China

Country, eastern Asia. Area: 3,696,100 sq mi (9,572,900 sq km). Population (2008 est.): 1,324,681,000. Capital: Beijing. It is the world's most populous country, the Han (ethnic Chinese) forming more than nine-tenths of the population. Languages: dialects of Han Chinese, Mandarin being the most important. Religions: traditional beliefs, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Daoism (all legally sanctioned). Currency: renminbi (of which the unit is the yuan). China has several topographic regions. The southwestern area contains the Plateau of Tibet, which averages more than 13,000 ft (4,000 m) above sea level; its core area, averaging more than 16,000 ft (5,000 m) in elevation, is called "the Roof of the World" and provides the headwaters for many of Asia's major rivers. Higher yet are the border ranges, the Kunlun Mountains to the north and the Himalayas to the south. China's northwestern region stretches from Afghanistan to the Northeast (Manchurian) Plain. The Tien Shan ("Celestial Mountains") separate China's two major interior basins, the Tarim Basin (containing the Takla Makan Desert) and the Junggar Basin. The Mongolian Plateau contains the southernmost part of the Gobi Desert. The lowlands of the eastern region include the Sichuan Basin, which runs along the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang); the Yangtze divides the eastern region into northern and southern parts. The Tarim is the major river in the northwest. China's numerous other rivers include the Huang He (Yellow River), Xi, Sungari (Songhua), Zhu (Pearl), and Lancang, which becomes the Mekong in Southeast Asia. The country is a single-party people's republic with one legislative house. The chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the premier.

The discovery of Peking man in 1927 (see Zhoukoudian) dates the advent of early hominins (human ancestors) to the Paleolithic Period. Chinese civilization is thought to have spread from the Huang He valley. The first dynasty for which there is definite historical material is the Shang (c. 17th century BC), which had a writing system and a calendar. The Zhou, a subject state of the Shang, overthrew its Shang rulers in the mid-11th century and ruled until the 3rd century BC. Daoism and Confucianism were founded in this era. A time of conflict, called the Warring States period, lasted from the 5th century until 221 BC. Subsequently the Qin (or Chin) dynasty (from whose name China is derived) was established, after its rulers had conquered rival states and created a unified empire. The Han dynasty was established in 206 BC and ruled until AD 220. A time of turbulence followed, and Chinese reunification was achieved with the founding of the Sui dynasty in 581 and continued with the Tang dynasty (618 – 907). After the founding of the Song dynasty in 960, the capital was moved to the south because of northern invasions. In 1279 this dynasty was overthrown and Mongol (Yuan) domination began. During that time Marco Polo visited Kublai Khan. The Ming dynasty followed the period of Mongol rule and lasted from 1368 to 1644, cultivating antiforeign feelings to the point that China closed itself off from the rest of the world. The Manchu overran Ming China in 1644 and established the Qing (Manchu) dynasty. Ever-increasing incursions by Western and Japanese interests led in the 19th century to the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Sino-Japanese War, all of which weakened the Manchu. The dynasty fell in 1911, and a republic was proclaimed in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen. The power struggles of warlords weakened the republic. Under Chiang Kai-shek some national unification was achieved in the 1920s, but Chiang broke with the communists, who had formed their own armies. Japan invaded northern China in 1937; its occupation lasted until 1945 (see Manchukuo). The communists gained support after the Long March (1934 – 35), in which Mao Zedong emerged as their leader. Upon Japan's surrender at the end of World War II, a fierce civil war began; in 1949 the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, and the communists proclaimed the People's Republic of China. The communists undertook extensive reforms, but pragmatic policies alternated with periods of revolutionary upheaval, most notably in the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The anarchy, terror, and economic paralysis of the latter led, after Mao's death in 1976, to a turn to moderation under Deng Xiaoping, who undertook economic reforms and renewed China's ties to the West. The government established diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1979. Since the late 1970s the economy has been moving from central planning and state-run industries to a mixture of state-owned and private enterprises in manufacturing and services, in the process growing dramatically and transforming Chinese society. The Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 was a challenge to an otherwise increasingly stable political environment after 1980. In 1997 Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule, as did Macau in 1999.

For more information on China, visit Britannica.com.

In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the China Yuan Renminbi.

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Photography in China experienced three distinct developments. In the mid-19th century, the conservative Chinese empire had no desire to be disturbed and did not welcome Westerners and their inventions. The 1842 war with Britain and the subsequent campaigns (and Chinese defeats) of 1857 and 1860 forced it to open several ports to foreign trade, but photography, which had reached Chinese shores at the same time as (or even aboard) gunboats, long remained a foreign medium with a limited reach. The situation changed radically in the early 20th century, when social changes and the advent of the Republic in 1911 led to the development of a fully Chinese style. It changed again in 1949 with Communism, which used photography as a major propaganda tool.

The 19th century

Until 1900, photography was practised only in the few ‘treaty ports’ open to foreign trade along the coast and the Yangtze River. The first treaty ports were Canton, Amoy (Xiamen), Fuzhou (Foochow), Ningbo (Ningpo), and Shanghai, Hong Kong being under direct British control. In 1860 Beijing was opened to foreign diplomatic residence, and additional ports were added to the original list as time went on. Deep prejudice against both cameras and foreigners ensured that early photographers rarely ventured outside the ports. Consequently, their work reflects only the places and people depicted, not late imperial China at large.

Most early photographers were visitors for whom, 150 years later, no significant traces or pictures have been found. They were either amateur or itinerant commercial practitioners. Photographers reached China shortly after 1839; the earliest reports of activities are dated 1842; the oldest identified daguerreotypes (by Jules Itier, a Frenchman), 1844-5. The first newspaper advertisement by a travelling daguerreotypist (a Mr West) goes back to March 1845, in Hong Kong. Permanent studios started operating in the late 1850s in Shanghai (Legrand, in 1857) and in Hong Kong (Weed and Howards, in 1860), ports which would remain China's two major photographic centres. Photography never attained comparable significance in other ports: Canton had started well but soon lost ground to Hong Kong; Fuzhou, the important tea-export centre, already supported several studios by the 1860s but then fell behind Shanghai, while Ningbo mostly attracted amateurs. A different pattern characterized the second generation of treaty ports opened after 1858, where photography was started by the Chinese and Westerners never predominated, if they were even present. Examples include the major cities of Hankou (Hankow in Hubei, now Wuhan), Nanjing (Nanking), or Tianjin (Tientsin). In Beijing, the first studio opened only in 1892 (Fengtai, a Chinese business).

Christian missions, which originated from the 16th century, were revived when the Nanking Treaty of 1842 again allowed missionaries into the country. Catholic and Protestant churches alike eagerly seized the opportunity for fieldwork, while photography became a propaganda instrument used to stimulate Western public support. Because Chinese missionaries insisted on going anywhere they wanted, irrespective of treaty port restrictions, early images often cover areas of China not otherwise photographed at the time. However, early production includes only those mission stations with trained photographers, and able to afford the expense. In south China, the Missions Étrangères de Paris photographed churches and other religious buildings, schools, orphanages, staff, and flock. Protestants added a further dimension with medical facilities and Chinese helpers such as the ‘bible women’ whose task was to make contact with the female population. At home, the pictures were used in religious periodicals or books, or even in general-interest publications. They were also—especially portraits of missionaries—sold directly to the public. From c.1900, postcards were issued on a vast scale, reaching all classes of Western society.

Early wet-plate commercial work includes two sets of stereoscopic views by P. Rossier (itinerant, 1858 in Canton) and Louis Legrand (Shanghai, 1857-9), who heads a long cosmopolitan list of resident photographers in Shanghai: French, British, American, German, and Japanese. On the Chinese side, many photographers were Cantonese. Most studios remained active for a relatively short time, although some survived for decades. They included, in Shanghai, William Saunders (1862-87), L. F. Fisler (1871-84), or Kung Tai (Gongtai, 1860s-1890s); Thomas Child, semi-amateur in Beijing (1871-89); F. Schoenke (Fuzhou, 1861-75), or St J. H. Edwards (Amoy, 1870s-1890s). In Hong Kong, the Afong studio was reputedly active over three generations, from 1859 to c.1941, while Pun Lun (1860s-1880s) had ‘branches’ in Hong Kong, Fuzhou, Saigon, and Singapore.

In short, by the early 1870s the Chinese already dominated the field. From the start, several Chinese studios targeted the Western market and advertised vigorously in the foreign-language local press and directories. Chinese dominance in Shanghai became very plain when upmarket studios such as Kung Tai in the 1870s and Sze Yuen Ming in the 1890s started advertising in English, while in Hong Kong few foreigners withstood the competition for long. Their heyday was in the late 1860s-early 1870s, when Hong Kong saw W. P. Floyd (1867-74) compete with Thomson (1868-72), E. Riisfeldt (1872-3), H. Everitt (1874-7), and numerous Chinese, while Saunders in Shanghai held his own against the Dinmore brothers (c. 1865-9), Weed, Fisler, and Kung Tai.

