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ruling authorities, including the emperor in the temples of the imperial college. Then very solemn ceremonies of reverence and adoration were performed, marking the Sage as the ultimate exemplar for all who aspired to any level of leadership within Chinese society.1
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The Poklo temple to Master Kong was, indeed, more impressive than those in nearby villages, such as the one at Lung Ch'un (literally, the "River of the Dragon," M. Lóngchuān) also visited by Legge and others in 1861. There the temple had no images at all, but only the spirit tablet (shénpái) of the Sage along with a large plaque citing the sixteen maxims of the Sacred Edict (Shèngyù) of the Kangxi emperor (ruling from 1662-1722).19 Both temples at Poklo and Lung Ch'un were dwarfed by the massive grounds set aside to honour the sage in the capital city of Canton. There the image of the Sage was in a hall elevated from the grounds six to eight feet above the preceding courtyards, the roof made of "those splendid burnished tiles" constituting imperially-sponsored buildings, garnished with mystical beasts balancing on the upper beams. Seated on a large rock dais, the thick paper-maché-like image of Master Kong was taller and larger than life. Postured as if leaning over a tablet in his hands, the Sage appeared immersed in the study of the text before him.20
How Ch'ea came to take his place in this Confucian institutional and ritual system is never explained. Whether he had been a student at one time or not is also not made explicit, but he was able to read, and so had probably spent at least part of his youth as a student, one of large majority who had obviously not been elevated by successful results in the examination system. When the two colporteurs from Hong Kong met him, Ch'ea was already in his fifties, had been married, and had at least one son.21 Because no direct mention is made of Ch'ea's wife in any of the documentation after his conversion, there is the possibility that Ch'ea had become a widower even before the pair of colporteurs met him in Poklo.
If conversion is a multiform and processural event,22 then all of the above cultural, social, personal and religious factors have a