e of the
Empress and the two chief imperial concubines.

T'ai-po Chin-hsing, however, informed Yue Huang what had happened,
and, touched with compassion, he sent three Immortals with pills and
talismans which cured the Empress and the ladies of the palace.

The Graduates Canonized

Li Shih-min, having also recovered his health, summoned the five
deceased graduates and expressed his regret for the unfortunate issue
of his design against the T'ien-shih. He proceeded: "To the south of
the capital is the temple San-i Ko. I will change its name to Hsiang
Shan Wu Yueeh Shen, 'Fragrant Hill of the Five Mountain Spirits.' On
the twenty-eighth day of the ninth moon betake yourselves to that
temple to receive the seals of your canonization." He conferred upon
them the title of Ti, 'Emperor.'

The Ministry of Medicine

The celestial Ministry of Medicine is composed of three main
divisions comprising: (1) the Ancestral Gods of the Chinese race;
(2) the King of Remedies, Yao Wang; and (3) the Specialists. There
is a separate Ministry of Smallpox. This latter controls and cures
smallpox, and the establishment of a separate celestial Ministry is
significant of the prevalence and importance of the affliction. The
ravages of smallpox in China, indeed, have been terrific: so much so,
that, until recent years, it was considered as natural and inevitable
for a child to have smallpox as for it to cut its teeth. One of the
ceremonial questions addressed by a visitor to the parent of a child
was always _Ch'u la hua'rh mei yu_? "Has he had the smallpox?" and a
child who escaped the scourge was often, if not as a rule, regarded
with disfavour and, curiously enough, as a weakling. Probably the
train of thought in the Chinese mind was that, as it is the fittest
who survive, those who have successfully passed through the process of
"putting out the flowers" have proved their fitness in the struggle
for existence. Nowadays vaccination is general, and the number of
pockmarked faces seen is much smaller than it used to be--in fact,
the pockmarked are now the exception. But, as far as I have been
able to ascertain, the Ministry of Smallpox has not been abolished,
and possibly its members, like those of some more mundane ministries,
continue to draw large salaries for doing little or no work.

The Medicine-gods

The chief gods of medicine are the mythical kings P'an Ku, Fu Hsi,
Shen Nung, and Huang Ti. The first two, being by different w