Beatification In China

1895

The Emperor Makes and Unmakes Gods at His Own Sweet Pleasure.

In China the emperor claims power, not only over his subjects (and indeed, for that matter, the whole inhabited world), but also over the realms of departed spirits. Those he beatifies, canonizes, decorates with titles, mentions with approval in the Peking Gazette when they do anything to deserve that honor and actually degrades and uncanonizes if he sees just cause. For example, the Emperor Hieng-Fung elevated the god of war to an equal rank with Confucius, who previously had been chief among the state gods.

Sir Alfred Lyall has drawn attention to some amusing extracts from the Peking Gazette, illustrating the way in which the Chinese treat their deities. Thus The Gazette of November, 1878, has the following:

"The governor general of the Yellow river requests that a tablet may be put up in honor of the river god. He states that during the transmission of the relief rice to Honan, whenever difficulties were encountered through shallows, wind or rain, the river god interposed in the most unmistakable manner, so that the transport of grain went on without hindrance. Order: Let The proper officer prepare a tablet for the temple of the river god."

In April, 1880, The god of locusts was similarly rewarded. A month or two earlier the temple of the Sea Dragon at Hoyang was decreed a memorial board for services rendered in connection with rain, and in another Gazette the god of water is given a new temple by special rescript. All this procedure is thoroughly in keeping with the notions of the common people of China, who look upon the gods simply as human beings in a different set of conditions. — Contemporary Review.