Chinese Creeds And Customs

Valentine Rodolphe Buckhardt, Buckhardt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138970519
• eBook ISBN: 9781136220142
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 2007. An encyclopaedic account of traditional Chinese festivals, customs and beliefs, lavishly illustrated with line drawings and paintings, this remarkable work by an Englishman who spent twenty years in China from the Imperial aftermath through the establishment of Communism, gives fascinating insights into a complex culture poised between past and present. Burckhardt's beautifully written and detailed work includes the rites practiced by the Manchu royal court and the rituals permitted under the Communist and Nationalist regimes, the festivals of working people and villagers as well as the ceremonies of the mandarins of Peking and Hong Kong, in all seasons of the year. He was especially close to the renowned Boat People of the former colony, and gives a unique account of life abroad the harbour junks and their sea-borne celebrations. Among the subjects dealt with are Chinese cuisine, the meaning of presents, secret societies, the Chinese calendar, cats (the Chinese prefer cats with yellow eyes), Chinese dress, jade carving, feng shui, etiquette, the hundreds of gods of house and wayside, temples and their guardians, and all the great festivals - those of the Moon, the Dragon Boats, the Hungry Ghosts, the Magnolia, the New Year and many more. Chinese creeds and customs were Burkhardt's passion, and no better account of them will ever be written.

VOLUME I

Foreword.

For many years I have been importuned to write a book about China, but the lack of incentive, and the fact that most of the material had been acquired at Government expense, deprived the general public of a good many entertaining anecdotes. During the War I was ordered to produce a handbook on the country, but an attack of sciatica, combined with a more useful employment of my services, brought about the abandonment of this enterprise. The series of articles, from which the present volume is compiled, owe their inception to a request by my collaborator in the Admiralty handbook, for information on the religious tenets of the Colony but, as Scientific data, as required by the British Museum, would hardly appeal to the readers of a Sunday paper, I recast them in more popular style.

The information is by no means all original as there are not enough festivals to form subject matter for a weekly article, and I have drawn heavily on the researches of others, hitherto without adequate acknowledgement, to fill the gaps. I owe a deep debt to my late friends Juliet Bredon, for the Moon Year, and to Sir Reginald Johnston for his scholarly books on China. I am also under obligations to Monsieur G. Bouillard, the enterprising cartographer, for his articles on the Peking Festivals, published in La Chine, in 1922-23. I recommend Mr. C. A. S. Williams’ Outlines of Chinese Symbolism to all students of Chinese Mythology. For local information Mr. Feng York-man has interviewed a host of people from necromancers to Temple guardians in search of local colour, and Miss Chu En-pao has been invaluable for translations, and everything connected with the Chinese characters. Finally without the friendship of the Boat People the articles would have been shorn of much of their originality. A war-time connection with the House brought me into their circle almost as a member of the family, and there is little in their lives with which I am not acquainted. I have attended all their festivals as a member of the junk, even if the “Old Man” had to go by tram to make a place. I have seen their Weddings and Thanksgiving Services, their Festivals and Junketings, in fact, everything but a Funeral, though if I demanded one, I have no doubt they would be ready to oblige. These humble folk possess all the innate good manners of the vanished Empire, and are friends in the best sense of the word. They stand by the Government in fair weather or foul, and have no aspirations but to earn an honest living.

V.R.B.

CONTENTS

New Year

The God of Wealth

New Year Customs

The Budding or 2nd Moon

The Feast of Excited Insects

The Beginning of Spring

The T’ien Hou Festival

The Fourth Moon

The Tam Kung Festival

The Ch’ing Ming Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival

The Lotus Moon

The Double Seventh

Festival of the Hungry Ghosts

The Moon Festival

The Moon and Marriage

The Mister Rabbit

The Harvest Moon

The Gods of the Measure

The Double Ninth

The Tenth Moon

The Kindly Moon

The Eleventh Moon

The Bitter Moon

New Year Preliminaries

The New Year Fair

The Twelfth Month

Thanksgiving Day

A Boat People’s Wedding

Fortune-telling

Marriages Made in Heaven

Funerals

A Junk-warming

Wedding Walk

The Chicken’s Bride

Clairvoyance

The Meaning of Presents

The Chinese Cuisine

Betrothal and Wedding Customs

Symbolism in Chinese Art

Primitive Religion

The Star Gods

Feng Shui

The Taoist Pope

A Chinese Bestiary

The Home Physician

Patron Saints

Moon Cakes

Secret Societies

The Earth Gods

The Eight Immortals

Purveyor to the Gods

Luck

Religion and the Chinese

Children in China

Burial Customs

Charms and Talismans

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Floral Shrine at Boat People’s Festival

Cheapest Form of Paper Tray with Toilet Articles for the “Seven Sisters”

Yen Lo, Ruler of the Underworld

Preparing the Ships for Launching

Mass for the Dead, 15th of VIIth Moon

Lanterns and Moon Rabbits

The “Dragon’s Pulse”, Ancestral Worship, 1st of Xth Moon

The Kitchen God

Thanksgiving Sacrifices

Junk Thanksgiving Service

The Amah Rock, Bowen Road

Well Shrine, New Territories

Sacred Tree “Our Radiant Common Ancestor”

K’uei Hsing, God of Literature

Kuan Kung as God of Literature

The Chang T’ien Shih or Taoist Pope in Full Canonicals

Kuan Kung, God of War

Earth God’s Shrine, Cheung Chow, Brazier for Burning Gold and Silver Paper

Hell Bank Note

The White Monkey, “Great Sage Equal to Heaven”

