz. civil ministers , military
"officers, unicorns, lions, elephants, horses, camels, etc. In front
» of these images shall stand a pair of » columns to look at"
» (p. 1203) and, still farther forward, a single stone bridge, fol-
» lowed by a tablet commemorating the sage virtues and divine feats,

» sheltered in a lofty turret, with two » columns bearing the sky"

» in front, and two at the back (comp. 1199 and 1201). The pp.
» fore-part of the road of the Spirit shall be occupied by a » great
» red gate" (p. 1196), having three passages and decorated with
» variegated colours ; the rafters of the roof of this building shall incline
» downward to the four sides. At this spot there shall be a by-
» passage on either flank. A decorative stone gate shall stand here
» to the south (p. 1193) and two such structures to the east and
» west , as also a stone slab on either side , ordering riders to alight.
» And within the » great red gate" there shall be on the left a
» hall for the preparation of the ceremonial dresses , consisting of
» three compartments and surrounded on all sides by a wall with
» a single gate. The hall with three compartments shall contain an
» altar fronting the west, and it shall, as well as the gate and the
» wall , be roofed with yellow glazed tiles. This place shall serve
» the Emperor to ascend into his carriage and to change his
» dress (comp. page 1198). Along every Spirit's road trees shall
» be planted on either side in rows of ten in which they , shall
» stand two chang distant from each other. And outside the
» walls which surround the grounds red posts shall be set out as
» boundary marks forbidding the gathering of fire-wood ar d all
,

» ploughing and sowing" '.

 i

SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCES FOR THE MAUSOLEA. 1309

These fundamental ordinances attest in the clearest possible way

c
that the Ts ing dynasty has entirely modelled its mausolea according
to the plans of those of the House of Ming. Indeed, almost every
building and structure prescribed has its counterpart in the old
c
Ch ang-p ing Cemetery, and bears the same name there with only
c
,

a few exceptions of little importance. The general plan of the

Ts ing tombs being thus strikingly uniform with that of the Ming
c

tombs, we may infer that the buildings and structures composing

c c
them will also deviate but little from those in the Ch ang-p ing
Cemetery in point of style decoration elaboration and finish and
, , ;

this more probable, if we take into consideration that

becomes still

the Manchus never did possess any solid architecture of their own
and consequently, had recourse to mere imitation of what they
,

found worth copying in this field, after the conquest of the Empire.
The ordinances issued by the Throne at different periods to
supplement the above fundamental rescripts in the case of each
mausoleum in particular, are the only authentic sources extant from
which we may gain a more accurate knowledge of the Imperial

m&- , m i^m &?*\ iim =^ a mw *m,r*\ w

#^ w
«# m , » >#*,wm®
m, %& &±xmmmm<%
-
mm £&&%)?>
n it % m tt - x # ^ m . , *i *mmm$n

m = m ,m m m m m w m m & n m m m n z . .

. ch. 70, II. 2 acq. See also the Rules and Regulations for the Board of Rites
ch. 143, 11. 5 sqq.
84
 ,

1310 THE GRAVE.

tombs. They, in fact, tell us hardly anything about the exact style
of the buildings, their contours and ornamentation, but almost every-
thing about their dimensions and grouping, affording thereby many
new proofs of their close resemblance to the mausolea of the Ming
dynasty. These ordinances, as was the case with the fundamental
rescripts , were drawn up for the guidance of the Administrative Bureau
l
for the Government Reservations , a subdivision of the Board of
Works having the control of the construction and restoration of
the sepulchres of the Imperial Family, noblemen and mandarins
and those of rulers, sages and worthies of former dynasties, apart
from the management of the fuel required for the Imperial
2
service . As our readers know (see p. 1097), the Ta Ts ing hwui
z

tien shi li ,
published in 1818, is the largest compilation extant
of supplementary ordinances for the proper execution of the statutes
laid down in the Ta Ts'ing hwui tien. Those regarding the two
Imperial Cemeteries, contained in its 71lth. chapter, bring us
down mausoleum of the Empress Hiao Shuh", that is
to »the
c
to say, the Ch ang ling, which name it did not receive until
Jen Tsung's death after the publication of the work. The Sup-
,

plementary Edition of the Ta Tiing hwui tien, likewise published

in 1818 (see p. 1173), is brought up to the same date; but the Ta

TsHng hwui tien tseh li (ch. 137) reaches no further than the Yii
ling, this collection having been published previous to the other
two. Unless we explicitly mention other authorities , the information
contained in the following pages is drawn from the T. Ts. h. t. slii

li. The figures it gives for the dimensions are , for reasons which we
cannot grasp, in most cases slightly different from those supplied
by the T. Ts. h. t. tseh li. Only the four oldest Imperial mausolea
shall be passed in review, the rescripts for the Ch ang ling
c

showing that it differs so little from them, that we need not pay
any particular attention to it.

The Hiao ling of Shi Tsu, having been built first, has become
the central around which all the mausolea of the Eastern Cemetery
are grouped, just as was the case with the Ch ang ling
c
in the
great Ming Cemetery. But its tumulus is much smaller than
that of Ch ang ling,
the
c
being only 1,5 chang in height,
or, reckoning the chang as 3,35 metres, a little over five metres,

2
t£
Ta
B
Ts'intj
7ft M bJ
hwui tien, ch. 70, 1. 2, and the Supplementary Edition of the
same work , ch. 48.
 ,

SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCES FOR THE MAUSOLEA. 1311

whilst its circumference is barely 54,9 chang or circa 184 metres.

It seems to be a rule with the reigning Imperial House to have
tumuli of moderate size, the height and circumference of those
of the three next Emperors measuring , according to the ordinances
2 chang by 62,8, by 66,4, and 1,5 by 64,9 respectively.
1,3
The term by which the ordinances invariably denote the tumuli,
is Pao ting ', apparently meaning: » Crown or top of the Precious
Relics".
In the Hiao
ling, the Pao ch ing, that is to say, the wall
c

encompassing the tumulus, exceeds the latter but little in circum-

ference, its entire length being given as 63 chang. This leads us
to the conclusion that the space it encloses is entirely filled by the
,

tumulus, for, supposing the latter and the wall both to be circu-
lar, their respective radii will be almost equal, differing merely
1,3 chang or circa 4 metres, a figure representing perhaps the
thickness of the wall. The reader may remember here that the
tumulus wall of the Yung ling in the Ming Cemetery is even
five metres thick (see p. 1233). In the King ling, as well as in
c
the T ai ling and the Yii ling, the radius-length of the wall
likewise but slightly exceeds that of the tumulus , to wit , not more
than 0,78, 2,62 and 1,35 chang respectively. In each of the four
mausolea the tumulus is considerably lower than the wall, the latter
measuring respectively 2,4, 3,7, 2,1 and 2,6 chang in height,
leaving out the inches or hundredth parts of a chang.
The T. Ts. h. t. ski li and the Supplementary T. Ts. h. t. make
c
mention of a yueh-ya ch ing or » moon-tips wall", placed 2
in
each mausoleum behind the terrace bearing the Soul tower. It is

either 2,1, 2,2 or 2,3 chang high; that of the

c
T ai ling has the
same height as the tumulus wall, and in the other three mausolea
it is a few feet lower than the latter. It is perhaps a prefecture
from the terrace, connected with the tumulus wall, and it may
have something to do with footways or steps giving access to the
top of the Its name is a puzzle to us. » Precisely in the
terrace.
middle", thus we read, »is a glazed reflection wall" \ the position
of which, however, not being described we can only more definitely,
refer the reader to the » yellow glazed screen", stated by Ku Yen-wu
to have stood within the tunnel of the Ch'ang ling of the Ming
dynasty (p. 1221). The terrace bearing the Soul tower is called

3 je ^ ^ jh & n - m
1312 THE GRAVE.

the » square fortress" '; it has »an elevated wall with a crenelated
parapet" 2
, and is by no means as large as the corresponding
structures in the greatest among the Ming tombs. It measures in
all the four mausolea only 6,4 or 6,5 chang in length, or circa

21,5 metres, and somewhat less than 2,9 chang or about 10

it is

metres high ; in the H i a o ling and the King ling it is not

3
square , but considerably narrower than long .

The Soul tower, called, as we have seen, » lofty turret" by

the Ta Tiing hwui tien is in all the four mausolea of equal ,

size namely 2,6 chang on each side and consequently by no

, ,

means comes up in dimension to the corresponding building in

c
the Ch ang ling of the Ming dynasty, each side of which
measures 18 metres (see p. 1219). The double roof is covered with
yellow glazed tiles and is 1,45 chang high, and the grave-stone it
contains measures 1,55 chang by 0,55, and is 0,26 chang thick,
its dimensions consequently not varying much from those of the grave-
stone of the Ch ang ling
c
(p. 1219). »It has a crowning border,
» and a pedestal resembling a lotus; it bears gilded characters,
4
» and is decked out with five-coloured paint" . The inscriptions

correspond exactly with those of the grave-stones of the Ming

dynasty, for we read: »In the fourth year of the Kia khing
» period (1799) it was proposed and approved that, in compliance
» with the regulations enacted at the time for the King ling
c
» and the T ai ling, models for the inscriptions for the tablet
» within (of the Yii ling) should be made, to
the Soul tower
» wit: 'Mausoleum of Kao Tsung, the Emperor Shun' for its central
c 5
» part, and 'The Great Ts ing Dynasty' for the crowning border" .

In obedience to the fundamental rescript of the Ta Tscing hwui

1
rnmmrn-
2 ~fc igj/ . It appears that structures of this name were already erected in the

Imperial mausolea of the Han dynasty. Indeed , the passage we give on page 406
from the » Imperial Mirror" also allows of the following translation, which is perhaps
preferable to the one we gave there: »The central square in the burial-places of
»the House of Han measured a hundred pu. After (the grave) was dug and (the
»hill) thrown up, a square fortress was made on the spot" ....
3 According to the T. Ts. h. t. tseh li.

5
mm n * mmm m %mmm z nmm ft

n ± s * m'M^^mm.^zm^m, nm±.
m^%A M¥m T •
-
Ts - h -
'• shi K ch 348
»
-
'
L 3 -
 ,

SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCES FOR THE MAUSOLEA. 1313

Hen (see p. 1307), every Soul tower is adorned with the name of the
mausoleum in which it stands, painted or carved on a board affixed
no doubt, in the same place as the corresponding object in each
Ming tomb. We read, that Shing Tsu ordained in the same year
in which he buried his father » that the tower of the H i a o ling ,

» should thenceforth be designated as a 'Soul tower', and that a

» board inscribed with the characters Hiao ling should be suspended
» at the top of it" 1 Such a board was also affixed in each of the
.

other three mausolea on the burial of the Emperor for whom it

was built -. We read in the Rules and Regulations for the Board
of Rites: »The Imperial Chancery shall propose a name for each
» mausoleum , and present it to the Throne. After its approval
» by the Emperor, the Board of Rites shall request that the boards
» that are to be suspended against the Soul tower , the temple and its

» great gate , as also the inscriptions to be placed on those boards

» in Manchu Mongol and Chinese may be delivered over to the
, ,

» office established in the mausoleum in question (as a branch of

» that Board), with orders further to do what is necessary. And after

» this office has reported that the boards are finished , the Bureau
» of Astrology shall select an auspicious day on which to reverently
» suspend them in their places. On that day, a President or Vice-
» President of the Board of Rites shall present a sacrifice on the
» sacrificial table before the Imperial coffin , and therewith inform
» the Soul of what is to take place; the written offertory for

» this occasion shall be composed by the H a n-1 i n College , and

» the articles to be offered be prepared by the Court of Sacrificial
3
» Worship" .

In all the four mausolea there is, according to the ordinances,

»a wang-khiien gate beneath the square fortress" 4
. We cannot

1
1t;M1i>±i!#[^)$
Wen
m-
khao, hien t'ung ch.
<*•«'• *. 346,
151,
1.6. T.Ts.
h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, I. 6. 1. 3.

2 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, I. 29; ch. 347, 1. 2; ch. 348, 1. 3.

m^^mmmmxmw^ m w. #m*hm^
$®m, %%mzB melt's- H%% Jim,
£* & » # K 8 te. £ l& * * ST # H * <*apterl43,
 ,

1314 THE GRAVE.

even guess what is meant by tbis term , not knowing what to

make of the Chinese characters representing it. may denote
It

the closable mouth of the tunnel, but the ordinances make no

mention of tunnels at all. Mr. Bourne, however, affirms that they
do exist; but we must take into consideration that he but saw
a very small part of the Eastern Cemetery and that he does not
categorically state that he beheld any tunnels with his own eyes. He says
that the entrance to the tomb is beneath the Soul tower, and that
this building is connected by a descending passage with the tumulus
within which the coffin lies
l
. That the coffins are placed within the
crypt upon a ledge or couch , which is probably of stone and that ,

the entrance to the crypt is closed by a door of the same material

the reader has seen on page 1290. According to Bourne, » there is

» behind the door , inside , a round hole , cut in the stone of the
» floor ; and when the door is shut , a large ball of stone follows it

» and , falling into the hole , by its projecting top prevents the door
» from ever opening again. The door itself is of solid stone, and
» when once shut , it may be smashed to pieces by the application
» of sufficient force, but it cannot be opened. When this door has
» been shut, the deceased Emperor is said to be in peace for
2
» evermore" .

No doubt, the crypt in every Imperial tomb is entirely built ot

blocks of stone; at least, apart from the clause in the fundamental
rescripts that intimates this (see p. 1307), such is the case with the
crypts of the high Imperial secondary Consorts and Heirs-Apparent,
for we read in the fundamental constitution: »The crypts for Con-
» cubines of the three highest ranks and those for Heirs- Apparent

» shall be of solid stone, but those of Concubines of the lower

3
» ranks of bricks" The top of the tumulus can be reached by
.

two so-called ting tao 4 or » rising stone paths", an eastern and

a western. We learn this from some accounts the T. Ts. //. t. s/ii li
gives of visits paid by Sons of Heaven to the rnausolea of their
fathers or mothers in the Ts ing ming
c
season, in which
it is explicitly stated that they ascended the eastern ting tao,
with the object of placing some earth upon the tumulus. We

1 Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. V, p. 26.

2 Ibid., p. 27.

Hen , eh. 76, 1. 3.

 SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCES FOR THE MAUSOLEA. 1315

may remind the reader of the inclined passages, either

here also
covert or open leading up the terraces of the Soul towers in the
,

mausolea of the Ming dynasty (see pp. 1221, 1232, 1239 and 1264).
» Outside the wang-khuen gate" thus the ordinances go —
on to say — » there is a moon -terrace " 1
. Considering that the
fundamental rescripts make mention of » steps of the square for-
tress" (see page 1307), we suppose that moon-terrace to be a
round or semi-lunar platform with steps. And in the Hiao ling
» there is in front of that terrace a moon-tips brook , being a qua-
» druple water-channel or conduit spanned in the middle by a level
» stone bridge" 2
. In the ordinances for the King ling and the
c
T a ling i no mention is made of such a F u n g-s h u i moat , nor of
a bridge; but those concerning the Yii ling speak of » a Jade girdle
» brook, situated in front of the moon-terrace, with a level stone
3
» bridge in the middle" . The ordinances further prescribe, that
in all the four mausolea »a sacrificial table of white stone shall be
» placed to the south, measuring 1,94 chang by 0,53, and 0,45
» c h a n g high , and that a set of five sacrificial implements shall be
» arranged on it. In front of this altar a gate shall stand, 2,18
» chang wide, having two stone posts, 1,99 chang high, and
»a lintel and a sill painted in five colours; it shall be closed by
» means of doors, the transverse beams over which shall be red.

» Still more to the front there shall be a triple gate with glazed
» ornaments, having red doors studded with nails of metal; its

» middlemost passage shall be 2,3 chang deep and one in

>> width, and covered with a roof of the height of 1,55 chang;
» and these dimensions shall be for the passages on either side

» 1,66 chang, 0,77 and 1,28" \ Thus we see that this gate dif-

2
#%n %• m * m m & * m z ¥ m-
, >

* ££M-**R** , M -b R -b + M ~m -
1316 THE GRAVE.

fers from the corresponding building in the Ch ang c

ling of the
Ming dynasty chiefly in that the three passages have no common
roof. It is probably built in the style of the gate of which a sketch
is given in Plate L.
The gate with glazed ornaments communicates with the temple
court. In the Hiao ling it is separated from the temple by »a
Jade girdle brook , spanned in the middle by a triple level bridge
of stone" ', and in the Yii ling by »a triple stone bridge of one
2
span" ; in the two other mausolea the first structure reached is

the temple. This edifice is officially styled Lung-ngen tien 3

:

» Temple of Prosperity and Favours", or » Temple of Favours which

ensure » It consists of five divisions formed by the
Prosperity".
» pillars,and has a double roof, the rafters of which incline down-
» ward on the four sides and which is covered all over with yellow,

» glazed tiles. It measures 9,4 chang by 5,3, and the roof is 1,7
c
» chang high" Only in the T ai ling is the temple a little
1
.

smaller, its dimensions being 8 chang by 5,18, and its roof 1,74
chang in height. Consequently, these four edifices are pigmies when
c
compared to the stupendous temple of the Ch ang ling, which
covers more than four times so much ground. The meaning of the
official name they bear we need not now explain after what we

have said on page 12 1 about the analogous name of the temples

J

in the Ming Cemetery. It strikes the attention that the two names
so closely resemble each other, the words lung and ling presenting
hardly any difference, either in sound or meaning. No doubt this
similarity is not accidental. The name Lung-ngen dates from 1663,
when Shing Tsu resolved that the temple of the Hiao ling,
where he had just then buried his father and mother should thence- ,

5
forth bear it .

» Within the temple three »warm porches" are placed. And

» outside it is a moon-terrace (or platform , see above) , upon
» which are arrayed on either side a bronze tripod with a

^ mmm^m, mm^mj^ mmm^m, m

5 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, eh. 346, 1. 6; T. Ts. h. t. tseh U, ch. 80, 1. G; and Wen
hien t'ung khao, ch. 151, 1. 3.
 SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCES FOR THE MAUSOLEA. 1317

» crane and a stag of the same material the top of the platform ;

» is protected by stone balustrades and it has five projecting nights

,

» of steps. The buildings on either side of the temple each contain

» fivecompartments formed by the pillars; they measure 7,7 chang
» by 2,5, and their roofs are 1,25 chang high. There is also
» on either side a furnace for burnt sacrifices measuring 9,3 feet ,

» by 6,6, and 8,5 feet high" '.

»In front of the temple, in the middle, stands a Lung-ngen
»men: »Gate of Favours which ensure Prosperity", consisting of
» five divisions formed by the pillars ; its dimensions are 6,25 chang
2,8, and the height of the roof is 1,3 chang"
8
» by The or- .

dinances for the Hiao ling state, »that there shall be in this

» mausoleum two guard-houses one on the east and one on the west
,

» of the temple-gate and that this gate is to be flanked by two

,

» side-buildings of five divisions, measuring 5,72 chang by a

» breadth of 2,75 and a height of 1,21 chang. Behind the eastern
» side-building shall stand a kitchen for the Soul , consisting of
» five divisions formed by the pillars, and measuring 6,8 chang
» by 2,35, with a roof 1,25 chang high; there shall also be,
» respectively to the north and to the south, two store-houses for the
» Manes with three divisions, which buildings shall measure 3,7
»chang by 2,35, and 1,15 chang in height ; further, a pavilion for
» the slaughter of sacrificial victims in the shape of an airy tower-
» like edifice with a double roof, measuring 2,85 chang square
» and having a height of 1,2 chang" 3
. Similar buildings are also

1
fowmm = -*\wnm,iEiknn%nwmm

2
to * £ f&M Piiffl, ***-*£+,«£-
izAR^Mm — iz^R-

mnB3LM,R*itAR*®=ijt:=.R3.Tt-,ffi
^-£z:R3l^ ** # Bf ft # = Rfl , !i = 3t-b
1318 THE GRAVE.

prescribed for the three other mausolea, with the same dimensions,
except for the » side-buildings". In the King ling, the kitchen,
the store-house and the slaughter-house stand farther off, being men-
tioned after the tablet-house in front of the temple-gate, and after
c
the stone images in the road of the Spirit; in the T ai ling and
the Yii ling they stand between that tablet-house and the images.
The ordinances also speak of a »well pavilion" 1
, erected to the
east, onechang square and with a roof of 0,75 chang in height.
A Lung-ngen men evidently forms the main entrance to every
mausoleum no gate standing in front of it being mentioned in the
,

fundamental rescripts or the supplementary ordinances. Like every

temple-gate in the Cemetery of the Ming dynasty, each Lung-ngen
men bears the characters expressing this word, on a board suspended
over the entrance in the frontispiece ; similarly, each temple is adorned
with a board displaying the word Lung-ngen tien. We have
already stated on page 1313 that these inscriptions are in three
languages , and that the affixing of the boards is considered a
matter of sufficient importance to be celebrated with a sacrifice to
the Manes inhabiting the mausoleum , at the presentation of which
they are duly informed We read in
of the affixing. the ordinan-
ces: »In the first year of the Yung ching period the Imperial
» Chancery issued inscriptions in two languages ,
prepared by the
» Imperial hand for the stone tablets of the King ling, as also
» inscriptions for the boards of the Soul tower, the temple and the
» gate. The following manner of proceeding was then laid out in
» obedience to an Imperial order , and favoured with the Imperial ap-
» proval: — On the engraving being finished by the Board of Works,
» the matter shall be placed in the hands of the Bureau of Astrology,
» which shall select an auspicious day, on the day previous to which a
» respectful announcement of the matter shall be made at the sacrificial
» table of the (still unburied) Emperor Shing Tsu and on the auspi- ;

» cious day a President of the Board of Rites shall reverently hang the
2
» boards in their places, with observance of the proper ceremonial" .
 ,

SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCES FOR THE MAUSOLEA. 1319

The same procedure is stated to have taken place at the affixing

of the sign-boards in the Tai ling 1
.

Like every mausoleum of the Ming dynasty, each of those of the

c
House Ts ing is enclosed by a wall. The total length of that of
of
the Hiao ling is stated to be 197,15 chang, or hardly one
c
third shorter than that of the Ch ang ling. The wall of the
King ling measures 179,45 chang, that of the T c ai ling and
the Yii ling respectively 194,51 and 190,32. The height is either

1,1 or 1,3 chang.

In the King ling » there is in front of the temple-gate a triple
» three-span stone bridge , and to the west a level double bridge
»of stone" 8
;
—
ling, »a moon-tips brook with
and in the Yu
» a triple three-span bridge of stone just in the middle and a ,

3
» level bridge on either side" Further, all the mausolea have .

» southward from the temple-gate exactly in the middle a tablet- , ,

» house of the road of the Spirit, measuring 2,7 chang on each side
» and with a roof which is 1,7 chang high. The stone tablet it con-
stains is 1,85 chang high, by a breadth of 0,63 chang and a
» thickness of 0,28 ; it stands on a dragon-shaped pedestal which is

» 1,55 chang long and 0,52 high" 4

.

Now concentrating our attention for a few moments on the Hiao

ling, we learn from the T. Ts. h. t. sin li that » there are on the
» east of its tablet-house two level stone bridges , with a bower
» in front , formed by the branches of a pine-tree intertwined like

» coiling dragons. And in front ot that tablet-house, right in the

» middle , lies a three-span stone bridge , after which follows in
» the same direction a seven-span stone bridge , and one with a
» single span. Moreover , the road has on the east and on the west
»a slab of stone, 1,36 chang high, 0,34 broad and 0,14 thick,
» announcing that riders shall dismount here ; and after these slabs

li, ch. 346, 1. 28; and T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 26.
•1 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 347, 1. 2: and T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 33.

ft * R H i* &r.R/\^ >%&&&- JZ3LR3L ,

 m ,,;

1320 THE GRAVE.

» to the south, right in the middle follows a

, triple dragon-and-phenix
>> gate. On either flank of this gate extends a wall , adorned with
» glazing; the openings of the gate can be shut by means of doors
» which have red lintels and the building is 3,29 chang broad
» and 2,15 high. Outside it on either side a guard-house,
there is

» consisting of three compartments, and stone images of living

» beings are arrayed in front of the gate, to wit: three pairs of
» civilians and three pairs of military officers , the former attired
» with a gown and cap as prescribed for Imperial audiences, the
v latter with a coat of mail and a helmet on ; a pair of crouching
» unicorns and standing unicorns , crouching lions and standing lions
» crouching and standing elephants, horses, camels and swan-ni 1 ,

» in all eighteen pair; finally, a pair of » columns to look at",

» 2,27 chang in height" 2 .

Mr. Bourne, who penetrated as far as this avenue, describes it

in the following words : » This road , leading from the great (Red)
» Gate in the southern wall to the tomb of Shi Tsu , a distance
» of over three miles is the main artery of the mausolea enclosure
,

» and from it branch off the roads leading to the tombs of the
» later Emperors who as our guide remarked were but branches
, , ,

v of the Imperial genealogical tree; and therefore the relation of

» their roads to that of Shi Tsu , the main stem. It is a magni-
» ficent avenue, bordered on each side by groves of fir-trees planted
» at regular intervals. Our guide asked me triumphantly whether
» the requirements of Fung-s hui were not perfectly fulfilled by this
» road. I was certainly impressed by its position and surroundings.
» To the north , straight in front , stood the snow-covered hills

» under which the tomb of the founder of the dynasty is built

1 See pp. 1324 seq.

&$ * ¥ m - m # mm® &.£ * m je

2
> la:

$m = M&w$-, %m -km & Wi - - m % ,

 - :,

THE AVENUE OP THE HIAO LING. 1321

» and to the south , in the line of the road , so that it. exactly filled
» up the break in the trees, stood another hill, four or five miles
» distant ; but from the singularity of its position with regard to
,

» the road , seeming to be as much a part of the tomb as the

» monstrous stone figures of men and animals that guard the road
» on either side , some standing , others crouching. Behind the stone
» figures the groves of fir-trees were alive witb birds of many spe-
»cies, to whom this forbidden ground gives shelter.
»The stone figures which guard the road deserve a more parti-
» cular notice. There are eighteen pair , or thirty-six in all , each
» pair placed facing one another, one on either side of the road.
» Walking towards the tomb from the south , we see two lofty
» stone pillars , one on either side of the road , about two feet from
» the top of which a cross-piece of stone points inward towards the
» road. Between these pillars and the ornamental archway (read
» dragon-and-phenix gate) the figures are placed at equal distances.
» Next to the pillars come the figures of beasts. They are mono-
»lithic, and appeared to be of about the same size as those at the
» Ming tombs".
The ordinances for the Hiao ling go on to say: »In front of
» the » columns to look at" stands, right in the middle, a pavilion
» with the tablet that commemorates the sage virtues and divine
» feats. This pavilion has a double roof; it is 7,4 chang square,
» and the roof is 3,2 chang high" 1
. It has, accordingly, almost
the same size as the corresponding building in the Ch angc
ling,
which measures 26 metres square (see p. 1198). »The stone tablet
» inside it is 2,06 chang high, 0,67 chang broad and 0,23 thick
» and the pedestal , which has the shape of a dragon , measures
» 1,63 chang in length and 0,56 in height. Two »sky-bearing
» columns" stand in front of this building, and two behind it;

» they are 2,5 chang high and 0,42 in diameter, and these di-
» mensions are 0,52 for the pedestal. Each column is
and 0,87
» surrounded by a stone balustrade, 0,55 chang high, and 1,47
» chang in length on every side" 2 We cannot say whether similar
.

1
^Mfc^mmMw $n^>— m.m^i.M't
* fan-, fc^i:^*^, M*R~b^, J?
 ,

1322 THE GRAVE.

balustrades formerly existed at the corresponding columns in the

Cemetery of the Ming dynasty, as we did not see a trace of them
nor did we find any mention of them in the books.
» In front of the tablet-house , on either side , is a guard-house
» with three compartments. Farther southward, on the left, stands
» a hall for the preparation composed of
of ceremonial dresses ,

» three compartments and measuring 3,4 c h a n g by 2,3 its roof :

>> is one chang in height (comp. page 1308). Again farther

» frontward, right in the middle, stands a great red gate, 11,76
» c h a n g long by a breadth of 3,40 and with a roof which is ,

» 2,5 chang high" 1

. These dimensions are almost, if not exactly,
the same as those of the red gate which forms the main entrance
into the Cemetery of the Ming dynasty (see p. 1196). » Before the
» gate ,
guard-houses of three compartments shall stand on each
» side and to the east and west opposite each other two stone
, , ,

» slabs ordering riders to dismount, 1,36 chang high, 0,34 broad

» and 0,14 thick. And again farther on there shall be, right in the
» middle , two stone decorative gates , 9,75 chang broad and 2,36
» high " 2
.

This dry, skeleton-like summary of buildings and ciphers, how-

ever inattractive reading it affords, may, when combined with
the data supplied by the fundamental rescripts for the mausolea,
which we have translated on pp. 1307 seq., tend to satisfy some-
what the thirst of our readers for some knowledge of the two
sepulchral grounds of the now reigning Imperial family. No figures

at all are given about the distances that lie between the several
buildings ,
gates , walls and bridges. This suggests of itself that the

hub, M-jzmR, #£-£ = *, ttif?-*.*

 ,

THE ROADS OF THE SPIRITS, AND STONE IMAGES. 1323

widest scope has been left on this head to the calculations of geo-
mancers and architects, in connection, no doubt, with the configura-
tions and dimensions of the ground disposed of for every mausoleum.
In one important respect the Eastern Cemetery differs from that
of the Ming dynasty in Clfang-p^ng. While this latter has only
one single Spirit's road, consisting of a great tablet-house, an
avenue adorned with images, and a dragon-and-phenix gate, every
Imperial tomb in the Eastern Cemetery possesses such a road of
its own. According to the T. Ts. //. t. ski li, that of the King
ling has, instead of a dragon-and-phenix gate, »a decorative
» gate of stone, long 7,01 chang and 2,58 chang high, and
» furthermore , five pair of stone effigies of living beings , arrayed on
» the right and left , to wit : one pair of civil officers dressed with
» a gown and a cap as worn at Imperial audiences , one pair of military
» officers in coat-of-mail and with a helmet on and one pair of ,

» standing horses , standing elephants and standing lions. Besides

» it contains a pair of »columns to look at", 2,32 chang high,
» with a stone five-span bridge in front and southward from this
,

» bridge a pavilion for the tablet which commemorates the sage

» virtues and divine feats; this building has a double roof, it is

» 7,25 chang square, and its roof is 3,16 chang high. It con-
tains two tablets, 2,3 chang high, 0,74 broad and 0,29 thick,
» reared on pedestals which have the shape of a dragon and measure
» 1,6 chang, by a height of 0,61" '. The four »sky-bearing columns",
their pedestals and balustrades all have the same dimensions as
in the Hiao ling. An avenue of the above description, with
buildings and monuments of the same dimensions, is prescribed
for the Yii ling, but with other stone animals, namely: »a pair
» of standing horses , unicorns , elephants , camels , s w a n-n i and

nh-XR — ^
1324 THE GRAVE.

» lions" Mr. Bourne says that there are five pairs of stone images
1
.

in front of the Ting ling, but that they are most diminutive
(page 30); and Mayers informs us, that such figures also adorn
the Hwui ling 2
.

Notwithstanding they have separate Spirit's roads the Eastern ,

Mausolea decidedly together constitute one great cemetery, posses-

sing, as they do, in common all the buildings that stand outside
the great tablet-house of the H i a o ling, and the principal of
which are the red gate and the decorative gates. A similar arrange-
ment exists for the Western Cemetery. Indeed, the T ai ling,
c

the first mausoleum built therein which forms its main artery ,

and, as the foregoing pages have shown, resembles the mau-

solea in the Eastern Cemetery in every respect, is explicitly stated

by the ordinances to have an avenue which , like that of the

H i a o ling, abuts on a great red gate , behind which is a hall for

the preparation of ceremonial costumes , and before which two stone

slabs stand, warning all comers to dismount, and three decorative
gates. All these structures are stated to have like dimensions as at
the Eastern Cemetery, save some slight differences of a few inches.
But there are two stone lions outside the red gate, and a five-span
bridge of stone in front of the decorative gates.
The avenues of stone figures in the Western Cemetery seem to

be of very little significance. According to the ordinances, the

T ai ling
c
and the Ch angc
ling are decorated with only one pair

of civil and one of military officers , a pair of horses , elephants and

3
lions, all in standing attitude, and a pair of columns . Siien

Tsung expressly forbade the erection of statues in front of his tomb,

either by a desire to avoid lavish expenditure, or from super-
stitious ideas . We
seen above, that some avenues in the
4
have
Eastern Cemetery contain figures of swan-ni
5
Some works say, .

this word denotes an animal belonging to the lion class. But it is

6
clearly distinguished by the Chinese from the shi or lion proper,

as follows from the fact that images of this animal too are expli- , ,

citly mentioned by the ordinances as standing in the avenues.

2 Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. XII, page 5.

3 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch, 711 11. 14 and 21. ,

4 According to Mayers; op. el loc. cit.

5*£fftorJ£Jg. egg.
 ,,

THE STONE IMAGES OF SWAN-NI AND LIONS. 1325

The swan-ni is spoken of already in the ' Rh ya. »It resembles

a short-haired tiger, and devours tigers and leopards" this work
1
,

says; and Kwoh Poh, its commentator, adds: » Consequently it

is a lion, and lives in the western regions" 2
. The word swan-
n i may, perhaps , be an exotic name of the lion , or its name in
some vernacular of where we may suppose
south-western China,
this animal to have been, or still to be, indigenous. Perhaps the
lion-like monsters in the great Cemetery of the Ming dynasty, de-
picted by us at page 818 in Plate XX, represent swan-ni.
To those of our readers who have perused our disquisition on the
Chinese eulogistic sepulchral tablets and thereby arrived at a proper
understanding of their high significance in the Religion of the Dead,
it will be self-evident that the most important monuments in the
several Spirit'sroads of the Imperial mausoleum-grounds are the
tablets » commemorating the sage virtues and divine merits or
feats". Nobody will, therefore, be astonished to hear that the
biographies, graven in those stones, have altogether been piously
composed by the Sons of Heaven in their own persons, either
nominally or in reality, each of them having counted it among his
sacred duties thus to perpetuate by his own writing-brush the
glorious memory of his father. Their anxiety to give in this wise
the strongest possible expression to their filial feelings, very soon
began to drive them beyond the bounds of conciseness and to
necessitate the erection of two tablets in every pavilion, one single
slab, even of so stupendous a becoming
size as all of them are,
too small to bear so much laudation and magniloquence in two
languages, especially if the defunct had reigned long.
The first for whom two tablets were raised was Shing Tsu, the
second Emperor. We read » With a view to the erection at the
:

» King ling of a tablet recording the sage virtues and divine feats
» a Grand-Secretary, a President of the Board of Works and a Pre-
» sident of the Bureau of Astrology were commissioned in the third
» year of the Yung ching period, to determine by survey and
» calculation a square spot fitted to rear it on. They received the
» following instructions from the Emperor:
'The record of the —
» life of Shi Tsu, placed on his tablet, is brief and succinct. But
» Shing Tsu having been on the throne for more than sixty years

1
mmimmm^tfim $™-

85
 '

1326 THE GRAVE.

» and his feats and virtues being illustrious and perfect, a record of
» his life must consist of so great a number of characters that one
» tablet will not be enough to bear them. On this account
large
» two tablets must be erected one for the Manchu and one for , ,

» the Chinese version. We fear however that they will exercise a , ,

» wrong influence upon peace and rest if they be larger than the
» tablet in Shi Tsu's pavilion. Therefore , should their breadth be
» increased , they may certainly not surpass that tablet in height.
» Deliberate minutely about this matter , and do your best to arrive
!

» at a proper and reasonable conclusion. Respect this

» In obedience to these instructions, the said Ministers deliberated,

» and they came forth with the following proposal to which the ,

» Emperor gave his approval Two tablets of the same dimensions :

» and shape as the one standing in the pavilion of the H i a o

»ling shall be erected; a square spot shall be sought by minute
» survey and calculation and a map made of it to be submitted
, ,

» to His Majesty's view ; and on the carving of the inscription in

» the stone being reported as finished , a felicitous day shall be se-
lected and the tablets erected in that place" '.

Subsequentlyit become the rule to erect two tablets for each Empe-
c
ror. The ordinances teach us, that the tablet-house of the T ai ling
contains a pair of the same size as those of the King ling
2
,

although the Emperor, whose fame they extol, only reigned a

dozen years. In the Y u ling, too there are two tablets. » In ,

» the eleventh month of the fourth year of the Kia khing

» period ", we read » the reigning Emperor issued an edict
thus ,

» of the following tenor :

—
Respectfully do We consider that Our
'

n £ ^ m m * m m. & m. *t # & * + & # # .

n.-mm^.-mWk^^n^ftwm mm. #

fa T - Ts - h. t. M li, ch. 346, II. 31 seq.; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 29.

2 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 711, 1. 14.

 ;,'

THE IMPERIAL BIOGRAPHIC INSCRIPTIONS. 1327

» deceased father Kao Tsung, the Emperor Shun, has from the nio-
» merit he assumed government over the vast Universe ,
promoted
» the improvement and perfection thereof during a great length of
» time. With laborious care He ruled His beloved people ; in every
» direction He tried to exercise a prosperity-ensuring government and ,

» like the fertilizing moisture of the heavens, He spread beatitude

» and welfare among the host of living creatures. In silent retire-
» ment He perfected in the finest details the purity of his virtues
» His civil and military capacities, sage and divine, were so lofty
» and embraced so wide a scope, that it is hardly possible to find
» proper terms denominate them. Therefore, whereas the great
to
» funeral ceremonies at the Y u ling are now reported as ended
» a tablet commemorating His sage virtues and divine feats shall
» be reverently erected there , in order that the latter may be glo-
» riously proclaimed for ever and ever. Having Ourself adopted His
» rules of conduct and respectfully mind His compre-
bearing in
» hensive example, We have carefullycomposed in Our private
» apartment the inscription to be placed on his tablets amidst a ,

» flood of tears moistening the hairs of Our writing-pencil. We

» have displayed therein His grandness and energy; but as no man,
» even though his intellect were as bright as the sun and the moon,
» could possibly describe those qualities for more than a tenthousandth
» part , We have had to content Ourself with giving a condensed
»account of His acts, but in terms which have sprung from the
» profoundest feelings of Our heart ; it may therefore only just make
» the gem of His purity shine like the noontide sun , and be believed
» for a myriad of sacrificial periods. In respect to the measures to be
» taken for the selection of a square spot and the erection thereon
» of a tablet-house , as also to the statute ceremonies which are to
» be performed in connection therewith must be made to , reports
» Us by Our Chancery and by the Boards of Rites and Works,
!
rafter careful examination and respectful deliberation. Respect this
» In obedience to this edict , the following proposal was made by
» the Chancery and the said Boards and approved by the Emperor , :
—
» With respect to a square spot at the Yii ling, on which the
» tablets are to be reverently erected High Minister delegated by
, a
» the Throne , a President of the Board of Rites and one of the
» Board of Works shall be invited to go there beforehand at the
» head of some officials of the Bureau of Astronomy thoroughly
» versed in the geomantic arts ; they shall join there the Princes
» and Magnates charged with the general management of the Eastern
1328 THE GRAVE.

» Mausolea (see p. 1339), and search out by survey and calculation

» a fitting spot with reverent care to finally report to the Throne
,

» about these proceedingsand ask for the Imperial decision. Auspi-

» cious days for commencing the works, for doing the first digging
» and for erecting the tablets shall be sent up to the Bureau of
» Astronomy, that it may select therefrom those which are the
» fittest. The construction of the tablets, the building of the tablet-
chouse, and other works of the kind shall be imposed upon the
» Board of Works. One day before the works are to begin a President ,

» of the Board of Works shall inform the God of Earth of what

» is going to be done offering a sacrifice to this divinity and on
, ;

» the day preceding the erection of the tablets , a President of the

» Board of Rites shall be ordered to inform the (occupant of the)
vYii ling of this matter, presenting at the same time a sacrifice
» to Him. The ceremonial connected with those rites shall be con-
» ducted by the Sacrificial Court, and the Han-lin College shall
» compose the offertories. When the tablets are finished , orders shall
» be given High Minister to inspect with reverent care the
to a
The grandees that must be sent before-
» inscriptions carved therein.
» hand to the mausoleum to seek a suitable spot for the tablet-house,
» and those who are to inspect the inscriptions and to make the
» announcements connected with a sacrifice shall report to the Throne
,

1
» about their proceedings, through the Board of Rites" .

mmxftmmm^. 4ii^ Us a t, B^m

iH JL ;|S #^ itk

m m ± n % & m m & n. * e - m # m n x m
 ,,

SHI TSU's BIOGRAPHY, CARVED IN STONE. 1329

The measures prescribed in this edict have undoubtedly been

followed at the erection of every tablet-house , they being laid down
as general standard rescripts among the Rules and Regulations for the
Board of Rites \ Our readers will be mistaken , if they think that
those Imperial sepulchral biographies, carved in solid stone and
carefully sheltered from atmospherical influences by a strong roof
and massive walls , are valuable historical documents , doubly useful
c
because no official history of the Ts ing dynasty as yet exists. Being
exclusively laudatory, as filial piety forbids a son to pass censure
on his father's deeds, they cannot, indeed, claim to be trustworthy
sketches of the characters of the sovereigns to the memory of whom
they are sacred ; moreover , bare feats and achievements are recorded
therein with the utmost brevity and without any addition of detail
and in most cases even the dates are omitted This judgment we
pronounce, however, over the tablet inscriptions for the three first

Emperors alone, the only ones of which we have reprints, and that
in the Wen Men fung khao~; of the others we never saw a copy.
As our readers may desire to obtain an idea of the contents of
such biographies, we paraphrase here that of Shi Tsu, the first
Emperor, which is the shortest, containing only 1435 characters.
The tablet was reared in 1668.
After mentioning the parents of whom this monarch was born
it goes on to relate that before his birth a wonderful light issued
, ,

from his mother's body, and that she dreamed of a mysterious

individual that handed a son to her, who, he said, would once wield
the sceptre over the whole wide world. At the confinement, a red
glare and savoury odours pervaded the Palace. When only six years
old he could read and recited by heart without the help of his
, ,

teacher, several columns of characters at once, after having merely

looked over them. At that tender age he was placed on the throne of

m ± » ± n t m % m & % £ m ij & ^ n m
it t ~ m % % fe ±z m,±nw m - b 1% mi®

& % # JK rS & fg 3R ^ M
1 In chapter 143, 1. 19.
T.Ts.h.t. shi li, ch. 348, 11. 6 seq.

2 Chapters 151 and 152.

 ,

1330 THE GRAVE.

China, and established his Court at Peking. The different parts of

the Empire were then reduced to submission by military force,
and sundry measures taken for the relief of the people, such as
the abolition of taxes and tributes, and crushing statute labour at
the frontiers. The Emperor same time devoted his attention
at the
to the digestion of a code of laws; he
behaved most dutifully
towards his deceased parents and grandfather, and gave his nights
which so much zeal to the study of the Manchu and Chinese
languages, that he became thoroughly versed in philosophy, natural
science astronomy, geomancy, rites and ceremonies music military
, , ,

tactics, jurisprudence, rates and taxes, medical science, in short,

every branch of knowledge. In dressing and eating he observed
moderation and simplicity he made considerable outlays for the
;

restoration of temples dedicated to Confucius, and gave much of his

attention to the competitive examinations for official ranks. His
Manchu and Chinese subjects he gave equality of rights, and he
placed and the military officers on the same level. He
the civil

ordered his mandarins to be just and equitable, but to execute the

laws with lenity. In his own person he ploughed the ground at
the altar to the God of Agriculture, thus teaching the people by
his example to devote themselves with zeal to the production of
food. Wherever inundation, drought or any other calamity harrassed
his subjects, he carried relief, doing so even to Yunnan and Kwei-
cheu, after the people there had been reduced to submission by his
armies. He established guards in the mausolea of the Ming dynasty,
issued effective prohibitions for the protection of the trees growing
there, and ordained that sacrifices should be presented to the last
sovereign of that extinct House; moreover, he conferred honours
upon the officers who had sacrificed their lives in its cause, and
he succoured their families. No wonder, then, that the beneficial
effect of his favours was felt unto remote regions beyond the fron-
tiers of the Empire proper, »and, southward, even as far as the
» Liu-kiu islands Siam Holland and the Western Ocean so that
, , ,

» hundreds of transmarine kingdoms seeing the four seas were without

,

» any billows, exclaimed unanimously: A holy man has appeared

1
» in the Middle Empire" . Finally we are informed of the exact
date of the Emperor's death , his age and the duration of his reign
,

1
m^^im.mm^m.^nrm^mwL^
Ji8l*l&tt.Ji£B,*B*rilAtHE-
 ,

THE WALLS AND THE MILITARY STATIONS. 1331

as also of his admirable testamentary disposition that all useless

expenditure for the embellishment of his mausoleum should be
abstained from, and no precious articles be buried with him. Sub-
sequently, the whole biography is repeated in the shape of a eulogic
metrical composition of thirty-two lines of eight characters, all the
lines ending with the same rhyme, after which follow three extra
lines of eight characters , constituting a hymn in praise of the mau-
soleum in which the remains of this great man repose.
This commemorative tablet-inscription , consequently, does not es-

sentially differ from those which the Chinese have been wonted for

many ages to exhibit on the graves of distinguished persons (see p.

1163), nor from the mo chi-ming, placed in the graves of the
official and non-official class since more than a thousand years. Indeed
it likewise consists in a biography (chi), followed by a poetic
eulogy (ruing). The tablet-inscriptions for the second and the third
Emperor composed in quite the same way. That of Shing Tsu
are
contains more than three times as many characters as his prede-
cessor's. This can hardly be ascribable to the fact of his having
reigned more than three times as long, since the tablet-inscription
of his successor, who wore the crown for only a dozen years, is

drawn out to almost quite the same length.