While the commercial studios operating in the pre-1900 treaty ports can certainly be numbered in the hundreds, their identification has barely started. In fact, the history of photography in China is poorly researched by comparison with other, similar cultures, especially as regards the 19th century. Many photographs were taken to the West, where, however, they remain scattered, unindexed, and unidentified. Inside China, successive upheavals, from the 1900 Boxer Rebellion to the Cultural Revolution, caused enormous loss and destruction. The scarcity of sources such as newspapers or commercial registration papers makes it difficult to draw up precise chronologies. In addition, few photos are signed, or, if they are, it may be by copyists. Chinese names are misleading, as they normally refer only to the studio as a business, and were often retained when it changed hands. Who managed a shop is generally unclear, and the photographer's identity is a mystery even for portrait studios.

Moreover, 19th-century photography in China was, essentially, a Western medium of expression. Even when, as was often the case, it was practised by Chinese, it recorded China as Westerners saw or wanted to see it, whether the subject was genre, topography, or events. For example, although the Chinese in general were fascinated by the photographic portrait, the original format owed much to Western-generated photographic traditions; a real ‘Chinese’ portrait style emerged only with the advent of the Republic in 1911, when educated Chinese had become actively interested. Pre-1900 amateur photography was almost exclusively Western, because the kind of scientifically minded people who practised it in the West simply did not exist in 19th-century China. Commercial photographers, whether Western or Chinese, were small shopkeepers without much education or status, who all produced the same standard commercial images.

Broadly, 19th-century photography embraced three principal fields: portraiture, topography (architecture and landscape), and ‘typical’ everyday scenes. From the outset, Chinese studios left the last two to Westerners, apparently because only foreigners could satisfy Western taste.

Topography was important in presenting the ports and their evolution; however, as already noted, the camera did not routinely venture inland until much later. In Hong Kong, Thomson, Floyd, and Afong created sets of views, while Saunders photographed Shanghai and H. C. Cammidge (1860s-1874) its waterways, Edwards of Amoy recorded Formosa (Taiwan) and Child inventoried Beijing's monumental architecture. Views privileged the signs of Western presence, and Chinese monuments, while Chinese dwellings hardly appear. In addition to working locally, photographers travelled to other Chinese ports and even to Japan to enlarge their portfolios, made agreements to represent competitors or amateurs, and generally tried to offer their customers as wide a range of images as possible.

Everyday scenes followed in the steps of an older tradition, that of ‘export painting’ for the foreign market. The activities shown were exclusively public ones, preferably—like weddings, funerals, or the ubiquitous barber—with a counterpart in the West. They belong to the universal genre of the ‘exotic’. But they are also unique records of a forgotten way of life. The most prolific and influential scene specialist was Saunders of Shanghai in the 1860s. Carefully staged, agreeable, and informative, his scenes were extensively copied and pirated. They also inspired later Chinese photographers, who in the 1890s sometimes gave them a negative slant reflecting China's contemporary image in the West.

In China even more than elsewhere, and certainly in quantitative terms, the centrepiece of photography was portraiture. The emergence of a bourgeoisie in Hong Kong and Shanghai, in a new Western-influenced atmosphere in which wealth took precedence over learning, was crucial. It created a new market of people free from the constraints of traditional Chinese society's rigid hierarchy. Courtesans were an important part of this in Shanghai and, after 1900, Tianjin.

There were two ways to make a portrait, one for Chinese sitters and another for Western (or Japanese) ones, and the photographer's cultural background appears irrelevant. The corpus was surprisingly coherent: just as there was a vocabulary for Western portraits, an enduring Chinese equivalent emerged on the Chinese coast in the early 1860s. It stressed the sitter's social status through specific Chinese forms of representation (full face, displaying assets such as rich clothing, small feet, long nails, or Manchu archer ring for men), and blended them seamlessly with pre-established photographic traditions.

Both Chinese and Western studios catered to all comers, the Chinese ones being cheaper and therefore attractive to foreign sailors or less wealthy residents, while the Western ones were more prestigious for everyone. A few artists stand out, such as, in Hong Kong, Milton H. Miller in the early 1860s and Thomson (1868), or the early Chinese studios in Shanghai of Su Sanxing or Kung Tai, or Sze Yuen Ming c. 1900, which did a brisk trade in portraits of local high-ranking courtesans, which it sold as photographic cards and, later, postcards. This genre served both markets, the Chinese one as celebrity photography and the foreign one as anonymous exotic beauties.

The Republic (1911-1949)

Around the turn of the century, new conditions emerged which changed Chinese photography's character. In the late 1890s smaller, portable cameras arrived. Then, after 1900, foreigners were allowed to travel inland. Yet the crucial, unstoppable change was born of the growing number of Western-educated young Chinese for whom photography and personal cameras were part of everyday life. The medium in fact became an important tool of ongoing modernization.

As amateur photography was evolving from scratch, every style of photograph could be found. However, the persistence of scholarly traditions created special problems with landscape, the all-important subject of countless paintings down the centuries. Efforts were made to duplicate the dreamy quality of classical painting, in particular the convention of framing a scene with paths leading into the image. But the camera could only show things as they were rather than as the traditionally schooled mind saw them. (Landscape remains only a minor genre in Chinese photography.)

Portraiture developed a character both distinctively ‘Chinese’ and modern. Props highlighted the approach of a new era, and studio styles acknowledged a new Chinese cultural identity. Photojournalists actively recorded the New China, with views of universities, railways, and modern social and domestic life. Newspapers' illustrated supplements were filled with images of stage and movie stars, and new fashions. But change was uneven. While Shanghai, as usual, was in the vanguard of cultural change, elsewhere the only noticeable alteration might be—at most—the appearance of telegraph poles. In some places, change was documented photographically over decades: in Yunnan, for example, where, from Auguste François at the turn of the century, a succession of French consuls were talented photographers.

As China changed, some knowledgeable and sympathetic foreigners recorded disappearing customs. Beijing, which remained in many ways old fashioned, was a favourite subject for the likes of Sidney D. Gamble or Hedda Hammer Morrison. These ‘foreign’ images are now an invaluable source on early 20th-century China. In particular, they show both the old and the new, and indicate how quickly changes occurred locally, from the disappearance of men's pigtails and women's bound feet to modern crowds and changing cityscapes.

Communism

The outbreak of war with Japan in 1937 inaugurated another period of brutal change, reflected in portraits of warlords and news photographs of bombing, refugees, and executions. Other kinds of photography fell victim to the need to survive. After the 1949 communist takeover, photographic diversity faded and propaganda needs became paramount. Themes included the Long March and the dedication of the People's Liberation Army. Myriad bicycles on posters and in news photographs testified to prosperity. Old age was secure, and youth was China's vanguard and future. Snapshots from the 1970s show the vast expanse of Tiananmen Square, carved out of old Beijing; clean, healthy workers in the new factory or agricultural commune; kindergarten toddlers eager to learn for Mao; barefoot doctors; people performing their gymnastics in any convenient space; cultural minorities secure in their identities, yet fully part of China. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), such subjects were overshadowed by the little red book, the Red Guards and their mass demonstrations and public shaming sessions, and the revolutionary Peking Opera. But, throughout, a single vision was spread, that of Mao's successful revolution. To a significant extent, this message was propagated by Western visitors and photojournalists—an echo of the 19th-century situation in which China's image in the outside world was formed and disseminated by foreigners. Much more still needs to be known and written about Chinese photographic practice under Mao. The work of Li Zhensheng in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang in the 1960s and 1970s, smuggled abroad when he left China, so far remains exceptional in size and importance. In the meantime, the growth of urban affluence, consumerism, and a degree of cultural pluralism in the post-Maoist period has been accompanied by a predictable upsurge of camera ownership and photographic activity.

