Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 8 (Chinese and Japanese).djvu/94

62 influence could be ascribed the blessings of good harvests. Shê was the spirit of earth, and chi the spirit of grain; together they combined the idea of gods of agriculture, as the Emperor Shên Nung typified the origin of the cultivation of the soil. The spirits of the earth were honoured in different measure according to the extent of the territory over which they were supposed to preside. Some were local, others extended throughout the area of a duchy or feudal principality, while one spirit was worshipped by the Emperor as being the patron of agriculture throughout the Empire. According to the generally accepted tradition the first person who was deified as the national god of the soil, T'u-ti Shên or Hou-t'u Shên, was Ko Lung. He is said to have been a descendant of the legendary Emperor, Shên Nung, in the eleventh generation. Ko Lung was the Minister of Public Works during the reign of Chuan Hsü, the last of the Five Emperors, and distinguished himself by his zeal and ability. This position as patron god of the soil has been maintained by Ko Lung with only two brief intervals, of which one was during the reign of the Emperor P'ing Ti of the Han dynasty, and the other at the beginning of the Ming dynasty.

The Li Shê, as referred to in the Shih Chi, was the place where worship was paid to the gods of the soil. It is interest ing to note that there was no fixed prescription as to the amount of the sacrifice as in all other ceremonies, but that the people of a district were expected to make offerings according to their ability, rich districts offering more than poor ones. Another important phase of this early nature worship is that in it occurred the first instances of the personification of spiritual beings. The Father of Husbandry, T'ien Tsu, is spoken of in the Shih King or "Book of Odes" (II. 6, VII. 2) as a personality in the same sense as ancestors. This personality was that of departed human spirits, and was considered in a different category from that of the living; but it was nevertheless distinctly modelled after the human form. This first known instance of