Lung Wong, or the Dragon King, a rain god.
Yrih Wang-te, or the Pearly Emperor, another rain god.
Mang-Chang, worshipped by schoolboys and collegians; god of learning.
Shing Wong, the protector of walled cities. Hung Sing 1Vong, the deity presiding over the Southern Ocean.
Pih-te or Pak Tai, the great deity of the north. Five genii preside over the five elemental sub stances, fire, earth, water, metal, and wood. Tien How, queen of heaven.
Boon Yam, the goddess of mercy.
Kunz Fe, the tutelary goddess of women and children ; the 'Venus genetrix of the Chinese. Shay Tseih, god of the land and of the grain. _rung Fo Shan, the wind and fire gods.
Too Tee, the god of wealth.
Wang Teen is a deity to whom the Shu-king and She-king ascribe the attributes of omnipo tence, omniscience, and immutability.
Poon Koo Wong, the Chinese, the first parent, a division of the mundane egg. He breathed on gold and on wood, and from the vapour produced a son and daughter, Yong-Yee and Cha-Noee. Poon Koo Wong has many temples, and his image is carved in wood or clay.
Their chief festival occurs' on their new year ; their festival of Too-tee, of middle heaven, of Th'shat-t'sic, of the sun, of Wa-kwong, the god of fire, of Ching-yaong, the emperor's birthday.
Shu Yee is a Chinese festival of burnt-offerings to the souls of paupers.
San Lin is the new year festival ; it is their bacchanalia. The new year commences with the new moon nearest to 15° of Aquarius, into which sign the sun passes in the month of January. They also hold as festivals the 1st and 15th day of each month. These bear Some resemblance to the Mominia, or feasts observed by the Hebrews, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, and seem identical with the Hindu fortnightly cere monials.
Teen Nin, or Wa Shun, a Chinese festival held on the 28th or 29th of the 12th month, in which thanks are given to the tutelary deity of the house.
Tien Chung Citing Sit is the Chinese feast of the middle heaven.
Th'shat-t'sic, a Chinese festival held during the 15 days' observance of the Shu Yee, burnt offerings for paupers. It is held on the 7th day of
the 7th month, in honour of the seven stars which the Chinese regard as goddesses, one of whom visited earth, and was married to, and lived for a time with a cowherd.
Literature.—The greatest counterpoise of the imperial power consists of the literary aristocracy, or corporation of men of letters, an ancient insti tution, which has been established on a solid basis, and the origin of which is at least as early as the 11th century before the Christian era. It may be said_that the administration receives all its real and direct influence from this sort of literary oligarchy. The emperor can only choose his civil agents from among the lettered class, and in con formity with established arrangements. Every Chinese may present himself for the examination for the third literary degree, and those who obtain this may then become candidates for the second, which opens the way to official employment. To fill the higher offices, the prize be obtained in the competition for the first degre The cor poration of lettered men, recruited every year by the method of examination, constitutes \a. privi leged class, almost the only nobility recognised in China ; and it may be considered as the chief strength and nerve of the empire. The famous imperial academy of Han-Lin is composed of literary graduates. It furnishes orators for the public festivals, and literary examiners for the province, and is supposed to promote the cause of learning and science generally.
Five canonical books were written or compiled by Confucius,— 1st. Yih-king, the Book of Mystical Combina tions, a mystical form of writing on divination.
2d. Shu-king, or the Book of History, descends from B.C. 2400 to 281. It is in the character of a dialogue, and contains much of a didactic nature.
3d. The She-khig, or Book of Poetry, a col lection of poems, songs, and odes of inappre ciable antiquity, to which Confucius attached great value as a means of moulding the national character. .