— Régine Thiriez

Bibliography

• Worswick, C., Imperial China: Photographs 1850-1912 (1978).
• Chen, S., and Hu, Z., Zhongguo sheying shi (History of Photography in China (1840-1937; 1987).
• Spence, J., and Jenner, W. J. F., China: A Photo-History, 1937-1987 (1988).
• Thiriez, R., Barbarian Lens: Western Photographers and the Emperor of China's European Palaces, 1860-1925 (1994).
• Thiriez, R., ‘Photography and Portraiture in Nineteenth-Century China’, East Asian History, 17/18 (1999).
• Lai, E. K., ‘A History of the Daguerreotype in Hong Kong 1839-1880’, The Daguerreian Annual 2000 (2000).
• Van Tugl, G., et al., The Chinese: Photography and Video in China (2004)

The country has a long tradition of folk and acrobatic dance, which reached the height of virtuosity as part of the Peking Opera. Western theatrical dance found a toehold in China in the middle of the 20th century, under the guidance of the Soviets. China's first ballet company was the Experimental Ballet Troupe, set up in the Beijing Dance Academy, which had been founded in 1954. Teachers from the Bolshoi and the Kirov helped to establish the Beijing school and the Shanghai Dance School in 1960. In 1959 the Beijing students staged their first full-length ballet, Swan Lake, under the guidance of the Russian ballet master Petr Gusev; this marked the founding of China's national ballet company (the Central Ballet of China). In 1962 the Beijing Ballet (as it was then known) made its first international foray, visiting Burma. In 1964 the British ballerina Beryl Grey went to China to work with the company. However, with the arrival of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s ballet was denounced as politically damaging. With relations between the Soviet Union and China now severed, China was left to go its own way. In the absence of foreign teachers and choreographers, and in an effort to appease its political opponents, Chinese ballet turned to national revolutionary subject-matter, most notably, in 1964, with the groundbreaking The Red Detachment of Women and The White-Haired Girl (staged by the Shanghai School of Dance), both of which were personally supervised by Mao Zedong's wife and both of which were performed to the exclusion of all else until the end of the Cultural Revolution. The style of these new ballets blended the classical academic vocabulary with the more athletic feats of traditional Chinese mime. Western classical ballet was reintroduced into China in the 1970s. Today the leading company is the Beijing-based Central Ballet of China (also called the National Ballet of China), which draws its dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy. The Shanghai Ballet is the country's second company. In 1992 the Guangdong Modern Dance Company was founded by the Chinese Government, the first professional modern dance company in China. In 1993 the Beijing Dance Academy started a modern dance course and some of its graduates have been taken into the Beijing Modern Dance Company.

Buddhism first entered China some time during the 1st century ce, probably with foreign traders who arrived via the Silk Road or from the maritime route along the south-eastern seaboard. For the first two centuries or so, it existed primarily among immigrant settlements, while slowly making its presence known among the native Chinese population. As interest grew during the 2nd century, a few monks began translating scriptures into Chinese. Notable among these were An Shih-kao and Lokakṣema. With the fall of the Han dynasty in the early 3rd century, interest in Buddhism among the Chinese increased as the unstable political situation inspired people to seek new answers. At the same time, the division of China into kingdoms north and south of the Yangtze River gave Buddhism a different character in these two regions. In the north, greater proximity to India meant that Buddhism in this region had a greater number of Indian and central Asian monks and meditation teachers, and so tended to emphasize religious practice over textual study. In addition, from the early 4th century to the late 6th, the north was under non-Chinese rule. These ‘barbarian’ rulers favoured Buddhism and many monks served as court advisers, giving Buddhism in the north a more overtly political character. Many of the literati had fled the troubles of the north and migrated to the Southern Kingdoms, bringing with them their emphasis on literary skill. In addition to this, the Northern Kingdoms blocked their access to the living traditions of India and Central Asia, and so the south developed a more literary approach to Buddhist study. During this time, Tao-an (312-85) produced the first catalogue of Buddhist scripture, and he and his disciples worked to produce critical editions of scriptures and treatises, and to develop principles for their translation into Chinese. It was during this period that Kumārajīva arrived in 402 and opened his translation bureau in the north, producing some of the finest translations from Sanskrit, many of which are still considered the standard. His rendering of Indian Madhyamaka texts led to the foundation of the San-lun (or ‘Three Treatise’) school that specialized in Madhyamaka philosophy. Also, the dissemination of Buddhist texts and teachings among the educated élite led to a prolonged exchange of ideas between Buddhism and Taoism, and Buddhism absorbed and modified many Taoist ideas.

Other significant figures of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms period include Tao-sheng (360-434) a great textual scholar; Lu-shan Hui-yüan (344-416) and T'an-luan (476-542), who helped establish the Pure Land teachings; the San-lun master Seng-chao (374-414); and the great translator Paramārtha (499-569), whose translations of Indian Mind-only (citta-mātra) literature paved the way for the future establishment of the Fa-hsiang school.

China was reunified by the Sui dynasty in 581 bce, but this was quickly toppled by the T'ang dynasty in 618. The T'ang dynasty held power for almost 300 years, and this period represents one of China's golden ages. Buddhism flourished during this period, although it also suffered severe setbacks. Increased affluence and patronage enabled many original thinkers and practitioners to establish schools of Buddhism more in keeping with Chinese cultural and intellectual patterns and less dependent upon pre-existing Indian schools of thought. Examples include Chih-i (538-97), who founded the T'ien-t'ai school; Fa-tsang (643-712), who consolidated the Hua-yen school; and the various meditation masters who established Ch'an as a separate school that transmitted the Buddha-mind directly ‘outside of words and scriptures’. Tao-ch'o (562-645), Shan-tao (613-81), and others continued building up the Pure Land movement, extending T'an-luan's teaching further. During this time Hsüan-tsang (596-664) travelled in India for sixteen years and brought back many texts which he translated into Chinese. After Kumārajīva, he is considered the second of the great translators in Chinese Buddhist history. He concentrated on Indian Yogacāra thought, and, building on the foundation laid by Paramārtha, founded the Fa-hsiang school.

Prosperity brought its own difficulties. As the numbers of ordained clergy increased, the government became concerned about the revenue and labour pool that would be lost due to the clergy's tax-and labour-exempt status. In addition, ever since Buddhism's inception in China some traditional Confucian scholars had decried it as a foreign religion that violated basic Chinese values, especially the loyalty that all citizens owed to the state and the filial piety that sons and daughters owed their parents. In addition, Taoists sometimes saw in Buddhism an antagonist and competitor rather than a colleague. In the past, the government instituted ordination examinations and state-issued certificates to control the size of the Saṃgha, and twice during the Northern and Southern Kingdoms period the state had suppressed Buddhism (in 446 and 574). In the year 845, the T'ang court was incited to suppress Buddhism once again, and for three years it pursued this policy of razing monasteries and temples, forcing clergy back into lay life or even killing them, and burning books, images, and properties. Unlike the previous two persecutions, this suppression happened in a unified China and affected all areas. Scholars are agreed that this event marked the end of Buddhism's intellectual and cultural dominance, as the Saṃgha never recovered its former glory. The T'ien-t'ai and Hua-yen schools experienced some revivals thereafter, but lost most of their vigour. The Pure Land and Ch'an school, being much less dependent upon patronage and scholarship, fared better and became the two dominant schools of Buddhism in China thereafter. After the persecution, Ch'an communities experimented with new teaching methods that circumvented conventional teaching and inculcated a dramatic, instantaneous experience of enlightenment (bodhi). The leading figures in this movement were Ma-tsu Tao-i (709-88), Pai-chang Huai-hai (749-814), Huang-po Hsi-yün (d. 850), Lin-chi I-hsüan (founder of the Lin-chi school, d. 866), Tung-shan Liang-chieh (807-69), and Ts'ao-shan Pen-chi (840-901), the two founders of the Ts'ao-tung school.

After the T'ang, the intellectual vigour of Buddhism was eclipsed by the rise of Neo- Confucianism in the Sung dynasty. Nevertheless, there were significant figures and movements during this time. Many figures worked to reconcile the very different outlooks and methods of the Ch'an and Pure Land schools, notably Yüng-ming Yen-shou (904-75) and Yün-ch'i Chu-hung (1532-1612). The latter was part of a revival of Ch'an in the latter half of the Ming dynasty that also included Tz'u-p'o Chen-k'o (1543-1603), Han-shan Te'-ch'ing (1546-1623), and Ou-i Chih-hsü (1599-1655). All agreed that Pure Land and Ch'an, though differing in method, strove toward the same goal, though Han-shan and Tz'u-p'o still tended to define this goal in Ch'an terms. Chih-hsü, however, emphasized Pure Land teaching almost exclusively and came to be regarded as one of the patriarchs of this school.

From the Ming to the Ch'ing dynasty, Buddhism stagnated (although it remained strong in the central eastern seaboard) until the end of the 19th century, when there was a revival of interest in it as a part of the Chinese heritage that could be brought out to counter Western culture's claims of superiority. During the early years of the 20th century, figures such as Ou-yang Ching-wu (1871-1943) and the monk T'ai-hsü (1889-1947) sponsored new editions of the scripture and advocated a modernized educational system that would bring Buddhism into alignment with modern currents of thought.