In either Cemetery, the oldest mausoleum stands, according
to the ordinances, within a vast area surrounded by a wall. This
wall has a total length of 6439,48 chang or nearly 22 kilome-
tres in the Eastern Cemetery, by a height of 1,3 chang; in the
Western it is 4399 chang or circa 15 kilometres long and 1,45
high. These enormous lengths suggest that either wall embraces,
if not the whole Cemetery to which it belongs a very large part ,

of it, and that the Red Gate forms its main entrance. We be-
lieve the walls were built on account of geomantic considerations,

the Rules and Regulations for the Board of Works making

mention of »Fung-shui walls enclosing the Eastern and the
"Western Mausolea" '. Mr. Bourne says that, in the Eastern
Cemetery , » the Great Wall forming the northern boundary is
, ,

!
» met at Ma-lan Chen , a military station at the north-east corner
» of the enclosure , at right angles by a plain brick wall about ,

» nine feet high , called the F u n g-s h u i wall which encloses the
,

1
IlSllilH^ 105 -
1 ^.
 ,,

1332 THE GRAVE.

» ground set apart as specially sacred to the Imperial Dead. From

» Ma-lan Chen this wall runs nearly due south as far as Ma-lan
» Yu ', after passing which place it trends slightly towards the west
» and runs in a S. S. W. direction, until it is opposite the small
c 2
» town of Sin-ch ing , a distance of five miles , where it turns to
» the west. The eastern side of the enclosure is thus about five
» miles long. From the distances traversed within the wall , 1 should
» think the width of the space enclosed , from east to west , must
» be also about five miles. The area of the inner enclosure would
»be, on this supposition, about 25 square miles or 16,000 acres.
» But besides this, a wide tract outside the boundary wall, and
» the ranges of hills on the south and south-west , belong to the
»mausolea, and are forbidden ground. The Fung-shui wall only
» supplies a boundary when there is no natural one. It shuts off
» the valleys but unlike the Great Wall which seems to select
, ,

» the highest peaks and the most precipitous crags and boldly scale
» them , it does not ascend the hills . . . The Fung-shui wall is

» pierced at several points on the east and south by small gates

» through which pass the materials used in building and repairs
» and all the traffic that is allowed. The main entrance is on the
» southern side. It is called the great Red Gate and , is never
3
» opened except for the passage of an Emperor" .

The Fung-shui walls by no means form the extreme limits of

the burial-grounds. They are invested by a very broad tract of so-
called chung ti
4
: » important ground", which term in general
denotes all for Imperial or Government use. The
soil reserved
chung two Cemeteries are also known as »the grounds
ti of the

constituting the Dragon of the backside" 5 that is to say, the hills ,

embodying the good celestial and terrestrial influences of the area

they gird (comp. page 951). » Outside the outer wall surrounding
» the mausolea", thus we read in the fundamental ordinances, » shall
» be placed red posts three in a mile within which it shall be
, ,

» forbidden to gather fuel or to till the soil. And outside this

» cordon of red posts either at forty p u therefrom , , or at twenty,

» a cordon of white posts shall be placed followed ten miles beyond ,

» by a cordon of blue posts from which boards shall be suspended ,

» displaying a prohibition to this effect: 'Nobody belonging to the

1
.11^-
3 Pages 24 and 27.
2
mm-
 THE FORBIDDEN GROUNDS AROUND THE MAUSOLEA. 1333

» Army or to the people may gather earth or stones within these

» posts , or erect any kilns , or steal timber. Those who disobey
1
» this order shall be punished in accordance with the laws'" .

What these punishments are, our readers know from the sup-
plementary article of the Code of Laws, translated on pp. 903 seq.

Imperial edicts teach us, that the population originally living

within the white posts were not expulsed, but allowed to con-

tinue repairing their houses and graves with earth and stone,
gathered for the purpose on the spot. In 1805 the necessity was
pleaded forbidding the people living within the white posts of the
Western Cemetery, on the north and the west of the Fung-shui
wall, to build or restore thenceforth any houses or graves. But
the Emperor , unwilling to vex them , sagaciously gave orders to take
the white posts away, to change the red posts into white ones, and
to erect a new cordon of red posts further on, which measures the
geomancers declared not to be detrimental to the Fung-shui 2
.

In 1822 the population within the blue posts was officially reported
to amount to 504 families 3 .

The extract from the Code, given on pp. 911 seq. of this work,
teaches us that it is strictly prohibited to dig for ginseng in the
reservation grounds , and it suggests , in consequence that the Govern-
,

ment monopolizes the advantages yielded by this precious product.

That those grounds are covered broadcast with trees, and the inner
grounds of the mausolea are likewise thickly wooded is self-evident ,

from the severe laws for the protection of those plantations which ,

we have translated on pp. 902 905 and 913. Speaking of the —

Eastern Cemetery, Bourne says: » Its whole enclosure is so thickly
» wooded that no tomb can be seen from any other" 4 The ordin- .

ances prescribe, in conformance with the fundamental rescripts

Su PP lementai'y Ta Ts'ing hwui Hen, ch. 48, Ta Ts'ing

^fk $C l& '/q fP ' 1. 8.

i
Hen ski li, ch. 712, 1. 5.

2 Ta Ts'ing hwui tien shi li , ch. 712, 11. 6 sqq.

3 » inquiries into the Organisation of the Central Power, published by Imperial
Authority", £^
lations regarding the Chinese
^ pb ijjj jjfr
^
Army. Chapter 13,
, an exhaustive
1. 9.
official compendium of regu-

4 Page 25.
1334 THE GRAVE.

(see p. 1308), that at each mausoleum in particular »the Spirit's

» road shall be planted on both sides with trees ,
placed with
» intervals of two chang in (transverse) rows of ten, which rows
» shall be separated by distances of fifteen chang" '.

The special Mausolea of Empresses.

After the above digest of official rescripts concerning the two
Imperial Cemeteries, but little remains to be said about the mau-

solea of those Empresses who, for reasons exposed on page 1286,

might not be buried in the tombs of their pre-deceased Consorts.
For it is a positive fact, that the ordinances regarding the
c
Chao-si ling, the Hiao-tung ling and the T ai-tung ling,
laid down in the T. Ts. h. I. shi li
s
, show that these sepulchres
closely resemble the Imperial mausolea in all essential features,
and also that the dimensions of nearly all the principal structures
are identical, save, here and there, a difference of a few feet or
inches, for the tumuli, however, and the walls surrounding
them , figures are given which show that their circumferences
are hardly half as great as those of the corresponding structures
in the Imperial tombs. In each, of the three said mausolea the
square fortress is a little smaller than the average size of those
of the Imperial tombs, and no » moon-tips wall" is mentioned, nor
a decorative gate in front of the grave-altar. Quite a different
disposition of the buildings is found in the Chao-si ling, as
its gate with glazed ornaments stands in front of the temple, and
c
the latter is flanked by two Ling-ts in gates with one opening
each. For every mausoleum it is prescribed that trees shall stand
along the Spirit's road arranged like those at the Imperial
tombs, but no word is said of stone images, nor of appertaining
dragon-and-phenix gates or tablet-houses, so that, evidently, such
ornamentations are exclusively to be found at the tombs of Sons
of Heaven. An idea of the superficies of the mausolea of the
Empresses may be obtained from the ciphers which the ordinan-
ces give for the lengths of the square walls surrounding them.
That of the Chao-si ling is stated to be 108 chang, and that
of the Hiao-tung ling 189 or, according to the T. Ts. h.t.tseh
c
li, 162, while that of the T ai-tung ling measures 98 chang.

^ R9 ~~l~* ^f
2 In chapter 711.
3t- 5^ •
Ta Ts '
in 9 hwui Hen shi li ,
ch. 711.
 ,

THE SPECIAL MAUSOLEA EOR EMPRESSES. 1335

The Chao-si ling has an outer wall besides, of a total length of

130 chang and a height of 1,23.
The reason why the Empresses who survived their husbands have
had mausolea made for them as grand and gorgeous as those of
the latter themselves , no doubt consists in that each of these women
too, was owner of the Empire for a time, and that during the reign
of her son; for the great social law that whatever a child possesses
is the property of its no exception,
still living parents, allows of
even in respect of the realm and the crown. The Imperial power
devolving in this way on an Empress-Dowager may be practically
exercised by her with great determination if she possesses energy ,

and pluck. The two mothers of Muh Tsung, mentioned on page 1299 ,

are well known to have bent the Empire to their will during the
whole of his reign.

The Mausolea of Imperial Concubines.

As was the case with the Ming dynasty (see p. 1240), the present
reigning House is in the habit of giving the principal secondary
wives of the Emperors a sepulture in the Imperial Cemeteries. In
c
1081, when Shing Tsu buried his two Consorts Hiao Ch ing and
Hiao Chao in the mausoleum destined for himself (see page 1290),
he founded in the close vicinity a cenotaph for his fei ', or
2
Concubines of the third rank Some twelve of them were buried
.

therein at different times, among whom there were some who had
become entitled to a place in it in virtue of their elevation to the
3
rank of fei after the Emperor's death .

c
Of p in, kwei-jen and shu-fei
his
4
Concubines of the three ,

lower ranks of whom he possessed some twenty-one in all 5 not one

, ,

is stated to have been buried in that sepulchre. It is remarkable

same Shing Tsu who felt so anxious to provide a beautiful
that this
mausoleum for his own Concubines, did not at all manifest such
solicitude for those of his father , for we read , that » when the
» burial ceremonies for Hiao Hwui , the Empress Chang , were
» finished, auspicious times were selected to bury the fei and

1
ft-
2 Ta Ts'ing hwui Hen shi li, ch. 349, 1. 11.
3 Wen Men t'ung khao , ch. 241 , 11. 24 sqq.

5 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 241, II. 20 — 29.

1336 THE GRAVE.

» Palace Dames of the Emperor's father in separate graves" '. Their

Soul tablets, however, seven in number, were placed in the temple
2
of the Hiao-tung ling, the sepulchre of the said Empress .

When Kao Tsung assumed the reins of government, two secondary

Consorts of his grandfather Shing Tsu were still alive, namely the
Mongol or Manchu women Khioh Hwui 3
and Tun I ', respectively
Concubines of the second and the third rank during the reign of their
spouse. Kao Tsung promoted them both a degree, and resolved to
have a special mausoleum constructed for them. To this effect, »he
» issued the following decree in the second year of his reign : — In
» the early days of life when We looked for protection unto
Our ,

» the benevolent love of Our Imperial Grandfather and were fostered

» in the Palace under his cherishing hand He charged the now ,

» Grand Secondary Consorts of the first and the second rank to

» guide Our steps and look after Us and these women respect- ; ,

» fully embodying in themselves the holy affections cherished for Us

» by Our Imperial Grandfather himself, manifested towards Us a
» goodness and zeal of the highest order, perfect in every respect.
» The remembrance of what they have done lives forth vividly in
» Our mind and has aroused in Us a desire to build an extra y uen-
,

c
»ts in for them, which may become their abode when they shall
» have lived a thousand autumns. We have therefore ordered the
» Princes to examine the ancient rules on this and they
head ;

c
» have reported that the erection of extra yuen-ts in was an
» established rule in times of yore, so that, if We carry out Our
» purpose, We shall act under the sanction of the ceremonial
» institutions. We have also laid the matter before the Empress-
» Dowager and respectfully received Her gracious decision allowing
, ,

» Us to execute Our design and to order the Boards concerned

» to search out by reverent and careful survey a spot in the close

» vicinity of the King ling, and there to build the mausoleum.

» The rescripts in force for such sepulchres shall be somewhat
» liberally applied in this case , in order that the feelings of respect
» and reveration (which We cherish for those women) may be clearly

I #B # M H* A ^ # M °i>- <*- ch 151

-
>
L 9 -

2 Op. el loc. cit.

o K* IS
/Hi.
Tilt*
.

4
-|f ^ .
 THE SEPULCHRES OF IMPERIAL CONCUBINES. 1337

» exhibited thereby"'.The mausoleum was built eastward from

the King ling, and Khioh Hwui was buried in it in 1743,
2
Tun I following her twenty-five years later .

In the very same year 1737 in which he took his first measures
for the erection of that sepulchre , Kao Tsung had an other built for
his father's which he inaugurated by the burial of two
Concubines ,

of them of the third rank

3
After that, two more Concubines were .

deposited in it at different times. Finally, a mausoleum destined for

his own Concubines arose in 1762 by the care of the same Emperor,
as an appurtenance to the one he had then built already for him-
self and contained at the time, besides the remains of his first

chief Consort, those of three of his first-rank Concubines (see

pp. 1298 seq.). It is chronicled that he buried in the said year

his first-rank secondary Consort Shun Hwui 4
in that new grave,
and that it afterwards received the remains of eleven other Con-
cubines of the three highest ranks 5
. The ordinances still make
mention of a mausoleum for the Concubines of Jen Tsung in which ,

burial took place for the first time in 1803 6

and, no doubt, some
;

more of such monuments have been reared in the course of the

present century.
Those sepulchres for Concubines are no ling, but are officially
c
calledyuen-ts in. As to the meaning of this term we refer to
what we have said on page 444. Unlike the mausolea of the Em-
perors, they are not distinguished by special proper names. Each
of them is merely indicated by the name of the mausoleum the

± #b w ti m ma m as & m ft % m m > . «* & js ±

m,4 %m n t* m m x %. m m m m^: B.mm

mm left, ^ n m m u $$ %mm & z &mm
~5* "f^f" . Ta Ts'ing hwui tien shi li, ch. 349, 1. 12.

2 Op. cit., ch. 349, 11. 13 and 15.

3 Op. el cap. cit, 1. 13.

4
5
MM-
Ibid., 11. 15 sqq. 6 Ibid., 1. 18.
 :

1338 THE GRAVE.

appurtenance of which it is ; so , for example , that which contains

the remains of Khioh Hwui and Tun I is called » Y u e n-t s c
i n
for the first-rank Concubines belonging to the King ling" 1
, these
women having been
wives of the occupant ling; of the King
that for the other Concubines of this Emperor bears the name of
c
»Yuen-ts in of the third-rank Concubines belonging to the King
ling" 2 etc. The special rescripts issued for each of those cenotaphs
;

show that they closely resemble the mausolea of the Imperial Prin-
ces, of which we gave a description on pp. 1165 sqq. The Ta Tiing
hwui tien says: »For Concubines of the three highest ranks or
» Crown-Princes the crypts shall be of stone , and for Concubines
» of the fourth or the fifth rank of bricks. In either case there
» shall be a stone-paved moon-terrace. Earth shall be placed over the
» crypts so as to form tumuli. Every one shall have a place in
3
» accordance with her rank" .

According to the Collections of ordinances , each mausoleum as-

signed for the burial of Concubines contains the following structures
A gate with glazed ornaments, averaging 1,80 or 1,90 chang
in length , and 0,88 or 0,96 in breadth. A temple for the worship
of the Soul tablets, with minimum dimensions of 6 chang by 3,40,
and maximum dimensions of 6,77 by 3,53; the temple to Khioh
Hwui and Tun I, however, is longer and broader by about one
third. A furnace in front of the temple, to the east. A triple main

gate of a length between 3,38 and 3,85 chang, but measuring

4,72 chang in the mausoleum of Khioh Hwui and Tun I. The
total length of the wall surrounding either mausoleum belonging to

the King ling, is 155 chang; the wall of the Yii ling mau-
soleum is 130 chang long, and that of the other tombs averages
between these two figures. On either side of the gate is a guard-
house, and in front a single stone bridge. The gates, temples and
walls are all covered with blue glazed tiles, as in the mausolea of
4
Imperial Princes of high rank . Stone tablets in the Spirit's roads
are not mentioned at mausoleum belonging all. A to the Chao-si
5
ling, founded by Shi Tsung in the first year of his reign , was

1
M 111 M "e #E 03 le •
2
if?" [H #B ill ns: 1

4 The above information is drawn from the Supplementary Edition of the Ta

Ts'ing hwui tien, ch. 48, and from the T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 714.

5 T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 137, 1. 20.

 ,

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAUSOLEA. 1339

built on a scale exceptionally small, the length of the wall being

only 71 chang, and that of the temple 4,25.

The Administration of the Mausolen.

An all-pervading bureaucratic officialism dominating the Chinese
State , it can hardly be expected that the tombs of the Imperial
Family should not be under its sway. Indeed , they constitute
an integral part of the machinery of the State, ranking, as they
do, with the principal places for the exercise of the Imperial or
official Religion.
The weal and woe of the Imperial House , the maintenance and
glory of its throne, being entirely dependent on the condition and
preservation of those sepulchres , it is quite natural that the chief
control over by very high members of that House
them is exercised
itself, that by some Princes of sundry ranks » members
is to say, ,

» of the Imperial Family entitled Wang, Baira, or Kung, and

» other High Ministers, as also a staff of Body Guard officers, etc." '.

In either Cemetery they constitute a so-called » Yam en for the

General Management of Matters relating to Mausolea" s or
the ,

»Yamen intrusted with the Management of Matters" 3 to which ,

4
are attached one or two Assistant Secretaries , and some Writers
either two or four s
. The buildings erected for this staff in or near
the Eastern Cemetery are , according to the ordinances : a mansion
for the Baira, composed
130 compartments; a mansion of 60 of
compartments for the Kung; 390 apartments for the officers and
soldiers of the Body Guard; an office-building consisting of 23
apartments ; 4 apartments for each Assistant Secretary and each
Writer. And in the Western Cemetery we have a mansion of 60
compartments and another of 40, respectively for the Baira and
the Kung; 60 apartments for the High Ministers, 96 for the
Body Guards and 49 constituting an office-building 6
, .

These two high Committees also have to point out to the Crown the
T
most eligible situations for all the mausolea that are to be made .

for
1
^^IJtff^Ag>^#lf^
the Board of Rites, ch. 143, 1. 7.
Rules and Re s u ations '

5 Op. el cap. cit., 11. 9 and 11; Wen hien t'ung khao , ch 84, 11. 3 and 4.
6 Supplementary T. Ts. h. t., ch. 48; T. Ts. h. t. shi U, ch. 713, 1. 8.

7 Rules and Regulations for the Board of Rites, ch. 143, 1. 17.
 ,,

1340 THE GRAVE.

No doubt they then dispose of the guidance of the Chinese geo-

mancers, eighteen in number, who are attached to the Imperial
Bureau of Astrology with the title of Yin-and-Yang Masters *,
and who, apart from some other functions, »have to augurate about
» the erection of buildings by observing the influences of the Y i n
» and the Yang " 2 .

Of the six great Boards established at Peking none of course ,

has so often to interfere with the mausolea as that of Works, the

execution of all technical undertakings projected by the State being
incumbent on it. We may
what we have already statedrepeat here
this Board, called
on page 1310, namely, that a special subdivision of
The Administrative Bureau of Government Reservations is charged ,

with the execution of all the rescripts touching mausolea and

sepulchres of any sort. This bureau is composed of four Manchu
and one Chinese Senior Secretaries five Manchu and one Chinese 3
,

Second Class Secretaries ', and two Chinese and three Manchu
Assistant Secretaries
5
one of which latter must be a member of
,

e
the Imperial Clan .

In either Cemetery this Bureau is represented by a so-called

»Yamen of the Board of Works" 7
, established respectively in a
place called Shih-men or Shih-men Yih 8 , situated south-east of
the Eastern Cemetery, and in Yih-cheu, the chief city of the
department of the same name in which the Western Cemetery
lies (see p. 1293). These Yamen consist of the following members:
Senior Board Secretaries, |*|$ EJ3 ; in the Eastern Cemetery 1, in the
Western 1.

Second Class Secretaries , j| #[»

|s|$ ; in the Eastern Cemetery 4, in

the Western 3.
Assistant Secretaries , :jr ^. ; in the Eastern Cemetery — , in the

Western 3.

Writers, jp 1^ jj^; in the Eastern Cemetery 4, in the Western 2.

Hired Clerks, § ^; in the Eastern Cemetery 2, in the Western 2.

2 /rfi l&* Wt ]/X h HF lM- Ta Ts'ing hwui tien , ch. 86, 1. 1.

6 Ta Ts'ing hwui tien, ch. 70, 1. 2, and the Supplementary Edition of that work
ch. 48.
 ,

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAUSOLEA. 1341

Moreover, forty patrolling soldiers under a Pa-tsung 1

or Sergeant
are attached to each Yam en for the guarding of its stores. In
the Cemetery these men are drafted from the garrison of
Eastern
Ma-Ian Chen, a military station situated, as we saw on page 1331,
at the north-east corner of the immured grounds; in the Western
they are drafted from the
c
T ai-ning Chen 2
garrison, a station
which we cannot find on any of the maps at our disposal.
Each of these two Yam ens employs an official seal, kept by
its Senior Board Secretary. For the accommodation of their consti-
tuents there have been erected , both in Shih-men and Yih-cheu
an office building and a store-house, besides several apartments to live
3
in . Since 1740 immediate control has been exercised over them by
the Princes and Magnates entrusted with the general management
of the Cemeteries. To these grandees they have to refer for verifi-
cation of their estimates of the outlays required for building and
repairs, for wages and food for the workmen, etc. 4
. Every year, in
the tenth month , each Yaiuen for the General Management has
to report to the Throne as to the repairs that are to be undertaken in
the Cemetery entrusted to its supervision. A Vice-President 5
of the
Boards of Works in Peking is then sent to the spot with a suit of
subalterns, to verify the report and make an estimate of the costs;
and thereupon it is proposed to the Throne to allow the supreme
Yamen in question to order the local Yam en of the Board of
Works to undertake those repairs under its constant control. And
when the repairs are finished, a Vice-President of the Board of
Works, commissioned for the purpose by the Throne, inspects
them thoroughly, and for the good and due control of all following
repairs he registers them at his Board. It is prescribed that for no
works whatever may the original estimate of costs be exceeded
or any suppletory funds be granted. The yearly outlay for repairs
may not exceed nine hundred taels in the Eastern Cemetery, and
five hundred in the Western '. These sums are strikingly small;
but unpaid or badly paid labour may make up the rest. In ac-
cordance with a special decree issued by Shing Tsu in 1669, the

3 T.
mm- *m^m-
Ts. h. I. ski li, ch. 713, 1. 8; and the Supplementary Edition of the T.
Ts. h. !., ch. 48.

4 T. Ts. h. t. ski li, ch. 712, 1. 1 : and T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch.137, 11. \d sqq.
5
#115-
6 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 713, 1. 14; and the Rules and Regulations for the
Board of Works, ch. 105, 1. 2.

86
 . ,

1342 THE GRAVE.

projects for all works or repairs that need not be performed on

fixed annual dates ,are to be sent to the Board of Rites at Peking
in order that it may have felicitous days selected on which to
execute them '.

The whence the two Yamens of Works are

localities to draw
building-materials, or where they must be made, are carefully
stated in the Ordinances. Many are situated at respectable distances.
The blue and the white stone required for the Eastern Mausolea
are to be fetched » out of the great quarries in the grounds of the
2
family Lu in the district of Fang-shan " , located about two days
west of Peking; and blue sand-stone for those tombs must be blocked
out from the Ma-ngan Shan 3
or Horse-Saddle Mount in the district
c 5
of Yuen-p ing \ at more than one day's journeying west of Peking .

We have related already on pp. 1249 seq. in what manner enorm-

ous blocks of stone are conveyed from those places to their desti-

nation. For the stone works artisans were brought from the pro-
vinces of Shantung and Shansi, apart from numerous
Peh-chihli,
bodies of workmen provided by
the Board of Works. In the
beginning, the Governor of Shantung was charged with the delivery
c
of bricks of a certain kind manufactured in Lin-ts ing 6 a region ,

situated in that province on the Grand Canal no less than three , ,

geographical degrees southward from Peking 7 In 1719, however, .

he was released from this obligation such bricks thenceforth being ,

c
obtained from Wen-ts iien 8 in the Tsun-hwa department 9 where , ,

most of the bricks for the Eastern Cemetery had been made from the
c
commencement; and in 1752 Wen-ts iien even became the exclusive
10
place of manufacture by special Imperial ordinance . » Old-fashioned
city-wall bricks" u required for the mausolea are paid there two
19
candareens and one cash a piece '*. The kilns are worked in free
labour by the common people, under the control of the local

1 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 713, 1. 11.

5 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 712, I. 4; and T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 137, 1 14.

G
KItS-
7 T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 137, 1. 14. 8 ^ -^
9 Op. et cap. tit., 1. 15; T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 712, 1. 5.

10 The same works, loc. tit.

« MMnm-
13 Rules and Regulations for the Board of Works, ch. 106,
i2 — #— if- 1. 3.
 ,

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAUSOLEA. 1343

Authorities, as also by criminals condemned to light statute labour;

and every manufacturer has to hold an official license to exercise

his profession »The and stones, yearly required
l
. bricks, tiles, lime
» for the mausolea, must all be burned or gathered for the works
» of repair at appointed spots situated so far from the hills that ,

» they cannot affect the grounds which constitute the pulses of the
9
» Dragons" . For the Western Cemetery, too, the stone is obtained
3
from the Fang-shan quarries .

In each Cemetery, the Yamen of the Board of Works gives

employ mausoleum to a permanent body of labourers,
in every
c
placed under a Ling-ts ui 4 or »Urger", i. e. a Corporal. In the
Hiao ling, the King ling and the Yii ling it consists of 20
artisans
5
17 waterers and sweepers 6 and 70 foresters 7 for the
, , ;

other mausolea other figures are given. As the sundry Collections

of ordinances do not always coincide in point of these figures we ,

think the latter were modified from time to time, in connection

with circumstances. Whenever they received orders to this effect
from the Board of Works , the Governors of Peh-chihli levied those
men, for the Eastern Cemetery, in Fung-jun and the other districts
8

adjacent to the Tsun-hwa department ; and for the Western in Yih- ,

is from among the descendants

9 10
cheu , Choh-cheu , Lai-shui , etc. It

of those men that the permanent labourers, required for the mau-
solea of younger date, have been for the most part selected, new
enlistments in behalf of these tombs having only taken place to

supply the deficiences ".

The men thus attached to the mausolea either by compulsion ,

or of their own free will, are officially styled jen-yih 12 a term ,

generally denoting people sent on Government labour. From the

outset, apparently, the Authorities did not conduct these enlistments
with much care and discrimination, as in 1758 Kao Tsung had to

l Op. tit., ch. 107, l. 4.

z $l m & & m #i m m m m % ® m. z m t- ™*
Ini'iii tien , ch. 76, 1. 4.

3 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 712, 1. 5; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 137, I. 15.

11 T. Ts. h. I. shi li, ch. 712, II. 1 seq.; T. Ts. I,, t. tseh li, ch. 137, II. 10 sr,/.

<2
A^-
 ,

1344 THE GRAVE.

formally forbid the sending of any more such vagabonds and suspected
characters to the mausoleum-grounds , ordaining that only such people
should be made to settle there , about whom satisfactory information

had been furnished by the Authorities of the place of enlistment '.

Besides the construction and the repairs of edifices, bridges,
walls etc., the Board of Works has to devote its best care to

the greenwood with which the two Cemeteries are clad in every
direction, and to defray from its treasuries the expenses the planting
entails. The foresters whom as we saw above it maintains in its
, ,

service for the purpose, have to occupy themselves in the main

with sowing or planting new trees in the place of those that die

or are uprooted by storms. Considering how much respect and

care have, since very ancient times, been manifested in China for
grave-trees, and how much utility for the preservation of Fung-
s h ui is ascribed we cannot feel surprised that the
to them ,

present dynasty has always shown itself warmly interested in its

own sepulchral forests, issuing all sorts of edicts regulating their
management. In 694 Shing Tsu prescribed the planting of the trees
1

at respective distances of two chang, that is to say (seep. 1334),

the same that separate them in the rows flanking the several
Spirit's roads. In 1748 it was decreed by Kao Tsung, that the

Yamens for the General Management of the Mausolea should

hold quinquennial inspections, in order to ascertain how many
trees had in the mean time died, and report to the Throne how
many new ones ought to be planted in their stead, at the cost
of Board of Works, by the joint care of the Imperial House-
the
hold Department and the two Yamens of the Board of Works.
From an edict issued in 1759 we learn, that up to that year
it was customary for the officials in the Eastern Cemetery to sell

all the dead trees the timber of which was not wanted in the
construction of buildings or in the repairs. That custom , the edict
says, worked very injuriously, many good trees having un-
had
timely under the axe, a prey to official rapacity; therefore,
fallen

wishing to put a stop to such spoliation, the Emperor ordained

that no wood should thenceforth be disposed of by sale, unless
sawn asunder and piecemealed beforehand. Returns of the proceeds,
thus the edict further prescribed, would have to be rendered to
the Treasurer of the Provincial Exchequer 2 and the proceeds in ,

i T. Ts. h. t. ski li, ch. 712, 11. 2 seq.

2 j|gfl|.
 : ) ,;

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAUSOLEA. 1345

the first place be used to defray the costs of the food etc. for

the sustenance of the wood-cutters and their helpers, and the

distribution of petty rewards and fees among meritorious officials.

Still the edict ordained , that the people living around should every
year in the grass-cutting season be allowed to explore the woodlands
for grass and shrubs, under condition not to carry any saws or axes
about with them.
The foresters charged with planting and sowing do not receive
any wages for the trees they place, until after three years, nothing-
being then paid them for those that have not taken root '. Outside
the F u n g-s h u i walls the forested grounds are in each Cemetery
entrusted to the vigilance of Chinese troops, about which we shall

have more to say on pp. 1349 sqg.

Such functions as do not fall within the special sphere of action
of the Board of Works and its two Yamen established at the
Cemeteries, are exercised, for each mausoleum separately, by a
Committee of civil officers, likewise working under the control of
the respective high Yam en for the General Management. Those
several Committees are constituted in much the same wise. In their
most complete form they consist of the following members, detached,
either really or nominally, from sundry Boards and Courts in the
Metropolis
1. One Comptroller-General (j|^^) of the Imperial Household
Department ( j^j jfrf ), who ^
keeps the Seal (^ |^T). He ^
is an officer of the second rank.
2. One Senior Secretary (|*[$ PJ3 ) of the Board of Rites, an officer
of the fourth rank.
3. Two Second-Class Secretaries
( J|
%\> J^|$) of the Board of Rites
and one of the Imperial Household Department; fifth rank.
4. One Officer for the Presentation of Tea (
"fp^ ^ jE )> t0 wit ,

at sacrifices to the Manes, and two Officers for the Presentation

of Eatables ( ^ f}§ j£ ;
fourth rank.
5. One Assistant Secretary (:j: j|».) of the Household Department
sixth rank.

6. One Manager of the Household Department ( fa ^ -ff|

).

7. One Assistant Manager of the same Department ( g|J fa ^ ff| );

sixth rank.
8. Two Reciters of Offertories (§|| jpjj ^ ) of the Board of Rites.

1 The above information is gleaned from the T. Ts. h. t.shi li, ch. 713, 11. 14 sqq.
1346 THE GRAVR.

9. Four Ceremonial Ushers ( fl* |f| If |S ) of the same Board.

10. Four Writers (^ fe j^) of the Board of Rites; two of the
Household Department; and two of the bureau of the Compt-
roller-General, the principal functionary in the Committee.
Some Committees have no Comptroller-General among their mem-
bers. The dignity of Seal-keeper in such cases devolves upon the
Senior Secretary of the Board of Rites,
and he shares it with
an extra Household Department. In the
Senior Secretary of the
c
Committee of the T ai ling, a Senior Secretary of the Board of
Works has a seat at the side of the Senior Secretary of that
of Rites,and it counts among its members a Second-Class Secretary
of the Board of Works, replacing one of those of the Board of
Rites. Nor does every Committee contain all the other members
mentioned in the above table. But those variations we pass by
in silence.
The Committees appointed for the special mausolea of Empresses
differ from those that are instituted for the mausolea of the
little

Emperors. They are not presided over by a Comptroller-General. The

Committees intrusted with the care of the sepulchres of Concubines
consist merely of Reciters of Offertories, Ceremonial Ushers and
Writers, and, in some cases, one or two Officers for the Presentation
of Tea and Eatables
and Assistant Secretaries or Assistant Managers
,

of the Imperial Household It is, however, probable that each of

l
.

these tombs stands also under the control of the Committee for the
mausoleum of the corresponding Empress. The Collections of or-
dinances teach us, that every Committee was appointed as soon as
the first corpse was deposited in the mausoleum concerned.

For the accommodation of those several administrative corpora-

tions numerous buildings exist in both Cemeteries under the care of
the two Yam en of the Board of Works. The Ordinances prescribe,
that theremust be in the Hiao ling six apartments for each
of the members of the Household Department placed in our list

under nos. 3 — 6, three for those mentioned under 7 and 10,

three for each member of the Board of Rites mentioned under
nos. 2,3,8 and 9 , two for the Writers of this Board and four
,

for a Second-Class Secretary of the Board of Works, attached to

the Committee. The officers belonging to the Board of Rites are,
moreover, allotted in that mausoleum a special office building of

1 The above particulars are collected from tlie Rules and Regulations for the
Board of Rites, ch. 143, II. 8 sqq., the Wen hien lung khao, ch. 84, W.lsqq., etc.
 , #
" ,

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MAUSOLEA. 1347

forty apartments. It is also prescribed that three apartments are to

1
be assigned there to each of four Inspectors belonging to the

Household Department, besides a certain number to be allotted to

the servants and retainers
s
male and female forty of whom are , ,

attached to the members of the Committee belonging to the Im-

perial Household Department, and 136 to those belonging to the
3
Board of Rites .

Similar rescripts existing also for the other mausolea, those of

Empresses and Concubines included every cenotaph teems with ,

such accessional buildings, which, being probably of wood, clay

and other light material, must contrast strongly in aspect and size

with the majestic edifices, bridges, gates and walls constituting the
mausolea proper. These monuments of death contain, however, many
more dwellings and huts, numerous other people finding employ
within their precincts. Apart from the afore-mentioned labourers
and artisans of the Board of Works, we read, for instance, in
the Imperial rescripts issued for the Hiao ling as soon as Shi
Tsu was buried therein: »The Imperial Equipage Department shall
» establish in this mausoleum twenty-four Imperial chair-bearers
» the Board of Revenues two Storehouse-keepers and one Urger,
» the Board of Rites and that of Works over 320 workmen of all
» sorts. Cow-stalls and goat-pens shall be built in it and petty ,

» officials be appointed for the rearing of sacrificial cattle ; besides

» there shall be two farm managers , each with an allotment of seven
»khing and twenty meu of land, and one gardener shall be
» assigned, with one khing and fifty meu, all for the production
4
» of rice , flour and vegetables (required for the sacrifices) .

Similar rescripts were, according to the principal Collection of

ordinances, issued for the other mausolea. In the ordinances
respecting the T ai-tung ling
c
and the Ch'ang ling we read,

3 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 713, II. 1 seq.'; Supplementary Edition of the Ta Ts'ing
hwui tien, eh. 48. The figures given in the T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 137, 1. 17, slightly
diller from the above.

% x s * ¥ is % w n m # wt & m - a
= .ta: ,

# *h -b E - + & USt-Aln^ii-li + HX, ,

\% ^
£fc
Jfc £j]jj jfg.
T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, 1. 7.
1348 THE GRAVE.

besides all the above , of » two Mongol milkers , twelve but-

»chers, four bird-snarers, four men charged with the cultivation
» of two oil- manufacturers, two sugar-makers, two flour-
fruit,
» makers, two makers of vermicelli, two wine-distillers, two condiment-
» manufacturers, four falconers, forty grass-cutters, seventeen court-
» sweepers, and cows and goats" 1 As many of
fifteen rearers of .

those men belong to the Board of Revenues or to that of Civil

Office, and the mausolea are all garrisoned, the Supreme Boards ex- ,

cepting that of Punishments, all have their representatives in each

of them.
The two above quotations teach us, that the food, beverage and
delicacies, which are to be sacrificed at regular times in every
mausoleum to the Manes of its occupants, are grown or fabricated
within its precincts , and that the cattle required for the same purpose
is raised on the spot, The number of cows to be kept in the
King ling is fixed by the Ordinances at fifty-two, against only
five head prescribed for the Tai-tung ling; their numbers for
the other mausolea all lie between these two. The Ordinances fix
the daily fodder-rations for the bovine cattle at four pints (shing 2 )
of peas and three bunches of hay or straw a head. The Code ot
Laws protects the cattle from ill-treatment and thieves by a special
article, of which we have given a translation on page 909. There
are also in the two Cemeteries numerous horses the steed being ,

inseparable from the trains of Chinese officials, and especially in-

dispensable to Manchu soldiery, a body of which has its quarters
in every mausoleum. Every Senior Secretary is entitled to keep five
servants or followers 3 and seven horses; a Second-Class Secretary and
an Assistant Secretary may have four followers and six horses, and
every Reciter of Offertories and Ceremonial Usher two followers and
three horses. These officers and their servants each receive a daily
allowance of eight hoh and three choh' (0,83 shing) of rice,
4 1

h. t. shi li, ch. 347, 1. 24, and eh. 348, 1. 17.

2 :
4+* . A measure nearly equal to an English pint.
 );

THE GARRISONS AT THE MAUSOI.EA. 1349

as also two shing of peas and two bundles of straw or hay for

every horse \

The Garrisons of the Mausolea.

From our description of the principal Cemetery of the House of
Ming our readers know, that just as was, probably, the case with
the burial-places of the dynasties that have successively swayed the
Chinese Empire, it was placed under the protection of a large
division of military with headquarters in two neighbouring fortified

stations, and that every mausoleum possessed a special garrison

besides. A similar organisation exists for the Cemeteries of the
present reigning House.
A brigade detached from the Chinese land-forces or » Green
Army" 2
, thus called from the colour of their standards , is garrisoned
in the environs of each Cemetery, to protect the forbidden grounds
from intrusion and the Fung-shui from attacks and injury. At
the Eastern Cemetery it has its headquarters in Ma-lan Chen (see
p. 1331). An office building exists there in behalf of the Tsung-
ping j§§l ^E or » General", an officer of the second military rank;

it contains eighty-two compartments. Further we find in that station

a smaller office for a Y i u-k i h
^^ , an officer of the third rank
one for a Sheu-pi ^ jjjfa
or » Chief of the Guards", belonging
to the fifth rank and commanding the Left Battalion ( ^ H"
of the brigade; and one for such an officer of the Right Battalion

(^1 H^ )• Besides , five stations possess each an office of four

compartments for a Ts ien-tsung =^- ^||[ or »Chiliarch", a mili-
c

tary official of the sixth rank , while ten other stations have such a
building for a P a-t s u n g ^ $||| or Sergeant , belonging to the
seventh rank '.

Of the privates commanded by these officers no returns are given

in the ordinances. But, no doubt, they are numerous, as the
apartments assigned them as lodgings amount to the respectable
number of 1368 4 .

The Chinese garrison of the Western Cemetery is organised on

the same foot. In its headquarters at
c
T ai-ning Chen (see p. 1341)

\ Rules and Regulations for the Board of Revenues, B -^ J|(] j^jj , ch. 93, 1. 9.

2
ftf? if-
3 T. Ts. h. I. shi li, ch. 713, 11. 8. sqq. Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts.

ft. (., ch. 48.

4 The last named work , ch. 48.

1350 THE GHA.VE.

officers are stationed with the same titles and ranks as at Ma-lan
Chen, and with similar office buildings. The number of apartments,
built there for the use of the privates, is 1687 '.

In each Cemetery must be regularly detached from the troops

headquarters to be stationed in the passes and defiles in the hills
around, where barracks are built to afford them shelter. Some ol
the outlets of the Eastern Cemetery are mentioned in the Ordi-
nances by the following names the Nien-yii Pass in the north- : ,

east; the Outlet of Hing-lung and that of the Si-fung or Western

Hill; the Valley of Wei-tsze; the Tung-kheu or Eastern Outlet;
the Tung Pien-men or Eastern Side-gate; the Ching-kwan Outlet*,
etc. Mention is also made of several stations merely occupied
by » pickets" of a
3
few men under the orders of a Wai-wei' or
Corporal, having in the first place to keep a watchful eye upon
the trees \
The command of the Brigadier General residing at Ma-lan Chen
is not restricted to the double battalion of the Eastern Cemetery.
It extends also over the garrisons of the cities of Tsun-hwa and
6
Ki-cheu which flank the Cemetery on the east
, and west and ,

over some other stations in the environs. His colleague of the

Western Cemetery likewise has command of other garrison stations,
such as Yih-cheu, where he is himself established; Lai-shui 7 situated ,

a few hours farther off', to the north-east; Tsze-khing Kwan 8

, a
pass through the Great Wall in the rear of the mausolea; Kwang-
c 9
ch ang , likewise lying near the Great Wall, farther westward;
Eang-shan , the chief city of the district where the marble quarries
are situated (see p. 1342), etc. Both Generals are under the orders of
lu
the Governor-General of Peh-chihli, and under those of the Ti-tuh
or Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in the province ".
The duties incumbent on these Chinese troops in the main
consist in preventing any infraction of the prevailing prohibitions,
such as cultivating the ground, digging, erecting kilns or furnaces,

1 The same works , in loc. cit.

2
mnm n& p > . is I p %* *« - mp .

$! f*\ , IE MP •
T-
n - h -
' shi li >
ch - 71 2,
'

''
u -

3 i# Hf •
4
%\ ^ •
h Op. et loc. cit.

9 10
ft |§- tilf •

11 Inquiries into the Organisation of the Central Powers, ch. 1, 1. 14.

 THE GARRISONS AT THE MAUSOLEA. 1351

damaging the trees, etc. (see page 1333). They have immediately
to arrest every transgressor, and to deliver him up to the Princes

charged with the General Management, that they may chastise

him as the laws translated on pp. 903, 911 and 913 demand.
The reader has seen that those articles prescribe condign punish-
,

ment to be inflicted also on the soldiers and their chiefs, should

they fall short in preventing such crimes as the above, or help
the perpetrators in making their escape. On the other hand, those
men are entitled to rewards if they show extraordinary zeal in

effecting arrests. According to a decree of the year 1807, the

officers of a picket or station are to be twice honorably mentioned
in the books of their chiefs whenever they lay hands upon one
chief culprit or three accomplices ere they did any injury to

the trees, but only once for the capture of one or two accom-
plices. And should the soldiers act without any direct orders
from their chiefs, eight taels are to be paid to their leader and
four to his associates, if they catch the chief culprit or three

or more accomplices, but only half these amounts if they seize

one or two accomplices. No rewards are awarded for arrestations
effected after the theft or the felling was accomplished; but in such
cases no punishment for want of vigilance is inflicted upon the
arresters. Should a station or a picket, by arresting the chief offender,

have saved any trees from damage in a tract not under its immediate
control, its officers are promoted one degree in rank, and they are
mentioned one two three or even four times according to whether
, , ,

one, two, three, four or more accessories were seized. If the seizure
of the chief culprit were effected by the soldiers without direct
orders, their leader and one good mark
is rewarded with ten taels

for great merit, and and one mark

his associates with five taels

for simple merit, while for the seizure of one or two accessories
the rewards are respectively five taels and 2V2 and for three or ,

more accessories twice these sums. Foreseeing, no doubt, that all

those tempting rewards might be conducive to the arrest and mo-
lestation of inoffensive people, the same decree specially calls to

mind that such iniquities are punishable according to the laws on

l
unlawful arrestation .

It is also incumbent upon the officers in the military stations to

send in without delay, to their highest immediate chief, the particulars

1 T. Ts. h. t. slii It, ch. 71'2, 11. 9 seq.; and the Inquiries into the Organi-
sation etc., ch. 13, 11. seq.
1352 THE GRAVE.

about every tree blown down by storms or withered in the

tract placed under their special control. A report is then ren-
dered to the Princes, who send information as to the number and
dimensions ot such trees to the Yam en of the Board of Works,
the bureau of the officers belonging to the Board of Rites, and the
Yamen for the General Management in order that these corpo-
,

rations may at all times know where to find good timber for the
construction and repairs of the edifices , and fuel for burnt sacrifices.

And in the event of the timber and fuel, thus gained, not coming
up to the requirements, the deficiency must be supplied exclusively
from the environs beyond the blue posts 1 so that evidently, no , ,

live sepulchral tree may be felled for any purpose whatever in the
sacred grounds.
Apart from the Green Army troops constituting a garrison in
either Cemetery, each mausoleum is occupied by Manchu soldiers
belonging to the Eight Banners. In an Emperor's mausoleum this
force has the following formation:

One Tsung-kwan ||^ or » Commander", an officer of the

third rank.
Two Yih-ling |§| •ff|
or Yih-ch ang J| -^, c
» Wing Command-
ers"; fourth rank.
Sixteen Pang-yii |£^||E, » Chiefs of the Guards"; fifth degree.

Two Hiao-khi-kiao l§f|||f ;JS£, » Mounted Aide-de-Camps or Ad-

judants"; sixth degree.
Two P i h-t
c
i e h-s
c
hih ^ |Jj^ j£ , Writers.

Eighty Ling-ts ui -|g -f^ , »Urgers", viz. a kind of Corporals, and

Ma-kiah J|| (p or » Horsemen", first class private soldiers.
In none of the mausolea specially built for Empresses do we find
a Commander or any Wing Commanders. The mausolea for the
Concubines are garrisoned on the same footing but the Chiefs of the ,

Guards there are either eight or four in number, with only one
Aide-de-Camp and forty Corporals and privates.
Six or seven apartments are allotted to each Commander,
three or five to a Wing Commander, three or four to a Chief
of the Guards, four to a Writer, and either two or three to an
Aide-de-Camp a Corporal or a soldier 2 , .

1 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 712, 1. 10.

2 T. Ts h. t. shi li, ch. 713, 11. 1—7; Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts.
h. t., ch. 48, and ch. 36, 11. 16 seq.\ Rules and Regulations for the Board of Rites,
ch. 143, 11. 8 sqq.; Wen Men t'ung kiiao, ch. 86, 1. 13.
 ,

THE THREE MAUSOLEA IN MANCHORIA. 1353

By simple computation we , find the total of those Manchu

garrisons to be circa 1300 men in the Eastern Cemetery and 800
in the Western. Apparently the Chiefs of the Guards are settled
in the mausolea for good and succeeded by their offspring, for

we read in the fundamental ordinances: »When any Fang-yii

» appointed for the defence and protection of the mausolea resigns,
» whose functions have been exercised there by more than three of
» his ancestors consecutively, and who is over eighty years old
» one of his sons or grandsons is to be selected to succeed him.

