further distributed among rivers and hills. Wind, rain, heat, cold,
thunder and lightning, as each became objects of desire or aversion,
were invested with the attributes of deities. The various parts of the
house--door, kitchen-stove, courtyard, &c.--were also conceived of as
sheltering some spirit whose influence might be benign or the reverse.
The spirits of the land and of grain came to mean one's country, the
commonwealth, the state; and the sacrifices of these spirits by the
emperor formed a public announcement of his accession, or of his
continued right to the throne. Side by side with such sacrificial rites
was the worship of ancestors, stretching so far back that its origin is
not discernible in such historical documents as we possess. In early
times only the emperor, or the feudal nobles, or certain high officials,
could sacrifice to the spirits of nature; the common people sacrificed
to their own ancestors and to the spirits of their own homes. For three
days before performing such sacrifices, a strict vigil with purification
was maintained; and by the expiration of that time, from sheer
concentration of thought, the mourner was able to see the spirits of the
departed, and at the sacrifice next day seemed to hear their movements
and even the murmur of their sighs. Ancestral worship in China has
always been, and still is, worship in the strict sense of the term. It
is not a memorial service in simple honour of the dead; but sacrifices
are offered, and the whole ceremonial is performed that the spirits of
former ancestors may be induced to extend their protection to the living
and secure to them as many as possible of the good things of this world.

For Confucianism, which cannot, strictly speaking, be classed as a
religion, see CONFUCIUS.

Taoism.

Around the scanty utterances of Lao Tz[)u] or Lao-tsze (q.v.; see also
Sec. _Chinese Literature, Sec.Sec. Philosophy_) an attempt was made by later
writers to weave a scheme of thought which should serve to satisfy the
cravings of mortals for some definite solution of the puzzle of life.
Lao Tz[)u] himself had enunciated a criterion which he called _Tao_,
or the Way, from which is derived the word Taoism; and in his usual
paradoxical style he had asserted that the secret of this Way, which
was at the beginning apparently nothing more than a line of right
conduct, could not possibly be imparted, even by those who understood
it. His discipl