The Communist victory in 1949 cut short the revival of Buddhism, as the new regime tried to undercut all societal support for religion in general. The Cultural Revolution proved a catastrophe for Buddhism during the 1960s and 1970s, as Red Guards destroyed many temples and treasures, and clergy were forced to return to lay status and submit to re-education. However, after the death of Communist leader Mao Tse-tung in 1976 and the passing of many of his allies, the government has grown more tolerant, and many monasteries are back in operation. Currently, the Chinese Buddhist Association is a thriving organization, and Chinese universities sponsor the academic study of Buddhism. To what extent Buddhism will recover from the setbacks of the Mao era remains to be seen.

Unlike in Japan and Korea, psychoanalysis in China has had a relatively checkered history. Freud's ideas achieved some notoriety in the 1920s during a period of significant social and political reform but were otherwise not taken seriously until the 1930s when the first translations began to appear. To this day, only a handful of Freud's works have been translated into Chinese.

Early translations resulted in some distortions of the original ideas for several reasons. There has been a tendency for translators to directly borrow the Japanese terminology as the two languages share a common writing system in kanji—characters, even though the same characters may mean different things in the two languages. This has produced occasional errors, as, for example, with China's initial use of the Japanese term muisiki for "Unconscious", which literally means, in Chinese, "without consciousness."

More systematic distortions were also evident. There was concern in some quarters that Freud's theory, which appeared to grant primacy to a free-reigning sexuality, could be construed as a threat to the stability of family relations. Some interpretations of the Oedipus complex were desexualised, emphasizing a social component. The female author Yonqin, writing in 1930 about Freud's theory of hysteria (and omitting all references to infantile sexuality), stated that the condition arises out of conflict between social pressure and the "biological instinct for satisfaction and fulfilment." A motive for translating Freud, in one translator's eyes, was to forewarn a general public of the dangers of taking Freud too seriously (Zhang, 1989).

By contrast, very serious attempts have been made to rethink the oedipal myth in terms of culturally prevalent myths. In China the myth of Hsueh Jen Keui tells of a soldier of the Tang dynasty who kills his own son in ignorance of the kinship tie, preserving the authority of the father; some commentators have held that this becomes an exemplar of the Confucian ethic of filial piety (Zhang, 1989).

Sometimes translations of psychoanalytic and scientific articles based upon primary sources were written with a clear political purpose. The May Fourth movement of 1919 had heralded a brief renaissance in which there had been increasing call from intellectuals to modernize China and shake off certain feudalistic practices and "superstitions." Freudian notions of sexual tension in families proved compelling to those calling for social reform. Freudian ideas could be claimed to be useful because of their allegiance to biology, medicine and education.

As several commentators have amply documented, psychiatry, as a separate discipline, was in its infancy in China before 1949. There was a home for the mentally ill in Canton which opened in 1898 run by an American missionary doctor. Before that there appears to have been little in the way of psychiatric services. By the time the Communist Party came to power a small number of psychiatric hospitals appeared in the major cities where foreign influence was quite high. The most significant was the Peking Union Medical College which launched the first full-scale academic program in 1932 with new initiatives in teaching and practice involving the disciplines of sociology and social work.

However, psychoanalysis as therapy has not easily taken root in China. This is because, it has been argued, there has been no tradition of expressiveness in the doctor-patient relationship and the doctor in a traditional Chinese setting adopts an authoritarian attitude towards patients. Before WWII there had been only one Chinese psychoanalyst, Bingham Dai, who trained under Harry Stack Sullivan and taught psychotherapy at Peking Municipal Psychopathic Hospital (allied to the Peking Union Medical College) from 1935-39. While he was of the view that, but for the Japanese invasion, psychoanalysis might have taken root in China, he downplayed the theoretical importance Freud attached to the instinctual impulses, claiming that Chinese clinicians emphasised interpersonal relations, and gave more attention to helping their patients tackle the problems of being human (Blowers, 2004).

One should also note that Chinese typically present psychological problems as somatic complaints and have deeply ingrained philosophical systems of thought for which traditional practices such as worshipping of ancestors and visits to the temple to seek one's fortune serve in times of distress.

These practices have been understood by Unschuld (1980, cited in Gerlach, 1995) as embodying a "Medicine of parallels," evolving out of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism in which "visible and invisible occurrences in the internal and external worlds of the human being (e.g. emotions, internal organs, climatic conditions, elements) are allocated to particular series of parallels and are mutually dependent on each other. Thus the dividing lines between internal and external, mind and body, are removed and a change in one link in the series of parallels will directly affect the others" (Gerlach, p. 94). These systems of thought have also been influenced by turbulent political events. After the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the Communist government severed all ties with non-Communist countries. Attention became focused on Russia. In the early part of its first decade, all psychological work in the PRC was based upon Russian psychology and followed Pavlov's work very closely. When this model proved less than satisfactory for explaining all psychological phenomena, there then followed two very difficult periods in which psychology was criticised and eventually shut down along with many other disciplines in the second of these periods that became known as the "Proletariat or Cultural Revolution". Only since 1978 has psychology emerged with a new agenda, largely free of previous political constraints.

During the 1980s visiting psychoanalysts to China (Joseph, 1987) formed the impression that, insofar as psychotherapeutic methods are applied, they are oriented to behavioral therapy or use supportive techniques. They argued, however, that this circumstance maybe connected with traditional Chinese cultural patterns, which discourage both disclosure and communication about one's own feelings and thoughts to strangers and openness to sexual desires. Insight-oriented psychotherapies face obstacles both in the traditional pattern of Chinese thought and in conflicts leading to feelings of shame more than guilt. However, there have been substantive changes since the 1980s, both in the doctor-patient relationship and in the status of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, in several of China's key cities.

In spite of there being no analysts in the early years of the PRC, by the 1990s things began to change. The German-Chinese Academy for Psychotherapy (GCAP), comprising German family therapists, behavioral therapists, and psychoanalysts under its president, Margarethe Haass-Wiesegart, initiated a range of training programs covering behavioural, systemic and psychoanalytic trends. From 1997-1999 they began a continuous training program of six-week courses in Kunming, Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chengdu; the curriculum consisted of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. The analysts involved in this training were Antje Haag, Margarethe Berger and Alf Gerlach, the latter having first lectured in China in the 1980s. A second program was initiated in 2000 in Shanghai and Hefei.

Since 1995 the IPA has also begun reaching out to China, organising a committee for Asia, with China represented by Argentinean-trained Teresa Yuan, of Chinese descent. She began training programs at Beijing Anding Psychiatric Hospital, attended by professionals from universities in Beijing and other Chinese cities. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy has been taught in a variety of psychiatric settings in the above mentioned cities, as well as in Xian, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Hong Kong. Huo Datong, a Chinese analyst trained with a Lacanian orientation in France, recently founded a psychoanalytic center in Chengdu (Yuan, 2000).

Although these developments signal a promising outlook for psychoanalytic methods and their application in China, the range and complexity of Freud's ideas may not be fully appreciated unless and until translation revisions and translation of more of his works are undertaken, clinical psychology gets more firmly established, and the therapeutic context is expanded to encompass thorough education on a range of treatments and the possibilities of the individual psychotherapeutic scheme.

Bibliography

Blowers, G.H. (2004). Bingham Dai, Adolf Storfer, and the tentative beginnings of psychoanalytic culture in China: 1935-1941. Psychoanalysis and History, 6 (1), 93-105.

Gerlach, A. (1995) China. In P. Kutter (Ed.) PsychoanalysisInternational: A guide to Psychoanalysis throughout the world (Vol. 2, pp. 94-102). Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: From-man-Holzboog.

Joseph, E.D. (1987). Psychiatry and psychoanalysis in the People's Republic of China: a transcultural view. In R. Fine (Ed.), Psychoanalysis around the world. New York: Howarth Press.

Yuan, T. A. (2000). China in the history of psychoanalysis: a possible fate for psychoanalysis at the dawn of the millennium. 8th International Meeting of the International Association for the History of Psychoanalysis.

Zhang, Jingyuan. (1989). Sigmund Freud and Modern Chinese Literature. Ph.D. dissertation. Cornell University.

—GEOFFREY H. BLOWERSAND TERESA YUAN

This entry includes six subentries:
Ancient and Dynastic China
Beijing (Peking) Cuisine
Fujian (Fukien) Cuisine
Guangzhou (Canton) Cuisine
Sichuan (Szechuan) Cuisine
Zhejiang (Chekiang) Cuisine

Nation in eastern Asia, bordered by Russia and North Korea to the east; Russia and Mongolia to the north; Russia and Afghanistan to the west; and Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam to the south. Its capital is Beijing, and its largest city is Shanghai.