» And if, though he may not have served until his eightieth
»year, there be among his sons and grandsons any individuals
» possessing an official degree and answering to the qualifications

» required , one of them may be selected as chief candidate for

» the post" '.
Throughout each Cemetery, small » picket rooms" 2
are built for
the use of the Manchu garrisons. They are described as standing
outside the great red gate, as also in front of the great tablet-
houses, and at the upper ends of the avenues of stone figures.
Moreover, as stated above, on the said spots and before every
3
temple-gate there are on either side two guard-houses of three
4
compartments ,
so that all the principal passages are guarded
in the same manner as the chief entrance of a Yamen is usually
flanked by police-rooms.

b. The Three Mausolea in Manchuria.

The Manchu dynasty, now on the throne, traces its origin to an

ancestor denoted as Aisin Gioro
5
, i. e. » the man bearing the sur-
name of Gold", a descent being thereby suggested from the Tatar
Kin 6
dynasty or »the Golden", which conquered Northern China
from the Sung dynasty in the twelfth century, and ruled those parts

pjc

#£A
mentary Edition
**
of the
W a * m 1* & - A ft $«jE-
T.
.

Ts. h. L, ch 08, 1. 18.

B-PPb-

4 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 711.

1354 THE GRAVE.

until the\' were incorporated with the realm of the Mongols in

1234. Aisin Gioro is stated to have lived in the valley of Hotuala ',

in which Yenden now stands; but his history is shrouded in

inist. He stands at the head of a pedigree of ancestors, worshipped
by the dynasty with an established ceremonial as tutelary divinities
of its throne and crown, and he is known by the temple name
2
of Chao Tsu »the Ancestor who laid the Foundation", which
,

was conferred on him together with the honorary title of Yuen

,

Hwang-ti 3 »the First or Original Emperor", in 1648 by the

,

youthful Emperor Shi Tsu five years after ascending the Chinese
1636 his family had worshipped him under the post-
throne. Since
humous name of Tseh Wang \» Prince or King Tseh", bestowed
c
on him in that year by Shi Tsu's father, T ai Tsung 5 a Tatar ,

king who waged war at that time against China with remarkable
boldness and energy.
Three descendants of Aisin Gioro have held a like position as he
himself in the ancestral worship of the dynasty since the beginning
of They were likewise endowed with the title of Wang
its reign.

in 1636, and with the following temple names and posthumous

names in 1648: —
Hing Tsu JlL fljg., Emperor Chih ^^Lffi. Great-grandson of
Aisin Gioro.
King Tsu j|r- jjfj[, Emperor Yih jj| j§| ffi, fourth son of Hing
Tsu. He is known in the Annals as the Baira of Ninguta
e
, a
town in Kirin.

Hien Tsu ^ jjf[[> Emperor Siien^

King Tsu. ]|| ffi , fourth son of
7
The eldest son of Hien Tsu, known
or more as the Wise Baira ,

generally as Novurh-hochih or Nurhachu, submitted several Mongol

princes to his power, and was proclaimed Emperor by them in
1606. In 1616 he styled himself Emperor Ying Ming 3 and adopted
c
the title of reign T ien ming 9 » Appointment by Heaven". ,

He died ten years afterwards, at the age of sixty-eight. When

c
his eldest son T ai
Tsung, who succeeded him, conferred, as we
have seen, the title of Wang on the first four ancestors Ying Ming ,

was synchronously endowed by this prince with the temple name of

4
ifrllMJ- 2 Hint. 3j§t^f..
 THE ANCESTORS OF THE REIGNING DYNASTY. 1355

T ai Tsu
c
', as also with a posthumous name which Shing Tsu , on
mounting the throne in 1662, replaced by that of Emperor Kao\
The hostilities of the Manchus against the Ming dynasty, car-
ried on with vigour in T ai Tsu's reign, reached their apogee under
c

his and successor

son who gave his House the name of Ta ,

Tslng »The Great Pure", in 1636. In 1643 he died and received

3
, ,

c
the temple name of T ai Tsung *, with the posthumous title of
Emperor Wen s In the next year the Manchu armies captured
.

Peking and there enthroned T ai c

Tsung's ninth son , a child hardly
six years old. He is the monarch that has been known since his
death by the temple name of Shi Tsu, and was the first to be
G
buried in Chinese soil .

Under pressure, no doubt, of his Chinese councillors, the boy-

Emperor, following the example of the founders of former dynasties
and of the first monarch of the House just dethroned changed the ,

tombs of his forefathers into stately cenotaphs, expecting them to

become strong basements for the F u n g-s h u i and prosj erity of his
family and crown. The four eldest ancestors originally rested, in the
company of their respective principal consorts, at about ten Chinese
7
miles from Hing-king or Yenden , now a petty village on the top
of a small detached hill , with mouldering gates and walls , and
containing more than an insignificant magistrate's office 8
little .

But when T ai Tsu in 1622 founded the city of Tung-king 9 not far
c

from the site of the present Liao-yang l0 and there established his ,

court, he transferred thither, two years afterwards, the tombs of

his father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, and that of
c
Hiao Ts ze :1 his own spouse and his successor's mother, who had
,

1S ,3
died in 1603 ,
placing them all in mount Yang-lu ;
four Chinese
miles north-east of the city ". This great re-interment was performed
c
with much pomp and ceremony. T Tsu himself with numerous
ai

magnates received the cortege at twenty miles from the town,

6 The above particulars are gleaned from the Tung hvoa lull, ch. 1, the Wen
hien t'ung khao, ch. 239, 11. 1 — 13, etc.

7 |[^. 8 James, The Long White Mountain, page 231.

9
MP- 10
&8I- " #1-
12
14
Wen hien fung
T.Ts h.
khao, ch. 241, I. 2. 13
Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts.
^ || (Jj .

shi
. I. li, ch. 723, 1. 4. h. I.,

ch. 48, 1. 26. Tung hwa luh, ch. 1, 11. 17 sgq.

J 356 THE GRAVE.

lying with their faces in the dust; and he made libations at the
tomb in his own person 1
.

The graves of the two remotest ancestors, left in the old spot,
were rebuilt into a gorgeous mausoleum soon after the capture of
Peking. We read in the Collections of ordinances » In the beginning :

» of the reign of the dynasty, the earth required for the respectful
» restoration of the Yung ling was gathered eastward from it,
» at more than a mile's distance the bricks were burned beyond ;

»a distance of seven miles to the south-west, and the rock-lime

» at more than four hundred miles in the same direction. Small
» stones were gathered in Chang-kia and the stone required Kheu ,

» for the tablets and their dragon-shaped pedestals was brought from
» the Hiang-lu Mounts at Shing-king (Mukden). In the fourteenth
» year of Shi Tsu's reign (1657) the works at the mausoleum
» were finished. All the officers who had directed the works,
» then received titles of nobility and rewards in the shape of
» court dresses and saddle-horses , in accordance with the length ol
» the time they had been on the spot while the other officials ,

» employed and the workmen were rewarded with white metal or

» textile fabrics" \
The next Imperial measure taken in the following year was to , ,

convey the remains of King Tsu and Hien Tsu from Tung-king
to the new mausoleum and afford them a resting-place by the side
of the two first ancestors, the geomancers of the
Bureau of Astro-
logy that the Fun g-s h u i there was very
having demonstrated
excellent. One year after that, this family tomb was endowed with
the name of Yung ling 3 »In 1661 the temple was built, and it .

» received the name of Khi-yun tien, 'Temple of the Springs of

» the Imperial Destiny'; its gate was at the same time styled Khi-
»yun men, 'Gate of the Springs of the Imperial Destiny', and

1 Wen hien t'ung khao , ch. 150, 11. 4 seq.

li, ch. 723, 1. -10; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 139, I. 40.
3 T. Ts. h. 1. shi 346, 1. 4, and ch. 723, 1. 5;
li, ch. T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch.
80, 11. 4 seq.; Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts. h. . t, ch. 48, 1. 26: Wen
hien t'ung khao, ch. 150, 11. sqq.
 . ,

THE FUH LING AND THE CI1A0 LING. 1357

» a stone tablet was raised commemorating the transportation of ,

» King Tsu and Hien Tsu to the Yung ling" The name of K h i- '.

yun was not new. Already ten years before, it had been bestowed
by the same Emperor upon the hill on which the mausoleum stands,

he then deeming it proper to imitate the Ming dynasty in increasing

the efficacy of the heights dominating the Fung-shui of the Im-
perial burial-grounds, by giving them felicitous names. For this reason
he then also bestowed an efficacious namely that of Tsih-khing name ,

2
Shan » Felicity-accumulating Hills", on the mounts at the graves
,

of King Tsu and Hien Tsu, then still located at Tung-king 3 .

At 240 Chinese miles or circa 140 kilometres west of Yenden,

and at about half that distance north of Tung-king stands the ,

city of Mukden, the capital of Manchuria, also officially known by

c
the Chinese name of Fung-t ien fu *. This place, then called Shen-
yang 5
, was T ai c
Tsung's residence. In 1629 he there buried his
c
father, twenty Chinese miles from the walls , to the north-east,
interring same time and place the remains of his mother
at the
c
Hiao Ts ze, conveyed to this end from Tung-king 7 where, as we saw, ,

her consort had buried them five years previously. The tomb was
styled Fuh ling 8 in 1636°. T ai Tsung himself departed this
c

life seven years afterwards, and in the next year he was buried
ten miles to the north-west of Mukden in a sepulchre to which ,

on this occasion the name of Chao ling l0 was given. His spouse
Hiao Twan n survived him till 1651 in which year her body and ,

soul joined him in his last resting-place 2 '

.

In that year Tai Tsung's son endowed as we have stated

, ,

the mausoleum-hills at Yenden and Tung-king with felicitous

+A*mmm&m,mmmm.F\mwi]&r\>
1

it M" il P.
lit, -it
H #} 7K ?$• T K Wm
t'ung khao, ch. 150,
fJL
1. 11.
lit
- Ts - h -
' shi »
cb -
346 <
' 5:

% m. \u
2
3 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, I. 2, and cli. 723, 1. 5; T. Ts. h. I. tseh li,

ch. 80, 11. 2 seq.; Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts. h. t., ch. 48, 1.26: Wen
hien t'ung khao, ch. 150, 1. 6.

6 Tung hum luh , ch. 2, 1. 5.

7 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 150, 1. 13. 8 jjjg

IS?
9 T. Ts h. t. shi ii, ch. 723, 1. 6; Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 150, I. 14.

"mm- "#^-
Wen
12 hien t'ung khao, ch. 150, 1. 22.

87
 ,

1358 THE GRAVE.

names. Simultaneously he gave the hills at the F u h ling and

at the Chao ling the respective names of
c
T ien-chu Shan',
» Stanchions of Heaven or of the Imperial Dignity ", and Lung-
2 3
yeh Shan , » Hills ensuring Prosperity to the Imperial Rule" .

At that time the work at these mausolea was being energetically

carried on, for we read, that places whence ] the required materials
were to be fetched , or where they were to be fabricated , were officially

appointed in the year 1651, and that the big blocks of stone were
to be extracted from the quarries in the hills south of Yih-cheu,
a distance of over eight hundred kilometres! '
It certainly attests

the efficiencypower of the new dynasty, that »the works at

and
» the two mausolea were completed in the very same year. The
» officers charged with the direction and execution of the works
» had titles of nobility conferred upon them and were rewarded
» with court dresses and saddle-horses , while the subordinates em-
» ployed at the works received bounties in the shape of dresses and
5
»caps, saddle-horses or white metal" . »It was then fixed that
» a body of officers should be appointed for the administration ot
» each mausoleum , as also people to guard and protect it ; and
» regulations were enacted for the exercise of sacrificial worship
» there" 6
. It 1663 that a tablet com-
was not, however, before
memorating » the sage virtues and divine feats" was erected in the
F u h ling and in the Chao ling by the care of Shing Tsu
who himself composed the biographies engraved thereon 7
.

Thus far for the history of the so-called San ling or » Three 3

Mausolea". The sources from which we have drawn our data also
teach us , that the four ancestors ling, lie , buried in the Yung
under separate barrows, for they say, for instance, that when Jen
Tsung visited the place in 1805, »he lifted up his eyes to the four

3 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 723, 11. 6 and 8; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 80, 1. 3;
Wen Men t'ung khao, ch. 150, 11. 15 and 22.
4 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 723, 1. 10; T. Ts. It. t. tseh li, ch. 139, 1. 40.

5
£#iSi[lifl3flx$ g£&£#|frttf:f^^#
T. Ts. h. 1. shi li, ch. 723, 1. 10; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 139, 1. 46.

T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, 1. 3; T. Ts. h. t. tseh li , ch. 80, 1. 3.

7 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 346, 1. 9; Wen Men funrj khao, ch. 150, 11. 15 and 23
8 -1^
 M

THE ANCESTRESSES OP THE REIGNING DYNASTY. 1359

mounds and sacrificed spirits to each separately "

, It is also stated '.

» that Hing Tsu was assigned the place in the centre and that King ,

» Tsu and Hien Tsu were deposited left and right of him" \ which
arrangement is quite in keeping with the general Chinese ideas on
the order of seniority. It seems that, when the Yung ling was
erected, the remains of the first ancestor had entirely vanished
and that ceremonial clothes were buried in it as a substitute, for

we read: »The Yung ling is the place where worship is paid to

» a gown and cap of Chao Tsu only a gown and a cap of this
,

3
» Emperor being carefully preserved in it" .

The Collections of ordinances furthermore teach us, that every

ancestor enjoys in this mausoleum the company ot his principal
spouse, and that these four women are worshipped as titulary
Empresses, which dignity Shi Tsu bestowed on them at the
same time as when he raised their husbands to the titulary

Imperial rank 4
. And, in accordance with a custom the dynasty
has observed in respect of every deceased Empress down to this

day, each ancestress officially bears the same posthumous honorary

name as her husband \ All that we find recorded about their burials
is, that »when King Tsu and Hien Tsu were conjointly removed

» from Tung-king to the 1658, and buried

Yenden mausoleum in

» there, their spouses were synchronously dealt with in the same

»way" That the two mausolea at Mukden each likewise contain
6
.

c
the remains of an Empress, we have already stated. T ai Tsung
possessed a secondary Consort, who, having given birth to Shi
Tsu, was raised by the latter to the titulary dignity of Empress

1
J§| fffc ||t g| JJt]
[H %
£. H flSj
. T. Ts . h. t. shi li, ch. 349, 1. 4.

2
^ II b $k jE 4* j^ m A3 B J? &) ,
nil iffl.
Wen hien '""•"

khao,

'ft£
3
ch.

IS?
150,

mm&&%i&liM2ffi> ft ft
M ^C
1. 1.

7C£ • °P- et ca i K c 7 '

'
"• i and 12 -
MM M^
4 Op. cit., ch. 24-1 , 11. 1 seq.
5 Rules and Regulations for the Board of Rites, ch. 143, 1. 1; Wen hien t'ung
khan, ch. 150, 1. 3.

6
J! '/£ +£^ § JiCM M^fHlS Mf*S
b m tat m ftiB tt n m m % m «—' The Me-

moirs concerning Mukden, j/%, Ct jj§ ^k a work composed by a commission of

twenty-nine scholars and officials in 1730, as an improved and augmented edition

of a similar work which had appeared under the same title in 1084 and had like-

wise been compiled by a committee of twenty-nine members. Chapter 7.

1360 THE GRAVE.

on and our readers have seen on page 1292 that this

his accession;

woman, who is known by the temple name of Hiao Chwang, was

buried several years afterwards in a special mausoleum, erected for
her in the Eastern Cemetery.
would be interesting to know something about the shape ot
It

the tombs of all those Manchu chiefs before they were rebuilt by
Shi Tsu into their present form. But we find absolutely nothing
on this head in the books. A point about which we have perfect
certainty, is that Shi Tsu , in spite of his extraneous descent , model-
led those graves all according to the mausolea of the Ming dynasty.
This fact, like many others, illustrates the remarkable speed and
readiness with which the conquerors adopted the civilisation of the
Chinese, and adapted themselves to their institutions. But, with the
culture of the conquered race, the victors naturally received its

evil fruits and in the first place the Fung-shui superstitions,

the vaunted product of China's highest wisdom and learning. We

find it explicitly stated, that in 1657 »a proposal was approved
» by the Throne , to the effect that such houses and dwellings
» occupied by officers , soldiers and workmen in the Three iVIau-

»solea, as interfered with the Fung-shui, should all be removed" '.

Moreover, we have seen above (p. 1356) that King Tsu and Hien Tsu
were transferred Tung-king to Yenden expressly on account
from
of the exquisite geomantic qualities of the mountains there. And
the Wen hien fung khao says: »The extensive basis on which the
» existence of the Imperial Family shall rest for ten thousand genera-
2
tions, is in point of fact rooted in those hills" .

It no doubt, with the object of prompting them to pro-

was,
duce, through the mediation of the tombs, an ever-flowing source
of prosperity in behalf of the Imperial Family, that Shi Tsu on ,

giving those hills high-sounding names in 1651, at the same

time ordained that they should thenceforth be objects of Imperial
worship honoured with sacrifices, conjointly with the principal
i noun tains, seas and streams, outside the northern wall of Peking
on the great altar of the Earth, the second high Divinity of the
State \ This high position they have held in the official Pantheon
down to the present day. It may be stated here by-the-bye, that

^ is ^ *i ^-
*
3 T.
iff
7'.s.
^ II
/(. t.
tit fcl
shi
t t*-

li,
-

S»
ch.
h

346,
-
' tseh

1.
M
3 ;
k

T.
'
ch-

lit
Ts. h.
439

t.
'

ch 15 °
' 46,

tseh li, ch.

'•
3 -

80, 1. 3.
 RESCRIPTS CONCERNING THE YUNG LING. 1361

similar honours were afterwards allotted also to the mountains

in the rear of the two Cemeteries hi Peh-chihli, as soon as burials
had taken place there '.
That the Three Mausolea are built ,as we have said , on the same
lines as those of the Ming dynasty, may be seen at a glance from
the official rescripts regarding the buildings and structures which
compose them. But they are laid out on a more modest scale, some
buildings and structures, which the Ming tombs possess, being
wanting. The Yung ling, which is the plainest, has no square
fortress, nor a Soul tower; at least, the Regulations make no
c
mention of such structures. »lts Pao ch ing has a circumference
» of S6J6 chang. In front of it stands the Khi-yun temple,
van edifice consisting of three divisions formed by the pillars;

» it is covered with yellow tiles , with four doors and eight

» windows, and is placed on a terrace that has an elevation of
» 0,29 chang and a circumference of 31,9. Inside it are four large
» warm porches, containing Imperial couches with curtains, cover-
» lets and pillows , and clothes-horses at the service of the deified

» Rulers ; besides , there are on the spot four small warm porches for
» the respectful worship of the (eight) Soul tablets. In front of the
» porches eight Dragon seats and Phenix seats are placed (respectively
» for the Emperors and the Empresses), and four tables, each
» of which bears the five sacrificial implements; further there are
» eight and three carpets adorned with dragons; and
court-lamps,
» awnings (umbrellas?) of yellow cloth, affording protection from
» rain and heat, are stretched over the spot, three of either kind.
» In front of the temple is a triple stone-paved ascent , the mid-
» dlemost part of which is adorned with coiling dragons. Both on
» the east and west an accessional temple of three divisions, the
is

» western having in front a towery building for the burning of sacrificial

» silks. And southward from the temple, right in the middle, the
» K h i-y u n gate stands. Outside this gate the ground is walled in
» on the eastern, the western and the southern side; the length
» and the breadth of this wall amount to 66,2 chang, and it

» has a Red Gate on the east and on the west. A triple stone-paved

» road runs through the middle of this enclosure. Eastward stands

»a building for the preparation of fruit, and westward another
» for the preparation of sacrificial viands; in front, in the middle,
» stand four pavilions for the tablets commemorating the feats and

\ T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 340, 1. 6, and ch. 347, 1. 1. T. TV. h. t. tseh li,

ch. 80, 11. 6 and 32.

1362 THE GRAVE.

» virtues '. In front of these pavilions there is, to the east , a building
» for the sacrificial prayer-boards, as also a guard-house, and to
» the west a tea-house with a refreshment-house and a building for
» cleansing the sacrificial utensils ; furthermore , a pavilion for the
» inspection of sacrificial victims and a fruit-house are located out-
» side the western Red Gate. Finally, there is a principal Red Gate
» exactly in the middle of the southern facade of the wall , and
» outside it a bridge of wood , to the west. In front of the m i ng
vfang a tablet indicates the place where all comers are to alight

» from their horses and to the east the west the south and the
; , ,

» north of the mausoleum a tablet is erected to mark out its limits.

» The total circumference of these limits is 2288 chang"
2
Of the .

posts and the fences that surround the Yung ling, we shall speak
on pp. 1366 seq.

The ming fang, mentioned in this extract, is evidently the

area that extends in front of the mausoleum. The meaning of the
word is a puzzle to us, as it is also to the Chinese themselves. It

is probably an antiquated and obsolete term, being hardly ever

1 The eulogic inscriptions of those tablets are reproduced in the Wen Men t'ung
khao
...M>, ch. 150, 11. 8 sqq. They are of the greatest insignificance.

*k, iw "it , £ tit > wm, afnt^isfflii,

a n® = ± m m
. , Tf7 m¥ w- #=

]ftB§*i:|»lz:.ftiE»f'*I*g = ft.a(£3li^i§3

m, w&m *mi$% mm, fft&m *%%&*#

# W - JKttSHISia:Jl-^--&A + A5t.
T. Ts. h. t.
.

shi K, ch. 723, ll. 5 seq. Supplementary Edition of the Tti Ts'ing
hwui lien, ch. 48, l. 26.
 n
RESCRIPTS CONCERNING THE MUKDEN MAUSOLEA. 1363

met with in books. Perhaps it signifies: » Court for the Manes",

or » Court to which people resort to worship the Manes". The
only passage known to us, which sheds some light on its meaning,
is the following » The ground in front of a grave is
: called m i ng
c c
» t an g , and also kh ii e n t a i ,
'
terrace for the contract of the
» purchase of the ground'. The Records of the Conversations with Chu
» Hi say, that it is not clear what a ming t
c
ang is, and therefore
» an explanation was afterwards sought in the writings of the authors
» of the Tang was discovered that this dynasty
dynasty, in which it
c
» ordered the name (of ming
changed into that of khiien t ang) to be
c
» t ai. This term occurs in the present books of geomancy; khiien
» means a contract (comp. p. 1078), and the place where the con-
» tract for the purchase of a plot of ground is buried is called khiien
c
»t ai, 'contract-terrace'. Such a purchase deed is either of earthen-
» ware or of stone upon which is inscribed how many strings of
, ,

» money have been paid (for the ground). When (paper) money used
» in behalf of the deceased man is buried on that spot, the spirits
» of the ground and the dragons of the earth cannot quarrel and
» wrangle for it so do the poor and uninfluential when having to
; ,

» present a sacrifice also set out their cups and dishes there calling
, ,

» them a repast on the soil" 1 .

The official rescripts, thus passed in review, show that the Yung
ling, although this mausoleum and its adjacent grounds cover a very
large area , does not much surpass in grandeur the mausolea of high
Princes of Imperial lineage. It does not even possess an avenue adorned
with stone figures, at least, the Rescripts mention none. The two Muk-
den mausolea are larger, and more complete and finished. Nearly all
such edifices and structures as constitute the cenotaphs in the Eastern
and the Western Cemetery are found within their walls, and are,
moreover, of corresponding dimensions. We read that each mausoleum
has a tumulus of 33 chang in circumference, surrounded by a wall

1
MM^^m^.-^^m^^mm^^m,

m m w m w $&
Kin Kiu-kao £* -h
>

quoted
z±m^
the Tn/i
p™ "~* ** nmM h>

J&; in li t'ung l.hao, ch. 99, 1. 11.

I 3G4 THE GRAVE.

of circa 60 chang, as also a »moon-tips" wall, a glazed reflection wall,

and a square fortress. In the Fuh ling the last-named building
isnearly 114 chang in circumference, and in the Chao ling 79.
»It bears four corner-turrets" ', non-descript structures of which
the regulations concerning the other mausolea nowhere make any
mention. In their midst a double-roofed soul tower rises, containing
2
the grave-stone. Beneath the square fortress is a » cavern-gate " ,

which we conjecture to be a door in the mouth of the tunnel;

in front of it stands a stone table, bearing five sacrificial imple-
ments , and farther on , in the same direction we have a double
,

ornamental gate, resting upon stone posts. The next building we arrive
at, is the temple, no gate with glazed ornaments being mentioned.
In mausolea, the temple, like all those in the Eastern and
botli

the Western Cemetery, bears the name of Lung-ngen tien. It

is roofed with yellow tiles it has four entrances and eight windows,
;

and stands upon a terrace, which is either five or six Chinese feet
in elevation , and 36 chang in circumference. A sculptured
balustrade of stone extends around the terrace. As each mausoleum
contains the remains of one Imperial couple, there is in each temple
only one great and one small » warm porch", furnished with the
same things as the porches in the Yung ling temple. For the
same reason, each temple contains no more than one Dragon seat
and one Phenix seat, with one table bearing the five sacrificial im-
plements. Moreover, it is furnished with four additional chairs,
placed on the right and the left, and with four tables, six court-lamps,
seven carpets adorned with dragons, and fourteen awnings against
rain and heat, made of yellow si.lk. It is worth noting, that there
is preserved in the temple of the Chao ling »a case containing
3
a bow " . May we suppose this weapon to be a relic inherited from
the warlike T ai Tsung?
c

In front of the temple we have, in both mausolea, a similar stone

ascent as in the Yung ling, and a similar set of buildings. But the
Chao ling contains two accessional furnaces , flanking the principal
one. Further, in both mausolea, the temple-gate, called Lung-ngen
men, has a triple roof, and a triple stone-paved ascent in the middle
of the front. On its eastern side is a tea-house and a refreshment-house;
on the west a fruit-house and a building for the cleaning of sacrificial

± *r n » m &
 ,,

RESCRIPTS CONCERNING THE MUKDEN MAUSOLEA. 1305

utensils on the south a pavilion for the inspection of sacrificial victims

;

and a guard-house. Proceeding onward, we arrive at the pavilion with

the tablet commemorating the sage virtues and divine feats. The in-
scriptions, carved in these two monuments, were (see page 1358)
composed by Shing Tsu, and from the reprints given in the Wen Men
ftint/ khao (ch. 150) we see that they bear quite the same character

as those afterwards made for the Emperors proper of the dynasty.

In each mausoleum the tablet-house is surrounded by four columns
officially named hwa piao chu 1
, » glorifying columns". A stone
road runs from this edifice to the great Red Gate. In the Puh
ling this road appears to descend at a strong incline, it being
2
stated to contain 10S paved steps . In both tombs the road is

guarded on either side by stone figures , representing two lions

two tigers, two camels, and two horses; in this part of the Chao
ling there are, moreover, two unicorns.
The wall enclosing the Puh ling on four sides has a length
of 530 chang, and that which surrounds the Chao ling meas-
ures 490 chang. Both walls have in the southern facade, exactly in
the middle, a gate known as the principal Red Gate, and another
gate of that name on the east and west. The first-named gate is
flanked on the outside by a pair of stone lions, two stone glorifying
columns, and two tower-like buildings containing tablets of stone and ;

a tablet is erected close by, inscribed with an order to riders to

dismount. At the Chao ling we have outside the gate , besides

all these decorations, a pavilion for the changing of costumes ", as
also a building for the inspection of sacrificial victims, a building
4
for the preparation of viands , and a stone bridge standing exactly
in the line of the road , behind the columns and the lions. Finally
we find there, somewhat farther on to the south , a special decoration
not mentioned in the ordinances respecting any other raausolea,
viz. »two stone life-guard horses, called the Great white one and
the Little white one" 5 .

The accessible grounds in front of the principal Red Gate of

the Puh ling are described by Mr. James, who visited them,
in the following terms: »The south or principal gate (see PI. L)

1 St ^S yfcfc . Compare page 825.

5 ift«,|-, H^fi^fl.
 ,

1366 THE GRAVE.

» is handsome structure with three openings and a richly decor-

a ,

» ated roof; and let into the wall on each side is a bas-relief in
» green majolica representing a huge Imperial dragon. This is the
,

» finest piece of fictile ware 1 ever saw in China. The road up to

c
» the gate passes first between two lofty p ai leu of massive carved
» stone the bases of the columns being carved into the likeness of
,

» frogs. Beyond are two pillars each with a lion on the top and , ,

» finally, two noble lions couchant guard the sacred portal. To the
» centre of each door is affixed a huge quaint knocker of copper,
» once richly gilt, representing a bull's head. The shrubs have
» grown wild in the park around and roofs and paths are moss- ,

» grown. But on the whole the tomb is well preserved" .... And
of the foreground of the Chao ling the same author says:
» Outside the main entrance, at the top of a flight of steps, stands
c
» a splendid marble p a i-1 e u (see PI. L), a noble monument indeed ,

» and at the beginning of the avenue leading up to it are two

» gigantic slabs resting on the backs of tortoises, which warn the
» in
traveller, several languages ,' Here every one must get oft

» his horse' " 1 .

c
As Ordinances do not mention the p ai-leu or decorative
the
gates of which these extracts speak, we are tempted to believe
that they were constructed after the Ordinances were published,
that is, in the course of the present century.
As is the case with the Yung ling, the limits of the Fuh
ling and the Chao ling are marked out by tablets, erected at
the four cardinal points. Those limits have a respective length of
2960 and 2560 chang 2
. There is also around each mausoleum
a triple cordon of posts, arranged just as at the Eastern and the
Western Cemetery. In 177S it was decreed, that at twenty chang
from the red posts should be erected 64 white posts at the
Yung ling, and 261 at the Fuh ling, and besides, ten miles
beyond these white posts, 36 blue posts in the first-named mauso-
leum, and 40 in the other. That decree also prescribed that the
Chao ling should have 90 white posts, placed at twenty chang
from the red on the south , the west and the north and at ten
,

chang on the eastern side, as also 40 blue posts, arrayed ten

miles beyond the white. No such things as the gathering of

1 The Long White Mountain , pp. 22G seq.

2 The above information about the Fuh ling and the Chao ling is drawn
from the T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 723, 11. G— 9 ,and the Supplementary Edition of
the Ta Ts'ing hvoui tien, ch. 48, II. 26 seq.
 PL L.
(Extracted from
The Lonjj White Mountain].

South Entrance to the Fuh ling.

Decorative Gate at the Chao ling.

 ,

PALISADES SURROUNDING THE MAUSOLEA. 1367

timber and fuel, agricultural pursuits, the pasturing of cattle,

burying etc. might take place within the white posts, nor might
any kilns for bricks 01 lime be erected within the blue; and
boards displaying these prohibitions were to be suspended from
the posts '.

Besides, the three Mausolea are each surrounded by a cordon

2
of palisades, called »deer horns" . These fences consist of lines

of wooden St. Andrew crosses which run at right angles through

a lung heavy cross-beam, as close as they can lie; the lower ends
of the crosses, fixed in the ground, are heavy and longer; their
upper ends taper to a point them point outwards half
, and half of ,

inwards. They Government offices

are sometimes seen surrounding
in Manchuria, and being ponderous and unmanageable, make
it difficult for men, and especially for cavalry, to pass. The long

barriers which formerly crossed Liao-tung over its whole length

3
and breadth , likewise consisted of such fences . That they
stand in very great numbers around the mausolea, may be deduced
from an ordinance issued in 1803 , authorizing an outlay of
9240 taels of silver in behalf of the three mausolea for the
repairs of 2810 from an edict of the same year,
fences; as also

prescribing that 140 fences should be renewed every year at the

Yung ling, a hundred at the Puh ling, and sixty at the
Chao ling \ Mr. James states, that the deer-horn fence of the
Yung ling extends around the base of the hill upon which the
mausoleum stands, and that it takes in a circle of about twelve
English miles \
Close to the Full ling, on its right side, stands the mausoleum
c
of a concubine of T ai Tsu, buried there in 1644, three months
before the capture of Peking e
. She is known by the honorary name
7
of Sheu Khang , bestowed on her by her grandson Shi Tsu eigh-
teen years after her burial, together with the dignity of Concubine
8
of the first rank . This tomb is evidently of very plain construction
the ordinances concerning it mentioning nothing else than a temple
with three divisions, a building for tea and refreshments, with a

1 T. Ts. h. t. shi H, ch. 723, 1. 27. 2

J|| ^ .

3 Ross, The Manchus, page 31. The Long White Mountain, pp. 117 ami 0.

4 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 723, 1. 24.

5 The Long White Mountain, p. 231.
G Wen Men t'ung khao, ch. 150, 1. 14.

8
H
Wen Men
Jf£-
t'ung khao , ch. 241 , I. 5.
 ,

1368 THE GRAVE.

fruit-house on the eastand on the west and a main gate in front , '

it, 47 chang in length

2
as also a wall Another mau-
surrounding .

soleum, for which exactly the same rescripts were made, with
this exception that the wall must measure 49 chang, is. located
on the right or inferior side of the C h a o ling. It contains the
c
remains of a first-rank concubine of T ai Tsung, named I Tsing\
who was endowed this rank and name in 1652, likewise with
under Shi Tsu's reign \ Concerning the burial-places of other con-
cubines of these two dynastic ancestors, who are stated to have
had respectively twelve and eleven of them 5 no rescripts whatever ,

are found in any Collection of ordinances. But there is no doubt

that some of them were buried in the vicinity of the two
Mukden mausolea , it being officially recorded that Emperors
on visiting the latter from time to time, had sacrifices offered to
certain secondary Consorts by proxies. Those records at the same
time teach us , that such Imperial delegates also sacrificed on such
occasions to and at vicinal tombs of
certain Imperial Princesses
6
sundry Princes and that, whenever an
and officers of merit ,

Emperor personally sacrificed at the Yung ling, they had to do

the same thing at the graves of two Princes situated within its
precincts, and at some tombs in the adjacent grounds, but not to
any concubines 7 .

In 1657, six years after the completion of the Fuh ling and
the Chao ling, the Yung ling was finished, and the three
Mausolea were then together entrusted to the care of the Board
of Works, established at Mukden. This Board is one of the five
Departments for the central administration of Manchuria, which were
c
instituted by T ai Tsung before the conquest of China
8
and still
exist at the present day; they bear the same names as the Boards

at Peking, but there is no Board of Civil Office. In the said year,

2 T. Ts. h. I. shi li, ch. 723, 1. 8. Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts. h. I.,

ch. 48, 1. 26.

4 T. Ts. h. I. shi li, ch. 723, 11. 9 seq. Supplem. Ed., ch. 48, 1. 27. Wen him
I' iiiui khao, ch. 241, 1. 6.

5 Wen hien t'ung khao, ch. 241 , 11. 5 sqq.

6 T. Ts. h. t. shi li, ch. 34G, II. 16, 20 and 24; ch. 347, 11. -13, 18, 27 and
35. T. Ts. h. t. tseh li , ch. 80.
7 T. Ts. h. I. shi li, ch. 346, 11. 20 and 23; ch. 347, 11. 12, 17, 26 and 34.
T. Ts. h. 1. tseh I', ch. 80.
8 The Long White Mountain, p. 150.
 ,

RESCRIPTS CONCERNING RESTORATIONS. 1369

» namely the fourteenth of the Shun chi period, it was resolved

» that whenever any of the three mausolea should need repairs,
,

"the President of the Board of Works at Mukden, on receiving

» written information about the matter from the Seal Keeper
» of that tomb, should, in the company of the latter, convince
» himself with his own eyes (whether the repairs were really

» necessary), and thereupon send written orders to the Board to

» select auspicious dates , to make ready the thousand men with
» the necessary materials , and to commence the works. And should
» there not be workmen and materials enough, a written estimate
» of the money and rations required should be sent to the Board
» and the necessary outlay be made by the latter" '. Those »thousand
men" are also charged with the fabrication of bricks and tiles, for
2
which they are paid according to the quantities delivered .

With the object of lessening the dangers of the tombs being

neglected by the Mukden magistrates , Jen Tsung prescribed : » At
» every biennial time of inspection, the Ministers of the High
» Council of State shall request the Emperor to appoint a commission
» of some members of His family with the ranks of Wang, Baira,
»Bei-tsze and Kung, and some Grand-Secretaries of the Impe-
» rial Chancery, Presidents of the Six Boards , etc., with orders to
» travel to the mausolea and examine them. Should they find that
» the mausolea are damaged without repairs having been under-
taken, the commission shall interrogate the Governor-General of
» Manchuria and the President of the Board about the matter,
» and thereupon report to the Throne" \ The Ordinances do not
enable us to make out whether there exists any relation between
this high Inspecting Commission and the Committee of Manage-

ment of which we have spoken on page 1339, nor whether the

1
m ft + pu # £ = m m *r m # & m m m m > »

*n*iL temmmmm, #£x3?*&»-r. Ts . /,,

shi li, ch. 723, 11. 10 seq.
2 T. Ts. h. t. tseh li, ch. 139, 1. 51.

#. to%i&m-*ff&mm, m # t* # m # as &
^S. Rules and Regulations for the Board of Rites, ch. 143, 1. 21.
 ,,,

1370 THE GRAVE.

latter extends its control over the three tombs in Manchuria.

That those tombs have been objects of unremitting solicitude to
the dynasty, as being supports for its own weal and the nation's
prosperity, is self-evident from the long , unbroken chain of repairs
embellishments and improvements, recorded in the Ordinances '.

Shi Tsung even had the whole geomantic compound of water streams
in front of the Fuh ling improved by extra canalisation, and
the direction of sundry brooks and rivulets modified. These works
were carried out in compliance with the views of Kao Khi-choh \
Governor of the province of Puhkien a great authority in matters ,

of geomancy who, having come to Peking about the year 1729,

was not only, as we saw on page 1293, employed by the Emperor
to search for a new Cemetery, but was also despatched to Mukden,
with orders to examine there the system of water streams at the
Fuh ling, which, according to some rumours, did not answer to
the old orthodox geomantic doctrines. The learned dignitary did not
of course, fail to detect therein a great many faults. But barely five
years later, when heavy rains in the summer season swelled the
brooks , the products of his geomantic hydraulics were severely
damaged , banks and dykes being destroyed and new heavy charges
consequently imposed upon the treasuries.
The long series of ordinances for the preservation of the three

mausolea show that they are clad with Fung-shui trees, and that
the adjacent grounds are also wooded. This is confirmed by Mr. James
who writes that the mound of the Fuh ling stands on a hill
deep in a sombre grove of pines, and that the Chao ling is

likewise located in a deep grove of ancient cedars, surrounded by

delightful shrubberies full of hawthorn and other sweet-flowering
3
trees , where pheasants crow in the balmy spring-time . Some of the
trees have been objects of peculiar Imperial attention. We read for
instance, that in 1778 »a poem by the Imperial hand, entitled
»'The Spiritual Tree', having for its theme a noble elm in front
»of the tumuli of the Yung ling, was graven in a stone in the
» western accessional temple of the mausoleum , in obedience to an

» Imperial order" 4
. In 1731 it was ordained by decree, that the

1 T. Ts, h. t. shi li, ch. 723, 11. 11 sqq.

3 The Long White Mountain, pp. 226 and 227.

& m ra + = ^ to # «* m & hi ie m m * ti #
*

m *& — &$ # m z n m M ss m m ft T *****«.

ch. 723, 1. 16.
•
-
 ,

VISITS PAID BY EMPERORS TO THE MAUSOLEA. 1371

grounds surrounding the Full ling should be divested of houses

and cultivated and compensation be paid to those sustaining
fields,

loss of property in consequence of this measure; and in 1778 another

decree prescribed the removal of tombs out of the vicinity of the

three mausolea *.

The best warrant that these tombs have never fallen a prey
to neglect, we have in the fact that they were often personally
visited by the Sons of Heaven. Shing Tsu sacrificed at the Fuh
ling and the Chao ling in 1671
2
and at the three mausolea
,

in 1682 and 1698 3

, and in 1722 he delegated his son to present
sacrifices there in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of his reign *.

Kao Tsung tombs in 1743, sacrificing at them all

visited the three

with great display of in 1754 he went there anew 6 and in pomp 5

; ,

1755 ordered his son to go there and inform the ancestors and
ancestresses of the conquest of Dzungar 7 * finally he was himself in
those sacred grounds in 1778 and 1783 8 The Ordinances also .

make mention of a visit paid by Jen Tsung to the three Mausolea

in 1805 9 Those Sons of Heaven seem invariably to have used the
.

high-road running from Peking almost due eastward as far as

Shan-hai Kwan l0 where the Great 'Wall terminates at the sea-shore
,

and from thence, in a north-easterly direction, through the coast-

districts of the Gulf of Liao-tung.
Like mausolea in the Eastern and the Western Cemetery,
the
those Manchuria are each administered by a special committee.
in
The Fuh ling and the Chao ling committees each consist of a
Seal-keeper and two Assistant Seal-keepers, whose other titles and
dignities are not mentioned two Officers respectively for the ;

presentation of Tea and Eatables; one Manager of the Household

Department; and four Writers belonging to the Mukden Board of
Rites. The Committee for the Yung ling is only composed of a
Seal-keeper, an Assistant Seal-keeper, and two Writers ". Those three
corporations were instituted already in 1651, when the first Emperor
of the dynasty had been seated on the throne for eight years 12 .

1 Op. ei cap. eft., 1. 26. 2 Op. cit., ch. 346, 1. 14.

3 Ibid., 11. 18 and 23. 4 Ibid., 1. 26.
5 The sniue work, ch. 347, 11. 11 sqq. 6 Ibid., 11. 17 sqq.
7 Ibid., 1. 19. Those visits are also recorded in the T. Ts. h. t. tseh h, ch. 80.
8 Ibid., 11. 26 and 34. 9 The same work, ch. 349, 1. 4.

10
\umm-
11 Wen Men ' "»;/ khao, ch. 84, 1. 2; Rules and Regulations for the Board of
Rites, ch. 143, 1. 8.

12 T. Ts. h. I. tseh li , ch. 80, 1. 3.

1372 THE GRAVE.

The Manchu Banner force, occupying each mausoleum, is under

the general orders of a Commander, who is assisted by two Wing
Commanders and sixteen Chiefs of the Guards (comp. p. 1352); besides,
an officer denoted by the title of Overseer of the Workmen and '
assi-

milated with the fourth degree of military rank , is attached to each

garrison 8
. The adjacent grounds are also guarded by soldiers, »it
» having been ordained in 1725 to establish four watch-posts all around
» the reservation grounds of the F u h ling, and to detach officers
» and troops to occupy them" 3
, and a similar order having been
issued twenty-five years afterwards for the Chao ling'. The three
garrisons probably have their headquarters at Mukden and Yenden.
Mr. James makes mention of a village called Yung ling filled with ,

soldiers who guard the tomb which bears this name 5 .

The Ordinances teach us, that in the early years of the reign of
c
the Ts ing dynasty the Mukden Board of Rites was entrusted with
the regulation of the ceremonial connected with the annual sacrifices
at the three Mausolea, and that the Emperor Shi Tsu was wont to

delegate on special occasions some Princes thither, to offer sacrifices 6

.

In 1660 he ordained, however, that an Imperial Prince of the

ninth order and a Gioro with the sixth rank of hereditary nobility
should thenceforth ling, and a Prince of the
reside at the Fuh
sixth or eighth order, likewise assisted by such a Gioro, at the
Chao ling, and that these magnates should act there as his
proxies for the presentation of sacrifices they were also to travel in ;

turn to the Yung ling, and there perform similar rites". But this
regulation was abolished in 1669, and replaced by one to the effect
that the four principal yearly sacrifices were to be celebrated by
envoys from the Governor-General of Manchuria , the Lieutenant-
Governor, and the Presidents of the Mukden Boards 8
. In 1736 the
old regulation was put into force again , and six Princes of the
lowest orders then volunteered to settle in Mukden, to thenceforth

perform at the tombs the functions of chief sacrificants ".

1
n X[£-
2 Supplementary Edition of the T. Ts. h. (., ch. 36, 1. 10: Rules and Regulations
for the Board of Rites, ch. 143, 1. 8 ; Wen Men t'ung khao, ch. 86, 1. 13 and ch. 89, 1. 25.

%* ^l
4 Op.
1*
et
^
loc. cit.
^5* m T - Ts h -
' shi

5
li '
ch- 723 '
'•

The Long White Mountain, page 231.

26 '

6 T. Ts. h. I. tseh li, ch. 139, 1. 17.

7 The same work, ch. 80, 1. 5.

8 Op. et cap. cit., 1. 10. 9 Op. cit., ch. 139, 1. 18, and ch. 80, 1. 32.
 ORCHARDS, GARDENS AND FIELDS. 1373

The Board of Rites at Mukden also extends its care over some
grounds in the them, that are reserved for
mausolea, or near
the production of the articles required for the numerous sacrifices

to the Imperial Dead. The Ordinances prescribe, that there must

be two expanses of plough land, tilled by ninety farmers and
yielding stated quantities of rice, barley and wheat, sorghum,
yellow peas and green peas small peas hemp seed and oil seed.
, ,

Furthermore, ten orchards, under the care of 168 gardeners,

must be kept for the production of fixed quantities of pine seed,
3
hazel nuts', grapes, Berberis seed *, hawthorn fruit , dried pears,
etc.;two orchards Full ling and one in the Chao ling,
in the
producing plums, apricots, cherries, pears and hawthorn fruit; and
finally, in each of the three mausolea, two gardens for the cul-

tivation of melons and vegetables. There must be 270 honey

gatherers, and a number of pheasant shooters and fishers. During
ten days preceding each sacrifice, fifteen milch cows must be driven
up out of the pasture-lands of the mausoleum concerned and be
regularly milked , the intendants of those grounds having to supply
every year 1826 pounds of sacrificial butter. These men also have
to provide the bovine cattle and sheep or goats that must be used
as sacrificial and should they be unable to deliver the
victims;
number required wanting must be purchased at the cost
, those
of the Mukden Board of Revenues. This Board has also to provide
salt, eggs and other things required for the sacrifices*.

