Niagara Falls, and probably had a similar origin—from a waterfall. Pilgrims visit this place only once a year, but then in large numbers. The few priests generally live alone, shut in from the world, and thus become hermits. Many of them live in small huts or caves some distance from the monastery, as is still done to-day all over China (pl. 8, fig. 1). It therefore seemed natural that the eighteen disciples of Buddha, the Lohan, should be represented as a type of anchorets, in one of the temples at Omeishan. This is a celebrated type of these images modeled after those in a temple in Nanking. It occurs more frequestly in the marble pagoda of a temple on the West Lake of Hangchoufu, that fortunately escaped being destroyed in the Taiping rebellion. This has sixteen sides, agreeing with the original number of Buddha's disciples. It is vigorously decorated and tastefully composed; the images of the disciples are carved into the panels and conceived as anchorets. The tombs, in view of the association with the sacred earth, are invariably located on the slopes of hills, where least liable to be destroyed by natural causes. This mode of building is suggestive of the idea that the dead have returned to the mountain from which all life emanates. In China the tombs have the finest architecture, occupy the most conspicuous sites, and are built with most extravagant art. The façade of a family tomb in western Szech'uan is an example of an effective artistic arrangement in imitation of wood architecture. Tombstones are placed in front of the façade, and in front of these they have the genii tables of eight stone seats to serve for the feast of the spirits on certain sacred days (pl. 8, fig. 2). In this vicinity I discovered the remains of a tomb that was built in the period of the Han dynasty. Tombs of the Han dynasty were described by Chavannes and hitherto were not known outside of Shantung. The pillars of the tombs are similar, but the difference in art between Szech'uan and Shantung 2,000 years ago, was considerable. An earnest and severe art characterizes Shantung, while here the need for genre and life is revealed by the crouching figures in the corners and the lively relief designs between the consoles. The difference in the art in the different Provinces can here but briefly be alluded to in this one instance. The much praised beauty of Szech'uan is revealed in many of the landscapes of burial grounds that are emphasized by arrangements of cypress, cane, and the terraced slopes forcibly accentuated by a single tree at the summit. The Pailous, or honorary gateways, are memorials of the departed that are to be seen on all the highways in China, chiefly in Shantung and Szech'uan; in the latter they are generally built of red sand stone. The vigorously waved roofs and corners give outlines that are often capricious, but the harmony of the whole is maintained. A quaint gateway in Wuch'aufu, near Canton, is built somewhat with Indian taste. Upon close examination the confused sculpture is solved and reveals elegant and finely wrought allusions to certain definite events. In Szech'uan the idea of a gateway-arch is frequently employed in the development of façades for temples and dwellings. Everything is lavishly sculptured and painted. The edges of the pilasters are artistically composed of a mosaic of small blue and white pieces of porcelain, with brilliant festive effect. In Szech'uan, more than the other Provinces, the natural beauty of the fields and highways is frequently enhanced by temples, bridges, and altars, which are affectionately remembered by Chinese in foreign countries. The Tu-ti altars appear everywhere, that is, the little roadside temples dedicated to the god of the place, who is identical with our genius loci. Grateful, pious people endow them by building stone flag masts surrounding the sanctuary and its single tree often in great numbers. Large groups of sacred things are assembled at the most prominent places. At Tze-liu-tsing I found a Tù-ti altar in the street alongside of which there was a stone flag mast, a column surmounted by the head of Buddha somewhat back, then an altar for incense, and a large handsome altar for Kuanyin, the goddess of mercy, all of which constituted the sanctuary inclosed by clusters of bamboos which are named for her: "The Bamboo of the Goddess of Mercy." The Chinese thus put their soul into nature. One of the inscriptions reads: The lust of the world is vain forever, But if you place a Kuanyin image on your acre, that will endure. The combined sentiment and grandeur with which they treat surfaces is exemplified by the imperial tombs of the present dynasty. The great temple tombs of the Emperors are located in a dense grove of pines 10 kilometers long and 8 kilometers wide, extending up along the massive cliffs of the mountain side. Gates alternate with bridges, avenues of stone animals with temple-kiosks; and the mortuary temple appears in front of the tumulus characterized by a structure several stories high. The entire arrangement is plain in the proportions, but is most nobly and solidly built. This remembrance of the departed is obviously specially imposing in this case, but China is generally noted for the worship of the dead. The ordinary man honors his ancestors in his home and at their graves. The wealthy have special ancestral temples connected with their own dwellings, or on a selected place, the Tze-t'ang, that is often garnished with indescribable splendor. The Ch'ên family, a young member of which is at this time a student in Berlin, has such an ancestral temple in the home at Canton. The temple consists of a series of courts and halls arranged on five parallel axes. The great guest room for family feasts is handsome and airy and most elaborately decorated. Each compartment contains the four tables and eight seats, repeating the well-known genii table arrangement of eight (pl. 9, fig. 1). The ancestral hall proper has room for 4,000 small ancestral tablets on five most elaborately carved altars. In front of each of these five altars there are five blue ritual vases. Everything is built of the richest materials and significant also from an architectural point of view. The mountains play an important part not only for the sites of temples, tombs, and ancestral temples but for the locations of the cities of the living. They prefer sites near a mountain, and when other advantageous conditions are available, such as the course of a river near the mountain, they consider the beauty of the location perfect. The Chinese designate this as Fêngshui, meaning that the city relations to wind and water are perfect. The large cities and almost all others are located in most clever concord with the natural conditions to combine most advantageously the industrial interests with the most beautiful environment possible. The manner in which the Chinese artistically build their structures to harmonize with the natural environment is astonishing. The Province of Szech'uan has the most beautifully located cities. Kiatingfu on the Min River, a branch of the Yangtze, is a conspicuous example. European gunboats steam by this city in the very heart of the Empire, among others the German gunboat Vaterland (pl. 10, fig. 1). The river flows along the south and eastern sides, and the city spreads out from the corner northwestward where there is a mountain that is conceived to have been the progenitor of it, and from which it derives its forces and soul. With this conception the temple was built on its summit for the protecting god of the city. This temple has a pantheon arranged with a central compartment for the main god, Yü-huang, the Jewel Emperor, who is preferably conceived as the incorporation of the spirit of the mountain. He appears in three images, three manifestations, that are disposed one behind the other, so that the image most advanced in front appears to have a more human resemblance than the others that are more in the dim shadow of the altar in the rear. This is a most impressive representation of the triad. The great pantheon of the gods fills the other space within this temple. These gods are the embodiment of virtues and religious ideals that are specially revered in physical forms. The altars are placed in the axial lines. The two pillars on the sides |