• China is the most populous country in the world and the third largest, after Russia and Canada.
• The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 grew out of strong resentment of foreign influence in China.
• A revolution in 1911 overthrew the Qing dynasty, ending the two-thousand-year-old imperial system.
• Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalists, established the government of Nationalist China in 1928 in Nanjing.
• The Second Sino-Japanese War, which lasted from 1937 to 1945 (merging with World War II in 1941), grew out of Japanese encroachments on Chinese land.
• The Chinese communists, with Mao Zedong as their leader, defeated Chiang's Nationalists in 1949, proclaiming the People's Republic of China. The Nationalists withdrew to the island of Taiwan.
• In 1950, Chinese forces joined the North Korean army in the Korean War.
• In 1958, Mao undertook the “Great Leap Forward” campaign, a crash program of industrialization, but none of its goals were reached, and the effort collapsed.
• In 1960, the ideological split between the Soviet Union and China widened, and the Soviets withdrew all aid.
• In the mid-1960s, Mao's wife, acting on his behalf, and three colleagues, later known as the Gang of Four, advanced the goals of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, aimed at eliminating old ideas and customs. Mobs attacked schools and cultural centers, brutally disrupting the entire nation. With the death of Mao in 1976 and the trial of the Gang of Four in 1980, the Cultural Revolution came to an end.
• In 1972, President Richard Nixon visited China, reopening relations between mainland China and the United States.
• In 1989, the government brutally suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
• Although China remains officially communist, its government encourages capitalism in designated areas, especially in its southeastern provinces. China has experienced considerable economic development in recent decades. Relations with the United States remain tense, especially over Taiwan, but the United States supported China's admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The international dialing code for China is:   86

Recipes

Geographic Setting and Environment

The official name of China is the People's Republic of China. Eastern China is made up of lowlands, whereas the middle and western sections of the country are mountainous. The largest river in China is the Yangtze, which travels almost 4,000 miles. Water pollution is a problem in China, but most Chinese people have access to safe drinking water.

About two-thirds of the population lives outside of the cities, but there are many people living in cities, too. More than sixty cities have populations over 750,000. Shanghai has over 14 million people, and Beijing has over 12 million. (To compare to U.S. cities: New York City has about 16 million people, Los Angeles has about 13 million, and Chicago has about 7 million.)

History and Food

Throughout its history, China's growing population has been difficult to feed. By A.D. 1000, China's population reached 100 million (more than one-third of the U.S. population in 2000). The Chinese constantly had to adapt new eating habits because of the scarcity of food. Meat was scarce, so dishes were created using small amounts of meat mixed with rice or noodles, both of which were more plentiful. Vegetables were added, and stir-frying, the most common method of cooking, became a way to conserve fuel by cooking food quickly.

Regional differences in cuisine became noticeable in the 1200s when invaders from neighboring Mongolia swept into China. Cooking styles and customs began to be exchanged between the two countries. As people traveled further from their homes, cooking methods and foods were shared among the different regions within China.

Foods of the Chinese

The Chinese eat many foods that are unfamiliar to North Americans. Shark fins, seaweed, frogs, snakes, and even dog and cat meat are eaten. However, the Chinese follow the spiritual teaching of balance signified by yin ("cool") and yang ("hot"). This philosophy encourages the Chinese to find a balance in their lives, including in the foods they eat. While preparing meals, the Chinese may strive to balance the color, texture, or types of food they choose to eat.

Rice is China's staple food. The Chinese word for rice is "fan" which also means "meal." Rice may be served with any meal, and is eaten several times a day. Scallions, bean sprouts, cabbage, and gingerroot are other traditional foods. Soybean curd, called tofu, is an important source of protein for the Chinese. Although the Chinese generally do not eat a lot of meat, pork and chicken are the most commonly eaten meats. Vegetables play a central role in Chinese cooking, too.

There are four main regional types of Chinese cooking. The cooking of Canton province in the south is called Cantonese cooking. It features rice and lightly seasoned stir-fried dishes. Because many Chinese immigrants to America came from this region, it is the type of Chinese cooking that is most widely known in the United States. Typical Cantonese dishes are wonton soup, egg rolls, and sweet and sour pork.

The Mandarin cuisine of Mandarin provinces in northern China features dishes made with wheat flour, such as noodles, dumplings, and thin pancakes. The best known dish from this region is Peking duck, a dish made up of roast duck and strips of crispy duck skin wrapped in thin pancakes. (Peking was the name of Beijing, the capital of China, until after the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. This traditional recipe is still known in the United States as "Peking duck.") Shanghai cooking, from China's east coast, emphasizes seafood and strong-flavored sauces. The cuisine of the Szechuan province in inland China is known for its hot and spicy dishes made with hot peppers, garlic, onions, and leeks. This type of cooking became popular in the United States in the 1990s.

Tea, the beverage offered at most meals, is China's national beverage. The most popular types of tea—green, black, and oolong—are commonly drunk plain, without milk or sugar added. Teacups have no handles or saucers.

See Wonton Soup recipe.

See Eggdrop Soup recipe.

See Sweet and Sour Pork recipe.

See Baat Bo Fon (Rice Pudding) recipe.

See Fried Rice recipe.

Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations

Although day-to-day cooking in China is quite simple, elaborate meals are served on holidays and festivals. A typical holiday meal might consist of steamed dumplings, suckling pig (or a spicy chicken dish), and a selection of desserts. Unlike in the United States, desserts are generally reserved for special occasions only. Most ordinary meals end with soup.

The most important festival of the year is the Chinese New Year, which is set according the phase of the moon, and falls in January or February. Oysters are believed to bring good fortune and have become a traditional food for dinners celebrating the New Year. Oranges and tangerines (for a sweet life), fish (symbolizing prosperity), and duck are also eaten. Dumplings are commonly eaten in the north. Neen gow, New Year's Cake, is the most common dessert. Each slice of the cake is dipped in egg and pan-fried. A special rice flour makes the cake slightly chewy.

Another important holiday is the Mid-Autumn Festival in September. To celebrate this festival, which occurs during the full moon, the Chinese eat heavy, round pastries called mooncakes. They are filled with a sweet paste and sometimes have an egg yolk in their center. Other foods eaten at this time are rice balls and a special cake called yue bing.

After a baby is one year old, the Chinese only celebrate birthdays every ten years, starting with the tenth birthday. The Chinese eat noodles on their birthdays. They believe that eating long noodles will lead to a long life. Another traditional birthday food is steamed buns in the shape of peaches, a fruit that also represents long life.

See Birthday Noodles with Peanut Sauce recipe.

See Spiced Chicken recipe.

See Almond Cookies recipe.

Mealtime Customs

Togetherness and cooperation is reflected in China's mealtime customs. A dish is never served to just one person, either at home or in a restaurant. Each person has his or her own plate, but everyone at the table shares food. Instead of a knife and fork, the Chinese eat with chopsticks, a pair of wooden sticks held in one hand. Food is cut into bite-size pieces while it is being prepared, so none of it has to be cut at the table. It is considered good manners to hold a bowl of rice up to your mouth with one hand. Chopsticks, held in the other hand, are used to help scoop the rice into the person's mouth. Drinking soup directly from the bowl is also an acceptable custom. It is rude, however, to leave chopsticks sticking straight up in a bowl of rice.

A typical family dinner consists of rice or noodles, soup, and three or four hot dishes. At a formal dinner, there will also be several cold appetizers.

A well-known type of Chinese snack is called dim sum ("touch of heart"). These are bite-size foods served with tea in midmorning, afternoon, or at night. Typical dim sum are filled dumplings, shrimp balls, and spring rolls (also called "egg rolls" in the U.S.). Wontons, which can be boiled in soup, are also served fried as dim sum.

See Fried Wonton recipe.

See Fu Yung Don (Egg Fu Yung) recipe.

Politics, Economics, and Nutrition

The rapidly growing population in China has been difficult to feed throughout history. About 13 percent of the total population in China is undernourished according a report issued by the World Bank in 2000. This problem is most significant away from coastal areas. People living in inland areas are more likely to be poor and to have a diet lacking in adequate nutrition. About 17 percent of children under age five are underweight.

Further Study

Books

Albyn, Carole Lisa, and Lois Webb. The Multicultural Cookbook for Students. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1993.

Beatty, Theresa M. Food and Recipes of China. New York: PowerKids Press, 1999.

Bremzen, Anya von, and John Welchman. Terrific Pacific Cookbook. New York: Workman Publishing, 1995.

Cook, Deanna F. The Kids' Multicultural Cookbook: Food and Fun Around the World. Charlotte: Williamson Publishing, 1995.

Foo, Susanna. Chinese Cuisine. Shelburne, VT: Chapters Publishing, 1995.

Halvorsen, Francine. Eating Around the World in Your Neighborhood. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Insight Guide China. London: APA Publications, 1998.

