to admit such a proposition, which was based on sentiment and not
on sound reasoning. Chu Hsi was emphatically not a man of religious
temperament, and belief in the supernatural was distasteful to him;
he was for a short time under the spell of Buddhism, but threw that
religion over for the orthodoxy of Confucianism. He was, therefore,
anxious to exclude the supernatural altogether from the revised scheme
of moral conduct which he was deducing from the Confucian Canon, and his
interpretation of the word "God" has been blindly accepted ever since.

When Chu Hsi died, his coffin is said to have taken up a position,
suspended in the air, about three feet from the ground. Whereupon his
son-in-law, falling on his knees beside the bier, reminded the departed
spirit of the great principles of which he had been such a brilliant
exponent in life--and the coffin descended gently to the ground.



CHAPTER V--WOMEN AND CHILDREN

The Chinese are very fond of animals, and especially of birds; and on
the whole they may be said to be kind to their animals, though cases of
ill-treatment occur. At the same time it must be carefully remembered
that such quantum of humanity as they may exhibit is entirely of their
own making; there is no law to act persuasively on brutal natures, and
there is no Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to see that
any such law is enforced. A very large number of beautiful birds, mostly
songless, are found in various parts of China, and a great variety of
fishes in the rivers and on the coast. Wild animals are represented by
the tiger (in both north and south), the panther and the bear, and even
the elephant and the rhinoceros may be found in the extreme south-west.