4 Op. cit., ch. 139, 11. 19 seq.

88
 ,

CHAPTER XV.

ON GRAVEYARDS AND FREE BURIAL-GROUNDS.

The inhabitants of the Chinese Empire are not bound by any

institutions or laws to inter the dead in grounds specially set apart
by official or private care , for burial purposes. Every one of them is at
liberty to place them in whatever soil he has acquired the owner-
ship of, or the right use (comp. pp. 1076 sqq.). As a conse-
of
quence, graveyards in China bear quite another character than in
most European countries. They are principally the family graves,
to which we have devoted a special chapter elsewhere in this
Volume (p. 829), most of which contain a restricted number of
corpses; among them may also readily be ranked the mausolea of
Princes of Imperial lineage, and even the vast cemeteries for Sons
of Heaven.
Apart from such private graveyards, there exist cemeteries of
a semi-public character in the vicinity of almost every village,
namely, grounds in which, owing to their good Fung-shui, the
villagers are laid down for eternal rest in separate graves (comp.

p. 832). We may rank them likewise among the family graveyards

inasmuch as village communities are generally composed of members
of one clan , considering themselves to be descended from the
same common ancestor. That burial-grounds of this kind existed
already many centuries before the beginning of our era, is, as we
have shown on page 830, explicitly stated by the Cheu li. Village
cemeteries often cover a vast area, as almost every family maintains
its graves for years and years, as long as it is hoped they will
emit blessings; and even when the owners neglect them completely,
they long remain untouched, everybody standing in awe of the
souls that dwell therein, and of the severe laws for the protection
of corpses and graves.
In mountainous parts, like Fuhkien and Kwangtung, village
cemeteries seldom withdraw much useful ground from agricultural
pursuits they being generally located on barren treeless mountain
, ,

slopes, dried and scorched every summer by a tropical heat.

Being parts of the communal landed property of the villagers,
 PL LI.

a
CD

CD
a>
B

O
P

CD
 GRAVEYARDS AT VILLAGES AND TOWNS. 1875

they stand, like the village itself, under the control of its chiefs
and elders. They generally afford resting-places for the dead in
sufficient numbers, and it rarely occurs that well-to-do persons,
wiser than the rest in Fung-shui matters and highly solicitous
for their fortunes and those of their offspring, prefer to place their
graves elsewhere.
Grounds studded with graves because their Fun g-s h u i is con-
sidered to be of an excellent quality, are to be found near towns,
cities and , in general , near every densely populated place. Such
fiong soa" '
or » grave grounds", as they are called at Amoy and
in the districts around, are public in the true sense of the word,
it being allowed to every one, whatever family or clan he may
belong to, to bury there his dead, provided he have acquired from
the proprietors of the soil the ownership or usufruct of a plot.
Many such grounds in the course of time become free burial-places
used by the indigent alone. For when a ground becomes so cram-
med with graves as no more to afford room for making tombs
of any good size, it is the natural course of things that only the
poor, whose graves are of the plainest sort, will continue to make
use of it; graves of the better kind suffering frequent violation by
their hands, will disappear in course of time, or be removed elsewhere
by their careful owners ; the proprietors of the soil , standing powerless
against numerous burials stealthily performed there by people who
cannot afford to pay them anything, will renounce in the end their
ownership, as yielding them no profit at all. And now, every poor
man who has a corpse to bury merely searches out a few feet of
ground between the countless tumuli, and there thrusts the coffin
into the soil, only a few inches below the surface.
Every burial-ground in the vicinity of populous places may in
this way become what the Chinese at Amoy appropriately call a
2
ban jin tui , » accumulation of myriads". Being exclusively used
for burial of the poor and the childless, such free cemeteries are
devoid monumental graves. There is no room for trees to
of any
grow, not of mould in the barren soil for a shrub to
a handful
thrive. Even the sparse sods are regularly scorched away by the
heat and the summer drought, or scraped for fuel by the poor.
Many a ban jin tui looks like a snowy field when the plastering ,

craze of a grave-repairing society has been at work in it (comp.

page 865). There is no fence or enclosure of any kind around

1
U$\- 2
HA*'
 : ,

1376 THE GRAVE.

such grounds; no control is exercised over them by the magistracy

or the public, but it is the dead themselves who there protect
the dead. Their souls, which hover about the spot, seldom
allow any violation of the graves to pass unavenged, and on the
other hand reward those who respect and protect their beloved
resting-places.
Filial piety, in conjunction with the conviction that graves, if placed
under the influences of a good F u n g-s h u i , will create happiness

impels every son that has buried his parents in such mean burial-

ground,
a to remove them to a worthier place as soon as his

means allow him to defray the costs. But how to recognize the
grave in a ground where coffins lie crammed like herrings in
a barrel, and where thousands of tumuli, uniformly pargeted by
benevolent men, are undistinguishrble from each other? The
answer is, that he must prick some blood out of his finger
and drop on the bones, they assuredly being those of his parents
it

if it adheres to them or if it is sucked up by the pores. The

,

reliability of this strange assaying method, based, as it is, upon

childish ideas about consanguinity, is firmly believed in, so firmly
even that the Government itself officially recommends and pre-
scribes its application in judicial affairs and at coroner's inquests.
In the standard work on medical jurisprudence, entitled Si yuen luh
(see page 137), which was written about the year 1247 by Sung
c
Ts ze and has been used in the tribunals ever since the 15th.
'

century, we read
» If the bones of a father or mother lie somewhere in a place
» that belongs to others , and a son or daughter desires to identify
» them , then let this child prick some blood from its body and
» drop it on the bones. If they are those of the man or woman
» who gave birth to it the blood is absorbed otherwise it is not , ;

» imbibed.
» (Note). I have heard of the existence of the following method
» of mixing blood. Two persons prick their blood into the same
» water and if there exists between them such a relationship as
,

» that of a mother and her son or a father and his son or a hus- , ,

»band and two drops will immediately mix together;

his wife, the
» if they do not mix there exists no such relationship. Should
,
—
» the bones have been washed with salt water the blood will not ,

» be imbibed even though

'o'
indeed it has trickled out of a father
,

3c 2£
 ,

TESTING BONES BY MEANS OF BLOOD. 1377

» and his son. This circumstance is sometimes turned to account

» for the commission of felony, and therefore it is necessary to
» be watchful against it.
» Should children have lived separated from their parents since
» their youth or brothers from their brothers and wish to make
, ,

» sure of their relationship then if they find it difficult to make

, ,

» out whether a relationship exists in fact or only in appearance,

» they must be ordered to prick blood from their bodies, and drop
» it into the same vessel. If the relationship exists in reality, the
» blood will coagulate into one mass; if not, there will be no curdling.
» But when fresh blood comes into contact with salt or vinegar
» it coagulates under all circumstances and hence it occurs that ,

» with the object of committing a felony or fraud the vessel is ,

» first rubbed in with salt or vinegar. Therefore the authorities

» must always have the vessel washed and cleaned under their own
» eyes before making an experiment with blood drops, or purposely
» fetch a new vessel from a shop whereby such tricks will be ,

» entirely frustrated" '.

That the Chinese place an implicit trust in such assaying of

human bones by means of filial blood, will little astonish us if we
take into account that the artifice was known in times long past,
and practised with brilliant results by a long series of virtuous
generations. We read , in fact , in the Histories of the fifth century
of our era the following episode of the life of»Sun Fah-tsung,
»a native of Wu-hing, also known by the name of Tsung-chi.

i
% # m # # it & * 1k m « 33 ^ w % ± m ,

& &m\u fiL,m-%£ z & .urn &mn- ,& m

mftm $Jnu ft#Fi@$ft. JL «* $ i$ ft # 0r
Jfo fll

tiSSffiftf, * J* j£ fit # # #f 3& Jttl£#Fa ,

^^ . Chapter \ , 1. 57.
 ,

137S THE GRAVE.

» His father , together with one Sun Ngen , sank into the silt

» on the and thus lost his life. His remains were not
sea-shore
» recovered. mother and elder brothers then died for
Fah-tsuug's
» want of food, so that, young as he was, he had to take
» to a wandering life and could not go back to his native
,

» place before he had reached his sixteenth year. Standing quite

» alone in the world doing his work in the
, he toiled hard ,

» and sleeping in the open field until he was able to pur-

frost ,

» chase coffins and to make a grave, in which he buried his

» mother and brothers in a plain manner but with observance ,

» of the prescribed rites. His father's body not having been recovered
» from the water , he repaired to the sea-shore to seek it. Having
» heard it was said by the people that, if a man drop his blood
» on the bones of his nearest relations , it will entirely coagulate
» or be absorbed, he carried a knife with him on his rambles
» along the and whenever he found any withered bones
coast ;

» he cut into and moistened them with his blood. Con-

his flesh

» tinuing in this way for more than ten years there was not ,

» one hale spot on the skin of his legs and arms his blood dried ;

»up, and his pulses ceased to beat. Realizing in the end the im-
» possibility of his finding the remains he wore the mourning-garb ,

» and the headband until the end of his days, always dwelling on
» the grave" \
On another page of the Histories of the same epoch we read of
an Imperial Prince trying a similar experiment to find out whose
2 3
son he was. King of Yii-chang
Tsung , born of , a secondary
consort of Tung Hwun, who reigned at the beginning of the sixth
century (comp. p. 714), was generally supposed to be a son of VVu

it ± m m ,m m # yt $ as # is m st m * m a E ,

*£& ^§1 3H| ffi History of the South of the Realm , ch. 73 , 1. 10. See also the
Books of the Sung Dynasty, ch. 91, 1. \\.
 .

GRAVEYARDS ESTABLISHED BY MANDARINS. 1379

of the Liang dynasty, this monarch being well known to have

lavished many of his favours upon that woman. » Having heard of
» the popular belief that, if blood of a living person
is absorbed by

» the bones of a dead man upon which dropped, those persons

it is

» are a father and his son , the Prince furtively opened Tung Hwun's
» grave took a bone out of
, it , and put it to the proof by means of
» some blood from his own arm. He also killed a lad cut a bone ,

» out of the corpse , and made a similar experiment with it and ;

1
» both the experiments proved the supposition to be true" .

Apart from the numerous free burial-grounds used by the poor,

which originate in the way above-described many are brought into ,

existence by the initiative of mandarins. No doubt, every age has

produced pious servants of the Crown who have manifested in such a
delicate, praiseworthy manner their solicitude for the manes of the
uncared-for dead. On page 917 we have shown that printed evi-
c
dence exists of one Ts ao Pao having done so already in the first
century of the Christian era in behalf of numerous corpses that he
found unburied in the district under his rule. Similar instances are
chronicled in the books of subsequent ages. During the Sung dy-
nasty, free cemeteries were , by order of the Throne , to be laid out
in many parts of the Empire for the neglected bones of soldiers,
for we read: »In the fourth year of the Shun yiu period (A. U.
» 1244) the Emperor decreed, that the officers ruling in the two
c 2
» Hwai regions, in King-hu and in Sze-ch wen should establish ,

» free grounds for the burial of the remains of the soldiers who
3
» had fought in battle during an unbroken series of years" . And
when the Ming dynasty swayed the Empire, the founding of free
cemeteries was incumbent on the whole mandarinate, the first
sovereign of House » having decreed in the fifth year of his
this
» reign , that wherever the poor might happen to have no grounds
» at their disposal , the local officers should select a vast area to

1
m f^i^04^jnL?M^#'t^in^^^, n
M^ it* 1$ Z > if
History of the South of the Realm, ch. 53,
M §& Books ot

1.
the

10.
Liang D y nast >'- ch -
55 '
L 2 -

2 The great divisions or lu K& of Central and South-west China under the
Sung dynasty. The Chinese text has Ip VjtH , which evidently must be
^J >^Jj

mn#^mmmmw
3
yf jn u n mmm*%
£ M. %. ± % H M mstoj y of the Sun ? D >' nast y< ch - 43 -
li -
1380 THE GRAVE.

» make a free cemetery, and have them bury the dead therein" 1
.

The majority of the free graveyards founded in former ages

by the authorities, have probably owed their origin to their
zeal to check cremation. Indeed , this wide-spread custom , looked
down upon with great aversion and disgust by the Govern-
ment, coidd hardly be combated with success unless good oppor-
tunity were afforded the poor of interring their dead at little
expense. Some notes on this subject will be found in our dis-
sertation on Cremation, which forms the final section of the next
chapter.
The two quotations, just made from Chinese books, show that
cemeteries laid out for gratuitous use were denoted in China,
many centuries ago g ||g
, by the term
the literal sense i
c
ch u n ^ ,

of which is: owing their existence to a sense of duty

» cemeteries
towards others", or »made by people possessed of this virtue".
The meaning of the word ch'ung we have explained on page 442.
In general, the character ^ enters into the composition of terms
denoting things made with a benevolent purpose and for public utility,

as, for example: f|| Jjj|£,

store-houses, such as are mentioned
on page 922, where coffins are given gratuitously to the poor;

f|| ^, free or public schools;

granaries erected on
§|g ^4/,
wells for public use;
behalf of the people to provide in their
^ ^, wants
in times of dearth ; etc.
c
Still nowadays the term i ch ung is in general use in China
as an appellation for cemeteries founded by magistrates, and
so it is in Amoy, in the language of which place it has the
form of gl fiong. On page 924 we have spoken of such burial-
places laid out in that part of the Empire for the soldiers of the
garrisons formerly occupying the island of Formosa, or for victims
of epidemics and sundry other calamities that can no longer
be traced. It admits of no reasonable doubt, that among the
eventswhich cause such cemeteries to arise all around in China,
famine and inundations occupy the principal place, side by side
with rebellions the death of countless loyal wariors and
entailing
peaceful At Amoy, no special custodians are, as a rule,
people.
appointed to administer and guard such grounds. Some stand there
under the patronage of notables and gentry constituting committees

f/H^^ti^, # £ 1^ #1 •
Hist0, y of the Min s D )' nast y. ch 60 ' 22 -
< -
PI. LIT

5
a
<D

c3

X!
 ,,

GRAVEYARDS ESTABLISHED BY MANDARINS. 1381

of so-called tang page 922), who from time to time collect

su, (see

money among themselves and others for repairing the graves.

Most of these graveyards are not fenced in at all but accessible on ,

every side. Only a few of those well cared for are enclosed by a wall
of granite blocks or of battered clay and earth ,
just high enough to

keep out the cows and swine. The cemetery of which we have offered
a picture to our readers in Plate LI, at page 1374, has a wall of
solid masonry on the front side, raised on a strong basement of
granite, and adorned with frescoes. Over its whole top this wall is

covered with granite slabs ; it has a gate in the middle , the sill

and roof of which are all granite monoliths, and with

posts, lintel
a low balustrade of the same material between the posts to keep
the cattle out. On the lintel we read : » This happiness-producing
1
ground is a place of resort of all alike" ; and the posts display
the following distich, likewise carved in the stone:
» Halfway their lives even men of fame and wealth are gathered
together in the grave-grounds;
» After a thousand years the wise and the unlearned shall all

lie together in the same plot of ground" 2 .

As geomancy forbids the encumbering of the prospect in front

of graves (see p. 945), the wall has on either side of the gate
a large square opening, with solid bars of stone. Two stone
tablets, the one let into the masonry of the wall, and the other
reared on a pedestal, commemorate the history of the cemetery,
giving also the names of those who took the initiative in esta-

blishing it and contributed money for its maintenance. A broad

ledge of granite extends along the whole fore-front, abutting at
either end on a small wall which projects from the main wall at
right angles.
On entering the enclosure, we behold many hundred low tumuli
(see Plate LII), plastered all over with white or bluish mortar. They
lie in long parallel rows which face the same side, namely that
which was deemed felicitous in the year in which all those human
remains were confined to the earth (comp. page 976). Each mound
has a grave-stone in front. Many of these stones bear no inscription
the names of the individuals resting behind them having remained
unknown to those who gave them a burial. The foremost rows

4
m*&M U-
 : ,

1382 THE GRAVE.

consist of full-sized barrows , all perfectly alike , containing encoffined

corpses of soldiers of the Formosan garrisons and of other people;
in the rear the rows are formed by tumuli of diminutive size,

containing bone-urns. Indeed, the charitable corporation which

established the cemetery in concert with the magistrates, did so
with the object of giving also a decent burial to the encoffined and
urned skeletons, which stood forgotten in large numbers all about

the town and its vicinity.

That the authorities are nowadays bound by the duties of their

office everywhere in the Empire to further such benevolent work

and even to establish free burial-grounds by their own initiative,

our readers have seen on page 922. In most cases, assuredly, they
leave such matters to private enterprise, merely giving their high
patronage, which costs them nothing. It is hardly necessary to

add here, that cemeteries founded and maintained by public

charity are seldom in a good condition. Hardly ever are they
kept in constant, good repair, but, once finished, they are left
untouched for many years, until their deterioration becomes such
as to move charitable people to patch them up, out of compas-

sion for those souls. A glimpse of a cemetery quite out of repair

our readers may catch from Plate LIII. In its fore-ground stands
a large sepulchre, in which a great number of bone-urns lie

buried under one broad pargeted tumulus; it is constructed exactly

like a private tomb , and ornamented with a shed , such as we
have described on page 1087. The grave-stone bears the words
» Great Dormitory"'; the lintel displays the inscription » Cloudy
3
Dwelling of the Souls" , and the epigraph, carved on the posts,
forms this distich
» The generations of the past having no offspring,
» The living of the present make for them common habitations" \
Within the shed is a storey of wood, partly open in front, wherein
the soul tablets of numerous forgotten dead lie mouldering to dust.

A small altar dedicated to the God of the Soil stands beside the
spot, a few paces off.

Such an urn-grave exists in many cemeteries. In some instances

we saw on its grave-stone the inscription » All Souls' Resort"';

1
A^^- 2
f*

4
^JliflU-
 PI. I.1II.

CD
3
CD

CfQ
o
O
CD

cd
o

d
 ,

LARGK GRAVES FOR BONE-URNS. 1383

in other cases that stone bore the name of the God of the Soil
and was placed between two other stones, the left displaying
the words » Hall for men"
and the right one » Apartment for
',

Women" \ Thus carefully had the living grouped the souls of the
dead around their tutelary divinity, right under its protecting hand,
properly attending at the same time to a sedate separation of their
sexes; indeed, the Chinese are well aware that also in the World
of Shades morality and fashion require the women to live in

decent retirement in the secluded » apartments", and the stronger

sex alone may move about in the » hall " of the house. By no
means, of course, is this separation prosecuted so severely at every
urn-grave , high feelings for the maintenance of sexual morality in
the spirit-world not being cherished by all charitable corporations.

1
%%.- 2 &%•
 ,

ADDITIONAL CHAPTER.
ON SOME EXCEPTIONAL WAYS OF DISPOSING OF THE DEAD.

The last chapter has brought to a close our series of treatises

on the Grave and the principal customs grouped around it. Sacrifices
and other ceremonies performed at graves have not been enlarged on
as yet, and that because they concern the soul, that dwells on the
spot, rather than the material remains, a systematic treatment of
those subjects consequently claiming a place in our Second Book
which is devoted to the soul and its worship.
But the Book promises a description of the
title of the present
Disposal of the Dead in general. Hence we are not justified in
laying down our pen without giving some information about other
ways, besides burial, in which lifeless human bodies were formerly
disposed of in the Chinese Empire, or are still so at present,
namely, throwing them away, or into the water, or burning them.
After all that this Book has taught the reader as to the peculiar
Chinese ideas of the necessity to keep corpses, coffins and graves
in existence as long as possible, we need certainly not now repeat
our remark , made on page 280 , that such methods , entailing , as
they do, a quick destruction of the corpse, have never assumed in
the Empire the position of established customs. To the present
day they are no better in the eyes of the Chinese than odious
aberrations from the correct path which a long series of generations
were so wise and generous to trace out distinctly for the mainten-
ance of pure filial devotion.

1. On the Custom of Throwing Away the Dead.

It can hardly be called in question that in ancient Chinese days,

when civilisation was still in its lowest stages, it was not unusual
to throw away the dead. Mencius refers to this custom in his boist-
erous style, which contrasts so sharply with that of other ancient
authors of his country. »In former generations", he says, » there
 ;

THE DEAD THROWN AWAY IN ANCIENT TIMES. 1385

» were people who did not bury their parents , but , when their parents
» died, took them up and some water-ditch. On the
carried them into
» next day, when passing by the spot, they saw jackals and wild cats
» devouring them, and flies and gnats biting at them. The per-
» spiration started out upon their fore-heads and they turned away ,

» their eyes, not to behold the sight. It was no ordinary human

» perspiration but a perspiration rising from their hearts up unto
,

» their faces and eyes. Forthwith going home, they returned with
» baskets and shovels and covered the bodies. Verily, this was the
,

» correct way; therefore, when filial sons and humane men inter
» their parents, they assuredly act in the proper manner" '.

This extract intimates, that the practice of throwing away the

dead prevailed no more on any large scale when Mencius lived
else he would certainly have spoken in the present tense. His
statement is corroborated by the C/ieu li , for the reader has seen
on page 914 some rescripts which that work contains for the guidance
of certain officers charged with the clearing away of unburied human
remains and the maintenance of ordinances as to how to deal there-
with. That there was then much work for those officers to do, may
be inferred from the fact, likewise recorded in the C/ieu li , that
» four common officers of inferior rank were attached to them , and
» forty servants" 2
. The statement of the Li lei and of Kwan Chung
that dry bones and rotten remains ought to be cleared away and
buried in the vernal season (see page 919), also points to many
corpses being thrown away in old pre-Christian days. In connection
herewith becomes interesting to read in the Tso driven, that in
it

the year 528 before our era the Ruler Ling of the kingdom of
Ch c u, of whom we have spoken on page 725, on hearing of the
assassination of his sons asked in despair whether there were parents
,

loving their sons as much as he loved his and was answered by one ,

of the bystanders: »They love them more, for the common people

m & m r S *i as m z ts z m m m
a . . , mi #?
fc A Z AS 3£ || ^ £ 7fc ijfa gf;
The work, of Mencius, section
^
2
T±KA,^J2]-[-A- cha i' te '-
34 '
' 16 -
 ,,

13S6 THE GRAVE.

» know that when they are old , if they have no son , they shall
» be cast into water-ditches" '.

That many corpses were thrown away in China in every age

especially in times of great mortality, can be easily proved
from its historical books. We read e. g. in the biography of the
virtuous mandarin Ku Hien-chi of the fifth century, whose praise-
worthy measures in behalf of the dead in Heng-yang we spoke of
on page 1070: »That country had for many years been scourged
» by epidemics victimizing the greater half of the people , in con-
» sequence of which coffins were still so high in price , that the
» dead were all merely wrapped in rush mats , and cast away along
» the roadside. On his alighting from his carriage, Hien-chi charged
» the district magistrates placed under his orders , to search for the
» relations of those dead people and to order them to bury the
» same ; and for the dead whose families had died out he spent his own ,

» official income, ordering measures to be taken for their protection " \

c
And Empire of the T ang
the » Supplement to the History of the
Dynasty" 3 a collection of miscellanies by the hand of Li Chao ',
,

chiefly referring to the eighth century and a part of the ninth

relates: »In the first year of the Ta lih period (A. D. 766)
» a terrible epidemic prevailed in Kwan-tung (in Honan province),
» and its victims became as abundant as hemp. Ching Sun a ,

» native of Yung-yang then placed himself at the head of some

,

» persons of influence and they made one large tomb in every

,

» were thrown away. He thus

village for the burial of the corpses that
» became known Gentlemen of the Burial in the Villages
as the ,

» and earned a reputation as a humane and public-spirited man" 3 .

iWM.'hAT&iftMTftffiMMQ & The tbirteenth

year of the Ruler Chao's reign.

i& > $i !U IE It
also the History of the
H Z,
South, ch.
Books of the Lian s
35, I. 15.
D )' nast y< ch -
52 >
' 2 -
See

3
JfH£f<i- 4
^¥-
%jj%*nmi<:fi-MMmmp*m2m9?m
^ ~M £n f|| ^ ^. Pet wen yun fit, ch. 82, 1. 162.
 CORPSES OF STRANGERS, BEGGARS AND INFANTS. 1387

It is superfluous add any more instances to the above as we

to ,

have formerly (pp. 917 —

921) placed before the reader quite a
series of extracts recounting of Emperors and grandees, who took
active measures for the burial of corpses which the living lacked
means or solicitude to commit to the earth.

Not at all, however, do those instances justify the inference,

that throwing away the dead except in the most ancient times
,

ot which Mencius speaks, has ever been practised anywhere in

China as an established system. In the main they teach us that
it prevailed merely occasionally, especially in times of epidemic,
famine, rebellion and other calamities, which, decimating the
people, overburdened the survivors with burials. Further we learn
from many instances, that it has always been a common thing
to throwaway corpses of strangers and childless people, or, at
any rate, to put them down somewhere unburied, which is tanta-
mount to throwing away. That even nowadays the remains of strangers
are generally placed in coffins of the cheapest sort and then depo-
sited in hills or fields is what the reader has seen already on
,

page 139; —
beggars and other poor people having no offspring
to care for them are often dealt with in the same way, and
,

so are lepers about whom we shall have a few words more to

,

say on page 1390.

A really systematic throwing away only prevails in regard of
corpses of infants. Countless are the babes that, closed in urns or
wooden boxes, abandoned in the open country and so given a
are
prey to ravens, dogs and swine, or to quick dissolution under the
operation of weather and vermin. We need hardly repeat here
that this state of matters is to a certain extent the result of the
Fung-shui theories, inasmuch as the bones of infants are not
sufficiently solid to serve the living as durable fetiches able to yield

profit and felicity by the mediation of the graves in which they

lie (comp. page 1075). In many parts of the Empire we saw filled

infant boxes in profusion along city-walls, the lid fixed on by

means of frail willow withes or hempen strings. In the chief city
c
of the department of Ts uen-cheu some large square projectures
from the city-walls are generally used by the people as receptacles
to throw their dead children into. These curious brick structures, if

seen from the outside of the walls, look like salient crenellated
bastions, but in reality they are square chambers, quite open
at the top, which, having no apertures whatever in the four
sides, are only accessible from above by means of ladders. In
 " ,:

1388 THE GRAVE.

those chambers we saw the bottom thickly covered with putre-

scent remains and rags of clothes and matting they had been
wrapped in as also with the skeletons of some dogs that allured
, ,

by the smell, had climbed down along the dilapidated walls and,
unable to get out, died of thirst.

Throwing away the corpses of infants probably prevails in the

northern parts of the Empire on a more extensive scale than in
the southern, where the mountainous condition of the soil almost
everywhere affords waste ground in abundance to bury them in.
Hence, special shelters built by benevolent people for the use
of parents to throw their dead children in, are, relatively speak-

ing, scarce in the South. Under the name of » baby -towers

such structures have often been mentioned by European authors.
They are of stone blocks or of brick , and measure some five metres
in diameter; their shape is either round, polygonal or square, and
they form a single compartment with a tiled roof. Corpses are to be
dropped in through a window-like aperture, from which the winds,
birds and bats are warded off by a square wooden shutter turning ,

in hinges fixed in the lintel. Any one who wishes to throw in a

corpse , has first to push the shutter back , which thereupon of
itself resumes the perpendicular position. Some baby-towers have
two such apertures, placed opposite each other, the one on the
left or principal side for receiving the infants of the male sex

and the other for the female bodies. To prevent mistakes, the
left shutter is often marked with the inscription » male infants" 1
,

2
and the other with » female babies" . Thus lascivious intercourse

among the little souls within the tower is virtuously suppressed,

and morality furthered in the World of Death. Baby-towers have
no doors, never being entered by living man, and because doors
might enable voracious swine, dogs and rats to intrude.
To inform the people that such charnel houses are destined
to rid them of their dead infants , they sometimes display on a
slab of stone , fixed in the frontside , an inscription , reading
3
» Pagoda or Tower for hoarding up bones" , or » Place of resort
etc. Not seldom another slab is
4
for infants" , inserted in the wall,

or reared close by on a pedestal, to exhibit the names of the vir-

tuous men who, out of compassion with the countless infant

 ,

BABY-TOWERS. 1389

souls doomed to suffering because of their bodies being mercilessly-

abandoned by their parents to decomposition in the open air,

defrayed the expenses connected with the erection of the building.

Both to those men and to the babies that stone is of the greatest

utility, enabling the latter, as it does, whenever a fit of retributive

gratitude seizes them , to see at a glance whom in the first place

they have to make rich, healthy and happy, and to bless with

children.
It is self-evident that in many parts of China where female
infanticide is frequent, baby-towers are not only the depositories
of victims of this vice, but also occasionally receive living infants.
But that, as some foreign authors have pretended in their works,
any such buildings should owe their existence to the special

purpose of ridding parents of their living progeny, must be rejected

as a fable.

2. Water Burial.

If the passages quoted on page 1385 from the works of Mencius

and from the Tso ctiwen , are to be taken in their literal sense
it would follow that it was far from unusual for the living in
ancient China to rid themselves of the dead by throwing them into
ditches and canals would be preposterous to
But, certainly, it

admit on the authority of those passages, that water-burial was then

practised methodically, as those ditches and canals may be mere
metaphors, emphasizing the disgust and horror which the throwing
away of the dead then raised in sensitive filial hearts.

As far as we know, there is nothing in the Chinese books to

justify the supposition , that throwing the dead into the water has
ever been considered else but a crime. The reigning
as anything
dynasty severely forbids Code of Laws, decreeing therein,
it in its

in an article which we have quoted on page 871, that any one

who renders himself guilty of it shall be punished in the same
way as those who mutilate a corpse, be he, or be he not, a
kinsman of the dead person thus abused. This article was copied
to the very letter from the Code of the Ming dynasty ', as well
as every fundamental article in the Law of Burial. Both Houses
even proscribed the throwing of defunct relations into the water
in the case of the latter themselves having ordained to be so

1 See the Ta Ming hwui tien , eh. 130, 1. 11.

89
1390 THE GRAVE.

treated after their death, as an article in the two Codices runs

thus : » Whoever , in obedience to the testamentary behests of a
» relation higher than himself in the family hierarchy, destroys the
» corpse of that relation by fire, or throws it into the water, shall
» receive one hundred blows with the long stick. And if such a
» corpse be that of an inferior relation of the perpetrator , the
» above punishment shall be abated two degrees" 1
.

Nowadays , the Chinese people generally entertains a strong aversion

to water-burial. This may be illustrated a little by the following inci-
dent, which occurred in 1888 under the eyes of a friend of ours,
on board a steamer cleared out at Swatow for the Deli tobacco-
districts. Two
emigrant workmen having died of cholera, arrange-
ments were forthwith made to put their corpses overboard; but all
the passengers rose as one man to prevent it. After much clamorous
discussion they gave in to the arguments of the tropical heat and
the dangers of contagion, stipulating, however, that the corpses
should be floated away in a wooden water-tank that stood on the
deck. The whole passenger-hold was then ransacked for paper mock
money, so useful in the World of Shades; but nothing being
discovered , the comrades of the dead men placed real coppers
in the tank, together with a letter entreating whosoever might
find the corpses to generously give them a decent burial on shore.
In that very same year, the magistrates of Amoy, with whom
the author of these lines had to communicate about the export
of labourers to Deli, implicitly insisted with patriarchal care upon
every passenger steamer carrying a good number of air-tight coffins,
fit to preserve for the harbour of destination those who might
die at sea, thus sparing them a horrid » burial in the bellies of
2
the fish" .

According to the Amoy islanders themselves, they are in the

habit of throwing the corpses of lepers into the sea, or they
place them, in coffins, on the seashore or in the open country,
it being feared that, if buried, they will convey the dreaded
disease to their descendants. It is, indeed, quite logical that a
people, among whom the conviction prevails that graves yield

"||
o ^.4#TJ£^Zl^f. Op. cit., ch. 129, 1. 9; and the Ta Ts'ing

luh li, ch. 17, 8 »fe $£

*nmm-
 CREMATION HAS A BUDDHIST ORIGIN. 1391

felicity to the descendants of the occupant if felicitous influences

settle therein, should also believe that graves containing incurable
diseases must necessarily infect the offspring. It is not uninteresting
to see from the story reproduced on pp. 297 seq., that the throwing
of lepers into the water already had its advocates in the fourth
century of our era.
For many centuries, water-burial prevailed on a large scale in
China in connection with cremation, inasmuch as osseous remains,
gleaned from the ashes of funeral pyres , were often cast into water-
streams, or placed in water-pits dug for the purpose. Some parti-
culars about the custom in this peculiar form our readers will
find in the next following pages.

3. Cremation.

The quick destruction of human corpses having, since very ancient

times, been odious to the Chinese as imperiling the happiness and
safety of the living, while their preservation in the ground was
always esteemed by them as the highest duty prescribed by filial

piety, it must appear a strange thing, that that very same people
has for many centuries much practised cremation. Buddhism
having imported it into their country as an auxiliary expedient to
sublimate the departed into a better condition , or even into
the highest state and perfection, cremation was in the
of bliss
first place largely practised with the Buddhist monkhood from ,

which it passed over to the laity, assuming for a long time

considerable proportions. But in a subsequent period of general
abatement of the influence of the Church cremation fell a prey
to the general odium, so that at the present day it hardly occurs
anywhere, except within the pales of Buddhist monastic life.
Being of religious origin , cremation is mostly denoted in China
by clerical terms, expressive of the metamorphosis the funeral pyre
is intended to effect, viz.
^ J\^,
» transformation of man"; &, ^k >

» transformation of the body"; fcfy, » metamorphosis by fire".

Without the clerical sphere it bears no such high-sounding names,
being simply called ||fe
f* or Xfe P ,
» incineration of corpses".
A term of illogical composition, and nevertheless very common in
the books, is »J^ ^ , » fire-burial".
There nothing in the ancient literature of China to entitle us
is

to admit that cremation was a common thing there in pre-Christian

times. A treatise which passes for a product of the hand of a
1392 THE GRAVE.

certain Philosopher Lieh (see page 680) , makes mention of its

having been practised in a country named I-khii , which Chinese

authors are wont to place in the north-eastern part of the present
province Kansuh, somewhere in or about the department of
of
c
Khing-yang » Westward from Ts in", that work relates, » lies
l
.

» the State of I-khi'i where people collect wood on the death of

,

» every near relation and pile it up in order to burn the corpse.

» When the fire is blazing and the smoke whirls up they say ,

» that the defunct ascends to distant regions and they are not ;

» deemed to be filial sons until they have done such things" 2 .

This passage does by no means negative our premise that cremation

is an exotic importation, the province of Kansuh forming no
part of the Empire proper in those early days, and its inhabitants
then being by the Chinese among certain barbarian
classed
tribes comprised under the generic name of Jung
3
Still in the .

third century of our era cremation appeared so strange and horrid

a thing to the Chinese proper, that an author of that time, in a
book he published under the title of Poh wu/i cJii (see page 422),
inserted the above passage among
what he called » Strange a series of
4
Customs" adding this remark:
, »ln the Middle Kingdom that
5
practice has never been condemned with sufficient emphasis" .

That the incineration of the dead was extremely revolting to all

feelings in ancient China, is intimated by the following episode,
related by the Tso cliicen in its record of events for the year 504
before our era: »The army of Wu having defeated that of
c
Ch u at
c
» Yung-sheh , was itself routed by the forces of Ts in
and retreated ,

» into Kiiin. burn that place, but Tsze-si

Tsze-khi proposed to
» said : 'And the bones of our fathers and elder brothers, which
» lie there exposed? We have not been able to collect them, so

» that they will be destroyed by the fire at the same time; we

» may not do it!'. Upon which Tsze-khi retorted: 'Our kingdom is
» in danger of perishing ; if the dead have consciousness , they will
» enjoy the old sacrifices even after being devoured by the flames;

On page 680 the reader has seen that this passage occurs also in the works of Mih-tsze.

5
*H*£^#&-
 C
CREMATION BEFORE THE T ANG DYNASTY. 1393

» why then should we shrink from burning them?' So they did

» set the city on fire and fought another battle, in which the
» army of Wu was worsted" l
.

From the commencement of the Christian era, lniddhism in China

had a growth
period gradually working itself up to a
of rapid ,

glorious and yet we find in Chinese books for nearly

position ;

a thousand years very little which refers to crematicn. That it

prevailed in the fourth century in the northern parts which cor-
respond with the present provinces of Shantung, Shansi and Peh-
chihli and that on no small scale we may learn from the fact
, ,

that Shih Lih , the warlike founder of the State of Chao, spoken
of on page 612, » issued a written order, forbidding the people
» of his realm being disallowed to marry while in mourning, and
» ordaining that in point of cremation and burial they should be
» made to follow their established customs" s
. And that cremation
also was in vogue four centuries later, follows from the circum-
stance that it is mentioned by Tu Yiu, the author of the T^ung
tien who , between A. D. 735 and 812. »In ancient times",
lived
he wrote, »the dead were conveyed to the open country and covered
» there with firewood, and the osseous remains were thus committed
» to the earth (comp. page 281). Therefore, when we act in the
» same way, we follow the customs of antiquity and do not offend
» against the rules of propriety. On account of the laws against
»it, cremation no longer practised nowadays" 3
is .

c
On the downfall of the T ang dynasty cremation was apparently
deeply rooted in the customs of the nation, for even the highest
in the Empire then practised it. We read, indeed, that when

& m % & m =? m m ,m m x % & m & m jg

* ,

* ?M #& z m B 3L JL %& # 1 * m
. ,
-?- , ,

Jfj7
. The fifth year of the reign of the Ruler Ting. See also the Annals of Wu
and Yueh, ch. 2.

Books of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. -105, I. 2.

ffi..

a* & # # ra m ^^mm, 4>mm&mz^iM ,

tie s(y ^i . T'ung chi, quoted in the Tuh li t'ung khao , ch. 86, 1. 3.
 ,

1394 THE GRAVE.

c
Ch uh ', the last Emperor of the short-lived House of Tsin had been ,

dethroned in 946 by the Ki-tan Tatars and thereupon banished

to he was categorically ordered by his own mother
Kien-cheu,
Ngan and by the chief consort of his paternal uncle Kao Tsu 2
,
,

his predecessor on the Throne, to cremate them after their death.

»The Concubine-Dowager Ngan", thus the Standard Histories of
c
that time relate, » accompanied Ch uh on his journey to the North
» from Liao-yang to Kien-cheu, and died on the road. When her
» death was imminent, she said to the Emperor: 'You must burn
» me to ashes and strew them in the wind towards the South in ,

» order that my disembodied soul may be enabled to go back to the

» Middle Kingdom'. At her death, neither brambles nor any trees
v were to be found in the stony country. They therefore demolished
» a servant's travelling-car to use it for cremating her and took ,

» the scorched bones with them to Kien-cheu. Then the Empress-

>> Dowager Li also died, and they buried the remains of both women
» simultaneously" 3 About this Empress, Kao Tsu's consort, we
.

read, that in A. D. 950 »her disease took a bad turn, and that she
» said to the Emperor When I am dead you must burn my remains
:
'
,

» and send the ashes to the Buddhist Fan-yang monastery,

» lest you cause me to become a spectre in this land of slaves'.
» Thereupon she died the Emperor with the Dames of the Palace
; ,

» the officers of the deceased, and the eastern and western servants
» all loosened their hair and , bare-footed , carried the coffin to the
» grounds allotted them for their sustenance. There they cremated
» the remains, subsequently committing them to the earth"
4
.

After having been left well-nigh uncensured by Chinese authors

1
2 ^jffl..
tfj

4^ ^ Z. History of the Five Dynasties, ch. 17, 1. 5. Old History of the Five

Dynasties, ch. 86, 1. 2.

tft p'rj ife. -E . The same works, loc. cit.

 ,

CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OF THE SUNG DYNASTY. 1395

for a long series of centuries, cremation suddenly begins to greatly

move their minds and writing-brushes under the Sung dynasty.
The reign of that House was marked by a vigorous revival of
the Confucian School, giving birth to numerous literati who,
full of contempt for all customs and manners not practised by the
ancients, turned their choler against exotic Buddhism, fulminating
especially against cremation and decrying it as the height of
cruelty towards the dead , the most execrable of all sins against

till; il devotion. Though not succeeding in putting down cremation,

those scripturists undermined it thoroughly, even so that at the
present day it has become hardly more than a shadow of what it
was during the Sung dynasty.
We cannot, of course, follow all those scholars in their crusades
against the custom they sought to subvert. Were we to do so, we
should have to indulge in much superfluous work, as each of them
simply reiterates the arguments of every other. We shall only
refer to such of their writings as shed some light upon the
views held by their class on the matter in question , and which
may show how great at the time the development of cremation was.
Let it be stated beforehand, that cremation was far from being
favoured by the Imperial House of Sung, as we read that its

founder »in the third year of the Kien lung period (A. D.
» 96:2) issued an edict, in which he decreed: 'Cremation, uni-
» versally practised during recent generations , is a great offence
» against the Ritual Rescripts, and ought from this moment to

» be forbidden' " \
Foremost among the enemies of cremation stands Sze-ma Kwang.
» Among the people of this age", thus he wrote, »it occurs that
» when itinerant officers die in a distant region , their sons and
» grandsons burn the encoffined corpses and collect the remnants
» to send them back home for burial. Considering that it is on
» account of their affection for the remains of their parents that
» filial and bury the same, and that the laws are very
sons dress
» severe against those who mangle or destroy corpses of persons that
» are not even their relations, how severely then should the same
» laws act against sons and grandsons who commit so shocking a

'lift* § 4^ 3=t ^^ Tung-tu shi lioh

j|£ ^^ gjgL, » Record of Matters

relating to Tung-tu", the present Ho-nan-fu ST J^J j& in Honan province;

quoted in the Tuh li luny kliau, ch. 86, 1. 2.

 ,

1396 THE GRAVE.

» deed ! Cremation has originally come forth from the barbarian

» tribes in the West but by practising it a long time we have
,

» become so familiar with it , that those who witness it do not

» feel shocked , which no more astonishes anybody at all. Is not
» this state of things very saddening? When Ki-tsze of Yen-ling
c
» travelled to Ts and lost his son there he buried him between
i ,

» Ying and Poh , and Confucius declared that thus he acted in con-
» formity with the ritual rescripts '. This fact proves that, if the means
» fail to send the dead home, we are fully allowed to bury them on
» the spot and is not it better to do so than to burn them ? " 2
; .

c c
Ch ing I-ch wen Sze-ma Kwang's learned contemporary whose ,

acquaintance our readers have made on p. 715, likewise sided with

the antagonists of cremation. We read in the Complete Writings of
himself and his elder brother Hao who is generally called Ming-tao 3 4
, :

» It was a law of the ancients that only the corpses of men who had
» committed the greatest of crimes should be given to the flames;
» and nevertheless, cremation, the worst of customs of our modern
» times, has assumed the position of a formal rite, a rite which
» even filial sons and affectionate grandsons do not consider as
» heterodox. But there is more: the Imperial Family has overtly —
» enacted a series of rescripts which starting from the principle that ,

» cremation is no forbidden thing prescribe for instance that in ,

, ,

» respect of warriors in distant garrison stations , it is allowed to

» perform cremation and send the bony remains home, as also
» that it is permitted to burn human bodies without three miles
» of the Imperial Altars in the suburbs. We have , however , here
» merely to do with extraordinary rescripts in point of cremation
» rescripts existing on account of the fact that no objections are

1 This is a reference to the episode mentioned bv us on pape 663.

mmAZF&mmm, vLT&n&Btott. £

^Mmzm^i^m^^m.^^^mmm.m
t$fJT ,

&m&,&^1&M ?$tZM-
:
: Tu " li Vung khao ch >
-

86, 1. 3. Ku kin t'u slm luih cli'ing, sect. njB§ -{|| , ch. 63.

3
At- *WMi-
 CREMATION JN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 135)7

» raised against the practice because the nation has quite familiarized
» itself with it. Should some madman or drunkard wantonly cast a
» slight insult at the coffin of his deceased forefather, the matter
» would looked upon with the deepest hatred and un-
be readily
» bounded animosity. But if nearest relations trail each other into
» a fire no aversion at all is felt. Is not this a deplorable state
,

» of things?" '.

An interesting notice on cremation , showing its intimate con-

nection with the Buddhist religion , we owe to one Cheu Hwui 9 ,

an author of the twelfth century, who lived in Hang-cheu, the

then Imperial residence, now the capital of the province of Cheh-
kiang. »In the villages on the right tributaries of the Cheh (one
» of the chief rivers in Chehkiang, giving its name to this pro-
» vince) , it is customary,
dies even though he when anybody ,

» be a and influence, not to prepare the

person of wealth
» smallest piece of ground for him as a resting-place. People there
» go so far as to burn the dead. If some Buddhist monastery
» wishes to make money, the inmates slightly excavate a few
» feet of ground and in the little water that stands in those pits
,

» they throw withered bones, carelessly mixing up those of the two

» sexes. No sooner are they so more can be put full that nothing
» in than the bones are taken out under the cover of night and
, ,

» by full baskets strewed about the open fields. The relations do

» not perceive it and regularly continue on the annual festivals to
,

» place offerings of embaled articles at the borders of those tanks.

» This state of things bitterly saddening though in fact it ,

» is, has hitherto not been stopped by the Authorities. When Fan
c
» Chung-siien governed the country of T ai-yuen (in the west of

mm^m, a§# ? &«** w% n n m & $ .

»®mm, xi spit^HM^jsr#^A. mm r

*rfc*B*A£#£ftA+& $$ - 3¥ , mi ffi #£
'S
Tuh
o

li
W -?*
tuna khao,
5^ Rife
ch.
'^ /(
80, 1.
(:I

3.
''"'J ls
'
ia' n sflu i Zl ;fcj? ^ ^jf i
quoted in the

2 m^-
 .

