Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/372

Rh and calmly let things take their natural course and they will turn out for the best.

In spite of Tsêng's disbelief in the ordinary religious institutions of the common people he was compelled as an official to take part in the sacrifices required by custom in times of difficulty. Thus, when there was a drought in May and June, 1867, he went several times to the temple of the god of moisture to pray for rain, and on an expedition of this kind to another temple he sprinkled holy water on the ground; on the following day there was a copious downpour of rain, and Tsêng granted 4,000 taels of silver to the temple in token of his gratitude. In April of the following year it was necessary in similar manner to pray for dry weather. Just how far these and other unrecorded expeditions are mere accommodations to the popular beliefs we cannot be certain, but one gains the impression on the whole that Tsêng felt at times a little shaky in his scepticism concerning the popular articles of faith, and preferred to err on the side of following the custom in case there might be some truth in the popular beliefs. Apparently he was consistent in his opposition to following the foreign faiths.

One of the classical superstitions that Tsêng shared with his countrymen of that day was the belief that the "eight characters" exerted a profound influence on the fate of the individual. These eight characters are those designating the year, month, day, and hour of one's birth. It was generally thought that the nature of an individual