the rules and conditions existing on this earth. Not only do they, as
already shown, differ in rank, but they hold _levées_ and audiences
and may be promoted for distinguished services, just as the Chinese
officials are. They "may rise from an humble position to one near the
Pearly Emperor, who gives them the reward of merit for ruling well the
affairs of men. The correlative deities of the mandarins are only of
equal rank, yet the fact that they have been apotheosized makes them
their superiors and fit objects of worship. Chinese mandarins rotate in
office, generally every three years, and then there is a corresponding
change in Hades. The image in the temple remains the same, but the
spirit which dwells in the clay tabernacle changes, so the idol has
a different name, birthday, and tenant. The priests are informed by
the Great Wizard of the Dragon Tiger Mountain, but how can the people
know gods which are not the same to-day as yesterday?" (Pp. 360-361.)

The gods also indulge in amusements, marry, sin, are punished, die,
are resurrected, or die and are transformed, or die finally. [12]


The Three Religions

We have in China the universal worship of ancestors, which constitutes
(or did until A.D. 1912) the State religion, usually known as
Confucianism, and in addition we have the gods of the specific
religions (which also originally took their rise in ancestor-worship),
namely, Buddhism and Taoism. (Other religions, though tolerated,
are not recognized as Chinese religions.) It is with a brief account
of this great hierarchy and its mythology that we will now concern
ourselves.