1398 THE GRAVE.

» Shansi), the grounds in Ho-tung were so scarce that, to spare

» them for other purposes, the people did not inter their parents.
» He therefore had all the unowned cremated remains collected
» by his subalterns for burial , using separate pits for the bones
» of either sex. And all around in the country under his juris-
» diction he posted up proclamations ordering his example to be
» followed ; in consequence of which not less than ten thousand
1
» people received a composed a
burial . Besides, he himself
» treatise hundred characters with the earnest purpose
of several ,

» to break down the custom in question and to regulate and

» modify such wretched habits. It was then the sixth year of the
»Yuen yiu period (A. U. 1091). In the Shun hi period
» (1174 — 1190) a Resolution was taken by the Authorities, to
» the effect that unowned encoffined bodies that had been pre-
» served in Buddhist religious edifices for many years , should be
» buried by the mandarins. But this Resolution was never seriously
» enforced , so that encoffined bodies are at present kept in such
2
» places as openly as before" .

It appears that, in spite of the energetic opposition carried on

1 This statement is recorded in the Standard History of the Sung Dynasty,

ch. 314, 1. 23. The real name of this -virtuous office-bearer was Shun-jen ||D T~~^

Chung-siien is an honorary name conferred on him on his death by the Emperor.

zm, m^mzfrBmu'W, BiKm^mmm

m^MAm±%tnnm« nzxji.^mw
ff ^ 5g gf| g ^ fa Ts'ing-p'o tsah chi

Memoirs of the Limpid Waves", that is to say, of the gate of the Limpid Waves
ffi jjfr §£ -jl*, ^Miscellaneous

at Hang-cheu, near which the author spent his life; ch. 12. Our readers will —
remember (see p. 128) that still at present many encoffined corpses are preserved
in Buddhist temples.
 ;

CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OF THE SUNG DYNASTY. 1399

against it in the eleventh century, cremation continued to thrive

as a healthy growing plant, for we read of new campaigns opened
against it in the century that followed. This time, as before, it

was the Confucianist mandarinate that headed the aggressive party,

a mandarinate burning with zeal for the restoration of morals
to their most ancient purity. It seems that, on the other hand,
hardly any man able to handle a writing-brush ever set himself
up as a defender of cremation , for no publication in favour of it

have we ever seen.

It is especially the precious Standard History of the Sung
dynasty that gives us reliable information about this anti-cremation
crusade in the twelfth century. It relates, for instance, » that in
c
»the 27th. year of the Shao hing period (1157) one Fan T ung,
» Superintendant of the Collation and Registration Office, memo-
» rialized as follows :
— '
Nowadays there exists among the people
»a class, known as the cremators. As long as their parents live , these
» men entertain anxious cares that their means to provide them
» with the necessities of might prove insufficient but on their
life ;

» death they burn them and throw away the remains. How is it
» that they treat them generously only while they live, and so care-

» lessly after their death! In the worst cases, the remains are thrown
>> into the water after the cremation. The feelings of those who are
» acquainted with those things are shocked at the sight.
» The reigning dynasty has ordained that the poor who have no
» grounds to bury their dead in , shall be allowed to do so in land
» reserved for the Government. In Ho-tung the burial-grounds are
» scarce page 1398), and the population there is so dense that
(see

» all the dead are burned or thrown away, even by the nearest
» relations. When Han Khi ruled the country of P c
ing-cheu , he
» drew money from the official treasury to purchase several khing
> of land , which he ceded to the people to bury their dead in
» and down to the present day he is praised for it
1
. Indeed, it is

» a duty incumbent on the officers entrusted with administrative

» power , to bring about , each one in his turn , a universal im-
» provement in the morals and customs , and to prevent the people
» from deviating from the Ritual Rescripts.
» The gruesome custom of burning the dead is at present spreading
» with a violence which daily increases. Bearing , as it does , on the

1 He lived from A. D. 1008 — 1075. A biography of him is given in the History

of the Sung Dynasty, ch. 312.
1400 THE GRAVE.

» civilisation manners and customs it is reasonable to forbid

of ,

vit, and at the same time to order the officers of the Govern-
» ment to appoint waste land in order that the poor may get ,

» grounds to bury their dead in. Such measures will contribute a

» little to the improvement of manners and customs'. This —
» proposal was approved.
» And in the 28th. year of the same period Yung 1 Minister , ,

» of the Revenue Department made the following proposal ,The :

'

Crown have unanimously requested that cremation

» servants of the
» may be forbidden and orders issued to the provincial districts
» to appoint waste land , and to enable the poor to bury therein
» their dead. Verily, such official measures would be wise and
» good. I have heard that the people of Wu and Yueh (Kiangsu
» and Chehkiang) are in the habit of making great outlays for the
» interment of the dead , not performing it before they have hoarded
» up wealth for and that on the other hand people
that purpose,
» of small means there indulge in indifference and carelessness with
» regard to the disposal of the deceased. The consequence is, that
» cremation has hitherto generally been considered in those parts as
» the most convenient way, and practised to such an extent that , now
» it has grown into a regular custom. It will therefore be difficult
» to forcibly abolish it; and this renders it but the more urgent to
» enlarge the grounds, used for burial, in the departments and
» districts where peace has long prevailed and the population , in
» consequence , has regularly increased. In the vicinity of city-walls
» it will not be easy for the magistrates to find land fit for the
» purpose, and it is to be feared that nobody's mind will acquiesce
» in a prohibition of cremation ere such grounds have been singled
»out, and there thus be places enough to commit the dead to
» the earth. I therefore beg to request that — apart from the
» notable, the wealthy and the gentry, to whom cremation must
» be strictly forbidden — the poor lower classes , travelling strangers
» and people from distant parts shall be allowed to dispose of
» their dead in any way they prefer, but that, when waste grounds
» shall afterwards have been set aside , further Imperial decisions
» shall be taken. The Emperor hereupon decreed that measures
» should be taken in conformity with this advice , and ordained
» that grounds should be reserved for the purpose in question in the
» several parts of the Empire, in accordance with former decrees" 1
.

fflm^ + 't^gi&fflWLmi&nm^R®-
 CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OP THE SUNG DYNASTY. 1401

Tn spite of the numerous burial-grounds , laid out throughout

the Empire in obedience to such orders from the Throne , cremation
continued to flourish luxuriantly, even attaining so high a develop-
ment, that still a hundred years later another statesman saw
himself obliged to fulminate against it in a language harsher than
any used before. He bore the name of Hwang Chin ' and was Chief
Magistrate of the district of Wu 3
which embraces the environs
,

of Su-cheu-fu , the present capital of Kiangsu province. Tn an official

^ m ii k ft % %.w\m^ z & mr&^f m m m . ,

m ® m $ f: m m ** *mm \% w zm%m .

it in.

&&ms.mMZ*b, &&&&&&$$.
it,Vi%i i

&nn.ftzm.uz.
!Km^wmw.%MZ*b,&%Rft&mm.m

* m M %ft % $ H $ M..W if £ » JH JR , ffi 5ft ,

fc&Zft,&MB%*ffimZ*bMM'MK.ftM
m&®^%^Mmnz, ^^^nmrn^m
mm*G&fftmff!KitZ£,&ftAtfiffi&.
®t,mm'm±mf¥mmikw,mTZR#%-
mmifZA%^fti:,tt®i£®,&mft}\im
m&&ttMZ*b*m?i&M.mik,Vi$mwft
2, ^ ^ ^ M t^ HI
|^$ °y Histor y of the Sun s nast yi ch - 125 >
n.2seg.

1 nltf f& . His biography is given in the History of the Sung Dynasty, ch. 438,

11. 17 sqq.
 ,

1402 THE GRAVE.

memorial , still nowadays generally considered to be the ablest treatise

ever written on the subject, he poured out his full disgust of cremation,
setting forth the arguments, raised against it by Chinese minds in
general, in a form so elaborate, that no other document is to be
found expounding them better. It therefore calls for a full trans-
lation in these pages.
»In the second year of the King ting period (A. D. 1261)",
thus we read in the Jilt clii lull (ch. 15), » Hwang Chin, in his
» capacity of Prefect of the district of Wu , requested that he should
» be discharged from rebuilding certain pavilions for the incineration
» of human bodies. The memorial, which he presented to that effect
» ran as follows :

» Owing to regulations, in force since a long time in these parts

» under my administration, there exists a Buddhist monastery
» there, frequented by the people to offer incense; it bears the
» name of »The General Succour", and is situated south-west of
» this city, a mile off. Long ago some ten hollow pavilions for the
,

» cremation of human bodies were built in that convent, for the

» sake of gain. Throughout the city the silly people were prevailed on
» to convey the bodies of their deceased parents thither and consigned
» them to the burning flames ; they then took up the remains of the
» bones unconsumed by the heat to throw them into a deep pool of
,

» water. Alas, what wrong had those men done, that after their death
» they were thus subjected to the highest degree of mutilation? '.

» Already a long time my heart was sincerely pained at those things.

» But as I am a man of no account , whose official position is but
» lowly, t did not give any utterance to my feelings , however much
» I longed to do so. On the sixth of the month there suddenly
fifth

» arose a nocturnal thunder-storm ; it whisked away nothing else than

» those so-called cremation-pavilions , sweeping them down entirely.
» It is my conviction that their foul stench had spread so far, as to
» cause the offended spirits of the dead to conjointly lay their com-

--M. *^'Ai&$>A&^m + m>Mm 'o n

*#mx& ffii & z*m mm . ; . ff a pi m m m

 !,

CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OF THK SUNG DYNASTY. 1403

» plaints before the Imperial Heaven, and that Heaven, convulsed

» with rai^e, destroved those crematories, root and branch. The
» next day the monks of the convent, becoming aware of what bad
» happened, reported tbe matter to me; and I then drew up this
» circumstantial report, in order to make you, Prefect of this de-
»partment, rejoice together with me in the destruction of those
» pavilions. What judge would now venture to listen to the requests
» of those monks, and charge me, the Magistrate of the district, to
» have those structures rebuilt under my own jurisdiction ? 1 .

»I say that those pavilions were built to incinerate the parents of

» the people. But a man who burns his parents commits the grossest
» possible sin against the hiao ; therefore , may those pavilions
» be re-erected? The ancients beat their breasts and stamped their
» feet at the slighter and the fuller dressing at the provisional ,

» burial and the burial proper because the mere removal of their
,

» parents' corpses struck them with dismay ; how then can men
» nowadays go so far as to fling those bodies into the flames
» Taking them up to cast them into a fire is the very highest pitch
» of cruelty ; there is in such deeds nothing that tallies with the
» natural feelings of man. Chl-yiu 2
, who invented fivefold cruelties
» and Cheu of the Shang dynasty 3
, who punished men by binding
» them against hot tubes, turned their cruelties against the living
» alone and never went so far as to mutilate people after their
,

» death. Chen Khin predicted that some calamity would befall

» Hia-fu Puh-ki and after the burial of the latter smoke whirled
,

» up from a fire that destroyed him , Heaven itself probably

» sending this disaster down on him 4
. From the fact that his fate

xxn ft m.mm &,&&&& ffim&AZ*

mmjf^tik^zm^. mm® xn^^inz

2 A rebellions vassal, who reputedly lived in the 26th. century before our era
and was defeated and killed by the Emperor Hwang. See the Historical Records,
ch. 1, 1. 3.

3 Cheu Wang, mentioned in the foot-note on page 116.

4 Chen Khin was a very virtuous grandee in the state of Lu. He is also known
as Chen Hwoh |j| and as
E Liu-hia Hwui ^Jj[]
,
~J^ j||
He lived . in the century

preceding that of Confucius. The prediction in question he uttered in 624 B.C., when
 ,,

1404 THE GRAVE.

» was called a calamity, it is evident that incineration is a calamity '.

» When Tsze-khi of the kingdom of Ch c

u wished to destroy by
» tire the army encamped at Kiiin , Tsze-sidissuaded him from
» doing so, as even he shrank from burning the corpses of his
» enemies 2
.
— When
Wei dug up the grave
the feudal Ruler of
c
» of Ch u and burned the corpse in the open field
Shi-ting-tsze
» he committed a deed such as had never occurred up to that date
>> since the oldest times. — Tien Tan , after having defended during
» five years the destitute city of Tsih-mih , executed various strata-
» gems so perilous, that they offered one single chance of escaping
» against ten thousand of perishing. To enrage his own men he ,

» took an abominable measure consisting in that he induced those ,

c
» of Yen (the besiegers) to dig up the graves of Ts i and burn the
c
» corpses; the men of Ts i, on seeing it, burst into tears; with ten-
» fold rage they attacked the army of Yen and routed it. So deeply,
» indeed , did the incineration of the corpses of their ancestors affect
» those sons and grandsons that they no longer regarded their own
» lives as of any value ; but for this reason , also ,
c
T ien Tan was
» five long years in devising so crafty a stratagem against his foes
» before he ventured to carry it into execution 3
. — When the

Hia-fu Fuh-ki, in his capacity of Director of the ancestral temple of the royal

family, had given the tablet of the recently deceased ruler Hi (a the precedence

to that of his father. See the Tso ch'wen, second year of the Ruler Wen's reign,
and, especially, the Kwoh yu, ch. 4.

« m m f i ft 4 & & a z wl m & . a2**»

Z&, vm # M ZM # g P # Z >K*& M jfc . rffi

zfeM&kii*m%iitftx.mzvkMM%fo
'%zm>%nzift£.M,zfc^mziftMm&M
*%9l2.mffiZ&i9AW%ft&-
2 Evidently, Hwang Chin here distorts written history a little. Indeed, the
reader has seen on page 1392, that Tszg-si opposed the proposed measure because he
feared that the flames might destroy their own warriors fallen in a previous battle.
3 This episode drawn from ch. 82 of the Historical Records. T'ien Tan was
is

a military commander in the service of Ts'i. When this kingdom was attacked by
that of Yen he defended the city of Tsih-mih in the present province of Shantung,
, ,

for many years, ridding it of its besiegers in 279 B. C. by several clever stratagems,
especially by that related by Hwang Chin. Having caused them to be told that he
 CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OP THE SDNG DYNASTY. 1405

» Governor To
c
resided in Ngao (the present Kwangtung) , he was
» told the House of Han had dug up the graves of his
that
» ancestors and burned the corpses. Lull Kia explained to him that
» no such thing had taken place, and said, in the course of the
» negociations 'If you oppose the House of Han, it will indeed
:

» dig up the graves of your ancestors and burn the corpses,

» resorting, however, to a thing so unheard-of merely in order to
» intimidate
c
and by no means from insensibility'
you, Yin 1
.
—
»Ts i, while holding office in Hwai-yang, butchered many people.
» On his death revengeful families desired to burn him but his ;

» remains disappeared and were carried to his old home for

» burial 9 upon which it was rumoured that they had flown away.
,

» The people's desire to burn his corpse proceeded from their very
» deepest hatred, and its disappearance as soon as that desire
» sprang up, shows that the dead possess spiritual power, and
3
» what a fear-inspiring thing cremation is .

feared they might desecrate the graves lying in the environs, they, anxious to
chagrin him, forthwith began doing so, however, as Hwang Chin relates, with very
disastrous results. The siege once raised , a series of victories rid Ts'i entirely of
the invaders.
1 Chao T'o j&f£ 'i'b was a military commander in the service of Shi Hwang.
Amid the disorders consequent on the death of that despot he proclaimed himselt
independent King of Southern Yueh pp| jj$ ^
but readily submitted to the ,

founder of the Han dynasty, who delegated Luh Kia to negociate with him. Comp.
the Historical Records, ch. 413 , 11. 2 seq., and ch. 97, I. 6.

2 Comp. the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, ch. 90, 1. 10. This event occurred

in the second century before our era.

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 ,

1406 THE GRAVE.

» When the Han dynasty reigned , Khii , Prince of Kwang-ch wen c

» was a dissolute man, cruel and unjust. His secondary spouse,

c
» named Chao-sin , killed Wang Chao-p ing and Wang Ti-yii his ,

» favourite concubines , together with three female slaves ; then falling

» ill , she dreamed of her victims , which induced her to disinter
» their corpses and burn them all to ashesbut Khii and herself were
;

» murdered in their turn also '. — Incineration as a punishment was

» instituted by Wang Mang but after having inflicted it on Ch c en ;

» Liang and others he was also killed and his body destroyed 2
, .
—
» Yueh, Prince of Tung-hai, having revolted against the dynasty of
» Tsin, Shih Lih broke open his coffin and burned his corpse, saying:
» 'This is the man who disturbed the peace of the Realm; in the
» name of the Realm I now wreak vengeance upon him' 3 Consi- .

» dering what mischief Yueh had done he fully deserved to come ,

» to such an end and yet only a man as callous as Shih Li could

;

» take it upon himself to bring the like fate on him. It was also for —
» having taken arms against the constituted powers, that the A uthor-
» ities dragged Wang Tun out of his grave burned his dress and ,

» cap, and struck his head from his shoulders *. In this case the clothes
»and cap alone were given to the flames; but Su Siiin, who likewise
» had rebelled was killed in own person and cast into a fire 5
, , .
—
» And after Yang Yuen-kan had revolted against the House of Sui,
» the grave of his father (Yang) Su was opened and the osseous remains
» consigned to the flames e indeed the way being at that time open ; ,

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1 See the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, ch. 53, 1. 14.
2 Wang Mang was the usurper of supreme power, of whom we have spoken on
page 314. It is, in fact, recorded in the Books of the Early Han Dynasty, (ch. 99,
third section, 1. 32) that in a revolt, which put an end to his power in A. D. 23,
his own soldiers struck his head from his shoulders and tore his corpse to pieces.
3 This event has been recounted by us on page 850.
4 This episode is recorded in the Books of the Tsin Dynasty, ch. 98, 1. 14.
5 See the same work, ch. 100, 1. 23. The historiographer adds, that Su Siun's
son avenged himself by similarly incinerating the buried parents of Yii Liang

JjSf t^ , a loyal minister who was Su Siun's most implacable adversary.

6 Recorded in 14, and in the History

the Books of the Sui Dynasty, ch. 03,
1.

of the North of the Realm, ch. 76, 1. 16. We may here add, that Yang Yuen-kan
himself was burned when, having raised the standard of revolt, he had been slain
by his own brother, beheaded, and torn to pieces; see the Books of the Sui —
Dynasty, ch. 70, 1. 5, and the History of the North, ch. 30, 1. 39.
 ,

CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OP THE SUNG DYNASTY. 1407

» to gruesome cruelty, cremation was inflicted on the most wicked of

»men, still without being elevated to the rank of a law to rule the
» people. —
When the House of Sui had the J e n-s h e u Palace built
» and the men working at it perished at the roadside, (the aforesaid)
» Yang Su cremated them, which the Emperor, on being informed
» of it , disapproved ; so , even a man such as this monarch Wen
» ruthless in applying capital punishment though he was, could
» not find it in his heart to consign human beings to the flames 1
;

» which shows that there is nothing so shocking and revolting as the

» burning of men. — Tsiang Yuen-hwui , who carried out a foul
» complot in the inner buildings of the Palace, was slain by Chu
» Ts iien-chung and thereupon burned 2 mere death being deemed
c
,

3
» insufficient to wipe out his guilt .

1 In the Books of the Sui Dynasty, ch. 48, 1. 5, and the History of the North,
ch. 41, 1. 30, we read in fact, that the men employed by Yang Su in building
the Jen-sheu Palace perished in great numbers and that the Emperor expressed
his discontent thereof. But nowhere do we find it stated that Yang Su cremated
them.
2 In 904 Tsiang Y'uen-hwui in own person made a successful attack on the

life of the Emperor Chao Tsung R-9 ^S (see the Old Books of the Tang Dynasty,

ch. 20, first section, 1. 51). Though he did so at the instigation of Chu Ts'uen-chung,
this grandee had him racked between wheels or cars, and then burned without
the gates of the capital. See the New Books of the Tang Dynasty, ch. 223 second ,

section, 11. 11 seq.

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 ,

1408 THE GRAVE.

»The pain of death thus being a long established punishment,

» and incineration an unlawful proceeding , an illegitimate cruelty
» not even allowable against those who deserve death may we ,

» then apply it to the flesh and bones of our fathers and mothers?
» Those who nowadays do it, also in many cases collect the
.» remaining ashes and throw them into the water; but this reminds

» us of a well known event of ancient times, that is to say, that

» while House of Sung exterminated the rebel faction of the
the
» Crown-prince Shao Wang Ying-wu and Yen Tao-yuh were burned
,

» and their ashes strewn in the river in order that their woe '
,

» might be carried to the highest pitch ~.

» Some regard cremation as an institution of the Buddha. I have
» indeed heard of self-combustion by fire emanating from the corn-
,

» mandments of the Buddha but is the incineration we now speak

;

» of performed by that fire of the commandments, or by fire kindled

» by man? is it self-combustion, or a combustion by sons and
» grandsons? Moreover, the Buddhist doctrines are doctrines from
»& foreign soil; and is the country we inhabit the Middle King-
» dom , or is it a foreign land ? It has already lasted too long that

» men with a clear insight into the matter have had to be filled
» with horror and disgust 3
.

» The monks of the Convent of Universal Succour by incinerating

» the people's parents for the sake of gain, have injured the proper
» customs in the very highest measure. Happily Heaven itself has

1 This turmoil in the bosom of the Family of Sung, entailing a great onslaught
among its members, occurred at the end of A. D. 452, or in the beginning of 453,

on the death of the Emperor Wen "a£" . Shao was his eldest son. He and his brother

were decapitated, together with their sons, and the bodies thrown into the Yang-
tsze river. Wang Ying-wu was a slave woman of Shao's sister, and Yen Tao-yuh a
very influential female medium between the spirits and men.

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 CREMATION DURING THE REIGN OF THE YUEN DYNASTY. 1409

» destroyed their crematories , and who is justified in rebuilding them ?

» Earnestly do I hope that Your Highness will show pity and

» commiseration with the people, who know no better; ask Yourself
» what wrong those dead have done and forbid by proclamation ,

» the said convent to re-erect the cremation-pavilions destroyed by

» the thunder-shower. For such a measure shall restore, in no small
» degree the mournful love due to the dead and the careful treat-
,

» ment of those who depart this life" '.

It is now sufficiently proved by all the above extracts, that

during the Sung dynasty cremation was especially common in the

provinces Chehkiang and Kiangsu, and that the ruling
of Shansi,
class waged war against it, but without resorting to rigor-
a paper
ous measures for its repression. Thus, no doubt, China was then
moving fast in the direction of general cremation. Matters took no
other turn when the Yuen dynasty, Gengis' powerful family, destroyed
that of Sung. As those Mongol conquerors could hardly discoun-
tenance one of the principal religious institutions of the many Bud-
dhist countries united under their sceptre, the instances of cremation
which are mentioned in Chinese books as having occurred during
their dominion, are, relatively speaking, numerous. Some three, the
mere perusal of which clearly shows that cremation was then rooted
firmly in the customs of the people, have been already given on
pp. 737 seq. We here add the case of seven concubines of one P c
an
2
Yuen-shao , a high officer in Kiangsu who played a leading part in
the struggles which marked the downfall of the Yuen dynasty ; those
women having strangled themselves, were cremated before being
committed to the earth 3 This occurred in A. D. 1367. The local
.

Memoirs of the same district of Wu in which, more than a hundred

years before, the Prefect Wang Chin had drawn up his memorable
philippic against cremation , speak with deep respect of an unnamed

zm&, ±tt%znm, m%m.m^M>wzm

3 Su-cheu-fu chi, Memoirs concerning the Department of Su-cheu, quoted in the

Kit kin t'u shu tsih ch'ing, sect. [||j vir, ch. 48.
 ,

1410 THE GRAVE.

» coolie wife" 1
, whose husband, a soldier in the armies of the
rising Ming dynasty, perished in the same year 1367 »in a battle
» westward from the city. She wailed and wept at the foot of the
» walls and on having found his corpse took off her own clothes
,

» and wiped it clean therewith. Having put it into a coffin

» and wailingly poured out her grief until it was exhausted she ,

» burned the corpse and collected the bones then wrapping them :

» up in a cloth she looked up to Heaven and ,

greatly moved
2
» sprang with them into the water" .

There exists evidence that during the same Mongol domination

cremation in Fuhkien. For we read in the Memoirs
also throve
concerning the Department of Chang-cheu: »Dame Yuen-'rh was
» the wife of Kao Keng who lived in the district of Chang-p c u.,

» Her husband a man of poor extraction who devoted himself to

, ,

» study, died at the age of twenty. His encoffined remains having

» been kept unburied outside the north gate , and the means
» failing to fulfil her desire to commit them to the earth , her rela-
» tions in the end furtively cremated them. Suddenly hearing that
» they were doing so, she rushed to the spot, just to see the fire

» glowing. Beating her breast and with piteous wailing she threw
» herself into the flames, and both bodies were reduced to ashes" 3 .

It would be incorrect to suppose that during the sway of the Yuen ,

dynasty no official efforts at all were made to check cremation. We

read, indeed, that in 1278 a correspondence was going on between the
Censorate and the high Departments of the central Government about
the question whether it was advisable to forbid cremation in the Metro-
polis where it had assumed considerable proportions and whether it
, ,

would be good only to connive at it when soldiers, or persons dying in

4
the frontier districts, or prisoners and foreigners were concerned .

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4 See the Tii/t li t'unrj
*

khao, ch. 86, 1. 4.

ch 34
-
'
• 7 -
 ,

CREMATION CHECKED BY THE MING DYNASTY. 1411

The prevalence of cremation was followed by an era of decline

as the Ming dynasty, which succeeded the Mongols on the throne,
peremptorily forbade it. During its reign we see no scripturists
or mandarins skirmish against it with the old rusty arguments
looked up in the ancient and mediaeval arsenals of history, for now
they had effective Imperial laws at their disposal to suppress it

with. In fact, the first Emperor of the dynasty »had ordained in the
» third year of his reign , that free burial grounds should be laid
» out in the departments and and cre-
districts , that water-burial
» mation should Chehkiang, Kiangsi and other
be forbidden in
» regions, and heavy punishments were to be inflicted on those guilty
» of such doings" l Two years after that, the same monarch gave
.

the Board of Rites new orders to the same effect. »In ancient
» times", thus they ran, »it was prescribed to bury the osseous and
» carneous remains of the dead. Though the now living generation
» conforms to this original institution , the dead among the people
» are sometimes burned and the bones thrown into the water. More
» than anything do such proceedings offend against the duty of
» charity towards the dead and against good custom they must ;

» therefore be forbidden. Should the poor have no grounds at their

» disposal, the local magistrates must single out vast vacant tracts,
» to convert into graveyards for gratuitous use and thus cause
2
» such people to bury the dead" .

That cremation had a bad time of it under the Ming dynasty, we

may conclude from the fact that it was then even forbidden by the
Code of Laws to burn the corpses of relatives who themselves had
willed and ordained it. » Whoever, acting in obedience to the
» testamentary dispositions of a relative higher in the hierarchy of
» the family, destroys the corpse of that relative by fire , or rids
» himself of it by putting it in the water, shall receive one
» hundred blows with the long stick and if the corpse is that of ;

» an inferior or junior relation of the perpetrator, the punishment

» shall be two degrees lighter. Should in a case of death in a

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 ,

1412 THE GRAVE.

» distant region the sons and grandsons incinerate the corpse because
» it would otherwise be impossible for them to carry home the
» remains, they must be allowed to follow this course" 1
.

This concession is remarkable, because it shows that the Ming

dynasty, though deeming cremation exceedingly baneful to the dead
much preferred it to their burial at great distances from their
sacrificing clansmen and the abodes of the souls of their ancestors.
It will not have escaped the attention of our readers in perusing
this chapter, that that antipathy to burial in foreign soil had
already during many
before that time been conducive
centuries
Cremation was by no means squashed
to incineration of the dead.
by the stringent laws in force under the Ming dynasty. Cases of
it continued to be mentioned in the books. The one we gave
on page 738 shows, that it held its ground among the lower
classes in the department of Su-cheu. Nor was it then entirely
banished from the Imperial Court. For, » when Wu 2 the repudi- ,

» ated consort of the Emperor Hien Tsung, died (in 1506),

» Liu Khin proposed to destroy the last vestiges of her existence
» by burning her corpse and pretended that it was not lawful
,

» to wear deep mourning for her but Wang Ngao said though ; ,

» it might be allowable to wear incomplete mourning for her,

» her burial ought not to take place in a heartless way ; and
» his advice was followed" 3
. To this case we may add one,
which though not bearing upon incineration of whole corpses,
acquaints us with an interesting form of partial cremation :
—
» On Hi Lady Khoh (his inferior Consort)
Tsung's demise , the
» received (new) Emperor to return to her
permission from the
» private dwelling. In the fifth watch she donned deep mourning-
» garments, repaired to the place where the coffin stood, and in
» front of it produced a small parcel , wrapping it in a yellow piece
» of cloth adorned with dragons. It contained the first callow hair

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18.
Ming Dynasty, ch. 181 , 1. 22. See also
 ,

LAWS AGAINST CREMATION , AT PRESENT IN FORCE. 1413

» of the defunct, his small-pox scabs, the shavings of his hair and
» beard collected during many years , as also the teeth he had
»lost, his finger-nails, etc. Wailing bitterly, she burned these things
» and went on" l
. This curious performance will appear less strange
to the reader who remembers the fact, stated by us on pp. 335
and 342 seq., that it was customary in ancient China to bury
in the ground the trimmings of the hair, beard and nails of the
dead, or to put them in their coffins, and that in the mediaeval
and modern Codices of Rites this custom found a place as a formal
rescript.
The now reigning dynasty likewise has forbidden cremation,
authorizing it only in the event of human remains having to be
conveyed back to the old home. The Code of Laws in fact contains

an article which is a literal copy of the one in the Code of the Ming
2
dynasty, which we have already placed before our readers . An ad-
»that incinerating a corpse or put-
ditional note explicitly declares,
» ting it must be considered as mangling it or throwing
in the water
» it away" 3 so those crimes fall under the article translated by
;

us on page 871. Still we find in the same part of the Code the
following supplementary article: »The Manchu Bannermen are
» in no case allowed to incinerate the dead. All those who commit
» such a crime shall be punished in accordance with the funda-
» mental article containing provisions against it , except the indigent
>> living far from their home , who , unable to take an encoffined
» body to the native village , see no other way open to convey
» the bones home for burial ; cremation need not be forbidden
» them. Clan chiefs, Banner Majors etc., who hush up cases of
» cremation and do not report them to the Authorities , shall be
» condemned separately to chastisement with the whip, without
» any mild application of the law being granted them " *.

Lih tat ling-Win khao, ch. 50, 1. 1.

2 To. Ts'ing luh li, ch. 17, § |J| g| .

 1414 THE GRAVE.

The liberty thus granted to the people to incinerate the dead

if they possess no means to send them home in their entirety,
'is, no doubt, frequently made use of nowadays. We have often
seen soldiers from the Hunan province, garrisoned in the Amoy
harbour-forts, burn dead comrades, avowedly with no other
their
object than to put the charred bones in their own travelling lug-
gage, and take them home for burial in an urn or in a coffin.
Such incinerations are invariably of the plainest description; they
are performed under the open sky on a small pyre, raised against
a wall or declivity, and, as a rule, it takes hardly forty cubic
feet of pine-wood , moistened with some oil or petroleum , to
completely volatilize the carneous parts. Very often those soldiers
recur to a still cheaper method of destroying the flesh. Placing
the in a bad coffin
corpse through , the cracks of which the
atmosphere can freely play, they put it down somewhere, either
in the open air, or under some thatching of straw, or in one
of the artillery casemates constructed in long rows in the walls
of the defences lining the sea-coast; and there they leave it until
natural has finished its work, sometimes accelerating this
decay
process by inserting chips of wood or stone between the case and
the lid.

But, no doubt, to this very hour cremation prevails quite

independent of motives sanctioned by the law. It is but hardly
c
fifty years ago that Hwang Jii-ch ing (see page 1071) declared
it to among the inhabitants of the capital
be then largely practised
of Chehkiang To quote his own words: »In the city
province.
» of Hang-cheu cremation prevails to this day. Though a most
» cruel and distressing custom it is , the mandarins put no stop
v> to it , nor are the gentry and notables known to have moved in
» the least to warn against it, so that it is practised as if it were
»a custom borrowed from antiquity. And that, notwithstanding
» the citizens have daily and monthly to report some conflagrations,
» how the flames, breaking out from one house, attack several dwel-
» lings or several dozen , in the worst cases even destroying whole
» streets and how the magistrates and the people rush out at the
,

» outbreak to afford assistance without being able to check the ,

» flames Who knows but what it may not be the accumulated wrath
 ,

CREMATION ON THE PRESENT DAY. 1415

1
» of the souls of the cremated, which causes such calamities?" .

The S h e n P a o s a Chinese newspaper with a large circulation

,

in the coast districts and the Treaty Ports, on the 27th. of January
1891 contained a leading article, denouncing the custom prevailing ,

at Yii-chang 3
in the province of Kiangsi, of cremating young children.
It pointed out that cremation was introduced into China by the
Buddhists, and therefore should be confined to Buddhist priests'.
In many works belonging to the great class of » Memoirs" con-
cerning provinces , departments and districts (see page 746), dignified
discourses against cremation are to be found, which, re-appearing,
as they do, in every new edition, forbid us to believe that the
custom they combat is entirely a matter of the past. Considering,
however, that cremation is hardly ever mentioned by foreigners as
witnessed in the coast regions and the Treaty Ports; considering,
moreover, that no rumours about cremation actually performed
ever reached our ears in the many provinces through which we
travelled , and that we beheld cases of it only in military garrisons
and Buddhist convents; considering, finally, that the spirit of the
nation peremptorily condemns it, and that the Authorities, fully
empowered by the law to eradicate it forcibly, may be expected to
seldom leave this right unused the conclusion is we think — ,

justified that cremation is now reduced within very narrow limits,

and that it is fast dying out, the same as the exotic Church itself
which planted it in the Chinese soil.
The twofold fact that inveterate customs are nowhere easily era-
dicated, and that no laws in China are implicitly obeyed, fully
accounts for the phenomena that in Chehkiang and Kiangsu, where
a long series of generations has been in the habit of burning the
dead, a kind of middle course is observed at present by the people
between their sympathies for cremation and the demands of the
law. »In the section of country lying north of the Hang-cheu

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 ,

1416 THE GRAVE.

» bay and embracing all that portion of the Chehkiang province

» north at least to Su-cheu and vicinity in the Kiangsu province
» the people are accustomed to place the dead in coffins for a few
» months, or at most a year, when the remains are burned and
» the charred bones are placed in an earthen vessel made for the
» purpose , which is covered with a lid , and a small mound of
» earth is usually raised over it. The coffins are sometimes used
» for fuel at the burning, but often the same coffin is preserved
» and used for the interment of several persons of the same family.
» Sometimes a drawer is made in the bottom of the coffin , and
» the corpse is laid in the drawer , so that it is quite convenient
» to pull out the drawer and remove the remains for burning.
» Sometimes only a portion of the coffin is used in the burning,
» and the remainder is used in building boats , and for various
» other purposes" '.

This state of matters already fell under the notice of Van Braem
Houckgeest, first attache in an embassy from the Dutch East-India
Company to the of China, which, travelling from Canton
Emperor
to Peking, traversed the country about Su-cheu in March 1795.
In his interesting diary he wrote:
» J'ai remarque ici un singulier usage relativement aux morts,
» puisqu'on place indifferemment leurs cercueils dans un champ
» quelconque , et sur la superficie de la terre. Les personnes qui
» peuvent en payer la depense , font faire autour de ce cercueil un
» petit mur carre qui en a la hauteur, et au dessus duquel on
» eleve un petit toit couvert de tuiles ; d'autres recouvrent le cer-
» cueil avec de la paille et des nattes, tandis que les gens de la
» derniere classe mettent uniquement une couche de gazon sur le

» haut du cercueil et le laissent dans cette situation. Nous avons

» passe devant beaucoup de sepultures de cette espece depuis deux
» jours.
» Les Chinois montrant une extreme veneration pour leurs morts,
» cette maniere, qu'on pourrait appeler indecente, par rapport a.

»eux, m'etonnait beaucoup. J'en cherchai done la raison, et Ton

» me dit que les terres etaient si basses qu'on ne pouvait pas ,

» inhumer les corps, parce qu'ils seraient dans l'eau, idee que les
» Chinois ne peuvent adopter, puisqu'ils sont persuades que les

» morts aiment un sejour sec. Apres un certain temps les cercueils ,

» qui ont ete ainsi laisses en champ ouvert sont brules avec le ,

1 Mr. Knowlton, in » Notes and Queries on China and Japan", II, p. 125.
 CREMATION. 1417

» cadavre qu'ils renferraent, en on recueille les cendres, qu'on met

» dans des urnes recouvertes , et qu'on enfouit ensuite a demi dans
» la terre. J'ai vu le long de ma route des urnes ainsi disposees.
» C'est pour la premiere fois que j'ai appris aujourd'hui que
» I'usage du bmlement des morts et celui de recueillir leurs cendres

» avaient lieu a, la Chine comme chez les Grecs et chez les Romains.
» Je ne me rappelle pas, du moins, que dans ce que j'ai lu autre-
» fois sur la Chine il soit fait mention de rien de semblable , et

» je n'en avais rien oui depuis trente-six ans que je connais per-
» sonnellement ce pays espace durant lequel je me , suis tres-souvent
» informe aupres des homines lettres et savants
, de tout ce qui
,

» pouvait avoir trait a l'histoire , aux moeurs et aux autres particu-

» larites de leur pays" '.

This interesting extract precisely depicts the state of matters

of the present day in that part of China. Foreigners living in

Shanghai are quite familiar with the sight of unburied coffins

along the roads and in the fields in the surrounding low country,
each under a thin layer of turf merely covering the lid, and
leaving the case entirely bare. The chance that the coffins, if

buried, may lie in the water, can hardly be believed to be the

principal motive to leave them thus badly covered, but, probably,
an aversion to interment, naturally engendered by a long familiarity
with the much less disgusting process of reduction to ashes, here
prevails over all other considerations.

1 Voyage de l'Ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales Hollandaises

vers 1'Empereur de la Chine, I, pp. 357 seq.

THE END OF BOOK 1.

 ,

On sending this final sheet to press, the author wishes grate-

fully to acknowledge the kindness of some friends and scholars,
who assisted him in various ways in compiling the First Book.
Above all he has been under obligation to the late Dr. Rost Principal
,

Librarian in the India Office, who placed at his disposal various

important books of the library entrusted to his care, even allowing
him to take them to Holland for consultation in his own study.
Likewise, the author is indebted for the use of Chinese and other
books to the present Direction of that Library, and to Professor
Douglas, Keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts in the British
Museum as well as to F. G. Kramp Esq. at Amsterdam to whose
, ,

erudition he, moreover, owes some valuable hints. The author has
also to offer special thanks to Professor Dr.
through W. Grube,
whose courteous intervention the General Direction of the Royal
Library at Berlin had the kindness to lend him for a considerable ,

length of time, some important Chinese books, indispensable for

the completion of the present volume; the assistance thus given by
that scholar was the more precious, as the loan of those works
had been flatly refused to the author by the then Director of the
Chinese library of Cambridge University, and were not obtainable
anywhere else. Finally, the author is glad to take this opportunity
of expressing his thanks to W.
Oudendijk Esq., formerly his pupil,
J.

and now Secretary to Her Netherland Majesty's Legation at Peking

who from thence has enriched the University Library of Leyden as ,

well as the author's own with some valuable Chinese works and
, ;

to G. Unidale Price Esq., who has sent him from Amoy some fine
photographs, taken by himself, for the illustration of this work.
 CORRECTIONS and ADDITIONS.

Page xn for 16 read and will soon be ready

line for publication

in two volumes
» » line 27 for only read oldest among the
» xiii » 19 after circle add, on their graves,
» xv » 27 » these » explanations
» 4 » 6 for Tsang read Tseng
» 37 » 19 » dukes » feudal Rulers
» 45 » 2 » necromancy read soothsaying
» 63 » 11 » deducted » deduced
» 65 » 1 » synonym » homonym
» » » 29 » life read existence
» 68 » 16 omit either
» 72 » 25 for the dead read this dead man
» 105 » 1 — 2 » the virgins of the dark spheres of the nine
heavens read the mysterious Virgins of the nine Celestial
Spheres
» » line 7 omit a
» 116 » 21 for dukes re«</ feudal Rulers
c
» 134 » 8 » Tsuen » Ts iien
» 136 » 1 » or knowingly receive, etc. read they may
be tried for ordinary theft, and their punishment

fixed in accordance with the value of the things ap-

propriated
c
» 156 line 22 for Tsuen read Ts iien
» 166 foot note omit next Volume, containing the
» 178 note 3 lines 2 and 8 for Sam read San.
» 188 lines 30 and 31 read though the songs might serve to soothe
sorrow, yet they were not mentioned in the Classics,
so that it had been an infringement. . . .

c
» 201 line 26 for Chen read Ch en
c
» 221 » 16 » Tsuen » Ts iien
1420 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

Page 279 line 1 for while read The Imperial rescripts issued in
1372 for the burial of commoners, ordained that the
lattermight place no more than three coins in the

mouths of the dead but another edict issued

; , in the

same year, entitled the officers of the five highest

degrees to receive pearls in their mouths, and those
of the lower ranks small pearls; see the History of

the Ming Dynasty, ch. 60, 11. 22 and 15.

» 289 line 1 for yin read yiu
297
 . ,

CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 1421

Page 422 line IS for Imperial Mirror read Hwang Ian

» 424 » 6 » » » » » »
» » » 11 » Map read Sketch
» 426 lines 1 and 10 for Imperial Mirror read Hwang Ian
» » » 16 — 19 read It may have served also for the construc-
tion of the fortress erected at the square (see p. 406),
probably in front of the latter, although it is nowhere
stated that this fortress was of earth , and it may have
been of bricks or stone. In front of the fortress

» » line 20 for gates read gateways

» » » 22 > gateway read gate
%
-

» 427 » 16 » Imperial Mirror read Hwang Ian

» 436 note 4 omit abridged edition
» 438 lines 5 and 9. In ch. 78 of the History of the Yuen
Dynasty, 1. 2 , mean -^
naJi-skih-shih is stated to ^
» tapestry enriched with gold". No doubt the word
is a corruption of the Persian nahckeh , a diminutive
of nah , which means a thick gold-embroidered stuff,

often used for royal dresses.

» » at the end of the foot-note add: See also the History
of the Yuen Dynasty, ch. 77, 1. 17.
» 439 line 25 for belonging to read containing the remains of
the Empress Wen-ming of . . .

» » line 28 for is there also read stands on that peak

» » » » after that of add (her grandson)
» 442 » 3 for this read the next
c
» » lines 10 and 13 for ch ung read chung
» 444 last line for the tomb read their cemetery
» 445 line 11 » burial ground read mausoleum
» » » 12 » plots of ground » sepulchres
» » » 13 » graves, corresponding to read corpses,
•» » » 14 » 1551 read Shi Tsung's reign
» » » 15 after harems add being a multiple of nine.
» » 33 for Poh-nga read Poh-ya
» 7 » » » »
» 23 Yin Lien » Yin Kien
»
lines 28 and 29 read: further southward there are two

tablets of stone and a stone pillar and to the south-west ,

two stone sheep. It was erected in the fourth ....

449 last line read hall of seven divisions or compartments formed
by the pillars, l09'/ 2 Chinese feet broad, 43'/ 2 deep,
91
 ,

1422 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

Page 450 line 6 for ll\/ 2 read 2lVi

» » lines 6 and 8 for apartments read compartments or
divisions
» 451 table, last column, for pillar read tablet
» 452 note 5 omit of the abridged edition
» 495 line 7 for exercises himself read exerts all his strength
» 502 note 3 » $£ read Jg=
» 503 » 1 » » » »
» 541 lines 5, 10, 12, 24 for tribes mz«? clans
» 569 line 26 before We add The above articles of the Code
of Laws were copied verbatim from the Code of the
Ming dynasty (See the Ta Ming hwui tien , ch. 129,
11. 8 seq.).
» » line 31 after to add ensure. And omit lines 32 and 33.
» 583 note add This article and the one quoted on the last
page were copied by the legislator from the laws of
the Ming dynasty; see the Ta Ming houi tien, ch. 129
11. 9 seq.

» 605 after 18 add The mourning of mortuary houses is

line
prescribed officially, as, in fact, the Rules and Re-
gulations for the Board of Rites contain the following
order: » Noblemen of the highest degree and those
» of lower rank , and subjects military and civil , with
» all men of higher rank , renew the old
shall not
» amulets at their doors during the twenty-seven months
»of mourning" g^^T.^SEJ:^!
» 618
-+
after line
-t;
3
n ^
add
pij3
the
^mmn-
following at. Closely
ch - 165 >

connected
l- 3 -

with the official prohibitions of marriage during the

mourning period is a clause in the Code of Laws
prescribing that men or women who have illicit sexual
intercourse in that period , shall be punished consider-
ably heavier than those who render themselves guilty
of the same offence in ordinary times. »Any person
» who within the period of mourning for his (or her)
» father or mother, or any wife who in the time
» allotted to mourning for her husband, or any person
»who, being a Buddhist or Taoist monk or nun,com-
» mits illicit intercourse, shall receive a punishment
»two degrees more severe than that which is to be
»
 ,
,

1424 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

Page 825 note 1 add The complete title of this work is Chili kuh-
tsze luh ^IHk^Wk' » w "tings of Chih kuh-tsze".
» 837 last line for the etherial parts of that breath read then-
vital spirits

» 845 al. 2 is entirely to be read in the past tense,

Formosa having
been ceded to Japan after the sheet was printed.
» 867 for the last four lines read: Those enacted by the House
of Ming, laid down in chapter 130 (11. 10—12) of its
Collective Statutes, the dynasty now on the Throne
has give a place in its own Code as fundamental
articles copying them to the very letter. In the follow-
,

ing pages we offer our readers a complete translation.

