"A ghost is the corrupt part of man, and man is the pure part of a ghost.
"A man can be a ghost, and a ghost can be a man. The man and the ghost are mutually related. Why separate man and ghost?
"The ghost becomes a man, then man must become a ghost.
"If a man does not become a ghost, he will surely be able to perfect manhood.
"It is difficult for a ghost to become a man, because it has fallen to ghosthood, and because it has lost manhood.
"A man is a ghost; a ghost is a man: but all men are not ghosts, neither is every ghost a man.
"Those who can be respectful without feeling ashamed, who can be submissive without deception, who can obey to perfection the rule of life, and are able to preserve their natural force unabated, secretly cherishing growth, will become Buddhas or Genii, and not ghosts."
[Illustration: PAVILION OF THE MOON IN GROUNDS OF GOD OF WAR'S TEMPLE. _By Mrs. Archibald Little._]
Probably a great deal is lost in this translation; but the phrase to be "submissive without deception" is certainly noteworthy.
The god of war has not passed through so many vicissitudes; but it seems that in his lifetime he was a merchant noted for probity and liberality, and it is in this character that his picture is to be found in all self-respecting business firms to this day as an example of what a merchant should be. Then as the centuries passed by, he was canonised as the god or guardian saint of war, and his last change was being made the tutelary deity of the present dynasty. It is a great question, however, whether the Chinese can properly be said to have either gods or idols, or whether it would not be more correct to say they make and set up images of men canonised as guardian saints, and whose spirits are supposed to be present where proper reverence is shown to their images. According to Dr. Edkins, at the feasts in honour of the dead, whether simply ancestors or famous men of old, the dead man is now represented by a tablet; but by ancient rules a living representative was required, and preferably a grandson. In the time of the Hia Dynasty he stood. Under the Shang Dynasty--from 1800 to 1200 B.C.--he sat. Under the Chow Dynasty there would be six representatives of the deceased ancestors, who were all treated as guests, and partook of the feast. They had the strange idea that only thus could the patriarch of the clan be kept from extinction; for they thought of the soul as breath, liable to be dispersed as air. They called such a representative of the dead "the corpse," or, more correctly, "the image of the soul." It is hard to say whether such a practice is more material or spiritual.