aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

176 AROUND THE WORLD.
It was my privilege to see these
coolie Chinamen conversing
with their spiiit-ancestors in several temples. Their
methods are numerous ; and the prevalence of this belief
among them astonished me. It is almost universal ; and
yet with the lower classes it has degenerated into absurd
superstitions.
SPIRITISM VERY OLD IN CHINA,
" The practice of divination," writes Sir John Barrows,
" with many strange methods of summoning the dead to
instruct the living, and reveal the future, is
of very ancient
origin, as is proven by Chinese manuscripts antedating
the revelations of Scripture." The " eight diagrams,
with directions for devination, were invented," says the
Rev. Mr. Nevius, " by the Emperor FuM^ probably nearly
3000 B.C. About 1100 B.C., Wen-Wang, the Literary
Prince, and his son Choiv-Kung, further developed the
system with explanations." The Yih-King is a sort of an
encyclopedia of spiritual marvels and manifestations. It was
denominated in the time of Confucius, the " Book of
Changes."
Ghddon writes, " The emperor of China, Yao, who reigned
about 2337 years B.C., in order to suppress false prophecies,
miracles, magic, and revelation, commanded his two ministers
of astronomy and religion to cut asunder all communications
between sky and earth, so that, as the chronicle expresses it,
there should be no more of what is called ' this lifting up
and coming down.'
This missionary, Mr. Nevius, further assures us that in the
" latter part of the Chan dynasty, which continued to 249
B.C., Kwei-Kuh-Sien-sz applied the Yih-King to the use of
soothsaying, and is regarded as among the fathers of augurs.
During the past and the preceding dynasty, many books have
been written upon this subject, among the most noted of
which is the Poh-shi-ching-tsung^ a work of six volumes on