» 873 at the bottom!
nao ,. r, {for 1882 read 1892.
» 902 line 7 )

» 909 » 1 of the Chinese text for ^ read J^,, and in line

2 of the translation for or the great avenue read and

the fire-road. I do not know what road this is.
» 932 last line for Enacted by Imperial command read Respect
this
» 943 line 19 for a very old book viz. the Historial Records, ,

read the Li ki (ch. 51, 1. 6)

» » note 2 for Shi ki, ch. 24, 1. 1 7 read Section ^ =|J , n.
» 947 line 11 for nga read ya
» 94S last line for Chu Hi, the read Cheu Tun-i Jgj f£ [§|
a very
» 949 line 1 for twelfth read eleventh
» » note 1 » Illustrated etc. read
» Sketch of the Great Ultimate Principle" inserted in
T c
ai Kih fu ^ ^ |U
the History of the Sung Dynasty, ch. 427, 11. 3 seq.
» 978 line 14 for 189 read 89
» 997 note 1 » § » $g
» 1000 line 22 » Wu Khiu-kien read Wu-khiu Kien
» 1050 note 1 » Domestic Rituals » Rituals for Family Life
» 1062 line 6 » among read under
» 1089 » 7 » 440—441 read 439—440
» 1100 » 13 » stipulated » prescribed
» 1146 after line 18 add Moreover, even the birth of grandees
of the highest ranks is promoted among the offspring
of the buried man if such a stag is carved in his
sepulchral tablet , it being stated already in the Histories
 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 1425

of the fifth century, that »the Celestial Stag, an animal

» with a pure soul, appears when the course of conduct
» of Rulers is perfect" 3zM%%fcWkZWt&> £
^ 5lt H K'J M •
Books of the Sun S Dynasty, ch. 29,

1. 40.
Page 1173 line 10 omit Revised
» » note 7 for Shah read Suh
» 1175 » 1 omit Revised

» 1211 » 37 for Ling-yen men read Ling-ngen men

 ,

INDEXES TO THE FIRST BOOK.

INDEX I.

Chinese books, mentioned in this work or consulted in

its preparation. Apart from the standard works

and Classics mentioned in pp. xvm sqq.

The figures given refer to the page where particulars about the work may be found
or its title in Chinese characters.

C. Hwang Ian, 406.

Hwang-mei-hien chi, 470.
Chang-cheu-fu ehi, 737.
Ch'ang-ngan kholi hwa, 1254.
Ch'ang-p'ing shan-shui ki, 11S2.
Ch'eh fu yueu kwei, 75. I kieu chi, 1078.

Chen kao, 201. 1 li, 4, 6, 235, 493.

Chen kwoh ts'eh, 730. I lung king, 1007.

Cheu kwan or Cheu li, 4, 19, 235. I yuen, 861.

Chi fu khi shu, 468.

Ch'i poh ngeu fan, 1263.
Chih kuh-tsze luh, 825. Jao-cheu-fu chi, 738.
Chu hioh ki, 464. Jih chi luh, 573, 1182.
Ch'un ming mung yii luh, 437. Jih hia kiu wen, 1235.
shwoh
Ch'uu-ts'iu t'i tsze, 200.
Cliung ch'u clung khao, 1333. It.

F. Kai yu ts'ung khao, 369.

Khai-yuen li, 196, 224, 236.
Fah-yuen chu lin, 714. Khan-yii kin kwei, 995.
Fang yeu, 1073. Khaug-hi tszS tien, 294.
Fung-sun t'ung i, 218, 723, 825. Khao kung ki, 417.
Khi leh p'ien, 977.
H.
Khiu-ch'iug siao chi, 1233.
Han Fei-tsze, 661. Khing-cheu ki, 284.

Han kiu i, 266, 405. Khuh-wei kiu wen, 299.

Han kwan i, 388. Khung Ts'ung-tsze, 824.

Han lung king, 1007. Khuug-tsze' kia yii, 303.

Han Wu-ti nei ch'weu, 56. Kia li, 238.

Hia-rnen chi, 702. Kien wen luh, 860.
Hia siao ching, 968. Kih chuug Cheu shu, 416, 969.
Hiao king, 307. Koh chi king yuen, 200.

llien ching luh, 1183. Ku kin chu, 57.

Ho-nan chi, 296. Kuug-tseh ti hiug, 995.

Hung lieh kiai, 56. Kwan chung ki, 424.

Hwang chao wen hicu t'uug khao, 1285. Kwan-tsz8, 918.

1428 INDEX I.

Kwang-cheu sien hien cli'wen, 464. Pu pih fan, 981.

Kwang i ki, 810. P'u t'ien-hien chi, 456.
Kwei sin tsah shih, 399.

Kwoh yii, 968. R.

Kwun hioh ki wen, 713.
'Rh Ch'ing tsiien shu, 1397.
•
'Rh ya, 302.

S.
Lau chen tsze, 799.
Lang hiien ki, 862. Sau-fu hwang t'u, 424.
Li ki, 4, 235. San-fu kiu shi, 430.
Li pu tseh li, 842. San kiao yuen liu shing ti full shwai sheu
Li-ts'iien-hien chi, 826.
shen ki, 161.
Liao ch'ai chi i, 148. San li t'u, 178.
Lieh nii cli'wen, 745. San liu hien tsah, 370.
Lieh sieu cli'wen, 56. Sau-shih kwoh ch'un-ts'iu, 717.
Lieh-tszg, 680.
San-shih-fuh lung shu, 1007.
Lili tai liug-ts'in kbao, 1263. Shan-si t'uug chi, 440.
Ling wai tai tali, 16.
Shan-tung t'ung chi, 388.
Loh-yang kia-lan ki, 344. Shang-shu ku shih, 1154.
Lu-shan ki, 299. Shaug-yuen-hien chi, 814.
Lii-shi ch'un-ts'iu, 685.
Shao shi wen kien lull, 710.
Luu lieng, 987.
Sheu i king, 56.
Shen Nung pen-ts'ao king, 272.
W.
Sheu-si t'ung ehi, 428.
Mao t'iug klioli liwa, 719. Sheu shen ki, 470.
Miao fah lieu-hwa king (Saddharma Pun.la- Shi ki soli yiu, 665.
rika Sutra), 1106. Shi lin kwang ki, 713.
Ming i pieh lull, 274. Shi miao shih yii luh, 1184.
Ming t'ung ki, 776. Shih cheu ki, 272.
Muug khi pili fan, 981. Shih i ki, 56.
Shih ming, 267.
ST.
Shih-luh kwoh ch'un-ts'iu, 7 IS.
Shih-'rh chang fah, 1007.
Nan hwa chen king, 289.
Nan tsing-hien chi, 743. Shing hien ch'ung-mo ki, 463.
Shing hiun, 934.
Ngai jih chai ts'ung ch'ao, 713.
Shiug-king t'ung chi, 1359.
O. Shuh i ki, 296.
Shui king, 445.
O-mi-t'o king (^Amitabha Sutra), \23seq.,
Shui king chu, 445.
150 seq.
Shui tung jih ki, 1182.
Sliun-t'ien-fu chi, 934.
Shwoh wen, 302.
Pao P'oh-tszS, 56. Si-hu pien Ian, 826.
Pao weng tsih, 1363. Si-king tsah ki, 289, 397.
Pei wen yun fu, 148. Si yuen luh, 137, 1376.
Pen-ts'ao kang muh, 201. Sin king 1008.
Pen-ts'ao shih i, 201. Sin lung ki, 1007.
Pi ya, 200. Sin shu, 915.
P'iag-yang-fu chi, 418. Sin shu, 916.
P'o ti-yuh king, 74. Su-cheu-fu chi, 739.
Puh hu t'uug i, 277. Suh siu Ta Ts'ing hwui tien, 1173.
Poll wuh chi, 422. Suh sung luh, 1235.
1'u khiieh, 75. Suh wen hien t'ung khao, 436.
 . .

INDEX I. 1429

Sung-kiang-fu chi, 741, Tung-kwan Han ki, 464.

Suug-shau ki, 299. Tung-tu shi lioh, 1395.
Szt-ch'wen tsung chi, 741. T'uug chi, 1294.
T'ung shi shih i ki, 1267.
T. T'uug tien, 236.

Ta ming hwui tieu, 237.

Ta T'aug sin yii, 305. W.
Ta Ts'ing hwui tien, 237, 1310.
Wen hion t'ung khao, 236. See Suh —
— — '
— — shi li, 1097, 1310.
Hwang chao —
— — — — tseh li, 933.
Wen kien ki, 713.
— — luh li, 132.
Wen kien luh, 697. See Shao-shi —
— — Fung li, 237.
Wen sin tiao lung, 1155.
T'aiKih t'u, 1421. Wen tali yii luh, 1008.
Tan yuen lull, 806. Wen t'i ming pien, 1157.
T'an chwen, 1140. Wu hioh luh, 752, 848.
T'ang kwoli shi pu, 1386.
Wu-ti ki, 296.
Tao-teh king, 414. Wu tsah tsii, 296.
Teh shu ki nien, 416. Wu Yueh ch'un-ts'iu, 379.
Ti wang shi ki, 434.
Tsang king, 997.
Tsang shu, 1004.
Tseh king, 996. Ycn-shi kia hiuu, 42.
Ts'ien fu lun, 310. Yeu-tu yiu Ian chi, 1194.
Tsiu t'ai-khang ti chi, 469. Yih kiug, 961.
Ts'ing nang chung shu, 1001, 1003. Yih t'ung chi, 1254, 1271.
Ts'ing naug hai kioh king, 1003. Yin-yang wen tali, 1007.
Tsing-po tsah chi, 1398. Y'iu-yaug tsah tsu, 66.
Ts'ing wu king, 1016. Yii-shi kia ki, 1063.

Tso eh'wen, 42. Yueh tsueh shu, 289.

Tsoh mung luh, 805. Yuen-chen tsze, 777.
Tu-shi pien ehiug, 713. Yuen kien lei han, 284.
Tu yang tsah pien, 27S. Yuen ling i chu, 994.
Tuh li t'ung khao, 1068. Yuu-nan t'ung-chi, 740.
Tung hwa luh, 1263. Yuug-chai wu pih, 1139.
 I NDEX II.

Authors and the principal persons mentioned in this work.

The figures given refer to pages where particulars about the person are given, or his
name in Chinese characters.

C. Ch ci-yiu, 1403.
Ching Khang-ching, 41
Chang chi-hwo,
— Hien-eh'ung, 1276.
776.
— 1294. Ts'iao,
Ch'ing I-ch'wen, 715, 1049, 1396.
— Hwa, 422. — Khi, 370.
— Poh-ya, 445. — Tsze-kao, 661.
— Shing, 1127. Chu Hi, 237, 716, 1008, 1011, 1139.
— T'ang, 857. — 1235.
— Tsun, 827. — Khung-yang, 1263.
I-tsun,

Chao Chih, 860.

— Kai, 697. — Pien, 299.
Chu-koh Khung-ming, 1156.
— Ki-ming, 832. Ch'u Siao-sun, 995.
— Suen, 611. — Wu-liang, 467.
— T o, 1405.c

Chung Hien, 707.

— Yih, 369. Chwaug
— Yih, 3S0. —
977.
289, 305.
Ki-yii,

tsze,
Chen Ch'en, 465.
Confneius, 167, 170
— Khin, 14C3. 181, 196, 250,
261, 339, 489, 508, 659, 691, 824, 994.
seq.,

Ch'en Ch'ung, 917.

His doctrines, and examples
— llao,
188.
regard
rescripts in

— Khien-sih, 727. the dead, 120, 129, 202, 240,

of

— Khih-'rh, 458. 245, 256, 257, 291, 292, 303, 311, 313,
346, 349, 364, 378, 379, 385, 480, 662
— Kwah, 981. 683, 707, 708, 801, 807. His sayings and
seq.,

— Sheu, 835. the death-howl,

— Suen, 458. doings with regard
258, and mourning, 501, 502, 505, 538,
to

— Tsang-khi, 201. 539, 571, 585, 606, 609, 627, and

— Tsze-khang, 727. 649, 652. How mourned
fasting,

— Yuen-tsing, 713. His

639, 795.
665 they dwelled upon
disciples, ;
for,

his
Cheu Ch'ang, 919.
grave, 795. Index III: Chung- tu
— Hwui, 1397. and Temples.
S.

— Kung, the Prince Cheu, 691,757,769.

of
— Mih, 399.
— P'an, 414.
— Pao, 1144, 1154. Fan Hung, 688.
— Shang, 696. — Shun-jen, 1398.
— Tun-i, 1424. Fang Chu, 461.
— Wang, 116, 283, 1403. — Kioh, 497.
Chi Yii, 189, 544. Fei-lien, 283, 385.
 INDEX II. 1431

Fuh Hi, 963. Kieh, 116.

Fuh Khien, 410. Kin Kiu-kao, 1363.
King Fang, 1001.
II.
King-tszi', 196.

Han Fang, 1201.

Koli Hung, 56.

— Fei, 601.
Ku
—
Hien-chi, 1070.

— Khi, 1399.
Yen-wu, 1182.
— P'ing, 470.
Kumaradjiwa, 1106.
Kung-shu Joh, 1152.
Hia Ch'ing-shu, 266.
Kuug-shuh-yii-jen, 240.
Hia-fu Fuli-ki, 1403.
Hia-heu Ying, 1074.
Kung Yii, 409.
Hien-tsze, 8, 303.
Kwan, 956.
Ho Ch'ing-sui, 1127.
— Chung or I-wu, 600, 918.

Ho-lan Siaug, 920.

— Loh, 1000.
Kwoh-chao-tsze, 196.
Ho Siiin, 1020.
Hoh Lii, 290, 379, 396, 419, 726, 985.
Kwoh Poh, 324, 1001, 1016, 1325.
— Yin, 457.
Kwoh Tszu-kao or Ch'ing Tszc-kao, 361, 661.

Hoh-lien Ch'ang, 718.

— Puh, 718.
Uii Tsze, 457, 797. Lao Tan, 585, 1076.
— TszS-tsiang, S4S. Lao-tsze, 306.
Hung Kliing-shen, 713. Li, see Poh-yii.
— Mai, 107 S, 1139. — Chao, 1386.
Hwa-yuen, 691, 693. — Ch'oh, 1153.
Hwan, 289, 292. — Hing, 1156.
Hwan Shao-kiiin, 1116. — Hwan, 1200.
— Wen, 413. — Ku, 848.
Hwang-ti, 161, 306, 996. — 458.Pi,
Hwang Kwan, 854. — Shi-chen, 201.
— Tsung-hi, 106S. — 464.
Siiin,

Hvvang-fu Mill, 415, 423, 745. — TszS-ch'ing, 1234.

Ilwoh Khii-ping, 812. — Yin-tuh, 1233.
— Kwang, 239, 300, 409, 410. — 274.
Yii,

Liang Shang, 315, 411.

K. — Sung, 859.
Lieli Yii-kheu, 680.
Kao Khang, 245.
— Tszi-kao, 257.
Liu Chao, 1131, 1143.
— Hi, 1153.
Kliaug Yii-obi, 805.
Khih Shen, 369.
— Hiang, 56, 433, 745, 916, 999.

Kliiu Siiiu, 496.

— Hieh, 1155.

Khii-tsih, 289.
— Ngan, 56.

Khung Fu, 824.

— Yen, 639.

— 458.
Ts'iien,
Loh-l,i, 691.

— Ying-tah, 190. Lu
—
Chih, 310.
Kwaug-tah, 1134.
Ki Chao-tszc, 657.
— Khang-tsze, 170. Lii
—
Pu, 693.
Puh-wei, 685.
— of Yen-ling, 662,
tszc
— Wu-tszc, 262, 830.
693, 1396.
— Ts'ai, 1006, 1016.
Luh Kia, 1404.
Kia 915.
I,

— Kung-yen, 247. — Tien, 200.

Kiai Wan-nien, 431 sqq.

M.
Kiang Shang, 834.
— Yin, 694. Ma Twau-lin, 236.
1432 INDEX II.

Ma Yuen, 858. Su Shi-tseng, 611.

— Yung-khing, 799. Sun Chi-wei, 719.
Mao Khi-ling, 1267. — Fah-tsung, 1377.
Meng Hien-tsze, 606. — Ho, 1154.
— King-tsze, 657. — Kwoh-mi, 1194.
— Kwang or Teh-yao, 1116. Sze-ma Ching, 665.
Meng-tsze (Menoius), 288, 683 sqq. — Kwang, 238, 1021, 1395.
Miao Poh, 406.
Mih-tsze and his school, 664 sqq. , 728; his
theoriesabout universal love, 664, 684.
Tan-fu, 373.
See Index III Burial (Opulent burials).
:

T'au Kih-ts'ung, 1235.

Mu-yung Hi, 653, 730.
T'ang, 666.
Muh Poh, 98.
Tang Hiu-kung, 831.
W. T'ao Hung-king, 273.
— Khan, 981.
Ngao Ki-kung, 41. Teng Ch'en, 848.
Nieh Ch'ung-i, 178. Tien Tan, 1404.
Nii Kwa, 418. — Yii, 380.
Tih Pang-tsin, 572.
— Jeu-kieh, 466.
Tsai Ngo, 502.
Pan-hu, 1066.
Ts'ao Cluing or Poh-shi, 1126.
Pan Ku, 957.
Pan
— Ngo, 741.
Yuen-shao, 1409.
— Pao, 917.
P'ei Sung-chi, 1159.
— Ts'ien, 709.
— Ts'ao, 692.

— Yin, 422.
Tseng-tszc,
175, 691.
4, 8, 202, 258, 292, 379, 383,

Poh-kao, 170, 256.

Poh-yii or Li, 257, 291, 313, 689.
— Yuen, S.

Tsiang Tsze-wen, 1257.

— Yih-khwei, 1254.
— Yuen-hwui, 1407.
Shan T'ao, 164.' Tsiao Hung, 1182.
Shang Yii-ch'uu, 698. Ts'in Kwei, 827.
Shang-yung, 769. Ts'ing wu sien-sheng, 997, 1016.
Shao Yung or Yao-fu, 715. Tso Khiu-ming, 42, 968.
Shen Nung, 933. Ts'ui Hung, 717 aeq.
Shi Hwang, 290, 388, 399. Tszi-ehang, 196.
Shih Lih, 343, 612, 850, 1393. — ch'un, 648.
— Pao, 693. — hia, 258, 493, 665.
— Tai-chung, 489. — khi, 1392, 1404.
Shun, 282, 418, 666, 676. — kung, 171, 639, 795.
Si Wang Mu, 56, 297. — lu, 258.
Siao Sung, 236. — si, 1392, 1404.
Soh Ch'en, 407. — szc, 390, 648.
Su Lin, 301. — yiu, 8, 32, 152, 289, 476.
— Ngoh, 278. — yii, Yen-sih, Chung-hang and Ch'en-
— Shun, 1126. hu, 722, 812.
— Tung-p'o, 299. Tu Fu. 713.
Su Hioh-mu, 1183. Tu Yiu, 236.
— Khien-hioh, 1068. Tun Khi, 464.
— Kwang, 400. Tung Choh, 693.
— Miao, 710. — Hien, 314.
— Mien, 1127, 1160. — Tao-ming, 732.
 INDEX II. 1433

w. V.
Wan SziS-li, 827. Yang Chu, 684.
Wang Chao-yii, 271. — Hiung, 1073.
— Ch'ing-ngen, 1235. — Hwui-kih, 1069.
— Fu, 310, 689. Yang Shuh-tsze, 1156.
— I, 210. — Wang-sun, 306.
— Jui, 825. — Yuug-siu, 806.
— Khiao, 284. Yao, 309, 418, 605, 666, 676.
— Kia, 56. Yell Shing, 1182.
— King, 996. Yen Sken-szi', 1286.
— King-tsih, 354. — Shi-ku, 572.
— Mang, 314, 1132, 1406. — Sung, 921.
— Shi-ching, 1263. — Ts'an, 723.
— Siu-chi, 259. — Yuen, 256, 291, 662.
— T'ung, 987. Yih Yen-khing, 467.
— Ying-lin, 713. Yin Hao, 326.
— Yii, 712. — Ts'i, 1405.
Wei King-ohung, 405. Ying Shao, 723.
— Kwei, 729. Yiu Joh, 3S4.
— Puh-hai, 691. — tsze, 198, 292.
— Wu-tsze, 724. Yoh Pei, 816, 826.
Wen, 666, 915 seq. Yii, 666.
Wen T'ao, 439. Yii Fan, 414.
Wu, 283, 539, 666, 769. — Kwuu, 380, 465.
Wu Kiiin, 289. — Pao, 161, 470.
— laij 2S3. Yueh, 343, 1406.
— Pao, 712. Yuen I-shan, 1078.
— Ting, 480.
— Tsze-sii or Wu Yuen, 349, 462, 985.
— Yung-kwang, 752, 1016.
 INDEX III.

Subjects, divinities, and places.

A.

Accession to the throne, see Throne.

Adoption, s. Sons.
Agate, s. Jade.
Alchemy, 273 seq., 297.
Akshobhya, 122.
Almanacs point out lucky days and hours for every enterprise, 99, 104, 595, and
lucky lines to build in, to make graves etc. "105, 974, 976.
Altars. Beside encoffined corpses, 98, 124, 128, 131, 141, 354. For the worship oi
the Buddhas, 122. House-altars, 5, 25, 62, 107, 110,1121, 144, 230, 234, 1084,
1171. To the Sun and the Moon 787. To the God of Agriculture, 1330. To
the fivemost ancient sovereigns, 709. To the God of the Soil, on graves,
219, 833, 1092, 1382, 1383. Grave-altars, 283, 385, 1084; s. Graves (of Em-
perors). Altars ought to be placed in a good Fung-shui, 937.
Amitabha, 74, 122 sqq.; his name and its power, 124, 151.
Amitabha Sutra, 123, 150 seq. its power to redeem souls from Hell, 124.
;

Amnesty at the accession of a new Emperor, 353.

Amrta, 77.
Amulets of paper. Affixed to houses, s. Paper. Regulating the influences of days
and hours, 104. Used for purification, 108 sqq., and against evil influences,

326, 596. Obtained from coffins and graves 327 sqq. s. Jade.
, ;

Anatomy. Curious ideas about, 138.

Ancestors are the protectors of their family, 510, 815, 834, 937, 982. Glorifying
and exalting them is a great duty, 700, 1110. Worshipping them is the highest
duty of their offspring, 757. Their virtues and merits are requited in their
offspring, 1015, 1034. The ancestors of the Ming dynasty, 1268 sqq. , and of
the reigning dynasty, 1353. S. Sons.
Ancients. Their imitation is a general characteristic of the Chinese, and the highest
perfection of customs and morals, 115, 586, 663, 1050.
Anklets, 55.
Announcements of deaths. S. Mourning-cards, Emperors, and Empresses.
Anthropophagy. Medicines.
In ancient China, 679. S.
Archers. Thumb-rings used by them, 333, 334. S. Bows.
Arhan, the 18 apostles of Buddhism, 122.
Army. The Chinese, 1349. The Manchu Banner troops, 1352, 1372.
Arrows used in calling back the souls of warriors slain in battle, 252.
Ashes. Begged for at deaths, 24, 27, 591, 647. Placed in coffins, 89, 238. Circles
of ashes in exorcisms, 217.
Astrology, 954. Auspicious days selected by the Imperial Bureau of, 1318, 1328;
the geomancers attached to that institution, 1340.
 INDEX III. 1435

Asuras, 72.
Audiences. How to behave at, and prepare for, 820.

Autonomy of families and villages, 191.

Autumn, identified with the West, 316, 967.
Awalokitecwara, 74, 122. She conveys the souls to the Paradise in a ship, 226.

Baby-towers, 1388; erected by charitable people, 1389.

Bamboo used as writing-material, 415sgg. , 1124, 1131. S. Books.
Banian leaves, used in washing the dead, 6. Banian branches ward off contagion
and evil influences, 45, 67.
Banners. Representing the Buddhas of the five cardinal points, 122. Decorated with
inscriptions praising the dead, or otherwise referring to them 199.
, S. Streamers.
Banner troops, 1352, 1372.
Barbers. From Kii-yung, 1045. Their wash-stand pole, 1046.
Baring the upper part of the body, s. Mourning.
Barm or yeast symbolizes the growth of posterity, 90.
Bats, as emblems of felicity, 53, 979.
Bear. The Greater, 91, 317, 906, 1132.
Beds for disembodied souls to sleep on , 238. Lying on a bed of three boards is

dangerous, 9.

Beggars are often left unburied, 1387.

Bells used by priests, 107ieg. S. Instruments.
Betel or siri leaves with penang nuts, chewed in China, 153, 205; the part they
play as peace-makers, 153.
Betrothal, s. Marriage.
Biographies of the dead s. Necrologies. ,

Birds. The Red Bird, the emblem of the summer and the South, 317. The pi-yih
symbolizing conjugal attachment, 472. S. Ducks.
Birth. The four modes of, 72. Birth of royal son and heir, announced to his deceased
father, 349, 478.
Birthdays, 61, 62.
Blood, identified with the soul, 217, 268. Relationship between two persons, found
out by means of their, 1376. S. Cock.
Blue s. Mourning-colours.
,

Blunderbusses. Fired at burials, 210, and in honour of mandarins, 214, 219.

Boards carved with the names and titles of mandarins, carried in their corteges

165, 186; their ancient form (shah) iSisqq. 841; buried in the graves, 282,
392. 698, 699. Seven-star boards, s. Coffins.
Boards at Mukden, 1368. The Board of Works at Peking 1310, 1340.
Bodhisatwas, 71, 122.
Bones. Washing exhumed human, 882, 1070; such bones assayed by means of
blood, to know whose remains they are, 1376. Burying them s. Burial. S. Urns. ,

Books. Of bamboo, discovered in graves, 415. S. Fung-shui.

Boots, 50, 54.
Bows and arrows placed in graves, 394, 402, 699.
Bracelets, s. Bings.
Branches, the twelve, 103, 965, 966.
Breast, beaten in token of mourning, s. Mourning.
Breath, the principal manifestation of animal life, 216, 217.
Breaths of the Universe, 948; s. Yang and Yin.
1436 INDEX III.

Brides. Widowed brides refusing to marry, 745, 755 seq., 7C3; marrying the souls
of their bridegrooms , 703.
Brothel-keepers are called black tortoises, 1043.
Buddha, s. Triratna. Buddhas of the six parts of the Universe, 122; s. Altars,
and Banners.
Buddhism, XIV, 66, 121, 240, 1393. S. Cremation, Pood, Masses, Priests,
Tantras, Temples.
Burial. Since legendary times the usual way in which the dead are disposed of,
361. Expressions denoting it, 361 seq. Bad burial or no burial is a great cala-
mity for the dead, 855 sqq., 860, 1057, 1390, and a punishment, 857 sqq. To
bury the dead in a decent way, prescribed of old by filial devotion 659, 860, ,

867, and rewarded by themselves, 860 sqq., 917, 924. To bury the uncared-for
dead, a meritorious act, 283, 1075; charitable corporations or mandarins burying
such dead and assisting the poor in burying, 132, 139, 863 sqq., 1075, 1398;
see Coffins and Graveyards. Uncared-for dead and withered bones buried
by the Government, 914sqq.; under the present dynasty, 922; with the ob-
ject of averting drought, 919. Persons deeming the dressing of the dead, cof-
fining and burial to be unnecessary things, 685.
Burial in the grounds where the ancestors rest, 833 sqq. Burial of children :

240, 329, 1075. Cave-burial, 1093. Burial of souls without their bodies, 847,
868; of wives, in the tombs of their pre-deceased husbands, 800, 806; of a man
and a woman in the same grave to make them marry, 802 sqq ,

Provisional burial. In the dwelling, 36, 38, 99, 177, 363 sqq., 801, 841, 1020,
1087; its more modern forms, 369 sqq., 371, 1020. Caused by Fung-shui 1033, ,

1062, 1082. Performed to soon reduce the corpse to bones, 1061.

Burial delayed for a long time, 105 sqq., 121, 127 sqq., 132 sqq., 202. 267,
268, 320, 354, 363,371, 1020 sqq., 1065, 1417. With a view to a possible resur-
rection | 263, 264, 266, 285, 1020. Such delay is detrimental of the repose of
the dead, 127, 132, 134; it may hring evil, 127; it is denounced by the
Government and forbidden by Law 132 sqq., 1020; punished with exclusion
from State service, 1021, 1027; caused by the Fung-shui superstitions,
1016 seq., 1020; condemned by sages and others, 1021 sqq. Delay of burial
in cases of murder or manslaughter, or when unknown persons are concerned,
135 seq., 138.
Burials performed either soon or late, 102, 264, 268, 369. Burials performed
too rashly or too late were anciently disapproved, 267. Luck}7 days and hours
for burial, 99, 103, 129, 140, 206, 207, 208, 231, 267, 839, 840, 980, 998,
1020, 1022, 1024, 1057 seq.

Preparations for a, 140. Invitations to attend it, 140. Introductory sacrifices,

141 sqq., 229. Sacrifice to the hearse, 145. Removal of the coffin out of the
house, 145. Departure of the procession, 150; rites thereupon performed in the
house, 232. Arrival at the hill on which the grave lies, 208. Grave-diggers,
208. Placing coins, grains and iron nails in the grave, 209. The interment an-
ciently, 190 seq. , 196. Purification of the pit and expulsion of evil spirits, 209 seq.
Placing the coffin in it, 210; anciently, by means of posts, 1152. Causing the
soul to enter its tablet, 211. Dropping earth on the coffin, 211, 459. Things
placed in the pit, 209, 212 seq. Filling it, 213. Ceremonies with regard to the
soul tablet, 213sqq. Sacrifice to the God of the Soil, 219, and to the defunct,
225, 229, 239. The Buddhist priests at the grave, 225. Burning paper money,
and the spirit that cleared the way, 226. Final proceedings, 227. The return
of the cortege, 227. The worship of the soul tablet on coming home, 228. The
 INDEX III. 1437

funeral entertainment, 227, 229, 1066. S. Coffins, Funeral Processions,

Undertakers, Presents, Horses, Re-burial.
Burial during the night, 231. Burial chants, 188, 1128. Burial associations,
192. Horses killed at burials, 698. Preventing burials, 128, 880, 1039. Burial
among the Man tribes 1066. Burial on the North and with the head to the
North, 283, 832, 841, 984, 1083.
Opulent burials, 308, 309, 411, 668, 1400. Schools defending or condemning them,
660 sqq., 666, 685 sqq. ; Confucius held the mean between them, 662, 683, 707.
Plain burials prescribed by the most ancient sovereigns, 675, and promoted by-

later dynasties, 687 sqq. , 695; advocated by Lii Puh-wei, 685, by Liang Shang,
411, 688, by Wang
Fu, 689, by Shin Pao, 693, by Chu Hi, "697; by Mih-
tsze , 664 sqq. ; 666, 682 scq.
Mih-tszS's treatise on the subject ,

Burial of Yao 309, 670, 683 of Shun and Vii 676, 683 of the parents of
, ; , ;

Confucius, 663, 689, 801; of Yen Yuen, 662; of Ki-tsze's son, 662, 693; of
Shi Hwang, 399; of the Emperors of the Han dynasty, 401 sqq., 1124sgg.; of
Liang Shang, 411; of Hwoh twang, 410, 796; of Hwang-fu Mih, 686; of Fan
Hung, 688; of Shen Wu, 694; of the Empress Wu of the T'ang dynasty, 1287;
of the last Emperor of the Ming dynasty, 1234, 1236; of Emperors and
Empresses of the present dynasty, 1285 sqq.
S. Exorcists.
Buttons on Chinese clothes, 49. Metal buttons may not be on grave clothes, 64

Calls, Etiquette at, 31.

Candles. Used in sacrifices, 24, 33, 98, 121, 141, 143, 230. They may pilot
disembodied souls, 141, 157, 712. Used at deaths, s. Lamps. They represent
felicity, 233.
Caps and cowls, s. Hats.

Cardinal points. Connected with the seasons, 317, and with the kwa, 961.
Identified with the five Elements, 985. Their colours, 122, 317.
Cards of pasteboard, serving as seats to Buddhist saints, 123.
Cats are not allowed to approach the dead , 43.
Caverns inhabited by the ancient Chinese, 372.
Cemeteries, s. Graveyards.
Centenarians, publicly honoured by the Government, 791.
Cereals. Symbolic signification of the five, 90, 110, 386. Placed in coffins, 90, on
where a coffin stood, 232, and
spots in graves, 209, 239.
Ceremonial usages, s. Rites.
Ceremonies. Directors of the, at burials, 146, 165, 171, 172, 179, 196, 218, 220.
Ch'ang-ngan , ancient Imperial residence , 289, 408, 423 seq. , 693.
Characters. Writing-characters realize the things they express, 127, 130, 326.
Charcoal, placed in bone-urns, 1058 seq. and in graves, 1081. ,

Charitable corporations, s. Burial, Coffins, Graves, Baby-towers.

Charity rewarded by the Government with public honours, 790, 794, 806.
Charms, s. Amulets.
Chastity of woman, rewarded with public honours, 752, 772. S. Widows.
Ch'ih, a measure of length, 1098.
Childbirth renders woman unclean, 83.
Children. Their duties towards their parents, 119, 304, 638; their persons are
the property of their parents, 619 seq., 625, 735, 794, 829, and so are their
possessions, 27, 352, 619, 623, 625, also, to some extent, when their parents
92
 ,,

1438 INDEX III.

are dead, 622, 625, 760. Curing their parents with their flesh, 458, 747, 752,
775, 793, -1127; raising grave-mounds over them with their own hands, 457, 461,
464 sqq. ;
planting trees on their graves, s. Grave trees: living on their
graves, s. Graves; settling in the place where their parents died, 836. Their
burial is many dead infants are not
no matter of great solicitude, 240, 329;
buried, but thrown away, 1387, s. Baby-towers. Their k coffins, 329, 1387.
S. Sons, Daughters, Filial Devotion, Offspring, Orphans.
Chronology of the Hia dynasty and the dynasty of Cheu , 266.
Chung-shan, a mountain range, 1256 seq.
Chung-tu, a town in Lu 292, 303, 663. ,

Chwen writing, 1109, 1220.

Ciphers, even and uneven, or Yin and Yang, 05, 78, 141.
Clans, 190, 376, 511, 562, 770. Their autonomy, 541, 770, 1037; their community
of property, 621. Sometimes no members secede from them, 540, 621,
794; they are therefore rewarded with public honours, 621, 772, 773, 791,
792, Fixing the position of its members with regard to each other is an im-
portant concern of Government, 540 sqq , 619. Membership of a large clan
ensures power in this world and in the next, 937. Clan chiefs, and their pa-
triarchal character, 191, 623, 770. Clannishness, 758; manifesting itself at
deaths, 190, 863. Clan feuds, 771. Clan cemeteries, s Graveyards.
S. Inheritance.
Classics. Their position in the institutions of the State, 235, 1050. They are the
starting-point of all instruction, 1050 seq. Restored under the Han dynasty,
997. Hall of the Classics, in Peking, 787.
Clay, s. Loess.
Clothes of the fashionable class, 48, of the lowest classes, 48, of bearers of official
degrees, 50. On ceremoni.il occasions and at sacrifices, 48 sqq., 114, 195; an-
ciently, 334. At the ceremonies preceding marriage, 47. Bridal attire, and dress of
consorts of mandarins, 53 sqq. The ancient »deep garment" with cowl, 52 seq.
332. Garment of children in pre-Christian times, 58. The »longevity garment",
60 sqq. 63. Clothes used when calling back departed souls, 243, 246 sqq.
251, 252, 254, 847, 853. Clothes in which a person has died are thrown
away, 69. The wearing of plain clothes denotes respect, 490. Clothes as sub-
stitutes for bodies or souls of the dead, 847, 853, 928, 1359.
S. Grave-clothes, Mourning-clothes, Sacrifices, Boots, Hats, Shoes.

Cock. As an emblem of the sun, the Y'ang, South and life, the cock strengthens disem-
bodied souls and frightens evil spirits, 200 seq. Its blood used to impart vitality
to soul tablets, 214, 216, 218, and to persons lingering between life and death,
217. White cocks in funeral processions, 199 seq., and when the dead are
carried to their place of birth , 839.
Coffining the dead, 36, 38, 91 sqq. 364. This proceeding is seldom designated by
,

its real name, 95. Curious ideas and practices connected with it, 99. Days un-

fit to perform it on, 99. Performed at flood tide, or in the presence of pails
of seawater, 101, 947. Postponed with a view to revival, 263 sqq., 285',
363. Ice used to retard decomposition, 265, 266. At re-burials, 1060. The cof-
fining of Confucius, 303.
Coffins. Rendered air-tight, 100, 319. Intended to counteract putrefaction of the
corpse and to cause its revival, 280, 292 «/r/. 462. Of thick wood and solid ,

construction. 280, 285, 288, 319, 668; of wood imbued with Yang and vita-
lity, 280, 323, 348, 381. 402; of Rottlera wood, 285, 293 seq., 311, 410, 463,
690; of I wood, 285, 293; of pine or cypress wood, 291, 293 seq., 311, 318,
 INDEX III. 1439

324, 4(12; of other kinds, 301 seq., 304, 3il, 676, 090: of stone, 283; of jade,
284; of earthenware, 282, 376, 815; of buffalo and rhinoceros hides, '285, 398.
Coffin timber growing at altars, 302. Scarcity of coffin timber many centuries
ago and at present, 311 siq.
In high antiquity no coffins were used, 281. Persons refusing to he bulled
with a coffin, 305, 300, 310, 415, 085, 095, or in expensive coffins, 314. Bu-
rying enemies without using coffins, 314 seg.
Coffins at present, 319 «/</.: their prices, 323. Coffin carpenters and their
shops, 3-22 Nc/., :'.20, 804, 922. Pegs and straps used to fix the lid on the case,
285 sqq., 311, and Dolichos creepers, 311. No nails used anciently, 280 seq.;
pegs, spikes and putty, used at present, 95, 287, 319 seq., 321. Old nails as
amulets, 328. Nails of bone, anciently used to line coffins, 287. Lining the
coffins at present, 321.
Procured before death, 87, 304, 324, and preserved in Buddhist temples,
325; presented by children to their still living parents, 324. Silver coffins in
miniature, presented to daughters, 325. Rulers were wont to carry their cof-
fins with them abroad, 304; they presented coffins to men of merit, 315. Ob-
jects of great solicitude, 303 sqq. Children must give great care to those of
their parents, 304. Rescripts of Confucius concerning, 303. Coffins and grave
vaults varying according to the ranks of those for whom they are used, 285,
420, 455. Varnished black or red, 100, 287, 311, 315, 320. Red coffins for the
official classes, 315, 322, 412. Adorned with the emblems of the quadrants ot
heaven, the colours of the seasons, the sun, moon and stars, 315, 310, 322. 979.
and other requisites, distributed by charitable societies and wealthy
Coffins
persons, 803 sqq. Assisting such societies in consequence of vows, 804. Official
honours awarded for such benevolent work, 806. Coffins distributed by the
Authorities, 922.
How an empty coffin is brought home, 87, 591, 002. Things put into it,
88, 92 and shops where they are sold 322 s. Sacrifices. Seven-star
seq. , , ;

board, 91, 317 seq., 322. Having the lid nailed down by a graduate or a man-
darin, 96, or by an old man, 97. Names for coffins, 285, 294, 302, 323, 325,
326, 349; names of their parts, 322; the real names are avoided, 325.
330,
Placing the hair, teeth and nail-trimmings of the deceased in his coffin, 342 seq.,
1413. Coffins of the Emperors of the Yuen dynasty, 438. For the cremation of
Buddhists, 330. For re-burials, 1059 seq. For children, 329, 1075 seq.
Coffins refusing to move on the way to the grave, 1063, 1292. Coffins may
cause misfortune, 325. Old coffin wood, not used for cooking food, 329, 1059;
used in making musical instruments, 329; s. Medicines and Amulets.
S. Shen, Dreams.
Coins possess a rich-making power, 96, 209, 232, and charm away bad influences,
194. Attached to soul tablets, 142, 215. Shaken out of the sleeve of the dead,
91. S. Money
and Necromancy.
Colleges encouragement of study, 753, 1112, 1118.
for the
Colours of the cardinal points and the seasons, 122, 317. S. Mourning-colours.
Compass. Its 24 points, 905. Its 8 points connected with the 8 winds, 990. S.
Fung-shui.
Concubines. Their position in the family, 506, 508, 513seigr. Childless, 514, 833.
Imperial, 1231. S. Widows.
Condolences at death, 9, 25, 30 sqq., 42 seq.: in ancient times, 33 sqq., 190, 007,
610. Not offered by mourners, 505, 515. Anciently those who paid visits of
condolence were to fast, 052.
1440 INDEX III.

Constellations. The 28, s. Siu. S. Fung-shui.

Continents. The four, 223.
Continuators , s. Sons and Grandsons.
Convents, s. Monasteries.
Coroners' inquests, 136 seq.
Corpses, s. Dead and Laws.
Cosmogony. The system of, 960.
Cotton may not be used for dressing the dead, 48, 91.
Cowries. Placed in the mouths of the dead, 275, 334 seq. Used as currency. 275
Crackers, s. Fire.
Cranes. The emblems of joy and long life, 53, 57, 979. They convey souls to the
Paradise, 172. 226, 1130.
Cremation, 280, 736, 1391 sqq. Terms denoting it, -1391. Its Buddhist origin,
1391, 1408, 1415. Practised among the Buddhists, 240. Coffins used at the
cremation of monks and priests, 330. Crematories , 1402. Cremation in pre-
Christian times, 680, 1391, and in later ages, 737, 739, 1393 sqq. Confucian
it, 1395 sqq., i^QQ sqq. Some of its principal antagonists: Sze-ma
crusades against
c
Kwang, 1395, Ching I-chwen and Ch ing Hao, 1396, Hwang Chin, 1401.
Forbidden by laws and edicts, 1393, 1395, 1411, 1413. Its decay during the
dynasties of Ming and Ts ing, 1411 sqq. It has caused the establishment of free
:

cemeteries, 1380, 1399, 1400, 1411. Cremation for the purpose of sending the
bones home, 1396, 1412, 1413, 1414. Connected with burial, 1415 sqq. Of
children, 1415.
Crimes, s. Punishments and Laws.
Crosier of the Buddhist clergy, its power over Hell and the spirits of darkness,
55, 72, 123.
Cycles used to divide time. That of the twelve Animals, 44, 79, 81; its origin,
989; its combination with the Branches, 987 sqq. The Branches and the Kan
103, 965 set/. , 973; their combination into a cycle of sixty terms, 103, 976.
Combination of the Branches with the Elements and the Cardinal points, 988.
Cypress, s. Coffins, Grave-vaults, Trees.

D.

Dances, executed at funerals, 392.

Date-tree, s. Jujube.
Daughters remaining unmarried in order to support their parents, 793.
Daughters-in-law. Their duties towards their parents-in-law, 119, 617, 747, 754,
793; their dependence from the same, and position in their family, 551, 620,
735, 757, 760; curing their parents-in-law with their own flesh, 747. S. Widows.
Days. Of ^reduplication of death", 99, 213. Unfit for transactions of a felicitous
character, 116. Selecting lucky da}T s and hours, s. Soothsayers, Almanacs,
Burial, Marriage; the principles on which this art is based, 103 seq. Days
on which it is not harmful to dig in the ground, 865.
Dead. Disposal of the dead; its place in Religion, 1; exceptional ways of, 1384 sqq.
Closing their eyes, 11. Paring their nails and trimming their beard, 18,19,335.
Food placed in their mouths, 20, 29, 112, 269, 276 seq., 334, 335, 356 sqq.,
379, 395. Precious stones, metals and pearls placed in their mouths or on their
clothes, 92, 112; 269s(?g., 274, 277, 305, 315, 395; gold, 273; cowries, 275,
334, 335. Breaking open their teeth, 276, 335, 357. Plugging their ears, 332,
334. Covered with shrouds and sheets, 21, 335, 336 sqq. , 357. Hidden from
view by a curtain, 98, 337, 338, 357. Watched, 27, 114. Washed, Usqq.,
 ,
,

INDEX III. 1441

10.sqq., 331, 591. Binding their legs to keep them straight, 357. Leaning on
them, imposing the hands on them, grasping their dress, etc., 37 sqq. 256, 337, ,

338, 342, 368. Provided with toilet requisites, 119, 238. Coins shaken out of
their sleeve, 91.
Dressing the dead, 18, 20, 40 sqq. 67 sqq., 339. Delaying it with a view
8, ,

to a possible revival,203 sqq., 285. Performed in three stages, 35 seq., 204,

331 sqq., 335 sqq., 339, 342, 304, 470. Attended by the Ruler and his consort,
342. Its connection with the wearing of mourning, 470. Swathing the dead with
scarfs, 93, 335 sqq. Persons refusing to be dressed for the grave, 306, 310, 085.
Quarrels about the dressing of the dead, 701. S. Grave-clothes.
Resurrection of the dead, 241 sqq. , 303 sqq. Calling to them to restore them
to life, lOseg., 82, 94, 241, 244sqq., 455. Contact with cats may revive them,

43. They cannot revive if the body is mutilated, 342. Mutilating them, an act
of enmity and a punishment, 343 sqi/., s. Laws. Mutilated corpses were not

buried in grave-grounds, 343. The dead flogged by their enemies, 349.

royal
Protection given them by the Government, 866 sqq.; s. Laws.
Purifying the dead by religious rites, 77. Consulting them, s. Necromancy.
Coffining them, s. Coffining. Surrounding them with beneficial influences of the
Universe, 300. The encoffmed dead kept at home, 127, 130, 369, s. Burial
(delayed, and provisional); or in sheds, 127, 129, 838, 840; under the open
sky, 130, 139, 840; in buildings erected for the purpose, 130sqq.; entrusted
to fanners, monasteries or temples, 128, 134, 845 seq., 1021, 1398. Conveyed to
the native place, 129, 130 seq., 748, 834sqg., 838, 1001, 1165; persons refusing
to be thus sent back, 837: those who did not send them home were blamed
or 835; dead soldiers sent home by the Government, 844, 1060;
punished,
cremation for the purpose, 1396. Corpses carried into cities, 842 seq. Corpses
may not be taken into dwelling-houses, 129, 840, 1059, 1068. How dealt with
when found on the road, 135 sqq., 139, 914. Throwing the dead away, 080,
1384 sqq., or into the water, 1385, 1389 sqq.; such practices are forbidden,
871, 1389. Clearing away unburied human remains, 1385; with the object of
conjuring away droughts, 919 sqq., 1385.
The dead join their ancestors, 48, 51, 77, 307. Marriages between them,
802. Buddhist masses in their behalf, s. Masses. Their former private apartments
must not be entered 487. Articles , belonging to them are given away or
thrown away, 69, 97, 700. Their portraits, 113, 238, 241; in the funeral
procession, 114, 172. Their images, 173, 228. Embalming, 280. Influence of
thunder upon corpses, 45. They are devoured in the grave bij fabulous ani-
mals, 408.
S. Burial, Cremation, Dwellings, Eulogies, Fasting, Funeral, Ice,
Jade, Lamps, Mourning, Sacrifices.
Death. A suspended animation, 241, 263; a long protracted sleep or persistent swoon
244, 209, 356, 363, 367. Identified with the West and the North 249; with the ,

Yin, 22, 249; with winter, 420. Caused by evil spirits, 218. Beings at death
are absorbed by the elements theycame forth from 308. Death causes pollution ,

s. Pollution. The windows opened and the shop closed in cases of death, 12.
Messengers announcing a case of death may not enter, 044. Printed announce-
ments of, 111 .sqq. Tilings connected with death may not be named, 00, 95,
323, and not be taken into a palace, 041.
Death-bed, 3 sqq., 8, 9, 07.
Death-howl, 7, 10, 29, 89, 98, 112, 115 sqq., 141 seq., 149, 171, 100, 194, 210,
254 sqq., 350, 367, 402 sqq., 475, 479, 492, 503, 580, 609, 731. Its meaning,
 1442 INDEX III.