Chang Hsien, Guardian of Children

LIST OF PLATES

Festival Junk

T’am Kung Festival at Shaukiwan

Taoist Pope’s Master Talisman

New Year

The advent of the Republic ushered in the Western calendar for official use, and January 1st was recognised as New Year’s Day but, for the great bulk of the population, the festivities and rites connected with Chinese New Year are observed with undiminished enthusiasm. No foreigner can fail to note the complete dislocation of all normal activities and, should he be a householder, his monthly wage bill will remind him of the festive season. The full lunar year in China is one of thirteen months, and custom has dictated that salaries should be paid on a thirteen, instead of a twelve month basis, the double issue falling at the most convenient moment for the recipient, who has his debts to pay, and numerous outgoings in the shape of seasonal presents. The outward and visible signs of the passing year are the closing of the shops, the appearance of new red door papers, and the almost continuous detonation of crackers. The actual ceremonies take place in the home, behind closed doors, and, though much more interesting, they are far less obtrusive.

No one goes to bed on the night of the 30th of the twelth moon, but all sit up to welcome in the New Year (Shou Sui

). Friends and relations in ceremonial garments greet each other, and take leave of the Old Year (Tze Sui

). After dinner, attended by all generations, the children bow to their parents who give them lucky money to guarantee another year of life. Then the courtyard is strewn with branches of sesame, fir and cypress. This is first trampled, and then set on fire to mark the passing of the year. The origin of this custom appears to be to ensure that no evil spirit is lurking to enter with the New Year. There is always the chance of a visit from the Skin Tiger (

) who steals the cakes of the poor to carry them to the rich, on the assumption that, as they have lived on the wealthy during the year, it is equitable to make some return for favours.

Crackers are let off as an additional precaution, and the lamp is lit at the shrine of the Kitchen God who is due back from his Celestial visit. The doors of the house are locked and sealed. By 5 a.m. anyone who has gone to bed gets up, and the master of the house unlocks the doors, and removes the seals, uttering a few words of good omen for prosperity in the coming year. This ceremony is called “Opening the gate of Fortune” (K’ai Ts’ai men

).

The first thing the master does on the opening is to worship Heaven and Earth. Sticks of incense are ignited on a high candlestick facing the entrance, and the head of the family arms himself with a large branch of sesame, paper representations of the Gods and an inscription of thanks for the benificence of the two estates. This is burned amid a burst of crackers.

Accompanied by the male members of the family, the master then makes three deep bows before the family gods and the ancestral tablets. The altar is garnished with the usual Wu Kung (

), an incense burner flanked with two candles, and two vases of flowers. The ceremony is named Pai Chia T’ang (

), or saluting the Family Hall. The Kitchen God, who has returned overnight, is also entitled to three bows, two candles, and his ration of incense. Women are excluded from the ceremony and, if any, from excess of devotion, bow down before these deities, it does not count to them for righteousness. The Master of the house, as the head of the family, is the sole representative qualified to offer the sacrifices as he is responsible to the Gods for all his clan. In the South, a wooden receptacle, filled to the top with rice, is placed on the altar, surrounded with flowers, branches of cypress (the emblem of longevity) and ten pairs of chopsticks. The service is called “Presenting the New Year’s rice,” and is a thanksgiving for the mercies of the past year, which is repeated in the hope of continued favours when the dawn of the coming season is saluted.

The ancestral tablets are slips of wood, set in a wooden plinth bearing the posthumous name of the deceased in raised or gilded characters. The custom is said to date from the Chou Dynasty (B.C. 350) in memory of one K’ai Tzu-chu who sacrificed himself for his sovereign. On death, the spirit enters into the ancestral tablet, which is therefore worshipped in the family rites. Another soul hangs about the grave, accounting for the Chinese reverence for their cemeteries, whilst the third is despatched to the Land of Shades, to be dealt with according to the merits of its late owner. The family shrine usually only contains five or six tablets, going back for three generations, as it would be impossible, even in a family hall, to find room for the thirty to forty generations of which most families can boast.

Remoter ancestors are inscribed on rolls hung in the ancestral hall. The Boat People have smaller tablets which are kept in a locker above the shrine of the Queen of Heaven in the port cabin. Immediately after death, plain tablets are used, and they are not ornamented and inscribed for three years. Images are made of the deceased relatives and, contrary to Chinese custom, children are included in the practice, although they are not ancestors and, in accordance with the general rule, are not entitled to commemoration unless over twenty years old. Boys are represented as riding on white horses or lions, and girls are mounted on white cranes.

No outsiders are invited to these family feasts for seeing the Old Year out, which is known as the “making up feast for the New Year.” All quarrels are supposed to be forgotten, and it is an occasion for general reconciliation. Outlying members of the family make a point of attending, and it is seldom that less than twelve sit down to table.

In some parts of China, in wealthier families, posthumous portraits of ancestors are ordered which are hung up as sacred heirlooms in family temples. As in all Chinese portraits, no shadows are shown on the face, though the robes are portrayed with a wealth of detail. The artists were veritable craftsmen for, by the time they were commissioned, their model was well underground, and the picture had to be painted from a description given by survivors. Part of their stock in trade was a book showing various numbered types of features: nose, eyes, lips etc. The relatives having decided on the nearest approximation to each feature of the deceased, it was entered in a notebook, and the artist retired to work out a composite likeness from the specification...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Volume I
• Volume II
• Volume III