Chinese Creeds And Customs

by Buckhardt

• ISBN13: 9780710312198
• ISBN10: 0710312199
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2007-04-19
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

An encyclopaedic account of traditional Chinese festivals, customs and beliefs, lavishly illustrated with line drawings and paintings, this remarkable work by an Englishman who spent twenty years in China from the Imperial aftermath through the establishment of Communism, gives fascinating insights into a complex culture poised between past and present. Burckhardt's beautifully written and detailed work includes the rites practiced by the Manchu royal court and the rituals permitted under the Communist and Nationalist regimes, the festivals of working people and villagers as well as the ceremonies of the mandarins of Peking and Hong Kong, in all seasons of the year. He was especially close to the renowned Boat People of the former colony, and gives a unique account of life abroad the harbour junks and their sea-borne celebrations. Among the subjects dealt with are Chinese cuisine, the meaning of presents, secret societies, the Chinese calendar, cats (the Chinese prefer cats with yellow eyes), Chinese dress, jade carving, feng shui, etiquette, the hundreds of gods of house and wayside, temples and their guardians, and all the great festivals -- those of the Moon, the Dragon Boats, the Hungry Ghosts, the Magnolia, the New Year and many more. Chinese creeds and customs were Burkhardt's passion, and no better account of them will ever be written.

Table of Contents

New Year	1	(2)
The God of Wealth	3	(2)
New Year Customs	5	(2)
The Budding or 2nd Moon	7	(2)
The Feast of Excited Insects	9	(2)
The Beginning of Spring	11	(2)
The T'ien Hou Festival	13	(3)
The Fourth Moon	16	(3)
The Tam Kung Festival	19	(1)
The Ch'ing Ming Festival	19	(7)
The Dragon Boat Festival	26	(3)
The Lotus Moon	29	(3)
The Double Seventh	32	(3)
Festival of the Hungry Ghosts	35	(10)
The Moon Festival	45	(3)
The Moon and Marriage	48	(2)
The Mister Rabbit	50	(2)
The Harvest Moon	52	(2)
The Gods of the Measure	54	(2)
The Double Ninth	56	(2)
The Tenth Moon	58	(3)
The Kindly Moon	61	(3)
The Eleventh Moon	64	(2)
The Bitter Moon	66	(2)
New Year Preliminaries	68	(4)
The New Year Fair	72	(2)
The Twelfth Month	74	(3)
Thanksgiving Day	77	(3)
A Boat People's Wedding	80	(8)
Fortune-telling	88	(6)
Marriages Made in Heaven	94	(3)
Funerals	97	(2)
A Junk-warming	99	(4)
Wedding Walk	103	(3)
The Chicken's Bride	106	(3)
Clairvoyance	109	(2)
The Meaning of Presents	111	(2)
The Chinese Cuisine	113	(4)
Betrothal and Wedding Customs	117	(2)
Symbolism in Chinese Art	119	(3)
Primitive Religion	122	(3)
The Star Gods	125	(4)
Feng Shui	129	(3)
The Taoist Pope	132	(3)
A Chinese Bestiary	135	(5)
The Home Physician	140	(4)
Patron Saints	144	(4)
Moon Cakes	148	(2)
Secret Societies	150	(4)
The Earth Gods	154	(4)
The Eight Immortals	158	(3)
Purveyor to the Gods	161	(5)
Luck	166	(4)
Religion and the Chinese	170	(3)
Children in China	173	(3)
Burial Customs	176	(3)
Charms and Talismans	179