11, 115, 190, 254 sqq.., 263, 308. It exercises an evil influence, and might not
take place in public, 24, 261 seq., 644.
Debts, to be paid in Hell, 80 seq.
Decapitation, s. Punishments.
Deeds wood or metal, 1078 seq.
or contracts carved in
Degrees. Official degrees are for sale, 50, 104, 237. Corresponding titles conferred
upon chief consort, 175, 240. A copy of brevet of rank placed in the coffin,
92, and carried in the funeral cortege, 104. They insure the possessors a high
position in the other life, 237. Attempts to take. literary degrees frustrated
by gods and spirits, 762. S. Graduates.
Destiny, s. Fate.
Dewas, 72.
Directions. Auspicious directions in which to build, bury etc., 105, 974, 976,
1033, 1034, 1080, 1381.
Divination. By means of a tortoise-shell , 421, 489, 041, 992 seq., 990, and ot
shi stalks, 041, 991, 990, 1157. Ancient works on, 995, 990.
Divinities, s. Gods.
Divorces, 514.
Domains conferred by the Crown, 432.
Donations, s. Presents.
Double. A seat for the soul 85, 118, 366.
Dragon. The emblems surrounding it, 53, 54, 181, 1194. It is the Gud of Rain
and Water, 181, 180, 947, 949, 1201. It represents the Emperor and bis
blissful reign, 180, 784, 951, 1002, 1194, 1201, as also the spring and the
East, 310 seq. Hornless dragons, 451 seq., 1142.
Dreams. Produced by spirits, 850, 802, 915, 1400. They forbode events, 75. Dreams ot
coffins portend investment with official dignity, 320. Yellow millet dreams, 147.
Droughts, conjured away by burial of human bones, 919 sqq., 1385.
Dualism of Nature, s. Yang and Yin.
Ducks, the symbols of matrimonial love, 471.
Dwellings of the ancient Chinese, made in the clay or built up of clay and wood,
372 sqq. Abandoning dwellings to those who died therein, 303.sqq., 308, 378, 479.
Dying. The dying surrounded by their nearest relations, 3; washed, shaved and
dressed, 0; placed with their heads to the East, 7. Ancient ceremonies in
regard of the, 7 seq. Assisting dying strangers is dangerous. 130. Dying dis-
positions, 3.
Dynasties. Their fate influenced upon by sovereigns of former Houses, 925. S.
Emperors.

E.

Earth. Its name in literary style, 939. Its influence or breath, 948. It is square,
548. S. Gods.
East. The region of light, warmth and life, 214, 210, 249, and of thunder, 902.
Identified with the Yang, 249, and with the spring, 317, 962.
Elements. The five, 955, 995: their qualities, 970. They produce misfortune and
happiness, 957. They produce and destroy each other, 957, 970, 988, 1059.
Connected with the five planets, 959. Combined with the cardinal points, 983,

988, and the Branches 988. S. Fung-shui.

,

Embalmment, 280,
Embassy sent to the Emperor in 1795, 1416.
Emperors. Their position in China, 220. They are the vice-regents, the sons oi
 INDEX III. 1 I I
"5

Heaven, 624. Tliey worship Heaven and Earth, 490, 644. They bear sway over
gods and men, 220, 237, even after death, 223. The whole Empire and all it
contains is their personal property, 433, 625, 077, 916. They are the father
and mother of the people, 460, 024. They are punished by Heaven and the
gods lor misgovernment, 075. How they are to mourn and to be mourned for, s.
Mourning. Emperors and feudal princes may not reign while in deep mourning,
570. How is made known to the nation
the demise of an Emperor 635. Emperors ,

called by auspicious graves, 999, -1002, 1005, 1209. Poetical Emperors,

forth
1200. Titulary Emperors, 1232, 1207, 1268, 1276, 1354.
The Emperors of the Ming dynasty, 1188 sqq. Their ancestors, 1268 sqq.
The first Emperor of that House, 1256, 1268; the fate of the second, 1179,
and of the last, 1234. S. Ming.
The Emperors of the reigning Ts'ing dynasty, 1283, 1297. Their ancestors,
1353 sqq.
S. Dragon
Unicorns Graves.
, ,

Empire. The Empire is one family 509, , 539, 024.

Empresses are the mothers of the Empire , 024. How their demise is made known
to the nation, 637. Buried in the mausolea of their consorts, 088, 1181, 1188
sqq., 1230, 1278, 1283 sqq., 1286 seq., 1297 sqq., 1359. Titulary Empresses,
1231, 1232, 1208, 1277, 1291, 1298, 1359. S. Graves.
Empresses Dowager, their high position and power, 352, 1335.
Epidemics, caused by evil spirits, 134.
Eulogies in praise of the dead, 1122, 1155. Made by persons of rank, 1123.
Chanted or recited at sundry and at funerals, 1128.
occasions, 1124 sqq.,
Awarded to the highest nobility, 1120. Inscribed on banners, 199, 1129. En-
graved in bamboo and placed in graves, 1125, 1131, 1139. Engraved in tablets
erected on graves, 1103, 1331. That of Confucius, 1123.
Evil influences neutralised by happy persons, 232.
Existences, s. Gati.
Exorcisms, 108 sqq. 217, 232. S. Spirits and Purification.
,

Exorcists, anciently, 30, 40 sqq., 161 seq., 261; their functions, 40 seq.; at
burials, 101 sqq., 438, 469, 825.

Family. Its organisation in autonomy, 191, 1037.

ancient' China, 507, 539. Its

Severe distinction of rank Mourning. Its com-

between its members, 125, s.

munity of property, 021, 1029. It shares in the personal merits, glory and
crimes of its members, 746, 770. Sons may not secede from it, s. Sons. The
dead are not separated from it, 022. Rewarded with honorary titles, 622.
Famines, 919, 921.
Fang-liang or Mang-siang, 162, 469, 825.
Fasting, 271. For the dead, 255, 480, 503, 646, 652, 669, 1023; it originated in
the custom of sacrificing food to the dead, 27, 475, 646, 656, and was an im-
portant rite in early times, 475; it consists in abstinence from meat, spirits

and must, 651, 656; old people are exempt from it, E33, 649 seq. ; its connec-
tion with the degrees of mourning, 492, 503, 650, 655, and with sacrifices to
the dead, 657. For deceased Rulers, 628, 657. Rulers fasting at the death of
their ministers, 658. Evil consequences of rigorous fasting depicted by Mih-tsze,
070 sqq. S. Mourning-staff.
Fate of man. Determined by his horoscope, 103, by his virtues, 1014, 1009, by
1444 INDEX III.

Heaven, 134, 1014, 1023, and by the graves of his ancestors, s. Graves.
Quinary division of the, 1105, 1150. S. Mountains.
Father. A father's property must remain untouched after his death, G18 sqq. His

authority over his children, 506, 507, 619, 806; relations on whom it devolves
on his death, 615sery. S. Children and Filial devotion.
Feet. Crimped feet of women, 196, 197. Stamping the feet, s. Mourning.
Feudal rulers in ancient China, 624.
Filial devotion and submission (hiao), 68, 119se<y., 133, 253, 304, 507 seq., 514,
567, 582, 599, 619 seq., 621, 624, 640, 647. Due also to the parents after
their death 119 say., 132 seq., 153, 166, 240, 346, 474, 483, 575, 586,609,617,
659, 684 secy., 691, 700, 757, 852, 867. An equal amount of it is due to both
parents, 239, 513, 550, 760, 1231; anciently this was not the case, 515, 550.
The part it plays in the organisation of social life, 133, 867. It is due to the
Emperor and his mandarins, 459, 508, 582, 624, 629. It demands the procrea-
bury the parents, 659,
tion of male issue, 612, 617, 648, prescribes to properly
860, 867, forbids and also long delay of burial 268, and favours Sut-
hasty .

teeism, 744. Publicly honoured by the Government, 773, 790, 793, 794; s.
Temples. The standard examples of, 181. S. Fung-shui.
Filth, identified with wealth, 326, 1054.
Fire, used for purification, 32, 137, 355. S. Elements. Fire-crackers, 137, 150,
210, 355.
Five, an unlucky cipher, 65.
Flowers, used to ensure felicity and abundance, 230, 232 seq., 234, and to drive
away disastrous influences, 88. Worn in the hair, 55.
Food may not be prepared in the neighbourhood of dead lepers , 45. Food of

animal origin is forbidden by the Buddhists, 66. Used to purify the spot where
a coffin has stood, 232. Fermented food creates abundance, 232. S. Sacrifices.
Forests. Extirpation of, 312.

Forms. The four, 960 seq.

Friends call each other brothers, 175, 1111.
Funeral matters may cause pollution, 32. There may be no retrogressive motion
in, 32, 129, 1063.
Funeral processions, 127, 140, 152 sqq.
The man who clears the way, 153, 155, and scatters paper money, 154,
227. Temples are shut when the procession passes, 155, 206. Spirits frightened
away by trumpets, 155, 158, and by fire-works, 156. Flags and lanterns, 156,
159, 164, 167, 172, 203, 204. Musicians, 157. 104, 167, 171, 179, 204, 227,
840. The spirit that clears the way, 160, 226, 401. The brevet of rank, 164.
A mandarin's retinue, 165. Literary graduates, 165. The biography engraved
in stone, 166, 1135. Portable pavilions, 159, 166 sqq. , 171, 203, 204; contri-
buted by others, 167 sqq., 205, 229, 840. Carriages, horses and silks, contri-
buted anciently, 167 .svyry. , 1064. The soul tablet, 171 sqq., 202; the temporary
soul tablet and the painted portrait, 172 seq. , 202, 840. The paper image,
173, 228. Lanterns furthering the birth of male offspring, 172, 228. Buddhist
priests, 173. Pennon harbouring the soul, 174 sqq. , 202, 229. Cloth or ban-
ners, originally serving to give signals, 177 seq. Torches, 179, 200, 228. Sacri-
ficial articles, 197; baskets and cars to place them in, 198. Banners displaying
eulogic inscriptions, 199, 1129. Bamboo and boughs, 199. Managers of the
coffin, 179.The coffin, pall, hearse and bearers, 179 sqq., 191 seq., 227, 317.
Gagged hearse-drawers, 187 sip/., 1128. Chanting and crying, 188 seq., 1128
seq. Clansmen or fellow-villagers as coffin bearers, 190 seq. The kinsmen in
 INDEX HI. 1445

the rear, 193 sqq., 205, 227. A white cock, 199 seq. , 840. Processions for two
persons, 201. The number of persons in a procession, 202. Its general aspect,
203 seq. Its quick motion, 204. Every one should make room for it, 206. It
is advisable to avoid it, 20G. Its concurrence with a bridal procession forebodes
good, 206. Sacrifices when it passes, 206. The attendants requested to go
home, 205, 207; betel and food given them; 205, 208. Its return from the
grave, 227.
Funeral rites. Those of the moderns influenced by those of the ancients, 235 sqq.
Codifiedby successive dynasties, 236 seq. 346, 807, and by Chu Hi, 237 sgqr. ,

Those of the Emperors of the Yuen dynasty, 437; of the Buddhists, 240, of
the Man tribes, 1005. They are the same for a husband and for his wife,
239. For unmarried people they are performed carelessly, 240, 329. Patrons
of, 112, 238.
Fung-shui, 101, 102, 132 seq. , 211, 268, 935 sqq. What it is, 935, 938, 1048.
It is fetichism, 1048. Its antiquity, 935, 936. Bound up with philosophy, 936,
938, 997, 1051. Supported by filial devotion, 936 sqq. 1048. Almost everybody
,

is versed in it, 938, 1017, 1032. Its universal sway, 936, 1048, 1051. Its
names, 939, 1016.
Its elements. Winds, 940. Water and rain, 943; tanks or brooks, 946.
Mountains and hills, 940, 944, 947 sqq., 952, 954, 1007; artificial improvement
of their outlines, 950, 958. The Yang and the Yin, 948 seq. The quadrants
of Heaven, and the configurations of the Earth, 948 sqq., 952 seq., 1000, 1013.
Dragons 949, 951, 1007, 1009, 1078, 1332. Tigers, 949 sqq. The breath ot the
soil, 953, 977, 1080, 1081. The stars, 954, 971, 1009, 1288. The seasons, 907.
The kwa, 960, 1008. The Branches and the k an, 965, 1008. The five Elements
or planets, 955, 959, 970, 1006, 1059, 1108. The cultivation of virtues, 1014
seq. The influences of Heaven superseding those of the Earth, 1013 sqq.
It dominates the situation and the construction of houses, temples, towns, etc ,

935 sqq., 946, 997, 1041, 1043, s. Towns. It by temples and is solidified

convents, 1043. F. sh. of the whole Empire, 1009: of Amoy, Canton, Nanking,
Peking and the Imperial Palace, 950, 1051, 1256. Grounds with a bad F. sh.
ceded to foreigners to dwell on, 1053. F. sh. is very sensitive and fragile, 1034,
1093. It may be injured and wounded, 1035. 1047, 1185, and die, 953, 1047.
Quarrels and litigation arising from such injury, 1035 sqq., 1040 seq. F. sh.
of a grave, spoiled by other graves, 1035, 1039. F. sh. may be corrected
and repaired, 950, 958, 977, 1041.
The F. sh. of a grave must agree with the horoscope of its occupant, 970,
1108, 1224. The poor have to content themselves with graves with a F. sh. of
inferior kind, 1034. Graves selected without the application of F. sh. theories,
1075. It interferes with all the parts of a grave, 1080, but is concentrated
especially in the grave-stone, 1039, 1047. Its influence upon sepulchral tablets,
1157. It causes many who die abroad, to be buried in their native place, 1061.
Its evils, 1048 sqq. It causes an immense waste of labour, 1050, and is an

impediment to works of public utility, 1049. It causes postponement of burial,

105, 132, 268, 1010 seq., 1020, 1033, 1048, and the building of graves before
death, 1031. Condemned by many, 1016 scij. 1021 sqq. and denounced by , ,

the Government, 132, 1017, 1028, 1030. It causes re-burials 1036, 1047, 1057,
1003, 1067, and provisional burials, 1033, 1062, 1082, and induces people to
exhume human remains, 882. It flourishes because of the total absence of
science of Nature, 1050 seq. It is ineradicable, 1055. Foreigners are believed
to be deeply versed in it, 1053 seq.

93
1446 INDEX III.

Early traces of its existence, 982, 994. Its golden era, 1044. Its two schools,
-1006, 1008. Literature on the subject, 951 seq., 955, 995 sqq., 1001, 1003,
1004, 1006 sqq., 1016, 1022, 1025, 1182. Disbelievers in the system, 1005,
1012, 1016, 1024. Sze-ma Kwang's judgment, 1022.
S. Graves.
Fung-shui professors, 102, i0b,seq., 134, 208, 209, 211, 227, 229, 1269. Every
member of the learned class is one, 938, 1010. Terms denoting them, 940.
They select graves, 102, 1017, discover the propensities of configurations, 952 seq ,

arouse the breath of the same from its lethargy, 209, 953, and direct re-
burials, 1057, 1059. Their general behaviour, 1010 sqq. ,
professional jealousy,
951, 1019, and diversity ot opinions, 1017, 1026, 1032, 1033. Their reputation,
1013, 1017, 1020, 1025 seq. They may be dangerous, 1011. Their malversa-
tions, 1038. They are the causes of misappropriation of grave-grounds, 881.
They can always keep themselves beyond the reach of blame, 1014. They are
liable punishment if they cause the exhumation of corpses, 1068. Their
to
compass, 950, 9a9sqq., 91isqq., 1008, 1018; its origin and importance, 975.
They existed already in the 2nd. cent. B. C. 995. Imperial geomancers, 1007,
,

1340. Renowned Fung-shui sages: Kwan Loh, 1000; Kwoh Poh, 1001, 1157;
Yang Yun-sung, 1007; Tseng Wen-ch'wen 1007; Wang Kih, 1008; Chu Hi, ,

1011; Lii Ts'ai, 1006, 1016; Wang Hien 1182; Liao Kiun-khing, 1183; Kao
,

Khi-choh, 1293, 1370.

Furnaces, used to burn paper money for the dead, 25.
Furniture, removed from the principal apartment at deaths, 25, 114, 486.

G.

Garlic counteracts influences of death 32. ,

Gates in honour of the virtuous and meritorious. Whom they are erected for,

789 sqq., 794; erected for 800, and for literary graduates,
the filial, 793,
776, 792, 794. Erected with the authorisation of the Emperor, 776. Subven-
tions paid for their erection, 752, 786, 789 seq., 791. Their origin, 769 sqq.,
774. Terms denoting them, 776. Their shape and construction, 777. The in-
criptions they bear, 784. Their inauguration, 786. Where erected, 783; at
graves, 751, 753, 789.
Decorative gates. At large houses, 782: at official edifices and altars, 786;
at the tomb of Confucius, 788; at Imperial mausolea, s. Graves of Emperors.
Gates of public edifices, large temples and mausolea, 781, 1166. City gates,
780. Street gates, 780, 783.
Gati, 72.
Geomancy, s. Fung-shui.

Ghosts, s. Spirits.
Ginseng, 911, 1333.
Girdle pendants, 489.
Gods and Goddesses. The God of Heaven, 68, 220, 317, 490, 674, 1268; his
daily worship, 33. The Goddess of the Earth may not be brought into contact with
grave-clothes, 68, 223. Both divinities are objects of Imperial worship, 644,
and may not be brought into contact with mourning, 644. The Lords of the
three Spheres, 25. Local gods of the Soil, 26, 30, 833, 1092; they are sacrificed
to at 219 sqq. Spirits of the ground, whom to disturb is dangerous,
burials,
105, Gods of Land and Grain, 240, 543, 629. Of famous Mountains
141, 865.
and Streams, 709. God of Agriculture, at whose altar the Emperor ploughs,
1330. The God of Rain and Water, s. Dragon. Gods of the Western Paradise
 index in. T447

(Amitabha and Awalukitecwara), 74. Gods of Hell; Tama, 66, 74, 80, and
Ti-tsang Wang. 71 seq. ,
with heads of buffaloes or of
74; infernal divinities
horses, 00. Virgins of the mysterious Nine Heavens, -105, 1003. The five most
ancient Emperors, 709. Spirits of hearses, 145. Domestic divinities, 5, 25. Di-
vinities invoked at purifications, 108.
S. Bodhisatwas Buddha, Triratna.
,

Gods and spirits may bless man, 674 seq. They are under the sway of the Em-
peror and his mandarins, 220, 237. Their worshippers may not he unclean, 33.
Gold. It may prolong life, 273. In alchemy, 274. Placed in the mouths of the
dead, 273 seq.
Government. Leading principles of, 540, 794, 985. Patriarchal character of the,
623 seq. It awards protection to the dead and their graves, 866 sqq., and codifies

the funeral rites,Funeral Rites. Good government, the ideal of philosophers,

s.

683; thwarted by excessive mourning and fasting, 672 sqq. S. Laws.

Graduates. Of the lowest literary rank, siu-ts'ai, 165 and yiu-kung, 1119; of
the second rank, ku-jen, 792; of the highest, tsin-shi, 221, 792, 862 and
chung-yuen, 776. Officiating at funerals, 96, 165, 214, 216, 220, 229. Flag-
poles before their houses, 770. S. Gates.
Grandsons as continuators of families, 484, 517, 523, 525, 549, 583, 614.
Graves. Their character, 855. In the most ancient and in pre-Christian times,
281, 290, 311. Terms to denote them, 423, 442, 444; 1073; also called Fung-
shui, 1074. Construction of the pit, 1080 sqq., 1086; its depth, 941, 1080.
The use of lime, 213, 239, 725, 1081, 1083, 1085, and of charcoal, 1081.
Vaults, 281, 383; they served to prevent destruction of the corpse,
288 sqq.,
288, 292 sqq.; of copper, 289, 396, 400; of stone, 288 seq., 292, 293, 413, 425,
726; of wood, 288, 290 sqq., 300, 302, 304, 410, 425; in disuse in later ages
and now, 313, 314; lining them, 29; made before death, 304; people refusing
to have them in their graves, 305, 306, 310; interment without a vault is a
calamity, 314.
Omega-shaped ridge, 941, 1082, 1085, 1095. The court, 1084, 1167. The
hall, 1084. The shed or chapel, 1087. The altar, 283, 385, 1084, 1094, 1095.
The temple, 405, £26, 435, 439, 446, 447, 449, 453, 1087, 1167; the origin
of grave-temples, 388. The kitchen, 450, 1213, 1308, 1317 seq. The butchery,
450, 1213, 1308, 1317 seq. Furnaces, 450, 1170, 1217, 1307, 1317. Store-houses,
450, 1213, 1308, 1317 seq. Brooks or tanks, 396, 419, 436, 446, 946, 958,
983, 994, 1084, 1167, 1169, 1281 seq. Buildings for visitors, 1170. The gate,
1085, 1166, 1168; Gates. Walls, 1096
s. seq., 1165. The ming fang or
khiien t'ai, 1363. Altar to the God of the Soil, s. Altars.
Avenues to, 1157. Stone images, 812sqq., 978, 1087, 1089, 1099, 1144seq.,
1158 sqq., 1167, 1109, 1200; a prerogative of Emperors and grandees, 814,821,
940; their number regulated by law; 452, 816, 821; seldom made in recent

times, 822, 945, 1088; their arrangement, shape and construction, 816 sqq.;
some represent feats of the occupant of the grave, 826. Pillars, 440, 446, 447,
452, 814, 815, 825, 1088 seq., 1160, 1170, 1203.
The grave-stone, 1082, 1084, 1087, 1101 sqq., 1140; arithmancy with regard
to its inscription, 1105; it is the seat of the soul and of the Fung-shui influ-
ences, 1039, 1047, 1084, 1104, 1108. Other inscribed stones, s. Tablets.
Grave-hills or mounds, 405, 409, 418, 420, 422, 423 seq., 426, 434, 437 seq.,

442, 447, 661, 663, 690, 941, 1073, 1080, 1083, 1084, 1095, 1168. How called,
442, 1073, 1083. Their object, 455, 456. Their dimensions correspond with the
rank of those buried in them, 420 seq., 454, 461, 1090, 1097. Made by
 4

1448 INDEX III.

devoted children and -wives, 4blsqq., 800, and by the people for beloved man-
darins, by means of iron, 397, 456. Their shapes, 374, 1094;
458. Solidified
shaped like 1083. Not made in very ancient times, 281, 31 1, 663;
a tortoise,
Confucius and some sages disapproved of them 303, 311, 661. Some have arisen ,

spontaneously, 284. Tunnels made in them, 374, 421, 425, 440.

Grave trees, 296, 401, 418, 440, 441, 690, 1090, 1167, 1169 seq. Rottleras,
462, 471, 472; pines and cypresses, 462 sqq., 797; other trees, 462, 463, 468,
1091. Their object, 460sqq., 469, 1090, 1091. Sacred objects of concern, 461,
463, 1090 seq. Identified with the soul of the buried man, 469 sqq., 1091. Planted
by children and wives, 461, 464 sqq., 775. Their number corresponds to
the rank of the deceased, 421, 461. Not planted in high antiquity, 281, 311,
461, 663. Disapproved by Confucius, 303, 311. Rare because of Fung-shui su-
perstition, 945, 1018, 1090. Abundant in the Peking plains, 1095. Protected
by Government, 926; s. Laws.
Graves decorated with animals expressing felicity, 979, 1084; with lions,
1087; with the kwa, 979, 1088; with stars, constellations, sun, moon', etc.,
979; with honorary inscriptions, 789. Graves resembling human dwellings,
37 sqq. Constructed after the same plan as mansions and temples, 1083 sqq.,
1087, 1165, 1171. Subventioned by the Government, 388, 410, 1100 seq., 1173.
V. living in size according to the ranks of the occupants, 418,
410 seq., 449 sqq.
Official noblemen and mandarins, 1089, 1097. Plain
rescripts for the graves of
graves, and their advocates, 433, 434. Large graves 1085. Graves of granite,
1086. For children, 1075. Provisional graves, s. Burial (provisional). Built
before death, 399, 405, 423, 815, 1031. Containing husband and wife, 132,
262, 443 seq., 450, 663, 801, 829, 852, 1032, 1107, 1278, 1286. Grounds
appurtenant, to graves, 1089.
Graves built under the Ming dynasty, 1086 sec;. Those of older date no more
exist in their original condition, 1072, 1092. Graves fallen into oblivion, 1061,
1076, 1086, 1096. Graves protected by the Government , s. Laws. Of sovereigns
and renowned persons, protected and restored by the Government, 447, 899,
924 «;<?., 1177, 1184, 1258, 1278, 1330. Of the ancestors of insurgents and
dethroned dynasties, violated by the Government, 1052. Graves repaired by
awarded for such work, 791, 866.
charitable societies, 865; official honours
Graves are inhabited by the souls of the occupants, 348, 318 sqq., and im-
bued with slien, 327. Those souls pervade the clay, 381; they punish desecra-
tion of their graves, and reward those who protect the same, 1376. Desecra-
tion of graves by robbers, 308, 408, 415, 417, 427, 439, 441, 455, 456, 460,
685, 687, 693, 695, 697, 704, 815, 928, 979, 1086; with the object of stealing
the corpse and extorting a ransom, 893.
Graves under good influences of the Universe, 101, 102, 132, 209,
placed
316, 381, 400, 935, 936, 1288; they make the offspring prosperous, 134 316, 381,
935, 936, 998, 1023, 1026, 1069, 1185, 1288, and endow them with high of-
fices, 928 sqq., 1002seg., 1005, or even with the Imperial dignity, 999, 1002,

1005, 1269; they further the procreation of offspring, 936, but do not render
the children equally happy , 1028. A
an unfavourable situation may ruin
grave in
Die family, 1000, 1012. No may
be directed towards a grave, 977,
straight lines
1204, 1219. Graves must be protected from noxious winds, 940 seq., but the prospect
in front must be open, 942, 944, 945, 1381. They must be under the influence

of water, 944 sqq. 946, and of the quadrants of heaven, 949. Graves facing the
,

South, 984. Graves destroying each other's useful effects, 1035, 1039. Graves
selected with the aid of geomancers, 1011 sqq. S. Fung-shui, Horoscope.
 ,
,

INDEX HI. 1449

Tilings placed in a grave may influence the offspring of the occupant,

64, 176, 181, 213; such things, if omen, may become real blessings
of good
to them, 57, 63, 90, 111, 209, 241, 301, 978. Cypress wood piled up around
the coffin, 300, 405, 410, 425. Stone images placed in graves, 397, 398, 420,
811 seq., 1088; clothes, in lieu of the corpse, 847, 853, 928, 1359; jade and
pearls, to prevent decay of the corpse, 395 seq., 401 candlesticks and censers, ;

166, 213, 402; contracts, 1363; books, iibsqq.; men, animals, things and
food, s. Sacrifices. 6. Necrologies.
Dwelling on the graves to serve the dead, 406, 427, 458, 464 sqq. 486,611, ,

732. 775, 794 sqq., 853, 1378. Families charged to guard them and work at
them, 399 s«/., 406, 411, 42,1 sqq., AUsqq., 447, 453, 460, 815, 927, 1096,
1097, 1172, 1184, 1197, 1200, 1211, 1248, 1265, 1271 sqq. Self-punishment on a
grave, 380. The grave visited on the third day after the burial, 591. Dwelling
near the graves of the ancestors, 429.
Grave-ground. Graves need not be placed in special, 939, 1374. Obtained by
purchase and contract, 1076. Quarrels and litigation about, 128, 830, 1035 seq.,

1071; caused by brokers, 1038. Testing grave-grounds by means of bones,

eggs or charcoal, 1018 seq. Appointed as felicitous by unknown individuals,
981. 998, 1269, and by sundry events, 980. Mysterious felicitous grave-grounds
near towns and villages, 1015. New felicitous grave-grounds are continually
created, 1015. Grave-grounds and sites for building, found by divination,
091 sqq., 1002. For public use, 865, 1375.
Graveyards. For members of the same family, clan or village, 262, 376,
421 seq., 442, 450, 829 sqq. , 1095, 1374; arrangement of the graves, 832 seq.
For the poor and uncared-for, laid out by charitable corporations, 139, 1386.
Laid out by magistrates for soldiers, victims of calamities, uncared-for dead,
etc., 859, 917, 922, 924, 1379, 1380 sqq., and to check cremation, 1380,

1399, 1400, 1411. Repaired by charitable corporations, 865, 1375, 1382. For
bone-urns, 1382 seq. For royal and Imperial families 421, 442, 831; mutilated
corpses were not buried there, 343.
Graves of princes, noblemen and high dignitaries, 445; situated close to
those of their sovereigns, 443, 1235; in the environs of Peking, 1095. Of Con-
fucius, 420, 454, 7S8, 795, and his parents, 663, 689. Of Menciusand Tseng-tsze,
388. Of Tseng Cheh, 691. Of the daughter of Hwan Wen, 413 Of Yoh Fei, 816.
Of Hwoh Kwang, 445, 1202. Of Chang Poh-ya, 445, 813. Of Yin Kien, 446,
813. Of the concubine of Mu-yung Hi, 731. The Yung-ku mausoleum, 439.
Graves of Kwoh Poh, 1003.
Graves of Imperial Princes, 443 sqq. Of Princes and Princesses of the Ming
dynasty, 899, 1242 seq., 1253 sqq., 1256, 1267, 1274. Of Princes of the reign-
ing dynasty, 1164 sqq. 1307 seq. their crypts, 1314; official regulations,
, ;

453, 1172 sqq. 1176. Of Princesses of the reigning dynasty, 1176.

,

Graves of Empresses or Queens, and Imperial concubines, 442 sqq. Of Em-

presses of the Ming dynasty, 1255 seq., and its Imperial concubines, 1234 sqq.,
1238 sqq. 1254 sqq. 1266. Of Empresses of the reigning dyn., 1282 sqq.
, ,

1286, 1289, 1298, 1300, 1334, 1300, s. Empresses; and of concubines, 1314,

1335 sqq.: their administration, 1346; soldiery established there, 1352.

Graves of ancient kings and their families. Of Siang, 289, 397, 415, 419. Of
Ngai, 397, 419, 811, and his son, 728. Of Hoh Lu, 396, 419, and his daughter,
419, 726. Of Ngan Li, 415. Of Yiu , 728.
Graves of Emperors. Of Shen Nung, 933. Of Shao Hao, 934. Of Nu Kwa
418. Of Yao, 418, and his mother, 1278. Of Shun, 418. Of Wen and Wu
 ,

1450 INDEX III.

691. Of Shi Hwang, 388, 399, 422, 823, 979. Of the Han dynasty, 405 sqq.,
423, 434; imitated by later dynasties, 437; of Wu of the Han dyn. 409. Of ,

the T'ang dyn. 438. Those of the Sung dyn. desecrated under that of Yuen
,

929. Of the Yuen dyn. 437. Of the Ming dyn. and that of Ts'ing, s. infra.
Only a few have outlived the past, 441. They are the supports of the throne,
427, 1185, 1259, 1274. Damaged by insurgents, 1052, 1259.
Their Fung-shui, 1182, 1224, 1229 seq., 1269, 1284, 1286 sqq., 1293, 1296,
1327, 1331, 1332, 1355, 1356, 1360. Decorative gates, 788, 1193, 1218, 1307,
1308, 1313, 1322, 1323, 1364, 1366. Bridges and canals, 1195, 1208, 1209,
1261, 1262, 1263, 1280 sqq., -1307, 1315, 1316, 1319, 1323, 1365. Trees, 1195,
1206, 1211, 1212, 1217, 1223, 1308, 1319, 1333, 1344, 1352, 1370. Red gates,
1196, 1261, 1280, 1308, 1322, 1331 seq., 1361, 1365. Stones ordering visitors
to dismount, 1196, 1261, 1307, 1308, 1319, 1322, 1362, 1365, 1366 Buildings
for accommodation, 1198, 1206, 1209, 1308, 1322, 1362, 1364, 1365.
their
Tablets and tablet-houses, 1198, 1212. 1225, 1240, 1261, 1277, 1280, 1307,
1308, 1319, 1321, 1323, 1325 sqq., 1329 sqq., 1356, 1361, 1365; columns
surrounding them, 1201, 1308, 1321. 1323, 1365. Spirit's roads, 1202, 1208,
1225, 1319 sqq., 1323, 1324, 1334. Images of animals and men 817, 818, 820,
821, 977, 1203 seq., 1261, 1280, 1308, 1320 seq., 1323, 1324, 1365. Detached
columns, 1203, 1261, 1280, 1320 seq., 1323, 1366, Linteled Star gates or
Dragon-and-Phenix gates, 1205, 1261, 1281, 1308, 1320 seq. Walled and gated
enclosures, 1210, 1211, 1262, 1280, 1307, 1319, 1331 seq., 1361, 1365. Temples
with detached gates, 1211, 1214 sqq., 1232, 1240, 1262, 1263, 1273, 1282,
1307, 1316, 1317, 1318, 1356, 1364; accessional buildings, 1212, 1217, 1263,
1307, 1317, 1361. Tabernacles for the soul
tablets, 1216, 1273, 1307, 1316,
1361, 1364. Ling-ts'in gates, 1218, 1263, 1307, 1315. Soul towers with grave-
stone, 1219, 1232, 1239, 1264, 1282, 1307, 1312, 1364. Square fortresses, 1219,
1264, 1307, 1312, 1364. Tunnels, 1220, 1227, 1229 seq., 1232, 1264, 1311,
1314, 1364. Wang-khuen gates, 1313. Stone open altars, 1220, 1240, 1282,
1307, 1315, 1364. Grave-hills and their walls, 1221, 1226, 1232, 1239, 1264,
1282, 1310 seq., 1361. Crypts, 425, 1223, 1235 seq., 1307, 1314; approaches
to the same, 425, 426. Moon-tip walls, 1311, 1364. Name-boards affixed to
some buildings, 1313, 1318. Offices, guard-houses, etc. 1209, 1211, 1213, 1223, 1265,
1271 1277, 1307 seq., 1317, 1320, 1322, 1339, 1341, 1346 seq., 1353.
seq.,
Boundary marks, 1308, 1332, 1362, 1366. Adjacent grounds, 1332. Deer-parks,
426. Orchards, 426, 1249. Cities and wall for their protection, 427, 431, 433,
435, 457, 688, 1222. Garrisons, 435, 457, 812, 821, 905, 926, 1214, 1247,
1265, 1349 sqq.Laws forbidding to enter them, 1248, 1306. The mountains
on the spot made objects of State worship, 1360. Graves of Emperors containing
more than one Empress, 1227, 1230 seq.
The Mausolea of the Emperors of the Ming dynasty, 1177 sqq. They are imi-
tations of graves of earlier dynasties, 441, 1177. No grave exists for the se-
cond Emperor, 1178; history of his death, 1179. The 13 mausolea in Ch'ang-
p'ing, 441, 932, 1178; their site and surroundings, 1186, 1187, 1224, 1241 sqq.;
their Fung-shui, 1182, 1243, and the walls built to check its influence. 1186;
place of origin of heavy building-materials, 1249; the road connecting them
with Peking, 1251; visits paid to them by Emperors, 1204, 1251; Imperial

halting-places,1252; cordon of military closures, i24'Ssqq.\ Ch'ang-p'ing and

its importance on account of the cemetery, 1186, 1245; described by Europe-

ans, 1186; meaning of their names, 1192. The Ch ang ling, 1181, 1208 sqq.;
c

the name of T'ien-sheu Shan, borne by the mountains there, 1181 sqq. The
 5

INDEX III. 1451

Hien ling, 1226. The King ling, 1226, 1230. The Yung ling, 1226,1232.
The Yii ling, 1227. The Khing ling, 1231, 1233. The Men ling, 1231.
The Sze ling, 1234 sqq., 1238. The mausoleum of the dethroned emperor
King, 1233, 1254. The lliao ling, 441, 821, 932, 1178, 1256eqg., 1260 sqq.;
the name of Shen-lieh Shan borne by the mountains there, 1257; its inaugu-
ration, 1265; its destruction, 1259. The mausoleum of the titulary emperor
Hien, 1276, 1280; the name of Shun-teh Shan given to the mountains there,
1277. Tombs of the ancestors of the Ming dyn. 1268sqq.; their situation, 1269,
,

names, 1271 seq., 1274, and destruction, 1276; names conferred on the moun-
tains at the spot, 1275.
The Mausolea of the Emperors of the reigning dynasty, 1177, 1282 sqq. They
bear a close resemblance to those of the Ming dyn., 1306 sqq., 1309. Regula-
tions concerning their shape and construction, 1307 sqq. Their administration,
1339 sqq. Their garrisons, 1349 sqq. Labourers and other persons, 1343, 1347 sqq.

Passes giving access, 1350. Cattle reared on the spot, 909, 1348. The popula-
tion of the environs, 1333. Ginseng growing there, 911, 1333. Posts surround-
ing the grounds, 003 seq.Where the building-materials and workmen were
collected, 1342, 1352. Laws for their protection, s. Laws. The Eastern Mau-
1324; their situation and Fung-shui, 1282sgg., 1285;
solea, 1282, 1298, 1300,
the name Shan conferred on the mounts at the spot, 1285. The
of Ch'ang-shui
Western Mausolea, 1293, 1299, 1324; their situation and Fung-shui, 1293 sqq,
1296; the name of Yung-ning Shan conferred on its mountains, 1297.
The Mausolea of the ancestors of the reigning dynasty, 1355 sqq. Names
conferred on the mountains there, 1357, 1358. Places where the building-
materials were collected, 1358. ling, 1356, 1358, 1361; its ming
The Yung
t ang, 1362. The Chao ling, 1357, 1363 .sqq. The Fuh ling, 1357, 1363 sqq.,
c

1370. Their Fung-shui, 1370; palisades, 1367; administration, 1358, 1368,

1371 ;
garrisons, 1372; grounds for the cultivation of sacrificial articles, pasture
land, 1373. Visited by Emperors, 1371. Graves of Imperial concubines,
etc.

princes and princesses, situated in the vicinity, 1367 seq.

See Burial, Medicines, Sacrifices.
Grave-clothes, 6, 20, 46 sqq. For women, 53 sqq. For children and youths, 58 sqq.
Of very bad material, even of paper, 65 seq., 704, 705, 815. Of precious ma-
terial and with valuable body ornaments, 701. Prepared before death and pre-

sented by children to their parents, 60 sqq., 324. Ancient, 332 sqq. Presented
by condoling Rulers, kinspeople and friends, 33 sqq., 42, 334, 335, 338, 340,
and by Ministers to their deceased Rulers, 625. Their use regulated by rescripts
from the Throne, 339, 698 sqq. Superstitions connected with, 64. Of new ma-
terial pasted or basted together, 46, 704. They may not be wadded, 48, nor

may they have been lent out 51 nor may they consist of five or of an even
, , ,

number of 64 seq. The dead must wear many suits, 65, 339, 703.
layers,
Leather may form no part of, 66, 702. They constitute the dress of the soul,
702. Deterioration ot the custom of using precious 46, 65, 703 seq., 705. ,

Grave-diggers, 208, 227, 229.

Guardians, 61 seq.

Hainan. Aborigines of, 655.

Hair. The downy hairs of the face plucked out, 604. S. Mourning.
Hair-pins. Worn at marriages, 54. Not worn in the period of mourning, 603. Shaped
like a Buddhist crosier, 55; made in a year of 13 months, 57; things affixed to, 57.
 ,

1452 INDEX III.

Hats, caps or cowls, 48, 50, 53, 54, 59, 223, 339, 637.
Heads. Artificial heads affixed to headless corpses, 355.
Heaven. The source of all life, 22, 271, 273, 295, 316, 936. Its quadrants, 317,
699, 949; they are shen, 952. Its name in literary style, 939. Its breath or
beneficial influence, 948; the cause of production and life in co-operation with
the Earth, 948 seq., 952. Consulted about the location of graves and buildings,
991. S. Gods and Goddesses.
Heaven and Earth. All men are under sway
the absolute of, 935.
Hell, 66, 71, 80, 123. Release from Hell must be paid for to its authorities,
80. Its bloody tank, 83. Souls redeemed from it by Buddhist ceremonies
123 sqq.
Hempseed. It symbolizes a numerous offspring, 90. Cakes made of it, much liked
by the dead, 76.
Hiao, s. Filial devotion.
Histories. Dynastic, XVIII, 236.
Horses. Presented for funeral processions, 142, i61 sqq , 169 sqi. Killed at burials,
698. Buried with the dead, 395, 405; straw horses thus buried, 403.
Horoscope. It determines the fate of a man, 103, and the position of his grave,
976. S. Tate, and Fung-shui.
Houses. Of the official class in ancient China, 16, 984, 1083. Buildings are consi-
dered to front the South, 5, 16, 249, 942, 984, and erected in accordance with
the Fung-shui theories, 936, 940, 944. The apartment for the exercise ot do-
mestic religion, 5, 1084. S. Dwellings, Paper sheets, Purification.
Hwuh, s. Tablets.

Ice, used to retard decomposition of the dead, 265, 266. Ice-houses in ancient
China, 265.
I-i, a renowned plant, 858.
I-khii, an ancient State, 680.
Images. Regarded as animated, 807 sag., 809, 952. Images and portraits of the
dead, s. Dead.
Immortals, 272, 297. The eight principal, 54. The Queen of, 56, 297.
Incense. For purification, 33, 77, 209. Incense-burners or censers, 143, 166, 171.
S. Sacrifices.
Infanticide, 1389.
Infants, s. Children.
Inheritance. Goods may not pass into the possession of other clans by, 701.
Inscriptions. In honour of the good, affixed to houses and villages, s. Titles.
Upon and in graves, 979, 1084, 1101 sqq. s. Graves (the grave-stone), Necro-
:

logies, Tablets, Streamers.

Instruments for the exercise of religious ceremonies, 72, 73, 123 scq.
Insurgents. Imperial graves destroyed by, 1052, 1259. Their ancestral graves
c
destroyed by the Government, 1052. The T ai-p c ings, 207, 780, 1118, 1259,
12G5. The Red Headkerchiefs, 738. The Vermilion Eyebrows, 407 seq.
Interment, s. Burial.
Inundations, 943. Imperial relief carried to countries harrassed by, 1060, 1262, 1330.
Invokers, a class of priests or religious officers, 17, 84, 118, 177, 334, 336, 338,
349, 350 366,371, 401, 626, 1124
seq.,

Islands. Mystic islands in the Eastern Ocean , 272.

 ,

INDEX III. 1453

Jade or jasper. Identified with the heavens, 270, 275. Reinforces the vital spirits.
prevents deterioration of the body, and prolongs life, 271 sqq., 274. Placed in
the months of the dead, 269 305, 395, ami in their graves, 395, 401.
sqq.,
Jade rings on the pulses of the dead, 279, 328. Worn from the girdle, 489.
Serving as regalia, 353. Light-emitting jade, 277 seq. Coffins of, 284.
Jujube fruits, causing departed souls to return, 75.
Jung tribes, 1392.

Kan. The ten, 103, 965, 966.

Kashaya, a Buddhist priestly robe, 71, 123.
Khaimuh, an ancient State, 679.
Ki-lin, s. Unicorns.
Killing animals, forbidden by Buddhism, 66.
Kin Shan, a mountain range, 1253.
Kite. The inventor of the, 665.
Knots are auspicious , 94.
Kii-yung Pass, and its gate, 1252.
Kwa. The eight, 961 sqq.; their two arrangements, 963. Sundry qualifications
ascribed to the, 964. Identified with the points of the compass and with sons
and daughters, 964 seq., 1028. Formed with the aid of shi stalks, 991 seq.

Used for the improvement of Fung-shui, 1042.

Kwan-chung, a region, 424
Kwei, the Yin part of the human soul, 94, 110.
Kwun-lun, a mountain range, 56, 1009.

Lamps or candles, burned beside the dead, 21, 200, 241, and done away with
after the coffining, 97.
Lanterns. On the premises 605. In honour of the Lords of the three Spheres, 25.
S. Funeral processions.
Laws. The part they play in China, 133, 1028. Transgressed with impunity by people
of low condition, 760. Obliging the people to bury the dead within a certain
time, 133, 1027 seq. Prescribing how to act with found corpses, 135, 873
Against the violation of dead bodies and the desecration of graves, 135, 345
704, 854, 861 sqq., 899, 901, 934, 1062, 1275, 1389. Against cremation, 1411
1413. Against the neglect of mourning, 568, 577, 582. Forbidding music
revelries and banquets mourning-time, 568, 608, Qbisqq., and marriage
in the

613, as also secession from the clan and division of patrimonies, 618. For the
protection of grave-trees 463, 901, 902 sqq., HOI seq., 1333. Prescribing to
alight when approaching temples, graves, and altars of the State, 1197.
Forbidding to enter the Imperial mausolea, 1248, 1306. For the protection
of the chastity of widows , 764 sqq. Bearing upon the marriage of widows
764 sqq., 767 seq.
Legends pass for historical events, 860, 863.
Lepers. Cast out, 298. Cast into the water and left unburied, 297, 1387, 1390.
Usages with regard to their corpses, 12, 45. S. Food.
Li, a mythical beast, 1142, 1146.
94
1454 INDEX III.

