Amitabha
(阿彌陀佛)
Lit: Boundless Light. Amida Buddha. The abbreviated form of Namah Amitabha (南無阿彌陀佛), “Hear us, O Amida Buddha!” His image is often seen in the second court of the Buddhist monastery by the side of the figure of SHÂKYAMUNI BUDDHA (q. v.).
This popular Buddha came to the front early in the 5th century A.D. There are various traditions as to his origin. He is said by some to be an incarnation of the ninth son of the ancient Buddha Maha bhidjna bhibhu, by others the second son of a certain Indian of the lunar race, or again, the celestial reflex of SHÂKYAMUNI BUDDHA.
Amitabha is also known as the Impersonal Buddha. He is an object of popular devotion, and is believed to preside over the Paradise of the West, the Pure Land, into which the souls of the pious may be born, there to rest in bliss for a long age.
Amusements
(玩耍)
The principle amusements of the Chinese are of a very simple nature, and although football, tennis, and other athletic games are gradually becoming popular among the younger generation, the average individual does not usually indulge in sports which entail any considerable amount of physical exertion.
Young children may often be seen pitching coppers, fighting quails or crickets, or guessing the number of seeds in an orange.“Among their out-of-door amusements, a very common one is to play at shuttlecock with the feet. A circle of some half a dozen keep up in this manner the game between them with considerable dexterity, the thick soles of their shoes serving them in lieu of battledores, and the hand being allowed occasionally to assist.”5
There is scarcely any one vice to which the Chinese are so generally addicted as gambling; it prevails among rich and poor, young and old, and to the injury of all. There are various games of cards (紙牌); an ordinary pack of cards consists of 160, about 2 1/2 by 3/4 inches in size, with black backs; throwing dice (殺子), and playing dominoes (牙牌), are also extensively practised; fāntān (番灘), a gambling game played with brass cash, is common in South China; májiàng (麻將), is played with 136 dominoes called “tiles”, which take the place of playing-cards. The tiles have numbers and also suits—the winds, dragons, Chinese characters, bamboos and circles. At the beginning of the game the “tiles” are arranged in a square “court,” which has four walls, each 17 tiles long and two tiles high. The walls are built indiscriminately. The player taking the last wall breaks the square by extracting two tiles. Each player then takes 13 tiles in turn. From this point the players start making sets and sequences of tiles, as in poker. Fresh tiles are taken in turn and discarded tiles thrown into the court. Points are awarded according to the values of the tiles and the various sets and sequences made. Cāimù (猜枚), or Guess-fingers, is a regular amusement at dinner parties. The Game of Promotion (陸官圖), is a favourite with the Chinese. It is played on a board or plan representing an official career from the lowest to the highest grade, according to the imperial system. It is a kind of ludo played with four dice, the object of each player being to secure promotion over the others. Wēiqí (圍棋), or “surrounding checkers,” is played with black and white counters on a board of 324 squares, while xiàngqí (象棋), or “elephant checkers,” is a game distinctly analagous to Western chess.
“A favourite amusement is the flying of kites. They are made of paper and silk, in imitation of birds, bats, butterflies, lizards, spectacles, fish, men, and other objects; but the skill shown in flying them is more remarkable than the ingenuity displayed in their construction.”6 Not only boys, but grown men, take part in this amusement, and the sport sometimes consists in trying to bring down each other’s kites by dividing the strings, which are rubbed together. The ninth day of the ninth moon is a festival devoted to kite-flying all over the land. On this day the people repair to the highest piece of ground or the loftiest roofs available, and employ their time in flying kites and drinking wine in which chrysanthemum petals have been soaked. The origin of this custom has to be sought for nearly a thousand years ago. Legend has it that during the later Hàn Dynasty a certain Huán Jîng (桓景), of Rûnán (汝南), pupil of the magician Fèi Chāngfáng (費長房), was suddenly warned by the latter to betake himself with his family to a high mountain, to escape a calamity which was destined to overtake the district in which he lived. On the mountain-top he was bidden to wear a bag containing fragments of dog-wood (Evodia rutaecarpa), and to drink wine in which the petals of chrysanthemums had been soaked, to ward off evil influences. These injunctions he obeyed to the letter, and was rewarded by escaping from an overwhelming catastrophe which destroyed his flocks and herds in the plain below. In memory of this signal deliverance, people on this day go up annually to the mountains and hills in imitation of Huán Jîng. The kite-flying, which is now invariably associated with these expeditions, finds no foundation in the original fable, and was very likely suggested by the combination of circumstances, a high elevation, and a fresh autumn breeze. It is also said that kites are flown in honour of Mèng Jiā (孟嘉), 4th century, A.D., of whom it is recorded that, when his hat was blown off by the wind at a picnic, he remained quite unconscious of his loss. Kites (風事), were used as early as the 2nd century B.C. for purposes of military signalling. To some kites a kind of Aeolian harp is attached. Bamboo frames, with fire-crackers attached are sometimes sent up the string, the crackers being timed to explode on reaching the top.
Theatrical entertainments constitute a common amusement, and are often arranged by the priests for the ostensible purpose of repairing their temples (vide DRAMA).
“The general and local festivals of the Chinese are numerous, among which the first three days of the year, one or two about the middle of April to worship at the tombs, the two solstices, and the festival of dragon boats, are common days of relaxation and merry-making; only on the first, however, are the shops shut and business suspended.”7 (Vide ANCESTRAL WORSHIP, DRAGON, FIRE).
Ânanda
(阿難)
“A first cousin of SHÂKYAMUNI (q. v.), and born at the moment when he attained to Buddhaship. Under Buddha’s teaching, Ânanda became an Arhat, and is famous for his strong and accurate memory; and he played an important part at the first council for the formation of the Buddhist canon. The friendship between Shâkyamuni and Ânanda was very close and tender; and it is impossible to read much of what the dying Buddha said to him and of him, as related in the Mahâparinirvâna Sûtra, without being moved almost to tears. Ânanda is to reappear on earth as Buddha in another Kalpa.”8
Ancestral Worship
(祭祖)
A very ancient cult of the Chinese, consisting in the honours paid to the manes or departed spirits, either at the grave-side, or before the ancestral tablets set up in the house. The tablet is generally about twelve inches long and three inches wide, bearing the name and date of birth, and having a receptacle at the back, containing a paper setting forth the names of the more remote family ancestors. Incense is burnt and
