Note 2), "wherein he was styled Shin Sien or Divine
Anchorite." Sian-jin again is the word used by Hiuen Tsang as the
equivalent to the name of the Indian Rishis, who attain to supernatural
powers.
["Sensin is a sufficiently faithful transcription of Sien-seng
(Sien-shing in Pekingese); the name given by the Mongols in conversation as
well as in official documents, to the Tao-sze, in the sense of preceptors,
just as Lamas were called by them Bacshi, which corresponds to the
Chinese Sien-seng. M. Polo calls them fasters and ascetics. It was one of
the sects of Taouism. There was another one which practised cabalistic and
other mysteries. The Tao-sze had two monasteries in Shangtu, one in the
eastern, the other in the western part of the town." (Palladius, 30.)
- H.C.]
One class of the Tao priests or devotees does marry, but another class
never does. Many of them lead a wandering life, and derive a precarious
subsistence from the sale of charms and medical nostrums. They shave the
sides of the head, and coil the remaining hair in a tuft on the crown, in
the ancient Chinese manner; moreover, says Williams, they "are recognised
by their slate-coloured robes." On the feast of one of their divinities
whose title Williams translates as "High Emperor of the Sombre Heavens,"
they assemble before his temple, "and having made a great fire, about 15
or 20 feet in diameter, go over it barefoot, preceded by the priests and
bearing the gods in their arms.
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