Lo, Eileen Yin-Fei.Chinese Kitchen. New York: William Morrow, 1999.

Yan, Martin. Chinese Cooking for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books, 2000.

Yu, Ling. Cooking the Chinese Way. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1982.

Shops for Specialty Ingredients

Chinese ingredients can be found in many large grocery stores. Most cities have Chinese restaurants (where take-out versions of many recipes are available), and many have Asian specialty grocery stores. Look in the business pages of your local telephone book to find specialty grocery stores in your area.

Specialty Orient Foods, Inc. 43-30 38th Street Long Island City, New York 11101 1-800-758-7634; [Online] Available http://www.sofi-ny.com/mail_order/english/mail_order_main_e.htm (accessed January 28, 2001).

The Oriental Pantry 423 Great Road (2A) Acton, MA 01720 (978) 264-4576; [Online] Available http://www.orientalpantry.com (accessed January 28, 2001).

Web Sites

Asia Foods. [Online] Available http://www.asiafoods.com (accessed January 28, 2001).

Chinese Cuisine with Rhonda Parkinson. [Online] Available http://chinesefood.about.com (accessed January 28, 2001).

Magic & Superstition

Although systems of magical practice were uncommon in ancient China, there have been many instances of the employment of magical means and the belief in a supernatural world peopled by gods, demons, and other beings. One writer comments: "Although the Chinese mind possessed under such a constitution but few elements in which magic could strike root and throw out its ramifications and influence, yet we find many traces giving evidence of the instinctive movement of the mind, as well as of magical influence; though certainly not in the manner or abundance that we meet with it in India. The great variety of these appearances is, however, striking, as in no other country are they so seldom met with….

"It is easy to understand from these circumstances wherefore we find so few of these phenomena of magic and the visionary and ecstatic state, in other parts of the East so frequent, and therefore they are scattered and uncertain. Accounts are, however, not wanting to show that the phenomena as well as theories of prophecy were known in more remote times. Under the Emperor Hoei Ti, about 304 A.D., a mystical sect arose in China calling themselves 'the teachers of the emptiness and nothingness of all things.' They also exhibited the art of binding the power of the senses, and producing a condition which they believed perfection."

Demonism and Obsession

The Chinese of former times were implicit believers in demons whom they imagined surrounded them on every hand. One writer states, "English officials, American missionaries, mandarins and many of the Chinese literati (Confucians, Taoists and Buddhist believers alike) declare that spiritism in some form, and under some name, is the almost universal belief of China. It is generally denominated 'ancestral worship."' "There is no driving out of these Chinese," stated the missionary Father Gonzalo, "the cursed belief that the spirits of their ancestors are ever about them, availing themselves of every opportunity to give advice and counsel." And Justus Doolittle notes, "The medium consulted takes in the hand a stick of lighted incense to dispel all defiling influences, then prayers of some kind are repeated, the body becomes spasmodic, the medium's eyes are shut, and the form sways about, assuming the walk and peculiar attitude of the spirit when in the body. Then the communication from the divinity begins, which may be of a fault-finding or a flattering character…. Sometimes these Chinese mediums profess to be possessed by some specified historical god of great healing power, and in this condition they prescribe for the sick. It is believed that the ghoul or spirit invoked actually casts himself into the medium, and dictates the medicine."

And in his work China and The Chinese (1869), John L. Nevins observes, "Volumes might be written upon the gods, genii and familiar spirits supposed to be continually in communication with this people. The Chinese have a large number of books upon this subject, among the most noted of which is the 'Liau-chaichei,' a large work of sixteen volumes…. Tu Sein signifies a spirit in the body, and there are a class of familiar spirits supposed to dwell in the bodies of certain Chinese who became the mediums of communication with the unseen world. Individuals said to be possessed by these spirits are visited by multitudes, particularly those who have lost recently relatives by death, and wish to converse with them…. Remarkable disclosures and revelations are believed to be made by the involuntary movements of a bamboo pencil, and through a similar method some claim to see in the dark. Persons considering themselves endowed with superior intelligence are firm believers in those and other modes of consulting spirits."

W. J. Plumb, a public teacher in Chen Sin Ling, states: "In the district of Tu-ching, obsessions by evil spirits or demons are very common." He further writes that "there are very many cases also in Chang-lo." Again he comments: "When a man is thus afflicted, the spirit (Kwei) takes possession of his body without regard to his being strong or weak in health. It is not easy to resist the demon's power. Though without bodily ailments, possessed persons appear as if ill. When under the entrancing spell of the demon, they seem different from their ordinary selves.

"In most cases the spirit takes possession of a man's body contrary to his will, and he is helpless in the matter. The kwei has the power of driving out the man's spirit, as in sleep or dreams. When the subject awakes to consciousness, he has not the slightest knowledge of what has transpired.

"The actions of possessed persons vary exceedingly. They leap about and toss their arms, and then the demon tells them what particular spirit he is, often taking a false name, or deceitfully calling himself a god, or one of the genii come down to the abodes of mortals. Or, perhaps, it professes to be the spirit of a deceased husband or wife. There are also kwei of the quiet sort, who talk and laugh like other people, only that the voice is changed. Some have a voice like a bird. Some speak Mandarin—the language of Northern China—and some the local dialect; but though the speech proceeds from the mouth of the man, what is said does not appear to come from him. The out-ward appearance and manner is also changed.

"In Fu-show there is a class of persons who collect in large numbers and make use of incense, pictures, candles, and lamps to establish what are called 'incense tables.' Taoist priests are engaged to attend the ceremonies, and they also make use of 'mediums.' The Taoist writes a hand, stands like a graven image, thus signifying his willingness to have the demon come and take possession of him. Afterward, the charm is burned and the demon spirit is worshipped and invoked, the priest, in the meanwhile going on with his chanting. After a while the medium spirit has descended, and asks what is wanted of him. Then, whoever has requests to make, takes incense sticks, makes prostrations, and asks a response respecting some dis-ease, or for protection from some calamity. In winter the same performances are carried on to a great extent by gambling companies. If some of the responses hit the mark, a large number of people are attracted. They establish a shrine and offer sacrifices, and appoint days, calling upon people from every quarter to come and consult the spirit respecting diseases….

"There is also a class of men who establish what they call a 'Hall of Revelations.' At the present time there are many engaged in this practice. They are, for the most part, literary men of great ability. The people in large numbers apply to them for responses. The mediums spoken of above are also numerous. All of the above practices are not spirits seeking to possess men; but rather men seeking spirits to possess them, and allowing themselves to be voluntarily used as their instruments.

"As to the outward appearance of persons when possessed, of course, they are the same persons as to outward form as at ordinary times; but the colour of the countenance may change. The demon may cause the subject to assume a threatening air, and a fierce, violent manner. The muscles often stand out on the face, the eyes are closed, or they protrude with a frightful stare. These demons sometimes prophesy.

"The words spoken certainly proceed from the mouths of the persons possessed; but what is said does not appear to come from their minds or wills, but rather from some other personality, often accompanied by a change of voice. Of this there can be no doubt. When the subject returns to consciousness, he invariably declares himself ignorant of what he has said.

"The Chinese make use of various methods to cast out demons. They are so troubled and vexed by inflictions affecting bodily health, or it may be throwing stones, moving furniture, or the moving about and destruction of family utensils, that they are driven to call in the service of some respected scholar or Taoist priest, to offer sacrifices, or chant sacred books, and pray for protection and exemption from suffering. Some make use of sacrifices and offerings of paper clothes and money in order to induce the demon to go back to the gloomy region of Yanchow … As to whether these methods have any effect, I do not know. As a rule, when demons are not very troublesome, the families afflicted by them generally think it best to hide their affliction, or to keep those wicked spirits quiet by sacrifices, and burning incense to them."

An article in the London Daily News gave lengthy extracts from an address upon the Chinese by Mrs. Montague Beaucham, who had spent many years in China in educational work. Speaking of their spiritism, she said, "The latest London craze in using the planchette has been one of the recognized means in China of conversing with evil spirits from time immemorial." She had lived in one of the particular provinces known as demon land, where the natives are bound up in the belief and worship of spirits. "There is a real power," she added, "in this necromancy. They do healings and tell fortunes." She personally knew of one instance that the spirits through the plan-chette had foretold a great flood. The Boxer uprising was prophesied by the planchette. These spirits disturbed family relations, caused fits of frothing at the mouth, and made some of their victims insane. In closing she declared that "Chinese spiritism was from hell," the obsession baffling the power of both Christian missionaries and native priests.