Liang I, 960.
Libations, presented to the dead at their burial, 141, 146, and to the God of

the Soil, 221. Tankards, jugs and cups for, 144seq.

Lictors or policemen in processions and retinues, 87 sqq., 96, 164, 204.

Life, identified with the Yang, 22; s. Gold, Heaven, Jade. Elixir of, s.

Alchemy.
Lions, 1324 seq.
Literature of the ancients restored under the Han dynasty, 235.
,

Litigations. About graves, 1036. Abused as means to extort money, 1036, 1037.
Liver. Its peculiar place in sacrifices, 79.
Loess, 368, 372.
Loh-yang, an ancient Imperial residence, 435, 693.

M.
Macao, its Governor murdered in 1849, 355, 1049.

Man tribes, 1065.

Mandarins. Recruited from the class of the learned, 768, 1056 seq. Being proxies
of the Emperor, they bear sway over the gods, 220. Supposed to be models of
virtue, 575, 617. They officiate at burials of notable families, 96, 176, 213 sqq.,
216, 218, 220 sqq., 224, 229, 230, 233 seq., honour sutteeism by their presence,
748, prepare inscriptions for honorary gates, 785, and inaugurate such monu-
ments, 786. They settle questions about graves, 1036, 1051, distribute coffins,
922, establish graveyards, s. Graves, and encourage benevolent work towards
the dead, 1386. What they have to do on their parents' death, 580, and on
the death of other relations, 581. They must resign their office when in mourn-
ing, 571 sqq.; s. Mourning. Their grave-mounds made by the people, 458.
Regulations regarding their graves and those of the nobility, 451, 821, regarding
the articles placed therein, and their grave clothes, 696, 698, and regarding
their sepulchral tablets and those of the nobility, 1147 sqq., 1162. Mandarins
and commoners killed while in the Imperial service, 789. S. Blunderbusses,
Boards, Ministers, Presents.
Mang-siang, s. Fang-liang.
Mansions and Palaces anciently, 250; s. Houses.
Manslaughter. Indemnification paid for, 138.
Marriage. Woman by marriage secedes from her own clan and is incorporated with
her husband's, 442, 507, 521, 536, 561, 565, 757, 829, 1028, 1115. Marriage
between members of the same clan is forbidden, 538. In ancient times, 609 sqq.
Of widows, s. Widows. In the mourning period, 617, s. Mourning. Of the
dead in their graves, 802 sqq., 1063. Dominated by the will of the parents, 806;
marriage-masters. 614 seq., 741, 760 seq., 765 seq., 768. Match-makers, 761,
804. Lucky days to celebrate the ceremonies, 610, 613, 738, 762, 995. The
introductory rites, and clothes worn on this occasion, 47, 763. Clothes and
hair-pins worn by brides, 53 sqq., 763. Bethrothal money, 610, 614, 741, 757,
758, 760 seq., 763, 764. Written covenants, 761. The bride carried home, 206,
610, 617. The wedding-table, 763, 805. Great outlays indulged in at, 703.
Marriage-promises, 741.
Married life. Standard examples of matrimonial love, 466, 470, 472. S. Birds,
Ducks, Phenixes, Swans.
Masses for the dead, 82, 113, 121, 173, 193, 199, 486, 687, 717, 866, 1129; ce-
lebrated on a small scale, 121. Mourning worn during their celebration, 591.
Banners with eulogic inscriptions then presented to the deceased, 1129.
 .

INDEX III. 1455

Meals after a funeral, 227, 229, -1066.

Measures of length, theif European equivalents, 1098.
Medical art, 217. In what it consists for a great part, 473.
Medicines. First tasted by the Minister or the son of the patient, 68. Supplied
gratuitously to the poor, 864. Obtained from coffins and graves, 326 sqq.
Human flesh, 458, 747, 752, 775, 793, 1127.
Mediums between gods and men (Wu), 40, 712, 719, 742, 928, 998.
Memoirs concerning provinces, departments and districts, 746, 1415.
Mercury, placed in coffins, 281.
Metal, s. Elements.
Millet, symbolizing numerousness of offspring, 90. S. Dreams.
Ming dynasty. Its dethronement, 1234, 1355. Its still living descendants, 1186.
S. Emperors.
Ministers. Their duties towards their Rulers, 68, 638.
Mock-money, s. Paper.
Monasteries, built in behalf of Fung-shui , 1043.
Money, s. Coins, Sacrifices, Paper.
Moon. Believed to contain a hare, 200. Imperial altar for its worship, 787. As
coffin decoration, 317.
Mothers. The maternal authority, 619, 760. Step-mothers, 513, 516, 549; divor-
ced mothers, 514, 516, 536, 551; foster-mothers, 514, 549; adoptive mothers,
549. S. Filial devotion.
Mountains and hills rule the human destiny, 944, 948, 954. Their shapes and con-
stitution point out which element predominates in them , 956 S. Fung-shui.
Mourning. A matter of the greatest importance already in early times, 475. A
political institution, as fixing the position and subjection of everybody in his fa-
mily or clan , 534, 538 sqq., 542, 544 sqq., 563, 586. The part it plays in the
administration of punishments, 566. It originated in the custom of sacrificing
everything to the dead, 27, 475 seq., 491, 622, 625, 646. Its connection with
the dressing of the dead, 476, 571, and their interment, All seq. Ancient
treatises on, 490. Codifications of the rescripts on, 538 sqq., 542, 544 sqq., 566.
Divided into five degrees, 259, 491, 546; why it is so divided, 528. The three
years' mourning, 498; its high importance, 502, 575; it lasts 25 or 27 months,
500. Its duration in the oldest times, 281, 311. Represented by the mulberry
tree, 332. It may not be performed in silence, 701. Octogenarians are exempt
from it, 533. Observed especially for the members of the clan of the father or
the husband , 535, 563 sqq. Not observed for relations lower in rank , 569. Those
who neglect to mourn are punished . 568, 577, 582. Mih-tsze's exposition of the
evilconsequences of excessive fasting and mourning, 670 sqq. It may not be
brought into contact with the gods of Heaven and Eaith, 644. Emblems of
mourning affixed to mortuary houses, 28, 605.
Mourners have to bare the upper part of the body, 36,168, 177, 196, 275,
336, 338, 476 seq., 478, 488, 528, 532, to stamp the feet, 112, 117, 152, 197,

210, 260, 337, 338, 350, 478 seq., 580, to tuck up their skirts, 641, 647, to
go barefoot, 580, 589, 647, to beat their breasts, 112, 260, 479, to sleep be-
side the corpse, 27, 114, 800, to dwell in sheds, 28, 480 sqq., 484 seq., 570,

571, 609, 669, 1023, to sleep on mats or straw, 27, 114, 485, 486, 647, to
converse in peculiar way, 492, to wail, 259, 492, s. Death-howl, and to
a
fast, 492, s.Fasting. They are fed by their neighbours, 647, 655. They may
not wash , nor be combed or shaven, 489, 504, 597, 599 seq., 601 sqq., 632, 636 seq.
their hair and head-gear, 13, 476, 478 seq., 488, 495, 528, 532, 571, 591, 593 seq.
 1456 INDEX III.

They may not indulge in music or singing, 230, 502. 568, 605, 606, 617, 628 sqq.,
636. nor have festive meals, 229, 568, 608, 628, 629, 654, nor pluck flowers, 593, nor
pay any visits of condolence, 505, nor take part in audiences or sacrifices , 581, 628,
645, nor compete at the State examinations , 584, nor enter a Palace, 641. They may
not marry or indulge in sexual intercourse, 608, 628, 629, 634, 636; never-
theless they often do so, 617. They may not secede from their clan or divide
the patrimony, 618. The principal mourner at funeral rites, 30, 33, 115, 117,
141, 227, 234, 476.
Mandarins mourning and for their teachers, 639;
for their relations, 581 seq.,

they resign their posts, Emperors do not reign in the

571 sqq., 639, 653.
time of mourning, 570, 622. Mourning observed by Emperors and Rulers, 569 sqq.,
63% sqq. Mourning for Rulers, 506, 508 seq., 518, 520, 525, 570, 573, 606, 623,
628, 636, 638; its origin, 623; it is of higher importance than that for any

one else, 573, 627; things forbidden during it, 628 sqq. For Empresses, 624,
637. For the Ruler's nearest relations, 628. For Confucius, 639. For teachers,
638. Visiting-cards used in the time of mourning, 643.
Mourning-apartments and mourning-sheds, 28, 367, 369, 479 sqq., 486, 492,

503, 512, 1023. Terras denoting them, 483.

Mourning-cards, announcing deaths, 111 sqq.
Mourning-clothes , 255, 350 seq., 353. Characterized by an absence of embellish-
ment, 488, 562, 592 seq., 595 seq., 603, of girdle pendants, 489, 499, of red
things, 592, 599, 600, of silk, 13, 592 seq., 595, 599, 602, and of flowers, 593.
Worn on sundry occasions, 14, 15, 87, 88, 141, 193, 195, but especially at in-
terments, 478. They may exercise a nefarious influence, 14, 601, 640 sqq.
Mourning-clothes of the first degree, 493 sqq., 547, 586, 1023; when worn,
591 ; the relations they were worn for anciently, 506, and nowadays , 549. Of
the second degree, 511 sqq., 551, 596; when worn, 598; the relations they
were worn for anciently, 513, 515, and at present, 551. Of the third degree,
522, 554, 599; the relations for whom they were worn anciently, 522 sqq., and
now, 554. Of the fourth, 525, 555, 599; relations for whom they were worn
anciently, 525, and nowadays, 555. Of the fifth, 528, 558, 599; kinspeople
they were anciently worn for, 529, and at present, 558. Exceptional mourning-
clothes, 531 seq., 562, 600. Those worn at re-burial, 532, 1061, 1062, and by
those who pay visits of condolence, 597. The modern mourning-dress of the
Amoy Chinese, 585 sqq. For sons-in-law, 599. Mourning-cowls, 590, 594, 597,
599. Ear-plugs, 500, 588. Sandals, 589, 598. People dressed in mourning may
not enter a palace, nor another person's house, nor any Government building
or fort, 641 seq., 842, and they may not attend the festivities of others, 643. Not
worn at home by married women for their own parents, 643.
Mourning- colours. They consist in the absence of artificial hues, 601. Blue, 113,
594, 601, 605. Other colours, 594, 605.
Mourning-staff, 146. 168 seq., 193, 195, 211, 351, 391, 476, 480, 494, 512, 547 seq.,

551, 590, 598; its connection with fasting, 494, 648, 650, 657, 670 seq.
Moon, s. Altars and Sun.
Muh. The battle of, 116, 283.
Mukden, 1357.
Music. During funeral ceremonies, 87, 89, 96, 124, 140, 146, 150, 157 seq., 164,
173, 179, 210, 214, 228, 607; funeral music in ancient China, 159. At sacri-

fices, 80. Days on which anciently no music was made, 116. Musical instru-
ments; made of old coffin wood, 329; placed in graves, 159, 392. Instruments
for stopping an orchestra 291 S. Mourning and Sacrifices.
, .
 INDEX III. 1457

N.

Nails, placed in coffins, 89, and in graves, 209.

Nakshatra, 974.
Names. Identical with those that bear them, 212, 213. They exercise a powerful
influence, 952. Burying some one's name in a grave may be dangerous to him,
212, 234. Names given to the dead, 175, '1125, 1126, 1162, 1179, 1239. S. Titles.
Nan-khao Pass, 1186.
Nanking, the capital of China at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, 1178, 1256
seq. Visited by Shing Tsu, 1263. Its capture by the T c ai-p ing
c
insurgents and
re-capture by the Imperial armies, 1260, 1265.
Nature. Never studied in China in a scientific manner, 937, 1055. Ideas prevailing
Tao.
in regard of it, 937. S.
Necrologies, 113. Engraved on large stone tablets standing on graves, 1163, 1329
sqq. Engraved in stones buried in the graves, 166, 213, 452, 1109 sqq., 1124 sqq.;
rubbings on paper, drawn from such stones, and distributed, 1110; their
origin and history, 1122 sqq., 1131; terms to denote them, 1109, 1139.
Necromancy by means of coins, 85, 115, 142.
Nephrite, s. Jade.
Ngao or wei, a necrophagous beast, 468.
Nirwana, 74.
Nobility, 448, 451. S. Mandarins.
North. Identified with the Yin, 249, with winter, 316, and with death, 962. The
dead buried on the north and with their heads to the north, 984.
Nuns, 756

Officers, s. Mandarins.
Offices, generally much coveted by the people. 58.
Offspring. A numerous male offspring is a great blessing and a matter of pride,
112, 194, 760, 1022, also to the dead, 937. Compared with the growth of
gourds and melons, 223; and symbolized by rice and peas, 90. Its procreation
promoted by lanterns in funeral processions, 172, 228. It is obligatory to have
an offspring, s. Filial devotion.
Oil used in scorcery, 23.
Orchids symbolize harmony, 167.
Oreinocritics , 958.
Orphans and tutors, 615 seq.

P.

Paddy symbolizes numerousness of offspring, 90.

Pagodas, 958, 977.
Palaces may not be entered by those who wear mourning, nor with certain
things, 641. The Palace at Peking, 635, 787, 950, 985, 1051.
Palisades in Manchuria, 1367.
Paper mock-money; its origin and history, li'isqq. Placed in coffins, 31, 92; pre-
sented to the dead by friends and relations, 31 seq., 233. The ashes placed in
coffins, 32, 80, 82, 717, and in graves, 32, 80, 213, and sent to the dead by
the intervention of puppets, 78 seq., 127.
Paper sedan-chairs for the dead, 28; burned after the coffining, 98, 717.
1458 INDEX III.

Red paper sheets affixed to houses, and how dealt with at deaths, 28, 605.
Lettered paper may not be contaminated, 92, -110. S. Scrolls.
Paradise of the West, 72, 121, 123 sqq., 172, 226.
Parks of the Emperor, 1254.
Paronomasia, see Words.
Patra or Buddhist alms-bowl, 77,
Patriarchal character of Rulers, 623.
Peach, a symbol of longevity, 56. Its wood frightens away evil spirits, 41 seq., 328.
Pearls. Obtained from snakes, 353. Placed in the mouths of the dead, s. Dead.
Used in medical art, 217. They are depositories of Yang substance, and
bearers of vitality, 277. Some emit light, 277, 353.
Pears create felicity, 76.
Peas symbolize numerousness of offspring, 90.
Pecks, presented by some Emperors to deceased statesmen, 1132.
Peking, the Imperial residence since the Ming dynasty, 1181. Its walls face the
cardinal points, 985. Its Fung-shui, 950, 1051.
Penang nuts, s. Betel.
Phenixes, the symbols of matrimonial felicity, 54.

Philosophy. Its influence on Religion, VII, XI. It bears a materialistic character,

682. It is 936. The philosophic
the broad basis of the Fung-shui system , school
ot Sung dynasty, 715, 1008.
the
P'ih-sie, a mythical animal, 452, 1142 sqq.
Pillows for the head, 91.
Pines, s. Trees, Coffins, Grave-vaults.
Pine-apples create felicity, 76.
Pith, or rice-paper, 90.
Pi-yih, a bird representing conjugal attachment, 472.
Planets, and the corresponding Elements, 959.
Play-acting, 608, 637.
Pollution incurred by contact with death, Sixqq. S. Purification.
Ponds in front of mansions and temples, 946, 1084.
Portraits of the dead s. Dead. ,

Possessions of a child belong to its parents, even after their death, 27, 51, 91.
Those of a man remain his property after his death 570, 623. ,

Posterity, s. Offspring.
Prayers read at sacrifices, 147, 225, 1127.
Pregnancy. Pregnant women must keep away from funeral matters, 32, and take
care of themselves when a coffin is being closed, 94.
Presents. Conferred by the Crown for the funerals of meritorious statesmen, 316,
410, 412, 688, 693, 711, 1099, s. Pecks, and for those of suttees, 746; to
very old men, 791, and virtuous persons, 853. Given to those who attended a
funeral, 230, 234, or sent vehicles into the procession , 234, or gave mock-money,
110, 230, 233, or condoled with the family, 233, or spiked down the coffin-lid,

97 ; to mandarins who officiated at a burial , 233 seq., or attended a case ol

sutteeism, 749, or prepared inscriptions for an honorary gate, 785, or inaugurated

such a monument, 780. S. Burial, Coffins, Graves, Grave-clothes, Horses.
Pretas, 72.
Priests. Buddhist clergymen officiating at deaths and funerals, 71, 150 seq., 173,
225, 228, 239; charging themselves with the keeping of unburied corpses, 131,
and of empty coffins, 325. S. Cremation, Kashaya. Taoist priests, 107 sqq.;
they bring back stolen souls into the bodies to which they belong, 244.
 INDEX III. 1459

Princes and princesses of Imperial lineage, 453, 1105. S. Graves.

Prisons, 136.
Prostrations performed at sacrifices, 149 seq.
pu, a measure of length, 1099.
Puneh-and-Judy, 608.
Punishments. For patricide, matricide and rebellion, 887. Decapitation considered
to be a severer punishment than strangulation, 346. The 17 degrees of, 567.
Punishments are one degree less severe for accomplices than for the chief culprits,
884. The severity of punishments
is regulated in connection with the degrees

of mourning, 566 For murder, 344, 346. For theft, in proportion to the
seq.
value of the stolen goods, 869, 873. Branding thieves, 869, 873, 912. Shaving
the head, 691. S. Laws.
Purification. Of the body, after contact with death, 32, 137, 231. Of houses and
their inmates after cases of death, 107, 111, 233: from contagious diseases, 162.
Of graves, 209 seq. S. Exorcisms, Exorcists, Salt.

R.

Rain. During an interment forebodes felicity, 213, 947, 979. Its blissful influences,
944. S. Dragon and Eung-shui.
Re-birth of the human soul into another individual, 65, 76, 80.
Re-burial in other graves, 129, 532, 705, 1057 sqq., 1062sqq., 1376. Occasioned
by Fung-shui superstitions, 1036, 1047, 1057, 1063, 1067. Condemned and
forbidden, 870, 1067 seq., 1069. Connected with a washing of the bones, 1070.
Red, the colour of fire, light, Yang and life, 216, and of happiness, 6, 28, 31,
111, 112. Inconsistent with deep mourning and with death, 28, 592, 599, 600.
Red cloth stretched over doors and windows, 25. Red cloth and red things used
to ward off evil, 87, 95, 96, 97, 155, 219, 220, 227, 230, 234, 326, 1037.
Reeds sweep away inauspicious things, 41 seq.
Regalia, 353.
Religion in China, VII. Its influence, X. Based on the worship of souls, 1. Reli-
gion of the State, 236.
Resurrection, s. Dead.
Retinue of a graduate or a mandarin, 96, 137, 164 seq., 176, 186. It must make
way for funeral processions, 206.
Revival, s. Dead.
Rice. Used lor purification, s. Salt. Must distilled from, 383. S. Paddy.
Rings. For the wrists and ankles, 55. For the fingers, 57, 596; sets oi thirteen,
made in a year of thirteen months, 57. S. Jade.
Rites, 1, 4, 6. Codifications of the ancient rites, 236 sqq. S. Funeral Rites.
Roofs. Of walls and large edifices, 1165 sqq. With bracket frieze, 1166, 1169, 1193
Rottlera, s. Coffins and Trees.
Roundness symbolizes perfection, 111, 232.

S.

Sackcloth garments, 498, 586. S. Mourning-clothes.

Sacrifices. To Heaven 33, 674 seq.
, offered by the Emperor 490, 644. Imperial
; ,

sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, 1268. To the god of the Soil, 26, 30, 197,

219 sqq., 224, 227, 994. To the five most ancient Emperors, 709. The five ob-
jects of, 7. For promotion of happiness, oflered by the Emperor and the mandarins,
645. To Emperors and famous men of former ages, 927 sqq., 932. To the an-
1460 INDEX III.

cestors and gods on the house-altar, 62, 234. To Buddhist saints, for the dead,
122. To paper palankeen-hearers of the dead, 29, and paper money-bearers , 79.
To puppets that away evil spirits from funerals, 103. To the hearse, at a
drive
burial, 145. Paper money sacrificed to spirits and gods, 108, 209, 221: and to
evil ghosts. 88, 154. Incense sacrificed to divinities, 220. Sacrificial articles, 110,
651; the five viands, 142, 220; s. Libations. Lambs sacrificed anciently on
opening the ice-houses, 265. Sacrificial prayers, 147, 222, 225. Sacrificial attires,
s. Clothes. Fasting connected with sacrifices, 656. Mourners may not attend
them, s. Mourning.
Sacrifices to the dead. They form one of the chief duties of man, 659. They
are the basis of mourning and fasting, s. Mourning and Fasting. Offered
soon after the demise 29, 38, 356 sqq 359, 378, 379, 382. In connection with
, ,

the dressing, 70 sqq., 74sqq., 83 sqq., 360, 363, 651, and the coffining, 98, 360,
363, 651. After the coffining, 115 sqq., US sqq., 140, 350, 364 seq., 652. In
connection with the provisional burial, 364 sqq., 368, 371, 382. To those dead
whose burial is delayed, 121, 124, 846. At the departure of the funeral procession,
141, 142 sqq., 197, 229, 386, 652, 1124, 1236. At the interment, 197 sqq., 225,
229, 239. After the burial, 360, 1066, 1237. Upon the graves, 384sqq., 387,
1185, 1271, 1363; by Imperial emissaries, 789, 844. On Imperial tombs, 1246,
1251, 1260, 1262, 1266, 1271 seq., 1274, 1359, 1368, 1371, 1372. On roads
where a corpse is carried past, 207, 459, 843. When a corpse is sent to the
native place, 839. In the time of mourning, 480, 481, 499, 504, 594 seq., 599,
605, 606, 651. Before soul tablets, 121. They are returned in the shape of
blessings to those who offer them , 99. Sacrifices to ancestors of other clans are
forbidden, 51. Written prayers read at, 147, 225 seq., 1127. Offered by the
Authorities to the uncared-for dead, 917. Incense, 78, 98, 121, 141, 146. Silk,
349 seq. Grave-clothes and valuables sacrificed to deceased Rulers by their Ministers,
625. Silk, clothes and other articles, burned at, 715, 718, 739seq., 1170, as
also real houses, 718, paper models of houses, furniture, clothes etc. 26, 711,
716 and paper mock-money, 25 seq., 29, 31, 78, 98, 124, 142, 226, 711,
sqq.,

716; all such burned counterfeits are of real value to the dead, 719; the origin
of such burnt sacrifices, 711 sqq.; their advocates and antagonists, 714sqq.
Sacrificial furnaces, 25, 1170. Horses and their counterfeits sacrificed to the
dead, 709, and the dwelling, its furniture and beds, s. Dwellings.
by placing them in their coffins, 92, 390, 414,
Articles sacrificed to the dead
669, and paper slaves, 24, 27, 93. Putting articles in the graves, 27,
705,
109, 282, 290, 293, 364, 390 sqq., 392 seq., 410, 421, 425, 438, 439, 456,
474, 602, 660, 669, 677, 699; decline of this custom, 474, 660, 700;
using defective articles or counterfeits for the purpose, 692, 700, 706 sqq.,
806 seq. regulation of this custom by rescripts from the Throne, 698. Food
;

placed in graves, 198, 290, 364, 382 seq., 386, 394, 402, 474, 652; clothes,
340 seq., 392, 398 seq., 403, 410, 474, 726, 1236, 1273; silk, 168 seq., 196, 391,
404, 408, 410, 477, 669, 677, 697, 710, 1236; weapons, 394, 396, 397, 402 seq.,
699; books, 414sqq., 686; mirrors, 398 seq., 414, 861; jade sceptres and bad-
ges, 404, 677; musical instruments, 159, 392, 394, 403, 605, 677; horses and
carts, 395, 405, 409, 496, 669, 677, 690, 708, 709, 717, 725, 812; other ani-
mals, 27, 406, 822; horses of straw, 403, 413. 708, 808; carts of
409, 812,
clay, 708, 807; treasures, valuables and money, 407, 409seq., 411, 413, 417,
456, 687 seq., 690, 695, 690, 711 seq., 726, 899," 1024; human beings, 27, 400,
437, 445, 486, 669, 720 sqq., 721 sqq., 1240 seq., 1267, s. Sutteeism; customs
created by such human sacrifices, 794, 800, 802, 811 sqq. Human images and
 INDEX III. 1461

pictures buried with the dead, 93, 403, 413, 690, 699, 708, 710, 717, 718,
807 seq., 809, 811.
Saddharma pundarika Sutra, 1100.
Salt and rice, used for purification, 107 sqq. , 643.
San-fu country, 424.
Sceptres of jade during the Han dynasty, 404.
Scorcery with the oil of lamps lighted beside the dead , 23.
Scrolls of paper, used for house-decoration, 25.
Seasons. Regulated by the Greater Bear, 317 seq. Connected with the kwa, 961.
Their colours, 315, 316, 317. The 24 seasons, 967.
Sedan-chairs, s. Paper. Containing the soul in funeral processions, 172.
Sexes live separated also after death, 1383.
Shadows of the living must not be shut up in a coffin, 94, nor in a grave, 210.
Shah, s. Boards.
Sha-meen at Canton, 1053.
She, s. Siu.
Shen. Afflatus constituting the Yang, 271, 293, 327, 462, 952, 991. Contained
especially in and graves, 327, 348, and in shi stalks, 991. The shen
coffins
or Yang part of the human soul, s. Soul. Shens are spiritual beings, 952.
Shi, a plant used in divination, 991.
Shoes in ancient times, 334, 495.
Shops. Closed at death, 12. For funeral trains and bridal processions, 13.
Sickness. An absence of the soul, 244. Caused by evil spirits, 134.

Sien , s. Immortals.
Silk, s. Mourning and Sacrifices.
Silver, placed in the mouth of the dead, 278.
Siri, Betel.
s.

Si-shan, 1253.
Siu or she. The twenty-eight, 954, 971. Their origin, 972. Their influence upon
the Earth , 954.
Slaves, 794.
Snakes forebode felicity, 955.
Sons. The eldest son by the principal wife, and continuator of the line of ances-

tors, 193, 383, 481, 489, 506, 509, 517, 550. Sons of concubines, 379, 383,
385, 481, 489, 517. Sons are to perpetuate the family and the ancestral worship,
212, 735. They may not secede from the paternal home, 507, 621, 757, 759,
770, nor destroy their lives, 620, 735. They ought to be versed in Fung-shui and
in the medical art, 938. Adoption of, 506, 510, 517, 537, 549, 555, 557, 584;
posthumous adoption, 758, 764, 1075. Step-sons, 520 seq.
Songs at funerals, 1066,
Soothsayers, selecting lucky days and hours, 45, 47, 62, 103s</g., 140, 595, 989.
Kwoh Poh, 1001. S. Astrology.
Soul. The soul of man is the original form of higher beings, and its worship is

the basis of Religion, 1. Identified with the blood, 217, 268. It contains a Yin
part or kwei, which returns to the earth, 94, 308, 379, and which consists
of seven 126; and a three-fold Yang part or shen, 110, 126, 200,
parts,
271, 348, 462. Its transmigration, 72, 1014. It may wander away during sleep,
76. Its absence causes unconsciousness convulsions swooning etc., 243, as also sick-
, , ,

ness, 244. It may be snatched away by evil spirits, 244. When it leaves the
body death may ensue, 241. Called back after its separation from the body,
10, 172, 226, 241, 243 sqq., 356 seq., 379; in the case of slain wariors, 252;
1462 INDEX III.

s. Clothes and Death-howl. It hovers about the corpse, 22, 121, 241,348 sqq.,
354, 702, and is then guided and invigorated by lights, 22, 171, 179, 200.
It returns home after the interment, 226. It dwells in the grave, and from
thence blesses its offspring, 57, 348, 378 sqq., 834, 930 seq. Sometimes buried
without the body, 847. It when the corpse is unburied, 127,
does not find rest
1031, and then suffers great misery, 855, 918, wails and howls in rainy weather,
918, and causes drought, 918 sqq. It rewards those who bury the corpse, and
punishes those who do not so, 860 sqq., 863, 917, 924; s. Burial. It retains

the shape of the corpse, 355. It possesses an amount of power which equals
that of which it disposed during life, 769. Conveyed to Paradise in a ship, 226.
Beds fur its use, 238. Worship of souls in the seventh month, 715. Puppets
and other objects are animated, 163. Seats tor disembodied souls, s. Soul ta-
blets, Double, Graves (the Grave-stone), Images, Streamers.
Soul banners, s. Streamers.
Soul tablets, 5, 25, 113, 121, 142, 171 sqq., 202, 213s<7</., 241, 371, 581, 635,
750, 847, 848, 852, 952. Entered by the soul at the burial, 211, and vitality
then poured into, 214 seq. Hung with coins, to render the offspring wealthy,
142, 215, 218. The influences of Heaven and Earth ought
upon them, to operate
215 seq., 937. Their part in the domestic religion, 218.
Worshipped, 5, 228.
Placed in grave-temples, 1168, 1216. Public repositories for unowned, 1058.
Temporary soul tablets, 70, 94, 98, 115, 141, 142, 172 seq., 202, 228, 238,
241, 348. Used to call back the souls of the dead, 253. Placed in graves, 213.
South. Identified with the Yang, 249, with summer, 316, with brightness, warmth
and life, 962, 964. buildings are considered to face the, 984, and so are Rulers,
540, 984.
Spectres, s. Spirits.
Spirits. They reward the good and punish the bad, 860. Settled in bridges and
street-gates, 155, and in water, 14, 15.
Evil spirits. Identified with the Yin, 41. Prowling about and causing mis-
fortune, 109, 154, 355, or disease and epidemics, 134, and death, 218. Robbing
and maltreating the dead, 88, 154, 173, and devouring their corpses, s. Fang.
Hang; they snatch from men the vital spirits, 244. Headless evil spectres
355. Produced by unburied corpses, 106, 127. Frightened away by living persons.
161 sqq., 209, by paper images, 160, by images of tigers, 181, by red colours
156, by trumpets, 155, 158, fire, 355, fire-works, 156, 355, or cocks, 200 seq
Expelled from grave-pits, 162 seq., 209 seq., 469. Disenabled by daylight, 200.
856. S. Exorcisms ami Exorcists.
Spring, identified with the East, 316, 967.
Staff, badge of authority 168, 494, 598, 641. S. Mourning-staff.
,

Stag, the symbol of old age, joy, and pecuniary profits, 53, 55 seq., 979.
Stars. As coffin decorations, 317. S. Siu, Bear, Planets.
Step-fathers, 521, 554.
Step-mothers, 513, 516, 549.
Step-sons, 520 seq.
Stone. White marble or dolomite, used in building, 818.
Strangers are often left unburied, 1387.
Strangulation, s. Punishments.
Streamers, serving as seats to disembodied souls and piloting them into Pa-
radise, 125 seg., 193. Another kind, called Soul banners, ilisqq., 221, 234,
241, 805, placed in the grave, 176, 212, 241, 348, 1135, 1137; anciently called
Inscriptions, 20, 366, 368, 371.
 .

INDEX III. 1463

Sugar and sweetmeats symbolize the sweetness of life, 230.

Suicides. Committed in sundry ways and under various circumstances, 736, 744,
748. Dressing themselves with the best clothes they have, 702, 736, 749. How
to revive those who have hanged themselves, 217. S. Sutteeism.
Summer, identified with the South, 316, 967.
Sun, moon and stars as coffin decorations, 317. Imperial Altar for its worship, 787.
Sutras, the sacred books of the Buddhists, 74.
Sutteeism, 135 sqq., 1240. Of brides, 741. By fire, 736 sqq. On behalf of the dead
endangered by fire or water, 742. Performed in public, 748 Its generality and
popularity 746, 748. The invisible powers approve it 744. The Throne rewards
, ,

it by bestowal of presents and public honours, 746, 747, 749 sqq., s. Gates.

Its victims worshipped by Imperial envoys, 746; official temples erected for

them 746, 750 sqq.

.

Swans representing matrimonial attachment, 472.

Swan-ni, mystic beasts, 1324.
Swoon is caused by an absence of the soul , 243.
Swords serving as regalia, 353.
Symbols or semblances are not distinguished from the realities they call to mind, 212.

T.

Tablets (hwuh), held before the breast at audiences 334, 820.

Inscribed tablets of stone, placed on graves, 440, 446, 450, 451 seq., 815,
1095seg., U40sqq. Terms denoting them, 1140, 1146, 1150, 1156, 1161, 1163,
1164. The part of the grave where they stand, 1150, 1157. Their shape and
ornamentation, 1140 sqq., Hi! sqq. The animals carved on them may bring
blessing to the occupant of the grave and his offspring, 1146. Official rescripts

concerning them, 1147, 1158 be erected only for nobles,

seq., 1174. They may
mandarins and their consorts, 1140, 1160. Allowances granted by the Govern-
ment for their erection, 1162, 1175. The inscriptions they bear are sometimes
by the Emperor's own hand, 1149, or composed by the Han-lin College, or the
Imperial Chancery, 1150, 1176. Arithmancy in regard of the inscriptions, 1150.
Some contain a biography, 1163. Sheltered under a pavilion, 1151, 1169, 1170,
1176, 1199. Their connection with Fung-shui, 1157. Their origin and history,
1152s<j<j. Erected at the mausolea of Princes, 1169, and Emperors, 1199 seq.

S. Soul tablets.
Tantras, Buddhist magic formulas, 71, 73.
Tao, the Course of Nature, 308, 936, 943, 997. Man, to be happy, must live in

accordance with it , 930, 991

Taoism, XIII, 310, 997 S. Immortals, Priests.
Teachers. Their relation to their pupils, 638. and influential position in social life,
640. Mourned for, 638.
Temples. For the worship of ancestors, 114, 251, 255, 521, 543, 1084; decorated
with honorary gates, 783; anciently the dead were taken thither before burial,
151, 168, 187. Grave-temples, s. Graves. For the worship of the renowned
dead, 284; of the chaste and filial, 750, 755, 757, 789, 793; of suttees, s.
Sutteeism; of the loyal, dutiful, filial and fraternal, 789, 791, 793; of offi-
cers ot repute and local worthies, 790; of loyal mandarins, at Peking, 790,
844; of emperors and kings of former dynasties, 787. To Confucius, 750, 790,
1330; that in Peking. 787. Buddhist temples, 128, 325. Built and situated in

accordance with the Fung-shui theories, 935, 937, 940, 944, 1043 seq. Parti-
culars about their shape, 1084 sqq. Those of the State Religion have tablets
 1464 INDEX III.

orderingriders to dismount, 1197. The gods worshipped in a temple may

not
seeany funeral processions, 155. Temples maintained by contributions, 645.
Tents or awnings put up at mortuary houses, 29.
T'ai Kin, the Ultimate Principle, 960, 1042, 1424.
Theatricals, 608, 637.
T'ien-luh, a mythical beast, 452, iU2sqq.
Throne. Accession to the, 571; celebrated beside the dead monarch, 3b2sqq.
Thunder. Identified with the spring, 962. It causes inflation of corpses, 45.
Ti-tsang wang, 71, 72, 74.
Tiger. The emblem wind, 949, and of martial power and prowess, 951. It can
of
re-animate the dead, 44. Used for exorcising purposes, 181. Embroidered on
coffin-palls, 181. The White Tiger, an emblem of the West and of the autumn,

317, 396, 983. Its importance in the Fung-shui system, 949 sqq.
Tiles on Imperial edifices, 1165.
Time. Division of, s. Cycles and Year.
Titles of honour, awarded to officers, their consorts, parents and grandparents,
767, 1103 seq., 1107, and to families and villages, 622, 769 sqq., Ill; conferred
upon the deceased, 410, 412, 688, 1103, 1239, and upon trees, 296. S. Widows.
Torches in funeral processions, 179.
Tortoises. The emblems of longevity, 53, 55 seq., 1083, 1146. Burying each other,
980. Bearing stone tablets, 451 seq., 1140, 1147, 1161, 1109, 1199. The Black
Tortoise, identical with the North and with Winter, 317. A nick-name for brothel-
keepers, 1043. Grave-mounds shaped like a tortoise, 1083. S. Divination.
Towns. Their environs in connection with Fung-shui, 936, 950, 958, 1046; their
shape in the same connection, 977, 986, 995, 1044, 1045.
Trees. Invested with honorary titles, 296. The I, 293. The Rottlera, 293 seq., 462,
471, 472. The pine and the cypress, 293; imbued with vitality and capable
of prolonging life, 294 sqq. The camphor tree, 301. The Ivia or Ts c iu, 302. The
P'ien, 302. The Tung, Wu-t=ung or Ch c en, 302, 548: oil made of its
fruits, 319. The San, 324, 468. The mulberry, 332. S. Coffins, Graves
(Grave trees).
Tribunals, flogging and torturing, 136.
Trigrams, s. Kwa.
Triratna, 73, 121.
Trowsers with mock-money, placed in coffins, 93
Ts'ing dynasty. Its accession, 1355. S, Emperors.
Tung-king, 1355.
Tutelage, 615 seq.
Typhoons, 943.

U.

Unconsciousness is caused by the absence of the soul , 243.

Undertakers, 13, 140, 167, 203 seq., 228, 322, 591.
Unicorns. Perhaps not entirely fabulous, 822. They forebode the appearance oi
sages, excellent leaders and good princes, 181, 824, 1146. Placed upon graves,
813, 819, 823 sqq., 978, 979, 1194. Carved on sepulchral tablets, 452, 1142,
1146. Embroidered on coffin-palls, 181.
Univalves may promote happiness, 76.
Universe. All men live under its absolute sway, 935.
Urna, 72.
 ,

INDEX III. 1465

Urn-burial, 329, 1058 seg., 1382. Urns with human bones, kept unburied, 1058

seq., and often forgotten, 1001. Urns for the burial of infants, 330.

V.

Vampire spectres, 106, 127.

Vermicelli counteracts life-shortening influences, 08, 208.
Villages. Situated in accordance with the Fung-shui theories, 930. Walled and
gated, 771, 777. At strife with one another, 138, 771. S. Titles. Village com-
munities, 190, 770, 771, 832, 1374; their members buried by each other, 191.
Village cemeteries, s. Graves (Graveyards).
Virtues must be possessed by those who wish to draw profits from Fung-shui, 1014.
Visiting-cards, 043.
Vows made to the gods, 804.

W.
Wailing for the dead, s. Death-howl.
Wajra, or Buddhist magic sceptre, 73.
Walls are sometimes roofed, 1165.
Wards in towns, 771.
Water blissful influences, 944; s. Dragon, Fung-shui, Ele-
and rains, their
ments. Water used in purification, 107 seq.; it may cure short-sightedness
109. Water spirits, 14, 15.
Water-burial, 1389 sqq. In connection with cremation, 1391, 1397, 1399, 1402, 1408.
Wealth, identified with filth, 320.
West, identified with the Yin, 249, and with autumn, 316.
Wheat, the symbol of a numerous offspring, 90.
Widows. Their maternal rights, 700; they are the owners of the possessions of
their children, 1118. Many
marry, 406, 471, 744, 793. They are
refuse to

morally obliged to remain single, 744, 745, 747, 762. Anciently it was not un-
usual for widows to re-marry, 520. Official distinctions awarded to unmarried,
754 sqq., 792; laws protecting their chastity, 764 sqq.; support given them by
the Authorities and certain associations, 759; their position in their husband's
family, 7'57 sqq. Many commit suicide, 766; s. Sutteeism. Some become nuns,
756. They have to sacrifice to their husband's manes, 754. Widows cast out
into the wilderness, 680, 744.
s. Mourning. Such marriages bring bad luck,
Marriages of widows, 700 sqq. ;

761. Widows in the possession of official titles may not re-marry, 768, and
widows who re-marry cannot be awarded any official titles, 767.
Wife. The principal wife, and her position in the family, 506, 508, 515; her position
in regard of her husband, 508, 513, 550, 507, 735, 744, 754, 829; his an-
cestors are also hers, 757. Devotion towards the husband is publicly honoured
by Government, 772. S. Marriage and Widows.
Windows opened at death, 12.
Winds bring either rain or drought, 935, 942 seg., thus causing good and evil

942; s. Fung-shui. Noxious winds, 940. Identified with the Celestial Tiger,
949. The eight winds, 985, 989.
Winter, identified with the North, 316, 967, and with death, 420.
Women do not join the society of men, 229. S. Chastity, Mothers, Pregnancy,
Sutteeism , Widows Wife. ,

Words produce the reality which they express, 90, 95, 210, 218, 325. Plays on
1466 INDEX III.

homonymous words, 53, 56, 57, 65, 76, 79, 89, 93, 95, 308, 326, 361, 547,

548, 4153.
Wu, s. Exorcists and Mediums.

Yak tails as badges of official dignity, 184, 186, 251.

Yama, 66, 74, 80.
Yang and Yin, 22, 40, 65, 94, 107, 108, 110, 126, 200, 216 seq , 249, 268, 277,
295, 316, 317, 327, 348, 940, 948, 960, 961, 991, 997; their relation to the
Elements, 955. S. Shen.
Year. The 24 subdivisions or seasons ot the, 967 sqq.
Yellow, the Imperial colour, 164.
Yenden, 1354, 1355.
Yen-jen, an ancient kingdom, 680.
Yin, s. Yang.
 LIST OF PLATES.

IN VOLUME I.

Frontispiece. A Longevity Garment Opposite the title-page.

Plate I. Plan of an Official Mansion during the Cheu Dynasty. At page 16.
» II. Sacrificial Attire for Family Chiefs » 49.
» III. Petticoat of a Bride » 53.
» IV. Mantle of a Bride, with Hair- pin, Boot, Hood and
Girdle » 54.
» V. Mantilla of a Bride » 54.
» VI. A Longevity Garment » 60.
» VII. Printed announcement of a decease » 112.
» VIII. Portraits of deceased Lady and Gentleman. ... » 114.
» IX. The Spirit that clears the Way for a Funeral Pro-
cession » ItiO.

» X. Portable Pavilion in a Funeral Procession .... » 164.

» XI. A Bier or Catafalque » 180.

IN VOLUME II.

» XII. Honorary Gate in Front of a House . . Opposite the title-page.

» XIII. Stone Animals at the Imperial Mausolea of the Ming
Dynasty At page 452.
» XIV. Articles of deep Mourning Dress » 587.
» XV. Honorary Gate for a Chaste Woman -. » 746.
» XVI. Village surrounded by a Moat and Wall .... » 771.
» XVII. Honorary Gate for a Literary Graduate of the High-
est Bank » 777.
s> XVIII. Decorative Gate at the Hall of the Classics in Peking. » 787.
» XIX. Honorary Gate in Front of a Grave » 789.
» XX. Stone animals at the Imperial Mausolea of the Ming
Dynasty » 818.
» XXI. Stone Images at the Imperial Mausolea of the Ming
Dynasty » 820.

IN VOLUME III.

c
» XXII. Temple in the Mausoleum of Ch ing Tsu of the Ming
Dynasty Opposite the title-page.
146S LIST OP PLATES.

Plate XXIII. Burial Ground near Amoy , with freshly plastered

Graves At page 866.
» XXIV. Grave with a single Earthen Bank » 941.
» XXV. Grave with a Rank of Masonry and one of Earth. » 946.
» XXVI. A Geomancer's Compass » 959.
» XXVII. A Tomb of the Sixteenth Century » 979.
» XXVIII. Public Repository for Soul Tablets, containing
Bone Urns » 1058.
• » XXIX. A Tomb in the Vicinity of Amoy » 1084.
» XXX. A Tomb with Stone Shed » 1087.
» XXXI. A Tomb built under the Ming Dynasty ... » 1088.
b . XXXII. A Granite Tomb built under the Ming Dynasty,

with Grave Trees » 1090.

» XXXIII.Tomb with Altar to the God of the Soil. . » 1092.
» XXXIV. A Mural Cave used as a Grave » 1094.
» XXXV. A Sepulchral Biography. » 1111.
» XXXVI. Sepulchral Tablet of Stone » 1141.
» XXXVII. Tablet House of a Tomb \ . . » 1151.
» XXXVIII. Tablet House of the Mausoleum of an Imperial
Prince » 1160.
» XXXIX. SacriQcial Furnace in the Mausoleum of the Em-
c
peror Ch ing Tsu » 1170.
» XL. Stone Decorative Gate at the Approach to the
Ming Tombs » 1193.
» XLI. Tablet House in the Avenue to the Ming Tombs. » 1198.
» XLII. Tablet House, flanked by Columns in the Avenue ,

Ming Tombs
to the b 1201.
» XLIII. Triple Gate in the Avenue to the Ming Tombs. » 1205.
» XLIV. Marble Flight of Steps to an Imperial Temple. o 1212.
:
» XLV. Interior of the Temple in Cb ing Tsu's Mausoleum. » 1215.
» XLVI. Gate behind the Temple in the Mausoleum of
Ch'ing Tsu » 1217.
» XLVII. Decorative Gate in an Imperial Mausoleum of
the Ming Dynasty » 1218.
» XLVIII. The Soul Tower of Ching Tsu's Tomb, with
Altar in Front . . »
c
» XLIX. Euins of the Soul Tower of T ai Tsu's Mausoleum.
» L. South Entrance to the F u h ling, and Deco-
rative Gate at the Chaoling
» LI. A Cemetery seen from the Outside
» LII. View of the Interior of a Cemetery ....
» LIII. Cemetery with a large Grave for Bone Urns .
 '

BL1801.G875v.3
The religious system of China, its

Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library

1012 00009 8659