Page:Ningpo to Shanghai.djvu/79

Rh   Remarking on this the translator writes,&mdash;

"The reader will observe that the five Kings here enumerated are designated respectively the wind, clouds, thunder, and lightning, of God. Thus they speak of the five elements, water, fire, wood, metal, and earth; the five virtues, benevolence, uprightness, propriety, wisdom 智, and sincerity; the five relations, of prince and minister, of father and son, of elder and younger brothers, of husband and wife, and of friend and friend; the five colors, green, yellow, red, white, and black; the five cardinal points, east, south, west, north, and centre, &c., &c. The number of their kings, as well as their names, Eastern, Southern, Western, and Northern, seem to have been suggested in this way, though there is a want of completeness in the fifth's not being designated central. But the designations of wind rain, clouds. thunder, and lightning, given to these kings are new, and seem to have been suggested by a misapprehension of the circumstance that, in the Christian books, from which they had derived so many of their ideas, the expression for the Holy Spirit is sometimes, "The Wind of God." Instead of understanding this expression as synonymous with Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit, they seem to regard it as the symbol of this idea. Accordingly as they had been led to bestow upon the Eastern King, on account of his searching wisdom, extended influence and controlling power the title of Holy Spirit, which was symbolized by the wind, the idea was suggested of representing the virtues ascribed to his associates by the associated terms of rain clouds thuder, and lightning. This explanation may seem to some fanciful, but I have not been able to find a better one."