Nevius sent out a circular communication for the purpose of discovering the actual beliefs of the Chinese regarding demonism through which he obtained much valuable information. Wang Wu-Fang, an educated Chinese, writes: "Cases of demon possession abound among all classes. They are found among persons of robust health, as well as those who are weak and sickly. In many unquestionable cases of obsession, the unwilling subjects have resisted, but have been obliged to submit themselves to the control of the demon….

"In the majority of cases of possession, the beginning of the malady is a fit of grief, anger, or mourning. These conditions seem to open the door to the demons. The outward manifestations are apt to be fierce and violent. It may be that the subject alternately talks and laughs; he walks awhile and then sits, or he rolls on the ground, or leaps about; or exhibits contortions of the body and twistings of the neck…. It was common among them to send for exorcists, who made use of written charms, or chanted verses, or punctured the body with needles. These are among the Chinese methods of cure.

"Demons are different kinds. There are those which clearly declare themselves; and then those who work in secret. There are those which are cast out with difficulty, and others with ease.

"In cases of possession by familiar demons, what is said by the subject certainly does not proceed from his own will. When the demon has gone out and the subject recovers consciousness, he has no recollection whatever of what he has said or done. This is true almost invariably.

"The methods by which the Chinese cast out demons are enticing them to leave by burning charms and paper money, or by begging and exhorting them, or by frightening them with magic spells and incantations, or driving them away by pricking with needles, or pinching with the fingers, in which case they cry out and promise to go.

"I was formerly accustomed to drive out demons by means of needles. At that time cases of possession by evil spirits were very common in our villages, and my services were in very frequent demand…."

The missionary Rev. Timothy Richard writes in response to Nevius's circular: "The Chinese orthodox definition of spirit is, 'the soul of the departed'; some of the best of whom are raised to the rank of gods…. There is no disease to which the Chinese are ordi narily subject that may not be caused by demons. In this case the mind is untouched. It is only the body that suffers; and the Chinese endeavour to get rid of the demon by vows and offerings to the gods. The subject in this case is an involuntary one….

"Persons possessed range between 15 and 50 years of age, quite irrespective of sex. This infliction comes on very sudden-ly, sometimes in the day, and sometimes in the night. The demoniac talks madly, smashes everything near him, acquires unusual strength, tears his clothes into rags, and rushes into the street, or to the mountains or kills himself unless prevented. After this violent possession, the demoniac calms down and submits to his fate, but under the most heart-rending protests. These mad spells which are experienced on the demon's en-trance return at intervals, and increase in frequency, and generally also in intensity, so that death at last ensues from their violence.

"Now we proceed to those, who involuntarily possessed, yield to and worship the demon. The demon says he will cease tormenting the demoniac if he will worship him, and he will reward him by increasing his riches. But if not, he will punish his victim, make heavier his torments and rob him of his property. People find that their food is cursed. They cannot prepare any, but filth and dirt comes down from the air to render it uneatable. Their wells are likewise cursed; their wardrobes are set on fire, and their money very mysteriously disappears. Hence arose the custom of cutting off the head of a string of cash that it might not run away…. When all efforts to rid themselves of the demon fail, they yield to it, and say 'Hold! Cease thy tormenting and we will worship thee!' A picture is pasted upon the wall, sometimes of a woman, and sometimes of a man, and incense is burned, and prostrations are made to it twice a month. Being thus reverenced, money now comes in mysteriously, instead of going out. Even mill-stones are made to move at the demon's orders, and the family becomes rich at once. But it is said that no luck attends such families, and they will eventually be reduced to poverty. Officials believe these things. Palaces are known to have been built by them for these demons, who, however, are obliged to be satisfied with humbler shrines from the poor….

"Somewhat similar to the above class is another small one which has power to enter the lower regions. These are the opposite of necromancers, for instead of calling up the dead and learning of them about the future destiny of the individual in whose behalf they are engaged, they lie in a trance for two days, when their spirits are said to have gone to the Prince of Darkness, to inquire how long the sick person shall be left among the living….

"Let us now note the different methods adopted to cast out the evil spirits from the demoniacs. Doctors are called to do it. They use needles to puncture the tips of the fingers, the nose, the neck. They also use a certain pill, and apply it in the following manner: the thumbs of the two hands are tied tightly together, and the two big toes are tied together in the same manner. Then one pill is put on the two big toes at the root of the nail, and the other at the root of the thumb nails. At the same instant the two pills are set on fire, and they are kept until the flesh is burned. In the application of the pills, or in the piercing of the needle, the invariable cry is; 'I am going; I am going immediately. I will never dare to come back again. Oh, have mercy on me this once. I'll never return!' "When the doctors fail, they call on people who practice spiritism. They themselves cannot drive the demon away, but they call another demon to do it. Both the Confucianists and Taoists practice this method…. Sometimes the spirits are very ungovernable. Tables are turned, chairs are rattled, and a general noise of smashing is heard, until the very mediums themselves tremble with fear. If the demon is of this dreadful character, they quickly write another charm with the name of the particular spirit whose quiet disposition is known to them. Lutsu is a favourite one of this kind. After the burning of the charm and incense, and when prostrations are made, a little frame is procured, to which a Chinese pencil is attached. Two men on each side hold it on a table spread with sand or millet. Sometimes a prescription is written, the pencil moving of its own accord. They buy the medicine prescribed and give it to the possessed…. Should they find that burning incense and offering sacrifices fails to liberate the poor victim, they may call in conjurors, such as the Taoists, who sit on mats and are carried by invisible power from place to place. The ascend to a height of twenty or fifty feet, and are carried to a distance of four or five li (about a half mile). Of this class are those who, in Manchuria call down fire from the sky in those funerals where the corpse is burned….

"These exorcists may belong to any of the three religions in China. The dragon procession, on the fifteenth of the first month, is said by some to commemorate a Buddhist priest's victory over evil spirits…. They paste up charms on windows and doors, and on the body of the demoniac, and conjure the demon never to return. The evil spirit answers: 'I'll never return. You need not take the trouble of pasting all these charms upon the doors and windows.' "Exorcists are specially hated by the evil spirits. Sometimes they feel themselves beaten fearfully; but no hand is seen. Bricks and stones may fall on them from the sky or housetops. On the road they may without warning be plastered over from head to foot with mud or filth; or may be seized when approaching a river, and held under the water and drowned."

In his Social Life among the Chinese (2 vols., 1866), Doolittle states, "They have invented several ways by which they find out the pleasure of gods and spirits. One of the most common of their utensils is the Ka-pue, a piece of bamboo root, bean-shaped, and divided in the centre, to indicate the positive and the negative. The incense lighted, the Ka-pue properly manipulated before the symbol god, the pieces are tossed from the medium's hand, indicating the will of the spirit by the way they fall."

The following manifestation is mental rather than physical: "The professional takes in the hand a stick of lighted incense to expel all defiling influences; prayers of some sort are repeated, the fingers interlaced, and the medium's eyes are shut, giving unmistakable evidence of being possessed by some supernatural or spiritual power. The body sways back and forward; the incense falls, and the person begins to step about, assuming the walk and peculiar attitude of the spirit. This is considered as infallible proof that the divinity has entered the body of the medium. Sometimes the god, using the mouth of the medium, gives the supplicant a sound scolding for invoking his aid to obtain unlawful or unworthy ends."

And Sir John Burrowa writes, "Divination with many strange methods of summoning the dead to instruct the living and reveal the future, is of very ancient origin, as is proved by Chinese manuscripts antedating the revelations of the Jewish Scriptures."

An ancient book called Poh-shi-ching-tsung, consisting of six volumes on the source of true divination, contains the following preface: "The secret of augury consists in the study of the mysteries and in communications with gods and demons. The interpretations of the transformations are deep and mysterious. The theory of the science is most intricate, the practice of it most important. The sacred classic says: 'That which is true gives indications of the future.' To know the condition of the dead, and hold with them intelligent intercourse, as did the ancients, produces a most salutary influence upon the parties…. But when from intoxication or feasting, or licentious pleasures, they proceed to invoke the gods, what infatuation to suppose that their prayers will move them. Often when no response is given, or the interpretation is not verified, they lay the blame at the door of the augur, forgetting that their failure is due to their want of sincerity…. It is the great fault of augurs, too, that, from a desire of gain, they use the art of divination as a trap to ensnare the people."

Peebles adds: "Naturally undemonstrative and secretive, the higher classes of Chinese seek to conceal their full knowledge of spirit intercourse from foreigners, and from the inferior castes of their own countrymen, thinking them not sufficiently intelligent to rightly use it. The lower orders, superstitious and money-grasping, often prostitute their magic gifts to gain and fortune-telling. Their clairvoyant fortune-tellers, surpassing wandering gypsies in 'hitting' the past, infest the temples, streets and roadsides, promising to find lost property, discover precious metals and reveal the hidden future."

