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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XXXIV. RELIGION OF TIIE CATIIAYANS
461
before such a man when once his eyes were closed ? Wherefore let men be converted while there is yet time ! In this life the night followeth the day, and the winter followeth the summer ; that, all men are aware of. But that life is followed by death, no man will consider. Oh, what blindness and obduracy is this ! " (p. 93).
Again : " Iloang-ta-tie, of T'ancheu (Changshu-fu in Honan), who lived under the Sung, followed the craft of a blacksmith. Whenever he was at his work he used to call without intermission on the name of Amita Buddha. One day he handed to his neighbours the following verses of his own composing to be spread about :-
` Ding dong ! The hammer-strokes fall long and fast, Until the Iron turns to steel at last !
Now shall the long long Day of Rest begin,
The Land of Bliss Eternal calls me in.'
Thereupon he died. But his verses spread all over Honan, and many learned to call upon Buddha " (ro3).
Once more : " In my own town there lived a physician by name Chang-yan-ming. IIe was a man who never took payment for his treatment from any one in poor or indifferent circumstances ; nay, he would often make presents to such persons of money or corn to lighten their lot. If a rich man would have his advice and paid him a fee, he never looked to see whether it were much or little. If a patient lay so dangerously ill that Yanming despaired of his recovery, he would still give him good medicine to comfort his heart, but never took payment for it. I knew this man for many a year, and I never heard the word Money pass his lips ! One day a fire broke out in the town, and laid the whole of the houses in ashes ; only that of the physician was spared. His sons and grandsons reached high dignities " (p. r Io).
Of such as this physician the apostle said : " Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons : But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him."
E" By the ` Most High and Heavenly God,' worshipped by the Chinese, as Marco Polo reports, evidently the Chinese Tien, ` Heaven' is meant, Lao t'ien ye in the common language. Regarding ` the God of things terrestrial,' whose figure the Chinese, according to M. Polo, ` placed below on the ground,' there can also be no doubt that he understands the 7'u-ti, the local ` Lar' of the Chinese, to which they present sacrifices on the floor, near the wall under the table.
" M. Polo reports, that the Chinese worship their God offering incense, raising their hands aloft, and gnashing their teeth. Of course he means that they placed the hands together, or held kindled joss-stick bundles in their hands, according to the Chinese custom. The statement of M. Polo sbattendo i denti is very remarkable. It seems to me, that very few of the Chinese are aware of the fact, that this custom still exists among the Taouists. In the rituals of the Taouists the K'ow-cll'i (Ko'w= ` to knock against,' ch'i = ` teeth ') is prescribed as a comminatory and propitiatory act. It is effected by the four upper and lower fore-teeth. The Taouists are obliged before the service begins to perform a certain number of K'ow-chi, turning their heads alternately to the left and to the right, in order to drive away mundane thoughts and aggressions of bad spirits. The K'ow- ch'i repeated three times is called ming fa ku in Chinese, i.e. `to beat the spiritual drum.' The ritual says, that it is heard by the Most High Ruler, who is moved by it to grace.
" M. Polo observed this custom among the lay heathen. Indeed, it appears from a small treatise, written in China more than a hundred years before M. Polo, that at the time the Chinese author wrote, all devout men, entering a temple, used to perform the K'ow-ch'i, and considered it an expression of veneration and devotion to the idols. Thus this custom had been preserved to the time of M. Polo, who did not fail to mention this strange peculiarity in the exterior observances of the Chinese. As regards the present time it seems to me, that this custom is not known among the people, and even with respect to the Taouists it is only performed on certain occasions,
and not in all Taouist temples." (Palladius, pp. 53-54.)—H. C.)
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