Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/73

Rh through the villages and cities on their knees. The Buddhist devotees are divided into two kinds ta and êrh chü shih, 大 and 二居士, men and women respectively. These latter are called tao yu 道友 or friends of the doctrine.

Another way is to sung ching pai ch‘an 誦經拜懺 chant the classic of "regret for the past." It is said that chanting is a Buddhist idea, while the doctrine of repentance has its roots in Taoism. These classics and repentance odes are very plentiful. Fasting, ch‘ih chai 喫齋 or ch‘ih su 素, is meritorious. It means the abstaining from wine, garlic, and meats, whether for a whole lifetime or at stated times and on stated days. A person who is afraid that his family may not do enough chanting, etc., for him after he is dead has a special lot done while he is alive, and sent on ahead to await him in the next world; also lots of paper and incense are burned and deposited in the treasury of Hades. This is called chi k‘u tao ch‘ang 寄庫道塲.

Some seek merit by issuing tracts about the protection of life, exhorting people not to throw lime in the paddy fields, because it kills the insects there; to refrain from treading on any living thing; they even exhort people to allow vermin to live on the clothing and person; also to abstain from breaking off tender twigs on trees and bushes; because there is life in them. These ideas are from the Buddhist pantheism.

People abstain from treading on anyone's shadow. To do so is to treat them lightly and it is also very unlucky. To strike a person's shadow in a vital part is reckoned to be almost as serious as to strike the person himself.

It is merit to abstain from food on a mother's birthday, because she suffered so much at one's birth. The Mohammedans fast from dawn to dusk on that day. It is great merit to go to the nan hai p‘u to 南海普陀. This is one of the most sacred places of Buddhism, or the place where the goddess of mercy is said to have made her appearance after becoming a celestial. A Taoist idea is for a person to sit erect with legs crossed, the eye fixed on the nose, lips closed, tongue straight, and to swallow the saliva; the thoughts must be kept pure and sleep kept away; the old nature is thus cast off by the top of the head and the aspirant becomes an