Ghosts

The Chinese were strong in the belief that they were surrounded by the spirits of the dead. Indeed ancestor-worship constituted a powerful feature in the national faith, involving the likelihood and desirability of communion with the dead. Upon the death of a person they used to make a hole in the roof to permit the soul to effect its escape from the house. When a child was at the point of death, its mother would go into the garden and call its name, hoping thereby to bring back its wandering spirit.

"With the Chinese the souls of suicides are specially obnoxious, and they consider that the very worst penalty that can befall a soul is the sight of its former surroundings. Thus, it is supposed that, in the case of the wicked man, 'they only see their homes as if they were near them; they see their last wishes disregarded, everything upside down, their substance squandered, strangers possess the old estate; in their misery the dead man's family curse him, his children become corrupt, land is gone, the wife sees her husband tortured, the husband sees his wife stricken down with mortal disease; even friends forget, but some, perhaps, for the sake of bygone times, may stroke the coffin and let fall a tear, departing with a cold smile.' "In China, the ghosts which are animated by a sense of duty are frequently seen: at one time they seek to serve virtue in dis-tress, and at another they aim to restore wrongfully held treasure. Indeed, as it has been observed, 'one of the most powerful as well as the most widely diffused of the people's ghost stories is that which treats of the persecuted child whose mother comes out of the grave to succour him.' "The Chinese have a dread of the wandering spirits of persons who have come to an unfortunate end. At Canton, 1817, the wife of an officer of government had occasioned the death of two female domestic slaves, from some jealous suspicion it was supposed of her husband's conduct towards the girls; and, in order to screen herself from the consequences, she suspended the bodies by the neck, with a view to its being construed into an act of suicide. But the conscience of the woman tormented her to such a degree that she became insane, and at times personated the spirits of the murdered girls possessed her, and utilised her mouth to declare her own guilt. In her ravings she tore her clothes and beat her own person with all the fury of madness; after which she would recover her senses for a time, when it was supposed the demons quitted her, but only to return with greater frenzy, which took place a short time previous to her death. According to Mr. Dennys, the most common form of Chinese ghost story is that wherein the ghost seeks to bring to justice the murderer who shuffled off its mortal coil."

Poltergeists were not uncommon in China, and several cases of their occurrence were recorded by the Jesuit missionaries of the eighteenth century in Cochin China.

Symbolism

There are numerous mysteries of meaning in the strange symbols, characters, personages, birds, and beasts that adorn all species of Chinese art objects. For example, a rectangular Chinese vase is feminine, representing the creative or ultimate principle. A group of seemingly miscellaneous art objects, depicted perhaps upon a brush tray, are probably the po-ku, or "hundred antiques" emblematic of culture and implying a delicate compliment to the recipient of the tray. Birds and animals occur with frequency on Chinese porcelains, and, if one observes closely, it is a somewhat select menagerie, in which certain types are emphasized by repetition. For instance, the dragon is so familiar as to be no longer remarked, and yet his significance is perhaps not fully understood by all. There are, in fact, three kinds of dragons, the lung of the sky, the li of the sea, and the kiau of the marshes. The lung is the favorite kind, however, and may be known when met by his having "the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, the eyes of a rabbit, ears of a cow, neck of a snake, belly of a frog, scales of a carp, claws of a hawk, and palm of a tiger." His special office is to guard and support the mansions of the gods, and he is naturally the peculiar symbol of the emperor.

A less familiar beast is the chi-lin, which resembles in part a rhinoceros, but has a head, feet, and legs like a deer, and a tufted tail. In spite of his unprepossessing appearance, he is of a benevolent disposition, and his image on a vase or other ornament is an emblem of good government and length of days. A strange bird, having the head of a pheasant, a long flexible neck, and a plumed tail, may often be seen flying in the midst of scroll-like clouds, or walking in a grove of treepeonies. This is the fengbuang, the Chinese phoenix, emblem of immortality and appearing to mortals only as a presage of the auspicious reign of a virtuous emperor. The tortoise (kuei), which bears upon its back the seagirt abode of the Eight Immortals, is a third supernatural creature associated with strength, longevity, and (because of the markings on its back) the mystic plan of numerals that is a key to the philosophy of the unseen.

Colors have their significance, blue being the color of the heavens, yellow of the earth and the emperor, red of the sun, and white of Jupiter or the Year Star. Each dynasty had its own particular hue, that of the Chou dynasty being described as "blue of the sky after rain where it appears between the clouds."

The apparently haphazard conjunction of objects in the decorative schemes of Chinese art is far from being a matter of chance, but adds to its decorative properties the intellectual charm of symbolic significance.

China in the Modern World

In the great political and economic upheavals of modern times, culminating in the establishment of the People's Republic of China October 1, 1949, many old beliefs, superstitions, and practices have been swept away, but in the emergence of China as a modern nation many skills from the past have also been revived and developed. The references to "pricking with needles" quoted earlier can now be seen as an imperfectly understood observation of the practice of acupuncture, an interesting blend of mystical concepts of anatomy and medical healing. Acupuncture and its associated skills of moxibustion and acupressure are now gaining ground in Western countries.

Also familiar in the West is the group of Asian martial arts, combining mental, physical, and spiritual resources for self-defense in weaponless fighting, or the achievement of apparently paranormal feats of strength and control. These involve the concept of ch'i (or ki), a subtle vital energy that can be controlled by willpower. Also taught in Western countries is the Chinese system of physical exercises known as t'ai chi chuan, originally a self-defense system.

Another element of Chinese tradition to attract popular interest is the I Ching, a book embodying a system of philosophy and divination, now widely consulted in various translations in Western countries.

With the opening up of communications and cultural relations with the West, many ancient Chinese mystical teachings and practices are now becoming more widely known. Chinese astrology is over a thousand years old but has not been familiar in the West nearly as long. Like the Western zodiac, it comprises twelve signs. But it operates on a completely different system; it is based on a 12-year rather than 12-month cycle, and each year is symbolized by the sign of an animal—rat, bull, tiger, cat, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The attributes of these animals differ radically from the pejorative associations of the West (for example, rats are intellectual, affable, generous, and fun-loving) and can be found in Chinese astrological manuals.

Buddhism was known in China from the beginning of the Christian era, and the Ch'an or Zen school was established in the sixth century with the arrival of the patriarch Bodhidharma. China developed its own individual forms of yoga, often merging with Taoism. Taoist yoga developed from the Hindu concepts of kundalini and brought together special practices of physical development, diet, and meditation. These were often characterized by the term "K'ai Men," meaning "open door," expressing the idea of Taoist yoga as the doorway to the channels of mind, spirit, and body, and reflecting the harmony and balance of the principles of yin and yang in the universe. These teachings and practices, long a secret tradition, have now gained some attention in the Western countries through such authorities as Lu K'uan Yü (Charles Luk), Mantak Chia, and Maneewan Chia. On a more popular level, the simpler mind-body exercises of t'ai chi chuan, an offshoot of the Taoist tradition, have now been revived widely in China and the rest of the world.

In the pragmatic liberalism of present-day China, religions are now widely tolerated, and in 1968, the Liaoning People's Publishing House released a series of books titled Man and Culture, which included the standard guide to psychical research by Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Psychical Research; A Guide to Its History, Principles, and Practices. This work was issued in celebration of a hundred years of the Society for Psychical Research, London, and its release in China signifies an interest in reputable academic study of parapsychology.

The current Chinese approach to research in claimed paranormal phenomena is in terms of materialistic philosophy, and in place of Western terms like "extrasensory perception," Chinese researchers speak of "EHF" (exceptional human function). A number of Chinese children have claimed to demonstrate such EHF faculties as identifying hidden targets of Chinese written characters, under test conditions (like Western parapsychology tests for ESP with Zener cards or other targets), psychokinesis, and teleportation. A team of five members from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, the skeptical debunking organization, visited China during March and April of 1988 and while there tested a number of EHF subjects and investigated claims at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, Beijing. CSICOP findings were, as expected, largely negative. For an account of the visit, see The Skeptical Inquirer (12, no. 4, summer 1988).

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Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves; With our very flesh and
blood Let us build our new Great Wall! The peoples of China are in
the most critical time, Everybody must roar his defiance. Arise!
Arise! Arise! Millions of hearts with one mind, Brave the enemy's
gunfire, March on! Brave the enemy's gunfire, March on! March on!
March on, on!

The government of China set up in 1949 after the victory of the communist forces of Mao Zedong. The People's Republic ruled the mainland of China, forcing the government of Nationalist China into exile on the island of Taiwan. For years, many Western nations, especially the United States, refused to recognize the People's Republic as the government of mainland China; instead, they exchanged ambassadors only with Nationalist China. The United States recognized the People's Republic as the government of China in 1979.