Related Links:

[1] The inventions of the Chinese during a period of four thousand years may be numbered on the fingers of one hand.

[2] East of Asia Magazine, i, 15-16.

[3] Cf. Aristotle's belief that bugs arose spontaneously from sweat.

[4] For the Buddhist account see China Review, xi, 80-82.

[5] Compare the Japanese legend, which relates that the Sun-goddess was induced to come out of a cave by being tempted to gaze at herself in a mirror. See Myths and Legends of Japan, F. Hadland Davis, pp. 27-28.

[6] See Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber. These resemblances and the further one--namely, the dualism in the prechaotic epoch (a very interesting point in Scandinavian mythology)--illustrate the danger of inferring identity of origin from similarity of physical, intellectual, or moral results. Several remarkable parallelisms of Chinese religious and mythological beliefs with those recorded in the Hebrew scriptures may also be briefly noted. There is an age of virtue and happiness, a garden with a tree bearing 'apples of immortality,' guarded by a winged serpent (dragon), the fall of man, the beginnings of lust and war (the doctrine of original sin), a great flood, virgin-born god-men who rescue man from barbarism and endow him with superhuman attributes, discipleship, worship of a Virgin Mother, trinities, monasticism, celibacy, fasting, preaching, prayers, primeval Chaos, Paradise, etc. For details see Chinese Repository, vii, 520-521.

[7] Cf. the dwarfs in the Scandinavian myth.

[8] See Legge, Shu ching, ii, 320, note.

[9] In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is as well to note that the mention of the t'ai chi in the Canon of Changes (I ching) no more constituted monism the philosophy of China than did the steam-driven machinery mentioned by Hero of Alexandria constitute the first century B.C. the 'age of steam.' Similarly, to take another example, the idea of the earth's rotundity, though conceived centuries before Ptolemy in the second century, did not become established before the sixteenth century. It was, in fact, from the I ching that the Chinese derived their dualistic (not their monistic) conception of the world.

[10] "Formerly, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt that I was a butterfly, flying about and feeling that it was enjoying itself. I did not know that it was Chou. Suddenly I awoke and was myself again, the veritable Chou. I did not know whether it had formerly been Chou dreaming that he was a butterfly, or whether it was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Chou." Chuang Tzu, Book II.

[11] See the present writer's China of the Chinese, chapter viii.

[12] See Du Bose, pp. 282, 286, 361, 409, 410, and Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, xxxiv, 110-111.

[13] Du Bose, p. 38.

[14] He is sometimes represented as a reincarnation of Wen Chung; see p. 198.

[16] See footnote, p. 107.

[17] Religion, p. 177.

[18] See Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, by Sister Nivedita and Ananda Coomaraswamy.

[19] The native accounts differ on this point. Cf. p. 16.

[20] For further details concerning T'ai I see Babylonian and Oriental Record, vi, 145-150.

[21] Cf. Chapter I.

[22] She is the same as Ch'ang O, the name Heng being changed to Ch'ang because it was the tabooed personal name of the Emperors Mu Tsung of the T'ang dynasty and Chen Tsung of the Sung dynasty.

[23] See p. 45.

[24] In Sagittarius, or the Sieve; Chinese constellation of the Leopard.

[25] See Chapter XIV.

[26] See Chapter XII.

[27] This pagoda is distant about twenty li (seven miles) from Peking. It is on the top of the hill, while the spring is at the foot, half a li distant. The imperial family used the water from this spring, whence it was carried to Peking in carts.

[28] See Chapter XII.

[29] See Chapter IV.

[30] This has reference to the change of Kuan Yin from the masculine to the feminine gender, already mentioned.

[31] There is evidently a mistake here, since the King was twenty when he ascended the throne and fifty at the birth of Miao Shan.

[32] An Illustrated Account of the Eight Immortals' Mission to the East.

[33] A record of a journey to the Western Paradise to procure the Buddhist scriptures for the Emperor of China. The work is a dramatization of the introduction of Buddhism into China.

[34] See p. 329.

[35] See p. 195.

[36] Literally 'golden oranges.' These are skilfully preserved by the Cantonese, and form a delicious sweetmeat for dessert.

[37] Only slave-girls and women of the poorer classes and old women omit this very important part of a Chinese lady's toilet.

[38] Alluding probably to the shape of the 'shoe' or ingot of silver.

[39] Slave-girls do not have their feet compressed.

[40] Wherein resides an old gentleman who ties together with a red cord the feet of those destined to become man and wife. From this bond there is no escape, no matter what distance may separate the affianced pair.

[41] This proceeding is highly improper, but is 'winked at' in a large majority of Chinese betrothals.

[42] The usual occupation of poor scholars who are ashamed to go into trade and who have not enterprise enough to start as doctors or fortune-tellers. Besides painting pictures and fans, and illustrating books, these men write fancy scrolls in the various ornamental styles so much prized by the Chinese; they keep accounts for people, and write or read business and private letters for the illiterate masses.

[43] Say about L10.

[44] Alchemy is first mentioned in Chinese history B.C. 133, and was widely cultivated in China during the Han dynasty by priests of the Taoist religion.

[45] Kuan Chung and Pao Shu are the Chinese types of friendship. They were two statesmen of considerable ability who flourished in the seventh century B.C.

[46] These are used, together with a heavy wooden baton, by the Chinese washerman, the effect being most disastrous to a European wardrobe.

[47] To provide coffins for poor people has ever been regarded as an act of transcendent merit. The tornado at Canton in April 1878, in which several thousand lives were lost, afforded an admirable opportunity for the exercise of this form of charity--an opportunity which was largely taken advantage of by the benevolent.

[48] For usurping its prerogative by allowing Chia to obtain wealth.

[49] See Chapter I.

[50] Compare the legend of the tailed Miao Tzu tribes named Yao, 'mountain-dogs' or 'jackals,' living on the mountain ranges in the north-west of Kuangtung Province, related in the Jih chi so chih.